Chapter 7

it turned out that draining from the same cell repeatedly did have some consequences. After sticking it a few hundred times, the cell started to look different. The landscape of the cell's membrane grew rougher and more wrinkled. It seemed to be responding slower, and reacting weaker. I didn't face any more episodes where it tried to eat me, so I considered this a win, but I noticed that the concentration of sugars was also depleting.

After some time, I leveled once again.

Name: ???

Evolutionary Form: 2

Evolution Level: 6

Species: Heterotrophic Prokaryote

HP: 60/60

Stamina: 60/60

Attack: 62

Mana: 0

Defense: 63 (117)

Agility: 62

Skills:

Absorption Skills: Active Diffusion, Pinocytosis

Attack Skills: Pilli, Water Jet

Crafting Skill: Cohesion

Defense Skills: Encapsulation, Cellular Wall

Endurance Skills: Chemosynthesis, Glycolysis

Health Skill: Photosynthesis

Movement Skill: Cilia

Perception Skill: Chemotaxis

Storage Skill: Selective Permeability

Support Skill: Osmosis

I had a new form of attack. That seemed exciting. I wanted to try it out, but there didn't seem to be any point in attacking my brother prokaryotes, as they were small and difficult to hit. I rose instead and aimed for the surface of the eukaryote. I absorbed a ton of water through Osmosis, and then released the water in a stream. I was shocked at the force that came out of me. I hadn't braced myself at all, and I went flying back as the stream shot out. It struck the surface of the eukaryote, causing it to erupt open.

I quickly stopped my stream. It didn't last very long, anyway. The water expelled extremely quickly, and I couldn't store very much in my current inventory. Ironically, sugar wasn't a problem. Sugar allowed me to store more water, not less. This was the effect of osmosis. Everything moved from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration, and that included water. That meant the more water I absorbed, the more sugar I could hold, and the more sugar I held, the more water I could absorb.

That didn't mean I wasn't without limits. That limit would be when I exploded from being oversaturated with water, a hellish hypertonic death. Naturally, I wasn't willing to test that out, so I set my safety limits and only pushed them experimentally under controlled circumstances.

I surveyed the damage; a massive canyon had formed, gushing out the insides of the cell. Other prokaryotes were racing to consume the chemicals leaving the cell as its membrane slowly reformed. I pulled in a ton of water again. This time I braced myself, using my Cilia and Flagella to push back at the force flying out of me.

I shot another Water Jet out. It erupted out with incredible force, striking the cell. I kept the beam stable this time, shooting in a straight line like some kind of laser drill. The jet continued for a bit of time, but I finally ran out of when my water reserves depleted. This time, the hole that formed didn't expel chemicals. Instead, I had shot so much water that I had pushed most of the chemicals away from the surface. The giant hole sat gaping.

The cell suddenly shook, and then cracks began to form. The ground began to rise, and I backed off just for safety. The giant hole I had created seemed to invert itself, and, just like that, the insides began to pour out. I began to see other things too, things I had never seen before. Some of them resembled prokaryotes, but they didn't seem to be capable of functioning on their own. I began to realize they were what we called 'organelles'.

More and more of the cell's insides spilled out. The cell itself began to deflate like a balloon, the familiar cell membrane I had spent so much time next to seemingly shrinking until it was almost nothing. With a final eruption of internal material, the cell exploded like a star, chemicals flying out in waves. The eukaryotic cell was dead.

Congratulations! You have reached level 7.

You have unlocked the skill Phagocytosis.

I moved forward, toward the core of the eukaryote, and opened my mouth. I didn't know I had a mouth, and perhaps it was more accurate to say that I spread myself around it. I then took the entire material left over and engulfed it. I had consumed the remains of the eukaryote. That was Phagocytosis. While Pinocytosis had a sipping effect like I was drinking, Phagocytosis was to eat or engulf. There were limits to what I could engulf, but just like my other skills, I had a feeling it would increase as I leveled.

I also couldn't help but notice that I leveled without doing any metabolizing. Merely the act of killing that massive creature had been enough to propel me to the next level. I continued to run my metabolism, but I instinctively knew that if I wanted to continue evolving, it was no longer going to be by steadily parasitizing larger creatures. If this was anything like a role-playing game, then my path had to be killing enemies.

I had never shown much interest in the other prokaryotes before, but that was because they were too small for Pinocytosis. Even if I tried, they would usually slip by me and run away. A few even had some means to protect themselves and would fight back. Now, however, things were different. I flew toward the closest prokaryote, beating my Flagella like I was some kind of great white shark. As soon as I reached it, I opened up my mouth and chomped down on it. The creature struggled inside me.

HP -1

It kept kicking around, and I'd see my HP drop a bit. This was annoying, and I also realized I had no means of spitting it up. It was like I had contracted a poison. The creature was fighting inside me, like my own personal parasite, and I couldn't expel it. I tried Osmosis and Active Permeability, but nothing happened. I even tried Phagocytosis, leaving my mouth open, but it didn't swam back out.

Thankfully, I was capable of healing as fast as it did damage, but this kind of thing left me feeling quite worried. I still had to hunt, though. This time, I used Water Jet and killed the nearby prokaryotes. They were consumed rather easily once they were dead. I kept at this, feeling like I had taken one step forward and two steps back. After eating a good bunch of prokaryotes, I leveled again.

Congratulations! You have reached level 8.

You have unlocked the skill Lysis.

The skill seemed to activate passively, and the lump inside me quickly perished. Lysis, the prerequisite to digestion. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. I had consumed the first creature without being able to digest it. That's why it ended up being such a pain inside me. Now that I had the ability to Lysis cells, it was no longer a problem. I started engulfing more cells, eating them whole. Some would fight inside me for a few moments, but they quickly perished to my digestive fluids.

I seemed to be leveling pretty well now that I could seek out prey. I no longer felt even a remote drain on my resources. The energy I used hunting down prey seemed to be enough that I was able to keep up the hunting without feeling like I was getting too large. My increased levels helped, too. I wasn't just getting a higher level, but my skills were increasing too. My Chemotaxis reached much farther away now. I could even detect other eukaryotes. I also had greater storage and my movement increased too. Everything about me was improving.

I decided I wanted to take another crack at the eukaryotes. The prokaryotes didn't seem to be delivering enough experience anymore. I had eaten dozens and had yet to leveled up. I started heading over to one, but then I noticed its movements suddenly turned toward me. Although it didn't appear to move much because of its size, I found it quickly bridging the gap between us. That's when I realized that the eukaryote was aiming for me!

I turn around and started beating my tail. Although I had gotten bigger, it still felt like a moon had suddenly decided to chase after me. Worst of all, it was getting closer by the second. I couldn't even see how it was moving, but its speed far outdid my own.

Damn it, I'm not going to end up someone's meal!

I had already managed to survive this long in this surreal landscape. I had defied so many odds and evolved into something that could fight and defend itself. It would be a joke if that all ended now, being swallowed by some kind of moon-sized monster.

I sucked up as much water as I could. I was reluctant to do it because the more water I absorbed, the harder it was to move. Yet I couldn't figure out any other choice. The gap between the pair of us began to shrink at an alarming rate, but I was focused on what I needed to do. I spun around and let out my Water Jet. It struck the creature directly in its mouth. It continued to move forward a bit, but then turned to the side to avoid my spray.

The massive eukaryote swam by me. Its presence disturbed the water around me so much that I was thrown back as it passed by. I tried to keep my presence low, but I kept my Chemotaxis on the creature, watching it carefully. Thankfully, it continued to swim forward, massive cilia, each thicker than me, beating rapidly to keep it moving. Only when it was outside the range of my Chemotaxis did I finally relax.

After that, I decided it was best if I continued to keep my distance from the eukaryotes. I had been lucky to find a docile one the last time, but if I met a hostile one, then my life was over. I began to hunt prokaryotes instead, consuming one after another as fast as I could hunt them down. Some were fast enough to avoid me, although very few could outmaneuver me when I wanted them. Their intellect seemed pretty basic, and they didn't understand strategy at all.

It wasn't too long until I saw another level.

Congratulations! You have reached level 9.

You have unlocked the skill Cellular Growth.

Name: ???

Evolutionary Form: 2

Evolution Level: 9

Species: Heterotrophic Prokaryote

HP: 90/90

Stamina: 90/90

Attack: 92

Mana: 0

Defense: 93 (177)

Agility: 92

Skills:

Absorption Skills: Active Diffusion, Phagocytosis, Pinocytosis,

Attack Skills: Pilli, Water Jet

Body Modification Skill: Cellular Growth

Crafting Skills: Cohesion, Lysis

Defense Skills: Encapsulation, Cellular Wall

Endurance Skills: Chemosynthesis, Glycolysis

Health Skill: Photosynthesis

Movement Skill: Cilia

Perception Skill: Chemotaxis

Storage Skill: Selective Permeability