A magical anomaly point?
Chen Yu controlled the two brothers as they left the slave camp, but doubts still lingered in his mind.
The scale of the Obsidian Mining Area was far larger than what he had currently seen. The depths connected to several veins containing precious gemstones, which were the primary mining targets of the Goblin Army and were also much closer to the bottomless main mine shaft at the very center of Riftrock Pass.
For such a large-scale mana turbulence to occur in this kind of place... Could it be that some terrifying magical creature had appeared in the main mine shaft?
While pondering this, he followed the narrow tunnel back to the Obsidian Outpost. Just as he dropped into the relatively spacious underground passage, a rapid and panicked buzzing sound came from deep within the mine tunnel.
It was the Poison-stinger Wasps.
The sound came from the direction of the outpost's mine tunnel.
Had the tunnel been discovered by the goblins?!
Nanny Brother immediately lifted Chubby One and, with a series of splattering sounds, rushed toward the source of the commotion at top speed.
The Self-destructing Wasp Soldiers assigned to guard duty were anxiously flying around in disarray, frantically shooting their poisonous stingers at a target on the ground.
And their target of attack was actually a... lump of stone with limbs.
This little thing was about the size of a fist, entirely composed of rough rock, as if some invisible force had forcibly compressed scattered mining slag together.
It had a disproportionately large stone head, waving short arms and thick legs made of crushed stone, emitting angry cries of "Ee-wa-wa!"
It punched the miner Beetles trying to approach it one blow after another. Although its strength was considerable, making loud banging sounds against the Beetles' shells, it couldn't break through their defense at all.
The surrounding Wasp Soldiers, remembering Chen Yu's command to "avoid making loud noises," didn't dare use "Mana Explosion," and for a moment actually couldn't do anything about this hard little creature.
"An earth elemental?" Chen Yu felt astonished. "Where did this thing come from?"
Could this suddenly appearing little creature be related to the mana turbulence in the pass's mine shaft?
The small earth elemental seemed to have worked itself into a rage. Even after seeing two Slimes enter the mine tunnel, it paid no attention and instead became even more arrogant, pounding its chest and issuing challenging "Wa-wa!" sounds, as if saying "I'm not afraid even if you all come at me together!"
"Little thing, quite the temper you've got."
With a thought from Chen Yu, two stone swords instantly shot out from within Chubby One's gel body.
With two crisp "Clang! Clang!" sounds, the stone swords accurately struck the earth elemental's body, instantly smashing its stone form into pieces.
Crushed stone flew everywhere, revealing an irregular earthy-yellow crystal core hidden at its center. But this creature hadn't died yet;
it was still desperately trying to reform its stone shell to recover its body.
Chen Yu didn't bother with it, directly controlling Nanny Brother to hop over and swallow its core in one gulp, emitting a satisfied burp.
The crystal core was quickly digested, and a panel popped up.
[Devour Digestion Lv.6 triggered - Earth elemental characteristics recorded, talent incubation in progress (1/10)]
"Oh ho! Good stuff!"
Chen Yu's eyes instantly lit up.
He never expected this crystal core to be its magic organ.
Although it didn't have much taste, this little thing digested quite quickly, making him feel like he could handle ten or eight of them in one go without any problem.
He immediately directed the Beetles to carry away the two pieces of high-quality Gray Gravel Crystal ore they had just dug up, while simultaneously controlling the two fat brothers to continue exploring deeper into the mine tunnel.
Sure enough, they hadn't gone far when they discovered more earth elementals near the mine tunnel walls and excavation points.
These newly appeared little creatures were hugging the hard-earned Gray Gravel Crystal fragments, munching on them with "Crunch-crunch!" sounds, and embedding those shiny gray crystals into their own bodies, making themselves appear more solid and glittering.
"Daring to steal and eat my ore, you're definitely a bunch of bad guys!"
Chen Yu flew into a rage, feeling that his precious property had been violated.
The next moment, eight stone swords simultaneously shot out from within Chubby One's body, like an enraged swarm of bees, raining down fierce blows upon those ore-munching earth elementals.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Each fierce impact of the stone swords could smash a small earth elemental to pieces, exposing their crystal cores. Nanny Brother followed closely behind, swallowing the cores one by one like harvesting crops.
[Devour Digestion Lv.6 triggered - Partial earth elemental characteristics recorded, talent acquired: Earth Affinity Lv.1]
Partial characteristics?
Chen Yu's eyes gleamed.
So this little thing had other talents too?
This was basically an all-you-can-eat buffet delivered by nature.
"Then I won't stand on ceremony!"
The stone swords danced through the air as Chen Yu advanced triumphantly, continuously pushing deeper into the mine tunnel. He himself had lost count of how many earth elementals he had swallowed.
The spiritual energy within the two clones was rapidly depleting like floodwaters through an opened sluice gate.
[Earth Affinity Lv.1 → Lv.2]
[Devour Digestion Lv.6 triggered - Partial earth elemental characteristics recorded, talent acquired: Energy Storage Lv.1]
A new talent?
Chen Yu immediately stopped to rest, not because he was full, but because the two little ones were almost completely drained of spiritual energy.
Far away in the Eastern Swamp fortress, Chen Yu's main body immediately curiously tested the newly acquired "Energy Storage" Lv.1.
He discovered that this talent could form some stable bubbles within his gel body. These bubbles acted like natural magic organs that could store mana, giving him an additional reserve of energy.
Wait.
If it can store mana, then... what about spiritual energy?
Chen Yu was immediately astonished by his own brilliant idea.
He immediately tried to carefully guide the spiritual energy within his body into a newly generated "storage bubble."
Gurgle, gurgle...
Bubbling sounds came from within his body. Although most of the spiritual energy dissipated during the injection process, indeed a small portion of it was successfully confined within the bubble, stably preserved.
"Hiss... This thing really works."
Didn't that mean that as long as he raised the talent's level high enough, it would be equivalent to having a second dantian?
Thinking further, he could even equip Little Flower and the others with the "Energy Storage" talent too. In the future, they might be able to slowly absorb and store spiritual energy on their own.
The cultivation Slime was finally taking shape.
Just as Chen Yu was happily bubbling with joy, he suddenly sensed that the environment around the two fat brothers had become noisy.
He immediately switched his perspective back to the Obsidian mine tunnel and was immediately startled.
At some point, the mine tunnel ahead had become densely packed with small earth elementals that had heard the commotion and come.
They were like an enraged ant colony, emitting dense "Ee-wa!" sounds, rolling forward like a tidal wave of stone, surging menacingly toward the two fat brothers.
Their numbers were so great that they completely clogged the entire mine tunnel.
"Holy moly, how are there so many."
Chen Yu immediately realized that something had truly happened deep within the mining area.
But he didn't have time to investigate the cause now;
survival was the priority. He controlled the two little ones to turn and run.
He even abandoned all his beloved stone swords, relying entirely on "Stealth" and creating "Illusions" to shake off the pursuing small earth elementals and escape from the mine tunnel.
"Ee-wa-wa!"
The dust storm raised by the small earth elementals engulfed the entire Obsidian Outpost. This place hadn't been discovered by the goblins, but had instead been occupied by a group of outsiders.
A wise Slime knows when to retreat.
The two clones had no spiritual energy left;
they weren't going to play with them.
Chen Yu immediately issued an emergency retreat order to all the magical creature forces stationed here through a remaining Poison-stinger Wasp Soldier.
Then, Nanny Brother and Chubby One dove back into that narrow tunnel leading to the slave camp.
If even this place had been occupied, who knew what had happened in the Obsidian Mining Area? They couldn't wait until tomorrow's magical tides.
Anvil and the others had to leave today.
Otherwise, when the magical tides erupted and the mining area was completely occupied by these elemental creatures, they would be trapped inside to die.
...
Dawn was just breaking, with only one day left until the magical tides arrived.
Kane, as usual, stood in the line that reeked of sourness, waiting for that pitiful green soup and black bread that could break teeth.
He kept his head down, pretending to be listless, while secretly observing the goblins' movements.
Drawing on his years of mercenary experience and knowledge of the mining area, he keenly sensed that the atmosphere in the mining area today seemed noticeably more tense than usual.
Heavy footsteps and the clashing of metal echoed through the tunnels. Squads of Goblin Soldiers, having shed their usual sloppiness, were dressed in full sets of fine equipment, hurriedly returning to defend deeper parts of the fortress.
Just as he was privately pondering what exactly had happened deep within the fortress, sudden commotion and the sound of whips cutting through the air came from ahead.
"Get back! All of you, get back!"
A team of ferocious-looking Goblin Overseers roughly drove back the slaves in line, their whips lashing down mercilessly, knocking over the green soup in several people's broken bowls, splattering the foul-smelling liquid everywhere.
"No one is allowed to leave the camp today! Anyone who dares take one step out will be immediately dragged away to feed the scorpions!"
The slaves were caught off guard by this sudden turn of events.
Most simply lowered their heads even more numbly, like frightened livestock, being shouted at and driven back to the stinking hut area by the overseers, their faces showing hardly any expression, as if they were just waiting for death in a different location.
But some whispers quickly spread through the crowd.
"What's going on?"
"They seem very anxious..."
"Did something happen?"
Some showed fear, worried that even crueler punishment was coming. Some felt relieved that they finally didn't have to work today.
Others had a barely detectable glimmer in the depths of their eyes, secretly observing those hurried goblins, privately guessing at the meaning behind this abnormal development.
Kane frowned deeply, taking in all the slaves' reactions, then took advantage of the chaos to silently slip back into Anvil's cramped hut.
Anvil was sitting against the wall, with Little John nervously fiddling with dry grass beside him.
Seeing Kane enter, Anvil immediately asked in a hushed voice, "What's happening outside? All that noise and commotion."
Kane quickly described what he had seen.
"Large groups of goblins have been deployed deeper in. The camp is under lockdown outside;
no one is allowed in or out."
Speaking, and seemingly afraid of drawing others' attention, he pressed closer to Anvil's ear and said in an even lower voice:
"I suspect something must have happened at the pass mine shaft to make them this nervous. This is a perfect opportunity. While the army's defenses are weak now, perhaps we should make our move immediately."
Anvil's expression turned grave, and he unconsciously touched the cold jade talisman hidden in his clothes.
Move ahead of schedule? But the risks seemed great.
A flash of hesitation crossed his rough face.
But just as he hesitated, two cold sensations silently pressed against the small of his back, gently nudging him.
Anvil understood instantly.
It was the Slime Envoys.
They were right here, and they supported the action.
All hesitation was instantly swept away.
The uncertainty on his face vanished completely. He nodded heavily, his voice steady and decisive.
"Good, we act now!"