Published: July 30, 2025
August 10th — Today, three chapters are updated simultaneously. This is the first chapter.
Ryoma Takebayashi had secluded himself in Gana Forest for three years, dedicating his life to training both martial arts and elemental magic. Even now, the thought of leaving the forest—
Had never even crossed his mind.
“All right, all right… here’s today’s meal!”
His dwelling was a humble cave, expanded using earth magic, with a protective barrier set at the entrance to ensure safety. Furniture was crafted by solidifying the excavated soil with earth magic.
Meals were plentiful, thanks to the forest’s bounty. Using the knowledge bestowed by the gods and the non-elemental magic called 'Appraisal,' Ryoma could easily tell whether something was edible or not. Living in such a convenient environment, Ryoma never strongly considered leaving the forest. Instead, he spent his time indulging in hobbies that had been impossible in his previous life.
Among these, Ryoma’s greatest obsession became the study of slimes.
At first, he had only intended to try out beast taming magic on the slimes he found in the forest. After catching a slime with this magic, he casually kept it as a pet—about six months passed before something happened.
One morning, upon waking, Ryoma noticed that one of his slimes had changed color compared to the day before. Worried it might be sick, he used the 'Magical Beast Appraisal' skill from beast taming magic. To his surprise, the slime had evolved into a type known as Sticky Slime.
From that day onward, Ryoma became curious about why the slime had evolved so suddenly and began spending more time observing them. The first thing he discovered was that wild slimes occupied the very bottom of the ecosystem.
Because slimes lacked the ability to hunt prey, Ryoma had never seen a wild slime actually eating since arriving in the forest. However, he fed his slimes leftovers from his meals and the frequent corpses of green caterpillars encountered during hunting. This meant Ryoma’s slimes were receiving daily nutrition, unlike their wild counterparts.
Furthermore, since the slimes’ diet included green caterpillars that secrete sticky fluids as threads daily, Ryoma hypothesized that this difference was the cause of the slimes’ evolution. From that day, every newly caught slime was fed collected food and green caterpillars.
Two months later, all the slimes fed solely on green caterpillars had evolved into Sticky Slimes. Meanwhile, those fed the same diet excluding green caterpillars evolved into a different slime species, confirming which aspect caused the evolution.
Ryoma’s interest in slimes deepened further. He captured them in large numbers, feeding them leftover food or nearby materials. As a result, he currently keeps six varieties of slime.
Slime × 13
The weakest magical beasts in the world, found everywhere. Omnivorous, average individuals about 20 centimeters in diameter. Their jelly-like bodies contain a core that, if damaged, causes death. When they die, everything except the core disappears—an enigmatic creature.
Skills: Digestion Lv2, Absorption Lv3, Division Lv1
Sticky Slime × 153
Similar in size to regular slimes, but composed of highly adhesive mucus. They expel sticky liquid or lurk in hiding to trap prey entangled in their mucus.
Skills: Powerful Adhesive Liquid Lv4, Adhesive Hardening Liquid Lv1, Thread Spitting Lv1, Jump Lv1, Digestion Lv3, Absorption Lv3, Division Lv3
Initially, they only had Powerful Adhesive Liquid, Digestion, Absorption, and Division, but later gained Adhesive Hardening Liquid and Jump. This taught Ryoma that magical beasts can acquire skills through training.
Thread Spitting was learned after Ryoma discovered that mixing two types of mucus could produce thread-like material and had the slimes attempt the same internally. After practice, they succeeded.
Acid Slime × 100
Slimes with dramatically enhanced digestion to process hard-to-digest materials like animal bones. They appeared during experiments verifying evolutionary causes and increased through division.