This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Deep within the lower levels of the Puji Dungeon, a wide cavern shimmered faintly with ghostly light.

Norris, who had been kept behind after the meeting, held his claws up defensively. Sweat slid down between his silver scales as he fought several newly created elite puji.

The elite puji had mycelial tendrils shaped—via skills—into blades and weapons. Every slash and thrust was sharp and unpredictable, and their cooperation was flawless, as though they all shared the same invisible combat instinct.

Cold flashes of steel-like light forced Norris into a slightly messy retreat. In only a short time, several new cuts had appeared across his scales.

[Swordsmanship LV10], [Block LV9], [Dodge LV9], [Charge LV8], [Archery LV8]…

Most of these were stripped directly from corpses on the battlefield—collapsed valley or not, the mycelium had already spread inside, and the west-side battlefield near Golden Valley City had supplied plenty of bodies.

The puji carrying these skills weren’t quite as strong stat-wise as Norris, but with several elites united under Lin Jun’s will, they moved as one and successfully suppressed him.

However, Lin Jun wasn’t satisfied. This was already the third round of tests, and it was becoming clear that human and demon “technique-type” skills had major compatibility issues with puji.

The moment Lin Jun withdrew his will from the battlefield, everything changed.

The puji still executed their Swordsmanship beautifully, still dodged with speed—but they became rigid, puppet-like, running fixed routines without any battlefield intuition.

Norris, who was already extremely experienced with small-scale skirmishes, immediately noticed the shift. After a brief period of probing, he found their attack rhythm and countered.

Within five or six minutes, every puji in the sparring session lay sliced in half—and Norris stood victorious.

As the battle ended, Norris exhaled deeply and went to a corner, picking up his waterskin and drinking heavily.

A few standby puji immediately waddled over and began to piece together the “killed” elite puji. Once repaired, they could still be reused.

The outcome didn’t surprise Lin Jun at all. This mechanical rigidity was inherent to the puji.

Setting aside his own skill, [Retainer Control], the puji within the fungal network essentially had three intelligence levels.

First: “Direct Control Mode.”

The puji became extensions of Lin Jun’s will. Every twitch of a tendril, every fired mushroom projectile, matched his thoughts exactly.

Combat power under this mode depended entirely on Lin Jun’s tactical ability and micro-management—potentially limitless.

The cost: enormous mental strain.

Second: “Command Mode.”

Lin Jun enveloped an area with his will and issued broad commands: these puji attack left, those puji flank right.

The puji, using their built-in skill libraries, carried out the orders in ways that fit his intent.

Just like earlier—Lin Jun only needed to think “this puji defends, that puji strikes from the side,” without directing each block or thrust. The puji executed [Block LV9] and [Swordsmanship LV10] automatically.

Efficient, balanced, and his most used mode.

The drawback: he still had to maintain attention on the area and issue continuous commands.

Controlling multiple zones at once was possible, but tiring, and mistakes accumulated over time.

Third: “Autopilot Mode.”

The puji acted under faint subconscious direction.

Lin Jun set one or more final objectives—then the puji turned into NPC bots.

Earlier, during the final phase of the test, the elite puji had been given only one directive: defeat Norris.

The result was a massive drop in combat ability, allowing Norris to reverse the battle.

This weakness didn’t matter much back when the puji relied on simple brute-force skills like [Self-Destruct], [Mushroom Cannon], or [Blade Storm]. All they needed was to lock onto the target and rush forward.

But once tactical skills like [Swordsmanship] came into play, things changed.

With direct or command control, technique-loaded puji were far stronger than unskilled units.

But under autopilot, they were worse—often far worse—than simple, brainless smash-type puji.

Ultimately, advanced technique skills could only be mounted on higher-tier puji.

For now, Lin Jun’s multi-tasking ability was strong enough.

But once the territory expanded—from one dungeon to two, three, or more—and additional cities joined Puji Fort, this intelligence bottleneck would become a growing problem.

So far, the only solution was to strain himself more.

…

Norris, having recovered, noticed that the boss didn’t seem prepared to start a fourth sparring round.

So he bent down and started picking up the scales he’d had knocked off, finding several mostly intact pieces.

Oooooh—

As he neared the entrance of one tunnel, a faint but continuous sound slipped into his ears.

Wind?

But there was no breeze from that passage.

He stopped and listened closely. No airflow. The sound was more like… moaning?

Norris frowned. The deep zones of the dungeon were like a labyrinth. The 40–50 interconnected caverns that Lin Jun had cleared were the safe zones.

The rest, though covered in mycelium, were not open for various reasons.

Some were in earthworm-active areas, some had dangerous terrain, some—according to rumors—hid the boss’s secrets…

The last part was only whispered gossip among the mushroomborn, without any proof.

Norris glanced back. The boss was still busy with his experiments.

Driven by curiosity, Norris followed the sound.

He pressed himself along the stone wall, moving cautiously. As he reached the end of the passage, a corner ahead glowed faintly.

The low moaning grew clearer, mixed with the heavy thud of something falling.

Just as Norris was about to turn the corner—

A massive claw suddenly reached out from behind the bend, slamming onto the ground in front of him.

The claw was enormous—its skin torn in unnatural ways, with sparse scales embedded in rotting flesh. Under the dim light it looked horrifying.

Norris’s heartbeat spiked. He jumped back, dropping into a battle stance.

A moment later, Lin Jun’s calm voice echoed in his mind:

“Little Norris, wandering around is very dangerous, you know.”