Battle in the Swamp

Morning sunlight filtered through the wisteria curtains, weaving flecks of gold across the oak floor.

The girl curled up in the velvet cushions was still sleeping soundly.

"Mmm... so satisfying..."

Three crisp knocks woke the girl from her pleasant dream.

"Good morning, my lady." Butler Eric's voice came from beyond the door. "Your new magic tutor should be arriving shortly. Please make your preparations in advance."

Ever since Inanna had been found and brought back, Eric had obeyed the Duke's orders and served at her side full-time, arranging her daily life while ensuring her safety.

As for the Duke himself, the Hermit Empire's constant small-scale military provocations had forced him to remain at the border, unable to get away.

"Uncle Eric, I understand. I'll be there soon."

Once the footsteps had faded away, Inanna stretched and climbed out of bed, beginning to groom herself.

By custom, the Duke's Mansion had dedicated maids responsible for helping young ladies dress and groom themselves. Yet ever since Inanna had returned, she had insisted on handling everything herself.

Everyone guessed that this was because betrayal had made their young lady more cautious. The entire household deeply sympathized with what Inanna had suffered.

But that was not actually the case.

Inanna slipped a hand into her pink hair and felt around the back of her head—where an extremely tiny pink Mushroom Cap, the same color as her hair, had grown.

Inanna had not told anyone about either her experiences in the Dungeon or this mushroom.

The former was because of Linden's request. As for the latter, even she did not know why she wanted to hide it.

Perhaps because everyone would surely try to remove the tiny Mushroom Cap if she told them, while she wanted to keep it.

After putting up her hair, Inanna went to the window and basked in the warmth of the sun.

"What wonderful weather. I wonder what Linden is doing now. After I left, did he manage to take down an Earth Worm?"

Hahahaha!

That's right, blow them up! Blast those disgusting things to pieces!

In the Swamp Zone of the Fifth Floor, a war between Puji and Parasitic Trees was in full swing.

Over a hundred lightly equipped Pujis, without shells but equipped with [Evasion LV7], were fiercely exchanging fire with swarms of Parasitic Trees.

The more Linden fought them these past few days, the more frustrated he became. In the end, it all came down to the returns.

[Fusion Parasitism] was a decent skill. It could parasitize any humanoid creature made of flesh and blood.

Among the Parasitic Trees on the other side were a small number that used Gnolls as their tree stumps—the easiest kind to deal with.

The problem was that there was practically no difference between Level 1 and Level 10 for this skill!

It could only parasitize creatures on the verge of death, and the only benefit of leveling it up was being able to complete the parasitism when the creature was slightly less close to death.

It was practically no different whether it was leveled or not. Any target Linden wanted to parasitize would already have been captured by him. Couldn't he just beat it down to whatever health threshold he wanted? Did he need that tiny bonus?

So it provided absolutely no returns.

[Entangle] was the same—having it was enough, and higher levels were useless. When he fought, he relied on elegant artillery bombardment. He had no use for primitive tactics like Mycelium Tentacles.

In the end, only [Resilience] was somewhat useful. It made the mycelium tougher, naturally adding some defense for the Pujis while also making the Mycelium Tentacles sturdier.

It was useful, but not by much.

Yet the losses he had paid for those meager gains were enormous...

Over the past few days, Linden had encountered high-level Parasitized several times, and every encounter had caused him considerable losses.

Now, these Parasitic Trees looked like a pack of cockroaches in Linden's eyes—disgusting to look at, but something he had no choice but to crush to death. After all, he still needed to seize their swamp.

It had to be said, swamps really suited mushrooms.

The humidity and temperature were ideal, and more importantly, the swamp was rich in magic power!

This swamp seemed to exist solely for the creation of a Mushroom Garden. It only needed a little cleaning up.

After today's battle, he would occupy half of the swamp region. The progress was encouraging.

Watching the Parasitic Trees vanish into ashes beneath the Mushroom Cannons, Linden's main body deep within the swamp of the occupied territory trembled in satisfaction.

The Parasitic Trees also seemed to be shrinking back under the Pujis' ferocious assault.

Just when Linden thought this round of battle was about to end, a wildly spinning individual charged out from the Parasitic Tree ranks.

Its spinning roots alone shredded two Parasitic Trees standing in its way.

[Blade Storm LV8]?!

The parasitized individual was actually Level 45!

Come on, man, you were already a Gold Rank Adventurer. How did you still wipe out on the Fifth Floor?

Wasn't that embarrassing?

In truth, most melee skills became severely distorted and greatly weakened when used by Parasitic Trees.

But Blade Storm was clearly an exception.

Like a tornado, it rushed into the Pujis' ranks and instantly shredded the surrounding Pujis into mycelium that filled the sky.

The Pujis' Mushroom Cannon shots were all intercepted by the rapidly spinning roots, inflicting only minor, insignificant wounds.

And that was not all. A wave of magic rippled through the Parasitic Tree ranks, and two filthy-looking Water Elementals formed from mud and water in the swamp.

Summoning magic!?

This was only the second time Linden had seen summoning magic. The first had been with the Flame Demon, when it summoned several Puppets that seemed rather strong but ultimately had not accomplished much.

The summoner was hiding among the Parasitic Trees, making it impossible to tell which one it was.

Damn it!

The two Water Elementals were only Level 35, but each blast of water could send a large group of Pujis flying.

More importantly, they were summons. They could be summoned again after dying. Was he supposed to use Pujis to drain the summoner's mana?

The sudden appearance of two powerful opponents caught Linden completely off guard, while the other Parasitic Trees began counterattacking as well.

Tch.

Retreat!

Several Pujis attacked the Water Elementals and the Blade Storm Parasitic Tree, drawing their attention as they ran off in opposite directions and lured them away.

The remaining Pujis retreated at full speed.

Fortunately, the Parasitic Trees were not particularly intelligent. After eliminating the Pujis serving as bait and finding no other Pujis nearby, they returned to their slow-moving state.

When Linden counted the losses after the battle, only around forty of the hundred-plus Pujis he had deployed had returned. Half of the losses had been caused by that final ambush.

Worst of all, after losing the battle, he could not collect the Parasitic Tree remains to replenish what had been expended.

It was foreseeable that the next offensive would have to be postponed.

Those damned Parasitic Trees really did have some powerful cards up their sleeves!

Still, it did not matter. What was hidden was the true trump card. Now that they had exposed themselves, he naturally had ways to deal with them.

But Linden had also noticed a problem. Though his Pujis could easily evade single-target attacks thanks to their Evasion skill—

—they were useless against wide-area attacks like Blade Storm or water surges.

Their little stubby legs could not run fast, and they were easily caught and killed.

If only they had a speed-boosting skill, like the simple yet highly practical [Acceleration] used by the Werewolves on the Tenth Floor.

His own [Rolling Charge] did not count. Curling into a ball required preparation, returning to his original form also took time, and it was inconvenient to use other skills to attack while rolling.

He wondered whether this floor had any useful acceleration skills. While replenishing his Puji stock, he might as well explore the area.