Inside the hollowed-out mountain.
The sli perched on the rift, ignoring the swarming horde of Pujis around it, filtering the magic and curses from the water day after day, like it had done for eternity.
Even when a Puji nearby was using its skills to build a stone fra, the sli—despite being able to swallow it whole with a simple pulse of its body—had no interest.
How should one put it… did it just have a really good temperant?
This was the first ti Lin Jun had ever seen such a laid-back sli.
Of course, that was only as long as you didn’t try to move it away from the water source. If you tried, it would resist fiercely.
Lin Jun had already studied this rift.
He wasn’t sure what lay on the other side, but it shouldn’t be the Dragoncliff Dungeon from the last magic tide.
Back then, two massive rifts had opened on the fifth floor, yet there wasn’t a trace of curse. Clearly, this wasn’t the sa style.
Speaking of curses reminded Lin Jun of the abyssal magic used by those black-robed people.
But compared to the black-robed ones’ limited-range, short-duration abyssal magic, the curses seeping from the other side of this rift were on a whole different level.
Lin Jun tried ordering a Puji to stretch a mycelium tendril through the rift. The mont it passed through, the curse intensified sharply, half of the tendril turning to ash on the spot. Even the Puji itself was affected, collapsing and corroding away in monts.
And that was despite it being a specialized Puji, one with boosted health and equipped with [Corrosion Resistance LV5]. Even so, it had been killed instantly by the curse.
The only bit of information gained was that the rift seed to open into the middle of a water channel, and on either side of it were so shifting shadows. But with all the magic flowing in the water, perception was too blurry to see what they were exactly.
In short, the idea of sending mycelium through the rift was currently not feasible. At the very least, corrosion resistance needed to be trained up first.
Next, Lin Jun tested whether the rift could be blocked.
No matter how you looked at it, this thing was far too dangerous. Left unchecked, it could affect half of the sixth floor, with unknown consequences down the line.
Though it did provide magical benefits, the risks outweighed the rewards. If it could be sealed, that was best.
Blocking it with mycelium was impossible—the mont it touched the curse, it was corroded away.
So Lin Jun tried plastering the wall shut, having Pujis generate stone to completely seal the rift without even a drop of water leaking through.
But the curse still filled the hollowed mountain chamber, growing deeper and spreading outward with ti.
Contrary to his initial guess, the curse wasn’t contained in the water.
He now suspected it spread more like radiation.
So he had no choice but to chip open the sealed stone wall again and put the sli back in place.
Since he couldn’t seal it, Lin Jun thought about substituting the rare sli with a normal one.
After all, he still wanted to harvest the rare skills on this two-colored sli.
When the two-colored sli split off a red sli, Lin Jun shoved that one into the rift.
The red sli was not cooperative. It struggled constantly, and only after being pressed down with stone slabs by the Pujis did it settle and start filtering the water.
But as magic piled up inside its body, it grew larger and larger, its struggles stronger and stronger. Just when it seed like Lin Jun would have to order its execution—
Pop!
It exploded on its own!
The burst of sli fluid splattered the Pujis everywhere, even covering the two that had been restraining the two-colored sli, pinning them down for a while.
The mont the two-colored sli was free, it bounced straight back to its spot.
Lin Jun realized for the first ti—slis could actually burst from overstuffing…
Because the two-colored sli split regularly, it wouldn’t burst. But ordinary slis couldn’t handle it.
In the end, after all the effort, things had to stay as they were.
The two-colored sli suppressed the rift, and the surrounding Pujis not only couldn’t harm it, they had to tend to it carefully.
Still, Lin Jun wasn’t about to leave things completely unchecked.
The Pujis now used their stone-building skills to construct a cage around the sli—or more accurately, a hanging cage.
The tight cage bottom had a small opening fitted snug against the rift, plus two drainage holes.
The cage’s upper section had an openable hatch, so that any newly split slis could be let out for imdiate butchering and processing.
At the very top of the cage, mycelium tendrils reinforced with [Toughness] hooked onto it, so the two-colored sli could be lifted out to expose the rift whenever needed.
anwhile, Lin Jun stationed forty Pujis in the chamber on long-term standby.
These Pujis were all buffed with extra health and [Corrosion Resistance].
A little elite squad.
They not only had to handle slaughtering the split slis, but also deal with any ergencies.
For example, if the two-colored sli suddenly died, the Pujis would have to throw themselves into the rift to block it.
Thanks to their health and resistance, each one could hold out for about half a minute—long enough for Lin Jun to react.
They also had another task: training [Corrosion Resistance].
Every so often, the hanging cage would be lifted, letting a little of the cursed corrosion leak out, and they’d use it directly. Repeated over ti, this slowly leveled up the skill.
This was Lin Jun’s precautionary setup.
The rift was too strange, and he couldn’t be sure whether it would eventually disappear or expand.
If it expanded, turning the entire sixth floor into a cursed wasteland, Lin Jun would be forced to retreat and confine himself to the first five floors—and that was assuming the stairways could even block the curse.
But if he could raise corrosion resistance high enough to ignore the curse, then maybe he could even expand his territory across the rift!
After arranging everything, the Pujis outside began refilling the earth.
This was a new batch of Puji workers, since nearly all the previous batch had been lost in the sli flood.
They worked to backfill the rubble and soil, burying the breach in the mountain hollow, leaving only a reinforced mycelium tunnel.
This was to keep curious adventurers from accidentally stumbling into the rift.
…
【Level Up: LV52 → LV53】
【Seven Sins of Greed activated】
【Plundered Skill: Scales LV5 → LV6】
【Plundered Skill: Corrosion Resistance LV5 → LV6】
【Plundered Skill: Spit Arrow LV3 → LV4】
Oh!
Ask and you shall receive—corrosion resistance leveled up!
The batch of Miraj dragon-beasts he’d harvested before had nearly been used up.
Spit Arrow was just a joke skill, but originally he’d raised Miraj mainly for their Scales. Now, corrosion resistance seed just as important. Maybe he should expand their breeding?
He wanted to, but for now there wasn’t a suitable new site.
Any new breeding ground would need an environnt like Venom Lake, where Miraj could hide and protect themselves.
Otherwise, any passing monster or adventurer would just snatch them up. That wasn’t breeding—that was charity.
Besides the skills, after being stuck for so long, his level had finally gone up!
Honestly, leveling had gotten so slow at higher levels. Ever since the magic tide, his progress had barely moved.
Gone were the days of rapid, exhilarating level-ups in the deep layers.
Still, it made sense. He was over level fifty, yet he spent all his ti in a stratum capped at level twenty-five. Gaining experience just by gathering and processing corpses—of course it was slow.
If he really wanted to level fast, he’d have to return down below, to clash with the high-level monsters again!
Speaking of going down, the sixth floor still had a very interesting feature—a rift canyon leading straight into the deep layers.
The very place where Inanna had once fallen.
After taking the do and revealing the full map, Lin Jun had confird the spot.
Now that the sli crisis was handled, he finally had ti to investigate.
Only problem was… with so many rift canyons, which one led back to where he’d first been?
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