“Not that! A person! Turn into him!”

Lin Jun used a Puji’s tendril to point at the utterly bewildered Dylan.

And in front of Dylan stood… a giant Puji, its body covered in thick black scales, with two arms and a trailing mycelium tail.

Its wings seemed crammed inside its fat, bloated body—it was at least a size larger than Gray’s original form.

The hell!?

Why did she Mimic into a Puji!?

I burned through that much mana for this?!

Well… maybe for camouflage it was slightly useful.

At least adventurers wouldn’t realize there was a draconian lurking on the fifth floor. To them, it would just look like a particularly conspicuous oversized black Puji.

But still—why black? Shouldn’t she be able to change color too!?

Does she even know how to use this properly!?

Wouldn’t adventurers mistake her for an elite monster and attack her even more readily? Wouldn’t that just stir up more fights!?

Lin Jun sighed, trying again.

He stretched a tendril over to Dylan’s face, tugging it long.

“Gray, look carefully. Mimic this!”

At LV4, Mimicry wasn’t just smoothing out wrinkles and recoloring scales anymore.

It could partially reshape the body while keeping the same stats.

Like right now—turning Gray into this tailed Puji form.

But reverting was no easy task either.

“Uuuhhh—”

She strained and squirmed… and instead of human form, she devolved into a lumpy black ball.

At that moment, Lin Jun suddenly realized—wait, could this skill actually scale with Intelligence?

…Crap.

That would explain it.

With no choice, he had to give up and let her revert to normal Puji form.

Fine.

Better than her walking around as a dragonkin.

Slightly better…

Sigh.

Every day something new and ridiculous.

Gray was already restless, itching to head out.

Lin Jun had no choice but to keep his promise, though he warned her over and over not to attack humans first.

“Green ones, can I?” she asked.

“Green ones? Uh… yeah, I guess…”

Watching the black fat Puji stomp heavily, leaving deeper prints than the others, Lin Jun still wasn’t reassured.

In the empty dungeon, she could play however she wanted. But now…

Two Pujis hurried along under his control, following behind her.

One big, two small—like an elite mob leading little brothers.

Meanwhile, back at the base, Dylan looked around. Everyone was gone.

He thought about sleeping again, but couldn’t settle.

Even on “vacation,” he felt restless.

Ah. No booze. That was it.

He applied through the mycelium network, then set out fully equipped—including the Phantom Cloak Lin Jun had just given him.

He planned to head to Rotten Willow Tavern, buy a full barrel of ale from Cole, and haul it back down.

And maybe bring up the issue of those demon pursuers last time.

That incident shouldn’t have been blamed on him. If anything, it was Cole’s loose lips that let the info leak.

He’d nearly died for it—compensation was due.

“Oh, right, Dylan—take this with you.”

Lin Jun’s voice came through the network. A Puji scuttled over carrying a letter and an S-rank magic crystal.

The letter—Dylan recognized it. He’d penned it himself, dictation from the boss. It was addressed to Lady Inanna, asking for help gathering dungeon intel.

How Lin Jun knew the duke’s daughter, he had no idea.

But he’d heard she’d once gone missing in the dungeon for a while… maybe it was connected.

The crystal, though—

Dylan trembled as he took it, needing both hands to steady it.

He had never touched anything so precious.

Even after a hundred years as a silver-ranked adventurer, he’d never be able to save enough to buy one.

A priceless treasure.

Boss… trusted him with this!?

His chest swelled warm.

All his life, who had ever trusted him like this?

Even if the boss wasn’t human…

“Don’t worry, boss! I swear on my life, I’ll deliver it!”

“Uh… well, just put your safety first.”

“I will not betray your trust!”

…

Lin Jun had actually wanted to say it wasn’t that serious.

Yes, an S-rank crystal was valuable, but with 【Crystal Symbiosis】, he wouldn’t be lacking high-grade crystals once he leveled up.

Losing this one would be unfortunate, but not devastating.

By comparison, a human subordinate who’d proven reliable—and could serve as his reach into the surface world—was far more important.

Still, seeing Dylan so determined, he let him have his moment.

He even sent him off with two bottles of mana potion, counted as travel expenses.

As Dylan disappeared into the stairway, Lin Jun turned his focus back to Gray—the oversized black Puji.

She was currently playing with a poisonous slime.

The sixth floor was a massive botanical garden, most of its monsters plant-based or related to that ecosystem.

Slimes, in a way, counted.

They showed up on nearly every floor—basic slimes, acid slimes, poison slimes, metal slimes, strange oddball slimes of all sorts.

Much like his Pujis, really.

But Lin Jun hated slimes.

Other monsters only ate mushrooms.

Slimes ate the whole fungal mat—roots and all.

If he wanted real-time perception across multiple floors, he needed to cull them. At least thin their numbers drastically.

Right now, Gray was toying with a red, neurotoxic slime.

She plunged her scaled Puji hands into its body, trying to grab the slippery core.

As for the toxin?

With Poison Resistance at LV7, unless she gulped it down directly, it wouldn’t touch her.

She played with it for a while, but the Mimic hands weren’t as dexterous as her claws.

Frustrated, she pulled her hands out—then smashed down with both fists.

The slime burst like a water balloon, spraying everywhere.

One nearby Puji, unlucky in angle, was drenched.

Had it been acid slime, that would’ve been instant death.

But neurotoxin? Pujis were immune.

It was just dyed red.

With the slime splattered, Gray’s foul mood dissipated.

She looked around, seemingly orienting herself.

Then she charged confidently into a pathless direction.

The two Pujis followed, through territory after territory of plant monsters.

She didn’t falter once, moving with purpose, ignoring distractions.

It wasn’t random—she knew where she was going.

Lin Jun was startled. This wasn’t just following a road—how was she navigating such complex terrain?

Maybe she wasn’t memorizing paths at all.

Maybe she was locked onto something with her high-level senses.

After half a day of marching, he finally saw where she was headed.

And understood what she’d meant by “green humanoid.”

There were treants in this dungeon!?