This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Behind the tribe, the hidden Jida sprang up one after another.

From the moment Qis’s army began to move, Lin Jun had known their target. He decisively ordered his own army to march urgently and seize the tribe ahead of them.

As for the tribe’s original residents? Lin Jun carefully had them protected and escorted back to the Puji Fort for refuge.

The Stoneface tribe residents, lacking enough warriors to protect themselves, willingly followed the vast Puji army away.

Watching them leave their homes, Lin Jun couldn’t help but praise his own kindness — he couldn’t stand to see sapient beings die in vain.

He would guard their tribe in place of the dead warriors… and, of course, smash the inherently evil Qis to avenge them!

Justice! Victory!

“Second volley, fire!” With Norris’s order relayed over the Mycelial Network to the Jida squads, every Jida aimed the Resonance Cannon mounted on its shoulder at the single remaining Evil Eye in the sky.

But this time Qis finally reacted.

The Toothed Beast raised many tentacles to shield the lowered Evil Eye.

Boom—boom—boom—!

Several tentacles exploded; the creature’s ear-splitting, pain-filled shrieks made the snow underfoot tremble.

The tentacles failed to block every strike — one Resonance shot still slammed into the Evil Eye.

That single hit shattered the Evil Eye’s mana shield into fragments; the beast itself was blasted senseless and fell back a long way, but at least it lived.

What was attacking it? What had struck it?

Qis soon saw the attackers.

They looked somewhat different, but Qis had seen them at the dungeon — they were mushrooms!

Qis’s army halted in unison.

Though the Jida force was not huge, and despite the Toothed Beast covering them, the insect horde could still potentially surge to the enemy’s lines.

But these were the mushrooms’ minions!

Several Eye Insects sped out.

Of course!

To their senses, the snow ahead was swarming with enemies.

Trap! Trap! Trap!

Another mushroom trap!

Those two-legged prey had been lures thrown out by the mushrooms; Qis hadn’t finished with them yet!

With no thought of charging in recklessly, Qis’s army began a full retreat — or rather a rout. Only the Toothed Beast, already slow and wounded, turned and fled in the opposite direction.

Facing mushrooms popping up where they hadn’t been expected, Qis abandoned the precious giant it had spent so many resources cultivating, leaving the beast to cover the rear.

Even Lin Jun had to admit — it was a superb field decision.

Unfortunately, some outcomes can’t be reversed by one or two good calls.

The moment the Eye Insects flew out and exposed the trap, the order to pursue resounded in every Lizardman’s head.

Countless Pujis burst from the snow and swarmed the Toothed Beast.

A single sweep of a tentacle killed many Pujis.

Yet most of those Pujis had been prepped to self-destruct; the snowfield sounded like a string of thunderous firecrackers.

After a sweep, that tentacle was more or less ruined.

Within two minutes, more and more Pujis had leapt onto the Toothed Beast and were wreaking havoc.

Five minutes later, the Toothed Beast, submerged beneath the sea of Pujis, went still.

Norris’s twenty-plus Jida squad did not linger for the beast; they immediately pursued the other fleeing Qis.

Joining their chase were the Puji sled units.

Put simply, a bunch of Rolling Pujis pulling sleds at high speed, controlled by riders; on attack they release the Rolling Pujis to self-detonate.

Sadly this unit only worked well in the north — wheeled Puji sleds couldn’t travel so fast elsewhere.

The first to be caught was the remaining Evil Eye.

Qis knew the Evil Eye couldn’t outrun pursuit, so it had the Eye climb higher, trying to flee to the sky.

But the Jida’s range was not short; though accuracy was uneven, they had trained, and the Evil Eye itself was a large target.

At about a thousand meters up, a Resonance shot struck it from below, detonating its mana inside; it died on the spot and plummeted, splattering everywhere.

Norris was not satisfied and kept leading his men after other Qis.

At the tent flap, Broga and Rama stared dumbfounded at the scene.

The insect army had gone from charging fiercely to fleeing, and in less than ten minutes they were even unable to escape — the transformation from invasion to rout had taken place in a flash.

A Lizardman with several Pujis following him noticed the two demons. “You two not resting?”

“Ah? Oh… oh… yes, resting, resting…” they mumbled, shrinking back into the tent. No one brought up that escape plan again.

Both demons thought the same thing: the North was about to change!

…

Norris and his force pressed the remaining Qis units, and occasional Resonance shots caused heavy casualties.

But Norris had begun to conserve the cannons — continuous firing had drained the Jida of magic power. Fortunately, the Jida’s strength wasn’t just the Resonance Cannons.

Frankly, a battle decided by cannon alone bored Norris a little.

Seeing the distance closing, Qis knew it couldn’t continue like this.

Its formations began to splinter, centering on single Eye Insects and dispersing in all directions.

The move disgusted Norris, but as he considered how to pursue, the Qis forces suddenly fell into chaos, as if the mind controlling them had been momentarily distracted.

Norris seized the opportunity and harvested them quickly.

…

Midsection of the Luo River.

Large broken ice floes floated semi-submerged; though corpses weren’t visible in the water, the spread of fresh red blood made clear what had occurred.

Now the river was littered with insect corpses and broken Puji fragments.

Little Pig had not taken part in the ambush of Qis’s army because she had a far more important task.

What could be more important than Qis’s “Heart”?

At departure, Lin Jun assumed the enemy target was the tribes; all the main force marched as a regular Puji contingent.

And even if Lin Jun had prepared, Pujis only trained underwater to seven tiers would not necessarily match Qis.

That didn’t mean Lin Jun was helpless against Qis.

Masses of Pujis were dumped into both riverbanks and detonated, sending geysers skyward in the water.

Meanwhile burrowing Pujis drilled new holes in the ice, and insect corpses floated up from the deep.

From start to finish, the scout Pujis had locked onto Qis’s “Heart.”

【Race: Qis — Heart】

【Level: LV64】

【Racial Trait: Qis Gestation】

【Skills: Mental Integration LV9, Minion Control LV8, Cold Resistance LV8… Mental Diffusion LV8, Mental Magic LV7, Physical Resistance LV6… Split[“Clone/Copy”] LV1】

Split[“Cloning”] is only LV1? Looks like life out there hasn’t been easy for Qis…