Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 601 - 591: Negative Energy Collection

After Pollock and Gading, the Fungus Castle gradually welcomed new dwarf faces.

They are all young blacksmith apprentices, carrying similar hesitancy and longing.

These were the results of Knight Puki’s secret promotion while traveling between the towns in the Mountains with the envoy.

However, even so, only twenty or so dwarf blacksmith apprentices came in the end.

Lin Jun is not in a rush.

After all, those daring to take the first step are always the minority.

For these young apprentices, Lin Jun gave extensive accommodations.

They could almost unlimitedly access the heaps of ordinary ore in the warehouse, freely attempting forging, even if the initial products were substandard or completely failures, would not matter.

Originally, Lin Jun did not expect these twenty apprentices to provide any output, but needed them to improve their forging skills.

Once these apprentices grow over time and their skills show visible progress, the Fungus Castle will announce tasks, encouraging them to bring their craftsmanship back home and promote more dwarves to come.

Once this news spreads thoroughly, Lin Jun will likely not lack basic blacksmiths any longer.

On the other hand, the return of the envoy was quite smooth.

The road had been cleared by Sword Saint Puki last time, naturally avoiding any bandits or cults.

The envoy met up with the Elven team at the appointed location.

The elves conveyed Galadriel’s invitation to No. 14, but Sword Saint Puki refused without a second thought.

Moreover, among the elven team, there was an elf designated unilaterally by both nations as a "Hero Squad Member."

A palace-level male elf, whom Lin Jun recalled seeing several times at the Elf Council riding Eco.

Amidst the deeply aura elders and high-tier spellcasters, this elf wasn’t particularly noticeable, unexpectedly becoming the chosen one.

Regarding the hero, Lin Jun has always had a little confusion.

Originally on the Archipelago seeing Tanaka, Lin Jun thought he was the hero summoned by the United Kingdom.

But as Lin Jun became increasingly informed within the United Kingdom, discovered their hero is a female!

Moreover, accompanied by knights and priests from the Bright Church, which reminded Lin Jun of the Holy Knights encountered earlier on the West Coast, though unable to confirm if it’s the same group.

Thus, the question arose: If the Kingdom’s hero is female, then who summoned Tanaka?

Reflecting on Tanaka’s previous attempt to unleash the Demon King, Lin Jun couldn’t help but suspect if those factions loyal to traditional Demon King within the Demon Race secretly mastered the hero summoning technology?

Plus, Lin Jun’s own unknown summoner.

Alas...

This world, summoning heroes seems like carrying out an arms race?

Can’t it follow those old-fashioned legend scripts, properly featuring a hero’s crusade against the Demon King?

Best if everyone, equipped with divine skills, goes together to tackle the arrogant Slime at the Tide Sanctuary.

Oh, wait, Tide Sanctuary isn’t considered his domain yet.

After finding the Sanctuary’s core, to control its associated alternate space, Lin Jun attempted to take over the Underground City’s management, but hit a wall, his soul blocked outside the core.

As Pujie Dungeon’s administrator, naturally understood such situations indicate the Underground City is occupied, existing a living administrator.

Thinking back and forth, most likely, the administrator is probably that Death God or one of her followers.

To Lin Jun, it’s all the same, this signifies the Tide Sanctuary and its related alternate space are untouchable short-term.

After circling around, must resort to the coordinates provided by Divine Wood.

Fortunately, other aspects progressed relatively smoothly.

Sword Saint Puki’s dive into the Scarecrow Abyss successfully returned with Lin Jun’s longed-for [Negative Energy Collection] skill.

According to him, for unknown reasons, not only did the Slimes disappear from the lower Abyss, but half the Scarecrow’s numbers sharply reduced as well.

The biggest challenge encountered was running through a large portion of the eerie mansion to find the Scarecrow butler serving as the skill carrier.

Lin Jun, naturally absorbed this skill unreservedly.

This skill can absorb environmental corrosion and curse aura, converting it into pure magic power.

For the Scarecrow butler, this is a practical skill that provides continuous magic power in the Abyss.

For Lin Jun, who doesn’t lack magic power, it was a means to transform the environment.

Lin Jun had already started cultivating corresponding "negative energy mushrooms" at the fringes of the top layer of the Scarecrow Abyss.

No particular purpose, purely curious to see if the abyss could be made a bit sunnier.

Besides providing magic power, the negative emotions of sentient beings also seemed to count as a kind of "negative energy".

Lin Jun played an intriguingly chaotic game of hide-and-seek with the D Level people, and as a result, the Puki responsible for collecting was easily filled with all sorts of negative emotions.

However, unlike absorbing environmental corrosion which can directly transform into magic power, these pure emotional negative energies just accumulated in the Puki’s body and couldn’t be transformed or utilized.

After thinking for a while, Lin Jun simply chopped up the Puki filled with negative emotions and made it into soup, then fed it back to the group of still-frightened D Level personnel.

Thus, fear, despair, malice... all sorts of negative emotions completed a cycle by being ingested, reinjected back into their source, overlapping with the negative emotions already continually produced by the D Level people.

The cave was instantly filled with cries, wails, and screams, with some even attempting to end it all, thankfully the benevolent Puki rescue team timely prevented such a shameful wasteful act.

Is it useful?

Indeed, it is useful.

But this usage, no matter how you look at it, seems more like poisoning, really quite unpresentable.

Lin Jun rubbed the mycelium, deciding to ponder some more, this skill should have more dignified uses waiting to be developed.

Aside from the [Negative Energy Collection], the biggest achievement of this trip was the repair of the confinement ring.

Using the intact confinement ring on the Fire Elemental Lord as a prototype, Lin Jun mobilized nearly all the intellectual resources he could muster.

The Elder Fishman, Xing Huo, Yellow-covered Book, even through Inanna’s indirect hints, obtained some suggestions from the United Kingdom’s mages.

Spent tremendous effort and materials, finally managed to barely patch up the confinement ring that had a corner missing.

Hmm... let’s say it’s repaired.

After all, without the real original blueprint, the whole process felt like blindly filling in a model.

The final result can only be said to have restored seventy to eighty percent functionality, but also left noticeable flaws.

Originally, that confinement ring that bound the Fire Elemental Lord could be forcibly locked by Inanna when necessary, rendering it unable to escape temporarily.

But the one repaired now, although it could also stuff the Frost Elemental Lord inside, the force of mandatory binding was significantly weakened.

It’s like a broken window, Lin Jun barely taped it up, perhaps good enough for blocking wind and rain, but compared to a completely intact original, clearly much more fragile, cannot endure much toss.

About this, Lin Jun had no choice, as long as it works.

There’s no time to pursue perfection, over thirty percent of Lin Jun’s magic power was spent on heating the Puki, if this continues, will the Fungus Castle still develop?!

However, just as the plan to seal the Frost Elemental Lord into the repaired confinement ring was underway, a slight accident happened.

The Frost Elemental Lord, sensing Inanna’s presence in the ruins, sought it out immediately.

Yet, just as it tried to approach, a literal flaming cloak abruptly rose around Inanna, scorching currents blast out, causing it to halt.

Even its outstretched ice crystal right hand melted in the heat, dripping two drops of water.

After a brief solidification, an even more frigid chill surged from the Frost Lord, counter-pressing against the fiery cloak.

The flames flickered, wavering as if about to extinguish completely.

"Who?!" An angry roar burst from the confinement ring on Inanna’s left hand, "Who dares mess with my big proud protege?!"

Mistaking it for Inanna being attacked, the figure of the Fire Elemental Lord arose from the ring, though shrunken in size, its form made purely of flames was still intensely scorching.

Then unsurprisingly, it noticed the Frost Elemental Lord in front of it.

"Oh, it’s you who put an ice block over the protege before, thinking you can compete with the great me for the kid?"

Faced with the Fire Elemental Lord intensifying from the confinement ring, though the Frost Elemental Lord couldn’t speak and was smaller in size, it was not lacking in momentum at all.

The surrounding temperature plummeted, tiny ice crystals formed out of thin air, spinning, forming a miniature blizzard encircling it.

The next second, its icy gown violently whipped about, wrapped in snowflakes, and charged straight at the Fire Elemental Lord.

Both deliberately controlled their power, preventing their fire or ice from touching Inanna.

However, their consideration clearly did not include the other existences present.

Closest in proximity, eagerly watching, No. 4 was swept up into the air by the storm with a cry, lamenting in the fungal network:

"Scorched—! Frozen again—! Stop spinning already! Feeling dizzy, feeling dizzy!"