Chapter 1003 Underground Jungle

The humid and dark environment is only a secondary factor for mushrooms to grow into "big trees".

Qiao An guessed that the unique soil environment in the mushroom forest area is more likely to be the main factor leading to this result.

Either the local soil is rich in the nutrients needed for fungal growth, or the legendary "geist radiation" is exerting an invisible and huge influence.

The intelligent creatures living in the dark region have been infiltrated by the magic power of the earth veins for generations, and almost all of them have evolved supernatural abilities and even spellcasting abilities.

Based on this, it is reasonable for the fungus to be infected by the magic power of the earth veins and have no natural enemies. It has evolved into such a huge form as it is today.

As we all know, the so-called magic power of the veins is actually the supernatural energy radiated from the magic crystal deposits buried deep underground.

Just like the growth of all things in the surface world is inseparable from the sunshine, if the dark area suddenly loses the radiant energy from the leylines, the entire underground biosphere will collapse rapidly.

From this point of view, humans from the surface world mining underground mine veins are tantamount to destroying the ecological environment of the Underdark region, and there is nothing to complain about the violent resistance of local intelligent species.

As a human being from the surface world, Joan would inevitably consider ecological issues from a human standpoint, so when he saw this lush mushroom forest, he naturally thought that there might be something hidden deep underground in this jungle. With rich magic crystal veins!

The closer the area to the magic crystal vein, the stronger the radiation energy.

Experienced prospecting experts can infer the distribution of magic crystal veins based on the extremely dense and strong vegetation in a certain place.

Joan carried a "perspective hand mirror" with him, and his companions also rented a "prospecting ring" from Mr. Locke.

Along the way, every time they came to a new area, they used hand mirrors and rings to probe the ground under their feet, trying to find traces of mineral veins, but unfortunately they never found anything.

Seeing the dense mushroom forest in the field at this moment, Joan expressed his guess about the relationship between the vegetation and the magic crystal veins, and reminded his companions to pay attention to the underground mine veins during the journey.

Hailar and Zion's sister and brother became excited when they heard the news. While riding the ground lizard along the underground channel, they frequently activated the "prospecting ring" and shot a very penetrating beam to the ground covered with thick moss. beam.

Both the "prospecting ring" and "perspective hand mirror" are attached with 4 rings of "perspective", which can detect the distribution of mineral layers at a depth of 100 feet underground.

Joan and the others walked along the big river for an hour, but they didn't detect anything, and their feverish minds gradually cooled down, which was very disappointing.

It's hard to tell now whether Joan made a mistake in his judgment. There is no magic crystal vein in the area, or their equipment is not sophisticated enough to detect the depth of the mineral vein.

All in all, everyone no longer wants to make a fortune at this moment.

The vast wilderness seems to extend to the end of the darkness.

The map displayed by the "navigation compass" has a maximum radius of only 30 miles, and the edge of the wilderness is also invisible.

If the information provided by the dwarves is credible, then the map that Joan and the others have discovered so far probably accounts for less than one percent of the entire mushroom forest area.

After a whole day of running around, everyone was very tired, so they set up a camp by the river, set up a campfire, rested overnight, and continued on their way tomorrow.

The four got off the ground lizards, Joan went to fetch water from the river, Holden accompanied him, and took the four lizards to the river to drink water, and then sent the lizards to hunt gophers and other small animals in the mushroom forest by themselves. Animals eat.

Joan fetched a bucket of water first and carefully observed the water quality.

The river water looked clear and had no peculiar smell, but he still released a 0-ring trick called "Detect Toxicity" on the bucket to confirm that it was safe to drink.

Joan and Holden each carried two large buckets of water, and when they returned to the camp, the ladies had already set up their tents.

The four of them boiled water and drank tea around the bonfire, and rested after eating some dry food.

Audrey originally proposed to take turns to watch the night, but Joan told her that there was no need for it, and it was enough to let the "tentacle monster" he had recently tamed to watch the night. Anyway, this guy hardly needs sleep.

Joan didn't treat the tentacle monster badly either.

The ground lizards ate and drank enough in the woods, and each brought back a fat and tender guinea pig as a tribute to the elder brother they wished to recognize—Mr. Poet.

Holden didn't want to eat these bloody raw meat, and held his nose with disgust.

Joan begged for the prey and gave it to the tentacle monster as a reward for hiring it to keep watch at night.

Satisfied with the reward, the tentacle monster descended to a place close to the surface, threw out ten long tentacles, entangled a guinea pig, dragged it to him, and used its sharp, hook-like beak to gouge the guinea pig's head open. Swipe sucking brains.

This bloody scene was really disgusting, Hailar and Zion siblings turned their heads away, unable to bear to watch more.

Joan watched it with great interest, and sometimes wrote a few lines in his notebook to record the details of the tentacle monster's eating.

The tentacle monster doesn't eat a lot. It sucked up the brains and blood of the four guinea pigs, and it doesn't bother to eat the rest of the flesh and blood.

Joan ordered him to patrol around the camp, return to the bonfire by himself, untie his backpack, take out the corpse of another tentacle monster, put it on the ground, release the "reduction technique", and return the corpse to normal size.

Joann took out the portable toolbox from the storage bag, opened the lid, and a full set of dissection tools and various glass reagent bottles shone brightly in the light of the campfire.

Looking at his toolbox, Joan rubbed his hands, feeling a little excited.

It's a pity that no one but himself can appreciate the alternative beauty of these precision knives and bottles.

Joan picked up a lancet and tried to cut a tentacle of the tentacle monster's corpse, but it was bounced off by the tough outer skin without accident.

He switched to the "Electric Light Blade" and used this enchanted dagger to dissect the tentacle monster. He cut off a tentacle smoothly, and purple blood oozes from the section of the knife.

Joan cut the tentacles longitudinally, observed the cross-section, and confirmed that the tentacles were hollow and had a multi-layer tubular structure, wrapped in layers of flexible fibrous hard leather sheaths, and between each layer of leather sheaths, strong growth The powerful ring muscles together constitute a strong and flexible limb.

Joan also discovered that the hollow cavity of the tentacles is actually a simple and effective hydraulic device, which can squeeze the toxin secreted by the poisonous glands in the tentacled monster to the end of the tentacles, and then inject it into the tentacles through the needle-shaped bony spurs growing on the surface of the tentacles. inside the prey.

The toxin enters the blood circulation, and within a few seconds, it can paralyze and paralyze a prey of the same size as the tentacle monster.

This biological hydraulic injection device reminded Joan of his "giant bee form".