Even to the viewers, the slime’s growth and strength were on a whole different level compared to other monsters.
It had only evolved once.
Normally, if it were an ordinary Bounce Slime, it would barely be able to handle a D-rank monster, if at all.
This situation was all thanks to the unique circumstances the slime had experienced.
At first, it laid a strong foundation by eating highly nutritious meals at Count Ludendion’s mansion.
For monsters, meals directly translated to growth.
Thanks to that, the slime could easily handle more than ten goblins all by itself.
And even after leaving the count’s mansion, whether it was with Godrick’s party or with Amelia and Paulen in the Holy City, it continued to eat nutritious meals regularly.
On top of that, starting to work out with Paulen in that state allowed the slime to grow explosively.
A strong body built through balanced meals, constant training, and sparring with high-level opponents.
Even if it didn’t gain experience points to evolve, the experience it accumulated continued to make it stronger.
But that wasn’t the end.
The period when the slime grew the most was when it was at Troll’s secret workshop.
Troll might have been crude, but he made dumbbells using magic, so there was no way for the slime to skip workouts.
And although it was different from sparring with Paulen, it even gained experience fighting multiple opponents using golems.
Above all, though the taste wasn’t the best, all the monsters Troll hunted were at least C-rank or higher.
As meals to get stronger, they were perfect.
As a result—
—Ugh!?
Though it hadn’t evolved again, the slime gained enough strength from its tentacles alone to break free from the Orc Champion’s grip.
Seeing his hands slowly being forced apart, Orc Champion A was horrified.
‘What the hell kind of slime is this!?’
‘Grrrrrrr!’
The slime shouted in its heart, recalling Paulen’s teachings, and escaped from the Orc Champion’s grasp.
Boing!
After landing on the ground, the slime studied the Orc Champion.
‘Weak point! I have to attack!’
By investigating the bodies of dead monsters while massaging the elderly, the slime had learned that every living being had weak points.
And it understood that focusing attacks on those weak points made it easier to bring them down.
Among the monsters it hunted during those three days on commission were humanoid monsters, and the slime realized that the weak points of humans and humanoid monsters were similar.
That’s why it targeted the face with its tentacles and aimed for the solar plexus with its tackles when attacking Orc Champion B.
Of course, it didn’t learn about weak points just from massaging.
While massaging elderly villagers, the slime learned more as it listened to them talk.
“Oh dear, my knees hurt so much these days~.”
“Haha, that’s what happens when you get old.”
‘Knees.’
The slime decided it needed to attack the Orc Champion’s knees.
But it didn’t go for the knees immediately.
Among the many lessons it learned—
One was the lesson of a proper headbutt from Fenrir.
You should aim for the spot you most want to hit only at the end.
You have to make sure the opponent doesn’t expect you to target it.
Boing!
—Kugh!
Smack!
The slime used an ordinary bounce tackle that was easy for the Orc Champion to block, aiming for the solar plexus.
The Orc Champion quickly crossed his arms to block the slime’s tackle, swung his arms to fling the slime away, and hurried to pick up the greatsword he had set aside.
Boing!
The slime timed it perfectly and used another bounce tackle just as Orc Champion A grabbed his sword again.
Thud!
This time, the Orc Champion blocked the slime’s tackle using the sword.
After blocking the slime’s bounce tackles several times, the Orc Champion thought to himself.
‘Its attacks have gotten weaker.’
Compared to the first tackle it showed, the following attacks were clearly lacking in power.
The shock felt when blocking had lessened, and the attack speed was slow enough to track with his eyes and respond.
‘Yeah! It’s exhausted! There’s no way it can keep up attacks of that power!’
Just as the slime intended, Orc Champion A was completely deceived.
Gripping the sword handle tightly, Orc Champion A prepared to counterattack.
‘Come at me again! I’ll cut you down in one strike! After that, I’ll take my anger out on those humans in the village!’
He thought he would soothe his frustration from being toyed with by the slime by kidnapping, killing, and eating humans.
And then the slime used another tackle.
Boing!
But this time, it wasn’t a normal bounce tackle.
It was a full-power bounce jumping tackle.
Not to the solar plexus it had targeted repeatedly, but to the knees.
Orc Champion A thought it would go for the solar plexus again and swung his sword.
But of course, the greatsword never even touched the slime.
Crack!
—Kuaaaaaaaagh!
The slime’s tackle completely shattered Orc Champion A’s knee.
▶Wow, it totally crushed it.
[Just Slam First] Kyaa! That’s it! Exactly as I taught you! You’re doing great!
[Thread-Lady]▶ Our bouncy star is so cute and awesome~.
[Squishy Queen]▶ As expected, an orc is no match for my kin.
▶ Is that really a slime that’s only evolved once?
▶ If you start caring about details, you lose.
Anyone could see the fight was over.
Orc Champion B wasn’t dead, but his ribs were broken, and he couldn’t even stand.
Orc Champion A’s knee was completely destroyed, and he had collapsed.
—Kugh! A-aaaaagh!
‘Tsk, what pathetic weaklings.’
Seeing that scene, the Orc King clicked his tongue and looked at the Orc Champions with disappointment.
Both of them were pathetic, but to the Orc King, Orc Champion A looked even more pitiful.
At least Orc Champion B had been taken down after getting caught off guard during an attack.
However, Orc Champion A had become overly cautious of the slime the moment it broke free from his grasp.
If only he had slammed his sword to the ground and created some distance the moment he picked it up again.
But he got intimidated by the fact that the slime had overpowered him, and couldn’t fight aggressively.
‘And to think he even fell for the slime’s trick... what a fool!’
The Orc King felt no pity or sadness just because his subordinates had lost.
Winning was expected, and losing meant they were worthless.
That was simply the Orc King's logic.
While the Orc King was thinking how pathetic the champions were...
The slime, as usual, finished off the fallen Orc Champions lying on the ground.
At that moment—
[Target's required experience fulfilled.]
[You have met the conditions for evolution.]
[Multiple evolution possibilities detected for the target.]
[Please select the entity to evolve into.]
For the first time in a long while, the moment of evolution arrived for the slime.
***
‘Evolution!’
The slime was excited at the long-awaited chance to evolve.
After all, evolving meant it could become much stronger than it was now.
Unlike other monsters, the uniquely growing slime found it difficult to reach evolution.
That’s because the experience conditions required for evolution were subjective.
Based on its current strength, the slime only gained experience and coins when defeating monsters that were at least a certain level stronger.
But since it had grown and strengthened quickly through training and sparring, it had to defeat monsters at least B-rank or higher just to gain any experience.
After saving Claire and defeating a B-rank monster, and then defeating the two Orc Champions just now, the slime had earned a total of 7,500 coins.
Compared to the 30 coins it got from defeating a Moon Kobold, the difference was like night and day.
While the slime hadn’t been able to collect evolution experience, the evolution possibilities it had built up along the way now all appeared before its eyes at once.
[The total number of available evolution options is seven.]
[1. Huge Slime, 2. Deadly Slime, 3. Multi-Tentacle Slime, 4. Medical Slime, 5. Gluttony Slime, 6. Quake Slime, 7. Mighty Slime.]
[Would you like to hear detailed explanations?]
The first time it evolved, it had only three options.
But this time, there were seven options.
Normally, even monsters who understood the system would only get one, maybe two options when it came time to evolve.
Of course, that was because they had already gone through several evolution stages to get there, but even so, the number of choices shown to the slime was abnormally high.
Happy to see the evolution notice again after so long, the slime shared the news in the chat.
▷I can evolve!
▶Huh?
[Noblesse Fire] What the heck, there wasn’t even a hint of it before. And now it finally shows up?
[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶ You really lack tact... This is where you just say congratulations. Tsk tsk. Anyway, congratulations, Squishy!
[Squishy Queen]▶At last! You can finally evolve again. This is something to celebrate! So then! What options do you have this time?
▶ How many options this time?
▷Seven!
▶ ?
▶ ??
▶ Seven lolololol
▶ Why so many lololol
The viewers were either shocked or laughing in disbelief when they saw how many evolution options there were.
No matter how many extraordinary things they had seen from the slime, having seven evolution possibilities was beyond common sense.
[Free Spirit]▶??? Wait, there are seven?
And at that moment, Troll, who was just about to call Nellin’s group to the secret workshop to talk about the slime, was so surprised that he joined the chat too.
[Squishy Queen]▶ My kin! Quickly! Tell us what options you have!
▷Okay!
The slime then posted the list of evolution options exactly as it appeared in its own selection window.
▶ Wow, there’s all sorts of stuff.
▶What’s Medical Slime? (Seriously curious)
[Thread-Lady]▶ Which one would make Squishy even cuter?
[Just Slam First]▶ Body Slams! Which one can do better Body Slams!
[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Heh, I’d love to see the detailed explanations this time.
▶ So many choices... I’m so jealous.
While the other viewers were staring at the list of evolutions...
The Slime Queen was extremely flustered.
‘Wh-What is this? Why... why are these options showing up already!’
The evolution options that appeared for the slime...
Most of them were evolutionary forms at the level of utilizing the system.
In other words, it was like skipping from stage 2 straight to stage 7 without going step by step through stages 3 and 4.
More than anything, what shocked the Slime Queen the most...
‘What is this! What is this Mighty Slime option!’
It was the fact that even the Slime Queen didn’t know about one of the options that had appeared.