"Castle Guard, assemble!"

Chen Yu hopped beneath the oak tree, conveying the assembly order through the Queen Wasp.

"Buzz——!"

A noisy drone echoed throughout the Oak Territory as a dark mass of Poison-stinger Wasps from the hive gathered and dispersed like swirling clouds, forming a 20*20 guard formation.

This assembly contained all the soldier wasps from the Poison-stinger Wasp nest, each with large, pitch-black abdomens. By war standards, they stored up to five venomous stingers each, enough for two rounds of heavy firepower volleys.

Although these soldier wasps were only Black Iron-tier magical creatures, any jackal without toxin resistance would be writhing in excruciating pain if surrounded and stung, essentially rendering them combat ineffective.

The venom damage that was useless in the swamp's depths could rightfully be called "noble" outside the swamp.

Combined with the rare flying attribute of the Poison-stinger Wasps and their terrifying numbers, ordinary jackal packs couldn't even touch them—they could only tuck their tails and flee upon sight.

Using such an extravagant lineup to explore the Death Swamp was honestly quite luxurious.

Before Chen Yu controlled the Queen Wasp, the entire nest—including worker wasps raising Moss Monsters, Wasp Guards defending the hive, and idle drones—only numbered just over a hundred Poison-stinger Wasps.

With Chen Yu clearing swamp threats and the Moss Monster farm continuously expanding, the Poison-stinger Wasp population had exploded to its current terrifying size.

Yano stood behind, watching the dense swarm of Poison-stinger Wasps. Even though he knew they were allies, he still felt his scalp tingling with fear.

He swallowed hard, "B-boss, with so many Poison-stinger Wasps... are you planning to attack Ironboot Town?"

Chen Yu turned around, using tree roots to lift himself to Yano's eye level, communicating through physical contact.

"Ironboot Town? I'm not interested in those humans. They're all poorer than the last—what benefit would beating them up bring me?"

"Uh..."

Yano found himself unable to refute this. Compared to the swamp-owning demon, the adventurers of Ironboot Town were indeed dirt poor.

"Yano!"

Hearing the voice suddenly echo in his mind, Yano felt as if he'd returned to his knight training days when the knight instructor would call his name exactly like this.

He instinctively snapped to attention.

"Yes... yes! Boss, command as you wish."

"Good, very spirited."

"You will lead the team next, clearing forest paths southward, guiding the Poison-stinger Wasps into the Death Swamp to gather intelligence."

"Ah? Yes!"

Only after accepting the mission did Yano realize he had apparently become the captain of the magical creature guard unit.

While feeling strangely about this, he also felt excited about the demon's trust in him.

Still, he had some concerns.

"Boss, these Poison-stinger Wasps don't seem to understand what I'm saying."

"No problem. The guard unit will follow the route designated by the Queen Wasp. Just follow along. If you notice anything wrong, whistle, and they'll retreat with you."

"What about these beetles on the ground? Are they part of the guard unit too?"

Yano looked at the dozens of Burrowing Beetles undergoing training.

He recognized these beetles—aside from their rock-hard shells, they had almost no offensive capability. They were the kind of creatures adventurers would kick around for fun on the roadside.

"You mean these shields? They'll be useful later."

"Shields?"

Yano reluctantly accepted his boss's peculiar way of thinking. Under Chen Yu's gaze, he led the Wasp Soldier guard unit away from the castle, heading south.

The southern Death Swamp wasn't far from the Oak Territory, and without rain, the Poison-stinger Wasps could march quickly. Yano would probably return in less than half a day.

Taking advantage of this free time, Chen Yu climbed the oak tree steps and entered the slime treehouse he had built.

The treehouse was about eight cubic meters—quite spacious for a slime, with enough room for his talisman practice materials, tools, and some Common language books Yano had brought.

He originally planned to dig an underground basement to store these items.

But the swamp was too humid—digging just a little would hit water.

While damp environments suited slimes just fine, his precious treasures couldn't handle it, so he had to build his library and talisman workshop in a high, sun-exposed location.

The view from up high was quite nice though. Through the small window, he could overlook the vibrant Oak Territory and the lush swamp scenery beyond the castle.

Chen Yu felt that practicing talisman drawing in such a place might actually increase his success rate.

"With Lv.2 Talisman Drawing Technique, I should be able to successfully draw talismans in Zeyarila too."

Chen Yu swallowed the tools stored in the corner into his stomach, then spat them all out onto the talisman drawing area. With his soft body, he flattened the leaf talisman paper with patting motions, secured the paper with mud bricks, opened the ink, dipped the poison-stinger brush in ink... This series of actions consumed quite a bit of his energy.

Just the preparation for slime talisman drawing was troublesome enough.

Chen Yu gripped the poison-stinger brush, took a bubbling breath, decisively moved his gel body to begin drawing, completing the talisman pattern in one continuous motion.

To be fair, compared to the scribbles from his early learning days, this at least resembled something now—barely recognizable as the character "command".

But the spiritual energy flow wasn't smooth enough, so it still failed.

Fortunately, he could see hope now. Thinking about creating Zeyarila's first talisman energized Chen Yu. He replaced the talisman paper and began drawing again.

After failing four times in a row, as soon as he lifted his brush, the pattern drawn on the leaf talisman paper actually emitted a faint spiritual glow, perfectly merging with the leaf.

Holding it up to sunlight, the pattern looked completely natural, as if it had grown on the leaf originally.

"Finally succeeded."

Chen Yu bubbled with joy, carefully storing the hard-won talisman, then continued drawing.

In the end, he used up his stock of forty leaf talisman papers and successfully created five Rocksteady Talismans.

Chen Yu swallowed all six talismans into his stomach, went down, tore a Rocksteady Talisman to summon a rock spiritual barrier, and tested it. The defensive power was surprisingly impressive—it could easily withstand attacks from the Wasp Guard's longer stingers.

Even his Little Arrow Technique could only crack the barrier, requiring a second shot to break through.

The effect was unexpectedly good.

If slimes had hands, Chen Yu would be rubbing his together right now. (Flies rubbing hands.jpg)

"Hehe, Zeyarila's magical creatures, are you ready for a talisman carpet bombing?"

As long as he had enough talisman paper and ink, he could equip the entire guard unit with talismans.

By then, even Black Iron-tier magical creatures could display extraordinary combat power.

While he was drawing talismans, Yano's forest path clearing and swamp exploration proceeded unusually smoothly. After easily driving off a pack of cunning jackals, he gained a preliminary understanding of the Death Swamp situation.

Then he hurried back to the castle without stopping to report to his boss.

"You're saying the Death Swamp is chaotic right now?"

Yano quickly nodded, "There are many corrupted jackals and hyenas roaming the Death Swamp—they're practically the most powerful magical creatures there."

"Besides that, I also saw those corrupted... lizardfolk."

His anger clearly hadn't subsided yet—he gritted his teeth when mentioning the corrupted lizardfolk.

"It seems some strange magical creature that uses fire magic broke in there, causing all the magical creatures living inside to leave their territories and roam around."

"I didn't see the creature itself, only saw charred running tracks left on the grass."

"Fire magical creature?"

Chen Yu slumped his gel body, lost in thought.

After chatting with Yano a bit more and reminding him again to look for magic paper and magic ink, he gave him four talismans.

"Boss, what are these things?"

A leaf with weird writing on it?

Could it be some kind of cursed object?

"Talismans. Tear them at critical moments to save your life."

"Take the other two to Sekashi—she's at the Rotten Moss Tribe."

"Can save lives?"

Yano was startled. Although he didn't know what talismans were, he carefully folded the four leaves and respectfully stored them inside his chest armor lining.