"I see that yet another one of the dungeon's residents has now taken upon a form that stimulates your desires, Yuki," grumbled the dragon girl. She continued to both poke Shii's cheeks and look her over as she spoke.
"You and I really need to sit down and talk about what you think I'm into." I rolled my eyes before turning to Illuna, who'd just stopped glomping me. "So how did all this happen anyway?"
"Uhmmmm…." She paused for a moment before firing off and describing the events that had occured as quickly as she could. "Well, Shii was kinda like, she thinks she can transform! So I told her to try, and then she did! Right Shii?"
"Wight!" replied the slime.
The two girls exchanged a glance before turning back towards me, big smiles plastered all over their faces. Damn, that's cute, super cute. But it doesn't exactly tell me much about what's happened.
Fortunately, the vampire continued to explain. Because she was just a child, she only ended up expanding on the things that she cared about. Fortunately, it was still enough information to get the gist of what had happened.
The two had been playing around, as usual, while we were away, when Illuna tripped and hurt herself. Shii immediately bounced over, and because she had thought that the wound looked like it hurt, she had touched it in an attempt to ease the pain it caused. Her body suddenly began to glow with a bright light the moment she did. And by the time it had faded, so had the cut.
She first took on Illuna's form shortly after the incident. She felt as if she'd suddenly gained the ability to do so, and figured that she may as well try given that the girl had urged her to do exactly that. Wait, does that mean that Illuna and Shii were totally able to talk even back when Shii was still just in her slime form?
…The fuck?
Yeah, you know what? I'll just bench that thought for now and come back to it later.
Long story short, Shii had evolved, and the instant she touched the vampire's wound was probably the exact moment it happened.
I understood the events that had transpired. But, despite Illuna's explanation, I wasn't able to make heads or tails out of an important question: why? But since sitting around wasn't going to help me solve the puzzle, I decided to check the slime's stats for myself.
***
General Information
Name: Shii
Class: Healer
Race: Heal Slime
Level: 11
HP: 130/130
MP: 572/572
Strength: 21
Vitality: 51
Agility: 32
Magic: 256
Dexterity: 64
Luck: 114
Unique Skills
Transformation
Skills
Predation III
Regeneration III
Healing Magic II
Titles
Demon Lord's Kin
Therapeutic Slime
***
…Well then. That's a huge change if I've ever seen one. Her magic stat had grown so much that it was now more than twice that of the humans I'd analyzed in town. Wait. I could swear that the only times we've ever taken her outside were when we took her on walks, and the dungeon itself has almost never been attacked. How the hell did she get enough exp to evolve?
Leila had explained to me upon the occurrence of my own evolution that monsters were typically the quickest to evolve. From that perspective, I thought that it wasn't all that strange for Shii to have fulfilled all the necessary requirements. It was possible that she had somehow managed to leech a bit of experience here and there. Still, I doubt that'd be anywhere near enough for her to level up so m—wait a second!
Only after another moment's worth of contemplation did I realize that Shii had a skill by the name of Predation. It was an ability that apparently allowed her to do something along the lines of absorbing the magical energy contained within whatever she ate. And because the slime was pretty much willing to ingest anything I tossed her way, I'd ended up feeding her a whole bunch of random sh*t. The number of mana-rich afternoon snacks she'd had was impressive, to say the least. Yeah, that's gotta be it. She probably just ripped the mana out of everything I fed her and turned it into exp.
As much as I wanted to believe that I had finally reached the correct conclusion, I still felt that something was off. She'd grown far too much for someone that had done nothing but employ the power of gluttony. If eating was enough to make one evolve, then all the forest's predators would have long done exactly that. Carnivores ate meat every day, after all. And even those that didn't prefer meat had plentiful access to a near-excessive amount of magical energy. Most of the fruits and vegetables in the area were practically stuffed full of it.
It just didn't make sense for Shii to evolve at the speed she had, even considering that she was a monster with access to plenty of food. If a few meals were all it took to turn a monster into a more powerful monster, then humanity would've long been wiped off the food chain.
"Erk…" The dragon girl made a funny groan as she continued staring at the slime.
"What's up Lefi? You look like you've got something to say."
"I believe that I may perhaps know the cause of Shii's sudden evolution. It… likely bears a relation to my actions, for I have fed her my magical energies."
"You what…?"
"I happened to take notice of her habit of draining the mana from her meals," continued the dragon girl. Both her tone of voice and her expression gave rise to a sense of guilt. "I provided her a portion of my own on occasion after considering that she would likely enjoy it."
"Your ana. Weally taty!" said Shii with a smile. A. d. o. r. a. b. l. e.
Well, that explains that, I guess. I nodded as I accepted Lefi's explanation as the key to the puzzle. I knew exactly where she was coming from, as I'd often done the exact same thing. But because Lefi was so much more powerful than me, her mana was far denser. Even a tiny bit of it went a long way.
With her body in its current form, hell, even in its dragon form, she had so much mana that she wouldn't be able to contain it if it wasn't highly compressed. And that was precisely the reason that she had accidentally done in a house while attempting to burn down a zombie or two. She had an excessive amount of mana and she needed to be very careful if she wanted to use it in smaller quantities. In other words, her spell had been more powerful than intended as a result of the dragon girl's sloppy nature. Alright, that's enough about that. I'm getting a bit sidetracked.
I could finally both understand and accept the cause of Shii's speedy evolution as well as the reason for which her magic stat had increased so explosively. Our resident dragon had basically fed her steroids. Each dose of her mana may as well have been a rare candy. Speaking of rare candies, P*kemon was messed up, man. Rare candies were definitely just weird drugs. 100% for sure.
The only part of Shii's evolution that I wasn't particularly surprised about was her race. It made sense that she'd become a Heal Slime. She had always been responsible for soothing our minds. Her newfound ability to heal our physical wounds felt more like an extension of her existing abilities than anything else.
Transformation was likely the skill that let her take on her current form. Rir had it as well, but unlike the slime, Rir's body wasn't nearly as malleable to begin with, so all he could do was change his size. And although I had been referring to Shii as a her, she did not in fact have a gender given her identity as a slime.
"I see… So that's what happened…" I muttered under my breath as I pat Shii on the head. At first, I had only felt surprise. But the emotion had gradually faded and replaced itself with a sense of joy.
"Master? Shii evolve. Happy?"
"Sure am." I smiled at her as I continued to pat her on the head.
It was true. I was happy. I was deeply moved by the fact that Shii had changed as much as she had. I guess this is how parents must feel when they realize that their kids are all grown up.
"Me too," said Shii. "Look ore ike everyone els. Happy."
Oh. My. God. She. Is. Adorable.
"You are smiling as would an imbecile, Yuki."
"O-Oh shut up Lefi, you're literally doing the exact same thing."
"I-I am not! The grin upon my face is merely one that reflects my lack of fear."
Uhhh, that's kinda weird in its own right, but okay. Whatever you say.
"Oh yeah," I turned to Illuna. "Earlier, you mentioned that Shii was talking to you when she was still just a normal slime, right? Could you really understand her?"
"Mhm! Of course I could!" nodded the vampire. "'Cause we're friends!"
"Fweins!"
Yeah uhhhhhh… that's not making any sense. But you know what? They're both super cute, so I could honestly care less.