In the pitch-black forest, Dylan held a torch and called out anxiously:
"Bella! Bella, where are you? Answer me!"
"Dad... Dad..."
A faint voice came through, and Dylan quickly followed the sound, pushing aside the bushes to find his daughter, covered in blood, leaning against a tree.
"Bella! How did you get so badly injured?
Bella, don't be afraid, Daddy's here, Daddy's here."
Tears streaming down his face, Dylan hugged his frail daughter tightly.
"Dad, I... I..."
"I'm here, I'm here, take your time."
"Dad," Bella wrapped her arms around Dylan's neck, opening her blood-red eyes, "I'm so hungry..."
Fangs pierced his neck, and Dylan's blood gushed out. Through blurred vision, he saw Bella swallowing his flesh and blood with tears in her eyes.
————
"Ah!"
Dylan woke up with a start, gasping for air.
It was a dream, thank goodness it was a dream...
Where... am I?
Dylan looked up and saw a Puki disdainfully moving away from him.
Demon... a mutated Puki...
He recalled the scene before he fainted. What about those parasitic trees?
Then Dylan noticed the remains of parasitic trees all around, mushrooms growing out of them.
At a glance, there were far more than the five that chased him.
Were these... all the work of these Pukis?
Dylan found it hard to believe that even a mutated Puki could kill so many parasitic trees.
Yet the hazy memory from before he fainted and the current scene seemed to be telling him it was true.
This is the hidden room, and he saw the opened stone treasure chest.
So, it was a Treasure Chest Room.
Perhaps the Pukis were the demons guarding the chest.
However, the Pukis around seemed to have no hostility towards him, and strangely he didn't feel uncomfortable either, as if it were meant to be this way... How strange...
Right, what about my wounds?
Dylan touched his abdomen; the wound was gone, but upon looking closely, a storm of emotions surged within him.
The wound had been filled with mycelium, and a small mushroom had even grown there...
He had seen this kind of phenomenon before, on those captured and parasitized by parasitic trees.
No wonder the mutated Pukis didn't attack him, and no wonder he felt a close connection to them—it turned out he was parasitized.
But his mind still felt clear, unlike those captured by parasitic trees who were completely restrained.
Before being fully controlled, he seemed to have a little time left.
He looked at the remnants of the parasitic trees, many seeds still hanging from them, and an audacious idea formed in his mind.
Dylan didn't care about his own life or whether he would be controlled by the parasite; he just wanted to get money to save his daughter. If his time was short, he'd entrust the task of saving her to the fat man.
What he needed now was to take the parasitic tree seeds back to the surface.
He crawled to the side of a parasitic tree, carefully picked a seed, and put it in his pocket.
Looking around, the Pukis didn't seem to care about his actions.
This reassured him, and he collected all the seeds in the room one by one.
It should be enough, definitely enough.
With the seeds in his arms, he went to the stone door, looked back once more, and everything with the Pukis seemed the same.
Truly... strange.
————
Watching Dylan disappear beyond the stone door, Lin Jun never exchanged a single word with him, not even though Dylan was currently intertwined with the Fungal Network.
Saving him was a matter of principle, not trust.
Dylan indeed was parasitized and was on the verge of losing control.
As long as Lin Jun wished, the mycelium inside Dylan could completely destroy his consciousness, turning him into a puppet-like existence.
But that would go against the original intention of saving him.
Let him be; having saved his life and gifted him tree seeds, Lin Jun had repaid the debt of opening the door. Whatever happens next is not his concern.
Speaking of which, this man risked so much for tree seeds; they must be valuable. Should I stockpile some too?
Perhaps it would be useful someday; even if decomposed directly, it would only yield a small amount of magic power.
During Dylan's unconsciousness, he had taken the Pukis out for a hunt, bringing back some fertilizer.
Along the way, he surveyed through the panel and basically confirmed that this was the fifth floor.
The teleportation array maze truly made no sense, directly sending him from the eighth floor to the fifth. Could there be arrays leading to the tenth floor or even the deep area?
Luckily, he hadn't encountered that, marking the eighth floor as extremely dangerous in his mind.
Now, Lin Jun was most concerned about choosing a site for the new Mushroom Garden.
Although this Treasure Chest Room had magic water, its supply wasn't much. Once the previous pool was used up, its value diminished greatly.
Moreover, he had somewhat understood the operation of this Underground City. It wasn't likely to allow him to keep the door open indefinitely; some mechanism might be triggered at any moment, and if he were inside then, it would be disastrous.
As for rushing out of the Underground City into the sunlight?
He wished, but he didn't dare.
The Underground City had only one exit, bound to be teeming with humans, possibly even skilled ones.
He didn't want to fall before dawn.
It's better to be safe, even if it takes a bit longer. With hope in sight, he could endure.
Regarding the new Mushroom Garden, he wanted a location both safe and convenient for hunting and skill acquisition.
In fact, he discovered that this swamp area was quite suitable.
The dangerous swamp terrain was not a preferred choice for adventurers, and even if they entered, they moved slowly.
Yet for the lightly armored Pukis without shells, the pervasive swamp was little different from solid ground.
If the Mushroom Garden were in the swamp, his true form could hide beneath, which was quite a secure method.
It's just that the local inhabitants were a bit of a nuisance.
When beginning to eliminate those five parasitic trees, Lin Jun hadn't paid them much mind, but a fierce battle awaited him when he ventured outside.
These parasitic trees loved to gang up, a truly shameless tactic.
They had a variety of skills and magic of varying levels.
Lin Jun encountered a parasitic tree hosted by a Level 36 Mage, not checking the panel first and suffered a bit, losing a few Pukis.
Before, who would've thought such high-level mages would fall here...
It seemed there might be numerous powerful figures parasitized throughout the swamp. If there's one at level fifty or beyond... there shouldn't be, right...
More crucially, the gains from fighting these parasitic trees were low, the most important point.
The skills the parasitic trees possessed were simple, just Fusion Parasite, Entanglement, Resilience plus some resistances.
The truly formidable moves came from the varied and strange techniques of the hosts.
But Lin Jun tried, decomposing these parasitized shells, and couldn't gain any skills, nor much magic, as though they had been drained.
Solely for the parasitic tree's few skills, battling them was hardly worth the effort compared to the rewards.
But if considering his need to seize territory for a new Mushroom Garden, it seemed barely acceptable.
Thinking it over, Lin Jun decided on the swamp area.
The goal set, once he produced another batch of Pukis adapted to the swamp terrain, he would begin his strategy!