Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 555 - 545: Team Formation

Pujie Dungeon, inside that gladiator cave that’s never open to outsiders.

Thick, sticky fresh blood had soaked large stretches of the Fungal Mat dark red, but the color was visibly fading at a speed you could see with the naked eye, as the Mycelium tirelessly carried out its mission of decomposition.

Around the arena, a dozen or so figures lay scattered all over the place, all D Level personnel. Some bodies were still relatively intact, just unconscious or badly wounded; others were mangled, with severed limbs and exposed organs.

The ones still clinging to a breath let out pained groans, while most of the rest were already utterly silent.

Only Ming, drenched in blood as if he’d just been hauled out of a blood pool, was still standing in the middle of the arena, panting heavily.

He was still holding one D Level guy whose legs had been stomped to a pulp.

"P-please... please... spare... me..." The captive forced out a broken plea from his swollen lips.

He didn’t even finish the sentence.

Bang—!

With a dull thud, Ming had already grabbed the man’s head and smashed it hard into the solid rock wall to the side; blood and brain matter trickled down from the dent.

"You already won, so why are you still beating them up?" A crisp voice came from above.

The Little Elf Riel was sitting on a higher stand, kicking her legs.

She held a vial of emerald-green potion in one hand and pinched her tiny nose with the other; the thick stench of blood below was getting a bit too pungent for her.

Two Mushroom Race apprentices-slash-assistants sat beside her.

"Sister Riel!" Ming, his face smeared with blood, looked up and showed a bright grin that could only be described as sunny and cheerful. "Boss already said, these people were all supposed to die anyway."

Riel was clear on that point, and she didn’t pity these D Level personnel either.

The D Level crowd even included members of Ark who had nearly gotten her strangled to death by that berserk giant tree back then, though those particular guys hadn’t lasted till today.

She just purely felt that Ming was a bit too violent.

Riel handed the special Life Water potion in her hand—brewed with all sorts of precious ingredients—to Ming as he climbed up, and couldn’t help nagging, "But if you beat them all to death, who’s going to keep you company in your fights later? Me?"

Ming took the potion and gulped it down in one go. At her words, he froze for a second and scratched at his hair clumped with dried blood.

He’d never thought about that. All he knew was: if he won, Boss would praise him.

"What are you going to do later?" Riel asked.

"Fight another round," Ming wiped his mouth, battle lust flickering in his eyes. "This time, I want to try fighting a full Gold Level squad."

"Sigh... fight fight fight, that’s all you know." Riel sighed like a little grown-up. Though she was a good two heads shorter than Ming, her tone was every bit the big sister’s. "I asked you to come learn some basic Magic from Teacher Xing Huo with me, but you’re never willing. You’ve clearly got great conditions for it."

As she spoke, she stretched out her small hand. Magic Power flowed, and a big, clear water sphere condensed above Ming’s head.

With a "whoosh," it dumped down, washing away most of the blood on his body.

"I... I just can’t remember it..." Ming squinted against the water, his voice muffled and tinged with embarrassment. "All those twisty Magic Power circuits, and the incantations... after looking for a bit my head starts spinning."

In truth, you couldn’t really blame Ming for that; he wasn’t even a full year old yet.

He didn’t have any issues with Intelligence or comprehension, but Magic as a discipline—even if Lin Jun directly granted him the related Skills—still required him to personally learn and grasp how to guide, control, and wield Magic Power.

The accumulation of knowledge was a long and often tedious process.

By contrast, close-quarters brawling gave him a natural, overwhelming edge.

Born with Physical Immunity, as long as he threw himself completely into battle, his Level and practical Combat Techniques would rapidly skyrocket on their own. The improvement was far more direct and explosive than gnawing on all that obscure Magic theory!

But Riel didn’t care about these objective reasons. In her eyes, learning some Magic would only do good things for Ming’s future.

"You’re not allowed to fight this afternoon. You’re coming with me to Teacher Xing Huo’s class!" Riel said, already grabbing Ming’s arm with her little hand, trying to drag him toward Fungus Castle.

Just then, both of them heard Lin Jun’s call in their minds at the same time.

Ming, who’d just been a bit deflated at being ordered off to study, suddenly lit up.

"Boss! I want in!" he responded in his mind almost without thinking, full of barely contained excitement.

"Ming? Ah... mm... fine." Lin Jun pondered for a moment, then agreed.

He couldn’t see the "status panels" of those Seafood Monsters, but he could see the Fishmen’s Levels.

The Fishmen topped out at about Diamond Level, and the fact that they’d managed to hold out under the invasion of those monsters—even if they’d taken advantage of underground passages—meant the enemies’ average strength probably wasn’t anything too ridiculous.

It really was time to let Ming out, to temper him in a more complex environment.

They couldn’t seriously expect to raise a "Ten-Mile Slope War God" just by grinding in this sealed-off home arena forever.

Of course, he still needed someone accompanying him, so Lin Jun started picking people from the Mushroom Garden.

With permission granted, Ming bounced up at once. "Nice!"

He looked at the Little Elf beside him, his face wearing a smile mixed with apology and pleading. "Sister Riel, um... what do you think?"

Riel’s lips stuck out high, her face full of displeasure, but she still let go of his hand.

Ming gave an embarrassed grin, then turned and bolted off toward the Mushroom Garden like a gust of wind.

...

Lin Jun quickly finished putting the team together.

Since there wouldn’t be any Fungal Mat on the other side, and Fungal Mat spread underwater was a pain, the main force would still be the Puki Masters.

They didn’t need a big headcount, just a selection of elites, commanded by Little Pig.

Little Pig clearly wanted to test out that Demon Crystal battle armor, though Lin Jun wasn’t sure there’d be any enemies worthy of her.

After all, it was hard to imagine there being anyone with Lord-level strength among the opposition.

Norris also signed up, wanting to test Jida’s combat performance.

So Lin Jun simply had him act as Ming’s babysitter.

If Ming or Norris got into trouble, the Yellow-covered Book was still in Teacher Xing Huo’s hands; they still needed his guidance for laying out the city-defense Magic Array.

By rights that should be enough, but Lin Jun still hauled the drowsy Xiao Hai out of bed.

It wasn’t that he actually needed her to beat down enemies, he just couldn’t let her keep up that eat-sleep, sleep-eat lifestyle.

She hadn’t fought in months. Her biggest daily workout now came from chasing Delicious Puki.

Even with her thick scales covering her, it was still obvious that Xiao Hai had gotten noticeably fatter.

Thinking back to when they first met on the Fifth Floor—if you took away that layer of big Black Scales, Xiao Hai’s body proportions had actually been pretty lean and toned.

Now... she was already trending toward chubby-lizard territory.

With Xiao Xi as a cautionary tale of what happens when you lack Restraint and get so fat your combat strength plummets, Lin Jun couldn’t let Xiao Hai repeat that mistake.

So he was bringing her out to get some exercise, or else she might literally get too fat to fly someday.

As for what Xiao Hai herself thought.

After Lin Jun showed her a few big, round, shiny pearls from the seafloor, Xiao Hai couldn’t wait to set out.

Unfortunately, there were still plenty of preparations to be made before heading underwater.

...

Two days later, in front of the widened Rift on the Seventh Floor.

"Boss, do we... really have to do it like this?" Norris scratched his head, looking completely ill at ease.

"This is called a sense of ceremony! Don’t you get it? A declaration before departure is important, it can... can boost morale! Quit dawdling, hurry up, hurry up! Do it and then we can head out properly!"

Faced with the boss’s demand, Norris could only steel himself!

"Silver Flash, Xiao Bai!" He rattled it off so fast the words almost slurred together, and the moment he finished he looked like he wanted to dive into a crack in the ground.

"Scarlet Killer, Little Pig!" Louisa’s face was expressionless, her voice as clear and flat as if she were reading out a report.

"Diamond Body, Xiaoming!" Ming practically jumped out, his face brimming with the excitement of going on a school spring trip.

"Aah—wooo—!" Xiao Hai’s line was a whole six syllables; she couldn’t remember it.