Slimes start off among the weakest of F-Rank monsters, but they have good prospects towards evolution. Specifically, they have two general paths for natural evolution. Increased Size, and Increased Complexity. Increases of size are caused by how much they eat, and mainly affect their physical stats without raising their intelligence. Increasing their complexity comes about by leveling up, and raises their magical capabilities and intelligence, thus it is more in line with the general evolution of other creatures.
Increasing their size triggers evolution at benchmarks of ten times the previous form's size. In such situations the general line would be a normal Slime becoming a Big Slime, then a Giant Slime, then a King Slime, and finally a Grand Slime. Anything larger than that would be treated as a Unique Slime Variant. And this remains the same basic process across almost all slime Variants. At each point of evolution their Strength and Vitality will Multiply by ten times. And their Agility will double. Size evolutions increase the difficulty of leveling up and evolving greater complexity.
Increasing their complexity triggers evolution based on level. Slimes tend to have a growth rate of .75 increase to each stat per level, which puts them above the .5 increase per level of Goblins. Typically, a normal Slime would evolve at level ten into a Morphic Slime, which have increased their ability to shapeshift their quasi-fluid bodies. Where as Slime Variants would evolve at level fifteen to match their Element, such as a Red Slime evolving into a Fire Slime. Upon evolution a Slime's stats would increase by around fifty percent. Complexity evolutions increase their energy and nutritional requirements, causing them to need to eat a lot more to increase their size.
Morphic or Elemental Slimes will typically evolve into the Slime Folk Race at level Twenty and Thirty respectively. Being a Variant or not doesn't make a difference in their Race, though it would at least affect their coloration, in either case they would be slime based humanoids. However it would change what skills they start out with. Larger slimes rarely evolve to the point of becoming a Race. But when they do they would retain their size modifier as part of their Slime Folk Race, I.E. Big Slime Folk, Giant Slime Folk, ETC. Though the actual size would reduce significantly for the particularly large varieties. A normal Slime Folk would be about the size of an elf, where as a Big Slime Folk would be about the same size as a Human. Beyond that the size increase per size rank dips significantly. Though the increased physical stats could hardly be ignored.
Slimes, being initially weak monsters are quite prone to falling prey to other monsters, or even sometimes animals. However, they can generally eat any living thing smaller than themselves. Despite that, they are oddly friendly, typically growing attached to anything that shows them affection. Often times they end up eating mostly plant matter, or sometimes opportunistically, the remains of other slimes. But in environments with wild insects or rodents they often trend towards a more predatory nature. They typically don't try to attack anything larger than themselves.
It is unknown how Slimes sense their surroundings. They have no obvious sensory organs, and do not consistently have sensory skills. Despite that, they universally possess some ability to sense hostility and other intentions, as well as magical energy, even in the trace amounts found in small plants and animals. Slime Folk at least have developed eyes and ears and the like though.
Slimes reproduce asexually. Once they have lived for a set amount of time they begin to produce a second core within their body, so long as they have been eating a sufficient amount of food. Which, upon completion will take over a portion of the slime mass, then divide to live on their own. Larger slimes produce normal Slime offspring. Where as Morphic or Elemental Slimes produce more of their own kind.
Conversely, Slime Folk do reproduce sexually. Specifically they are hermaphrodites, able to play the role of either parent. Though individuals typically have their own preference and shape-shift their bodies to reflect that. The offspring generally show a mix of both parents traits. Most commonly, mixing the colors of the parents. Though having flowing patches of multiple colors is possible. Additionally, Slime Folk who reproduce with other Races produce more Slime Folk, always of the Slime Folk parent's coloration, but such children will typically gain some trait of the other parent's Race. Such as, cat like ears from Tiger Beastmen, or larger bodies than normal for their species of Slime Folk. This can also rarely cause a Slime Folk to gain some of the stat growth of the other parent's Race.
All Slimes possess the unique ability to recover from death so long as their Cores are intact. For the Slimes that still count as monsters, they do have Magic Stones relative to their attribute and rank, though the Magic Stones are inside the cores, and since killing Slimes without destroying the Core still allows an individual to gain experience and level up, it is quite common to hold back from destroying the Cores. However, dying is not without drawbacks for them. Typically, a larger Slime that is killed will recover in the normal size category, and there is a slight chance of a loss of levels during recovery for the rest.
Slime Folk are rather prone to becoming attached to groups of other races rather than gathering into kingdoms of their own, which makes sense given the wide distribution of Slimes and relative uncommonness of their Evolution. They are also a rather joyful and energetic people, typically allowing them to become friendly with others very quickly, and granting them the favor of the Goddess Allelea.
