Late at night.
Nilly crouched behind a thick black pine tree, leaning against the trunk, holding Chen Yu snugly in her arms, covered tightly with her cloak.
Her eyes were closed, her breathing even, appearing as if she were asleep, but her ears kept twitching, capturing every faint sound in the forest.
Leon squatted behind another tree a few steps away, his hands clasped over his knees, his head nodding slightly, as if dozing off or struggling to stay awake.
Elara and Max leaned against the tree trunk beside him, their bodies curled into a ball, their cloaks wrapped around them like silkworm cocoons, only the tips of their noses and their closed eyes exposed.
An unknown amount of time passed before Leon became more alert. He stood up, walked over, and called out softly.
"Auntie."
Nilly didn't respond.
"Auntie." Leon called again, his voice a little louder.
Nilly's eyebrow twitched, but her eyes didn't open.
"What?"
"Didn't you say you'd sleep for a bit first and let me keep watch?"
"You've been asleep for almost four hours now."
"That fast already?"
Nilly opened her eyes, yawned, then wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. She looked down at the Slime in her arms.
The gel avatar was curled up inside her cloak, its round body rising and falling slightly, looking deeply asleep.
Nilly stared at it for a moment, then reached out a finger and poked it.
No reaction.
Poked it again.
Still no reaction.
She let out a breath, pulled the cloak back over it, and looked up at the sky above.
Snow was still falling, the cloud layer thick, with no moon or stars visible. Everything around was pitch black, only a few faint orange-yellow glows of firelight seeping through from the direction of the mine, blurring into hazy halos within the snow curtain.
As an Assassin Master, she keenly sensed the time for infiltration was approaching.
"What time is it?" she asked.
Leon looked up at the sky, then down, thinking.
"Probably the dead of night."
"Nonsense, Auntie obviously knows it's the dead of night," Nilly said, hands on her hips, sounding annoyed. "What about those Demons?"
Leon answered seriously, "Still there. They changed guard twice. The patrol routes haven't changed, and the intervals haven't either. They're very disciplined, changing every half hour."
Disciplined?
Demons?
How rare.
Demons are the epitome of evil and chaos. Since when have they been so disciplined?
It seems there really is a hidden secret inside, just as His Majesty said.
Nilly nodded, stretched her legs out, and moved her ankles, which had gone numb from squatting.
"Has His Majesty woken up?" Elara poked her head out of her cocoon, her nose bright red from the cold. She sniffled, wiped her nose with the back of her hand, her voice muffled.
"Haven't seen any movement."
"Then we'll wait a little longer." Nilly leaned against the tree trunk. "We'll move at the deepest point of the night. That's when people are sleepiest and most relaxed. Even trained assassins have slower reactions in the dead of night, let alone the mixed New Sun followers inside."
Leon nodded and fell silent.
The forest grew quiet again. Snow kept falling, time passed bit by bit, and the darkness grew more intense.
An unknown amount of time later, Chen Yu opened his eyes.
He blinked, then poked his head out from under Nilly's cloak to look around.
"Time's about right."
"I almost thought you'd fallen asleep."
Nilly stood up, stretched her body, and yawned.
Leon stood up from behind the tree, and Elara and the others also woke up.
Nilly turned to face the three of them. The lazy expression from before was gone from her face, replaced by one of focus.
"Ready?" she asked.
The three nodded.
"Good, let's move." Chen Yu raised his gel hand.
Nilly extended her right hand. The indistinct shadows at her feet began to writhe, as if stirred by something from below, slowly contracting from an irregular mass of blackness until they turned into a pitch-black Slime.
"Coal Ball, time to work."
The Slime bounced, its body expanding, engulfing them.
[Shadow Traversal]
First, they felt their bodies sink, as if pulled by an invisible force. The darkness enveloping them faintly revealed scenes rapidly receding.
They passed through the snowy forest, through open ground, through the firelit clearings on the outskirts of the mine, like a school of fish swimming underwater, silent and leaving no trace.
Demons were patrolling inside the mine.
"Three on the left." Chen Yu reminded.
Nilly's direction shifted slightly, skirting past the shadows of the three Demons on the left, continuing forward along the shadow of the wall.
"Two on the right." Chen Yu said again.
Nilly shifted again, leaping over the shadows of the two Demons, landing beneath an overturned mine cart behind the wall.
"One ahead." Chen Yu said.
Nilly stopped.
She crouched in the shadow of the mine cart. A Demon stood ahead, a head taller than the other Demons in the mine, wearing half-plate armor and holding a two-handed sword.
It stood there motionless, as if standing guard.
Nilly waited for a while.
The Demon yawned and turned around.
Nilly emerged from the shadow at its feet, gliding along the ground for several meters, crossing the most dangerous area of the mine in a few seconds, arriving at the base of the northern wall of the mine.
Outside the mine was an expanse of open snowfield, at the end of which lay the steep ridge.
Nilly slipped out through a gap, only now speaking triumphantly.
"So, Little Majesty, have you witnessed the prowess of an Assassin Master?"
Chen Yu's body wobbled, ignoring her.
"Cross this mountain path, there's a camp ahead. Be careful."
"Not even a word of praise."
Nilly grumbled, but obediently strode forward, heading towards the entrance of the path along the base of the ridge.
Leon and the other two followed behind.
It was very dark here, and using Shadow Traversal would actually be less effective. They could only walk up the mountain path, but their feet sank into the snow, making progress slow.
Chen Yu found it troublesome and simply grew a pair of gel wings, carrying them as he flew over. Soon, at a bend in the mountain path, a cluster of firelight appeared ahead.
They crouched down, hiding their bodies behind protruding rocks by the roadside. Nilly peeked half her head out to look ahead.
The firelight came from a camp.
The camp wasn't large, built at the narrowest point of the mountain path. On both sides were rock walls, with less than ten meters of width in the middle, blocked by a low wall built from logs and stones.
Several tents were set up behind the low wall, sewn from black canvas with no markings, but Chen Yu knew who lived inside.
New Sun followers.
Two people stood on top of the low wall, both wearing dark robes and holding staffs.
Their faces were mostly hidden by hoods, their expressions unclear, but one could sense their gazes sweeping back and forth in the darkness, highly vigilant.
In the center of the camp was a light brighter than the torches.
Chen Yu probed with his Divine Sense and discovered it was a Magic Formation, but his knowledge of magic formations was limited.
He could only describe the formation's appearance to Nilly.
Nilly's expression turned strange.
"Could it be these New Sun followers already knew we were coming? They even set up a Zone of Revelation."
This was a magic formation specifically used to detect shadow changes, and it was set up with a high level of skill.
If they had just passed through directly earlier, they would definitely have been discovered.
"Can we go around?" Elara behind them asked quietly via the Gel Network.
Chen Yu used his Divine Sense to scan the path's direction.
Steep rock walls bordered both sides of the path, and there were also New Sun followers keeping watch above. This place was densely packed with magic formations.
"Can't go around." Chen Yu said.
"Should we just charge through and kill them all?" Nilly waved her fist, eager.
"Too risky."
"Then what do we do?"
"Let's go. Now isn't the time to force our way through. If we alert them, it'll be harder to get in later."
"Alright."
So the group retraced their steps along the path they came, retreating back into the snowy forest. Nilly found a hidden spot to crouch down, took Chen Yu out from her embrace, and placed him on a snow-covered rock.
"Your Majesty, what do we do now?"
Chen Yu squatted on the rock, looking at the distant firelight of the mine, thinking for a moment.
"Wait."
"Wait for what?"
"Wait for the Orcs."
Nilly stroked her chin, pondering.
"Your meaning is, wait for the Orcs to attack, and we follow them in?"
Chen Yu wobbled his body.
"Correct. The Orcs are also looking for a way into the mountains, right? They'll attack sooner or later."
"By then, the mine's attention will be drawn away, and the followers on the mountain path will also focus on dealing with the Orcs. That's when we'll slip in, much easier."
Nilly thought about it and found it reasonable.
"How long do we have to wait?"
"Don't know." Chen Yu said. "Could be a few days, could be over ten days. Depends on when the Orcs are ready."
"Alright then." Nilly shrugged.
And so, they waited for over ten days.
The Slime City shipyard construction site had never been this bustling.
Artisans were busy working on the foundation.
Slime Artisans bounced back and forth, moving prefabricated enchanted materials piece by piece from the warehouse at the pit's edge down to the pit bottom, placing them according to positions on the blueprint.
Dwarf artisans crouched beside these materials, holding hammers and chisels, clanging away, filling the gaps at the joints, hammering in reinforcing rivets one by one.
There were also some human artisans installing the internal framework and partitions, assembling pre-fabricated components like magic formation track patterns, signal towers, and such.
The entire worksite resembled a giant ant colony, bustling with busy figures everywhere.
Chen Yu squatted on the railing at the edge of the shipyard, looking down at the increasingly round and massive object at the pit bottom, feeling an indescribable sense of satisfaction.
Adhering to the idea that since he was idle anyway, he might as well help, Chen Yu waved his gel hand. His Divine Sense then lifted logs one by one from the woodpile beside him, steadily lowering them to the pit bottom.
The efficiency was countless times faster than the Slimes moving them one by one.
Seeing this, the Slime Artisans all bounced up, cheering, "The King is mighty!"
Anvil was lying on top of the Floating Fortress, installing a framework beam.
He hung from the beam, his feet braced against the crossbeam below, one hand gripping a bolt, the other holding a wrench, sweating profusely as he tightened it.
Seeing the logs flying down one by one, he straightened his back, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and laughed heartily.
"Hahaha, it still takes Your Majesty. With you here, the work goes much smoother."
Chen Yu squatted at the pit's edge, listening to those soft, sticky cheers, his body wobbling slightly.
Just then, Anvil hammered the last rivet into the framework. He climbed down from the fortress top, descending layer by layer along the scaffolding.
Soon, he came up the stairs and stood before Chen Yu.
Anvil's tone was excited. "Your Majesty, at this pace, we won't need three months. Two months will be enough. Two months from now, you'll see it fly."
"Two months?"
Anvil thumped his chest, making a thumping sound. "Most of the key facilities were completed ahead of time. Now we just need to assemble them. As long as the materials keep up, two months, no, one and a half months, and I can make it fly."
Chen Yu glanced at the busy artisans at the pit bottom, then at the logs being flown down by his Divine Sense.
"Are the materials sufficient?"
Anvil thought for a moment.
"Currently, yes. But later, we still need some special materials shipped from elsewhere. For example, the Mithril alloy ingot used for the energy core stabilizer hasn't been delivered from the south yet."
Just as Chen Yu was about to speak, a message suddenly came back through the Gel Network.
It was from Nilly.
Her voice came from the distant Northern Territory, intermittent but audible.
"Little Majesty... the Orcs have started moving..."
Finally moving.
He snapped back to attention and said to Anvil, "I'll have someone hurry them. You finish what work you can first."
"Right away."
Anvil knew His Majesty was about to get busy again, so he nodded and turned to walk towards the scaffolding.
Chen Yu watched his retreating back, his consciousness quickly drifting northward.
After half a year of tempering, his talent "Split Proliferation," like "Devour Digestion," had reached Lv.8, triggering a qualitative change.
The number of avatars he could split had skyrocketed to sixteen, and he had also gained a special ability: the gel avatar could also split avatars.
That's right. Even if his main body wasn't present, as long as the gel avatar had sufficient nutrients, it could split out the remaining gel avatars.
In other words, as long as one gel avatar went out, it could split into the other fifteen at any time, anywhere, to gang up on enemies.
Even just one gel avatar was no less formidable than any Magical Creature Lord, let alone a whole group. This one Slime was an entire Extraordinary legion.
Punch him once, and he'd wildly split out a bunch of Gold-Rank Slimes. What enemy wouldn't be terrified seeing that?
...
Snowy forest.
Max had gone on sentry duty. Nilly and the other two squatted in the snow, chewing on dry rations.
"I really miss Teacher Tam's cooking," she said, her voice muffled, as if speaking to Leon or muttering to herself. "Teacher Tam's stewed meat, the kind with lots of spices, the meat stewed until tender, falling apart with a touch of chopsticks, melting in your mouth."
"And the baked bread, crispy on the outside when just out of the oven, soft inside, spread with butter. One bite, and your mouth is full of wheat fragrance."
"Even though Teacher Tam can't eat these delicacies himself, he makes them surprisingly delicious."
Leon paused his chewing of dry rations.
"Auntie, please stop."
"Why?"
"I'm about to drool."
"I want to eat too." Elara poked her head out from her cloak. "I also want to drink Tail's mushroom soup. Last time I drank it was a month ago when we happened to return to Gore. Auntie Tail cooked a huge pot, and I drank it all day."
Max, standing watch in the distance, swallowed hard, secretly gulping down saliva.
Clearly also quite tempted.
Of course, excluding the mushroom soup Elara mentioned.
Auntie Tail was a Demi-human from the Demi-human town. Her soup was simply like a lump of thick vomit. He didn't know how Elara could drink it.
Could it really be that delicious?
Just as they were discussing what to eat when they got back, the Slime covered by snow under the tree moved, opened its eyes, and blinked.
"What's the situation now?"
Nilly was startled by his voice, jumping up entirely. Then she realized and let out a sigh of relief, patting her chest with her hand.
"Could you give a warning next time you wake up? Speaking suddenly like that, I thought enemies had attacked. Scared me to death."
"Isn't this me giving a warning?" Chen Yu blinked.
"Seems like it... Wait, no, never mind that for now."
She picked Chen Yu up and placed him on her knee, then began recounting the situation over the past days.
The Orcs had gathered about thirty people, including infantry, Wolf Cavalry, and a Shaman group. They had set up camp in the open area north of the mine and now showed signs of preparing to attack the mine.
"And these Orcs aren't stupid either. They secretly sent several Wolf Cavalry units to go around from other places."
"Not many in number, about twenty to thirty per team, but very fast, taking routes where Demon defenses were weak. Probably planning to infiltrate from the side, and when the main force attacks, stab the Demons in the back."
Chen Yu squatted on Nilly's knee, thinking.
"Let's follow the Wolf Cavalry in."
Nilly tilted her head.
"Follow the Wolf Cavalry?"
"Mhm. With the Orcs attracting firepower from the front, the Demons' attention will be drawn away. Even if some Demons discover the Wolf Cavalry, we can secretly help deal with them easily."
"By the time they react, we'll already be over the ridge. Hehe."
After listening, Nilly gave a thumbs up.
"As expected of our cunning and deceitful Majesty."
"Is that praising me or insulting me?" Chen Yu was somewhat speechless.
"Of course praising you." Nilly said, her tone so sincere it didn't sound like a joke. "Smart people know how to leverage strength. Hehe... You're the type who hides behind a tree watching two Moss Monsters fight, then comes out to pick up the spoils after they're both exhausted. Not a person, but a Slime."
"Alright, chit-chat time is over."
Chen Yu glanced at her, hopped down from her knee, landed on the snow, bounced twice, and walked to the center.
"Now, operation begins."