[Steel Bone Level 2]

One of many inconspicuous low-level skills in the skill library.

Although it's not a healing skill, as expected, after equipping this skill and supplying magic power, the broken bone is indeed replaced by the steel bone generated by the skill, effectively achieving the effect of bone-setting.

[Claw Strike Level 7]

A skill that most beast-type demons possess, but when installed on Puki, the place where the claws grow is surprisingly on those short little legs...

At first, when Norris equipped it, his nails were replaced by 10-centimeter-long bone claws, and after adding [Steel Bone], the bone claws began to transform into steel bone claws.

This kind of skill interaction was something Lin Jun knew about long ago, and now it appears that it is also effective on humans.

[Neurotoxin Level 4]

After equipping it, he started getting paralyzed repeatedly and losing blood due to the toxin produced by his own body. He had to add [Poison Resistance Level 5] and [Paralysis Resistance Level 5] to avoid becoming a vegetable.

[Mushroom Cannon Level 8]

...

...

...

Norris lay obliviously on the fungal mat, having one skill after another slowly added to him.

Next to him, Puki occasionally used blade-tipped tentacles to cut open his skin to observe the internal changes.

Under the swamp area, the knight rolled up a pen and recorded all this onto a piece of parchment.

Adding skills is a slow process; Norris' phase of transformation takes roughly about a week.

During this time, Lin Jun naturally can't just be doing this one thing.

As a very busy mushroom, he is also controlling the scouts and commanding the battle on the sixth layer.

The scouts are doing fine for now, with Dylan having the help of his good brother, everything is smooth for the time being.

And on the sixth layer, the carrot given by Lin Jun to the tree demons has taken effect, with more and more tree demons willing to come out and work, now reaching nearly forty.

The very first tree demon even directly pledged loyalty to Lin Jun, beginning to call him boss.

To make calling easier, Lin Jun also gave it a name—Xiao Lv.

Lin Jun also found it strange to name an old tree bark Xiao Lv, but since there's already Xiao Hai, he thought about forming a five-color team, remembering there was a blue-haired werewolf...

With the addition of the tree demons, Lin Jun opened up the situation on the surface.

As excellent pathfinders on the sixth layer, the tree demons also serve as competent tanks with control skills.

Lin Jun let each of them command at least ten Puki, clearing slimes on the surface.

With them, the pressure on the rock wall greatly reduced, allowing Lin Jun to spread larger areas of the fungal mat at once. Now the farthest part has reached the canopy out of the slimes' reach and started consuming firefly grass.

It can be said that the battle on the sixth layer is now a decided matter.

However, these brainless slimes clearly don't realize this and continue to jump out from all directions non-stop.

Lin Jun's focus has also shifted from advancing the fungal mat to finding the source of the slimes.

"Boss, come take a look." Xiao Lv seems to have found something.

To be honest, being called boss in such an old voice by the tree demon is quite awkward, even more so than Dylan's call...

Lin Jun shifted his attention over and found he and his twelve Puki subordinates were guarding a patch of grass.

What does this mean?

But Lin Jun soon understood.

The grass suddenly swayed, and after a while, a red slime emerged from it.

Before the slime could hop away, Xiao Lv stepped forward and smashed the slime with a [Trunk Strike].

Then he pulled out all the weeds around, revealing a half-meter-long crack, about as wide as a finger, with water flow sounds faintly coming from within.

Underground runoff?

No wonder, despite occupying the rock wall with such good visibility, the source of the slimes couldn't be found. If they've been using an underground water network to move first and then emerge, it makes sense.

This was indeed a blind spot in Lin Jun's thinking.

After all, they are already "underground," and the first five layers didn't have anything like underground water flow, so it didn't occur to them at first.

But now it's troublesome. With the body of a slime being able to squeeze through any gap, naturally, they can move unimpeded inside.

Puki, even if it tries hard, can only deform slightly, definitely not as capable as the slimes.

Even knowing the source of the slimes is hidden within the underground water network, there's no way to follow this network to find it in a short time.

Perhaps noticing Lin Jun's concern, Xiao Lv proactively suggested:

"I might be able to help you explore the underground water network."

Saying this, Xiao Lv stepped onto the edge of the crack with a foot, and the roots on the foot moved downward, plunging into the soil.

Lin Jun was utterly dumbfounded.

Speaking of which, tree demons are different from mushrooms; they can't directly collect magic power from the air, or rather they can, but the efficiency is very low.

When they rest in the forest, they root into the ground, absorbing nutrients and magic power from the soil.

It's just unexpected that they can use roots to explore underground!

Xiao Lv proceeded like this, rooting step by step and gradually advancing along the underground waterways.

At this moment, it no longer had time to help Puki clear the way; in fact, Puki even had to protect it during its inconvenient rapid movement.

Faced with approaching demons, Lin Jun was not pretentious, ordering the Puki to launch a counter-attack decisively.

At such times, clearing a small number of demons won't cause any trouble to the sixth layer's ecology.

Along the way, using the panel to identify and shoot down plant-type demons hiding far away, Puki didn't lose a single one.

However, after moving for an hour, their magic power was depleted…

This was normal, as Xiao Lv's team had already been exploring for a long time; this hour drained a lot of magic power.

Just as Lin Jun was planning to call a halt, Xiao Lv stopped first.

"What's the matter?" Lin Jun asked.

"Sorry, boss, the underground waterway is too deep here; the roots can't reach…" Xiao Lv seemed embarrassed, as it was his proposal that didn't succeed and wasted so much time instead.

But Lin Jun didn't feel it was wasted.

"Then let's return first. I'll provide you with a map of the sixth layer later. Starting tomorrow, you should focus on exploring the relatively shallow underground waterways throughout the sixth layer, then summarize and draw them on the map."

This was said not only to Xiao Lv but also communicated through the fungal network to all tree demons active on the sixth layer.

Lin Jun's thought is if the slime production point is in the shallow waterway, it will be directly found by the tree demons.

If it's in an undetectable position, by summarizing the waterway network, Lin Jun can roughly determine which area the deeper waterways are located in, and then these areas can be the focus of future searches.

If necessary, they will dig directly downward.

He really wants to see what on earth this thing is that hides so sneakily!

In fact, Lin Jun is slightly hopeful—this thing producing so many slimes suggests it's energy-rich!

And based on experience, maybe… it's another Sunstone Fragment?

Currently, Lin Jun's [Sunstone (Fragment)] is the result of two fragments joined together, generating magic power roughly equivalent to the entire output of the fifth layer through [Photosynthesis].

If another fragment is added, wouldn't the magic power output increase by at least 50%?

With more magic power, his subsequent elite Puki plan might even allow for small-scale mass production?

"Yes, sir." After receiving Lin Jun's order, the tree demons replied one by one in the fungal network.

Hmm?

Lin Jun sharply noticed that one reply was missing.

Sensing around, he found the tree demon at an idle Puki that had lost command, or rather, found its corpse…

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