Chapter 8
...…
CHOMP! CHOMP!
One by one and in bundles of one hundred, Astaroth gobbled up any Eukaryotic Cells that entered his line of sight. He did this until reaching a size where larger Eukaryotic Cells could be devoured.
While repeating this process over and over again, these were the types of system notifications that came in:
[Ding! You have absorbed 105 (G4) Energy from a Large Eukaryotic Cell!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 102 (G4) Energy from a Large Eukaryotic Cell!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 115 (G4) Energy from a Large Eukaryotic Cell!]
"Oh? The numbers going up are quite satisfying to look at."
Watching thousands of these come in every second put Astaroth in a good mood. And when that number increased with the devouring of even larger Eukaryotic Cells, his mood became progressively better.
Glancing at his system interface, this was what he saw.
BLING!
—-------
{[Infinite Energy System]}
[Host: Astaroth]
[Evolution Stage: Eukaryotic Cell (Genuine)] - [108,000/1,000,000 Energy (G4)]
[Evolution Area: Complexity Dominion]
[Energy Level: 6] - [108,000/1,000,000 Energy (G4)]
[Energy Storage: 0/100,000 (G4)] (Rapidly restoring)
{[Current Energy Abilities:]}
[Level 0: (Minor Spatial Movement), (Minor Energy Absorption)]
[Level 1: (Minor Spatial Displacement), (Minor Energy Flow)]
[Level 2: (Omni-Directional Movement), (Greater Energy Flow)]
[Level 3: (Magnetic Levitation), (Multi-Target Energy Absorption), (Super Energy Flow)]
[Level 4: (Fully directional Levitation), (Mega Energy Flow), (Full-Body Absorption)]
[Level 5: (Oxygen Traverse), (Giga Energy Flow), (Rapid Split Body Absorption), (Mass Control)]
[Level 6: (Nuclear Hovering), (Nucleus Empowerment), (Centari Split Body Absorption), (Extreme Mass Control)]
—-------
The 'genuine' after his Evolution Stage was just something that Astaroth assumed to be a way of fixing the previous Evolution Stage, which wasn't actually an Eukaryotic Cell.
"Hmm… 108,000… That means I'm almost there, huh? If I just go at it for around half a minute, I should be at the necessary Energy Level to see what comes after a Eukaryotic cell. If it follows the same pattern as it has, then I should go from a single-celled organism to a multi-celled organism, no?"
For a while now, Astaroth had been curious about the Evolution Stages, especially when it came to the changes in his own body. But for some reason, he couldn't seem to scan his own internals.
Maybe it was because he was a microorganism or whatever, but it was definitely a weird feeling to not be able to sense a single thing in your own body. For Astaroth, he would describe it as 'encasing yourself in a suit of ice-cold jelly and moving around inside it, causing your outer layer to follow your movements.'
The movements in question were just him gobbling up his own kind, but still…
"Ai… Am I slowly becoming a monster? But what does that even mean?"
After internally sighing, Astaroth finally received a system notification over 1,000. Though this was a nice thing to see, that didn't mean he would stop slurping up the Eukaryotic Cells that littered the place for a seemingly endless distance.
CHOMP! CHOMP!
As Astaroth gobbled up one of his previous 'rivals', a few interesting system notifications hit him from the side.
[Ding! You have absorbed 4,500 (G4) Energy from a Massive Eukaryotic Cell!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 4,750 (G4) Energy from a Massive Eukaryotic Cell!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 4,190 (G4) Energy from a Massive Eukaryotic Cell!]
[Ding! You have gathered 1,000,000 (G4) Energy and reached a point of Energy Overflow! Would you like to go through with the Energy Overflow process?]
"Yeah, I would. It's quite obvious that I'm close to exhausting this place anyway."
Looking around himself with a hawk-like gaze, Astaroth could no longer see any visibly larger Eukaryotic Cells. Up above, almost as if they were in an entirely different dimension, there were larger cells. But within this bubble dome called the 'Complexity Dominion', there was no longer anything bigger than him.
Even though he only made up around 1% of the total energy value of this place, it wouldn't be very worthwhile to expend more time and reach the exact size of the Complexity Dominion.
In the end, Astaroth did the only thing that made sense…
He went through with the Energy Overflow!
BLING!
A bright iridescent light flashed, and Astaroth's slimy body rapidly expanded and convulsed!
...…