This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Chapter 514

After retracting its tentacle, the lighting puji obediently sat on the ground without moving.After quite a while, several more puji were transferred in by Lin Jun.

First, the scout puji extended its perception in all directions. Aside from the information blocks and the treasure pile, it sensed no other objects or people.

To be safe, Lin Jun still spread his consciousness outward like rippling water, probing into the depths of the darkness.

“Uh… Lord of Light, are you there?”

“I didn’t mean to peek at your diary, I just fell in here by accident.”

“And, um… I also have a heart that pursues the light…”

A long time passed. There was still no response.

Tsk.

Only then did the puji start moving around again, swaggering as if nothing had happened.

Reading through the [Final Experiment Record] once more, in a sense, could this be considered an apocalypse notice?

After all, even an existence like the Lord of Light was praying to the “universe” for favor.

Of course, whether it really was the Lord of Light was still debatable. In theory, as long as someone knew how to create these information blocks, anyone could sign the name “Ixion” at the end. After all, the Lord of Light didn’t have some kind of irreplicable official seal…

Still, for now, Lin Jun chose to think of it as something truly left behind by the Lord of Light.

Recently, he seemed to be hearing more and more talk about the world ending. Lin Jun felt he was already getting numb to it.

At the end of the day, he was just a little mushroom still struggling to survive under the shadow of the Empire. Even if he wanted to save the world, he had no idea where to start.

Hopefully an ultimate existence on the level of the Lord of Light would find a solution.

Speaking of which, did this world even have the concept of a “universe”?

He asked Louisa and Aiden, and both of them were unfamiliar with the term.

As for the concept of “aether,” Lin Jun himself didn’t know exactly what it was, so naturally they had never heard of it either.

Still, Lin Jun silently noted this clue down.

From the description in the records, this thing seemed closely tied to the survival of the world.

There was also another point: the Lord of Light wanting to create souls—did that mean the total number of souls in this world did not naturally increase?

In other words, were existing souls truly just cycling endlessly through reincarnation?

Thinking about the souls he had stripped clean—souls that had directly merged into the world—it now seemed likely that they were being reclaimed by the world and cast into the next cycle.

Another thought suddenly popped into Lin Jun’s mind.

The final solution the Lord of Light thought of… couldn’t be becoming a thief, right?

If souls in this world didn’t naturally increase, then steal them from elsewhere—stolen souls would become heroes!

Thinking back to the heroes he encountered in the archipelago, the names on their panels clearly came from his own world. Obviously, heroes were not natives of this world.

But… that didn’t quite add up.

This dungeon had only appeared three hundred years ago, yet legends of hero summoning existed since ancient times.

So this wasn’t a solution, but some kind of delaying tactic?

Although he didn’t understand what benefit stealing a few souls every few hundred years brought to the world, this speculation didn’t seem entirely impossible.

Imagining the revered Lord of Light secretly being a habitual cross-world soul thief felt… strange.

For now, Lin Jun set aside the information about the end of the world.

As for artifacts, the Blood Calamity mentioned here was in the Emperor’s hands, the Heartwood Core had already been reclaimed by that old bastard Birthwood, but this “Void Realm” was something he had never heard of at all.

Although the Lord of Light said these were all failed projects, that was because they couldn’t create new souls, making them useless to an existence at his level.

The abilities attached to these failures, however, were something Lin Jun desperately coveted.

Blood Calamity and the Heartwood Core were out of reach for now, but the Void Realm could be something to have his subordinates look into later.

And finally…

Lin Jun looked at the vast number of remaining information blocks floating in this abyssal space.

One puji extended a tentacle into another information block.

[Experimental Subject Name: Sunstone]

[Nineteenth Experiment Record]

[Test Subject: Soul No. 734445]

[Soul Tier: B+]

[Using the Sunstone to continuously split the soul… reached the limit after seventy-five divisions…]

…

…

…

As expected, they were all experiment records related to the Sunstone.

This might actually be the true treasure of this abyssal space!

The artifact panel didn’t even give a proper explanation. Even now, holding the complete Sunstone, Lin Jun could only use it to knead a few mushroomfolk.

Compare that to Emperor Mortis’s Blood Calamity—those overwhelming crimson blood curtains were terrifying to behold. Lin Jun couldn’t help but feel envious.

If he could thoroughly study these experiment records, he didn’t dare say he’d master some earth-shattering technique, but at least he should be able to figure out the basic uses of the Sunstone, right?

That was far more tangible than any apocalypse prophecy.

However, just as Lin Jun was about to fully immerse himself in it, a small matter interrupted him.

The Sword Saint was back—but he came back dead.

…

For his second rebirth, the Sword Saint was already familiar with the process, breaking out of the cocoon with practiced ease. The moment he emerged, he saw the Marshal puji.

“Sword Saint, Sword’s Ultimate…” the Marshal puji looked down at him, tapping the Sword Saint puji’s cap with a tentacle. “How did you die?”

“Yeah… why did I suddenly die?” Completely unconcerned by Lin Jun’s tone, the Sword Saint puji rubbed the brim of his mushroom cap with a tentacle, pondering the question himself.

“You don’t even know how you died? Were you instantly killed by something?”

“That shouldn’t be the case. There were a lot of slimes down there, but their strength was just so-so. The scarecrows in the manor shouldn’t have come out either…” The Sword Saint recalled the final moments—one second he was cutting through slimes like melons and vegetables, the next his vision went black.

This piqued Lin Jun’s curiosity.

After all, even as a puji, the Sword Saint was still the Sword Saint. Although the granted [Qi Sense] was only LV6, far below his living standard, he hadn’t lost any other detection skills.

Combined with the [Sword’s Ultimate] realm, there was no reason for him to be instantly killed in a place like the Scarecrow Abyss.

If it were really that dangerous, no adventurers would be going to the Scarecrow Abyss in the first place.

The two puji discussed it for a long time, until the Sword Saint puji suddenly remembered No. 5, who was still waiting for him.

And when No. 5 learned that No. 14 had died and come back, he weakly chimed in on the fungus network, “Could it be… that you ran out of mana…?”

The two puji stared at each other.

“Wouldn’t you get dizzy first if you ran out of mana?”

“You’re a puji. Where did you even get a head?”

“Haha… I’ve never been a puji before. Still not used to it.” The Sword Saint rubbed his mushroom cap, looking a bit awkward for once.

“…”

Lost: one knight body, one S-rank magic crystal, two skill weapons.

Cursing under his breath, Lin Jun began preparing a second body for the Sword Saint. After all, aside from this Sword Saint, there really was no better candidate at the moment to dive deep into the Scarecrow Abyss to loot things.

This time, the Sword Saint even shamelessly asked for two extra swords, bringing the total to four.

Once everything was ready, just as the Sword Saint was about to set off, Lin Jun stopped him again.

“This time, you’re going with her!”

“Who?!”

“Don’t forget to hide your identity!”

…

Big niece?!

“This is… a new mushroomfolk? Carrying four swords—so cute!” Just rescued through the teleportation array, Inanna happily scooped up the Sword Saint puji in her arms.

The Sword Saint puji had originally wanted to dodge, but for some reason, his body lost control for a brief moment.

It was probably that Dungeon Lord.

Although their time together hadn’t been long, Elvion had already vaguely grasped Lin Jun’s personality.

This body, not entirely his own, really did hide all sorts of restrictions.

But why was Arama’s daughter in the mushroom garden?

The Sword Saint puji twisted his body, trying to break free from the not-very-strong arms.

Yet no matter how he adjusted his angle of force or applied unloading techniques, he simply could not escape Inanna’s embrace.

He quickly realized that this girl’s technique for holding puji was extremely professional. She understood the puji body structure inside out—even better than him, a current puji!

Unless he used brute force and injured her, escape was impossible. This was a pure, technical-level suppression.

Just what had this girl been spending her time on? How many puji had she held before?!

Watching Inanna’s nimble fingers reach toward his mushroom cap, Elvion felt that his nonexistent old face was facing an unprecedented crisis!