-Oooooooooooooooong!
He was about to step inside the portal, but he suddenly stopped and looked back with a surprised expression.
"Bling! Bling!"
Az, his rebellious slime, was jumping on the water once again.
"Bling!"
It was trying to jump out on the ground on its own, trying to be on the ground that it innately rejected.
"Bling! Bling!"
It was trying to go against its primal instincts and do something it naturally should not, doing something a creature of nature would not do naturally.
"Bling!"
"You should stop now, Az."
It was struggling.
He could feel the kind of distress it was going through to deny its natural instincts.
"Bling!"
It was a creature of nature and there were some rules that this nature had imposed on the beings of this nature.
These Manawater slimes were very good at swimming on these shallow waters.
They were the fastest among all the creatures he had seen until now.
They did not have any special skills like the other creatures did. Nature did not give them the ability to be on the ground or go under water.
They did not have the poison like some of the bugs here did and they did not have the ability to climb trees like some fishes were capable of.
All they had was their ability to swim fast– so fast that a hundred miles per hour was nothing to them.
Of course though, these small creatures could not maintain that speed for too long.
They had limited energy, but they had adapted to use the speed they had in crucial times.
They were creatures of these waters' surface. And they belonged here.
"It's fine, Az. You will be happier here."
But the little rebellious slime did not accept that fact.
"Bling! Bling!"
It was not listening to him.
"Bling!"
It waited for a moment, and tried again. But its body bounced back inside the water as soon as it touched the ground.
It tried again, and failed.
But it did not give up.
It tried again, and again, and again.
And still, it failed.
"Just stop, Az."
He turned back and faced the creature struggling like a mad artist trying to deny their own nature.
"You will be happier here, with your people. Don't you want that? Isn't this place more fun than that unknown world beyond this portal?"
He couldn't understand what was going on with this creature or why it was doing it.
However, he at least understood what this little creature wished.
"Bling! Bling! …bling!"
Elio could not understand what this little creature was saying, but he understood what it wanted to express.
"If you want to come along, you have until the sun sets. After that, even I don't know if I will be able to stay here."
This unique creature wanted to come with him not because it liked him or because he had taught him.
The only reason it wanted to deny its nature was because it wanted it.
"Try again. Come on."
He sat down right before the portal and looked at the creatures he had trained with his own hands.
"Bling…"
And the slime who understood his intentions tried again.
"Bling…"
Of course, it could not stay on the ground for more than a few seconds. But, it did not stop.
The other eight looked at this one's foolish attempts.
They first ridiculed him and did not understand why it was even doing it. But after a few minutes passed, after an hour passed, something was sparked inside them as well.
"Bliing!"
"Blingg!"
"Blong."
They could not bring themselves to try what this one was doing, but at least, it seemed like they were cheering it on.
"Bling…"
They supported it with their cheers, they shared a portion of their own energy with it so that it could keep going, and some of them brought it some moss so that it could continue what it was doing.
"Bling!"
But the rebellious slime rejected the moss as well and continued trying…
"It is almost sun down, Az."
But it could not do it even until the light coming from beyond the blanket of leaves above them had turned golden.
"It was an honor knowing you."
He got up, and signed with a disheartened expression.
It was time for him to depart.
"Bling!"
Which, for the slime, indicated its last chance.
"Bling…"
Stopping for a moment and becoming still completely… as if to gather all its will, the slime waited for a moment.
"Bling!"
-Splash.
And then, it jumped out of the water.
"..."
It endured its urge to go back to the water, denied the touch of water, denied the Mana that was the strongest on the surface of that water, and tried accepting the Mana that was in the atmosphere instead.
"You can do it."
He sensed something from this last attempt, and waited for one last time.
"..."
He watched the struggling slime, and even though the portal behind him seemed to be fading away slowly, he continued watching the struggling slime instead of worrying about the portal.
-Ooooooooooooooong.
And, his wait bore fruits in the hours of his last twilight in this forest.
"..."
-Ooooooooooooong!
The transparent slime that had been merely a blob of mucus was now glowing with various magical colors.
[Ding!]
He could tell something was happening, though he did not know what exactly it was.
So, the system explained it to him.
[A Manawater slime belonging to your [Family] is evolving!]
Within this nature, evolution was a continuous process that went on perpetually.
All creatures within this nature except a few unique ones were subjected to evolution, though it was a timely process and did not happen spontaneously in normal cases.
It happened naturally over generations where the creatures adapted to their environments to increase the survivability of their kind.
[Evolution] was a perpetual and natural process– but in rare cases like this one, it was also spontaneous and irregular.
[A Manawater slime belonging to your [Family] has successfully evolved into a Mana slime!]
"Mu!"
The small blob that had been only the size of a volleyball had now grown as large as a basketball.
It's surface had now become more white but it was still translucent.
There was a unique shine to the surface of its body, and though he could not sense Mana, he could tell there was something different about this one.
"You did it."
Rules are meant to be broken… Az proved that today.
[Ding!]
[One of your tamed creatures has evolved into a greater lifeform!]
[New achievements have been detected!]
[Tutorial results will be re-evaluated!]
"Muu!"
The now grown slime jumped up on the ground excitedly and reached its master.
And then it stopped right before him.
"You're not going to crash into me like the first time?"
It had just evolved so it must have grown a lot as well… he knew how strong the evolved species were so he was expecting to receive another injury this time.
However, the creature stopped right before him as if it knew what would happen to its master if it acted rashly.
"Aren't you a smart one?"
His heart had suddenly become warm after seeing this.
There were tears at the end of his eyes, but he just smiled at the little creature and picked it up just as gently as he had done when it was still a being of these waters.
"Thanks to you, I won't be lonely for a while."
"Muu!"
Now that it had evolved, it somehow was able to produce a unique kind of voice that he somewhat understood better than their jumping on water.
"Alright then…"
Now, it was truly time for them to depart.
"See ya, everyone."
He was leaving his first family behind, and he certainly did not know if he would ever get the chance to see them again.
But he was not going to forget these little creatures wherever he goes.
"Bliing!"
"Blingg!"
"Blong!"
They said their final goodbye.
-Ooooooooooooong!
And holding the rebellious one who ended up becoming the companion for his future journey, he entered the spiral portal that first asked him which starter town he wanted to go to, and then transported him to a blank space before the start of his true journey…
[Ding.]
He had worked hard these past few days.
And he was bound to be rewarded for all the things that he had done until now.