Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 557 - 547: Seaweed Mode

Unlike the fungal mat closely attached to the ground, the fungal network floating on the water surface constantly endures the impact of ocean waves.

Even in the relatively calm waters of the Underground City, the continuous surge of waves keeps tugging at the connections of the fungi.

They are scattered, torn apart, and then re-healed, tangled together.

Simply increasing the thickness of the fungi is not very useful.

In the face of truly turbulent waves, even the thickest fungal layer cannot escape being torn apart. And if thickened enough to withstand any storm... it might no longer be called a "fungal mat," but rather a "sea platform."

And letting the fungi mimic the shape of seaweed, floating on the water surface in small clusters, rising and falling with the waves.

This method resolves the tearing force of the waves; the fungal clusters sway with the water flow and are less likely to get damaged.

However, the new structure brings new flaws.

In the terrestrial fungal mat, magic power can be transmitted through the tightly woven fungal network with minimal loss, allowing Lin Jun to easily concentrate magic power over a vast area to efficiently create troops or advanced Puki units.

But under the "seaweed mode," the fungal clusters lack stable connections.

Although magic power can be transmitted across space, the loss increases sharply, and the efficiency is far less than that of the terrestrial network.

Such a floating fungal mat can be used for expanding perception, but expecting it to rapidly nurture an army or become a reliable long-range source of magic power is wishful thinking.

Of course, just like on land, the fungal mat can be laid along the seabed.

But this means giving up precious sunlight, with more than half of the magic power source directly reduced.

And there are other thorny issues.

Like how to protect your fungal mat.

Fungi filled with magic power are a delicacy in water, loved by all.

And the number of marine creatures is far beyond comparison to those on land.

If a lot of effort is put in for maintenance, it would be counterproductive.

And if left unchecked, allowing it to grow freely, the result might be that the fungi are gnawed into tatters, with most of the hard-earned magic power having to be used for self-repair, falling into a futile cycle.

Even wanting to dig holes to lay an underground network is not easy; Drilling Puki does poorly at digging holes underwater.

Lin Jun hasn’t thought of a good solution yet, so he can only make do with laying it for now.

The priority at hand is to complete Elder Fishman’s commission to deal with those seafood monsters and retrieve that half of the divine artifact.

...

On the other side, Fishman Wise Man Gululu handed over a rough map depicting the internal structure of the Tide Sanctuary.

When handing over the map, a young Fishman beside Elder Fishman, with tight skin and scales shining with healthy luster, appeared quite anxious.

Most Fishmen, although not as "pure" as Xiao Hai, can’t be said to be very smart either.

Lin Jun feels this mainly stems from the lack of education, a phenomena quite common in tribal societies.

And the education level of the Fishman tribes is apparently not as good as those tribal societies in the Northern Territory, hence most Fishman warriors give Lin Jun an impression of being clumsy and straightforward.

This young Fishman constantly following beside the Wise Man is likely a nurtured successor.

It is one of the few individuals in the Fishman tribes whose eyes shine with the brilliance of wisdom.

Upon seeing Elder Fishman produce such an important map, it clearly showed a worried expression, but under a few low murmurs from Gululu, it ultimately calmed down.

The map is quite simply drawn, but the key information is recognizable, unknown whether it was crafted by Elder Fishman or that young Fishman.

From this map, Lin Jun learned that this Underground City is actually a spherical three-dimensional maze.

Numerous tunnels and rooms of varying sizes are intricately intertwined, collectively forming this vast spherical Underground City network.

The map is filled with dense markings indicating dark paths and trap locations, clearly depicting a very treacherous Underground City.

Earlier, he hadn’t felt it, probably due to having Fishmen guiding the way.

Gululu and his tribes currently hide within the map-indicated interlayer in the lower hemisphere of the sphere. The soulless seafood monsters, however, invaded from the top of the map’s Underground City entrance, which also extends from the actual ocean.

One can only wonder what it’s like outside right now.

There’s a large hollow region at the center of the map, unmarked, which Lin Jun speculates might be where the Dungeon Core is situated.

Lin Jun, however, doesn’t have much desire for the core; having one Underground City as a base camp is sufficient, more than that would only waste his control limit.

However, according to Divine Wood’s insights, every complete Underground City should possess an auxiliary space.

The auxiliary space he has is filled with treasures, also hiding the control method of Sunstone, so in the auxiliary space of the Tide Sanctuary, could there be records about the Ocean Staff?

Or other secrets and treasures?

Moreover, that space might possibly be used as a trial ground for his Abyss Magic experiments, saving him the trouble in the Empire.

The spatial coordinates Divine Wood gave last time were located north within the Empire center, right in the area of Prince Visarius’s influence, wanting to act there isn’t an easy task.

Hmm...perhaps it could be prudent to ask Divine Wood that old fellow again later, see if he knows any method to bypass the Dungeon Core and directly enter its auxiliary space?

Little Pig received the map and immediately began detailed communication with Elder Fishman Gululu, inquiring about the specifics of each area on the map one by one.

Elder Fishman could mostly provide answers, but the closer the questions drew to the unmarked large hollow area in the map’s center, the more vague the information he could provide.

It’s unclear if the Fishmen genuinely don’t know or if they are unwilling to disclose details.

Nonetheless, Little Pig wasn’t bothered by this.

The objective is to drive out the soulless seafood monsters from the Tide Sanctuary, thereby securing the entrance to the Underground City, and then it’s just a matter of routine cleaning operations.

Thus, Little Pig quickly drafted a multi-phase plan, with intelligence gathering being the first step!

Although Elder Fishman provided a fair amount of intelligence, it wasn’t sufficient, and Little Pig couldn’t completely trust Fishmen, only treating it as a reference, believing personally gathered intelligence is reliable.

She selected several mixed squads, composed of Fungus Castle soldiers, Puki and Fishman guides.

These squads would advance along different routes marked on the map and conduct preliminary reconnaissance, with the primary tasks of familiarizing with the terrain and traps along the way and evaluating the nearby enemy’s strength and distribution.

Only after gathering enough intelligence would she formulate the final offensive route and specific tactics.

Norris and Ming also chose a route for reconnaissance, and Lin Jun assigned them a special task—to capture a few seafood monsters back.

Although they’ve always been referred to as "seafood monsters" or "soulless monsters," these creatures indeed bear roughly humanoid contours.

Lin Jun was uncertain if they could be categorized as "humanoid creatures," planning to capture a few for fungal parasitism trials to see if control is possible.

If only he hadn’t rashly used the Electric Arc before...

As for Xiao Hai, he was accompanied by a Puki Fish personally controlled by Lin Jun, wandering leisurely in the area near the Fishmen’s hiding place.

Mainly to avoid leaving her behind.

Upon arriving in this brand new, unfamiliar environment, Xiao Hai’s uncontrollable curiosity and destructiveness had already been fully demonstrated in this brief period.

The surrounding walls bore a few rows of deep claw marks, even Elder Fishman’s coral chair was gnawed off a bit out of curiosity.

She found it unpleasant and spat it out.

Elder Fishman Gululu seemed indifferent to this, merely shaking his head gently.

Yet, the surrounding Fishman warriors evidently didn’t think the same, their discontented "glug-glug" sounds echoing repeatedly.

The young Fishman constantly attending nearby glared fiercely at Xiao Hai, barely revealing his sharp teeth.

Regrettably, Xiao Hai could not grasp the atmosphere, completely ignoring them.

...

And just as the reconnaissance squads departed, a ship carrying ordinary Puki and Snake-man Mercenaries slowly arrived on the grand ocean outside the Tide Sanctuary entrance.