Making plans is easy, but executing them is much more difficult.
Cultivating "Slime Agronomists" is relatively simple. Currently, he hasn't encountered any plant-related talents, so he can just have Yano bring a few agricultural books for the little ones to read.
Those who are interested will naturally continue studying, then obtain the scholar title and become true agronomists.
Moreover, knowledge about cultivating spiritual herbs in the cultivation world isn't hard to obtain. He could almost see the spiritual herbs cultivated in Zeyarila waving at him already.
Cultivating "Slime Engineers" isn't difficult either. They can start working directly by equipping "Land Softening" and "Land Hardening" abilities.
The only concern is whether these little ones might have overly "unique" aesthetic tastes, potentially expanding the future fortress into bizarre shapes and distorting the entire territory's architectural style.
Hmm... So before entrusting them with territory construction, they must at least be taught how to draw architectural blueprints and work with mud.
"Slime Artillery" is similar.
We can't let mischievous little ones mix in, otherwise they might carry cannons around firing wildly, and it would be disastrous if they hit our own people.
Metal Slimes have different personalities compared to other slimes - they're more steady and more resistant to damage.
They're practically the chosen slimes.
"Slime Mages" go without saying - they've long been part of his cultivation plan.
However, what troubled Chen Yu was that the territory's talisman shortage problem seemed difficult to resolve currently.
The reason was that he was the only one here who could draw talismans.
If he focused closely on the Artillery Mass Production Plan, then there would be no slimes to draw the Magic Leaves.
Without Magic Leaves, they couldn't trade for food, and within a few days, those Moss Monsters would empty the granary.
Slime worried.jpg
Sigh... Indeed, there are still too few talented slimes.
Just as he was worrying, Little Flower, who had been curiously staring at the plan document beside him, suddenly seemed to understand something and hopped away.
When she returned, she had four talismans drawn on magic paper inside her body.
She carefully spit out the talismans and placed them before Chen Yu, then looked at him with sparkling expectant eyes, seemingly waiting for praise.
"Talismans?" Chen Yu looked at the crooked seal script on them and suddenly shook with surprise.
"Little Flower, did you draw these?"
Little Flower bounced up and down vigorously, conveying affirmative intent: "Mhm mhm! I drew them!"
Chen Yu's eyes lit up, and he patted her head with his gel hand. "That's amazing! How did you do it?"
Little Flower comfortably narrowed her small eyes, seeming to enjoy her brother's head pats.
"It's simple. Little Flower is clumsy, can't draw well... pressed them on."
"Pressed them on?"
To answer his confusion, Little Flower hopped over to get magic paper and ink, then "glug glug glug" drank several mouthfuls of ink.
Then she closed her eyes tightly, her entire soft gel body trembling as the ink flowed inside her. Soon, the outline of seal script could be seen.
As the patterns inside gradually became clearer, Little Flower went "plop" and pressed her round body against the magic paper.
Although the imprint wasn't successful, it was indeed possible to see seal script on the magic paper.
So this is how they solved it?
Chen Yu felt as if a new door had opened for him.
Slimes as magical creatures might be weak, but they simultaneously possessed infinite possibilities.
They're perfectly suited for cultivation.
Compared to holding brushes to draw talismans, this imprinting method was more suitable for slimes, at least easier to start with.
Chen Yu generously praised Little Flower, and the little one was extremely happy, immediately hopping away eagerly to teach this "talisman imprinting method" to other little companions learning talismans in the tree hall.
With these clever little ones helping share the production pressure, the burden on Chen Yu's shoulders immediately lightened considerably. He could finally focus on drawing formation talismans.
Currently, the territory only had three Goblin Rippers - one in the fortress, and the other two in the mining area.
This was far from enough.
The fear of insufficient firepower was acting up again...
Chen Yu returned to the tree house to draw talismans.
Looking out from the tree house window, he could see Arthur's tall figure walking along the path, returning to his outpost at the swamp's edge.
While fulfilling his duty of guarding the border, he conveniently went to tend to his carefully maintained little flower garden.
And Count Bran was currently standing on his shoulder chattering incessantly.
"Retainer, confess honestly - during those days you went to that old fossil's territory, did you betray me?"
Arthur shook his head woodenly. "No... no, but Lord Viola asked me to give you a blessed feather, it's right..."
"No no no, don't take it out!"
Chen Yu's eyes lit up, and he patted her head with his gel hand. "That's amazing! How did you do it?"
"Oh, okay." Arthur put the feather away again.
"Count, my flowers..."
Count Bran waved his wing triumphantly. "With me here, they're all doing just fine."
"Alright, stop dawdling, hurry up. I still need to go to the lake to collect some stones to replenish the national treasury."
"Okay..." Arthur responded in a low voice, taking heavy steps while carrying the chattering crow, his figure gradually disappearing at the end of the shaded path.
Outside the fortress, Peachy was chewing on a large tree, grunting as if bidding farewell to Count Bran. Then she lowered her head to look at Little Ka "Big Brother" lazily sunbathing nearby.
This foodie hesitated for a moment, then nudged the oak tree toward him, seemingly saying Big Brother should eat first.
The large tree crashed down in front of him, instead startling Little Ka. His tail flicked, and he instantly darted far away, hiding behind a rock, warily watching Peachy and that oak tree.
Only Peachy remained in place, full of confusion, her huge head tilted, her grunts filled with bewilderment.
Seemingly saying this thing is so delicious, why aren't you eating it?
Gazing at the "peaceful and harmonious" territory, Chen Yu was in a good mood. He picked up his brush to draw talismans and was fortunate to successfully create two soon after.
However, the good times didn't last long. This tranquility was quickly broken by the urgent sound of galloping carriage wheels and familiar shouting from outside - Yano had returned.
"Boss, open up, there's urgent news!"
Urgent news?
How urgent could it be?
Chen Yu put down his brush, slid down the slime slide, and hopped to the tree hall.
Yano had just tied his carriage near the mushroom farm when he hurried over anxiously, as if the urgent matter he mentioned was truly important.
"Boss, something terrible has happened!"
He said urgently: "Before I came, I passed by the Adventurer's Guild and heard everyone inside spreading news about a mysterious magical creature force in the Eastern Swamp."
"We've been exposed!"
"How did we get exposed so suddenly?" Chen Yu secreted a small slime that landed on his hand, making a puzzled sound.
Yano also shook his head. "The details aren't clear, but it seems to have come from the outpost ruins. Those mercenaries are spreading it everywhere, saying there's lost treasure in the swamp."
Chen Yu thought about it - he hadn't offended anyone recently.
If he had to say, maybe occupying the Goblin Army's mining area counted.
Could it be that those goblins intentionally spread this?
My goodness.
They even know how to use others to eliminate enemies - these goblins are quite clever.
Of course, there's also a very small possibility it came from the dryad territory.
"Boss, what should we do now?" Yano asked.
Chen Yu felt his brain itching, as if countless troublesome little bubbles were bubbling up.
If it really was the Goblin Army, and they were colluding with the human adventurers from the outpost ruins, they could even put him on the Adventurer's Guild bounty mission list if they wanted.
And he believed the goblins could afford the price.
Stopping it was definitely impossible.
But fortunately, there was still the swamp as a natural barrier blocking the adventurers' advance.
As long as he set up a few more Maze Formations, he could confuse those adventurers from Ironboot Town until they were dizzy and lost their direction, too scared to enter.
The real problem was still at the outpost ruins - those bloodthirsty guys wouldn't let such a good opportunity slip by.
"It's fine, those small fries from Ironboot Town don't dare come in. You go to the outpost ruins to gather intelligence - the adventurers there might have designs on our territory."
"By the way, remember to bring back some agricultural books, architecture books, and spell theory books next time. Just don't get caught."
Chen Yu always felt that Yano's return trip wouldn't be easy, so he fed him Lv.3 "Stealth" and Lv.4 "Evaporative Illusion," and gave him all the remaining Rocksteady Talismans.
Plus an ordinary-type Chubby One for close protection.
Now armed to the teeth, it would be hard for him not to be safe.
Yano was moved - it turned out he was still quite important in the boss's heart.
To live up to the boss's expectations, he stuffed Chubby One into his leather armor, unloaded the goods, and hurried back.
Chen Yu watched Yano leave, feeling that the Goblin Army wanted to play some sneaky tricks.
So he silently returned to drawing talismans.
Whoever dares to come, just fire a couple of cannon shots first.
...
Deep within the Goblin Army fortress at Riftrock Pass.
Completely different from the vibrant life of the Eastern Swamp, Riftrock Pass was currently filled with an oppressive, decaying atmosphere.
The recent sudden planar rift disaster had left indelible scars here.
Originally sturdy mine tunnels had collapsed in multiple places, with huge tear marks covering the rock walls.
The once noisy and chaotic main mining area was now deathly silent, with only sporadic torches flickering in the wind, illuminating the complete mess everywhere - broken weapons, scattered ore, and large numbers of twisted, mutilated bodies of goblins and slaves.
Although that dangerous rift seemed to have temporarily stabilized and stopped spewing Earth Elementals, the army had undoubtedly paid a heavy price. Not only was the fortress defense system breached from within, but their military strength suffered astonishing losses.
Some surviving slaves, under the overseers' whips, were numbly cleaning the battlefield, dragging their companions' bodies one by one to pile them into small mountains.
Several goblin shamans in dirty robes circled the corpse piles, chanting while waving bone staffs and poisonous herbs, seemingly preparing for some evil ritual, attempting to transform these wastes into materials for breeding plague or dark magic.
Just then, heavy, rhythmic footsteps came from deep within the tunnel.
Two exceptionally large and strong bugbear guards escorted a figure over.
Wherever they passed, both slaves and shamans immediately stopped their work, deeply bowing their heads, not daring to look directly.
The one being escorted was the dejected Hammerbone. His massive body now appeared somewhat hunched, his former ferocity completely gone.
They arrived before a huge tent made of thick animal hides and rough wood.
Hammerbone was unceremoniously pressed to his knees by the two guards. He didn't even dare struggle, just buried his head lower.
Suddenly, a deep voice carrying terrifying authority came from inside the tent.
"Hammerbone, you have betrayed the army's trust and tarnished the bugbear's honor! Conspiring with lowly magical creatures from the Eastern Swamp, letting hundreds of precious slaves escape! Tell me, do you want to be a traitor?!"
Hammerbone trembled all over, quickly raising his head to explain in a buzzing voice filled with regret and lingering fear: "Army Commander, it's... it's those damned slimes! They have extremely strange and evil charm control magic that completely controlled my mind! Otherwise I would have smashed them all into pulp with my warhammer long ago!"
"Hmph!"
The voice inside the tent snorted coldly, full of displeasure and pressure. "Excuses! True power comes from within, Hammerbone. What you lost to wasn't magic, but your own wavering faith in power and disloyalty."
"Moreover, the enemy was merely weak slimes."
The tent's door curtain was suddenly thrown open, and an imposing tall figure wearing an animal hide cloak walked out.
He was also a bugbear, his build even slightly more burly than Hammerbone's, with a ferocious scar that almost covered half his face, making him appear particularly imposing and fierce.
When Hammerbone saw him, he subconsciously swallowed, his huge Adam's apple rolling as he spoke with difficulty: "Army Commander Splitfang... please... give me another chance."
"I'll immediately lead the brothers who can still fight, charge to the Eastern Swamp! I'll definitely smash those slimy scum and their fortress to pieces, using their skulls to wash away my shame!"
Splitfang looked down coldly at the kneeling Hammerbone with expressionless eyes.
"Unnecessary. The Eastern Swamp will naturally be dealt with by others for us. Those human mercenaries blinded by treasure will make the best cleaners."
"And that old thing from Rootwhisper Forest, Viola... she's also quite troublesome. She'll taste the flavor of plague."
"As for us, we have more important matters to attend to."
After speaking, Splitfang paid no more attention to Hammerbone, taking heavy steps toward the edge of the fortress's damaged city wall.
He looked down at the chaotic depths of the main mine shaft below.
There at the bottom of the collapsed mine pit, among the piled rubble, lay a heart-stopping massive figure.
Most of its body was buried beneath rocks, but the exposed parts still revealed its immense size and formidable appearance from when it was alive.
The visible scales showed a deep black-brown color with metallic luster, as if not made of flesh and blood, but from some strange alloy ore.
Its head hung low, giant mouth slightly open, revealing obsidian-like teeth, its entire posture frozen in a moment of struggling roar - it was clearly a dragon that appeared to have been instantly petrified!