Chapter 18

I wasn't immediately going to go after multicellular organisms, but I did slide into my role in the single-cellular world. After taking down the tardigrade, I realized that I was undefeatable among my peers. Thus, I began a rampage to rapidly level. I killed things without necessarily bothering with nutrients. I was a scourge on the land, killing indiscriminately. There was only one of me though, so I doubt I could disrupt the ecosystem around me too much. Once I killed everything in an area, there was always another area.

My confidence grew as my kill count began to rise. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that I had completely come out of my shell. Before that, I had moved around cautiously, constantly afraid of being instantly destroyed. However, my HP was so high now that few things could threaten me at my size. Of course, there were still larger things out there in the deep, but they were off in the distance and thanks to my Thermoception, it wasn't difficult to avoid them.

It was truly the senses that allowed me to visualize my environment that allowed my massive change. I had the mind and memory of a human being, and my senses depended a lot on what I could see. Up until now, I had been fumbling in the dark, only to catch glimpses and make predictions. This had left me somewhat cowardly. Now that I could see the world in vivid color, and had a distant enough sense I could see the entirety of an organism, I was much more confident fighting.

Using Spores, Water Jet, and the Phage Tail, I had three forms of attack. A beam-like projectile, a toxin-like bomb, and a short-range attack whip. This was enough to dominate my enemies. Originally, I had been targeting algae, molds, and other passive protists. These were the ones that were like plants or like algae in function. Green algae was particularly abundant, and it clumped together in thick groups that I could destroy and consume at a record pace.

Congratulations! You have reached level 8.

You have unlocked the skill, Pseudopod.

I had finally unlocked a third form of locomotion, although Psuedopod felt like a bit more than that. The name simply meant fake foot, and it allowed me to distort a second of my body, that plasma membrane, into something akin to a foot. This didn't just help me move, but it could help me grab onto enemies and navigate my environment better as well. I finally had an elastic move.

As I became more confident, I started targeting the animal-like protists, or protozoa. Paramecium, Amoeba, and Euglena were the three I could identify. These were fellow protists who used Cilia, Pseudopod, and Flagella respectively for movement. Ciliates were protozoa that had cilia, while flagellates were the protozoa that had flagella. Since I had all three forms of movement, I wondered what that made me.

Congratulations! You have reached level 9.

You have unlocked the skill, Mutation.

I had reached the top level of this evolution branch, and it left me with an interesting skill. Mutation was considered a support skill, and at first, I wasn't sure how that worked. I tried applying Mutation to different things, and I was shocked to find that every time I used a skill along with Mutation, the skill would change slightly. Sometimes, it made the skill stronger. Sometimes, it made the skill weaker. Most of the time, it didn't affect the skill at all.

I used it on Water Jet countless times, and I found my jet changing. It changed in the amount of water being shot out, in the distance it traveled, and in the size of the stream sent. The change was always random, and it was always permanent. It didn't necessarily help me either. Sometimes, it made the skill function worse than before. Plus, I had no way to tell what Mutation did other than to test each skill meticulously both before and after. After tinkering with Water Jet, the skill had fundamentally changed from a high-powered jet to a wide-spread eruption.

This was not necessarily stronger, and if I was being honest, I preferred my original Water Jet. This new one was good for blowing back enemies. It had a strong concussive force and basically could push back six or seven enemies if I was being overwhelmed. Yet, it couldn't pierce walls like it once did.

Realizing that Mutation was a random game, I decided to put it away. I only had so many skills, and it wasn't worth it if it ended up destroying a skill or making it unusable. I did see one potential though. It made me different. Every clone of myself would be following the same path. Mutation was the first way I could see to become free of that path. It allowed me to change skills so they worked differently. Unfortunately, without knowing if the Mutation would make me stronger or weaker in the end, I couldn't afford to just use it without thought.

It wasn't all bad news though. The concussive force of the Water Jet didn't work well on single-celled organisms, but it worked much better on multicellular organisms. Because all of the cells moved together, a concussive force damaged all of them simultaneously. Sometimes a fist worked where a knife would not. Single-cellular organisms became less interesting and I started aiming for multicellular ones. I began to pass up most protists as I searched for the multicellular varieties. I namely aimed for tardigrades, rotifers, and volvox.

I also encountered planarians, roundworms, and the like, but they were still a bit large for me. Even when I brought one down, I wasn't capable of getting very much nutrients. It wasn't like I needed it. I got far more than enough nutrients with my other kills in the day, but it still felt like I wasted killing something and then letting it rot for no gain whatsoever. Despite the game mechanics I had encountered so far, the enemies didn't disappear once they died and there were no game items. At least in my tiny size, it was as realistic as real could be.

I continued to hunt the larger worms anyway, and it was on my third worm takedown that I finally got the fated text I had been waiting for.

[You have reached the maximum level for a Protista. If you wish to proceed, you must evolve. Your level will return to level 1. Do you want to evolve into a Coenobium?]

"Yeah, sure…"

The word Coenobium caught me off guard. I was expecting a "multicellular organism". Were there still steps I was missing? If that was the case, how was I going to continue leveling? I was already as large as a single cell could be. If I tried to fight anything bigger than the worms, I was back into the territory of instant death, no matter how many HP points I had. All of those questions were answered in an instant.

Congratulations! You have evolved into a Coenobium. 

You have unlocked the skill, Mitosis.

Mitosis! That was the cellular form of reproduction. Some eukaryotic cells like yeast use budding, but most eukaryotes use the process of mitosis. It was the process by which one cell became two cells.

"That is…"

I was instantly worried. The last time I had such an ability through Binary Fission, it didn't end up very well. Binary Fission was prokaryotes' simplified version of eukaryotes' more varied Mitosis. I had been able to divide an extra amount at every level until I could form a million versions of myself. Yet, they were merely clones and as they experienced new things, they started to see themselves as different people. I was no longer able to trust myself, which was why I had escaped to another part of the world on that multicellular organism, although it wasn't an intentional escape.

This skill became greyed out once I reached the multicellular stage, and now it's been replaced by my Mitosis. If I started reproducing again, would I not end up repeating history's mistakes? Life was a competition, and the worst irony was when I ended up competing against myself.

That said, if other clones of me reached this point, would they hesitate to use Mitosis? They probably would. After having betrayed or been betrayed by countless clones, they would be terrified of a repeat just like me. Then again, the groups were working together to knock out everyone else. They had managed to work out some kind of symbiotic relationship between themselves, although it was anyone's guess if those relationships persevered or fell apart.

That said, my decision wrapped right back to the beginning. I had to use Mitosis. If they didn't use it, then it was the one advantage I'd have over them. If they did use it, then I'd need it too if I wanted any chance of not being destroyed by their superior numbers. With a breath, I left Interphase and entered the four stages of Mitosis.

It was a pretty quick process. Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and then Telophase. PMAT for short. It just described where your DNA was while the cell was breaking into two. Everything had to be copied beforehand, and I had a feeling that I wouldn't have been able to do this if I didn't possess Cellular Growth. First, your DNA needed to be replicated, and then it needed to be packaged into bundles called chromosomes. All of this needed to be done before mitosis started.

Once mitosis began, the Nuclear Envelope disappeared, and the chromosomes all lined up in the middle of the cell neatly. This is what allowed scientists of old to be able to see chromosomes and identify how they were passed on. Humans had 23 unique chromosomes, bundled in pairs to create a 46-chromosome mature body cell. Without a mirror, I had no clue how many chromosomes I had inside me.

All I knew was that I doubled my DNA, and then I compressed it in the center. Once they were lined up, you went from Prophase to Metaphase. Little spindles formed, pulling the chromosomes apart in the next phase called Anaphase. Then, with the chromosomes on each pole of the cell, the plasma membrane cuts the cytoplasm in two, making two unique cells, with all the organelles properly sorted so that each of them has enough. The nucleus reforms and the DNA unwinds and thus begins the next growth cycle.

While it had only four phases, with cytokinesis being a name for the point at which the cell is cut into two, and Interphase being a term for the phase between mitosis, some books liked to be annoying and add phases. Prometaphase… Early and late telophase… It was all the same process, just with each step being further divided for little things happening.

I didn't care about any of that. I was more focused on the second me that had just been created. Right next to me was another clone of my body. We had both lost half of our mass, producing two identical cells. While I was checking him out, he was checking me out. It was all happening once again. If evolution never repeated anything, it certainly liked to rhyme.