I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 233

“Well, I’m waiting.” Tiffany crossed her arms under her chest as she watched me suspiciously.

I gave her a side look and then nodded. I still only knew one technique, but I had enough familiarity with it that I could at least pretend. Tiffany didn’t really know my strength, and I preferred to keep it that way. So, rather than show her, I instead pretended I was gathering energy for a while. It was actually not that difficult. All I had to do was pull the energy into my cells. It worked the same way as active transport.

Typically, inside the body, energy is stored within chemical bonds. We typically understood this energy as calories, but a calorie of food and a calorie of physical energy weren’t all that different. The same process that melted food down into the energy that ran your body could similarly be burned in a furnace and be used to move a steam engine. If you ever lit a marshmallow on fire, you’d see the same basic concept. The sugar in the marshmallow becomes fuel to run the fire in the same way it becomes fuel to keep you going.

Chemicals like to travel down their concentration gradients. That was to say that whenever you had a barrier that could block anything except your chemical of choice, that chemical would always flow from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. It wasn’t as complicated if you imagined it on a larger scale. If I had a giant bag of popcorn, and then I made a hole in the bag, popcorn would flow out into the area that has no popcorn.

Although it’s not really a flow either. Flow implies some kind of driving force. Rather, chemicals move both directions, but by pure statistical probability, more go from high to low than low to high, what with there being more molecules and more changes of movement. So, for me to absorb energy, I needed to artificially create a deficit in energy in my body. I could do that through exchange.

If energy doesn’t want to flow into a highly concentrated area, I could do an exchange, sacrificing some energy to store more. This could be done by having something in high concentration inside the cell. Whenever it leaves from high concentration to low, that extra power is used to pull the energy from low to high. Of course, you could also use energy itself to move more energy, like how a car uses a battery to ignite the fuel to run the engine, which then powers the battery.

“Your technique… It’s pulling all the energy out of the air. This must be a B-rank skill at least. Just who are you?” Tiffany once again gave me a curious look.

I didn’t answer her. I was focused on my non-existent technique. Actually, I was a bit disappointed at how little energy I could muster up. Even if I continued to suck in energy like this nonstop, it would take me years to level up again. No wonder evolution was a lifelong pursuit for most of these paragons.

“Get ready to run…” I walked up to the wall and pulled back my fist.

“Run, wait, what kind of technique are you-”

Boom!

I threw my fist out. Although I sent some energy out, it really wasn’t needed. My physical body was already enough. A massive hole exploded in the back of the treasury, opening out into a hallway beyond.

It took almost no time for horns to start blowing.

“Time to run!” I told her.

“Y-you!” She looked in shock as I jumped out of the treasury with my mask on.

“Who dares attack my mansion!” I heard a voice boom, but I ignored it as I began to run down the hallway.

“You idiot!” I heard a voice next to me. “This was your plan? Run?”

“Did you have a better one?” I asked as we turned a corner.

“That’s not the point!”

“Stop!” The pair of us was headed off by a pair of guards.

Neither of us stopped as we continued right through them. I knocked mine out before he could even think to draw his sword. Tiffany kneed the other in the groin and then slammed his head into the ground. I winced.

“You know, that hurts a man quite a bit.”

“It wouldn’t be necessary if you had prepared more accordingly!” she hissed at me.

“I found you!” A raspy voice came from outside.

Boom!

I was shocked to see an explosion take out the wall immediately to our side, exposing the pair of us. I looked up to see an old man, but he was doing something I didn’t expect. He was floating in the air. His robes fluttered in the wind as he looked down on us with a mocking smile.

“Do you have any other bright ideas?” Tiffany snapped. “You looked down on this house too much!”

“Why don’t the pair of you stay a while?” The man let out a laugh, his eyes flashing when they landed on the scroll wrapped up in Tiffany’s robe. “Thieves? You think you can just steal from the Blanche family so easily?”

“I thought Lord Blanche was the highest paragon in this place!” I snapped at Tiffany. “This guy is a Prestiged!”

“No one shows their true power when they can hide it!” she shot back.

They had kept this guy well hidden. I hadn’t even sensed him any of the times I entered the mansion. They really had been hiding their strength. The old man looked at the two of us, whispered, and then broke into laughter again.

“It appears you’re just a pair of foolish criminals. I’ll grant you a swift death together.”

He waved a hand, and a beam shot out. I grabbed Tiffany’s arm and began to run.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Tiffany cried out.

“Do you want to die? He’s stalling us! They don’t have their family defenses up. As long as we can leave the building, we can escape!”

Tiffany finally stopped struggling after I explained, but she didn’t seem too thrilled about the way my hand was wrapped around her wrist. Once the beam of light dissipated, there was a crater where the two of us had been standing. The old man frowned, his eyes immediately locking on us.

“Don’t think I’m not enough to take care of your brats!”

He sent several more beams of light, but since we were running through the mansion and he couldn’t see us clearly, his attacks kept missing. It was only causing more and more of it to collapse.

“Sir Elder, please spare our mansion,” I heard the Blanche head cry out.

“Hmph, fine! Deal with them yourself.” The man who had been trying to destroy us seemed to have already grown bored and turned away as if this was no longer his business.

“Guards! Finish erecting the barrier! Don’t let them escape!” the Blanche head yelled.

I sighed in relief now that we were no longer under fire. Although I didn’t think those shots would kill me, they were hard to dodge, and I wasn’t confident I could protect Tiffany from some serious injury. I didn’t consider her an ally, but the reason we were in this situation was mostly my fault, so I took responsibility for that.

“There is an exit!” Tiffany pointed with her free hand, finally ripping her other hand from my grip.

The barrier was like a web made of lights slowly filling the sky. There was an area that had yet to be filled.

“Let’s go!” The two of us began to race toward that direction.

There was a surge of energy, but I ignored it, jumping for the hole in the barrier.

“Watch out!” Tiffany suddenly slammed into me, pushing me to the side.

I turned back in time to see a beam of light shoot where I had been jumping. Half the beam struck Tiffany, and she flew off to the side, slamming into the barrier before falling into a bush. The barrier slammed shut as I stood up. We were in a courtyard, just a fence away from escaping, but soon a dozen guards were surrounding us.

I raced over to Tiffany. Her mask was shattered, and her breath was shallow. There was a terrible wound on her side, and her eyes were closed. I grabbed her irritably.

“Why did you push me?” I demanded, but she wasn’t in the condition to answer.

I had timed the jump perfectly. The barrier would have closed behind me, and his beam would have struck it, causing him backlash. Had Tiffany just focused on herself, we both would have escaped and incapacitated that obnoxious elder without issue. Instead, she had unexpectedly acted like a fool. This is why I hated dealing with people!

Tiffany’s eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at me with parted lips. When she saw me, she sighed, her eyes closing against and a gentle smile on her face.

“You’re safe.” Her words were so soft, I could barely hear them.

I wanted to curse. Why did she look so relieved? We weren’t allies! Why did these women have to be so complicated? I should have left her there. They wouldn’t kill her once they discovered her identity. She might get in trouble with her family and be disciplined, but she’d be fine! She wasn’t my responsibility. As soon as you tried to help a woman, she’d just stab you in the back!

“Damn it!” I cursed, knowing I was just creating problems for myself.