To be fair, although Iros had been turned into a wooden figure by the Divine Tree, Lin Jun genuinely felt that this bigshot was still fairly reasonable.
Iros asked so many questions; the Divine Tree could have ignored him, yet it answered each one in turn.
Moreover, the way it treated Lin Jun seemed slightly different, so Lin Jun directly asked the question that had been nagging him.
“I know what you’re curious about, but I won’t tell you.” The Divine Tree’s voice remained even.
“A riddle-keeper? Why?!” Lin Jun couldn’t help pressing.
“If I told you, that would be interfering. Everything’s meaningless anyway—I just want to go back to sleep. Don’t bother me again.” The tumbleweed slowly began to disperse; the faintly glowing “eye” at its center dimmed.
A root curled up the Heartwood Core from the ground, lifting the puji that clung to the staff’s tail along with it.
The root shook but couldn’t fling off the puji.
Half-scattered, the tumbleweed paused. “What are you doing?”
“This dropped from the BOSS! Since you’re going to sleep anyway, taking a piece won’t make your wood any lighter!” Lin Jun made one last effort.
He’d bled heavily to get here—he’d lost a lot, even a Knight and an S-grade magic crystal! If he came away with nothing, that would be a huge loss; he might as well have been working for the elves for free!
“No. Time’s almost up. I don’t want anyone waking me up with it,” the Divine Tree said coldly.
With a merciless shake of its root, the puji couldn’t hold on any longer and plopped to the ground. It watched the Wood Core vanish into the roots.
“But…” the Divine Tree’s tone suddenly shifted.
That single “but” sounded like heaven itself; the puji immediately straightened its cap and struck the pose for accepting a quest.
“My Wood Core is missing a corner. If you help me retrieve it, I don’t mind giving you a reward.” A softly glowing fruit appeared before the puji.
The panel clearly displayed an unranked skill: [Life Source Essence].
“Guaranteed completion of task!”
Not a direct payoff, but getting an SSS-tier task was some consolation for Lin Jun’s battered feelings.
The tumbleweed fully dispersed; the next moment, two pujis appeared beside the Divine Tree sapling at the bottom of the Dungeon.
They were kicked out, and the Divine Tree’s last words echoed in their minds as they vanished: “Don’t come back until you find it. Your voice is truly unpleasant…”
Lin Jun: “……”
I’ll endure it!
One day when I reach LV99, I’ll station a dozen voice-pujis here to hold concerts in rotation!
Although they were ejected, the two pujis hadn’t secured anything and thus had no reason to exist; they were soon decomposed by the surrounding mycelium carpet.
…
Meanwhile, the Elf King’s city remained shrouded in chaotic shadow.
The first to receive the bad news was the princess who stayed behind to keep the rear—Gelladriel.
She had been mentally prepared for her father Aurel’s sacrifice.
What unsettled her even more, however, was the next piece of news: Iros and Eko had suddenly erupted into lethal combat, leaving both grievously wounded and the artifact missing.
As two of the elves’ most experienced and powerful elders, they should have stabilized affairs after the King’s death and presided over the selection of the new ruler. Now they might have perished together—and the artifact had vanished too.
Upon first hearing, Gelladriel felt the world spin; disaster had struck.
Witnesses could only report the snippets they’d heard.
In short: either Eko suddenly went mad, or Iros betrayed them. Neither made sense to Gelladriel.
Eko was the rangers’ leader—steadfast, experienced. He couldn’t have been driven mad so easily, nor would he single-mindedly hunt only Iros.
As for Iros betraying the elves—that was even more absurd. What would he gain? It wasn’t like seeking that bullshit “immortality.”
Unlike short-lived humans, elves lived for millennia and generally didn’t crave immortality.
Vampires’ kind of immortality—forsaking living pleasures—looked worse than dying and returning to nature to most elves. Besides, vampires rarely converted non-humans; it was almost suicidal.
In any case, Gelladriel immediately dispatched people to search for the two and the artifact.
Days later, the elven force that withdrew from the Dungeon brought worse news: Iros’s betrayal was true.
Saryan recounted in full the reasons behind Iros’s actions.
And that wasn’t the worst part.
The worst part was that only Iros had been seen afterward—did that mean Eko had been killed by him?
Now… the elves’ top combat strength hadn’t been entirely wiped out, but they’d certainly suffered grievous losses.
The only consolation was that the Divine Tree’s activation had completely stopped.
The elves were spared the humiliation of having to cut down their own great tree.
But that was all.
During the Divine Tree’s activation, though it hadn’t moved, the active branches had destroyed much of the elven city built upon it.
Gelladriel still didn’t dare let her people return home—because the culprit Iros’s whereabouts remained unknown!
Had he obtained the artifact? What would he do next?
Gelladriel didn’t know; she could only wait.
And wait they did—for a whole week.
They didn’t get Iros back—but they got an unexpected figure instead!
The captain of the guard, Eko—previously thought dead—returned alive!
Gelladriel’s chest unclenched the moment she saw him.
Only one problem—the returned Eko bore unnatural white mycelial filaments on his body, and sitting stably atop his head was… a puji?
…
Eko had fallen down the spiral and, unlike the artifact that tumbled further to the bottom, had landed on the next layer.
Lin Jun, who had been watching their duel the whole time, immediately sent pujis to retrieve him before the monsters ate him.
It helped that in the Divine Tree’s Dungeon, monsters were so scarce that a timely rescue was possible.
Lin Jun didn’t plan to recruit Eko outright—it was obvious that wasn’t possible. This man could be murderous in the extreme; Lin Jun had neither enough bait to tempt him nor leverage to threaten him.
In the end Lin Jun only parasitically repaired Eko’s wounds, and by the favor of saving his life plus the faint good feeling from the parasitism, shamelessly let a puji climb onto Eko’s head.
After all, pujis spread spores. Anyone who knew about wounded survivors coexisting with pujis could learn this in the human territories.
Having the puji sit on Eko’s head was Lin Jun’s advertisement.
If the captain becomes a Puji Master, what more would the other elves worry about?
In short, the elven city could become a second Mushroom City!
Of course, that was Lin Jun’s “perfect” plan. Things actually developed a bit differently…
…
In a corner of the heavily damaged elven city, Elawen’s small cottage miraculously remained intact.
Its marginal location had been fortunate.
There, with a puji upon his head, Saryan found his sister.
“Brother?!”
“Elawen! You’re unharmed—that’s wonderful!”
They finally met. Saryan’s eyes filled with tears as he stepped forward.
The next moment, Elawen kicked the unsuspecting Saryan in the gut.
“Why is the little one’s cap crooked?!”