"Don't these need to be buried underground?"
"I'm not a plant..."
Do the people in this world still not know the difference between fungi and plants?
The Puff, like oxen and horses, had already transported all the fragments of the Fire Mosquitoes and their larvae back to the Mushroom Garden.
Fire Mosquitoes, being monsters that primarily relied on agility and evasion, didn't have high physical strength. After being hit by a Mushroom Cannon or smashed to death by an Armored Puff, it was difficult to find a complete body.
Now they were spread evenly in the planting area, and the first batch that was transported back had already started growing mycelium.
These monster corpses, after being decomposed, would provide both skill proficiency and magic power to Linden. A single Fire Mosquito didn't contain much magic power, but there were a lot of them.
Linden would invest all of this magic power into the production of new Puff.
The Mushroom Garden, relying on natural absorption of magic power, could currently accommodate roughly 300 Puff. Among these, 100 were in the logistics group, needed to maintain the daily operation of the Mushroom Garden, leaving the rest as combat Puff.
This time, Linden planned to exceed the limit and produce 400 combat Puff in one go, then invest all of them in the upcoming operation to hunt Earthworms.
Anyway, if many survived after the operation, he could just downsize them. Ensuring the success rate was the most crucial thing.
There wasn't a second Fire Mosquito Nest nearby that could provide him with so much nourishment so easily. If this attempt failed, he wouldn't know when he could organize a second round.
"Linden, look, I think I've gained a new talent!"
Inanna had somehow started using the Water Snake Technique beside him. Linden had seen her use this skill in battle. While it couldn't be described as invincible, it could at least be said to be useless.
Not only was its range short, but its power was also poor. A direct hit couldn't even kill a Fire Mosquito in one go. The only advantage was that it could be controlled to a certain extent after being shot out, but under Inanna's terrible technique, it had become a negative effect.
Compared to the Ice Blade, it was completely outclassed.
Inanna probably realized this herself, as she stopped using the Water Snake after using it twice.
However, now, the Water Snake that Inanna cast was swimming flexibly around her, like a small protective azure dragon.
This was definitely not Inanna's normal level. Linden decisively pulled up her status panel again.
Sure enough, her level had risen to LV30. Even getting just a small portion of the experience from hundreds of Fire Mosquitoes had allowed her to level up twice.
Among the fixed effects, there was a new one: [Favor of the Elemental Spirit: The Elemental Spirit will assist the caster in controlling spells].
"Try attacking that rock with an Ice Blade."
The target Linden gave was 100 meters away from Inanna, a distance where a Puff would almost never miss.
"Huh? I'll try."
The moment the Ice Blade was shot out, Linden knew she had missed by a mile. However, the Ice Blade miraculously adjusted its trajectory during flight and ended up cutting off a corner of the rock.
"I... I actually hit it!"
Inanna herself looked disbelieving.
In reality, if her launch angle hadn't been so ridiculously off, the Ice Blade should have hit the bullseye. For it to still graze the target even with such a wide miss, the Elemental Spirit was truly amazing.
Linden also noticed that when Inanna used the Ice Blade, the Water Snake Technique circling around her wasn't canceled.
So it's a kind of AI-assisted control ability?
It's just that the Elemental Spirit here replaces the function of AI.
Speaking of which, this world actually has the concept of Elemental Spirits. I thought magic was just pure magic.
In addition, Linden also learned that humans, like himself, naturally gain a fixed effect or skill that matches them every ten levels, just like his Mushroom Cannon and Mycelial Network.
Inanna called it a talent.
It seems this isn't unique to him. Humans are like this, and it's probably the same for other races or monsters.
However, there are still slight differences. Perhaps because he can't see the panel, Inanna's talent is automatically acquired, while he has an extra step of choosing one out of three.
Linden glanced at his LV44 level. It was still early before the next talent selection.
In the following time, Linden threw himself into the large-scale project called Army Expansion.
The good news was that the Mental Integration skill, which hadn't moved for a long time, finally reached LV6. Otherwise, Linden really wouldn't be able to control so many Puff at once.
But even so, he had no time to chat with Inanna.
However, Inanna didn't mind this. She had recently become engrossed in exploring her new talent.
Besides helping her adjust trajectories and play with auto-aim, the Elemental Spirit could also make the Illumination Technique actively follow her, and Water Mirror Refraction could provide 360° automatic defense. In short, it was much smoother than when she used them herself.
But spells like Purification and Mud Swamp Technique didn't change much – the Elemental Spirit didn't enhance the power of the spells themselves.
Days passed, and just as everything was about to be ready, a strong magic fluctuation came from outside the Mushroom Garden.
"Linden, what's happening? Why does it suddenly feel so oppressive?"
Like aftershocks from an eight-magnitude earthquake far away, even Inanna, who didn't have the magic sense skill, noticed something was wrong. Linden directly observed the magic vibrations coming in waves, making him uncomfortable.
Linden checked the surveillance he had set up outside. These scattered small clumps of mushrooms couldn't provide Linden with vision, but they could sense the surrounding magic fluctuations.
Soon, Linden figured out the source of the fluctuations – the direction of the Flame Demon Nest.
Since he knew it was from the Flame Demon's direction, Linden relaxed. He casually comforted the startled Inanna and continued to bury himself in the final work of Army Expansion.
It wasn't that Linden wasn't afraid of the Flame Demon. On the contrary, as the strongest monster discovered so far, Linden had always been very vigilant about the Flame Demon's movements.
If he ever found the Flame Demon moving towards the Mushroom Garden, he would immediately pack up and run.
Fortunately, such a thing had never happened.
In fact, based on Linden's observations, the Flame Demon was practically a homebody.
Unlike himself, who was rooted to the ground and inconvenient to move, the Flame Demon was simply too lazy to move. It seemed that just soaking in lava could satisfy most of its needs.
However, being a homebody didn't mean it would never go out. So far, Linden had monitored three records of the Flame Demon going out.
Each time it went out, it would cause magic fluctuations nearby, just like today. Linden suspected it went to fight.
However, who it fought and where exactly it fought were completely unknown. He also didn't know what kind of opponent could fight the Flame Demon so intensely. The part Linden had explored was still too small compared to the entire deep layer.
Linden's original plan to sneak through was to seize the opportunity when the Flame Demon was out and pass through its nest to reach the upper layer.
However, this plan was quite risky. The most important thing was that he couldn't control when the Flame Demon would return.
Among the three records, the shortest was only a few hours, and the longest was estimated to be three or four days.
The sneaking plan was truly gambling with his life, so it was replaced by the digging plan.
He didn't know how long the Flame Demon would be away this time. He hoped it wouldn't cause any changes that would interfere with his Earthworm hunt.