The herd was not hard to find, as it happened.

Though when she found the other microbes of her kind, Lucy reconsidered her terminology.

She had expected the other organisms to be milling around in a field of some sort, like some kind of free-range grazing situation.

Instead, a short distance from the doctor’s alcove, she found something that reminded her more of a painting of hell.

I mean, a pretty tame hell, but still.

The microbes lived in a shallow pit. Reddish-brown plant tendrils covered the ground in an overlapping mass like a carpet of dead snakes, and dotted around the area were small burbling geysers of yellow fluid, around which the other microbes clustered like humans around isolated fires trying to stay warm.

Lucy passed the one closest to her and worked her way farther in, hoping to get out of sight of the guards that lined the indentation in the ground. It made her think of gravediggers all gathered around a particularly wide grave, and a sense of foreboding came over her then. Despite the energy filling her body, she knew her mind could use some rest.

The steep slope downward was difficult to manage without her cilia, and she wondered if she would be able to climb back out again when the time came. Though she had a premonition that simply sneaking back out of the camp wasn’t going to be in the cards, and her escape would involve fighting her way free.

That was alright. By then, she hoped to be an entirely new organism.

As she approached a sulfur-geyser near the center of the pit, she tried to say, “Hello, fellow microbes!” to her fellow microbes.

The other organisms didn’t even bob to greet her or react at all, except for a slow shuffling away as they dispersed to other geysers.

The same thing happened at the second she approached, and the third, where Lucy reluctantly settled down to Oxidize.

After her experience of hearing the larva doctor talk, Lucy had expected to be able to…well, talk to the other organisms of her same species. Little yellow molecules had floated out when she’d tried to speak before, and she assumed they were a method of communicating.

But now, when she tried it with microbes that should be able to understand her in some way, they just floated away!

Maybe I have bad breath?

The rest of the organisms seemed happy enough communicating with each other—she saw the little groups exchanging molecules in subtle streams, but whenever Lucy came close and tried to get a whiff of what they were saying, it was the same deal.

The cold membrane, huh? Fine. I wanted to focus on my Oxidizing anyways!

Sighing, Lucy gave up her latest attempt at chit-chat and examined the geyser in front of her.

It spewed its thick yellow-orange liquid about a body-length or two into the water, and as she examined the base, Lucy saw that it burbled up through layers and layers of the plant tendrils from some sort of vent structure. She couldn’t tell if it was actually coming out of the plants somehow, or if they had grown here to take advantage of the rich sulfur.

As interesting as that was, Lucy was eager to start gathering more Evolution Points, so she focused on her Oxidizing.

The sulfur was even more heavily concentrated around the geysers, and it took all of her focus to manage the energizing influx of delicious molecules through her membrane.

I guess a nap can wait a little longer, she decided.

As she began to Oxidize, she thought about the strange events with the larvae colony so far.

Lucy hadn’t seen any fences or other structures to keep the microbes in, just guards around the perimeter armed with nets and arm-spears.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

In a way it was a relief. This was enough of a trippy Alice in Wonderland type situation without microorganisms a micro-city.

Though, she mused, it definitely doesn’t make any sense that the doctor was speaking what sounded like English to me. Maybe an effect of the System? And their society does seem pretty complex. I know symbiotic and parasitic relationships are common with microorganisms, but giving an injection of a fungus…

The thought soured Lucy’s mood. So far, the spores injected into her cytoplasm hadn’t seemed to do much other than settle around the different structures inside her, but she had a bad feeling about what would happen if they started to grow. As soon as she could, she would find a way to get rid of it.

Lucy brought her mind back to focus. She was here with one goal: to get stronger. Anything that didn’t help with that, including fear, wasn’t helpful right now.

Somehow, telling herself that didn’t magically get rid of her fear, but that was alright. What it did do was renew the intention in her mind, and with that, she got to work.

And it was work. As easy and carefree as Oxidizing had been the first time she’d done it (except for the blasts of superheated hot water), it now took a straining effort to manage the transfer and metabolization of the molecules.

The sulfur here next to the vents was so concentrated that even with her increased permeability control, it took all of Lucy’s concentration to allow just enough through her channels.

When her attention lapsed, too much concentrated sulfur flooded into her, and at one point her health actually took damage as the rush of sulfur displaced too much of her cytoplasm.

But her energy was full, and for the first time since she’d been in her new body, she had a completely reliable source of food. And the points…

It was hard to tell time in the pit, but it seemed like only ten or fifteen minutes before Lucy gained an Evolution Point just from Oxidizing.

Right now, her sights were set on her first Evolution. If she managed to stay here for the few days she estimated it would take for her to get to the hundred points, she would be more than happy, assuming she could make it out alive.

Still, it wasn’t all honest work and just rewards. The guard-larvae armed with spears patrolled the edge of the pit constantly, and more than once Lucy heard the tell-tale buzzing of the winged creature as it came and went from the plants above. Luckily, it seemed to leave the actual guarding to the larvae, and was gone a decent portion of the day.

***

Lucy sighed in satisfaction as she completed her first round of focused Oxidation.

[+1 EP]

[Energy: 100/100]

Oh yeah, she thought. That’s the good stuff.

So far, she had been awarded 14 more Evolution Points, bringing her total of stored points to 15.

Without waiting any longer, she made her second organelle purchase, choosing one that would give her an advantage while staying hidden from the guards.

The vacuole.

The sensation of it growing inside her was strange, to say the least. But before a minute had passed, she had an extremely basic new organelle floating around in her cytoplasm.

Well, it’s not quite an unlimited inventory, but I guess it’s a start!

With a thought, Lucy commanded motor proteins throughout her cytoplasm to transfer the ribosomes containing the larva-doctor’s genetic code. They seemed a bit decayed from the hours spent out of their natural environment, but hopefully they would provide something useful.

Lucy had taken a quick look at them earlier and only seen a skill related to forming a slightly more advanced proto-appendage. It wasn’t much, but she had gladly taken it, carefully controlling the proteins that activated Gene Stealer to separate out the gene and add it to her own genetic code.

Can’t hurt to hold things better!

The rest of it she left in her vacuole; it was still genetic material, and perhaps she would be able to sift through it for something else useful later.

After the purchase, she still had five points remaining.

Enough to buy my cilia again.

Lucy couldn’t tell yet if the hairs on her membrane would grow back, but it was good to know that she would be able to buy them again if she needed to. It didn’t exactly negate the experience of losing them in the first place, but it was a small comfort at least.

The thought motivated her to resume her arduous yet rewarding task, and she settled in to work.

Alright, she thought with a deep breath of water, back at it.

She opened her channels, making use of her increased permeability control to make careful paths through her thickened outer membrane.

Nothing happened.

She tried again. And again. And again, until she realized that there was a serious problem with her plan.

Apparently, once her energy reserves were full, she couldn’t Oxidize any more sulfur.

Or, she could, but it didn’t do anything other than make her feel bloated. Once her body had all the energy it needed to function, the sulfur she let in didn’t have anything to do. Without a way of storing surplus energy or increasing her reserve, she had no way to metabolize above that limit.

Okay, she thought slowly, guess I’ll just have to find a way to—

[Energy: 95/100]

Huh, it doesn’t normally drop that fast, does it? I didn’t even—

[Energy: 90/100]

Okay, what the fuck?

Lucy hastily scanned her body as her energy continued to drop. Was this her body rebuilding itself after the injuries she’d sustained? Maybe her cilia was regrowing right now. Or…

As her energy settled at twenty, she realized something that pushed all thoughts of reclaiming her cilia far from her mind.

The fungus inside her had started to grow.