The Deep Zone's Caves Were Better After All

Dylan went off to spread the "guide," while Linden kept himself busy as well.

His research into [Fusion Parasitism] was more or less complete. It was time to use up these extremely cost-inefficient gnolls.

As his clashes with Adventurers continued during this period, almost no Adventurers below Silver Rank casually came to the Fifth Floor anymore.

The few who did come were high-level Adventurers, and their only goal was to head deeper.

As long as they did not intend to cross the Swamp Zone, Linden had the Pujis hide from them.

Since Linden had gradually spread mycelium and mushrooms everywhere, he could spot them in advance and avoid them entirely.

With Silver-Rank Adventurers no longer coming to the Fifth Floor, the Cave naturally became deserted.

The Crystallized Bats and Rock Lizards living there had been having the time of their lives. Without those annoying Adventurers, they could search the entire Cave for food.

But they had celebrated too soon. Linden arrived with the gnolls and Pujis.

The Rock Lizards could be set aside for now. Their Rock Armor was too heavy; if Pujis wore it, they would probably only be able to serve as stationary turrets.

The Crystallized Bats' [Crystal Symbiosis] skill was a good thing.

It could consume Magic Crystals, transform them within the body, and ultimately make them part of the Crystallized Bat, helping strengthen its skills.

If it merely allowed Magic Crystals to be attached to its body, that would not have been anything special.

Linden was not particularly short on firepower anyway. If one Mushroom Cannon blast could not solve the problem, then he could fire ten. He had as many Pujis as he needed.

But its hidden effect was actually purification!

Linden had only realized this after noticing that the Magic Crystals on many Crystallized Bats' wings were a whole grade higher than those mined from the Cave.

Of course, they could only be purified from D-rank to C-rank.

But that was only because the Crystallized Bats' skill levels were too low, generally only Level 3 or 4, completely incapable of showing this skill's true potential.

If the skill level was high enough, could Linden pile up a large S-Rank Magic Crystal using huge quantities of low-tier Magic Crystals that were otherwise not very useful?

Linden was not sure whether it would work, but it was worth trying!

The gnolls and Pujis surged into the Cave in a mighty tide. The Monsters clearly sensed the threat and stirred uneasily.

They were merely Monsters on par with Fire Mosquitoes. Linden did not take them seriously at all.

The Pujis launched a clean, decisive volley. After the prolonged tremors finally ceased, nothing remained.

The Crystallized Bats were gone, the Rock Lizards were gone, even the Cave entrance was gone...

Huh?

It was that fragile?

Back when he had been in the Deep Zone... no...

The Caves and tunnels in the Deep Zone had all been dug by Earth Worms. When Earth Worms dug, they expelled the stones they had eaten around their bodies to reinforce the rock walls.

That was why the Pujis could bombard the place as much as they wanted without worrying too much about collapses.

It had made Linden forget that Caves like those on the Fifth Floor were the normal kind...

Fortunately, the collapse had not been complete. After the gnolls spent half the day clearing debris, they finally dug the entrance back out.

What now?

His prized Mushroom Cannons could not be used, and Self-Destruct presumably could not be used either.

He had acquired quite a few skills from Adventurers lately, but their levels were all too low to be useful.

Was he really going to have to rely on these few dozen gnolls?

Without Mushroom Cannons, these useless gnolls would struggle even to cut through a Rock Lizard's shell. They were hopeless.

Wonderful. The Cave conquest plan had fallen into a dead end before it had even properly begun.

With no other choice, Linden opened his Panel and searched through the chaotic pile of skills for Inspiration.

Magic?

Thanks to the Adventurers' contributions, he had now gathered enough Mana Manipulation skills. But spells had to be learned, and where was he supposed to learn them?

So that was no good.

What about using shells with Rolling Charge?

After thinking about the Rock Lizards' stone shells, he decided against it.

Slime Digestive Mucus, or the Strong Acid skill he had acquired recently?

They would work on bats, but probably not on stone shells.

After thinking it over, Rock Lizards with their Turtle-like style were actually the hardest to deal with.

Come to think of it, were they susceptible to poison?

With names like crystallized and rock, they sounded like inorganic matter, making Linden instinctively overlook poison.

That was also because Linden had not fought with poison in a long time.

The moment he thought of it, he acted. Linden sped up the production of several Hallucination Pujis and sent them inside, spraying spores.

Before long, the Cave was dyed with a purple filter.

The spores were not easily dispersed in the narrow Cave. Crystallized Bats began falling from the ceiling one after another, while the Rock Lizards quickly collapsed onto the ground without moving.

They really were susceptible to poison!

Using poison was even easier than his original plan of forcefully attacking them.

He dragged them out and turned them into the first batch of fertilizer.

[Seven Sins: Greed activated]

[Plunder Skill: Crystal Symbiosis LV1]

[Plunder Skill: Infrasonic Attack LV1]

[Plunder Skill: Sonic Detection LV1]

[Plunder Skill: Rock Eating LV1]

...

Unfortunately, the Cave branched in every direction, and he had no idea how deep it was.

A few Hallucination Pujis could not clear it out.

Linden could only wait until a large batch of Hallucination Pujis had been produced before continuing.

In the end, there was nothing for these gnolls to do!

They were so useless that even using them up was difficult...

Linden had his reasons for being so eager to get rid of them.

After being parasitized, these gnolls were covered in mushrooms. Who would not associate that with Pujis?

It was already enough to draw hatred by having Pujis occupy an entire floor. If people discovered that they could parasitize and control humans like a Parasitic Tree, that would be disastrous.

So Linden was actually destroying the evidence.

If it came down to it... he could just break them down...

Unfortunately, that would only yield some mana. Like the people controlled by the Parasitic Tree, creatures completely parasitized by Linden could not be broken down into skills.

Linden still had not figured out the reason behind it.

He had grown used to that. There were far too many things in this Dungeon that he could not understand.

For example, who set the "rules" governing the stairways between Dungeon floors?

For example, how did the Dungeon move an entire Hidden Room away?

When the stone door in the swamp disappeared, Linden had not noticed anything unusual at all.

He now strongly suspected that Hidden Rooms and treasure chests refreshed at the same time. Last time, he had probably been moved along with the Hidden Room.

Yet he had not noticed it while inside.

Linden felt that he needed to find a way to learn more about the "Dungeon."

He would ask Dylan whether he knew a way once he returned.

There was a gentle knock on the guest room door, followed by the voice of Vera, the young Adventurer who had met the disguised Dylan once.

"Feiling, Feiyin, are you in there?"

The twin sisters, wearing only their underwear, exchanged a glance and hurriedly got dressed before letting Vera in.

"It's so late. What is it?"

The older sister, Feiling, wore an expression that clearly said, "You'd better have a good reason for this."

As if she had not noticed at all, Vera excitedly handed a sheet of notes to Feiling.

"The latest guide for the Fifth Floor?" Feiling skimmed through it, her expression turning strange. "Isn't this a little too detailed? Where did you get it?"

"I bought it from an Adventurer named Dylan for fifty silver coins. He also said we got along well and gave me some special information at the end for free."

"Fifty silver coins!?" Feiling's voice rose so sharply it nearly cracked. The more she listened to Vera, the more it sounded like a scam. "That expensive? You didn't get swindled again, did you?"

Some not-so-pleasant memories involving her childhood friend surfaced in Feiling's mind. She was already starting to feel like whipping Vera...

Vera knew exactly what Feiling meant and hurriedly explained.

"I asked the tavern owner. He knows this Dylan. He has been an Adventurer around here for a long time.

"His character is decent. He retired for a while, but it seems he recently returned to the trade.

"Overall, he has a certain degree of credibility.

"The important thing is the information in this guide. If it's true, fifty silver coins is absolutely worth it."

Feiling pursed her lips as she looked at the "guide" in her hand. It was already a done deal, so what could she do?

If it turned out to be false information, she would definitely hang Vera up and whip her.

While Vera and Feiling played out their bickering routine, the other twin, Feiyin, quietly watched like she barely existed.

Of the three, she was always the one who never objected. Whatever the other two said went.