Slime Immortal

"Yes, digging a tunnel." Arthur repeated like a human machine.

"what?!"

Old Bloom, who had been listening quietly nearby, suddenly lost his composure and almost dropped the broom in his hand.

Dig...dig a tunnel?

From the East Swamp to here?

Is digging holes in a dungeon now as easy as digging a rat hole?

In his opinion, this was even more outrageous than breaking through the goblin line head-on.

A hint of surprise flashed across Iselin's eyes, but she quickly controlled her expression, nodded slightly, and stood up.

"Very interesting. Let's go and have a look."

The group soon arrived at a high slope deep in the forest, closely guarded by tall tree men, where the ancient entrance to the dungeon was hidden.

"Please wait, the beets are almost here," said Arthur.

"beet?"

Just as a trace of doubt flashed through Iselin's mind, she heard a dense and disturbing "buzzing" sound coming from the deep passage.

The next moment, a swarm of bees like a small black cloud emerged from it.

The strange thing is that this group of stinging bees is completely different from what she knew.

They are arranged in neat rows, and their flight paths are characterized by a kind of cold discipline, making it obvious that they are not easy to mess with.

"Oh no, where did these weird guys come from?"

Old Bloom subconsciously raised his pitchfork and, relying on his body being immune to stings, wanted to step forward and drive them away.

"Wait, Mr. Bloom."

Iselin raised her hand to stop him. Her face remained calm, but upon closer inspection, one could see that her pupils had shrunk slightly, and she was obviously surprised by the monster army from the Slime Territory.

Especially the bee guard in the lead, who actually made her feel a little threatening.

This forced her to re-evaluate the strength of the "Slime Kingdom".

The ability to tame and transform such a dangerous monster was far more mysterious and dangerous than she had initially anticipated.

Arthur walked forward and took out a magic leaf from the small backpack that Beet was carrying. He thanked it solemnly, then turned and handed the leaf to Iselin.

"Miss Iselin, tear it up and you will see its effects with your own eyes."

Iselin took the leaf and carefully stroked the veins and the strange patterns on it with her slender fingers.

She felt it for a moment, and her cold face was deeply furrowed with brows.

She did not sense any familiar arcane magic fluctuations on the leaf.

Out of the mage's caution, she did not tear it up immediately with her own hands.

Instead, he raised his hand, a faint light flickering at his fingertips.

[Hand of the Mage]

A translucent hand made of purple arcane energy appeared out of thin air, gracefully picked up the leaf, and gently tore it apart.

"Buzz!"

A dull hum shook the air, and a khaki energy shield instantly unfolded, firmly protecting the arcane palm.

Iselin's eyes suddenly widened, and for the first time, an expression of "shock" appeared on her face.

Even the dryad lord Viola, who had been "watching the show", could no longer hide. She floated out from Iselin's body and condensed into a translucent child form.

She curiously stretched out her slender fingers and gently tapped the khaki shield.

"Crack!"

The shield shattered and dissipated into a point of light.

But Viola was surprised and said, "It really is as powerful as a normal magic scroll."

"Iselin, this thing is good, we want it."

Iselin's face showed a hint of helplessness.

"Lady Viola, please be patient. The negotiations are not over yet."

"Oh, all right, go ahead and talk."

Viola turned into a green light and went back into Iselin's body.

Iselin gently straightened her not-so-messy robe sleeves, looked at Arthur and Chen Yu, and her tone returned to its previous calmness.

"My Lord, Mr. Arthur, the effects of this 'magic leaf' have been recognized by Lady Viola, but..."

She changed the subject, "I've observed it carefully. It seems to be carried by oak leaves, which are commonly found in the forest. I'm concerned about the stability of its magic storage and its shelf life."

"Twenty gold coins doesn't seem reasonable for a product that might have defects."

She accurately grasped the "weakness" of the product, and her tone was calm but she pressed forward step by step.

Chen Yu's heart skipped a beat.

Oh no! This elf looks aloof, but unexpectedly he is actually a master negotiator with a sharp eye, and he hits the nail on the head right away.

Using ordinary leaves instead of special magic paper, stability and shelf life are indeed the weaknesses of talismans, but the advantage is that the cost is very low.

The result was not what he expected.

The fledgling Arthur, facing the negotiation expert Iselin, was quickly defeated, stumbled, and fell into an absolute disadvantage.

In the end, the transaction was completed at a price of sixteen gold coins per magic leaf.

Chen Yu exchanged the fifteen magic leaves in his hand for three carts of food supplies, as well as a bag of elven crop seeds as a "friendly gift" from Iselin.

They returned to the forest.

At Iselin's signal, the furry Grimlins in the forest got busy, clumsily carrying bags of supplies onto the carriages, and soon filled up the three large carriages.

Before leaving, Iselin still looked cold and aloof, but if you look closely, you can see that the lines at the corners of her mouth seem to be softer than when she came.

She nodded slightly: "Looking forward to the next transaction."

Arthur drove the carriage and creaked back to the dark passage. His skull head drooped slightly, and the soul fire in his eye sockets was dimmer and smaller than usual, making him look a little dejected.

"Your Majesty, I'm sorry, it's me... I couldn't reach an agreement..."

Chen Yu jumped lightly on his shoulder.

"Arthur, this is a deal. A deal can only last long if both parties feel they have made a profit."

"It may seem like we lost a few gold coins, but we got much-needed food and seeds, and more importantly, we opened up a stable trade route. This is much more important than earning a few more gold coins."

"Besides, we didn't lose money, we just made less profit."

The soul fire in Arthur's eyes stabilized a little and swayed slowly.

As expected of His Majesty... His words always contained profound wisdom, and he needed to slowly comprehend and experience them before he could understand the deep meaning behind them.

He drove the carriage towards the swamp that belonged to them deep in the passage.

For some reason, a hint of anticipation arose in my cold chest.

It's like... I'm going home.

Unconsciously, he had already regarded the swamp full of strange monsters as his true home.

He began to look forward to meeting Lord Bran and to seeing if the flowers in the garden had grown any bigger.

……

Obsidian mine, slave camp.

The slaves lined up in a long queue at the camp gate, numbly receiving their daily portion of stale, sticky green soup and black bread harder than stone from the goblins' dirty wooden barrels.

Then he returned to the camp, huddled in the shabby shack, mechanically swallowing the things that sustained his life, with empty eyes.

Kane squatted at the door of Anvil's shack, drinking the disgusting green soup with an expressionless face.

One of his accomplices grumbled in a low voice, "Damn it, this soup is getting stinky. Those damn greenskins must have left it there for a few more days."

The anvil behind them said nothing, but just silently chewed the bread as hard as slag, with an inexplicable expectation in his heart.

He is waiting for relief food from the Slime Kingdom.

This feeling of anticipation seemed to have not filled his chest like this for a long time.