Hidden Talent

At the edge of the village, Mu Yuan walked over to the Great Slime. Some half-eaten food was still lying in front of it.

Well, calling these things that looked shiny but were actually made of unknown materials "food" wasn't quite appropriate.

The Great Slime had just eaten these things. Was that why there was something wrong with its digestive tract?

Wait!

Why were some... scattered objects floating inside the Great Slime's enormous jelly-like body?

There were broken iron scraps, shattered gems, unknown metals, glowing mushrooms, and more.

The skeletons had collected all these materials bit by bit during their expeditions. They weren't very valuable, but they were still useful. Deathbone had used these scraps to set up many traps and defensive lines.

There were also some materials they didn't recognize and that weren't even Common Star-ranked. They had collected a little of everything, just in case it proved useful.

And this lump of a Great Slime had swallowed quite a lot of them.

It had eaten them, but not completely.

How could it not have overstuffed itself?

Deathbone was innocent.

But perhaps, maybe, possibly, probably... the problem was that its diet was wrong.

What exactly were Slimes supposed to eat? Great Scholar Deathbone fell into deep thought.

After a great deal of effort, Mu Yuan finally got the large Slime to spit out all the odds and ends inside its body.

The lump of jelly was still unwilling to give up. It bounced toward them, trying to move closer. Was it greedy for money or greedy for food? Did it have a death wish?!

The stupidly adorable Great Slime had no Appearance of an Emperor. It couldn't understand anything; it only wanted to eat.

It let out urgent "gurgle gurgle" cries.

...It really wasn't very smart.

But Mu Yuan could also tell that this Great Slime was somewhat unusual.

After all, how could an ordinary Slime cause so much trouble? It normally wouldn't do anything beyond following its instincts and its lord's orders. In that respect, this Great Slime possessed at least a little intelligence.

It was just that its intelligence had manifested in a baffling direction.

Why was it coveting these shiny things?

Mu Yuan conducted a few tests.

He had Deathbone hold down the Great Slime, then brought out all kinds of objects and treasures one by one, waving them in front of it while observing the jelly's level of desire.

Sure enough, when Soul Sand appeared, the Great Slime began struggling violently, gurgling furiously.

Unfortunately, although it was huge, it was only level 1 and was firmly pinned down by Deathbone. It gurgled pitifully.

During the tests that followed, Mu Yuan discovered that the Great Slime wanted Crimson Blood Fruit, Abundant Fruit, and everything else.

Could you call it a glutton? Yet it also wanted things that clearly couldn't be eaten, such as the Shaman's Inheritance Stone.

Wanting everything would only get you hurt!

In fact, the Great Slime had already shown a desire for Soul Sand before. But Soul Sand wasn't essential food and was also an important strategic resource. Without Mu Yuan's permission, Deathbone hadn't dared to take the initiative and feed it to the Great Slime.

Besides, what if it ate too much and overstuffed itself?

Oh. It seemed to have already overstuffed itself just now.

The Great Slime put on a pitiful act, and the effect was astonishing.

Mu Yuan ultimately softened and handed it a tiny bit of Soul Sand.

Absorbing Soul Sand was an instinct shared by all troops. Seeing the Great Slime swallow it and let it float around inside its body, Mu Yuan wasn't worried.

Hmm, if it absorbed all this Soul Sand, it would be enough to raise it to level 2.

He would observe it for now.

But not long afterward,

"Gurgle, gurgle gurgle~"

"No. I'm not giving you any more. You're just a Slime. You need to learn to eat some leaves and support yourself. Don't be such a spendthrift, understand? Wait..."

Humans and Slimes didn't speak the same language. The stupidly adorable Great Slime couldn't understand Mu Yuan's good intentions at all.

But Mu Yuan sensed that something was slightly off about the Great Slime before him.

Had it grown a little bigger? Did it seem more energetic?

Hold on.

Only when he clicked on the giant jelly before him to inspect it did he discover that the Great Slime had somehow already reached LV2. The Soul Sand he had given it not long ago had been completely digested.

Had Deathbone given Soul Sand to the Great Slime yesterday?

Mu Yuan shook his head. Deathbone might have given it some, but if he had, he would definitely have mentioned it.

In other words, the Great Slime had digested the Soul Sand and leveled up to LV2 in an extremely short period.

This speed was more than a little faster than Deathbone, who possessed an Appearance of an Emperor.

The Great Slime definitely didn't have an Appearance of an Emperor. It only had clear and foolish eyes. But perhaps, maybe, it possessed a tiny bit of talent.

"Hidden Talent."

"It refers to a talent that hasn't been fully revealed or appeared on the panel, but has already shown the beginnings of something extraordinary."

"Players have them, and a very small number of troops do as well."

Of course, many high-tier troops possessed talents. And he, Great Lord Mu, was destined to be a lord who commanded countless high-tier troops. An unknown talent was nothing worth getting excited about.

At most, it was a small pleasant surprise.

After thinking about it, Mu Yuan decided to give the large Slime a name. After all, a troop with a Hidden Talent was somewhat of a rare talent.

"Since you're a Slime that's greedy for both food and money, hmm... I'll call you Duo Lai."

"Gurgle gurgle?"

Duo Lai opened its clear, foolish eyes wide but had no idea what its name meant. It would accompany it for the rest of its life.

It merely swallowed another tiny fragment of Soul Sand happily, then gurgled and bounced away.

Watching Duo Lai leave, Mu Yuan opened the panel and checked again.

"It really is only a blank-slate Three-Star Troop."

"In fact, because it didn't evolve from a One-Star Slime, Duo Lai itself doesn't possess any skills."

Mu Yuan planned to wait until later, when he had accumulated enough Evolution Points for the Slime line, and evolve a Three-Star Great Slime to compare with Duo Lai.

Under normal circumstances, a Great Slime evolved through him would learn a skill. In that sense, Duo Lai had suffered a disadvantage and was deficient from birth.

However, Duo Lai leveled up quickly in the early stages. If he could excavate its Hidden Talent, then in the future it would effectively possess one more talent than other troops. Its potential wasn't bad.

The question was, could Duo Lai's innate deficiency also be made up for?

Mu Yuan pondered this.

In his view, a Three-Star Troop without a skill was already congenitally disabled. It was truly pitiful.

As he thought, Mu Yuan noticed that the Evolution Points column had already accumulated one usable point.

But this single Evolution Point belonged neither to the Skeleton line nor the Slime line. Instead, it was...

"Falcon?"

"I'd almost forgotten about this bird."

If it was supposed to be a reconnaissance troop, then because it lacked the means to communicate, the Falcon wasn't smart enough, and the information it could bring Mu Yuan was actually very limited.

If he used it in battle, it would naturally perform even worse.

The Falcon had nearly died several times while conducting reconnaissance.

A One-Star Troop was indeed too weak. Only by recruiting more Falcons and conducting wide-net reconnaissance could he gather a substantial amount of intelligence.

Three-Star Troops, however, weren't weak. The increase over One-Star Troops was enormous, and his Three-Star Troops also came with skills.

"What skill will the Falcon gain after evolving?"

"Let me take a look."

With a thought, a blazing white light of evolution enveloped the tiny Falcon.

In the next moment, the silhouette within the white light stretched its wings and rose in stature. Its body visibly grew larger, transforming into a majestic, imposing bird.

"Ding!"

"Notification: Your troop 'Falcon (Common Star★)' has bathed in the light of miracles and undergone a transformation. It has evolved into 'War Falcon (Common Star★★★).'"

"Notification: Your troop War Falcon has learned the skill 'Shared Vision.'"