Lin Jun felt like his eyes were about to be blinded by the sheer glow of it all—if he actually had eyes, of course.
Sure, his Mushroom Garden was full of Puji, but the basic ones were standard five-stat 1-point weaklings with only 10 HP. Three thousand HP? That was nowhere near the realm of normal bottom-tier Puji.
Of course, pinning her down was still child's play for him. It was just that whole row of Fixed Effects that made him insanely jealous.
Jealous enough that he kind of wanted to eat her and steal all those abilities…
Nah, just kidding. It was rare to get someone he could actually talk to.
Besides, judging from her status panel, this Puji was most likely a former human. Cannibalism was still a bit too far—even for him.
"Have you calmed down yet?" Lin Jun commanded the Puji holding her to loosen their grip a little so she wouldn't feel too pressured.
A sudden voice in her head made Inanna panic. She still had no idea whether the owner of the voice was human or monster; all she knew was that every Puji in the area obeyed him.
Was this the next part of the conspiracy? The one sent to finish her off down here?
"If you're going to kill me… then just do it already!"
"Why the hell would I kill you? Can you please calm down?"
"Huh?"
This outsider shroom really had no manners. She'd trashed his garden and still hadn't apologized.
"I am the lord of every mushroom on this floor. You can call me Lin Jun. What's your name?"
"Mushroom… lord…"
Inanna had no idea how those two words were supposed to go together.
In her mind, mushrooms were creatures with a level cap of 10. Even at max level, they were still bottom-tier food for other low-level monsters.
Yet the scene before her looked nothing like something a Level 10 creature could create—especially not with this telepathic communication that felt way stronger than a normal fifth-tier Message spell.
And it clearly wasn't just telepathy.
Ever since she'd been connected, Inanna's perception range had exploded from a few meters to dozens of meters away, and it was far sharper, almost like she was receiving sensory input from every mushroom around her.
She had no way of judging how strong this "Mushroom Lord" actually was.
In any case, she decided to try pretending she was just an ordinary Puji and bluff her way through.
"I-I'm also a Puji… I don't have a name or anything…"
"Then how about I give you one? Let's call you Inanna."
"..."
Wait, what?!
How did he know?!
Did that telepathy-like skill also read minds?
The Puji that had spread out earlier were slowly closing in again. Was she going to be killed for lying?
Nooo!
Thankfully, right before they squeezed her completely, the Puji stopped. Lin Jun's voice rang in her head once more.
"I'm actually quite friendly, but only if you don't play any little tricks. Otherwise, I don't mind turning you into extra fertilizer. Got it?"
Inanna nodded her pink mushroom cap vigorously.
"Let's try that again. Name?"
"I-Inanna… Saint-Clair…"
"Background?"
"Daughter… of the Duke of Alama…"
Duke's daughter, huh?
So the surface world had a medieval-style structure. No wonder she had Church Blessing, Fruit of Life, and still kept over 3,000 HP even after turning into a Puji.
No matter the world, having a rich daddy really was the ultimate cheat code in life.
"Tell me, how did a duke's daughter like you end up dropping into my territory?"
Since her cover was already blown, Inanna saw no point in hiding anything else. She told him exactly how she'd been betrayed and dropped down here, and answered every one of Lin Jun's follow-up questions honestly.
Lin Jun took the chance to learn a ton of new information.
For example, the place he was in was actually an underground dungeon located inside the Saint-Clair family's territory—and they were in the deep layers. No wonder monsters were everywhere.
He also learned that the surface had all kinds of races, and humans were on the brink of war with the vampire faction of the demon race. The two traitors who tried to kill Inanna had most likely made a deal with the vampires.
More importantly, he realized that Inanna, as a native of this world, couldn't see status panels. Otherwise she wouldn't have tried to hide her name.
Maybe the panel was a hidden perk for "heroes"?
All in all, the conversation had been extremely profitable. Lin Jun suddenly found the pink Puji a lot more pleasing to the eye.
"So, Inanna, now that you're a Puji, what are your plans for the future?"
"Future plans…? You're really not going to turn me into fertilizer, right?" After the earlier pressure, Inanna was now a little scared of him.
"I promise."
"I want to go back to the surface…"
Inanna didn't just want to return aboveground—she wanted to find her father, have the Polymorph dispelled, and then hunt down those two traitors for revenge!
"Ah, back to the surface," Lin Jun said, sounding amused.
"I want to go up there too!
But as you can see, you're a mushroom and I'm a mushroom. How exactly are we supposed to fight our way through an entire underground world full of terrifying monsters to reach the surface?
Even just this floor—the only passage upward runs straight through the lair of a Flame Demon."
A Flame Demon? That was at least a Level 55 high-tier monster!
Even if Inanna hadn't been transformed, she wouldn't have stood a chance. She might not even have been able to run away.
"By the way, wouldn't your duke father come looking for you?"
"He probably would…"
Inanna remembered what the two traitors had said about her father being on the verge of ruin, and her confidence instantly evaporated.
Her pink mushroom cap visibly drooped.
Yeah… after turning into a Puji she couldn't even use her best magic anymore. How was she supposed to get back to the surface?
"Alright, alright. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. You've been running around for a while now—you must be hungry. Come eat something first."
He couldn't let his newly acquired interesting toy starve to death.
A teal-capped Puji hopped out of the mushroom field and walked up to Inanna to show her the way. Inanna really was feeling a bit hungry.
"Is this… you?"
"Sort of. Every mushroom here is me."
He did have his own main mushroom body, but he wasn't about to mention that yet.
Inanna nodded, half-understanding, and followed the Puji to a thick mycelial mat formed by countless strands of mycelium.
Lin Jun kindly demonstrated how Puji ate.
The Puji he controlled simply lay down on the ground and let the mycelium connect to its body, pumping in nutrients. In less than five minutes, it was fully replenished.
Inanna's mushroom cap changed color as she watched.
What the hell was this?
Letting a bunch of mycelium stab into your body and inject who-knows-what?
Having eaten with her mouth for sixteen years, Inanna found the scene almost impossible to accept.
Lin Jun didn't rush her. If a kid refused to eat, it just meant they weren't hungry enough yet. Once they got really hungry, they'd figure it out.
Eventually, her weakening body won out, and Inanna lay down on the mycelial mat.
This feeling!
Nutrients surged in from countless connection points beneath her. A sense of being fed and completely satisfied washed over her.
So… blissful…
Only after she was fully nourished and the mycelium stopped supplying did Inanna reluctantly get back up.
Being a mushroom… actually feels pretty nice?
Wait, no, no, no! What am I thinking?!
Inanna, have you turned your brain into a mushroom too?
Oh… my brain really has become a mushroom cap. And it's pink…
Lin Jun had no idea about the little whirlwind going on inside Inanna's head. Once she finished eating, he started giving her a tour of the various areas in the Mushroom Garden.
"You already know the cafeteria. The Puji cultivation zone is the place where you knocked over all my Puji earlier."
"See that rock wall over there? Below it is the mining zone."
"Over there is the breeding zone. We keep some Roll-Armor Beetles and Slimes—they're aggressive, so don't wander over casually."
"See that giant mushroom on the right? That's the division-of-labor zone. It's a bit complicated to explain, so just go take a look yourself later."
"Don't go that way. Once you leave the Mushroom Garden in that direction, it's no longer safe."
Lin Jun kept introducing everything cheerfully, while Inanna's brain had already crashed at the first word.
Plantation zone? Breeding zone?
Inanna felt like Lin Jun wasn't describing areas inside a dungeon at all—he was describing a fully functional little town.
She was still inside the Amethyst Dungeon, right?
Where were all the other monsters?
And how did a bunch of mushrooms manage to claim such a huge territory in the extremely dangerous deep layers of the dungeon?
Inanna's head was full of question marks. The more she thought about it, the more confused she became. The deep layers of the dungeon felt incredibly bizarre—like common sense itself had stopped existing.