Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 368 - 360: Salian’s Worries

The latest batch of werewolves brought from the tribe is lining up to receive the "assimilation ritual" from Little Pig and Lin Jun.

To be honest, for Little Pig, this job has long turned from a coveted task to a purely routine duty.

After tasting the beverages enhanced with [Delicious Level 8], going back to suck the blood of these ordinary werewolves feels just like humans swallowing a bowl of tasteless paste.

Calling it painful might be an exaggeration, but it’s definitely not a joyful experience.

Moreover, every time she bites the werewolves’ coarse necks, her mouth ends up full of wolf hair, and she can’t spit it all out no matter how much she tries, which really damages her graceful image.

On the other side, the newly crowned Wolf King, Xiao Lan, found the only one who didn’t come to watch his "alpha challenge"—Karen—and boasted with some pride, "I’m already the Wolf King, Karen!"

Meanwhile, Karen was rubbing her sore arm, having just been defeated again by Norris in a direct confrontation.

The boss forbade sneak attacks, yet she never wins against Norris in direct combat, making Karen frustrated!

She gave a disdainful glance at the smug Xiao Lan and the Marshal Puki sitting leisurely atop his head and suddenly asked, "Oh, impressive. Then tell me, who’s bigger, you as the Wolf King, or the ’boss’ sitting on your head?"

Xiao Lan was taken aback and blurted out, "Uh... of course, the boss is bigger!"

Karen immediately rolled her eyes at him, "Then you’re not much of an alpha!"

With that, she turned away in annoyance, leaving the new Wolf King alone, bewildered.

The Marshal Puki on Xiao Lan’s head symbolically shifted his position as if patting him for comfort.

However, Xiao Lan did not feel too disappointed. He had come to find Karen with a slight intention of showing off his "new clothes."

His attention soon turned to another matter. He shook his head slightly and curiously asked the boss on his head:

"Boss, what’s it like to sit on my head?"

"Hmm? Uh..." Lin Jun manipulated Puki to move around as if genuinely feeling it, "It’s just okay, too much hair, a bit slippery, not too stable, much worse than sitting on King’s head."

"Then why do you always like to stay on my head?" Xiao Lan continued to ask.

"Because you’re the tallest!" Lin Jun replied.

Lin Jun loved the feeling of others looking up to see him!

...

Meanwhile, in Ishildorin, the bottom of Elf City, Salian with a furrowed brow was entirely focused on the increasingly grim situation and had no mind to deal with his sister’s little pet.

Scout Puki flapped his wings, trying to land on Salian’s seemingly more "advanced" head after taking off from Elarwen’s soft locks, only to be blocked by Salian’s somewhat impatient hand.

The elves are now facing their biggest issue—the madness pollution spreading in Divine Wood Dungeon. Despite the Royal City Guard Captain personally leading a large number of elite Rangers into a thorough sweep, the situation is far from optimistic.

Though the rampaging demons are being continuously eliminated, and the elves’ fronts are steadily pushing downward, seemingly able to clear the dungeon soon, this is just a dangerous illusion.

The spread of "madness" hasn’t truly been curbed.

In the already cleared rear areas, demons still occasionally go into frenzy for no apparent reason, viciously attacking supply convoys or retreating wounded.

It’s like a worm clenching to bones, seemingly never stopping until all life in the dungeon is utterly exterminated.

The elves still can’t determine whether these suddenly emergent crazy demons at the rear were lucky survivors from previous sweeps or pitiful creatures originally purified but relapsed due to unknown reasons.

This has fostered panic and extreme emotions, with some even proposing the radical idea of completely burning down the entire Divine Wood Dungeon.

The proposal was naturally rejected by the vast majority of sensible elves, but it reflects the subtle changes in many elves’ mindset.

Salian fully understands this emotion. Anyone who witnesses their comrades, friends, or even family being attacked and severely injured or killed by these seemingly endless crazy demons will inevitably develop extreme and desperate thoughts.

Even he couldn’t avoid it!

A few days prior, news came of a friend of his being infected.

Despite Druids trying their best to perform purification, seeing his friend with blood-red eyes and insane roars filled Salian’s heart with sorrow.

However, he knows even more clearly that these extreme emotions are precisely the best breeding ground for "madness"!

There have been several cases on the frontline where Rangers haven’t been in close contact with the infected yet got inexplicably infected in fierce battles.

Because of this, the Guard Captain had to divide the frontline elf troops into several batches, forcing them to rotate breaks to calm emotions and relieve mental stress.

This method, although mitigating "madness" effects on elf forces to some extent, has greatly slowed the sweeping progress downward.

What troubles Salian most is that until now, they still don’t understand the true objective of the Demon Race spreading this "madness."?

Initially, he thought this was the Demon Race’s scheme to increase pressure on human forces by causing chaos in the elves’ rear.

But according to the latest intelligence from the outside, the Demon Race hasn’t strengthened their offensive on the eastern front recently but rather appears to ease off.

For the elves, this isn’t good news.

The Demon Race must be scheming something with such efforts.

If the target doesn’t seem to be humans, then it’s most likely aimed directly at the elves themselves!

Yet they remain clueless about the enemy’s true intentions, this passive beating is suffocating.

At times like this, only solving the problem quickly can give him some peace of mind, yet the elusive spread characteristics of "madness" keep hindering them...

Meanwhile, since many spellcasters were diverted to the dungeon frontline, the "Surveillance Array" project he led construction for had to be temporarily shelved, leaving the problems with the radicals unsolved for a while.

Just yesterday, the Elf King directly ordered his teacher Ilo to head to Divine Wood Dungeon to assist in clearing and probe if any unknown mutations have occurred in the dungeon itself.

Salian plans to apply to go along, maybe his expertise in Space Reconnaissance Magic could help.

However... with the unstable situation inside and outside the city, he’s really worried about leaving his not-so-social but restless sister home alone.

After pondering for a long time, he decided to ask a colleague for help.