Silver Dragon · Lying in the Lair · Slime Enslaver · Li Wei's Blackhearted Plantation

The Underdark never saw daylight year-round. Only certain fungal plants scattered across the Barren Rock, giving off a faint glow, bloomed and withered in silent cycles as time slowly passed.

Three years had passed since he had pinched his nose and reluctantly convinced himself to accept the surrender of that pack of utterly useless Slimes.

Yet the facts proved that Li Wei had made a wise choice by not driving them away.

Although they were weak in Combat Strength, with the capture of a single Sawfathead Fish often costing more than twenty casualties, in the past, the corpses that died just to provide food for Li Wei, that bottomless pit, could probably have stretched from the cave entrance all the way to the opposite bank. This Slime tribe likely would not have lasted three months before dying out.

But after Li Wei discovered that evolved Slimes could merge together and then use [True Polymorph] to turn into some of the weaker creatures they had once devoured, there was no shortage of ways to break this vicious cycle.

In Li Wei's view, as long as they had brains and could understand dragon speech, it did not matter if they were a little stupid. Since being reborn as a Silver Dragon, he at least had a big heart and was not so easily angered to death.

At this moment, if one looked down from above, one would see that the entire cavern region spanning roughly ten miles around the underground Dark River and the Silver Dragon's lair had undergone enormous changes. The once bare, barren riverbanks were now covered in Fluorescent Moss of mixed green and yellow, along with a mildly poisonous fungus resembling Enoki Mushrooms. At a glance, it looked like a garden emitting a soft glow, filled with an unusual fairytale atmosphere. If it had been on Blue Star in Li Wei's previous life, it would probably have immediately become a must-visit internet-famous attraction.

Upon these lovely "crops," thousands upon thousands of Silver Slimes labored tirelessly:

They plastered moss dug up from the riverbed, mud and all, onto the rocky soil, then spat on it or excreted onto it. It was all the same anyway. The waste fluid produced by the Slimes' metabolism was excellent fertilizer for these mosses and fungi.

Such flourishing crops naturally attracted some sticky-fingered "thieves," as well as pitiful little creatures sent by the surrounding "friendly" neighbors to scout things out. Most of them were turned into fertilizer for the moss and mushroom plantation by the patrolling "Koutao Fishmen" nearby. The few powerful magical creatures that could not be dealt with would mysteriously disappear before causing greater damage, making the neighbors coveting this place even more wary.

When he encountered new ferocious species, Li Wei would not hesitate to share some of his spoils with the Slime workers. After all, the more species the Slimes could turn into, the better.

Unfortunately, Li Wei had not encountered any truly powerful species in the past few years. After all, the "powerful magical creatures" in the Slimes' eyes were weak things Li Wei could crush with a single claw. He did not even need to transform into his Silver Dragon true form.

Especially since the Kobold tribe Li Wei had been eagerly awaiting had never shown itself, making him wonder more than once whether those cowardly creatures had moved their entire tribe elsewhere out of fear that he would retaliate against them.

With all that considered, the "Koutao Fishmen" were currently the most useful things at Li Wei's disposal. He did not know what Talent Abilities real Koutao Fishmen possessed, since the Slimes had never managed to eat a Fishman Shaman, but Koutao Fishmen had natural scales that provided some protection. Their ability to wield weapons alone made them vastly superior to the Slimes' frail bodies.

The scene by the riverbank, meanwhile, was somewhat eye-searing. Quite a few Koutao Fishmen transformed from Silver Slimes were responsible for catching the increasingly rampant Sawfathead Fish from the river and throwing them onto shore.

The Slimes took over the Sawfathead Fish. One by one, they bent down and pressed their mouths against the fishes' bellies, sucking nonstop until their translucent stomachs were filled with bright yellow roe. Only then did they release the female Fathead Fish, which had been sucked until it seemed to question its entire fish life, and turn toward the male Fathead Fish, whose face was full of terror yet carried a trace of anticipation.

Only after some time, once their bellies had also been filled with another equally mysterious liquid and thoroughly mixed it together, did they wobble their round bodies and line up to leap into the calm river amid cries of "Mwee!" There, they scattered the fish eggs, now bearing the breath of life, into the water with a series of plops. A few days later, the newly hatched little Fathead Fish would linger by the riverbank, waiting for the Mycelial Mat harvested from the crops by the Slimes to rain down into the river.

It was clear that these Slimes had no awareness whatsoever of being enslaved. Instead, they seemed to enjoy it. In the occasional flickers of thought within their impoverished cellular fluid, hard labor seemed more like entertainment.

After all, for the Slime tribe, their once meager food supply had suddenly become inexhaustible through the efforts of their great lord and themselves. With food no longer limiting them, their numbers grew geometrically.

As for the Sawfathead Fish whose bodies had been hollowed out by the Slimes, a small portion was awarded to the Slimes themselves, while the rest was packed up by the "Koutao Fishmen" and delivered into that unfathomably deep Silver Dragon lair, whose rock walls were coated in thick frost.

This was a unique Talent Ability of the dragon race. As long as dragons remained somewhere for long enough, the surrounding environment would gradually be altered by their influence. For example, Red Dragon lairs were usually dry and stiflingly hot, while Black Dragon lairs often had stinking water flowing nearby and were filled with decay.

Clerics called this ability an aura, but dragons preferred to call it a domain. It was one of the absolute marks of inherited True Dragon lineage.

Every so often, those Koutao Fishmen would clear several tons of dragon dung reeking of fish from the cave.

To the Slimes, this dragon dung was like a "blessing." The Blue Slimes that had yet to evolve would consume it. Though the effect was several tiers below dragon blood, there was simply too much of it.

Besides, bleeding himself every day was not realistic. It would not only hinder his growth and leave Li Wei in a prolonged state of weakness, but it was also undignified.

Although not many Slimes awakened and evolved each day under these circumstances, he could basically get a little Freebie every day. It was still pure profit.

The evolved Silver Slimes could then transform into more Koutao Fishmen and a small number of low-level magical creatures, such as Ratmen and Goblins.

This efficient black industrial chain directly caused the nearly extinct Sawfathead Fish population to explode, turning into a virtuous cycle so astonishing that even Li Wei, the instigator behind it all, was amazed.

These flourishing crops were not large in scale, but in the Underdark, they were difficult to find in such a remote area. Only the fields of mushrooms cultivated by slaves such as Halflings beside the main cities built by Drow and Mind Flayers could compare. And behind such crops, there was often a hidden force like Li Wei supporting them from the shadows.

Thus, before they had determined the exact situation, small lords who considered themselves too weak, or who could not hold this place even if they captured it, rarely took such a risk. They would choose to lie low and wait for some fool or a powerful lord desperate enough for food to take the lead.

After all, risking the extermination of one's entire race for an agricultural industry that was not even very large was hardly a wise choice. In the past few years, the explosive increase in fish production within the river had brought plenty of benefits to the territories upstream and downstream, even sparking many bloody conflicts. Yet the center of the whirlpool remained eerily calm.

As expected, quite a few imitation integrated farming and fishing operations had also appeared throughout the surrounding regions.

Of course, most of them lacked cheap, amphibious, unpaid labor like Slimes, so they could not expand their industries. Their input and output could only barely satisfy their survival needs. Even so, countless underground creatures were delighted.

After all, survival had always been the first pursuit of living beings. And in the present-day Underdark, merely staying alive was already a blessing from heaven.

Therefore, many nearby tribes that had benefited from this quietly wondered what hidden existence stood behind these exceptionally intelligent Slimes. At the same time, they secretly hoped that this balance would one day be broken so they could pick up some scraps.

It was another peaceful day.

Within the lair, which had been expanded several times, the Silver Dragon—Lying in the Lair—Blackhearted Farm Owner—Slime Enslaver—Li Wei, now a gigantic beast, had curled himself up inside a limestone cave that was beginning to feel somewhat cramped.

As dragons at the top of the food chain, they also retained the drawback of having long growth cycles.

But over the past three years, under the unrestrained feeding of the entire Slime tribe, his body had developed explosively. He was no longer comparable to the little Silver Dragon who could once be filled by a single Hot Pot.

Correspondingly, aside from sleeping, Li Wei spent nearly every moment in the cave eating. Besides consuming the Fathead Fish fed to him by the Slimes, Li Wei also continued gnawing on minerals. There happened to be a small patch of Rare Earth Ore beneath his lair.

Li Wei had discovered that consuming these ores was highly beneficial to the development of his scales. It caused a keratinous layer containing metallic substances to grow within them. He did not know whether, if this continued, he would become some kind of monster clad in "metal armor."

This made Li Wei strongly suspect that he had some kind of illness.

One called Endless Gluttony Syndrome, with perhaps a slight case of pica as well?