Slime Evolution

Chapter 401 - Embarrassment

Almost an hour had passed since the nutrient influx and Lohan was still watching the irritating calm of the Broken Suns when an intense flash of blue light and mana particles appeared on the branch of a tree right in front of his position.

Sure, the place wasn’t entirely calm, since with the tripled new member invitation bonus, the number of newcomers entering the guild was immense, but it wasn’t as if he’d get any useful information from people like that, so he could just selectively ignore that and focus on who really mattered.

From the swirl of light, the elegant, imposing figure of Lisa’s white fox materialized gracefully, shaking the dust off her paws in a subtly aristocratic manner.

Lohan vibrated his membrane, forming two small artificial eyes to greet her through their mental link, happy to finally be able to talk again. ”Welcome back, Lisa. The watch here is still tedious, but I felt the gift you sent me in the real world. Thanks for the help...”

He cut off the mental transmission mid sentence upon noticing his partner’s bizarre reaction.

The instant Lisa’s golden eyes met the Slime’s round body, the fox’s pointed ears tilted back sharply.

Her two white tails went completely rigid and a subtle blush, but perfectly visible to Lohan’s enhanced senses, tinted the skin of her face beneath the white fur around her snout.

She looked away hastily, feigning a sudden interest in the Broken Suns mansion’s fossilized wood decorations to hide her embarrassment.

”What’s wrong, Bella?” Lohan asked, genuinely confused by her attitude. ”Did something happen in the real world? You seem a little... unstable. Your mana is fluctuating in a strange way.”

”There’s nothing wrong with my mana, Halon!” Lisa snapped back sharply through the mental link, though her voice came out with a subtle tremor that gave away her nervousness.

She wiped her front paw on the walkway’s moss with unnecessary haste, awkwardly trying to steer away from the main topic of the conversation. ”To be honest, I just finished dealing with tiring meetings in the real world and my mental processing is still adjusting to Elysium’s immersion. Stop asking dumb questions.”

Lohan swayed his gelatin back and forth in an unsynchronized, cute way. ”If you say so... but you should know your blush is almost showing through your fur. If I didn’t know you, I’d say you’re too embarrassed to look at me for some hidden, personal reason.”

”Shut up, you stubborn thing!” she hissed, her tails swaying again with a defensive irritation that Lohan found even cuter. ”I just came here to make sure you didn’t starve to death in bed because of this crazy uninterrupted spying idea of yours. I left a few more packs of the Grade SS solution in your apartment’s fridge. If the investigation drags on for more days, I’ll make other visits to administer the necessary dosage. Otherwise, you can use that stock however you see fit for your physical training.”

Lohan felt his core vibrate with the warmth of the genuine affection that rich girl showed for his well being. ”Really, Bella... thank you. I know my integrated body could handle a few days without any problem, but receiving nutrition at that level really helps my body in the real world. I’m really glad you did that for me.”

Lisa looked away with her silver eyes again, but the tone of her voice softened slightly, revealing the real concern behind her cold, imposing facade. ”It’s my duty as Guild Master to make sure my right hand is in perfect condition to fight, Halon. You’re already pushing yourself too hard staying stuck in this game for our guild. It would be foolish of me to consider this a bother.”

Before Lohan could respond with another one of his light jabs, a notification flashed before both their eyes. It was a voice message sent by Dylan through the guild chat.

”Halon, Lisa... the first group of candidates approved in the real world psychological screening just arrived at our headquarters tree in Mythlorien,” Dylan’s polished voice rang out clearly. ”Alice and I are already setting up the main hall for the final interviews. If you two want to watch and evaluate the talent in person, I suggest coming to base now.”

Lisa raised her head, her eyes shining with a leader’s determination, and spoke excitedly. ”Finally our plans are moving forward. I’ll head back to our headquarters right away to watch these recruitment interviews.”

She looked down at the blue Slime on the ground. ”But you can’t move his main body from here without undoing the clone network monitoring the Broken Suns, right?”

”Yeah, unfortunately my main body needs to stay anchored in this sector to keep the Synaptic Synchronization active and not miss any information.” Lohan replied mentally. ”But I don’t need to be completely absent from the interview. You can carry one of my clones with you on your back. That way, I can watch everything and give my opinion through the guild link.”

”Alright,” Lisa agreed, lowering her body to make it easier for that pale blue puddle of gelatin to climb on.

Lohan contracted his gelatin and expelled a smaller clone, which quickly rolled and climbed up the fox’s legs, settling comfortably on top of her back.

However, Lohan knew that projection would have severe limitations.

Since the clone would be operating at an immense geographic distance from his main body, Thalendor was many kilometers from Mythlorien, the flow of information processing the clone received was qualitatively much slower and weaker.

That fraction of biomass had enough magical energy and physical density to take part in basic combat or fire ice projectiles if necessary, but its cognitive capacity was extremely reduced due to the distance lag.

The clone couldn’t formulate complex thoughts in real time or hold a fluid, realistic conversation with other people.

At most, it could send simple emotional pulses and act as a silent observer.

”I’ll just be a mute spectator by your side, Lisa.” Lohan warned through his main body’s mental link, feeling the connection grow blurred and slow. ”But my focus will be entirely on the candidates’ reactions. Do a good job selecting the ones who will carry our emblem on their chest.”

”Leave it to me, Vice President,” Lisa replied with a confident smile on her snout, feeling his light weight on her soft back.

Lisa’s body was then wrapped in a white glow and in a second, she and Lohan’s small silent clone vanished into Thalendor’s mana currents at high speed, leaving the Slime’s main body in the cold shadows, ready to continue the long, silent watch over the clues from the northern rift.