With the death of the last Kobold, Lohan felt a massive surge of energy building up within his body.
Unlike previous level-ups, which had felt like nothing more than a refreshing "refill" of his reserves, the transition to Level 12 brought an intense sensation of power that coursed through every fiber of his crystalline biomass.
Lohan remained motionless on the ground for a few seconds, processing the massive influx of data and energy.
He began analyzing the growth curve that had accompanied him from Level 1 to Level 10; Halon’s strengthening followed a progression he could now mentally label as "X."
It was a constant growth value, but difficult to measure precisely at the time, as he lacked a solid basis for comparison or the sensory refinement he possesses today.
With each level, he felt denser and more efficient, but the leap was incremental, like steps on a regular staircase.
However, after crossing the qualitative barrier of Level 11, a milestone of existence that nearly collapsed his core due to the immense power of his Dual Mythic Base, that growth became even more intense with each level.
The growth that was once X had now become the equivalent of 2X, as far as he could tell.
That was double the evolutionary efficiency per level!
Although the system didn’t display these numbers explicitly, unlike RPG games where each attribute’s stats are given clear numerical values, Lohan’s keen perception, honed by so many new evolutions, detected that this advancement represented a 10% to 15% increase over his previous total power.
To an ordinary being, 15% might seem like little, but for a Mythical Slime, whose biological foundation already operated on astronomical scales, this bonus was like adding a new engine to an already supersonic jet.
An ant becoming 15% more powerful was still just an ant, but a mythical creature becoming 15% more powerful was even more extraordinary.
And considering the difference in the rarity of the bases he had witnessed, it was likely that this growth of around 15% per level was something only he received; in the future, he should study and analyze this further, as lower rarities probably had smaller growth rates than his.
The stronger he became, the greater the impact of this "2X" multiplier. The growth was becoming exponentially devastating.
Sure, Lohan wasn’t arrogant enough to think he’d be the only Player with a Mythic Base. Perhaps there were Players with naturally powerful races like Dragons, Angels, or Demons? With such massive base growth, those Players would also become monsters in the future.
But Lohan wasn’t limited just to his physical growth; the growth of the Devourer class was also intense, bringing a greater hunger to his small body, which, while devouring the energy around him, further enhanced the conversion of that energy, expanding even more what Lohan could extract.
"Halon? You’re glowing brighter than usual, right?" Lisa’s mental voice sounded, laden with barely concealed admiration.
Lohan looked at his own membrane.
Golden particles from his [Sacred Light Core] and neon-blue flashes of his mana swirled beneath his crystalline skin, which now exuded a density far greater than when he first achieved these evolutions.
He felt his [Structural Stability] reach a new level of firmness, where the passive resistance of his gelatin would now repel ordinary blades without him even needing to tense his body.
The energy stabilized, and the new Status screen glowed before his artificial eyes:
[Name: Halon
Race: Slime (Mythical)
Class: Devourer (Mythical)
Titles: Predator
Level: 11 → 12
Experience: 70 / 204,800
Mana: 220 / 220]
Looking at the large amount of experience required for the next level, Lohan felt a chill run through his body, but then he remembered the high efficiency they already had while hunting and felt relieved again.
Now they could target even higher-level monsters, since a 15% improvement in his stats made a huge difference in direct combat.
A 15% increase in his defense meant that enemies who previously struggled to hurt him would now likely be unable to do so unless they used every last bit of strength and every trick up their sleeve.
Even though he was only at Level 12, Lohan felt that with his partnership with Lisa, they could probably even hunt Level 14 or 15 monsters in fierce battles.
Sure, that would be dangerous and perhaps unnecessarily risky considering how much they had to lose, but thinking also that it would be precisely in that environment that they would develop even further, learning as much as possible about how to use their abilities to the fullest, that desire only grew stronger and stronger.
He reshaped himself into his perfect spherical form, feeling 15% faster, denser, and more lethal than just a few minutes ago. If the battle against the Elite Kobold had been fierce before, now he felt he could have exploited many more openings from that monster and tanked more of its attacks, trading damage for damage, making the battle even easier.
"Finally Level 12, Lisa." Lohan said, his mental voice now sounding even deeper than before without him realizing it, as the power subtly altered small details about him.
Lisa wagged her two tails, and Lohan noticed that she, too, exuded this new aura of power. Together, they were now the pinnacle of the Players that the Mythlorien Forest harbored, and his greatest curiosity was to know just how great the change had been in the real world!
If he had already noticed significant differences in the real world with each level he gained, now that he was growing larger and becoming even stronger with each level, Lohan wondered if the transformation of his human body into one more akin to a Slime would also change!
[NunuNote: Hi everyone, sorry for posting just one Chapter today, but since it’s Mother’s Day, I decided to take a little break to enjoy the day with her. Enjoy yours with your moms too; as someone approaching 30, I realize we have to make the most of this limited time we’ll have with them. <3]