For monsters, beasts, and even demons, the base form is commonly identified as the infancy stage. After that, the first evolution would be the adolescent stage, and the second and so on would be the adult stage.

Naming a tamed monster usually occurs right after the first evolution. This isn’t some sort of golden rule but more of a “happened to be” thing. Since most of the tamers name their monsters after the first evolution, it just became a normal thing to do so.

By the way, naming monsters does not have any special meaning. It won’t add power to the monsters or anything; it will only reinforce their sense of “self” much better. This is also another reason why it is usually done after their first evolution. Since after their evolution, their intelligence gets bumped up to at least a teenager’s level.

For my slime, I already decided on the name as soon as we met.

“I hereby give you the name of Ember, taken from your reddish-pink color. It symbolizes how this is just the beginning, and that you will one day grow into a raging flame!”

I excitedly spoke to Ember. The slime Ember, after hearing its name, started jumping around me in a fit of joyous celebration. Ember’s feelings were passed directly to me through our special link, which contains mostly joy and admiration.

“Alright! Let’s quickly head back to the town to review your newly found strength!”

As I spoke, we dashed as fast as we could to return to the town. Thanks to my boosted physical ability, I was able to travel twice as fast as before. Ember, who was way faster than I am, was practicing her skills diligently as she followed my relatively “slow” pace.

It only took an hour before we reached the gate, which was way faster than usual. At the gates, however, I was stopped by the guards once more. 𝗼𝐯𝐞𝐥．𝐜𝐨𝗺

“Stop! Identify yourself!”

It was the same line from the same guard as last time. I scratched my head as I replied.

“Uhm, it’s me, Will.”

“”…?””

The two guards stared at me reproachingly after hearing my answer.

“That, my slime evolved, and with the backlash, I bulked up a bit.”

“You-, you’re that gutter rat?!”

The guard was greatly surprised. However, after seeing the familiar pink slime, although now a tad larger, he seems to have realized my identity.

“Ahem, y-you may enter.”

The other guard smacked the head of his buddy before permitting me to enter. Smiling wryly, I passed through the gates and went straight to the government office. Of course, I still chose the brown-haired lady’s counter. I don’t know why, but I feel that her smile was a bit more natural compared to yesterday’s. Probably because I bulked up a bit, enhancing my visuals, yep.

After cashing in our earnings, my pocket got an additional 120,000 Credits. It was quite a sum, but even if I spent it thriftily, it would last only a month at most.

“Uhm, can we borrow a training room?”

Since I want to test Ember’s newly evolved state, I wanted to use a proper venue for it. Fortunately, the government office offers rental services for their training rooms for tamers.

“The basic training room is 10,000 Credits per hour; the advanced training room is 100,000 Credits per hour. Which one do you prefer?”

The receptionist replied immediately. Of course, since it was impossible for me to spend hundreds of thousands just for a training room, I just booked the basic training room for an hour. After paying the 10,000 Credits fee, I was led to a room at the back of the building.

The training room was just a rectangular space of about 10 by 50 meters. It was a bit cramped for large monsters, but more than enough for my slime.

“Okay, first, let’s test your speed!”

I sat at the observation deck, which was made of a transparent material. Whatever this material was, it was strong enough to not break even after getting hit by Ember’s [Tackle]. It was sturdier than common concrete.

After a series of tests starting with speed, strength, intelligence, and endurance, I determined that Ember had a roughly 30% boost in all aspects. It wasn’t much of an increase, but it was enough to raise her danger level to red relative to my strength even though I, too, had a power-up. Honestly, I feel a bit disheartened.

“Now let’s measure my power.”

After saying that, I went down to the observation deck and started performing the same set of tests that Ember went through. The result was as bad as I predicted, which was basically below even 5% of Ember’s records. I can somewhat agree with the “red danger level,” seeing the gap in power between us.

This measurement, however, isn’t that accurate, as in this world there’s no technology like a stopwatch or something like a punching meter. Using an hourglass to measure time steps was a bit too hard for someone like me. Still, there’s no denying that I am next to powerless compared to Ember.

In larger cities, there are training rooms equipped with magical tools that can accurately measure performance. But such facilities cost millions of credits just for a single session, which was something that I definitely couldn’t afford.

After my time ran out, I headed back to the inn. On the way, I bought some food from stalls and ate my fill. I also bought a portion for Ember, which was now significantly larger than before. I guess a larger body means a larger appetite. After downing enough portions for two adults, Ember was finally satisfied.

After eating dinner, we headed towards the usual inn and booked a room for another night. The inn owner was accommodating me much better than the day before. Last time, he looked at me as if I were a piece of dirty rag, full of disgust.

After entering the room and slamming shut the bolt lock on the door, I sat on the bed and talked to Ember.

“Tomorrow, we will be testing if you can learn new skills.”