The coronation ceremony came to an end amidst cheers.
In truth, the king's enthronement didn't cause any earth-shattering commotion. Chen Yu was still crouched on the high platform, but the feeling he gave off was indeed different—as if his gel had become more translucent.
Now, he was more dignified.
After the coronation ceremony ended, the gathered crowd was still reluctant to disperse.
The slimes were the first to start celebrating, hopping all over the square. Then the dwarves brought out barrels of ale, the hunters of the Lizardfolk tribe set up roasting racks with their spears, and human peddlers pushed carts, hawking Winterhold's candies and the Merchant Alliance's shell accessories.
As night fell, the residents of Slime City held a grand celebration on the square.
Magic Crystal Lamps lit up the square, illuminating the entire central street. Each lamppost was wrapped with colorful ribbons that swayed gently in the night breeze.
People from all over sang and danced. Dwarves beat drums, and young Lizardfolk maidens formed a circle, performing the rain dance from the swamp. Ankles tied with bells strung from colorful stones made crisp sounds with every step they took.
Even the most reserved elves joined the dance. A Forest Sage was pulled into the center of the crowd by a dwarf artisan's hand, her startled expression clearly visible in the firelight, drawing hearty laughter from everyone around.
The younger slimes got along best with the children—not only because their sizes were more compatible, but also because these slimes loved the children's innocence. A person and a slime could play jump rope together and have an absolute blast.
Nilly pulled Little Aileen along, weaving excitedly through the crowd and banners. The two, one tall and one short, darted through the gaps between dancing people, faces flushed with uncontainable excitement.
"Sister Nilly, there's grilled meat over there."
"Where, where!"
Anvil chased after them, afraid she might bump into something, shouting for her to slow down and not crash into the roasting rack.
Near the bonfire, Sekashi and her sister sat together with their kin. The warmth of the fire dispelled the chill, making them feel cozy.
Sekashi leaned against her sister's shoulder, her tail tip gently swaying, savoring this moment of peace.
Everyone was enjoying themselves.
Including Chen Yu.
He was in a pretty good mood too.
The new crown sat perfectly on his head—neither too big nor too small, neither heavy nor light—as if it had always belonged there. He could feel a new power slowly flowing deep within his gel.
Reputation Title: Slime Emperor
Acquisition Conditions: A Gold-Rank slime must conquer at least one race, unify a vast territory, establish a state religion, set down laws... and be crowned emperor with a crown in the presence of its people.
Title Effects:
Note: When a humble ooze gains order and territory, it is no longer a low-level magical creature to be trampled upon. It is a moving dynasty. Every squirm of the Slime Emperor is the ultimate contempt for the word "racial limits."
"Epic Creature" and "Rank Suppression" were both basic effects befitting a Legendary-tier being, quite similar to his Gold-Rank title "Slime Hero."
But "Territory Resonance," "Authority Blessing," and "Royal Treasury"—those three effects should be unique to this title.
Territory Resonance was simple enough, only increasing life recovery speed within the territory—nothing special. But Authority Blessing was entirely different.
The Gold Trial was the threshold that Extraordinary creatures had to cross to advance to Gold-Rank. Authority Blessing, however, could increase the chance of slimes passing the Gold Trial. This title effect was incredibly powerful.
A battle group of Extraordinary-level slimes might truly be on its way.
As for Royal Treasury, it was more practical. It opened an independent gel demiplane inside his gel belly, which could store even more things.
If he wanted, he could even stuff an entire Giant Dragon into his belly, wrapped in gel for preservation.
And it even came with an unexpected preservation effect—any food placed inside would rot extremely slowly, like a natural magical cold storage.
This was practically a godsend for food lovers.
Ahem... Of course, the demiplane's uses went far beyond storing snacks. He could fill his belly with life potions and give his enemies a little HP bar shock.
Or fill it with Gray Gravel Crystals, charging up as he fought, giving him practically endless Mana.
And this level transformation also brought him a brand-new talent.
[Gel Projection]
This talent's effect was very special.
Upon activating the talent, he could magnify the gel demiplane in his belly manifold and project it outward, enveloping the entire battlefield.
As long as slimes were within the range of the gel demiplane projection, all their attributes would be significantly enhanced, and their talent skill levels could be temporarily raised by one to two ranks.
But this wasn't the most astonishing part.
The most overpowering effect of Gel Projection was that it could link all slimes within the range with the gel demiplane as a single entity for life sharing.
In other words, even if an ordinary Silver Slime had only five thousand Health Points, linking a hundred of them together would give them five hundred thousand HP.
Then a full regiment of Slime Knights could share five million HP with him.
And now that he had advanced to Epic Creature, his total HP was a mere "measly" one million—that alone was fifty percent of his health.
After sharing, a total of fifteen million HP—even a Legendary Giant Dragon couldn't compare, right?
And the nature of life sharing meant that as long as the total HP wasn't depleted, none of the linked slimes could die.
Of course, every talent had its weaknesses.
The dispersal of individuals also meant that if a spellcaster dropped a large-area skill on them, all the slimes would take damage simultaneously. In that case, life sharing became a disadvantage.
Furthermore, the Slime Knights didn't share his magic resistance or physical resistance. The damage they took would almost count as true damage to him.
So the most reasonable tactic, of course, was to swallow all the slimes into the gel demiplane before battle began.
The inside of the demiplane was an independent, miniature space. Area attacks from the outside world would have difficulty penetrating the demiplane to harm the slimes inside.
He could release them when he needed them to strike, instantly forming battlefield suppression.
And given the current size of the gel demiplane, it could easily accommodate two full regiments of Slime Knights.
He felt terrifyingly strong now.
If only he could find Casaric's exact location, he'd want to challenge that Legendary demon to another one-on-one fight.
And based on his past experience, this Gel Projection was clearly a puzzle talent. Leveling it up and gathering the subsequent talents might unleash even more miraculous effects.
Chen Yu jiggled his gel, his mood bubbling with joy.
...
Astral Plane, Dawnbreak Harbor.
Far away from the Material Plane and the Elemental Planes, in this astral void, all directions were filled with an endless, vast silver light.
The pale silver void stretched infinitely in all directions. Occasionally, one or two twinkling stars flickered in the far distance, like someone scattering crushed diamonds on a silver ribbon.
Dawnbreak Harbor floated in this silver void.
Though called a harbor, it was actually a piece of fossil that had been magically carved. Perhaps long ago, it belonged to the skull of some Epic Creature, but now it had been completely petrified.
Mages had smoothed the fossil's surface with stone-shaping magic, then built berths, warehouses, and several stone houses made from astral stone upon it. In front of the buildings was a row of mooring posts, each carved into the shape of a bird lifting its head toward the void.
A magic ship was slowly docking.
The ship's hull was carved from the trunk of an ancient tree. Three silver sails were embedded on each side of the hull. The sails gently billowed and contracted in the astral tides, like the gills of some gigantic creature.
The ship was piloted by an old man.
His age was difficult to determine from appearance alone. His hair and beard were entirely white. He wore a deep blue mage robe, with a badge made of three concentric circles embroidered on the chest—the symbol of the Exploration Assembly.
The magic ship docked. The silver sails automatically furled. The magic formations hummed for a final moment before extinguishing completely. The magic lantern hanging from the mast still swayed, its light within the lamp looking especially lonely against the astral silver.
The old man, leaning on his staff, stepped off the magic ship onto the harbor floor.
Someone was already waiting for him at the harbor.
This mage was younger than the one on the ship. He also wore a deep blue robe, with a silver badge of concentric circles pinned to his collar.
He spread his arms, a warm smile of reunion on his face.
"Agrel, welcome back. Thank goodness you weren't torn apart by the unknown monsters hiding in there."
He stepped forward and gave the old mage a firm hug, brushing some astral dust off the other's robe. Then he stepped back half a pace, studying the old mage's expression.
"So, how is it? What's the situation in the exploration zone? Is there anything worth reporting from the other side of the fissure?"
The old mage, Agrel, shook his head, pushing his hood back to reveal graying hair and a wrinkled face.
He planted his staff on the ground and looked up at the endless silver void, his voice hoarse and tired.
"The situation is worse than I expected."
"Esteban, without the ancient knowledge those elves possess, no one can survey where those colorful fissures lead. Behind every fissure could be an unknown plane, or just a void fault with nothing in it."
"We squatted outside the third fissure for two full months and still had no way to approach it."
He sighed, pulling his gaze back to his old friend.
"And the astral winds have been unstable lately. You know, there's no concept of air here, but the mana currents deeper in have been more turbulent than in previous years."
"This has led some astral beings to stray nearby. Among them were giant construct spiders that usually inhabit the deeper zones. They crossed the void faults, entered the vicinity of the exploration zone, and directly attacked Shallow Sleep Harbor."
"The Legendary mage guarding there had his soul devoured by those spiders. Most of the harbor was destroyed, covered in damned webs everywhere."
His voice grew heavy.
"The path of exploration is not smooth sailing. It's much harder than we imagined when we first left the Material Plane. I hope no one in the Council opposes the Exploration Act because of this. Those opponents always use these incidents as talking points, making a fuss in meetings for months every time something happens. It's a real headache."
The blue-robed mage named Esteban shrugged, stepping aside to make way toward the harbor master's office, steering the conversation away from the Exploration Act.
"Speaking of which, things haven't been quiet on the Prime Material Plane while you've been away for over a year." Esteban seemed to remember something.
"Oh?" Agrel raised an eyebrow. "What major events happened?"
He assumed a posture of serious listening.
He had been in the Astral Plane for over a year, and during that time, communication with the Material Plane had relied mostly on extremely unstable astral beacons. News had been intermittent, and for the last few months, it had been completely cut off. He needed to catch up on the gap of the past year.
Esteban began to speak.
"You came back at just the right time. There's an arrogant demon in the north trying to pass the Trial of Kingship to gain the plane's recognition. And guess what? Surprisingly, he actually succeeded."
"What was that demon's name again... I think it was Casaric. I heard he conquered the White Horse Kingdom, and the White Horse Royal Capital is already in his hands. If no one stops him soon, once he swallows up the scattered territories in the north, he'll unify the entire northern region."
Agrel was silent for a long while.
"And what about the Council?"
"You know me, I have to guard Dawnbreak Harbor; I can't leave for a single step. The different factions of mages in the Council consider it harmonious enough if they're not bickering with each other. Besides, they're all busy with their own affairs. Some are even occupied attacking their opponents for grammatical errors during the debates on the Exploration Act. Finding someone who can spare the time to run to the north isn't easy."
"And those opponents—you know what? At the last regular meeting, they actually proposed cutting the exploration budget to subsidize the demon disaster defense line in the southwest, saying astral exploration is like throwing money into the void."
"Absolutely insane. How can they be so short-sighted?"
Agrel let out a very long sigh.
"I guess I'm just unlucky. I joined your Exploration Assembly, drifted in the void for over a year, and finally come back—without even time to drink a bowl of hot soup."
He took off his gloves and stuffed them into his robe pocket, then, leaning on his staff, walked toward the harbor's teleportation gate.
"Then I'll make a trip to the north. I hope it's not too late."