Although Homeostasis was labeled as a health skill, it felt like it did far more than help my health. I supposed, however, that the main thing it did was regulate the production of energy and subsequent restoration. It acted as a passive regen which continuously restored my health even when I wasn't paying attention. It fine-tweaked the various aspects of my body, keeping me in optimum shape at all times. I would no longer lose track of my body's condition and almost kill myself, a problem that had happened a few times in the past. At least, that's what I was able to work out after testing it.
That said, I was quickly finding my enemies to be a bit easy. Their attacks only could do single digits worth of damage at a time, and my regeneration restored health as fast as they could do damage. That got me thinking. Most of these cells hadn't gone through a single evolution, while I was on my 4th. Every time I evolved, my stat increases seemed to increase by 10-fold. I had a feeling that the HP of eukaryotes probably wouldn't be more than a single digit when compared to a human.
I didn't know the HP of a human. I didn't even know if humans existed in this world. However, if I was a single cell and if humans existed, then they probably started at about 100 hp. Yet, I was pretty sure if I attacked a human, even with a two-thousand-point attack, I wouldn't even be able to make him notice me. That meant that all of these stats had a relativity to them.
I only had a three-thousand-point attack relative to my current size. I could one-shot similar-sized creatures, but as soon as I started targeting larger creatures, that power would plummet. After all, no matter how powerful the gun, you couldn't kill a bear with a BB. This caused me to realize two things. First, if I wanted to keep leveling quickly, I'd need to fight larger enemies. So far, I have been battling larger eukaryotes as a prokaryote mostly because that was where the energy was.
However, now that I had Homeostasis and a mass of specialized organelles running my cellular functions, I could afford to be less careful with energy consumption. I could focus instead on pure leveling, and to do that, I'd need to continue to fight larger opponents. Thankfully, my evolutions were up to a point that even if my attack dropped from being smaller, they were still powerful enough that I had a chance. Furthermore, there were Toxins, which I could further use to inflict continuous damage on my enemies.
Realizing I didn't need to play it safe anymore, I began to start consuming eukaryotes. Some I could consume in a single bite using Phagocytosis, but others proved to be a bit hardier and I had to use my Phage Tail and Water Jet to slowly break down their defenses and cause them to lyse. I had the skill Lyse, but lysing is a term for what happens when a cell is broken down. Ideally, I'd break them down inside my body in an organelle called a lysosome. This would allow me to consume all of their material and convert it to energy.
In the cases I couldn't swallow them whole, especially when going against the largest and most complex eukaryotes, I could only lyse them outside my body. Their insides would leak out and then I could eat those. Others would immediately come as well. Innumerable prokaryotes would swarm like sharks sensing blood in the water. I could consume them, but some still managed to get away with parts of my recent kill. They were obnoxious scavengers who followed me around. They kept their distance until nutrients appeared and then they would rush in, eat, and escape before I could react. I thought about hunting them down, but more always appeared and they were no longer worth the energy it took to catch them.
As I was extending my senses to keep track of the scavengers following nearby, I saw another mass just outside of my periphery. With excitement, I moved toward it and fired my Waterjet. This eukaryote was very big and looked to be a good meal. Yet, as soon as I fired, it fired back, and both of our Water jets struck, creating a shockwave that threw us both back.
The enemy moved to the left, while I moved to the right. The pair of us were circling each other. Most eukaryotes would attack mindlessly. At the end of the day, no matter how many response mechanisms they had, they were still just mindless cells. They would attack in predictable patterns like zombies. Even predators would only wait until they sensed the right conditions and then attack foolhardily. However, this enemy had intelligence, and there was something vaguely familiar about it. That was when I realized that it was me!
This must have been one of the other prokaryotes that had evolved into a eukaryote. How long was it from his evolution? Was he stronger than me? Previously, I could be sure that he was mostly thinking the same thing as I was thinking, but too much time had passed now. We had both evolved separately and our experiences diverged too much.
That's when it gave me another thought. If he had gotten so much experience, then I could claim that experience using Conjugation. As long as we conjugated, it might even be enough experience to go up another level. I slowly began to approach him. He appeared to have made his mind up as well. He moved toward me. Hesitantly, we moved closer and closer to each other. As I was doing this, I was pushing my Chemoreception to the max.
That's when I noticed something. He had taken damage before. It was hard to explain how I knew, but he gave off a chemical signature of having been recently damaged. I didn't know how he could have been in such a violent fight. Since my last evolution, the eukaryotes had seemingly stopped being a threat. That's when I realized that the only way he would have gotten that damage was by fighting other versions of me.
Once we exchange information, then his existence would become redundant. At that point, he must have attacked and killed other versions of me. Why did I think that? Because I had considered the same option myself. If I thought about double-crossing him, he definitely considered doing it to me. Except, if he had been the one who was double-crossed, he wouldn't be so willing to risk it again. That meant he was definitely the one who had attacked other mes.
Who knew how many of them he had killed prior to this encounter? Without another thought, I lashed out with my Phage Tail while shooting my Water Jet. He was caught off guard by the attack, but my waterjet had aimed to slice off his Phage Tail. Without one, his close-range attack was instantly cut off. My Phage Tail slammed into him and I injected him with Toxins. He fired his Water Jet, but I fired back. The force tried to push us apart, but I had managed to get my Phage tail hooked into him. As I was pushed away, the tail dragged along his cell membrane, causing irreparable damage.
I kicked my Flagella to compensate for the distance and then continued to slash away with the Phage Tail as I blocked his attacks with the Water Jet. He was pretty tough. I lost close to half my HP and my stamina was nearly empty. Had I not surprise attacked him, there would have been no way to defeat him. He had to be a higher level that me. Thankfully, I had immediately destroyed his Phage Tail and caused a critical hit. Eventually, he stopped fighting back. The other prokaryotes raced in to start the banquet from the nutrients and chemicals spilling out of the dead clone. As for me, I was more focused on the sudden levels I gained.
Congratulations! You have reached level 3.
You have unlocked the skill, Aerobic Respiration.
Congratulations! You have reached level 4.
You have unlocked the skill, Photoreception.
It was the first time I had ever made two levels in a single kill. The other version of me must have been at a higher level. It was lucky that the next few levels didn't give him anything that allowed him victory over me. It was my decisive attack that had won the match. He had been finding and killing other versions of me. It was anyone's guess how many he had slain.
I had two new skills. Aerobic Respiration allowed me to use oxygen and mitochondria. My energy production suddenly peaked. I realized that my stamina before this had been sluggish compared to the current me. Just killing the previous me had left me without any energy. If he hadn't died, he might have still been able to escape. It was only luck that allowed me to defeat him so cleanly. If he had the energy production I now have, then he his stamina would have been inexhaustible.
As for Photoreception, I could now feel how much light there was. Instead of guessing where the best place to photosynthesize was by how well Photosynthesis worked, I just knew bright from darkness. This wouldn't just give me a better feel for the time of day or how deep I was, but it was the preliminary start of eyesight. Up until this point, I had depended on Chemotaxis to navigate. Although Chemotaxis became stronger at every level, there was still a basic limitation to only being able to sense chemicals. Now that I could sense light, I had a better feel for the world.
I began to explore the world using my sight, and I quickly discovered two zones. There was a light zone and a dark zone. If a moved toward the light zone, food was plentiful. There were tons and tons of organisms, although many of them were rather small. If I went down into the dark zone, the organisms began to thin out, but their relative size started to increase.
The light zone seemed to change based on how far I entered it. The farther I went, the lighter there was. I wanted to see if there was an end to it, so I continued to swim into the ever-increasing light. As I swam toward brighter parts, I encountered more and more organisms, many of them wildly different from the ones I had encountered before. Eventually, the soup of organisms became so thick that my own choice was to push my way through.
Some of the cells I disturbed started to attack me. It didn't matter if they were prokaryotes or eukaryotes. Even some of the typical scavengers became ravenous upon my passing. I was able to deal with them at first, but their numbers were too plentiful. My HP started to drop at a noticeable level and I had no choice but to fall back. Even using my Phage Tail and Water Jet, I was only able to get so far into the light zone. Photosynthesis felt nice, like sunbathing, but it wasn't as rewarding as some of the other activities I could be doing, so I gave up on finding the brightest area.
Furthermore, even within the light zone, there were dark periods. During the dark periods, the dark zone grew and different organisms would sometimes appear. I was still able to tell which direction the light zone sat, but it was more difficult during these periods, so I usually spent that time setting up macros or optimizing my body with the help of Homeostasis.
Eventually, I settled on a position that gave me the best of both worlds. Enemies were plentiful enough that I didn't need to go searching for them, but tough enough that I was able to defeat them without risking my life. I hunted during this period for many day-night cycles. That's when I came upon a horrifying area. There were organelles and discarded membranes everywhere. It looked like there had been a battle.
It was hard to explain, but I felt some of the parts had to have come from other versions of me. The chemical makeup felt familiar. I was also pretty sure the ones who had killed them had been yet more mes. They must have had a battle and duked it out. Furthermore, he didn't bother to take their resources. They were left there for other prokaryotes and eukaryotes scavengers to devour.
This meant one thing. They weren't killing each other for resources any more. They were just killing to level. At that moment, I started to feel a sense of danger. If the victor was still around, he might appear at any moment. I quickly fled the area before whatever had destroyed them returned.
Alright… it seemed like things were more difficult than I had assumed. I had created countless copies of myself and many of them were unaccounted for. There could be any number of them out there, and most of them would likely wipe me out if they had the chance. I only had one option. I had to level quickly, only by out-leveling the other clones could I truly become safe. That meant I had to become a killer too. To survive, I had to evolve.