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Chapter 216

“Ahem, your tribulation is over.” Fortune cleared his throat.

The wind had died down, and the cloud had begun to clear, creating a beam of light that seemed to shine down on the pair of us. Fate, still in a daze, pulled away from me, our lips separating. Her eyes blinked a few times, and then realization crossed her face. She glanced at her uncle and then immediately pushed away from me. Falling back on her butt as she quickly fixed herself. However, she seemed to realize that there was no way to hide what had just happened, and a deep rose appeared on her cheeks. Her uncle stared at her with narrowed eyes, while a guilty expression formed on hers.

I was more focused on the text that had just appeared in front of my eyes. My mutation had triggered, but it triggered alongside a level up. This confirmed many things I had only predicted before. During the rising action potential of an evolution, the lightning was just energy. It appeared that her body synchronized with the heavens. She released her passive stored energy, and the world released energy too, creating a powerful energetic state. This was known as depolarization.

In biological terms, polarization referred to the electrical gradient that existed across a membrane. If a cellular membrane had more positively charged ions on one side than the other, or conversely more negatively charged ions on the other side, then it would be considered polar. The greater that difference, the more polar it was, and thus the more there was an electrical drive. When an action potential occurred, the membrane would open holes, allowing the energy to flow across, depolarizing the membrane. This was similar to what happened during the first step of tribulation. The body equalizes with the environment, triggering an action potential.

Then, the body repolarized. It became a blackhole, and all the energy in the environment rushed into her. This was to say the energy filled her up, pushing her into her next energetic state, her next level of evolution. Based on the level of that suction, more energy would be needed, resulting in it being known as tribulation. The more energy she needed to reach her steady state, the more violent the tribulation. This was different from biological action potentials, whose electrical current was naturally quite small.

So, lightning was just a speedy delivery of active energy. However, because of the high current involved, it could potentially be dangerous for the person receiving it. Furthermore, the environment didn’t have any safety precautions, so it delivered far more energy than was necessary. Mara’s evolution was far too small for me to confirm this, but the larger the evolution, the more energy was involved, and a third evolution truly produced too much energy. The mutation further increased the energy demand, resulting in a more severe tribulation. If Fate wasn’t prepared enough, this evolution would have destroyed her body.

At every tribulation, that level only increased. Thus, tribulation was both a gift and a danger. It forged and strengthened the body, but it could also harm it. I had never experienced tribulation of my own. I had the water to block the energy. The only reason I had been able to evolve at all was likely my comprehension of where I was going, as well as time. I had no clue how long I had been in that pond, living a life of endless struggle. A lot of it felt like a blur now.

Yet, I had now found a new method to level that didn’t involve murder. As long as I entered other people’s tribulations, I could syphon off some of their energy and use it to help me progress as well. Energy was energy, no matter where it came from. I had absorbed nearly a third of the energy provided for Fate’s tribulation. If I had let her absorb more, it might have injured her. It wasn’t abnormal for people to be unconscious for days after their tribulation.

“Y-you’re okay!” Lucky cried out happily.

“We made it.” Fortune was stonefaced while Fate was trying to hide the shame on her face. “Get the energy counter.”

“Y-yes, sir!” Lucky noticed the tense atmosphere as the three of us returned down the mountain, but he wouldn’t be able to guess why.

Fortune hadn’t said anything to us about the kissing, but it was clear that he wasn’t happy about it. Besides being engaged to Abigail, I was still just a commoner in his eyes. However, for the moment, they were worrying about other things. So was I. I went ahead and accepted the mutation.

[What would you like to apply the mutation to?]

“Mana!” I didn’t need to even think about it.

[Congratulations, you have acquired a mutation in magic.]

I immediately checked my stats.

Name: Spirit

Evolutionary Form: 10

Evolution Level: 6

Species: Human

HP: 6,999,999,900/6,999,999,900

Stamina: 6,999,999,900/6,999,999,900

Attack: 6,999,999,902

Mana: 15

Defense: 6,999,999,903 (10,499,999,855)

Agility: 6,999,999,902

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, Endurance Recovery, Fermentation, Glycolysis

Experience Skill: Conjugation

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

Knowledge Skill: Adaptation, Nuclear Envelope, Replication, Succession

Language Skill: Translation

Magic Skill: Basic Magic, Mana Enhanced Strength

Movement Skill: Cilia, Dexterous Movement, 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, Mimicry, Mind Division, Mutation, Mutagenic, Sensory Reinforcement

The sight both filled me with excitement and chagrin. I did accumulate a mutation in magic. Instead of one mana per level, I would now accumulate ten. Yet, how useful was 15 mana? Even when I reached level 9, I would only have 45 mana. That was a bit below a tier 5 evolved. I had no confidence I’d ever reach an 11th evolution either.

I sighed. At least, I was at four trillion cells now. I could now recreate most of the human organs, although I still needed to take shortcuts, and if I depended too heavily on sentinels and other detached autonomy, I’d have to give up parts of my body to do it. I also gained a new skill, Endurance Recovery. It didn’t appear to require mana like many of the other skills before it, but it also didn’t do much. At this level, it merely gave you a slight advantage in endurance recovery. If your stamina were fifty, it’d help a bit. With a stamina of nearly seven trillion, it was pointless. It seemed like pretty much every skill you got in the human rank was a skill designed to reinforce you and prepare you to become evolved.

“S-supreme!” Fortune stumbled back, and all of the other guys watching as Fate tested herself were also staring at her like they had seen a ghost.

“Supreme…” I frowned. “That sounds somewhat familiar.”

“Spirit…” Lucky glanced over at me, his eyes still wide. “Of every mutation one can receive, the absolute rarest and most sought after is called a superior mutation. If you receive a superior mutation, then you become known as a supreme. It means that every status has experienced a natural mutation.”

“Ah,” I nodded. “I did hear about those…”

Lucky grabbed onto my arm fervently. “You don’t understand. Supremes are extremely rare. In this entire province, there are only six known supremes, and one of them is Lord Nikola! Being a supreme means that although she is champion in evolution, she’d be able to fight at the level of a prestiged!”

“I-I understand,” I responded, trying to put the appropriate level of reverence in my eyes so that he let go of my arm.

“I’m sorry,” Lucky finally let go of my arm. “I forgot, you’re almost a prestiged yourself. I’m sorry, I was rooting for you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Come on,” He looked embarrassed to speak. “You and Fate…”

“You know about that?” I asked in disbelief, but then I immediately pulled him close when a few eyes looked our way.

“It’s obvious you favor cousin,” Lucky whispered. “I thought this was why you were on the trip. The Lou family was positioning to take you on as their young lord and cut an agreement with Lady Capala. However, such a deal would no longer stand.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I muttered, and then lowered my eyes at him. “What deal?”

His face flushed. “Everyone knows that you’d be a supreme if your mana wasn’t silent. How else could an evolved manage to keep up with flawless like Fate? However, now that Fate is a supreme herself, she’ll become the Lou family’s closely guarded treasure. She will be given all of their resources, even over her brother. They won’t want to marry her to a random common… ahem… someone with a nonsense mutation. I’m sorry to break this to you, but she’s already stepped beyond your reach, and she will only continue to climb.”

I looked up and happened to see all of the Lou’s crowded around and congratulating Fate. Even her brother, who was moving with some struggle, stood up with help to hug her. She seemed to sense my eyes were on hers, and the two of us met. She blushed and looked away. That’s when I noticed Fortune staring at me. His eyes seemed to hold a bit of a pitying look now, although maybe that was just my imagination.

It seemed like our relationship would become a bit rocky, but I wasn’t afraid of a challenge.

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Just a heads up for those worrying about the chapter release issue with chapter 217 and 218…. it’s not me. I don’t have the ability to fix it. I tried deleting and remaking. I don’t know what’s wrong. They told me it was fixed and then never followed up. They also still haven’t paid me going on month three now. So… until this is resolved. I’m postponing chapters on this site. 217 and 218 are already released. So, here’s what I’ve decided. I will set up a schedule of writing 2 Bacterium a week on my site. One free, one locked. That will be how I proceed. I sent LNBT a message tonight, so this all might be fixed by tomorrow, but like I said, I like being transparant. I think I’ll make them put me back on a 7 day schedule and do two a week to build back the backlog here too. Then, you can decide if you prefer my site or this place. I can guarantee you my site is cheaper and you get much more. I charge $5 for all silver chapters, and $10 for all chapters. That’s not just bacterium, but every novel on my site. Usually, I give all chapters as silver with the last 2-5 being gold. Some, like MDL, built longer backlogs.