Chapter 07: Evolution?

The sunlight had just illuminated the forest, where only small rays of light illuminated its interior. The tops of the vast trees danced with the blowing of a solid and warm wind.

The howling of the monsters, as well as the singing of the birds animated the interior of the forest.

Watching the joyful start of the day, I stretched my gelatinous body as I let out a long sigh of freedom in my mind.

*Boing

I jumped off a tree branch and did an acrobatic stunt that would make any athletic being curse me and spit on my round body.

I raced through the forest, dodging trees and leaping over bushes. I fixed my gaze on the map, where several moving red dots appeared.

'Another week has passed since I arrived in this world. I can clearly feel the difference between the past and the present...'.

Unlike before, an incredible amount of energy was coursing through the inside of my body, the source of it naturally being the core at the center of my body.

As for the core, I often feared it would break in one of my battles, ending my little yellow life.

However, no matter if the monsters beat me to a pulp and cut me into pieces while their huge teeth chewed me like chewing gum, the core remained intact, rebuilding my gelatinous body again.

Of course, body reconstruction would only work as long as I had a lot of energy stored in my core. For example, if I had no energy while my body was being destroyed, my core would be the only thing that would remain intact until I restored the amount of energy needed to start the restoration of my body.

But still, one rather strange thing I discovered was that even in that status, I could have the ability to observe from inside the core after my gelatinous body disappeared.

That strange situation had led me to think that my soul dwelled inside my core, being protected by it, i.e., an immortal being... of course, as long as someone powerful didn't destroy my core, everything would be fine.

As for the pain... while I don't feel any pain when being torn into countless parts, as it was related to a passive ability, obedience and the feeling of being torn were not so pleasant.

Changing the subject, I created two more skills apart from the active skill I use the most; "Golden Explosion."

These two skills were created based on the golden lightning; However, my status shows that it is the "Lightning Element," it is pretty strange that it is golden, so I guessed that my peculiar situation had influenced to change its actual properties.

Aside from the three active skills mentioned, I didn't have any other attack-focused skills. Although it's a bit sad to say, my system didn't have a "Shop" option; therefore, I can't buy anything.

I tried countless times until my energy reserves ran out to recreate the fantastic and varied special abilities in the many fantasia anime that existed. However, with this body of mine significantly limiting me, I could not break through the wall of failure.

Still, I wasn't too discouraged, as I was currently already at "Rank F - Max Level." I'm pretty eager to advance to the next rank, which would be today or tomorrow, depending on my luck and performance.

'Sigh~, it's been a long time since I rummaged through my statuses...'.

'Status.'

Upon sending the command, the system obeyed me, and a gold-colored transparent holographic screen along with some black letters stood out quite a bit as a floating window in front of me.

[Name: Adler Nero |

Race: Slime.

Species: Golden Slime.

Title: Slime King

Energy: Origin.

Scale of power: Multiversal.

Status: ???

--------------

Current Power Rank: Rank F - Max Level.

?????

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--- Unique Traits---

> Core of origin.

> Devourer.

> Love of the world.

> Divine eyes.

> Existential veil.

---Active skills---

> Golden explosion.

> Golden bullet.

> Golden arrows.

> Aura of the King.

> Camouflage.

---Passive skills---

> Dynamic vision.

> Quick thinking.

> Self-regeneration.

> Denial of pain.

> Fast learning.

> Wave reader.

---Elements---

> Lightning.

-------------------------]

'Not bad, not bad at all...'.

Looking at the letters on the status screen, I nodded with satisfaction and rubbed my long white beard with glee.

Although I didn't know what the question marks on some parts of the screen meant, I didn't pay much attention to them. Even if I had wracked my brain, which I haven't, I couldn't find the answers to my question.

'Nothing will be able to stop this great slime on my way to absolute world conquest!'

Puffing out my chest with pride, my golden color shone under the sunbeam, and with a swoosh, golden rays surrounded me, and as a consequence, I shot forward like a bullet.

***

A golden slime glided across the ground as if its life depended on it. Its naturally round eyes, at this moment, were sharp as a sword.

*Grahhhhhh! *Grahhhhhhh! *Grahhhhh!

In front of him could be heard roars, which, thanks to his passive ability "Wave Reader," he could listen to as if at a sound better picked up than that of the human ear.

Not five seconds passed when the golden slime jumped out of the undergrowth. And, opening like the curtain of a theatrical stage, in front of him was a grassy stage surrounded by trees.

The source of the monsters' roars, intensifying with every second, entered his field of vision.

Giant monsters in the shape of dogs. They were intent on attacking each other with their giant, sharp, toothy mouths, trying to bite each other's necks.

As small as the golden slime was, naturally, the overall structure of the wolves seemed much more significant to him than it was at first.

However, he was not intimidated by the presence nor the terrifying appearance of the monsters, so without pausing, the round body glowed in the air with a golden light coming from the lightning bolts covering its body.

'Golden Bullet.'

With the activation of the ability within his mind, even though he didn't need to, the lightning bolts gathered in front of him and turned into small pointed balls that, in the blink of an eye, shot out like projectiles except it was much faster than that.

*whistling! *whistled! *whistling!

The air howled and hissed as if cut through at incredible speed, and with great precision on the part of the little slime, the projectiles made of lightning bolts pierced the muscular bodies of the four wolves fighting each other with great ease.

They gave their last roars to the world, and with a dry sound, their bodies lost their strength, collapsing to the ground.

'Hehe, come here, little cat. You're about to become manure for my body.'

With a big imaginary smile, the slime's body expanded like rubber and landed on a wolf's body, completely covering it with its gelatinous status.

[The <Devourer> ability has been activated]

[The <Excelia> energy is being purified and processed to the <Origin Energy>].

'It's fortunate that the monsters don't disappear in ashes as they did in the anime... Although that would happen if I directly destroyed their magic stones as I did with the dog that ate me, something I honestly don't plan to do again for now. Monster bodies are a great resource I need.'

From what the golden slime remembered from its past life, the monsters on the surface were weaker than the monsters of the same species that lived inside the Orario Labyrinth. Even their magic stones were poorer than they should be.

However, little is more than nothing, so there was no need to overthink it and keep consuming the monsters' bodies until their golden body evolved.

***

A few hours later, after killing a hundred monsters within the forest, which is a bit surprising in itself that it existed so much in the first place, the golden slime was shivering amidst a couple of corpses of kobolds, goblins, and wolves alike.

*Crack!

A noise came from inside as if something had broken. More precisely, the sound came from its core, shaking and sending waves of purified energy through the slime's body.

[Congratulations! You have advanced to <Rank E - Low Level>.

With hard work and effort, you achieve great results that open new doors for you]

[Begin the <First Evolution> process. Next, choose your humanoid body]