I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 45

It’d be stranger if my actions didn’t lead to some investigation. Tribulations were considered kingdom-sized events, especially when they were on that scale. The area around the Tanner farm had been too isolated and the tribulations too small to be noticed before, but this one had been seen by an entire city. People wanted answers, and a short time later they sent out a group of investigators to look into the incident.

Tanner had explained this all to me the next morning. A tribulation of that size meant one of two things. Either a powerful elite had been born and the kingdom should want to greet them, or a mighty sagebeast had come into being and the kingdom now had to deal with it. Elites were the official name of evolved humans, while sagebeast was the name of any wild animal that evolved. Of course, evolution also had levels.

Non-elite humans were known as mortals, while elites possessed levels from evolved, flawless, champion, prestiged, and lord. Sagebeasts weren’t given such names but were instead ranked by their evolution. The first evolution was a D rank, second was C, the third was B, the fourth  was A, and the fifth was S. Of course, any higher would probably be SS, SSS, and so on, but such ranks were not known to Tanner.

This was ultimately why I was such an anomaly. You leveled against creatures of generally the same rank as you. By starting as a single-celled organism, I existed in a world where there were countless billions of enemies. I had slaughtered every cell in my pond one bacteria at a time. A human wouldn’t get experience if his immune system killed a bacterium, but I did.

I encountered millions of enemies through each level of my evolution, so even though the enemies got larger, I grew along with them. However, once you reached the level of a human, there weren’t so many humans. My old world had around ten billion humans in it. If I killed all of them, I might have had enough experience to reach my current level. Of course, that would also mean the extinction of the species.

Humans weren’t nearly so populated in this world, and even if they were, who went around causing mass extinction events in the name of leveling? The truth was, since the number of kills increased exponentially with each evolution, your only choice was to fight harder enemies. Evolved killed evolved, and flawless killed flawless. By the time of reaching lord, there were only a few per country, and any fight between them caused nearly as much damage as a tribulation, so they rarely fought. There was little opportunity to advance from there.

Even though I was something beyond, I fought a prestiged, and it had been a terrifying, frantic battle. He wasn’t just fast and clever, but he had the power to injure me too. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if a lord appeared.

Well, anyway, that’s what I was able to work out based on Tanner’s words. He had concluded that I was the one to evolve. He estimated me to be around the level of a champion since he believed I was flawless before.  While spirits were not technically considered sagebeasts and had a classification of our own, it seemed I denoted a real danger to the kingdom.

“So, I want you to hide your presence while they are here,” Tanner declared.

Eh? Really? I squirted water and bubbled at the same time, which denoted indecision.

“How long have we known each other? Thirteen years?” he asked, his expression looking somewhat distant. “I’d have preferred we not drawn the interest of the kingdom at all.”

I created bubbles, although it was a more generic response this time, and not agreeing to anything particular.

“I suppose it should come as no surprise that my wife and I don’t have the best relationship with those currently in charge.” He sighed. “The nobles don’t care about the lives of mortals. They care about power and position. The city we were born in is named Arcford. It’s a complicated city. There are a lot of forces vying for power. As a champion, you’d be a force that could tip that power. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I made more bubbles.

“The delegation they’re sending out will come from Arcford. It’s the only major city in the Audra Lightning Province. It’s better if nothing stands out. I don’t know if you can hide your presence, but if you do, you should. I don’t know how much you know about tribulation, but after having one, you absorb a bit of that power. It… resonates with you.” He squeezed his hand as if he was speaking from experience. “They can track that resonance. That’s how we were followed for so long. Thankfully, I evolved again, and was able to fake my death.”

I made bubbles one more time.

“That’s all I have. If they come, hide. Don’t provoke them. They will be elites. Most elites, even the evolved, are pulled into noble houses shortly after their tribulation.”

Tanner’s expression seemed to be filled with secrets about his past. Of course, even if I had lips, I wouldn’t bother to ask. My past was my past, and his past was his past. That was part of what made our pseudo-friendship work. We were just two beings fleeing from a past we’d rather just forget.

Tanner walked back up to the farm, and I continued to clean up the messes left from the tribulation. I did my best to restore the water, although I couldn’t make something live that was dead. I was still a pond without fish and or even bacteria for that matter. I decided to take Tanner’s advice though, and so I did my best to hide the evidence. I couldn’t unburn the grass around the pond, but I could make the pond look as innocuous as possible.

Also, I had just unlocked the perfect skill to do it. Mimic allowed me to copy anything, and that meant other living things. I could even mimic a human, but I found if I tried to leave the water, my body would immediately dissolve. It meant I could use a physical form and talk to Tanner, but I saw no reason to do so. Instead, I mimicked fish, as well as algae and grass.

It took a few days, but I had completely restored and replaced the ecosystem. It was all just for the show. Every living thing in the pond was just some of my cells creating a mimicry, but it made the pond completely uninteresting. I even replicated the pond scum I usually got rid of, so my presence was completely hidden.

I wasn’t worried about them tracking the tribulation lightning to its source. This was because the fish were already dead and disassembled. Just in case, I used L-from Switching. For some reason, I felt it would make my signature no longer match the tribulation lightning signature.

All of this sounded easy, but it took nearly a week to accomplish. As for these government officials, they arrived about a month later. Of course, I didn’t see them at first, but Mara spoke about them excitedly like it was a grand thing. The town, which I only now learned was named Ramphart, had a big feast and celebration to welcome the government officials. These guys were the most excitement a small farming town like this would see in a long time.

Mara spoke about how attractive and noble they all looked. She was enamored with the elites, equating them to heroes of the kingdom. There were countless stories of elites battling sagebeasts, as well as elites coming and taking a mortal woman to bed.

“Daddy is an elite, and he brought Mommy to bed.” She giggled nervously. “Maybe, one day, Markus will become an elite and sweep me off my feet.”

The only way Markus would become an elite is if he killed sagebeasts or other elites, and both of those must’ve had plenty of blood on their hands. Well, it wasn’t like I was one to talk. I had raised a farm of evolved fish with the intent of using them for experience. Plus, it wasn’t like I had ever been a vegetarian. I enjoyed steak as much as the next guy. Hmmm… when was the last time I had eaten a steak?

“Excuse me, little girl.”

Mara let out a gasp as she turned to see a group of five men standing behind her. I couldn’t help but be startled as well. I wasn’t exactly going out of my way to observe the world around me, but I usually could tell when a mortal got close. This group had approached without me being alerted in the slightest. I immediately felt a palpable pressure from them. There were five in all, four armed guards, and in the front was a woman. She was stunningly beautiful, the kind of beauty that only Caroline could match.

She possessed an ethereal grace, her flawless complexion resembling the purest jade, radiant and smooth. Her lips were red like cherry blossoms, and her almond-shaped eyes, the color of obsidian, showed strength and wisdom. She had long, ebony locks of hair tied up in a bun, and her chin was tilted slightly up as if the world or mortals were beneath her.

So, this was what an elite looked like?

“P-pretty,” Mara spoke without thought as she stared up at the beautiful woman.

She smiled gently. “Little girl, can you please direct me to your father? I have some questions for him.”

It looks like their investigation had led to the Tanner farm after all.