Slime Evolution

Chapter 435 - Argument

Watching that constant flow of new members moving through the headquarters, Lohan couldn’t help but notice another interesting detail that had been repeating over the past few days, the near flawless behavior of practically all of those recruits.

"They’re being too polite," Lohan remarked, half joking, half serious. "Like, suspiciously polite."

"That’s the probationary period at work," Lisa explained, a glint of satisfaction in her golden eyes. "Nobody wants to risk getting kicked out for causing trouble in the first few weeks. So they try their hardest not to offend anyone, especially the veterans."

"In other guilds, that would normally be a perfect recipe for abuse," Dylan remarked, his tone taking on a more serious weight. "Just like we saw with the Broken Suns, I’ve already heard reports of guilds where veterans exploit exactly that fear in newcomers, treating them like temporary slaves, forcing them to accept humiliating tasks or split loot in a completely unfair way, just because they know the newcomers won’t complain out of fear of being kicked out."

Lohan felt a genuine unease just imagining that.

"That’s disgusting," he said, bluntly.

"Completely agree," Lisa replied, her voice firm. "And that’s exactly why we made a point, from the start, of setting a different standard here at Astralis. If not even me, Dylan, or you, Halon, treat the newcomers with arrogance, who are the ordinary veterans to think they have that right?"

"Leading by example." Lohan remarked, pleased with that philosophy they had developed together. He had already noticed it working with the guild’s current veterans, who had been newcomers just a few weeks ago, it was only because he had been so busy with multiple clones split up, plus hunting with his main body alongside Lisa, that he hadn’t paid much attention to it these past few days.

"Precisely," Lisa confirmed. "And it worked better than we expected. The older veterans naturally followed our behavior, treating the newcomers with patience and respect, instead of arrogance. It created an atmosphere completely different from what you’d normally see out there."

It was exactly that welcoming environment, combined with the impressive efficiency of the recruitment system, that made any remaining doubts the newcomers had about Astralis Requiem simply vanish over those three days.

And, without a doubt, the factor that impressed those newly arrived players the most was the possibility of requesting one of Lohan’s clones to accompany them during hunts.

"It still amazes me how excited they get about that," Lohan remarked, watching a small group of five newcomers gathering near the entrance, clearly about to head out to farm, with one of his clones already joining the group, the smaller gelatin glowing discreetly.

"You make their lives too easy," Lisa replied, a small smile appearing at the corner of her mouth. "A clone of yours helping store loot in the Astral Chest already eliminates half the tedious work of any hunt. Nobody has to carry monster corpses or fragile items around anymore."

"And I still help in combat," Lohan added, with a bit of pride. "Of course, I’m still avoiding being too flashy. I still can’t use the living armor with anyone who isn’t a confirmed member, so I limit myself to digesting the monsters during the fight and using basic spells that don’t demand too much from my mind."

"Even so, that’s already a massive advantage," Dylan remarked, joining the conversation again. "I’ve already heard several groups mentioning how their farming speed has more than doubled since they joined us and got to bring one of your clones along."

"And keep in mind they still share a portion of the experience with me," Lohan said, satisfied. "But nobody complains about that. On the contrary, everyone seems to think it’s well worth it."

"Of course it’s worth it," Lisa replied, rolling her eyes slightly. "You help them hunt faster, more safely, and you even carry the loot for them. Sharing a fraction of the experience is the cheapest price there is, considering all that."

Lohan vibrated his gelatin, pleased with that assessment, but the real reason behind his happiness went well beyond the simple pride of being useful.

With dozens of clones spread among the different groups of new members, each one tirelessly hunting through the forests and regions near the headquarters, the amount of experience and biomass flowing back to his main core was absolutely exploding. He not only kept the experience from every fight his clones took part in, but also absorbed all the biomass from the less valuable parts of the corpses, the ones players usually discarded or sold for next to nothing on the market.

And the result of that was already becoming impossible to ignore.

"You know," Lohan remarked, somewhat hesitant, "I just leveled up to Level 17 last night."

Lisa stopped walking immediately, turning her head toward him with an expression mixing surprise and a visible pang of irritation.

"Seventeen?" she repeated, her voice coming out in a tone that definitely wasn’t celebratory. "Already?"

"Yeah," Lohan confirmed, trying not to sound like he was bragging, even though he knew he was probably failing miserably at that attempt. "And I don’t think it’ll take much longer to hit Level 18 either, considering the pace the experience is coming in."

Lisa narrowed her eyes in an expression Lohan already recognized very well after spending so much time around her.

"That’s completely unfair," she muttered, her tone carrying that cute, competitive irritation that only showed up when comparing level progress with him. "Even hunting tirelessly, pushing aside a bunch of bureaucratic work onto Dylan and Alice just to hunt nonstop even when you’re not connected, and you just roll around out there, gaining levels for free just because you have enough clones spread across the entire forest."

"Hey, that’s not fair," Lohan protested, even though he found her reaction amusing. "I also work hard managing all these clones at the same time. You have no idea how complicated it is to keep so many separate consciousnesses in sync while processing combat simultaneously."

"Oh, spare me that excuse," Lisa shot back, not losing an ounce of the genuine irritation in her voice. "You’re enjoying this way more than feeling wronged, Halon, even without a mouth I can hear the huge smile you’d have on your face just from the tone of your voice."

"Lisa, that sounded incredibly unfair to the hard work I put in controlling so many clones." Lohan replied, trying to sound offended, but unable to fully hide the amusement in his own voice.

Was it extremely exhausting to control so many clones at the same time? Definitely, but Lohan loved every second of it, even though his mind was nearly overloading, to the point of needing 12 hours or more of sleep every single day.

The feeling of constant growth was addictive.

"You think I don’t know the stress you’re putting yourself through to level up like this?! Watch me go to your place to limit your playtime and make you actually rest!" Lisa snapped, her tail swishing side to side with a not so subtle irritation.

’That doesn’t sound bad at all...’ Lohan kept that thought to himself, considering Dylan was on their mental link at that moment, and if he said that out loud it would not only needlessly embarrass Lisa in front of her friend, but would probably also make Dylan feel left out of the conversation.

Dylan, who was watching the whole exchange with a discreet smile, wisely chose to stay quiet, clearly recognizing that was an argument he definitely didn’t want to get involved in, but one he was loving to witness.

Having known Bella for so many years, this was the first time he had ever seen her act like that, and without either of the two little monsters knowing, he had already subtly started recording their argument to embarrass the both of them at some point.

"Look on the bright side," Lohan tried, in an effort to calm the situation. "Just like when we first met, where you used your power and level advantage to help me level up faster, now I’ll be able to use this advantage of mine to bring you along faster than we would without it."

Lisa huffed, but the shape of her ears was already starting to relax slightly, a sign that her irritation, as always, wouldn’t last very long.

"You’d better make up for it somehow," she muttered, still trying to keep up the annoyed facade. "Because I’m not going to accept falling behind for much longer."

"I promise to make up for it," Lohan replied, pleased to see the tension gradually dissolving.

"And don’t even think about using that excuse again," Lisa added quickly, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"I hadn’t even thought about it," Lohan lied shamelessly, his gelatin vibrating in a way that definitely didn’t help disguise the lie.

"Halon."

"Okay, maybe I’d thought about it a little."

Dylan had no idea what "that excuse" was, but the smile on his face grew even wider imagining the possibilities.