The newborn Mushroomborn was named “Ming” by Lin Jun.

He would have about half a month of childhood, then step into adolescence, and within a year grow into a fully mature adult.

At this moment, he was enjoying a carefree childhood.

“Ming, go! Take it down!”

In a pit dug specially for training, an LV12 Rolling Beetle was wrestling with Ming.

The beetle suddenly curled into a hard ball, rolling fast along the pit wall before smashing heavily into Ming, slamming him deep into the dirt wall.

Yet Ming quickly climbed back up and pounced again, only to be pressed to the ground by the beetle’s size advantage, unable to move. Follow current novels on novel•fire.net

However, neither its legs nor its horns could deal any damage to the little Mushroomborn with no strength to speak of.

“Ming, stop flailing! Break its leg! Yes, that one!” From the pit’s edge, the Marshal Pujis shouted instructions.

With the hint, Ming stopped struggling aimlessly and clamped both hands around one thrashing leg, wrenching it back and forth with all his strength.

After half a minute, with a sickening crack, the first leg was torn clean off.

Following the same method, within minutes, every leg was dismantled. The beetle still lived, but the fight was over.

【Level Up LV4 → LV5】

A Pujis stretched out its mycelium tendrils and pulled the little Mushroomborn out of the pit.

“Boss!” Ming panted heavily, tilting his small face up, eyes full of expectation as he looked at the Marshal Pujis.

Lin Jun knew exactly what the little guy was hoping for.

Wrapping his tendrils around Ming’s head, he rubbed hard. “Good job! Good job! Tonight you get an extra meal—mushroom stew with oysters!”

Before the words had finished, the tendrils wound around Ming’s ankle, spinning him like a human windmill before smashing him down onto a huge oyster prepared nearby!

Ever since the seventh layer of the Dungeon had turned into a shallow-water zone, these oysters were one of the few surviving shellfish monsters.

Lin Jun harvested them regularly, also feeding them mushrooms to sustain their population—half wild, half farmed.

With a crisp crack, the tough oyster shell split apart!

Ming’s face was smeared with shell fragments, but he didn’t mind at all. He happily scrambled up, scooping out the plump oyster meat from the broken shell.

He didn’t care much for eating oysters—but he loved being praised by the boss!

Soon, a Digging Pujis had finished cooking mushroom-and-oyster stew, served with a cup of mushroom juice. That was Ming’s dinner.

Hugging the warm Digging Pujis, Ming sat beside the Marshal Pujis.

Born fused with mycelium, Ming felt a natural closeness to Pujis.

In truth, he felt close to everyone—after all, every person around him, whether Mushroomborn or captive, carried mycelium threads. Pujis were just a bit closer.

Even that green uncle tied to a pole, yelling all day, only seemed noisy to him, not hateful.

By custom, Ming in his childhood stage should have been strictly protected. But with [Physical Immunity] as his absurd innate trait, there was no need for such caution.

The pity was that Lin Jun himself could not obtain this powerful [Physical Immunity].

[Greed] could not extract skills Lin Jun himself had granted.

Ming’s [Physical Immunity] came from Lin Jun bestowing [Physical Resistance LV10], then fusing it with Galen’s [Physical Resistance LV10] through the Cradle’s rebirth ritual.

And because such unique skills could only be born from the Cradle’s ritual, each Mushroomborn only had one chance—at birth.

This meant that in the future, if he found suitable sacrifices, Lin Jun might cultivate Mushroomborn with [Magic Immunity] or other astonishing traits. But he could never concentrate all of them into one individual.

A bit of a pity.

Otherwise, an army of physically immune Pujis… world domination would be just around the corner!

Even so, physically immune Mushroomborn couldn’t be mass-produced. Where could he find so many with max-level resistances like Galen for sacrifices?

Not impossible—he had seen several on the battlefield of the Scarlet Spire. But those were wild, with no chance of capture.

So, not every Mushroomborn could have Ming’s extraordinary gifts.

This time, under Xinghou’s lead, several rebirth rituals were performed, successfully welcoming over a dozen new kin.

Yet unlike Ming, these newborn Mushroomborn did not carry special innate skills.

Most gained ordinary high-level resistances, like [Physical Resistance LV10], [Cold Resistance LV8], or [Magic Resistance LV8].

Granting these newborns basic skills cost Lin Jun little mana.

The true problem was the time needed for them to grow strong enough to fight.

Except for the special Ming, all newborn Mushroomborn were placed safely in the Mushroom Garden under Xinghou’s careful care.

Meanwhile, in the Far North, at the site of the former demonborn tribe—

First turned into a fortress, later destroyed in self-destruction—now the captives and demonborn were laboring alongside Pujis to build new dwellings.

For now, half-demons and lizardmen still counted as captives, so being crowded into barracks-style wooden huts was tolerable.

But once they regained freedom, such crude living conditions would never keep people loyal.

Lin Jun had never favored rule by terror. Naturally, improving living standards became a priority.

The initial plan: build a city to house around ten thousand people.

After all, the Mycelium Carpet in the Far North was still spreading, gradually encroaching on other tribes’ territories.

As always, Lin Jun intended to infiltrate and assimilate these regions step by step.

The population would surely increase—so space had to be prepared.

Originally, Lin Jun wanted to build an underground city.

Pujis performed best in the narrow, enclosed, complex environment underground.

An underground city would have several times the defenses of an ordinary one.

But once tunnels turned into a true city, new problems followed—

Severe water seepage, unpredictable cave-ins, suffocating ventilation issues…

Even with reinforcement, wall strengthening, and extra vents, it wasn’t enough.

An amateur could not do a professional’s job—civil engineering was beyond him!

On the continent, only dwarves or ratmen had real experience. But Lin Jun had yet to deal much with either.

So he could only settle for second-best, building a regular settlement for now.