I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 55

I didn’t know what stopped the tribulation. It was some kind of barrier that had been erected. The power of it was at a level that even I couldn’t fathom, and that only reinforced my belief that I was merely at the bottom, even after nine evolutions. However, the premature destruction of the tribulation had resulted in mana raining down over the localized area. I absorbed a good chunk of it and was able to completely heal myself.

Upon killing the lead knight, I could sense the energy inside him being sucked into me. I started to understand the true nature of leveling. It wasn’t a matter of some arbitrary point system. Everything living contained mana. You absorbed mana naturally from your environment, but usually, that mana was too low to truly change anything. The best way to gather mana was to kill other things and harvest their mana.

This mana was the driving force behind the power paragons had. When they obtained enough mana, they could also use it to evolve. The reason I was able to evolve so much was merely a matter of density to area. As the single cells of my body were exceptionally small. Even if I reached peak density, which made me the strongest within my size group, someone bigger may have less dense mana but more overall. By always harvesting mana from larger beings, I had steadily allowed myself to grow with an abnormally dense mana.

The death of the paragon at the level of champion was no joke. He had a great deal of mana to absorb, but I didn’t get all of it. Most of it seemed to just get absorbed by the world itself, slowly diffusing until it disappeared within the background mana of this world. As for me, since I was merely a level 1 human, his death was already enough.

Congratulations! You have reached level 2.

You have unlocked the skill, Physical Reinforcement.

Of course, this was only my understanding based on my current observations. I had barely even been conscious of mana before seeing it manifest like that. Now, I could see it all around me. Of course, there was another reason for this. When I evolved, I also gained a new skill. My first skill as a human was Basic Magic, and with it, my Mana finally went up… a single point. Now that I reached level 2, so did my mana. I had over a billion in every status except mana. It was almost difficult to look at.

Name: Spirit

Evolutionary Form: 10

Evolution Level: 2

Species: Human

HP: 2,999,999,900/2,999,999,900

Stamina: 2,999,999,900/2,999,999,900

Attack: 2,999,999,902

Mana: 2

Defense: 2,999,999,903 (4,499,999,855)

Agility: 2,999,999,902

Skills:

Absorption Skill: Active Diffusion, Endocytosis, Phagocytosis, Pinocytosis,

Attack Skill: Calcification, Electrogenesis, Eutrophication, Phage Tail, Pilli, Water Jet, Spores

Body Modification Skill: Cellular Growth, Cellular Redistribution, Chromatophore, Metamorphosis, Morphology, Shape Modification, Specialization

Buff Skill: Anatomical Separation, Decoupling, Physical Reinforcement, Signal Transduction, Toxins

Crafting Skill: Adhesion, Cohesion, Decomposition, Filtration, Glycosylation, Lysis, Matter Shifting, Transcription

Control Skill: Autobiokinesis, Cloud Control, Differentiation, Externalized Control, Unification

Defense Skill: Apoptosis, Cellular Wall, Encapsulation, Fibrinolysis, Organ Reinforcement

Endurance Skill: Aerobic Respiration, Chemosynthesis, Fermentation, Glycolysis

Experience Skill: Conjugation

Health Skill: Autophagy, Binary Fission, Gastrulation, Growth Factors, Homeostasis, Mitosis, Photosynthesis, Regeneration

Knowledge Skill: Adaption, Nuclear Envelope, Replication, Succession

Language Skill: Translation

Magic Skill: Basic Magic

Movement Skill: Cilia, Flagellum, Pseudopod

Perception Skill: Chemiluminescence, Chemotaxis, Cognitive Senses, Parallel Processing, Photo Sense, Thermoception

Storage Skill: Endocytosis, Exocytosis, Luminal Storage, Selective Permeability, Vacuole

Stealth Skill: Crypsis, L Form Switching

Support Skill: Acidify, Antibodies, Mimic, Mind Division, Mutation, Mutagenic

“R-run!” one knight cried out, spinning with the other one and racing off.

Only a few seconds had passed since I had killed their leader. However, my mind moved incredibly fast, and with Parallel Processing and Cloud Control, it took me no time at all to analyze the situation in depth from multiple angles. That also meant I had come up with more measured responses for the pair of them.

I reached down and grabbed the sword that had fallen and chucked it at the first person. I didn’t necessarily have any aim or sword-throwing skill, but I found I was able to use Chemotaxis to lock on him. He had a unique chemical signature, and I could assign that signature to the sword. Thus, it became like a metal magnetized to the knight. It flew at him, even turning when he skillfully dodged it. In the end, it slammed into his heart, and he died confused and unsatisfied.

I moved… appearing right in front of the next guy. He cried out when he saw me, stumbling to a stop. He tried to turn around, but I used the fibrous blades which despite my evolution, had remained. The blade came out of my body, slashed, and then disappeared so quickly that it would be forgiven if a mortal watching didn’t see a thing. The guy merely jerked, and then his body fell into two pieces. I watched as his mana drifted away, some of it entering me.

“It’s you…” I heard a voice behind me.

I turned to see Mara standing there. She was hugging herself and shivering, her dress hanging off her body, and a helpless look on her face.

“Mm…” I nodded.

I still didn’t trust my voice to work right. The pair of us stared at each other for a moment, but then her eyes went over my shoulder, and she cried out.

“Mother, Father!” She began to run up the hill toward her house.

I moved faster, appearing next to her and stopping her. She was running with all her might, so she snapped back when I caught her wrist. She immediately let out a cry and balled up a fist, but when she saw it was me, she grew confused.

“What?”

“Stay… back,” I ordered.

She looked like she wanted to argue, but after a second, she nodded. I walked toward the house. There might still be knights alive, and it’d be annoying if she was taken as a hostage. My walking was stiff and wooden, but I got the hang of it. Strangely enough, my quick movements happened quite fluidly. It was only when I was being reserved that my body struggled to work.

I was aware of Mara following a dozen steps behind me. It’d be best if she stayed back completely, but I wasn’t her mother, and this was good enough for me. I had lost track of what was happening within the house. My entire concept of sensing the world had suddenly changed when I evolved. It was a miracle I was as functional as I was. If I didn’t have the memories of my previous light, I might have come out of my evolution crawling on my knees.

I carefully reached out and pushed the ajar door open. The house which had once been a source of safety and comfort for the Tanner family now had a foreboding, unpleasant air to it. I had to step over several bodies just to get through the entrance, and then I saw various upturned furniture, blood, and the gashes of weapons all over the walls. The signs of a violent and desperate battle were readily apparent. As I approached the stairway, I heard Mara gasp from the entrance.

Looking up the stairs, it was more of the same. There was a dead body there. I went to move it. The guy suddenly slammed a dagger into my throat. Mara let out a scream. The knight grinned cruelly.

“Haha… when the sky turned black, I knew there was something dangerous coming. I was seriously worried for my life. You’re just a foolish idiot though, aren’t you?” He chuckled, sitting up. “I’ll just enjoy your little lady friend for you. That other one fought so damned much we ended up killing her, but I bet this one knows how to behave.”

“No!” Mara cried out.

I reached up and grabbed his hand. Slowly, his smug expression turned confused when he noticed I wasn’t gasping for breath or struggling. He pulled back his hand, trying to get away, but he found himself unable to escape. I started moving cells into him. On the surface, it looked like my hand was molding into his hand, but in reality, I was injecting millions of my cells into his body. They immediately spread throughout his body.

He made several gagging sounds as a blue color spread from his arm through the rest of his body. He began to rapidly dehydrate, and within thirty seconds, he collapsed back to the ground, a husk of what he once was. I squeezed, and his hand turned to dust. As for my cells, I used Atrophy to destroy them. He could have them. I could always make more.

I felt a tug on the back of my shirt. I looked back at Mara. She was standing there with tears running down her cheeks.

“Is Mother… Father…” She couldn’t finish her sentence, falling into weeping.

I swallowed. “You should stay down here.”

Her fingers turned to a grip on my shirt.

“No!” She cried, and when she noticed me raising an eyebrow, she continued. “I go where you go.”

I nodded and turned back to the stairway. It was time to find out the fate of her parents.