I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 151

The guild was filled with all kinds of scents. Since I took on human form, I was refining and perfecting my senses. While I was living in the pond, I depended on a broad range of senses from temperature, light, and even chemical content. I had attempted to replicate human sensory organs, but how could such exquisite tools that had been forged throughout millions of years of evolution be replicated by me from trial and error?

However, when I made my last evolutionary leap to becoming a human, my cells were able to differentiate to replicate every organ of the body with ease. From there, I began seeing if I could improve upon them even further. I knew from school that humans didn’t necessarily exist at the pinnacle of senses. Dogs had better hearing and smell. Hawks had superior sight. Even some nocturnal animals had the equivalent of being able to see in infrared.

Thus, on top of all the other things I was doing, I was still running experiments to see if I could improve my vision, hearing, and smell. So far, all I had managed to do was amplify my sensitivity a bit. The nose, in particular, contained olfactory nerves. They have hair-like Cilia not unlike what I used to use for movement. In this case, they served the role of capturing smells. These cilia are triggered by various carbon molecules. Different cilia are triggered in different ways inducing different sensations of smell.

Aromatic carbons, for example, carbons placed within an aromatic ring, typically induce the pleasant smells we associate with sprays and flowers. Meanwhile, hydrocarbons, carbon surrounded molecularly by hydrogen, are more associated with gasoline or oil-like smells. While a human has about six million sensory neurons in the brain, a dog has close to a hundred million. This is why dogs have such powerful noses.

Their ability to smell doesn’t just have to do with the number of neurons, but their brains also dedicate more space to processing scent to keep up with the extra neurons. Other parts of their biology also support this. Most sniffer dogs have long, floppy ears and short legs. Their entire body is shaped to keep their nose close to the ground, their ears serving as smell catchers aiding in redirecting smells to the nostrils. In other words, I couldn’t just generate a hundred million neurons and instantly have the smell of a dog.

However, I had doubled them, and I also combined them with my Chemotaxis so that I was able to differentiate even the slightest differences in smell. Yet, all of that was completely useless for one simple reason. I had never smelled the vast majority of these magical plants… I supposed the books called them mystic plants. Everything I had learned came from a book, so I was all technical knowledge and no practical knowledge.

Even then, I had underestimated the Capala library. I still hadn’t processed every book. Transcription only worked so fast, but there was another aspect that slowed me down even more. These were encyclopedias or carefully assembled manuals. Most knowledge in this world appeared to be passed on via personal experience. Most of the books in the Capala library were just diaries from past botanists belonging to the Capala ancestors providing their day-to-day experiences with growing various plants.

Some of the books described experiments, while others were more just emotional journals. Thus, after memorizing all the data, I had to manually defragment it, going through and removing the useful information while keeping what was important. This process took far longer than the Transcription period, and I was nowhere near complete.

Even if I had processed it all, the knowledge was insufficient. I could look at a drawing of a leaf and be told the smell was stiff and astringent, but I felt that was not sufficient enough for me to be able to identify these plants. I needed real-world experience. My farm had only had a week, so nothing had even spouted yet. Plus, I only had the rare seeds I had taken from the ancient storeroom. As for the common stuff that would more likely be asked on this exam, I had never seen them before.

I took a breath. It was one step at a time. I had been hoping that by taking this test, I’d be able to get into the herb store. That would allow me to get access to those seeds and some practical experience. I had realized my original mistake. I was trying to resurrect some of the rarest and even extinct mystic plants without even having a good grasp on common plants. I had to learn to walk before I could run. First, I would work on getting simpler mystic plants to grow, and just like with my sensory organs, I’d slowly enhance them with trial and error.

I took a deep breath, letting my brain process the hundreds of chemical scents. I didn’t know what they did at the moment, but I would know soon. That’s when I smelled something far more aromatic.

“Hmm? A girl?” I spoke out loud, turning toward an area of the room that was all but hidden.

There was a sudden movement and a thud. “Ow…”

I smiled and then took a few steps around the counter to see a girl there. She was sitting while rubbing her knee.

“Who do we have here?” I asked playfully.

She glanced at me, a slight frown flickering on her lips. “My name is Diana Stride.”

She emphasized the family name as she spoke.

“Another Stride, huh?” I chuckled. “You don’t look anything like Tiffany though.”

Tiffany was extremely fit. She was tall and curvy in all the right places. She had a lot of presence. This girl, while also quite pretty, had a certain mousy quality. She was rather short, which was why I couldn’t see her on the other side of the counter, and her hair looked just a bit unkempt. If I had to describe her appearance, it was like a bookworm, although she didn’t have glasses on. Of course, I had been an equal opportunity player in college, and I had seduced a few bookworms along with sporty girls.

“You know big Cousin?” She blinked and then looked at me suspiciously. “Who are you?”

“The name is Spirit,” I put out my hand, but she didn’t take it. “I’m the fiancé of Lady Capala.”

She jerked slightly. “You’re him?”

“So, you’ve heard of me?” I chuckled.

She made a face and sniffed. “How did you get the right to be engaged to the Lady of the Capala family?”

“I won the tournament?” I cocked my head awkwardly. “Didn’t you watch?”

Her eyes widened, and then her face turned red. “It was you? Did you defeat cousin Jordan?  I don’t believe it!”

I chuckled softly. “Tiffany even offered to accept me into your family. However, how could I take her offer when Lady Capala felt so strongly about me?”

A flash of confusion appeared on Diana’s face. She was surprisingly easy to tease. She reminded me a bit of the young Lady Lou, but without the obnoxious guy Shui following her around. After a moment, her expression turned more serious.

“Either way, if you’re a martial champion, why are you here in the alchemy guild?”

“Isn’t the Stormberg Capala branch horticulturists at heart? I’m naturally aiming to work in the shop.”

“You wish to work in the mystic shop?” She asked in disbelief. “It takes years of study just to become an apprentice. Even the elder of the shop has studied his entire life!”

“I think I have a good chance of passing.” I grinned. “I’ve been studying very hard this last week.”

“A week!” She looked like I was a fool. “I’ve been studying nonstop since I was three, and even I don’t have confidence in passing!’

“Aren’t you aiming for the alchemist certification? I wouldn’t pretend I could do that.”

“True… but the botany test is the same test they give alchemists. You won’t have to do the practical portion like me, but the written portion will still require the knowledge of an alchemist!”

I put on a light smile. “What are you saying? I’m only taking the basic test today.”

She blinked slightly, and then her expression dropped. “You… you should just give up.”

“Excuse me?”

“You don’t have any chance of winning. Do you understand?”

I did understand. It seemed like she was conflicted. She wanted to tell me what Penny had discussed with Grandmaster Bai, but if she did so, it would put her in an awkward situation. She couldn’t just accuse her tester of cheating. I had a sentinel on Penny, so I naturally heard the whole conversation and knew he planned to swap the test.

However, I didn’t mind it too much. It would be too boring if I didn’t face any resistance. Rather, I wanted to see the look on their faces when things didn’t go the way they expected.

“We’ll see…” I responded.

Diana looked at me with disbelief, but before anything more could be said, the door opened and a young alchemist poked their head into the waiting room.

“The exam will begin now.”