Chapter 19: Release from Prison
Purple Crystal Dungeon, Fifth Floor, Swamp Zone.
Mud mixed with blood seeped through his fingers into the swamp. Dylan crouched down, pressing against the slippery rock wall. The贯穿伤 in his abdomen made it difficult for him to move.
He had failed, failing right at the start.
He had failed to control the lone parasitic tree with the Sleep Powder before it was discovered.
Now he was not only severely injured, but his weapon had been knocked away, and the other parasitic trees in the distance had received the signal and were closing in.
"Bella."
Whispering his daughter's name, Dylan's eyes burned with the desire to survive—he couldn't die yet.
Bella was the only child he had with his late wife, intelligent, sensible, and highly talented.
At such a young age, she had already reached Silver-rank strength and would certainly become far more powerful than her useless old father in the future.
She had a bright future ahead of her; she shouldn't die now, and she certainly shouldn't become one of those ugly bloodsuckers, forced to live in agony.
So he couldn't die yet. He still had four packets of Sleep Powder; he still had a chance, as long as he could escape the swamp...
"Dead end..."
At some point, the path ahead had been blocked by a stone wall.
Dylan wanted to retreat, but five parasitic trees had already surrounded the retreat route, their pale roots twitching, waiting to capture Dylan.
If his body were intact, he could try to charge out before the parasitic trees closed in, but now, with his severe abdominal injuries, it was impossible.
He grabbed the climbing vine hanging from the stone wall and tried to climb up it, but the vine was torn off completely, revealing a stone door that had been hidden by it.
"Ha… cough cough… ha ha… hidden room…"
After all these years, this was the first time he had come across a hidden room. Under normal circumstances, he would have been overjoyed, as such rooms usually contained valuable items.
But now...
The parasitic tree was less than twenty meters behind him, and Dylan couldn't afford to hesitate. He felt around and found a protruding mechanism, pressing it in.
Now he could only pray that the legendary artifact inside would help him turn misfortune into good fortune.
As the gray ash continued to fall, the heavy stone door swung open inward.
Bang bang bang—
Several magic cannonballs fired from the shadows, striking a parasitic tree that had already extended its roots toward Dylan, severing it at the waist.
Glowing mushroom caps flickered to life in the darkness, and rows of odd, round, puffy creatures appeared before Dylan's eyes.
I have been imprisoned for ten thousand years,
and now you dare to intrude into my territory?
What the hell! What kind of tree people are so disgusting?
————
Life in the treasure room is comfortable, with no shortage of food or drink, but it's... quite boring...
It's not as good as the mushroom garden, where you can fight monsters every day.
The days here were so boring that Lin Jun ate all the fluorescent grass in the room, gaining a fluorescent skill that barely consumed any magic power.
Of course, leveling up was fast here.
A pool of high-concentration magic power—by the time Lin Jun had collected most of it, her level had already reached LV47.
She then took out the one-tenth of the Lava Heart she had scavenged.
True to its reputation as the core of the Flame Demon, it still emitted astonishing heat even after shattering.
If Lin Jun's high-temperature resistance hadn't already reached LV7, the mycelium might not even stick to it.
After decomposing the Lava Heart, Lin Jun leveled up again and obtained a new skill: [Self-Destruct LV3]
From now on, he wouldn't need magic crystals to use Self-Destruct...
Fortunately, the Flame Demon died suddenly. If it had left even a sliver of health to use Self-Destruct, Lin Jun's position might have been in danger, and the three adventurers in front of him would definitely have been doomed.
The question now is how to get out.
He has already produced 40 more Puji.
Due to limited space, he couldn't increase the quantity, so he had to focus on quality, equipping each Puji with five to seven skills.
He had already tried a collective assault on the stone door, but it couldn't be broken.
The treasure room must have special reinforcement measures; otherwise, this firepower should easily shatter a stone door.
As for the self-exploding door, Lin Jun dared not use it, fearing its power was too great and the space too small, it might blow him up...
After being locked for an unknown period, an interesting event occurred—the treasure chest refreshed!
After a magical fluctuation, the stone slab lid returned to its original position. Upon opening, a ring was found inside.
Unfortunately, it was an offensive magic ring that only allowed three uses of Ice Spike per day without any attribute bonuses.
Its power was on par with a mushroom cannon, completely useless to Lin Jun.
In the days that followed, Lin Jun could only wait impatiently for the treasure chest to refresh again, hoping it might help him escape.
If only it could spawn a classic teleportation scroll or something like that.
However, before Lin Jun could wait for the treasure chest to refresh a second time, the stone door was opened from the outside...
————
The light from outside shone in, illuminating Lin Jun's physical form by the pond.
This was the scent of freedom!
However, the next second, the Puji tightly sealed the door and blocked the light, preventing any possible attacks from harming the body.
After the strongest Puji carefully hid the body inside its shell, Lin Jun finally had time to observe the situation outside.
A severely injured adventurer lay motionless by the stone door.
Was this the one who released the fungus? Not bad.
Further outside were several trees... people... disgusting monsters.
Opening the panel, Lin Jun saw the [Fusion Parasitism] skill and finally understood what this thing was.
Immediately unleashing a barrage of fire, several parasitic trees attempted to counterattack with their skills, one of them even casting a fireball spell.
However, it was all in vain against Lin Jun's firepower. The fireball spell was blown apart before it could be completed, and instead burned the creature itself.
He easily took out a few parasitic trees, leaving only this weakened adventurer.
Don't get me wrong, Lin Jun didn't want to kill him to cover his tracks.
In fact, as long as the true nature of the entity remained undisclosed, he didn't mind if news like "a group of strange creatures appeared in the labyrinth" leaked out.
This person had released Lin Jun, and Lin Jun had saved his life in return—they were even.
The problem was that he looked like he was about to die, with his health bar steadily and slowly decreasing.
Letting him die naturally went against Lin Jun's mushroom principles; at the very least, he should try to save him.
The difficulty now was that Lin Jun didn't know any healing skills…
The Puji are disposable items; if they break, you just discard them. If you really need to repair them, you can use mycelium to patch them up. But you can't use mycelium to patch up a person…
Should he call for help from other adventurers?
Not only does he not know where he is, but even if he found other adventurers, they'd probably just start fighting each other.
Lin Jun recalled the description of [Fusion Parasitism] he had seen earlier. Looking at the parasitic trees still submerged in the muddy swamp, it seemed like the only option left.
The Puji dragged the unconscious Dylan and the remains of the parasitic trees into the treasure room.
Lin Jun controlled the mycelium to accelerate the decomposition of the parasitic trees.
This was a highly inefficient action, as the magic power consumed to accelerate the process far exceeded the magic power gained from decomposition.
But Lin Jun obtained what he desired.
[Seven Sins: Greed Triggered]
[Plunder Skill: Fusion Parasitism LV1]
The main body personally spread spores over Dylan's fatal wound on his abdomen. Under the enhancement of magic power, the mycelium gradually fused with the flesh, sealing the wound.
They even partially replenished Dylan's vitality.
In the end, it really did use the mycelium to heal him...
Feeling the presence of this non-human, non-fungus entity within the fungal network, Lin Jun couldn't help but feel uneasy.
The purity of his own organization seemed to have diminished?
(End of this chapter)