This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 297, Section 296: One-Sixth
A strange purple mushroom-hat-like creature, with its round body, was vigorously displaying itself in front of the tailless lizardman who was sitting cross-legged.

"Norris, how are you feeling?" Lin Jun asked.

"What...feeling?" Norris looked bewildered, his lips twitching slightly. "It's just a...uh...cramp, isn't it?"

"Don't you have even a little bit of... passion? A primal instinct roaring? A desire to rush forward and protect it, to cherish it, without regard for anything else?" The voice was full of seductive allure.

"No... Boss!" Norris was speechless. "This is a puji! Who knows if it's the kind that self-destructs? Why am I getting so excited? I just want to stay away from it so it doesn't suddenly explode!"

Why isn't it working? Could it be that this kid isn't human anymore?
Lin Jun didn't give up and dawdled for a long time before Norris finally managed to get the status bar to show "Charm (Mild)".

"Huh?" Norris looked puzzled and subconsciously reached out his hand. "This little thing...it's kind of...cute?"

His fingertips almost touched the swaying purple mushroom cap.

Suddenly, he jumped to his senses: "Wait! Boss! You're not testing something on me, are you?"

The moment Norris realized this, the slight allure he had possessed vanished.

Well, given the low rank, and the fact that Norris knew him to some extent and was on guard, this outcome is understandable.

Lin Jun immediately used this skill to torment the relatively weak-willed among the lizardman prisoners. The effect was immediate. Without much effort, the target's eyes became glazed over, and he wished he could hold Test Puji in his arms like a treasure.

Although this skill is called "Charming Humans," the "humans" actually refer to humanoid creatures.

The effect was achieved, but a problem arose—they were captivated, but then what?
The person being charmed will indeed subconsciously carry that "special" Puji with them, never leaving their side, as if protecting a precious treasure, but that's all!

Without the mushroom net, Lin Jun cannot communicate with the person she is charmed and give instructions.

However, if you were to casually utter a language and start speaking, the other person would immediately shudder in fright and instantly come to their senses.

Is it because the required skills are incomplete?

After some research, it was discovered that a skill called "psychological suggestion" was indeed missing.

This skill was possessed by the half-demon leader Bastardos, but Lin Jun obviously wouldn't dismantle Bastardos on the spot just for this thing.

The reason why Bastardos surrendered is simple.

The most important thing, of course, is that we can't beat them!
Secondly, his entire hometown was wiped out, and apart from the hundred or so people around him, the rest of his tribe were in Lin Jun's hands.

Surrender might offer the tribe a slightly better life.

In short, he's a useful guy, not worth sacrificing for a minor skill.

Lin Jun also enthusiastically tested another skill, [Seductive Kiss].

The effect... is roughly that when you stick close to the other person, you can absorb a small amount of their life force.

It's somewhat useful, but... it has neither "temptation" nor "kiss," and the name "Life Absorption" wouldn't be out of place at all.

The "alluring Puji" image that Lin Jun fantasized about, capable of captivating all beings and making people willingly give up everything, is now out of the question.

Of the newly acquired skills, the most useful is [Regeneration].

The effects of [Regeneration] and [Mycelial Recombination] do not conflict; the recovery effects are cumulative, and the cost for Puji is simply the consumption of magic power.

This skill is good whether you use it on a heavy armored character or your subordinates, provided that the level is high enough.

As for the "feigned death," Lin Jun felt it was similar to "turtle breathing," where all activity would cease, and even the magic power within the body would dissipate to the point where it was only enough to sustain life.

Even if Puji managed to get up under these circumstances, he wouldn't be able to continue fighting due to insufficient magic power. It's not entirely useless, but the scenarios where it can be used are too restrictive, making it not very applicable.

In addition to the numerous skill enhancements brought about by plundering, Lin Jun's core ability, [Mental Integration], has finally broken through its bottleneck and advanced to LV8.

The maximum number of Puji that can be directly controlled has been doubled from 2500 to 5000!
But Lin Jun noticed a detail.

[Mental Integration] When I was at level six or seven, it also doubled, from 1500 to 3000.

Before this upgrade, his actual control limit was 2500 units, because the dungeon core occupied a fixed 500 units of "computing power" resources.

Logically, after this upgrade, the number of controllable Puji should have increased to 5500, but in reality, it only doubled from the reduced number.

Therefore, the core of the dungeon does not occupy a fixed value of 500 units of computing power, but rather a constant one-sixth of his total mental computing power.

The bad news is...

Lin Jun tried to raise Xinghuo's [Mental Integration] to level eight.

The result was disappointing; nothing changed.

As one of the best at controlling Puji among the Demon Race, Xinghuo has a maximum control capacity of over 150 Puji.

However, the increase in his [Mental Integration] level neither increased his control ceiling nor, like Norris, inspired the ability to simultaneously and precisely command multiple Puji to perform different tasks.

It felt as if the potential of Spark in this area had already been developed to its limit, and further upgrading this skill would be of no use.

Lin Jun conducted the same test on other demon descendants, and the results were identical: the "expansion" effect brought about by the level increase of the [Mental Integration] skill seemed to only work on herself.

After sorting out her findings, Lin Jun began to consider the possible future developments of this incident.

Some people escaped; this was almost an inevitable outcome.

After all, it's a world with all sorts of skills, magic, and flying abilities. With a large population, there are bound to be some who are good at escaping and manage to break through.

Not everyone who escaped returned to the tribe to wait for Lin Jun to come to them. Some half-demons chose to leave on their own after seeing the tribe destroyed.

In short, some intelligence leaks were inevitable.

What would you do if you were the empire?

The two tribes closest to the Demon Race have already been defeated, and those tribes further away, even if they wanted to help the Empire, are powerless to do so due to the harsh cold and distance.

And even if they come, they might not be able to win.

As for the empire sending its own large army to conquer it, that was even more impossible.

After all, the army within the empire should generally not have advanced [cold resistance] - it's really amazing that I can thrive in such a harsh environment!

That leaves only two possibilities.

Either leave it alone for now, or send over a strong individual capable of defeating Lin Jun, namely those dukes!

To prepare for this possibility, Lin Jun naturally had to be ready.

In short, let's start moving!

(End of this chapter)