The morning sunlight pierced through the wisteria curtains, weaving patterns of fragmented gold on the oak floor.
The girl curled up on the velvet cushion was still sound asleep.
"Mmm... so content..."
A distinct rhythmic knock awakened the girl from her sweet dreams.
"Good morning, miss." The voice of the butler, Eric, sounded from outside the door. "Your new magic teacher should arrive shortly, please prepare in advance."
Since Inanna was found and brought back, Eric, under the Duke's orders, dedicated himself to serving her, not only arranging her daily life but also ensuring her safety.
As for the Duke himself, due to the constant small-scale military harassment from the Hermit Empire, he was forced to remain at the border and couldn't free himself.
"Uncle Eric, I understand, I'll be right there."
After hearing the footsteps fade away, Inanna stretched lazily and got out of bed, beginning to groom herself.
Traditionally, the Duke's Mansion had dedicated maids responsible for assisting the young lady with grooming and dressing, but ever since Inanna returned, she insisted on doing it herself.
Everyone speculated that this was a sign of the young lady becoming more cautious after experiencing betrayal; the entire estate felt deep sympathy for Inanna's ordeal.
But in reality, it wasn't the case.
Inanna reached her hand into her pink hair, feeling the back of her head - there grew a very, very small pink mushroom cap, the same color as her hair.
Inanna hadn't told anyone about her experiences in the Underground City or this mushroom.
The former was due to Lin Jun's instructions; as for the latter, she wasn't sure why she wanted to keep it a secret.
Probably because once she spoke out, everyone would certainly try to remove this little mushroom cap, and she wanted to keep it.
Having done her hair, Inanna went to the window, basking in the warmth of the sunlight.
"The weather is so nice, I wonder what Lin Jun is doing now. Has she successfully conquered an Earth Worm since I left?"
————
Hahaha!
Yes, yes, blow it up, blow up these disgusting things!
In the Swamp Area on the fifth level, a war between Puki and the Parasitic Trees was in full swing.
More than a hundred light-armored Puki, without shells but equipped with Evasion Level 7, were in fierce conflict with the swarms of Parasitic Trees.
The more Lin Jun fought with them these days, the more frustrated she became, and the root of the frustration lay in the lack of benefits.
The Fusion Parasite skill was decent; it could parasite on any humanoid creature with flesh and blood.
On the other side, the Parasitic Trees' team had a small part using Gnolls as the base, the easiest type to deal with.
The issue with this skill was that there's no difference between Level 1 and Level 10!
This skill could only parasite on dying creatures, and its only upgrade was that it could parasite when the creature wasn't so near death.
It's essentially the same whether you upgrade it or not; the creatures to be parasitized could all be captured by Lin Jun, and you could hit their blood volume as much as you wanted; what use is that extra boost?
So there's absolutely no benefit from this skill.
The Entanglement skill belongs to the same category of "just have it," as it's useless to upgrade. Lin Jun fights by elegantly bombarding, making the primitive fungal tendril combat technique unnecessary.
In the end, only Resilience proved somewhat useful; it could make the fungal threads more resilient, naturally increasing the Puki's defense and solidifying the fungal tendrils a bit.
Useful, but not by much.
The losses paid for such minor benefits were enormous...
These days, Lin Jun encountered several high-level parasites, each causing considerable losses.
Now, in Lin Jun's eyes, these Parasitic Trees are like a bunch of cockroaches, disgusting to look at, yet they had to be exterminated—after all, she needed to seize their swamp.
One must acknowledge that the swamp is indeed well-suited for mushrooms.
The humidity and temperature are perfect, but more importantly, the swamp is rich in magic power!
This swamp seemed like it was meant for the establishment of a Mushroom Garden, requiring just a bit of cleanup.
After today's battle, she would have occupied half of the swamp area, and the progress was delightful.
Watching the Parasitic Trees turn to ashes under the Mushroom Cannon, Lin Jun's main body deep in the occupied swamp couldn't help but quiver with satisfaction.
The Parasitic Trees seemed to retreat under the fierce attacks of the Puki.
Just as Lin Jun thought this round of fighting was coming to an end, a crazily spinning individual burst out from the Parasitic Trees' ranks.
Merely with its appearance, its whirling roots sliced through two blocking Parasitic Trees.
Blade Storm Level 8?!
The parasitized individual was actually Level 45!
Come on, you're a Gold Level Adventurer, how could you still crash on the fifth level?
Isn't that embarrassing?
In reality, most close combat skills become severely distorted when used by Parasitic Trees, significantly reducing their power.
But Blade Storm was clearly not among them.
Like a tornado, it charged into the Puki ranks, instantly shredding the surrounding Puki into a sky-full of fungal threads.
The Mushroom Cannon fired by the Puki was all intercepted by the rapidly spinning roots, inflicting only minor, harmless damage.
And that wasn't the end; a magical fluctuation arose within the Parasitic Trees' ranks, spawning two water elements composed of muddy water, looking filthy.
Summoning Magic!?
This was the second time Lin Jun saw Summoning Magic, the first was during the encounter with the Flame Demon, watching it summon several puppets that seemed strong but made little real impact.
The Summoner was hidden among the Parasitic Tree horde, hard to distinguish.
Dammit!
The two Water Elements were merely Level 35, but their water flow attacks could blow away a large number of Puki at once.
The key issue was that these were summoned creatures, and once defeated, they could be summoned again; was she to expend her Puki to drain the Summoner's mana?
The sudden emergence of these two masters caught Lin Jun off guard, and the other Parasitic Trees began to counterattack.
Click.
Retreat!
A few Puki attacked the Water Elements and the Blade Storm Parasitic Tree, attracting their attention while running to either side, luring them away.
The remaining Puki all retreated at full speed.
Fortunately, the Parasitic Trees weren't particularly intelligent; after eliminating the decoy Puki, they returned to their slow-motion mode upon realizing no more Puki were around.
After the battle, Lin Jun took stock, only forty of the over a hundred Puki sent out made it back, half of which were lost during the last ambush.
The most unfortunate part was losing the battle meant not being able to collect Parasitic Tree remnants to replenish losses.
It was foreseeable that the next offensive would have to be delayed.
Damned Parasitic Trees, some top characters still have tricks up their sleeves!
Nevertheless, the real trump card remains hidden, and since it has already been exposed, there are ways to counter it.
However, Lin Jun realized a problem; her Puki, though equipped with the Evasion skill, could easily dodge single-target attacks.
But against large-area attacks like Blade Storm or water flow impact, it was practically useless.
Short legs couldn't run fast, and they were easily caught and squashed.
If only there were an acceleration skill, like the most straightforward yet most practical Acceleration utilized by the werewolves on Level 10.
Her Rolling Charge didn't count; it required preparation to curl up and time to revert to the original form, not to mention it's cumbersome to use other skills during the roll.
Who knows if there's a useful acceleration skill on this level; better explore during the time needed to replenish the Puki inventory.