Slime Evolution

Chapter 439 - New Limit

Heading back to the base, Lisa and Lohan felt firsthand, or rather, in her fur and in his gelatin, just how much of a difference that level up had really made.

"Wow, look at this," Lisa remarked, speeding through the trees with an ease she couldn’t even remember having a few minutes earlier. "I feel like I’m dodging trunks before I even consciously decide which way to go."

"You also got faster," Lohan confirmed, feeling her speed through her own back where he was mounted. "We’re getting there way faster than I expected."

Lisa had gone several days without leveling up, which had subtly made her forget what it felt like to get stronger through leveling, and not only had Lisa’s level up improved her physique, but Lohan’s biomass injections had further intensified those gains.

That made the feeling of leveling up even more incredible for her!

Within a few minutes, the imposing silhouette of Astralis Requiem’s fossilized tree was already visible among the vegetation, and Lisa slowed down just enough to cross the colossal entrance without bumping into anyone milling around there.

"Straight to your office?" Lisa asked, already knowing the answer.

"Straight to my office," Lohan confirmed, excited.

With her leveling up like that, they didn’t even need to talk to know they were both very eager to run new tests.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Lisa settled in the center of the room, sitting back on her own hind legs with her two tails arranging themselves around her body in a quite cute way. Lohan found it amazing how, just as he had fully adapted to this gelatinous Slime body, she had also perfectly adapted to the fox’s canine body.

"Okay, so what’s today’s theory?" she asked, curious.

Lohan formed the bluish filaments he used for the process, but before starting, he wanted to organize his own reasoning out loud.

"Well, we know the daily biomass limit your body accepts before it hurts has been steadily growing," he explained. "Ten, sixteen, twenty six, forty four. But what I really want to figure out now is the reason behind that growth. There are three possibilities I can think of."

"I’m listening," Lisa said, settling in with more attention.

"First possibility: the limit is simply growing with time, day after day, automatically, like a muscle getting used to exercise," Lohan began. "Second possibility: the limit is tied to your current level, meaning every time you level up, the ceiling rises along with it, and this limit could be related either to each small level you go up, or to the big evolution we went through at Level 11 and will go through next at Level 21. And the third possibility, the worst of all, is that there’s some kind of absolute physical limit we haven’t hit yet, something that doesn’t depend on level or time, and once we reach it, there simply won’t be any more room to improve through this method."

Lisa fell silent for a second, processing that.

"And how do you plan to find out which of these is the right one?" she asked.

"The problem is, since you just leveled up, today I can only test one variable at a time," Lohan admitted, a bit frustrated. "If today’s limit is higher than yesterday’s forty four, it could be because you leveled up, or it could simply be because another day has passed. I have no way to isolate the two yet."

"So we’ll have to keep testing for several days to be able to isolate these variables," Lisa concluded, understanding his logic.

"Exactly," Lohan confirmed. "But at least today we’ll already get an important first data point. Let’s see what happens."

With that decided, Lohan formed the filaments and began the process, gradually and carefully increasing the flow of biomass, exactly as he had done on previous days.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, already on autopilot after so many repetitions of that same procedure.

"Warm, but good." Lisa replied, closing her eyes.

The two stayed quiet for quite a while as the flow continued, Lohan monitoring every one of her reactions with redoubled attention.

They passed 44 Biomass without any sign of discomfort, which already made the two of them exchange a glance full of anticipation.

"Still doing okay?" Lohan asked, his own anxiety spilling over a little in his mental voice.

"Yes, still good," Lisa confirmed, eyes still closed.

Every day the biomass limit she could receive kept increasing, that didn’t necessarily mean her limit had grown, but managing to get past it was already a good sign.

What they needed to analyze now was how much of the biomass Lohan was injecting into her would actually be absorbed and converted into direct power.

If it was like the last test, where he injected more biomass and her gains were smaller than the previous day’s, that would be a major setback.

But if, after the tests, she noticed the gains had increased again, that would be a huge, positive sign for them.

50 Biomass... 55... 60... 65...

The number kept climbing without any negative reaction, and Lohan felt his own core vibrate with anticipation at every mark surpassed.

Even if the gains weren’t that large, just the massive increase in the amount of biomass he was managing to inject into her today was already a sign that got them excited.

At the very least the gains wouldn’t be null, or even smaller than the previous day’s, right?

It was only when he reached 73 Biomass that Lisa finally scrunched up her face, a low groan escaping her.

Realizing the pain had arrived, Lohan didn’t hesitate for even a moment and completely cut off the biomass injection, looking at her with great anticipation to see just how big the gains really were.

Lisa didn’t disappoint him either, after a short deep breath to shake off the pain, the first thing she did was get up from the bed to test the gains.