Chapter 21: Battle in the Swamp
The morning sunlight filtered through the wisteria curtains, weaving patterns of scattered gold on the oak floor.
The young girl curled up on the velvet cushion was still sound asleep.
"Hmm... so satisfying..."
Three rhythmic knocks awakened the girl from her sweet dreams.
"Good morning, Miss." The butler Eric's voice sounded outside the door, "The new magic teacher should be here soon. Please prepare in advance, Miss."
Since Inanna was found, Eric had been assigned by the duke to serve her exclusively, arranging her daily life and ensuring her safety.
As for the duke himself, due to the constant small-scale military disturbances instigated by the Hermit Empire, he was forced to remain at the border and could not leave.
"Uncle Eric, I understand. I'll be there shortly."
Once the footsteps faded away, Inanna stretched lazily and climbed out of bed, beginning to dress herself.
According to custom, the duke's mansion had a dedicated maid responsible for helping the young lady dress and groom herself, but since Inanna's return, she insisted on doing it herself.
Everyone speculated that this was a sign of the young lady's growing caution after experiencing betrayal, and the entire mansion felt deep sympathy for Inanna's plight.
But that wasn't the case.
Inanna reached into her pink hair and touched the back of her head—there was a very, very small pink mushroom cap growing there, the same color as her hair.
Inanna didn't tell anyone about her experiences in the dungeon or about the mushroom.
The former was due to Lin Jun's request, while the latter she herself didn't know why she was hiding it.
Perhaps it was because if she told others, they would definitely try to remove the little mushroom cap, and she wanted to keep it.
After tying her hair up, Inanna went to the window and felt the warmth of the sun.
"The weather is so nice. I wonder what Lin Jun is doing now. Did she successfully defeat a ground worm after I left?"
————
Hahaha!
That's right, blow them up! Blow these disgusting things to pieces!
In the fifth-layer swamp zone, a fierce battle between the Puji and the parasitic trees was underway.
Over a hundred Puji without shells, equipped with [Dodge LV7], were engaged in intense combat with the swarming parasitic trees.
These days, Lin Jun grows increasingly frustrated with each battle, and the root cause of her frustration boils down to the issue of rewards.
The [Fusion Parasitism] skill is decent; it can parasitize any flesh-and-blood humanoid creature.
Among the parasitic trees on the opposing side, there is a small group of parasitic trees using werewolves as hosts (the easiest type to deal with).
The issue with this skill is that there is little difference between level 1 and level 10!
This skill can only parasitize dying creatures, and the only upgrade benefit is that it can complete parasitism even when the creature isn't on the brink of death.
It's like adding it or not adding it makes no difference. The creatures that need to be parasitized have already been captured by Lin Jun, so why would you need this upgrade benefit?
Therefore, this skill offers no benefits whatsoever.
[Entangle] is similarly just there for show; higher levels are useless. When fighting, you rely on elegant artillery bombardment, not primitive methods like fungal tentacles.
In the end, only [Resilience] is somewhat useful, making the mycelium more durable and naturally increasing the defense of the Puji, while also making the mycelium tentacles more robust.
It's useful, but not by much.
For such a small benefit, the losses incurred are enormous...
In recent days, Lin Jun has encountered several high-level parasites, each causing him significant losses.
Now, these parasitic trees are nothing but a bunch of cockroaches in Lin Jun's eyes—disgusting to look at, yet he must eliminate them—after all, he still needs to claim their swamp.
It must be said that the swamp is truly suited for mushrooms.
The humidity and temperature are ideal, and more importantly, the swamp is rich in magic!
This swamp seems to have been created specifically for the establishment of a mushroom garden; it only requires a bit of cleanup.
After today's battle, she had already occupied half of the swamp area—progress was encouraging.
Watching the parasitic trees disintegrate into dust under the mushroom cannons, Lin Jun's main body deep within the occupied swamp area couldn't help but shake with satisfaction.
The parasitic trees seemed to be retreating under the fierce assault of the Puji.
Just as Lin Jun thought this round of battle was about to end, a疯狂旋转的个体 burst out from the parasitic tree ranks.
Its mere appearance, with its spinning roots, sliced through two parasitic trees blocking its path.
[Sword Storm LV8]?!
The parasitized individual was a full 45 levels!
Come on, you're a golden-level adventurer, how could you still be stuck on the fifth floor?
Isn't that embarrassing?
In fact, most melee skills used by the parasitic trees were severely distorted, greatly reducing their power.
But Blade Storm was clearly an exception.
It charged into the Puji's group like a tornado, instantly shredding the surrounding Puji into a cloud of fungal threads.
The Puji's mushroom cannons were all intercepted by the rapidly spinning roots, causing only minor, insignificant injuries.
But it didn't stop there. A magical fluctuation rippled through the Parasitic Tree's ranks, and two muddy, filthy water elements formed in the swamp.
Summoning magic!?
This was the second time Lin Jun had seen summoning magic. The last time was with the Flame Demon, who had summoned several puppets that seemed pretty strong but ended up being useless.
The summoner was hidden among the parasitic trees, and it was impossible to tell which one it was.
Damn it!
The two water elementals were only LV35 in rank, but their water flow attacks could sweep away a large group of Puji in one go.
More importantly, these were summoned creatures—once they died, they could be summoned again. Was he supposed to use Puji to drain the summoner's mana?
The sudden appearance of the two powerful opponents caught Lin Jun off guard, and the other parasitic trees began to counterattack as well.
Hmph.
Retreat!
Several pujis attacked the water elementals and the sword storm parasitic trees, drawing their attention while running to the sides to lure them away.
The remaining Puji retreated at full speed.
Fortunately, the parasitic trees weren't particularly intelligent. After eliminating the Puji used as bait, they realized there were no other Puji around and returned to their slow movement mode.
After the battle, Lin Jun counted the Puji that had been sent out, and only about forty had returned, with half of the losses caused by the final ambush.
The worst part was that after the defeat, they couldn't collect the remains of the Parasitic Tree to replenish their losses.
It was foreseeable that the next offensive would have to be postponed.
Damn parasitic trees, they still have some tricks up their sleeves!
But it doesn't matter. The hidden ones are the real trump cards. Since they've already been exposed, there must be a way to counter them.
However, Lin Jun also noticed a problem. Although his Puji had evasion skills that allowed them to easily dodge single-target attacks,
However, they are useless against area-of-effect attacks like Sword Storm or Water Surge.
With their short legs, they can't run fast and are easily caught and killed.
If only there were a skill that increases speed, like the simple yet practical [Accelerate] that 10th-tier werewolves possess.
Her own [Rolling Charge] doesn't count—it requires preparation to curl up into a ball, and reverting to her original form takes time. Plus, she can't use other skills to attack while rolling.
I wonder if this level has any useful acceleration skills. I'll take advantage of this time to restock my puffies and explore the area.
(End of this chapter)