World Keeper

Chapter 433: Evolution

The process of evolving the slimes was… more challenging than one might expect. Even for a Goddess, it took her a long period of time to create several different slime variants. For Jonas, although the process was aided by his extensive research, it was ultimately still very time consuming.

After teaching them all of the basic energy types, and helping them to construct cores to maintain those energies, he had to gradually work with one of them to perform the fusions. Thankfully, slimes have an excellent ability when it comes to observing and learning from others, they are just a bit… slow.

As an example, the process of merging ki with spiritual energy. After demonstrating merely three times, the first slime was able to grasp the ratios needed almost instinctively. Yet still, Jonas had to wait for months as he watched the bridge slowly building between the two cores of the slime that controlled those energies. And then again when merging spiritual energy and mana.

If there was one benefit here, it was that slimes learned even more quickly from other slimes. Even though he only taught one of them, all five showed progress with learning. And after roughly half a year, their cores looked like an odd network of rods rotating around a central core.

This was where the elf had expected things to get difficult. He constructed a large ritual chamber that could house the five slimes, designed to prevent any energy from leaking out. This was the same type of chamber that Jonas himself had used to attain his Perfect Self. It had even been improved upon due to advances in his research.

After leading the five slimes down, he used his mana to carefully instruct one to come forward, explaining the process. The body of a slime itself was unimportant, you could cut it away forever and they would take no damage. No, the only vulnerable part of a slime was their core. If you did not damage that, they would not die.

At the same time, it was possible to simply remove a core from a slime. If you did so, and set the core down atop something that could easily be consumed, the core would regrow the entire body of the slime, while its old body was rendered lifeless.

As such, in order to take this final step, it was necessary for the slime to willingly shatter their own cores. That would be the equivalent to a normal person destroying their body in order to achieve perfection.

This was clearly a difficult concept for the slime to understand, yet the link it had with Jonas enabled it to tell that there were no lies in what he was saying. Uncertainties, perhaps, but it knew that Jonas was not simply commanding its death. Such a thing would go against the pact between monster and tamer.

And so, the large silver slime moved into the center of the room as Jonas backed away to the edge. It stood there, its body shaking for several moments before visible cracks appeared along the many cores inside of its body. Then, with a thunderous snap, these cores erupted.

Yet… perhaps there was more merit to using a slime for this than he had first expected. Although Jonas received the system prompt telling him that his slime had died, the shattered cores did not fly out of its body. The viscous gel that formed the slime held the shards within itself, not allowing them to easily escape.

This fact allowed Jonas to watch as the shards began slowly floating back to the center. As they joined up with one another, they let out a brilliant glow. Steam could be seen rising off of the body of the slime, its outer coat beginning to evaporate. A foul stench filled the room, but Jonas did not look away, too engrossed in recording what he was seeing.

As the outer body of the slime shrank down, the light emitting from the cores began to fade. When it had dimmed enough, Jonas was able to note that his prediction was not entirely accurate. Yes, the energy cores had formed a ring, a halo half a meter in diameter. But, there was also a change to the primary core.

No longer was the core a sphere. Now, it formed a disc shape, almost a foot wide and placed directly in the center of this halo. Even more incredulously, this new core was not inside the viscous slime body. Instead, it hovered a few inches above it.

The halo rotated one way, the core the other as the slime began to shift and reform. It was now a much more pure white, and small enough that it paled in comparison to its former stature. In fact, as the slime reshaped, taking on an almost humanoid shape, its total height was less than two meters.

Jonas barely even noticed the achievement. His eyes were focused on the slime that was now walking towards him. Yes, walking, not sloshing around with its gelatinous form, it was properly using its legs.

And of course… slimes always learn more quickly from others… a fact that Jonas only registered when he noticed several bright lights coming from behind himself.

“They… all succeeded?” I asked, incredulously as I watched the screen. As this was the moment of truth, I slowed down the time once again to match a normal speed.

“Maybe it’s because he is Ryone’s champion now?” Aurivy muttered, her eyes transfixed on the screen as well. “The golden aura has to have its perks…”

I could only nod faintly at that, my eyes focusing in on the first slime to transform. As I read its information, I opened my eyes wide with shock. “Okay, this could turn into an issue…”

“How the hell did it get so many levels from evolving?!” Aurivy exclaimed once she noticed what I was referring to. “Those things weren’t more than level four hundred before the ritual.”

“Simple, really.” A third voice spoke up that startled the both of us, causing us to look at the end of the couch. Terra sat there, having appeared at some point unbeknownst to us.

“A monster’s level isn’t just determined by the quantity of energy in their body. Rather, it is determined by the complexity and strength of their body, along with any energy that they possess. Slimes are the absolute bottom of the barrel when it comes to complexity, starting with levels no greater than twenty at their base form.”

“For a slime to possess a level in the hundreds shows that it had accumulated a massive amount of energy. And then, when it ascended from being the ‘bottom of the barrel’ slime to a ‘perfect self’…”

Aurivy gulped as she finished Terra’s sentence. “The strength of its body has reached the pinnacle form. Coupled with its former energy levels, its level skyrocketed.”

“Precisely.” Terra nodded with a small smile. “Such a change wouldn’t be as drastic if it were to happen to, say… Fafnir. His body is already incredibly strong, and so the evolution would only offer him a minor increase. Maybe one hundred levels, at most. The weaker a monster’s body is, the bigger the jump.”

“So that’s why its race changed to ‘Slime of Origin’.” I muttered, shaking my head. We had been taking the idea of a ‘slime god’ to be a joke. However, as it stands… Niri could take out almost anyone in any of my worlds. Only Tsubaki would stand a chance at defeating it in single combat. And worse yet, it seems that Jonas had yet to notice just how strong his slimes had become.

If there was anything to be thankful for, it was that the monster tamer bond was still in effect. If it had broken when the slimes ‘died’, then these creatures would be entirely without anything to control them. At that point, it was possible that I would need to directly smite them in order to prevent them from destroying entire nations to sate their gluttony.

“Let’s watch how things develop.” I spoke in a careful tone, leaning forward in my seat. “If they get too much stronger, and decide to break free from his control, we’ll have to get involved.”

Aurivy nodded her head, shifting to the side so that she could lean against me. “Still, though… they do look a little cool.”

“Rivy, they’re humanoid, pure white slimes with halos.” I spoke with a deadpan tone before cracking a small grin. “Yeah, they are kinda cool.”

Terra simply rolled her eyes in bemusement. “It should be fine to speed things up again now, right? It doesn’t look like anything’s happening.”

“Is everything packed up?” Salar Fairbrook asked as he looked to the other beastkin scattered about in their cave dwelling. They were the last group set to depart back home, having cleared out the last of the silver intercite that they could find.

It had been… generations since some of the families in the colony had seen their homeland. Those who performed exceptionally were allowed to ‘retire’ and move back home, being replaced by new workers soon, while those who did not perform up to that standard would remain. Ever since before the establishment of the Dawn Kingdom, this group had remained in the twelfth floor of Fyor.

Every now and then, they would change the location of their colony, seeking out more hidden veins of intercite or avoiding Fyor’s mining teams. However, now, the mineral seemed to be entirely spent from this region. As such, the families were moving again. They would first be sent back to the homeland, and allowed a year’s respite as thanks for their continuous service.

After that… the colony was scheduled to scout out the twentieth floor of Fyor, another underground location. Geologists predicted that there was a high likelihood of intercite and other valuable minerals to be located within this floor.

Thanks to their work in procuring large quantities of intercite, the ninja villages had been able to make remarkable advancements in their research. However, this only made them wish to acquire more if at all possible. While they did indeed have enough for themselves… they intended to begin sharing their discoveries.

Salar nodded as he saw the beastkin closing in, their packs hefted over their shoulders. Each of them carried bags stuffed with quest scrolls, but these scrolls carried only basic living tools such as blankets, bedrolls and cooking utensils. The few valuable objects they had were stored in secret storage enchantments scattered across otherwise mundane items that they wore.

Just as he was giving the order to move out, Salar furrowed his brow, bringing a hand to his ear. The others could tell that he had been contacted by someone, judging by the expression of focus falling over his features. Once their secret conversation was done, Salar simply sighed. He looked at the group with a small smile.

“Good news, I suppose. We have a new mission to take after our respite. This mission is available only for the lycans, and will require undercover training. Anyone who wishes to volunteer may speak to the elders when we arrive.”

After saying that, Salar gestured for the others to leave first. Only when they were all gone did he turn to face the cave. There were several scattered homes built into the stone walls, and it would be too difficult to fill in the cave, as they had extracted too many resources. Instead, he could only do his best to make it appear that this was an ancient dark elf colony.

Closing his eyes, he brought his hands in front of his chest, his palms facing each other. Numerous runes began lighting up in the air over his flesh, flashing with blue light. This light then arched up from the runes to join in the center, forming a dense ball of energy. Thrusting his hands forward, Salar launched the energy into the center of the cave, where it erupted into a brilliant light show.

Yet, nothing seemed to change from this action. The structures remained as they were, and there was not even the slightest breeze created from the blast of energy. This chakra technique had only one purpose, which was to scramble the natural energy of the surrounding areas. With this, it would be impossible for any shaman to look through the past in order to find the truth of their presence here.