Hidden Talent

At the edge of the village, Mu Yuan walked over to the Great Slime. Some leftover food remained in front of it.

Uh, describing these seemingly shiny but actually unknown-composition scraps as food isn't quite appropriate.

Did the Great Slime have intestinal problems because it just ate these?

Wait!

How are there some... some scattered items floating inside the Great Slime's massive, jelly-like body?

There were broken iron pieces, shattered gems, unknown metals, glowing mushrooms, and so on.

These materials were collected bit by bit by the Skeletons during their explorations. Their value wasn't high, but they were useful. Undead Bone used these scraps to set up many traps and defense lines.

There were also some materials that weren't recognized or ranked, but they collected some anyway, just in case they were useful.

And this lump of Great Slime swallowed quite a bit.

It ate, but it didn't completely eat.

How could it not be stuffed?

Undead Bone was very innocent.

But perhaps, maybe, possibly, approximately... the diet was wrong.

What exactly should a Slime eat? The great scholar Undead Bone fell into deep thought.

It took a lot of effort for Mu Yuan to get the large lump of Slime to spit out the bits and pieces inside its body.

This lump of jelly was still unwilling, bouncing and trying to move back towards them. Was this greed for wealth or greed for food? You're risking your life!

The foolishly cute Great Slime had no Appearance of an Emperor. It didn't understand; it just wanted to eat.

It made urgent "gurgle gurgle" sounds.

...As expected, it's still not very smart.

But Mu Yuan also noticed that this Great Slime was a bit unusual.

After all, how could a Common Grade Slime have so many issues? It wouldn't do anything other than follow its instincts and the Lord's commands. From this perspective, this Great Slime had a certain degree of intelligence.

It was just that its intelligence was focused on inexplicable things.

Why would it covet these shiny things?

Mu Yuan conducted some tests.

He had Undead Bone hold down the Great Slime and took out various items and treasures one by one, dangling them in front of the Great Slime to observe the degree of the jelly lump's desire.

As expected, when the Soul Sand appeared, the Great Slime struggled violently, gurgling.

Unfortunately, even though it was only One Star and large in size, it was held down firmly by Undead Bone. It gurgled pitifully.

In subsequent tests, Mu Yuan found that the Great Slime wanted everything, including Crimson Blood Fruit, Abundant Fruit, and so on.

You say it's a glutton? But it also wanted things that were clearly inedible, such as the Shaman Inheritance Stone.

Wanting everything will only harm you!

Actually, the Great Slime had also shown a craving for Soul Sand before, but Soul Sand is not a necessary food and is an important strategic material. Without Mu Yuan's permission, Undead Bone didn't dare to take it upon himself to give it to the Great Slime to eat.

Besides, what if it ate too much and got bloated?

Oh, it seems it just got bloated.

The Great Slime used its pitiful act, and the effect was outstanding.

Mu Yuan's heart softened after all, and he gave it a little Soul Sand.

Absorbing Soul Sand is an instinct that all troop types possess. Seeing the Great Slime swallow it and let it float inside its body, Mu Yuan wasn't worried.

Hmm, if it absorbs all this Soul Sand, it'll be enough for it to level up to LV2.

Let's observe it first.

But not long after,

"Goochi, goochi goochi~"

"No, I'm not giving you any. You're just a Slime. You need to learn to just eat some leaves to survive. Don't be so wasteful, understand? Wait..."

Human and Slime languages are not mutually intelligible. The silly and adorable Great Slime couldn't understand Mu Yuan's good intentions at all.

But Mu Yuan noticed something a little off about the Great Slime in front of him.

It seemed a bit bigger? More energetic?

Hold on,

When he clicked on the giant jelly in front of him to check, he discovered that this blob of Great Slime had already leveled up to LV2 at some point. The Soul Sand given to it not long ago had been completely digested.

Did Undead Bone give the Great Slime Soul Sand yesterday?

Mu Yuan shook his head. Undead Bone might give it, but if he did, he would definitely say so.

In other words, the Great Slime digested the Soul Sand and leveled up to LV2 in a very short time.

This speed was more than just a little faster than Undead Bone, who had the Appearance of an Emperor.

The Great Slime definitely didn't have the Appearance of an Emperor. It only had clear and foolish eyes, but it might possibly have a little talent.

"Hidden Talent."

"It refers to a talent that hasn't been fully displayed, hasn't appeared on the panel, but already possesses a bit of extraordinary talent."

"Players have it, and a very small number of troop types also have it."

Of course, many high-level troop types have talents, and he, Great Lord Mu, is destined to be a lord who commands countless high-level troop types. A mere unknown talent is completely not worth being surprised about.

At most, it's a small surprise.

After thinking about it, since it's a troop type with a hidden talent, it's somewhat of a dragon among Slimes. Mu Yuan decided to give the big blob of Slime a name.

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

"Goochie goochie?"

Duo Lai, with its clear, foolishly large eyes wide open, completely failed to grasp the meaning of the name that would accompany it for its entire life.

It simply swallowed another small piece of Soul Sand gleefully and bounced away with a "goochie goochie."

Watching Duo Lai's retreating back, Mu Yuan opened the panel again to check.

"Indeed, it's just a Common Grade Three Star."

"Furthermore, 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 type, to evolve a Three Star Great Slime and compare it with Duo Lai.

Normally, a Great Slime evolved by his hand could learn a skill, so Duo Lai was at a disadvantage, inherently lacking.

However, Duo Lai leveled up quickly in the early stages, and if its Hidden Talent was unearthed, it would also have an extra talent compared to other troop types in the future, so its potential wasn't bad.

The question was, was it possible to make up for Duo Lai's inherent lack?

Mu Yuan pondered.

In his opinion, a Three Star troop without skills was already inherently disabled, truly miserable.

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

But this one unit of Evolution Points was neither for the Skeleton type nor the Slime type, but...

"Falcon?"

"I almost forgot about this bird."

Calling it a scout was inaccurate; due to the lack of means for communication and its lack of intelligence, the information the Falcon could provide to Mu Yuan was actually very limited.

Using it for combat was naturally even more useless.

The Falcon almost died several times during its scouting missions.

A One Star troop was indeed a bit weak; only by recruiting more Falcons for a widespread scouting network could more intelligence be gathered and consolidated.

However, a Three Star troop was not weak; the improvement compared to One Star was not just a little bit, and his Three Star troops also came with skills.

"What skill will the Falcon gain after evolving?"

"Let me see."

With a thought, the Radiant White Light of evolution enveloped the small Falcon.

The next moment, the figure in the white light's wings elongated, its body grew taller, visibly increasing in size, transforming into a majestic large bird.

"Ding!"

"Notification: Your troop 'Falcon (Common ★)' bathed in the Light of Miracles, underwent a transformation, and has evolved into 'War Falcon (Common ★★★).'"

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