Chapter 10

I watched as the last of the four mes were destroyed. I was with a group of four that kept their distance. I could only gulp as I saw them obliterated and swallowed with ease. They were another form of creature entirely. Without a much stronger attack, I didn't think I'd ever have the ability to seriously fight them. After a moment of silence for my departed brethren, I activated Binary Fission. The other three did the same thing, and suddenly we were back to eight again. We began the painful process of growing back our lost HP and stamina, and it was at that point I reached the next level.

Congratulations! You have reached level 4.

You have unlocked the skill, Conjugation.

Since it had been a while, I brought out my status.

Name: ???

Evolutionary Form: 3

Evolution Level: 4

Species: Bacterial Colony

HP: 400/400

Stamina: 400/400

Attack: 402

Mana: 0

Defense: 403 (797)

Agility: 402

Skills:

Absorption Skill: Active Diffusion, Phagocytosis, Pinocytosis,

Attack Skill: Phage Tail, Pilli, Water Jet

Body Modification Skill: Cellular Growth

Crafting Skill: Cohesion, Lysis

Defense Skill: Encapsulation, Cellular Wall

Endurance Skill: Chemosynthesis, Fermentation, Glycolysis

Experience Skill: Conjugation

Health Skill: Photosynthesis, Binary Fission

Movement Skill: Cilia

Perception Skill: Chemotaxis

Storage Skill: Selective Permeability

I had unlocked new skill criteria known as Experience. I didn't know what this skill was, but something told me to use my Pilli to initiate it. As the two groups coincided after splitting for a kill, we connected via the Pilli. Immediately, new images flowed into my mind, and I saw the point of view of their battle. I also knew I was giving them my point of view. Conjugation allowed us to exchange information, and I realized based on the skill type, and experience as well.

Previously, I had been excited to split into groups, but I realized that even if my ten times rule was correct since I was doubling the speed of experience earning, I would have been done twice as fast, or five times. I must not have been getting the experience from my other selves. Sadly, they all died, and their contribution to my experience gain was lost. I knew I wouldn't be repeating that.

We used Binary Fission once again, breaking into sixteen of us. I decided to leave things in four groups of four. I didn't have the confidence that all sixteen of us could take on the larger eukaryotes. Those guys seemed to have developed various means of defense against creatures like us. Instead, we'd focus on numbers. We'd go out, kill a few sets of eukaryotes, and then return and perform Conjugation with each other. It was a strange feeling gaining knowledge from three perspectives, but I reckoned it was for the best. I didn't want one of me to become too different from the rest of me.

I also found that those of us who traveled together didn't gain anything from Conjugation. Even though there were two cells, if we killed the same eukaryote, I didn't feel the same experience gained when I conjugated with one of them. It was only when we split up and experienced different kills that the skill was useful.

With four groups hunting, the eukaryotes in the area fell quickly. I traveled quite a distance as we hunted for new prey while avoiding the larger organisms, although the distance was relative. My senses had reached an incredible distance now compared to where I started, but I was starting to feel they were too limiting. I hoped I'd get something else soon.

Shit!

As I was moving along, I noticed one of the larger organisms in our way. We had adjusted our course to avoid it, but it ended up in our way again. By the third time, I knew that it wasn't an accident. This guy was hunting us! It moved like a jellyfish, suddenly moving forward and then pausing between each jump. We looked at each other, and an understanding came among us. Our best chance at survival was to split.

We split off into two groups of 8, one group turning and heading back the way we came while the other trying their best to continue forward. As we were heading back, we discovered another organism of a similar type waiting behind us. We weren't just being hunted, we were being surrounded! This was a trap. Without missing a beat, we split up again, four of us heading in one direction, and four of us the other.

We continued to move, using our max speed. Another organism appeared! It was like we had wandered into a nest of these things. We split up again. Although I couldn't see the ones we swam away from, I could feel them dying. There was some kind of thread that connected us, and even if we didn't exchange knowledge without a Pilli, we did have an awareness when each part of us died. One by one, each of them died as they were picked off. To my horror, another organism appeared.

We split once again. I was on my own once again, but I didn't dare slow down. I kept going for a long time. I felt the last of my duplicates die, but still, I went. It was some time before I allowed myself to slow down once again. I found a new group of smaller eukaryotes and stopped there. I had very nearly died, and 15 of my bodies had died in a very short period. I had started to grow cocky, thinking that I could rule the pond, but there were untold dangers everywhere and I could stumble in the wrong place and die at any moment.

This event taught me a lesson. I could never be too cautious. With that, I began Binary Fission followed by Cellular Growth. After four cell cycles, I was back to sixteen. For those that died, I had no memory of their struggles, no experience from their battle. They were evolutionary dead-ends, and every copy from now on would be a copy of me and my experience. I didn't know how I felt about that. Was I even my true self in the end, or was my true self dead?

That's when I realized fifteen other versions of me were having the same thoughts. Wait… which one of me was the first to copy into the others? I decided it was better to stop thinking such thoughts. Instead, I went back to building resources and killing eukaryotes in teams. Eventually, I got comfortable with teams of three, allowing a 5th team to emerge consisting of four. Being able to extract all of that experience naturally quickened the leveling.

Congratulations! You have reached level 4.

You have unlocked the skill, L-form Switching.

I didn't understand L-form Switching, as it wasn't a term I had run into before. However, it unlocked another skill category known as stealth, which gave me a strong hint at its purpose. I decided that a test was in order. I had kept track of which direction I had fled. I knew which area was filled with those eukaryotes that had nearly wiped me out. Thus, I sent one of me out.

We watched as he took off. We used Encapsulation and waited for the feeling of his death. That didn't come. Instead, he returned. It wasn't until we used Conjugation to spread the experiences that we knew what had happened. He had set out alone, feeling slightly annoyed that he had ended up being picked. It was an arbitrary pick, however, a luck of the draw. We had simply selected whoever happened to be physically closest to that direction at the time we made that decision.

He had still left, traveling into the territory of those deadly eukaryotes. He had a bit of a curiosity in his mind, a thought we hadn't had until he was already well on his journey. Perhaps, he'd be able to find the remains of our comrades who had died before. It seemed unlikely, but maybe Conjugation could be used on the dead, and we could gain the experiences of death. Of course, he used L-form switching.

It wasn't long until he attracted the attention of one of the eukaryotes. He could only curse as it started to descend on him quickly. He has used the skill, but it had done nothing. He ended up using it again. Suddenly, the eukaryote stopped. It moved around like it was confused, and that's when he realized that it had lost its position. At that point, he played dead until it got bored and left, and then he escaped.

We decided to send another one of us to run other experiments. Based on what we intended to do, and which ones came back, we were able to get a good grasp on this new skill. L-form Switching only worked once. Once an enemy saw you, it'd cause him to lose track of you. He'd lose your scent. If you regained his attention, he would chase you down once again, and using L-form Switching again would become useless.

If the eukaryotes had a Chemotaxis means of perception similar to my own, then it could only detect me based on certain chemicals I gave off. However, if I were to suddenly change the chemicals I was giving off, it'd appear like I turned invisible. Once it realized the new chemical was also me, it would hunt, and at that point, it wouldn't matter if I gave off chemical A or chemical B, because it was hunting both. Thus, it was best used as a one-chance escape mechanism.

I hoped it had a better application in the future, but for the moment, it was good to see I had unlocked something that could prevent another wipeout like I had experienced earlier. It also didn't hurt that with Binary Fusion, I was now at thirty-two copies of myself. I would be careful from now on, but I still planned to wipe out those eukaryotes that nearly drove me to death. It was merely a matter of time.