Hero or Villain, Both

Stark revealed an awkward smile when he heard this, but he didn't say anything else.

After all, it wasn't as if there was anything that he could say.

It wasn't as if there was anything that he knew that I didn't know.

So all he could do was stand on the side and wait for me to finish what I was doing.

I turned back to the Spatial Bag and synced up with the slime clone once more.

But I really was at a loss as to what to do with this pile of ooze.

The pile of ooze had been created with a slime as a base, but the current pile of ooze just didn't have a single trace of that anymore. It had been turned into a completely different being with the power of alchemy.

Even for a slime like me, I couldn't feel any resonance with it.

It really felt like it had become a completely different creature.

Though it seemed like the pile of ooze still regarded itself as a slime or else it would have attacked the slime clone that I had sent in. However, I really couldn't see any part of it that could be considered a slime, so I didn't know why it considered itself a slime still.

After observing it for a while, I decided that I should try to test it.

After all, the whole reason that I sent the slime clone in was to see if I could find anything about this pile of ooze. Just keeping the slime clone still like that wouldn't be a good way to do that.

It would just be a waste of time if that was the case.

As such, I had the slime clone move forward as if it was about to engage the pile of ooze.

When the slime clone moved, it didn't seem to provoke a reaction from the pile of ooze at all. The pile of ooze just remained still as if it couldn't care less about what the slime clone was doing.

So I pushed it even further by sending the slime clone right up to the pile of ooze.

When it stood there, it seemed like there was finally a reaction that came from the pile of ooze.

Only it didn't seem like it was a hostile one.

"Gurgle, gurgle."

The pile of ooze shook while making this sound and it reached out with its tentacles towards the slime clone.

When I saw this, I had the slime clone brace itself for the impact that would come. But in the end, there was no impact that came from the tentacle reaching the slime clone.

Instead, all that happened was that the tentacles gently wrapped around the slime clone and carried the slime clone up over the pile of ooze. Then after being carried up, the pile of ooze placed that slime clone on top of itself and it just let the slime clone stay there.

I couldn't help feeling very confused when the slime clone was placed on top of the pile of ooze.

There was even a part of me that wondered if the pile of ooze was trying to absorb the slime clone or something.

But in the end, it seemed like the pile of ooze had lifted the slime clone up just because it wanted to put the slime clone on top of itself like this.

When I saw this, I couldn't help thinking one thing…

"Is this thing lonely?"

The way that it acted, it really seemed like it felt lonely or something.

It was strange to think that about something that was only driven by instincts to devour, but that was how it felt to me when I saw the way that the pile of ooze acted.

So in the end, I didn't do anything as I waited to see what the pile of ooze would do.

The pile of ooze just remained still while it held the slime clone on its head, but I could feel through the slime clone that there was something coming into it. It seemed like it was coming from the tentacles that the pile of ooze had left on it.

It wasn't exactly anything bad, rather it seemed like it was something good.

It seemed like it was transferring nutrients into the slime clone, as if it was taking care of it.

This really didn't seem to make any sense at all with the way that the pile of ooze was taking care of the slime clone.

But the one thing that it did cement was the fact that the pile of ooze still saw itself as a slime even if it had long lost the core that a slime should have. Even though it was something that had been created by alchemy…

It was almost sad seeing the pile of ooze like this.

It really didn't seem like the monster that it had been before.

Still, it wasn't as if there was anything that I could do for the pile of ooze.

Since the pile of ooze was like this, it seemed like there was only one thing that was left for me to do.

Since the pile of ooze was the one offering, then I shouldn't be polite in this matter.

With that thought, I had the slime clone absorb the tentacle of the pile of ooze.

The pile of ooze seemed to tremble when the slime clone did this, but then it seemed to calm down and let the slime clone do this.

Even though it was now the one being absorbed, it didn't seem like the pile of ooze was against this.

It even seemed like the pile of ooze was planning to offer itself to the slime clone.

"New evolution catalyst has been discovered."

"New evolution catalyst has been absorbed."

"New evolution line has been unlocked and the user will now undergo evolution."

The last line from the system really completely caught me off guard.