Far north, Puji Fort — inside a tunnel being dug.
Dwarf Tolin, Grem, and Lizardman Baroque stood side by side in front of the rump of a large, white, hobody puji.
The plump puji’s body was stuck in the tunnel, only two short, fat legs protruding before the three of them.
“Ready!”
At Grem’s call, the three pressed their shoulders against the puji’s rump.
“One, two… push!”
With the grinding hum of rock being broken, the three pushed in unison and shoved it five ters forward. Lizardman Baroque lost strength first and tumbled headlong onto the ground; only then did they stop.
The puji still looked like it was jamd in the tunnel, but in fact this was a burrowing puji, hobody variant — the entire passage had been excavated by it.
They’d made such a large earthway mainly so, in tis of danger, residents could be moved beneath the ground and relocated from the city.
There were more than ten similar tunnels that Tolin and the others knew of, and the real total would only be higher.
The only problem was that ordinary burrowing pujis advance by kicking the two side walls with their short legs; when you scale that chanism up to a hobody puji, things change.
Although the short legs could barely reach both sides of the rock, the force produced by those kicks beca negligible against an overly heavy body.
Simply put, a heavy hobody burrowing puji couldn’t advance underground by itself.
So they had to revert to the primitive thod: pushing it by manpower.
Of course, calling it primitive was relative — simply pushing the puji forward continuously and occasionally checking the direction was far faster than digging with pickaxes by human hands.
They’d all volunteered for this job. The work was exhausting, but contribution points were awarded by distance advanced, and the dwarves’ sturdy physiques made this the task that earned Tolin and Grem the most contribution points.
As for Baroque, he was a friend they’d made by chance during this ti.
They often got assigned together and beca familiar with one another; before this, Tolin and Grem would never have believed they’d soday have a demon ally.
Pushing the hobody burrowing puji was a standard three-person job, so they’d brought Baroque along to pick up so contribution points.
Baroque was grateful and worked hard.
Alas, racial differences in strength and endurance ant his contribution was only roughly half that of a dwarf.
Also, although the burrowing puji’s high temperatures were mainly concentrated at its head, the tunnel was still stiflingly hot.
Only dwarves could endure long hours working in such conditions.
Leaning against the still-warm rock, Baroque bought breakfast for the two dwarves.
After one of the mushroomborn recorded their progress and they handed over to another crew, the three crawled out of the tunnel just as the moons were about to set and the sun had yet to rise — that faint hour before dawn.
There were multiple food distribution points within Puji Fort, but at dawn the ss nearest the gate known as the “Knock Gate” was the most popular among the prisoners.
By the ti the three arrived, it was nearly full.
Not because the food was particularly tasty, but because this dining hall had songs you couldn’t hear in the other sses.
They sat down, each with a plate of stir-fried mushrooms and fatty at with savory mushroom gravy, but didn’t dig in yet; like the others, they raised their wooden cups and waited.
“Aooooooo—!!!”
As the moon completely set and the sun rose in the east, a long, enduring howl echoed from outside the city gate — the daily cry of so green-skinned vampire forced to train against sunlight.
“To hell with those imperial vampire scum! Hahaha!”
Common tongue, demon tongue, and the Mycelial Network’s chatter blended together as everyone laughed and began breakfast.
The labor prisoners in the city now mostly ca from northern tribes and redeed captives of various races; they held different positions and harbored subtle hierarchies or grudges between each other.
But there was no doubt everyone hated the Empire.
The wail of an aristocratic imperial vampire made for the perfect accompanint to a al, and a vampire rested all night and had the most powerful morning cries — hence the ss’s popularity at dawn.
“I wonder how Flagold Fort is doing.” Tolin said suddenly.
Grem drained his mushroom gravy in one gulp. “How do you think? Heavy losses, of course. Look at how much damage they did in there last ti; I’d estimate it won’t recover production for at least half a year.”
Neither of them knew Flagold Fort had already fallen — the far north had no way to receive news from there, so they still assud Flagold Fort had retaken the Elental Dungeon.
“I really want to buy my freedom soon…” Tolin murmured.
“It’ll be soon. At the current pace, in about four months you’ll have enough contribution points.”
Not long ago, the forr half-demon leader had gathered enough points and beca the first prisoner to buy his freedom.
But he didn’t leave; instead, he chose a good house near the city center and stayed.
Soone’s successful redemption had clearly affected others — everyone’s work efficiency had improved by two percent recently.
Most wanted to stay like the half-demon leader did.
After all, leaving ant you didn’t know where to go; the Empire was still at war with the United Kingdom, and staying in the far north seed safer.
People like Tolin who wanted to return ho were in the minority.
Suddenly, Lizardman Baroque set down his unfinished mushroom gravy and leapt to his feet.
Not just him — many half-demons and Lizardn in the ss set down their food and ran outside.
“What happened?” Tolin asked quickly.
“I don’t know, but the commander has issued an ergency assembly order!” Baroque shouted as he dashed out.
——
Mushroom Garden No. 3.
Looking at Gray["Little Black"] — half her body slumped on her back outside the mushroom hut, tongue lolling, drooling, and still snoring — Lin Jun was speechless.
A puji stepped up and kicked twice; there was no response at all.
This wasn’t from Lin Jun using hallucinogenic spores again; it was the result of a new skill.
After the pig leader was moved to Golden Valley City for decomposition, Lin Jun had gained [Bloodline Enhancent LV2].
This skill actually existed in the half-demon leader too, but now that leader was on their side — Lin Jun couldn’t just slaughter him for a skill.
After obtaining the skill, Lin Jun first tried it on the pujis; they could shake out more spores…
A pretty useless effect.
Still, it was clear the limitation was that pujis didn’t have the bloodline in question.
Among his subordinates there were indeed many suitable candidates — mainly the half-demon group.
But when it ca to bloodline value, who surpassed Gray’s ancient dragon bloodline?
However, after investing a large amount of mana to equip Gray, the first ti Lin Jun used the skill she ended up like this and couldn’t be woken.
Had he broken her?
Just as Lin Jun was considering whether to use [ntal Guidance] to peek into Gray’s dream and check her ntal state, sothing else demanded his priority — the tribes he had been surveilling had begun mustering troops!
The picture stread to the piglet, and she decisively issued a mobilization order through the mycelial network.
If one were to look down on the entire Puji Fort at that mont, they’d see a sea of pujis gathering from all corners of the city and surging toward the assembly points outside the gates.
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