Recently, the adventurers of Yafeng Town discovered that the monster activity on the fifth floor of the Amethyst Dungeon had drastically decreased.

The Gnoll tribe had retreated deep into the forest and no longer went out to hunt. The Poison Mist Lake no longer showed any sign of the Jade-Eyed Frogs. Even the wandering Corrosive Slimes had become much fewer.

Only the Crystallized Bat swarms and the Rock Lizard tribes in the western caverns still behaved normally.

As for the cause of this anomaly, opinions varied widely.

Some said that during one mission they detected violent mana fluctuations in the swamp area from afar, claiming it must have been the Parasitic Trees going berserk and scaring away all the nearby monsters.

Others guessed it was a precursor to a monster tide, but since the Adventurers’ Guild specialized in that matter and had not issued any warning, few believed it.

The most laughable claim came from that drunkard Nick, who swore he saw with his own eyes an entire group of Pujis slaughtering the Jade-Eyed Frogs by the pondful.

That statement made everyone burst out laughing. They were sure Nick had been too drunk to stay sober even inside the Dungeon, mixing up his liquor-soaked dreams with reality.

Who didn’t know that Pujis were at the very bottom of the food chain even on the first floor? How could they possibly massacre Jade-Eyed Frogs on the fifth?

Compared to Nick’s story, the monster tide theory sounded almost reliable.

———

At the same time, the lone Gnoll assassins and the nearly extinct Jade-Eyed Frogs all had one culprit behind their downfall—the true instigator of the fifth floor’s upheaval—Lin Jun, who once again launched a territorial war against the Parasitic Trees.

His recent defensive withdrawal had allowed most of the swamp area to fall back under the control of the Parasitic Trees.

But in the short term, that did not increase their numbers. Instead, their forces became spread out due to the expanded territory.

Meanwhile, Lin Jun had been hunting relentlessly, accumulating large amounts of mana and breeding over a hundred more Pujis.

Now, the counterattack had arrived!

With more than two hundred Pujis, the outer Parasitic Trees were reduced to ashes at first contact. The frontline was easily pushed back to the battlefield of their previous clash.

And just like before, the Parasitic Trees’ twin champions of magic and combat appeared.

Once again, two filthy Water Elementals.

Lin Jun immediately dispatched forty Pujis in waves of attacks, managing to suppress the Water Elementals for a time.

On the other side, the Blade Storm whirled toward the Puji ranks. If it broke through, Lin Jun would suffer heavy losses.

But he wasn’t about to fall into the same trap twice.

The Pujis turned and compressed their bodies into tight lumps, and then—

They bounced into the air!

[Assault Launch LV4]

Thanks to the frogs’ contribution of a movement skill, the Pujis shot off in all directions. Only one, which had leapt too close, was shredded midair by the Blade Storm.

That wasn’t all. The pre-arranged Exploding Pujis rolled out of the formation one after another, hurling themselves at the Parasitic Trees and detonating.

Though each explosion was blocked by whipping roots before reaching the trunk, even so, after twenty consecutive blasts, the Parasitic Tree’s vitality was nearly depleted.

In truth, such damage was far from enough to kill a level 45 warrior-class adventurer. But this Parasitic Tree’s main body was only level 24—it could not withstand such chain explosions.

Now only the summoner-type Parasitic Tree remained.

Large numbers of Pujis bypassed the suppressed Water Elementals and surged at the other trees in the rear.

When another seemingly ordinary Parasitic Tree was blasted in half, the two Water Elementals immediately collapsed and melted back into the swamp.

The most troublesome trees had been destroyed. What followed was nothing more than dull sweeping.

The Pujis still suffered scattered casualties from the odd skills that appeared, but nothing that could affect the outcome.

The Parasitic Trees, which struck fear into low-tier adventurers, posed little threat to Lin Jun.

Human adventurers had to avoid them because they operated in small teams against endlessly spawning Parasitic Trees, which gave them slim chances of victory.

But Lin Jun was fighting a war, commanding a unified Puji army unafraid of sacrifice against a mob of disorganized monsters.

No matter how many tricks the Parasitic Trees had, unless an overwhelming power appeared, everything else was just flashy but useless.

With the battle nearly secured, Lin Jun turned most of his attention toward planning his new mushroom garden.

Unlike the enclosed deep-floor mushroom groves, the swamp lay at the very center of the fifth floor.

It was only because of its impassable terrain and the terrifying Parasitic Trees that adventurers chose to detour around it.

Now that the trees had been cleared and the danger reduced, some might begin to travel straight through. Lin Jun could not allow his lair to become a public highway.

Whether by force or some form of communication, he had to find a way to ensure adventurers continued to avoid the area.

Moreover, his new mushroom garden would not be limited to the swamp. That area was only the core—his ultimate plan was to include the entire fifth floor.

The Poison Mist Lake could serve as a breeding ground, though he had not yet decided what to raise there—there were many options.

As for the caverns, they were originally a mine. Now adventurers were extracting resources there, making it the most human-populated region on this floor. That was why Lin Jun had avoided hunting in that direction.

The ore produced was still the Dungeon’s specialty—violet mana crystals.

Their average quality was far inferior to those in the deeper levels; even C-rank crystals were rare.

But since this mine lay in his backyard, eventually he would need to bring it under fungal control.

Forcibly seizing it would be easy, but he did not want to show overt hostility toward humans.

It wasn’t out of human identity, but for practical reasons—when lacking absolute power, one should appear friendly.

Though he seemed invincible on this floor, able to annihilate ordinary adventurers with ease, compared to humanity as a whole he was still far too weak.

Since interaction with humans was inevitable in the future, he had to start on good terms. Even tacit agreements or unspoken rules would be worthwhile.

The problem was his Human Common Language skill was only level 1. He could not communicate directly.

He couldn’t very well slaughter countless adventurers, raise the language to level 10, and then approach saying: “Now let us live in peace.”

This issue was crucial, and Lin Jun had to plan carefully.

As for the Gnolls in the forest—

He just happened to have a Parasitic fusion subject on hand that he had not yet studied in detail. They could serve as test cases.

Everything was for one goal: to make the mushroom garden great again!

———

Dark clouds surged overhead. The storm turned the road into a muddy mess, each hoofstep splashing filth.

In such weather, horses were highly prone to slipping.

Yet the rider did not slow in the slightest, clutching the reins in one hand and tightly guarding a package at his chest with the other as he galloped on.

The gale whipped the rain sideways, tearing away his hood, revealing Dylan’s half-face disfigured with crawling mycelium.