Dylan went to distribute the "strategy guide", while Lin Jun was also keeping busy.
The research on [Fusion Parasite] was almost done, and it was time to get rid of those low-cost gnolls.
With the recent friction with adventurers, almost no adventurers below Silver Level casually ventured to the fifth floor.
Only a few advanced adventurers would come, and their sole purpose was to go deeper.
For those people, as long as they didn't plan to cross the Swamp Area, Lin Jun instructed the Pukis to stay clear.
Since Lin Jun had already let the mycelium and mushrooms gradually grow everywhere, he could completely detect them in advance and avoid them.
With the Silver Level adventurers not coming to the fifth floor, the cave naturally emptied out.
The Crystalized Bats and Rock Lizards living there during this period were the happiest, without those annoying adventurers, they could search for food everywhere in the cave.
However, their joy was premature; Lin Jun brought the gnolls and Pukis along.
As for the Rock Lizards, their Rock Armor was too heavy, the Pukis would only serve as fixed artillery.
The Crystal Symbiosis skill of the Crystalized Bats was quite something.
They could consume Demon Crystals, convert them inside their bodies, and eventually become part of them, enhancing their Skill Power.
If it were merely about attaching Demon Crystals to themselves, it wouldn't be anything special.
Lin Jun wasn't in much need of firepower, after all, if one Mushroom Cannon shot couldn't solve it, ten shots should do the trick; there were plenty of Pukis.
But its hidden feature was actually purification!
Lin Jun realized this when he saw the Demon Crystal wings of many Crystalized Bats were of a higher quality than those mined in the cave.
Of course, it was only from D to C-grade purification.
This was just because these Crystalized Bats had low Skill Levels, mostly only 3 to 4, completely unable to showcase the true potential of the skill.
If the skill level were high enough, could Lin Jun use a large number of low-tier Demon Crystals to stack and produce a big S Level Demon Crystal?
Lin Jun wasn't sure if it could be done, but it was worth trying!
The gnolls and Pukis swarmed into the cave, and the demons visibly sensed the threat and became agitated.
They were just demons similar in level to Fire Mosquitoes, completely beneath Lin Jun's notice.
The Pukis neatly executed a round of bombardment, and after a resonance that lingered without pause, nothing remained.
The Crystalized Bats were gone, the Rock Lizards were gone, even the cave entrance was gone...
Huh?
So fragile?
I remember when in the Deep Area... Wait...
The caves and tunnels in the Deep Area were dug by Earth Worms, which, when digging, emitted the rock they consumed back to reinforce the rock walls.
So the Pukis didn't have to worry too much about collapse there.
Lin Jun had forgotten that on the fifth floor, this was how a typical cave ought to be...
Fortunately, the collapse wasn't complete, and after half a day of clearing, the gnolls finally managed to dig out the entrance again.
Now what to do?
The pride-inducing Mushroom Cannon couldn't be used, and self-destruction was probably also out of the question.
Though Lin Jun had recently acquired many skills from adventurers, their levels were quite low and not very useful.
Do I really have to rely on these dozens of gnolls?
Without the Mushroom Cannon, these useless gnolls couldn't even breach the Rock Lizards' armor, not something to count on.
Great, the cave exploration plan had just started and was already in a dire situation.
No choice but to pull out his panel and find inspiration among the miscellaneous skills.
Magic?
Thanks to the adventurers' contributions, now I have enough Magic Manipulation, but spells require learning, and where could he go to learn them?
So that's a no.
Use the shell and Rolling Charge?
Thinking about the layer of rock armor the Rock Lizards had, better not.
Slime's Digestive Mucus or the strong acid skill obtained recently?
Effective against bats, but probably useless against rock armor.
Come to think of it, it's the Rock Lizard, a turtle-like creature, that's hardest to deal with.
Do they consume poison?
With both crystal and rock elements in their names, they seemed so inorganic that Lin Jun instinctively didn't consider poison.
That was partly because Lin Jun hadn't fought with poison in a long time.
Once the thought crossed his mind, Lin Jun hurried to produce a few Hallucinogenic Pukis, which spewed spores when they entered.
Very soon, the cave took on a purple hue.
In the narrow cave, the spores wouldn't easily disperse, and the Crystalized Bats fell from the ceiling one by one, while the Rock Lizards quickly lay still on the ground.
They really were susceptible to poison!
Using poison was even simpler than my initial all-out assault plan.
Dragged them out and made them the first batch of fertilizer.
[Seven Sins of Greed triggered]
[Plunder Skill: Crystal Symbiosis LV1]
[Plunder Skill: Infrasound Attack LV1]
[Plunder Skill: Sound Wave Detection LV1]
[Plunder Skill: Rock Eating LV1]
...
Too bad the cave was full of complex pathways, with unknown depth.
A few Hallucinogenic Pukis wouldn't be enough to complete the job.
Lin Jun could only wait for a large number of Hallucinogenic Pukis to be produced before continuing.
In the end, the gnolls didn't have much of a role!
They were such a waste that even consuming them wasn't easy...
Lin Jun had his reasons for wanting to use them up.
After being parasitized, these gnolls were covered in mushrooms; anyone who saw them would associate them with Pukis.
The Pukis occupying a floor was enough to draw hatred; how disastrous would it be if someone found out they could parasitize and control humans like the Parasitic Tree?
So Lin Jun was actually destroying evidence.
And if push came to shove... simply disassemble them...
Too bad, only magic power could be extracted, like those controlled by the Parasitic Tree; creatures completely parasitized by Lin Jun couldn't yield skills upon decomposition.
The principle behind this was something Lin Jun hadn't figured out yet.
Lin Jun was used to this; there were plenty of things in the Underground City he didn't understand.
For instance, who set the "rules" on each floor of the Underground City?
How did the Underground City manage to remove entire hidden rooms?
Lin Jun hadn't detected any abnormality when the stone door in the Swamp disappeared.
He now suspected that hidden room and Treasure Chest refreshes happened simultaneously; last time, he might have been transported along with the hidden room.
And he didn't realize it at all inside.
Lin Jun felt he needed to find a way to learn more about the "Underground City".
Wait until Dylan returns and ask if he has any ideas.
————
The guest room door was gently knocked, and outside, the voice of the young adventurer Vera, who had once met the masked Dylan, came through:
"Fei Ling, Fei Yin, are you in there?"
The twin sisters inside the room, dressed only in their underwear, exchanged glances and hurriedly put on clothes before allowing Vera inside.
"What's up so late?"
Elder sister Fei Ling wore a look as if saying, "You'd better have a good reason, or else."
Vera, seeming oblivious, excitedly handed a piece of notepaper to Fei Ling.
"The latest strategy for the fifth floor?" Fei Ling skimmed through it with a peculiar look, "Isn't it a bit too detailed? Where did you get this from?"
"I bought it from an adventurer named Dylan for 50 silver coins. He even said we were kindred spirits and gave me special intel at the end."
"50 silver coins!?" Fei Ling's voice shot up, almost distorted, kindred spirits? It sounded like a scam to her, "So expensive! You didn't get scammed again, did you?"
Some not-so-pleasant memories of her childhood friend surfaced in Fei Ling's mind, and she was already thinking of hitting Vera...
Vera, knowing what Fei Ling was referring to, quickly explained:
"I asked the innkeeper, he knows this Dylan, who's been an adventurer here long ago.
He has good character and had retired for a while, but recently took up adventuring again.
Overall, there's some credibility to it.
The key is this information on the strategy guide; if it's true, 50 silver coins are absolutely worth it."
Fei Ling pouted as she perused the "strategy guide" in her hand. It was a done deal, so what could she do?
If it turned out to be false information, she would definitely hang Vera up for a good thrashing.
While Vera and Fei Ling played their part as a comedic duo, the other twin, Fei Yin, quietly observed like a little invisible person.
Among the three, she never opposed anything, whatever the two of them said was fine with her.