The Metal King Slime was gone, and far ahead, darting through the trees, was a lone figure clad in a black-gold mask.

"He must be the one behind the ambush… the one who ruined my plan and slaughtered my men."

Shinma's expression twisted uncontrollably like a man suffering from severe constipation as another realization sank its fangs into him.

"He stole it!"

Shinma was infamous throughout the northern region of the Leon Kingdom, for he had engineered the destruction of a town with a population of 75,000.

Such a ruthless and cunning figure—how could he lack the brains to connect the dots and realize what had transpired?

"He has stolen the King Slime I bled half my legion to bring down. Hah… HAHAHA! We, the Ash Legionaries, have been played like fools! Un-fucking-believable!"

Thoroughly humiliated, Shinma let out a roar so furious it shook the valley.

His teeth bared, his veins bulged, and his voice split the air like thunder as he cursed and threatened,

"Black-gold mask, you wretched bastard! You dared to spit on my hard work, shatter my plan, and slaughter my men! I swear on my name. You will not leave this dungeon alive!"

Moments later.

Footsteps thundered as the Ash Legionaries, who had survived Ray's assault, charged in the direction they had last seen Black-gold Mask before he slipped out of their sight.

Several minutes later, they caught sight of Black-Gold Mask.

Shouts erupted from their ranks.

"There he is!"

"I see him!"

"Don't let him escape! We'll capture him alive! Rip out the King Slime from his Niwan Palace! Its corpse and core will be the key to my Leviathan Pup's evolution! Once it devours it, it will transcend into a Commander-Class Monster! With that power, our Legion will finally have the honor to serve beneath Master Topis's banner!"

They sped up, trying to bridge the gap that existed between them and Black-gold Mask.

But Black-gold Mask was equally fast.

No matter how fast they moved, he never entered their attack range, but he also never managed to escape their line of sight.

It almost felt like he was intentionally keeping them on his trail for some reason. But the Ash Legionaries failed to notice it.

********

The Ash Legionaries thundered through the thicket, their pursuit of Black Gold Mask relentless,

unaware that the person who had fucked them over, was hiding in an inconspicuous bush, watching them with a sly grin on his face.

After escaping the steam-choked valley.

The moment Ray had slipped from their sight, he had taken off the black-gold mask and passed it to Nameless, following the intricate plan they had agreed upon to the letter.

The one they were chasing after was Nameless!

From his hiding spot, Ray's eyes gleamed as he listened to Shinma's words.

'The very nature of demonic creatures can be altered for the better by feeding them the flesh and cores of King-Type creatures. What a shocking discovery. The metal slime king is already a king type. If I fed it the right materials, what type of creature would it become? What lies after a king? An overlord?'

Ray's spectualations ended there.

********

Half an hour later, Black-gold Mask suddenly stopped.

Shinma's taunting voice came from behind.

"Hahaha! Tired already?"

Black-gold Mask turned around. The eyes behind the mask were radiating with palpable confidence. His posture sang the same tune.

"I am far from being tired."

"Then why have you stopped?"

Black-gold Mask chuckled menacingly.

"Because there's no reason to run anymore."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Look around you."

When they looked around, they saw nothing but darkness. However, before they could call Black-gold Mask's bluff, a pair of glowing eyes entered their sight, appearing in the darkness surrounding them. It was followed by more and more pairs of glowing eyes.

Thousands of slimes came to surround them, led by Ray.

"I hope I am not too late," Ray said.

"You aren't," Nameless, who was wearing the Black-gold Mask, said. "Let's enact the final act of our plan."

Ray hummed in agreement.

The Ash Legionaries weren't simple characters. Most of them possessed life-saving items. Moreover, their abilities were one of the best, with a few of them possessing the means to avoid getting one-shot by curses and reality-bending abilities. Compared to average Demonic creatures with no extraordinary enchanted item and life-saving treasures, killing them was far harder.

Now, Nameless couldn't subdue them without relying on the Shattering Mother's curse. The problem was this curse thoroughly obliterated the target, not even leaving their cores intact, meaning killing them with the Shattering Mother's curse would net him no benefit, only satisfy his desires to be righteous and do good.

The plan Ray came up with would take down the Ash Legionaries and their commander without destroying their fiend cores.

The fiend cores they would get from killing the Ash Legionaries this way, Ray and Nameless had already agreed to share them equally.

That was why Nameless had so readily helped Ray.

"Fuck, we have fallen into a trap." Shinma's expression fell. "Retreat," he ordered.

"Kill!" Ray commanded as he attacked.

Mighty fire serpents manifested and streaked towards four of the seven fleeing Ash Legionaries.

At the same time, following his command, the Metal King Slime metallified its entire body and jumped onto an Ash Legionary.

With their king entering the fray, Dozens of peak Iron Rank giant slimes and thousands of Iron Rank slimes also joined, showering countless different kinds of attacks on the Ash Legionaries.

Faced with so many attacks, even a silver rank would be forced to admit defeat and give up his life.

Shinma and his Ash Legionaries never stood a chance.

First, their life-saving items shattered. Then they died.

A bunch of notifications began popping before Ray.

♦️ You have annihilated the Ash Legionaries, avenging tens of thousands of humans who had been killed and eaten by the Ash Legionaries in the past.

♦️ You have been rewarded with +500000 EXP for your righteousness.

♦️ You have gained additional EXP for being the main reason behind the demise of several Bronze Rank fiends.

♦️ You have leveled up.

♦️ You have leveled up.

♦️ You have leveled up.

♦️ You have leveled up.

♦️ You have leveled up four times.

♦️ You have gained +8 Stat Points.

Ray put them all into Agility.

If today he wasn't fast enough, his plan wouldn't have worked so perfectly. Having high Agility was truly a blessing—the higher his Agility, the better!

♦️ -8 SP

♦️ Your Agility has increased from 23 → 31

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