The sun of Mythlorien rose above the colossal treetops, filtering in a golden light that danced over Lisa’s pristine white fur. The morning air was crisp, thick with the scent of dew and pure mana that grew fainter the farther they got from the Astralis Tree.
Lohan, in his crystalline blue slime form, was firmly anchored to the fox’s back through selective stickiness, not fully wrapping around her like a living armor, just hitching a ride the way they used to do at the start of their friendship.
He could feel every rhythmic, agile movement of Lisa’s as she leapt over twisted roots and forest streams, heading toward the elven capital, Thalendor.
Lohan was in a state of semi meditation, with the Collective Synaptic Sync running in the background while he kept three clones active, each accompanying a different Astralis Requiem hunting group.
Suddenly, a massive wave of energy and data flooded his core!
Through the vision of one of the clones, he saw the group led by Skye and Devon fighting a level 11 shadow serpent, a monster that wasn’t much more powerful than the group, but that still yielded a considerable amount of experience for everyone, considering how many monsters like that they could kill together, and how much money those serpents’ venom brought in!
Being so far away from them, Lohan could only see the battle basically like a PowerPoint presentation, with the memories reaching his mind several seconds, or even minutes, after they’d happened in the real world, due to the slow speed at which thought was transmitted between clones, but even so, with the notification that popped up right after, Lohan knew they’d succeeded.
[Ding!]
The system notification lit up before his vision, accompanied by a sound that now felt like the sweetest melody in the universe.
[Congratulations! You’ve reached Level 16!]
Lohan felt a warm, pleasant energy run through every inch of his biomass.
It was a feeling of fullness and clarity, as if his mana channels had been swept clean by a refreshing current. However, he noticed the intensity of that pleasure was significantly lower than what he’d felt evolving his abilities to Level 11 recently.
That earlier evolution had been a deep molecular restructuring, while this level up felt more like just a "buff" to basic stats and a capacity expansion.
Curious, Lohan opened his status screen and looked over the numbers. His inward smile faltered for a split second.
[Name: Halon
Race: Slime (Mythic)
Class: Devourer (Mythic)
Titles: Predator (Upon digesting a Player hunted by the user as prey, the success rate for extracting an Evolution proportional to the Prey’s Base Rarity is 100%.)
Level: 16
Experience: 198 / 3,276,800
Mana: 471 / 517]
’Ouch... three million two hundred thousand points?’ Lohan murmured mentally, feeling the weight of Elysium’s math. ’Meh, I can’t say this feels bad... if I were hunting alone, it would take me a month to fill that bar. But with Astralis running like a grinding hive... alright, I think even that will be handled easily within a few weeks, I’ll be at level 17 soon enough.’
Lisa, who had felt the sudden vibration in Lohan’s body and seen the pearly glow that wrapped around him for a second, stopped abruptly.
She turned her fox head, her golden eyes shining with a mix of shock and an indignation Lohan recognized right away.
"Really, Halon? Already!?" Lisa said over the mental link, her voice carrying a clear frustration mixed with a sense of unfairness. "Don’t tell me you just leveled up while just lying on my back enjoying the view."
Lohan formed a small gelatin hand and scratched the top of his "head," acting apologetic, but with a trace of amusement. "Lisa, it’s not my fault our guild groups are so efficient with my support clones. They did all the heavy lifting while I was there just to keep everyone safe and boost everyone’s profits... I just got the notification for the experience gained."
Lisa huffed, a small puff of vapor coming from her muzzle.
She resumed running, but this time her steps were heavier, taking her frustration out on the forest floor. "This is so unfair it’s borderline ridiculous. I spent the last few nights hunting a bunch of monsters alone while you were offline, trying to close the gap between us. I still need over five hundred thousand experience points to reach level 16, and you just breeze past me like a sports car next to a cargo truck."
Lohan felt her frustration and he wanted to help, he really did, but he couldn’t even think of a way to make up for it, at least not with his current abilities.
Even if he could inject biomass into his companions, not only was a large portion of the biomass wasted in that process, but he couldn’t inject experience into anyone, since experience wasn’t a solid concept the way biomass was.
"Lisa, you know my hands would be tied even if I tried to change that. I can’t clone you so you can be in three places at once earning passive experience. And if I go hunting directly with you, I’ll earn just as many experience points as you, which would only keep the current gap, or widen it even more."
"I know that, Halon! But to be honest, watching the Vice President turn into a high level monster while the President is still fighting the millions barrier is a heavy blow..." Lisa shot back, speeding up even more. "The only consolation is that, to the rest of the world and to the guild’s Players, is that the two of us still seem to be at the top of the food chain. At least your strength helps keep our sovereignty unquestionable, and even if our gap grows, I’ll still be ahead of the vast majority of Players."
"Alright, don’t feel too bad about it," Lohan tried to comfort her, injecting a gentle pulse of Sacred Light into her fur to calm Lisa’s nerves. "We’ve decided I’ll always leave a clone with you to give full support during the guild’s main hunts, so you can still shine in combat. Even if your leveling still takes longer than mine, we’ll find a way to keep you ahead of everyone else, I promise."
Lisa let out a long sigh, relaxing a little under the touch of Lohan’s purifying energy. "Sure... I accept the investment. But if you hit level 17 before the weekend, I swear I’ll throw you off the Thalendor bridge."
They continued the trip in a friendlier silence, though Lisa still shot glances at the Slime whenever she noticed he was distracted, probably looking at another experience notification received from one of the clones.
As they approached the borders of the elven capital, the trees began to give way to structures of white wood and crystal that seemed to grow organically out of the ground.
Thalendor rose on the horizon like a jewel set into nature, still as dazzling and beautiful as the first time they’d seen this city, a place hard to forget or get used to.
This time, they weren’t there for sightseeing or to sell common loot. They had an appointment set at Yrneha’s tower.
Lohan vividly remembered the mission Aeliana had mentioned days earlier, something involving helping her master with a problem she didn’t want to get personally involved in.
"Halon, remember to keep your aura under control when we get there," Lisa warned, regaining her professional Guild Master voice. "Aeliana is friendly, but Yrneha is an Archmage. If she notices how fast you’re evolving, she might decide you’re too valuable a ’subject of study’ to be left free."
"Don’t worry, Bella. I’ve been practicing the contraction technique she taught me to the point where I think I can now pass for just an elite Slime if I try hard enough, which is still eye catching, but far from my real power." Lohan replied, retracting his membrane and stabilizing his mystical core.
As they crossed Thalendor’s silver gates, the elven guards simply waved them through, recognizing the Level 3 identification cards the pair carried.
They made their way along the suspended walkways, where the scent of exotic flowers and saturated magic filled Lohan’s senses. Within a few minutes, they arrived at the base of Yrneha’s tower, a monument of translucent crystal that pulsed with a soft violet light.
Aeliana was sitting on the entrance steps, playing with a mana butterfly.
When she spotted the white fox and the blue slime, her face lit up with an infectious joy. She jumped up and ran toward them, her long blonde hair swaying with the movement.
"Halon! Lisa! You’re back!" Aeliana exclaimed, scooping Lohan up into her arms before he could even protest. She hugged him against her chest, but suddenly stopped, tilting her head with an expression of utter surprise. "Wait... little friend, what happened to you?"
Lohan froze, worried she’d noticed something. "What’s wrong, Aeliana? Something wrong?"
The elf closed her eyes and sniffed the air near his membrane, her cheeks blushing slightly. "Your energy... it’s completely changed since last time! It’s not just more intense and powerful, like you devoured a small sun... it’s so pleasant! The scent of your mana... it’s like wildflower honey and summer rain. It’s... it’s delicious!"