Chapter 14

I began a massive campaign of slaughter. I killed anything large enough to target, nothing else was worth my time. I only ate when I needed energy. After unlocking Aerobic Respiration, as long as I had access to oxygen, my energy production was nearly twenty times greater than when I did it anaerobically, or without oxygen.

Although the oxygen levels dropped a bit in the dark zone, both zones remained oxygen-rich enough, and I didn't struggle to maintain Aerobic Respiration. As a result, I needed to eat less, and so most of my killing was done purely for experience. I didn't just kill Eukaryotes either. I tested out various strategies, attempting to be able to kill them quicker and exude less effort. After countless day-night cycles, I finally saw the familiar ding.

Congratulations! You have reached level 5.

You have unlocked the skill, Glycosylation.

I was a bit confused by my new skill. It was filed under crafting. I had already obtained Cohesion, the ability to put two like things together, Adhesion, the ability to unlike things to stick together, and Lysis, the ability to break down chemicals. This already allowed me to make the most of the chemicals that I knew how to use by breaking down what I consumed and then using the nutrient parts to build something new.

To the best of my knowledge, Glycosylation was a process in protein synthesis. It happened after a protein was made, and all it did was add some kind of sugar molecule to the protein. This did lots of things. It could signal the protein to go to a certain part of the cell, or it could be involved in physically moving the protein around. It could decide the protein's half-life. I simply saw it as a means of playing with sugar molecules.

I eventually realized I didn't need to figure it out on my own. Homeostasis seemed to kick into effect. I started optimizing my body to the peak condition using the available skills. With Glycosylation available, my chemical production became increasingly more complex. That meant better storage, more energy, and faster regeneration. However, the thing that impressed me the most was Glycosylation could be tied to Toxins. I was able to create new and more complicated toxins using this method.

Most of the Toxins I had created previously were simple. They had no means of targeting the enemy. Unless I injected them directly into the host, they would cause any damage, and even if I did give them Toxins, the stronger sells seemed to be able to resist them. The best I could get was to make the opponent's regeneration slow down so that I could build up damage.

However, these new glycosylated Toxins could be released through Exocytosis. I could expel them like a cloud, and once they were released, they would find their target and immediately infect it, weakening the target and even killing it. These only worked best after ingesting a cell. Once I broke it down and understood its makeup, I could then create a Toxin that would be effective against it. They didn't always work. Sometimes, I'd make a few dozen different types and then release them all together. Some Toxins worked better when grouped with other Toxins. The one way to figure out what worked best was to slowly experiment, using many different combinations.

Thankfully, there was no shortage of cells to experiment on. I consumed cell after cell, moving along like a plague. When I ran into my close brethren, I would stop at nothing to destroy them. I had a few close calls at first, but then I developed a new method. I tried ingesting a piece of myself and then created toxins specifically targeted to myself. They were dangerous to release. They were fatal if I released them on myself. However, if I could inject them with the Phage tail, very few of my clones survived.

Like that, I started to grow.

Congratulations! You have reached level 6.

You have unlocked the skill, Vacuole.

And grow…

Congratulations! You have reached level 7.

You have unlocked the skill, Transcription.

And grow…

Congratulations! You have reached level 8.

You have unlocked the skill, Translation.

Vacuoles were a sorting system for my inventory, another storage technique. It was especially useful for Toxins. I originally could only create and store Toxins and then release them through Exocytosis in giant burps of chemicals. I could only store so many chemicals before they started to hurt myself, and I could only expel them all at once. After gaining Vacuoles, I could keep different batches of Toxins and pick and choose which I wanted to release. Furthermore, I could make as many as I wanted and didn't face any backlash.

Transcription was a crafting skill. I knew what it meant biologically. Transcription was the process by which orders were sent to the cell from its central brain, the nucleus. I wondered if I had a nucleus. If my nucleus was destroyed, would that be like my brain being destroyed? Was that where my thoughts were held? I wasn't sure if it was that simple. Either way, Homeostasis took advantage of Transcription, but I otherwise couldn't figure out any way to make use of it.

As for Translation, this was the process that took place after transcription. It's molecular dogma. DNA becomes RNA through Transcription, and then RNA becomes proteins through Translation. In other words, once the orders were sent from the brain, Translation was the process from which they were carried out. It was like a parts factory. The schematics were kept in the nucleus. When a part was needed, the schematics were copied and sent to the factory, Transcription. The factory received the order and then created the part, Translation. Those parts were proteins, which did many of the things cells needed to be alive.

Yet, there was just one problem with that. Translation wasn't a crafting skill. It was part of a new skill criteria called Language. Translation was called Translation, because like a translator, the language of DNA, nucleotides, was converted into the language of proteins, Amino Acids. However, I had a feeling my Translation skill was far more literal. It would allow me to understand other languages.

How the hell does that help me?

This all felt like a bad joke. I was a cell. Cells didn't talk. There was no language to have a language skill. Why would I get one as a eukaryote? I had no plans to be talking to sentient creatures any time soon. And yes, I tried talking to a few cells. I even grew bold and tried talking to one of my clones. Naturally, he started attacking me. I only survived because I was quite a bit stronger than him. I could tell just by my size that he was a lower level. Sadly, that also meant he wasn't worth a whole lot of experience.

In the end, I felt like pulling my hair out. I had gotten level after level and although I was landing a steady stream of skills, they all helped superficially at best.

Congratulations! You have reached level 9.

You have unlocked the skill, Nuclear Envelope.

What did that even do for me? I felt like I was being conned here. I had been eating other cells forever, and my next skill was pathetic. No wonder I was seeing less and less of my clones. Like this one, I was chasing now. I had just gotten sight of him and then he started darting away. He was smaller than me, but I chased him down. As I descended on him, a feeling of dread shot through me.

I fired my Water Jet away from him, altering my movement suddenly. Where I would have been, several Water Jet's shot by. That's when I felt six clones appear around me. It had been a trap! Some of my other selves had joined forces. They were working together to kill off the rest of us! They even used a lower-level clone to trick me. At least two of the six, around me were similar level, l to my own. It was hard to say how I knew, I could just feel it.

Nuclear Envelope was called a knowledge skill. Was it what gave me this feeling of danger? I not only felt the danger, but I also had an idea of the relative levels of my other clones. That's why I started running. They started to immediately chase after me. I knew that if I didn't do anything, I would die. I release toxins behind me. Two of my cells ran into them and started to shrivel up and look sickly.

The others continued to fire Water Jets at me as they tried to get close enough to attack with their Phage Tails. If they got those in me, I knew I would no longer be alive. Part of me felt like maybe I should give up. It was survival of the fittest, right? Even if I died, one of my clones would continue, right? Except, those clones no longer had the experiences I did. I had no clue how much I had in common with them.

Yet, I couldn't shake them. Even fleeing at full speed and using the Water jet behind me, I only was able to make a little distance. They realized Water Jet slowed them down every time they fired so they stopped doing so and I stopped making any gains. Now, it was a game of attrition. My stamina was dropping, and if my stamina dropped before there was, then I'd die.

I realized there was only one choice. I began to dive. I dived down into the dark. The light began to diminish more and more, but I kept going. I kept going until Photo Sense no longer served a purpose. I had to use Chemotaxis to continue to move. Eventually, the clones became intimidated and swam back up. That was likely because they felt their danger sense triggering. I felt it as well. There were more dangerous lifeforms in the deep.

I was still swimming in shallow waters, but that area was no longer safe. At that moment, my descent was stopped by a massive vortex. I felt myself being sucked into it along with countless other cells and chemicals. I slammed into something, and then I grabbed onto it with my Phage Tail.

HP -1000

I lost a lot of health in an instant! I quickly held on, trying to orient myself. I could feel the pressure building, forcing me to use Osmosis to keep from exploding. I was going down, deeper into the water. The oxygen levels were lower, and I was plunged into pitch-black darkness. As for my body, I seemed to be stuck to something moving rapidly. Water and chemicals rapidly flooded on one side, while everything was static on the other.

I tried to calm myself down and focus. I needed to get a grip on my environment. I was still holding on for dear life, but I was more afraid to let go and allow the vortex to take me. I calmed myself down and then extended my chemotaxis. As I felt around, I realized there was a mesh of cells that I was clinging onto. These cells were all closely attached. They created a literal wall of cells.

I had a wall of cells on one side, and a rapidly passing water on the other. It was only then that I realized what was going on.

"A multicellular organism!" I would have spoken if I had a mouth.

Some kind of multicellular creature had passed by, a fish or something, and I had been swept up by its current, and then I slammed against its skin and grabbed it to keep from being obliterated. I had jumped onto a lion's back, and now I had no way to get off.