"Don't these need to be buried underground?"
"I'm not a plant…"
Doesn't anyone in this world know the difference between fungi and plants?
The packhorse Pujis had already transported all the remains of the fire mosquitoes and their larvae back to the Mushroom Garden.
Fire mosquitoes were agility-focused monsters that relied on evasion. Their physical toughness was low, and once hit by spore bombs or smashed by armored Pujis, it was hard for them to leave behind intact corpses.
Now, their remains were evenly spread across the cultivation area. The first batch that had been brought back was already beginning to sprout mycelium.
Once decomposed, these monster corpses would simultaneously provide Lin Li with skill proficiency and magic power. Individually, each fire mosquito contained very little magic power—but sheer quantity made up for it.
All of that magic power would be invested into producing new Pujis.
At present, relying solely on natural magic absorption, the Mushroom Garden could sustain roughly 300 Pujis. Among them, 100 were logistics units responsible for maintaining daily operations. The rest were combat Pujis.
This time, Lin planned to exceed the limit and mass-produce 400 combat Pujis at once, throwing them all into the upcoming operation to hunt earth worms.
If too many survived after the operation, he could always cull them later. Ensuring success was what mattered most.
There was no second fire mosquito nest nearby that could provide such an enormous amount of nutrients so easily. If this attempt failed, who knew how long it would take before he could organize another round like this.
"Lin Li, look! I think I gained a new talent!"
At some point, Inanna had summoned Water Serpent beside him.
Lin had seen her use this skill during battle. Calling it "not very effective" would be generous—calling it "completely useless" would be more accurate.
It had short range, weak power, and even a direct hit couldn't kill a fire mosquito in one blow. Its only advantage was that it could be controlled after being cast, but with Inanna's atrocious control skills, that advantage turned into a drawback.
Compared to Ice Blade, it was utterly outclassed.
Even Inanna herself seemed to realize this—after using Water Serpent twice, she never touched it again.
But now, the Water Serpent she summoned moved with surprising agility, coiling and swimming around her like a small azure dragon protecting its master.
This was definitely not Inanna's normal level.
Lin Jun immediately pulled up her status panel.
As expected, her level had risen to LV30. Even though she'd only received a small portion of the experience from hundreds of fire mosquitoes, it was still enough to push her up two levels.
A new entry appeared under her passive effects:
[Favor of Elemental Spirits: Elemental spirits assist the caster in controlling spells]
"Try using Ice Blade on that rock."
Lin Jun pointed to a target about 100 meters away—a distance at which a Puji would almost never miss.
"Huh? I'll try."
The moment Ice Blade was fired, Lin Jun knew her aim had gone wildly off again.
But mid-flight, the blade mysteriously adjusted its trajectory, and in the end, it actually clipped the edge of the rock.
"…It hit?!"
Even Inanna looked completely incredulous.
In reality, if her firing angle hadn't been that horribly off, Ice Blade should've landed a direct hit. Even with such terrible aim, it still managed to graze the target in the end.
Elemental spirits were seriously impressive.
Lin Jun also noticed something else—when Inanna used Ice Blade, the Water Serpent orbiting her wasn't canceled.
So this was something like AI-assisted control, then?
Only instead of AI, it was elemental spirits taking on that role.
Come to think of it, this world actually had elemental spirits as part of its setting. He'd assumed magic was just… magic.
On top of that, Lin finally realized that humans worked similarly to him—every ten levels, they naturally gained a compatible passive effect or skill.
Just like his own Spore Bombs and Fungal Web.
Inanna called these talents.
So this wasn't something unique to him. Humans were like this, and presumably other races and monsters were the same.
There was still a difference, though.
Perhaps because she couldn't see a status panel, Inanna's talent was automatically granted, whereas Lin always got a three-choice selection.
Lin glanced at his own LV44.It was still a long way before his next talent choice.
After that, Lin Jun plunged headfirst into the massive project known as mass production.
The good news was that his long-stagnant Mental Synchronization skill finally ground its way up to LV6. Otherwise, there was no way he could've controlled this many Pujis at once.
Even so, he had no spare time to chat with Inanna.
Inanna didn't mind, though—she was completely absorbed in exploring her new talent.
Besides trajectory correction and auto-aim, elemental spirits could also make Light spells actively follow targets, allow Water Mirror refraction to provide 360-degree automatic defense, and more.
Honestly, they were far smoother at using spells than she herself was.
However, spells like Purification and Mud Swamp showed no noticeable changes—the elemental spirits didn't enhance the spells' raw power.
Days passed one by one, and just as everything was nearly ready, a powerful wave of magic suddenly surged from outside the Mushroom Garden.
"Lin Li, what's happening? Why does it suddenly feel so oppressive?"
It felt like the aftershocks of a magnitude-8 earthquake coming from afar. Even without Magic Perception, Inanna sensed something was wrong.
Lin Jun felt it even more clearly—the magical vibrations came in waves, crashing over him one after another, making him deeply uncomfortable.
He checked the monitoring setup outside.
The scattered mushroom clusters couldn't provide vision, but they could detect fluctuations in surrounding magic.
It didn't take long for Lin Jun to identify the source.
The direction of the Flame Demon's nest.
Once he knew it was coming from the Flame Demon's side, Lin Jun relaxed. He casually reassured the frightened Inanna and went back to finishing the final steps of mass production.
It wasn't that Lin Jun wasn't afraid of the Flame Demon.
On the contrary—ever since discovering it, he'd regarded it as the strongest monster encountered so far and stayed extremely alert to its movements.
If the Flame Demon ever started moving toward the Mushroom Garden, he'd grab a bucket and run immediately.
Thankfully, that had never happened.
From Lin Jun's observations, the Flame Demon was practically a homebody.
Unlike himself, who was rooted to the ground and physically inconvenient to move, the Flame Demon was simply lazy.
It seemed like soaking in lava alone satisfied most of its needs.
But being a homebody didn't mean it never went out.
So far, Lin Jun had recorded three instances of the Flame Demon leaving its nest.
Each time, it caused magical disturbances nearby—just like today.
Lin Jun suspected it had gone to fight something.
As for who it was fighting or where, he had no idea. He also didn't know what kind of opponent could clash with a Flame Demon at that level.
His exploration of the deep layers was still far too limited.
Originally, Lin's smuggling plan was to take advantage of a moment when the Flame Demon left and sneak through its nest to reach the upper layers.
But that plan was extremely risky—most critically, he had no way of knowing when the Flame Demon would return.
Among the three recorded outings, the shortest lasted only a few hours, while the longest seemed to last three or four days.
That plan was a straight-up gamble with his life, which was why it had been replaced by the tunneling plan.
He just hoped this time the Flame Demon wouldn't return too quickly—or cause any unforeseen changes that might interfere with his hunt for earth worms.