Evolution

I didn't expect that Zen's father needed demon essence. If I were to guess the purpose, then it should be for power leveling Zen's soon-to-be-tamed monster. Why? Because tamed beasts and monsters can evolve if they consume a certain level of essence.

Evolution not only provides a boost to the original stats and skills of a monster but also affects the tamer. When a tamed monster evolves, the excess energy released would affect the tamer and in turn reinforce their bodies to a certain extent. This is why evolution is essential for tamers.

However, the method that Zen's father was about to do is something extravagant. If I were to evolve my slime with just the essence crystals from undead skeletons, then I would need to hunt about a thousand of them before reaching the required energy level.

If I had that much financial power, then my slime would have evolved twice over by now. While thinking about such things, I bought food for myself and my slime before booking a room for the night.

After resting for a full night, I went to the market again, looking for some used clothes and some weapons and armor. Although I can't fight in my current state, I still need to be prepared for the worst. A tattered shirt with gritty pants doesn't possess any defensive power in any way.

Looking around, searching for the cheapest buy, I managed to rack up a few bonuses. I got a sling bag for free, though it feels more like a rucksack. With that, I bought two pairs of clothes and underwear, two long and sturdy pants, boots, a slightly used dagger, and an old leather armor.

All in all, I spent about 40,000 Credits which was almost all of my possession. However, with this, I can say that I leveled up my life from that of a beggar to that of a vagrant. Before wearing my newly bought clothes, I went outside the town with my slime and headed towards the forest.

From there, I headed to the nearest stream and removed all my clothes. Since I was originally what you call a "street urchin", my current body is in no way clean. After entering the cold stream, I quickly dipped my whole body in the water before scrubbing away at the dirt all over.

The stream quickly turned from a pristine transparency to a murky brown. I didn't even notice that I was that dirty. After washing much of the dirt away, I was surprised to see my skin color change. It was magnificent as it changed from a dark brown to a now healthy-looking pinkish color.

Looking down at my member swinging freely in the cold morning wind, I nodded my head. Yep, I knew it was gigantic based on my memory, but seeing it is something entirely different.

When I washed my head, the water turned even murkier than before, closer to black. When the water settled down and I could see my reflection, I was surprised. My hair color changed!

In my previous life, I had black hair, which is a common color for Asians. If my memory is to be trusted in this life, then it should be a clear brown, closer to a wheat brown. However, now, even with the blurry water, it was clearly of a different color. It was now a bright and clear blue color!

Seeing this color, I immediately turned my head to the slime. Male slimes are bluish, which should perfectly match my current hair color. Is this change due to my contracting this slime? Though I haven't heard of such adverse effects of taming beasts or monsters. If not, then maybe due to my past life's memories awakening. Either way, my current hair color change is a bonus, as it will help me wash away my past as Cloud.

After making sure that all dirt had been removed from my body, I quickly dried myself using the spare clothes before wearing the other set. Over the plain shirt, I wore my second-hand leather armor. I hung the dagger on the leg holster that came with the pants by default. With that, I am fully equipped.

For my past clothes, if they can still even be categorized as such, I dug a random hole and buried them.

After I made sure that I was done preparing, we started heading toward the undead forest once more. As usual, it took a couple of hours just to get there. Since we are tight on our budget, we immediately hunted the undead skeletons as much as we could.

When we were about to return, I ended up with a total of 129 pieces of essence crystals. I don't know if it was due to coming earlier or because the slime got used to sneak attacking the skeletons, but our efficiency increased.

Since we managed to gain more than we expected, I let the slime consume 29 essences to leave a good figure of 100 as our loot. As soon as it finished consuming the last essence, a bright light suddenly surged from the slime.

The light was so strong that I felt my vision blur for quite a while, even after it faded. Thankfully, it didn't last long. But more than that, I was surprised to see the slime undergo such a drastic change.

"It evolved!"

Now, the slime was no longer as large as a basketball but was as big as a yoga ball. Its color was still the same, but the core in the middle had split into two pieces that floated randomly within its aqueous body.

I was surprised by the sudden evolution, but it should be because it had already collected a large amount of energy before contracting with me. The few essences it ate just happened to be enough to fulfill the conditions for its evolution.

Through the feedback, I too earned a bit of a power-up physically. It was magical seeing my skin-and-bones appearance get a bit bulkier than before. The feedback magically gave my muscles a bit more mass, turning my build toward the slender side.

The slime, as if happy for its evolution, jumped up and down repeatedly in celebration.

"Okay, now that you have evolved, I'll give you a name!"