Nilly placed the slime back on Yano's shoulder and spread her hands. "Alright, I really didn't expect you, kid, to actually manage to beat that guy Karn to the ground. Consider yourself impressive."
As she spoke, she took out from her bosom a bottle of pitch-black powder as deep as night and stuffed it into Yano's hand.
"Here, take it."
"'Shadow Dust'. Some people swear it's the ashes left behind after shadow creatures die, while others say this stuff is simply the excrement of shadow creatures... Who knows? The rumors are all over the place." Nilly's tone was casual.
"However, one thing is agreed upon. As long as you carry this stuff on you, compared to other competitors, you're more likely to attract the attention of those shadow creatures."
Uh... Excrement?
Chen Yu lowered his head and curiously examined that bottle of powder. Apart from sensing a faint ripple of energy, he didn't see anything particularly special about it.
However, if it could truly attract the attention of shadow creatures, then it was indeed a good thing.
"Thank you, Auntie." Although Yano found the origin of this item a bit off-putting, he still put away the Shadow Dust.
Nilly casually waved her hand. "No big deal. You earned it with your own skills. Remember, don't be late for tomorrow's trial."
She had already turned to leave but suddenly seemed to remember something and looked back.
"Oh right, I almost forgot to tell you. Quite a few youngsters in the town are paying attention to you. If the news that you passed the Knight Trial today spreads..."
"Hehe, you'll probably become the 'target of attention' during tomorrow's Shadow Trial. Be mentally prepared, new Knight Sir~"
After saying that, her figure seemed to melt into the shadows, instantly disappearing at the edge of the training ground.
Karn walked over at this point, unfazed by Nilly's sudden departure. He explained, "Lady Nilly still needs to enter the depths of the Fluorescent Forest for a final sweep to ensure the safety of tomorrow's trial area."
"If Mr. Yano and this Slime Sir don't mind, we've prepared a simple lunch..."
As soon as Yano heard "lunch," the image of that overly rich specialty bug soup from the demi-human restaurant popped into his mind, instantly making him nauseous.
He frantically shook his head, his face even turning a bit pale. "N-no, thank you, Mr. Karn. You're too kind. We're not hungry yet."
No joke, he really didn't want to see bug soup ever again.
Finding an excuse about needing to go back and prepare for tomorrow's trial, Yano hurriedly returned to the Stone Fortress town on his lizard mount.
After settling the lizard mount in the small yard of the wooden cabin, he finally returned to the slightly crude yet cozy wooden cabin.
After closing the door, Chen Yu asked curiously, "How does it feel? The feeling of becoming an Official Knight."
Yano excitedly scratched his head and subconsciously flexed his arm, showing off his noticeably more swollen muscles.
"It feels... amazing! It's like my strength has increased by a whole lot compared to before."
As he spoke, to demonstrate more clearly to his boss, his gaze swept over the weapon rack in the corner. He walked over and picked up a spare iron sword used for training.
Gripping both ends of the blade with his hands, his arm muscles tensed. With a crisp *crack* sound, the iron sword of decent quality was actually broken in half by his bare hands.
Chen Yu: ∑(❍ฺд❍ฺlll)
Yano had truly become a muscle-bound hunk now.
Putting aside everything else, just this brute strength alone made him practically akin to a humanoid giant bear. He could probably even arm-wrestle with the bugbear Hammerbone now.
The foundation-forging of martial arts, combined with the attribute bonuses from the special advanced class "Sword Knight," had synergistically boosted Yano's physical fitness far beyond that of an ordinary knight.
Moreover, the "Sword Knight" class also granted special comprehension and power amplification for sword-based combat techniques.
This was truly taking off.
Chen Yu even felt that if Yano returned to the White Horse Kingdom now, with this strength and potential, he might even be able to land a position as a knight captain.
Yano was equally excited, but soon a trace of worry appeared on his face. "Boss, the forest isn't exactly a knight's home turf. I'm worried tomorrow's Shadow Trial might not go so smoothly."
His concern wasn't without reason.
The Shadow Trial was originally designed for assassin-type professions skilled in stealth, assassination, and deception. Suddenly having a knight with a completely different style mixed in raised questions about his ability to adapt to the environment.
Furthermore, he was currently in the spotlight and, as Nilly said, would likely become the prime "target of attention" for the other Stone Descendants participating in the trial.
A bunch of assassins hiding in the shadows would probably run circles around him.
Chen Yu, however, was quite calm about this. He patted his round belly with his gel hand. "What's there to worry about? All these are prepared for you, skills tailored just for you."
Yano looked down at his boss's belly, which seemed capable of holding the entire world, and saw the colorful talent orbs lying inside.
"These are all skills?"
He suddenly felt that tomorrow's trial... might not be so difficult after all.
...
While Chen Yu and Yano were still preparing for the next day's Shadow Trial, on the other side, the vampire Viscount Casimir, after enduring countless hardships, had finally returned to the Evernight Domain deep within the Dark Realm.
Inside the vampire clan's Ancient Castle, within the cold and spacious council chamber.
Casimir leaned back in the luxurious black velvet high-backed chair, breathing slightly heavily. After consuming a large amount of reserve blood offered by the castle's blood thralls, his pale and withered cheeks had finally regained most of their luster.
It was just that, for some reason, he felt that this blood, which was usually so sweet and delicious, now tasted... not fresh enough, not mellow enough. Drinking it didn't bring the same intoxicating satisfaction as before.
It was even bland.
Somewhat irritated, he casually placed the silver goblet, still half-full of blood, back on the bone table.
"What the hell was that damned skeleton feeding me?"
The taste of that gel was just... too pure.
Casimir couldn't help but yearn for that mouthful of gel. The unique flavor made him salivate even now just thinking about it, even giving him the urge to immediately return to that swamp.
As he was lost in random thoughts, immersed in reminiscence, the sound of footsteps approaching from the corridor outside the council chamber grew closer.
Soon, Dunlan, wearing a neat dark-colored mage apprentice robe, walked in with a smile.
"Viscount Casimir, good afternoon. I heard from the blood thralls outside that you returned in quite a sorry state this time. It seems the negotiations didn't go as smoothly as the teacher imagined."
Casimir quickly gathered his thoughts, elegantly stood up, performed a noble bow, and put a smile back on his face.
"Sir Dunlan, good afternoon. Don't listen to the nonsense of those lowly creatures."
"The negotiations themselves proceeded quite smoothly and achieved good progress. However, there is one point that likely needs to be confirmed personally by Lord Salacha."
Dunlan raised an eyebrow, showing a hint of curiosity. "Oh? What special demands did those bone racks and slime monsters make?"
Casimir spread his hands helplessly. "They want money."
"Want money?"
Dunlan felt he must have misheard, a look of slight astonishment appearing on his face.
A bunch of undead... want money?
What use is it to them? To decorate their gloomy tombs?
"That's right, and their appetite isn't small. They want to swallow the task bounty the Goblin Army is paying us. You know, that's no small sum."
Upon hearing this, Dunlan's brow furrowed slightly. His fingers unconsciously rubbed the cuff of his robe as he fell into brief contemplation.
Only the faint crackling sound of the indigo flames burning in the fireplace remained in the council chamber.
Casimir wasn't in a hurry. He played with the wine glass on the table, patiently waiting for his response.
A long time later, Dunlan slowly looked up, a gentle smile appearing on his face.
"Give it, of course we'll give it. This is what they deserve anyway. Not only will we give it, but we can also kindly attach a piece of information for them."
"The teacher just observed through the crystal ball that the demons inhabiting the Golden Radiance Valley recently have become restless. Their claws seem to have quietly reached the edges of the Dark Realm."
"Those goblins entrenched at Riftrock Pass might soon have new movements."
"You'd better remind our 'allies' to be careful." Dunlan's words were meaningful, his intentions seemingly not pure.
Casimir's face lost its initial composure upon hearing the word "demons."
"Demons? What are they doing here?"
Dunlan shrugged helplessly. "Who knows? Those crazy guys whose brains are probably only filled with magma and sulfur. Who can guess what they're thinking?"
"More importantly, you'd better also be careful about the Stone Descendants who have been active frequently in the Dark Realm recently. The 'Shadow Trial' is about to begin. Those guys who usually hide in the shadows won't be too peaceful during this period."
Casimir curled his lip, his tone carrying the inherent arrogance of the vampire clan. "Hmph, they're just a bunch of rats hiding in the sewers. If it weren't for those damned gargoyles back then..."
Dunlan smiled, clearly having no interest in delving deeper into that inglorious chapter of vampire history. He simply posed an enticing question.
"Aren't you all curious about how the Stone Descendants managed to control that powerful gargoyle army?"
He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice a bit, carrying a hint of temptation. "This happens to be a research topic the teacher has been very interested in recently..."
Casimir's heart stirred. It would be a lie to say he didn't want to know. Not just them vampires, but even the human nobles far away in the White Horse Kingdom probably dreamed of knowing how the Stone Descendants established that terrifying gargoyle army back in the day.
If they could figure out this secret, the vampires might be able to completely occupy the entire Dark Realm and extend their claws outward once more.
"Has Lord Salacha made a new discovery?"
"Not exactly, but..."
Dunlan changed the subject, a gleam in his eyes as he lowered his voice further. "The teacher recently successfully captured and 'modified' a shadow creature, then quietly released it near Gore."
"If nothing goes wrong, this special little creature will bring some unexpected 'surprises' to the Stone Descendants' upcoming Shadow Trial."
Hearing that his enemies were about to face trouble, Casimir felt a wave of satisfaction inside.
"That's Lord Salacha for you."
After chatting a few more words with Dunlan, Casimir hurriedly left. He still needed to return to the Eastern Swamp as soon as possible to finalize the negotiations with those greedy skeletons.
Of course, compared to the negotiations, he actually had something even more important to do.
As long as he could get another taste of that gel... just one taste, and he would be satisfied.
...
"Caw~ Caw~"
A crow, pitch-black all over, flapped its wings and flew up from the dense reed marshes, skillfully cutting across the sky toward the direction of Riftrock Pass, where the Goblin Army was entrenched.
It circled over the pass, avoiding the warning magic spread throughout the fortress, taking in the busy, noisy camp below, those green-skinned goblins idly scratching fleas off each other... all captured within its golden bird eyes.
After completing its routine patrol and reconnaissance, the crow changed direction, gliding lightly over the Gray Mist Lake and the reed fields.
Only when the outline of that initially formed fortress appeared at the edge of its vision did the crow's form and color gradually shrink and transform, finally reverting to the chubby Bat Slime.
From the perspective of Bat Slime Number Two, Chen Yu looked down and saw that the main construction of the fortress's city wall had entered the final closure stage. The tall stone-and-wood structure walls were about to form a complete defensive ring.
More importantly, those large Gray Gravel Crystals in the "Kingdom's Shield" energy nodes had already been buried by the Slime Scholar in their predetermined positions within the wall foundations.
Now, they only needed to wait for the Gray Gravel Crystals below to complete their first large-scale energy charging before they could attempt to activate this large-scale defensive Magic Formation into which they had poured so much effort.
However, Chen Yu's thoughts lingered more on the recent reconnaissance of Riftrock Pass.
Apart from the core area protected by tight magic, he had practically mapped out the peripheral fortifications, troop movements, and other situations of the fortress.
Although on the surface, these goblins were the same as usual, apart from reinforcing their fortifications, without any particularly abnormal military movements, his intuition told him these grudge-holding green-skinned creatures were definitely still brewing something.
Fortunately, the Kingdom's Shield was about to take shape, and the selection and training of the Lizardfolk Knight Team had already been scheduled...
But he clearly understood that these were only enough to withstand goblin attacks, far from sufficient to support the long-term stable development of a kingdom, let alone completely drive out the Goblin Army entrenched at Riftrock Pass.
He needed to prepare some secret weapons...
He was immersed in the macro-planning for the kingdom's future development when suddenly, a message came from the Eastern Swamp.
That vampire named Casimir had come again, and this time he even claimed to have brought a "surprise."
Thus, his consciousness receded like a tide, returning to the body of the Strategist Slime located at the Eastern Swamp fortress.
Inside the Tree House, the Strategist Slime's gel body moved slightly as it opened its wise eyes.
It hopped out of the Tree House, onto the city wall, and joined Little Flower. To maintain the identity of the Undead Lord, it once again mimicked the form of a skeleton.
But due to insufficient gel, this time its physique looked even smaller.
He strode with what he thought was a dignified skeleton gait, climbed onto the city wall battlement, and looked down.
Sure enough, that vampire Casimir, dressed in lavish noble attire, was standing outside the fortress gate, followed by several blood bat servants holding gold-trimmed wooden boxes.
Looking up at the Undead Lord on the city wall, whose size had shrunk once again, Casimir felt somewhat puzzled inside but still smiled and performed an elegant noble bow.
"Viscount Casimir extends his most sincere greetings to you."
"To bring the good news to you as soon as possible, this viscount dared not delay for a moment, traveling day and night to return."