"What a peculiar creation..." Dunlan's eyes burned as he stared at Chen Yu on Peachy's back in the distance. His gaze did not look like one fixed on an enemy, but rather on a masterpiece to be admired.
He did not seem the least bit troubled by the dire situation of being heavily besieged.
"You seem puzzled. Want to ask why I'm not afraid?" he suddenly spoke, his tone thick with curiosity.
Chen Yu's gel body stilled for a moment.
Who asked you.
Just as the boss was about to start showing off, under Beet's command the Blood Legion hovering in midair instantly responded.
"Hum!"
Another volley of dense, dark-red plastic-energy blood spheres rained down like a meteor shower, plummeting in a blizzard toward the vampire castle.
"Thud, thud, thud..."
The goblin army camped on the open ground outside the castle fared far worse.
Their crude tents were easily overturned, the stinking encampment blasted into chaos, and goblin soldiers emitted piercing screams as explosions and corrosion ripped through them, suffering heavy casualties.
Dunlan did not speak in the face of this ferocious, covering assault. He merely waved his skull-topped staff calmly.
[False Life]
Instantly, the surrounding darkness seemed to come alive, drawn as if by an invisible field toward his body, forming a deep black shield that wrapped him completely.
Those flesh-corroding plastic-energy blood spheres struck it like pebbles thrown into a deep pond—ripples were created, then they quietly vanished.
Even when the energy beam from the Goblin Ripper approached the vicinity of his body, it struck an odd, twisted field created by the magical device and was bizarrely deflected away.
Chen Yu was a little surprised.
To casually withstand volleys of blood spheres and cannon fire like that—this fellow's power clearly exceeded the scope of an elite professional.
Dunlan's gaze slid past Chen Yu and landed on Viscount Casimir among the monster legion.
"Viscount Casimir, in the end you betrayed the vampire clan, betrayed my teacher and me."
Casimir looked at him deeply, shrugged his hands and said, "My dear Dunlan, this has nothing to do with honor or betrayal. I am merely seeking a new way out for the vampire clan."
"After all, my nose is far keener than yours. I simply cannot tolerate those filthy, foul goblins."
Dunlan's expression turned cold, and he no longer paid Casimir any heed. The aura around him suddenly grew deathly still;
his face became shadowed and indistinct, as if he had swapped into another person in an instant.
He had become some ancient, terrible presence.
"It's time to end this tedious farce."
He raised his staff high and intoned an obscure incantation. Immediately, the skull at the staff's top ignited with a ghastly green soulfire.
[Withering Art]
Visible gray, withered mist peeled away from his body and, like twisted serpents, rapidly converged at the staff's tip. The aura it emitted even corroded away most of the stone steps beneath his feet.
His target, without exception, was Chen Yu in front of him.
The force emitted by this spell was far more fearsome than any magic Chen Yu had seen before.
This power was definitely beyond what an elite tier could command;
this neared the Extraordinary!
"Your Majesty, ka-ka!" Loyal Little Ka flapped his wings, trying to rush to Chen Yu's side, but Chen Yu pressed him down with a little gel hand.
For a moment, Chen Yu even considered using Life Droplets.
But the withered mist moved quickly, easily withering several Poison-stinger Wasps that attempted to intercept it, and then entered his gel body unobstructed.
"Pfft..."
In an instant, Chen Yu felt as if struck by a vicious curse. His entire gel body, under the pall of gray decay, visibly lost its sheen;
wrinkles and puckered patterns surfaced on the exterior.
This deathly force frenzied through his body, continuously stripping away his vitality.
"Success?" Inside the castle, the hiding vampire elders all watched intently.
However, the eager looks on their faces did not last long;
they soon realized something was wrong.
The gray pallor on that slime did not continue to spread as expected, turning it into a lifeless, withered sludge.
Instead, within that puckered gel, a roaring green vigor blossomed, dissolving the gray wrinkles wherever it passed.
Chen Yu carefully felt the ransacking magical force in his body and kept thinking this thing was weaker than he had imagined...
It had only deducted five thousand health points.
And he was a Slime Lord with a full eighty thousand health points.
In other words, it wasn't that the spell was weak, his health bar was just absurdly thick!
Moreover, it was being countered by Life Droplets, so the spell couldn't fully exert itself.
He even tried to quietly use Devour Digestion, sampling the residual spell energy.
To his surprise, after being swallowed by his own black hole, the energy actually increased his mana!
It felt as if a door to a new world was slowly opening before him;
his small eyes suddenly shone frighteningly bright.
This was basically a mobile Experience Pack.
The vampire elders fell silent, and Dunlan too was somewhat stunned.
A slime capable of absorbing an Extraordinary spell—what on earth was that?
Even Little Ka and Beet looked at their lord in bafflement, wondering why such a terrifying attack on their king seemed to have no effect.
Dunlan refused to accept it and swung his staff again, chanting the obscure incantation.
[Withering Art]
His mental state visibly waned;
it seemed casting this spell was a considerable burden for him.
The spell struck Chen Yu again, but this time it lasted even shorter—mere seconds—then was devoured cleanly by the gel body as if by a bottomless pit, leaving no trace as though nothing had happened.
Even Dunlan fell completely silent now.
The earlier disappearance of the Withering Art was not an illusion;
it had truly been swallowed by the slime...
His magic not only failed to inflict effective damage, it instead became a kind of nutrient.
Seeing him quiet, Chen Yu offered a friendly reminder, "Why not try again? Maybe I won't hold on next time."
Dunlan glanced at him, that look saying, "Do you take me for a fool?"
Suddenly his body burst apart, transforming into dozens of pitch-black bats that scattered in flight.
He was trying to flee.
But the monster legion was ready;
all artillery emplacements and Poison-stinger Wasps opened fire on the scattering black bats with covering bombardment.
"Ah!"
Some black bats were instantly shot down under the dense barrage.
Although the winged forms created by Dunlan flew fast, it was hard to completely escape the Goblin Ripper's artillery coverage.
After losing several life-saving magical items, his situation was scarcely better than the other fleeing vampires.
When forced back to the ground, the body he reformed had only half its original mass left;
it looked utterly pathetic.
On the wasteland, the cold wind howled, leaving only his mutilated silhouette and the thunderous approach of the monster legion in the distance.
He had escaped the castle, true, but Chen Yu was already chasing after him, riding Little Ka.
Dunlan did not choose to give up;
he gripped his staff with his remaining arm and cast a technique that felt somewhat familiar to Chen Yu.
[Shadow Traversal]
Most of his body blurred and slipped into shadow, then fled into the distance again.
As luck would have it, Chen Yu also knew some shadow abilities.
[Shadow Traversal]
His gel body likewise grew ethereal, and together with Little Ka he dove into the shadows, moving even faster than Dunlan.
"Take this, Slime Impact!"
Chen Yu, like a green projectile, slammed into Dunlan's blurred figure.
Dunlan emitted a muffled grunt as he was forcefully pulled out of the shadow and tumbled in a humiliating roll across the desolate scree.
"How could you..."
He collapsed to the ground, baffled at how a slime could wield shadow power.
But soon he no longer had the luxury to ponder that question.
[Water Arrow Technique]
Chen Yu's round body swelled, moisture stretched before him, coalescing into a water arrow that shot at Dunlan.
"Ssht!"
The water arrow struck precisely, detonating Dunlan's remaining half-body into shreds, scattering a stench of bloody mist across the sky.
He did not even get to utter a full final word before he was gone.
"Done." Chen Yu hopped proudly, satisfied with his decisiveness.
Just as he thought it was all over, his Shadow Perception suddenly picked up a faint change in light and shadow.
Huh?
There was still a shadow creature hidden inside that fellow's body?
The thought flashed through his mind and his belly erupted with a powerful suction, preventing that shadow creature from escaping.
"Little Ka, fireball!"
"Ka!" Little Ka immediately opened his mouth and spat a blazing ball of magma, lighting up the area brilliantly.
Under the shifting light and shadow, the blurred silhouette finally revealed its outline.
It seemed formed from pure darkness and shadow, lacking distinct facial features, only a vague humanoid shape. Now most of its torso had been forcibly drawn into Chen Yu's belly.
The shadow figure likely hadn't expected anything to devour a shadow;
it let out warped murmurs as if speaking through countless veils:
"Green... sage, we... will... meet... again..."
To heck with your mystical mumbling, Chen Yu slurped it down and swallowed it utterly.
"Burp~"
Chen Yu belched contentedly, feeling like something had been added to his body, though at the same time feeling little different.
After the figure was swallowed, the odd sensation that had been prying through Shadow Perception finally vanished. The panel updated.
[Devour Digestion Lv.8 triggered — Fully recorded ??? partial traits, gained talent: Shadow Split Lv.1]
Shadow... split?
Under Chen Yu's gaze, the round shadow beneath his feet changed, as if cleaved by an invisible blade. With a "pop," it became two round shadow masses.
Huh???
What use is this?
He tried to control the split shadow but found it strangely difficult, like pushing a mountain, and the shadow could not attack or interact like a true clone.
It seemed useless.
Oh well, it wasn't like he needed every talent.
He didn't dwell on it, remounted Little Ka, and flew back toward the vampire castle.
...
Returning to the castle, the battle had mostly concluded. The vampires and goblins who had stubbornly resisted were cleared out;
most chose to surrender.
Casimir led Slime Engineers in cleaning the castle and sorting the spoils.
When Chen Yu returned, Casimir came forward with reverence. "Your Majesty, I have good news to report."
"Oh?" Chen Yu hopped and signaled for him to continue.
Casimir smiled lightly. "There is a hidden treasury beneath this castle, accumulated by generations of the vampire clan. It holds the wealth, magical materials, and enchanted equipment they've collected over centuries. There may even be some lost ancient scrolls."
"Since you have conquered this place, in theory those now become your assets."
Chen Yu's small eyes lit up instantly.
A treasury! A massive treasury!
He had suspected these vampires were rolling in riches.
Casimir did not forget to ask, "With such a commotion at the castle, the goblin army's main force will soon arrive. What should we do?"
Chen Yu thought for a moment. He still had to prepare for the upcoming summer Magical Tides and did not have time to tangle with the demons hidden behind the scenes.
But letting them maintain contact with the White Horse Kingdom's demonic pawns was unacceptable.
He looked toward the rear of the castle. Apart from some scattered defenses, there was no sturdy wall like the Graystone Bulwark—nothing capable of withstanding a goblin army's assault.
So the best plan was, of course... retreat.
First, move every valuable item in the castle, especially everything from the underground treasury.
Then temporarily abandon the Evernight Domain and this castle, withdraw behind the inner walls of the Graystone Bulwark, and rely on the inner wall defenses to guard against enemies coming from the castle's direction.
After all, as long as they held the Graystone Bulwark, they could always return here.
Soon, the slimes who had explored the castle returned, bringing back box after box filled with gold, jewels, and large quantities of ore materials from the treasury Casimir had mentioned.
Most of these finds were lined up and hauled back to the Graystone Bulwark by Beetle units.
At the moment of departure, Chen Yu looked over the land he had conquered and announced to the monster legion.
From this day forward, vampire rule on these lands is a thing of the past.
The Dark Realm has found its new owner—the slimes.
The slimes cheered, happily "plop-plop" bumping into one another, and the Poison-stinger Wasps hummed in rounds of welcome.
Those with the most complicated feelings were undoubtedly the captured vampires.
Casimir, however, felt indescribably at ease, as if reborn.
He could at last leave the dim tombs and greet a new future for the vampires.