Chapter 6: Fire Mosquito Nest
"What... what is this!"
At the edge of the mushroom garden, 120 Puji stood neatly in six rows.
40 Cannon Puffs: [Magic Storage LV4] + [Mushroom Cannon LV6] + [Precision LV4]
40 Slime Puffs: [Magic Storage LV4] + [Mushroom Cannon LV6] + [Digestive Slime LV3]
20 Hallucinogenic Puffballs: [Hallucinogenic Spores LV4] + [Chitinous Shell LV4]
20 Cow-Horse Puffballs: [Storage Capsule LV4] + [Wrap LV3]
This was the configuration of Lin Jun's 14th expedition team.
It's not that Lin Jun doesn't want to pack all the skills into one Puji, but the more skills a Puji has, the more magic power and time are required to produce it.
The increase in consumption is exponential, so keeping the number of skills within four is a balanced choice between cost-effectiveness and practicality.
"So there are so many types of pujis!"
Inanna felt her knowledge was lacking, as she had never even heard of so many subspecies of pujis.
Some have mushroom caps shaped like pots.
Some have full-body shells, but unlike the mining area Puji, their shells have many more pores.
There are even ones with tentacles!
That's great! If I had tentacles, I wouldn't need to bind magic crystals to my head...
"Lin Jun, you said they're an expedition team. What are they going to do?"
"This is a dungeon, so of course they're going to defeat the monsters."
"The… earthworms?"
Inanna looked like she wouldn't go if they were earthworms.
She simply didn't think earthworms were the kind of creatures that could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
"I already said they're not earthworms. This time, our target is the fire mosquitoes—those parasites that fly into the mushroom garden for no reason, doing nothing but plundering and living off others! This time, we're going to wipe out their entire nest!"
Lin Jun had also had enough of being harassed from the sky every few days. He had already located the fire mosquitoes' nest, but hadn't gone to eliminate them earlier because he wanted to sustainably build up the high-temperature resistance skill.
Now that high-temperature resistance was already at LV6, eliminating all the fire mosquitoes at once should raise it to LV7, which was sufficient.
Moreover, his priority escape plan had been changed to using Inanna to hunt ground insects instead of sneaking past the Flaming Demon's watchful eye, so there was even less reason to keep these annoying insects around.
Let them serve their final purpose and become the team's sharpening stone.
"Inanna, stay in the middle of the group and follow my commands."
"Got it, got it."
Upon hearing that they were going to fight mosquitoes, Inanna felt relieved.
She knew about fire mosquitoes; with an average level of 20, their attacks were straightforward and not difficult to handle.
The trouble was that they could fly, had evasion skills, were hard to hit, and liked to appear in groups.
However, even if she couldn't defeat them with magic, she could still protect herself.
Come to think of it, this was also a kind of war, albeit a war between monsters.
The old man had never allowed her to get involved in military adventures before, so she felt a little excited facing this for the first time!
However, these puffball troops marched in perfect formation, even more disciplined than an army.
Was it because they were all controlled by Lin Jun?
————
That was indeed the reason.
Using her skills in controlling familiars, fungal networks, and mental integration, Lin Jun controls these puffballs like an RTS game, though it does consume more mental energy.
It's also thanks to this ability to coordinate them that she can establish a foothold in the dungeon with puffballs that have only a 1 in all attributes.
After all, using strategies like luring the enemy deeper or feinting east while attacking west against a group of monsters with almost no intelligence is already a real dimension-lowering attack.
However, no strategies are needed this time. Strategies are only needed when trying to defeat a stronger opponent with weaker forces.
And now, compared to the fire mosquitoes.
he was the stronger one!
Wouldn't it be satisfying to charge through F1F3 in one go?
It would also be a chance to showcase his strength and boost the confidence of the new recruits.
————
The so-called "lower depths" of the dungeon refer to the layers below the 10th floor, as there are no clear passages connecting different layers from this point onward.
The entire lower region is crisscrossed by countless three-dimensional passages, connecting one large cavern after another. For example, the fire mosquitoes' lair and Lin Jun's mushroom garden are connected by a passage with a diameter of over fifty meters.
Along the way, mushrooms grow sporadically between the rock crevices. These serve as Lin Jun's extended eyes and as connection points to expand his fungal network beyond the mushroom garden.
The fungal network allows Lin Jun to command the Puji army in a semi-managed manner.
Otherwise, relying solely on the "Familiar Control" ability to manually control them would be far too cumbersome.
The short legs of the Puji creatures made a "puchi puchi" sound as they stepped on the ground, echoing through the passageway. Suddenly, several crimson light spots appeared three hundred meters ahead—a few fire mosquitoes had detected this expeditionary force.
"Ice Blade!"
A two-meter-long ice blade shot out, but it was completely off-target. The fire mosquitoes didn't even have time to use their signature evasion skills before the ice blade embedded itself into the rock wall above.
"Rookie, don't waste your magic."
"Yes, I'm sorry."
Inanna finally noticed that the pujis around her were maintaining their speed and advancing steadily, showing no signs of stopping despite the appearance of the fire mosquitoes.
The fire mosquitoes did not approach either; instead, they fled as the expedition team drew nearer, quickly flying away.
Watching the fire mosquitoes disappear from sight, Inanna said with some concern, "Will they go back and report this?"
"Of course they will."
"Even if they are low-intelligence monsters, they still have the instinct to defend their nest. I'm sure we'll be facing a swarm of fire mosquitoes soon."
Inanna wanted to say, "Aren't you also a monster?"
"Then why let them go?"
Of course, it's because the distance is too far to hit them.
"Of course, it's to catch them all at once."
————
Under the steaming dome, hundreds of fire mosquitoes flew around the central water pool, emitting a deafening buzzing sound.
These fire mosquitoes need high-temperature pools similar to hot springs to reproduce. They spend their entire larval stage in the pools waiting to be fed by the adults, so as long as this pool is destroyed, the fire mosquitoes in this area will naturally die out.
The fireflies would naturally do everything in their power to defend their nest.
So when Inanna followed the Puji to the end of the passage, the luminous glands on the abdomens of all the fireflies lit up orange, signaling danger.
Several fireflies that were close by flapped their wings and flew toward them first.
"Water Snake Technique!"
It was Inanna again, unable to resist using her spell first against the flying monsters.
It was better than last time, at least she knew to use the Water Snake Technique, which could control the direction to some extent, rather than the straight-line Ice Blade. Unfortunately, it wasn't very effective.
Unfortunately, the target was a fire mosquito with evasion skills. The water snake grazed one of the fire mosquitoes, but it only fell a few meters before regaining its balance.
Lin Jun shook his head in disappointment.
"Ah, rookie."
(End of this chapter)