Published: August 15, 2025
Afternoon
“—That’s how it is.”
After thinking about it carefully, I briefly introduced all the types of slime I keep to Niki-kun, explained their useful traits, and talked a little about some of their evolutionary paths.
He looked quite interested as he stared at the various slimes lined up on the now-empty dining hall table. The feeling was not bad… but I wondered what he really thought.
“Is there anything else you want to ask? Or any slime you’re particularly interested in?”
“Hmm… then I’d say the medicine slime! If someone got seriously sick or injured, they’d have to go all the way to the neighboring village, so having one of these would be really convenient.”
Surprisingly earnest reason...
“Sure, they secrete body fluids that can serve as disinfectant or healing agents, so they’re useful for treating minor injuries. But they can also produce poison, and since their food is poison or medicine, managing medicine slimes can be tricky. Personally, I’d recommend heal slimes more—they can use healing magic, and their food is just water and sunlight.”
“I see... But magic-using slimes are rare and must be expensive to sell, right? You keep five types including the heal slime, though.”
“Yeah. In my case, the slimes I keep evolved, but for a normal person, it might take years to find them. A friend who knows a lot about magical beasts said no one else has all five types.”
“I’m not too sure about prices, but apparently, nobles often want things others don’t have, so the prices get pushed up. They might be affordable as ‘rare pets’ to show off to others.”
“…I get the reason, but I don’t understand that feeling.”
“You don’t have to worry about it. You might understand someday, or maybe you never will—and that’s okay too.”
It’s human nature to compare oneself to others. As we grow up, we’ll notice it and struggle with it. But if we can avoid comparisons, then we avoid that suffering too. That’s perfectly fine.
“Hmm… Oh! Earlier you said evolution depends on the food slimes eat, right? So if a slime kept eating fish, would it become a fish slime? Do such slimes even exist?”
“There are so many evolutionary paths for slimes that even researchers haven’t fully mapped them. I don’t know if fish slimes exist, but it’s possible.”
“For example, my metal slime and iron slime—these two evolved differently depending on whether they ate multiple metals from the soil or only iron. So if there were slimes that ate only copper, tin, or lead, different types could evolve.”
Actually, the idea that food determines evolution is just my personal theory. Recently, I’ve begun to think this might not be entirely correct.
“Is it wrong?”
“Ah, saying it’s wrong might not be quite right either.”
From my observations so far—especially with the sticky, poison, acid, and cleaner slimes I’ve studied since the beginning—I can control and reproduce their evolution by feeding them certain foods. So, food does influence evolution, no doubt.
“But something’s missing… I think food is just one factor deciding evolution, and there might be other conditions affecting it.”
Recently, some of the weed slimes—which I think evolved from eating weeds—started eating poisonous or medicinal plants. Normally, they should evolve into poison or medicine slimes—”
“Wait, didn’t you say poisonous plants are what make slimes evolve into poison slimes?”
“Exactly! That’s it. Until now, weed slimes evolved into poison slimes when eating poisonous plants, so ‘poison slime’ is basically a poison-type slime. But now these weed slimes haven’t evolved yet. If they don’t become poison slimes, there must be ‘something’ distinguishing poison from poisonous plants.”
If there are so many types that researchers can’t keep track, then subdividing them further—like metal to iron and others—is quite possible. Also, acid slimes eat bones but don’t evolve into bone slimes. I think they evolved to digest bones better.