Chapter 10: Hunting Groundworms
The Puji have already prepared themselves.
Filling each Puji (including Inanna) with magic power not only depleted the magic power used to decompose the fire mosquitoes but also left none remaining in the original stockpile.
The magic naturally collected afterward would inevitably fail to keep up with consumption, meaning this batch of Puji had no chance for a second replenishment.
The insect hunting operation would take place today.
400 Puji crowded together were quite a sight, with the vast majority being cannon Puji.
Earthworms are not only massive in size but also covered in a thick layer of rock armor, rendering hallucinogenic spores and digestive mucus ineffective against them.
As for shelled Puji, they are even more useless. If hit by an attack from an earthworm of this caliber, they would be instantly killed regardless of whether they had a shell or not.
To defeat such creatures, Lin Jun could only opt for brute force.
Of course, there was a plan.
These creatures, which spend their days burrowing underground, feed on various minerals, and their favorite delicacy is the purple crystal dungeon's specialty—magic crystals.
And Lin Jun just happens to know how to detonate magic crystals.
Within the team, Lin Jun had specially prepared 10 special Puji.
Their hollow abdomens were filled with magic crystals, and they were equipped with magic storage skills to serve as the energy source for detonating the crystals.
For this hunt, Lin Jun had essentially put everything she had into it.
All the magic crystals originally planted in the mushroom garden soil to accelerate magic energy collection had been dug up, directly halving the natural magic energy collection efficiency of the mushroom garden.
These magic crystals serve both as bait to lure the earthworm out and as the first blow to strike it down.
As for what happens after the first blow, that depends on the effectiveness of Miss Inanna's swamp spell.
"Are we really going?"
The pink mushroom cap trembled. Crossing at least 15 levels to fight the earthworm, she felt no sense of security at all.
"Newbie, I thought the bounty had already been paid to you?"
Inanna felt the large A-grade magic crystal above her head and couldn't bring herself to say she wanted to give up.
It's too tempting!
Not only does it allow her to cast spells in her puffed-up form, but the spell's power is almost doubled.
The enhancement effect is far beyond what her previous small piece of B-grade magic crystal could achieve.
"If things really get dire, I'll let you run away, and I won't take back the magic crystal." Lin Jun loosened the conditions at the right moment.
Although Inanna still wanted to say that her short legs might not be able to outrun the danger, she thought about it and decided that having permission to run away was better than nothing.
The pink mushroom cap nodded, indicating agreement.
Allowing Inanna to escape wasn't out of kindness on Lin Jun's part; it was simply that if the situation was hopeless, there was no point in letting her die for nothing.
After the battle at the fire mosquito nest, Lin Jun had also realized that magic was indeed useful.
Puchi could be replaced, magic crystals could be mined again, but if Inanna were gone, where would he find another magic user who was easy to command?
This time, the journey was much longer than the trip to the fire mosquito nest, and Inanna even felt that they were deliberately taking a detour.
However, there were almost no obstacles along the way, except for a black-and-white spider that was encountered midway, whose head was severed by Inanna's Tracking Ice Blade.
The destination was a shattered cave.
It could barely even be called a cave anymore.
The entire space was densely packed with tunnels left behind by the earthworms, so much so that describing it as "leaky on all sides" would be an understatement.
Lin Jun observed that there were several new tunnels compared to the last time she had explored the area.
She placed the self-destructing Puji and the magic crystals on a relatively intact section of the ground, while the other cannon Puji were scattered around the shattered cave.
Lin Jun didn't assign Inanna to another location, but instead had her stay at the edge of the passage they had come through.
Slowly channeling magic into the magic crystals, the intense magical fluctuations emanating from the crystals made even Lin Jun feel envious.
Inanna was also aware of the specific plan, and she looked at the pile of magic crystals with a sense of regret.
Her boss, Lin Jun, was a spendthrift; to increase the success rate, he had even used some A-grade magic crystals as explosives.
Though not as large as hers, those were still A-grade magic crystals!
This pile of magic crystals could have been used to hire the Diamond Squad to kill ten earthworms, but now they were merely being used to blast an earthworm.
It was truly a waste of resources.
After the magical fluctuations spread out, no earthworms appeared for a while, but instead, some other magical creatures showed up.
There were black-and-white spiders they had encountered on the road before, as well as deformed monsters with sharp teeth and claws.
However, they were all blown to pieces by the surrounding explosions, causing no trouble at all.
What surprised Lin Jun was that he even saw a Level 35 Minotaur, commonly known as a bull-headed man.
This was the first time Lin Jun had encountered such a classic magical creature.
The creature clearly had a decent IQ, as it retreated upon seeing their formation from a distance.
If they had encountered it at a different time, Lin Jun would have tried to communicate with it. As fellow intelligent monsters, perhaps they could coexist harmoniously?
But today, he decided against it.
Finally,
a continuous vibration came from underground. The碎石 at Inanna's feet shook violently in the soil, and some newly opened tunnel entrances were dropping碎石.
An unlucky puji was crushed into a pile of mycelium by falling rocks before it could even start, becoming the first mushroom to sacrifice itself in this operation.
"It's coming, it's coming. When should I cast the spell? Should I use the Mud Swamp spell now?"
As the moment approached, Inanna grew tense again.
"Calm down, Inanna. I'll tell you when it's time. Don't panic."
Lin Jun gently urged Inanna to stay calm, but he didn't notice that his tone was uncontrollably tense, with suppressed excitement beneath his calm words.
They didn't keep them waiting too long.
The ground on one side of the cave collapsed with a loud crash, and a giant worm burst forth from the earth, swallowing the 20 Puji in an instant.
[Level: LV49]
It was Lin Jun's target—the Earthworm!
"Here it comes!"
The Earthworm's body twisted mid-air, diving straight toward the magic crystals.
None of the Puji fired, and Lin Jun even stopped Inanna from casting a spell in her panic.
Not yet, not yet.
Magic power surged疯狂地涌入魔晶之中, magic power fluctuations became increasingly turbulent.
Just as it was about to reach its peak, the giant mouth descended, enveloping the ten Puji and all the magic crystals.
1... 2...
Boom—
The earth-shattering explosion tore apart the earthworm's giant mouth, causing the several-meter-thick rock armor to explode from the inside.
The flying rock fragments scattered at an alarming speed, causing significant casualties among the pu-ji.
The entire mouth of the earthworm was completely blown apart.
As for its head, Lin Jun wasn't sure where the earthworm's head was, or even if it had one at all.
All he knew was that despite such injuries, it hadn't lost its vitality and was still struggling in agony.
The remaining body twisted wildly, half of its body smashing against the surrounding rock layers, causing a landslide, while the remaining digging legs frantically dug at the ground, attempting to burrow back underground.
Inanna's body trembled violently, and Lin Jun's command exploded in her consciousness in a distorted, broken voice:
"Mud Swamp Technique! Hurry!"
(End of this chapter)