【Sin of Greed Triggered】

【Plundered Skill: Archery LV3 → LV4】

【Plundered Skill: Piercing Shot LV1 → LV2】

【Plundered Skill: Parry LV3 → LV4】

【Plundered Skill: Lockpicking LV2 → LV3】

……

The accelerated breakdown erased every trace for Dylan.

A pity—this time it hadn’t yielded enough to level up Common Tongue proficiency.

But he couldn’t rely on Greed to learn languages forever.

When Dylan returned, he’d have to start teaching directly.

While Dylan was away, Lin Jun had focused on two things.

The first was linking the fungal networks across each floor, struggling to eliminate delay.

The greatest obstacle? Slimes.

For Lin Jun’s fungal mats, they were vermin.

Aside from the trap-filled third floor, floors one, two, and four all crawled with slime activity.

He had to keep their numbers suppressed to prevent them from disrupting the network with delays.

Extermination? Impossible.

Experience on the fifth floor proved that.

Since Lin Jun took over, nearly every native monster was gone.

Gnolls, parasitic trees—purged. Crystal bats and rock lizards—wiped out during the Mana Surge.

The green-eyed frogs had lingered as tadpoles in the lake, but the hydra’s passing finished them.

Other minor breeds vanished as well, unable to adapt to the altered environment.

Only two native species remained on the fifth floor—acid slimes and water sprites.

They shared one trait: given the right environment and abundant mana, they could re-form.

Not quite something from nothing, but close enough.

Which meant suppression had to be constant—his Pujis clearing them daily.

Yet releasing Pujis that were too strong into upper levels would only draw human suspicion.

So Lin Jun capped their strength by tier.

On the first floor, for example, they had only 【Mushroom Cannon LV2】 and 【Mana Storage LV2】.

Just enough to deal with slimes—so long as no rare giant ones appeared.

If the occasional adventurer slaughtered a Puji, so be it.

Unlike the fifth-floor stronghold, the outer layers had a different purpose—expansion of the fungal net.

As long as adventurers didn’t recklessly destroy mats, Lin Jun let them be.

——

The second task…

Deep beneath the marsh, in a small vault of his own making.

A Puji sat before a hill of low-grade mana crystals.

Its oval body was sheathed in tiny diamond-shaped scales, rasping faintly when its four bladed fungal tendrils moved.

Each tendril gripped a crystal, drawing it dry.

Cloudy fractures webbed across the once-clear cores.

When one finally dulled to leaden gray, the tendril constricted and shattered it to powder.

The cycle repeated endlessly, fragments piling high around it.

Inside its body, however, grew a crystal already purified to B-grade, still refining further.

This was the Puji Lin Jun prepared for the outside world.

Its skill set was ready. Only one step remained—elevating its symbiotic core to A-grade.

Panel open.

【Race: Mushroom – Puji】

【HP: 1120】

【Mana: 2560 / 2560】

【Strength: 52】

【Agility: 52】

【Constitution: 52】

【Intelligence: 52】

【Spirit: 1】

【Racial Talent: Spore Diffusion】

【Fixed Effects: Fungal Network Link, Vassal, Crystal Symbiosis (Skill Power +64%)】

【Skills: Mana Storage LV6, Subsonic Attack LV6, Toughness LV5, Mushroom Cannon LV8, Precision LV5, Evasion LV7, Scale Armor LV5, Haste LV6, Blade Whip LV5, Mycelium Regeneration LV3, Burst Leap LV5, Rolling Charge LV7, Rock-Eating LV3, Aquatic Adaptation LV4, Assimilation LV3, Mimicry LV4, Mana Sense LV6, Airflow Sense LV7, Light Sense LV4, Sonic Detection LV6, Self-Destruct LV4, Hallucinogenic Spores LV6, Magic Resistance LV5, Physical Resistance LV5, Corrosion Resistance LV4】

Practically a miniature knight.

True, he’d wanted to add skills like Life Amplification or Fury, but the mana upkeep was already strained—especially after Xiaohei’s recent drain.

All base stats, save useless Spirit, were maxed. Ordinary Pujis had no such privilege.

Adventurers often reached level 30 with 40 Strength.

But Lin Jun’s vassals couldn’t surpass his own level in attributes.

Even so, he had built this Puji up so far, even gifting it an A-grade crystal.

Because he wanted it to see the outside world.

Not just the sun—but to explore.

Until now, everything he knew of the world came secondhand from Inanna or Dylan.

Always veiled, always distant.

He wanted that veil lifted—even if only through the eyes of a vassal.

——

“Boss, I want to leave for a while.”

The first thing Dylan said upon returning to the fifth floor left Lin Jun puzzled.

“Why?”

“You know I have a daughter. She may be in grave danger. I can’t sit idle…”

Dylan carefully explained Bella’s plight.

His tone measured, deliberate, every phrase trailing with hesitation, as though fearing refusal.

When he reached the word “Isles,” his cadence slowed, the statement turned to a question, as if gauging Lin Jun’s reaction.

Lin Jun recalled the “world map” he held in memory.

The United Kingdom lay in the south of the continent, the Amethyst Dungeon at its southernmost edge.

To reach the Isles, one must first trek west to a port city—a month by land alone. Then a ship. Then the search.

Even without mishaps, three to four months. With delays, half a year.

Which meant—who would handle errands aboveground during that time?

What about the Common Tongue lessons just about to begin?

Lin Jun had no wish to chain him down.

A forced servant soured quickly.

But… maybe it was time to recruit Dylan No. 2?

“Wait. Isn’t your daughter stronger than you? If even she can’t handle this danger…”

He knew Dylan’s limits well. Perfectly fine for errands, but in combat? Only a notch above rabble.

Dylan clearly knew it too. “I… planned to hire adventurers with my savings.”

Hiring adventurers—yes, a way.

But against one of the Isles’ three great slavers?

What level of adventurers would that require?

What fortune would buy their willingness to risk such wrath?

Lin Jun thought of his armored “knight” Puji, still devouring crystals.

It was meant to venture out anyway.

And wasn’t the Isles as good a destination as any?

“Dylan, I have a proposal. Why don’t you wait a few more days…”