Even to the viewers, the slime’s growth and strength were beyond comparison with other monsters. It had evolved only once. Any other Bounce Slime would normally have been barely capable of defeating a D-rank monster, if that. This was the result of the special circumstances the slime had experienced.

First, it had laid a solid foundation with nutritious meals at Count Rudendion’s mansion. For monsters, eating was directly linked to growth. Thanks to that, the slime could easily defeat more than ten mere goblins all by itself.

Even after leaving the count’s mansion, it had continued eating nutritious meals while traveling with Godric’s Party and while staying with Amelia and Paulen in the Holy City. Then, when it began exercising with Paulen on top of that, its growth had been explosive. With a body built up through balanced meals, it trained constantly and sparred with a highly skilled opponent. Even when it earned no experience points toward evolution, the experience it accumulated kept it growing.

But that was not the end of it. The slime had grown most of all during its stay at Smartass’s secret workshop. Smartass had made it crude dumbbells with magic, so it never had to skip a workout. The sparring differed from its sessions with Paulen, but with golems involved, it even gained experience fighting multiple opponents.

Above all, though the monsters Smartass caught might not have tasted particularly good, their meat all came from monsters of at least C-rank. As meals for growing stronger went, the conditions could hardly have been better.

As a result...

"Urgh!?"

Though it had yet to evolve, it had gained enough strength to escape an Orc Champion’s grip using its tentacles alone. Orc Champion A was horrified to see his hands being forced farther and farther apart.

'What the hell kind of slime is this?!'

'MUSCLEEEEEE!'

Shouting the cry Paulen had taught it in its mind, the slime broke free of the Orc Champion’s grip.

BOING!

Landing on the ground, the slime studied the Orc Champion.

'Weak spot! Have to attack it!'

Massaging the elderly had prompted the slime to examine the corpses of dead monsters, and it had learned that every living creature had weak spots. It also understood that concentrating its attacks on those spots made enemies easier to defeat. Among the monsters it had killed on quests over the past three days had been humanoid monsters, and it had learned that their weak spots resembled those of humans. That experience was why it had attacked Orc Champion B’s face with a tentacle and aimed its tackle at his solar plexus.

Of course, the massages themselves were not the only way the slime had learned about weak spots. While massaging the elderly villagers, it had learned about human vulnerabilities by listening to their conversations.

["Oh dear, my knees have been aching so often lately."]

["Ho ho ho. That’s how it is when you get old, isn’t it?"]

'Knees!'

The slime decided it should attack the Orc Champion’s knee. But it did not go for the knee right away.

It put one of its many lessons into practice: Fenrir’s teaching on proper slamming. Save the spot you most want to hit for later. Keep your opponent from expecting you to aim there.

BOI-BOING!

"Urgh!"

THWACK!

The slime aimed at the Orc Champion’s solar plexus with an ordinary Bounce Tackle, making it easy to block. The Orc Champion hurriedly crossed his arms to stop the tackle, swung them to fling the slime away, then hastily retrieved the greatsword he had dropped.

BOI-BOING!

Timing it for the moment Orc Champion A took up his sword again, the slime used another Bounce Tackle.

CLANG!

This time, the Orc Champion blocked the slime’s tackle with his sword. After blocking several Bounce Tackles, he thought,

'Its attacks are getting weaker.'

Compared with its opening tackle, the attacks coming at him now were all weak. The impact when he blocked them had diminished, and they were slow enough for him to follow with his eyes and react.

'That’s it! It’s exhausted! There’s no way it could keep attacking with that much power!'

Orc Champion A was being led exactly where the slime wanted him. Tightening his grip on the greatsword’s hilt, he waited for a chance to counterattack.

'Come at me again! I’ll cut you down in one stroke! Then I’ll take my anger out on that hooman village!'

Orc Champion A intended to soothe his frustration at the slime by kidnapping, killing, and eating humans. Then the slime tackled again.

BOOOING!

This time, it was not a Bounce Tackle, but a full-power tackle using Bounce Jumping. And it aimed not at the solar plexus it had attacked so many times, but at the knee. Expecting another attack at his solar plexus, Orc Champion A swung his sword. Naturally, the greatsword missed the slime completely.

CRAAACK!

"Gaaaaaaargh!"

The slime’s tackle utterly shattered Orc Champion A’s knee.

▶Whoa, smashed it to pieces.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Hell yeah! That’s it! That’s exactly it! Doing great, just like I taught you!

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶You’re so cute and impressive in action, Squishy.

[Squishy Queen]▶As expected, mere orcs are no match for my kin.

▶Is that really a slime that’s only evolved once?

▶You lose if you sweat the small stuff.

Anyone could see the fight was over. Orc Champion B was alive, but his broken ribs left him unable even to stand properly, while Orc Champion A had collapsed with his knee completely buckled.

"Urgh! A-aaaaargh!"

'Tsk. Pathetically weak fools.'

Watching the scene, the Orc King clicked his tongue and regarded the Orc Champions with contempt. Both were equally pathetic, but in his eyes, Orc Champion A looked even worse.

At least Orc Champion B had been taken down when the slime exploited an opening during his attack. But the instant the slime had forced its way out of Orc Champion A’s grasp, A had become overly wary of it. He should have struck the ground again as soon as he took up his sword, if only to create some distance. Instead, being overpowered by the slime had intimidated him so much that he could not act aggressively.

'And then he fell for the slime’s tricks, too. Idiot!'

The Orc King felt neither regret nor sorrow at his underlings’ defeat. Winning was only to be expected; losing made them pathetic fools. To him, that logic was perfectly natural.

While the Orc King was dwelling on how pathetic his Orc Champions were, the slime finished off the fallen Champions as it always did.

At that moment...

[Subject’s required experience threshold met.]

[Evolution conditions fulfilled.]

[Multiple evolution possibilities detected for subject.]

[Please select an evolution form.]

For the first time in a very long while, the moment for the slime to evolve had arrived.

+++

'Evolution!'

The slime was excited to finally have another chance to evolve. After all, evolution meant it could become much stronger than it was now.

Unlike other monsters, the slime had grown in an unusual way, making evolution difficult to reach. The experience requirements for evolution were relative. To earn experience points and coins, it had to face monsters stronger than a certain threshold based on its current strength. But because sparring and training had made it grow stronger so quickly, it had to defeat monsters with at least B-rank strength just to earn experience points.

Between the B-rank monster it had defeated while rescuing Claire and the two Orc Champions it had just killed, the slime had earned a total of 7,500 coins. Compared with the 30 coins it had received for defeating a Moon Kobold, the difference was night and day.

And now, all the evolution possibilities its experiences had opened up while it was unable to accumulate evolution experience appeared before it at once.

[Subject has a total of 7 evolution options.]

[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 detailed explanations?]

The first time it evolved, three options had appeared. This time, there were even more: seven. Even monsters aware of the system usually had only one option when the time came to evolve, or two at most. Of course, that was because they had already gone through several evolutions to reach that point, but even taking that into account, the slime had an extraordinary number of choices.

Delighted by the evolution prompt it had not seen in so long, the slime shared the news in chat.

▷I can evolve!

▶Huh?

[Noblesse Fire]▶What? You hadn’t shown any sign of it all this time. It finally popped up?

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶All you need to do at a time like this is offer congratulations, yet you remain as tactless as ever. Tsk, tsk. Ah, congratulations, Squishy.

[Squishy Queen]▶At last! Thou canst evolve again. This calls for celebration! So, this time! What options dost thou have this time?

▶How many came up this time?

▶Last time it was three, so shouldn’t it be two or one now?

▷7!

▶?

▶??

▶Seven lmaoooo

▶Why so many lololol

The number of evolution options left the viewers either stunned or laughing in disbelief. No matter how often they had seen the slime do something extraordinary, having seven possible evolutions defied common sense.

[Free Spirit]▶??? Wait, you got seven of them?

The slime’s reaction also startled Smartass into joining the chat. He had just brought Nellin’s group into his secret workshop and had been about to bring up the slime.

[Squishy Queen]▶My kin! Quickly! Tell us what possibilities thou hast!

▷Okay!

First, the slime posted the evolution types exactly as they appeared in its selection window.

▶There’s all sorts of stuff in there.

▶What’s a Medical Slime? (Genuinely asking.)

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Which evolution would make Squishy even cuter?

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Slamming! Which one lets you slam better?!

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Ho ho, I would like to see the detailed explanations this time, too.

▶So many evolutions to choose from. I’m jealous as hell.

While the other viewers studied the list of evolution types, the Slime Queen was utterly bewildered.

'W-what is this? Why? Why are these options appearing already?!'

Most of the evolution options that had appeared for the slime were forms advanced enough to use the system. In other words, instead of gradually evolving from stage two to stage three, then stage four, it now had the opportunity to jump straight from stage two to stage seven.

What shocked the Slime Queen most of all, however, was this:

'What in the world is this Mighty Slime option?!'

An option had appeared that even she did not know.