"What's going on?"

At the entrance between the fifth and sixth floors, a group of adventurers were forced to stop their descent because the stairs were crowded...

The Pukis were swarming down the stairs in batches, completely blocking the path, leaving no room for the adventurers to squeeze through.

People's tolerance for strange occurrences always seems to be constantly refreshed. Previously, adventurers were amazed to see Big Black Mushrooms traversing the stairs, but now they weren't even surprised to see Pukis descending in groups.

It's just that...

An adventurer glanced at the long line of Pukis behind them and complained:

"How long is this going to take to finish?"

...

On the sixth floor, the Mushroom Cannon in the southwest corner hadn't stopped for more than half a day, causing quite a few Pukis manning the cannons to exhaust the threads and become silent.

The cannon on the bottom level of the cliff wall suffered the most, as it was directly taken out by a large Slime that surged over, digesting the cannon completely or partially dying within the rocky shell.

The Slime even attempted to engulf the cannons higher up, but as the slope turned steeper, climbing became increasingly difficult for it. In the end, it was blasted back by the remaining cannons' barrage.

Unfortunately, the remaining cannons on the cliff were too far to accurately bombard the area below, limiting their effectiveness.

Lin Jun was commanding this sudden grand battle against the Slimes.

The Rock Pit had long been breached, so Lin Jun had to order the Pukis to retreat first. After regrouping with the first batch of reinforcements from the fifth floor, they established a quarantine line.

Over two hundred Mushroom Cannon Pukis surrounded the corner where the small mountain was located, trying to prevent the large Slimes from spreading out.

At one end of the defensive line, more than twenty Pukis were retreating while fighting under the pressure of three Slimes.

The nearest Slime, having been hit the most, had its fluids splatter extensively, reducing its size to less than the height of a person.

Another volley of Mushroom Cannons burst forward, and without enough slime for defense, the core hidden within was affected and destroyed, causing the Slime to instantly dissolve into a liquid puddle.

However, the situation wasn't good. The two more distant Slimes were still about two people tall, and several volleys of Mushroom Cannons only slightly reduced their size, while their health bars remained lengthy!

One of the Slimes leapt several steps forward, catching up with the trailing Puki and enveloping it, thus engaging with the Pukis.

Lin Jun had no choice but to order the Pukis to spread out, at least preventing the Slime from killing two with a single jump.

Even so, the number of Pukis rapidly dwindled, and the two Slimes were only slightly weakened, on the verge of an all-out demise.

Thump-thump—thump-thump—

A heavy sound, different from the usual Pukis, approached as a Big Black Mushroom charged out of the woods.

With one punch, it smashed into a Slime, bursting it like a water balloon!

Accompanying the explosion were four Pukis, but unfortunately, none could be saved.

The other Slime didn't last a few more seconds, getting stomped by Xiao Hai and exploding on the spot.

A splatter of Digestive Mucus glued a nearby Puki to the ground, struggling for a few moments before succumbing.

Xiao Hai licked the mucus off her hands; the Slimes were imbued with ample Magic Power, and their taste wasn't too bad.

However, Xiao Hai couldn't stay for long, as Lin Jun directed her to other areas needing firefighting.

Only five Pukis survived on the spot, not enough to form a defensive line, but fortunately, a new batch of reinforcements was arriving from the stairs, doubling the numbers to a full 400.

With the powerful Xiao Hai, the previously pushed-out encirclement was forced back step by step.

Frankly, it's a good thing the Slimes emerging from the small mountain weren't infinite, judging by the pressure on the encirclement.

After the Rock Pit was breached, another wave of large Slimes emerged, but there were no further reinforcements.

This was correct; there can't be truly unlimited respawns!

In fact, it's already absurd enough that the underground water source within the small mountain could hide so many large Slimes.

Although the situation had stabilized, this Slime rampage had caused devastating damage to the ecosystem within the southwest corner encirclement of the sixth floor.

Once a large Slime sat down, it didn't matter whether it was a Flower Demon or a vine; everything got digested.

Coupled with Lin Jun's Mushroom Cannon fire shower, this area quickly became barren under the twin blows!

Thankfully, it was just one corner, so the overall impact on the sixth floor wasn't severe.

After another half day, the battle line was finally pushed back near the Rock Pit, with dozens of Mushroom Cannons eliminating the last visible Slime.

Xiao Hai didn't follow; she got tired halfway through the fight and started eating with a Puki, using Slime mucus as seasoning. She's probably just finishing now.

Lin Jun controlled the Pukis to reach the opened Rift, ignoring the corrosive Slime Mucus on the ground, and sent a few Pukis into the breach.

Once inside, they discovered that the mountain's interior was almost hollow, explaining how it could contain so many Slimes!

Lin Jun soon found traces of the underground water, and by following the stream upwards, located a peculiar Slime at its end.

This Slime was about the height of a person, not small, but compared to the ones that had charged out, it seemed underdeveloped.

Its body was a mix of red and green, looking as if two Slimes had merged into one.

When Lin Jun saw it, it was struggling to split another Slime from its body.

After the split, its size shrunk a bit.

The Slime that split off was a pure red Slime, unlike the bicolored original, and as soon as it landed, Puki killed it on the spot.

[Core Split Level 9]

This is definitely not a common skill.

You should know that normal Slimes are directly formed by the environment and magic power, not by reproductive splitting.

No wonder there are Slimes here far exceeding the natural limit of what the sixth layer's environment can hold, turns out they are produced unnaturally.

But that still doesn't explain how these Slimes grew so large!

Lin Jun noticed something strange.

This Slime... was constantly spraying water...

It was ejecting large amounts of clear water from both sides of its body, looking like an underground water source?

Is this a joke?

Lin Jun didn't see a skill in its skill bar that allows it to create unlimited water.

Is the place it's sitting producing water?

Two Pukis rolled a thin slab of stone, trying to push this Slime away.

Since they hadn't decided whether to kill it directly, the Pukis didn't use too much force, fearing they might accidentally kill it.

However, the bicolored Slime, which hadn't shown any aggression since they met, was desperately resisting the stone slab, not wanting to move at all.

Puki's strength wasn't much, and they couldn't push it away for the moment.

But Lin Jun had more than two Pukis, and with more joining in, the Slime was reluctantly pushed aside.

As expected, there was a water-spewing crack in the rock beneath it.

Once the Slime was moved, a faint trace of magic power was dispersed from the emerging water!

This water was actually rich in magic power!

This was the first... no wait, there was more in the Treasure Chest Room, and the magic concentration was much higher there.

But the water volume in this crack was large!

Overall, the total amount of magic power here was still greater.

No wonder the Slime was unwilling to move, and how those Slimes managed to grow so big, they've been sitting here filtering and absorbing all the magic power for themselves!

If the Slime can filter magic power, so can Lin Jun!

Although it's not particularly needed now, one can never have too much magic power.

In time, using mycelium to set up several layers of filters here, this small mountain cavity could serve as a hidden space, later on just fake the outer opening...

[Corrosive Curse]

Huh?

What is this?

All of a sudden, this curse effect appeared on the panels of all the Pukis present, and they started losing blood volume...

Lin Jun reacted quickly, and before the Pukis' blood volume fell by half, hurriedly moved the bicolored Slime back to block the water outlet.

The returning Slime let out a satisfied bubble.

Sure enough, the curse disappeared shortly after.

How can Lin Jun not understand now that the water contains a curse!

But why?

This can't be left unexplained!

While controlling the bicolored Slime, Lin Jun sped up the production of some Pukis with higher blood volume and corrosion resistance.

Once ready, they again kicked away the bicolored Slime, and the digging Pukis began to open the crack.

Even with this preparation, they still had to bring the bicolored Slime back once.

The longer this Corrosive Curse lingered on the panel, the higher the damage, only a Slime immune to corrosion damage could withstand it.

After half a day of work, the Pukis finally opened the crack, revealing the truth behind it—

A Rift!

A very small one, but just like during the Demon Tide, connecting to another Underground City!

What's going on with this Underground City, has maintenance been neglected for years?

Does the other side know their pipes are leaking sewage over here?

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