Lucy sighed in satisfaction as the rush of fresh energy and nutrient-rich molecules filled her body, entering her membrane channels before diffusing through her cytoplasm to renew her physical structure and invigorate her mind.

It felt good to actually eat something. Not that she would ever have considered sulfur as food before, but, well…life adapts!

When life gives you sulfur, make sulfur-ade, right?

For a minute there, Lucy had been seriously concerned for her survival. But that was all over, now that she had an endless supply of food!

Oh yeah, she thought, as sulfur continued to flow into her, who needs to hunt when you can just Oxidize and chill?

Unable to immediately find anything to kill and consume, Lucy had gone to the edge of the chasm that spewed hot gasses every few minutes. She’d waited for a blast and then swam as quickly as she could over to the fading stream of bubbles, opening her channels and focusing on using her Oxidize Sulfur skill.

It hadn’t even been hard to do. Just like the times she’d tried it before, her channels obeyed her will and opened to the flow of molecules. It flowed in like a gentle rain through dry earth.

Lucy said a silent prayer to her ancestor-organisms, thanking them for the chance mutations that had led to the ability to gain energy from the environment around her. In addition, she had chosen wisely to select cilia as her first upgrade, given that she would now be able to both detect and flee from the blast before it had a chance to roast her alive.

Lucy had done well, and now she was reaping the rewards. She was proud of herself.

She still made sure to stay a healthy distance from the actual chasm itself. There was no need to tempt fate after all, was there?

She thought briefly back to her ominous conversation with Simon, then pushed it from her mind. She would deal with situations as they arose, and in any case if she was going to defeat whoever “Dragtharanok” was, she would have to get stronger.

And for that I need to be alive, don’t I? A cell’s gotta eat, she thought with satisfaction as she continued to feed.

As sulfur particles entered her body, they reacted with chemicals in her cytoplasm, releasing energy and vital compounds.

Lucy had been ready and willing to go on the hunt just a few hours before after killing the scavenger, but if there was an easily available source of energy right in front of her, she wasn’t about to ignore it to go off fighting. She would make use of it and get as many Evolution Points as she could.

With a relaxed mind and some actual down-time for once, since Oxidizing didn’t require her full attention, Lucy indulged in dreams of what her little organism could become. Not just of what she would purchase for her next upgrade, but what the distant future could hold for her. Magic, organic weaponry, maybe a nice little place of her own…

I’m never gonna leave. Maybe when I get too big for this little tunnel I can just find another to—

As the jet of bubbles from the blast slowed to a trickle and the last of its heat faded, the inflow of delicious sulfur into her body stopped dead, and Lucy glanced around.

Is that it? she thought incredulously. She had expected to be able to sit there Oxidizing for the full amount of time between blasts, but apparently the sulfur concentration had grown too low already.

I didn’t even get a single EP!

She checked her energy.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

[Energy: 20/100]

When she’d started, it had been nineteen out of a hundred. She had only gained a single point of energy. And try as she might to open her channels wide, there just wasn’t enough sulfur in the water flowing by.

Fuck.

As she stood at the edge of the chasm and considered her next move, Lucy realized she might still be in trouble after all. She wasn’t sure precisely how much energy it took to get far enough away from the superheated blasts each time they came, but if she could only harvest enough sulfur for a single point of energy each time, it was pretty likely to be a net loss over time.

Okay, Lucy thought, as she trudged slowly back to her hiding spot, trying to conserve energy.

I guess I need to come up with a different plan.

***

She would return upwards, she decided.

With nothing else to fight or eat in her area currently, she needed to travel somewhere new, and the upward-flowing current above the chasm should allow her to do so with the least expenditure of energy.

As long as she could time it right.

Lucy’s decision firmed when she stuck an edge of her body out over the shaft. She could only see far enough to notice a slight widening as it went down, but from the increasing speed of the flow of water against her cilia, she got the impression that the shaft opened substantially below.

Maybe it was a superstitious instinct, but she had the distinct feeling that going farther down into the big black pit would be more dangerous than the nice small tunnels above.

A thought prodded the back of her mind, telling her that she shouldn’t be looking for safety right now, she should be looking for food. And down here, that meant struggle.

She pushed it away as she mentally prepared for the next blast to fade. It was too much of a risk. And the spike monster had come from above, so maybe there would be more of them up there. That would be plenty of challenge for her.

Now all I need to do is not cook myself! she thought nervously. That’s easy enough to do, right?

The next time the stream of yummy-smelling bubbles and deadly heat blew past, Lucy shot out of her hiding tunnel and over to the chasm.

She moved quickly enough that the water was still rumbling with the aftershock of the last blast, and as she darted down she readied herself for the sprint upwards that would carry her back to the tunnel she’d started to explore before being attacked by the spike monster. She was relieved to feel the strength of the upwards current, and some of her worries relaxed. She should easily be able to make it.

Then Lucy felt something from below.

She hesitated at the edge of the chasm as the aftershocks of the last blast faded. She leaned over the edge, trying to tell what had caught her attention.

Light poured from an opening farther down into the chasm.

Without photoreceptors Lucy couldn’t see it, but her cilia picked up the smallest sense of heat emanating from below, and her Awareness skill interpreted that as a glow of pale yellow light shining out from a cave opening.

It was the first light she had seen in this new life, and it called to her like a beacon, drawing her attention downward toward the dark depths. Before she even knew what she was doing, she had started to fight against the current to hold still.

Maybe she would just take a peek. She had enough energy for that at least, right? A quick peek, and then she would go up.

Lucy hesitated a moment more, her mind oscillating between up and down, known and unknown. The light didn’t really even illuminate anything, just cast it in a slightly different color. Still, it was the first source of light or really even color that she’d seen so far.

Just to the light, she decided. She would see what it was, then head back up.

Lucy moved farther out into the open water of the chasm.

It felt like stepping out of your front door only to find the sidewalk had disappeared, leaving a black abyss for you to fall into instead. Her cytoplasm suddenly felt trembly and light, like she was cresting the ridge of a rollercoaster and waiting for the dreadful drop.

Despite the feeling, Lucy didn’t fall. The upward current was strong, and she had to struggle against the flow of warm water. Even with her new cilia, it was a challenge, but she was sure she could make it to the light, which definitely seemed to be coming from a cave opening a bit farther below.

A vague sense of dread and unease filled her body as she moved slowly against the current. It was even stronger than she’d realized at first.

After the initial widening, the chasm’s grey walls extended straight down into blackness as far as she could see, and as she moved toward the tunnel opening, she tried not to think about what might be down there. She got a tingling feeling in her cilia.

Something came up from the shadows, pulled upwards by the same current Lucy fought. She startled, then readied herself to fight as she saw the shape of a bacterium or heliozoan drifting slowly upward from the depths.

She tensed. It looked much the same as the first spike monster she’d fought, so she should be able to fight it without too much difficulty if she was careful!

Then it drifted into the beam of light cast by the tunnel opening, and Lucy saw the full picture.

The creature had been ripped apart.