This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 592, Section 591: Negative Energy Collection

Following Pollock and Gadin, Fungus Castle has seen a series of new dwarf faces.

They were all young blacksmith apprentices, carrying similar hesitations and aspirations.

They were the result of the secret propaganda that Knight Puji had made while traveling with the mission through various towns in the mountains some time ago.

Even so, only about twenty dwarven blacksmith apprentices came in the end.

Lin Jun wasn't in a hurry.

After all, only a minority dare to be the first to try something new.

Lin Jun treated these young apprentices with great favor.

You can use the mountains of ordinary ore piled up in the warehouse almost without limit and try to forge as much as you like. It doesn't matter if the initial finished product is deformed or even if it is a complete failure.

Lin Jun never expected these twenty-odd apprentices to produce anything; rather, she needed them to improve their forging skills.

After these apprentices have grown and made visible and solid progress in their skills, Fungus Castle will issue a mission to encourage them to take their skills back to their hometowns and promote and recruit more dwarves.

Once this news spreads widely, Lin Jun should no longer lack skilled blacksmiths.

Meanwhile, the mission's return journey went quite smoothly.

Having already been cleared out by the Sword Saint on the way there, there was naturally no chance of encountering any bandits or cults.

The delegation met up with the elf team at the designated location.

The elves conveyed Galadriel's invitation to Fourteen, but the Sword Saint Puji refused without even thinking about it.

In addition, there is an elf in the team who has been unilaterally designated by both countries as a "hero team member".

Lin Jun remembered seeing a male elf of the highest rank several times when he rode Eko to the Elven Council.

Among a group of elders and high-ranking spellcasters with profound auras, this elf was not particularly conspicuous, and no one expected that he would be the one chosen.

There was actually one thing Lin Jun never quite understood about the hero.

When Lin Jun first saw Tanaka in the archipelago, she always thought he was the hero summoned by the United Kingdom.

But as he became more well-informed within the United Kingdom, he discovered that the hero they were talking about was a woman!
Moreover, it seemed that he was accompanied by knights and priests from the Church of Light, which reminded Lin Jun of the group of paladins she had encountered on the west coast earlier, but she couldn't be sure if they were the same group.

So here's the question: if the hero summoned by the kingdom is female, then who exactly summoned Tanaka?
Considering Tanaka's previous attempt to release the Demon King, Lin Jun couldn't help but wonder if the factions within the Demon Clan who were loyal to the traditional Demon King also secretly possessed the technology to summon heroes.
In addition, there's his own unknown summoner.

Ugh……

In this world, summoning heroes is like an arms race.

Why can't we just follow those old, outdated legends? It would be so much better to have a proper story of a hero defeating a demon king!

Ideally, after everyone has mastered their skills, we should all go to our own Tidal Sanctuary and give that arrogant slime a good beating.

Oh, wait, the Tide Sanctuary isn't exactly his territory yet.

After finding the core of the sanctuary, Lin Jun attempted to take over the authority of the underground city in order to control its associated alternate dimension, but he was rebuffed and his soul was blocked outside the core.

As the administrator of the Puji Dungeon, I am naturally aware of this situation, which means that the dungeon is currently owned and there is a living administrator.

After thinking it over, the most likely person to be the administrator is probably the Grim Reaper, or one of her followers.

It doesn't matter to Lin Jun; it means that the Tide Sanctuary and its associated alternate dimensions are off-limits for the foreseeable future.

After going around in circles, we finally had to set our sights on the coordinates that Shenmu had given us.

Fortunately, progress in other areas has been relatively smooth.

Sword Saint Puji successfully brought back the [Negative Energy Collection] skill that Lin Jun had been longing for during his deep dive into the Scarecrow Abyss.

According to him, for some reason, not only have slimes disappeared from the lower levels of the abyss, but the number of scarecrows has also decreased by more than half.

Its biggest difficulty was actually finding the scarecrow butler who served as the vessel for its skills, after traversing most of the gloomy mansion.

Lin Jun naturally absorbed the skill without any hesitation.

This skill can absorb the corrosive and cursed aura in the environment and transform it into pure magic.

For the Scarecrow Butler, this is a useful skill that can provide him with a continuous source of magic power in the abyss.

For Lin Jun, who is not lacking in magic, it is a means of transforming the environment.

Lin Jun has already begun cultivating the corresponding "negative energy mushrooms" in the uppermost edge area of ​​the Scarecrow Abyss. There's no particular purpose; she simply wants to see if she can transform the abyss into a brighter, more sunny place.

Besides providing magic, the negative emotions of intelligent beings also seem to be a kind of "negative energy".

Lin Jun played a hilarious game of hide-and-seek with the D-ranks, which easily filled Puji, who was in charge of collecting the materials, with all sorts of negative emotions.

However, unlike the ability to directly transform environmental corrosion into magic, this pure emotional negative energy simply accumulates within Puji's body and cannot be transformed or utilized.

With the idea of ​​"taking from D and using it for D", Lin Jun simply chopped up the Puji filled with negative emotions, stewed it into soup, and fed it back to the group of D-level personnel who were still in shock.

Thus, fear, despair, malice... all sorts of negative emotions completed a cycle through eating, reinjecting them into their source and adding to the negative emotions that the D-level personnel were already generating.

The cave was filled with cries and screams, and some people even tried to end their own lives. Fortunately, the kind-hearted Puji Rescue Team stopped this shameful waste in time.

is that useful?
It really works.

But this usage looks more like poisoning, which is really disrespectful.

Lin Jun rubbed the mycelium, deciding to think about it some more. This skill should be able to be developed into something more respectable.

Aside from the collection of negative energy, the biggest gain from this trip was the repair of the imprisoning ring.

Using the intact imprisonment ring on the Fire Elemental Lord as a model, Lin Jun mobilized almost all the intellectual resources at her disposal.

Old Murloc, Starfire, Yellow Book, and even through Inanna's indirect inquiries, obtained advice from some mages of the United Kingdom.

After expending tremendous effort and resources, they finally managed to repair the imprisonment ring, which was missing a corner.

Hmm... I guess it's been fixed.

Since there were no original blueprints, the whole process was more like filling in the gaps by copying what was already there.

The final result only restored about 70-80% of the functionality, but also left obvious defects.

The ring that originally bound the fire elemental lord could be forcibly sealed inside if necessary, preventing him from escaping temporarily.

The one that has been repaired now can still fit the Frost Elemental Lord, but the binding force has been greatly weakened.

Like a broken window, Lin Jun used tape to seal it up. It might be able to block the wind and rain, but compared to the original intact window, it was obviously much more fragile and couldn't withstand any more damage.

Lin Jun had no choice but to accept that it was usable.

There's no time to pursue perfection anymore. Lin Jun has used more than 30% of her magic power on using the "Puffy Heat" device to keep warm. If this continues, will the Fungus Castle still be able to develop?!

However, just as the plan was underway to seal the Frost Elemental Lord within the repaired Ring of Imprisonment, a small accident occurred.

Upon sensing Inanna's presence, the frost elemental lords within the ruins immediately came looking for her.

However, just as it tried to get closer, a layer of flames suddenly rose around Inanna, and the scorching air rushed towards it, causing it to freeze in its tracks.

Even the icy right hand, which was stretched out forward, melted under the high temperature, dripping two drops of water.

After a brief freeze, an even more biting chill swept out from the Frost Lord, pressing back against the fiery outer robe.

The flames flickered and shone uncertainly, on the verge of going out completely.

"Who?!" A furious shout erupted from the binding ring on Inanna's left hand, "Who dares to touch the brat I'm protecting?!"

Thinking that Inanna had been attacked, the Fire Elemental Lord's figure rose from the ring. Although it was much smaller than its original form, its body, which was made entirely of flames, was still blazing and imposing.

Then, unsurprisingly, he noticed the ice elemental lord in front of him.

"So that's how it is. So you were the one who put a layer of broken ice on the brat. You think you're worthy of competing with me for the brat?"

Despite being unable to speak and much smaller in size, the Frost Elemental Lord was no less imposing in the face of the Fire Elemental Lord who was rising and growing larger from the Ring of Imprisonment.

The temperature around him plummeted, and tiny ice crystals condensed and swirled out of thin air, transforming into a miniature blizzard that surrounded him.

The next second, the ice crystal dress suddenly rippled, carrying wind and snow, and flew directly towards the fire elemental lord.

Both were clearly deliberately controlling their power, preventing their flames or ice from touching Inanna.

However, this thoughtfulness was clearly not shared by the other people present.

Number four, who was closest and watching with great interest, was swept into the air by the storm amidst gasps of alarm, and his wails echoed from within the mushroom web:
"It's burnt! It's frozen solid! Stop spinning it! I'm going to faint!"

(End of this chapter)