Zoe quickly dodged to the side and spat out an Acid: Heart-Piercing Bullet.
Seeing this, the Shadow Wolf King turned into a dark afterimage, dodging the heart-piercing projectile.
'The Shadow Wolf King's Agility is much higher than mine; it's basically impossible to hit him with a single-target attack.'
Zoe's Agility was his weakness.
Working with Vera's speed and aerial advantage could make up for this shortcoming to some extent.
But in a one-on-one fight, if he couldn't close the distance quickly, he would easily get kited.
The Shadow Wolf King lashed out with another dark slash.
At the same time, the shadow beneath Zoe began to squirm, and several tentacles made of darkness writhed and reached to entangle him.
Dispel his own shadow with Dragon Flame?
Dragon Flame was not such a convenient fire; it was a grinder of mana.
Therefore...
Zoe's body began to change from deep purple to a completely water-like, transparent color!
The shadow beneath him instantly vanished!
Then, his transparent body contorted, dodging the Shadow Wolf King's dark slash.
Acid Bullet Rain!
Zoe launched his body forward, rapidly closing the distance with the Shadow Wolf King, while spitting a torrent of acid rain across the sky to block the Shadow Wolf King's path of retreat and prevent him from pulling away.
Without hesitation, the Shadow Wolf King had absolutely no intention of fighting Zoe in close combat and rapidly retreated to the side.
Acid: Scatter Bullet!
Seizing the opportunity, Zoe spat out another dense cluster of Acid Bullets, firing them at the Shadow Wolf King!
The dense scatter-shots grazed the Shadow Wolf King's body and quickly began to corrode.
Under the pain, the Shadow Wolf King's body paused for a fraction of a second, and Zoe used this opportunity to spit an Acid: Heart-Piercing Bullet.
Seeing this, the Shadow Wolf King rolled into a shadowed depression in the ground, morphing into a pitch-black shadow and swiftly swimming through the hollow.
'Is that his target?'
Zoe quickly spat a wide area of Acid Bullet Rain, covering the shadow inside the depression.
The Shadow Wolf King burst from the shadow, regaining solid form, and swung another dark slash.
The mana of both sides was depleting rapidly. Zoe knew he had to deliver the decisive blow.
Corrosive Gas Slash!
The sharp Corrosive Gas Slash was shot out, heading straight for the dark slash.
The dark slash was instantly shattered. The Corrosive Gas Slash lost none of its momentum and continued to cleave toward the Shadow Wolf King.
Naturally, the Shadow Wolf King dared not underestimate this sharp slash. Relying on his Agility, he swiftly dodged to the side.
However, the Corrosive Gas Slash that grazed his body suddenly exploded, engulfing him in compressed, yellow-green corrosive gas.
Zoe took the opportunity to spit out a Dragon Flame Bullet.
The Shadow Wolf King did not dare underestimate this terrifying attack in the slightest, hastily continuing to dodge.
However, as he dodged, the yellow-green gas wrapping around his body dragged out a stream of yellow-green mist in the air.
The dodged Dragon Flame Bullet precisely struck the yellow-green mist stream.
The yellow-green mist instantly caught fire. Like a fuse, it drew a line of Dragon Flame in the air, igniting the yellow-green gas wrapped around the Shadow Wolf King.
Boom!
Dragon Flame: Accumulative Corrosive Burn!
By detonating the Corrosive Gas Slash, the abundant corrosive gas inside would disperse, forming a dense, flammable, and corrosive smoke that wrapped around the opponent.
This way, even if the opponent continued to dodge, the thick smoke would not disperse. Instead, it would leave a trail in the air resembling a fuse.
At that point, one only needed to ignite the trail. Just like lighting a fuse, it would directly ignite the flammable, corrosive gas wrapped around the opponent.
This was Dragon Flame: Accumulative Corrosive Burn!
The Shadow Wolf King's body was instantly engulfed in the igniting Dragon Flame. He fell to the ground; at this moment, the battle was decided.
“Awoo!”
The pack of wolves behind the Shadow Wolf King let out mournful howls.
Meanwhile, Zoe landed on the ground and extinguished the Dragon Flame.
Though covered in wounds, the Shadow Wolf King still swayed as he stood, lowering his wolf head toward Zoe.
“I have lost. The shadow wolf pack swears its allegiance to you, Lord High Slime.”
“Puji.”
「I accept your allegiance, Shadow Wolf King.」
“The defeated is unworthy of being called a king. From now on, you may simply call me Dark Wolf.”
At that moment, all the shadow wolves prostrated themselves before Zoe, swearing their allegiance with howls.
“Puji.”
「Elder Deer, give them emergency treatment. Try to avoid any casualties after the battle.」
The deerman race, though the weakest in combat, occasionally had special individuals who awakened healing magic.
Elder Deer was one such special individual.
Thus, this race as a whole was still very valuable.
“Yes!”
Elder Deer hurriedly stepped forward, approaching Dark Wolf first, and cast a healing spell.
Afterward, they cleaned up the battlefield, collected the goblin corpses, and counted their numbers.
Among them, 34 shadow wolves and 11 gnolls remained.
The monster alliance had suffered 26 casualties.
A total of 267 goblin corpses were collected.
Among them were 64 special goblin individuals who possessed decent mana talent. Zoe could happily feed on them for a long time.
“Lord, shall we continue to march forward?”
Several elders respectfully asked Zoe.
“Puji.”
「Retreat. The combat strength of the goblin tribe needs to be reevaluated. I suspect a goblin king has already appeared among them.」
A goblin king was a monster with a level cap as high as Level 50.
It was the strongest individual among goblins, ruling over thousands of them.
Most goblin kings were Mid-tier Monsters, but a few could become High-tier Monsters.
And High-tier was already the peak for monsters.
Any higher, and they would be existences known as Quasi-Demon Kings.
Above Quasi-Demon Kings were the True Demon Kings, of which only eighteen had ever appeared in the history of the entire world.
Under the Sacred Circle Calendar, there were still eight living True Demon Kings, and no new True Demon King had appeared for three hundred years.
The level cap of a High Slime was only Level 40, making it impossible for him to break through to become a High-tier Monster.
If a goblin king existed, there were likely thousands of goblins. Continuing to attack their home nest would be seeking death.
Once the cleanup of the battlefield was complete, only messy bloodstains remained all over the ground.
The goblin corpses strewn everywhere were also gathered and packed up by the monsters.
One by one, like migrating ants, the monsters carried the goblin corpses on their shoulders and marched toward the southwest.
Dark Wolf also commanded the shadow wolves to carry the food stored in the canyon for the winter, following Zoe toward the Slime Territory.
With such a massive army of monsters, naturally no brainless beast would dare to attack them along the way. Instead, the wild monsters scattered and kept their distance.
Once they returned to the foot of Slime Mountain, the monsters left behind to guard the settlement let out excited and joyful howls upon seeing the returning, victorious army.
With these goblins, they no longer had to worry about the upcoming Month of Bitter Winter.
“Puji.”
「Your shadow wolf tribe can choose any spot at the foot of the mountain as your living area.」
「Dark Wolf, you can choose a cave on the mountain to live in.」
Slime Mountain was the place with the densest concentration of mana in this region. Usually, only Zoe and Vera lived on the mountain, monopolizing this rich mana.
However, having a few more monsters live there would not affect the density of the mountain's mana anyway.
“Yes, I will arrange it immediately.”
Dark Wolf let out a howl, quickly directing the shadow wolves to find a suitable dwelling in the surrounding area, ultimately choosing the uninhabited area to the west.
This area was on the shady side, receiving no sunlight and appearing gloomy, which was why no race had ever chosen to live here.
But for the shadow wolves, who possessed an affinity for the shadow element, such an environment was the most comfortable to live in.
“Puji.”
「Elder Kobold, follow me.」
「The rest of you, disperse. Have the special goblin corpses delivered to my cave later.」
“Yes!”
The monster elders hurriedly complied, while Elder Kobold followed obsequiously behind Zoe, his tail wagging like a propeller.
“Puji.”
「Next, I will assign a task to your tribe. I need you to mobilize as many kobolds as possible to complete it.」
「Other races will also cooperate with you to get it done.」
Returning to the cave, Elder Kobold looked at the text box in front of him and nodded eagerly in delight.
“Great High Slime, it is our tribe's honor to serve you, woof!”
“As long as it is your command, I would go through fire and water for you, woof!”
The kobold quickly expressed his loyalty.
“Puji.”
「There is no need to go through fire and water. I need you to use your racial talent to find minable mineral veins within my territory.」
Kobolds could smell the scent of mineral veins, making them an excellent monster race for prospecting.
There was also a rumor that kobolds could smell treasure, which was why they were often kept by dragons to find treasures.
But according to Elder Kobold, this rumor was false. What kobolds could smell was only the metallic scent from deep underground.
“Leave it to me, Great High Slime! I will definitely find a minable mineral vein for you!”
Having assigned the task of searching for mineral veins, Zoe resumed his usual training once again.
Burning his body with Dragon Flame, using High-speed Regeneration, and then Devouring and Digesting to recover mana and increase his maximum mana limit.
After repeating this entire training routine countless times, Zoe could complete it with his eyes closed.
And he had already completely adapted to the pain of the burning Dragon Flame.
Grind, grind, grind!
Rate on N.U.
