Slime Immortal.

Chapter 149 Rune Oak Guardian Concept
"A dragon?!" Old Bloom was so shocked by these words that his jawbone almost fell off.

The others also wore solemn expressions, quickly taking out their bows and staffs, preparing for battle.

Iselin raised her staff and quickly whispered, "Mr. Arthur, you never said that a dragon would come to greet us."

Arthur stared blankly at the black dot in the sky, his soul fire showing a hesitant pause. "That looks like His Majesty."

At that moment, the sharp-eyed elf ranger suddenly let out a soft exclamation.

"No, that dragon wasn't far away. It was just rather small, which is why it looked like it flew in from afar."

"So, it's just a young dragon?" Iselin asked.

"It looks even smaller than a baby dragon, and there's... a clump of slime on its back?"

While everyone remained vigilant, the young dragon in the air suddenly swooped down, its limbs flailing as it tried to land. After gliding for a distance, it landed right in front of them.

"Stop!" Iserline whispered, the tip of her staff glowing faintly, as if she would unleash a spell if the young dragon took another step forward.

"..."

Little Ka blinked and met the wary eyes of the crowd. He quickly withdrew his hands and feet, sat up straight, as if to say, "I am not an evil dragon," and then obediently lay down.

"Paji."

A green slime jumped off the dragon's back with a crisp sound, pulling the astonished crowd back to reality.

Iseline paused for a moment before coming to her senses, placing her hand on her chest in an elven gesture of respect.

“Iseline of the Treant Realm greets Lord Slime.”

Chen Yu secreted a ball of slime, which jumped into her palm and emitted a thought.

"Welcome to the Slime Kingdom."

"Thank you for coming out to greet me personally," Iselin said, bowing her head.

As the two were exchanging pleasantries, whispers broke out behind them.

“Fennen, have you ever seen a dragon like this? It’s so small.”

"It should be some kind of sub-dragon."

"Yalong?"

The elves were somewhat surprised to learn that the king of the Slime Kingdom owned a dragon mount.

Because the dragon bloodline in their bodies is extremely thin, most of the dragons retain strong bestial instincts and are often very violent, more like wild beasts with dragon characteristics.

In the languages ​​of some demi-human tribes or other groups, they are even directly called "dragon beasts"—meaning savage creatures that have the appearance of dragons but have no intelligence whatsoever.

Because of this ferocious nature, humans are often more wary of attacks from sub-dragons than from pure-blooded dragons.

True dragons are not only rare, but also exist in a lawful good alignment. They will not harm people unprovoked; some are even willing to befriend humans or infiltrate human principalities in human form to experience life as ordinary people.

In the human kingdoms, there are many knightly novels about down-on-his-luck knights who encounter dragon girls and eventually become legends. This kind of story is quite popular in bookstores in big cities, and its sales have always been decent.

However, as far as they know, the more popular story nowadays seems to be a new one where "a farmer's son finds a broken dragon soul, grows step by step under the guidance of an ancient dragon, and eventually wins the heart of a beauty."

However, even the most common wyvern has a rather volatile temper and is extremely difficult to tame.

The fact that a slime, even a slime king, could control a dragon is truly astonishing.

Behind the elves, the Grimlins nearly hid in fear upon seeing the young dragon.

Only after seeing that Little Ka was still blinking its innocent eyes did they gradually relax and marvel at the slime's power.

"It's a Slime Dragon Knight!"

"Wow, that's amazing! Slimes are even more powerful than socks. The Sock Kingdom doesn't even have dragon knights."

"Shh, keep your voice down, don't let that guy hear us. Look at how fierce it looks, what if it gets angry and eats us..."

"Don't do that."

The Grimlins quickly shut their mouths, no longer daring to whisper, but their little eyes were still fixed on Little Ka.

At the front of the group, Chen Yu gave Arthur a few instructions, instructing him to lead the delegation back to the fortress, before riding away again on his little car.

He wanted to ride his little truck around, and he had no intention of being a boring tour guide; that important task had to be left to Arthur.

Iselin watched as the slime mounted the young dragon, flew away from the forest path, and disappeared into the vast forest before her gaze returned to Arthur, who seemed somewhat dazed.

“I never imagined that your territory had tamed a wyvern, Mr. Arthur. You seem to have never mentioned that Lord Slime would greet you in this way.”

Arthur: "..."

The truth is, this was the first time he had ever heard of a dragon in his territory.

But he clearly remembered that this was His Majesty's most loyal little guard, how did it suddenly turn into a dragon?

But he was not good with words and didn't know how to explain, so he just remained silent.

Iseline interpreted his demeanor as an indication that he was good at keeping secrets.

No wonder the Slime Kingdom sent a taciturn undead to be their guide.

These seemingly innocent slimes are not without their own defenses against outsiders; on the contrary, they have their own set of logic for dealing with outsiders.

The so-called Slime Kingdom was more like a kingdom than she had imagined, at least more legitimate than most human caravans that promised territory to the tree spirits but failed to keep their promises.

No wonder the goblin army couldn't handle these slimes and even lost part of their mining area.

She secretly raised her opinion of the Slime Kingdom from uncertain to reliable.

“Mr. Arthur, please go ahead. These little ones behind me are carrying a lot of gifts and luggage and need to rest at their destination.”

Arthur nodded upon hearing this, and through the little slime left by His Majesty, he directed the beetles to help carry the luggage, thus easing the burden on the Grimlins.

The little ones then relaxed and their steps became much lighter.

They walked east along the forest trail, and Iserly soon discovered the prisoner camp located beside the trail.

What intrigued her even more was that there was a wild boar the size of a small hill right next to the prisoner camp, gnawing on the oak trees that the prisoners had cut down.

Given this wild boar's size... its rampage would be quite a spectacle, making it seem like a terrifying siege beast. Perhaps only oak trees could sustain it.

If one were to rush into the Roots Forest, even the Tree People probably wouldn't be able to stop it, and would only be able to let it ravage the forest and fields.

With large war monsters... the war rating needs to be raised...

Iseline noted what she saw in her notebook, but did not stop there. Soon she followed Arthur to the castle he had mentioned.

Looking up, the forest road abruptly ended, and at its end appeared a rather large castle.

As a former member of the Ancient Tree Council, she had traveled throughout the southern kingdoms and seen many wonders and temples, so she was naturally not surprised by a castle of this size.

However, she noticed that the city wall was still a combination of bricks and tree roots, clearly the work of a slime.

It's hard to imagine how much effort those tiny slime architects must have put in to build such a large castle; it must have taken at least several winters.

Her gaze continued to move, landing on the three neatly arranged cannon arrays on the city wall and the silver metal slime gunners.

"It's a slime artillery barrage, and quite a lot of them," an elf exclaimed in surprise.

Iselin nodded slightly and noted the discovery in her notebook.

More cannon arrays... This suggests that the Slime Kingdom may have the ability to mass-produce magical cannon arrays.

The magic cannon array was one of the key things the delegation was going to investigate – it was used to assess whether the Slime Kingdom had enough power to protect the Treant territory.

The elves had witnessed the power of this magical cannon array a few days ago; its power was in no way inferior to the magic crystal cannons of the human kingdom.

More importantly, it does not rely on expensive magic crystals as an energy source, but instead uses a gray gravel crystal filled with mysterious energy as its power source.

Gray gravel, as a basic raw material for making magical dust, is often used by mages and alchemists in various fields such as setting up magic circles and brewing magic potions, and is a crystal with extremely high market demand.

Although it is not the only material for making magical dust, and some crystals can even make dust with better effects, gray gravel is the most abundant and inexpensive.

Only gray gravel can satisfy the massive and continuous consumption of the mage group.

In the Kingdom Market, a complete piece of gray gravel crystal is only one-third the price of other precious crystals. If it is fragments or associated crystals produced during the mining process, a small bag of them can be sold for less than five silver coins.

Therefore, if the magic cannon array of the Slime Kingdom can be mass-produced, its cost will likely be far lower than that of traditional magic crystal cannons.

Iserline pondered, and the idea of ​​trading the magic cannon array came to her.

However, whether this deal can be proposed depends on how the cooperative relationship between the territory and the Slime Kingdom develops in the future.

As the delegation arrived, two metal slime guards hopped to the back of the gate and pulled up the heavy city gate.

"Crack, boom boom boom..."

The city gates were fully opened.

Arthur invited the group inside. After passing through the gate, a breathtaking view unfolded before them, surprising the entire delegation even more.

The most obvious thing is that there are more slimes and other monsters here!
Almost every now and then a line of beetles carrying dried bryozoans feed would crawl out of the oak tree farm and line up to transport the feed to the warehouse.

Old Bloom carefully lifted his feet, afraid that he might accidentally step on them.

Above their heads, the buzzing of stinging wasps was incessant.

These dark and dangerous swamp bees seem to have become diligent gardeners here—feeding bryozoans, watering and fertilizing the elven tubers, and carrying mud clods; they can be seen everywhere.

When passing through the bustling central area of ​​the territory, you can see slimes gathered together, as if they are discussing knowledge, building structures, or carefully tending to their crops.

This busy and vibrant scene seemed like an ordinary afternoon in the monster kingdom.

As everyone watched this scene, a sense of absurdity arose in their hearts, and they felt dazed.

If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, who would have imagined that a group of monsters, considered lowly by humans, could form such an orderly society?

The Grimlins behind them felt as if they had stumbled into a fairy tale world, finding everything inside the fortress novel and developing a strong interest.

"What's that? Is the slime reading a book?"

"She's much better than me. Jasmine doesn't even like books."

"Will they still be able to farm? But how will they dig without a small shovel?"

"Duh, slimes don't have hands, so of course they can't use a shovel. I bet they just swallow the dirt and then spit it out."

"Wow, Jasmine, you're so smart!" Grimlin chattered like a cheerful sparrow behind them, exclaiming with every step, unable to move once he saw something new.

Everyone tried to accept the unfamiliar yet novel world before them, walking and stopping frequently, spending half their time taking notes.

Especially Iseline, whose pen hadn't stopped writing since entering the fortress, until the ink on the nib dried up again. Only then did she close the notebook and see that Arthur had led them to a row of treehouses under the shade of trees.

Arthur said, "These are temporary accommodations arranged by His Majesty for you to rest during your inspection of the territory. If you have any further requests, please feel free to ask, and I will do my best to accommodate them."

Iselin briefly inspected the interior of the treehouse. The interior was simple, and even the bed was made of leaves, making it look rather rudimentary.

Only the fluffy goose feather pillow and the thin quilt looked passable; they were probably specially purchased from a human market.

But considering that they were being entertained by a group of monsters, this was quite a thoughtful gesture.

Iselin nodded, "Thank you, Mr. Arthur. We'll stay here for a few days. Thank you for your time."

"Your lord probably doesn't mind us wandering around, does he?"

Arthur shook his head. "His Majesty said that mutual trust is the foundation of cooperation, and we should just treat this place as home."

Of course, he didn't dare say the second half of His Majesty's sentence.

If he uttered a statement like "incorporating the Treant territory into the Slime Kingdom," his knighthood would probably end on the spot.

Arthur left, leaving only the treant emissaries to adapt to life in the fortress.

After the elves had become somewhat familiar with their surroundings, they left old Bloom in the treehouse to take care of the Grimlins, while the rest of them went out to explore the area.

On the other side, Chen Yu rode his little car back to his territory. Although he saw these elves, he didn't pay them any special attention and regarded them as ordinary citizens. Then he returned to his treehouse to continue practicing his magic.

With a foundation in basic archery, his progress in water archery was very smooth, and before long, a notification appeared on the panel:
[Short Archery Lv.4 → Water Arrow Lv.3]

The change from basic archery to water archery may seem like a decrease in level, but in reality, the power of the Taoist magic, especially its penetrating power, has increased by a whole level.

As a simplified version of Taoist magic, the Lesser Arrow Technique has to make some sacrifices to ensure normal casting. Therefore, when it hits the target, it often explodes due to insufficient concentration of force, and has almost no penetrating power.

The authentic Water Arrow spell is completely different; it can easily penetrate even boulders, and is basically unstoppable unless it is heavy armor or a protective spell.

After mastering the basics of water arrow techniques, Chen Yu turned his attention to the book "Every Grass and Tree is an Enemy".

If we had to compare this Taoist practice to magic, it could be roughly considered a kind of summoning technique, but it requires trees and wild grass as a medium, using Taoist methods to activate them into plant puppets and control them.

Plant puppets, well... they're roughly equivalent to mindless tree people.

This technique is of little help to him, since wherever he goes, he is accompanied by an army of demons.

But it's very useful for clones.

The clone followed Arno deeper into the dark lands, each step incredibly thrilling, as vampires and necromancers could suddenly appear and chase after him and Arno.

With the "seeing enemies everywhere" technique, five tree-men can be summoned unexpectedly to launch a group attack, and even vampires would probably have to take a detour.

Chen Yu began to devote himself to studying this new Taoist method.

To his surprise, the progress was exceptionally smooth.

It seems that his "growth-promoting" talent came into play, as he encountered no obstacles in the crucial stages of evolving plants.

In just one day, he mastered the basics of the "seeing enemies in every bush and tree" technique.

【Every bush and tree seems like an enemy soldier Lv.1】

Chen Yu spat out the magical leaf from his stomach. A blue light flowed and spread along the veins of the leaf. The leaf, which had been lying quietly on the wooden board, suddenly floated up, as if it had come to life.

It has no hands or feet; under its control, it can only move by levitation.

These "leaf soldiers" basically only have the ability to move and have no means of attack.

To Chen Yu's surprise, the "rock-like seal script" imprinted on Ye Bing's body seemed to have become part of him.

Even if the talisman's power is activated, the inscription will not disappear; instead, it will slowly recover over time—essentially making this leaf weapon a permanent talisman.

What is the use of a permanent talisman?

At first glance, it seems that it can only save on the consumption of talismans.

But at this moment, Chen Yu's gel-like head, which harbored strange and wonderful ideas, began to spin.

The Taoist principle of "every plant and tree is an enemy" means that when applied to leaves, they become leaf soldiers; when applied to wild grass, they become grass soldiers; and when applied to trees, they become tree soldiers.

Leaves are an integral part of trees.

If he could draw runes on all the leaves of an oak tree beforehand and then transform them into plant puppets, could he create a "Rune Oak Guardian" with infinite rune power?

Huh?
Theoretically, it seems feasible.

But upon closer examination, there are still many problems to solve in order to achieve "Rune Oak Guardian".

To create a magical leaf, the first step is to pick the leaf and then use a special spiritual technique to transform it into a material suitable for drawing talismans.

So how can he perform this step without removing the leaves, and ensure that the leaves remain viable and integrated with the oak tree?

Moreover, an oak tree needs so many leaves in its lush canopy during the summer that they are almost countless, layer upon layer, to block out the sunlight.

With so many oak leaves and several slimes working non-stop, it would take a whole year to draw them.

This requirement might be a bit demanding. There might be more clever ways to draw runes, or you could reduce the number of magical leaves and lower the standards for Rune Oak Guardians.

It always feels so troublesome.

Therefore, Chen Yu decided to hand over this plan to the slime scholars in the Tree Hall for research, or perhaps that old relic Viola might have a way to solve the problem that was troubling him.

However, it is only appropriate to ask this question after the Slime Kingdom and the Treant Territory have officially established a cooperative relationship.

His attention returned to the panel, where he noticed a talent that had quietly leveled up.

[Fission and proliferation Lv.4 → Lv.5]

Level 5 is a major hurdle for all talents; once you break through it, your talent can undergo a transformation and upgrade.

The maximum number of clones in Lv.5's "Split and Proliferate" still only increased by one, but the range of connection between the main body and the clones was greatly increased, and a magical characteristic was added.

Chen Yu called it a "blank clone," or perhaps a "communicator."

Blank clones cannot be equipped with any talents or have any mobility, but their splitting limit is unlimited; as long as there is sufficient nutrition, they can split as many as they want.

If each monster is equipped with one, it's equivalent to equipping them with their own personal communicator, allowing all monsters to communicate directly and two-way with it.

A low-budget version of a mental network was thus formed.

His commands could then be quickly transmitted to all monsters, improving communication efficiency within the territory.

"This thing is great."

In the future, when communicating with others, I won't have to go through the trouble of splitting into a clone first.

He found some beets and tried it.

Secrete a gel-like pea-sized fragment and place it on its head.

The dark, menacing bee now looked as if it were wearing a slightly bouncy gel cap, making the whole bee appear much cuter.

"…king……"

Beetroot's timid voice suddenly rang in Chen Yu's mind, seemingly proving that the gel communicator was working.

"Can you hear me?" Chen Yu asked.

The beet was taken aback for a moment, then flapped its wings in response.

“I can hear you, Your Majesty. Please give your orders.”

effective.

Chen Yu was overjoyed and immediately secreted a lot more gel caps, which he then had beet call his companions to distribute.

Soon, as a series of questioning voices rang in Chen Yu's mind, including slimes, stinging bees, beetles... all gained the ability to contact him at any time.

However, even he found it difficult to communicate with so many monsters at the same time, and he couldn't process so much information all at once.

The drawback of the low-end version of the mental network is that monsters cannot communicate horizontally. Almost every time monsters communicate remotely, it has to go through Chen Yu's brain before he can relay it.

Thus, he became an intelligence relay station, handling massive amounts of information requests almost constantly.

To solve this problem, Chen Yu secreted a fifth little slime.

"From now on, you will be the Strategist Slime, responsible for the transmission and forwarding of intelligence instructions."

The strategist slime puffed out his little belly seriously, as if to say "I guarantee to complete the mission," and then closed his eyes, entering a highly efficient intelligence processing state.

Chen Yu nodded in satisfaction, then remembered that Arno was still in Gore in the Underdark, so he decided to go and see how he was doing.

……

Deep within the ruins of Gore, layers of tree canopies obscured the gloomy sky. On a clearing overgrown with eerie wild grass, a campfire crackled and sparks rose, illuminating several weary faces.

The little girl, Nellie, went out to gather intelligence and hasn't returned yet, leaving only a few people in the camp.

Arno then crouched down in front of a dilapidated stone beam, crouching low and staring at it.

In front of him lay a small slime, its body rising and falling slightly, seemingly fast asleep.

He carefully poked the bouncy gel of the little slime with his finger, repeating this action countless times.

"Boss, wake up, wake up."

The little slime didn't react at all.

"Boss, wake up..."

Arno continued poking, but at some point, he seemed to see the little slime bounce.

Huh?
Is it an illusion?
His fingers were still touching the gel when the little slime slowly opened its eyes and looked at him.

"Arno, what are you doing?"

Arno coughed lightly, initially feeling a little embarrassed, but his expression immediately turned serious when he thought of the important intelligence he had gathered.

So as not to disturb the three people resting nearby, he lowered his voice and said, "Boss, something bad has happened. I've heard that a lot of Black Fang mercenaries are gathering at the outpost ruins. They seem to be heading for our territory."

(End of this chapter)