Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

"Mushroom Lord, I was wrong! I was wrong! Brother Lu, save me..."

After a long time, a few Puki relinquished their tentacles and released the half of No. 1 who forgot to place the Memory Crystal in the secret room.

The remaining half of No. 1 was scattered all over Xiao Lv’s bark.

Sunbathing, Xiao Lv remained motionless, just like an ordinary giant tree.

After dealing with the useless No. 1, Lin Jun began to assess the current Tree Men.

With the help of Divine Wood Old Deng’s secret formula, the Tree Men seemed to have broken free from previous growth limits, now each standing at least thirty to forty meters tall, with some reaching over sixty meters.

Of course, they also shared the common flaw of gigantic creatures—slowness.

So far, only the Giant Dragon maintains both a colossal size and agile nimbleness.

Compared to giant Puki, the Tree Men have an advantage in power attributes.

The role of giant Puki primarily serves as a self-destructive meat shield, and for melee combat, they swing tentacles to deal damage through weight and inertia.

Whereas the attack of these giant Tree Men... truly can make a pit with one smash!

Of course, there are also drawbacks.

The relationship between mycelium and Tree Men is genuine symbiosis. Although they’ve been integrated into the Fungal Network, the limitation of not being flesh and blood beings means they can’t be endowed with skills.

Therefore, the skills on Tree Men are all primitive.

Their biggest weakness is [Magic Storage].

To move such vast bodies consumes vast amounts of magic, similar to the Migratory Trees of the Divine Wood Dungeon, moving periodically rather than constantly, and with low-level [Magic Storage] they need long rests before they can move again.

The mycelium symbiotic on the Tree Men helps shorten their charging time to some extent, but they still can’t move without restriction like giant Puki with full-level [Magic Storage] and a fast-charging Fungal Mat.

However, Lin Jun never really hoped these giant Tree Men would fight for them; Lin Jun had a different role for them—a mobile signal extender.

These giant Tree Men symbiotically host a lot of mycelium beneath their bark; peeling the bark and laying it flat can almost become a functional Fungal Mat!

Lin Jun’s Fungal Mat can maintain a signal even when not connected, only with signal delay over distance.

Lin Jun only needed to place a Tree Man every few hundred meters on standby to temporarily set up a signal path in areas lacking a Fungal Mat.

Though this leads to severe delay, it’s better than having no Fungal Mat signal at all.

In the future, if they need to attack the Empire, the evil Demon King controlling the Slime will not let Lin Jun lay the Fungal Mat over unoccupied regions.

In that scenario, fighting without the Fungal Mat becomes an inevitable challenge for the Fungus Castle, and they’ll have to rely on these giant Tree Men.

After checking the growth of the Tree Men, Lin Jun, even though short on Demon Crystals after buying a Giant Dragon from the Dwarves, squeezed out a batch of A Level Demon Crystals for Xiao Lv from storage.

On the other side, at the Elf Council.

...

The dome of the Elf Council is woven from ancient tree vines, and specks of light through the leaves scatter on the circular stone seats like scattered gold.

Participants gradually took their seats, robes rustling, occasionally whispering a few words to familiar others.

Eco walked in from the side door, hair casually tied at the back with a vine, absent the usual round guest on his head.

"Lord Eco," Salian leaned slightly from beside him, her gaze scanning his barren head, "why didn’t you bring that Mushroom Race today?"

"I don’t know, No. 1 might have gone off to play with those Tree Men again. That’s fine too," Eco said, touching the top of his head, "always having it sit there, it feels like I’ve lost quite a bit of hair."

A few Elves nearby chuckled softly, some shook their heads.

But the voices soon ceased—the Elf Queen Galadriel had arrived.

She wore the traditional dark green robe of the Elf Queen, with a high collar emphasizing her long neck, a sheer green cape as thin as cicada wings draped over her shoulders, gleaming with ripple-like luminosity as she moved.

However, such a dignified and elegant outfit couldn’t hide the direction of everyone’s gaze.

Their gaze dropped to a strap tied to her wrist.

The strap’s material was fine and tough, glowing faintly silver-gray, with runes faintly flowing on the surface, one end clinging to the Queen’s pale wrist bone, the other disappeared outside the door.

Eco squinted, recognizing the object.

It was the type of restraining magic item equipped by his Forest Patrol, only Galadriel’s was more advanced.

Such a magic item shouldn’t appear here, and besides Eco, the other Elves in the council hall noticed too.

Some whispered among themselves, others frowned slightly, while most kept their gaze on the door, curious about what the strap’s end was attached to.

Then, they saw a very abstract Puki being dragged in.

Nowadays, the Elf Forest was filled with Puki.

The Elves had encountered many different kinds of mutated Puki, but this odd one was a first!

This Puki had uneven contours, mismatched markings on its mushroom cap...

Eco even noticed that one of the Puki’s two feet was oriented wrongly—Puki’s feet are round, and if Eco wasn’t used to seeing No. 1, this might have gone unnoticed.

It looked like it had been cut into pieces and forcefully glued back with mucus.

If it didn’t occasionally twitch, the Elves might have thought it was dead.

Galadriel collected the strap, and once she dragged the Picasso-like Puki to her feet, she casually began discussing the agenda on establishing diplomatic relations with the Fungus Castle.

The Elves, full of doubts, seemed distracted during the discussion.

After the discussion ended, Galadriel dragged the strange Puki away, from start to finish refusing to explain to the other Elves.

After she left, only then did the others start inquiring among themselves.

...

The Sword Saint found he underestimated the Puki body’s ability to revive—no matter how it’s rearranged, it survives?!

Galadriel was adamant, afraid the Sword Saint Puki would escape when she wasn’t around. She even felt the need to drag him to meetings, only stopping short of taking him to the bathroom...

"Galadriel, enough is enough, this is pointless."

At these words, the Elf Queen held the Sword Saint Puki up to her eyes: "What’s pointless?"

Elvyn twitched its two differently facing short legs: "I’m already a mushroom, there won’t be a future for us!"

"Who said I still want you as my partner?" Galadriel tossed the Sword Saint Puki to the ground, tightened the strap in her hand, and looked down at him, "From now on, you’re my pet. This is the punishment you deserve for being a fraud!"

The Sword Saint Puki was silent for a few seconds before violently breaking free from the restraint, sprinting away before Galadriel could react.

[Stepping on the Moon]!

Two paths of moonlight spread beneath its feet, one forward, one backward, doing a split.

?!

Without giving the Sword Saint time to be confused, a ripping sound followed as its already unstable mushroom body was torn in half.

Galadriel looked at the Sword Saint’s body, not rushing to reassemble it this time... she needed to find a more reliable rope first.