This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Unlike fungal carpets that cling tightly to the ground, mycelial networks floating on the water’s surface are constantly subjected to the pounding of waves.

Even in the relatively calm waters of a dungeon, the unending surges still continuously tug and tear at the connections between the mycelial strands.

They are scattered, pulled apart, then heal and entangle once more.

Simply increasing the thickness of the mycelium doesn’t help much.

When faced with truly raging waves, no matter how thick the mycelial layer is, it cannot escape being torn apart. And if it were thickened enough to withstand any storm or wave… then perhaps it shouldn’t be called a “fungal carpet” anymore, but rather a “floating sea platform.”

Instead, having the mycelium mimic the form of seaweed—floating in small, loosely structured clusters on the water’s surface, rising and falling with the waves—

This approach disperses the tearing force of the waves. The mycelial clusters sway with the current and are far less likely to be damaged.

However, this new structure also brings new flaws.

In land-based fungal carpets, magic power can be transmitted through the tightly interwoven mycelial network with extremely low loss. This allows Lin Jun to easily gather magic power from vast areas into a single point, efficiently producing troops or high-tier puji units.

But under “seaweed mode,” there are no stable connections between the mycelial clusters.

Magic power can still be transmitted over distance, but the loss skyrockets, and efficiency is far inferior to that of the land network.

Such floating fungal carpets are fine for expanding perception and awareness, but if one hopes to rely on them to rapidly nurture armies or serve as a reliable long-range magic power source, that would be pure wishful thinking.

Of course, he could also lay fungal carpets along the seabed, just like on land.

But that would mean giving up precious sunlight, instantly cutting the magic power source by more than half.

And there were other troublesome issues as well.

For example, how to protect his fungal carpets.

Mycelium rich in magic power is a delicacy in the water—everyone wants a bite.

And the number of marine creatures far surpasses that of land-based ones.

If he invested massive effort into maintenance, the cost would outweigh the benefits.

If he left it unattended and allowed it to grow freely, the likely result would be mycelium gnawed full of holes, with most of the painstakingly gathered magic power forced into repairing itself, trapped in a futile cycle.

Even trying to dig tunnels to lay underground network routes wasn’t easy. Burrowing puji performed terribly when digging underwater.

Lin Jun hadn’t come up with a good solution yet and could only make do for now.

At the moment, dealing with those seafood monsters, fulfilling the old fishman’s request, and retrieving that half of a divine artifact was the top priority.

…

On the other side, the fishman sage Gugulu handed over a rough map depicting the internal structure of the Tidal Sanctum.

When the old fishman presented the map, a young fishman beside him—with taut skin and scales gleaming with healthy luster—looked visibly anxious.

Most fishmen weren’t as “pure” as Little Black, but they also weren’t particularly clever.

Lin Jun believed this mainly stemmed from a lack of education. In tribal societies, such a phenomenon was quite common.

And the educational level of the fishman tribes was clearly even lower than that of the northern tribes, so most fishman warriors left Lin Jun with the impression of being dull and straightforward.

This young fishman who always stayed by the sage’s side was likely being groomed as a successor.

He was one of the few in the fishman tribe whose eyes sparkled with intelligence.

Seeing the old fishman take out such an important map, he clearly showed concern, but after a few low, soothing gurgles from Gugulu, he eventually calmed down.

The map was drawn quite crudely, but the key information was still discernible. It was unclear whether it was drawn by the old fishman or by the young one.

And from this map, Lin Jun learned that this dungeon was actually a spherical three-dimensional labyrinth.

Countless passageways and chambers of varying sizes were intricately interwoven, forming an enormous spherical dungeon network.

The map was densely marked with hidden passages and trap locations. One glance was enough to tell it was an extremely devious dungeon.

They hadn’t felt it before, likely because they had fishmen acting as guides.

Gugulu and his people were currently hiding in an interlayer in the lower half of the sphere marked on the map. The soulless seafood monsters, meanwhile, had invaded from the dungeon entrance at the top of the map—that is, from the open sea itself.

Who knew what things were like outside right now.

At the very center of the map was a massive hollow area, completely unmarked. Lin Jun guessed that it was probably the dungeon’s core.

He wasn’t particularly interested in peeking at the core. One dungeon as a base of operations was enough; more would just waste his control capacity.

However, according to information revealed by the Divine Tree, every complete dungeon should possess an affiliated space.

His own affiliated space was piled full of treasure and even hid the method for controlling the Sun Stone. So did the affiliated space of the Tidal Sanctum contain records related to the 【Ocean Scepter】?

Or other secrets and treasures?

Moreover, that space might even be usable as a testing ground for his abyss magic. That would save him the trouble of experimenting within the Empire.

The space coordinates the Divine Tree had given last time were located slightly north of the Empire’s center, right within Prince Valerius’s sphere of influence. Making a move there would not be easy.

Hmm… perhaps later he could ask the Divine Tree again, see if that old bastard knew of any way to bypass the dungeon core and directly enter the affiliated space?

After taking the map, Little Pig immediately began a detailed exchange with the old fishman Gugulu, asking about each region marked on the map one by one.

The old fishman could answer most of the questions, but the closer it got to that massive, unmarked hollow region near the center, the vaguer the information he could provide.

It was unclear whether the fishmen truly didn’t know, or simply didn’t want to say too much.

Little Pig didn’t really mind either way.

The objective was to drive the soulless seafood monsters out of the Tidal Sanctum. As long as they could reclaim the dungeon entrance and hold it, everything afterward would just be systematic cleanup.

Thus, Little Pig quickly drafted a multi-phase plan, starting with intelligence gathering.

Although the old fishman had provided quite a bit of information, it still wasn’t enough. And Little Pig couldn’t fully trust the fishmen—only intelligence gathered personally would be reliable.

She selected several mixed squads composed of Puji Fort soldiers, puji, and fishman guides.

These squads would split up along several different routes she marked on the map to conduct preliminary reconnaissance. Their main tasks were to familiarize themselves with the terrain, traps, and to assess the strength and number distribution of nearby enemies.

Only after gathering sufficient intelligence would she formulate the final assault route and concrete tactics.

Norris and Ming also chose a route for reconnaissance, and Lin Jun assigned them a special task as well—capture a few seafood monsters alive.

Although he kept calling them “seafood monsters” or “soulless monsters,” these creatures did indeed possess roughly humanoid forms.

Lin Jun wasn’t sure whether they could be classified as “humanoid beings,” and planned to capture a few and attempt mycelial parasitism to see if control was possible.

If only he hadn’t gone wild with arc lightning earlier…

As for Little Black, she was accompanied by a puji fish personally controlled by Lin Jun, wandering casually around the area near the fishmen’s hideout.

Mainly to keep her from staying here.

Upon arriving in a completely new and unfamiliar environment, Little Black’s uncontrollable curiosity and destructive tendencies had already been fully displayed in this short span of time.

Several deep claw marks had appeared on the surrounding walls, and even the old fishman’s coral seat had been curiously gnawed down by a small chunk.

She thought it tasted bad and spat it out.

The old fishman Gugulu didn’t seem to mind, merely shaking his head gently.

But the surrounding fishman warriors clearly felt otherwise, dissatisfied gurgles rising one after another.

The young fishman who had been standing by the sage’s side glared angrily at Little Black, sharp teeth faintly bared.

Unfortunately, Little Black couldn’t read the room at all and completely ignored them.

…

And just as the reconnaissance teams set out, out in the open sea beyond the entrance to the Tidal Sanctum, a ship carrying ordinary puji and snakefolk mercenaries slowly sailed into view.