In the small courtyard with green tiles, after discussing adjustments to the formation diagram, Yang Hongli stood up to see Chen Yu off.
"Junior brother, travel safely. Turn left after the Green Lotus Bridge, and not far is the little market where local cultivators gather. It’s not as lively as the South Bridge Market in the outer sect, but there are still many rare and interesting items to be found."
Light rain drummed on the green-tiled stone walls. Chen Yu took the umbrella Yang Hongli handed him and opened it. After exchanging farewells, he prepared to leave.
"I’ve noticed you’ve come to ask about formation principles several times. Looks like you have an interest in formations. Take this introductory formation book for now, and come find me if you have questions." Yang Hongli, in his scholar’s green robe, stood under the eaves and pressed a blue-bound book into his hands.
"Thank you, senior brother. I’ll come by to visit in a few days." Chen Yu cupped his hands in thanks, then tucked the book into his chest, placing it together with the newly revised Spirit-Gathering Formation diagram.
He rounded Yang Hongli’s little merchant courtyard and walked through the narrow alley for dozens of steps. An old locust tree growing by the river came into view, and he crossed the bluestone bridge linking to the opposite shore. Amid the patter of rain, a bustle of noise drifted in.
Holding his umbrella, Chen Yu strolled through the little market. The little Slime man nestled at his chest cautiously poked out its tiny head, curiously taking in the rain-soaked, lively market.
Soon Chen Yu found this visit’s target inside a book pavilion — the Water Arrow Technique.
Water Arrow Technique didn’t match his cultivation attribute, and water was not his primary spiritual root. He wanted it only because he had practiced the Little Arrow Technique long enough that learning Water Arrow would speed his progress.
"Do you have earth or wood Dao arts, preferably something fierce?"
He now had the "Flame Affinity" and "Earth Affinity" talents, which could boost his spiritual root. But Flame Affinity was low-level and offered little enhancement, and it didn’t match his main cultivation attribute. An earth Dao art would be the best fit. Wood Dao arts would be acceptable too, depending on what the shop had.
"Good question, young sir. My shop does carry quite a few fine pieces." The shopkeeper took down a row of wooden tablets from the counter and placed them on the lacquered, glossy register for Chen Yu to pick through.
Chen Yu scanned them;
most Dao arts were mediocre. Only one caught his eye.
He picked up a wooden tablet and asked, "What’s this 'All Plants as Soldiers'?"
"This Dao art," the shopkeeper said, "is said to have come from the Dao Compilation Sect that flourished a thousand years ago. Their lineage specialized in mimetic divine techniques and Dao-ized minor arts.
"'All Plants as Soldiers' originates from the legend of seed-to-soldier transformation. Its power speaks for itself. But when cultivated to the 'From the Heart' realm, it can only create five wooden soldiers, and it requires the cultivator to divide their spirit to control it. The demands on the mind and soul are extremely high."
"I’ll take it," Chen Yu said without hesitation.
It was just spirit-splitting — his specialty.
"All Plants as Soldiers" cost even more than Water Arrow;
he spent one hundred spirit stones to obtain it.
After this audacious purchase, there wasn’t much else to do in the rain, so he held his umbrella and walked along the lake bridge into the misty bamboo grove.
His figure gradually faded until he was out of sight.
...
"Your Majesty, oh — Arthur the retainer asked me to remind you that today is the day the Dryad domain’s envoy visits. Should you prepare?"
Count Bran flew into the tree hall, putting down a damp Gray Gravel Crystal he had just fished from the swamp and reminding him.
Chen Yu lay on the wooden throne carved by the Metal Slime, and upon hearing Count Bran he opened his eyes and blinked.
"No need. Besides, they won’t understand the secrets of the domain, and Eserin isn’t our enemy."
"Who can say." Count Bran muttered, glancing about sneakily. Then he leaned against the throne, covering his beak with glossy wings and lowered his voice. "Your Majesty, you know I can’t get along with that old fossil. If her subordinates see me, they’ll go back and report."
"You mean—?" Chen Yu blinked.
"Heh heh... grant me leave for a few days so I can avoid the spotlight. This is by no means to slack off." He emphasized the last part.
"Fine, go ahead."
"Ga ha ha ha, thank you, Your Majesty!" Count Bran was ecstatic.
"Your Majesty, I have a premonition. This trip will definitely net something rare and fun."
"Of course, but don’t let those old fossils anywhere near the treasury, and above all, don’t get near my nest. I’ve already entrusted the loyal Little Ka Guards to watch over it."
"These are vicious crocodiles that bite. You should remind them — if anything happens, it’s not my fault."
"If that’s all, I’ll be off now."
Chen Yu asked curiously, "Wait, how do you know you’ll find something good?"
Count Bran cackled confidently and puffed out his chest. "This is a revelation from the Lady of Contrariety. I’ve had two weeks of bad luck;
my luck is about to turn. I can’t be wrong."
"Oh, by the way, Your Majesty, there’s an unknown flying monster circling the domain. It just collided with me earlier. You’d better be careful — maybe some druid released it to scout."
At that remark, Chen Yu suddenly remembered the black, charcoal-like ball he’d bumped during a test flight — it had been Count Bran...
"Mmhm, go now. If you keep yakking, they’ll be here."
"Right, right, I’m off." Count Bran flapped his wings, launched himself, and flew westward, his silhouette vanishing at the edge of the forest sea.
Chen Yu landed with a plop and used a pen to copy his senior brother’s "Formation Entry" and the "Spirit-Gathering Formation diagram," handing them to Little Flower for study and letting the Slime Scholar research them.
He had planned to go out and check on the courtyard construction, when a Poison-stinger Wasp guard hurriedly flew back inside.
The wasp rubbed its small hands together, then pressed them against Chen Yu’s bouncy gel.
"King, guard, pain, danger."
"Danger? Little Ka, or Peachy?"
"Crocodile."
His little guard was in trouble?
Chen Yu immediately braced himself. Gel wings sprouted from his sides;
he beat them and hovered, following the wasp guard to the small grove outside the fortress.
He arrived to see Peachy nearby, anxiously whining and not even nibbling her beloved oak tree, circling in worry.
Before her, Little Ka lay sickly in the swamp water. Its body radiated red heat, boiling the swamp. Bubbles and steam rose like the water was boiling.
Chen Yu was startled. He landed with a plop and hopped to Little Ka’s side. He touched its burning body with gel and quickly injected spiritual feed and life energy.
"...kaka..." Even after receiving life energy, Little Ka remained weak. It responded in a faint, fragile voice.
"Peachy, what’s wrong with it?"
"Peachy was playing, then it became very hot." Peachy lowered her head, licking Little Ka with her tongue to help cool it.
"...King... cough cough..."
Little Ka felt awful, as if a ball of fire burned inside. After coughing a few times, it expelled a burst of scorching breath.
"Huh? Fire-affiliated spiritual energy?" Chen Yu’s worry changed to delight.
He understood.
This was clearly Little Ka manifesting a fire nature ability, creating this symptom. Once it passed, it would be fine.
Although he didn’t know why a swamp creature would have a fire nature skill, it was clearly good news.
"Little Ka, you’re going to evolve."
"Evolve...?" Little Ka looked bewildered. After coughing out the fiery breath, it felt much better.
It stayed in the water a little longer, then lifted its head and sneezed reflexively.
"Achoo!"
The concentrated fire condensed into substance and ignited, shining with flame. Like lava, it spurted from its throat.
"Boom!! Ssssss..."
The flame was terrifyingly hot, drying the soaked soil in seconds. The black mud cracked and melted into red crystal, flowing like magma.
"Kaka?!" Even Little Ka jumped back in fright. Its confused eyes seemed to say, how did I suddenly get so strong?
"King, evolution!" it cried excitedly. No matter what, becoming stronger means it could protect the King better.
Peachy whinnied and no longer seemed as anxious;
to celebrate Little Ka’s new power, she licked it with her damp tongue.
Chen Yu patted Little Ka’s head in satisfaction. He had never expected his little crocodile to evolve into a baby earth-drake.
He felt the quiet joy of an old farmer seeing golden wheat — deep contentment.
"Though it lacks a dragon bloodline, it breathes molten breath. Not bad at all. If only it could be raised into a real dragon."
At that thought, a bright idea struck him.
He happened to have the "Bat Wings" talent. What if he grafted it onto Little Ka?
Would it become a little fire dragon?
He separated a level 1 "Bat Wings" talent and a level 3 "Flame Affinity" talent, condensed them into a talent orb, and squeezed it out.
"Little Ka, eat this."
"Kaka." Peachy drooled but dared not move. Under her watchful gaze, Little Ka swallowed the talent orb whole.
"Kaka?" It cocked its head in confusion, curled its tail, and turned in place to see if anything had changed.
Before it could react, two bulges suddenly formed on its back. Scales and chitin grew and spread, and wing shapes emerged as if sprouting from bone and flesh.
The tender little wings fluttered a few times, then expanded as if magnified, each stretching half a meter and kicking up wind, lifting Little Ka slowly off the ground.
"Kaka!!" At first it flailed, paddling its limbs in panic and awkwardly struggling in midair. But soon it grasped the secret of balance and let out a series of clear cries.
Those cries brimmed with unprecedented joy.
Flight — for a species that had lived in swamps and mud for generations — had been an unreachable dream.
Their ancestors had only ever watched birds tear through the sky, never imagining one day they could break free from gravity and join them.
As its limbs left the ground it once depended on, as tree tops that had seemed unreachably high became within grasp, Little Ka’s small mind suddenly understood what the King meant by "evolution."
Turns out the creatures that once only looked up at the sky could one day look down upon the earth.
After it adapted to flying, it landed again and stared at Chen Yu with longing eyes.
"Want me to climb up?" Chen Yu couldn’t imagine that one day he would become a dragon rider, even if his mount was a patched-together drake.
He hopped up and gel firmly adhered him to Little Ka’s back.
"Kaka!" Little Ka tried a fierce roar, then launched into the air.
Under Peachy’s envious gaze it climbed higher and higher, surpassing the eight-meter limit, leaving the newborn oak tree behind as if even distant clouds were suddenly within reach.
Of course, for a swamp creature that had just learned to fly, it still had a long way to go before soaring like a true great dragon among the clouds.
Little Ka reveled in aerial maneuvers — sometimes spiraling and diving, sometimes rocketing upward — its mobility far better than Chen Yu’s own flight.
This confirmed that its flying talent was far superior to Chen Yu’s.
"Little Ka, Great-Dragon Breath!" Chen Yu pointed to a patch of swamp moss stone not far off the forest path.
"Aw!"
Little Ka flapped its limbs and dived. A blazing torrent poured from its throat, enveloping the mossy stone and instantly burning all the moss to blackened flakes that fell away.
Even after it hastily shot back up through countless branches to the sky, the boulder remained ablaze and showed signs of melting.
Both the temperature and persistence of its breath were astonishing, as if it spat not just fire-affiliated spiritual energy but sticky, viscous flaming oil.
This successful flight triggered a panel.
——
Reputation Title: Proto-Dragonkin
Acquisition conditions: As a swamp reptile (typically a crocodile), kindle dragon-breath flame with a mysterious internal energy born within the body, let bat-like wings formed within your flesh fully grow, and successfully complete a sustained flight trial, conquering the sky with both wings.
Title effects:
Note: This is an act of usurpation, where the mortal body steals dragoniform appearance. One successful flight is both the boldest rebellion and the most radical transformation of one’s own bloodline.
——
A second reputation title.
Good grief.
From Chen Yu’s understanding, monsters with three or more reputation titles were roughly elites among the Silver-tier, much stronger than ordinary Silver-tier creatures.
Likewise, when humans have three or more reputation titles, they can be considered elites among Official Professionals. He suspected the vampire they’d met in the Dark Realm was of that caliber, which is why it was so troublesome.
And Little Ka was close now. Not to mention the weight of this title: anything dragon-related, even proto-dragon, carried premium value.
"Little Ka, scout ahead. Let’s go greet the Dryad domain’s delegation ourselves."
"Kaka!" Little Ka’s eyes shone with seriousness. With a flap of its wings and Chen Yu on its back, it sped toward the underground passage.
Its flying stance was oddly dragonlike, though its body looked a bit small, like a juvenile dragon pressed into service as a mount — almost child labor abuse.
...
Since the entrance to the abandoned village’s underground passage had been unearthed, the slimes had worked diligently. The once gloomy trees and ruins around the wasteland had been cleaned up.
The ground was trampled by Slime Engineers with "Earth Hardening," so hardened it resembled paving stones pressed into the earth.
What had been a cold, foggy abandoned village had been transformed into a sunny little plaza with several Slime Treehouses built as the first home for dungeon slimes upon emerging from underground — the first little slime village.
From high above, the plaza formed a ring at the center of the swamp forest.
Two forest paths began in the plaza and spread east and west. One led to the Gray Mist Lake outpost on the domain edge, the other to the lord’s fortress of this land.
At this moment, inside the underground passage repaired with stone tiles, the glow of spirit stones lit the formerly dark corridor bright.
From the other tunnel came the clatter of armor and a mass of footsteps.
Arthur silently passed a spirit-stone lamp.
As the Dryad domain’s guide for this visit to the Slime domain, he felt guilty and unfit.
After walking so far, he couldn’t come up with a single topic to speak about. Most of the time, Eserin asked questions and he answered.
Behind him, the Dryad delegation’s envoys were curiously inspecting the passage, especially the strange spirit-stone lamps along the walls.
The lamp’s light, while not as soft as elven nightstone, shone more brightly and clearly, like tiny suns.
That alone made them realize they were about to visit a domain stylistically very different from the Dryad domain.
What would be there? More slimes, more monsters, or more of the skeletal knights like Arthur? They didn’t know.
But that very mystery fueled their anticipation.
"This passage is so neatly built."
"I didn’t expect slimes to have human aesthetics. I thought they liked damp nests and tunnels."
The Dryad delegation wasn’t large: five elves serving as inspectors, an undead who watched for spectacle, and fifteen Glimmerlings clutching gifts with eyes full of expectation.
Old Bloom still held his signature hay fork, following Arthur with Eserin. From his drooping soulfire, it was clear he wasn’t all that interested in the tour.
If Lady Viola hadn’t thought he’d get along with Arthur and insisted he come, he probably would still be tending his beloved tubers in the backyard.
Getting along with a fellow? Ha— Old Bloom only wanted to say that no one could out-silent Arthur.
He suspected that if communication weren’t required, Arthur could remain silent until the end of the world.
Fortunately, Eserin had become more talkative since arriving, showing a side of her that was unexpectedly sociable and interested in the surroundings.
Eserin asked, "Mr. Arthur, from the Goblin path to here, it seems after crossing the Mist Zone, the architectural style of your domain changes."
"If these buildings were constructed by the Slime Kingdom’s architects on such a scale... I’m curious — does your domain cultivate a group of architects?"
Arthur remembered His Majesty’s instructions, choosing his words cautiously to avoid revealing too much.
After a few seconds he clumsily said, "There are indeed a group of Slime architects in the domain. But at the beginning, the place was personally built by His Majesty."
"Slime architects?" Several elves exchanged glances. Although it sounded absurd, they didn’t find it too far-fetched.
In fact, the Metal Slimes stationed in the Dryad domain had once told them slimes could serve as gunners.
So Slime architects didn’t seem wholly impossible.
Still, it was novel.
Especially for the Glimmerlings following behind, it was like a fairy tale come to life — imaginative and dreamy — making them even more excited to reach the Slime Kingdom.
"Our Sock Kingdom is like that too — sock engineers, sock farmers, sock knights, and a sock king."
"Wouldn’t that smell awful with so many socks?"
"Of course not. Little Socks live in the water, hmm... maybe a little damp."
"That can’t be as fun as slimes."
The Glimmerlings chattered happily until a shaft of sunlight fell ahead, drawing their attention.
"We’re here, we’re here!"
With the little ones cheering, Eserin bathed in the sunlight and was the first to step down the stairs, looking around with curiosity.
The little plaza, treehouses, slime residents, and patrolling Metal Slime guards... it all matched her imagination perfectly.
"Let me see."
"I want to go out too."
Behind them, Old Bloom and the other elves emerged, followed by impatient Glimmerlings.
Seeing the clean, orderly slime village, they couldn’t help but exclaim.
"Wow, there really are slime residents."
"What are those silver things — guards? So handsome."
Eserin examined everything carefully and, while surprised, did not forget the delegation’s purpose. Her gaze quickly took on an evaluating tone.
Observing Metal Slimes cutting trees and Slime Engineers laying tiles erased any doubt about Arthur’s words.
Slimes could indeed organize a society similar to a human kingdom.
No wonder they called it the Slime Kingdom.
Though a kingdom might occupy only a swamp and parts of a dungeon, compared to the slimes’ small size, the territory was substantial.
So far, the Slime Kingdom showed real potential.
Eserin made a note of this appraisal and followed the taciturn Arthur east along the forest path.
Walking, Eserin discovered something even more interesting.
The slimes were holding a welcome ceremony: lining the path, they clapped gel hands around wooden sticks and cheered and jumped to celebrate the delegation’s arrival.
"How interesting."
"That chubby little fellow is so fun. I want to take it home."
"Don’t even think it. That’s human trafficking;
beware of the Slime Kingdom’s justice."
They watched this amusing scene, distracted from the path and nearly collided. Then they realized Arthur had stopped and was staring up at the sky not far ahead.
"What’s happening?" Old Bloom asked.
An eagle-eyed elven ranger squinted and peered at a tiny black dot in the sky. With her superb vision she soon spotted the clue.
"Something’s approaching us— it looks... like a great dragon?!"