The Mushroom Garden bordered rock walls on two sides. These walls looked like the gnawed bones of some colossal beast—dark gray stone riddled with honeycomb-like holes.
In certain hollows, clusters of dark-violet crystals had formed, scattered sparsely across the stone. Around these crystals, the concentration of mana was always higher than elsewhere.
This was what the so-called mining zone collected.
Though planting these violet crystals in the soil wouldn’t directly act as fertilizer, they attracted ambient mana, boosting the efficiency of the mycelium’s absorption.
In the mining zone, many Pujis reinforced with the Chitin Shell skill grew thick carapaces over their caps, using them to smash the crystals from the wall.
Truth be told, the shell’s hardness at only Level 4 wasn’t great. Mining efficiency was low, and sometimes the Pujis even shook themselves to death. But given their circumstances, whatever they could harvest was already precious.
Inanna had her eyes on one of the crystals they’d pried loose—a violet gem the size of a fist. She struggled to clamp it between her short stubby legs.
“What are you doing?”
“L-Lin Jun?”
The pink Pujis jolted, tripping over the crystal and tumbling to the ground.
“Don’t just talk in my head all of a sudden…”
“Do we even have another way of talking? You’ll get used to it.”
Inanna thought about it—it was true. Still, she couldn’t imagine ever getting used to someone being able to speak in her mind at any time…
“There are so many magic crystals here,” she said, her voice tinged with excitement as she lifted the violet stone again.
“Magic crystals? You mean these purple rocks I use for soil enrichment?”
“Soil… enrichment?”
A green-capped Pujis hopped out, lifting the cap of a large mushroom to reveal half a violet crystal buried in the dirt beneath.
“Y-you—you actually use magic crystals for farming?!”
“What else would I do with them?”
“These are magic crystals! They’re used to craft magical tools, as bases for magic circles, even shattered pieces can be spellcasting materials! How could you waste them like this?”
Inanna looked utterly heartbroken, as if witnessing a crime against nature.
“You forget this is the dungeon. But… well, they do have other uses.”
From beneath a mushroom, a mycelium tendril uncurled, activating Entangle LV3. It wrapped around a half-palm-sized violet crystal, binding it to a Pujis.
Mana surged into the crystal, changing it from dull to glossy, from glossy to radiant. Soon, it overflowed, cracks splintering across its surface, emitting a strained whine under the burden.
Then the Pujis carrying it leapt into an empty clearing.
Boom!
The explosion’s shockwave sent Inanna tumbling again.
“Pretty powerful, isn’t it? These work great against monsters.”
Rolling across the ground, Inanna was speechless.
A C-grade crystal—good enough to serve as the core of a silver-tier adventurer’s staff—had just been blown up like disposable trash, producing an effect equivalent to a Level 4 Fireball spell.
Even the crudest nouveau riche of the Federation wouldn’t waste such a precious resource like this!
After all, even her personal staff only carried a B-grade crystal.
“By the way, what did you want with a magic crystal?”
The sudden return to topic caught her off guard. Still muttering “wastrel” in her heart, she blurted out:
“I-I want to try casting with it.”
The moment she said it, her heart sank. What if Lin Jun saw her ability to use magic as a threat? If he decided she was dangerous, she might not live long…
“Oh? Didn’t you say you couldn’t cast after turning into a Pujis?”
But Lin Jun didn’t sound wary at all—only curious.
Relieved, Inanna explained quickly: “I just want to test it. If I cast through the crystal, maybe I can bypass the limitations of this body.”
“Then try it.”
Another tendril stretched out, wrapping the crystal by her side and tying it atop her cap.
Startled, Inanna instinctively backed away two steps, but the tendril still wound around her.
“Careful, those tendrils are fragile. Don’t break them.”
After all, the skill had been stolen from somewhere else. Using mycelium to force it out wasn’t exactly sturdy.
Taking his words to heart, Inanna stopped moving and focused on spellcasting—choosing Light Orb, a spell even apprentices could manage.
An orange-yellow globe of light flickered to life above her head, sputtering weakly, its flow unstable.
After a while, though, she seemed to find the rhythm—the light stabilized.
“It worked! It really worked!”
Excited, she bounced in place on her short legs.
Snap—
The tendril snapped instantly, dropping the crystal, snuffing out the orb along with it.
“S-sorry…”
But Lin Jun paid no attention to the lost tendril. His full focus was on the process he had just observed.
“Try again, without the crystal.”
“It won’t work without it.”
“Doesn’t matter. Fail if you must. Just cast—I want to see what happens.”
See?
Not quite sure what he meant, Inanna nonetheless tried again. As expected, she failed—just as she had countless times before.
But Lin Jun, using [Mana Perception LV4], saw much more.
That skill had been stolen from Noctis Vines, predatory mana plants that strangled prey with tendrils after sensing them. He had already wiped them out from this area.
Reflecting on it, he regretted not leaving a few alive. Their Entangle and [Mana Perception] skills were both incredibly useful. If only he had kept some like the Rolling Beetles and slimes in his pens, he could have farmed them regularly for skill proficiency.
Through mana vision, he saw the truth: Inanna’s casting began smoothly, but at every node, her mana flow hit blockages. The spell’s circuit never completed—a mismatch between her “system” and her new “hardware.”
The magic crystal had simply provided an external “environment” where the process could align properly.
Just like how he modified his Pujis before they could wield stolen skills.
“So, can you use other spells now?”
Lin Jun knew she was a dual-affinity Level 4 mage. He wanted to see more.
“Uh… I probably need more practice. I’m not used to channeling mana with a Pujis body. And this crystal isn’t refined—its cloudy spots disrupt the spell. I’ll need to adapt.”
“Cloudy spots? So the purer the crystal, the better?”
Lin Jun truly had no concept of this. He only knew they gathered mana when buried in soil. As for using them as bombs, purity never seemed to matter.
“Of course! They say Archmage Zorya’s staff holds a perfectly pure S-grade crystal—any spell channeled through it becomes three times as strong!”
“S-grade? So there are ranks… Hold on.”
A short while later, to Inanna’s bewilderment, two Pujis waddled up—carrying a crystal the size of an arm, sparkling flawlessly clear.
“A… A-grade magic crystal?! And that big?!”