Far north, Puji Fort — inside a tunnel being dug.
Dwarf Tolin, Grem, and Lizardman Baroque stood side by side in front of the rump of a large, white, homebody puji.
The plump puji’s body was stuck in the tunnel, only two short, fat legs protruding before the three of them.
“Ready!”
At Grem’s call, the three pressed their shoulders against the puji’s rump.
“One, two… push!”
With the grinding hum of rock being broken, the three pushed in unison and shoved it five meters forward. Lizardman Baroque lost strength first and tumbled headlong onto the ground; only then did they stop.
The puji still looked like it was jammed in the tunnel, but in fact this was a burrowing puji, homebody variant — the entire passage had been excavated by it.
They’d made such a large earthway mainly so, in times of danger, residents could be moved beneath the ground and relocated from the city.
There were more than ten similar tunnels that Tolin and the others knew of, and the real total would only be higher.
The only problem was that ordinary burrowing pujis advance by kicking the two side walls with their short legs; when you scale that mechanism up to a homebody puji, things change.
Although the short legs could barely reach both sides of the rock, the force produced by those kicks became negligible against an overly heavy body.
Simply put, a heavy homebody burrowing puji couldn’t advance underground by itself.
So they had to revert to the primitive method: pushing it by manpower.
Of course, calling it primitive was relative — simply pushing the puji forward continuously and occasionally checking the direction was far faster than digging with pickaxes by human hands.
They’d all volunteered for this job. The work was exhausting, but contribution points were awarded by distance advanced, and the dwarves’ sturdy physiques made this the task that earned Tolin and Grem the most contribution points.
As for Baroque, he was a friend they’d made by chance during this time.
They often got assigned together and became familiar with one another; before this, Tolin and Grem would never have believed they’d someday have a demon ally.
Pushing the homebody burrowing puji was a standard three-person job, so they’d brought Baroque along to pick up some contribution points.
Baroque was grateful and worked hard.
Alas, racial differences in strength and endurance meant his contribution was only roughly half that of a dwarf.
Also, although the burrowing puji’s high temperatures were mainly concentrated at its head, the tunnel was still stiflingly hot.
Only dwarves could endure long hours working in such conditions.
Leaning against the still-warm rock, Baroque bought breakfast for the two dwarves.
After one of the mushroomborn recorded their progress and they handed over to another crew, the three crawled out of the tunnel just as the moons were about to set and the sun had yet to rise — that faint hour before dawn.
There were multiple food distribution points within Puji Fort, but at dawn the mess nearest the gate known as the “Knock Gate” was the most popular among the prisoners.
By the time the three arrived, it was nearly full.
Not because the food was particularly tasty, but because this dining hall had songs you couldn’t hear in the other messes.
They sat down, each with a plate of stir-fried mushrooms and fatty meat with savory mushroom gravy, but didn’t dig in yet; like the others, they raised their wooden cups and waited.
“Aooooooo—!!!”
As the moon completely set and the sun rose in the east, a long, enduring howl echoed from outside the city gate — the daily cry of some green-skinned vampire forced to train against sunlight.
“To hell with those imperial vampire scum! Hahaha!”
Common tongue, demon tongue, and the Mycelial Network’s chatter blended together as everyone laughed and began breakfast.
The labor prisoners in the city now mostly came from northern tribes and redeemed captives of various races; they held different positions and harbored subtle hierarchies or grudges between each other.
But there was no doubt everyone hated the Empire.
The wail of an aristocratic imperial vampire made for the perfect accompaniment to a meal, and a vampire rested all night and had the most powerful morning cries — hence the mess’s popularity at dawn.
“I wonder how Flamegold Fort is doing.” Tolin said suddenly.
Grem drained his mushroom gravy in one gulp. “How do you think? Heavy losses, of course. Look at how much damage they did in there last time; I’d estimate it won’t recover production for at least half a year.”
Neither of them knew Flamegold Fort had already fallen — the far north had no way to receive news from there, so they still assumed Flamegold Fort had retaken the Elemental Dungeon.
“I really want to buy my freedom soon…” Tolin murmured.
“It’ll be soon. At the current pace, in about four months you’ll have enough contribution points.”
Not long ago, the former half-demon leader had gathered enough points and became the first prisoner to buy his freedom.
But he didn’t leave; instead, he chose a good house near the city center and stayed.
Someone’s successful redemption had clearly affected others — everyone’s work efficiency had improved by two percent recently.
Most wanted to stay like the half-demon leader did.
After all, leaving meant you didn’t know where to go; the Empire was still at war with the United Kingdom, and staying in the far north seemed safer.
People like Tolin who wanted to return home were in the minority.
Suddenly, Lizardman Baroque set down his unfinished mushroom gravy and leapt to his feet.
Not just him — many half-demons and Lizardmen in the mess set down their food and ran outside.
“What happened?” Tolin asked quickly.
“I don’t know, but the commander has issued an emergency assembly order!” Baroque shouted as he dashed out.
——
Mushroom Garden No. 3.
Looking at Gray["Little Black"] — half her body slumped on her back outside the mushroom hut, tongue lolling, drooling, and still snoring — Lin Jun was speechless.
A puji stepped up and kicked twice; there was no response at all.
This wasn’t from Lin Jun using hallucinogenic spores again; it was the result of a new skill.
After the pig leader was moved to Golden Valley City for decomposition, Lin Jun had gained [Bloodline Enhancement LV2].
This skill actually existed in the half-demon leader too, but now that leader was on their side — Lin Jun couldn’t just slaughter him for a skill.
After obtaining the skill, Lin Jun first tried it on the pujis; they could shake out more spores…
A pretty useless effect.
Still, it was clear the limitation was that pujis didn’t have the bloodline in question.
Among his subordinates there were indeed many suitable candidates — mainly the half-demon group.
But when it came to bloodline value, who surpassed Gray’s ancient dragon bloodline?
However, after investing a large amount of mana to equip Gray, the first time Lin Jun used the skill she ended up like this and couldn’t be woken.
Had he broken her?
Just as Lin Jun was considering whether to use [Mental Guidance] to peek into Gray’s dream and check her mental state, something else demanded his priority — the tribes he had been surveilling had begun mustering troops!
The picture streamed to the piglet, and she decisively issued a mobilization order through the mycelial network.
If one were to look down on the entire Puji Fort at that moment, they’d see a sea of pujis gathering from all corners of the city and surging toward the assembly points outside the gates.