This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

So there was actually such a massive ruin beneath his own territory?!

Most of the main structure of this city, sealed away by the dust of ages, was still intact. The remaining parts were scattered through the surrounding rock layers, much like the fragmented caverns they had previously excavated.

Digging up a ruin should be… a good thing, right?

Lin Jun wasn’t entirely sure.

After all, the rescued dwarves mentioned ancient war-automaton technology inside, which immediately made Lin Jun think of the two war automatons guarding the entrance outside his dungeon’s core area.

As exploration of the crystal stele neared its end, Lin Jun’s control over those two automatons had increased quite a bit.

At the very least, he could now set friend-or-foe identification when they activated.

He had also discovered a special mode that turned all the magic crystals across an automaton’s body from purple to red—

Suspected berserk mode.

The reason he said “suspected” was mainly because there was no safe way to test the automaton’s combat strength.

Moreover, the last time it had been triggered accidentally, even though nothing was done afterward, once it returned to normal, faint cracks were still found on the magic crystals. Clearly, it wasn’t something to be used casually.

The war automatons in the ruins differed greatly in appearance from the two in the dungeon, but the technology contained within still filled Lin Jun with anticipation.

However, the ruins were not easy to explore. The biggest problem was that frenzied elemental spirit.

Back then, two frenzied spirits had been pulled out of the Abyss—one transformed on the spot into a Storm Elemental Lord, while the other fell into the northern lands and apparently became a Frost Elemental Lord.

The Storm Elemental Lord had done nothing but rampage straight through, barely stopping at all, yet it still caused nearly three months of persistent elemental disorder along its entire path.

As for the one in the northern lands, it probably hadn’t moved its butt at all since landing.

According to the Yellow Book, the environment of these ruins was already very close to being completely converted.

At that point, even if the Elemental Lord were eliminated, the elemental disorder in this region would not naturally recover over time—unless Lin Jun was willing to gather a large group of water-element mages and spend enormous effort gradually combing it back into balance.

At one corner of the ruins, inside a newly established temporary camp, Louisa was arranging troop rotations among her soldiers.

The sounds of battle outside never ceased.

Not long after Norris rescued the three missing workers, Louisa arrived with a puji engineer corps and set up this camp.

Frost wraiths were not particularly difficult to deal with. Even when flying frost wraiths capable of launching ice crystals began to appear later, they posed little threat to Puji Fort’s forces—at worst, they just consumed some puji.

However, their inability to be truly killed was still infuriating.

Louisa had tried using traps to restrain frost wraiths, but after being trapped for a period of time, they would abandon their bodies and revert to an original state that couldn’t be interfered with, then find a new location to start recondensing their forms.

[Stop wasting your effort, stupid troll]

[The only thing that can truly resolve elemental spirits is the environment]

[Either restore elemental balance in this region, or drain all the magic from the entire ruin—obviously, you can do neither]

Louisa ignored the Yellow Book advisor’s mocking tone and directly submitted a request to Lin Jun:

“Boss, as long as we deal with the Elemental Lord, this can be resolved.”

“Please allow me to mobilize all of Puji Fort’s forces. We have enough power to suppress these endlessly regenerating frost wraiths and fight straight through to the Elemental Lord to finish it!”

Louisa pointed toward the massive spiral structure in the distance—the source of the elemental disturbance lay in that direction.

Thorin and the others had been lucky to land near the outer edge, where only weaker frost wraiths were present, giving them a chance to survive until rescue.

As things stood, the Elemental Lord had to be dealt with!

The temperature drop hadn’t brought disaster to Puji Fort. On the contrary, it had helped the Northern Alliance absorb nearby tribes.

But despite Puji Fort’s appearance of prosperity, the northern lands had already become a no-man’s land.

More than ninety percent of the already-scarce wild magical beasts had frozen to death. Tribes that hadn’t joined Puji Fort migrated to the edges of the northern lands, where only those who defeated other migrating tribes earned the right to survive.

Puji Fort’s prosperity was built on fungus carpet mushrooms, puji heating, and universal 【Cold Resistance LV10】.

And most importantly—the cooling hadn’t stopped.

Although it had slowed significantly compared to the initial phase, temperatures were still steadily dropping, and no one knew where the limit lay.

Piglet’s plan was simple.

Don’t waste effort in a meaningless war of attrition against frost wraiths. Push forward in one decisive wave and strike directly at the source.

Once the Elemental Lord was dealt with, they could calmly choose whether to leave the area alone to recover naturally or dispatch mages to actively restore it.

But…

Lin Jun recalled the Storm Elemental Lord from back then.

Although the puji under his control had been killed by lightning before they could even see what it looked like, based on intelligence from all sides, its approximate strength could still be reconstructed.

On paper, it was a lord-tier existence in the low seventies, but its actual combat performance far exceeded that of ordinary dukes on either side.

Lin Jun wasn’t sure whether this Frost Elemental Lord would be weaker or stronger, but if compared by Storm Elemental Lord standards…

They could still win—but the losses would likely be heavy.

And once the Elemental Lord was resolved and the climate gradually warmed—

With no obstruction remaining, the Empire would naturally soon notice the changes in the northern lands.

Although Puji Fort’s current strength was nothing to scoff at, if the Northern Alliance were viewed as a faction on the continental stage, Lin Jun was clearly the weakest among them.

Therefore, every bit of strength was precious. If it didn’t need to be wasted, then it shouldn’t be.

It was time to use the pink puji…

……

Duke Saint-Claire’s estate.

The kingdom was pouring all its energy into rebuilding the army and constructing new defensive lines.

Arama was fully responsible for fortification works, while the reorganization of the puji legions during new recruit training was handled by Inanna’s former adjutant, Warren.

The war hero Inanna herself had instead become idle again and returned to the ducal estate.

But Inanna had never craved power. With two numbered puji accompanying her now, she naturally had no objections.

Number Ten was taciturn. Unless necessary, it quietly hid among the puji crowd, inconspicuous, diligently carrying out its mission of protecting the pink puji.

But there was still one mushroom who was unhappy.

Very unhappy.

Number Four was extremely unhappy.

Ever since it had been beaten senseless by Rage last time, the reborn Number Four had reverted to being a cannon-fodder puji.

Having experienced power—

Although it had been beaten the whole time, it really had been strong—

The gap between that strength and its current cannon-fodder body was simply too large.

More importantly, life in the ducal estate was boring!

And it often got borrowed by that stone-faced human butler, who would prod and poke it all over with various magical instruments.

Rude non-mushroom…

This kind of life had no honor at all!

It began to miss the days of fighting the Black Demon…

Just then, the Fungus Lord’s new decree descended like a ray of dawn, once more illuminating its gloomy mushroom life!

“Yay!”

Number Four excitedly dragged Number Ten out of the puji pile, hopping and jumping around. The latter, being hauled along, was clearly full of disdain.

At the same time—

With “experience potion” stuffed in her mouth, Inanna asked Lin Jun through the fungus network, “Boss, I mysteriously leveled up twice recently. Was it because of those potions you fed me?”

“Shh—! Don’t tell anyone else. If someone asks, just make up an excuse yourself! Good stuff is for our own people to share quietly!”

“Boss, you’re the best!” Inanna squinted happily.

“Oh right, Little Pink, there’s something in the dungeon that needs your help. It might be a bit dangerous…”

“I want to help! I want to help!” The girl eagerly raised her hand, letting tentacles rub her head as she giggled foolishly, the sound rippling through the sunlit room.

Hearing faint noises, Eric looked toward the young lady’s room, his eyes full of worry—

Miss’s mushroom-fetish condition… was getting worse and worse…