This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Items like Merfolk Tears and Siphon Tube Worm Crystals are not impossible to purchase if one really tries.

The problem is that the quantities available are far too small.

Even if they are only needed for certain nodes of the city-defense magic arrays, once expanded to cover the entire Puji Fort, the required amount is by no means trivial.

The core function of this part of the array is to slowly draw in free-floating ice-element energy from the environment during normal conditions, store it, and then release it all at once when needed, forming a large-scale frost impact.

In that sense, it is exceptionally well-suited to Puji Fort.

Omitting this structure was not impossible, but Puji Fort was the core foundation Lin Jun had built up himself. As long as conditions allowed, he still wanted to construct it as completely as possible.

Originally, if the archipelagos were still around, these materials could probably have been acquired through trade—at worst, it would just cost more gold.

But after the mist receded, the archipelagos were completely cut off from the mainland.

Lin Jun estimated that they had probably been wiped out entirely.

With that, the materials could only be obtained through other means.

As for Siphon Tube Worm Crystals, according to records Aiden had previously compiled, they were indeed produced in an underwater dungeon known as the “Tidal Sanctum.”

As for Merfolk Tears, those would have to be sought out after reaching that dungeon.

He could only hope that the merfolk hadn’t been completely wiped out by the mist.

After all, the mist wasn’t true fog—its effects were just as deadly underwater.

Which meant… it was finally time to bring out the diving puji he had sealed away for a long time.

Soon, several puji with mushroom bodies and fish tails dropped down onto the fungal carpet. Or, following this world’s naming conventions, they should really be called “puji fish.”

Underwater Adaptation LV7

Wake Jet Propulsion LV6

Waterflow Perception LV5

Sonar Detection LV8

Swimming LV5

Infrasound Attack LV9

Mana Storage LV10

After all this time, the underwater skill levels had barely improved—mainly due to a lack of suitable environments.

Combined with the puji’s inherently limited adaptability to aquatic conditions, the performance of these diving puji could only be described as fairly average.

But this trip was just for reconnaissance, to check the situation and look for the group of fishfolk he had dealt with in the past.

They hadn’t interacted much before, but relations had been fairly peaceful.

The only thing that made Lin Jun uneasy was that the god they worshipped was the same one revered by the cult known as the Hand of Crossing.

Fortunately, these fishfolk neither tried to proselytize to the puji nor proposed sacrificing them, making them far more reasonable than the Hand of Crossing.

If he could outsource the task of gathering materials to them, Lin Jun would be more than happy to do so.

As for trade, he wasn’t worried.

On the continent today, aside from the Dwarven Mountains, where wasn’t puji merchandise available?

For fishfolk trapped in an underwater dungeon, Lin Jun was confident he could always find something they needed.

Several workhorse puji wrapped up the puji fish—who could only flop and splash on land—and tossed them all into the rift on the seventh layer that led directly to the Tidal Sanctum.

With a series of splashes, the puji fish immediately became lively after entering the water and quickly began scouting.

Yet before they even activated Sonar Detection, they made a discovery.

Not far from the rift, a strange corpse floated in the water.

It was a vaguely humanoid creature, covered in thick gray carapace.

It somewhat resembled what a D-rank subject looked like after Lin Jun added Chitinous Shell to them.

However, when that skill was applied to humans, the resulting shell severely restricted joint movement and was poorly adapted.

The creature before them did not have that problem—it was an arthropod.

Its torso and limbs were clearly segmented, with protruding bone spurs at the joints.

Its left hand had five fingers, but its right hand was a massive pincer.

Its head lacked obvious facial features, possessing only a slit resembling a breathing gill and several pairs of now-dull compound eyes.

It slowly rotated with the current, dark blue bodily fluid seeping from the gaps in its carapace.

The thing that killed it was a harpoon, which had pierced straight through its chest plate, completely penetrating the body and leaving a bloodstained tip protruding from its back.

The force was immense—both the carapace and the harpoon head were shattered, and the surrounding water was lightly clouded blue by the leaking fluid.

It looked like it hadn’t been dead long—certainly less than a day.

And Lin Jun was fairly sure that the harpoon style belonged to the fishfolk.

Another racial war over living space?

In any case, there was no reason to let it go to waste.

The puji fish nudged the humanoid crab-like corpse toward the rift. On the other side, a chubby homebody puji extended its tentacles, dragged the body through, and tossed it onto the fungal carpet.

Mycelium immediately writhed and spread, wrapping the carapaced humanoid and beginning rapid decomposition and absorption.

However, the result surprised Lin Jun.

The decomposition went smoothly, and the mana feedback was considerable—almost equivalent to the energy provided by a diamond-rank powerhouse of the same volume.

But beyond that… there was nothing.

Not a single bit of expected skill proficiency.

What the hell?

Switching to the Inspiration view—no soul?

With no choice, Lin Jun continued exploring.

The puji fish left the initial chamber and passed through a deep, wide corridor.

The corridor walls were built from a smooth, dark stone, their surfaces coated in thick calcified deposits and drifting strands of seaweed.

Faintly visible on them were enormous, blurred murals.

Most were too damaged to make out clearly, but vague humanoid forms could still be seen—either worshipping or struggling—along with symbolic patterns filled with tentacles and holes.

Crack!

As Lin Jun guided the puji fish forward while half-distractedly admiring the murals, an accident occurred.

A genuine accident.

Although the puji fish only carried Sonar Detection LV8 as an active scouting tool, Lin Jun himself had access to the status panel.

Anything with a panel should have been immediately obvious—yet in this situation, an ambush occurred at close range.

The attacker was a humanoid carapace monster curled into a ball, disguised as an ordinary rock.

It kicked off violently, moving with speed completely at odds with its bulky appearance, and its massive guillotine-like bone pincer snapped shut on the nearest puji fish!

What truly alarmed Lin Jun was that it had no panel at all.

In an instant, he thought of the water ghosts he had encountered in the mist before—those things also lacked panels.

A creature from the mist?

His shock did not delay his counterattack.

Infrasound Attack LV9!

The carapace monster shuddered, thin streaks of pale blue blood seeping from the gaps in its shell—but it merely staggered and did not fall.

The dense, heavy carapace clearly had extremely strong attenuation and defensive properties against infrasound, preventing lethal damage.

Damn it.

He should have brought the universal Self-Destruct skill.

Originally, he had come intending to make contact and negotiate, so he hadn’t equipped large-scale destructive methods. Now he was paying the price.

With his only effective attack rendered useless, Lin Jun lost interest in playing underwater hide-and-seek with this hard-shelled monster. He was about to abandon the remaining puji fish and return later with combat-specialized models to reclaim the initiative.

At that moment, however, a stone brick on the corridor wall—one that had seemed utterly unremarkable—silently slid open, revealing a hidden passage.

A black shadow shot out with tremendous force—it was a harpoon!

It instantly pierced through the carapace monster’s head, pinning it to the stone wall.

The monster’s body convulsed violently a few times before going completely still.

From the hidden door, an ugly but powerfully built fishman slowly swam out.

Its bulging fish eyes, filled with clear wariness, swept over the battlefield before finally settling on the three surviving puji fish.

“Glrrk… glrr gluglug?”

Uh…

“Pop~”

One of the puji fish released a bubble.

That probably counted as… a response?