Despite losing one of the members of their group, the second Shadow Slime still follows through, its path clear and powerful for Novus to see, yet despite that, it made one fatal flaw.

There’s no longer a third one that will follow up to its own attack, meaning that while the first Shadow Slime is still out of the tempo for the next attack, the moment this slime’s attack ends will also be the moment that it will be at its most vulnerable state.

The attack came, swift, precise, lethal.

But Novus countered with his own at the same time, perhaps at an even higher level of precision than the oncoming attack, that same smile on his face as he bent his upper body a bit, avoiding the attack and setting him up for a nice opening that allows him to drive his reinforced fist towards the Shadow Slime’s body.

Its core shattered, then its body completely collapsed under itself, slippery goo covering the young man in the process as he is right underneath the slime when it happened, but it bothers him not as he just continues with his next target, his senses alarming him of the remaining Shadow Slime’s third attack.

Arms raised, body reinforced with mana, and his footing straightly rooted on the ground, he receives the third attack, allowing the slime’s body to lodge itself deep within his arms, prompting him to smile as something flashes in his mind.

’Reminds me of the first time... well, not really that long ago, it should be some couple of days ago... if the Evolution Domain even works like that...’ he thought to himself as mana wraps around his free arm, just covering it instead of revolving, showing the fact that he opted for the less taxing choice right now.

’Mana Blade or normal reinforcement, you’re going to die either way...’ those confident words were in his mind as he drives his fist towards the Shadow Slime’s body, his ruthless efficiency showing the leaps of improvement that he had achieved during his travel towards the Verdant Forest, reaching the point that allows him to fight a number E-Tier slimes that were once threat to him to a victory, albeit that victory being quite costly in his books.

The slime broke, collapsing under its own weight without the support of its own core, now turned into fine powder by Novus’ attack.

As it fell on the ground, the sludge just spread across the ground, and only now did he notice that the sludge was quickly being absorbed back into the ground.

’Why?’ he wonders to himself as it is only now that something like that happened that quickly, but the fact that his senses are not picking up something amiss allows him some moment of respite to think that it might just be some sort of odd, but not too dangerous kind of phenomenon.

And further confirming the end of his battle against this group of slimes, the announcements and notifications he was just previously hearing in his mind start popping up in front of him one by one, allowing him to relish in the great harvest that signals his assurance in reaching the E-Tier once he steps out of the Evolution Domain for the third time.

[Defeated: Shadow Slime (3). Rewards: E-Tier Evolution Crystal (5), Slime Substrate (9), Liquid Shadow (6)]

As he closed the screens one by one, he felt something quite amiss to the point that he felt something gently, but eerily caressing his nape, his hair standing on end as his senses flared up, trying to pick up where this looming sense of threat was coming from.

His surroundings are as empty as they can get, as if the slimes around and nearby were not even affected by the commotion of him drawing out mana time and time again, fighting against three Shadow Slimes, which made that foreboding sense of danger ring all the more.

After all, in all of his encounters with them, slimes tend to group up when they feel a fight near them, almost as if it is their survival instinct to respond to their own kind’s difficulties and gang up on their opponent in large numbers, despite them usually living their lives a bit distanced from each other.

With that sense of dread still making him feel sick, he continued to close the notification of the Shadow Slimes he killed, and once he closed the second-to-last one, he saw it.

The reason for this ominous foreboding is written in a cold, unfeeling text as if it isn’t announcing any serious trouble at all.

[Detected that during your hunt within the Evolution Domain, your cumulative slime species kill reaches a total of five thousand (8 E-Tier Slimes and 4992 F-Tier Slimes)]

[Due to the great number of slime species lives taken, the system user is branded as an enemy of all slime species!]

[All slime will feel immense animosity against the system user, and they will do anything to remove the system user from this place.]

[All slime species will be able to accurately determine the system user’s location so long as they are within a one-kilometer radius of the system user’s current location.]

[!!! A Slime Beast Wave is triggered!!!]

[The beast of the mentioned species will hunt you until you die.]

"Are you fucking kidding me with this bullshit right now?"

[The system and the Evolution Domain wish you good luck.]

"Shit..."

As he reads through the description of this new thing he just came to know of, Novus couldn’t help but curse multiple times in a singular sentence, his hand trembling from the pressure, knowing that while three E-Tier Shadow Slimes might be doable despite the pressure, this kind of thing is completely different than all other fights he had before.

A Beast Wave.

It is, admittedly, a foreign concept to him, as he had never heard something like that happening in his entire life, and even from his father, mother, or any elder in his family, who are all knowledgeable people who at least explored some parts of the world they live in, he had never heard of any mention of such phenomena before.

Still, the meaning behind those two words combined spells nothing but disaster, and paired with the description, the announcement of his ’milestone’ killing five thousand slimes bearing this kind of bad news, he felt like, no, he had accepted that in the coming minutes, he would be in for an extremely dangerous ride.

One that, more likely than not, will not allow him to get out of it alive.

"Agh, fuck this, if I’m going down, might as well harvest as many resources as I can!!" he shouted to motivate himself as his fighting intent surged and exploded outwards, that same, chilling maniacal smile creeping up his sharp face as he prepared for the massive fight about to happen.

’There’s no point in running... I’ll just be surrounded sooner or later, not to mention those Shadow Slimes move faster than me... might as well save energy and stand my ground here...’

With Novus deciding to brace and steel himself to fight against what is possibly the biggest threat he had ever encountered in the Evolution Domain so far, he felt it.

The ground trembles with each pounce of the approaching slime.

From the open, grassy fields.

From the towering, mysterious forest.

From all around him.

"Mhm... this is going to hurt." he mocked himself as he prepared for the first slime that arrived, an azure slime that appears completely identical to the one outside this world, the version he is so familiar with.