The owl spread its wings and soared over the last ridge, and Agrel’s view ahead opened up completely.
It was a vast inland sea, its surface as calm as a mirror forgotten among the mountains, reflecting the pale blue of the sky and the white towers of the city along the shore.
Dawn City.
This city’s name appeared in the annals of the southern kingdoms more frequently than any royal capital. It wasn’t the capital of any kingdom, nor was it ruled by a king or nobles. It was an independent city-state built, governed, and maintained by mages for generations.
The entire city sprawled along the arc-shaped coastline of the inland sea. White stone walls rose layer by layer from the shore inland, like a ring of meticulously carved waves frozen in stone. Streets arranged in precise geometric patterns radiated outward in six directions from the square at the coast, with a towering spire at the end of each avenue.
These were mage towers, and various academies were scattered among the clusters of towers. Most mages living in this city were either instructors or students, earning Dawn City the well-deserved title of the City of Knowledge.
Finally back…
It was only at this moment that the wrinkles on Agrel’s face gradually softened.
The owl flew low over the city. From the air, he could see apprentices from different schools bustling through the streets. Lining both sides were rows of magic shops, their door signs adorned with simple sketches of staves, crystal balls, rune scrolls, and rare spellcasting materials.
At the very center of the city stood a floating island, the base of its rock face covered in vines and moss. Looking up, one could faintly see the white ring-shaped buildings and towers above. This was the seat of the Dawn Council, and also his destination.
Agrel was right about one thing—compared to this place, the cities of the north were pitifully desolate, still struggling for survival. Such a great city of magic could never have been born there.
This oldest city in the Dawnlands gathered nearly all talented mages from the southern kingdoms. Its history was older than the White Horse Kingdom in the north, even comparable to the birth of some ancient empires.
While the north was still fighting over thrones with swords and shields, the Dawn mages were already researching how to extract mana from the Astral Realm, studying various ancient forbidden knowledge…
This was the holy land of magic.
The heritage of every mage tower in the southern kingdoms could be traced back to some academy in Dawn City. Every spellcaster worthy of the title “Archmage” had spent at least a few years studying here. Half of the magical civilization across the Material Plane had spread from this city by the inland sea, and the other half was closely tied to it.
Agrel rode the owl upward.
The southern air rushed to meet him, far warmer and more humid than the north, bringing him comfort. The familiar bustle made him feel like he was home.
But even though he had left the Dark Realm a day ago, his mind was still full of those bouncing slimes.
The owl flew down toward the floating island.
Below the square was an area specifically set aside for landing mounts, paved with light gray stone slabs, with a row of padded tethering posts at the edge.
“Sage, welcome back.”
Several knight attendants were grooming the feathers under the wings of a griffin that had just flown in from somewhere. When they saw Agrel’s Shadow Owl landing, they immediately put down their work and hurried over.
Agrel untied the owl’s reins from the saddle and led it to a trough by the tethering post.
A few conjuration school mages had just emerged from the corridor. When they saw Agrel dismounting from the owl’s back, they paused in surprise, then bright smiles spread across their faces as they hurried over.
“Master Agrel! Long time no see!”
“Master, why the sudden return? Is everything done in the expedition?”
“How did your robe get so dusty?”
Agrel took off his mage hat and nodded to these students who had once attended his lectures, a gesture of acknowledgment. Then, leaning on his staff, he walked through them and headed toward the central tower of the ring-shaped building.
The mages left behind stood at the edge of the square, exchanging glances. A young female mage hugged her teaching notes tighter, watching Agrel’s retreating figure as she quietly asked the person next to her.
“What happened to make the master so urgent?”
The male mage next to her shook his head.
Agrel took a step forward, and the surrounding environment instantly shifted. He blinked into the central library of the floating island.
Looking up from the painted solid wood floor, bookshelves extended upward from the ground within the tower’s dome, layer upon layer, piling up into the depths of the dome, where the eye could no longer reach, and still there was no end.
All the bookshelves were arranged flush against the tower walls, forming spiraling corridors that rose in rings. Mages in robes of various colors stood on each corridor, some copying texts, some flipping through pages, some using levitation to spread several heavy ancient tomes open in midair for cross-referencing.
In the center of the hall stood a massive support pillar, its diameter large enough to fit an entire classroom inside. The pillar’s surface was densely covered in runes from top to bottom, and a ring of stone reading tables surrounded its base, currently filled with apprentices and old scholars buried in their studies, piles of documents of varying heights stacked on the tables.
Agrel’s staff struck the stone floor of the library, and the sound rippled through the quiet hall like a stone thrown into a deep pond.
All the mages looked up toward the source of the sound.
Agrel raised his voice. “Beorn, get out here. Is this how you collect intelligence?”
Agrel’s voice echoed beneath the dome, but no one answered. Everyone’s gaze turned in the same direction, looking toward the highest and farthest point among the spiral corridors of bookshelves.
From deep within that vast sea of books, the books themselves formed steps, supporting a figure draped in a robe as it slowly descended.
It was a beast wearing a robe.
Its entire body was covered in thick, gray-white fur. Its head bore horns that spiraled like a ram’s, and a thin beard hung from its chin. The robe had been specially modified, with extra shoulder width and sleeve ties, to fit the physique of this non-human body.
The Beast Mage, Beorn Darian Clayton, a divination school mage. A certain accidental experiment had left him in his current form, but it had also granted him an undecaying, robust physique.
Agrel called his name.
“Beorn.”
Beorn’s tall figure descended, stopping in front of Agrel, his amber horizontal pupils calmly watching him.
“Agrel, it’s not like your Exploration Assembly mages are new to causing trouble. Do I need to dig up the records of how many times you’ve lodged complaints with the council over the years for you to see for yourself?”
“But this is the Central Library, a place that needs quiet. You’ve crossed the line.”
He waved a claw, signaling the mages still standing to sit back down and continue reading. Then he turned back, his beastly eyes scanning Agrel from head to toe.
Before Agrel could speak, several young mages who had been reading in the study area quickly walked over. An apprentice even carried a cup of steaming water and handed it to Agrel, trying to ease the tense atmosphere.
One of the female mages cautiously spoke up. “Master Agrel, you just flew in from outside. It’s been a long journey. Have some water first.”
“Thank you.”
Agrel gently pushed the water cup away with the handle of his staff, his gaze fixed on Beorn.
“A Demon Emperor has appeared in the north. He’s already taken the White Horse Royal Capital and half the Northern Territory. Did you send back that report?”
The Beast Mage’s ears twitched. He didn’t deny it.
“What are you trying to say?”
“Do you know about a slime kingdom in the north?”
“Of course I do. A new kingdom born from the swamp, occupying the Dark Realm. It has reached trade agreements with several southern kingdoms, and some Adventurers’ Guilds are already recording the activities of slime adventurers. I manage the largest library in this city. I wouldn’t overlook such daily affairs.”
Agrel nodded.
“Good. But unfortunately, starting today, you need to officially change the name of this kingdom.”
He paused. “Now, it’s more accurate to call it the Slime United Empire.”
The Slime United Empire.
The moment these words were spoken, they caught everyone’s attention. The mages around them stopped flipping pages and looked at him. Someone quietly repeated the term, still unclear about the connection between slimes and an empire.
Beorn’s amber pupils contracted slightly, a look of disbelief.
Agrel continued. “What happened in the north is completely different from your assumptions.”
“The Demon Emperor did invade the north, and the White Horse Royal Capital did fall once. But he didn’t achieve victory.”
“His demon legion was blocked head-on by a legion of magical creatures led by a slime. They were routed twice, and ultimately, in the Golden Radiance Valley, the Slime Emperor personally killed him.”
“I witnessed the entire process.”
The Slime Emperor… This term was even harder to accept than the empire’s name.
Beorn knew Agrel’s character well. This old friend wouldn’t lie about something like this.
After a moment of silence, he lightly tapped a hoof on the stone floor, and a teleportation portal silently opened in front of them.
“Come in. We’ll talk slowly.” He stepped back, clearing the way.
Agrel followed him inside, and the portal closed behind them. Only after they had each sat down at a stone table did he speak again.
“Since those slime adventurers have shown up in the south, you should know that these magical creatures lean more toward order.”
“And that’s exactly what makes it hard for me to decide. Perhaps this magical creature empire isn’t as bad as we think. An empire that can accommodate humans and dwarves as citizens is fundamentally different from those demons in the Abyss that only know how to burn, kill, and devour.”
Beorn rested his chin on his claw. The gesture looked somewhat comical on a beast, but his tone was serious.
“But you should know the council isn’t entirely made up of your comrades and my friends. Regardless of how we should treat the Slime United Empire, that’s not something the two of us can decide sitting here. Leave it to the council for review, and there will be results.”
“Your experiences in the north are important, Agrel.”
“They will want to hear every detail. But you also need to understand that some council members, due to history, upbringing, or other less objective factors, harbor an instinctive wariness toward any form of magical creature.”
“Whether you support or oppose, when they hear that an empire ruled by slimes has emerged in the north, their first reaction won’t be the facts you saw with your own eyes. They’ll see it as a new scale of monster calamity.”
Support or oppose.
In Agrel’s mind flashed the harmonious scene from the Dark Realm camp, where slimes and human adventurers were roasting food together by the bonfire.
He couldn’t erase his own bias.
He had lived for two hundred years. From the time he was an apprentice, he had read the definition of “magical creatures” in textbooks, read about “the insurmountable boundary between magical creatures and humanoid beings,” read about “the distinction between orderly and chaotic races.” These words were etched into his mind. A day or two of experience wouldn’t wash them clean.
But he couldn’t deny what he had seen with his own eyes either.
“I will write down everything I saw in my report. Every detail, every conversation, every fact I personally confirmed. Absolutely impartial.”
As for the outcome, like Beorn said, it would all be left to the council’s judgment.
But the headache was that when mages from different schools sat together, even arguing would last for days, even months. It seemed he had to prepare to sleep in the council chambers.
…
The Dawn Council’s reaction would take time, but the Slime United Empire didn’t need to wait for anyone’s conclusion.
In the first few weeks following the Battle of Golden Radiance Valley, the mop-up of remaining demon forces was coordinated by Galvin. The magical creature legion was split into three routes, conducting a net-like search from the Dark Realm westward, northward, and eastward.
The purge operation lasted twenty-one days, recording the annihilation of nearly ten thousand demons and the imprisonment of a few surviving captives. Organized demon resistance within the northern territory was now completely over.
The empire had entered a period of genuine rapid development.
The end of the demon war meant two things.
First was safety. The trade routes northward and eastward no longer needed armed escorts. Along the road from Slime City to the White Horse Royal Capital, caravan campfires were reappearing.
Second was land. The Golden Tassel Plain, the mines along the Northern Corridor, the salt fields and fishing ports on the eastern coast—all territories frozen by the war for an entire year were now back in a developable state.
But these new borders also brought new pressure.
Although the north was unified, the empire’s territory had grown too vast. From the Dark Realm in the south to the outposts of the Northern Ice Plains, even a fast horse would take a full half-month to travel. Not to mention the distance from the west side of the Dark Realm to the eastern coast—longer than the straight-line distance between any four or five southern kingdoms.
With such a vast territory, the current military forces were no longer sufficient to respond quickly to all border anomalies. Not to mention that the attitude of the Dawn Council and the southern kingdoms was still unclear. No one could predict where their relationship with the empire would head.
But Chen Yu was well aware that when a brand-new magical creature empire appeared in the north of the continent, the monarchs and councils entrenched in the prosperous southern city-states wouldn’t remain indifferent forever.
To that end, Chen Yu personally signed a plan and submitted a new batch of orders to the Imperial Armaments Department.
The Armaments Department was a newly established postwar institution, its predecessor being Anvil’s forging workshop in the Obsidian Mining Area and the construction command of the Sky Oath. The position of minister fell indisputably to Anvil.
The document formally approved the construction plans for two floating fortresses.
An estimated investment of over two million gold coins. Of the raw ore produced by the empire’s more than a hundred operational mines, about forty percent would be transported to the shipyard site deep in the swamp.
The temporary codenames for these two floating fortresses were “Storm” and “White Horse,” in commemoration of the two crucial battles that founded the empire.
At the same time, the academy responded to the plan for training floating fortress crews.
Under the original Arcane Arts major at Slime City Academy, a new secondary major was added—Fortress Command and Rune Array Operations—with sixty spots opened in the first enrollment.
The upgrade of the legion’s equipment was also progressing simultaneously.
Both the Magical Creature Legion and the Restoration Army, renamed the White Horse Army, would receive a new batch of highly recognizable standardized enchanted equipment to replace the old gear damaged in the war.
Additionally, Galvin dispatched a knight legion southward to rebuild the Border Corps at the southeast border of the Merchant Alliance, adjacent to the southern kingdoms.
The remnants of the former Border Corps, soldiers from the Merchant Alliance who voluntarily joined the imperial army, and refugees who had lost their homes but still had combat capabilities were all incorporated into this new force. The Knight Training Camp, after a year’s hiatus, would reopen to absorb fresh blood.
At the same time, the empire initiated the construction of a new fortress on the border between the Merchant Alliance and the south. The site was chosen on a natural highland called Stone Hoof Hills. The fortress’s design plans were drafted by a team of dwarf artisans, with the main construction workforce consisting of slime artisans, golems provided by the Merchant Alliance, and Earth Elemental Giants transferred from the Dark Realm.
Once completed, this fortress would become the empire’s final barrier against the southern kingdoms and the most convenient land route for southern envoys or caravans heading north.
The Extraordinary Warhost cultivation plan was put on the agenda at the same time.
If the floating fortress was the war’s game-changer, then the Extraordinary Warhost was the empire’s backbone in warfare, an indispensable cornerstone. A legion composed entirely of Extraordinary professionals could elevate the empire’s war power to another level entirely.
Chen Yu personally approved the cultivation plans for the Treant Warhost and the Slime Warhost.
Treants and slimes were currently the races in the United Empire most capable of achieving collective Extraordinary status, so they were placed at the forefront of the plan.
The growth of treants depended on the procurement of Ancient Resin.
Although Ancient Resin was rare, it could be bought with gold coins. As long as the Treant Warhost was fed enough of it, there would always be Arcane Ancient Trees that could be promoted to Gold-Rank.
Promoting slimes to Gold-Rank was even simpler. Any slime that reached Silver-Rank could receive a personal blessing from Chen Yu, increasing their chances of promotion to Gold-Rank. As long as enough slimes tried, an Extraordinary warhost could eventually be assembled.
On the night after all matters were arranged, Chen Yu squatted on the small throne in the royal palace and fell into a deep sleep.
No one knew that at this moment, his consciousness quietly slipped away from the throne, drifted past the Magic Crystal Lamps of Slime City, and floated toward a distance far beyond the horizon of the Material Plane.