Leaving aside, for now, that noisy blue parrot chirping away after being rescued—
Lin Jun temporarily pulled most of his attention back.
The reason was simple: on this bright, sunny afternoon… he suddenly reached Level 60!
No harsh training, no epic battle against powerful foes—just basking in the sun, spreading his Mycelium Carpet, and he naturally leveled up.
Come to think of it, he had been stuck at Level 59 for quite some time already.
During this period, he had upgraded the Sunstone, successfully spread his mycelium up to the surface to photosynthesize, and even received “offerings” from humans.
On the surface, under his guidance, humans had finally “discovered” the proper way to cultivate high-yield mushroom fields!
One factor was sunlight—under sunshine, mushroom harvests doubled. The tradeoff, of course, was more frequent watering to keep them moist.
The second trick was fertilizer—using monster corpses to enrich the soil.
Mycelium Carpet nourished by monster corpses not only produced massive harvests but also made it easier to grow tender, delicious red mushrooms!With humanity’s cooperation, the surface mycelium had already spread far beyond the borders of Yafeng(Silentwind) Town, now rapidly expanding toward surrounding cities.
And those sunny fields lacked no caretakers—thousands of refugees hadn’t even all been assigned yet, and more continued to arrive.
Most of the new arrivals now came from the northwest, fleeing the war.
Reports said the frontlines were going poorly. The human defenses kept retreating, and anyone not wanting to be killed or enslaved by the demon race had no choice but to flee.
Among these desperate refugee caravans, a rumor had spread—one that sounded absurd yet irresistibly tempting:
“Yafeng(Silentwind) Town has endless mushrooms to eat!”
In normal times, few would believe such a ridiculous rumor.
But in wartime, refugees weren’t welcomed anywhere.
Young men might still have chances—joining a lord’s army or falling in with gangs—but most others had no such options.
So many clung to that rumor as a last desperate hope, heading toward its promise.
Some lords elsewhere had even fanned the flames, since rumor or not, it helped them shed part of their burden.
Dylan had returned from there to Yafeng(Silentwind) Town in less than a month, but that was on horseback, alone.
Ordinary families traveling slowly often didn’t make it—many died along the way.
Yet for those who reached Yafeng(Silentwind), they discovered—the rumor was true!
There really were endless mushrooms here!
Not only enough to eat, but even surplus to export to nearby cities!
Under the sun, mushrooms grew in abundance, with short cycles and no pests!
One harvest after another, unaffected by seasons—even as autumn ended and the weather cooled, yields only grew larger as methods improved.
Refugees arriving were immediately given mushroom soup. The flavor was plain, but no one starved.
If chosen to work in mushroom fields, they even received extra supplies.
So now, Fahl’s biggest headache wasn’t feeding the population—but managing the explosive population growth!
Dividing living areas, organizing new fields, distributing labor, settling endless disputes…
Yafeng(Silentwind)’s population had already far exceeded the limits of a normal town, swelling unstoppably toward the size of a small city. Fahl understood this well, but a city required more than just people to function.
The population surge brought problems in law, sanitation, distribution, and more. Infrastructure and governance couldn’t keep up. That was the real source of his stress.
…
In short, Lin Jun’s expansion was smooth sailing.
Fueled by the endless mana gathered across his sprawling Mycelium Carpet, his level-up was natural and inevitable.
If anything, with such vast holdings, only reaching Level 60 now showed just how tough his leveling curve really was!
And, as with every major breakthrough, a familiar “+” symbol quietly appeared at the end of his skill list.
At last—a talent skill extraction!
Please, no more things like “Juicy,” he prayed.
Too bad there was no goddess of luck in this world—or he’d have made an offering right now.
【Available Skills:】
【Mental Guidance】 (Control hallucinogenic effects)
【Resonance】 (Allows certain skills to stack and amplify)
【Negative Energy Collection】 (Convert various forms of negative energy into mana and experience)
Emmm…
Mental Guidance looked like a support skill for hallucinogenic spores.
So he could make people see whatever illusions he wanted?
Like filling their vision with a sky full of black crows?
Basically some knock-off Sharingan… he wasn’t sure if it counted as a true mental-type skill.
It seemed useful, but he couldn’t think of practical applications yet. His first thought was just using it to scare Norris…
Next, Resonance.
If it just meant stacking skills, he could already have multiple Pujis unleash [Infrasound Attack] together for a similar effect. So what made this one special?
Like the first option, the description was too vague. Hard to judge.
The third was straightforward—collecting negative energy.
But what exactly counted as negative energy?
Maybe curses?
That was all Lin Jun could think of.
And honestly, it didn’t seem necessary.
With sunlight above in abundance, why bother with scraps of negative energy from the Strawman Abyss?
Though, maybe with this skill, he could one day consume all the curses and purify the Abyss?
But that didn’t matter to him.
So the real choice was between the first two.
But Lin Jun didn’t rush. He closed the panel for now.
At Level 50, he’d still been a lone mushroom, picking whatever skill sounded decent.
Now, things were different!
—
Aedin’s fingers flipped through rough pages, stacked high with reports—mostly disputes between refugees and original townsfolk.
As a major member of the guild branch now, Fahl had unceremoniously dumped plenty of these onto him.
It was both duty and power. But Aedin hadn’t used that power for personal gain—at least, not yet.
Buried in a land dispute report over mushroom fields, his hand suddenly paused.
A few seconds later, he resumed reading, though his fingers moved with faint distraction.
Because his focus had shifted to the fungal network—his boss had finally issued a new task.
“Investigate three skills, huh…”
The Adventurers’ Guild naturally had extensive skill records, though access wasn’t open to all.
Fortunately, Aedin’s current position granted him that access.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, a duke’s daughter who had lingered in the dungeon for days—forcing the guild to send people every other day to check on her—waved her hand cheerfully:
“No problem! Leave it to me!”