Inside the moss-covered and vine-entangled church, one old wall had long since collapsed, with broken tiles everywhere and decayed wood blackened by swamp water soaking the ground.
A vibrant green Slime lay slumped beside a slightly drier pile of broken tiles in the church, resting with closed eyes, its body undulating with the fluctuations of Mana.
Beside it, blinking with alert eyes, was his loyal crocodile guard, baring small teeth that looked quite fierce.
It seemed that if any enemy approached, it would unleash its powerful death roll ultimate technique.
An unknown amount of time passed, and only when the last wisp of Gray Mist Mana was slurped up cleanly did the Slime slowly open its round, bead-like eyes.
【Toxin Resistance Lv.4 → Toxin Resistance Lv.5】
【Devour Digestion Lv.4 → Devour Digestion Lv.5】
【Split Proliferation Lv.1 → Split Proliferation Lv.2】
Chen Yu's body moved and bubbled, with Hallucinogenic Factor landing on Little Ka's head, making it sneeze and instantly become alert.
"Little Ka, you're a crocodile, not a dog."
Chen Yu's body bounced back, squeezing out some gel that fell to the ground, transforming into a small Slime that grew eyes and blinked.
This was his second split entity, inheriting 6% of the main body's attributes—slightly stronger, but only slightly.
It was also equipped with the "Life Drain" talent.
The small Slime didn't need talents with high damage output, since no matter how high the damage, it might not surpass one shot from his Little Arrow Technique.
Skills stem from knowledge and experience;
even a small Slime could unleash astonishingly powerful Dao arts as long as its mana bar was long enough.
Naturally, it was best to choose talents related to defense and sustainability.
Life Drain not only improved sustainability but also secreted life liquid to heal teammates—calling it a "jack of all trades" wasn't an exaggeration.
In the warrior-mage-priest trio, what's scarce isn't damage, but healing.
The value of a healer goes without saying.
Xu Xuan Heaven.
Inside the thatched hut, Chen Yu pressed his palm, and two blobs of Slime gel dropped from the magical patterns on his palm, transforming into two small Slime figures that could run and jump.
These two small Slime figures were both equipped with the "Life Drain" talent.
They only needed a large piece of beast meat prepared in the room, and the small Slime figures would huff and puff as they ran to lie on the lean meat, striking a lazy "spread-eagle" pose to absorb life energy.
After absorbing their fill, they would jump onto the table, huffing and puffing as they held jade bottles and spat out life liquid, filling rows of jade bottles.
As long as there was sufficient beast meat, these two small Slime figures could work non-stop twenty-four hours a day, with efficiency comparable to an assembly line.
Filling eight bottles of life liquid in a day wasn't a problem.
Even if the healing effect was slightly worse than elixirs, at wholesale prices they could still sell for twenty-four spirit stones, covering his daily expenses of eating elixirs like meals and practicing talisman drawing, with three or four coins left over.
The key point was that it freed up his hands, allowing him to spend more time exploring and practicing skills.
Although "Split Proliferation" couldn't shake the position of the top talent "Devour Digestion," just by standing there, even the jack-of-all-trades "Life Drain" had to step aside.
Truly worthy of being a racial talent.
Also quite a heavyweight contender.
Chen Yu's consciousness returned to the dark church, and he gave instructions to the small Slime.
"You, from now on, are the Civil Engineering Slime, go back and develop the territory."
The small Slime nodded dutifully and seriously, hopping back toward the territory direction, gradually swallowed by darkness until it disappeared from sight.
His relationship with the small Slime was roughly equivalent to that between the Queen Wasp and Wasp Soldiers in a hive mind.
The small Slime was part of his consciousness, but after leaving him, it had some thinking ability and autonomy, so he didn't need to monitor it constantly.
To force a comparison, it was like plucking a cluster of neurons from its transparent brain—a small brain?
It existed independently, yet remained connected to him within a certain range.
Beside him, Little Ka stared at the departing small Slime, its mind somewhat confused.
The King is here... so what is that Slime that fell from the King?
Little King?
Its simple brain couldn't process this, feeling dizzy and confused.
"Little Ka, let's go."
"...Yes... King..."
Never mind, the big one is definitely the King.
Little Ka lowered its body, carrying Chen Yu as they wandered around the abandoned village a few times.
He didn't expect to find anything valuable in a village that had been abandoned for years and ravaged by Magical Creatures.
And indeed, the village was pretty much as he thought.
There were certainly no treasures;
he only found two pieces of soaked parchment written with special ink, where some writing was barely visible.
As for books? In such a damp environment, they simply couldn't be preserved.
Occasionally finding one, when opened, the writing inside was completely blurred into ink blots, stuck together with the paper, utterly worthless.
He put down the two pieces of parchment.
"Let me, the scholar Slime, see what's actually recorded in here."
Chen Yu went "squish squish" as he flattened the two pieces of parchment, confidently looking down at them.
But soon after, he looked up bewildered.
What the heck is written here? He didn't recognize a single word.
There were just too many language varieties in Zeyarila.
It gave him the disappointing feeling of opening a box expecting delicious Beetles, only to find swamp mosquitoes that smelled like dirty socks.
Chen Yu was indignant.
"I hate linguistics."
In the future, the Magical Creature Kingdom he establishes will only allow one language—everyone must speak the Common Tongue.
Otherwise, they'll be exiled to coal mines to dig, or to snowy mountains to plant potatoes.
Since he couldn't understand it, he could only swallow these two possibly valuable pieces of parchment into his stomach, mount Little Ka, and continue exploring the other side of the swamp.
To determine the size of his territory as soon as possible, this time he resisted the temptation of delicious Magical Creatures along the way, focusing solely on traveling.
He hoped to reach the border of his territory before the heavy rain arrived.
As for after the heavy rain, if he didn't want to be blown away by the wind, it would be better to stay obediently in the castle.
After leaving the village ruins, the forest lighting actually gradually improved, shifting from pure darkness to just somewhat dim.
This proved that he and Little Ka were indeed leaving the swamp center.
The poison mist here had also thinned considerably, allowing them to see many Magical Creatures competing for Mana, including some he had never seen before, only recorded in Adventurers' handbooks.
Like the dangerous Strangler Water Banyan.
It looked like a harmless banyan tree, but in reality, whenever prey approached, its hanging roots would writhe like snakes, entangling Magical Creatures and dragging them into its hollow tree cavity for digestion.
This thing would be nice to transplant and plant around the castle, but it had no brains, was disobedient, and might secretly swallow Little Ka one day.
Dozens of Strangler Water Banyans were scattered around the swamp edge, roots connected to roots, leaves intertwined.
It seemed like there were many trees, but Chen Yu always felt they all grew from the root system of one water banyan.
This water banyan forest was a single entity.
"This thing is both disgusting and dangerous, better to keep our distance."
Chen Yu wisely rode Little Ka in a wide detour, advancing toward the border direction for a long time until dusk, when he saw what seemed like shimmering reflections of a lake surface on the trees ahead.
"Is this the swamp border?"
The moment he realized this, his panel popped up, as if the long-inactive Reputation Title had changed.
Huh?
Why is it glowing with golden light?