Moss Monster.
A Moss Monster running naked in the swamp?
A strange nightmare clung to his mind like a stubborn patch of muck that couldn't be shaken off, impossible to clear away completely.
He was the Slime King, how could he possibly be afraid of a tiny Moss Monster?
Could it be some kind of bad omen?
Chen Yu muttered a few words to himself, pushed himself up from the throne, bounced twice, and landed on the floor.
*Plop.*
He looked down at his gel body.
No different from yesterday, still looking like a round, plump slime.
He could feel the change in his Divine Sense.
The feeling was like living in a small room your whole life, then suddenly someone knocks down all four walls. Your field of vision instantly widens, and the air becomes clear and flowing.
Divine Sense surged from his mind, spreading outwards, effortlessly covering the entire throne hall, then continuing to extend further—corridors, courtyards, kitchens, barracks, gardens... all the way to the streets outside the palace.
The range of his Divine Sense easily enveloped the entire Royal Capital, continuing to spread deep into the mountains.
He saw slime guards bouncing to change shifts at the guard posts on the Slime City walls, their round bodies bouncing rhythmically on the ramparts, emitting a steady *plop-plop* sound. Occasionally, one would bounce too high, tumble over the parapet and fall outside, only to bounce *plop-plop* back up again.
His mana was also more abundant now, like a riverbed that had been widened, capable of holding more water flow without worrying about overflowing, allowing him to cast more spells.
He had finally reached the late Foundation Establishment stage.
Only one step away from the Golden Core.
Chen Yu began to daydream.
What would the Golden Core be like?
It wouldn't actually grow a big, hard lump of slime stones inside the gel, would it?
He pondered for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about it.
His magical creature level had also increased from Level 11 to Level 12.
Chen Yu bounced around the throne hall a few times, feeling the surging power within his body, and checked the talent he had just obtained.
[Devour Digestion Lv.8 triggered—Moss Monster characteristics fully recorded. Talent obtained: Mana Will Lv.1.]
Here it comes, here it comes.
The final piece of the mana talent puzzle was finally complete.
He had felt something was off before. Mana Siphon pointed to energy, Magic Muscle pointed to the physical body, so the third talent must be related to spirit or soul.
He had guessed correctly. This mana talent was more like a puzzle, needing to be pieced together bit by bit to form a complete system.
But why was the effect of this talent so strange?
He thought to himself with a weird feeling.
He had originally thought the third talent would be some kind of mental attack or mental defense ability, like crushing opponents with willpower or constructing a mental shield.
Making all enemies witness his kingly aura and involuntarily kneel.
But the effect of Mana Will was actually to absorb negative mental energies—pain, fear, despair, and other emotions—and convert them into mana.
To put it bluntly, it was about endurance.
The more you could endure, the more mana you got.
It seemed rather ordinary, even a bit shabby.
Compared to the domineering power of Mana Siphon, which sucked in torrents of mana, Mana Will seemed too subtle.
Compared to the tangible solidity of Magic Muscle directly strengthening the body, Mana Will seemed too ethereal and intangible.
But wait.
He suddenly thought of something.
Could the mana generated through willpower be absorbed by his "Mana Siphon," and then could he use more mana to condense Magic Muscle?
If so, wouldn't that mean the more he got beaten up, the more mana would accumulate in his gel body?
The more mana, the stronger the Magic Muscle.
The stronger the Magic Muscle, the more damage he could withstand.
The more damage he could withstand, the more pain he could endure, squeezing out even more mana.
Wouldn't that be like stepping on your own left foot with your right foot to climb straight to the heavens?
But thinking about it carefully, it seemed he wouldn't need it anyway.
After all, no one could really hurt him.
His gel body, strengthened by Magic Muscle, wouldn't even show a mark when struck by an enchanted weapon. Even a full-force blow from an Extraordinary warrior would at most dent the gel a bit, which would bounce back to normal after a couple of rebounds.
As for mental attacks, mages skilled in mind-control magic were already rare, and those who could affect him were even fewer.
He had swallowed so many random things in the swamp that his mental resistance had long been stacked to an utterly ridiculous level.
Sigh.
Masters are always so lonely.
Chen Yu stood on the steps, leaving behind a solitary silhouette.
He waited for a while, but noticed no one was looking.
So he stopped posing.
But perhaps his nightmare had come true, as Little Flower, who had gone out to announce policies, came bouncing back early.
"Big Brother, it's bad."
"What's wrong?"
Little Flower spat out a report from her gel, spreading it on the table.
Chen Yu bounced over and looked down.
The Slime Army was in trouble.
The troop they had sent to the Adamantine mine had been ambushed about half a day's journey from the Mining Area.
It wasn't an ordinary demon patrol. There were about two hundred of them, well-equipped with armor and weapons, including at least three spellcasters.
Those spellcasters wore deep red robes and could summon fireballs and acid. The slime soldiers of the troop were badly burned.
Fortunately, the troop's losses weren't heavy, but their advance was blocked, forcing them to retreat behind the orc frontline.
The demons had already recaptured the mining area the orcs had opened to the Kingdom and had added new guard posts and patrol routes on top of the original fortifications.
According to scout observations, there were now at least five hundred demons garrisoned in the mining area, with even more continuously arriving from the north.
They seemed to be reacting quite intensely to the slimes' arrival.
"What about Big Brother Slime?" Chen Yu asked.
"He's already on the way," Little Flower said. "But setting out from the Southern Forest, crossing the Storm Territory northwards, it will take at least five days at the fastest."
Five days.
That was enough time for the demons to do many things.
He had underestimated the demons' reaction.
"And this, the battle report from the orc frontline."
Little Flower spat out another scroll of a report.
Chen Yu lowered his head and read carefully.
A continuous blizzard had been blowing in the north for several days, greatly hindering the frontline advance of the orc army. Instead, it had allowed the demons to fortify their defenses during the blizzard.
After the blizzard stopped, the orcs fought for another three days, advancing less than two miles.
Despite having the healing pills provided by the Slime Kingdom, being blocked for several consecutive days still made these orcs restless.
So they began urging the Slime Kingdom to head north to the eastern coastal area as soon as possible, liberate the port, and allow the orc fleet to land.
However, they were considerably more polite than before, clearly treating them as real junior allies now.
This time, they truly had no excuse to delay any further.
They couldn't drag it out anymore; if they did, the orcs would become suspicious.
"Little Flower, notify the Restoration Army stationed in the Southern Territory to continue heading north."
"Which way should they go?"
Chen Yu wobbled his gel body. "To the eastern coast. Tell the orcs we are mobilizing troops and will soon go to liberate the port, so they should wait a little longer."
"Say the snow on the road is too thick, heavy equipment is moving slowly, and it will take a few more days. Make up another excuse, say the supply convoy from the Southern Territory is blocked by the blizzard in a valley, and they'll set out as soon as the road is clear."
Little Flower nodded and bounced down from the table.
She bounced two steps, then stopped, turning back to look at Chen Yu.
"Big Brother, what about the Adamantine mine over there?"
Chen Yu didn't speak.
He was still thinking about the Adamantine mine.
Those demons hadn't cared much about the mine before.
The mine was located between the battle lines; whoever came took it. The demons didn't actively mine it, and the orcs didn't have the capacity to spare, so it was just left idle.
According to previous intelligence, the demons only left a few dozen miscellaneous soldiers in the mine, not even a decent commander, purely a symbolic occupation. It was like planting a flag at the entrance saying "this place belongs to me," but they didn't actually care.
But as soon as the slimes sent people over, the demons' reaction changed.
Ambushes, troop reinforcements, fortifying defenses.
This posture didn't look like they were guarding a mine; it looked more like they were guarding something *behind* the mine.
Unless there was something more important than adamantine in the mine, or behind it.
Could it be that the Forge Region hid some unspeakable secret of theirs?
Chen Yu remembered some rumors he had heard before.
It was said that the Forge Region hid secrets that the Sun Church and the White Horse Kingdom desperately tried to conceal, secrets the Sun Bishop guarded closely, not revealing them to the outside world for decades.
Could the demons' real goal actually be the secrets inside?
"Little Flower."
"Hmm?"
"How far is the Adamantine mine from the Forge Region?"
Little Flower tilted her head and thought.
"Very close. The mine is at the foot of the mountain. Cross over the ridge and advance another few dozen kilometers, and you'll reach Eisenburg at the very edge of the Forge Region."
That seemed quite close indeed.
Chen Yu felt it necessary to investigate.
If the demons were up to something big in the Forge Region, it would eventually affect the entire war situation of the White Horse Kingdom, and also affect the Slime Kingdom.
He didn't want to wake up one morning to find a bunch of demons emerging from behind the Royal Capital, burning his swamp to ashes.
He decided to personally investigate the situation in the Forge Region.
Of course, such an infiltration mission couldn't be done without his Shadow Royal Guard.
Chen Yu said, "Little Flower, notify my Shadow Royal Guard. I plan to go and take a look myself with them."
Little Flower wobbled her gel body in a nod.
"I'll go right now."
She bounced out of the throne hall, her round body squeezing through the door crack with a *plop* sound, then disappeared.
Chen Yu squatted alone on the steps, gazing at the sunlight outside the window.
He had a bad feeling.
He couldn't pinpoint what it was, just a sense of unease in his heart.
He thought of last night's dream again.
...
Northern Territory.
Although the blizzard had stopped, light snow continued to fall, covering all traces on this royal land, including those of certain stealthy individuals.
Chen Yu squatted in Nilly's arms, peeking out with half his small body from the edge of the snowy forest, looking into the distance.
A few kilometers away, the outline of the Adamantine mine was blurry in the snowy curtain, but in his Divine Sense, it was crystal clear.
The mine sat at the foot of a mountain, backed by a steep ridge.
Most of the mine's buildings were low, sturdy stone houses, or were directly carved into the mountain. The perimeter wall was newly built; the demons had piled up a wall using waste stone material dug from the mine. The wall wasn't tall, but it was thick.
Inside the wall were the tops of a few watchtowers. The watchtowers were built from logs, standing a bit taller than the wall, with roofs to block the snow.
Shadows moved on the watchtowers, changing shifts every so often; the defense was quite tight.
Chen Yu realized these demons weren't guarding the mine; they were using the mine as a stronghold to block the passage into the mountains.
Nilly squatted behind a black pine tree, pulling Chen Yu closer into her embrace and leaning down.
"Little Majesty, what's the situation inside?"
"These demons are only occupying this place, but they aren't actually mining," Chen Yu said.
Nilly raised an eyebrow.
"Then what are they doing?"
"Guarding something," Chen Yu said. "It seems my guess was right. These demons are desperately trying to conceal the secrets of the Forge Region, not letting anyone get close."
Nilly tilted her head, her gaze shifting from the mine to the distant, snow-covered ridge.
"If it's something that gives even our Little Majesty nightmares, it seems these demons aren't up to any good inside."
A faint rustling sound came from the woods.
Leon walked out from behind a black pine tree. His white cloak was covered in snow, and a layer of frost covered his face.
"Your Majesty, Auntie, I'm back."
Nilly asked, "Did you find anything?"
Leon stood up, shaking the snow off himself.
"North, after crossing the ridge, I saw orc Wolf Cavalry."
"How many?"
Leon: "About two hundred, active at the edge of the Forge Region, harassing the demons."
Nilly's curiosity was piqued.
"Anything else?"
Leon hesitated.
"Those Wolf Cavalry's target doesn't seem to be the mine. They were moving along the ridge, as if looking for a way into the mountains. I followed them for a short while and discovered they had an orc Shaman with them. That Shaman held something like a compass, constantly pointing in a direction."
Another rustling sound came from the woods.
This time it was two people.
Elara and Max walked out from different directions, both wearing white cloaks.
Elara's face was flushed red from the cold, a drop of snot hanging from the tip of her nose. She wiped it with the back of her hand and quickly walked up to Nilly.
"Your Majesty, Auntie."
"West of the mine, there's a road leading to the ridge. It's not very wide, but carts can pass. There are many demons guarding the road, even more than at the mine."
Max followed with a nod, indicating the south side was the same.
Chen Yu pondered, his little brain working rapidly, piecing all the information together, trying to assemble a complete picture.
The demons were guarding something. The orcs were looking for a way into the mountains. The Royal Capital, on the other hand, was being ignored.
Logically, the demons should place their main force at the Royal Capital. The capital was the core of the White Horse Kingdom; capturing it meant controlling the entire kingdom.
But they didn't. They placed their heavy troops in this remote mountainous area, in the Forge Region.
This could only mean one thing.
"The Royal Capital is indeed just a decoy. What they're really defending is the Forge Region."
He looked at Leon.
"You said earlier the orcs are looking for a way into the mountains?"
"That's right."
"It seems the orcs have also figured this out," Chen Yu said. "They are redirecting their army towards the Forge Region. Those Wolf Cavalry are just the vanguard."
Leon looked at Chen Yu.
"Your Majesty, what should we do next?"
Chen Yu poked his head out from Nilly's embrace, looking towards the distant ridge.
Snow was still falling. The ridge's outline flickered in and out of view in the snowy curtain, like a long grey wall stretching across the horizon.
"Of course, we sneak in quietly."
"But be careful of those New Sun followers. They also have shadow powers."
Nilly tucked the gel avatar deeper into her embrace, covering it with her cloak. She stood up and stretched.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty."
She patted her chest. "You have this Assassin Master here. Absolutely no problem."