This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 199, Section 198. Jida?

Deep within the old mushroom garden.

The spatial rifts are still slowly and steadily growing and spreading.

Just yesterday, a crack appeared out of nowhere and instantly cut a digging creature in half!

Its upper body, along with a B-grade magic crystal, fell into the silent rift and disappeared without a trace.

Lin Jun was observing the birth of the crack for the first time, and it was not entirely without warning.

Before the rift opens, this space will be slightly distorted and accompanied by intense magical fluctuations, which are quite noticeable to Lin Jun, who has [Magic Perception].

This is undoubtedly important intelligence. At least now that Lin Jun knows it, she no longer needs to worry about her main body being ambushed and beheaded by the rift.

In the center of the giant snail tree, nearly a hundred puffies quietly circled Norris, who had already awakened.

These were all used by Lin Jun to test the upper limit of his mental control ability.

However, at this moment, most of the Puji were idle, with only 36 active under Norris's mental control.

It's not that there's no improvement; the control capacity has increased from 20 to 36.

But what kind of improvement is this, which is better than nothing?

[Mental Integration LV7] Ah!

Lin Jun has the control capacity expanded to 3000, Norris, what's wrong with you?

However... there are other changes as well.

The puji swarm surrounding Norris is no longer a rigid, monolithic entity as it once was.

At this moment, some were bouncing lightly in place, while others were circling around a fixed trajectory, each executing completely different commands—meaning that Norris had gained micro-management abilities down to the individual level!

Norris, however, seemed to have sensed an even deeper change.

"Boss!" He picked up a Puji, his tone filled with the surprise of discovering a new continent, "I think... I can sense their presence! As long as I touch them like this... However, the sensation is very vague."

Feeling blurry?

"Norris, try this one!" Lin Jun switched to a scout and swiped it under the Norris node.

Norris felt the difference as soon as he started using it!

"This...this is sound wave detection?! And...the flow of magic? It can even sense the slightest disturbance in the air!" A flood of new sensory information rushed in, and Norris excitedly experienced this unprecedented ability.

However, just about a minute later, Norris suddenly turned pale, abruptly threw down Puji, and clutched his buzzing head with both hands: "I can't take it! Boss... too much information... too much information! My head is going to explode..."

He reached his limit after maintaining the four senses for only one minute.

Subsequent tests showed that Norris rarely experienced discomfort if no more than two sensory channels were maintained simultaneously.

This is a significant improvement compared to when he first used [Sound Detection] and immediately got a headache after using it for a short time.

The changes brought about by [mental integration] are quite numerous, but they are still far from what I expected.

Now it seems that micro-manipulation is possible... and synesthesia is possible...

Ok?
Lin Jun quickly created a Puji, which only had one skill: [Assimilation and Absorption LV6].

Lin Jun controlled it, and together with several other ordinary Puji, they lay down on the fungal carpet.

As the assimilation and absorption process is activated, the surrounding hyphae are drawn in and absorbed as if they were living organisms, wrapping around the fungus layer by layer.

The mycelium not only wrapped around the core Puji, but also entangled and merged with the Puji around it!
A moment later, a giant "mycelium man" nearly four meters tall, with ten Puji as its "skeleton," was formed!
Its "head" is that of the scout pooji.

He handed over all control of these poops to Norris.

"Norris, try sitting in it." Lin Jun's voice carried a hint of anticipation.

"Huh? Sit in..." Norris looked at the strange thing in front of him, a little confused. "How do I get in?" As soon as he finished speaking, the scout on the "head" wriggled its body and slowly "pulled" out from the top, revealing a dark hole. Inside, a space just big enough to accommodate one person could be vaguely seen.

Norris did as instructed, carefully climbing up and squeezing into the hole. His sharp claws accidentally tore a few strands of tangled mycelium, prompting Lin Jun to repeatedly remind him mentally, "Be careful! Keep your claws out of your way!"

The interior space was cramped, so Norris could only curl up in discomfort. He felt as if something soft and round was sitting on his bottom.

Looking down, I saw the mushroom cap with the [Assimilation and Absorption] ability.

After he entered, the scout wriggled back into place, its mushroom cap fitting perfectly outside the hole as its "head," while its rear end... rested right on top of Norris's head.

Through his senses, Norris instantly "saw" the scene outside.

"Norris, now try to get Jida to stand up," Lin Jun instructed.

"Jida? Boss, what Jida?"

"Try to make the thing you're in right now stand up by controlling the puffy thing inside!"

"How can we control this..."

Jida has two Puji in each of its limbs. Under Norris's control, Jida grotesquely twists its limbs on the ground, scraping off a lot of the outer layer of mycelium, but still cannot stand up.

Lin Jun didn't urge them, but silently observed the debut of the bio-mecha.

After half a day, Norris finally... mastered the trick to getting Jida to crawl on all fours!
Watching Norris excitedly controlling Gidget to crawl back and forth, Lin Jun couldn't help but remind him, "Norris, hurry up and evolve into walking upright!"

"Okay, boss!"

With the experience of crawling as a foundation, this "evolution" was much faster.

It first slowly stood up, bracing itself against the wall made of snail wood. After getting used to it, it took its first, wobbly step... the second step...

Paji——

Two muffled popping sounds suddenly rang out!

The two little things located at the "feet" could not withstand the sudden increase in pressure and were instantly flattened and burst open!
Without its support, "Jida" collapsed with a crash, falling heavily to the ground like a set of broken building blocks, sending mycelium flying everywhere.

Norris emerged coughing from a mess of mycelium, his face covered in mycelium debris.

"Boss?" His tone was tinged with confusion and innocence.

"Hmm..." Lin Jun's thoughts calmly swept over the mess on the ground. "It's alright, it's your first time trying. You go and rest to recover your energy, and later... we'll try again with a different batch of materials."

It wasn't Norris's fault that it fell apart; after all, it was just a bunch of blank boards.

Afterwards, Lin Jun tried to bring over some elite Poji, which generated a shell on their surface. She then equipped them with mushroom cannons or rock armor shields, making it look quite realistic.

After the previous "training", Norris has indeed become much more skilled at handling it. It is no longer limited to crawling, and can even control it to clumsily wave its arms and make simple blocking or shelling gestures.

However, after a series of tests, Lin Jun could only give a disappointing conclusion about the "Jida Project," which had taken almost a whole day: it was a waste of time and energy.

The elite Puji can indeed be grouped together, and Norris has become increasingly skilled at maneuvering with practice.

But... has its combat power improved?

The core Puji's [Chitinous Shell] skill does provide protection for other Puji that don't have much defensive capabilities, but in essence, it only saves the cost of adding defensive skills to each Puji individually.

These poogis are merely physical stacks; their power, speed, and magical attributes are not fused or amplified!

The combined mushroom cannon is as powerful as a single Pooji's mushroom cannon; the heavy punch thrown by Jida contains less kinetic energy than the impact of an elite Pooji rolling and charging at full speed into it.

This meticulously assembled behemoth is ultimately just an empty shell with no substance.

Puji Gundam... It's not that easy after all!

(End of this chapter)