The Pujis were fully prepared.
Filling the mana of every Puji (including Inanna) to maximum not only consumed all the mana obtained from decomposing the Fire Mosquitoes, but also completely emptied their original reserves.
This meant that natural mana recovery would no longer be able to keep up. In other words, this batch of Pujis would not get a second refill opportunity.
Today was the day of the Earth Worm hunting operation.
Four hundred Pujis gathered together was a spectacular sight. Most of them were Turret Pujis.
The Earth Worm was not only massive in size, but its outer layer was also covered with a thick rocky shell. Neither hallucinogenic spores nor digestive slime had any effect on it.
As for armored Pujis, there was no need to consider them at all. Against a heavyweight existence like the Earth Worm, even a grazing hit meant instant death, armor or not.
To defeat such a monster, Lin Jun could only choose pure damage output.
Of course, he still had a plan.
These insects that burrowed underground all day fed on various minerals, and their favorite delicacy was naturally the specialty of the Amethyst Dungeon — Magic Crystals.
And Lin Jun just happened to know how to detonate magic crystals.
Among the team, Lin Jun specially prepared 10 special Pujis.
Their hollow bellies were stuffed full of magic crystals, and they were also equipped with Mana Storage as the trigger for detonation.
For this hunt, Lin Jun had taken out all his savings.
All the magic crystals that were originally buried in the Mushroom Garden to accelerate mana collection were dug out, directly cutting the garden's natural mana income by half.
These magic crystals were both bait to lure the Earth Worm and the first heavy blow to smash its head.
As for what came after that — that would depend on Miss Inanna's Mud Swamp spell.
"…Are we really going…?"
Her pink mushroom cap trembled slightly. Fighting an Earth Worm with a level gap of at least 15 gave her absolutely no sense of security.
"Rookie, I remember the commission fee has already been paid to you, right?"
Inanna felt the huge A-rank magic crystal on her head. The words to quit got stuck in her throat.
It was too good.
Not only did it allow her to cast spells in Puji form, but the spell power was almost doubled.
The amplification effect was nowhere near comparable to her previous small B-rank crystal.
"If the situation really turns bad, I allow you to run. I won't take the crystal back either," Lin Jun said at the right time.
Although Inanna wanted to say that with her short legs she might not even be able to escape, she thought again — having permission to run was better than none.
The pink mushroom cap nodded. Agreement reached.
Allowing her to escape wasn't because Lin Jun was kind. It was simply that if things became impossible, there was no need for her to die for nothing.
After the Fire Mosquito nest battle, Lin Jun realized that magic was extremely useful.
Pujis could be reproduced. Magic crystals could be mined again.
But if Inanna died, where would he find another obedient, spell-casting mage?
This journey was much longer than the Fire Mosquito expedition. Inanna even felt they deliberately took many detours.
But along the way, they encountered almost no obstacles. They only ran into a black-and-white giant spider, which Inanna beheaded with a tracking Ice Blade.
The destination was a collapsed cavern.
It could no longer even be called a cavern.
The entire space was filled with countless tunnels left by Earth Worms. Calling it "leaky on all sides" would be an understatement.
After observing, Lin Jun found that more tunnels had appeared compared to last time.
They placed the suicide Pujis and magic crystals on a relatively intact patch of ground. The other Turret Pujis spread around the shattered cavern.
Lin Jun kept Inanna at the edge of the tunnel they came from.
When he slowly injected mana into the magic crystals, the violent mana fluctuations made even Lin Jun feel greedy.
Inanna knew the plan too, and looking at the pile of crystals, she felt heartache.
Boss Lin Jun was truly wasteful — he even used A-rank crystals as explosives.
Even though they weren't as big as hers, they were still A-rank crystals!
This pile of crystals outside could hire a diamond team to kill ten Earth Worms — and here they were just being used to blow up one.
A true waste of heavenly treasures.
After the mana fluctuations spread, Earth Worms didn't appear immediately. Instead, other monsters came first.
Black-white spiders, and some grotesque monsters with sharp teeth.
But they were all blown apart by the surrounding Turret Pujis without causing any trouble.
What surprised Lin Jun was that he even saw a LV35 Minotaur.
This was his first time encountering such a classic monster.
The creature was clearly intelligent — after seeing the formation from afar, it immediately retreated.
If it were any other time, Lin Jun would have tried to communicate. After all, intelligent monsters might coexist peacefully.
But today — forget it.
Finally—
A continuous tremor came from underground.
The rubble near Inanna's feet shook violently. Some new tunnel entrances began collapsing.
A very unlucky Puji was crushed into a puddle of mycelium by falling rocks before the battle even began — becoming the first fallen mushroom of the operation.
"It's coming! It's coming! When do I cast? Should I use Mud Swamp now?!"
Inanna got nervous again.
"Stay calm, Inanna. I'll tell you when. Don't panic."
Lin Jun tried to calm her, but he didn't realize that his own voice was trembling with excitement beneath the controlled tone.
They didn't wait long.
The ground on one side of the cavern collapsed violently, and a giant worm burst out.
20 Pujis disappeared into its huge mouth instantly.
[Level: LV49]
It was Lin Jun's target —
The Earth Worm!
"Here it comes!"
The Earth Worm twisted in midair and charged straight toward the magic crystals.
No Pujis fired.
Lin Jun even stopped Inanna from instinctively casting.
Not yet. Still not time.
Mana poured into the crystals like crazy. The fluctuations became more and more violent.
Just as they reached the peak—
The giant mouth fell down, swallowing the ten Pujis and all the crystals.
1…
2…
BOOOOOOM!!!
A world-shaking explosion tore apart the Earth Worm's mouth. Its several-meter-thick rock armor exploded from the inside.
Rock fragments shot in all directions at terrifying speed, causing heavy Puji casualties.
The Earth Worm's entire mouth was completely destroyed.
As for its head — Lin Jun wasn't even sure where its head was, or whether it even had one.
He only knew that even after such damage, it was still not dead.
The remaining body thrashed wildly, half of it smashing the surrounding rocks and causing cave-ins, while the remaining digging limbs desperately tried to burrow back underground.
Inanna's body trembled violently.
Lin Jun's command exploded in her consciousness with a cracked, hoarse shout:
"Mud Swamp! NOW!!!"