Facing the oncoming Fire Mosquitoes, Lin Jun—who had lived beside them for so long—wasn’t nervous in the slightest.

Only when they entered fifty meters did several Slime Pujis spray digestive slime, drenching the mosquitoes by surprise.

The Fire Mosquitoes crashed to the ground, flapping frantically to shed the slime and take flight again. But Illusion Pujis spewed their hallucinogenic mist, enveloping them. Under its influence, the disoriented mosquitoes were easily smashed apart by the Pujis’ carapaces.

But it wasn’t over—more swarmed in, and at the tunnel mouth, Lin Jun’s army and the Fire Mosquitoes locked into a brutal meat grinder of a battle.

The numbers were against him. Even with spores sealing the lower airspace to limit the enemy’s approach, slime alone couldn’t block them all.

Now and then, a Fire Mosquito would break through the barrage, stabbing down with its long proboscis to pierce a Pujis—only to collapse moments later from the spore miasma.

“Ice Blade! Ice Blade! Water Serpent!”

At least there was good news—Inanna had finally managed to kill a few Fire Mosquitoes!

With so many targets swarming, even blind attacks hit something. In this chaos, the mosquitoes’ vaunted evasion skills were almost useless.

The first time she killed monsters with her own spells in a real battle, Inanna was so exhilarated she laughed aloud. Compared to this, the “hunts” she’d joined before were nothing at all.

But the thrill quickly ended. A mosquito pierced a nearby Artillery Pujis, pinning it to the ground right beside her. Inanna shivered violently.

If that proboscis had struck her instead…

“Lin Jun! What do we do? So many Pujis are dying!”

Lin Jun, watching safely from deep in the Mushroom Garden, only sighed inwardly. Barely a dozen dead Pujis—new recruits really do lack mental toughness.

Still, he gave her advice:

“Stop spamming attack magic. Use Illumination.”

Illumination?

What use would that have?

Inanna didn’t get it. But she had promised to follow orders, and the spell cost little mana, so she cast it.

To her shock, the moment the light flared, chaos erupted in the mosquito swarm.

Those in the front scattered blindly, colliding with each other, some plunging straight into the spore mist below.

Even Inanna was stunned.

“It really works!” Lin Jun was equally surprised.

“Huh? You didn’t know it would?”

“I just didn’t expect it to work this well… It’s fading—cast again!”

“Okay!”

The deep layers of the Dungeon were eternally dim. Seeing the mosquitoes had eyes, Lin Jun had guessed a “flashbang” trick might work. But he hadn’t expected the effect to be this overwhelming.

It was a clear demonstration of the mushroom’s natural advantage—he didn’t rely on sight at all.

With Illumination disrupting the enemy, the Fire Mosquitoes, already disadvantaged, became sitting ducks. They fell in droves.

When the swarm thinned so much they could no longer choke the tunnel entrance, their tiny minds finally grasped fear. The survivors fled into other passages.

What remained was an empty cavern… and a steaming pool thick with larvae.

“Finally… it’s over.”

Inanna collapsed onto the ground.

Even though they had held the advantage, she had fired multiple attack spells at first, then burned through more than twenty Illuminations in a row. She was exhausted, her mana nearly gone.

Her body was drained, but her spirit buzzed with excitement. It was her first time in such a large-scale battle.

“Lin Jun, what now?”

“Now? Of course—collect the spoils.”

The twenty Carrier Pujis, untouched at the back, got to work—tentacles bundling mosquito corpses into their bodies.

The numbers were about what Lin Jun had expected. Two trips would be enough. After dissecting them, his Heat Resistance should rise another level.

As for expanding the Mushroom Garden into this cavern? Not a chance.

Too many connecting tunnels, impossible to defend.

The Garden’s current site, with only four passages on one side, had been chosen precisely for its defensibility.

As for the pale larvae in the hot spring, Lin Jun ordered the Artillery Pujis to fire their remaining mana into the pool. Soon, nothing remained but floating scraps.

“These are the spoils?”

Inanna eyed the bundled corpses, feeling they were very far from the treasures she’d imagined.

“What else did you expect, Lady Duke’s Daughter? You hunt monsters, you get their corpses. What, you thought splitting their bellies would drop swords and gold coins?”

“Then again… maybe. That pool might have something.”

“The pool?”

The hot spring still frothed with white steam. But what heated it?

Magma? No—the Flame Demon’s territory was far away, and the surroundings weren’t hot.

More likely, something inside emitted constant heat.

But there was a problem.

He couldn’t swim.

And Pujis didn’t dissolve in water, but they bloated helplessly, floating on the surface.

The larvae did have [Aquatic Adaptation], but he’d need to bring them back, dissect them, and breed a new Pujis subspecies first.

While Lin Jun was still pondering, Inanna had already dived straight into the spring.

He smacked himself—of course. She had Aquatic Adaptation LV6.

Second generation really is OP…

“Lin Jun! Look what I found!”

Inanna climbed out, trailing water, her Water Serpent spell coiling around a glowing orange shard that radiated heat, vaporizing droplets around it.

She dropped it on the ground—the spell couldn’t hold it for long.

“Do you know what this is?”

Lin Jun hadn’t—until a panel appeared.

For the first time, an inanimate object showed one.

【Artifact: Sunstone (Fragment)】

???

What the hell? Beating a swarm of LV20 mosquitoes dropped an artifact? Who designed this loot table?

Aside from the name, there were no details. Perhaps because it was only a fragment.

Either way, definitely worth taking.

“Lin Jun?”

“Uh—how should I know? But it seems useful. We can bring it back to keep the mushrooms warm.”

A Carrier Pujis wrapped the shard in mud, rolled it into a ball, and carted it away.

Inanna didn’t object. She was here for the A-grade crystal anyway. The rest was Lin Jun’s by right. She was just curious.

While Lin Jun and Inanna celebrated their great expedition underground, on the surface, another group was tearing their hair out over Inanna’s disappearance…