Slime Immortal

In the room, where the windows let out a warm glow, a log fire crackled in the fireplace, dispelling the chill of the cabin.

The simple wooden table was covered with a slightly worn linen tablecloth, but it was filled with a sumptuous dinner - a large bowl of steaming broth, golden and soft slices of bread, a small dish of precious butter, and even a few fragrant fried river fish.

Arno sat at the head of the table, stirring the broth with a wooden spoon, his eyes fixed on his wife and children.

Laura was carefully picking out the fish bones and placing the tender fish meat on the plate of her youngest daughter Emily.

Emily happily swung her feet and clumsily scooped the fish with a spoon, smearing grease all over her face. Her son, Arno, sat upright, trying to imitate his father's dining manners, but his eyes couldn't help but glance at the tempting bread and butter.

Looking at his wife's gentle movements and the satisfied little faces of his children, a long-lost warmth filled Arno's chest. The corners of his mouth unconsciously curled up, revealing his first heartfelt smile since returning.

"dad."

Little Arno suddenly raised his head, his eyes sparkling.

"Those terrible gray-scaled lizardmen in the swamp, did you just slash them away with your sword like the dragon slayer in the story?"

"Those adventurers are lying, aren't they?"

When the swamp was mentioned, Laura paused. She quickly raised her eyes to look at her husband, then looked at little Arno with a restraining look and shook her head slightly.

The look said silently: Don't ask, don't mention those things.

Little Arno received his mother's gaze. Although he was confused, he still shut his mouth sensibly and lowered his head to scoop up the soup in the bowl.

Laura took a deep breath and turned to Arno with a gentle but somewhat forced smile on her face.

"Don't worry about the money, dear."

"I went to the textile workshop in town to find work these days. Although the wages are not high, it has paid off the overdue hotel rent."

She gently took Arno's hand which was on the table.

"Let's work hard together, and things will get better. You don't have to go to that place anymore."

Arno's uneasy memories were soothed by the warm hand. He gently shook Laura's hand back, feeling the coolness of her fingertips and the heavy concern in her heart.

I sighed internally.

Laura didn't want him to go to that terrible swamp again. How could he not understand her intention?

But, Laura... I have a reason to go...

He subconsciously rubbed the base of his right ring finger with his thumb, and felt a familiar stiff touch.

The devilish curse is not far away. It is just dormant temporarily and will erupt sooner or later.

Whether for Lola and the child, or for himself, he had to go back again.

But he couldn't tell the truth, and couldn't let Laura suffer this fear again.

"Don't worry, honey."

Arno raised his head, trying to make his smile look relaxed and confident, avoiding her worried gaze.

"This time is different. I met the demihumans of the Rot Moss Tribe in the swamp..."

"You know, those relatively... um... less dangerous green-scaled lizardmen. I helped them a little and established a connection with them."

He deliberately made his tone sound as if he had completed an ordinary business negotiation.

"Now that we have a stable trading channel, the risk is much smaller. This time, I'm going to consolidate this line. In the future... we won't have to take risks like the first time."

"..."

Laura fell silent, looking into her husband's eyes.

The once stubborn aristocratic pride in those light brown eyes had indeed dissipated, replaced by a calmness she had never seen before, even... relief.

This made her feel a little more at ease.

But why, why did he still insist on returning to that dangerous swamp.

Was it for money? Or... something else? She couldn't guess.

But looking at the way he tried to comfort himself, and his face, although tired, seemed more energetic than before he left home, Laura finally just said "hmm" softly, lowered her head, and drank a sip of soup silently.

She knew that she could not convince this stubborn man, so she could only pray in her heart over and over again to Ignis the Sun, to Cardos of protection and courage, and even to all the gods she could think of.

"God, please protect my Arno and bless him to return safely..."

……

A thin mist covered the town in the early morning, and the air was cool.

A slightly shabby two-wheeled carriage was parked on the dirt road, and the beast of burden pulling it snorted impatiently.

Arno finally hugged Laura, whose eyes were red, tightly, then squatted down, rubbed his son's soft hair, and kissed his daughter's little face with a milky scent.

The children didn’t quite understand the heaviness of separation, they just felt a little reluctant to let their father go on another long journey.

"Dad, come back early!" Emily asked in a baby voice.

"Be careful!" Little Arno warned like a little adult.

"I will."

Arno promised solemnly, stood up, and glanced at his wife's face, which seemed to be hesitant to speak, and finally turned into a firm nod.

He took a deep breath, sat in the driver's seat, and pulled the reins.

For Laura's smile, for the children's future, for this family...

Devil, I'm back.

He gritted his teeth secretly and looked sharply at the road leading to the Reed River.

"drive!"

The carriage creaked and slowly drove away from the town, leaving behind the worried gazes of his wife and children and the warm smoke from the cooking stove.

The wheels rolled over the bumpy dirt road, and the outline of Tiexue Town behind them was disappearing little by little.

Arno looked back at the supplies piled in the truck bed.

Most of the space was taken up by sturdy sacks filled with precious salt and sun-dried grain, traded with the Lizardmen of the Rotmoss Tribe.

Next to his driver's seat, a small box made of fine pine wood and polished very smoothly was firmly fixed, which was out of place with the rough goods around it.

In the box was the "sacrifice" he had carefully prepared.

Inside was a book called "Basic Grammar and Vocabulary" on the common language, and a book called "Handbook of Common Phrases and Words in Lizardmen Language" which he had spent a lot of effort to find in the Adventurer's Guild in Ironboot Town.

A tightly sealed lead-tin bottle contains the valuable "Stardust Blue" magic ink, which is said to be made from some kind of deep-sea squid ink. It is a must-have for mages to draw scrolls and long-distance communication arrays. The bottle also has a certification label from the Alchemy Association.

An exquisite food box wrapped in insulation material - filled with small cakes made by the only high-end bakery in Iron Boot Town.

There were also a few pieces of dark chocolate from a caravan in the far south, carefully wrapped in tinfoil, and a small bag of colorful hard candies.

Looking at these strange "sacrifices", Arno couldn't help but have a lot of thoughts, and the low and hoarse voice of the devil appeared in his mind again.

Do the demons in hell also prefer sweets?

Or... is this really part of some incomprehensible sacrificial ritual?

He shook his head, shaking off these unsolvable thoughts.

Regardless, a contract is a contract.

He gripped the reins tightly, his gaze once again fixed on the rushing river ahead, and he murmured softly.

"I am back."

Chapter 35 Slime?

On the bank of the Reed River stands the camp of the Rotten Moss Tribe. Green-scaled figures crawl among the reeds, fishing with spears, or spreading fishing nets, dried meat, and herbs and mosses with a bitter aroma on the shore to dry.

On this ordinary afternoon, the appearance of a businessman broke the tranquility of the tribe.

Lizardmen of all sizes gathered from green huts, drying racks or under the shade of trees, their amber vertical pupils curiously gazing at the human merchants entering the tribe.

The cubs excitedly peeked around the wheels, making hissing sounds, but were stopped by the adult lizardmen.

Although the scene is primitive and rough, it carries a unique and slightly noisy vitality of the tribe.

However, the sounds faintly coming from the center of the crowd did not seem so harmonious, but more like a quarrel.

Segash and her sister Semiya were observing the freshly dried herbs from a distance when they were suddenly attracted by the noise in the camp. She stood on tiptoe curiously and looked at the human figure in the center of the crowd who seemed out of place.

"What happened, sister?" Sergash asked in a low voice.

Semia's amber vertical pupils swept across the crowd, and she just shook her head slightly, indicating that she should go and see for herself.

Segash squeezed into the circle of lizardmen and tried to ask a young warrior next to him.

The young lizardman glanced at her, recognized her as the outsider's sister, turned his head away, obviously ignoring her.

Old Shazak noticed the commotion here, coughed lightly, and reprimanded the young lizardman for his rudeness.

"Respect the Shaman of Sergash."

Then he turned to the Segash sisters and tapped the ground with his tail as a greeting.

"This human businessman."

Shazak looked at Arno.

"He said he wanted to go to a... 'forest path where monsters don't dare approach.'"

"We have lived in the swamp for dozens of rainy seasons. We are familiar with every puddle and every old tree, but we never knew there was such a road."

"I think Mr. Arno must have misunderstood something."

He does not mean that.

Segash on the side became more active.

Forest path? Monsters don't dare approach?

This description...isn't it the Shunfeng Forest Road opened up by the envoy?

This human knows that road. Could he be related to the Messenger?

On the other side, Arno felt a dull pain in his head, and sweat dripped down his forehead, partly because of the swamp's heat and partly because of his anxiety.

He gestured hard, trying to describe the characteristics of the forest path - clean, without monsters, leading to the depths, but the vocabulary of the Lizardmen language he had learned at the last minute was pitifully limited, and the pronunciation was even more strange.