I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism!

Although Erika’s words sounded simplistic, and most of the people listening likely didn’t think too much about it, her words were rather profound to me. I was instantly able to understand my background far better. When I was a microscope creature, I still had the intelligence and mind of a human. This kept me from facing any bottlenecks, so all I needed to do was acquire the energy to activate.

Every level of energy was far lower than a human needed, so it didn’t take me all that long to evolve. I didn’t know how many years I had been in that purgatory, but in the end, I only absorbed about as much as a standard human, which was why my mana level ended up only being one. Yet, my evolutions caused my other stats to keep increasing, allowing me to fight and consume the mana of larger beings.

Humans didn’t have that privilege. Most sage beasts were more difficult to defeat than humans in the same evolutionary realm, so humans had to fight large hunting parties to take one down. It should also be noted that the stronger a sage beast became, the more methods it’d have to escape, and so even if they could defeat a sage beast, it was different from killing it. They had to keep the sage beast from fleeing before death or destroying itself in a desperate attempt at vengeance, which more intelligent beings might do. In short, a party would have to be able to easily defeat a sage beast to hunt them reliably.

By the time they were strong enough to defeat a sage beast with ease, the advantages of absorbing that mana would be miniscule to them. Thus, the only situations where humans could even take advantage of consuming sage beasts was when they had someone further on the evolutionary path hunting for them. Then, of course, there were the issues Erika mentioned where hunting the wrong sage beast could cause the hunters a backlash.

I didn’t have any of these issues as a lower-order single-celled species. I consumed my enemies with impunity and sucked every ounce of energy from them for my benefit. They didn’t have the intelligence to plot or fight back. When I wasn’t consuming the life of the pond, I was absorbing energy using photosynthesis. Humans not only didn’t have photosynthesis, but they also were very limited in the creatures they could hunt, and the amount they could consume. Thus, mortals struggled until they became paragons, and then every level of paragons it became that much harder to acquire the necessary energy to evolve.

Supposedly, humans gained the ability as a paragon to absorb energy in the same way plants did, but that didn’t expand human life, nor did humans have the root systems or leaves, both of which expanded the surface area plants had to increase the level they can absorb nutrients and energy. Humans did have increased surface areas, but these existed as villi and microvilli within their digestive tracts, which ironically meant that they were better at absorbing energy eternally.

This meant that the ideal way for a human to gain energy was consumption. Since sage beasts were too unreasonable, there were only two other methods. The first was to use mythic plants, extracting their components to create the most efficient energy pills to absorb. The one I won during my match earlier was such a pill. These pills could be created in various ways with various recipes, which used different ingredients, different energy levels, and different absorption rates. I didn’t know that from Erika’s lecture, but I put it together with the stuff I had studied from the alchemy exam.

The other method was to develop environments and techniques that accelerated energy absorption. The techniques took advantage of their preexisting absorptive abilities to amplify them, and then they simply needed to direct energy into an area using mythic plants, nature, or architecture to create a space with higher-than-normal levels of energy. The energy was absorbed passively, so it depended on absorption. This also meant that the further someone evolved the greater the density they needed to continue to absorb, which also played into Erika’s discussion too.

A few more questions were asked, but I mostly considered all of these principles on the inside as she answered the other students. Soon, it was getting dark and she bid all of the students farewell. The Stride boy approached her after class, and she greeted him, but when he tried to talk to her more, she stood up.

“I’m sorry, I might be able to speak to you more some other time, but I have things I must do.” She politely excused herself.

However, she didn’t walk far, stopping when she approached me. The boy stared at her, an unreasonable expression on his face, but she focused on me. Everyone else stood up as she approached.

“Destiny, we’re leaving.” Fate declared suddenly.

“Huh? Why? It’s not that late!” She looked up at the darkening sky as if challenging it to argue with her.

“Do you wish for me to tell Father you’re insubordinate?”

“Ah! Y-you wouldn’t do that, right sister?”

“Let’s go.” She gave me a nod. “It seems like you can handle things on your own. It seems like Abigail’s worries were unwarranted.”

“Speak for yourself.” Penelope scoffed, but she ignored her with icy indifference, turning and walking away.

“Ah! S-sorry, I have to go. Father says we should be back before it’s dark.” Destiny told me before waving. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“It’s late!” Ronald cried out. “Hey, I’ll see you later!”

He also ran off. Soon, it was just Erika, Penelope, and me.

“I’m glad you could stay for my lecture,” Penelope told me while pushing her hair back behind her ear shyly.

“Your lecture was very informative. I learned a lot from you.”

“Do you have any more questions for me?” Erika asked.

“I have plenty of questions,” I admitted. “Although, they aren’t ones I wish to ask at the moment.”

She blinked, but before she could respond, Penelope pushed her way between us. “Don’t you have somewhere you should be?”

Erika glanced at Penelope, but she didn’t look offended. “That was something I was hoping to speak with Spirit about.”

“Me?” I tilted my head. “What is it?”

“You remember that my relationship with my father isn’t good? Although I am staying in Stormberg for the time, this academy doesn’t have a residential place. I also do not wish to stay with the Blanch family. I was wondering if you could help me with a place to stay.”

“Not!” Penelope declared.

I raised an eyebrow. “You have a problem?”

“You cannot invite this woman over to the Capala household. Such a thing would be scandalous.” Penelope declared, glaring at both me and Erika.

Erika turned red and protested that she meant anything untoward. In truth, my original thought was to talk to Sammuel and get her set up in an inn. However, given how Penelope decided to stick her nose in things, I was feeling a bit belligerent.

“You don’t have to worry, you can come to stay with me,” I told her.

“Your fiancée won’t tolerate this!” Penelope declared, standing in front of me and Erika with a glare.

“My fiancée doesn’t control my actions.” Just as Penelope tried to speak up, I continued. “The Capala household is under her control, but I was given the secondary mansion to use at my disposal. If I wish to have a guest, there is no reason I can’t do what I wish. Besides, my fiancée has given me special permissions, and I don’t believe she’d be opposed to me inviting a woman over.”

“We’ll see about that.” She crossed her arms unhappily.

“I-is this okay?” Erika looked at me nervously.

“You don’t need to worry about it.” I put on my best smile, deciding to use a bit of charm.

I wasn’t above using my talents to anger women. It was shocking how often that anger quickly became affectionate when they were pushed in the right way. I offered my arm, and Erika took it shyly. Originally, I hadn’t taken much notice of Erika. I had been focused on my mission and I was still adapting to my return as a human. However, some time had passed and I had the chance to interact with a lot of people. It was safe to say I wasn’t the same person I was back then.

The two of us headed out of the Academy. Penelope followed us, a displeased expression on her face. I ignored her, and instead spoke openly with Erika, even flirting a bit. She didn’t reciprocate, but her ears turned a bit red when I teased her. We were halfway back to the city when my steps started to slow. Since Erika was holding me, she seemed to notice me tensing first.

“What is it?” She asked.

Penelope slowed to a stop, frowning slightly. “What are you doing?”

“We have guests,” I spoke with certainty.

As if my words revealed them, a half dozen men came out of hiding. Some were crouched down in a drainage ditch while others were hiding behind the bushes. They already had their weapons out, and by the expression on their faces, they didn’t have good intentions for us.