CHAPTER 31: CHAPTER 31: SENT AWAY TO WORK OFF DEBTS

No!

Fat Otaku Number One!

I spent a whole month molding that!

There were seven or eight pieces of equipment in there!

Though I did boost Fat Otaku Number One’s Constitution to 40 and installed a Level 4 Self-Destruction, just to deal with the unruly.

But I didn’t expect it to happen so soon!

Had I known, I would have put fewer pieces of equipment inside; now it’s the biggest loss ever!

You guys are into humans killing humans; as a Demon, I shouldn’t meddle.

But how could you cut down my mushroom?

The culprit dwarf has already been blasted to pieces; his teammates should repay this debt!

————

Nasa wiped away the bits of flesh from his face with a sweep, spores and dust in the air filled his nostrils, causing intermittent coughing.

He shook his dizzy head until the flickering black spots on his retina gradually faded, then staggered to support himself upright.

The rock wall at the cave entrance now looked like dough kneaded by an invisible giant hand; the originally two-meter-high entrance was violently torn to three meters.

The Puki Fat Walk and Gelonggba were nowhere to be seen.

No,

Nasa saw a half-set of steel teeth embedded in a nearby tree trunk.

They weren’t gone, but all over the ground...

Death was so close that Nasa couldn’t help but shiver.

Luckily, he had a little quirk; luckily, he didn’t go to check that Fat Puki.

Feeling he narrowly escaped disaster, Nasa lost the will to torment Vera and her companions.

He picked his dagger off the ground, planning to quickly finish up and leave.

But as he took his first step, he fell—a long mycelium tendril had at some point wrapped around his ankle!

"What is this!?"

Nasa drew his dagger and hacked at the tendril, but the blade got stuck a third of the way through.

After repeatedly tugging, he barely managed to sever it.

He tried to stand up, only to have another mycelium tendril creep up his back, tightening around his waist and abdomen.

This time, before he could swing his dagger, more tendrils surged out, wrapping around his limbs and joints.

Somehow, Puki’s with mushroom caps and tendrils appeared all around him, surrounding Nasa.

"Walking mushrooms? Tentacles?"

The Half-Elf panicked, trying to reach into his clothes for medicinal powder, but the bindings only tightened more.

"No, no!

Go grab them! Go eat them!

Help! Hel... mmf... Help... Help..."

Countless tendrils eventually wrapped Nasa into a human-shaped cocoon, which struggled as it was dragged deeper into the forest, leaving just a muffled cry for help gradually fading among the trees.

The only witness to everything, Fei Yin, trembled, biting her lip to keep from making a sound.

It wasn’t until all the Pukis had disappeared that she began to weep softly.

"Cutting Skill..."

"Cutting Skill..."

"Cutting Skill..."

...

After who knows how many attempts to use the Cutting Skill, the ropes on Fei Yin finally broke.

She hurriedly freed her sister and Vera.

Her sister Fei Ling was fine, just fainted.

But Vera was barely breathing, she might die any second.

Their bags were nowhere to be found, and the potions were inside.

She couldn’t perform healing spells; without potions, Vera would die!

Fei Yin was so anxious that tears welled up in her eyes again.

A red object flashed through her blurred vision.

Life Potion!

It was the bottle that the Half-Elf had taken out earlier!

Fei Yin scrambled to retrieve the potion and shakily poured it all into Vera’s mouth.

"Cough, cough—"

Vera choked violently, but although she didn’t wake, some color returned to her face.

"That’s great, so... so... sob..."

With a sigh of relief, Fei Yin also finally began to cry again.

————

Deep within the forest, in the now-empty Gnoll camp.

The Pukis were rolling the Half-Elf repeatedly against rocks.

At this point, Nasa looked utterly tragic, his nasal bone fractured, all his teeth knocked out, and his tongue seemingly half-bitten off.

In a stupor, he could only groan indistinctly, "Mmm, mmm."

But the Pukis mechanically continued their work.

It’s not that Lin Jun wanted to torture him; it’s just that this Half-Elf needed to repay his debt with his own body.

And [Fusion Parasite] could only parasitize remnants of blood.

So they had to grind his Blood Volume down to a sliver.

Directly attacking him with Skills was too risky; he could accidentally die.

This slow bumping—reliable!

It’s definitely not because he was petty.

Finally, with his Blood Volume suppressed to the extreme, the Pukis elegantly sprinkled some spores on his wounds.

Then they hung him on a tree.

A mature parasitic puppet would naturally descend in a few days.

This would be Lin Jun’s first human puppet, and he planned to have a lot of fun... make sure he repays Fat Otaku Number One’s blood debt!

Speaking of bringing the Half-Elf back, Lin Jun had also picked up the things lying around on the ground that no one wanted.

All sorts of weapons, armor, rings, potion powder bags, and such.

It seemed that the losses of Fat Otaku Puki’s equipment were recouped?

Feeling not so painful now.

But the Half-Elf’s debt couldn’t be forgiven.

As for Fat Otaku Puki...

Luckily, Lin Jun had prepared in advance, producing five at once.

This kind of high Constitution Puki could grow larger, carry more things.

Higher Blood Volume could also greatly increase the damage of Self-Destruction.

The only problem was that their other Attributes couldn’t keep up, making them incredibly slow.

Otherwise, why call it Fat Otaku?

This initial failure meant Fat Otaku Number Two would have to take over expanded hole duty.

Luckily, the things we picked up this time could fill its belly for exchange.

When people got used to paying corpse tolls and exchanged corpses for random items with Fat Otaku Puki.

Lin Jun would have a constant stream of other-tier Demon corpses available.

Adventurers’ perceptions of Puki should drastically change too.

At least they wouldn’t always resort to violence at first sight.

As for worrying about lack of exchange items?

Now it’s just the beginning; naturally, it’s filled to the brim, in perfect condition; every exchange adventurers make is hugely profitable.

Once it becomes a habit, Lin Jun can fill it with lots of Low Tier Demon Crystal fillers, occasionally offer a few good things to keep adventurers interested.

Anyway, for most adventurers, Demon corpses aren’t worth much; not exchanging them would be a waste.

Tsk, tsk!

Lin Jun admired his operating acumen.

With such a wise Mushroom Lord, how could Mushroom Garden not thrive?

...

Hmm?

Just as Lin Jun was feeling proud, the signals of several Hallucinogenic Pukis advancing slowly in the cave suddenly disappeared.

It was a very, very deep place, almost unreachable without exhaustive methods.

It didn’t seem like they were attacked by ordinary Crystalized Bats or Rock Lizards; three Pukis went silent at the same moment.

Lin Jun shifted focus, directing some nearby Hallucinogenic Pukis to advance toward that spot.

As soon as these Pukis reached the same spot, their health bars suddenly emptied.

They collapsed on the ground like their predecessors.

But this time Lin Jun figured out what happened; he had this skill too.

It was the [Infrasound Attack] from the Crystalized Bat.

And in that brief glimpse, Lin Jun also pulled up the enemy’s panel:

[Race: Crystalized Bat]

[Level Level 25]

[Blood Volume: 850/850]

[Magic Power: 1200/1200]

[Power: 16/27]

[Agility: 20/34]

[Constitution: 13/22]

[Intelligence: 35/59]

[Spirit: 30/50]

[Racial Talent: Sound Wave Skill and Crystal Skill Proficiency Bonus]

[Fixed State:

Extreme Aging (all basic attributes reduced by 80%)

Crystal Symbiosis (Skill Power increased by 500%)]

[Skills: Crystal Symbiosis Level 10, Infrasound Attack Level 10, Sound Wave Detection Level 10, Spiritual Resistance Level 10, Physical Resistance Level 8, Magic Resistance Level 7, High Temperature Resistance Level 5, Evasion Level 6...]

[Title:

Lizard Slayer: Increased damage to lizards by 10%

Bat Slayer: Increased damage to bats by 10%

Transcend Death: Aging and other age-related negative states effects halved]