The Hallucinogenic Slime carried Fat Brother back to the entrance of the previous slime nest and quietly set him down.

Fat Brother stayed behind in the dungeon nest to continue getting used to slime life, while it followed Chen Yu’s will and plunged deeper to scout what lay inside the dungeon.

It set out alone, like a fearless warrior.

It passed through the territory of undead skeletons and followed traces of the Filthy Descendants into increasingly dim tunnels of the dungeon.

But the depths of the dungeon were far more dangerous than the outer layers;

Bronze-tier creatures roamed everywhere, and occasionally Silver-tier monsters hid in the boss cavern halls.

Chen Yu even saw lava-bathing fire serpents, water-elemental spirits formed from mist, stone golems covered in rock… many wondrous elemental beings.

However, the little slime’s spiritual energy was limited, so it didn’t dare hunt recklessly. It could only silently press forward until it completely lost contact with Chen Yu.

It planned to reach the dungeon’s end, collect its intelligence, then desperately leap back to a place where it could receive the Master’s signal and transmit the information out.

…

Edge of the Swamp Forest.

Little Ka half-submerged in the swamp, occasionally blowing bubbles with his snout out of boredom, but most of the time he was fulfilling his duty as guard—protecting the King.

Any monster that dared approach would send him mustering his courage and barking ferociously to scare them off.

Those monsters acted as if they were genuinely afraid;

once they neared a certain distance they would suddenly panic and bolt.

Time passed until dusk. Adventurers set up camp on the lakeshore, lit fires, cooked meals, and the curling smoke and aroma of food drifted into the forest on the breeze.

Little Ka’s stomach gurgled.

He was hungry.

His small eyes half-closed as he remembered the morning’s delicious Moss Monster and the safe, warm castle… a warm thing called “home” quietly filled him.

“…home…”

“Let’s go home.”

Chen Yu, who didn’t know when he’d woken, replied to Little Ka.

The Hallucinogenic Slime had indeed gone deep into the dungeon, but it seemed to have encountered danger and completely lost contact—it was done for.

The slime’s first dungeon exploration ended in a less-than-perfect result.

Still, he had seen many powerful elemental beings in the dungeon’s depths and guessed perhaps some elemental lord had discovered the Hallucinogenic Slime and struck at it.

“I’ll remember this grudge.”

“Master!”

The little crocodile wagged his tail happily.

“Thanks for your hard work today. Let’s go back for a feast.”

“Charge, Little Ka!”

Chen Yu mounted Little Ka and ran toward the castle.

“A feast!”

Little Ka’s eyes shone bright;

he ran faster and in a blink passed the ruined village and soon arrived back at the castle.

That night, Chen Yu made four stone skewers, threaded Moss Monsters, and roasted them over a fire.

The campfire crackled, sending sparks flying;

the flickering light dispersed the castle’s deep night.

Little Ka saw fire for the first time and cowered behind Chen Yu at first, but gradually grew used to the warmth and leaned closer.

He lay beside Chen Yu, sniffing the Moss Monster’s scent and drooling.

“Careful, it’s hot.”

Chen Yu set the roasted Moss Monster skewers on a stone to cool. Little Ka obediently waited, eyes pleading, and didn’t bite until Chen Yu gave permission.

Then he used his paws to hold one roasted Moss Monster and chomped down.

“Sploosh!”

The Moss Monster was perfectly cooked;

its juicy interior burst in his mouth, warming his belly—happiness took on a physical form in that moment.

“…So tasty…so tasty…”

“Eat more so you can grow.”

Chen Yu roasted more Moss Monsters and filled both big and small bellies. After Little Ka returned to the swamp to rest, Chen Yu checked on the sleeping little slimes in the nest.

Slime Mother was asleep too;

the little ones cuddled around her and snored, except for one—

The smallest slime in the nest.

Chen Yu had named it Little Flower.

Compared to sleeping, Little Flower seemed more interested in the outside scene;

its eyes blinked as it stared at the twinkling starry sky, curiosity written all over its face.

When it saw Chen Yu approaching, it gently touched him and softly called, “Brother.”

Chen Yu found it a bit odd, so he asked curiously, “What are you looking at?”

“…Sparkly…things…”

Sparkly things?

He supposed it meant the stars in the sky.

He hadn’t expected even the old slime family to have a slime who liked the starry sky.

“You like stars a lot?”

“…Stars? Mm! Stars!”

Chen Yu imagined grandly waving a hand and said gallantly, “In a few days I’ll build you an observatory so you can watch from up high.”

“High up to watch!”

The little slime was delighted and hopped up.

Chen Yu shook his gel contentedly and reminded it to sleep early, then bounced back to the treehouse and opened the window to survey his territory.

After these three days of construction, the western castle wall was more than half finished;

in the night its dark, solemn outline could be vaguely seen.

With this wall, even if goblins or monsters invaded they could be somewhat held back.

Phase two of construction was much more troublesome than the first. He still had a group of Civil Engineering Slimes left in the dungeon’s slime nest, which reduced building efficiency considerably.

Finishing it would still take quite some time.

But compared to territory construction, Chen Yu was more concerned about Arthur and Count Bran’s whereabouts now.

“The dungeon isn’t far from the castle either. Those two still haven’t returned—could they have gotten lost again…”

Well, thinking about it, it was certainly possible.

Oh well.

Who cares.

Draw talismans, activate!

Chen Yu took out his talisman tools and prepared to craft Stone Pile Talismans this time—the talismans that hurled stones.

Stone Pile Talismans weren’t as useful as Rocksteady Talismans, but using them for monster armies could yield unexpected advantages.

…

Four days later.

Chen Yu expected Arthur and Count Bran might get lost, but he didn’t expect these two to be lost in the dungeon for a full four days before emerging.

During that time Yano had returned once, bringing back some Magic Ink and Magic Paper.

He said the writing on those two parchment sheets was strange;

local scholars could only recognize it as a variant of demi-human script but couldn’t translate any useful information.

They could only take the parchments back to Smaragdon in Emerald City to seek help from academy teachers.

After receiving acupuncture treatment, Yano left with two Rocksteady Talismans as compensation and took the rider mission to purchase a telescope.

As for whether to awaken his bloodline, he still hesitated and couldn’t make a decision.

“Achoo! In such hot weather, this count has caught a cold.”

“Retainer, it’s all your fault. If you hadn’t dawdled in the dungeon and insisted on hunting that weird fish, this count wouldn’t be in such a mess.”

Arthur rode his warhorse in silence as if he hadn’t heard.

“Count, we’re back.”

Count Bran was about to nag more, but when he looked up his eyes nearly popped out.

“Bloody hell!”

They had only been gone a few days, right? How had a wall already been built?