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Chapter 45 - Interlude - Birth of the Ultimate Lifeform

The seed didn’t look like a seed on closer inspection, but rather more like the shell of a nut. This fact became more logical when the seam that divided the seed into two split open, allowing a the shape of a tiny entity out.

The organism looked no different from a smaller version of a humanoid with strange oval like green gems on its shoulders, elbows, knees and forehead. It’s eyes were essentially two bright green irises, instead of a cornea and pupils. Its skin was a pale blue color and seemed elastic. It had no genitalia for that matter.

(Authors note: look up Echoes: Act 3. It looks a lot like that stand.)

When it came out of the seed, it fell into a kneeling position, its body trembling with effort as it struggled to rise to its feet. When it finally managed to achieve that feat, it spent an even longer time stabilizing itself.

A squirrel that was level 1 with only 10 HP came skittering by, not even bothering to avoid the strange organism near it. Even a mammal that was classified as prey, with the strongest instincts of caution and wariness, deemed it to be harmless in every essence. When the organism saw the squirrel, its emotionless eyes gleamed as it wobbled over towards it.

The squirrel, seeming oblivious to the approach of the organism, remained still while searching for its next meal. The acorns and nuts within the woodland were reducing in quantity, leaving it with an increasing difficulty in finding food for sustenance.

The organism took weak and unsteady steps towards the squirrel at first, but if any sentient being were around, they would be terrified at how quickly this newborn adapted to the world around it. Each step became steadier and more fluid, like fast forwarding the learning years of a toddler into a child.

The squirrel eventually noticed the seed that the organism was born from, thinking it to be a nut. Excited, it rushed up to the seed and began nibbling at it as if it had no care in the world. The organism, which had now mastered the art of walking, calmly walked up to the squirrel. When it stood behind it, it paused for a few seconds before doing the unthinkable.

It opened its small mouth, which was toothless, and somehow managed to bite out a chunk of the squirrel’s flesh. Squealing in pain and terror, the poor rodent fell on its back and tried to unsuccessfully flee away before dealing with its assailant.

The organism swallowed the flesh of the squirrel. What was even more harrowing was that it instantly grew 10% larger the moment the flesh hit its belly, assuming it had one.

Still though, it was but a pipsqueak to the squirrel and the rodent treated it as such. It screeched and leapt at the organism with anger.

Any sentient being would hesitant to go near this organism as it raised a ton of biological red flags, but the squirrel wasn’t that clever. However, what was shocking was that the organism didn’t display any inhuman skill or powers, it was pushed down by the squirrel and had one of its arms ripped off.

It didn’t display any form of discomfort or pain, instead it replied to the assault by ripping out another chunk of the squirrel and swallowing it whole. The moment it did, its destroyed arm regenerated and it grew 5% bigger.

The rodent squealed in pain, but couldn’t recognize the exact danger of this organism’s ability. It continued to bite with its buck teeth, ripping out a large portion of the organism’s torso, even as another piece of it was consumed, triggering the regeneration and growth of the organism.

The horrifying and bizarre battle continued until the squirrel felt the call of death upon it. Even if it was an animal, it recognized that it had kicked a steel plate this time and wanted to flee. However, the organism had consumed enough of it to attain the same size as the rodent.

Just as it want to flee, its half eaten neck was grabbed firmly by the organism. It was now its turn to be pushed down and consumed bite by bite, as its screams slowed weakened until it died. Its flesh was absorbed by the organism until only bones were left.

By that point, the organism had grown into a human toddler’s size and its bizarre makeup looked a lot more intriguing rather than worrying. Anyone player who saw it would think it looked cool as hell.

It cricked its neck ominously, looking around the bank of the pond to see that it was a lake that resided in a clearing within a forest. That was why the squirrel had been present here, it was looking for dropped acorns as well as coming to drink water.

It also wasn’t the only one that used this watering hole. The very next instant, a cute looking bunny hopped towards the clear pond, bending its head to drink the water contained within. It also acted obliviously to the organism, its danger level not registering on its timid instincts whatsoever.

Just like before, the organism walked up to the bunny. Instead of biting into it, it gripped the mammal by its neck and held it own while it struggled. It was clear that the organism had learned that other beings would respond negatively when being consumed.

In order to prevent its growth from being stunted, it wanted to minimize the damage it had to heal. Its ability to reason and think was growing per bite. It ripped into the poor squealing bunny and reduced it to bones as well.

When it was done, its body mass grew, but not as much as before. Clearly, in order to grow greatly, it either needed to consume something significantly bigger than it or eat a lot of things like the bunny.

As if the gods themselves wished to see the success of this dangerous being, a level 2 boar with 50 HP casually strutted into the area, ignoring the organism, just like the ones before it.

Just like that, a terrifying characteristic of the organism was revealed. It seemed as if any living thing that looked upon it would disregard its existence, treating it like a mere ant. Even animals that were berserk in nature like the boar would disdain attacking it.

What was it that every predator desired in this world? Was it not the ability to approach prey without being detected? If so, then this organism clearly was a king of predators, an ultimate lifeform of sorts.

It slowly walked up to the boar this time, but it halted when it got close. It wasn’t due to any reaction from the boar but... something was tingling in its mind. Its developing brain was morphing, become fuller and more intricate with every growth support it achieved so far. Due to its already humanoid like appearance, one could assume its brain to be similar to a human’s as well.

Since it had achieved the size of a toddler, its thinking capacity naturally increased from purely instinctual to some form of sentience. That tingling in its head was simply the formation of its first thoughts, which it had no idea of what it signified.

’Dangerous...’

Finally, the tingling morphed into a coherent thought that conveyed the meaning of the word, but not in the human language of course.

Its raised leg fell down as it watched the boar drink water casually and without fear. It looked around the clearing once again, trying to ascertain how to consume this perfect source of flesh for its growth.

As it looked towards one of the trees nearby, it saw a snake bite into a large rat. The rat began fighting and clawing to escape, but the snake held on. Eventually, the rat’s body stopped moving and became limp, allowing the snake to swallow it down.

The organism stared at the snake emotionlessly before walking towards it and climbing up the tree. It fell down multiple times in the attempt, but after each try, its body adapted and it climbed a little higher than the last time.

Eventually, it managed to reach the branch in which the snake was resting as it digested its prey. Like the bunny before it, it grabbed the animals neck tightly before consuming it to the bone.

Its mass didn’t grow at all, which would render any bystander flabbergasted. No matter what, it should gain something, right? This wasn’t some tiny snake, but one that could swallow a large rat!

The organism jumped down to the ground and gazed at the boar which had plopped itself down on the bank of the lake, totally unconcerned with anything, even the horrific consumption that occurred behind it.

The organism walked up to the lazy boar and opened its mouth. Instead of the stubs, two sharp fangs protruded out of its mouth, dripping with a ghastly green liquid.

Without hesitation, it bit into the neck of the boar and climbed into its back, holding on for dear life. The boar, after being bitten, began to screech and cry in pain, attempting to get the assailant on its back off by any means necessary. It jumped and run about, banging itself on tress to no avail.

The organism clung onto it without letting go, continuously pumping lethal venom into the body of the boar. After a period of struggling, the boar also died with grievance, not understanding how it could’ve ignored such a lethal threat all this while.

The organism wasted no time on chomping down and gorging on all the flesh of the boar. By the time it was done, it had reached the size of a 13 year old human and its body became smoother, more tensile and more resilient. Its arms became a little more buff and its legs became slightly thicker. Its face became less gender neutral, looking more and more like a male.

It clenched its own hands repeatedly, feeling the increase of strength that came with its growth. However, a much more important increase occurred in its cranium, as its mind became much more astute.

’What... am I?’

As would be the first question of any life form that achieved sentience without the guidance of any other of its kind, as well as bloodline memory, it questioned its own existence.

’I... who am I?’

’Do I have an identity? What was I born to do?’

It pondered over its own questions as it continued to feel up its own body. As the thoughts keep repeating in its head, it realized that answers seemed to be sprouting from... somewhere. Where from, it had no idea.

But any man dying to know the answer to his questions would not chase after the source, only relish in the answer.

’I am an Ultima Sunt of the humanoid genus.’

’My identity... is vague. I have a name though... King.’

’My name is King.’

’My purpose...’

As it pondered this answer, its eyes became sharper and sharper, going from emotionless to passionate then to a cold arrogance.

’My purpose is to rule over all.’