Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 589 - 579: No. 5’s Happiness

The changes that mushrooms have brought upon the environment were truly not Lin Jun’s doing on purpose.

Nowadays, most of Lin Jun’s fungal mat is in a state of autonomous growth and spread.

Yet as the territory continues to expand, the fungal mat encounters new issues, namely the natural limit in the transmission of Magic Power.

Even though Lin Jun has constructed multiple layers of underground fungal mycelium networks, resembling vast Magic Power pipelines, striving to enhance overall transmission capacity.

Ultimately, it is impossible to converge all the Magic Power generated by the fungal mats distributed everywhere to Pujie Dungeon for concentrated use.

This situation is not as evident in areas close to the Northern Territory’s Fungus Castle or Pujie Dungeon.

Both places are centers of Magic Power consumption for Lin Jun, where adding Skills and generating advanced Puki are mostly done at these two locations, making full use of all the Magic Power.

However, in more distant border areas, such as this territory named Mist Castle, the situation is different.

When the Magic Power generated by the local fungal mat is excessive and cannot all be transported back to the Dungeon, the surplus Magic Power gradually accumulates within the local fungal mat.

If there is human activity in the area, regular harvesting of mushroom fields happens, and these excess Magic Power gets converted into batches of edible mushrooms, which are collected and consumed, achieving a new balance.

But in places like Mist Castle, which have experienced periods of neglect and lack of management, the situation has gotten out of control.

When the concentration of Magic Power accumulated in the local fungal mat exceeds a certain threshold, it spontaneously gives rise to various special mushroom variants specialized in consuming the excess Magic Power.

Thus, Glowing Mushroom Trees rise from the ground, petrified mushrooms form forests, and in some corners, even more dangerous clusters of corrosive mushrooms might grow...

These seemingly bizarre or even dangerous sights are actually the result of local fungal mats having excess production capacity, forced into wasteful behavior due to lack of outlets.

It’s just that such situations are not very friendly to the local humans.

Solving this problem is actually simple.

Either resume production, open large-scale mushroom fields to consume the excess Magic Power output,

or Lin Jun actively intervenes, consciously guiding the fungal mats in this area to convert the surplus Magic Power into relatively harmless giant Mushroom Trees or other controllable forms.

Of course, as an extension of Lin Jun’s will, the Mushroom Race naturally also holds some authority over the fungal mats.

Vera and the others are not well aware of the complex principle behind the Magic Power cycle, but Sirean quickly noticed the issue of excess Magic Power.

At his suggestion, half of the task of rectifying the territorial environment fell to the tiny Puki known as Xiao Five.

As for the other half, it was to urge Vera to quickly organize the citizens to reopen mushroom fields and manage the excess Magic Power through regular consumption.

It has to be said that the easy access to food has, to some extent, fostered complacency.

Due to the local fungal mat being saturated with Magic Power, aside from spawning those peculiar special mushrooms, common edible mushrooms and even Delicious Mushrooms grow everywhere.

With the population reduced by forty percent, citizens only need to take a stroll to gather enough fresh mushrooms to feed their families.

Over time, many people simply settled into a complacent lifestyle, losing the motivation for laborious cultivation, thus exacerbating the Magic Power congestion in the fungal mats, spawning more mutated mushrooms, and falling into a vicious cycle.

To reignite the production enthusiasm of the citizens, Vera and the steward Harold thought of everything, running around coordinating efforts.

Ultimately, Vera purchased all the mushrooms collected by the citizens in large quantities as the Lord, allowing them to trade mushrooms for materials like cloth, salt, and sugar at a relatively favorable rate.

This barter scheme barely managed to make the citizens pick up their tools again and head towards the land to be cultivated.

Stacks of purchased mushrooms piled like mountains, and Vera, with the help of Duke Lorenzo, connected with several merchant associations.

Some mushrooms were transported to the front lines to supply military needs, while others were shipped to regions with scarce Magic Power and low mushroom yield.

The purchase price from the former was very low, while the latter had to bear the costs and risks of long-distance transportation.

After calculations, Vera hardly earned anything from this chain.

But his intention was not to profit; as long as it solved the problem of "mushrooms advancing while humans retreat," leading to ecological imbalance in the territory, it was enough.

Accompanied by Sirean, Fei Ling, and Fei Yin, Xiao Five began patrolling the territory with its short legs.

Wherever it went, the Glowing Mushroom Trees emitting hallucinogenic spores and petrified mushrooms that solidified everything around them were absorbed back into the fungal mat under its control, ultimately replaced by towering but harmless giant Mushroom Trees.

In fact, if Lin Jun had personally taken action, relying on their overall control of the fungal mat, the entire territory’s mushroom species replacement could probably be completed in one or two days, even without using Magic Power acceleration.

But Xiao Five’s capabilities are ultimately limited, lacking the panoramic perception to oversee everything, only able to patiently renovate one small area after another like a diligent gardener.

Even so, its achievements were enough to pleasantly surprise Fei Ling and Fei Yin, who praised its competence!

Fei Yin even spent some savings to purchase an expensive Telepathy Stone, just to communicate more smoothly with Xiao Five!

The hard petrified ground continued to crack, one after another, giant Mushroom Trees over thirty meters tall emerged from the ground, replacing the cold petrified mushroom cluster.

"Great job! Xiao Five, thanks to you!" Fei Yin happily patted Xiao Five’s round mushroom cap, making a soft "poo poo" sound.

"Hehehe..." Xiao Five’s mushroom cap glowed with a faint fluorescence due to happiness.

Recently, this might be the happiest period since its birth.

Previously among the Mushroom Race, it was always the most inconspicuous one. It feared fighting and had poor combat awareness; there were hardly any commendable traits apart from being able to flee faster than other mushrooms.

While other mushrooms wouldn’t bully it, no one paid much attention to it or praised it either.

It could only silently follow behind Big Brother One, being a little transparent.

When the Mushroom Lord suddenly entrusted it with a task, asking it to follow this group of unfamiliar human adventurers alone, Xiao Five’s heart was filled with apprehension and fear.

Leaving familiar compatriots and finding itself in a completely strange environment, it feared doing poorly, being disliked, and letting down the expectations of the Mushroom Lord!

Luckily, Vera and the others were friendly, accepting it.

And now... Looking at the mushroom forest transformed by its own hands, listening to the sincere praises from Fei Ling and Fei Yin of "Xiao Five is amazing," it felt a sense of satisfaction it hadn’t experienced before!

It was needed, acknowledged! It was useful here!

It sat atop Fei Yin’s head, gently curling Fei Yin’s finger with one tendril, while another tendril pointed toward the next patch of Hallucinogenic Spore Forest needing reclamation, its body upright and full of vigor.

Here is its home!

Sirean appeared on horseback from a small hill farther away, waving at the twins and shouting, "Come back for lunch first! We’ll continue with the remaining regions in the afternoon."

Upon hearing Sirean’s voice, the previously confident and energetic Xiao Five immediately slid down from Fei Yin’s head and zipped into her wide mage robe.

It was still afraid of this non-mushroom who yelled at it from their first encounter.

...

While Xiao Five found a sense of belonging here, Thirteen fell into confusion.

Lin Jun had dispatched it to the fallen area of the West Coast.

In its range of vision lay barren land, lacking traces of the fungal mat.

Even worse, every so often in the distant shadows amidst rugged reef rocks, one or two jelly-like Slimes would bounce across.

In the likes and dislikes of the Mushroom Race, such creatures are virtually synonymous with "evil."

The Mushroom Lord had not given it any specific task instructions, merely dropping it here unexpectedly.

Thirteen stood alone on the spot, sensing this unfamiliar and hostile environment, unwittingly thinking:

The Mushroom Lord... won’t be abandoning me, will they?