Territory Construction

After the heavy rain, monsters were everywhere in the swamp. The slimes had become too numerous to count, sparkling like emeralds under the sun, casting a soft green glow over the forest.

Chen Yu was an inconspicuous member among them, hopping through the swamp in the afternoon, with occasional dappled sunlight filtering through his transparent jelly.

It was warm and comfortable.

Having been away from his territory for so long, he began to miss his warm, cozy slime nest, as well as Slime Mother and the Little Ones.

With Stinger Bees watching, no monster would dare bully them...

But he felt the territory was still not safe enough.

He needed to finish building the territory before the next downpour, and it had to be able to withstand rampaging monsters.

It wasn't difficult, it just required time.

After a day and a night of travel, Chen Yu finally returned to Oak Territory.

Compared to when he left, the area around Oak Territory was a mess. Seja's camp had been overrun by monsters, and the campfire was buried under withered leaves, returning to its primitive state.

Fortunately, Oak Territory was managed by the Stinger Bees. The farm was still the same, only with more plump Moss Monsters.

After a satisfying breakfast, Chen Yu dived to the bottom of the swamp and returned to the slime nest.

During his absence, several new slime nests seemed to have been established nearby, but no slimes dared to approach his own nest.

Squeezing into the nest with a "pop," he saw Slime Mother feeding the Little Ones, who had grown to the size of a thumb.

The little ones were stunned when they first saw him, then recognized him and happily rolled and hopped in Slime Mother's embrace.

Slime Mother, upon seeing him, slowly released gentle pheromones, like a faint sense of joy.

Chen Yu slithered in and realized that as he grew, the once spacious nest had become a bit crowded.

He nudged Slime Mother with his forehead and conveyed his thought of "moving" using the Sound Transmission Technique.

"Oak... my territory... move..."

Slime's minds were simpler than Stinger Bees', and it clearly couldn't understand such complex words.

But fortunately, slime pheromones contained primal languages expressing "moving" and "territory," as if a slime had truly gained territory and moved its nest out of the dark swamp bottom.

Slime Mother blinked her eyes, paused for a while, and then seemed to understand what he said. She silently pushed the Little Ones into the jelly, packing them up to leave.

Chen Yu retrieved the Gray Grit Crystals he had buried in the nest earlier. He left the nest and swam upstream. Slime Mother silently followed him, surfacing with him.

The Little Ones in the jelly were experiencing the outside world for the first time. They gazed at the vast green world, felt the warm sunlight penetrating their bodies, and exuded excitement.

Chen Yu went ashore and hopped step by step towards the tree-root nest where the Beetle had originally lived.

The tree-root nest was spacious enough and convenient for entry and exit, making it a suitable new nest.

As he passed, Moss Worms scattered in panic. Even so, it was Slime Mother's first time being so close to these predators. Her body trembled, and it took a long time for her to catch up.

As for the Little Ones, after witnessing him hunt the Beetle, they were not as fearful. Instead, they observed the whole world with curious eyes.

Slime Mother followed Chen Yu into the dim underground again and pushed the Little Ones out.

The Beetle's tree-root nest was twice the size of the slime nest, spacious enough for the Little Ones to play and frolic inside.

"A good start."

Chen Yu thought with satisfaction.

Slimes were originally the weakest monsters in this land. He didn't expect the Little Ones to become powerful when they grew up; he just hoped they could live a peaceful life.

At least, in his Oak Territory, no monster could bully them.

Having just completed the nest relocation, Chen Yu began the fervent construction of his territory.

First, he expanded the territory to include the three surrounding oak trees, encompassing Seja's former camp.

The central tree area would serve as the slime habitat, and the Moss Monster farm was relocated to the mossy tree area covered in glowing moss.

The camp tree area was where he left a place for Seja to rest overnight, in case she returned.

He hadn't figured out what to do with the last oak tree growing in the swamp, but he'd claim it for now.

After he drove away the sleeping Glow Mushroom People in the territory, the Stinger Bees began the construction efforts according to his plan.

In reality, choosing the swamp oak as a territory was a poor choice.

Generally, noble lords would choose to build their castles and fortresses on high ground in villages and towns, possessing a tactical advantage and being easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Oak Territory, on the other hand, was so flat that one could see across it at a glance. Monsters could swarm from all directions, and another magic surge could easily overwhelm the entire territory.

However, the territory he was building could not be thought of with an otherworldly mindset.

It was less of a territory and more of a cave dwelling.

Recalling the contents of the Maze Formation Diagram in his mind, he directed the Stinger Bees to bury pebbles in the ground as feng shui ley lines, covering the area of the four oak trees.

However, asking the Stinger Bees to dig and move stones was asking too much of them. Whether they could move them was another matter, but digging trenches was extremely difficult for their slender limbs.

Chen Yu began to miss his Beetle brothers; those Beetles were excellent diggers.

Since the Stinger Bees couldn't do it, he decided to dig the pits himself.

Behind him, Slime Mother and the Little Ones also emerged from the nest, helping to transport the stones.

The Slime Mother didn't understand what he was doing, but she quietly helped with the work.

Little One, meanwhile, treated moving stones as a game, using all its might to carry stones larger than its body and push them into the dirt pits and trenches.

With the help of its family, the construction of the Maze Formation sped up, and the basic formation foundation was laid in just one day.

Then, using slime with Spirit Stones to draw the spirit patterns, the entire Maze Formation was just one step away from completion.

At this exciting moment, Chen Yu took out the Gray Grit Crystal he had found earlier and buried it in the tree's base nest.

This thing could replace Spirit Stones as the formation's core, but it was too conspicuous, shining like a lightbulb, so it could only be buried in the tree's base nest.

It also conveniently provided light for the dim nest.

After placing it properly, Chen Yu counted down, injected Spirit Power, and as the Gray Grit Crystal lit up, the magic formation was activated. A thin mist gradually spread outside, enveloping the entire Oak Territory.

This mist was peculiar; it looked like wispy clouds but didn't block the light. Sunlight could still shine through the mist onto the territory.

And from the outside, the Maze Formation had completely merged with the poisonous fog. From the outside, one couldn't even make out the territory's appearance.

He grabbed a Moss Monster and threw it outside to test.

He discovered that the Moss Monster seemed to be under an illusion, constantly wandering outside the Maze Formation and unable to enter.

"It's done."

Chen Yu slowly climbed the oak tree, overlooking the vibrant scene of the entire territory. A surge of ambition welled up within him.

This was a new beginning.

Everything was developing in a good direction.