"What… what is this?!"
At the edge of the mushroom garden, 120 Puji stood in perfect formation—six neat rows of twenty.
- 40 Turret Puji: [Magic Storage LV4] + [Mushroom Cannon LV6] + [Precision LV4]
- 40 Slime Puji: [Magic Storage LV4] + [Mushroom Cannon LV6] + [Digestive Slime LV3]
- 20 Hallucinogenic Puji: [Hallucinogenic Spores LV4] + [Chitinous Shell LV4]
- 20 Cow/Horse Puji: [Storage Envelope LV4] + [Entangle LV3]
This was the full roster of Lin Jun's 14th expedition team.
It wasn't that she couldn't cram every skill into a single Puji—the problem was that the more skills a Puji had, the more magic power and production time it required. The cost scaled gradually, so capping skills at three or four per unit remained the most efficient and practical choice.
"Wow, there are so many different kinds of Puji!"
Inanna realized just how little she knew. She hadn't even heard of most of these subspecies.
Some had mushroom caps shaped like wide pots.
Others wore full chitinous armor, but unlike the mining Puji, theirs were riddled with extra pores.
A few even had writhing tentacles sprouting from their bodies!
*Great,* Inanna thought. *If I had tentacles too, I wouldn't need to tie magic crystals to my head…*
"Lin Jun, you said they're an expedition team. What exactly are they going to do?"
"This is a dungeon. What else? They're going monster hunting."
"Earth… earthworms?"
Inanna's expression immediately turned wary, as if silently saying, *If it's earthworms, I'm not going.*
She genuinely didn't believe sheer numbers of Puji could overwhelm something as terrifying as an adult earthworm.
"I already told you it's not earthworms this time. The target is fire mosquitoes—the parasitic pests that keep invading the garden and stealing everything! Today we're wiping out their entire nest!"
Lin Jun was thoroughly fed up with the constant aerial harassment every few days. She had already located the fire mosquitoes' lair long ago. The only reason she hadn't exterminated them earlier was to farm their corpses for incremental gains in [High Temperature Resistance]. Now that the skill had reached LV6, a full wipe would likely push it to LV7—which was more than sufficient.
Besides, her original escape plan (sneaking past the Balrog) had been replaced by the new strategy of hunting earthworms for [High-Temperature Drilling]. There was no longer any reason to tolerate these annoying insects.
Let them serve one final purpose: as a whetstone for the team.
"Inanna, stay in the center of the formation and follow my commands."
"Understood!"
Inanna let out a quiet sigh of relief when she heard the target was mosquitoes.
She was familiar with fire mosquitoes. Average level around LV20, attacks were simple and direct—not particularly threatening on their own. The real problems were their flight, evasion skill, tendency to swarm, and hit-and-run tactics.
Still, even if she couldn't kill them, she could protect herself with magic.
Come to think of it, this counted as her first real "war"—even if it was just between monsters.
The Duke had always forbidden her from joining military campaigns or adventures, so she couldn't help feeling a little excited.
And these Puji moved with such perfect synchronization and discipline—they were practically an army.
Was it because they were all directly controlled by Lin Jun?
————
Exactly.
Thanks to [Familiar Control], [Mycelial Network], and [Mental Integration], Lin Jun commanded the Puji like units in an RTS game—though it demanded far more mental focus.
Unified command was the key reason she had managed to carve out a foothold in the dungeon using creatures whose base stats were all 1. Against monsters with almost no intelligence, tactics like bait-and-switch, feints, ambushes, and divide-and-conquer were essentially a form of dimensional reduction.
But this time, no clever strategy was necessary.
When the weak defeat the strong, they need tactics.
When the strong crush the weak, they just charge.
Compared to fire mosquitoes, *she* was now the overwhelming force!
Why not just F1 + F3 and steamroll them?
It would also be a perfect chance to demonstrate real power and boost Little Pink's confidence in her new "allies."
————
The so-called "deep underground" referred to everything from the 10th floor downward. From that point on, clearly defined staircases and passages between levels largely disappeared.
Instead, the entire region was a chaotic network of crisscrossing three-dimensional tunnels connecting vast caverns one after another—just like the fifty-meter-wide passage that linked the fire mosquitoes' lair to Lin Jun's mushroom garden.
Scattered mushrooms grew hidden in rock crevices along the route. They served as both Lin Jun's remote eyes and relay points, extending the fungal network far beyond the garden's borders.
She could send a single scout Puji far outside the network to explore independently, but large-scale control required the mycelial relays.
In theory, a clever enemy could target and destroy those connecting points to sever control over the expedition force.
But what could mindless monsters possibly do about it?
The rhythmic patter of 120 pairs of short legs echoed through the tunnel. Suddenly, several crimson pinpoints of light appeared three hundred meters ahead—a few fire mosquitoes had spotted the approaching army.
"Ice Blade!"
A two-meter-long ice blade shot forward—only to miss completely. The mosquitoes didn't even need to dodge; the blade simply embedded itself in the rock wall far above them.
"Rookie, don't waste your magic."
"Yes… sorry."
Only then did Inanna notice that the Puji around her hadn't slowed down at all. They maintained perfect marching pace, completely ignoring the scouts.
The fire mosquitoes didn't press the attack either. As the expedition drew closer, they turned and fled, vanishing quickly into the darkness.
Watching them disappear, Inanna asked worriedly, "Won't they go back and report?"
"Of course they will."
"Even low-intelligence monsters have the instinct to defend their nest. We'll be facing a full swarm soon."
Inanna almost blurted out, *But aren't you a monster too…?*
"Then why let them escape?"
Because they weren't close enough to hit reliably, obviously.
"So we can wipe them all out in one go."
————
Deep inside the cavern, beneath a dome wreathed in swirling steam, hundreds of fire mosquitoes hovered around a central hot-spring pool, their buzzing deafening.
The insects required this geothermal pool for reproduction. Their larvae spent their entire early stage submerged, fed by adults. Destroy the pool, and the local population would collapse.
Naturally, the mosquitoes would defend their breeding ground with absolute ferocity.
When Inanna and the expedition finally reached the end of the passage, every glowing abdominal gland in the swarm flared bright orange—a clear warning signal.
Several nearby mosquitoes were the first to charge, wings beating furiously.
"Water Serpent!"
Inanna couldn't hold back. She cast first against the incoming threat.
This time was slightly better: she chose Water Serpent, which gave her some directional control, rather than a straight-line projectile like Ice Blade.
Unfortunately, the target was a fire mosquito with an evasion skill. The serpent grazed one insect, knocking it down a few meters before it recovered and wobbled back into the air.
Lin Jun mentally sighed at the sight.
*New recruit…*