This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 99, Section 98: Underground Runoff
【Steel Bones LV2】

One of the many unremarkable low-level skills in the skill library.

Although it's not a healing skill, as expected, after equipping this skill and supplying magic power, the broken bones were indeed replaced by steel bones generated by the skill, effectively achieving the effect of bone setting.

【Claw Strike LV7】

Most beast-type monsters possess this skill, but when it's applied to Puji, the claws actually grow from its short little legs...

When Norris was first equipped with it, his nails were replaced with 10-centimeter-long bone claws. After the addition of [Steel Bone], the bone claws began to transform into steel bone claws.

Lin Jun already knew about this kind of skill synergy, and now it seems that it works equally well on humans.

[Neurotoxin LV4]

After being equipped, he began to be repeatedly paralyzed and lose blood due to the toxins produced by his own body. It was only by adding [Toxin Resistance LV5] and [Paralysis Resistance LV5] to him that he was prevented from becoming a vegetable.

Mushroom Cannon LV8

……

……

……

Norris lay obliviously on the fungal carpet, as one skill after another was slowly added to his abilities.

Puji, standing nearby, would occasionally use its bladed tentacles to cut open his flesh and observe the changes inside his body.

Beneath the swamp, the knight, pen in hand, recorded all of this on a piece of parchment.

Adding skills is a slow process; Norris's first-stage transformation will take about a week.

Lin Jun certainly couldn't have only been doing this during this period.

As a busybody, he also controls the scouts and commands the battle on the sixth floor.

The scouts are doing alright for now; with the help of his good older brother, everything is going smoothly for Dylan.

On the sixth floor, Lin Jun's carrots for the tree spirits worked, and more and more tree spirits were willing to come out and work, now there are nearly forty of them.

The tree spirit that was originally there directly pledged allegiance to Lin Jun and started calling her "boss."

To make it easier to call him, Lin Jun even gave him a name—Little Green.

Lin Jun also thought it was strange to name an old tree bark "Little Green," but since they already had "Little Black," she wondered if they could form a five-color team. She remembered there was a blue-haired werewolf...

With the arrival of the tree spirit, Lin Jun gained an advantage on the ground.

The Treant is an excellent pathfinder in the sixth level, and also a qualified tank with control skills.

Lin Jun instructed each of them to command at least 10 Puji to clean up the slimes on the ground.

With these, the pressure on the rock wall was greatly reduced, allowing Lin Jun to spread a larger area of ​​fungal carpet at once. Now, the furthest area has been covered to the dome that the slimes can't reach, and they've started to devour the fireflies.

It can be said that the outcome of the battle on the sixth floor is now largely decided.

However, these mindless slimes were clearly unaware of this and continued to jump out from all directions.

Lin Jun's focus shifted from promoting the fungal carpet to finding the source of slime.

"Boss, come and take a look." Little Green seemed to have made a discovery.

To be honest, it's quite awkward to be called "boss" by a tree spirit with such an old voice, even more awkward than when Dylan calls him that...

Lin Jun turned her gaze and found that it and its twelve subordinate poopi were guarding a patch of grass.

What do you mean?
However, Lin Jun quickly understood.

Suddenly, the grass in the middle swayed, and a moment later, a bright red slime emerged from it.

Before the slime could jump away, Little Green strode forward and smashed the slime to pieces with a single [Tree Trunk Smash].

Then they pulled up all the weeds around them, revealing a gap half a meter long and no more than a finger's width, from which the faint sound of flowing water could be heard.

Underground runoff? No wonder I had such a good view from the rock wall and still couldn't find where the slime came from. If it moved to different locations first through the underground water network and then burrowed out, that makes sense.

This can be considered a blind spot in Lin Jun's thinking.

After all, it's "underground," and there's no underground water flow in the first five levels, so I really didn't think of that for a moment.

But that would be troublesome. Slimes have bodies that can squeeze into any kind of crevice, so they can move around freely inside.

Although Puji can squeeze out a little shape with some effort, it certainly can't compare to the former.

Even if we know that the source of slime is hidden in the underground water network, we can't find it by following this network in a short time.

Seemingly sensing Lin Jun's troubles, Xiao Lü offered a suggestion:

"I might be able to help you explore the underground water network."

As she spoke, Little Green stepped onto the edge of the crack, and the roots on her foot moved downwards and burrowed into the soil.

Lin Jun was stunned by what she saw.

Unlike mushrooms, tree spirits cannot directly collect magic from the air, or rather, they can, but very inefficiently.

When they rest in the forest, they take root in the ground, absorbing nutrients and magic from the soil.

I never imagined that I could use roots to explore underground!
Little Green took root step by step, advancing little by little along the underground waterway.

At this point, it didn't have time to clear a path for the Puji, and the Puji even had to protect it because it couldn't move quickly.

Faced with the monsters that came knocking, Lin Jun didn't mince words and ordered the Puji to fire back decisively.

At this time, clearing out a small number of monsters will not cause any trouble for the ecosystem of the sixth layer.

Along the way, they used the panel to find the hidden plant-type monsters one by one and destroyed them from a distance. The Puji didn't even lose a single one.

However, after moving for an hour, the magic ran out...

This is normal; the little green belt's team had already been exploring for a long time, and this hour had consumed a lot of magic power.

Just as Lin Jun was about to call a pause, Xiao Lü stopped first.

"What's wrong?" Lin Jun asked.

"Sorry, boss, the underground sewers are too deep here, the roots can't reach..."

The tree spirit seemed a little embarrassed, after all, his proposed plan had ultimately failed and wasted so much time.

However, Lin Jun did not feel it was a waste.

"Then let's go back first. I'll give you a map of the sixth floor later. Starting tomorrow, you'll begin exploring the relatively shallow underground waterways of the entire sixth floor and then summarize your findings on the map."

These words were not only spoken to Little Green, but were also conveyed through the fungal network to all the tree spirits active on the sixth floor.

Lin Jun's idea was that if the slime production site was in a shallow waterway, the tree spirit would be able to find it directly.

Even if the waterway is in an area that cannot be explored, Lin Jun can roughly determine which area has the deeper waterways by compiling the waterway network, and then focus his investigation on those areas.

If necessary, just dig down.

He wanted to see what kind of thing it was that could hide so slyly!
In fact, Lin Jun still had a little fantasy—this thing can produce so many slimes, which means that the energy is plentiful!
Based on experience, perhaps... it's another fragment of a sunstone?
Lin Jun's current [Sunstone (Fragment)] is the result of piecing together two fragments, and the magical power generated through [Photosynthesis] is roughly equivalent to the total magical power produced by the five layers.

If we add another fragment, wouldn't the magic output increase by at least 50%?

With so much magic, maybe the Elite Puji Project behind it can be mass-produced on a small scale?

"Yes." After receiving Lin Jun's order, the tree spirits replied one by one in the fungal web.

Ok?
Lin Jun keenly noticed that one reply was missing.

After sensing the area, I found the tree spirit, or rather, its corpse, in a Puji that had gone into an AFK state after losing its commander...

(End of this chapter)