Magic Crystal

Both sides of the Mushroom Garden bordered rock walls, like the bones of some giant beast that had been gnawed clean. The dark gray rock layers were riddled with honeycomb-like erosion holes.

Dark purple Crystal Clusters had formed in some of the depressions, scattered across the walls. Around these amethysts, the concentration of mana was always a little higher than elsewhere.

The mining area existed to collect these amethysts.

Though planting this purple crystal in the soil would not directly turn it into fertilizer, it could draw in the free mana from the surrounding air, improving the Mycelium's efficiency in gathering mana.

Many Pujis in the mining area had been fitted with the Chitin Shell skill. They grew a thick layer of armor over their Mushroom Caps, then used it to chisel crystals out of the rock walls.

Honestly, with the skill only at level 4, the shells were not hard enough and mining efficiency was quite low. Pujis could even shake themselves to death, but given their limited conditions, extracting anything at all was already decent.

Inanna had her eyes fixed on a fist-sized amethyst that had just been mined, gripping it tightly with her little stubby legs.

"What are you doing?"

"L-Linden?"

The pink Puji jolted violently and tripped over the amethyst beneath her feet, taking a hard tumble.

"Don't suddenly talk inside my head..."

"Do we have any other way to communicate? Get used to it."

After thinking about it, Inanna realized that was true. Still, she felt she might never get used to someone being able to speak in her head anytime, anywhere...

"You have so many Magic Crystals here." Having picked the amethyst back up, Inanna could not hide the excitement in her voice.

"Magic Crystals? You mean these amethysts used to fertilize the fields?"

"F-Fertilize the fields?"

A green-capped Puji hopped over and flipped open the Mushroom Cap of a Big Mushroom nearby with its short legs. Beneath it sat half an amethyst embedded in the soil.

"Y-You... you're using Magic Crystals to fertilize fields?"

"What else would I use them for?"

"These are Magic Crystals! Magic Crystals that can be used to make magical items, serve as the foundation of magic arrays, and even be used as casting materials when broken into small pieces! How can you use them to fertilize fields?"

Inanna looked utterly heartbroken, as though Linden were committing an unforgivable waste.

"Did you forget this is a Dungeon? Still, they do have other uses besides fertilizing fields."

A tentacle woven from Mycelium extended from beneath the mushroom and activated [Entangle LV3], wrapping around a palm-sized amethyst and binding the Puji and Magic Crystal together.

Then a steady stream of mana flowed into the Magic Crystal. The crystal went from dull to lustrous, then from lustrous to sparkling. The excessive mana filling it left the entire Magic Crystal in an overloaded state.

Once cracks appeared in the Magic Crystal and it let out a mournful cry under the strain, the Puji carried it as it frantically bounced toward an open patch of ground.

Bang—

It exploded.

The shockwave of the blast knocked Inanna over again.

"Pretty powerful, right? This thing works great against Monsters."

Rolling across the ground, Inanna no longer knew what to say.

A C-Rank Magic Crystal, which could become the primary material for a Silver-Rank Adventurer's staff with only a little processing, had been used before her eyes as a disposable item to unleash an explosion comparable to a level 4 Flame Burst.

Not even the most ignorant nouveau riche in the Federation would waste such precious magical materials like this!

Even the Magic Crystal set into her own personal wand was only B-Rank.

"Oh, right. You still haven't told me what you need Magic Crystals for."

The sudden return to the subject caught Inanna off guard while she was still cursing Linden's extravagance in her heart, and she blurted out her purpose.

"I-I want to use them to cast spells."

After saying that, Inanna grew nervous again. She did not know whether Linden would see her ability to cast spells as a threat. If he thought she was dangerous, then her little life might be...

"Oh? Didn't you say you couldn't cast spells after becoming a Puji?"

Linden seemed not to have considered the matter of threats at all. His tone was filled only with curiosity.

Secretly relieved, Inanna hurriedly explained, "I'm just trying it. Casting through a Magic Crystal might let me bypass the limitations of a Puji's body."

"Then try it."

Another tentacle extended from beneath the mushroom, curled around the Magic Crystal beside Inanna, and reached toward her.

Inanna instinctively backed away two steps, but the tentacle still wrapped around her and bound the Magic Crystal atop her Mushroom Cap.

"Be careful. These tentacles are fragile, so don't break them."

After all, it was a stolen skill, and forcing it through Mycelium meant he could not expect it to bind things securely.

Hearing that, Inanna did not dare move carelessly. She focused all her attention on casting—Minor Glow, a spell even an apprentice could easily cast.

An orange-yellow ball of light appeared above Inanna's head, flickering brightly and dimly as though the mana sustaining it was unstable.

After flickering for a while, Inanna seemed to find the trick, and its brightness finally stabilized.

"It worked! I really can do it!"

Inanna was so excited that she actually began hopping in place on her stubby legs.

Snap—

The bound tentacle instantly broke. The Magic Crystal fell to the ground, and Minor Glow went out with it—the Mycelium Tentacles truly were extremely fragile.

"S-Sorry..."

Linden did not care at all about the Mycelium that had been lost. All of his attention was focused on Inanna's spellcasting.

"Try casting it again now."

"I can't cast it without a Magic Crystal."

"It doesn't matter if you fail. Cast it. Let me see what's different."

See?

Inanna did not quite understand what Linden meant, but she still tried to cast Minor Glow on her own.

Then, without surprise, she failed, just as she had countless times before.

But Linden, who had been observing her all along, saw more.

[Mana Perception LV4]

He had taken it from a type of Demon Vine called Noctis Whisker that had originally lived in this part of the Mushroom Garden. They used Mana Perception to find prey, then strangled it with their vines. It was worth mentioning that the Entangle skill had also come from them.

Although these magical plants were not low-level, they could not move, so to Linden they were no different from food on a plate. They had now gone extinct in this area.

Linden regretted that somewhat. Both of Noctis Whisker's skills were quite useful, but back then, he had been focused solely on claiming territory and had not thought that far ahead. Otherwise, he could have kept some to breed, like the Rolling Beetles and Slimes in the breeding area, raising and periodically slaughtering them to extract skill proficiency.

Through Mana Vision, Linden observed that the flow of mana during Inanna's casting was indeed smooth in its initial stages. Yet the energy stalled at every Node, never forming a complete circuit, as though her method of casting was wrong.

But Inanna had just cast Minor Glow with the help of a Magic Crystal, so naturally her casting method could not be wrong.

To Linden, it seemed more like a result of the difference in body structure between humans and Pujis—simply put, the hardware and system did not match, so it could not run.

The Magic Crystal, meanwhile, was an independent environment that could better accommodate the way these spells functioned.

It felt somewhat similar to how his Pujis could only use their corresponding skills after he modified them.

"Can you use other magic now?"

Linden knew that she was a level 4 dual-element Mage, and he wanted to see more spells.

"Uh, I'll probably need more practice. I'm still not familiar with channeling mana through a Puji's body, and this Magic Crystal hasn't been polished. Some cloudy areas inside it will interfere with spellcasting too. I need to get used to it."

"Cloudy? So the purer a Magic Crystal is, the better?"

Linden truly had no idea about that. He only knew that planting them in the soil could gather mana. He had assumed the differences in effect were due to size. As for using them to Self-Destruct... purity did not seem to make a difference.

"Of course. They say the staff of Archmage Zorya is set with a completely pure S-Rank Magic Crystal. Any spell cast through that wand becomes three times as powerful!"

"S-Rank? They have ranks too... Wait here."

Before long, amid Inanna's confusion, two Pujis arrived before her together, carrying a massive, crystal-clear Magic Crystal.

"An A-A-Rank Magic Crystal? And it's as big as an arm!?"