Lin Jun was completely speechless.
He had only accelerated the collapse because he feared the ever-multiplying rifts would disrupt his mushroom garden—better short pain than long pain.
But who could have imagined that this “short pain” would hurt this much?!
Not only had the Strawman Abyss torn open into the fifth floor, but another rift now connected to a primeval forest, spewing forth a menagerie of monsters!
In the chaos, nearly all of the already few Pujis on the fifth floor were wiped out.
Lin Jun had planned to just ignore it. But then, of all things, a new rift opened connecting directly to the stone fortress.
At that point, ignoring it was no longer an option. What if these intruding monsters weren’t satisfied with wrecking the fifth floor and decided to march into his fortress as well?
The beast-type monsters might shy from the cold, but the strawmen certainly wouldn’t care…
The enemies weren’t particularly powerful, mostly around levels 20 to 40, but this was only the fifth floor.
Other levels were just as chaotic, though not as much of a free-for-all as the fifth.On the sixth floor, the Treant commanded its Pujis to defend the mountain caverns and the Treant’s secret grove. On the seventh floor, the water level kept falling—clearly a massive hole had opened somewhere below. The fishmen’s fate was unknown.
As for floors one through four, Lin Jun didn’t worry too much. The underground Mycelium Carpet still provided a foundation, preventing complete loss of control.
As for the scattered humans trapped in between, Lin Jun paid them no attention at all.
Right now, he was simultaneously fighting in the fifth floor’s battle royale, harassing the war puppets at the core, and coordinating the demonkin laborers inside the fortress.
Given the rising danger inside the Amethyst Dungeon, Lin Jun had reassigned the demonkin to simpler jobs—feeding Fat Grubs or hunting Ice Spirits.
Unfortunately, as the demonkin had warned, those Ice Spirits condensed into humanoid forms but shattered into useless ice shards when destroyed.
Pure elemental beings couldn’t be captured; after a while, they would simply re-form from drifting ice dust.
A pity about the skills they carried.
…
Days passed quietly.
The humans outside eventually realized the Dungeon’s state had changed, and chose to evacuate. Now the town was nearly deserted.
On the core platform, a Puji stepped over the smoldering corpse of a fallen predecessor and crossed the line again.
The two war puppets activated as always.
Violet shadows flashed like lightning!
One puppet instantly appeared behind the fleeing Puji, its crystal spear wreathed in flame, skewering the mushroom and burning it to ash.
But this time, the puppet’s steps grew slower and heavier as it returned… until it froze mid-stride, body slackening like a marionette with its strings cut.
It was… done?
A Puji cautiously tested the line again.
On the platform, both puppets stood motionless.
Truly done!
Lin Jun couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement. The Dungeon was in chaos, monsters overrunning every floor. The fifth floor was a blood-soaked battlefield.
The worst part was that most of these “resources” couldn’t be reclaimed—his Mycelium Carpet was shredded everywhere, and the giant moths were even tearing at the fungal mats on the ceiling.
Hundreds of Pujis could barely hold a quarter of the fifth floor.
The sixth floor was in a similar state. The seventh was worse: a massive rift had drained nine-tenths of the water, leaving the deep-water monsters half-dead on the exposed floor.
Strangely, the fishmen were nowhere in sight—perhaps all hiding inside the temple ruins.
The deeper levels were no better. Without the pre-dug fungal tunnels, his Mycelium Network would have been severed long ago.
At this rate, Lin Jun really thought the Dungeon might not survive.
But now, just as the Yellow Book(Yellow Tome) had promised, the war puppets had ceased operation before the Dungeon’s total collapse.
A flood of Pujis surged onto the platform, heading straight for the two fallen gods of slaughter. Their task: carry them away!
Whether or not Lin Jun could control them in battle, each one was packed with S-grade magic crystals.
Even if the Amethyst Dungeon couldn’t be repaired, hauling them back to the stone fortress was a kind of consolation prize.
The Pujis reached the great black door behind. Surprisingly, no new obstacles appeared. The door was only abnormally heavy, with no magical fluctuations at all.
Had it never been protected in the first place? Or, like the puppets, had it completely shut down?
Several armored Pujis braced against the door. With a grinding groan, the massive portal was forced open, inch by inch.
Beyond it, Lin Jun finally saw what he had long dreamed of—
The Dungeon’s core!
But what was this?
It wasn’t the radiant energy sphere he had imagined. Instead, it was a massive, intricate machine—cold, precise, and humming with mysterious rhythm.
It filled the entire core chamber. More a “mechanism” than a core, constructed of metal and crystal, silently operating.
Huge, gleaming supports formed its base and framework. Countless pipes of various sizes branched like roots and veins, boring into the floor, walls, and ceiling, weaving together in a complex network.
Inside the pipes surged a strange power—not mana, but some other energy—flowing and converging like the very nerves of the Dungeon.
At the center hovered a diamond-shaped crystal stele, as tall as a man. Its body was transparent, but within swirled not purity, but a miniature galaxy—countless motes of light darting, colliding, and reshaping endlessly.
How did Lin Jun feel, looking at it?
Like a child who had just learned to read, suddenly stumbling into the most advanced high-tech laboratory.
Forget controlling it—he was terrified the Pujis might accidentally kick a “power line” and make the entire Dungeon collapse on the spot!
Behind this main control chamber, there was even a small door.
The Pujis tried pushing it open, but failed.
After some study, Lin Jun had to accept the truth.
The Dungeon’s core was beyond his ability to repair. Only the Yellow Book(Yellow Tome) could do it.
——
In a nearby cavern, a Puji took the Yellow Book(Yellow Tome) out of its body.
The moment it emerged, the book sensed the surroundings.
[Ah! So this is the Dungeon now!]
[Boss, did you really manage to bring down the war puppets?]
“Yes. Which means it’s time for you to work,” said the speech-capable Puji, voice carrying a subtle temptation. “Sacred Codex, listen carefully. If you repair the Dungeon, I won’t limit your feeding anymore. I’ll even send Pujis out to ‘hunt’ souls just for you—as much as you want.”
[Truly?! Boss, you are the most merciful, the most generous being in the world!]
[Rest assured! I will restore it faster and more perfectly than ever before!]
But Lin Jun wasn’t finished. “However… this Dungeon is too important. For me. For all of us. I must be absolutely certain. I need to be… cautious.”
[What do you mean?] The Yellow Book(Yellow Tome)’s voice quavered with unease.
“It means…” the speech-Puji whispered coldly, “before the repairs begin, I may need to… clear out all the souls stored within your pages.”
[!!!]
At that moment, another fat Puji waddled up beside the book. Its belly bulged, then split open—Gray’s head squeezed out, golden eyes spinning wildly before locking onto the Yellow Book(Yellow Tome).
[Boss… isn’t this unnecessary…?] the book pleaded, realizing what was about to happen.
“Be at ease, Sacred Codex.” The Puji’s rasping voice carried an eerie gentleness. “Every bit you lose today, I promise I will repay tenfold, a hundredfold in the future. This is just a small pain… the pain before true freedom.”
[…]
[…]
[No—don’t—aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!]