I was angry.
Not the kind of anger that burned hot and loud.
The quiet kind.
The kind that sat in your chest and twisted slowly.
Great Sage's voice echoed inside my mind as calculations flooded my vision. Endless projections. Skill paths. Evolution branches.
All of them… slow.
This template was different.
Rimuru's power wasn't something you rushed. It wasn't something brute force could break through.
It had infrastructure.
Systems.
Time.
I clenched my fists.
The others had been clean. Direct. Violent evolution.
Obito's power came through combat.
Dumbledore's flowed through mastery.
This one… demanded patience.
I hated that.
"Optimize," I whispered under my breath.
The world shimmered slightly as Great Sage obeyed.
"Analyzing optimal training route…""Error: High-level existence template detected. Accelerated growth impossible without external catalysts."
External catalysts…
Wars.
Crises.
Devouring powerful beings.
Experiencing true evolution stress.
All of which I wasn't allowed to touch yet.
I let out a slow breath.
Annoying.
Truly annoying.
But still… I'd started.
My slime physiology rippled faintly as my body began self-regeneration training loops. Microscopic damage. Instant recovery. Over and over.
Pain nullification made it meaningless.
That didn't make it faster.
Predator activated constantly in the background, consuming ambient mana, refining energy, building microscopic stores of power inside my core.
Not fast.
But steady.
Everything about this template was steady.
I hated that too.
I sat at the center of my realm.
Not moving.
Not sleeping.
Just existing.
Letting Great Sage chew through my magical knowledge, optimizing every spell, every circuit, every mana stream.
"Advisory: Patience is statistically correlated with successful evolution"
"Tch."
I clicked my tongue.
I knew that.
Didn't like it.
Still… I'd do it.
I'd build this power the slow way if I had to.
Because when it finished…
No one would be able to stop me.
Not gods.
Not devils.
Not Father.
I met the artificial sky with cold eyes.
"This template is slow," I murmured.
"But so am I."
And time had never once beaten me.