A few truly fitting items for Puki, exquisite in quality, were carefully added by Lin Jun to his gradually growing treasure trove.

As for those heaps of armor and longswords which were practically useless?

They were all stuffed into the bellies of five round and plump "Fat Otaku Puki"!

One gets emptied and then replaced by another; lately, the drop rate might be a bit higher.

Knight Puki is in the Swamp Area, repairing his bottom at Lin Jun's old hideout.

Unlike ordinary Puki, who come to life again just by slapping on some fresh fungal threads and twisting a few times.

Repairing high-attribute Puki takes more time and magic.

Puki being able to repair themselves is one thing, but what pains Lin Jun the most is the Dragon Scale Shield.

Deep and shallow sword marks engraved on it; the deep one from the Shrinking Ground strike, the shallow from when the robe got caught and blocked the sword at a distance.

He thought this sturdy Dragon Scale Shield could be a long-term backbone, but now it seems, if it endures impacts of similar level several more times, it'll be completely ruined.

On the guild's side, according to the information Edin has sent back, they haven't given up on resolving their issues, but this was expected.

Lin Jun is now waiting for Pink Puki to come over to lay out sentiments and reason, to persuade her to unite in putting on a show for the humans.

Of course, he hadn't neglected the possibility of Pink Puki betraying the Fungal Network.

If it truly comes to that...

Then Edin, who directly liaised with her, would have no choice but to let go.

Actually, it's fine; they were just recruited, and the bond still lacks depth.

However, plans for surface development would have to be shelved.

The strategy will shift to: engaging humans in guerrilla warfare on the first few levels; meanwhile, sparing no effort to accelerate exploration in the Deep Area, to seize the Dungeon Core as swiftly as possible!

As for an even worse scenario—human encirclement plus Purple Crystal Dungeon collapsing.

To that, Lin Jun still has the worst contingency plans: either find a way to escape the dungeon and hide in a sparsely populated area above ground; or transfer through the Rift into another dungeon and start over.

Anyway, there are plenty of plans; as a mushroom, as long as it wants to survive, it always can.

But if it comes to being driven out of the Purple Crystal Dungeon, the vendetta with humans would certainly deepen...

After handling these post-war trivial matters, Lin Jun originally planned to try out a new skill, but considering the cave dweller training base had a little mishap—Norris nearly got taken out.

Lin Jun still had most of the Puki follow the net path in the Six Claw Rift, back to the Deep Area, to address sudden situations.

...

While Lin Jun was engaged in a battle of wits with Shi Wu, a completely different, primal farce unfolded at the cave dweller training base.

Two cave dwellers stood several paces apart, each gripping a rough bone short spear, confronting one another.

They made no sound, yet within the Fungal Network frantically threatened each other.

Communicating through the Fungal Network, their thoughts directly reached the other's mind, far more efficient and direct than their primitive and awkward cave dweller language, similar to rocks grinding.

Since being incorporated into the Fungal Network, accustomed to this convenient "telepathic talk," most cave dwellers have almost entirely abandoned the bad habit of speaking aloud.

Just as the battle was about to erupt, a silver flash appeared, and both cave dwellers' short spears broke simultaneously.

"Ugh—"

Norris appeared between them with a face full of frustration, glaring at these two fellows.

"How many times has this happened recently? Fighting fiercely over mating rights!"

[Seventh time]

The yellow-covered book kindly reminded.

"Tsk!"

Primitive! Ignorant!

Previously, relying on [Informational Pheromones] to divide ranks meant only a minority of the upper echelon had mating rights.

Things are different now, equality has come, and they've switched to using force to seize it.

These cave dwellers, if only getting each other bruised and swollen over such matters, it wouldn't matter, but when they fight, they truly go for the kill!

To be fair, if Lin Jun hadn't intervened, dividing ranks using [Informational Pheromones] might actually be a good choice for cave dwellers, at least more orderly.

Norris has noted down various issues concerning cave dwellers during this period, and once the boss finishes "entertaining guests" as he says, it'll all be reported.

But right now, he had to personally discipline these two cave dwellers, otherwise they'd dare to return once they've repaired their short spears.

Norris just raised his hand to teach the two cave dwellers a lesson when his peripheral vision suddenly caught something amiss—a dark red light point flickering faintly at the distant end of the dim cave.

Red light?

The cave's lighting relies almost entirely on Glowing Mushrooms, and the fluorescence from mushrooms obviously doesn't include red.

So that distant red dot seemed particularly striking to Norris.

"Senior, what is that?" The distance made it hard for Norris to see clearly, so he directly asked the yellow-covered book.

However, the yellow-covered book, usually adept at reconnaissance, reacted even slower than Norris this time.

[What is what?]

After a brief pause, the yellow-covered book seemed to finally "zero in" on the target.

[Huh?]

[Is this really a floating ball in mid-air?]

And just as Norris and the Yellow-covered Book were still studying what it was, a sudden change occurred!

Squish! Squish! Squish!

The dull sound of blades slicing through flesh suddenly echoed!

The two cave dwellers in front of Norris, who were holding broken spears a second ago, were dismembered by invisible attacks before they could even scream!

Blood splattered, but it didn't fall directly to the ground.

Some blood droplets seemed to hit an invisible barrier, briefly outlining a blurry monster image in mid-air.

!!!

Enemies! Invisible enemies! And they were right next to them!

Norris quickly retreated, hastily activating [Sound Wave Detection Level 6].

Norris grunted, overwhelmed by chaotic information flooding his brain, causing dizziness, yet he was prepared enough not to collapse.

At the same time, he "saw" the enemies—three invisible Six Claw beasts, each towering at 3 meters!

And the red dot in the distance was a flying eyeball!?

No time to dwell on it, Norris awkwardly dodged the attacks from the three beasts.

While the Yellow-covered Book was completely bewildered.

[What's going on?]

[What kind of demon is this?]

[Why is there no emotional fluctuation?]

"Damn it!" Norris awkwardly rolled and maneuvered in the cramped space, narrowly avoiding the deadly strikes.

The rock-hard ground was raked with deep grooves by invisible claws, with stones flying everywhere!

He was completely on the defensive.

Without [Sound Wave Detection], he was like a blind man; using it brought an overwhelming burden that felt like a hammer to his brain.

His reaction speed plummeted, and his head throbbed; his proud speed advantage was suppressed to less than half!

Every detection felt like overdrafting his nerves.

After another detection, Norris finally couldn't withstand the feedback, losing his balance and falling to the ground.

At the brink of life and death, Norris's mind went blank; his body's instincts were faster than thought!

He almost reflexively yanked the Yellow-covered Book, using it as a shield in front of him!

[Norris! You bastard——!!!]

However, the expected attack didn't come.

Squish——!

A gnashing sound of flesh being brutally torn apart exploded in the air!

Immediately, a large gush of scalding, foul-smelling monster blood splashed like a fountain, drenching Norris and the Yellow-covered Book!

In the blood mist, Xiao Hai appeared in front of Norris, holding a chunk of a thick, hideous monster forelimb that had lost its invisibility effect with one hand!

The owner of the limb had become a headless corpse, lying aside.

Xiao Hai checked Norris up and down, seeing he was intact, before turning to fling the monster's arm.

The severed limb tore through the air with a dull whoosh!

Another dull thud as flesh was pierced!

In the distance, another invisible monster had its chest precisely pierced by the severed limb of its kind, the immense impact sending it crashing against the rock wall, spasming twice before going completely silent.

Almost simultaneously, the monster's blood on the ground coalesced into a spear, shooting out to precisely pierce the head of the last monster attempting to pounce—Louisa, notified by Lin Jun, hurried over at this time.

"There's... there's still an eyeball!" Though still shaken, Norris quickly reminded.

But looking again, the spot that had been glowing red was now pitch black, with nothing there.

Louisa transformed into a bat, pursued in the direction Norris pointed, but found nothing.

[You heartless thing! Using me as a shield again!]

The Yellow-covered Book cursed Norris for his ingratitude, all while doubting itself for not detecting the enemies.

During this process, it quietly absorbed the souls of those two cave dwellers into its pages without anyone noticing.

Xiao Hai crouched down, picked up all the Silver Scales Norris had dropped.

Then she tiptoed and playfully tapped Norris's bowed head twice with her paw, slightly stained with blood.

Norris felt a warmth in his heart; this clumsy gesture of concern made his nose tingle... if only the comfort didn't have such force!

Louisa pondered whether the purple blood ball in her hand, condensed from the monster's blood, was edible?

In the time that followed, Norris didn't dare stray far from Xiao Hai or Louisa, staying timid until the Puki army descended.

Lin Jun looked at the Six Claw monster, lying on the Fungal Mat, half decomposed.

What's this thing?

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