This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 146, Section 145: Cave Dwellers

The familiar environment of the large cave.

When Lin Jun's mushroom net was finally laid down, various chewing and wriggling sounds intertwined in the darkness, indicating that a gluttonous feast was taking place below.

Giant spiders tore at mayfly carcasses with their sharp pincers, slimes wriggled and dissolved their shells, beetles made soft gnawing sounds, cave dwellers stole off insect legs with bits of flesh attached, and lizard monsters used their long tongues to devour... all sorts of monsters huddled together.

Lin Jun even saw a giant tortoise, as tall as a person, slowly gnawing on the remains.

When did turtles reappear in the deep zones?

These monsters were unusually peaceful, preoccupied with devouring the mountains of mayfly corpses, showing no intention of hunting each other.

However, this match was not so pleasant for Lin Jun.

These guys are shamelessly eating the prey they hunted!
Even the large insects were no exception; they couldn't open the thick shells on their bodies, but the insect brains that Lin Jun had already blasted apart were a different story.

Now only a small part of the worm's head is left.

More than thirty of them landed on the insect's back with a plop. A large spider that was nearby noticed these little creatures in front of it and tentatively stretched out one of its spider legs. In response, it was met with a blade-like whip.

These thirty-odd ones are all elite Puji.

Just like special forces are not suitable for filling in gaps, Lin Jun did not bring out these elite troops when fighting the giant worm. When the giant worm charged, both elite troops and cannon fodder would be instantly killed.

The insect's legs flew up, and it let out a painful scream from its venomous mouth.

However, less than half a second later, its head was blown off by several powerful mushroom cannon shots.

The headless body swayed twice before collapsing heavily.

The moment the spider fell, the Puji launched an indiscriminate attack on the monsters that were stealing their prey, instantly throwing the situation into chaos.

The lizard monster was attacked and tried to fight back, but instead stepped into a slime.

Sensing the chaos, the beetle scurried around and hid itself.

Before leaving, the two cavemen tried to take advantage of the chaos to carry away a piece of fat meat. One of them, who was left behind, had his leg blown off by a mushroom cannon. His companion, seeing this, abandoned the fat meat and him.

The cleanup didn't last long. Although there were quite a few monsters, they each had their own habits and didn't really work together to attack Puji.

In addition, this elite team of Puji was already quite strong. After being ambushed by the lizard monster Long Tongue and suffering two casualties, they were almost wiped out.

The melee fighter, clad in scales, moved among the wreckage, finishing off the crippled monsters unable to escape, leaving only the disabled caveman and turtle behind.

The turtle is simply impervious to attack. When attacked, it immediately retracts into its shell, sealing all six openings completely without leaving a single gap.

It was quite ineffective at attacking the shell, and its defensive capabilities seemed no weaker than those of a large insect, so Lin Jun could only leave it aside for the time being.

As for the cave dwellers, Lin Jun was curious about these eyeless humanoid creatures, as she had never seen them near the Mushroom Garden before.

These two cave dwellers were of very low level, only in the twenties, and their skills were also very weak. Although they were carrying weapons, it was hard to say whether those primitive short spears could be of any combat power.

No wonder they only break off and eat the legs at the very edge, and dare not come to the middle area to find the fatter insect meat.

Judging by attributes and skills alone, even a cave dweller would probably have a hard time winning a one-on-one fight against the Fire Mosquito from back then.

Fire mosquitoes swarm in large numbers, and it's uncertain whether these cave dwellers have that many. Humanoid creatures most likely cannot reproduce without fire mosquitoes.

They dragged the caveman into a corner, pushed the tortoise over, and then ignored him.

The Puji began spraying spores all over the cave.

This cave has no native monsters, only some ferns common in the deep areas.

That makes sense, considering that the area above is a gathering place for Thousand-Headed Mayflies, which come down from time to time to forage. Even if there were any monsters originally there, they would probably have been eaten clean. Unlike his own secluded mushroom garden, this cave connects to more than ten passages, which is about average for caves in the deep zone.

I don't even know where my mushroom garden was back then. My abilities were limited at the time, and I explored too few areas.

Half a day later, the fungal carpet that had spread down from above finally connected with the newly grown fungal carpet that the Puji had spread spores from.

A large monster could emerge from the deeper layers at any time. To avoid any unforeseen complications, Lin Jun used more magic to accelerate the decomposition of the corpses. What would have taken several days to complete was finished in just two hours.

[Seven Sins of Greed Trigger]

[Plunder Skill: Chitinous Shell LV7→LV8]

[Plunder Skill: Insect Silk LV3→LV4]

[Plundering Skill: Cocoon LV1]

……

After finishing the dismantling work, the Puji brought out the caveman with the broken leg.

The [Fusion Parasite] technique has already been used, but its legs were completely blown apart and cannot be reattached.

Lin Jun tied an insect shell to the broken leg so that it could move around on its own with some difficulty.

They released him immediately.

If the cave dwellers lived nearby, Lin Jun could determine their location by sensing them.

If he's far away, given his broken leg, he'll most likely become some monster's dinner.

Lin Jun had already tested the intelligence of the cave dwellers within the mushroom web—primitive but not stupid.

They are still somewhat interested in Lin Jun.

Lin Jun can currently directly control approximately 3000 Puji.

It's more than enough to control the seven layers we currently have, but it's clearly insufficient for dealing with the unknown depths.

Before coming down, Lin Jun planned to control some humanoid creatures, just like she left the sixth level of Puji to the tree demon, to save her own operational capacity.

The original target was the Minotaur, also known as the Minotaur, since they had only seen this type of humanoid creature in the Deep Zone before.

But to be honest, Lin Jun wasn't really sure how confident she was.

Lin Jun's impression of the Minotaur was that it was irritable, easily angered, and incredibly strong.

【Fusion Parasitism】is not mind manipulation. If the other party truly refuses to comply, Lin Jun has no choice but to turn them into puppets.

Moreover, there seemed to be a shortage of minotaurs; the few times Lin Jun encountered them, they were all alone.

Encountering cavemen now is undoubtedly another option, at least these cavemen are traveling in pairs.

After releasing the caveman, Lin Jun then controlled a Puji to follow it from a distance.

However, things didn't go as planned, and just over ten minutes later, the caveman disappeared in the passage.

When Puji arrived at the location where he disappeared, he saw the caveman's broken spear lying on the ground, and a crack the size of a manhole cover in the tunnel floor.

On the other side of the rift, there was no curse, no sound, just complete darkness...

(End of this chapter)