This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 98, Section 97: Pre-employment Screening
At the collapsed cave entrance, twenty digging puji were working hard to smash the fallen boulders, while behind them, ten cow and horse puji continuously used their enhanced mycelial tentacles to move the rubble aside.

This was a minor miscalculation on Lin Jun's part. She had planned to place some automatically attacking landmines at key locations to effectively strike the enemy.

However, they forgot that the cave was too fragile, and that Puji's self-destruction ability had increased considerably.

This time, the explosion didn't even occur directly inside the cave, but rather from a distance of more than ten meters.

At times like these, Lin Jun would miss the passage in the deep zone, where no matter how much bombing or blasting was done, the overall structure remained as stable as Mount Tai.

Speaking of which, normal mining requires reinforcing the mine shafts, right?
Lin Jun has no knowledge of civil engineering. If she had to name a reinforcement method she could think of, it would be to put up some scaffolding in the tunnel, but it's hard to say how effective that would be.

I don't know if this knowledge exists in the world, but it would be great if we could find a few people with it.

After all, if they could eventually take control of the underground city, there would definitely be more than just the fifth level that could be mined. If there were constant collapses, no one could stand it.

About a day later, the collapse at the cave exit was finally cleared.

Some of the excavators that were trapped inside popped out one by one and rolled onto the fungal carpet outside to replenish their energy.

Of the excavators that were still active, only about half were still working. The rest had fallen into standby mode because they hadn't been able to get enough nutrition, and a few had even starved to death.

The cows and horses went inside and carried the animals out one by one.

Lin Jun inspected the internal tunnels again. The good news was that almost none of the internal tunnels had collapsed, meaning the damage was not significant.

Lin Jun paid special attention to tunnel number 22, sending a Puji to explore all the way to the bottom. Only after confirming that there were no problems did she feel relieved.

Lin Jun is so concerned about Tunnel No. 22 because it was not dug for mining purposes.

Its purpose is to excavate an underground city at an angle upwards!
The fact that the underground city has only one exit means that even if Lin Jun extends out, if she encounters an enemy who knows her situation, the enemy can destroy a large number of the creep at the entrance to cut off her connection with the outside world.

Even at its worst, this method can cause a significant delay in Lin Jun's control over the outside world.

This is why, when faced with the issue of outward expansion versus downward expansion, Lin Jun focuses on downward expansion, while only spreading a small amount of mycelium outward to explore potential avenues.

But if we could dig out a second exit, or even a third, or a fourth...

Then these concerns will no longer exist.

Of course, this isn't because Lin Jun thinks the dungeon has such a huge flaw. If it did, the dungeon would have been riddled with holes long ago.

When you reach the boundary, there will likely be some kind of invisible wall-like restriction.

But I have the privilege of being a hero, right? If I can use that privilege to overcome the restrictions, then there won't be any problem!

Anyway, the cost of giving it a try is just that a dozen or so Pujis need to take turns working every day.

……

The cave collapse wasn't all losses; Lin Jun did gain something from it.

In a mushroom house in the mushroom forest, Norris lay on a mushroom bed, his body covered in translucent mycelium.

The bones in his left arm and both legs were crushed, his spine was broken, and multiple organs were damaged.

Even with the mycelium repairing his body, Lin Jun still used several bottles of treatment to keep him alive.

However, mycelium can repair flesh and organs, and can even mend broken bones, but it can't repair bones broken like this. So even if he wakes up now, he'll just be a paralyzed cripple.

Lin Jun knew that there were top-tier items in the human world, such as limb regeneration potions, which could fully restore someone to life even when they were on the verge of death.

But he didn't!
The items in my inventory were all donated by passing adventurers; how could these guys possibly have potions of this caliber?

Besides, even if they had it themselves, they would classify it as strategic resources, not just use it to save a stranger.

The reason why I say that this boy named Norris is my gain is because of this.

It's because this guy has the fewest skills of any person Lin Jun has ever met!

Normal humans, even low-level adventurers, who enter dungeons, all have a bunch of skills.

Although the skill levels are all low and most of them have little practical value, they still exist!
If it's someone older like Dylan, they'll have even more skills, making it incredibly expensive for Lin Jun to add skills each time.

Therefore, it's impossible to upgrade Dylan to Diamond level by simply stacking skills. Similarly, Lin Jun can only equip Xiao Hei with a few key skills, and she has to save up enough magic power in advance each time.

But this young man in front of me is different. He has very few skills, and his stats can even be described as...clean!

Moreover, he is different from Dylan.

Although Dylan was dependent on Lin Jun, he didn't owe Lin Jun anything in general.

When the two first met, Dylan released Lin Jun, and Lin Jun saved his life, so they considered their relationship even.

After that, it only developed into a superior-subordinate relationship between the boss and the employee.

Therefore, Lin Jun dared not try many of her ideas on Dylan. After all, if she really turned him into a three-headed, six-armed being, even Lin Jun would feel a little embarrassed.

But this young man in front of me is different.

The blame for his near-death experience lies with those two adventurers who have already sunk into the swamp.

Now that I've saved his life, it's only fair that I ask him to help me explore the effects of combining human and monster skills!

However, before that, we still need to investigate the details of this young man.

A creature plopped forward, its mycelial tentacles slapping Norris's face repeatedly.

"Um--?"

After a short while, Norris slowly woke up: "Where am I...?"

He tried to get up, but found that he could only move his right hand...

Norris quickly realized his situation. Although he didn't know why he had been rescued, it seemed better to have died on the spot.

For a moment, he felt indifferent to everything, and he wasn't even curious about why there was a Puji standing next to him.

"Do you remember when you answered me that you wanted to live?" Lin Jun's voice suddenly rang in Norris's mind.

Norris was initially startled, but quickly reverted to his despondent state, casually retorting with a question:

"Who are you? Death? But I heard that Death is a goddess..."

"You don't look like you want to live. Is it because you're disabled? Actually, it's possible to recover."

"Really?" Norris's eyes lit up.

"Really, really, there will be a small price to pay... but that's not important. Let me confirm with you again, if you have a healthy body, you still want to live, right? Answer yes or no."

Norris: "..."

He really wanted to ask what the "small price" was, but the mysterious voice seemed unwilling to waste any more words with him.

Norris thought of the fleeting memories he had shared with the girl he had only met once.

He wanted to get close to her, to get to know her, to talk to her, to...

"I...want to live!"

"Alright, now let's move on to the second part of the interview."

The second stage?

The mysterious voice seemed to be filled with anticipation?

Norris wanted to continue thinking, but for some reason, he suddenly couldn't concentrate.

"Young man, now let's talk about your story!"

The voice seemed to come from the heavens, carrying a magic that he couldn't refuse...

　Thanks to the leader of "The Miracle of Higurashi"
　　
　
(End of this chapter)