I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 125

A week flew by and the time for the tournament arrived quickly. The city was bustling from the upcoming competition, causing new people to enter the city every day. Eventually, the inns became full, and the regular drunks like me and my drunken companion were tossed out of the bar to make room for higher-paying traveling guests. Sammy made of scene of it, but I didn’t particularly care since all talk in the city was now solely about the tournament, in which I had little interest.

The tournament was only available to those who had aged under twenty-five. I had worried that this would mean I couldn’t qualify, but upon registration, my living age had come out to twenty-two, the same age I had been when I died, almost like my biological clock had stopped while I was a single-celled organism and only restarted the day I evolved into a human again. I wasn’t complaining, as it would have been extremely awkward if their detection device had been able to ascertain my true age.

Due to the age, this also set an expectation to their level. In this area, humans only evolved so fast, and so age and level are associated closely together. It was typical for paragons of any value to reach evolved by eighteen. Of course, some took longer, but they were considered talentless and would only be used as guards, sell swords, and request fillers. Those with the potential to reach a second evolution before they were an old man needed to reach the first by eighteen.

The second barrier was twenty-five. By twenty-five, one should be expected to reach the third evolution. This meant that most of the people competing were either sitting at the ninth level of their second evolution or were already in their third. Rumor had it that the top contestants were at the peak of the third evolution, although no one believed there would be any champions appearing. After all, the next barrier was the ripe old age of fifty, although since evolution slowed aging, a talented paragon at fifty wouldn’t look much older than someone who just turned twenty-five.

This was also why I was looked down on so much. I appeared to be around twenty-two, while most of the others who started earlier looked to be in nineteen or twenty due to the slower aging process. Thus, not only did my mana suggest I was mortal, but I had passed the age where I’d even be able to catch up. I also wasn’t conceded enough to believe I was talented. I merely had spent countless years as a single-celled organism slowly climbing to my current level, and it was only through happenstance that I appeared in this seemingly harmless state.

Only I understood my true level, and it was a level where I did not have to worry about the level of others. If anything, my greatest worry was myself. I had to hold back significantly or I could not just accidentally kill someone, but also cause a lot of collateral damage. In comic books, there were always super-powered characters, but I think people truly underestimated their need for restraint. For example, if I move fast enough, I can feel the resistance of the air causing my body to rapidly heat. If I moved for a lengthy time, my clothing would burn off of me, and I might even take burn damage, although thanks to my practice with the dragon egg, that risk was reduced. Thankfully, I had spent much of this month trying to get used to controlling my strength, and I believed I could get through the tournament without causing any natural disasters.

“I can’t believe you’re twenty-five.” I found myself mumbling in disbelief.

It turned out Sammy was joining the tournament as well. He said he had come for the tournament, but I had assumed that he would be a spectator because of his age. He had appeared as a drunken old man. He had a long white beard and everything. It was truly shocking to find out that he was young enough to compete.

He let out a soft chuckle. “Did you honestly think you were the only one hiding your face in town? I thought you would have realized I was using a technique to hide my face from the public, the same as you.”

“Oh… that…”

It was another shock to realize he had seen through my disguise. I wasn’t changing my face at the cellular level but was instead using a trick to darken my face and make it difficult to see under my hood. It wasn’t perfect, but I had found that when I changed my face completely, it was difficult to recall it enough to return it. The longer I wore a different face, the more difficult it became to return to my original. This was natural because I had spent countless years as an amorphous blob, so I no longer had a strong sense of self. So, whenever I changed it, that became the new norm. My current face was the face I had in my old life, and I didn’t want to risk losing it and by extension losing my connection with humanity, if for no other reason, than for Mara who already had an impression of my original face.

“It’s not like I’m an outlaw or something.” He shrugged and took a swig from his flask directly. “And I don’t care if you’re running from something either. It’s not of my business and if anyone asked, I’d tell them the same.”

“I see…” I gave him a side glance, but he continued looking ahead.

We were sitting on the steps of a random house. We got a few disgusted and unsavory looks, but considering we were two drunks recently kicked from the bar, it was expected that we were an eyesore. I didn’t continue to drink, but nothing seemed to stop Sammy from continuing to take sips. Since then, he had seemingly upgraded his flask to a much larger gourd, although I didn’t ask where he got it. I could only presume he had his version of a luminal space.

I had gotten the sense interacting with him over the last week that he must have some kind of mysterious background. He seemed to be an expert in many ways and didn’t seem nearly as spoiled and childish as many of the other men running around town our age. It seemed like becoming a paragon caused these guys to lose a few brain cells, and they often strutted around, looking down their noses at everyone.

Speaking of which, I realized Sammy’s eyes were on an incoming carriage that seemed to have just arrived in town. Guards had come out ahead and were shoving everyone to the sides of the street to allow it to move through unimpeded. This immediately caused an already crowded street of people to be pushed back to where we were sitting to allow room for the oversized carriage.

The carriage was ornate and it was being pulled by two winged horses which made me wonder if the carriage could fly when it wasn’t in the city. It was lacquered in a smooth white and appeared ornately carved. The person inside appeared to have a great deal of wealth, at the least.

“Get out of the way!” The guards were yelling as they made room for the carriage to travel through the city. “Know your place. Move!”

They weren’t even kind about it, even throwing or kicking those who didn’t move out of their way fast enough. It was at this moment that I noticed a young child who escaped the grip of her mother and slipped past the guards on the side. He stumbled into the path of the incoming carriage, but behind the point where the guards were still clearing space. At first, I thought the carriage would stop and a guard would grab the boy out of the way, but the carriage continued to barrel down without stopping. The woman let out a cry, but a guard was currently holding her back.

At that moment, I moved without thinking too much of it. A wind followed me as I quickly moved into the street and grabbed the boy. A whip came down and struck me, and I found myself freezing as pain shot through my body. I had intended to be out of their way before the carriage arrived, but the sudden pain caught me off guard and caused me to freeze in my spot.  I couldn’t help but let out a groan. I hadn’t felt pain in a long time, so this surprised me.

[HP -1]

The damage was negligible, so I came to a realization. The item the driver used was designed to cause pain. Since it didn’t do any damage, all of my high defenses were useless. This was a weakness I didn’t realize I had until that moment.

By the time I recovered enough to move, the carriage had come to a stop. This didn’t seem to be the will of the driver, but the winged horses refused to walk over me. It seemed like once again, the sage beasts could sense something about me that humans bypassed which caused them to show a bit more respect. Although, it could just have been Sammy, who came out next to me, and was staring down the driver while holding the hilt of his sword in his hand. It appeared like this situation was going to escalate.