Like many fantasy isekai, That time I got reincarnated as a Slime has several mechanics reminiscent of those found in tabletop role-playing games or video games and other types of fantasy media in general. One of these familiar mechanics found in TenSura universe is evolution, a dramatic increase in an individual's overall statistics that, as a result, grants them access to a number of unique abilities and advantages.

In the anime's second season, Rimuru dramatically ascended to the status of True Demon Lord after acquiring a large mass of souls as part of a ceremony that saw him not only become a True Demon Lord in name after being accepted by the other Demon Lords, but also as a being. Humans are capable of undergoing the same type of evolution, allowing them to follow a similar but opposite path to that of Demon Lords, but how exactly does human evolution work? That time I got reincarnated as a Slime?

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The human evolutionary trajectory

As above, so below

Humans have access to two possible evolutionary paths in At that time I was reincarnated as a Slime, Lighting or Majinization or Monsterization. Enlightenment occurs when a human being undergoes very long and difficult training, eventually breaking through a significant mental barrier. In doing so, the person becomes a "semi-spiritual" life form, capable of thinking through the Spiritual Body; one of the five main vessels thought to house the soul in the That time I got reincarnated as a Slime universe. Their flesh has partially ascended to a higher plane of existence, making the Enlightened One much more tolerant of magic than the average human, and they have a longer lifespan.

On the other hand, Majinization is an evolutionary path in which a person who has experienced great levels of exposure to magic becomes a monster. This can occur as a result of occult rituals or unique circumstances. Where overexposure to magic normally results in death, a person may experience rebirth as a "Demonoid“Instead. At both ends of the spectrum, an individual can attain even higher and more powerful modes of existence through cultivating their abilities, bodies, and lives in order to break through their mental barriers. The result of this is seen in the Ten Great Saints.

After Enlightenment

Becoming a fully spiritual being

If a human becomes an Enlightened One, further cultivation of their abilities may enable them to complete the awakening process and become a Divine Human. These individuals are extremely powerful, and because they are divine beings, they gain material bodies that do not age. In the case of those who followed the reverse path, a Demonoid can become even more powerful as they reach states such as Greater Majin, Sub-Demon Lords, and eventually Demon Lord level. Characters like Hinata Sakaguchi and Demon Lord Leon Cromwell serve as excellent examples of evolution on both ends of the spectrum, though, at this point in the anime, Hinata Sakaguchi has not yet ascended to the immense heights possible for humans in the series. Divine Humans are so powerful that they can be on par with True Dragons, and their counterpart on the demonic side of things is known as a Divine Demonoid. On both sides, Divinity is a possibility indicating that an individual has gone through the complete process of awakening and become a transcendent being, and as long as the individual is a spiritual life form with a physical body, transcendence is a possibility.

Enlightened or Divine Humans should not be confused with Higher Humans, the first species created by the vampire Twilight Valentine who had a long lifespan and magical affinity; however, due to their selfish and violent nature, they were considered a failed creation and driven to the brink of extinction by the Dark Lord, Guy Crimson. The human race as it appears in the series is the result of Valentine's further experiments. Demihumans, on the other hand, are simply the result of crossbreeding and experimentation with humans, and despite being fully human, there is immense animosity between them and normal humans. Each of these varieties of humans found in That time I got reincarnated as a Slime are capable of evolution, meaning that a human, demi-human, or High Human can achieve the aforementioned milestones.

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That time I got reincarnated as a Slime

Based on the novel and light novel series by Fuse, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is an isekai anime that follows Rimuru, a man who is reincarnated in a fantasy world as its weakest monster. However, that soon changes.