[Congratulations! You have reached Level 11!]
[SYSTEM ALERT: EXISTENCE MILESTONE REACHED]
[Detected Superior Bio-Magical Synchrony: Slime (Mythical) / Devourer (Mythical).]
[Initiating Preparation for Level 11 Qualitative Evolution...]
[WARNING!!]
[The Slime (Mythical) race does not support qualitative evolution; the risk of Core collapse is 70%, reduced by the presence of the Level 1 Natural Magic Core Harmonizer.]
[Calculating stabilization method...]
[...]
[Biomass will be used in the process to stabilize the evolution.]
[Initiating evolution process. Remain conscious during the process; this will be vital for success!]
’Wait, WHAT?! Why is evolution risky? Isn’t that supposed to be a safe, automatic process?!’ Lohan thought, shocked.
The moment the notification appeared in his vision, Lohan felt a refreshing and relaxing wave wash over every inch of his biomass.
It was an incredible sensation of complete restructuring that began in the Slime Core, slowly expanding to the edges of the outer membrane, as if every fiber were being purified and reorganized at a deep molecular level.
"Lisa, feed me!" He shouted desperately, ignoring that incredible sensation.
Having accumulated a total of 180,000 biomass, he had no idea how much would be needed for evolution, so as a precaution he made this request.
Lisa was confused, but thinking quickly, she didn’t hesitate to pull a body part from a monster in the Astral Chest and gently place it inside Lohan’s structure, which began digestion immediately.
The first physical sensation he felt was one of absolute lightness.
The body, which had previously seemed like a heavy mass of accumulated gelatin, suddenly became extraordinarily fluid and malleable.
Lohan realized that the internal viscosity of his gelatin had slowly changed, no longer offering resistance to his mental commands.
If before, shaping a tentacle or a human hand required a Herculean effort that tested his concentration, now the biomass seemed to anticipate his thoughts, moving with the naturalness of a well-trained muscle.
With the activation of [Morphological Memory], this malleability reached a new level: he felt he could "learn" and retain any physical deformation, drastically reducing the energy cost of maintaining complex shapes.
As he tested this new plasticity, Lohan felt as though the cerulean-blue gelatin had ceased to be a simple viscous liquid and become something more dynamic. The ease with which he could flatten, stretch, or create thin, precise extensions was gratifying.
He felt he could mold multiple pairs of hands and control them simultaneously with near-zero latency, as if the internet of his consciousness had undergone a massive upgrade.
Simultaneously with the external fluidity, an internal transmutation occurred within the energy cores.
Lohan felt the [Magic Core] pulsate with intense vigor, but this time, the Mana did not leak crudely or chaotically through his body.
He felt the energy being compressed and directed through the conductive channels that were slowly opening throughout his body. These mana pathways, which had recently been enhanced by digesting the Elf’s body, now expanded and were coated in an intense neon-blue light, becoming even better.
His control over this energy was nearly absolute compared to how it had been before... he felt every pulse of Mana circulating, able to concentrate it in fractions of a second to cast spells or bolster his defenses.
Suddenly, Lohan felt the internal pressure of his Mana and the newly acquired Natural Energy begin to tear his membrane from the inside out.
The only barrier between him and total annihilation was the Natural Magic Core Harmonizer, which worked frantically to synchronize the two colliding energy engines.
Suddenly, the comforting sensation of Level 11 was replaced by an excruciating burning, similar to what he felt when digesting the Level 13 Mana Stone... a magma-like heat that threatened to vaporize his blue gelatin.
He felt his biomass reservoir, accumulated through so many hunts, being drained at an alarming rate, sacrificed by the system to "patch" the structural fissures appearing in his core every second.
Lohan had to mobilize the [Parallel Processing Core] at its maximum capacity to keep from losing his mind amid the agony, splitting his mind into independent streams: one to manage the mana flow, another to stabilize natural energy, and a third solely to maintain the [Structural Stability] of his body.
The system’s demand that he remain conscious was vital; if he fainted, as had happened with the Weaving Spider’s memory, the flow of biomass would cease and his core would explode, scattering mythical jelly throughout the clearing.
The biomass continued to evaporate, serving as the raw fuel for this forced molecular rewriting. Lohan realized he was being reconstructed at a level that likely no Slime in the past had withstood.
Realizing that battle was being lost, Lohan spared no Biomass, and at an alarming rate of over a thousand units per second, he let it be consumed and finally felt his rationality return.
The evolution of the second engine, the [Core of Holy Light], brought a deep, comforting warmth.
While Mana felt like a sharp energy, this sacred energy pulsed like a living heart, synchronizing its cellular structure with the vital essence of the surrounding nature.
The control he had previously struggled to assume, due to the high level of power and existence of this energy, was now more natural, though still somewhat resistant, far more difficult to control than Natural Energy, but it was now more potent and slightly under his control.
He felt this energy flow like a "golden fire" that embraced his consciousness, eliminating any residual trace of fragility or impurity.
Surprisingly, although Lohan feels more malleable and "light," he experiences a drastic increase in his passive resistance.
Even without actively activating the [Obsidian Exoskeleton], he felt that his membrane had become qualitatively superior.
The gelatin, in its natural state, now possessed a density and firmness that would likely repel simple impacts that could previously have torn him apart.
This resistance isn’t limited to physical impacts alone.
Lohan felt that his molecular filtration ability had been enhanced.
Through the [Digestive Filter], he realized that his body could identify and neutralize toxins or unwanted components the moment they touched his membrane, converting threats into nutrients before they even reached his vital core!
The level-up also brought unprecedented mental clarity through the [Parallel Processing Core].
Lohan felt that the independent minds he had split his mind into to handle the danger of this evolution had become much more cohesive and powerful, as if he had increased the processing RAM of each independent mind
Before, even though he split his own mind into 3 divisions, his mind hadn’t multiplied his thinking by 300%, but had merely divided the original 100% into 50% - 30% - 30% for each consciousness, bringing only a small increase to each additional small mind.
After this evolution, he felt that from the original 100%, his mind was now capable of dividing the smaller minds into 100-80-80 splits, that is, a massive improvement over how it had worked before!
But while Lohan was experiencing a mix of one of the best sensations of his life with one of the worst sensations he had ever felt, Lisa and the group around him looked at him with extreme concern.
At this point, given Halon’s importance to the group, if something were to go wrong with his evolution, it would be a major disaster for the guild’s potential, and for Lisa, it would be even more personal.