Dunlan’s nonchalant attitude rubbed off on most of the vampires in the castle, even the goblins loitering in the corridors and courtyards picked up a bit of that blind optimism.
They began to whisper privately, arguing that if even the White Horse Kingdom’s regular army couldn’t completely conquer the Dark Realm, what right did those hopping slimes have to march all the way to the Evernight Domain?
Words were one thing, but preparations still had to be made.
In the castle’s meeting hall, Dunlan remained seated at the main place with his eyes closed, resting;
he didn’t take part in the heated discussion below, as if all the surrounding clamor had nothing to do with him.
Viscount Casimir only glanced at him, then his thoughts drifted away involuntarily, distracted by schemes on how to obtain more of Life’s Blood.
Only a few elderly vampires continued to argue fiercely over how to deal with the looming swamp army.
The first thing they confirmed was that the Everly Valley — that entrance area near the Outpost Ruins camp — had relatively flat terrain, easy to attack but hard to defend.
And the Blacktooth mercenary stronghold originally stationed at the entrance had already been uprooted by the slimes.
One vampire said, “Losing this spot was inevitable;
we’ll have to cede it to those slimes.”
After hammering out a concrete counterplan, orders were quickly sent down to the Blacktooth mercenary company.
Soon, crimson and eye-catching “SSS-level” maximum bounty notices radiated out from Blacktooth’s stronghold like snowflakes, falling into the hands of adventurers and mercenaries across the Dark Realm.
Tempted by the high rewards, large numbers of mercenary squads, like sharks sensing blood, swarmed toward the Evernight Domain and were temporarily reorganized by the vampires into loose hired forces.
Their mission was simple: hold defensive positions using favorable terrain and preset fortifications, just like before when facing the Goblin Army at the Fald Frontline. The longer they held out, the larger the bounty they would earn afterward.
But this time it was frontal defense with a ready fortress to guard, so at least they no longer had to hide among broken ruins.
What made these mercenaries breathe faster was that the vampires had pre-distributed one or two practical magic scrolls to nearly every mercenary who signed up, and declared that these scrolls did not need to be returned after the battle;
they could dispose of them as they pleased.
Besides that, the Blacktooth mercenary company itself deployed its most elite standing combat units, each led by at least one, sometimes several elite Professionals. Unit sizes generally exceeded two hundred men, well-equipped and well-trained.
They were almost comparable to the White Horse Kingdom’s second-tier regular troops and had the strength to independently tackle “S-level” bounty targets.
Because the war between the vampires and the Goblin Army had not fully erupted earlier, those precious elite forces had been preserved intact.
They became the vampires’ confidence in facing this crisis.
Yet to everyone’s surprise, the swamp army’s advance was simply too fast!
After only one day, urgent battle reports came in saying the Everly Valley had been completely occupied by the Slime Legion.
Some even reported seeing slimes already building temporary fortifications at the valley’s exit.
Inside the castle meeting hall.
As blood thralls came and went delivering reports that became more and more urgent, the faces of the vampire nobles kept changing.
“What? Those damned stingers are already at the edge of the Rubble Wastes?!”
“How could they be so fast? Don’t they need time to rest and consolidate their occupied areas?”
After exiting Everly Valley, one must pass through a stretch of mountainous terrain riddled with natural stone forests and fissures before reaching the Rubble Wastes.
The so-called Rubble Wastes was actually a vast plain covered with debris and collapsed walls.
If it weren’t for the ancient city walls left by an old civilization serving as a natural barrier, and the hindrance of the undead roaming the ruins’ depths, this plain would have allowed a near-uninterrupted push straight into the Evernight Domain.
“There’s no time to set up a first defensive line, order all mercenaries operating on the periphery to withdraw immediately into the Graystone Bulwark.”
“As long as we place enough magic formations and Magic Crystal Cannons on the bulwark’s outer wall, that will be sufficient to hold these bastards off outside the wall.”
At the mention of the Graystone Bulwark, every vampire present visibly relaxed.
That magnificent city wall, hewn from some unknown black rock by an old civilization, was practically harder than steel;
despite years of erosion, its main structure remained intact.
It had blocked the southward invasion of orc armies, resisted advances from the kingdom’s regular cavalry, and stopped raids from gargoyle legions. It should have no problem holding off those odd slime-mounted Magic Crystal Cannons.
As long as it wasn’t infiltrated, this bulwark was nearly impossible to break through head-on.
It was precisely because of their confidence in this ancient bulwark that they instinctively chose to trust Dunlan.
If no one before had breached this bulwark, then those slimes were even less likely to do so.
…
Just as the vampires had predicted, the Poison-stinger Wasp legion that first set foot on the Rubble Wastes soon discovered the massive black city wall stretching across the plain’s end like a slumbering giant.
After initial reconnaissance, the legion under Beet’s command quickly attempted a probing assault.
Amid the sharp, dense buzzing, dozens of Self-destructing Wasp Soldiers from the First Legion rose, using the darkness and the wastes’ undulating terrain as cover to charge toward the wall.
“They’re coming, they’re coming!”
Although the mercenaries guarding the wall were not fully organized yet, four elite hired units led the defense and rapidly formed a significant counterattack.
From the shattered bastion windows of the wall, rocket arrows wrapped in oil-soaked cloth were loosed in unison by experienced hunter-archers.
“Ssssh! Ssssh! Ssssh!”
Countless burning arrows streaked across the dim sky like a reverse meteor shower of fire, instantaneously brightening the somber scene of the Rubble Wastes.
“Boom! Boom! Rumble!”
Explosions sounded one after another. Any self-destructing wasp struck by the rockets detonated instantly, bursting into brilliant balls of fire in midair.
Large numbers of poison-stinger wasps fell from the sky;
only a few managed to approach the wall, and the force of the explosions left only charred marks on the wall’s surface while inflicting limited burns on the mercenaries atop the battlements.
After a night of probing attacks with meager results, Beet, having gathered detailed intelligence on the Graystone Bulwark, ordered the legion to retreat to the ruins at the waste’s edge.
They cleaned up roaming undead, set up a temporary camp, and then quickly transmitted the collected wall intelligence back through the gel network to the swamp rear.
The Command Group stationed at Riftrock Fortress soon learned of the wall’s existence.
In the slimes’ wooden hut, the Slime Scholars “pa-ji pa-ji” collided noisily as they debated fiercely.
“A huge wall—what do we do?” one anxious scholar hopped about.
“Blow it up!” another radical slime proposed, bouncing.
“Send a hundred Goblin Rippers over there.”
“Wh—where would we get that many? We’d have to dismantle all the Goblin Rippers from our territory walls to have enough.”
“And the defending slimes will surely get angry.”
A cleverer scholar suggested a new idea, “We can dig tunnels and burrow under it;
tunneling underground will surely spook them, heh heh.”
“Good idea, not bad at all, that’s Ram for you.” The other scholars’ little eyes lit up and they agreed.
They debated for a long while, but in the end they decided to ask Little Flower’s opinion.
“Your Highness, what… should we do?” the Slime Scholars clustered together, eyes pleading toward Little Flower.
Little Flower thought seriously for a moment, hopped a little, and made a decision: “Try digging tunnels. If that doesn’t work, we still have the big Goblin Ripper.”
“Big Goblin Ripper?” Question bubbles popped over the scholars’ heads as they looked at each other. Do we still have such a thing in our kingdom? Their minds filled with doubt.
Little Flower, seeing their confusion, let out a proud little “hmph” twice.
…
Upon hearing that the Goblin Ripper Mk. II was about to be completed, Chen Yu immediately rode Little Ka from the frontline back to the swamp to witness this historic moment in person.
Outside Iron Anvil’s forge at the Obsidian Mining Area.
Chen Yu hopped down and waited, while Little Aileen squatted beside him, curiously staring at Little Ka.
Since Iron Anvil had warned her not to play with the slimes at will, she seemed to have shifted her attention to the other little creature.
Of course she wasn’t naughty;
she simply sat quietly with her small hands tucked in, staring at Little Ka with her big blue eyes, unblinking.
Her gaze made Little Ka a little shy and uneasy. After making a few “ka-ka” noises, he hid behind Chen Yu, only poking out half his head to sneak a peek at her.
Chen Yu found it amusing.
He produced a split of himself and hopped over to Little Aileen, deliberately wobbling left and right.
Sure enough, her attention was drawn;
she brightened a little at the sight of the round little thing.
Just as she reached out, she seemed to recall Iron Anvil’s words and withdrew her hand, staring dry-eyed.
This child was unusually quiet, Chen Yu thought.
But as long as she didn’t make trouble and behaved obediently, that was fine.
At least his master blacksmith would not worry about being disturbed while working and could forge in peace.
Soon Little Aileen lost interest in the untouchable slime and shifted her gaze again, pulled by the “clang clang” of hammering within the workshop. She turned to look at Iron Anvil as he hammered.
After what felt like a long time, Iron Anvil in the workshop still wiped sweat and swung his arms, striking the glowing metal with force, sending off dazzling sparks.
“Clang!!!”
With the final strike reverberating through the workshop, the last black steel main bearing was finally forged, its red-hot glow slowly receding to reveal a jet-black sheen.
Iron Anvil inspected this masterpiece, into which he had poured endless effort, and after confirming there were no tiny cracks or flaws, he laughed heartily and wiped the sweat from his face.
“Ha ha ha, Your Majesty, it’s done, it’s done!” he called out excitedly to Chen Yu outside the forge, his voice loud and full of pride.
Chen Yu immediately hopped into the workshop, listening to Iron Anvil boast about terms he didn’t understand.
“Wah wah. New clothes, mine, mine!”
At Iron Anvil’s feet, a small Earth Elemental finally couldn’t contain its excitement and, with the help of its Earth Elemental comrades, clumsily climbed up onto the still-warm workbench.
“Big Beard, hurry, put it on him!” the little elementals chirped.
“Don’t rush, I’m more anxious than you!” Iron Anvil muttered as he carefully picked up the black steel main bearing with tongs and solemnly fitted it onto the little Earth Elemental like donning armor for a knight about to go to war.
Once it closed around him, the little Earth Elemental turned and proudly declared, “Boss, boss, aren’t I imposing?”
Chen Yu examined it closely.
Hmm… imposing wasn’t exactly what he saw.
This little Earth Elemental, covered head to toe in black metal, looked less majestic and more like a small lump of coal…
He hopped forward and leapt onto Iron Anvil’s shoulder, asking oddly, “Are you sure this will actually activate the Goblin Ripper?”
Iron Anvil thumped his chest confidently and laughed, “Your Majesty, don’t worry. I secretly tried a partial activation;
it worked perfectly. Its power is actually far greater than theory predicted, perhaps due to this miraculous metal.”
As he spoke, to demonstrate, he waved to the little Earth Elementals, “Come on, you naughty little fellows, let His Majesty see your might.”
“Here we go! Here we go!”
“It’s finally our turn!”
“Move aside, I want to stand in the middle!”
The little Earth Elementals immediately shouted excitedly and, like well-trained soldiers, gathered on the open ground outside the forge.
They bumped and stacked together with astonishing skill as if they had rehearsed countless times.
In just a few seconds and a series of clicks, that group of fist-sized earth elementals instantly coalesced into a three-meter-tall black giant.
The rock giant stood there, its dark armor reflecting the workshop’s firelight with a cold, hard sheen. The sense of oppression it radiated was no less than that of expensive magical puppets.
Iron Anvil rubbed his hands, his face excited, “Your Majesty, this thing might be a little too powerful. If we start it here, I’m afraid it could collapse parts of the mining area…”
“We should go outside to test it. I promise you, I won’t disappoint.”
Chen Yu’s curiosity was completely piqued.
He jumped down from Iron Anvil’s shoulder, climbed back onto Little Ka, and prepared to fly out to the open space to witness it firsthand.
He glanced back at Iron Anvil and found the smith hadn’t followed immediately;
instead, after wiping his sweat, Iron Anvil carefully picked up little Aileen and gently placed her on the Earth Elemental Giant’s shoulder.
“He’s considerate,” Chen Yu said with some surprise.
It seemed that over time Iron Anvil had unconsciously gotten used to the child’s presence and had almost become a caretaker.