《Reincarnated As A Plant Life》
Chapter 1 Prologue
"???? ???? ???????!" [Speak, pig!]
"For thest time, I don''t speak that sh-" Lewis''s words were shut down with yet another pistol whip to the face. At this point, he was certain that his face was beyond recognition, even if his country did decide to send someone for him, he doubted that they would be able to get a positive ID out of him.
"Can you stop do-" he tried saying, but was met with a pistol whip to the mouth. Trails of blood stained the wall directly behind him, adding onto to the already dried blood from previous victims or as they called them -informant shits.
The beatings felt like they went on for an eternity, and it wasn''t as if the insurgentscked creativity either. They put him through several ?????????????????????????? ????????????????????; waterboarding, car batteries, even pliers, and all the while he was sumbing to both sleep deprivation and starvation.
"Sergeant Lucius Mc. Conol, that is you, isn''t it?" The words trickled into his ears slowly, though it was a wonder how he was even able to hear with how messed up his ears looked. He could not speak, so he nodded his head ever so slightly in response.
"Forgive my men, they weren''t trained in interrogation." The voice had a middle eastern ent to it, perhaps it was one of the higher-ups in this insurgent''s division, though Lucius couldn''t tell because his eyes were swollen shut.
"Sergeant Lucius, your country has sent a request for your release. Though as a soldier, you must understand the implications that entail.'' Lucius answered the question with yet another nod.
"Tell me, Lucius, what are you doing in Kapisa? And why were you, a mere sergeant, sent on such a task alone? And where are the men you were spotted with a few days ago?"
Even if Lucius could answer, there was no way he was going to tell them that he was in fact the leader of a ghost division sent to kill their leader. Things had started going wrong ever since he and his team hadnded in this god-forsaken country.
At every turn, the intel his team was receiving seemed to have been wrong, and at the moment they needed HQ most, they were left in the dark. Lucius had ordered the rest of his squad toy low, something fishy was going on, so he decided it would be better for the team if tried toplete the mission alone. That''s to say, they were set up for failure, and he wasn''t willing to have the whole team die like this.
"??? ? ??? ??? ???????" whispered another voice.
"Ah, I see. My men have burnt your tongue, then it seems that this will be quicker than I thought... ????? ?????!" the man called out. What followed were a series of footsteps, and though Lewis couldn''t see, his trained instincts told him that several men had just entered the room.
"You see Sergeant Lucius, whether that is your real name or not. I do not believe that you are just a Sergeant. This area is deep in our controlled zone, there is no way a normal operative could''ve infiltrated so deep..."
~Fuck.~ Lucuis''s cover was blown, though he expected as much. The insurgents were one of the most sophisticated groups on the ghost division''s hit list, with theirmander Jludin Hakkani being the top Afghan warlord on that list. They weren''t dumb, a bit of nted information wasn''t going to fool them, in fact, it probably just added to their suspicions.
"-the Hakkani will not rest until you withdraw from ournds. We fight for our people, for the ones you have hypnotized and led astray. For Khurasan!" With those words, a sudden searing pain jolted from the top of his neck, before he lost all feeling in his body. Darkness, true darkness.
***
[Candidate for System Trial found...]
[Allocating System resources to Canditate''s soul...]
[Allocationplete.]
[Absorb Sunlight] The words shed repeatedly, like some kind of warning siren in his mind. Lucius was unsure how long he had stayed in that vegetable state, unable to move, speak, or even think, but he was happy to be finally out. Though one thing didn''t make sense, or rather, several things made absolutely no sense.
"What are you things?" Lucius stood face to face with a weird green creature, it had no arms, and the string-like limbs that it stood on could barely be called legs. The creature had leaf-life skin and two ck beady eyes that protruded from the top of its leafy body.
"We''re leaflings, just like you. Wee to the world new leafling!" replied the creature, before walking away. Just as fast as the group of leaflings had surrounded him, they dispersed and moved on to another spot. Lucius watched carefully as the crowd just stared at the ground, until...
"Wee to the world new leafling!" A creature exactly like them sprouted from the earth, and after having said the words they moved on to the next spot.
~Chemical torture? Is that it?~ thought Lucius, unable to understand the situation he was in.
~Or maybe I''m dreaming, yeah that must be it. If so, then I wee a dream without bloodshed with open arms.~ he thought to himself before looking down at his body.
~So I''m a... leafling huh. No arms... great. I can already tell this will be a splendid dream,~ he thought sarcastically before surveying his surroundings. It seemed they were in some kind of patch in a massive forest. The trees seemed taller than skyscrapers, but Lucius guessed that it was probably just due to the fact that he was the size of a leaf. The area reminded him of his days in Congo, vibrant green trees covered the entire sky and the ground felt nice and moist, a nice break from the deserts of the middle east.
[Absorb Sunlight] There it was again, that ring message.
~What''s this about absorbing sunlight? God''s, just let me enjoy my dream in peace,~ he thought, ignoring the message.
"Boar iing! Everyone hide!"
~Huh?~
Chapter 2 You Need Better Protocols
The shrubs just in front of the crowd of leaflings began rustling, before a massive boar- or rather normal sized boar- jumped out snorting. A few of the leaflings began running towards a hole in the tree nearest to them, however, the newer leaflings that had just sprouted were frozen in fear. The boar sucked a few of those leaflings in, not even bothering with chewing before heading to the next few.
"God damnit! Run you idiots!" shouted Lucius, running as fast as his little legs could carry him towards the nearest leafling. Perhaps it was his years of training or maybe just the fact that he was that sort of person, but his body moved to help those in need instinctively.
"What are you still doing staring at that thing. Move!" shouted Lucius, kicking the frozen leafling to the ground to snap it back to reality. The leafling quickly sat up and began running once it regained its senses, joining its brethren who were hiding in the tree.
By this point the boar had eaten at least half of the newly born leaflings, only a few of the leaflings not in the tree were left alive.
"Hey, fat face, over here!" shouted Lucius, trying to get the boar''s attention, though it seemed that the boar couldn''t understand nt and continued mowing down the frozen leaflings.
~Why am I getting so worked up over a stupid dream?~ he wondered to himself, however, he didn''t stop to ponder over it too long. He kicked over as many leaflings as he could, deciding that those too close to the boar were as good as dead anyway, before going into the hole himself.
After the boar had finished snacking on the frozen leaflings, it came to try its luck at the tree. However the hole was too small for its head to fit, so only its snout went through.
"Take this you bastard," he shouted, before kicking the boar in the snout. As expected, the kick held no weight, and the boar was unaffected. Seeing that it would not get any more food, it left the area.
"Safe!"
"Safe!" The leaflings all began shouting in joy, they had survived, and for most, it was all thanks to Lucius.
"Thank you leafling," they said in gratitude as they surrounded him.
"Safe? What about this is safe? Are you all idiots?" Lucius shouted in annoyance, his gaze sweeping over all the leaflings that surrounded him.
"You! You call that a warning? What''s the point of telling us to hide if the boar is already upon us? Oh, and you-" as Lucius said this he looked to the leafling who had weed him into the world "-why didn''t you help the newer ones? They were just born, did you expect them to understand what was going on?"
It was odd that Lucius was able to distinguish between the different leaflings as they all looked the same. But he decided not to think too much about it, at the moment he was infuriated by this group''sck of safety standards.
"You need better emergency protocols. You''re the leader aren''t you?" asked Lucius, referring to the leafling who had first spoken to him.
"Emergency?"
"Protocols?"
The concepts seemed foreign to the leaflings, though what could he expect. They weren''t humans, at best they were just helpless animal things waiting to be eaten.
"Yes, I am the oldest leafling, I guess you could call me the leader," replied the leader leafling, his tone filled with embarrassment.
"Then tell me, apart from weing us, what other responsibilities do you have?"
"I absorb sunlight and sometimes water," responded the leader, this time more proudly.
,m ~Yhup, they are all fucked. I need to get out of here. Even if this is a dream, there''s no way I''m going to be pig food,~ thought Lucius before turning to leave.
"Wait leafling. Where are you going?" asked the leader.
"Anywhere that isn''t here. There are too many shrubs, you can''t even see a threating before it''s already on you," Lucius replied. It was onlymon sense for a soldier. Who would be dumb enough to set up camp in an area where your enemies could easily ambush you.
"Saviour leafling, can you take us with you?" asked the leader. The slight nodding gestures that the other leaflings were doing -or whatever they''re shaking up and down meant- seemed to mean that it was the general consensus. Everyone wanted to apany the leafling who had saved countless people. And though the words he spoke were confusing, they could tell that they came from deep wisdom.
"Saviour leafling? What, like Jesus? Does nobody in this dream havemon sense? And why are we leaves? Can anybody tell me that?" grunted Lucius, his annoyance reaching new heights.
"You know what, do what you want. Just don''t slow me down."
The other jumped up and down in joy, before quickly running behind Lucius once they noticed how far he had already walked.
As they walked he made sure to prevent routes that had trees with broken branches, that was a clear indicator that something big had passed by. It would''ve been better if he had hands to climb up, they were probably safer on higher ground, but there was no use wishing for things he couldn''t have.
"Can you guys walk in formation? You''re taking up too much space, if we have to start running you''ll all just stumble over one another," said Lucius, turning to look at the crowd of leaflings that walked behind him.
"Saviour leafling, what is a ???????????????????" asked the leader.
Chapter 3 The Lighted One
~Right, they aren''t soldiers. Why would they know what a formation is.~
"Stop calling me Saviour, and I''m not a leafling... or at least not really," replied Lucius before stopping to think for a moment.
~What formation would be... aha~
"We''ll do a Herringbone zig-zag formation with me as the vanguard. Remember the positions I give you, as this will be the spot you fill in every time we march," he instructed before pushing the leaflings to specific spots.
"Saviour leafling, why am I facing this direction? Are we not proceeding forward?" asked a leafling as Lucius nudged it to face the left.
"Good question, listen up. We will all proceed forward, however, you must stay facing the direction I put you in. Fun little game, isn''t it? At first, we will go slow so you get ustomed to it, but after a while, we will move at normal speed. Understood?" This reminded Lucius of his drill sergeant days, gods he loved the look of confusion on the new cadets'' faces.
"But why?" asked another leafling. Though the leaflings around it gazed at it in disapproval, they too had no idea why they were facing in different directions.
"Because, it''ll widen our field of vision," replied Lucius.
"Ahh, yes, the field of vision," repeated the leader, shaking himself up and down as if in understanding.
~What a pretentious bastard.~
"We will be able to see the enemy more easily in the event we are attacked from the sides, and also our backs won''t be leftpletely defenseless," Lucius added.
"Such deep wisdom," whispered one of the leaflings, the others in the group agreeing with the first.
"March!" shouted Lucius, before continuing their walk. At first, the leaflings stumbled over each other, unable to properly move diagonally since they hadn''t had prior training. Though after marching for several minutes they began to get the hang of it and marching went smoother, well as smooth as a bunch of untrained soldiers could march at least.
[Absorb sunlight.]
"For fucks sake, how many times are you going to say it. Fine, I''ll absorb sunlight," Lucius shouted, annoyed by the loud sound that apanied the message.
"Wait, how ???? you absorb sunlight?"
He figured that since he was a nt he ought to have been doing it all along, however since the message never went away that must not have been the case.
"You stand in the sunlight, Saviour," answered the leader, pride evident in his tone.
~No shit sherlock~ thought Lucius but decided to keep it to himself.
~Actually, now that I think about it. Floating messages aren''t normal, are they?~
"Do you guys see floating words?" The silence spoke volumes about what they thought about the question.
"The Saviour is a bit... you know," whispered one of the leaflings. Though the whisper was ever so silent, it was as if he could hear iting from the ground.
~Great, now the idiots think I''m crazy.~
Lucius decided to properly explore everything that floated in his vision. Apart from the floating message at the very top of his vision, there were three tabs. Namely; ¡ºSkill Tree¡», ¡ºStats¡», and ¡ºSystem Shop¡».
~Skill tree? Like what, a video game?~ With that thought the image of a tree containing empty circles along its branches was fed into his mind. The only circle that was filled had the image of a sun and read ¡ºPhotosynthesis¡».
~Right, nts absorb sunlight for photosynthesis~ Though it was supposed to be obvious why nts needed sunlight, Lucius had been in the army ever since he was 22, meaning it had been more than 28 years since he learned anything rted to biology. The 4 years he spent in university was for an engineering degree he never even got to use.
More information was fed into his mind as he thought about photosynthesis.
[A cultivation technique that makes use of sunlight to gather energy. The more direct the sunlight, the faster the rate of energy absorption. Energy gathered from photosynthesis can be used for growth, or can be surrendered to the System shop in exchange for items.]
~Talk about one over-the-top dream. This is great and all, but how exactly do I photosynthesis? ???????????????????????????? or is it ???????????????????????????????~
[Take-in sunlight, and store it within your chlorosts.]
~Great, like I remember what chlorosts are.~ At this point, the other leaflings were waiting in their positions for Lucius to say something. They understood that he was different, though it seemed they were beginning to question whether it was the type of different they had ought to be following.
~Okay, sunlight, chlorosts, got it.~ Lucius began imagining that he was absorbing the rays of sunlight into his very body. He went at it for several minutes though nothing happened. The leaflings were beginning to grow impatient, and just as the leader was about to ask Lucius why they had stopped, he began glowing.
"The Savior leafling glows."
"The lighted one." They began whispering in awe.
[Absorbing 1 Helio per second]
*Ding*
[Daily Questplete.]
[+10 exp]
~Finally, I won''t have to hear that stupid mes-~
[New Quest. Allocate absorbed energy]
[Growth]
[Save]
The two options floated into view.
~Growth~ he decided, and though ever so slightly, he felt his leaf body grow.
"Oh Lighted Savior, how did you do that?" asked the leader leafling, the entire group staring at him as if he were some god.
"Stand in the sunlight," Lucius replied smugly, before walking past the leader.
"I''ll exin once we get to our new location. Somece with lots of sunlight will do," said Lucius, before ordering the group to continue their march. As they were walking, Lucius experimented with the different tabs in his view.
~Stats~
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[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 1: 10/100]
[Leafling lvl.1- [1/100]]
[Sunlights blessing] +1 to all stats
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[Agility: 1(2)]
[Strength: 1(2)]
[Stamina: 1(2)]
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~Lucius Elwood? How do I get my own name wrong? Whatever, that''s okay. Now, the system shop.~
[System Shop]
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Unlock more items at level 10]
~This is so c-~
"Worm! Worm to our left!"
"They''re two of them!"
~Can''t I get a break?~
Chapter 4 Evasive Maneuvers
"Evasive maneuvers, put your back to the-" Lucius''s orders were drowned in the screams of the other leaflings as they stumbled over each other in an attempt to get as far away as possible from the threat.
"Stop running in random directions, you''ll just hurt each other!" However it was already toote, several leaflings had fallen down and couldn''t get up as a stream of leaflings was constantly running over them. Although they had lost quite a number of leaflings to the boar, there were still about 50 leaflings left in the group, so the scene looked akin to a stampede.
"You! Get over here!" Lucius shouted, running towards the leader leafling who was currently hiding behind a nearby shrub.
"Lighted Savior you sho-"
"Enough of that. You''re going to help get rid of those worms. The others are too scared, and because you never implemented any sort of emergency procedures, this is your responsibility. So get your leaf up and let''s go," ordered Lucius, already running towards where the worms were spotted.
Logically speaking, it shouldn''t have been a big deal that they were being attacked. The forest was quite dense, so much so that they literally couldn''t see anything more than several feet ahead of them, unless there was some sort of clearing -like the one that the worms were on. However, the leaflings seemed to have the intelligence of young children, and though Lucius felt it should''ve been instinct for them to hide calmly, it was only due to his years of on-field experience that he could so calmly try to deal with the threat at hand.
"Wait, you call that a worm?" whispered Lucius, peeking from the edge of a buttress root to take a look at the clearing. There were two fat worms that moved at incredible speeds. Their maws had circles of sharp teeth, and instead of moving like normal worms, they slithered on the ground like snakes. One of them was currently eating a leafling and within seconds nothing was left of it, not even its stem.
"Yes, they are worse than boars," replied the leader leafling, trembling as he watched on.
~No weapons, no arms. What the hell do I do?~ wondered Lucius as the worms moved to catch yet another leafling. Running away wasn''t an option, the worms were faster than the leaflings, and if they did decide to run then a good chunk of the leaflings would fall victim to them.
"Okay, listen. When this is over, you''re going to take the surviving leaflings to somece a little off the ground. Preferably somece that gives you a view of the surrounding areas but doesn''t leave you too exposed. I don''t have much faith that you understand me, but... yeah that''s it," with those words Lucius ran towards the worms, his little leafling legs moving at full speed.
~This is a stupid idea, so why am I doing it?~ he thought to himself as he took a route around the worms to approach them from behind.
"Savi-" Lucius couldn''t hear what the leader leafling had screamed out, his mind was too preupied with the sheer amount of stupidity he was about to involve himself in. The n would never work, in fact, he was half certain he would die without making much of a difference, but it was his nature to try.
"Oi, fat lug!" Lucius shouted once he had gotten directly behind them. The worms didn''t react, they continued devouring the leaflings that they had caught,pletely ignoring him.
"Over here!" he shouted again, this time kicking the worm to get its attention.
"Keee" The worm stopped what it was doing at moved the upper part of its body to see what had just hit it. Although they traveled fast, their movements were quite sluggish due to how fat their bodies were.
~Even if they do catch up to me, eating me is going to be another story,~ Lucius thought to himself, before dodging the worm''s sluggish lunge.
~This body.~ Although he had managed to dodge the attack, it had been too close for his liking. His leaf bodycked muscle fiber, and its reactions were a tad too slow, though only by mere fractions, it could be the difference between staying alive and bing worm food.
The worm clumsily picked itself up and prepared for another lunge, by this time Lucius was already on its side, baiting it into lunging at him.
*Lunge* Once again Lucius dodged to the side, however this time the worm''s maw had just barely scraped the side of his body. It was an odd feeling, there was no pain, though a piece of his body had clearly been eaten.
After quickly picking himself up, he moved a little more to the side, baiting it to lunge at him once again. The worm seemed to be getting angry at its pesky prey, this time moving even further back to lunge with more power.
*Lunge* It took the bait, once Lucius dodged to the side, it nted its maw into its partner. The other worm instinctively bit back, nting its maw into the first as well.
~Seems like everything in this dream has the intelligence of a child~ thought Lucius as he watched the two worms begin fighting. Lucius was no entomologist, but were worms supposed to be this strong? Their teeth bit in deep, goring gruesome holes into one another.
Seeing that the worms were no longer after them, the leaflings stopped running. Several of them cautiously walked towards Lucius, making sure to stay a few steps behind him.
"What are they doing?" asked one of the leaflings as worm guts flew a few steps away from him.
"Fighting," replied Lucius. At this point both worms had been heavily injured, much of their bodies had been destroyed by the other, so much so that even if one of them did win, they would probably die due to hemolymph loss.
"Let''s get out of here! Those who I stationed to face left and right, get into position here," ordered Lucius, using his feet to point at a spot close by.
"Those who I stationed facing forward, pick up the wounded and position yourselves between the others," Lucius ordered, using his feet to point directions at the other leaflings.
It took a few minutes but the leaflings were finally in position. By this point the two worms had reduced each other into mush, the victor was missing half its body and was trying to crawl away, however it was certain to meet its demise soon enough.
Chapter 5 Training A Leaf Army
"Okay, let''s begin marching," ordered Lucius, this time walking at an even slower pace than before due to the injured. The group traversed the forest without much happening after that incident.
They took a few breaks, hiding behind trees and shrubs so as not to be left exposed, but they never stopped for more than a few minutes. Lucius would allow many short breaks, but never long ones. Soon what little sunlight fell through the upper canopy of the forest began to dim,night was approaching and so they would soon have to make camp.
"This looks like a good enough spot. Drop off the injured right here and stand in formation," ordered Lucius, using his feet to point at a bare patch of moist soil.
"It seems you guys were never trained on how to react in emergency situations, so it falls on me to teach you guys," he said, eyeing the leader leafling as he spoke.
"Ehem, thank you Lighted S-"
"My name is Lucius, apparently Lucius Elfwood. You can call me Luci for all I care, just enough of this Lighted Savior nonsense," he interrupted. If he had fingers and temples, he would be rubbing them right now.
"So, to begin. From now on all forward-facing leaflings will be called squad 1. When I give orders to squad 1, that''s you guys," he said, gesturing towards the leaflings who were facing forward. "Squad 2 will be the right-facing leaflings, and squad 3 will be those of you facing the left," as he said this he began walking around the leaflings as if to inspect them.
"Now, I won''tplicate things, I know you guys can''t handle that. The n is simple: if we are being attacked from your nk, so for instance, you guys," as he said, he used his feet to point at the left-facing leaflings.
"You will disperse in opposite directions and hide behind the nearest tree or shrub. From here to there-" as he said this he pointed at a leafling in the middle and then towards the end of the assembly "- you guys will run back, and the rest of you will run forward."
"The same applies for the other squads. You guys here will run back, and the rest of you will run forward."
"I don''t want to see anyone running in a direction they aren''t supposed to. You will all run keeping in formation, never break from it, never. If I find out that one of you broke protocol, I''m leaving you behind."
"What about us?" asked one of the injured leaflings.
"Oh, right. For now all of you will be a part of squad 1. In an emergency squads 2 and 3 will wait for the whole of squad 1 to disperse before dispersing themselves. If whatever is attacking us sees that we have injured, they will go after them. So you guys will act as a smoke screen," Lucius exined.
~I say this, but I know it will be instinct for you idiots to run at the first sign of danger.~
"We will begin training. You injured folk can go ahead and rest, but the rest of you will only get to sleep in another hour."
Sounds of dissatisfaction filled the air, however everyone made sure not to be caught under Lucius''s re. After what had happened today they were certain that following him was the right thing to do. Had they been attacked by worms on any other day, more than 3 quarters of them would''ve been dead.
"Okay, go. Emergency procedures!" shouted Lucius.
The leaflings were in disarray once themand was given. Sure, they ran in the directions they were supposed to, but they did so haphazardly, stumbling over each other in the process. The whole activity took nearly a minute, when it should''ve taken but a few seconds as a few of the leaflings forgot where they were supposed to go and messed up the entire procedure.
~I expected as much but this is hopel-~
"You, whats your name?" asked Lucius, referring to a leafling who was still standing in position. It was a left facing leafling, still waiting for everyone else to settle down.
"What an idiot," whispered one of the other leaflings. They were almost certain Lucius was going to dump him for his ipetency.
"It was a simple order," whispered another.
"My name is leafling," replied the questioned leafling.
"Ah, from now on you will be called Alpha," said Lucius, before ordering the other leaflings to get back in formation.
"He was named? But why>"
"I want a name too."
"Does anyone know why Alpha over here stood still while the rest of you stumbled over each other like fools?" asked Lucius, to which the leaflings remained quiet. They hadn''t the slightest clue why the only person who couldn''t follow instructions properly was being rewarded.
"No, no one? Fine, Alpha, please tell us why you remained still while everyone else was moving," order Lucius, gesturing for Alpha to walk to the front.
p "I am part of squad 3, so I had to wait for squad 1 to finish dispersing. But because there was so much chaos, I couldn''t tell who was part of squad 1 or who was from the other squads, so I waited for everyone," Alpha answered.
"Oh," said the other leaflings, realizing the little mistake they had made.
"From now on, Alpha will be the leader of squad 3. When I call out, wait for his mark, and move only on his mark. Understood?" said Lucius, going back to his position at the front.
"What about the rest of us? Who will be the leader of our groups?" asked a leafling, an expectant look on his face.
"You don''t get to have leaders. When I give the mark, just follow procedure," he replied, killing what little hope the leafling had of being named leader.
"Nice try," whispered the other leaflings mirthfully.
Chapter 6 Alpha
The training went on for another two hours, it seemed that the leaflings weren''t fast learners at all, however, with the exception of squad 3. After Alpha was put inmand, the squad seemed to show steady growth in the exercise. Though they still managed to stumble over one another once in a while, they moved at the correct times and with an eptable speed.
"Okay, enough. We''ll pick this up again tomorrow, you guys should get some rest," shouted Lucius. Hearing this, the leaflings fell over in exhaustion, lengthy training exercises were simply too much for their leaf bodies.
"Savi-"
"I told you not to call me that. Anyway, what''s wrong Alpha?" asked Lucius, interrupting Alpha before he could evenplete his request.
"I wanted to thank you for training us. Ever since I sprouted, I''ve always been envious of all the other creatures. We weren''t born with any specific advantages, it''s as if we were created by the gods merely to be fodder for the other forest creatures. But you, you''re different. I can tell you aren''t like us," said Alpha, before sitting beside Lucius.
By now the rest of the squads had joined the injured leaflings on the moist patch of soil andid down to get proper rest.
"No need to thank me, Alpha," he replied, stretching his legs out before folding them.
"This is all a dream after all. I''ll probably wake up in a bit, and all this," as he said this he looked back at the sleeping leaflings "-will all just be a distant memory, a fun one, but a distant one nheless." To this Alpha began chuckling, though ever so softly.
"Is something funny?"
"You know Savior, you''re notpletely sane, are you? I guess wisdom like yourses at a cost," he said in between chuckles.
"Sigh, is it so hard for you to call me Lucius?" replied Lucius, slightly annoyed by the leafling''sugh.
"There''s no way I could refer to someone so far above me by name. Even if you asked me to, I can''t see you as my equal," said Alpha, hisughter dying down.
"Then I guess you could call me captain for now."
"What''s that? ???????????????"
"It means leader, teacher, someone you can depend on," Lucius replied with a smile, remembering all the teams he had been a part of back in the real world.
"Captain, then. Aren''t you going to get some rest as well, Captain?" asked Alpha as he stood up.
"Someone has to take watch. You can go get some rest, training was difficult." Hearing this Alpha sat back down, a determined look on his face.
"Then I shall take watch with you."
From that point on the only sound that could be heard was the whistling of the wind as it blew past the trees. The air was cool, retaining just enough heat from the day, though Lucius wasn''t sure whether this was an illusion or not since his body probably didn''t have any nerves.
Hours passed by and the temperature dropped a little, though not so much that it warranted starting a campfire. Not that he could start one even if he wanted to anyway.
~Are dreams supposed tost this long?~ Lucius wondered to himself as he watched the sleeping Alpha. Though the leafling tried his best, he too was exhausted from all the training, and so after sumbing to fatigue, fell asleep on Lucius''s shoulders.
~Well, as long as I''m here, might as well watch out for these leaflings. God knows they wouldn''t survive a day out in the open alone.~
***
"Okay, we''ll rest here for a while. Disperse using the emergency procedure, one group over there, and the other over here," Lucius ordered, and within several seconds the group had divided into two and hid under two adjacent shrubs.
"Alpha, pick out four other leaflings and take up watch," he added before sitting down. Alpha quickly picked out four leaflings and directed them to different spots around where they were resting.
~He has a good head on his shoulders,~ Lucius thought to himself as he watched on.
[Daily Quest]
[Buy one Evo point from the system shop] The words appeared into view with the same ring sound that he had heard the day before. It seemed that this would be a daily urrence for him. Learning from his past, he quickly set out to do what the words instructed. The sound wasn''t pleasant, and hearing it more than once was utterly annoying.
~Okay, so 1 Evo point is 100 helios. And I get 1 helio per second. This should be easy,~ he thought to himself before beginning ¡ºPhotosynthesis¡». Once again he imagined that the rays of sunlight were being absorbed into his body, and the system notified him that helio was being absorbed.
"There he goes again," whispered the leaflings as they watched on.
After having absorbed 110 helios, he bought an Evo point from the system shop and allocated the remaining 10 to growth.
~Just as I thought, the growth is very negligble~ he thought to himself after looking down at his leaf body. ~But I guess I can sort of feel the difference somehow, I feel a little stronger,~ he thought as he squatted up.
[Daily Questplete.]
[+40 exp]
~So going by what''s written here, I only need 60 more exp to level up. I wonder what''ll happen th~
"The others say they''ve rested enough, should we continue?" reported Alpha, interrupting Lucius''s train of thought.
"Yeah... get them in formation. We''ll move in a moment," replied Lucius. Alpha was a somewhat eptablemander, though the leaflings didn''t revere him so they were reluctant to follow orders. Lucius had to give a few res here and there to help him out, but after a few moments, they were all in formation.
~I can''t force them to like him. Heck, I hated it when themander would give other cadets special treatment, but as it is now, I''ll need someone to help me organize things in emergency situations. And the leader leaflings doesn''t exactly have any noticeable strong suits,~ thought Lucius as he watched the leader leafling talking to the injured fellow he was carrying.
~Anyway, we need to find this new camp asap,~ he thought to himself before instructing the leaflings to begin marching.
Chapter 7 More Training
"Beetle to the right nk! Just three shrubs over!" shouted one of the leafings from squad 2. The group had been walking for several hours without much activity, so although they ought to have been scared because of the threat, they were more excited at the prospect of using their training in a real-life situation.
"Emergency procedures!" ordered Lucius almost immediately. The sound of little footsteps filled the air as they got to work, moving as quickly and nimbly as they possibly could. Very few leaflings stumbled over each other, which was a good sign, however, they still didn''t move out in single files which increased the overall time they took to hide.
~But it''s good enough for now. I only trained them for one night after all,~ thought Lucius as he stealthily approached the area where the beetle was spotted.
"Alpha, with me," he whispered as peeked over to get a look at the beetle. It seemed eerily simr to the rhinoceros beetles back in the real world, with a long horn protruding from its head as it stood there frozen in ce. Though one feature made it patently clear that this was no ordinary beetle; the shining glint that bounced off its seemingly metallic body.
~Maybe it''s just the lighting~ Lucius thought to himself, but with all the strange things in this world, it wouldn''t be too hard to believe that beetles had metal for exoskeletons.
"Do you know what that is?" asked Lucius as Alpha snuck up next to him.
"I''ve never seen anything like that before. Or not around our old camp at least," replied Alpha, taking a peek at it as well.
~Seems we''ve ventured far away from the leafling''s natural habitats then.~
"Well, it doesn''t seem to have noticed us despite all that screaming. Perhaps it deaf," whispered Alpha, still staring at the beetle in wonder.
"Or perhaps it''s reluctant toe close. After all, we might be prey, or we might be predators. Tell the others to proceed silently, I''ll keep watch until all of you leave," whispered Lucius, to which Alpha left to carry out his instructions.
After all the leaflings were a good distance away, Lucius joined them and they continued on their march. As they were walking he made a rather obvious discovery; Alpha had been wrong when he said that they didn''t have any natural advantages against other creatures. They did, but perhaps it was not obvious to them because they weren''t actively using it. The leafling''s bodies made them nearly undetectable under certain lighting when they were in front of shrubs, or other green vegetation.
~As an ex-ghost-operative, I should''ve realized this sooner. This squad could make for the perfect ghost division, with proper training of course.~ However that was just a side thought, making a ghost division out of them wouldn''t mean much as there would be no use for such a team right now. But it was still an intriguing thought, perhaps he would train a few of them in his spare time to act as scouts.
The day flew by and soon the rays of light that made their way through the forest canopy began to dim. Night was soon approaching and Lucius picked out a nice patch surrounded by shrubs to set up camp.
"Alpha, take over the training for this session. You, you, you and you, follow me," he said, using his feet to pick out four other leaflings.
~Alpha can use this to build trust between him and the other leaflings, and I can use this to pick out leaflings with potential for scouting,~ he thought to himself as he walked to another section of the camp.
"Listen up. The task is simple, you guys will hide somewhere close by and try to avoid being caught. Understood?" said Lucius, turning around to face the leaflings he had just picked out. They seemed confused by the exercise, the emergency procedure had obvious advantages, however this game was ambigious at best.
~If they can hide on instinct, then I can groom them into scouts. I can''t train instinct from scratch, it will take too long,~ he thought to himself before giving them tomand to hide.
~This is kind of fun.~
***
"Come on, this is too easy," Lucius sighed as he caught yet another leafling. He had gone through nearly all the leaflings now, and not one of them seemed to have any potential. Even Alpha, who seemed to have the most potential among them failed when it came to hiding.
~Though I can''t me them. Hiding from me is a bit... tricky~ he realized. After all, there was a gaping difference between trained and untrained men when it came to these sort of things.
"Next, you four,e with me," he said, pointing out four more leaflings.
"All you guys have to do is hide, make sure I don''t catch you," he said, somewhat exhausted from all the running around he had been doing. This had be a sort of pass time for the injured leaflings, as they watched in awe as Lucius searched for the other leaflings like some kind of hunter.
"Okay, go!"
The four leaflings quickly dispersed in different directions, and after giving them a minute or two, Lucius began searching for them.
Where they hid said a lot about them, after doing this for nearly 2 hours he was beginning to see a pattern. Some leaflings were earnest in their hiding, choosing the further edges of the allowed perimeters. Those were the ones Lucius caught first as there was very little vegetation and so they couldn''t blend in properly.
"Found you," shouted Lucius as he crept behind a leafling that was hidden behind a buttress root at the further edges.
Others were a little more ballsy and hid closer to the camp, perhaps thinking that it would be thest spot Lucius would think to look. But they weren''t as smart as they thought.
"Found you."
~Two more.~
Very few, and perhaps these were the closest to having any semnce of potential, chose to hide underneath shrubs. Whether they were aware that their skin allowed them to blend in, or did it merely out of instinct was beyond him, however, it still wasn''t enough.
"Found you," he said in a disappointed tone as he pointed out a leafling that was hiding underneath a nearby shrub.
~Just one left,~ he thought dejectedly.
~Hiding may seem simple at first, but it could be an art on its own. The art of being a ghost,~ he thought to himself as he stalked around the area.
Chapter 8 Ghost
~There are three basic fronts when ites to the art of hiding. First is terrain. You have to ce yourself in a favorable position that gives you a view of your prey but still leaves enough room for an easy escape,~ he thought as before jumping at a shrub.
"Ah, not here."
~Second is mental warfare. You have to have a grasp of your prey''s mannerisms, habits. Most of it is assumption when you don''t have any information, but it''s still important. Thinking ahead and outwitting your prey will drastically decrease the chances of you being caught.~ This time he jumped out behind a buttress root where he thought he had seen a leafling.
"Hmm? Not here either?"
~Andstly is movement. Staying in one ce too long is the second best way to get caught easily, the best way is moving carelessy,~ as he thought this he jumped at a leafling that was stalking behind a nearby tree.
"Found you! Nice try though," he said with a smile.
"S-Sorry savior, I was just taking a quick break," replied the leafling. Though he wasn''t entirely sure how, he could tell that this leafling wasn''t part of the group he was hunting down.
"Huh? Then where''s the final leafling?" he whispered to himself as he went back to the main camp. Granted, his only source of light were the few patches of moonglow that managed to fall to the forest floor, so it was astronomically hard for him to spot them.
"You cane out now. You won!" he shouted towards the forest area.
"Right here." The voice was female, it came from the area right behind him, where the injured leaflings were resting.
~But all those fronts don''t matter when it''s built into your brain. When you were born destined for the art, when you were born a ghost,~ thought Lucius with a smile, his blood, or whatever leaves had, rushing in excitement.
"Well done. Choosing to hide amongst the injured, huh? Not exactly mind blowing, but I guess it was my fault for underestimating you," he said as the leafling walked towards him.
"You praise me too much Luci," replied the leafling with a smirk.
~I did say I didn''t care if they called me Luci, didn''t I?~ Lucius thought to himself in regret.
"I''m guessing your name is leafling too?" he asked, to which she shook her leaf up and down.
"From now on you''ll be called Ghost. A little over the top, but it will do. Whenever we have training you will report to me."
"Very well," she replied, following him as he went back to where the squads were training.
"This concludes today''s session. However, before we all go rest, I have an important announcement to make. The tests I was conducting today were for the formation of a new squad, squad 4. This squad will act as a scout''s division, moving ahead of the main group to survey the area ahead," he announced. All the leaflings sat in exhaustion after he had concluded the exercise, but still listened intently.
"That''s to say, this is a very risky squadron and will require even more training than the emergency squadrons. From what I can see, only she-" as he said this he used his foot to point at Ghost "- has potential to be in this squad. Though through your own individual training, I''m sure some of you will grow into it," he finished before looking over some of those that showed a bit of potential.
"Anyway, Ghost will be the leader of this new division and I will helping her. From now on Alpha will be in charge of the main group, and will handle training when I am busy. Understood?"
The leaflings grunted in affirmation, too tired to even speak properly.
"You can all go rest now."
The leaflings shuffled to the center of the camp, slumping to the ground like sacks of potatoes. Alpha was just as merciless when it came to training as Lucius was, and though they seemed to be a little more energetic than yesterday, the cries of pain they gave out as theyid down to rest proved that the intensity hadn''t lessened.
"Keeping out watch, Captain?" It was Alpha, and behind him were three other leaflings.
"Care to join me?" Lucius asked, inviting them to take a seat right beside him.
"These are leaflings from the other squads. They asked if they could take watch with us."
~With us, huh?~
"There''s no need to ask. Anyone can take watch if they want to," he replied.
"What are your names?" He was fairly certain they would all say leafling, it was honestly surprising how slow these things were to grasp certain concepts. Why they couldn''t start giving themselves names was beyond him.
"You haven''t named us yet," replied one of the leaflings, his eyes slightly downcast.
"Why don''t you guys just name yourselves. It isn''t that hard," Lucius tried exining, but the leaflings quickly shook their heads in response.
"Giving ourselves names would mean nothing. What difference would it make from just being called leafling? No, your names always seem to have some thought put into it," replied Alpha, before quickly realizing that he was being too forward.
"It''s okay, Alpha. You''re right, I guess that they want to prove themselves too," replied Lucius. It was human nature to want to work hard to earn something, it seemed to be leaf nature as well.
The groupsted for a few hours, but by midnight Lucius was once again thest one standing. Like the previous night, he waited to wake up from this dream, though it never happened. He was beginning to doubt his theory, perhaps this wasn''t a dream, perhaps this was now his new reality.
***
Just like the previous day, the group set out on their march at first light, though this time, Alpha led the formation. Lucius was preupied with teaching Ghost the ropes of scouting and the different tactics she had to employ in certain situations.
"Never move in straight lines, that''s too predictable. If something spotted you and you aren''t aware of it yet, they could easily set up a trap for you," he instructed as he zigzagged in between shrubs, Ghost in tow.
"When you''ve got the movement down, you need to broaden your field of vision. Since we''re scouting for a movingpany and not for intel, we can''t afford to sit down and properly analyze everything. So you need to take it in as ites," he said, looking from side to side while simultaneously avoiding the shrubs in his path.
*Thud*
"Ouch! This is hard," Ghost cried out, her body covered in scrapes from all the tripping she had been doing this morning.
Chapter 9 Settlement
"Wait, do you hear that?" It was soft, but Lucius could just barely hear it, the sound of water crashing. He turned to look in the direction from which the sound wasing, and saw a bright shimmer in the distance.
"Get back to the main group and tell Alpha we''re taking a break. I''m going to check on something," he said quickly, running off before Ghost even had the chance to reply.
The humid forest air washed over his face as he zipped towards the source of his curiosity, the smell of wet sand bing stronger the closer he got. He nimbly jumped over small pebbles and sidestepped every shrub in his path, until finally...
"A river, a massive one at that," he shouted out. He began surveying the area and found arge mound just a few meters away from the river banks.
~The reeds surrounding it are good cover, but it''s kind of a bother that we can''t see through them as well. But that can be solved if we do perimeter runs,~ he thought to himself before scouting the area properly
From what he could tell, this river probably cut through the entire forest as there was no end or beginning in sight. Though there were probably other animals living along the banks, he hadn''t sighted any within a substantial distance.
"Captain, you''re back," said Alpha as Lucius returned back to the main group.
"I found a ce to settle. It''s a mound just a bit further up, beside a river," Lucius replied, before ordering the leaflings to march towards the aforementioned area. After getting all the injured on the top of the mound, Lucius called a meeting at the center.
"Wee to your new home. I can''t say that it''s the ideal ce to be setting up camp, but it''s better than our old ce anyway. We have the river to watch our backs, so we only have to worry about everywhere else. Which brings me to why I called this meeting," said Lucius.
"The exercises you guys have been doing till now were sort of forced on you. You had to do them to survive, you basically had no say in the matter," as he said this he began speaking slower, looking over all the leaflings lined up there.
"It''s strenuous work, and doing it even though you don''t want to will only make it harder. So, I''m giving you guys an out." There was a slight pause after he said this, perhaps they needed time to think things over.
"An out? What''s an ???????" whispered one of the leaflings, his face fraught with confusion.
~Sigh.~
"If you don''t want to be part of the squadrons anymore you can leave. There won''t be much need for them anyway since we''re rtively safe up here, though it would be nice if a few of you could stay to act as perimeter control. But don''t worry about that, if you want to leave, you can leave," Lucius exined.
"No more training?" asked on leafling, the realization finally hitting him.
"No more waking up with leafy aches," answered another, a slight hint of relief in his voice.
"No more learning," said Alpha, so soft that Lucius could barely hear him.
Most leaflings were ecstatic, though they appreciated all the time Lucius spent training them, their bodies and minds just weren''t in it. Every day they woke up in pain, and every night they dreaded the training they would have. For them, it was finally the end of a major inconvenience.
"Thank you sav- Lucius. Thank you," said the leaflings, each of them thanking him before heading back to the injured. When all was said and done, only five leaflings remained; Ghost, Alpha, and three others. Lucius recognized them fromst night, they were the leaflings that Alpha had introduced him to.
"It seems that you''re the only leaflings left. Are all of you certain that you want to continue training under me?" Lucius asked, his voice more serious than it had ever been before.
"Yes captain," replied Alpha, to which the three other leaflings repeated as well.
"What about you, Ghost?" Lucius asked, turning to look at her.
"You still haven''t taught me how to run without looking where I''m going. I think I''ll stick around for a few more lessons, Luci," she replied with a smirk.
~Great, now that I have that out of th-~
[Unlock New Skill] There it was, the quest notification. Though he ought to have been used to the sound by now, he couldn''t help but cringe as it rang in his mind.
"Can you guys give me a moment? I''ll call you back in a bit," he said to them before walking down the mound.
~Unlock a new skill, huh? So skill tree I''m guessing,~ he thought to himself before opening the ¡ºSkill Tree¡»tab. As he stared at the tree, he noticed something odd. One of the circles was glowing a bright yellow color, though it was merely an image in his mind, it felt almost as if it was calling to him.
[Unlock ¡ºCatalyst Absorption¡»?] - [1 Evo point]
Without much thought Lucius agreed, spending the only evo point he had on the new skill.
*Ding*
[Daily Questplete.]
[+20 exp]
~Hmm, only 20 more to go~
[New Quest. Absorb water.]
~A chain quest, huh. Seems I might reach level 2 today,~ Lucius thought to himself as he walked down to the river bed. Though he had no idea what would happen at level 2, he couldn''t help but get excited. After all, now that he found a safe ce for the leaflings, there wasn''t much else to do besides train the few that had remained in the squadrons and y around with the weird... system? In his mind.
~So what do I do now? Just drink it?~ He wondered, as he skipped down, closer to the river. The soil was moist and sticky, making it hard for him to move, and based off the way the water rushed, bubbled, and crashed into the rocks, Lucius could tell that getting too close to it would be a fool''s endeavor.
"I guess it''s more like an ocean for leaflings, huh?"
~Catalyst Absorption.~ He decided that it would be wiser to try and get more information on his new skill, just like he did with photosynthesis. After all, since it was a chain quest, it only made sense that it would have something to do with the skill he unlocked.
[Catalyst Absorption creates roots that allow enhancing substances to be absorbed into the body. These enhancing substances may improve the rate of growth, or the efficiency of other processes such as photosynthesis.]
[To use catalyst absorption, imagine strings of roots reaching out of your body into the enhancing substance.]
Chapter 10 Growth
~So like this?~ Lucius closed his eyes, clearing his mind before imagining that a bundle of roots was protruding from his body, slithering towards the water.
[Water absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Questplete.]
[+20 exp]
~Finally, level tw-~
[Inadequete growth. Level cap 1.]
[New Quest. Reach Growth cap.]
~Huh? Growth cap?~ After thinking it over for a moment, he sort of got the gist, though he wasn''t entirely sure.
~They want me to grow, right?~ he thought before closing his eyes to begin photosynthesis.
[Absorbing 1.025 Helios per second]
~Guess this is the effect of catalyst ab-~ as he thought this his photosynthesis came to halt.
~Ah, I forgot. If I stop focusing on the rays, it stops,~ he thought before refocusing his attention on the sun rays once again. Five minutes of silent concentration went by in what felt like a moment before Lucius stopped photosynthesizing.
~Okay. 307 Helios, now I just allocate them all into growth.~ The change was a little more noticeable this time, he felt a little taller, a littlerger than before. And though he had no muscle fibers to speak of, he felt a little stronger too.
~Do I still have to grow some more?~ he wondered to himself. After several seconds passed with no new notification, he decided to continue photosynthesis.
***
Hours passed, and Lucius absorbed close to 25 000 helios, all of which he allocated to growth. Though each helio point showed negligible growth, when they reached the 1000''s the difference was quite noticeable. He was now two timesrger than he had been at the start of the day and felt many times stronger.
Though he noticed that the process seemed to take a toll on his mind as he felt very fatigued. Everything seemed blurry, and though he felt stronger, it was as if all his energy had been drained.
~1000 more, please tell me this is enough,~ he thought, his mind fuzzy from using photosynthesis for so long.
[Questplete. +0 exp]
[Growth cap reached]
[Level cap increased]
[New Quest. Buy 10 Evo points from the shop.]
Without much thought, Lucius began photosynthesis once again. He knew that he ought to rest, however, the sun was already setting, and if he dyed he would have to wait until tomorrow.
[Absorbing 1.025 helios per second.]
[Questplete.] As the notification came up, Lucius''s world began to turn dark.
[Leafling Evolution hasmenced. 10 Evo points have been deducted.] These were thest words Lucius saw before slipping out of consciousness.
***
"What is it?"
"I don''t know, but I don''t think we should touch it. What if it wakes up?"
"What do you mean, ''?? ??????''?? ?????????? ???? ???????????? ?????????? ????''? Luci has been missing ever since it showed up. I say we push it into the river." The words were soft as whispers as they trickled into Lucius''s ears. His fatigue had died down, but it had now been reced by a throbbing headache. He could barely understand what the voices were saying, much less give a care.
[Leaf Being Evolution Complete.]
[New items have been added to the shop.]
[¡ºQuests¡» Unlocked.]
"Oi, you what did you do to Luci?" The kick felt like a ssh of cold water on his face, which only added to his massive headache. When he opened his eyes, he saw two familiar figures standing in front of him. The other leaflings were a few steps behind, a look of genuine concern and contempt filling their faces.
"You deaf? I asked what you did to Luci." Yet another kick was nted into his face, and though Lucius took pride in his patience with others, he was getting fed up with being used as a kicking bag.
"Stop. What if it gets angry?" whispered one of the other leaflings. Though it seemed scared, its eyes were zing with anger.
"What''s going on here?" He asked groggily, Ghost''s foot still nted in his face.
"Luci?"
"Captain?"
There was a moment of silence, the leaflings looked as if they had just seen a ghost, and Lucius, well Lucius felt like a ghost.
"Why are all of you looking at me like that? And can you get your foot off me?" he said before instinctively swatting Ghost''s foot away.
"Now, someone answer me." This time he said it in a moremanding voice, brushing himself off as he stood up. Everyone looked shorter, smaller, as if he were looking at dwarfs.
"Captain, is that really you?" Alpha asked, taking a step back in uncertainty.
"What are you talking about of cours-" Just then it hit him. How had he swatted Ghost''s foot away? How had he brushed himself off? Howe everyone looked so much smaller?
"Huh?"
He slowly turned and made his way closer to the river. It was early morning and the sun was just beginning to rise. The morning air felt cool, and the water seemed even more refreshing. Though it still seemed like a raging ocean, he felt safer than before getting a little closer to it.
As he stood over the water, staring at his reflection, he realized that he was a- he was, he was a green imp? Less ugly, but still some sort of imp, with a single leaf growing out of his scalp. His eyes were a vibrant green and his ears were long and sharp.
~What the hell is going on here?~
[New Quests avable.] The words came with the same jarring sound that the daily quests appeared with. He doubled over in pain and nearly fell into the river, if he didn''t have a headache perhaps it would''ve been more bearable.
"Luci, are you going to exin to us what''s going on?" The fire in Ghost''s eyes had died down, now all that remained was confusion, with a hint of fear.
~They''re scared,~ he realized. He had turned into a weird-looking monster without exnation, and apart from Ghost and a few others, the leaflings were akin to little kids, no more.
Chapter 11 Leaf Being
"I-I evolved," were the only words he could say.
"???????????????" whispered a confused leafling, looking to his peers for some sort of exnation.
"No, no. I think what he said is ??????????????????. Yes, yes," said the leader leafling, shaking his leaf up and down as if in a satisfied manner.
"Lighted one, how does one dissolve and be... be so big?" asked the first leafling, stepping a little closer.
"Evolve. And it''s because-" he took a moment topose his thoughts, thinking of the best way to exin what had ured.
"Hmm. Okay, what I''m about to tell you all might seem a little crazy."
"There''s this weird... system in my mind. It sends me messages every day... quests if you will-" the leaflings just stared at him, as if questioning his sanity. It all sounded even crazier as it left his mouth.
"Anyway, it gave me the ability to photosynthesize. The thing that happens when I start glowing, remember?"
"???????????????????????????????"
"Yes, I remember. All you have to do to ???????????????????????????????? is stand in the sunlight, if I''m not mistaken," said the leader leafling, stepping forward as he said this. "Don''t you all remember? The day he became the lighted one?"
"Oh, yeah. That did happen," whispered a few of the leaflings.
~What a conceited idiot.~
"Yesterday it gave me a quest, I was told to absorb water and grow. Grow until I reached my growth cap," Lucius continued quickly.
"Growth cap?"
"At the end of it all, I passed out from exhaustion. And when I woke up, I was this," he said, gesturing towards his new body.
Though Lucius was certain that they didn''t understand a word of what he had just exined, he was content that they weren''t scared of him anymore. After asking a few more questions, and getting any doubts they still had cleared, they went back towards the camp.
"The Lighted One truly is different from the rest of us," chattered a few of the leaflings as they left. Only five of them remained behind; Ghost, Alpha and three others, and for a moment there was only silence.
"Teach me," said Ghost, before walking around his new body, examining him like some kind of inspector.
"Me too, I want to learn," said Alpha.
"Can we learn too?"
"I''m not sure if you guys ca-" he paused to think about it for a moment. If he could somehow get everyone in the group to evolve, then he wouldn''t have to worry about defense as much. He could help them climb their way up the food chain.
"Hmm, I was going to teaching you guys anyway, so I can slip a few lessons in here and there. Anyway, I''m not certain if all of you will be able to do the things that I can, so as a test I want you guys to attempt photosynthesis."
"How do we do that?" asked Ghost.
"Simple. Just close your eyes and clear your mind. Imagine that the sun''s rays are entering your body," he exined before walking forward.
"Sun''s rays?" asked one of the three leaflings under Alpha''smand.
~Perhaps not a good choice of phrasing,~ Lucius realized.
"Imagine that the sunlight is entering your bodies, imagine that your skin is sucking it in and trapping it inside."
p "Seems easy enough," said Ghost, closing her eyes to take her first attempt.
As the other leaflings closed their eyes as well, Lucius decided to inspect the changes to his system.
~yer Stats~
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©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 2: 0/200]
[Leaf Being lvl.1- [0/100]]
[Sunlight''s blessing] +5 to all stats
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 1(6)]
[Strength: 1(6)]
[Stamina: 1(6)]
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~Hmm, so that''s why I felt stronger, my stats increased. What about the new items in the system shop?~
[System Shop]
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
~Solis fragments huh? Okay, now the new ¡ºQuests¡» tab.~
[Quests]
20 exp
80 exp
100 exp
~Hmm, If I do all these quests I could get to leve-~
"It''s not working," interrupted Ghost, a look of defeat on her face. The other leaflings didn''t seem to having much luck either.
"I expected as much," replied Lucius.
"Maybe if you showed us again," said Alpha, just now giving up.
~Well, I do have a quest, might as well tick it off,~ thought Lucius before sitting down into a meditative position. The leaflings followed suit and sat down next to him with their legs crossed as well.
[Absorbing 2 helios per second.]
Lucius sat still for 5 minutes, at first the leaflings were just trying their best to imitate him, but after a while they gave up and decided that just watching him was enough. They had never seen something so beautiful before, his whole body glowed with a vibrant green hue, and the space around him seemed distorted, as if the light were being sucked in.
"Isn''t it beautiful?" asked one of the leaflings, stepping a close to try and touch the green hue.
"Don''t touch him, you''ll break hi-" however it was already toote, the tip of the leafling''s leaf was already feeling against Lucius''s skin.
[Shared photosynthesismencing.]
[Absorbing 2.025 helios per second.] Just then, for a second, the leafling''s body also glowed. But the sudden message interrupted Lucius''s train of thought, and photosynthesis came to a halt.
"What was that?"
"S-Sorry Lighted One, I just wanted to know how it f-"
"I mean how did you do that?" Lucius interrupted. Shared photosynthesis? He had never heard about that before, though the fact that it increased the amount of helios he absorbed seemed to be worth investigating.
"I-I just touched you. I''m sorry, you just looked so... beautiful." Silence.
"Ehem," Ghost coughed akwardly, once again breaking the silence.
~Anyway, is this because of catalyst absorbtion? Do the leaflings have some sort of catalysing effect when their in contact with me?~ Lucius wondered.
"Do it again, all of you, do it," he said, before closing his eyes.
The leaflings looked at each other in confusion, before Ghost took the iniative and touched him. The other leaflings followed suit, and once Lucius felt that all five of them were touching him, he began photosyntheis.
[Shared photosynthesis]
[Absorbing 2.125 Helios per second]
Chapter 12 Shared Photosynthesis
~It works,~ thought Lucius, bringing shared photosynthesis to a halt.
~So it is a sort of catalyst, I wonder if them touching me will have an effect on growt-~
"What was that?" interrupted Ghost, breathing loudly as she tried to catch her breath. She wasn''t alone though, all five of the leaflings seemed to be exhausted, as if they had just ran a marathon.
"Are you guys okay?" Lucius asked. Perhaps this method of catalyst absorption wouldn''t be as useful as he initially thought. If it left the leaflings exhausted, he wasn''t willing to use it.
"I-I feel... stronger," replied Alpha, looking down at his leaf body.
~What? Does this mean that they also gain the benefits of photosynthesis? If that''s true, then that maybe... evolution might be possible for them,~ he thought to himself
"Can you guys carry on?"
"I can continue," Alpha replied quickly.
"Me too," said Ghost almost immediately.
"What about you guys?" asked Lucius, turning to look at the other three leaflings. They seemed to be even more exhausted than Ghost and Alpha, but they moved their leaves up and down in affirmation, willing to soldier on.
"Okay, touch me when you''re ready."
[Shared photosynthesis]
[Absorbing 2.125 Helios per second]
This time only one minute passed before four of the leaflings copsed in exhaustion. Only Alpha remained, though even he was struggling to keep consciousness.
~Perhaps we pushed it a little too much. But this was a good exercise to test their limits,~ thought Lucius, before picking Ghost up.
"Alpha, will you be able to walk back to the camp?"
"Y-Yes," Alpha replied as he tried and failed to stand.
"So you can''t huh. I''lle get you once I drop Ghost off."
After dropping all five of them back at the main camp, Lucius sat next to the river to properly examine his new form. Though he hadn''t noticed it at first, there were two ck stumps at the top of his head, poking out ever so slightly. His teeth were razor sharp, as if he were meant to be eating meat, and he had a very short limb protruding from his back, though he couldn''t feel or move it.
~So the leaflings can only handle about 255 helios per session. Though it seems like some of them will be able to handle a little more, like Alpha,~ he thought to himself as he stared at his reflection in the water.
The ripples distorted the image, making it look bendy in some areas of the water. Lucius stood up and picked up a small pebble, before skipping it over the river, which proved to take a lot of energy as he still wasn''t even close to having the strength of a human child.
For a moment he saw an image of his former body, of Lucius Mc. Conol, in the water, before a ripple erased the image, leaving only that of his Leaf Being body.
~I guess this isn''t a dream... but perhaps I always knew that. So Riley was right huh... the cycle of rebirth. To think I was reborn as a leaf creature, the gods must be jesters.~
After sitting still for a moment, taking time to properly ept his new circumstances, he decided toplete his daily quests. After all, it was the only thing he could do now.
He closed his eyes and imagined that a bundle of roots was protruding from his body, snaking all the way to the water. This time the roots felt more like vines than wisps, and instead of appearing out of nowhere, he could feel theming out of the limb on his back.
[Water absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Questplete.]
[+20 exp]
Afterpleting his water absorption quest he carried on to start photosynthesis.
[Absorbing 2.05 helios per second.]
For half an hour Lucius sat still, taking short breaks in between to preventpletely exhausting his mind like he didst time. Over this period he absorbed over 2000 helios, allocating most of them into growth while making sure to save 1000 for the solis fragment.
[Solis fragment purchased]
After purchasing the fragment, Lucius opened his skill tree and hovered over it to see which skill was glowing.
~Ahh, that one,~he thought, locking on a skill that was glowing a brilliant white hue.
[Are you sure you want to purchase ¡ºSr Core¡»with 1 Solis fragment?] prompted the system, to which Lucius quickly epted. A momentter his vision went blurry and his body numbed, it felt as if there was something burning a hole deep within him.
~Not aga-~ He passed out before he could even finish the thought.
[¡ºSr Core¡»is being created...]
[Creationplete.]
[Linking ¡ºSr Core¡»to ¡ºPhotosynthesis¡»....]
[Linkplete.]
[Creating ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Creationplete.]
[System rebooting...]
***
"Ugh, my head hurts," croaked Lucius, holding his head in pain.
"He''s awake!"
~Probably passed out for a day again,~ he thought to himself as he looked at the leafling who was screaming and running towards the camp. This time there were only a few leaflings surrounding him, perhaps they had gotten used to him passing out already.
After a few moments, he saw a familiar leafling running from the camp towards him. "Luci, you''re awake," whispered Ghost, stopping right in front of him. Her bodynguage was odd, she seemed awkward, which was very unlike her character. At least from what Lucius knew.
"I thought that maybe- you were just asleep for so long- and we didn''t know what to do- Alpha tried but even he-"
"Slow down Ghost." Lucius''s head already hurt, and Ghost''s mumbling wasn''t helping him too much. He decided to first inspect his body to see if there were any changes, but found that he was the same as before. A leaf Being.
"You need to give us a warning before you do things like that," said Ghost, her voice breaking in emotion as she said this. It was the first time Lucius had ever seen Ghost this worried, usually, she was smug, and even the first time he had passed out she didn''t seem that affected.
"Calm down Ghost, I''m okay. You don''t need to worry," he assured, before hugging her. Perhaps it wasn''tmon practice for leaflings, but Lucius was still human in mind. And hugging was the only way he knew how to deal with upset girls.
"How long was I out anyway?" he asked after she had calmed down a little.
"1 week."
"Huh?"
Chapter 13 Border Threats
~Wh-What? A week? What the hell is going on? I don''t feel much different,~ thought Lucius as he opened up his yer stats to confirm.
"Did anything happen while I was gone?" he asked, looking over his body once more to make certain that there were no changes.
"I-I don''t know, I don''t think so. I''ve been in charge of the leaflings looking over you, I-I didn''t have time to ask Alpha about the perimeter," replied Ghost, her leaf still buried in Lucius''s arms.
"Take me to Alpha."
It was noon, and the sun was directly overhead making it very hot even though they had a curtain of trees blocking most of the sunlight. Though oddly enough the wind was cool, perhaps another benefit of being so close to the river.
~Maybe I should stop blindly following what the voices in my head say. A week? And nothing to show for it? What if something had happened to leaflings? I mean sure, Alpha can handle things, but what if there was some sort of threat he wasn''t equipped to handle,~ thought Lucius as Ghost led him up the mound towards the main camp.
When Lucius got up the mound he found that most of the leaflings who had been sitting at the center when they first arrived had healed from their injuries. Alpha was currently giving orders to five leaflings, it seemed that his little following had grown since Lucius was out.
"The Lighted One," whispered a few of the leaflings as they noticed Lucius. Soon a small crowd circled around him, unasked questions filling their faces.
"Captain, you woke up," said Alpha, squeezing past the crowd to get to the front.
"I didn''t mean to take so long, it seems there are still some things I don''t understand about this... system," Lucius replied.
"But enough of that, I''m back now. Give me a rundown of everything that happened at the outer perimeter of our camp-" after Lucius said this he took a moment to think. "Actually, I never specified the perimeter, so take me to the border while you''re at it," he finished.
"Yes, Captain," Alpha replied, before leading Lucius towards the northern perimeter. A few leaflings tried following, but Alpha gave the order for them to remain behind. Though they were reluctant to listen to him at first, they stillplied in the end. It seemed that Alpha had gained a little more respect. Maybe Lucius being unconscious for a week had a few benefits if nothing.
"It seems there''s something serious you want to tell me," Lucius said after they had gotten a bit far from the main camp.
"You could tell?" Alpha asked, his voice a bit tense.
"You''re too quiet. And there was no reason to chase away the other leaflings. But before you tell me, I just want to know. Does Ghost know?" It was important to keep leading actors in the loop, even if it was very dangerous information. Keeping secrets among the top brass of a group would only prove to destroy the trust they had in each other, and in turn any fruitful teamwork they could otherwise aplish.
"No. I''m the only one who knows. I wanted to tell her, but she seemed too engrossed in you waking up so... I thought it would be a bad idea to add this to her worries as well," he said, sighing before he stopped to look up at Lucius.
"There''s another group close by, just beyond the northern border. I''ve never seen beings quite like them before, but from what I can tell, they are at least a tier higher than we are," he said finally.
"Another group close by huh?" Lucius whispered to himself in thought.
"Does the fact that they haven''t attacked us mean that they don''t see us as food?" he asked right after.
"That could be a possibility, but I don''t think it''s the case. They''ve been sending scouts into our camp, a few leaflings have reported that they''ve seen weird creatures lurking just outside the perimeter, but I''ve told them to keep quiet about it," said Alpha, before beginning to move forward.
~You want to avoid panic, well-done Alpha,~ thought Lucius. Though keeping secrets was poisonous for a new group, it was better than allowing panic to spread amongst the leaflings. Especially with Lucius having been out ofmission, the leaflings might have tried running away and in the process get themselves injured.
"So they''re intelligent enough to use scouts. But that doesn''t exin why you think they are a tier higher than us-"
"Not you, just us," interrupted Alpha.
"Captain, right now you''re probably at the same tier as them. If they attacked, perhaps with your unfathomable knowledge you might be able to save a few of us, but there is a chance you yourself might fall," said Alpha in a somber tone.
"That bad huh? So they''re as big as me then?" Lucius inferred, following close behind Alpha as he got closer to the northern border.
"Not just that. If it was a matter of size, I wouldn''t ce them at the same level as you, Captain," Alpha replied, checking his surroundings carefully before moving past a curtain of shrubs.
"So then?" It was obvious Alpha was stalling, though the reason as to why wasn''t very clear.
"Do they have sharp teeth? ws? Are they fast?"
"Captain. The other group, they have. They have ess to minor magic."
Lucius froze up, he couldn''t believe what he had just heard, in fact, no, Alpha must''ve been ying a joke on him. Magic? That was make-believe, a fairy tale. Though after a few moments of careful consideration, Lucius realized that the prospect wasn''t so unbelievable, in fact, it would exin a lot of oddities in this world. Like the metal armored beetle, or the fact that leaflings existed and could even talk. And most of all, his system.
"Magic... so it''s possible to use magic in this world, huh?" he whispered to himself.
"To be specific, they use poison magic," Alpha continued, pointing to what he brought Lucius all the way out here to see.
"That''s the border, a border I chose not for strategic reasons, but because it seems to serve as a warning to us." The shrubs Alpha was pointing at werepletely ruined, as if in thetter stages of dposition, however, the odd thing was that they didn''t seem to be dead. A pungent smell emanated from its gooey leaves, and its branches curved in an unnatural way, as if a stronger gravity were acting on them. But the fact that it was still in tact, with all its leaves attached meant that it wasn''t dead yet, or at least it seemed that way.
~What have I led us into?~
Chapter 14 Preparations
"How long has this been going on?" Lucius asked in a passive manner, his mind running through all the possible options at hand.
"It started two days after you fell asleep, I''ve encountered three scouts myself, and including all the reports from the others, there have been maybe seven in total ever since," Alpha replied, looking at Lucius as if he were waiting for instructions.
~Should we move? There''s a chance we took over theirnd by ident and that might be why they''re sending scouts,~ he thought to himself, his eyes lost in thought.
~But if they''re intelligent enough to make use of scouts to gain information, then why haven''t they tried doing things more directly? I''m sure asking for some sort of meeting would be less dangerous than sending your own men into foreign territory.~ Though even as Lucius thought this, he was aware that things as formal as meetings might not bemon sense to the creatures of this world.
"How many leaflings do you have under you? I mean, how many are part of the perimeter squadron?" he asked thoughtfully, turning back towards the direction of the camp before Alpha even had the chance to answer.
"Right now we are six in total including me," answered Alpha, walking at a quick pace in order to catch up with Lucius.
~Six huh? That''s not enough, perhaps we should just move,~ he thought to himself dejectedly.
~But where will we go? We can''t pass through the river, and what''s to say that we won''t meet any other threats where we''re going anyway?. Besides, strategically speaking, this ce is pretty good.~
~No, we''ll stay. Now that I have hands I can build a few fortifications, a few towers, and other defenses,~ he thought as he side-stepped a shrub. He was walking at a very fast pace, which made it incredibly hard for Alpha to keep up as Lucius''s strides were perhaps two times his.
~Yea, this might work out. If I build a few defenses and teach the leaflings photosynthesis, perhaps we can scare our... neighbors away. Yea... and why do I have to stop there? Why should the leaflings live in fear each time there is a threat? Why should they stay at the very bottom of the food chain, bullied by others unless they hide?~ he thought to himself before stopping abruptly.
~I have nothing better to do anyway, if this is going to be my new life, then I might as well strive to achieve something.~
"Alpha, call all the men in your squadron. Tell them we''re going to have a meeting... just in front of the river bank where I fell asleep," he said, before breaking out into a full-on sprint.
Once he reached the camp, he called out for Ghost, however, she was nowhere to be found.
"Lighted One, Ghost has gone out training. Shall I go get her?" asked the leader leafling.
"Y-Yeah, tell her to report to me immediately. Also-" Lucius took a moment to think, "-e along, there''s something important I want to discuss."
"Then shall I call everyone? If it''s that important," asked the leader leafling, a questioning gaze on his face.
"No, just you and Ghost. Everyone who I need to be in the meeting will be there," he replied.
"Tell her to meet me just in front of the river over there," he said, pointing to a spot just before the river banks.
Lucius waited there for four minutes before everyone finally arrived. A few leaflings were curious about what was going on, but Lucius ordered them to go back to the camp under the pretense that this was just a meeting for those who remained in the squadrons.
"Luci, why have you called us here?" asked Ghost, her wordsbored as she tried to catch her breath from all the training she had been doing.
"Before we start with this meeting, there''s something I''ll need from you guys."
"What is it?" asked the leader leafling before sitting right beside Lucius.
"All of you take a seat around me," Lucius replied. After all of them were seated in a circle formation, Lucius swept his gaze upon each of them, taking his time to get the seriousness of what they were about to discuss into their minds.
"Today all of you will pledge an oath," he said finally, breaking the silence that had descended upon them.
"An oath?" asked one of the leaflings present.
"An oath, a promise that you cannot break. One of which the punishment for breaking is banishment from the camp," Lucius replied. It was important that he had a group he could trust with vital information, and though banishment didn''t seem all that scary, he couldn''t very well threaten to kill them if they broke it.
"I have no problems with pledging such a thing to you, Captain," said Alpha almost immediately, to which his men also responded with simr words.
"And what about you two?"
"I-I ept, I shall make such a pledge," replied the leader leafling. Ghost thought about it for a moment before nodding her head in affirmation as well.
"Then repeat after me," said Lucius.
"I pledge to never speak of what hear here anywhere else, and to only use what I am taught for the benefit of the whole camp," after a slight pause, the leaflings repeated Lucius''s words in unison.
"I pledge to try my hardest, tears and sweat, to be protectors of this camp, to risk my life if need be for the benefit of the whole camp," he added. To this there was a longer pause, the leaflings were hesitant to promise their lives, but after several seconds of silence, Alpha repeated Lucius''s words, and his men followed shortly after. Ghost and the leader leafling took a few more moments before saying the oath themselves.
"And finally, I pledge to carry out orders, regardless of how mundane or gruesome, I pledge to carry it out fully, may it cost leg or eye, may it cost the life of another, I shallplete if I deem it of benefit to the whole camp," he finished off. Again the leaflings seemed hesitant. Not only did they have to pledge their lives, but the lives of others as well?
Lucius understood their hesitance, but he needed them to pledge, to promise this. He, more than anyone else, understood that war could be a gruesome thing, and it was a war that they were preparing for. He nned on fighting against his neighbors if they proved hostile, and besides that, he wanted to know more about the magic they used. Up till now, he had been wandering aimlessly, without a goal in mind, but now that he had heard about the existence of magic, there were a few things he wanted to try out, a few goals he wanted to aplish.
The leaflings finished their oaths after careful consideration. Right now the air around them was tense, as if a single breath could tear it in half. They all stared at Lucius, patiently waiting, ready to absorb any words he might say.
"I have called this meeting to discuss concerns about border security, the chance of an oing war, and above everything else, to discuss how I n to develop this camp from here on out."
Chapter 15 Developments (1)
"How you n to develop this camp? What do you mean?" asked the leader leafling, voicing what everyone else was thinking.
"Tell me, are you satisfied with your current state of living? Are you okay with the way things are?"
"The way things are?" muttered one of the leaflings under Alpha''smand. Everyone seemed confused about the question, up til now their only task in life had been to survive, they never really had to think about things any other way.
~I can''t help them if they don''t want to be helped,~ thought Lucius after a few moments of silence, as the seconds ticked by he grew more and more dishearted, perhaps it just wasn''t meant to be. Though what could he expect, he was trying to force human concepts on what essentially was a group of animals. Before he came along they worked solely on instinct, moving away from danger and doing whatever it took to survive- which usually only amounted to hiding.
~Sigh,~ thought Lucius, about to close the meeting before it had even started.
"I''m not happy with the way things are, I am not satisfied with my current state of living." It was Alpha, he moved to stand at the center of the circle, and looked straight into Lucius''s eyes.
"I''m tired of being weak, I''m tired of running and hiding. I want to be stronger, I want you to teach me- to teach us, I want to have equal right among the other creatures of this forest... I don''t want to be at the bottom anymore, I want- I want to evolve," he blurted out, unable to contain the fire in his soul.
~Well done Alpha,~ thought Lucius. Where there is a will, there will always be a way. Though Lucius refrained from answering immediately and instead turned to look at the other leaflings, waiting for their reply as well.
"We want to be strong as well, teach us," repeated one of the leaflings under Alpha''smand, to which the others nodded their leaves in agreement.
"I want to learn how to hide, I want to learn how to be unseen, I want to be as good as you... no better," said Ghost standing up beside Alpha.
"And I want to learn of this... photoclemisis you use, I want to evolve as well, so that I may stand on par with the Fae." An abysmal silence followed the leader leafling''s words. Ghost and Alpha stared at him as if he were insane, while the other leaflings looked at him in confusion.
~The fae?~ wondered Lucius, though the thought quickly came to pass as there was much they had to discuss.
"There is much I have to learn myself, we can go into the great unknown together. But now that I know I am not alone in my dissatisfaction, let me voice my ambitions," he said, gesturing for Ghost, Alpha, and the leader leafling to sit down.
"First, I n to have everyone in our little group evolv-" excited whispers filled the air before Lucius could even finish his sentence.
"Though it isn''t even a certainty that its possible,-" as he said this the ecstatic chatter died down and was reced by disappointed faces. "- Though the fact that photosynthesis can be shared amongst us is a good indicator, meaning that there is a chance," he finished off.
"What about the others?" asked one of the leaflings under Alpha''smand.
"Hmm, you weren''t herest time, were you?" replied Lucius, realizing that the leafling was one of the newest additions to Alpha''s squad and had been absent the first time they had performed shared photosynthesis.
"The process is very taxing on the mind, and though adding everyone would result in better gains, I''m unsure if fatigue is the only side effect," Lucius exined.
"So you want to use us to check for side effects?" asked the leader leafling.
Lucius took a moment to inspect the leader leafling, he had never taken him for a forward-thinking individual, perhaps he had underestimated him.
"Rightly so," Lucius replied nodding his head.
"I will use this group as a test group, to check for long-term side effects and whether evolution is indeed possible for everyone else. But do you understand the implications of this?" he asked, looking directly at the leader leafling to see whether his first answer was merely a fluke.
"Ehem... ?????????????????????????" the leader leafling asked after a brief moment of thought. It would''ve been interesting if the leader leafling was indeed some sort of genius amongst his people, it would''ve helped a great deal, but reality was often disappointing.
~Of course it was a fluke, though still makes me wonder. Howe he, Alpha, and Ghost seem so much more intelligent and... mature than the others? There doesn''t seem to be any difference in body structure,~ he thought to himself,paring the three of them to the others.
~I''ll have to ask themter,~ he decided after confirming that they were indeed all of the same size.
"What I mean is, in the case that there are long-term side effects, then that could meanplications in your lives, with the worst case being irreversible damage... or even death."
The leaflings felt a cold chill tremor through their bodies, the oath they had made earlier reying in their mind like a dreadful echo, reminding them that they had indeed pledged their lives.
"We understand," replied Alpha.
"Good."
"However that''s not the only thing," Lucius continued.
"A few days after I was incapacitated, Alpha spotted a number of spies lurking around our camp. We assume that they are a neighboringmunity, whether they are hostile or friendly is still to be decided," as he said this the leaflings began whispering amongst themselves.
"However, we are to treat them as hostiles until they prove otherwise. ording to the information we have- which to be honest iscking right now- they have ess to minor poison magic."
"Magic?" Though the word was repeated by several leaflings, each repetition had a different tone and hence meaning to it. Some said it as if asking a question, like they had never heard such a word before. However, others asked it in disbelief, like they had some past history with it. Apart from, the leader leafling, Ghost, Alpha, and two others, the rest were part of the former.
"How will we fight against that?" the leader leafling asked, a seriousness cloaking his eyes like never before seen.
Chapter 16 Developments (2)
"There are ways," replied Lucius before taking a moment to think.
"Firstly, we need more information. Ghost-" he said looking towards Ghost, "Get ready for hell. We''ll start serious training from now on. You''ll be our eyes and ears in their camp, you''ll gather information and report back every day. We''ll discuss the finer details of the trainingter," he finished before turning towards Alpha.
"As you guys are right now, you aren''t much of a fighting force. You''ll all need to evolve before we can even think about trying to engage in anythingbat rted, however that doesn''t mean I can''t beat some fighting instincts into you while we wait," he said, still eyeing the small group.
"Alpha¡ We''ll start discussing tactics, though I don''t think it will be necessary for this little campaign, I still think you have a ways to go before any of these leaflings can look to you as a reliable leader," he said bluntly before turning to the leader leafling.
"And what of me?" asked the leader leafling.
"I''ve yet to see an area where you excel in, I''m not one to force gifts," Lucius replied. Right now he was in full-on leader mode, he wasn''t going to pull his punches even if it meant hurting their feelings.
"For now you will just take part in the photosynthesis sessions," he said after a moment of thought.
~I''m sure there''s something special about you, just like Ghost and Alpha,~ he thought to himself. Though it wasn''t clear exactly where the leader leafling''s giftsy, it was obvious that much like Ghost and Alpha, he had a higher intelligence than the rest of the group.
"Very well," the leader leafling replied.
After discussing what each of them would do individually, Lucius began discussing the timetable for their different sessions.
He would have Alpha train with the leaflings in the night, while he instructed Ghost. They would have their shared photosynthesis sessions in the middle of the day, when the sun was directly overhead. It was the time they were least likely to be attacked and could afford to have nobody patrolling the borders.
In the mornings Lucius would begin work on a few structures he wanted to build. Right now the leaflings had no arms, so they couldn''t help him much. And it wasn''t as if he could discuss the buildings with them as they weren''t nearly intelligent enough to be engineers of any sort, so he had to deal with that himself.
~Sigh, I have a lot of work to do,~ he thought to himself after dismissing the group.
It was currently nearing midday, meaning they would soon have their first shared photosynthesis session as amittee, though right now Lucius still had work to do.
~First order of business, building supplies,~ he thought to himself looking towards the interior of the forest away from the river.
As he went further away from the camp in search of twigs, or any branches small enough for him to carry, he started moving more carefully. There was no telling what dangers he might encounter, so he decided safety was the best course of action.
"Ah, perfect," he whispered to himself as he spotted a group of twigs right under a shrub. He picked one of them up, straining to do so as it weighed what felt like the equivalent of a 60 kg barbel to him.
[+ 1 Strength]
,m ~Huh? An increase in stats?~ he wondered as he wiped perspiration off his face.
~Makes sense I guess,~ he decided. After all, carrying this was a sort of exercise to him, perhaps he could put the leaflings on leg exercises while they waited to evolve. Even if they didn''t have a system like he did, they could increase their strength if they did this for long enough, and surely that would carry on when they evolved.
After a few moments of thought, he decided that he would build some sort of mini sled so that they could help him gather resources, however for now he had to make due.
***
After an hour of strenuous and perspiration-inducing work, he had carried nine twigs towards the camp. He piled them up neatly on one side and took a moment to inspect the stats he had gained from the exercise.
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[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 3: 0/300]
[Leaf Being lvl.1- [10/100]]
[Sunlight''s blessing] +5 to all stats
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[Agility: 1(6)]
[Strength: 10(15)]
[Stamina: 6(11)]
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~9 additional points to my strength, and 5 to stamina. I guess thest few rounds did feel a little easier,~ he thought to himself as he tried to catch his breath.
"Lighted One, is the reason you''ve brought these here?" asked one of the leaflings who were inspecting the pile of twigs. They seemed quite interested in whatever it was that he was doing.
"I n on building a few things," he replied, swallowing hard as his saliva- or whatever it was that leaf beings had in their mouths- felt dry and sticky.
"????????????????? Can we help?" the leafling asked. Though the other leaflings acted as if they weren''t listening, Lucius could see their pupils facing them, the sneaky runts.
"Not sure you guys will be able to handle this kind of stuff," Lucius teased.
"We can!" blurted one of the leaflings, blowing his cover.
"Oops," he whispered shyly before hiding behind one of his friends.
"How about this. I''ll build a sled for you guys to help me gather materials, then once we''ve gathered enough, you guys can help me build," said Lucius.
"Seriously?" asked one of the leaflings, however his friends were already jumping up and down in excitement behind him. Spreading the news of how they would be the ?????????? and ???????????????? leaflings who got to help the Lighted One build things. Not that they had any idea what building actually entailed though.
"Ahh, they should be here soon," whispered Lucius as he looked up to the sky. The sun was directly above him, it was time. He nned on doing photosynthesis until they dropped to the ground, giving them just enough time to gain consciousness before continuing. He had no time to lose. If they were anything like him, it would take a while before they evolved since they seemed to get exhausted faster than he did.
Chapter 17 Cultivation (1)
After just a few minutes of waiting, themittee members had all gathered around Lucius. He led them towards the area where they had held their first meeting and once again ordered the other leaflings not to interrupt.
"Are you ready?" Lucius asked, looking at themittee members who were currently surrounding him. They nodded in response before touching him with the tip of their leaves.
~Okay, sun rays being absorbed into my body... shared photosynthesis,~ Lucius chanted within his mind, trying to get the process started.
~Huh?~ A few minutes passed with nothing happening, there was no feeling of warmth engulfing his body, there was no notification from the system... photosynthesis did not take ce.
"Is something the matter?" asked the leader leafling, realizing that something was off after they had been standing there in silence for the past five minutes.
"Just give me a moment," whispered Lucius in reply, his eyes still closed. At this point, his face was scrunched up from the sheer concentration he was putting into photosynthesis, though no matter how hard he tried, the sun rays simply would not be absorbed by his body. It was as if he no longer had chlorosts, and instead had some sort of wall that was blocking out the rays.
~This can''t be right,~ he thought dejectedly, exhaling loudly in exhaustion.
Themittee members stopped touching and stood patiently, waiting for some sort of exnation.
"Lighted One, has something gone wrong?" asked the leader leafling once more. Though Lucius ignored him and kept his eyes closed, trying to focus more on the rays this time than actually absorbing them.
From what he could tell, or feel for that matter, the rays were trying to permeate his skin, however, they were being denied ess. What he found even stranger was the fact that they seemed to be trying to converge at a point within his body, though it was very hard to tell since he couldn''t actually visualize it and had to go off feeling alone.
"Lighted One?"
Lucius grew irritated with the leader leafling''s pestering and opened his eyes.
"Photosynthesis isn''t working," he said, trying to prevent his annoyance from spilling over into his tone.
"The rays aren''t being absorbed?" asked the leader leafling in response.
"No, they aren''t," Lucius replied, basically gritting his teeth at this point. Had the gift he was given been taken back? Or had something happened after he unlocked that new skill?
He quickly opened his skill tree and tried to get information on the skill, however, it was nowhere to be found. Where its skill symbol should''ve been was an empty void.
~What''s going on here?~
"Have you trie-" the leader leafling was about to say.
"Can you keep quiet for just one moment," Lucius interrupted, wiping the beads of sweat that had begun to collect on his forehead.
"You guys can go back to training, I''ll call you back once I''ve sorted this out," he said passively, before closing his eyes to focus one more time.
Themittee members looked at each other before leaving, realizing that they would just be in the way if they stayed there.
"Come on, let''s go," said Ghost to the leader leafling as she was leaving, though he ignored her words and sat down beside Lucius. Several minutes passed by, and all the while Lucius''s eyes were closed and his face scrunched in concentration. The leader leafling waited patiently for Lucius to finish before saying another word.
"You''re still here?" Lucius asked, his mind fatigued from trying to force the process.
"I want to help," replied the leader leafling, the expression on his face that of determination.
~Sigh,~ thought Lucius, exasperated.
"Okay, help then," he whispered, staring at the leader leafling. It reminded him much of his younger days, back when he still lived with his little brother. The little runt was always trying to help, though he usually only managed to make things worse. The memory calmed Lucius down somewhat.
~I wonder what Riley''s doing right now,~ he thought to himself.
"Can you tell me what you see when you close your eyes? Or what the problem is exactly," asked the leader leafling in an investigative tone.
Lucius shook his head, somewhat amused by how hard the leader leafling was actually trying.
"I don''t see anything when I close my eyes. It''s more of a feeling. And right now it feels as if the pathways that the sun rays usually took to enter my body were blocked," Lucius replied, taking this time to think things over carefully.
"Hmm, anything else?" asked the leader leafling, deep in thought.
"It''s odd, but it''s as if the rays are trying to converge at a spot near the center of my body... though it''s never done that before," he whispered, more to himself than to the leader leafling.
~I wonder why it''s doing that,~ he thought to himself, trying to figure it all out.
"Hmm, is there something there?" asked the leader leafling.
"I''m not sure, it''s like I can almost feel something, a slight warmth, though it feels just out of reach," replied Lucius. Right now it was as if he were having a conversation with his consciousness, both of them trying to solve this mystery.
"Try focusing on that," said the leader leafling, though Lucius was already ahead of him. His eyes were closed, and he focused on the center of his body where the light rays were trying to converge.
Several minutes of intense concentration passed by, though nothing was found. Just as he was about to give up, he felt a slight pulse from his core.
"There," he whispered to himself, trying to lock on the feeling. A few more minutes passed by, and he began feeling the pulses with higher frequency. Though the mental toll it took was too much for him to keep focus on it for more than a few moments.
"Did you find something?" asked the leader leafling in a soft tone.
"There''s something there, though I''m not sure what," Lucius replied, opening his eyes and exhaling loudly. At this point trails of perspiration were running down his face and his entire body, it felt as if he had just run a marathon, and decided to sleep in a sauna.
"Then does that mean you''ve found a way?"
"Sadly, no," Lucius replied. He couldn''t think of any possible reason why there would be something at his core, or why the light rays were trying to reach it.
"If the rays are trying to go to that... thing, and they can''t pass through your body, then why... why don''t you just move that thing outside your body?" asked the leader leafling, the pause in his sentence indicating that his brain was running on overdrive.
"That won''t work, we don''t even know if... wait." Though he nearly dismissed the leader leafling''s advice, thinking that it wouldn''t make sense, he realized that it was actually worth a shot. Perhaps it could work.
Chapter 18 Cultivation (2)
Lucius closed his eyes once again, targeting his focus towards his core. It took him a few moments to pin down the pulse''s signal as it was still quite faint but after a bit of effort, he could feel it once again. Now came the difficult part, though he could feel the orb it was as if it were an atrophied limb, moving it felt like an impossible task.
He kept at it till his mind felt like it would copse, before exhaling loudly and opening his eyes. The leader leafling was staring at him intently, waiting for him to say something.
"So? Did it work?" the leader leafling asked excitedly.
Lucius shook his head in response, his face fraught with exhaustion. By now his entire body was slippery from all the perspiration he had secreted, and though he had no throat he felt terribly thirsty.
"I see," the leader leafling responded, staring at the ground in thought.
"It feels like a paralyzed limb, like it''s there but not really. I can feel it, but at the same time I cant," Lucius sighed, lying on his back in exhaustion. Right now everything was fuzzy, it felt like if he attempted one more time, he would pass out from the mental strain alone.
"What''s a paralyzed limb?" the leader leafling asked as a offhandment before lying down next to Lucius.
"A part of your body that you can''t move anymore. Like if one of your legs stopped working."
"Then how would you walk?" the leader leafling asked, staring at his legs as he yed with them in the air.
"You''d use something like a crutch, a small stick to help you walk around," Lucius replied, remembering how some of his own men back in his old world were confined to wheelchairs after losing their legs on the battlefield.
"A small stick? I don''t see how a stick would help you move around," the leader leafling whispered to himself.
"I guess in your case you''d need someone to help y-" Lucius turned to look at the leader leafling, an idea buzzing through his mind.
"What if you could help me? What if I just need a little push?" he asked, more to himself than the leader leafling.
"But would you even be able to see it? I don''t know how this works," Lucius mumbled on, getting into a meditative position as he did.
"I want you to try giving it a shove, once you see a pulsing orb I want you to push it forward with your mind," Lucius said, his words devoid of any of the confidence he usually spoke with.
"It''s worth a shot anyway," he whispered to himself before closing his eyes.
After a bit of mental effort, he pinpointed the orb and tried to ''connect'' with it once again, but just likest time, it felt impossible. After a few moments he was just about ready to give up, and that''s when it happened, it felt as if something was grasping onto his core, before -ever so slightly- it began to move upward.
It took all of Lucius''s remaining strength to just keep track of it as it moved, and after what felt like an eternity, he felt the orb move out of his body.
Just then his mind went nk, it was as if the cage that kept his mind from the physical ne had been lifted. He had been thrown into a void of intense light, it was hard to tell where the void ended and his consciousness started, however, he wasn''t sure whether that was a bad thing at all. His mind was full and empty all at once. His whole body felt warm, and the mental strain he had been suffering from just a few moments ago had disappeared entirely.
[Shared photosynthesis]
[Absorbing 200 Helios per second]
Lucius could feel the light all around him swirl towards the orb directly above his head. It was like a ck hole the size of a pinhead, distorting the light and inhaling it like a hungry beast. After just a few moments of photosynthesis, he could feel his body overheating, if he continued any further it felt like he would be charred alive.
"I-It worked," he sighed, opening his eyes.
The leader leafling was still touching him with the tip of his leaf, his whole body glowing intensely.
Lucius now understood why the leaflings called him the Lighted One, the glow that currently surrounded the leader leafling seemed almost divine, and if he looked anything close to that when he did it, then he wouldn''t be surprised if they made him out to be some sort of god.
"Pagan." That''s what he would call the leader leafling, though it seemed over the top, Lucius was never the religious type so he didn''t mind it much. If anything, had he seen something like this in his past life, perhaps he would''ve converted.
After a few moments passed, the leader leafling stopped glowing, and his body cked to the ground in exhaustion.
"You know what, Pagan, I think I like your idea," Lucius whispered to himself, before lying down as well, his mental exhaustioning back to him all at once.
***
"Not again, I knew we shouldn''t have left him."
"It''s not like we could''ve guessed he would do this again. We just have to patien- wait, I think he''s awake."
Lucius slowly opened his eyes, it was quite the familiar sight. Ghost was looking down at him with worry-filled eyes, while Alpha and the other leaflings under him stood a bit further behind her.
"You''re awake!" Ghost shouted, running towards him.
"Ye-yeah," he said apologetically, picking himself off the ground.
"I''m kind of thirsty," he continued as Ghost leaned her leaf against him. His body felt hot and dry, as if he were a withered twig.
"Lucy, now that you''re awake. Can you tell us what that thing is?" Ghost asked, looking a bit above his head.
"What thing?" Lucius looked up to where she was staring and found a glowing orb the size of a pinhead floating right above him. It gave out a wave of heat periodically and seemed to distort everything close to it to a small degree.
"Huh?"
Chapter 19 Upgrading Encampment
"Huh? It''s visible?" Lucius whispered to himself as he observed the tiny orb. Though visible, it seemed to be ethereal, as his hands went right through it the moment he tried to touch it.
[Sr energy depleted.]
[Recalling Crux.]
With that, the orb descended into his body, all evidence of it ever existing disappearing along with it. The group stared at him in confusion, to which he himself had a puzzled expression on his face.
~Why was it visible and what''s a Crux?~ he wondered to himself, but before he could investigate further, he heard a loud yawn behind him.
"What a wonderful dream I had," the leader leafling whispered as he got to his feet.
"Dream? You can drea- nevermind. How are you feeling?" Lucius asked, turning around to note if there were any changes to the leader leafling''s body.
"I feel fine, as a matter of fact, I feel stronger, bigger somehow," the leader leafling replied, looking down at himself.
~Actually, I think something has changed,~ Lucius thought to himself, before pushing the leader leafling to stand beside Ghost.
~He''s bigger than her by at least half a centimeter,~ he concluded,paring the tip of both their leaves.
"How did you get that big?" Alpha asked, noticing the difference in height as well.
~But this doesn''t make sense. The first time I did this with Ghost and the others, there was no visible change. How was this time around any different?~ Lucius wondered to himself as the leaflings chattered around him.
"Bigger?" the leader leafling asked, still confused by what was going on. Realizing that he was somewhat taller than everyone else, a sardonic grin appeared on his face.
"Oh my, I hadn''t noticed. Perhaps I''m going to ???????????? soon, who knows?" the leader leafling said in a high mighty tone. There was visible annoyance on Alpha''s face, however, the others seemed more intrigued than angry.
~Ah, that''s it. The rate of absorption, it was exponentially higher this time -200 helios per second I believe- that must be why,~ Lucius realized, zoning out the quarrel between Alpha and the leader leafling.
~It must''ve been the upgrade I got thest time I passed out, I guess that missed week was well worth it,~ he thought, turning to stare at the leader leafling as he walked around,paring his height to every leafling in the vicinity.
"Thank you... Pagan," Lucius said, deciding that he would conduct a few experiments on the orbter.
"Pagan?" everyone asked in unison, stopping what they were doing to look at Lucius.
"That''s his new name, Pagan."
"Pagan sounds a bit... different from ?????????? and ??????????," the leader leafling realized.
"It''s from a fairytale I used to know, it''s a strong name," Lucius replied, before walking towards the camp. It waste afternoon, and there were a few things he wanted to take care of before the sunset.
"Pagan, I like that name," Pagan said, before continuing his mockery of the others.
***
Lucius took a few twigs from the pile he had prepared earlier and tore a few strings of fresh nt flesh from the surrounding shrubs to use as rope. After toiling for several minutes, hepleted the first object he had nned on building.
A mini sled.
It was made from 4 twigs tied together side by side, though it was still a little short, any more would be too heavy for the leaflings to pull. Lucius continued on, and after an hour he had produced seven more sleds. He estimated that each could carry around 10 twigs before they became too heavy for a group of 3 leaflings to pull.
"This should be enough," he sighed, cing thest sled next to the pile. By this point, a few leaflings had gathered around, attracted by the strange structures that he had built.
"What are they?" a leafling asked.
"Sleds, we''re going to use them to collect materials," he replied.
"Can we try?" another leafling asked a bit shyly.
"Of course." Lucius tied a rope around it and two other leaflings before letting them have a run.
"This way."
"No, this way."
"Why should ?????? decide we go?"
The three leaflings couldn''t decide on which direction they would go, and in the end, they struggled to move at all.
~Sigh, it seems I''ll have to hold a training session for this as well,~ he thought to himself, watching as the leafings struggled to pull the sled in the direction they wanted to go. After a bit of quarreling the leaflings eventually agreed on going in a single direction, and began running around the camp. They pulled other leaflings on the sled and from the giggles and shouts that emanated from their direction they seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit.
"It''s kind of cold," Lucius whispered, shivering as a breeze blew past him. Ever since he had gotten this body, he could feel the change in temperature between day and night more vividly. In some ways, having a body with more volume proved to have downsides.
"Captain, are you busy?" It was Alpha, he and his men seemed to be exhausted, though they had eager grins on their faces.
"Huh, what is it?" Lucius replied, though he was quite familiar with that expression. They had something they wanted to show him, something they seemed quite proud of.
"There''s a procedure we''ve been practicing for the past week, we wanted to show you our progress," said one of Alpha''s men excitedly. This prompted an annoyed nce from Alpha, it seemed he wanted to be the one to give the news, though the leafling who had spoken seemed to be both too excited and too tired to pay any mind.
"A new procedure? Hmm, and you made it?" Lucius replied, rather surprised by Alpha''s initiative.
Lucius and the group proceeded to a more open area to give them space to carry out the procedure.
"So, let''s see it."
Alpha looked at his men before shaking his leaf up and down, "Attack procedure, go!"
Chapter 20 New Procedures
"Wait," Lucius shouted, stopping the squad before they could disperse into the surrounding forest.
"If this is an attack procedure, what are your win conditions? I''m guessing you n on attacking me, but it''s nearly impossible for you guys to hurt me to any significant degree, so what will we count as a ''kill''?" he asked, referring to the tant size and volume difference between them.
"Hmm, I hadn''t thought about that," Alpha replied after taking a moment to think about it.
"How about this..." Lucius responded, putting his hand to his chest, "If you any of you manage to touch my chest, you win." The leaflings looked at each other, a look of disbelief on their faces.
"I''ll take it easy on you guys. Just try your best."
"Surely you-" one of the leaflings in the squad tried saying, but Alpha stopped him mid-sentence.
"Thank you, Captain," Alpha replied, before gesturing for his squad to continue their attack procedure. Within seven seconds the team was nowhere to be seen, they''re presencepletely cloaked by the darkness of the night forest.
~I wonder if the moonlight will be enough for me to see them,~ Lucius pondered, as he slowly stalked his way into the forest.
~Though this is good exercise. If I neglect training I might lose my edge.~
The forest was deathly quiet, it seemed that the leaflings had learned a little something about stealth during the hiding exercise he had carried out a few weeks prior. Though this was an attack excerize where he had to be ying on the defensive, he figured that they were still leagues below him when it came to tactics and actual stealth, it would take them months, if not forever for them to actually catch him if he took this seriously.
~They were actually doing so well, but I guess it takes more than a week to be good at this,~ Lucius thought to himself as he spotted a leafling foot poking behind a shrub.
~If there''s one over there, then the others should be close by~ he thought, looking around for other leaflings, however, the moonlight that trickled past the overhead forest canopy was barely enough to let him see more than a few meters away, so he had to squint his eyes quite a bit to make out anything.
~He''s alone?~ he wondered, looking back towards the leafling shrub only to find that the leafling had disappeared. He walked towards the shrub to search for footprints, but before he could, he saw that the leafling had moved to another shrub further ahead.
~Are they unaware that they''re feet aren''t hidden?~ he wondered to himself, moving towards the shrub, but as he got closer the leafling bolted, disappearing into the night.
~He saw me?~ Though he wasn''t taking this seriously, his stealth should''ve been sufficient enough to fool the leaflings, unless...
~Are they watching me?~ he thought, turning around to see if they were any eyes on him.
Silence.
If they were watching him, then they were doing an excellent job at it, none of them seemed to be moving a fiber.
As Lucius searched through the dark, he just barely noticed another leafling foot a few meters away, this time he approached it nimbly, without making so much as a decibel as he zipped through the forest. Still that was not enough, the leafling bolted the second he approached, disappearing into the night once again.
~They''re definitely watching me,~ he realized, deciding that chasing them was foolish.
*Crack*
Lucius shifted his focus to where the sound hade from. It came from his left, just a few meters ahead.
~Aha,~ he thought, backing away from the source of the sound. However, another sound emanated from right behind him, whatever it was approaching fast.
~Trying a pincer maneuver? Nice try Alpha, but we''re out in the open, I can escape in any direct-~ his thoughts were brought to a halt as several other sounds emanated from all around him, the leaflings had surrounded him, he had fallen for their trap.
~So you''ve trapped me?~ Lucius thought, a smile on his face as the sounds kept getting closer and closer.
~Sadly, just trapping me isn''t the win condition, Alpha,~ he continued, running towards a nearby tree. Though their n was sound, the execution seemed to be wed. The leaflings weren''t approaching him at the same speed based on the sound of their movements. A few of the leaflingsgged behind, meaning that he could force an encounter before they got the chance to gang up on him.
Lucius put his back to the tree so that they wouldn''t be able to sneak up on him from behind, and looked forward to face the leafling that wasing from his front. However just as the leafling seemed to have caught up to him, the sound of movement vanished.
~Huh? What''s goin-~
"Gotcha!" shouted Ghost, pouncing on him from above.
"Ghost?" he asked, catching her midair and mming her to the ground, pinning her with one arm. A split momentter all five leaflings rushed at him from the sides, "Surround him, he can''t take all of us if we jump him at the same time," Alpha shouted.
~Sigh, how wrong you are.~ Lucius kept his right palm on Ghost''s back and spun like a tornado, sweeping all five leaflings to the ground before they could even so much as touch him.
"Did we lose?" asked one of the leaflings, picking himself off the ground.
"You surpassed my expectations, but yes, you did lose," Lucius responded, getting off of Ghost.
"I didn''t know that Ghost was ying too?" he added as the leaflings grouped up in front of him.
"Sorry, we had to cheat in order to catch you off guard, it was the only way," Alpha responded.
"It would''ve worked too if you hadn''t attacked me. What gives, I thought we were the only ones allowed to attack," Ghostined, a few scratches on her leaf from Lucius''s earlier counterattack.
"You never said I couldn''t, and besides, I doubt you''ll ever meet an enemy willing to fold their hands while you attack them."
"But still, good job. Now let''s review your shorings, and discuss a suitable punishment for your failure, even despite the use of trickery," Lucius hollered, his demeanor akin to that of a training sergeant about to prey on fresh cadets.
Chapter 21 New Training Regiment (1)
"But first, I have a few questions," said Lucius, an inquisitive look on his face.
"How did you guysmunicate my location? I didn''t hear a whisper, nor did I hear the sound of movement," he asked, remembering how the leaflings seemed to have been telling each other of his movements.
"Huh? We did no such thing," replied one of the leaflings.
"Then how?"
"We just practiced it that way. We didn''t have to know exactly where you were, the n was just to lure you in," Alpha exined.
"Wait, so you guys just got lucky? What if I had caught one of you? What then?" Lucius asked, shocked by the realization.
The leaflings remained quiet, it seemed they had not nned for such a situation, indeed they still had a lot to learn.
~Sigh, it seems I may have rated them too highly,~ he thought to himself, looking at the leaflings as they avoided his gaze awkwardly.
"Last question, how did you get above me," he asked, looking towards Ghost.
"They helped me get up," she replied as if it weremon sense.
"But you guys don''t hav- show me," he decided, unable to imagine how they had gotten her up so high without hands to grab onto anything.
The leaflings started grouping together before one of them knelt down and another climbed atop. The leafling at the top knelt down as well, and the next climbed on top of the first two. They repeated this process until they had formed a talldder, using the side of the tree as support to make sure they didn''t tilt over and fall. Though simple, Lucius could tell they had to have practiced this a few times for it to have gone this smoothly. In the end, Ghost could just barely reach a chunk of protruding bark from the side of the tree.
"Interesting," he said as Ghost settled herself on the tree bark. "Okay, now get down. We''ll start discussing the reasons you guys failed to win this exercise," he instructed before sitting down on the moist cool dirt.
The leafings got down from thedder and sat around Lucius, as he drew a circle on the ground.
"I''m guessing you came up with this strategy, huh Alpha," said Lucius, looking towards Alpha as he ran his fingers into the dirt.
"It wasn''t me. The one responsible for this idea was him," Alpha replied, gesturing towards another leafling sitting opposite Alpha.
~Did I miss someone? I was certain that only Alpha, Ghost and Pagan showed any potential,~ he thought to himself, getting a good look at the leafling in question. ~Perhaps I was too hasty with my assessment,~ he decided before proceeding.
"Ah. Anyway, you came up with the strategy right, so tell me, why a circle? Why not have everyone rush me from the same direction," Lucius asked, drawing a straight line in the dirt.
"I-I don''t know, would the straight line have been better?" the leafling asked in a confused tone.
"Hmm, okay perhaps I should''ve asked this first. How did youe up with this?" he asked, dusting the dirt off his fingers.
"I-I really didn''t know what I was doing. It was a dumb idea, I just kept pestering Alpha and he eventually agree-"
"I''m not angry, this is actually amon tactic employed when hunting. I''m just asking for your frame of reasoning when you came up with this," he said, before thinking inwardly, ~I want to confirm something,~
"Oh," the leafling replied, a little less nervous than he had been before. "I came up with it after seeing how you positioned us during the emergency procedure. You had each of us facing a different direction so that we could see everything around us as if at once. I just figured that if there were less people it wouldn''t have been possible, and we could sneak up on you if you weren''t able to face all of us at once. But it seems I failed somewhere," the leafling exined.
~A tactician,~ Lucius thought with a smile. A natural at that. Lucius had exined the reason for his positioning offhandedly, he hadn''t expected that one of the leaflings would actually ponder over it and use it.
"From now on after your training exercises I want you to report me," Lucius said after a moment of silence had passed.
"Ah, and from now on, I''ll call you... Hannibal, that''s if you want the name though," he said, before continuing on with the discussion. The leaflings became restless, though they felt happy that one of their own had finally been named, the others were even more determined to prove themselves. Lucius picked up on this but decided to ignore it, right now it seemed to be the only form ofpensation for outstanding leaflings.
"Okay -Hannibal- can you try to exin where you went wrong? Howe your n didn''t work?"
"You mean apart from you cheating and using that twisting move against us?" Ghost retorted, apparently still a bit angry from being mmed to the ground.
"Our difference in size and strength?" Hannibal replied, almost as if it were a question.
"Be more confident in your answers, if you''re going to be wrong, be wrong wholeheartedly," Lucius responded before answering. "But yes, that''s one reason."
"Though you guys had the numbers advantage, I was still able to defeat you all because of the tant difference in our strength," Lucius exined, drawing a big dot at the center of the circle in the dirt.
"You did well in using your numbers to confuse me," he continued, drawing smaller dots around the circle. "However, it was ruined because of timing," he continued, drawing a few of the dots closer to the one at the center.
"If you had Ghost jump on me at the same time all of you attacked, perhaps you would''ve had a better chance," he finished off.
"That was actually the n, but someone got a bit too excited," said Hannibal, an awkward smile on his face as he side-eyed Ghost.
"He had his back to me, I figured I could get him before you guys rushed in. Not my fault he mmed me to the ground," she replied stubbornly, avoiding the gaze of the other leaflings around her.
~Sigh, a loose cannon, huh? Well, its better you learn sooner thanter that personalities have to be ounted for in nning,~ Lucius thought to himself as he looked at Ghost.
Chapter 22 New Training Regiment (2)
? "And another thing, when attacking try your best to keep as quiet as possible until the job is done. Shouting ''I gotcha'' when you have in fact gotten nothing is sort of embarrassing," Lucius said, to which Ghost replied with a stubborn huff.
"Anyway, your loss couldn''t have been avoided. You guys had no means ofmunication, so even in a perfect world, there would have been ag even if you had done as practiced," he continued, before erasing the drawing on the ground.
"I would''ve taught you guys hand signs, but, yea..." he said, referring to theirck of arms, "-and foot signs won''t be as expressive. So we''ll leave that for after you evolve." The leaflings nodded at this and began standing up, assuming that the talk was over.
"Where do you guys think ??????''???? going? We still haven''t decided on your punishment."
***
The next morning, before sunrise, a group of leaflings was using sleds to pull stacks of twigs up the mound.
"Oi, pick up the pace or I''ll add extra rounds," Lucius shouted, referring to three leaflings who were struggling to pull their sled up the slope.
The leaflings were drenched in perspiration and from the way they were breathing it was as if they would copse at any moment.
"Lucy, don''t you think this is a bit much? I mean, I wasn''t even supposed to be in their group," Ghostined, as she tugged at the ropes of her sled with all her strength.
"And yet you were. Get moving, if you put your mind to it, you''ll be able to finish before we start with your morning training routine." The leaflings groaned incency upon hearing that their suffering wouldn''t end even after they were finished.
"Look, Alpha and his group are already done, you should strive to be as focused as them," Lucius responded, gesturing towards three leaflings that were lying down at the base of the mound, dirt sticking to their drenched bodies.
"But they''ve passed out!" Ghostined.
"A small price to pay."
Ghost and her group ended up finishing their rounds an hour after Alpha and his group due to the number of breaks they took. A total of 50 twigs were brought to the top of the mound, more than enough for Lucius''s ns.
"You guys can rest up, make sure you''re back to full strength before our photosynthesis sessi-" He was about to say, however, all the leaflings were already fast asleep, tired to the bone from exhaustion.
~Guess I should get to work as well,~ he thought to himself before heading out into the forest.
The first structure Lucius wanted to build was a sort of watchtower, for that he would need fourrge pieces of wood to act as pirs, and des of grass to fashion rope. Finding branchesrge enough to act as pirs but still small enough for him to drag around proved to be a problem. But after searching for several minutes he found a few just light enough for him to manage.
"Ahhh, there we go," he huffed, having dragged thest branch towards the left-most edge of the camp''s perimeter. His body ached from overwork, and every breath felt like it would be hisst.
~On the plus side, I must''ve gained around 20 extra points into strength and stamina,~ he thought, taking a look at his stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 3: 0/300]
[Leaf Being lvl.1- [10/100]]
[Sunlight''s blessing] +5 to all stats
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 1(6)]
[Strength: 30(35)]
[Stamina: 26(31)]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
"Anyway, let me have a look at my daily quests while I rest," he whispered haggardly before opening his quests tab.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Daily Quests ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
20 exp
100 exp
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Milestone ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~A million Evo points!? What, that''s like 100 million helios, and if I absorb them at a rate of 200 per second that''s... that''s close to 140 hours of photosynthesis, are these guys crazy?~ he thought to himself doing the quick maths.
~But still, 600 experience and a new item? If it''s anything like the sr core, I might be able to get the leaflings to evolve even faster, in fact, I myself might evolve again. If it lets us have a better chance of dealing with the potential threat at the border, I''ll dly carry out any quest, no matter how absurd," he resolved, picking himself up before starting with the work.
Before he could even begin to think of building the watchtowers, he had to dig holes big enough to bury the sticks in. If the holes were too shallow, the watchtowers would easily be brought to the ground, so he found a small twig close by, snapped it in half, and used the sharp edge to begin digging a hole.
After three hours he had dug four holes all deep enough for him to bepletely submerged in. The work could''ve been done in a shorter time frame if he didn''t have to take so many breaks, however, it seemed that his body was terribly weak as after just a few minutes of digging nonstop, it would spasm from pain.
~Another 23 points into strength and 18 into stamina. That was well worth it, I guess,~ he whispered in betweenbored breaths. After taking a short 30-minute nap, he began the actual work.
He dragged one of the branches towards a hole and used all his strength to lift it off the ground ever so slightly, just enough to direct it into the hole before pushing it until stood up straight. The branch was perhaps four times taller than he was, and with one quarter of it being in the ground, it was equivalent to a three-story building to a leafling.
"Perfect," he heaved, before filling the whole with dirt and testing the stability of the pir. After confirming that it was indeed firmly nted into the ground, he repeated this process with the other three branches. The work took an hour toplete before the four pirs stood in a square-like formation.
~5 points to strength and 3 to stamina. Perhaps I''m getting more used to the work, maybe that''s why I''m not getting as many points,~ he thought to himself as he rested on the dirt.
Chapter 23 Neighborly Hostility
*Swish*
The sound emanated from close by, followed by the faint rhythmic tip-tapping of tiny feet, ~I thought Alpha instructed the leaflings not to go past these shrubs,~ Lucius thought to himself, before fleeing behind the nearest shrub he could find, erasing his presence entirely.
"I don''t understand why we have to watch them. They''re easy prey, I say we just rush in right now and eat them all."
"I don''t think ???? would be too happy with that. You remember what happened to the others after they disobeyed ?????? right?"
"I don''t like ??????, he just sprouted a month ago and already he acts like an elder."
Lucius could discern that there were two distinct voices. However, though he could understand what they were saying, it was sort of hard for him to fully process it as they seemed to be speaking a different dialect from the one used by the leaflings.
"Say what you will. But the feasting has been good since ???? began leading, and though ?????? ways seem foreign and new, they have worked. ???? has brought us prosperity beyond that of any other elder," the other voice replied.
Lucius peaked past the spaces in between the shrubs to get a look at the outsiders. From what he could make out, they seemed to be hostile. Right now he was wondering whether to take them out and interrogate them or avoid interaction altogether.
~???????????????????~ Lucius thought in surprise once he saw the two entitiese into vision. They were about the size of an apple, at least a centimeter or so shorter than him but with the same depth. They had brown torsos and a red cap for a head, reminding him of the poisonous red-cap mushrooms back on Earth.
But what separated them from thetter, were their hands and feet, and the rows of sharp projections crowded within their maws.
"Huh? What''s this? Was this here yesterday?" one of them asked as they stared at the pirs that Lucius had nted.
"I don''t think so, it looks like something was digging here not too long ago," the other replied as it felt the moist earth.
"Perhaps it was one of the six-legged-ones?" its partner responded, suddenly more aware of its surroundings.
"Impossible, we haven''t seen their markings on the ground. Besides, they dig into the ground for dwelling, never have I seen them build such structures before."
After inspecting the pirs, the two entities began searching the surrounding area. However, due to Lucius''s green skin, he blended almost perfectly into the surrounding forest, making him nearly impossible to find unless he moved.
"Should we destroy it?" one of the shroom-beings asked as they met back at the pirs.
"No, ???? said not to leave any evidence of our presence. We will leave it here and report back. Now grab a leaf and cover our markings, I''ll make sure there are no threats nearby," its partner replied, before going back towards the direction they hade.
The remaining shroom-being took a leaf and began sweeping all their tracks off the ground, leaving it in a near identical state to before they had arrived. After a few minutes, the two had disappeared back into the forest, all trace of them having been therepletely erased.
~This isn''t good,~ Lucius thought, finally allowing himself to breathe once he was sure that the threat had passed.
~Covering up their tracks, reporting to seniors, having the mind to keep watch for one another, they''re like a unit, more sentient than I would''ve ever thought,~ he thought to himself, before slowly heading back towards the main camp. He had no mind to continue building the watchtower right now.
~We''re alive only because someone in their group is being cautious, I''m not sure whether to be grateful or scared at the sentiment.~
***
"Ah, Captain you''r-"
"Alpha call everyone in the camp. We''re going to start a photosynthesis session..." Lucius interrupted, taking a moment to think "and itspulsory for everyone," he finished off.
"But I thought we had to test for side-effects first," Alpha replied, though he still called over a few of his men to spread the word.
"If there are any side effects, I''ll deal with them, but right now it''s an order. Anyone who doesn''t want to join is free to do so, however, they should be made aware that they will be forced to leave the camp," Lucius continued, his eyes faraway in thought.
~They''re too organised, I had assumed that all the other creatures here would''ve been as clueless as the leaflings, but it seems I was mistaken. If the leaflings don''t evolve soon, they''ll be easy pickings,~ he thought to himself.
"Isn''t that a bit harsh, Lucy?" Ghost said from behind him, having overheard what he told Alpha.
"I''m not forcing anyone to take part in the exercises, however at least this much is necessary. I ca- we can''t afford to have anyone skip out on this," he replied. ~Though I have a feeling not even this much will be enough.~
"Ahh, Lighted One, I heard everyone will be taking part in this session. I do look forward to this," Pagan said excitedly, taking a seat beside Lucius before the other leaflings had even begun to group up.
Lucius briefly exined what they were about to do, and though most of the leaflings present were still confused about the details, theyplied with Lucius''s orders.
After several minutes everyone had taken a seat, forming a circle around the camp. Each leafling had its tip touching an adjacent leafling, all of them forming a sort of chain starting out from Lucius.
"Okay, Pagan, push the orb up when you''re ready. Check if you can do the same, Alpha, though don''t be too distressed if you can''t, just focus on absorption," Lucius said, turning to look at Alpha and Pagan who were sitting to his left and right respectively. They nodded in response before closing their eyes.
"Okay, photosynthesis," Lucius whispered, closing his eyes as well, before focusing on the orb within his core. After a moment he felt its familiar pulse, and another momentter he could feel an outside presence extending its reach towards it, pushing it upwards. It seemed Alpha was incapable of reaching out to it, as Lucius could only discern a single presence.
The orb slowly lifted till it ascended out of his body and a warm nket covered his entire being.
[Shared photosynthesis]
[Absorbing 270 Helios per second]
Chapter 24 The Art Of Preparations (1)
Lucius could sense the orb floating above his head, small as it was, sucking in all the light around him. He couldn''t exin it if asked to, but he could almost feel the light around him bending and twisting as it was being absorbed, breaking everyw Lucius knew about light.
[Absorbing 269 Helio- recalibrating...]
[Aborbing 268 Helios pe- recalibrating...]
[Absrobing 267 Helios...] the notifications came one after the other, nearly disrupting Lucius''s concentration. If not for the fact that Pagan was still keeping a hold on the orb, the whole process would probably have been stopped already.
Though Lucius was curious as to why the amount of helios he was absorbing was slowly decreasing, he didn''t have the mental capacity to keep photosynthesis going while thinking about all that, so he decided to leave it for after he was satisfied.
[Absorbing 200 Helios per second.] After only 2 minutes, Lucius felt Alpha''s leaf fall away from him, leaving only Pagan to his right.
Photosynthesis continued for another 20 minutes, and even then Pagan had not separated his link from Lucius, in fact, it felt as if Pagan''s hold on the orb had grown even stronger than before.
Another 20 minutes and the mental strain from keeping the process going was unbearable, he felt as if he were drowning, and he needed to stop to take a breath.
"So I can only hold out for around 45 minutes, huh," Lucius whispered, falling to his back in exhaustion. He had absorbed around 600 000 helios, half of which he used to purchase Evo points.
"I should''ve absorbed water before we began this," he whispered haggardly, remembering that water could act as a catalyzing agent.
"Perhaps I should absorb some before allocating the rest of my helios into growth," he continued, before trying to stand up.
~Huh?~ he thought in shock, finally seeing that all the leaflings were in a state of slumber. Even Pagan, who had endured longer than the others, was out cold. At first, he was worried that he had killed them all, but after checking their bodies, there was still a rhythmic pulse emanating from each and every one of them.
~Ahh that''s good. Though I wonder what''s making that pulse. A heart?~ he thought to himself, quickly dismissing the thought.
~They probably have apletely different anatomy from what I know. If thews of light are different here, then it wouldn''t be a surprise if living things didn''t work the same way either,~ he decided, before stumbling his way towards the river.
~Catalyst absorption,~ he thought, willing the limb at his lower back to slither its way towards the water. A rejuvenating sensation washed over him as the cool liquid entered his body before he heard the familiar sound of his system notifications.
[Water absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Questplete.]
[+20 exp]
"Ahh the quests," he whispered to himself before allocating the remaining helios into growth.
[Questplete.]
[+100exp]
He did a quick inspection of his body, and though there were no considerable changes to his height or depth, he could feel that his density had increased as gravity seemed to weigh down more heavily on him.
? ~Hmm, maybe there''s a height cap?~ he wondered as he jumped up and down to get a better grasp of his new mass. As he was still exploring the density change in his body he noticed a faint glow emanating from above.
~It''s still active?~ he thought to himself, looking up at the pinhead-sized orb floating above his head. ~I wonder why it stays even after I''ve finished,~ he questioned, trying to see whether there were any additional things he could do with it.
~Perhaps something in my yer stats will show while its active?~
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 3: 120/300]
[Leaf Being lvl.4- [10/400]]
[Sunlight''s blessing] +5 to all stats
[Sr Crux active] - [87/100]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 1(6)]
[Strength: 58(63)]
[Stamina: 47(52)]
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~There it is again, ????????. Is that what the orb is called?~ he though to himself as he scanned over his stats.
~And why is there a meter?~ He pondered over this for only a minute before the crux descended back into his body, and with it the extra details on his yer stats.
After deciding that he would have an extra session with Paganter today to find out more about it, he returned to the camp.
"They aren''t awake yet?" he whispered to himself, still a bit worried. After waiting for around 30 minutes, he decided that he had better get to work on some of the structures while they were asleep. Though he couldn''t just leave them lying around, so he began dragging them all to the center of the camp, far away from the edges of the mound.
~The reeds surrounding the camp should be good enough to keep them out of sight. But I should probably divide the group into two to avoid everyone being unconscious at the same time,~ he decided as he walked towards the forest.
~Anyway, making a watchtower too far out was a bad idea. I''ll make a few watch towers a bit closer to the camp... and maybe build a wall around the perimeter,~ he thought to himself as he searched for pieces of wood to use as pirs.
~Though I should probably wait for the others to evolve before building the wall. Those ???????????? might find a half-built wall a little suspicious,~ he deduced, deciding that it was better to build it all at once to prevent them from hindering progress.
After three hours of searching and heavy lifting, Lucius had dragged seven branches back towards the camp. Afterward, he immediately began marking out the areas where he would ce the watchtowers. These were mostly behind shrubs and trees, allowing an unhindered view of the surroundings while at the same time still providing some decent cover.
~Perfect,~ he sighed, marking out thest area. He nned to build four watchtowers, cing them equally around the camp as if to form a sort of circle.
He still had a lot to secure before construction couldmence; 9 more pirs, at least 30 des of grass to weave into ropes, and a few more twigs to use for support. But though his mind was willing, his body screamed at him to take a proper rest. He had umted 31 points into strength and another 23 into stamina, that''s to say it was quite strenuous work.
Chapter 25 The Art Of Preparations (2)
"Lighted One, there you are," said Pagan, greeting Lucius as he returned to the camp.
"Ahh, you''re awake. How do you feel?" he replied, lying down on the moist earth before Pagan even had the chance to respond.
"I feel stronger, bigger," Pagan replied happily.
"I see. You''re the only one awake, huh," Lucius realized, noticing that everyone else was still fast asleep.
"Alpha''s awake as well. But he said he was going to train until you came back," Pagan responded, looking towards the forest.
"He said that?"
"He was a bit worked up about mesting longer than him," Pagan replied with a grin.
Lucius hadn''t processed it earlier because he was so tired, but he just now noticed that Pagan was nearly the same height as him. His volume seemed to have increased as well.
~He must be close to evolving,~ Lucius realized, thoroughly inspecting Pagan''s body while thetter went on about something.
"-so what do you think?"
"Huh?" Lucius replied, confused about what Pagan was asking him.
"The orb, it''s a little bigger thanst time. Do you think it''s growing?"
"Bigger thanst time? I didn''t notice anything?" Lucius replied. The orb was as small as it was thest time they had done photosynthesis, at least as far as he could tell.
"I could feel it, it was slightly bigger, and its pulses were a little stronger thanst time. Maybe I''m just imagining things, however, I did like that session," said Pagan, before going on about how enlightened he felt during the process.
Having no reason to leave, Lucius was forced to listen to him go on and on, as he was too tired to even move right now. After an hour or so, the other leaflings began waking up, each of themining about a massive headache.
"What''s up with you? Isn''t your head throbbing as well?" Ghost asked, taking a seat beside Lucius as he listened to Pagan describe in great detail how he felt an ''ascension'' each time they did photosynthesis.
"Not at all, in fact, I''m rearing to have another round as soon as possible. For some reason, I feel like I''m on the brink of something, some sort of new discovery," Pagan replied, his voice sort of distant.
"Yes, yes, you''ve said that already," Lucius chimed in, growing bored of Pagan''s talk.
~He''s starting to sound an awful lot like those cult leaders back on earth,~ Lucius thought inwardly.
"Anyway, gather everyone. I want to see how much progress they''ve made," he instructed, picking himself off the ground.
After carefully inspecting the leaflings, he noted that most of them had negligible growth, with the exception of Ghost, Hannibal, and a few others. Pagan of course was on a different standard on his own, he was nearly two times Ghost''s size, and about 1.5 times her volume.
"Rub that grin off your face, I''ll catch up to you in no time," Ghost snorted, shooting an annoyed re at Pagan.
"Hehe, calm down there, Ghost, we should be happy that he''s made this much progress," Hannibal chimed in. Though this only proved to make Ghost even angrier, as Hannibal seemed to have surpassed her in growth and was the secondrgest leafling in the group currently.
"Drop the act, I can hear the smugness behind those lies," Ghost shot back.
"Anyway, has anyone seen Alpha?" she asked after calming herself down a bit.
"I think that''s him," Hannibal replied, gesturing towards the distance. A glossy, moisture-covered leafling appeared from in between a few shrubs, its gait lethargic and irregr.
"Are you okay?" Lucius asked, running to give Alpha a hand.
He was so tired that he copsed upon Lucius''s touch, nodding in response as he allowed Lucius to carry him back to the camp.
"A bit excessive don''t you think?" Paganmented upon seeing the state Alpha was in.
"What were you even doing?" Hannibal asked as Luciusid him down next to the group.
"Trai-*gasp* training," Alpha responded.
Lucius took a good look at him, and though he was lying on the ground, Lucius could tell that he had grown quite a bit. He was perhaps a few millimeters taller than Hannibal, but volume-wise, he was at the same level as Pagan.
~But how?~ Lucius wondered to himself. He was certain that the reason for their different growth rates was due to their varied endurance when it came to photosynthesis. But if there was an unproportionate increase in height and volume, then perhaps individual factors came into y as well.
~There''s not enough information to make assumptions yet. I''ll use Ghost as a control specimen since she seems to have the most average growth rate amongst all the leaflings,~Lucius decided before allowing Alpha to take a rest.
"Anyway, if any of you want to have a second session you are free to join. This one isn''tpulsory," he announced to the group. Though apart from Pagan and Ghost, everyone else seemed reluctant to join.
"I''d join, but I don''t quite like the confusion I get afterward, so you can count me out," Hannibal said shyly, before walking towards a group of leaflings that were chatting at the edge of the camp.
"Let''s get started," Alpha whispered jadedly, barely able to lift his leaf off the ground.
"It''s good to want to push yourself, but let''s not overdo it. We still don''t know much about photosynthesis and its repercussions."
"Take a good rest, I want you back to full strength before our nightly training session," Lucius instructed before taking a seat beside Ghost and Pagan.
"Okay, whenever you''re ready," he said, turning to Pagan, before closing his eyes.
The session went on for 25 minutes, Ghost passed out at minute 1, while Pagan went out at around minute 23. It seemed his mental capacity decreased each time he did it without proper rest, an interesting discovery to note.
After some consideration, he decided that he would put all his helios into Evo points, aiming toplete the 1 million Evo point quest.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Daily Quests ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Milestone ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~I chipped it down a bit. But at this rate it''ll be a few days before I unlock that new item,~ he thought to himself, fighting off the urge to fall asleep.
Chapter 26 A Starry Night (1)
"Huh? When did I fall asleep?" Lucius whispered, yawning as he stretched his limbs. He remained lying on his back for a moment, silently staring at the clear night sky. It was a moonless night, but the sky shone brightly, as if the stars were burning. A choir of burning eyes... watching him... more eyes than he had ever seen before... more stars than the sands in the Sahara.
~The Sahara...~he thought to himself, memories of his past life attacking him in sudden shes.
~~~
"Fuck! Someone outted us!"
"Meh, this was a suicide mission to begin with... it always is. Isn''t that right, Captain?"
A group of five special operatives stood behind a single man, each of them covered in tactical gear the color of desert sand. As they spoke, the sound of engines roaring gued the night, as if ying a hymn to their final moments.
For a moment, the man stood there silently, staring at a hole in the ceiling of his tent. He had never seen stars shine so brightly before... watching him, it was as if they were... ~burning eyes,~ he thought finally, gripping the gun in his hand.
"Kill anything that moves... kill everything," the man said finally, dropping the visor of his helmet over his face.
*Gunshots*
"Captain!"
"Captain!"
"Captain! Wake up!"
~~~
"Huh? I zoned out?" said Lucius, snapping back to reality. Alpha stood over him, a worried expression on his face.
"What''s going on?" Lucius asked as he stood up.
"I heard voices in the forest. It sounded like they were heading this way."
"Where?" Lucius asked, looking around alertly.
"Everywhere."
~Already? Why now?~ he thought to himself, before quickly responding.
"Wake everyone up, silently. Start with those that were trained... basic emergency procedure, you''ll stay here until I give word," Lucius instructed, waking Ghost up as he said this, "what are you still waiting for, go," he ordered, turning back to the still frozen Alpha.
"Huh, Luc-" Lucius covered Ghost''s mouth before she could even finish, before exining to her what was going on.
"You listen to what I say and you don''t ask questions. Understood?" he said after he was done exining the situation, to which he got a nod in response.
"You''reing with me to act as a ry. When I give the signal, you''ll run back and tell Alpha to move forward. I''ll make an opening for you guys and you''ll run further up the river," he continued, before moving past her towards the forest.
"What ab-"
"No questions," he interrupted, before running ahead, Ghost following him soon after.
~She''s still making so much noise... and she''s sort of clumsy,~ he thought to himself as he stalked through the forest. He could now hear the voices that Alpha had told him about, he could hear about four of them, maybe more, but he couldn''t be sure until he got a proper visual.
Once he was within a few meters from them, he stopped abruptly and held out his hand in a ''stop'' gesture. Ghost seemed to understand what he was trying to say, and hid behind a shrub, blending in with its leaves.
~There they are,~ he thought silently, watching the shroom-beings from behind a shrub.
"He thinks us weak? Why do we have to attack lesser beings during the night?" one of the shroom-beings said as they walked towards the camp.
"It is embarrassing, but we obey. If you have problems with it, you can challenge him after this," one of hisrades replied.
"The weak have no say," another added.
Lucius looked around, making sure that there were no other hostiles close by.
~So he divided them into groups of four?~ he deduced, before stalking behind another shrub to position himself behind them. The whole time he kept a visual on Ghost, making sure she could still see him.
~Hmm, that one,~ he thought after watching them for a moment. One of the shroom-beings in the group seemed to be waddling behind the rest and was not adding anything to their conversations. He quickly ripped a big chunk of leaf from the shrub he was hiding behind, before moving closer to the shroom-beings.
Slowly, and carefully he snuck in closer, his movements not making so much as a sound before finally trailing right next to them.
"Did you guys hear that?" the outlying shroom-being said, stopping to look around.
~Did I mess up?~ Lucius thought to himself, staying as still as possible.
The other shroom-beings continued their banter, ignoring the question. After several seconds of looking around, the shroom-being figured that it was wrong, and tried to turn back and catch up with its group. But just before, Lucius appeared behind it, stuffing the chuck of leaf into its maw before dragging it into the bushes.
Though it was caught by surprise initially, it quickly began trying to escape, and instinctively, Lucius smashed his fist into its head, knocking it out.
~Hmm? that works?~ he thought to himself, before heading on to the main group.
"Huh, where is the other one?" one of the shroom-beings asked, finally realizing that one of theirrades was missing.
"Eh? He probably strayed off, maybe he found something nice to eat," one of itsrades joked, passing it off as a minor matter before carrying on with whatever they were talking about.
? "He isn''t the type. That one is usually quiet, and he isn''t so willful to disobey ??????," the first shroom-being insisted.
"If you are so worried, you can go look for him. I, on the other hand, will be the first in line to feast," the other replied beforeughing.
"We are not allowed to split up, you know that ???? was adamant about it," the other shroom-being said, walking in front of hisrade.
"This again? I told you I don''t care what ???? wants. Now you can go look for that weakling who wandered off on his own, or continue with us to where the feasting is. But I will not dy filling my innards because of some idiot," the other shroom-being replied, pushing past the first.
Chapter 27 [Bonus Chapter]A Starry Night (2)
"I will make sure to report this," the shroom-being snarled, before going back to look for its lostrade. It was clear to Lucius that whoever was instructing them seemed to be reasonably capable. However, their bickering andck of conviction for given protocols also proved that their leadercked proper control over them. He gave them guidance, but could not properly enforce them.
~I guess I''m lucky that the leaflings aren''t as intelligent as these creatures seem to be~ he thought to himself, as he stalked the lone shroom-being.
Once again he tore a piece of leaf flesh from a shrub, and snuck up behind the shroom-being, stuffing its maw and quickly dragging it into the bushes before pummeling its head.
[+4 Agility]
[+2 Strength]
~I get points for fighting?~ he thought to himself as he took a breather. It seemed all this sneaking around and taking out enemies was tiring work.
As he sat there, he inspected the shroom-being''s body. It seemed the only usible weapon they could make use of were the sharp fang-like projections in their maws. He tested its sharpness by trying to pierce a piece of leaf with the sharp end.
~Yea, best to avoid getting bit,~ he thought to himself as the projection pierced through the leaf as if it were nothing, turning it a few shades paler a few secondster.
~Poison,,,~ he thought, quickly dropping the remaining piece of leaf, fearing that the poison might spread to his hands.
~Anyway, what am I going to do about the remaining two?~
Lucius doubted that he could get the remaining two shroom-beings to separate from one another, and at the rate they were moving, they would soon close in on the leaflings.
~Of course, this is all under the assumption that all the groups are moving at the same rate. For all I know, there could be another group already devouring my children,~ he thought, stopping himself as he called them his children.
~Children, huh? I guess they sort of are like my children.~
~~~
"Papa, you''re back like you promised," shouted a little boy, running towards a lean man standing in the doorway.
"Of course I am, I said I''d be here for your birthday, didn''t I?" the man replied, picking the child up.
"Where did you go this time?"
"You know I can''t tell you that," the man smiled, carrying the child into the house.
"Lucius, you''re back," smiled a woman, walking to hug the man.
~~~
"What''s going on tonight?" he whispered to himself, shaking his head as if trying to get rid of the memory before moving on.
"Ghost," he whispered, stalking around where he hadst seen her.
"Here," she whispered back,ing out of hiding.
"They''ll be at the camp soon. I''ll draw their attention, and you''ll run and tell Alpha that it''s clear to go, understand?"
"What about you?" Ghost asked, a worried expression on her face.
"I''ll catch up. Just keep going straight up the river, remember to keep protocol, you see danger you run. Okay?" he replied, before moving past her towards the remaining shroom-beings.
Lucius ran at full speed and caught up to them a few minutester, he could see the camp from where they were, they seemed to be waiting for something as they hid behind a shrub and just stared at the leaflings.
~What are they waiting for?~ he thought, watching them from close behind. ~Well, that doesn''t matter, they won''t be waiting much longer,~ he continued, picking up a nearby twig.
He moved closer towards them, each step carefully calcted before being ced on the ground. He stopped his breathing, and every movement he made was nearly mechanical.
What little sound his footsteps made were canceled out by the billowing wind and after what felt like several minutes of careful movement, he was right behind them, within striking range.
Just as Lucius was about to knock them out, one of them whipped its head around, letting out a toxic cloud from its red cap. It felt like acid fire in his body, burning him from the inside. His vision went hazy, and it felt as if he were drowning onnd, but no matter how hard he tried to breathe, no air would enter his body.
"Did you get it?" one of the shroom-beings asked as they stood over Lucius''s aching body.
"Of course I did," itsrade replied, seemingly inspecting its prey.
"How did you know it was following us?" its partner asked as it got a closer look at Lucius.
"It was obvious,]. ???? warned us that they might be getting help. And suddenly two of our members go missing on the night of the attack? Sure, the weakling going missing wasn''t something to worry about, but the second one is strong, I know it," itsrade replied as if it weremon sense, before stepping on Lucius''s torso.
"Should we tell ?????? about our capture? The creature looks like it might be a worthy meal, perhaps we can even go up a few ranks," the other shroom-being asked excitedly.
"What do you mean ??????, capture? This is my food, I shall dpose him and improve my poison alone," itsrade replied with a toothy grin.
*Crack*
"Huh, did you hear that?" it asked, whipping its head to the direction that the sound came from.
"Go check it out, there might be another," the other shroom-being whispered.
Once itsrade was gone, the remaining shroom-being looked at Lucius in an almost lustful way, opening its maw as it came closer to him.
In a single swift movement, Lucius spun his leg, sweeping the shroom-being to the ground, before shooting to his feet.
He couldn''t see a thing, the world was dark, and his body felt numb.
Using his legs to feel around, he quickly stomped down on the shroom-being, not caring where he hit.
The shroom-being saw this, and grabbed Lucius''s leg, biting into it. Lucius could feel its cold poison permeating into his body, wreaking havoc on his leg. And just like that, his leg buckled, and he fell to his knees.
He fought the urge to let out a scream, and punched at the shroom-being''s face, pummelling it till it ckened its bite, and continued further until he felt the strength drain out of its body.
The poison spread slowly from his leg all the way up to his torso. Paralysis. Lucius couldn''t feel any part of his lower body. The only thing he ?????????? feel was pain. Pain emanating from every fragment of his being.
Chapter 28 A Starry Night (3)
As hey there, writhing in pain, even his sense of hearing was bing fuzzy, till eventually, he slipped into a void of nothingness. The only proof of him being alive was the burning pain that seemed to be circting throughout his body.
~There''s one more left, I have to take care of it. I hope Alpha is already leading the leaflings to safety,~ he thought to himself, trying to will his limbs to move. But it was no use, he felt no connection to them. It was as if he were trapped in his own body, his mind being the only thing he had any control over.
~Fuck, not again goddammit. Not again!~ he shouted inwardly.
He screamed at his legs to move, at his arms to push him off the ground, to drag him towards the remaining shroom-being, to move even a single-fucking-centimeter. But it wouldn''t. He would die here, and he knew it... a failed leader once again.
***
~I messed up, I messed up, I messed up,~ Ghost repeated to herself as she ran as fast as her little spindly legs could take her. She had one job to do, and she fumbled it. Now a shroom-being was hot on her tail as she moved towards the camp.
~I have to get rid of it first,~ she thought to herself, her breathing loud and jagged. This was the first time she had ever seen a shroom-being, and her natural instincts screamed at her to do everything in her power to get away from it.
~No, I have to quiet down, I''m making too much noise,~ she realized, taking a roundabout way towards the camp. However, no matter how hard she tried, the shroom-being remained behind her, closing in with every passing second.
~Think, think. How do I get rid of it? How would Luci get rid of it?~ she pondered, before locking her eyes on a patch of shrubs to her right.
~I need to blend in,~ she decided, taking a sharp turn before hiding behind one of the shrubs.
"I saw you," mused the shroom-being, taking its time as it walked towards the shrub. Ghost instantly stopped her breathing, and stalked towards the next shrub, being careful not to make a sound.
"There you are!" the shroom-being shouted, and for a moment Ghost could feel all the life drain out of her body.
"Huh? I could''ve swore it hid behind here," said the shroom-being in a disappointed tone, before moving on to the next shrub.
Once again Ghost carefully stalked her way in between the leaves to the next shrub over, making sure not to make so much as a peep.
p "Here?" shouted the shroom-being, jumping out in front of the shrub that Ghost had just been hiding behind. This continued on through four more shrubs until eventually, Ghost was at thest shrub in the patch. Moving from here would expose herpletely, and she''d be doomed.
To make matters worse, her body was screaming at her to breathe. She hadn''t stopped to catch her breath even after running, and it was now beginning to feel like she would copse at any moment. If not for the daily training she had done, she wouldn''t have been able to hold out this long.
"It''s thest one," the shroom-being mused, slowly walking towards the final shrub.
"I guess you''re hiding behind this one, aren''t you?" it continued, looking directly at the shrub that she was hiding in.
Dead silence.
The shroom-being scrutinized the shrub, unable to believe that its prey wasn''t there.
"Did I miss-see?" it snarled, turning to look back at the other shrubs. "Did it run off?" it continued, before running into the forest.
"Finally," Ghost sighed, taking in a deep breath as she got down from the shrub. She had climbed up and positioned herself at an odd angle to make it seem as if she were one of the shrub''s leaves. However, if the shroom-being had stuck around for a second longer, she would''ve been caught out due to exhaustion.
"I''ming, Alpha," she whispered to herself, trying her best to get up.
***
~They''re getting closer, where is he?~ Alpha wondered, the voices of the shroom-beings getting closer with every passing second.
"Shouldn''t we start running? What if something happened to him?" one of the leaflings asked. They were beginning to get restless, and though Alpha instructed them to keep quiet, the group was simply too big to be properly controlled.
"I have a proposal," Hannibal whispered. Though it was soft, all the leaflings stopped thier bickering and turned to look at him.
"Ahh, I thin- I think," he stuttered. It seemed that all the eyes were making him nervous.
"Speak, Hannibal," Alpha instructed.
"I-I think we should split up into two groups," he blurted out, looking down at his feet as he said this.
"I don''t mean to be rude, but why would we do that? What good would splitting up do?" Alpha asked. To be fair, he desperately hoped that Hannibal had a good reason for such a tactic. If it were up to him, he would leave the leaflings to Hannibal and run into the forest to look for Lucius.
"I-If we split up into two groups, we can confuse the enemies," he exined.
"Why not separate into even smaller groups if that''s the case? Wouldn''t we have a better chance that way?" Alpha asked, seeing some merit in Hannibal''s ns. He knew that leading a big squad like this was going to be hard for him. He wasn''t Lucius and he couldn''tmand them the way he did.
"Well, the way these guys are homing in on us, they''ve probably been watching us for quite a bit. They have a general idea of the size of our camp, so breaking into smaller squads would make them suspicious," Hannibal continued.
"Why are you making it seem like they will catch one group?" one of the leaflings asked.
"N-no, I didn''t mean it that way. Okay, let me exin,"
Chapter 29 [Bonus Chapter]A Starry Night (4)
"O-one group will hide down at the river banks. The enemies probably won''t think to search there first, while the other group will head in Lucius''s direction," he started.
"O-once we catch up to him we''ll make a loud sound to draw the enemies'' attention towards us. When th-that happens, the guys hiding here will run to safety," he exined, looking to Alpha to see if he was in agreement with the suggestion.
"O-Of course, we''ll regroup once we get to Lucius, and deal with the enemies after," he added, still fidgeting with his feet.
"Hmm, that sounds like an okay n," Alpha whispered thoughtfully, before looking up at Hannibal. "So how will we split the groups up?" he continued.
"Uhm, we''ll l-leave one of you guys here with the others," Hannibal replied, gesturing to one of Alpha''s men, "j-just so there''s someone with a bit of training," he added.
"The rest of us," he continued, referring to Alpha, Pagan, and himself, "will head with the main group."
"Hmm, only one person? I can stay behind as well, I''ve seen a few of your training exercises," Pagan proposed.
"No!" Hannibal shouted in response, before realizing that everyone was looking at him in surprise. "I-I mean, you wouldn''t make a difference. I think it''s better if you came with us, Lucius might need you for something," he rationalized, his mind fuzzy from embarrassment.
"Okay, then it''s decided," said Alpha, before dividing the camp into two equal groups. The first group quickly retreated down to the river banks, while Alpha and the others headed further up towards Lucius.
Alpha had the leaflings move in the same formation that Lucius had taught them. Although movement was slow because a few of the leaflings had already forgotten how to move as a group. To make matters worse, the sounds they were making threatened to give out their position at any moment.
~Captain, where are you?~ wondered Alpha as they moved through the forest. After marching for a few minutes, they found Ghost on her way back to the camp.
"Ghost? Where''s the Captain?" Alpha asked as soon as he reached her.
"He said to go further up the ri-"
"I know what he said. I''m asking where he is," Alpha interrupted.
"M-Maybe he''s already waiting for us," Hannibal chimed in, his voice fraught with worry. "W-we really should get moving, Alpha, they might find us at any moment," he continued.
"He''s right. Luci did say that he would catch up to us. I wasted a lot of time getting here, he''s probably wondering where we are," Ghost added.
"Hmm, you have a point," Alpha agreed after thinking it over for a moment, before instructing the leaflings to continue marching forward.
***
"Goddamit Lucius, you''re a soldier not a fucking God! I''m sorry about what happened to your family, but if you keep jeopardizing the mission like this, I''ll have to report you," shouted an operative dressed in jet ck tactical gear.
"It worked out, didn''t it? I wasn''t caught and those kids weren''t killed," another man replied, his gear matching that of the first.
"You aren''t fit to be Captain anymore," the first guy said, before turning to walk away. "The Boogeyman is dead... he died with his family," he continued, this time in a whisper.
"Shut the fuck up! You don''t know what you''re talking about!" Lucius shouted, pushing him to the ground.
"I''m still the Captain of this squad, and until the mission isplete, you''ll do as I say."
~~~
~Was I dreaming?~ Lucius wondered to himself, the world around him still a dark void. ~I can''t feel anything. Am I dead?~
He wasn''t sure how much time had passed or how long he had been in this state, but it felt like an eternity. For the first time in a long time, he could just sit in silence... and he dreaded it. He didn''t want to be alone with his thoughts, anything but that.
~Huh? What is that?~ he wondered, noticing a tiny glint in the distance.
Upon further inspection, he realized that it wasn''t that far away at all, it was merely its size making it seem that way.
~I-I can feel it?~ he thought to himself, feeling a sort of connection with the tiny light source. He reached out for it with his mind, and it responded, glowing brighter ever so slightly.
~Wait... is this the crux?~ he wondered, realizing that it indeed seemed simr to the orb in his core. He tried reaching out towards it again, this time with more intensity. In response, it glowed brighter, before dimming once again.
The light feltforting, he couldn''t exin it, but he wanted to immerse himself within it, so he reached out a third time, putting even more strength into it.
The light emanating from the crux fought against the darkness that buried him, but there was not enough strength to it, and the darkness snuffed it out once again.
It was mentally taxing, and though he had no body he was beginning to feel exhausted.
~This is hard,~ he thought to himself as he took a rest. As he stared at the tiny crux, he realized that it was pulsing ever so slightly, and an idea came to mind.
He stretched out his mind and tried to give it power exactly as it pulsed. However his timing was a bit off, and the light that permeated from the crux was quickly snuffed out.
He took a quick break before trying again. This time his timing was a bit more on point, and the light shining from it pushed the darkness further than before but was ultimately snuffed out.
~One more time.~ This time he got it exactly, and the crux pulsed even brighter, pushing the darkness out even further. But the void pushed back, suppressing the light till it was snuffed again.
~Again. With more intensity.~ The void around him was brought alight, like a supernova exploding on a pitch ck canvas. This time the void struggled to engulf the light, and slowly but surely, the light expanded illuminating his surroundings.
~More!~ he screamed, putting every ounce of mental strength he had into this push. The light permeating from the orbpletely disintegrated the darkness, and Lucius found himself surrounded by aforting yellow warmth.
At the center of it, a massive burning ball radiated white energy. A burning star watching him...
Chapter 30 The Failed And The Damned
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSr Cleanse¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSr Cleanse¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSr Cleanse¡» has been added.]
And just like that, Lucius was dragged out of the ethereal ne, the burning orb already bing a forgotten memory. When he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by the familiar forest terrain.
~Ugh, what is that?~ he thought to himself, a pungent smell attacking his senses. He looked around and noticed that a tarry ck substance was sticking onto his body, radiating a disgusting warmth.
Ignoring the smell, he tried to pick himself off the ground, however, his arms gave way as soon as he put weight on them. Though he no longer felt the searing pain caused by the poison, its effects still seemed to linger in his body as everything felt numb.
"Ah, the poison," he remembered, before trying to stand up once again, this time more slowly. Once he got to his feet, he tried peeling the gooey ck substance off his body, which proved to be difficult as stuck to him like glue.
"The hell is this stuff?" he whispered, managing to get some of it off.
~What am I doing here anywa- the leaflings!~ he remembered. He tried running towards the camp but quickly tripped over himself as one of his legs was still unresponsive. He looked down and noticed that it was at least five shades paler than the other and had several bite marks on it.
"Fuck!" he grunted, a jolt of pain running up that leg. He ignored it, and stood up again, limping as fast as he could towards the camp.
He tripped over himself several more times along the journey, his body slowly bing covered in scratches. The pain from his leg grew more unbearable with every fall, however, he didn''t let up. The only thought on his mind was the leaflings, he had to make sure they were safe.
When he finally reached the camp, he found it empty. And the anxiety that gued his mind finally disappeared.
"They made it," he sighed in relief before falling to his knees in exhaustion.
~Well done, Alpha,~ he thought, before sitting down to take a rest. Now that his worrying was behind him, the pain from his leg became more prominent. It felt like it was throbbing, and as if to make things even worse, a wave of fatigue and thirst suddenly washed over him.
"Water," he whispered haggardly, before standing up and slowly limping his way towards the river banks. Nothing could''ve prepared him for what he would see next.
"No... no... no," he whispered slowly, time seemingly slowing down as he took in the scene in front of him.
"This isn''t real. I''m still dreaming, I have to be. I''ll wake up any second now. Ghost made it in time, Alpha led them away," he whispered crazily, staring at the graveyard in front of him.
Sprawled all across the ground were leafling remains; feet, little bits of leafling flesh, and even a fewrger chunks of body. His mind went nk, and his knees gave way. He punched the ground repeatedly, scraping the flesh off his fists, but none of that could reverse what had been done.
A whirlwind of emotions took over him, past memories shing into view, bing indiscernable from reality.
Among the leafling remains was the bloody corpse of a young boy, his body littered with bullet wounds. Lucius''s vision became clouded, he looked down at his hands and found them bloody, clutching onto the hands of woman.
"Lucius," croaked the woman, blood pouring out of her mouth as she spoke.
He scuffled backwards, as if trying to escape from the apparition.
"I... ha-" her body went limp before she could finish, but he knew what she wanted to say. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the nightmare, but the bodies did not disappear. Whether they were that of his wife, or that of the leaflings, it was all the same. He failed them both.
He took a seat beside the river bank, staring into the water as if it were the only thing that mattered, before willing the limb on his back to stretch out towards it.
[Water absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Sr Cleanse effectiveness increased by 2.5%]
After sitting in silence for a while, he stood up and picked out a nearby twig before quietly digging a hole.
After burying the remains of the leaflings, and sticking a twig upon each grave site, he looked to the sky for a moment.
"Burning eyes...ughing at me," he whispered, before dusting his hands and walking towards the forest.
***
"How far up did he go? We should''ve reached him already," Ghostined. They had been walking up hill for nearly 20 minutes and still hadn''t found Lucius.
"He''s probably just a bit further up, we should continue moving," Hannibal replied, moving past her as the group marched.
"No, this is taking too long, perhaps we should make the sound before we find him. At this rate the others at the river bank will be found out," said Alpha, before instructing the group to stop.
"You, you can''t do that," Hannibal interjected, his face turned to the ground.
"What do you mean? I think we''ve moved far enough. Even if theye after us, I doubt they''d be able to catch up."
"W-we''re too far away, there''s no way they would be able to hear us," Hannibal replied.
"What? You were the one who told us to continue moving forward. You said that the sound would be able to travel back to camp regardless of how far we went," Alpha shouted,ing face to face with Hannibal.
"Y-You couldn''t possibly have believed that," Hannibal whispered, trying to step back.
"What are you getting at? What about the others we left behind? What''s your n to get them to safety?"
"They''re probably dead by n-," Hannibal tried whispering in reply, but was met with a kick to the face before he could even finish.
"You bastard, this was your n from the beginning!"
"T-this was the only way, c-can''t you see that?" Hannibal whispered, his tone filled with anguish. The others leaflings soon realized what had happened, and a wave of agitation soon spread throughout the entire group.
"Y-You left them to die?" one of the leaflings asked innocently, as if unable to fully process what he was hearing.
"It''s not my fault, this was the only way," Hannibal repeated, more for himself than anyone else.
"It was the only way."
Chapter 31 We Wage War
"You mean..." Ghost whispered, her face going nk upon the realization.
"I-I took too long, it was my f-"
"It wasn''t your fault. We had a choice. He just picked the wrong one," Alpha snarled, looking down at Hannibal in disgust.
"I''m going to draw their attention, get ready to move. Some of them might still be alive, I want to give them a fighting chance," Alpha instructed, to which all the leaflings began moving.
"Y-You can''t, Alpha," Hannibal whispered, so softly that Alpha nearly hadn''t heard him.
"You''re still talking? You... you filth," Alpha replied, a look of pure disdain on his face.
"I''m s-sorry, but you can''t. There are other creatures lurking around. Making a loud noise might draw them toward u-"
"I don''t give a damn. If you don''t like it then leave," Alpha interrupted, before preparing to shout.
"You can''t. We might never find Lucius if you do this," Hannibal retorted, before charging towards Alpha. The two scuffled on the ground, Alphanding several kicks on Hannibal''s face. In the end, the other leaflings just let it happen, they were still too shocked by what Hannibal had done, and none of them had the will to do anything.
"Can you two stop this?" said Pagan, walking towards the two.
"The Lighted One is on his way, we can deal with this when he finds us," he continued, before looking off into the distance.
"How do you know?" Alpha asked, his interest piqued.
"I can feel him, the orb. He''sing," Pagan said softly, almost as if he were trapped in a blissful dream.
"Huh?" Alpha couldn''t help but look at him as if he were crazy. He could feel him? What sort of nonsense was that?
"I''m not done with you," Alpha said to Hannibal, after thinking it over for a moment. He stood up and went towards the leaflings, ordering them to hide behind a few shrubs in case there were enemies watching.
Hannibal was left to indulge in his injuries alone. Though Alpha seemed rtively fine, Hannibal looked like he had just been run over, as his entire body was littered with scratches and bruises.
The group waited there in silence for several minutes. After a while, they had lost hope in Pagan''s prediction, though no one said anything. To outwardly voice their doubt, would be to abandon their hope. To ept that perhaps Lucius had left them. or worse, had fallen prey to the unknown enemies.
"I hear something," Ghost whispered, peaking over the shrub she had been hiding behind.
"Luci!" she shouted, as a green creature emerged from the woods.
It looked at them in shock, as if unable to believe what was happening in front of its eyes.
"Luci?" Ghost asked, starting to back away once the creature remained silent for a little too long.
"Will you not let me rest?" the creature asked, its tone heavy as it looked up to the sky. "Why? What have I done? Why does this go on?" the creature continued, slumping its head in defeat before walking off in another direction.
"Lighted One," Pagan whispered, walking towards Lucius before touching thetter''s back with the tip of his leaf.
"Huh? You''re all real?" the creature asked, turning to look at them as if for the first time. "How?" it asked, though it was clear that it wasn''t a question he wanted to be answered. Lucius ran and gave Pagan a hug nearly squeezing all the life out of him, before continuing to the rest of the remaining camp.
A few leaflings passed out from the pressure, but they would be okay. The smile on The Lighted One''s face was worth at least that much, or so Pagan thought to himself.
"We were waiting for you," Pagan said once the excitement had died down.
"Yes... I''m sorry. I failed you all," Lucius replied, the happiness on his face dying down as quickly as it came. "If you guys want to leave the group I will understand. At this point you might have a better chance somece else," Lucius replied,
"We only lived this long because of you, Lighted One. And besides, I don''t mind dying, I have seen true beauty, I will not leave it over something so minor," Pagan replied, referring to the orb he could sense pulsing within Lucius.
For a moment Lucius looked at him with an expression he had never seen before, something between fear and confusion, but he quickly passed it off.
"So how did you guys escape? What happened at the river bank?" Lucius asked, turning to look at Alpha.
Alpha remained quiet, only turning to Hannibal in response. Hannibal was sitting in a corner, the scratches and bruises all over his body still visible even in the night. He looked to the ground, whispering something inaudible, tears streaming down his face.
"What happened here?" Lucius asked, walking towards Hannibal like a concerned mother.
"Alpha did that," Pagan reported, walking towards Hannibal as well.
"He deserved it! He sacrificed half the camp, he killed them. IT WAS H-," Alpha tried screaming, before Lucius ran towards him and covered his mouth.
"There are other creatures in the forest. Do you want to get everyone killed?" Lucius asked, an intensity in his eyes that the group had never seen before.
"If anything it was my fault, I hadn''t prepared you all enough," he whispered, looking to Hannibal as if to apologize to him specifically.
"But that won''t happen again. Listen up," he ordered, his gaze slowly sweeping across the entire group.
"A lot of mistakes were made today, but not again. This is thest time we will ever be prey," he started, a burning me flickering in his eyes. "From now on, we will never allow them to take anything from us again," he continued, looking up to the sky as if he were talking to the stars.
"From this day on, we will do the taking. The forest is ours, the graves of our fallen are proof of that." And for a moment, Pagan could''ve sworn he saw Lucius''s eyes glow yellow.
He could feel a strange presence infusing itself within Lucius, its aura dark and twisted, but for some reason, it feltforting.
The leaflings felt as if a strange danger was looming around him, though it seemed to be snarling at everyone but them.
"All bow to the Lighted One," Pagan blurted out. He wasn''t sure where it came from, or what bow even meant. However, everyone bent the knee, somehow understanding what had to be done.
***
Chapter 32 A New Camp (1)
~The others are getting tired,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he and the remaining leaflings marched through the night forest in search of a new camp. Though they wouldn''t admit it, the sound of theirbored breaths and their sluggish movements were evidence enough.
When they had first begun, he was a little scared that they would encounter predators lurking about, so he decided that he and Ghost would scout the area ahead before the leaflings could move in. However, this proved to take up a lot of time and effort, and soon only Lucius could run ahead and make the return trip to tell the leaflings if it was safe to move.
"We''ll rest here," he ordered, realizing that the leaflings couldn''t march much longer.
"Finally," sighed a few of them, dropping to the ground in exhaustion.
"Not out here. Find yourselves a resting spot in between the vines over there," he ordered, pointing towards a bunch of vines draping off a massive tree.
The leaflings obliged and quickly dragged themselves behind the curtain of vines and found a spot to rest.
"And what about you guys?" Lucius asked once the other leaflings had all found a spot. It was the usual suspects; Ghost was sitting on the ground a few centimeters to his right, Pagan stood close behind him, while Alpha was leaning against a tree in front of him.
"I''m not tired," Alpha replied, his tone lost and far away.
"I want to have a session," Pagan said after, walking to stand in front of Lucius.
"If he''s having a session, I want one too," Ghost quickly chimed in, standing up from the ground before walking towards them.
"I don''t think a session will be possible right now. The sun''s not up," Lucius replied after a moment of thought. He had never really tested that theory out, but it only made sense that photosynthesis could only work during the day.
"Shall we give it a try anyway?" Pagan asked. Clearly, he wasn''t going to take no for an answer.
"Hmm, might as well. And what about you? Are you just going to lurk around?" Lucius asked, turning to look towards the darkness where the leaflings were camped.
"Me? I might as well," Alpha responded, slipping out of his broody daze.
"Not you, him," Lucius replied, pointing into the darkness. After a few moments, a tip-tapping sound echoed from the dark, before Hannibal appeared into view.
"Kukk. You''ll have to excuse me, Captain," Alpha said immediately before walking towards the camp. "I don''t think it''s right for us to mingle with cowards. Especially those who would give up th-"
"Enough, Alpha. You are excused," Lucius interrupted, gesturing for Hannibal toe closer. As Alpha left, he and Hannibal brushed shoulders, and he whispered something to thetter, before nudging him to the ground.
~I don''t me him. Even if it was the only way, I''m sure Alpha will never ept that,~ Lucius thought to himself before going to help Hannibal up.
"I-I''m sorry Lucius," Hannibal said as Lucius helped him up. His entire body was shaking, and his eyes averted Lucius''s gaze, it seemed his shame would not even allow him that much.
"You shouldn''t be apologizing to me. Your brothers are dead, go say sorry to them," Lucius replied, before walking back to the group.
"You aren''t angry?" Hannibal asked as he followed close behind.
Lucius stopped for a moment and turned ever so slightly to look Hannibal in the face. "I''m angry but not at you. Your n was good considering the circumstances, but that''s not the type of strategist I''m trying to raise," Lucius replied before proceeding.
~But then again. You''d probably be praised back on Earth,~ he thought to himself before sitting down.
"Okay, let''s begin."
Lucius closed his eyes and reached out to his crux, this time his connection with it seemed stronger, and he could lift it up even without Pagan''s help. However, that didn''t stop Pagan from reaching out to the crux as well and trying to help with the process.
If before the crux felt like an atrophied limb, it now felt like a limb going through rehabilitation. He could maneuver it well enough, but it felt weaker than it should.
[Photosynthesis unavable.]
"Ahh, it seems I was right," Lucius said out loud, before opening his eyes.
The moment he did, his eyes were bombarded with a series of bright shes as if individual suns were shining from everything in sight. He quickly closed his eyes and groaned in pain, rubbing them before opening them once more.
"Is something wrong?" Pagan asked.
Though Lucius was too bbergasted to even process anything else around him. The light was simply too bright, and eventually, he gave up on the idea of even trying to open them again.
~What''s happening,~ he thought to himself, before standing up, his eyes still closed.
"Luci?"
"Can you guys see anything?"
"Of course we can. I think you have to open your eyes first," Ghost tried exining, a bit of doubt in her tone as she said this.
~Sigh,~
"Photosynthesis doesn''t work so you guys can go ahead and rest. We might be marching the whole day tomorrow so I want you all in top shape," he said.
"Are you sure you''re fine?" Hannibal asked?
"I''m okay. Now go rest," he replied, "... and Hannibal, steer clear of Alpha. He needs time."
After a few moments, Lucius was left alone. He felt around trying to find his way towards a nearby shrub right in front of the camp. He tried opening his eyes once again but was met with the same blinding light. Giving up, he decided he would just have to depend on his ears to take watch.
However, after a few minutes, he fell into a deep slumber. The day had been long, even for him.
That night he dreamt of war... of revenge. He dreamt of what was toe...
Chapter 33 A New Camp (2)
Lucius woke up a few hourster, a bit annoyed at himself for falling asleep like that. He wanted to start moving immediately, however, the sun wasn''t even up yet so he decided he would let the leaflings rest a little longer.
While he waited he decided to do a few exercises. He wanted to test whether working out would be a viable method for gaining stat points.
After doing pushups until failure -which amounted to about 50- he gained 6 points into strength and another 3 into stamina. He tried sit-ups however they didn''t seem to be as efficient, as they only added a few points into stamina and none at all into strength.
~My arms feel kind of stiff,~ he thought to himself as he did different arm stretches in an attempt to soothe the singeing pain that radiated from them.
[+3 Agility.]
~Interesting. So stretching helps increase agility, huh? It only makes sense I suppose,~ he thought before carrying on with the stretches.
In the end, he gained 30 agility points from stretching alone -counting leg, and back stretches as well,- however, he was unable to get anything more than that. Further stretching did not result in any additional agility, it seemed there was a cap to the number of stat points he could get from each movement.
"That feels better," he whispered, before throwing a kick into the air to test his new agility. His movements were a little clumsy, but that was due to theck of muscle memory in his body. He knew the moves, his body just couldn''t properly replicate them.
Feeling a little annoyed at the fact that he couldn''t even properly perform simple martial arts movements, he began throwing out a flurry of kicks. The kicks ranged from high head kicks to low sweeping kicks.
[+2 Agility.]
[+1 Strength.]
[+1 Stamina.]
Seeing that he was gaining stat points from these, he began trying more advanced kicks. In between the normal attacks he would throw in spinning kicks, which resulted in him clumsily falling to the ground a few times. However, he noticed that the more difficult the movements were the more agility he would gain, so he endured.
[+4 Agility.]
After a while, he started adding punches into thebinations.
One, two. One, two. Kick, sweep, choke, rip.
[+2 Agility]
[+1 Strength.]
Soon he got into a sort of flow zone, there was a rhythm to his movements.
One, two. One, two, three. Kick, elbow, punch, sweep, stomp.
One, two. One, two. Punch, block, head kick, spin kick.
[+2 Agility.]
[+1 Strength.]
[+2 Stamina.]
After a while, his body grew tired, and he was forced to stop his training session. He amassed quite a bit of stat points, and his body felt that bit stronger and more capable than it had before. He quickly pulled out his yer stats to track his progress.
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©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 3: 120/300]
[Leaf Being lvl.4- [10/400]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 5 > 59]
[Strength: 97 > 110]
[Stamina: 75 > 90]
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"I should hold something simr for the leaflings," he whispered to himself, clenching his fists. Though the variety of movements avable to them is quite slim, they would still benefit from the muscle memory gained through training.
***
The sun was just rising when Lucius woke the leaflings up. After giving them a moment to get ready, they moved out.
The marching went on for several hours, and though they stopped in between for a few short breaks, there were no real exciting points during the journey.
They passed by several sites simr to their old camp. Mounds next to the river, however, Lucius wasn''t going to choose the same type of location asst time. Though the river proved as a good shield to watch their backs, it also removed a route of escape.
And besides, water wasn''t really a valuable resource. Apart from him, the other leaflings didn''t really seem to need water to survive.
What he had in mind this time around was a sort of tree base. He was searching for a tree whose branches came close to the ground. He nned to construct a sort of ramp for the leaflings to be able to move to and fro. Removing the construct would be enough to prevent ground enemies from moving in.
He was unsure whether snakes or the like were in this world, but it was probably good enough to assume that there were tree-dwelling creatures. To fight those off, he nned to build certain ''defense'' mechanisms.
~Though I suppose it wouldn''t hurt to build something inside the ground once the others have evolved. Just so we have multiple options in the case of emergencies,~ he thought as he climbed up a rock to get a better view of the surrounding forest.
The forest seemed to be changing somehow. Before there were mostly shrubs, tall trees, and des of grass. Now the shrubs seemed to be scarcer, and vines took their ce. The ground seemed even muddier than before, and the trees were more bottle-shaped than further down.
~I wonder if we''ll find different species here,~ he thought to himself before instructing the leaflings to move forward.
***
It was now midday and Lucius decided to have a photosynthesis session before they moved on. He quickly ran towards the river to their right and absorbed some water before returning.
The overall endurance of the leaflings seemed to have increased, and more and more of themsted longer than the others. That''s to say there were more outliers than before.
After 20 minutes of photosynthesis, only Alpha, Pagan, and two other leaflings were left. However at the 30-minute mark, only Pagan remained. His growth in particr was exponential. In fact, if not for their limited time, Lucius was sure they could''ve gone for at least an hour.
~45 minutes and he hasn''t even broken a sweat? Seems promising,~ he thought to himself as he inspected Pagan. Right now he was just a thumbnail shorter than Lucius, and if not for the fact that he was a leafling, Lucius was certain that they would''ve had simr volume.
Second to him in growth was Alpha, who although was way shorter, had equal volume and was starting to show an odd amount of density in his legs.
~Perhaps it''s because he trains harder than the others?~ Lucius thought to himself, noting down the difference between Alpha''s limbs and the others.
Hannibal was the thirdrgest, however, Ghost seemed to be catching up to him. Today it seemed as if he hadn''t pushed as hard as he could''ve, as he was still able to stand while the others were out cold.
~I need to give him a talk,~ Lucius thought to himself as he watched Hannibal sit alone at the outer edges of the group.
~Perhaps I was being too judgmental. I know he isn''t a coward, but I don''t want him growing up thinking that it''s okay to do certain things just because it gives the most efficient results,~ he thought.
~I''m building a family, not an army.~
Chapter 34 [Bonus Chapter]A New Camp (3)
After noting down the growth of every leafling, Lucius decided to let them have a rest before they continued.
While they were resting, he began allocating the helios points he had absorbed. From the 623,000 helios he had gained, he allocated 200,000 into growth and used the rest to buy Evo points.
"Only 988,680 more Evo points to go, great," he sighed to himself as he looked at his quests tab.
~Speaking of which, what''s up with this new quest? Usually, it''s something like ''absorb sunlight'', but now...~ he thought, looking at his daily quests.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Daily Quests ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
300 exp
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Milestone ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
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~New catalyst? Like what? Fertilizer?~ he pondered, before deciding to deal with it after they had found a new camp.
After 30 minutes of resting, Lucius continued the march.
*
The rest of the day carried on without much happening, and soon the sun was beginning to set. Seeing as how the leaflings were still a bit sluggish from their earlier session, he decided to let them rest early today.
After finding a suitable spot in between the shelter of two shrubs, Lucius allowed them to sleep.
"Alpha, get the remaining members of your squad and take up watch," Lucius ordered, noticing that Alpha was still awake, and didn''t seem to be in any mood to sleep.
Alpha nodded his leaf in response before shouting orders to his squad mates and disappearing off into the forest.
Another leafling was awake as well, sitting a bit outside the camp on his own.
"Hannibal,e here for a second. I want to tell you a story."
Hannibal turned to look at him, a faraway gleam in his eyes. After a moment, as if thinking it over, he slowly approached Lucius before taking a seat.
"Do you know what food is?" Lucius asked.
"No? I''ve never heard of that."
"It''s something that other creatures need to survive. Without it, they would starve and die. A slow and painful death," Lucius replied, looking up to the sky as if remembering something.
"Now, there was once a leader, exactly like me. His camp was running low on food, and there was only enough left to feed but a few of them."
"Search, and search as they might, they didn''t find anymore, and soon the camp was beginning to grow restless," he continued, imagining the scene y out in his mind.
"There were simply too many of them to feed, and not enough food to go around. Soon, a few of them were so starved that they were unable to look for food themselves. They became a liability, that still had to be fed," he said, before stopping to look at Hannibal.
"His people would die if this carried on. So what do you think the leader did?" Lucius asked, looking at Hannibal straight in the eyes.
Hannibal thought for a moment, before slumping his leaf and replying, "He sacrificed the liabilities to save the remaining camp," he whispered.
"He sacrificed the liabilities for the survival of the camp," Lucius repeated with a nod.
"With the remaining food, and the fallen men to act as a supplement, there was now enough topletely satiate the entire camp for a while. And they could continue to hunt for more food."
"With the remaining camp smaller than it was before, it was easier to feed, and hence the foodsted longer."
"However, Hannibal, soon a month passed by, and their food supplies were once again running low."
"There was only enough food left to supply half the camp for a month, and only half of them were capable of searching for more food."
"So what do you think the leader did this time?" Lucius asked, once again turning to Hannibal.
"He sacrificed the half, to save the other half," Hannibal replied, his words choking at his throat.
"He sacrificed one half for the other. And only the effective ones remained," Lucius responded in a faraway tone.
"A few days after the second ughter, they found and filled with all different sorts of food. The leader had managed to save a few of his people, and brought them to a paradise."
"A smart leader, who thought of the greater good. Wouldn''t you agree?" Lucius asked, dusting himself as he stood up.
Hannibal didn''t answer immediately and waited till Lucius was halfway toward the camp.
"Is that the end?" Hannibal whispered.
"No. His men were disgusted at what they had done to survive," Lucius replied,ing to a halt before he continued.
"They whispered things such as ''maybe we could''ve made it if we just starved a little longer'', ''maybe we didn''t need to eat our brethren'', maybe, maybe, maybe,"
"But the leader knew the truth. He knew that it was the only way."
"However, no one would listen. And despite him having saved them, they killed him and tossed his body far away. Spitting insults at his grave," Lucius said, vile contempt in his tone.
"W-why are you telling me this?" Hannibal asked, his eyes downcast in pure agony.
"Do you think the leader was right? Or do you think that his men were right?" Lucius replied, before walking on to the camp.
"I-I think his men were right," Hannibal replied, his words barely audible.
"Wrong. He was right."
"He knew beforehand that they would do this, but despite that, he did it anyway," Lucius whispered, turning to look at Hannibal.
"Not only was he prepared to give the lives of some of his precious subordinates, he was also prepared to give his own. I didn''t have anything in mind when I decided to tell you this story. After all, it''s just a story."
"Good night Hannibal," Lucius said finally, before finding a spot amongst the other leaflings and taking a rest.
***
Lucius woke up early the next morning and took over the watch shift from Alpha and his men, to allow them to take a rest as well.
He started the morning with the same routine he had done yesterday. A few pushups, sit-ups, and then stretches.
All in all, he had umted 34 points into agility, 23 into strength, and 4 into stamina. However, unlike yesterday, he nned to have a set of moreplex movements for his martial arts training.
Chapter 35 [Bonus Chapter]A New Camp (4)
Lucius kept still for a moment, standing in a neutral stance with both his feet facing forward. As if in a bid to catch some unknown enemy off guard, he threw out a high head kick.
He quickly twisted on the heel of his foot still nted on the ground, and attempted to shoot out a spinning kick, but failed mid-way and fell over.
[+2 Agility.]
He picked himself up and tried once more. And again he failed.
[+2 Agility.]
This went on for several rounds and each time his agility increased ever so slightly.
~I think I got the hang of it,~ he thought to himself, as attempted to pull off the move once again. Sess.
He kept the rhythm going, throwing out a different type of kick with every twist. Eventually, the kicks began to pack more of a punch and with every rotation, they gained more momentum behind them. Until finally, he used a kick to swing himself into the air, somersaulting before mming back into the ground with a palm strike.
[+40 Agility.]
~Kukk,~ Lucius thought in annoyance. Though the trick worked out, it wasn''t what he had been aiming for.
He had nned onnding back on his feet and throwing out a few more kicks, however, he had still gotten a good amount of agility anyway.
After resting for a bit, he decided to try again.
High head kick, spin kick, spin kick, jumping spin kick. Fail.
[+3 Agility.]
Getting dizzy from all the kicks, he decided to take a bit of a rest.
"What do you call that?"
? Lucius turned to look at where the voice wasing from. It was Ghost, sitting on a small pebble not too far away from where he had been training.
"Ahh, so it was you," Lucius whispered before turning to look at his hands.
"It''s called martial arts," he answered after a moment.
"Martial Arts?"
"You want to try?" he asked, before standing up.
"I could give it a go," Ghost replied, walking towards him.
"Okay, first lesson. Stand on one leg while I train," he instructed, before getting back into the neutral stance he had been in earlier.
"Stand on one leg? So I''m not going to do all the flying stuff?" Ghost asked, kind of confused with why he was making her do this.
"You need bnce to be able to do this," he replied, before throwing out a crisp high head kick.
"Bnce?" Ghost asked, staring at Lucius in awe.
"Don''t worry about the theory. Just do as I say," he responded, before twisting over, dropping his outstretched leg and shooting out the back leg in one fluid movement.
[+10 Agility.]
~Sobinations give higher overall stat points than individual moves, huh~ he noted, before throwing out anotherbination.
[+7 Agility.]
Meanwhile, Ghost tried and failed to stand on one leg. Throughout the 30-minute session, Lucius had amassed 130 points into Agility, 30 into strength, and 50 into stamina.
Meanwhile, Ghost couldn''t even stand on one leg for more than a few seconds.
"This is hard," she sighed as Lucius sat exhausted behind her.
~Well, normally people would use their arms to help with that. But I still think your progress isn''t that bad,~ Lucius thought to himself as he side-eyed Ghost''s attempts.
However, now that he thought about it, he was probably the strange one here. Regardless of whether or not he knew the moves, he was fairly certain he shouldn''t have gotten this good in such a short amount of time.
The only viable conclusion he coulde to was that the stat points somehow modified his body at an unnatural rate. And since it seemed he was the only one here whose body worked on stat points, everyone else would be limited to a natural progression.
~But does this mean the stat points I gain from these will teau with time?~ he wondered. Remembering how the stat points he used to gain from dragging materials around would slowly reduce over time.
~Perhaps as I get used to it?~
After resting for a while, Lucius woke up the leaflings to continue the march.
***
Along their journey, Ghost would use up any spare time she got trying to bnce on one leg. Though try and try as she might, she couldn''t seem to hold it up for more than five seconds.
A few leaflings noticed what she was doing, and thought that it was a fun game, so of course they tried it as well.
Several of them managed to hold it for at least four seconds. A few of them held it longer, some even going to seven seconds.
Though they seemed to be having fun with it, Ghost couldn''t help but get annoyed at the fact that newbies had beaten her already.
~Well you only started a few hours ago,~ Lucius thought to himself before calling them all to sit around him.
"Photosynthesis session," he shouted, and they all quickly got into position.
Once again, the gap between those with endurance, and those without it becamerger andrger. The difference in sizes was bing more apparent, and a few of the leaflings were being left behind.
This time a few more of them managed to survive to 20 minutes, before passing out. Alpha, Ghost, Hannibal, and Pagan were the only ones left past the 30 minutes mark, and at 45 minutes only Pagan remained.
An odd sensation began to travel through Lucius''s body as photosynthesis continued. He could feel that something was welling up, he wasn''t sure what exactly, but it felt close.
So he decided to carry on. An hour passed, and the feeling only got stronger, but due to their limited time, he was forced to stop.
"I-I was so close," Pagan groaned.
"Close?" Lucius asked, thinking that it was only him who had felt that sensation.
"I was close to it," Pagan responded, his eyes pleading with Lucius to go again.
"Close to what Pagan?"
"I-I don''t know," Pagan replied, a faraway gleam in his eyes.
Chapter 36 [Bonus Chapter]Setting Up Base (1)
~Could he be close to evolution?~ Lucius pondered. It seemed to be a viable reason, however, the question still remained. Howe he could feel it as well?
"Sigh."
"You''ll have as many sessions for as long as you want once we find a proper camp. For now, rest. We''ll be moving in a few minutes," he said out loud, patting Pagan on the back before going to rest himself.
~If he really is close to evolving then that means I can set up a proper camp faster than I intended. I should probably add him and the others to the martial arts training as well. Since it''s the only weapon we ha-~ his train of thought was lost as he noticed a long branch hanging from a nearby tree.
~Wait a moment,~ he thought to himself, before walking towards it to get a closer look.
The tip of the branch was a bit out of reach, but Lucius could tell that it led all the way up to the thicker branches of the bottle-shaped tree.
The tree in question seemed to be in bad shape. It was way shorter than the others, and wasn''t getting enough sunshine, which must''ve resulted in its stunted growth.
Lucius was no botanist, but the discoloration of its leaves also seemed to hint at ack of certain nutrients.
"As they say, ''one man''s pain is another man''s pleasure'' or in this case, one nt''s pain I suppose," he whispered before looking around.
He began inspecting the surrounding area, checking if the tree was already inhabited. After a thorough search, he found no holes or barrows dug anywhere around it. And as far as he could see, there were no nests or anything of the sort close by.
"Hmm, maybe a wider search perhaps," he whispered to himself, turning to search for Alpha amongst the sleeping leaflings.
"Can you move?" he asked once he found Alpha. Though a bit groggy, Alpha was already awake.
"This is nothing, I can move," Alpha replied, looking towards his men. Unlike him, it seemed they were still down for the count.
~Exceptional will,~ Lucius praised, noticing that Alpha was struggling to even get up.
"It''s okay, you can stay here. Rest a little longer, I''ll ju-"
"Please, let me go with you," Alpha pleaded, pushing himself to stand. Though a bit wobbly, he made it to his feet.
"Every time I stop training, every time I stop moving, I remember their faces. Every single one of them," Alpha whispered, looking to the ground.
"I mean, death was a normal thing before you came. This is my thirdmune, I''ve seen leaflingse and go. Trampled or eaten my boars, dozens of them dying every day. But this time it was different somehow..." Alpha said, nearly choking on his words.
"Alpha..." Lucius whispered, putting his hand on Alpha''s back.
For a moment, Alpha looked around to as if to see if anyone was awake, and once he saw that everyone was still out he looked up to Lucius.
"Y-You know, I don''t think I''m cut out to be a squad leader," Alpha whispered after thinking for a moment.
"I''m a coward you know," he continued, a sad sort ofugh following right after.
"Yeah, a coward. I me Hannibal for everything, but deep down I knew the truth. I was angry at myself," he whispered, moving closer to Lucius like a child confessing to his father.
"I would''ve chosen to wait, and perhaps... perhaps all of us would''ve died. And you know what, Captain? Sometimes... sometimes I wish that''s how it had all ended"
"Alpha," Lucius whispered, looking down at him.
"It''s the truth, isn''t it? Why did they deserve to die?" he asked, sadness audible in his tone.
"I remember the way they looked at me, thinking that had been saved. They all looked so scared at the time, I-I should''ve known better. How do you think they all felt in their final moments? Do you think they realized we had sacrificed them?"
"That we had left them there to die?" Alpha asked, his tone turning to disgust as he said this.
"I should''ve ran into the enemies alone, maybe then they woul-"
"Alpha!" Lucius shouted.
"How do you do it? How do you act like nothing happened? How does everyone else do it? Am I the only one who feels guilty? Am I the only one who feels disgusted? Dirty?"
"It isn''t easy, and it doesn''t get easier. I can''t tell you anything that will magically make the pain go away, Alpha. If anything, that same pain will make you a better leader," Lucius answered, before turning towards the forest.
"The dead are just that, dead. We can remember them, but that''s about all we can do. There are still leaflings left here that need you. I won''t stop you from mourning the fallen, but keep in mind that amongst all the leaflings, you''re probably in the best state of mind."
"Or haven''t you noticed, Alpha? The looks of dread on all their faces," Lucius continued, before walking towards the forest to conduct his search. Leaving Alpha behind to his thoughts.
*
~I''m no good at this,~ Lucius thought to himself.
~I was always a more technical leader. When things got too emotional I would dump it all on Riley. Not that it happened much, but it still helped,~ he continued, climbing up a rock to get a better view of the surrounding area.
~Even as a father I was joke. I never really could get Arya to stop crying,~ he thought.
The search went on for half an hour, and Lucius couldn''t find anything of rm. Apart from the fact that the river was a 10-minute walk away from the site, there were no real downsides.
There were a bunch of twigs lying around to use as materials. Vines and grass for rope, and a lot of small stones if he ever decided he needed any.
~Hmm, there are still a few hours of daylight left. Perhaps I should begin right away,~ he decided, looking up to see that the sun was still a ways away from setting.
Chapter 37 Setting Up Base (2)
Lucius began scouring the surrounding area, only collecting the more straightly shaped twigs he woulde across. After half an hour, he had collected 36 of them, and umted 10 points into strength and another 8 into stamina.
His first goal was to build a few sleds so that the leaflings could help him gather materials, so after gathering a sufficient amount of twigs, the next step was grass.
He collected around 50 des of grass -them being way lighter than the twigs- they only gave him 4 points into strength and 2 into stamina.
By now all the leaflings had woken up and were crowding around Lucius to see what was going on.
"Is this our new home?" one of them asked as it stood on its tip toes trying to get a glimpse of the work Lucius was doing over the other leaflings.
"That''s right," Lucius replied as he weaved three des of grass together for rope.
"Are we going to be collecting stuff again?" another asked excitedly.
"Right again," he responded once more, only giving a small fraction of his attention to the leaflings around him.
After a while, he decided that he had weaved as much rope as he needed, and stacked the remaining des of grass aside. In total there were 16 lines of rope, allid out beside the twigs.
~You''d think I''d gain some agility from all this weaving I''m doing,~ he sighed to himself as he took a quick break.
The leaflings scrutinized the rope with their feet while he rested, some of them ying with the remaining des of grass as well. It was a good distraction from all the sadness that had been floating about earlier on.
After resting for a little longer, he set out to begin building the sleds.
He selected twelve twigs from the pile and divided them into groups of three. He then carefully tied a line of rope around each twig, connecting it to the other twigs within their respective groups, before ensuring that the ropes were properly tightened.
After he hadpleted the main body, he used the smaller lines of rope to create harnesses at the front for the leaflings to pull on.
By the time he had finished with all 4 sleds, the sun was already beginning to set. So while the leaflings yed around with the sleds, he began plucking leaves from the few surrounding shrubs.
After he had collected a good number of leaves, he took arge portion of the remaining twigs and began cing them against the trunk of the stunted tree, almost like a makeshift shed.
He then began covering it with the leaves he had collected, which proved to be a bit of a puzzle as he didn''t have any adhesives to make them stick to the twigs.
However after a bit of work on his part, the twigs werepletely covered, and the leaflings had a sort of camouged tent to sleep in for the night.
"Okay guys, that''s enough. It''s time to rest," he called out. The leaflings didn''t seem too happy about being dragged away from their fun, but they obliged and put the sleds back in their ce.
"Where did you learn to make this?" one of the leaflings asked as they walked into the tent.
"That''s a secret," Lucius smiled, before saying his goodnight to the leaflings.
"What about you? Aren''t you going to rest as well?" Alpha whispered, appearing from the side of the tent. "The rest of the squad and I can take first watch, you must be tired."
"I still have a bit to do, but you guys can take the first shift," Lucius replied, a tad happy to see that Alpha was somewhat back to his old self.
"Very well, Captain," he nodded, before assembling his squad and rotating to their positions.
"How long are you going to follow me around for?" Lucius whispered once Alpha had left.
"I know you''re there," he continued, turning to look at a small shrub at least a meter away from him.
"Ahh, how did you know?" a voice groaned, before the shrub began to rustle. Ghost emerged from it a momentter, a defeated look on her face.
"I hadn''t seen you the whole day, and I was wondering why the bushes would sometimes breathe while I was collecting twigs," he replied, before walking towards the drooping branch.
"So what are you doing now?" Ghost asked, looking up at the branch.
"Thinking about how I''m going to climb this," he replied, trying to see if he would reach the tip of the branch by jumping. However he could just barely touch it even when he used his full strength.
~I''ll need adder,~ he thought to himself before heading back to where he had stacked the materials.
"Hey, I wanted to show you my progress. I can stand on one leg longer than I could before," said Ghost, running ahead of him before excitedly standing on one leg.
"That''s good Ghost," he replied, taking a moment to look at her. Though she was a bit wobbly, she had indeed improved from this morning.
"Now just work on standing still while you do it," he said, gently nudging her. That was all it took for her to lose her bnce and fall to her back.
"Come on Luci, teach me how to do that flying thing," she pleaded, quickly getting to her feet before running in front of him once again.
"It''ll be easier once you evolve, just wait till then," he replied, maneuvering around her to pull a few twigs from the remaining stockpile.
"But I wanna learn now," she said, standing in front of the pile of grass as he was about to collect some.
"Sigh. Okay, I''ll teach you one move. If you can''t even learn that, then you''ll have to agree to wait till you''ve evolved," he replied reluctantly, before walking around her to get to the grass.
He collected a few bundles and quickly wove several short lines of rope. Putting those aside, he ced two long twigs parallel to each other and then broke a few of the remaining into smaller pieces. He then ced the smaller pieces perpendicr to the first and used the rope to bind them.
"So? When are you going to teach me?" Ghost asked after Lucius had finished binding the first half of thedder.
"You want to learn it right now?" he replied, already working on the second half. He repeated the process he had done earlier but found that he wascking some rope, so he collected another bundle from the pile
"Yeah, right now," Ghost replied.
"Okay," he sighed in defeat, stopping what he was doing.
Chapter 38 Surveying
"Finally, some real moves," Ghost said in excitement.
? "Watch carefully," said Lucius, moving a few steps back to create some space. He got into a neutral stance, standing still for a moment as if waiting for something, before moving forward with terrific swiftness.
It all happened in one fluid movement, a high head quick followed by a spinning back kick. The ferocity from it alone was enough to send Ghost to the floor.
For a moment she couldn''t process what had just happened and stared nkly at Lucius, whose leg was still outstretched on the back kick.
[+4 Agility.]
"Do you think you can do it?" he asked, putting his foot down gently before carrying on with his work.
"I-I think so yeah," she stuttered, before getting to her feet.
"Great, you can start immediately since you have nothing else to do," Lucius responded as he weaved a few lines of rope out of grass.
"So how was it again? This leg?" Ghost whispered to herself, trying to imitate the high head kick.
"Start with the other one. Your right leg is better at bncing than your left," Luciusmented as he bound the remaining pieces of twig to thedder.
As expected, Ghost couldn''t even lift her leg up high enough without falling over. Much less throw it out into an effective kick.
~ At least flexibility doesn''t seem to be an issue faced by leafings,~ he thought to himself, noticing that her leg movements weren''t restricted. Herck of bnce seemed to be the only thing hindering her right now.
"Okay, all done," he whispered, staring at his makeshiftdder. And makeshift it was indeed. The sides of thedder moved around, making it unstable, and since the twigs weren''t of equal size it had an overall skew appearance.
"At least it''s sturdy," hemented, testing whether it could hold his weight. The individual twigs moved around a bit to ount for the added weight, but after the initial movement, it stood rtively still.
"Yeah, I just have to be careful," he decided, carefully stepping off it before carrying it toward the droopy branch. After making sure its legs were properly nted into the ground, he began his ascent.
He took each step slowly, making sure to give thedder some time to adjust to his weight before moving up. Unfortunately, even as careful as he was, thedder begin to wobble, and it only seemed to get worse with every step he took.
On the final three steps, he quickened his pace, jumping off thedder onto the branch right before it fell to the ground.
"Getting down will probably hurt," he sighed to himself as he clung onto the branch. Luckily the branch seemed to have dried out due to its severed connection with the main tree, so its bark was rough and had many cracks that he could use as tforms to climb on.
[+8 Strength.]
[+2 Stamina.]
[+3 Agility.]
~Yeah, thought so. This feels like rock climbing,~ he thought to himself as he struggled to climb to the top.
After a few minutes, he finally reached the other end of the branch. Though his arms felt like they would fall off at any moment.
"Maybe I should do more bodyweight exercises," he whispered in betweenbored breaths as he got a look at the surrounding area.
He was currently standing on top of arge branch, perhaps one of thergest in fact. It extended all the way towards a nearby tree, mingling with other branches. He estimated that it was at least 60 centimeters in diameter, which to him was quite massive.
"It''s quite t," hemented, as he walked along it.
"But I''ll probably need to remove the bark and sand out the bottom to make it t enough to use as a base for construction," he realized, walking further up the branch.
From here he could see Alpha standing guard a few meters away from camp. He could also Hannibal sitting by himself a few meters off in the opposite direction, and Ghost who was still falling over trying to master the move he had taught her.
"Though I wonder if I can remove this bark," he wondered, trying to rip off a piece of it, but failing to do so.
"Nope, I''ll need some sort of tool," he realized, after trying a few more times.
"I''ll also need a tool to cut up a fewrger pieces of twig. I can''t use them as they are now. They''re a little too.." he whispered looking down at his disfigureddder.
"But what would work as a cutting tool at this size? What''s essible to me?" he pondered, using the moonlight to look around the forest floor.
"Stones?" he wondered, his eyesnding upon a cluster of pebbles a few meters off.
"I could grind them against each other to shape them, but that''ll probably take a while. I''m in for a long day''s work tomorrow," he said reluctantly.
~Atleast I''m bound to increase my strength points,~ he thought to himself, looking on the bright side.
After slowly descending to the tip of the branch and falling down the rest of the way, Lucius decided to head back to the tent.
"You shoulde in as well, Ghost. You can continue training tomorrow," he called out before going in. However, she seemed adamant about continuing so he left her to it and took a quick nap.
*
The next morning started like the ones before. A few exercises, a bit of stretching, and then a martial arts session. The only difference was that this time, Ghost was right next to him attempting the move he had taught herst night.
Though if he had to be honest, she seemed to be getting worse. Now she couldn''t even stand one leg for more than three seconds without tumbling over, and overall her movements seemed to be more sluggish.
"Go take a rest, you''ll get nothing done this way," he ordered, picking her up and carrying her to the tent despite her protests.
Chapter 39 What Is That?
*
~I guess my hunch was correct,~ thought Lucius as he stared at his updated yer stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 3: 120/300]
[Leaf Being lvl.4- [10/400]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 230 > 270]
[Strength: 185 > 197]
[Stamina: 156 > 188]
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He had been training for nearly half an hour, and even though he had done more or less the same exercises he did yesterday, he only got half the points.
~I teaued ridiculously fast,~ he realized after trying to do aplex kick and getting nothing out of it. At this point, he had to do longerbinations with way moreplex movements if he wanted to get anywhere near a few points. However, that wasn''t at all a big issue.
If he had topare his current self to the one that lost to those shroom-beings, he would say that he had improved by leaps and bounds.
He could probably take on 4 shrooms simultaneously, and that would be head to head. Adding his stealth, if he yed his cards right he could probably wipe them out of existence.
A smile crept up on his face as he threw out a barrage of crisp clean punches. He still couldn''t believe that this was all aplished in a matter of days.
~But how strong am Ipared to boars?~ he thought to himself as he walked back to the camp.
*
"Okay, listen up. I''ll hook you guys up to the sleds and we''ll head out into the forest. We have a lot of work to do, so I hope you''re all ready," he shouted out. All the leaflings immediately stopped what they were doing and scrambled over each other to get to a sled.
Unfortunately, Lucius had only managed to make 4 yesterday, and with each sled only being capable of amodating three leaflings, most of them wouldn''t get the chance to pull one.
"Hmm. I''ll make more sledster on, for now, you guys will just have to take turns," he said after pondering over it for a moment. A few leaflings reluctantly let their brothers and sisters have the first turn. They watched on in envy as the groups ran around pulling the wooden structures.
~Does this count as childbor? I kind of feel bad for them,~ Lucius thought to himself, unable toprehend why the leaflings found this even remotely fun.
~I mean, training is way more enjoyable than this,~ he thought as he led them to a section of the forest where he had seen pebbles.
"By the way, have any of you seen Alpha today?" Lucius asked as he led the group past a drape of vines.
"Oh, he said that he and the others were going to search the area," one of the leaflings replied.
"They said they''d be back before the sessions started," another chimed in.
"Hmm, a deeper search huh?" he whispered to himself. It wouldn''t be a lie to say that Lucius didn''t quite like that idea.
Sure, Alpha had been trained to some extent, but ever since the shroom-beings, Lucius feared that some other creature might hunt them down while they were on patrol duty.
~I wish there was a way to speed up the photosynthesis proces-~ just as he was thinking that he remembered the daily quest he had received a few days ago.
~Is it still there?~ he thought, quickly pulling out his daily quests tab.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Daily Quests ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
300 exp
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Milestone ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Ahh, it didn''t update,~ he thought, looking around to remind himself of where exactly he was in the forest. "I think it was past this group of shrubs," he whispered before proceeding forward.
~Anyway, I might have to look into this. Maybe a new catalyst will give higher efficiency rates. Anything to cut down on the evolution time will do,~ he thought, reaching the quarry of pebbles as he concluded this.
"Okay, let''s begi-"
"Get back," he said almost immediately after.
"Huh, what-"
"I said get back. Hide behind those shrubs over there," he whispered quickly, practically shoving the leaflings behind the shrubs a momentter.
"Don''t make a sound," he whispered once all of them were safely hidden before leaving.
He spotted several footprints around the area, and based on their odd shape, he was confident that they weren''t made by a leafling.
~But I searched the area, I don''t remember seeing anything of the sort," he thought to himself as he followed the trail that the creature had left behind.
Whatever had left them was bigger than he was, based on the distance between its footprints.
~An insect?~ he thought, noticing that the trail had too many footprints for it to be a bipedal creature.
The trail in question was quite odd, for a number of reasons. For one, there was a trail of liquid meandering at the center, almost as if the creature were spraying something as it moved.
Also, there were times when the trail seemed to disappear in between, almost as if the creature floated off the ground and flew for a distance beforending again. However, the spaces weren''t thatrge, so it was still quite easy to keep on track.
~Should I kill it?~ he wondered. He wasn''t going to take chances with the safety of the leaflings. However, if unnecessary scuffles could be avoided he would definitely take that route, but he had to be certain that whatever the creature was would not pose a threat.
After following the trail for a couple of minutes he finally caught up to it. It was indeed an insect or some insectoid-type creature. It looked eerily simr to ants back on earth, except it had a pair of wings on its back and a sort of erged abdomen.
~What is that?~ he thought to himself. Had it flown over here? Are there more of them? These were the first questions to pop into mind.
~But why is it alone?~ he wondered, staring at the creature as it walked around aimlessly. It seemed to be limping, and the weird trail of liquid he had seen next to the footprints seemed to being from its thorax.
"Zeexop, erop," it stuttered, its dialect sounding nearly extraterrestrial to Lucius.
~The hell is going on?~
Chapter 40 Captive
Lucius decided to keep watch on it for a while, keeping dead still as he hid behind a tree.
After watching for a few more minutes he came to the conclusion that it was indeed lost. It kept changing directions erratically, almost as if it were moving merely for the sake of it.
Whatever liquid was pouring from its thorax seemed to be due to an injury. As the limping appeared to be caused by trauma to its front leg, near where the site of ''blood'' wasing from.
~Was it in some sort of fight?~ he wondered, carefully moving to the next tree so as not to lose sight of it.
He could very well just kill it right now, however, that would leave many questions unanswered. For one, he still wasn''t certain whether the insectoid was a colony type, which would mean that there were more nearby causing evenrger problems if he unnecessarily killed one of their kind.
~ This whole ''creatures having intelligence'' thing is sort of confusing,~ he thought, imagining a group of insectoids hunting down hismune after finding the creature dead.
~Should I approach it?~ he considered after thinking it over for a bit. The creature''s wings didn''t work, it was crippled due to an injury and though its pincers looked scary, Lucius was still fairly certain he could outmaneuver it.
~But this is exactly what got mest time,~ he realized right before approaching. He had assumed that the shrooms didn''t have any natural weapons apart from their fangs and had been taken out due to that sort of carelessness.
~No, I''ll keep my distance. But I can''t very well let it go without asking it about where it came from.~
"Oi!" he called out, standing very far from the insectoid.
"Xepop, Exxor," the insectoid replied, turning to look at Lucius. A moment of silence descended upon the two, as if they were sizing each other up.
From the way it was staring at him, Lucius could tell that it was indeed an intelligent creature. The first ce it looked were his hands, and after that, the creature began analyzing the rest of his body as if searching for possible weapons.
"Exxor?" the creature blurted out after it had finished its search. It began approaching Lucius slowly, and with every step it took forward, he would take one back.
"Don''te closer. I don''t want any trouble, I just want to know if there are more of you guys around. I don''t mean any harm," he tried saying. Though he was fairly certain that there was indeed anguage barrier, there was nothing else he could do.
The insectoid stopped for a moment once it saw Lucius''s ''halting'' gesture and began pondering something.
After a while, it turned around to show Lucius the spot where it had been injured and then spread its wings as if to show him the damage.
"Yes, I see. You were injured," Lucius said slowly. ~Gods this is hard.~
"What happened? What hit you?" he continued, pointing to the creature''s wings in an attempt tomunicate.
The insectoid stared at him for a moment, pondering, before walking towards a nearby bush. "Rexop," it said.
"Thorns?" Lucius replied, after staring at the bush for some time.
The creature did not respond but continued to stare at him.
~This is getting us nowhere. I guess I''ll just have to search around to see if there are more of them," he decided after a while.
~But what do I do about this thing?~
"Exxor," the creature said once again before trying to approach him.
"Stay back," Lucius shouted in response, holding out his hand in a halting gesture once again.
"Exxor," the creature shouted louder this time, erratically opening and closing its wings.
"Yes, we already established that. You''re injured, but I can''t very welle near you, now can I?" he replied, taking a few steps back.
"Exxor, Exxor, Exxor," the creature said repeatedly, creating buzzing sounds with its wings as it trailed around in circles. The liquid pouring out of its thorax seemed to be flowing out at a faster rate with every second that passed, and in turn, the creature was getting slower and slower.
~If it dies on its own I guess that would be a solution too,~ he realized. Deciding that he was going nowhere with this line of questioning he began walking back to the leaflings.
~Better get back I have to warn them,~ he realized. For all he knew, they might already be walking nearby the camp.
*
"He''s back," one of the leaflings whispered once Lucius came into view.
"Shhh, he said to keep quiet," another oneined, kicking his colleague on the leg.
"Ouch, don''t kick me."
[+10 Stamina.]
"We''re going back to the camp," Lucius ordered once he reached them, looking back at the area he had juste from.
The leaflings all had puzzled looks on their faces. First, he told them to hide and keep still, then he disappeared for a whole 30 minutes and came back telling them they had to go back?
"What about the materials?" one of them asked, hoping they could still pull some stuff around.
"Later, not now. Now let''s get going," he said again, shoving the leaflings forward.
"Aww," they groaned, reluctantly making their way back to the camp.
*
"Pagan, has Alphae back?" Lucius asked once he got back to the camp.
"No, he''s still out," Pagan replied turning to look at Lucius, "When can we have a session," he asked immediately after, walking towards him.
"Later, I need everyone to get into the tent and stay there. I''m going to get Alpha," he ordered. After a moment of confusion, the leaflings began walking into the tent, whispering questions to each other.
"I''ming with you," Pagan called out as Lucius was about to leave.
"No, stay behind. It''s dangerous," Lucius replied, already quite a distance away. However, Pagan wasn''t having that and was already running towards him.
~Sigh, lords why won''t you just listen,~ he thought to himself, slowing down so that Pagan could catch up to him.
Chapter 41 Friendly?
"What''s going on?" asked Pagan once he caught up to Lucius.
"Security threat," Lucius replied, his eyes scanning the forest for any trace of Alpha and his squad.
"Are they the ones from the old camp?" Pagan responded, suddenly on high alert as he began looking around as if to see whether they were already closing in on them.
"No, something else. We''ve never encountered anything like this before. But they''re capable of flight, so they''re probably going to be harder to deal with," Lucius replied.
"They? How many did you find?" Pagan asked, already wheezing from exhaustion.
~He''s going to be the first to evolve but even Ghost has more stamina than him,~ Lucius noted, side-eying Pagan as he spoke.
"I only saw one. But it''s safe to assume that there are more of them close by. That''s why I want all of you to hide while I deal with them," he responded, zipping past a cluster of bushes.
"You...you think you can take them all by yourself?" Pagan asked, practically gasping for air.
[+3 Stamina.]
"I don''t know yet, but it''s safer if I approach them alone."
After searching for several minutes, they finally found the group resting a few meters away from the river.
"Oh, it''s you, Captain. We were wondering what was approaching," said Alpha once Lucius and Pagan arrived in front of the group, his body visibly rxing.
"I spotted a creature west of the camp, I need you guys to return while I do a thorough search of the area," Lucius replied.
"A creature? We''ve been searching around here since yesterday, quite thoroughly in fact. And we haven''te across anything," Alpha responded, already on high alert.
"Since yesterday?"
"Yeah. I couldn''t fall asleep without making sure that we were safe. So while we were on guard dutyst night, we did a search. I''m not going to let things repeat themself," he said, a fierce look in his eyes. "But if you spotted a creature, then maybe we did miss something," he continued.
"Hmm, then that means it really did fly here. Then it''s probably alone I suppose. But we should still head back to the camp in case," Luicius proposed.
The group ran back to the camp posthaste. Once they got back, they found the leaflings grouped up a bit in front of the shed. Whispering excitedly amongst themselves.
"What are you guys doi-"
"Lighted One, look. It''s injured," one of the leaflings shouted out once it noticed Lucius and the rest of the group emerging from the forest.
Lucius was dumbstruck. Just how in the world.
"Get away from it!" he shouted, running in front of the group before standing between them and the thing they were surrounding. It was the insectoid, it must''ve followed him back to the camp.
"Alpha, take the leaflings into the forest. This camp isn''t safe anymore," Lucius ordered, however, Alpha didn''t move, for some reason, he was frozen still.
"Alpha!"
"It''s friendly," one of the leafings tried protesting, but Lucius wasn''t having any of it. Just how did they get ''friendly'' out of an unknown creature? You''d think that their first instinct would be to run once they came across it.
"Captain, they''re right. It''s not hostile," Alpha whispered after a moment.
"How can you be so sure?" Lucius asked, still on high alert.
"These thingse around once a year to bless the pods. They are... they help with the birth of new leaflings," Pagan answered instead, walking past Lucius to get a closer look at it.
"Exxor," the creature said as Pagan approached it.
"We must help it Lighted One," Pagan said, turning to look at Lucius.
~What?~
Lucius stopped to look around him for a moment and found that everyone seemed to be rtively calm about it. Ghost, Alpha, and Pagan in particr seemed to be quitefortable going up to the creature.
"You''ve seen it before?" he asked, after calming down.
"Only from afar, I''ve never been this close to one. But I can assure you that it means us no harm," Pagan replied as he inspected its wound.
"So what? It''s like a pollinator? Is that how leaflings are born?" Lucius asked in confusion, getting a little closer as well.
"Ahh, not exactly," Alpha responded, his facial expression showing that he was a little ufortable.
"It''s going to die if we don''t do something," Pagan interrupted before Alpha could give a proper response. And he was right, the creature was hardly moving right now, and its feelers were drooped to the ground.
~But even if it''s not hostile, how are we gonna save it? I''m no insect doctor,~ he thought to himself. However, it seemed the leaflings would not ept that as an answer, as they stared at him with pleading eyes.
"Okay get back, I''ll see what I can do."
Lucius rushed to grab a de of grass from the supplies area before quickly tearing off a piece of leaf from a nearby shrub. Once he returned to the creature, he slowly ced the leaf on the site of the wound, to which it stuck like glue due to the hemolymph.
The creature''s feelers shot up, and it jerked back in response, but quickly calmed down once it saw the alert expression on Lucius''s face. Regardless of what the leaflings said, he still didn''t properly trust the thing.
"Calm down now, let''s not make things too difficult. I''m just trying to help," he said slowly, before pressing the piece of leaf t on the wound.
"Peroc," the creature replied, its body easing down.
"Good. Now I''m doing this to stop the... bleeding? Whatever you call this. I don''t know if it will work-" as he said this he began to tear the de of grass into smaller strips, "but I might as well try," he continued, before tying the smaller strips around the leaf to create a makeshift bandage.
"There," he sighed once he was done. It worked well enough as the liquid stopped pouring out of its thorax, however, the creature still looked weak. If he left it like this it would probably still meet its fate.
"Water, I need water," he realized, looking around for anything he could carry water in.
"How the hell am I gonna give it water?" he wondered, before looking back at the creature.
"Ugh," he sighed reluctantly, rushing to retrieve a sled.
"I''m going to take you to the river, just bare with me," he said slowly, before carefully trying to lift the creature off the ground.
~It''s pretty light for its size,~ he thought to himself as he hauled the creature off the ground. The creature''s body tensed up in response, perhaps due to the sudden jolt of pain. But once it was on the sled it calmed down again, and stared at Lucius as if waiting for more instructions.
"Here we go," he huffed, tugging at the rope and pulling as carefully as he could.
"Ederr," the creature screamed. The forest floor was not exactly a smooth road, so as Lucius pulled the sled it bounced up and down, probably causing the creature some difort.
"You''re light, but not light enough to carry till the river mate. You''ll just have to tough it out." Lucius said in a sort of soothing tone.
The leaflings followed close behind him, offering words of encouragement to the insectoid.
~Why are they acting like best friends?~ Lucius wondered to himself. It all felt unnatural. The fact that they were so easily epting of a creature they hardly knew. However, he did wonder if perhaps his old memories and knowledge were interfering with his natural instinct to be epting of the creature.
*
"Okay, here we are," Lucius sighed, his arms and legs burning from the mini-workout.
[+10 Stamina.]
[+19 Strength.]
"Take a sip," he said after stretching his arms a little. However the creature just stared at him, a sort of helpless gleam in its eyes.
"Drink. Don''t you drink water?" he asked, however, the creature did not even respond.
He had assumed that since it was an insect-based creature, it would require water. After all, it only made sense that water could help it rece its lost hemolymph. But maybe he was wrong.
~Maybe it''s too weak to get the water on its own?~ he assumed, before dipping his hands into the gushing river.
"Ooop," he whispered, quickly catching himself from nearly being dragged along with the current. For a moment he had forgotten just how light he really was. He tried again, this time faster, and managed to scoop out a handful of water before quickly offering it to the creature.
The creature epted the gesture, opening its mouth before a tongue-like mouthpiece emerged and sucked down the water.
"Entor," the creature said after it was finished. Lucius assumed that it wanted more and scooped out yet another handful. This went on several more times until the creature stopped sucking the water, at which point he assumed it was satisfied.
Chapter 42 Ascension
A few minutes after the creature had drunk its fill, it fell into a deep slumber. Lucius couldn''t me the thing, who knows how long it had been searching for help? How long it had been afraid for its life.
~But why is it falling asleep here?~ he grunted, as he realized that he would have to drag the sled all the way back to the camp and take care of the creature while it slept.
"It''s pretty, isn''t it?" one of the leaflings asked once it noticed Lucius staring at the creature. It seemed to have mistaken Lucius''s loathful death-stare, for a stare of admiration.
Lucius reluctantly epted his circumstances and absorbed some water before leaving for the camp. He supposed he might as well have a photosynthesis session since everyone was already together.
*
"Okay gather around," Lucius shouted out, his arms still burning from all the pulling he had been doing.
At least it helped supplement his stats growth, as he got another 19 points into strength on the return journey. However, the stamina points he gained this time around were considerably fewer, which made him ponder if perhaps absorbing water had any effect on it.
~Today might be the day that he evolves,~ Lucius thought to himself as Pagan excitedly touched him with the tip of his leaf. After a few minutes the entiremune was ready, and Lucius closed his eyes to begin.
"Okay," he whispered, ridding his mind of stray thoughts before calling upon his crux. Calling the crux out of his body seemed to be getting easier and easier with every session, as he could now call it forth a fraction of a second faster than he could just a few days ago. Which quantitatively didn''t seem like much of a big difference, but still made him a little proud at the progress.
The first five minutes of photosynthesis went smoothly, without anyone dropping out. It seemed that even those that were being left behind were slowly bing more durable with every passing session.
After about 10 minutes though, a quarter of the leaflings had reached their limit, and passed out. Another 10 minutes, and the number of leaflings still clinging on was halved. 5 more, and only a handful of them remained. These were thergest leaflings in themune, and apart from Ghost, Pagan, Hannibal and Alpha, there were four more unnamed ones as well.
At this point, an impending sensation began welling up within Lucius. He could feel that he was close to something, something just out of reach. Maybe if he pushed a little longer... a little more, he would finally reach it.
However, 30 more minutes passed, and still nothing. The feeling kept growing stronger... more powerful but that was it. At this point, everyone else had dropped out, and only he and Pagan remained.
20 more minutes, and though the feeling was now palpable, whatever it was he was supposed to be reaching out for still felt distant.
This was the longest he had ever done photosynthesis, and it was starting to take its toll. His body felt like it was burning, and his mind like it were melting. Every second felt like it was stretched to an hour, and the once blissful sensation began to make him feel like he was bloating, as if at any second he could explode.
Another 10 minutes went by, and Lucius could feel himself slipping out of consciousness. His connection to the outside world seemed to have beenpletely severed, as he could no longer hear the forest winds blowing, or feel the muddy floor beneath him. It was a wonder how Pagan was still conscious despite all this.
*
Lucius wasn''t sure when it had happened, but he was almost certain it had happened. The sensation hade to pass, and he was now unconscious. He knew this to be true because he was once again in the white void that he had visited while he was poisoned.
The burning ball at the center of this weird space pulsated with blinding intensity, almost as if in greeting.
~This ce again huh?~
[Evolution of a secondary creature hasmenced.]
[Rewriting creature''s genome...]
[Genome has been sessfully rewritten to amodate for the evolution process.]
~So he finally did it? He evolved,~ Lucius thought to himself in great delight, as he processed the system notifications that had been force fed into his mind.
[A System Event has begun due to the unexpected secondary evolution.]
[Rewriting user''s genome...]
~Huh? Wait what''s going on?~
[Genome has been sessfully rewritten to amodate for the evolution of more secondary creatures.]
~What are you doi-,~ his thoughts phased into nothingness as the world around him went dark once more.
*
He wasn''t sure how long he had been out for, but when he finally came to, he felt... different. Though it seemed he was still in the weird mind space, as the massive burning ball was still floating right in front of him.
[Updating system information...]
[Species has been updated: Leaf Being -> Leaf Being Guardian.]
[¡ºSkill Tree¡» has been updated.]
[¡ºQuests¡» has been updated.]
[¡ºSystem Shop¡» has been updated.]
[...]
[Evolutionplete.]
And with that, Lucius was thrown out into the outside world.
"He''s awake." It was the same familiar voice that always seemed to say the same thing every time the system put him down for the count.
~Atleast she doesn''t have her foot in my face this time,~ he thought to himself as he opened his eyes to find Ghost and Alpha standing in front of him. Surprisingly, he was in the shed, and right next to him was the insectoid creature, still sleeping merrily.
"How long?" Lucius asked, trying to stand up, but finding that he was still too dizzy.
"Ugh, my head hurts," he grunted.
"Four days," Alpha replied.
"Four days, huh? Not that bad," Lucius responded.
"Any threats?"
"None," Ghost replied this time.
"It''s good to see you weren''t too worried about me," Lucius jested.
"I wouldn''t even be surprised if you didn''t wake up the next time this happens," she replied with a scowl, before leaving the shed.
"I don''t think she quite liked that joke, huh?" Lucius said once she had left, before sitting up.
"What about Pagan? Has he woken up yet?" he asked, just now remembering about the evolution.
"About that... we thought that maybe you might know," Alpha responded.
"What? What do you mean? Where is he?"
"You might want toe to have a look," Alpha, replied.
After taking a moment to gather himself, Lucius tried standing up, but found that his bnce was all over the ce. He couldn''t quite ce it, but walking felt harder... moreplex.
"What the?" he grunted, trying to stand up but falling over each time. "What the hell is going on?" he asked, using the side of the shed to pick himself up.
"Something doesn''t feel right," he whispered, turning around to see why it felt like something was moving him from side to side.
"What the?" It all made sense now, wagging behind him was a tail like limb. Before its only function seemed to have been to absorb water, but now it was longer, nearly the same length as him, and it had a weird flower-like object with bright yellow petals at its end.
"When did I?..." Lucius whispered, looking to Alpha as if for an answer.
"That''s not the only thing," Alpha responded, gesturing up to Lucius''s head. Lucius felt the top of his scalp, and felt two wood-like projections protruding from his head.
"Horns?" he asked, to which Alpha just nodded in response. "Can you stop wagging, for leaf''s sake," Lucius shouted, grabbing at his wagging tail with both hands before falling over due to the sudden imbnce.
Since his tail was about the same length as him, and seemed to have the same density as the rest of his body, it shook him around quite a bit as it wagged. To the extent that standing still was impossible.
~I feel like a toddler,~ he grumbled inwardly.
"I don''t think I''m going to be able to walk like this," he said after trying and failing to stand a few more times.
"Don''t worry, Captain. I can call a few leaflings to help me take you to Pagan," Alpha replied, already calling out for his men.
"To Pagan? Won''t it be easier to bring him here? He''s probably still way lighter than me even with his evolution right?" Lucius asked, crawling back onto the sled.
"Ahh, you''ll see why once we get there," Alpha replied after thinking for a moment.
A few minutes passed and a group of leaflings came into the shed and stood next to the harnesses.
"Ahh, let me hook you guys up," Lucius said, realizing that they couldn''t do it themselves.
"It''s okay, we got it," one of the leaflings responded, before two of them picked up a harness with their foot, and ced it around Alpha''s waist area. Normally such a movement would require great flexibility and control, but perhaps the leaflings already had all this due to theirck of other limbs.
"Ahh, so is this how you brought me here?" Lucius realized, imagining that the leaflings probably rolled him into the sled using their feet, and pulled him here.
"Indeed," Alpha replied as the other leaflings were hooked up to the harnesses as well.
The journey took a while, which was to be expected as Lucius weighted quite a bit rtive to the leaflings, and the fact that they had to stop a couple of times to take a quick breather.
"The river?" Lucius asked once he realized where they were going. Alpha merely shook his head, and continued pulling.
When they finally reached their destination, Lucius found a pod sticking out of the ground, with the same colored petals at the tip of its tail, surrounding the green capsule.
"You''re kidding right?" he asked, staring at the structure in confusion.
Chapter 43 The Elwood Commune Is Born
Lucius attempted to get up from the sled to have a better look at the pod but fell over the second he got to his feet. Of course, he could''ve asked the leaflings to pull the sled closer, however, he already felt annoyed at his helplessness, and letting them do even that much more would make him feel worse.
~Hmm, this seems more manageable,~ he thought to himself as he tried walking on all fours. He hadn''t noticed it before, but his proportions allowed him to do it quitefortably.
However, it all still felt odd as he wasn''t ustomed to it, but at least his unruly tail didn''t hinder his movement as much with this method of walking.
"How did this happen?" he asked as he stared at the pod''s surface. It looked smooth, almost as if it had a waxyyer covering it.
"We aren''t sure. When we woke up we found you unconscious and Pagan missing. So we just assumed that the pod must''ve been him since there was no other exnation," Alpha responded.
"Hmm."
"These flower petals are indeed the exact same as the ones at the tip of my tail," he whispered, inspecting the bottom of the pod. However there was a minor difference between the two, the flowers surrounding the pod had small root-like tendrils that dug into the ground from beneath them.
~Is it pulsing?~ he wondered, noticing that the pod seemed to be pulsating, like a beating heart. In fact, he could feel a sort of warmth emanating from it, calling out to him.
He slowly reached out his hand and felt the pod''s warm surface. In an instant he was thrown into the white void, however this time it wasn''t his.
He was almost certain of this because there was no burning sphere at the center of it. And though the space seemed to go on into infinitely, it felt smaller than the one he usually went to.
"Pagan?" Lucius called out, noticing a creature floating in the distance.
[100,000 Helios is required toplete evolution.]
[ept] [Decline]
Lucius quickly epted, and the creature began glowing a brilliant yellow.
[Purchase ¡ºSobriquet¡» from ¡ºSystem Shop¡» in order to add creature to linkedmune.]
~Sobriquet? I never saw an item like that in the system shop before~ he thought to himself before opening the shop.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??System Shop??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
"What the? This is daylight robbery! What exactly does this do for it to cost this much?"
However, the cost wasn''t really a problem for Lucius right now. He hadn''t allocated any of his absorbed Helios from thest two sessions, which had bothsted an hour and in total amounted to 2.3 million helios points.
So he quickly purchased the Sobriquet, and though Helios points weren''t exactly real currency, he still felt a sense of buyer''s remorse afterward.
~Sigh, I could''ve used them for growth.~
[Input creature''s title.] The system prompted, to which Lucius answered, "Pagan."
[¡ºPagan¡» has been linked to yourmune.]
[¡ºPagan¡»''s stats can now be viewed.]
[¡ºSystem Shop¡» items may now be shared with ¡ºPagan¡».]
[¡ºPagan¡» has unlocked title [First in themune].]
[+5% to all stats, helios, and growth gains have been awarded to ¡ºPagan¡».]
With that, Lucius was thrown out of the void.
~I''ll never get used to that,~ he thought to himself as he opened his eyes, his mind feeling a bit fuzzy from the experience. However, that was short-lived as a ripping sound emanated from right in front of him.
"Huh?" he whispered, watching the pod peel open to reveal the newly evolved Pagan.
Pagan''s new form wasn''t much different from Lucius''s old one. He had forest green skin, two small wood-like knobs protruding from his scalp, and an atrophied tail..
Lucius tried to help him out but found it difficult due to the fact he himself could not stand, and the fact that Pagan was covered by a slimy amniotic fluid.
"Need to wash him off," Lucius whispered, slowly dragging the still unconscious Pagan towards the river.
"Huh? I look like some kind of forest demon from an old folklore story," hemented as he looked at his reflection in the gushing water.
The horns on his head were around the same length as his arms and were made from some kind of dark ebony wood. In fact, there were so dark he wondered if perhaps it really was wood.
Another noticeable change was the color of his iris, which was now the same sunflower yellow as the petals at the tip of his tail.
And his once green sclera was now obsidian ck, the same color as his horns. If anything, no one would be able to guess he had any rtion to the leaflings. He looked more like a fairytale now, like some mystical creature.
"Well, it''s an upgrade I guess," hemented before carefully taking a scoop of water out of the river, and pouring it on Pagan''s face.
He repeated the process several more times until Pagan''s body waspletely rinsed off the slimy substance.
"It doesn''t seem like he''s going to wake up right now," he realized after tapping him a few times on the face.
"Let''s take him back," he ordered, turning to look at Alpha and his group. The looks on their faces were confusing, to say the least. Though they seemed happy that Pagan was safe, they also had a look of envy, as if they couldn''t ept the fact that it really was Pagan.
"Don''t worry. Your days wille soon," heforted. The group pulled the sled closer and they loaded Pagan before preparing to move out. Seeing that everything was properly hooked up, Lucius began his four-legged walk back to the camp.
"Captain, ah, are you going to go back walking like that?" Alpha asked as he and the rest of his squad watched Lucius''s tail wave from side to side, almost as if trapped in a trance.
"Yeah, I think I quite like walking like this," Lucius answered.
*
Once they got back to the camp, the leaflings began surrounding Pagan, everyone excited to see his new form.
"He looks, just like the Lighted O-" one leafling was about to say before getting a look at Lucius.
"Huh?" the leafling shouted in surprise, bumping into another as it jerked back. It seemed that only a few of them had seen his new form. Lucius turned to look at Alpha as if to ask what the hell.
"We couldn''t let anyone in. We were afraid they would wake up the creature," Alpha responded, referring to the insectoid.
"So where have they been sleeping?" Lucius asked worriedly.
"Around the shed. We made sure to keep proper watch, so don''t worry," this time it was Ghost who replied.
"Right..." Lucius responded, still a bit annoyed that they had done that. However, there was nothing he could say, if anything, it was the smarter choice... just not the choice he liked.
"The sun is almost down, so I don''t think we will have a session today. But we can start collecting a few materials," he continued.
"Ahh, about that. We collected a few twigs, however, that was pretty much all we could do without..." she replied, gesturing to theirck of arms.
Lucius turned to look at the shed and found that there were indeed a bunch of twigs piled there. It seemed that the leaflings had been working hard while he was out.
~Hmm, then we just need some grass. I''ll build another shed for the leaflings to use,~ he thought to himself as he walked towards the pile of twigs.
"Why is he walking like that?" Ghost whispered to Alpha as Lucius inspected the twigs.
"Don''t think he can walk properly anymore. That thing on his back must be bothering him," Alpha whispered back, both of them staring at Lucius''s tail as it swung from side to side in a feline-like manner.
"It''s kind of cute, ain''t it?" Ghost whispered back, before both of them burst into giggles.
"Kuk," Lucius whispered under his breath. ~To be reduced to aughing stock,~ he wallowed inwardly.
~The quality of the twigs are quite good, well at least for a bunch of kids who didn''t even know what to look for," he thought to himself. He noticed that most of the twigs were quite straight, and had an even thickness. Only a few of them were disfigured and thinned out in certain areas.
"Who chose the twigs?" Lucius asked.
Ghost instantly stoppedughing, and Alpha''s mirthful demeanor quickly turned cold.
"Uhmm, it was Hannibal. He instructed us on which ones to pick," Ghost answered after a moment of silence. Most of the leaflings were ying around the shed, though Lucius couldn''t see him among them.
"Where is he?"
"Probably down by the stoney area over there," Ghost replied, gesturing to where the quarry of pebbles was located.
"He seems fascinated by the things for some reason," she continued.
"Alpha call the rest of your squad and get the sleds. Today we''re going to have a little training session. Need to build up those... fibers of yours," Lucius said after a moment of thought.
*
Chapter 44 Slow And Consistent Growth (1)
Ghost was right, they did indeed find Hannibal sitting around the pebbles, carefully inspecting them. However the moment he saw Lucius and the groupe into view, he tried to walk away.
"Wait, stay," Lucius called out, stopping Hannibal in his tracks.
"You don''t have to leave, I want to talk to you. The rest of you ce the sleds next to the pebbles, I''ll load you guys up and you can return to the camp," Lucius instructed, to which Alpha and his group obliged.
"What are you doing here?" Lucius asked as he walked behind Alpha and his group. Hannibal slowly approached him, walking beside him as they spoke.
"N-no reason. I juste here in my free time," Hannibal responded, a confused look on his face.
"It''s a long story," Lucius replied, realizing that Hannibal was confused by his current method of walking.
"I heard you picked out the twigs, good job on that. How did you know which ones to choose?" he continued while trying to pick up a pebble.
~Ooof kinda heavy,~ he thought to himself as he hoisted it off the ground. He had to be extra careful since he couldn''t properly bnce using his legs alone, so he tried to heave the pebble onto the sled as fast as he could.
"I inspected the twigs you used to build the shed, and just picked out simr ones. I-It wasn''t really all that," Hannibal answered, a far away look in his eyes.
"Is that so."
~He''s really observant,~ Lucius noted down. He pondered if perhaps he ought to try teaching Hannibal a fewplex concepts from back on earth to see if he would understand them. Of course, much of what he knew from earth might not even carry onto this world, but if Hannibal could understand them, then it would greatly benefit the development of themune.
[+30 Strength.]
[+23 Stamina.]
[+3 Agility.]
"All done," Lucius called out once he was finished loading thest pebble onto the sled. There was still a whole bunch left in the mini quarry, however, he estimated that this was the maximum that the group could carry back to the camp.
"Okay, let''s get going guys," Alpha ordered, and him men began to heave. However, just as Lucius had expected, despite all their efforts the sleds only moved a very small distance.
After pulling for a few minutes the group had only made it a few centimeters away from where they had started. They were exhausted, and their entire bodies were now covered with dewy perspiration.
"Captain," Alpha called out, looking back to Lucius who was currently having a chat with Hannibal.
"Keep going, I know you guys can do it," Lucius called out, a small grin on his face.
~He nned this,~ Alpha thought inwardly, realizing that Lucius had already known that they would find this difficult.
"Pull harder, thest group to get back to the camp has to do an extra hour of guard duty!" Alpha called out, to which all his men quickly got to their feet and began tugging at the harnesses once again, with a renewed vigor.
"Man I hate guard duty," one of the leaflings whispered, his group overtaking Alpha''s as he said this.
"I don''t think so," Alpha whispered, pulling even harder to get ahead. However, the others in his group weren''t as strong, and in the end, they fell behind.
"Enjoy guard duty Alpha," the leafling from the group aheadughed as they widened the gap.
*
"So, have you and Alpha spoken ever since?" Lucius asked once Alpha and the rest of his group were out of sight.
"Y-yeah, but not directly. He doesn''t seem as angry as before, but he''s made it clear he doesn''t like me," he replied, "b-but of course I don''t me him," he blurted out immediately after.
"I''m working on getting along with everyone, but I kind of feel morefortable alone. I don''t know, maybe I''m just trying to avoid things," he continued.
"By the way Hannibal, how old are you?" Lucius asked, finding that Hannibal had a very clear-cut character, quite different from most leaflings.
"Hmm, I''m the olde- no, the second oldest after Pagan. This is my seventhmune, so I''ve lived through seven years," he replied after thinking for a moment.
"Seven years? What happened to your othermunes?" Lucius asked, wondering whether seven years were a lot or not.
"They all died. Communes usually survive a few months before being wiped out."
"A few months?" Well now that Lucius thought about it, it did kind of make sense. When he was first born into this world, themune had been halved during a single boar attack. And he couldn''t imagine the leaflings surviving another one of those.
"How did you survive?" Lucius asked after thinking it over for a moment.
"It isn''t that hard. I just didn''t go outside the area I sprouted in. There was a hole in a nearby tree we could stay in, and the only time we were forced to move out was when the worms found the camp. Then we would have to find a new ce," Hannibal answered.
"Interesting. So how old is Pagan?" Lucius asked, now a bit curious as to how old Pagan was.
"I have no idea. He was the one who first greeted me when I was sprouted, and from what I heard, he wasn''t originally from thatmune either. He''s probably a fewmunes older than me," Hannibal answered after pondering for a moment.
"Ah, I see," Lucius whispered, before getting on all fours to walk back to the camp.
"By the way. Congrattions on your evolution," Hannibal called out before Lucius left.
"Oh, thank you," Lucius replied, turning to look back at him before proceeding.
"I''ll catch up soon," Hannibal shouted just as Lucius was out of hearing range.
~I bet you will,~ Lucius smiled to himself.
*
On his way back he collected a few bundles of grass, which was sort of hard for him to carry since he had to use his hands to walk.
"Maybe I should just use a stick as a crutch," Lucius sighed to himself. As much as he was enjoying his new beastly form of movement, it was a hindrance to work.
Upon returning to the camp, Lucius found Alpha and his group cked out, still hooked to the harnesses. However, though their bodies were drenched, Alpha had a smile on his face.
"Good work, Alpha," Lucius said as he passed by Alpha''s sleeping body.
"I won. You guys are on guard duty," Alpha whispered in his sleep, tossing over as Lucius ced the des of grass next to the pile of twigs.
Lucius then began unloading the pebbles, which proved to be a far easier process than loading them.
[+21 Strength.]
[+13 Stamina.]
[+3 Agility.]
After all that was done, he rolled them towards the supplies area, before starting his work on the new shed.
Firstly, he began weaving the rope, since it did not require him to stand, After weaving about 30 lengths of rope, he began choosing out the twigs he would use for the main build.
Just like with the first shed, he ced the twigs at an acute angle to the tree''s trunk. However this time he made it even sturdier by tying the twigs together, before putting the leaves on it.
"Uh huh, perfect," he whispered to himself, after testing the new shed''s stability. He then removed the leaves covering the old shed and used the remaining lengths of rope to tie them together before putting the leaves back.
"This is pretty good," he whispered, admiring his handiwork.
The camp now had two sheds, however, this was far from what he envisioned. But with Pagan evolved he was certain that his goal camp would soone to fruition.
"Oh, yeah, I can use thest few lengths of rope for the sleds, huh," he whispered to himself before starting work on the extra sleds.
Unfortunately, he still found himself having to leave his work to collect more grass for rope. In the end, he managed to create 7 more sleds before bing too exhausted to continue, which was more than enough for the current size of the camp.
After taking a quick rest, he called the leaflings and showed them to their new shed, before ordering them to rest.
*
"Still practicing, huh?" Lucius said as found Ghost practicing the same kick move he had taught her several days ago.
"I''m gettin'' the hang of it," Ghost replied, her leafpletely drenched in perspiration.
"Indeed you are," Lucius replied, noticing that she could now do the high head kick. However, the spin kick still seemed to bepletely in a different realm for her.
"Keep working on it," hemented, passing by to go visit the drooping branch.
"I can probably make a pulley system somehow," he realized as he stared up at the branch. After all, using adder to go up and down didn''t seem viable for the future of the camp.
But as to how the pulley would work or even be built would require some nning. He was almost certain that he could not use the grass rope he had been using on other builds here, as he didn''t trust its strength.
"Maybe I should bring Hannibal on this project, and see how he does," Lucius whispered to himself, already identifying key areas that would be important in the construction of the pulley.
Chapter 45 Slow And Consistent Growth (2)
After watching over Ghost''s training for a little while, Lucius took his rest, leaving the losing squad from Alpha''s little race to take the first watch.
*
He woke up early the following day and decided to do his regr morning training routine. However, it turned out to be anything ?????? regr.
For one, it was as if he had to start all over from scratch. Since he could not stand up straight for more than a few seconds, he first had to practice stability before he could even dream of moving on to martial arts practice. However, even this proved to be futile, as his tail simply would not allow it.
Realizing that he would get nowhere without mastering control over his tail, he decided to try just that. Unfortunately, after several failed attempts, he was beginning to think that its sole purpose in life was to mock him, as it seemed to do the exact opposite of whatever he wanted it to.
Reverse psychology didn''t seem to work on it either, as it would just do something elsepletely unrted if he even so much as thought about tricking it.
~What is up with this thing? It''s like it has a mind of its own,~ he thought to himself as he watched it sway from side to side, as if happy with the anger it had caused him this morning.
~Stay still,~ he thought, willing it to stop moving. And for a moment it seemed to have listened, it stopped swaying, but just as Lucius was about to celebrate, itshed out at him, whipping him right in the face.
~I give up,~ he sighed, holding his face in pain. Deciding that he was getting nowhere with this type of training he decided to train his stamina instead, by taking a fewps around the camp on all fours.
"I''m really getting the hang of this quadrupedal movement thing," he whispered to himself as he practiced different gaits.
He wasn''t exactly an expert, but his wife had been very into horse riding so he had picked up quite a bit about the different types of gaits over the years.
He started off with a slow amble, a sort of rxed four-beat rhythmic movement. Keeping to the rhythm was sort of difficult for the first fewps, but after sticking to it for a bit he got the hang of it.
[+2 Stamina.]
[+6 Agility.]
~Giving me agility for learning how to walk? I''ll take it,~ he thought to himself before breaking out into a canter. This type of gait was a tad faster than the rxed amble but was still somewhatfortable. However it was a lot harder to perform, and he found himself tripping over several times.
[+4 Stamina.]
[+20 Agility.]
On the plus side, it gave way more agility than the amble, even if he couldn''t perform it properly. Growing bored of the canter, he broke out into a gallop. The gallop was the fastest gait he knew from horse riding, and for some reason, it felt the most natural.
With everyp he did, he got more and morefortable, till eventually, he was moving at speeds he never would''ve hoped to achieve on two limbs. At some point his tail stopped wagging, and adjusted ording to his movements, somewhat giving him more stability to run even faster.
~This is fun,~ he thought to himself, before running towards the shed. He had no idea what came possessed him to do it, but just as he was about to crash into it, he jumped up, bouncing against the tree trunk, beforeunching himself into the air.
~I''m flying,~ he thought for a moment. And for a moment it seemed so, he was so high up that he could nearly touch one of the tree''s branches. It was like jumping over a four-story building, which quickly begged the question...
~How am I gonna get... ahh fuck,~ And just like that he crashed into the ground and his little session came to an abrupt end.
[+20 Stamina.]
[+80 Agility.]
~Maybe next time I shouldn''t jump so high,~ he thought as he dusted himself off. His body was riddled with scratches and bruises, and though they were manageable, it felt like it had been run over.
~This is going to be a problem. I can''t work like this,~ he realized, finding that his right leg was in so much pain that he could hardly walk without limping.
~Hmm, what about...~ he pondered, remembering the spell he had used back when he was poisoned.
He closed his eyes and quickly released his crux. Once his crux was out, he imagined its lightpletely engulfing his body, before whispering, "sr cleanse.". And just like that, he could feel his wounds slowly close, till eventually, his body felt as fresh as when he first woke up.
"So I hadn''t imagined all that," he whispered to himself.
However, in exchange for a healed body, he got a clouded mind. He felt extremely drowsy, and a wave of fatigue washed over him,pletely throwing his thoughts into disarray.
~I need another rest,~ he realized. After confirming that his spell had indeedpletely healed his body, he went back to the shed and took a little rest.
*
When he woke upter in the morning, he found amotion going on in the other shed. He groggily got up and trotted his way towards the source of the noise to see what all the fuss was about.
"Captain, he''s awake," Alpha said to him as he entered the shed.
"Can everyone please get out, you''ll wake up our other guest," Lucius ordered, rubbing his eyes to get the sleep fully out of his system.
"Lighted One, I have evolved," a familiar voice said to him as he got to the center of the crowd.
"Pagan, wee back," he replied with a smile, inspecting Pagan as they spoke.
Though initially, he had assumed Pagan''s form was exactly the same as his old one, there were slight differences. For one, Pagan''s eyes werepletely yellow, both the sclera and the iris, making him look like he had been possessed by some spirit.
Another change was Pagan''s skin. Though forest green, it had very tiny pentagonal patterns running all along it.
"How do you feel?" Lucius asked him, as he got a closer look at the pentagonal patterns.
"I feel... I have ascended," Pagan replied, looking at his new body.
"But I feel unsatisfied," he said right after. "I know there is still more, this isn''t my final ascendence. Isn''t that right Lighted One?" he continued, looking up at Lucius''s horns, then at the tail that was wagging behind him.
"Yet again you are a step ahead of me," he said finally.
"I wouldn''t worry about it too much. You''re at a good enough level as it is," Lucius replied, just as a system notification came up.
[¡ºPagan¡»''s stats avable.]
~Hmm, let me see them,~ Lucius thought, before willing Pagan''s stats up.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Pagan Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf Being [Photosynthesis Variation] lvl.1- [0/100]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 9]
[Strength: 8]
[Stamina: 3]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Eh? What the hell are these stats? No wonder he couldn''t run for more than a few meters without breathing like a fish out of water,~ he thought to himself, before pulling out his stats for a betterparison.
,m ©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 3: 120/300]
[Leaf Being [Guardian] lvl.4- [10/400]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 6>112 ]
[Strength: 267]
[Stamina: 247>273]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Wait a moment, something isn''t right here. Why is my agility so low? I could''ve sworn that it was close to the 300s.~
~Hmm... but I guess it makes sense if these are real-world representations of my capabilities,~ he thought to himself. Realizing that perhaps his agility has been drained as a result of him not being able to stand.
"I''m sorry to say, but your stats are absolute trash, Pagan. I''m putting you on a strict training regiment," Lucius said after pondering for a moment.
"B-But Lighted One, what use are these stats? Surely they can''t be as powerful as photosynthesis," Paganined.
"Hmm, you have a point,"
"I knew you would understand me, Lighted One-" Pagan was about to celebrate before Lucius interrupted.
"I''m going to have to give you an incentive or you''ll never get it all done. So how about this, you can only take part in photosynthesis sessions if you meet a quota. The more work you get done, the more time you get," Lucius smiled.
"W-wha? Ghost, surely you under-" Pagan tried saying, but Ghost just looked the other way.
"Alpha, talk to h-" Alpha did the same, even walking out a momentter.
"To be forsaken by my own people," he mumbled to himself in a defeated tone.
"The creature''s been out for a while. Why hasn''t it woken up yet?" Lucius whispered to himself, turning his attention towards it.
~Perhaps Sr Cleanse will work on it as well?~ he thought, before calling out his crux.
Chapter 46 Project "Camp -> Settlement" (1)
~Ahh, so I don''t need to close my eyes for this,~ hemented as the crux emerged from his body.
He then put his palm on the creature, this time closing his eyes as needed the utmost concentration to pull this off.
If he could break down the spell into different stages, the first stage would be to use the crux''s pulse to feel out his body. But this time he used the pulse to feel out the creature''s body instead.
However, that was easier said than done as he had never done anything of the sort before.
After struggling for a few minutes, he finally got the hang of sending pulses into foreign bodies. It was much like photosynthesis, where he let the creature in contact with him share his energy.
After doing that, he could feel that there was indeed something clogged inside the creature''s body. It was hard to exin, but he could sense a sort of dark, filthy energy within it.
Now came the second step. Using the crux''s light to disintegrate the malicious energy.
This was a rtively easy step, as it was somewhat automated. All he had to do was whisper the spell and it would happen just like breathing.
"Sr Cleanse," he whispered, and he could feel his body being drained. After a few pulses, the malicious energy in the creature''s body had beenpletely purged, and a rancid smell attacked Lucius''s senses.
"What is that?" one of the leaflings asked, unable to breathe properly.
"Everyone get out, this stuff might be dangerous," he said, before looking at Alpha to get them all out.
"Weron," the creature croaked groggily after a moment.
"It worked," Lucius whispered to himself. "I know magic!" As if onlying to the realization right now. And in an instant, a whole new world had been opened up to him. He thought about the possibilities, what else could he do with the crux?
But right now, there was a creature staring at him in gratitude, trying to get close to him while its body was covered in a filthy ck goop.
"Calm down there. I''m happy I could help, but you need to clean yourself up first," he said, taking a few steps back before copsing.
"Lord''s, this spell takes a lot out of me," he whispered, as a wave of fatigue washed over him.
"How did you do that? Can I do that?" Pagan asked, trying to help Lucius up. However, it seemed that his hands didn''t function quite as he expected, and instead of helping Lucius up, he hit him on the back.
"Yeah, I know the feeling. A new limb takes a bit of practice," Lucius said, calming the confused Pagan down.
"I''ll help you get the hang of using your armster, for now, I need to get the creature to the river since it doesn''t seem like it can help itself," he continued, realizing that though the creature was now awake, its wings were still heavily damaged.
~I wonder why it didn''t heal the wings,~ he thought to himself for a moment before getting up.
"Follow me, and please keep your distance," he said to the creature, gesturing for it to follow him. The creature obliged and the two made a quick trip to the river before Lucius washed it off.
Once they returned, Lucius took another quick nap to reset himself before properly starting for the day.
*
"Pagan, Hannibal, follow me. The rest of you can hook yourselves up to the sleds and collect as many twigs as you possible," Lucius ordered once all the leaflings had gathered around him.
"What about me?" Ghost asked, realizing that the three of them were probably going to have some form of special training.
"I''ll train you in the night with Alpha and his squad. Right now, I only need Pagan and Hannibal," he replied.
"Come on, we''ll get our fill in the night. For now, let''s get to work," Alpha added on, nodding to Lucius before leading the leaflings to the sleds.
"Okay, for today we''re going to get you ustomed to your arms. So you''ll be picking des of grass till nightfall," Lucius said once Alpha and the other leaflings had gone.
"Just that? Lighted O-"
"It isn''t as easy as it seems. With your strength, you probably won''t be able to pick out more than a few dozen before getting exhausted," he interrupted.
"I''ll leave it to you to figure out how to do it," he continued, before walking with Hannibal towards the supplies area. "Oh, and if you want to join today''s photosynthesis session, you have to have picked out at least 50 des of grass. Good luck," he added on before leaving Pagan to his task.
"50?" Pagan sighed, trying to pick out a nearby de of grass, but finding that he reached out too far. His depth coordination was probably going to be one of his biggest issues.
*
Meanwhile, Lucius picked out a twig from the supplies are, before sitting next to the pile of pebbles.
"What do you think of this?" he asked, cing the twig on the pebble so that it bnced perfectly.
"It isn''t falling over," Hannibal replied, looking at the bncing twig with interest.
"Are you familiar with this?" Lucius asked after, to which Hannibal nodded his leaf.
"It''s how we are able to stand right? We do it all the time," Hannibal said after a moment, standing up on one leg as if to show that he thoroughly understood.
"Good, then this saves me some time. Now, what about this," Lucius said, before putting his hand down on one side so that the other went up. "What do you think of this?"
"Hmm... I''m not sure, to be honest," Hannibal said after some thought.
"This is your first lesson, ''Force equivalence''. What do you think I would have to do to make this bnce again?" he asked.
Hannibal took a moment to think about it, before answering almost in a soft whisper, "Put your other hand on the other side?"
"Be more confident in your answer. And you''re somewhat right, I''d have to put my other hand on the other side," Lucius replied, putting his hand on the other side of his makeshift see-saw, however it still didn''t bnce.
"What''s wrong? Why didn''t it bnce?" he asked after.
"I... Maybe..." Hannibal stuttered, standing up to get a better look.
"You aren''t pushing as hard on one side," he answered finally, realizing that Lucius seemed to be straining more on one side than on the other.
"Exactly. Hence the name of the lesson, ''Force equivalence.'' For now, I won''t bother with definitions. I''ll let you make your own definitions for the concepts I teach you. But here''s your task. By the end of the day, I want you to tell me three uses of such a concept. Why do you think I would bother teaching this to you?" Lucius said to him with a smile, before leaving him to his pondering.
Chapter 47 Project "Camp -> Settlement" (2)
Lucius then found a nice quiet spot close by to collect his thoughts. He wanted to think out a detailed n for the development of themune.
"So first things first, the tree camp. It would ensure the safety of the leaflings once built, which is of the highest priority," he whispered, making a mental note of it.
"In order to do that, I need four things. A tool to shave off the tree''s bark, another tool to cut the twigs into usable pieces of nks, a pulley system, and rope to help with the build.~ And already Lucius had an answer to three of those things.
He would use stones for both the cutting and the shaving tools. These would just require a lot of time, patience, and sweat.
For rope, he could use the stone tools to cut up nearby pieces of vine. They would probably be strong enough to make for suitable building rope.
The only thing he was worried about was the pulley system. Building it would be easy, after all, he was once an engineering major. However, he pondered about how he would go about it.
Would he build it with the immediate goal of making the tree camp more essible, or would he build it with future builds in mind? After all, with consecutive evolutions, it was very well possible that the leaflings might evolve into massive creatures.
~No, I''ll start simple. What''s the point of making thingsplex anyway? If we do indeed grow into massive creatures, we will just have to make do with a ground base,~ he decided after a bit of pondering.
~So it''s decided, the pulley system will be a simple elevator. For now, I''ll use pebbles as a counterbnce. It would be nice to use sand, but I have nothing to make bags out of,~ he thought to himself before standing up.
He took a look at the shed, and though he had been satisfied yesterday, he realized that it didn''t really have a lot of defenses.
~Maybe after the stone tools I should build a few ground stakes around the camp,~ he thought before starting his work on the pebbles.
*
The pebbles weren''t particrly smooth as they hadn''t been collected near the river and instead were found closer ind. Which worked to his advantage as he would have to grind them against each other.
The work was strenuous, and it took hours just to get a small pebble into the shape he wanted. After two hours of work -resting included- he managed to grind out a sharp t stone head.
This would work probably work well as a cutting tool after a bit more sharpening, but he was satisfied with its current shape.
~I think I need to look for a proper grinding stone,~ he realized, staring at the other pebble he had used as a grinding stone. It had been smoothened out so much that it couldn''t sharpen the stone any more than it already had.
He tried using another stone, but it wasn''t nearly brittle enough to provide enough friction to sharpen the stone head past a certain point.
~Yhup, I need a grinding stone,~ he decided, before going into the forest to look for one.
*
~So I need a stone that will offer a good amount of friction, something very abrasive,~ he thought as he scoured the forest.
On his search, he came across a variety of different rock types. Some of them hadyered structures, breaking very easily when he picked them up and hit them against another rock.
Others had sharp minerally edges, which would work perfectly as cutting tools, or as weapons. However, he doubted that he had the strength to grind or carry them even if he found a suitable stone. So he noted down its location before continuing his search.
After an hour of searching, he found himself very far from the camp, having lost track of how far he was going due to tunnel vision.
"Maybe I should start heading back," he decided, realizing that the forest terrain had once again changed.
"Is that a trail?" he wondered to himself, seeing a whole army of footprints a bit ahead. He went on to inspect it, and he was right. The path had been cleared due to repetitivemuting in the area.
"These footprints are massive," he whispered, analyzing what was in front of him. Whatever had made them was a bipedal creature, with a curvilinear triangle-type foot the same size as his entire body.
~Best warn the leaflings not to head this way,~ he decided to himself before heading back.
*
"I mean, it''s a bit blunt, but with a bit of force, I''m sure it cut twigs. Maybe not so cleanly, but clean enough," he whispered to himself before thrusting the stone head he had carved into a twig.
It managed to make a cut in the twig, but the cut was rough, almost as if it had been snapped instead of cut with a tool. What''s more is, with just a single swing, Lucius could tell that the stone head was already beginning to dull.
"Even the material the stone is made of is trash," he whispered. It seemed that development wouldn''t be as clear-cut as he once thought.
"Photosynthesis time!" Lucius called out, looking up at the midday sun. "Perhaps I''ll have to start going on expeditions in search of proper stones," he whispered, remembering the sharp minerally stone he had seen earlier.
~If I increase my stats enough, then maybe, ???????? maybe.~
After a few minutes, the leaflings had all gathered around Lucius. Hannibal seemed so deep in thought that he hadn''t even noticed he was sitting right next to Alpha.
Pagan on the other hand was trying to sneak his way into the group, though Lucius was well aware of what he was trying to do.
"So How many did you collect Pagan?" Lucius asked once everyone had quieted down.
"U-Uhm, 50 like you as-"
"Don''t lie to me, Pagan," Lucius replied with a sigh, disappointed at the petty attempt.
"Okay, 38, but I tried my best," Pagan answered a momentter.
"Then that gets you 19 minutes, I''ll stop halfway to kick you out," Lucius said out loud before calling out his crux.
"Thank you," Pagan said happily.
"By the way Lighted One. Howe I don''t have one?" Pagan asked, referring to the crux that was floating above Lucius''s head.
"Ahh, that''s right you need a solis fragment to-" Just then Lucius remembered the Sobriquet.
? ~I can share items can''t I?~ he realized, quickly opening his system shop and purchasing a solis fragment.
[Share ¡ºSolis Fragment¡» with ¡ºPagan¡»?]
~Yes.~
Chapter 48 [Bonus Chapter]Project "Camp -> Settlement" (3)
~Wait! Wait! Cancel! No!~ However it was already toote. Lucius hadpletely forgotten about the recovery period he had gone through when the solis fragment was first installed, and now Pagan was down for the count, right after he had just woken up.
"Captain, Paga-"
"I know. Don''t worry, he''ll be up in a few days," Lucius interrupted, pissed at himself for forgetting.
~He didn''t even get to learn how to use his hands. But I bet the idiot is smiling in his mind right now,~ he thought as he attempted to pick Pagan up.
The whole process was a bit awkward due to him not being able to stand, but after a bit of struggling he came back and themune proceeded with their photosynthesis session.
This time, however, Lucius stopped at minutes, 5, 10, 15, 20, and so on, to check if there were any leaflings who wanted to stop there. They still had work to do, and he couldn''t afford all of them passing out like they usually did.
As usual, Alpha pushed longer than everyone else, clocking in at 30 minutes this time. However, it seemed he had pushed himself a little too far as he had to take quite a long rest before he was ready to get back to work.
*
"Ghost,e with me," Lucius called out as the other leaflings returned back to their sleds.
"Finally, I thought you''d never call me. So what are we doin this time? A new kind of move? Some cool concepts?" she asked excitedly.
"So you were spying on us?" Lucius asked.
"Only to practice," she said, looking away.
~I hadn''t noticed, but then again my guard waspletely down. Maybe I should stop being sofortable, even if this is our base,~ Lucius thought to himself before saying out loud. "We''re going on an expedition. While we''re on it, I want you to follow me without being spotted. For every time you''re spotted you''ll have to do onep around the camp. And if you lose track of me you''ll have to do 50ps."
"Sounds fair enough," Ghost replied, clearly up for the challenge.
"Follow me whenever you feel safe," Lucius said, before galloping out into the forest.
Part of the reason he was taking Ghost on this trip was to increase her stats before she evolved. He was certain that Alpha''s stats were top tier, and though he also wanted to increase Hannibal''s stats a little, he felt it would be more beneficial to have him study instead.
After a few minutes of running, Lucius picked up quite a bit of speed. And once again he felt an itch in his mind, teasing him tounch off one of the tree trunks.
~Okay, lower this time,~ he thought to himself falling into temptation. He jumped up, bounced off a tree trunk, and wasunched into the air. As he sped through the air, his tail began moving of its own ord, causing him to move in the direction of another tree trunk.
~I see what you''re doing,~ he realized, bracing himself for impact beforeunching off once again.
[+10 Agility.]
He repeated the process several more times, each time feeling more and more familiar with the movement. After only 5 minutes he had amassed 150 Agility points, however, the amount he received from each bound had now been reduced to 2.
~Quite the interesting mode of movement,~ he thought to himself stopping to take a quick break.
[+20 Stamina.]
[+10 Strength.]
~But it''s very exhausting, to say the least. My limbs feel like they''re on fire,~ he thought, before carrying on with the journey.
*
The expeditionsted five hours, three hours longer than Lucius had expected. However, on the plus side, he did find viable candidates for the required rock types.
He found a rather abrasive group of rocks an hour away from the main camp. And though it dusted easily when he tried rubbing a pebble against it, it got the job done.
As for the cutting tool''s material, he found another cluster of rocks at least 45 minutes away from the first. They had a hard-crystalposition from what he could see, and ayered structure, hinting that they could be broken more easily than other mineral rocks.
The other rock clusters he found were of subpar quality and were even further away from the camp. So he decided to focus his efforts on the two for now.
~Nowes the hardest part,~he sighed to himself as he took a rest.
The rocks he had found were way too massive to move around. Even the smallest ones in the cluster were almost three times bigger than he was.
~I''ll probably have to forget about taking them back to the camp unless I find something to make a pickaxe out of,~ he thought to himself. And right now, he had absolutely no clue what he could use.
Pebbles wouldn''t work well as pickaxe material because they weren''t as hard as the rocks, and he couldn''t use the rock material because he had no way to break chunks of it. From what he could tell, there was only one solution.
"For now, I''ll have to make do with pebbles. I''ll bring them here to get sharpened and take them back. I''ll make stronger materials once I''ve grown a littlerger," he sighed, realizing that the one-hour march with pebbles would be quite tiresome.
Already he had gained 230 points into stamina, 190 into agility, and 40 into strength. Carrying the pebbles, with a sled no less, would probably result in some unreal number of stat gains.
~I have to carve out wheels sometimeter as well,~ he decided, looking up to the sky.
It was mostly clear, but there seemed to be a good amount of cloudsing in, from what he could see past the forest canopy. ~Rain?~ he thought to himself, before looking at his surroundings.
"What is that?" he whispered, noticing something moving in the distance. A momentter he realized what it was, and his fatigue washed away like it had all been an illusion to begin with.
He galloped towards the spot,unching himself from tree to tree without a care in the world for stealth. In a moment, he was face to face with his target.
A shroom-being.
Chapter 49 Project "Camp -> Settlement" (4)
Heunched his body at it, mming it to the ground, before sliding to regain some bnce. However, before he could even stop, he was already galloping towards the fallen shroom.
His body moved of its own ord, his tail slithering in front of him, wrapping itself around the shroom-being''s neck like a snake, while hended a flurry of punches into its face.
"Where is your leader," he shouted out, his mind so numb with furry that he could hardly form the words.
"Speak!" he shouted a secondter, before mming the shroom-being into the ground, stomping on its head as it rebounded. His tail slithered around its neck once again, picking its head off the ground, before he kicked it, rag-dolling it a few centimeters away.
A purple fluid began dripping from the shroom-being''s orifices, and its head seemed to be swelling.
? "Where is your leader!" Lucius asked again, walking towards the barely unconscious shroom.
"I-I d-do-don''t kno-"
"Don''t lie!" he shouted, saddling the shroom, before gripping one of the projections in its mouth and ripping it out. The shroom screamed in pain, shouting strange words in its dialect as it tried to escape.
"Where?" Lucius shouted again. At this point it was all he could muster, his rage wouldn''t allow him to process anything more.
The shroom-being continued throwing out strange words, before releasing a could of purple gas, that forced its way into Lucius''s body, burning him from the inside out.
As if on instinct, Lucius called out his crux and whispered, "Sr cleanse," before using the tooth-like projection he had ripped out of the shroom-beings mouth to stab it in the eye.
"P-Plea- Pl- I- don''t know. I have no leader. My oldmune was wi-wiped out, I- I was just looking for a new one. I''m sorry- pleas..." the shroom-being stuttered, its body shivering in fear before losing consciousness.
However, Lucius hadn''t heard a word of what it had been saying. He couldn''t hear a damn thing. He wasn''t in control, his rage had consumed him.
But he was certain of one thing, whatever was going on wasn''t natural. He felt like a passenger in his own body.
"Luci," Ghost whispered, a frightened look on her face as she emerged from a shrub right behind him.
Lucius battered the shroom''s unconscious body a few more times before he could regain hisposure. It was now a bashed-up mess, barely recognizable, and barely breathing.
"Stay here and hide," he said once he felt that his rage hadpletely left him. He had to make sure that their camp wasn''t nearby.
Ghost just nodded in agreement, staring at Lucius as if in shock, before he galloped out on his search.
He searched around a 15-minute radius in all directions and found nothing. He tried backtracking the shroom''s footprints but found that it passed through a patch of grass, making it nearly impossible to follow after.
Seeing as how that was the only shroom in the area, Lucius assumed that it must''ve been a scout, perhaps separated from its group. That, or he would be forced to believe what it was saying, which was thest thing on his mind right now.
"We''re returning to the camp," he ordered once he got back to the spot he had left Ghost.
"What about... that?" she asked, referring to the still unconscious shroom.
"I''m going to take it with us... for questioning. I have to find out where their base is," he replied, dragging the shroom along as he ambled his way back to the camp.
*
When they finally got back to the camp the sun had already set, and the leaflings were all waiting for his return.
"Get Alpha and Hannibal. Tell no one else of this," he whispered to Ghost, stopping before he could reach the camp.
A few momentster Ghost returned with the two, both of them keeping their distance from each other of course.
The moment they saw the shroom, they became immediately alert. Alpha, took a few steps back instinctively, looking around to see if there were more of them.
Hannibal on the other hand calmed down a lot quicker, realizing that it had beenpletely incapacitated before shooting a look at Lucius.
"I caught it an hour away from the camp. You are to tell no one of its presence. I will tie it up here, and no one is to touch or even speak to it except me," Lucius began, not even giving them time to rx.
"Alpha, you can tell your men, but make sure no one else hears. When you go on guard duty, post one of your men here to make sure nothing happens. Tell them to keep their distance, this thing can spew a cloud of poison," he continued.
"Now stay here and watch it while I go get some rope," he finished off, leaving them alone with the unconscious shroom.
When he returned with a few lines of rope, he found Alpha standing on top of the shroom, his foot nted on its bashed-up face.
"What are you doing?" Lucius whispered loudly, pushing Alpha off the thing.
"Why didn''t you kill it!?" Alpha shouted back, quickly picking himself off the ground.
"You''ll do well to keep quiet Alpha. If the other leaflings see this and begin to panic, I''ll expel you from of themune," Lucius replied, staring coldly at the angry Alpha.
"As for why I brought it here... Hannibal," he continued, turning to Hannibal as if waiting for him to answer.
"I-I suppose you want to get information from it? Since you only brought one, I-I''m guessing that''s all you could find," Hannibal answered after a moment of thought.
"If you want to be a good leader, then you have to learn to think," Lucius chimed in, turning back to Alpha.
"You have to suppress your emotions long enough to make the right decisions... though I don''t me you for getting angry. I myself nearly killed this thing," he continued, tying the shroom up as he spoke.
"I don''t want the other leaflings to get worried over this. They aren''t a threat we ought to be worried about anymore, I''ll hunt them down and exterminate them myself," he whispered as he finished binding it.
The shroom''s legs and arms had been tied in a handcuff knot, and then those were tied again as if it was livestock.
"Don''t get me wrong. This is a test, I''m constantly testing you. The well-being of this shroom will be a clear reflection of how good a hold you have on your squad mates," he said, looking at Alpha.
Chapter 50 Project "Camp -> Settlement" (5)
Though Alpha was still livid, he nodded his head in response, understanding that he was being a tad too dramatic.
"Wait for me. Even if you can take them all out yourself, just wait for me," he whispered, before leaving to inform his men.
"That, I can do," Lucius whispered in response.
"Okay, now time to discuss today''s training exercises. Ghost, I spotted you five times during our travels. And towards the end, you lost track of mepletely. I''m certain that only the sound of this thing''s screams brought you to me," Lucius said after a moment of silence.
"You know what that means, don''t you?" he smiled.
"I-I didn''t lose track. I was just letting you run ahead, for more space... y''know," she tried exining, but Lucius was already moving on to Hannibal.
"You''re still waiting? 55 Laps, let''s go," Lucius said, turning back to look at her once she was done trying to exin herself.
She whispered something under her breath in response but started doing herps anyway. The whole timeining.
"And finally, you Hannibal. Tell me what you''vee up with," he said, dragging the shroom behind a shrub as he spoke.
"I-I''m not sure if my answers are correct. But... for one, the concept can be used to remove things from the ground. Some pebbles are lodged into the ground, perhaps this could be used to extract them?" Hannibal answered.
Lucius simply nodded in response, moving back a few steps to see if the area he had hidden the shroom in was good enough.
"U-Uhm, second, it could be used to climb up areas. If we put a ''force'' on one side of the twig, we can climb up the other without worrying about it falling over," Hannibal continued.
"Force? What''s a force?" Lucius asked, surprised that Hannibal was already using the word sofortably.
"You said the concept was force equivalence. So I... I assumed that the reason the twigs were bncing was due to forces," Hannibal replied awkwardly.
"Hmm, that''s good. You''re right. And what about the third reason?" Lucius asked, leading him back to the main camp.
"This is the answer I wasn''t certain of. But perhaps... it can be used to throw things into the air?"
"Why would we ever need that?" Lucius asked, greeting a few leaflings as he walked through the camp.
"If we canunch pebbles into the air, dealing with threats might be easier. W-we wouldn''t have to engage with them, it''d be safer," Hannibal stuttered, trying to keep up with Lucius''s long quadrupedal gait.
~So like a catapult?~ Lucius thought to himself, the idea having never crossed his mind before.
"I suppose. But exin to me how you came to that. I showed you force equivalents, how to make things bnce, not how tounch things," Lucius replied, moving towards the supplies area to see how much the leaflings had collected.
~Hmm, these are quite a number of twigs. A few more and I''m sure that we''ll have more than enough for construction,~ he thought to himself.
"While I was testing the concepts, I asked someone to stand on one end while I stood on the other. But I ended up getting on too fast, and the leafling wasunched into the air," Hannibal answered after pondering over it for a moment.
"Momentum. But I''m not going to teach you that," Lucius replied, finding that the concept itself would be easy to teach surface-wise, but had a depth he wasn''t ready to exin. He would allow Hannibal to discover some things himself, the kid seemed fairly smart, he digested his teachings quite fast so long as Lucius left them open to interpretation.
"So, did you find this fun?" Lucius asked as he walked towards the shed.
"Somewhat. It gave me a feeling that I''d never felt before. At times I got a bit confused with my findings, but when I did discover something new, it felt... it felt good," Hannibal replied, following Lucius to the shed as well.
"That''s good to hear. When you evolve I''ll teach you stuff that''s even better. But for now, you not having any arms will be a hindrance," Lucius said, before stopping abruptly.
,m "There you are," he said immediately after, finding the insectoid creature resting beside Pagan.
"I thought you''d left," he said, patting the insectoid on the back before checking up on Pagan.
*
As always Lucius woke up early the next day, and this time he started his morning with a few tree hops. At this point, he wasn''t getting any stats out of it, but it was quite the fun excersize, and gave him some form of familiarity with his new body.
After that, he checked up on Ghost''s progress, which seemed to have teaued. Her head kick wasn''t getting any better, and her spin kick only seemed to be getting worse with every try.
"You''ll evolve soon enough, you''ve done well thus far," Luciusmented before leaving her to her struggles.
Today was the day he would get all the pebble work done. He loaded a few pebbles onto a sled -just enough for him to struggle with- and began his journey.
He had given Alpha today''s orders; Everyone was to collect twigs, and during the afternoon they would take their rest as they wouldn''t be having a session today.
As for the shroom, Lucius ordered them not to talk to it. He had built a makeshift cage using twigs and grass before he left, and put a rtivelyrge pebble on top of it so it couldn''t escape. He was fairly certain that the shroom was incapable of getting out even if it got out of its binds.
*
The journey to the ''grinding'' cluster was grueling due to the uneven ground. There were even incidents where massive roots would block his path, and he would be forced to carry the pebbles over them individually, before loading them into the sled again and proceeding.
And it didn''t get any easier once he finally arrived there, as the grinding process was just as hard. He took as few breaks as he could manage, wanting to cover as much work as possible, but still managed to make time for a 1-hour photosynthesis session, allocating all the cultivated Helios into growth.
In the end, he managed to grind out four axe heads, three chisels, a sharp-tipped head for boring holes, and two stone knives. Of course he would''ve had way more if he had known what he was doing, but he in fact did not.
A couple of times he got the shapes wrong and was forced to toss whole pebbles away due to his ipetence. Not to mention the number of injuries he got during the crafting. But it was a learning process, and he had learned quite a bit grinding these tools.
He got back to the camp way past nightfall, finding the leaflings already in the shed.
Chapter 51 Project "Camp -> Settlement" (6)
After dropping off the tools at the supplies area, Lucius dragged himself to where the shroom was being held captive.
"Did anyonee by?" he asked, as he passed by the leafling currently on guard duty.
"No one, Captain," the leafling replied, stepping back to give Lucius space.
"Has it said anything?" he asked after, staring into the makeshift prison that he had crafted.
"Itined about being hungry, and made several threats to devour everyone in the camp," the leafling responded.
~ It''s good that he''s so calm even when saying that. Perhaps Alpha''s men aren''t so afraid of death?~ Lucius thought to himself, before dismissing the guard.
"Why do you surround yourself with bottom-tier creatures?" the shroom asked, its speech slow and slurred. It was clearly still injured from yesterday''s beating.
Lucius could''ve healed it to make things a little easier, but that was not a privilege he was willing to give to someone under suspicion of killing half hismune.
"Bottom tier creatures? To me, you yourself seem that way," Lucius bluffed.
~Is this knowledge that it was born with? How is this tier hierarchy determined?~ he wondered, however after realizing that he was sidetracked a bit he cut to the chase.
"I asked you yesterday, and I''ll ask you again today. Where is your leader?"
The shroom shrugged ufortably in its cell, its bindings biting into its flesh.
"You won''t talk?" Lucius asked,ing closer to the cell.
"Why would I? Look at what you did to me thest time I answered," it said, shuffling backward as best as it could. "I already told you, my n was wiped out."
"Wiped out by what?" Lucius asked, more forcefully this time.
"Webbed-feet. They came out of the river and devoured everyone," the shroom replied, its voice trailing off towards the end.
~Webbed feet? Amphibians?~ Lucius pondered for a moment, before pressing on.
"And you escaped? How?" he asked a moment after.
"I ran away, I got lucky. Now release me," the shroom answered impatiently.
"And whoever said that I would release you? What if I have you locked up to devour youter? After all, you are a lower tier creature than I am," Lucius replied, trying to force even more fear into the shroom.
"Pfft, please. Who are you trying to lie to? You are maybe one tier higher than my kind, but even then you are not a hunter. You have no sharp mouth parts, no ws, and no poison," the shroom said, inspecting Lucius''s body. "You have those weird things on your head, and that thing behind you, but those do not look like they were meant for hunting."
"No, those look like they are meant to protect you. Those are the body parts of prey," it finished off.
"Do you really want to find out whether your hypothesis is true or not?" Lucius asked, his tail slithering through the gaps of the cell and wrapping itself around the shroom''s neck.
~I really can''t with this thing. Who told it to do that?~ Lucius wondered, watching as his tail tightened its vise on the shroom.
The shroom shook its head in response, its instincts warning it against the information that it thought to be true.
"Now, back to your n. I don''t believe it was wiped out. I need something to confirm this, what proof can you offer me?" Lucius asked, his tail releasing the shroom from its hold.
"I can show you the site," the shroom replied after a moment of thought.
"You could be leading me to a trap," Lucius responded.
"Then what else will you have me do? I told you what I know, now let me go," the shroom said loudly.
"When I said I never intended to let you go free, I meant it. But maybe, just maybe, if you figure out something else that could be given to me as proof, I might cken your binds a little. Those don''t lookfortable," Lucius said, staring at a part of the rope that had cut into the shroom''s flesh.
"I''ll leave you to think about it," he said finally, before leaving towards the shed.
"Wait, you can''t leave me here. I have not eaten the entire day," it called out.
"That sounds horrible," Lucius replied as he continued on his way.
*
Lucius began the next morning with a few tree hops. It had be quite easy for him to do it now and felt almost asfortable as walking once felt. Sadly, it didn''t reward him with any more agility points, regardless of how long he did it, or how high he went.
Realizing this, he began trying to work on controlling his tail. Yesterday''s interrogation had taught him something important about it. It didn''t respond to conscious thought, but rather some sort of subconscious control.
If he had to describe it, it would be like trying to control your heart rate. Sure, there were a few things you could do to increase or decrease, but whether you liked it or not, it would do what it wanted if certain stimuli were introduced to the body. And his tail was exactly like that.
It would adjust its movement when he began ruing at certain speeds so that he would not fall. But if he even tried to walk, it seemed topletely go off the rail, and do the most random stuff.
So he assumed that perhaps, the more he practiced walking on two legs, the more limatized he would get to it. Even though walking on all fours made him more mobile, it made pulling and pushing an unnecessary chore.
He practiced walking on two feet for about 30 minutes before giving up. Little to no progress, was made, but he couldn''t waste the whole morning just doing that.
Next, he began strength training. He would have to gain a considerable amount of strength If he ever wanted to bring those stones back to the camp. And he knew just how to go about it.
He took two sleds and loaded them with as many pebbles as they could carry. He then used one hand to hold up each sled, before slowly lowering it, and then pushing it back up. He did this a couple of times, and eventually, it began to stimte stat gain.
Chapter 52 Project "Camp -> Settlement" (7)
With the load he was presently using, he gained about 10 points into strength every 8 reps he did, and 7 into stamina for the same count.
At his current endurance levels, he could only do about 100 reps nonstop before his arms became too exhausted to push anymore.
However, after resting, and continuing with his sets, he found that the efficiency of the workout had decreased. Now he only got 10 points every 12 reps done. Though this was still a good number so he continued.
The efficiency of the workout decreased after every resting period. Till eventually, he could only do 4 reps at a time, and he required 20 to get 10 strength points.
"Hmm, what about¡" as he whispered this he called out his crux, "Sr cleanse," he finished off. And aforting warmth washed over his body,pletely dissolving the pain in his arms. However, he felt even more fatigued than he had before, and his mind was a little fuzzy.
Pushing through it, he continued his sets.
"Captain, what are you doing?" a voice asked. It was still quite early in the morning, and most leaflings were still asleep. So it was quite odd for someone to be out and about at this time.
"I thought the other group was on guard duty," Lucius replied turning to find that it was Alpha.
"I got tired of sleeping, so I came to check up on them," Alpha replied, staring at what Lucius was doing with interest.
"What do you call that?"
"This? I''m working out, trying to increase my strength," Lucius grunted, struggling with the current rep he was on.
"Can I try?" Alpha asked, walking towards Lucius as he dropped the sleds to the ground. Lucius currently had 10 pebbles on each sled, that''s to say there was no way Alpha would manage to lift even one of them.
"Let me remove a few," Lucius said, beforezily removing most of the pebbles from the sleds, leaving only one on each.
"Okay, stretch your legs out," he said, before cing a sled on each of Alpha''s feet.
"Bring it down slowly," he instructed after Alpha had gottenfortable with holding them up.
As Alpha lowered them, his legs tremored from the strain, but he pushed through, till finally, his leg was fully bent.
"How does that feel?" Lucius asked.
"Painful," Alpha replied honestly. "But this will help me get stronger right?"
"I assure you," Lucius replied, before instructing Alpha to push up.
Alpha did around ten of these reps before his legs gave out on him. His legs were in so much pain, that he couldn''t even stand.
Seeing this, Lucius called out his crux before casting sr cleanse on Alpha. Now his mind was really fuzzy, and he felt very sluggish. He realized he would have to rest a bit before continuing with the day.
"I''m going to rest," Lucius said as he inspected his yer stats.
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©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 3: 120/300]
[Leaf Being [Guardian] lvl.4- [10/400]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 462 ]
[Strength: 315>460]
[Stamina: 523>613]
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"I feel sort of tired too. But I think I''ll go sit with the guys on guard duty," Alpha said, standing up.
*
When Lucius woke up he found that all the leaflings had already left to collect materials, so he decided to start on construction by himself.
First, he began with the construction of the tools, which was quite a simple process as all he had to do was create small holes in twigs small enough for him to carry.
After that was done, he began chopping up the other twigs into even lengths. This took an hour as there were more than 150 twigs in the supplies area.
Once the twigs were of equal lengths, he began chopping them up on the sides to make them straighter and more even.
This took even longer than before, as he had to decide which way to cut them and whether some of them could even be cut without interfering with their stability.
It was just about midday when he finally got all the twigs, stripped, chopped, and ready to be used. The work was hard but wasn''t strenuous. At most he was just a little tired, but his arms didn''t feel any sort of unbearable pain.
So before he called the leaflings to have a photosynthesis session, he decided he would go cut up a few lines of vines to use for rope. There were quite a number of vines nearby so he didn''t have to go far.
*
~This knife works quite nicely,~ he thought to himself as he walked back to the camp with arge bundle of vines in tow.
On his way to the supplies area, he noticed the insectoid, standing suspiciously still around the twigs.
"Oi, you can''t do that here!" he shouted out as he noticed that it was releasing what looked like waste.
"Come on, you got some all over the twigs I just chopped up," heined once he was closer, dropping the vines he had collected on the other side of the supplies area.
~I should build a cabin to store supplies in. At this rate, it might ruin even mo-~
"Wait a moment," he whispered out loud, pulling out his quests tab.
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©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Daily Quests ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
300 exp
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Milestone ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
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"A catalyst. Waste counts right?" he asked looking at the insectoid.
"Epor," it replied, clearly confused by what he was asking it.
"This counts as a catalyst, doesn''t it?" he asked again, this time a little less confident as he looked down at the pile of waste in disgust.
To be fair, it didn''t have any sort of horrid smell, but its texture was abhorrent, and the way it just slid down the twigs towards the ground made it even more disgusting.
~Guess there''s only one way to find out~ he thought to himself. All the while the insectoid looked at him with a confused look in its eyes.
"Catalyst absorption," he whispered, and his tail slithered towards the pile, before the flower at its tip bloomed, revealing two tendrils that emerged from its center.
"Eclor?" the insectoid asked in disgust, moving back with a patronizing gaze.
"Oh shut it, you came and shat in the middle of the supplies area. If anyone is disgusting, it''s you," Lucius shot back.
Though he was certain that it was only his imagination, he could feel the waste''s warmth as it travel into his body. He suddenly felt dirty, a shower had never been more enticing.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 10%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 10%]
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
[Level 4!]
Chapter 53 A Race Of Ascendance (1)
"10% increase? That''s pretty good," Lucius whispered, looking at the insectoid with gratitude. However the insectoid wasn''t having any of it and moved a few steps back for extra effect.
"No? Okay," he sighed, before calling the leaflings for a photosynthesis session.
Just likest time, he stopped at intervals of five to allow leaflings who were at their limit to leave, so as to not have them all pass out. Most leaflings got to the 20-minute mark before giving up, while the ones with more endurance got to the 30-minute mark.
It was around this time when he was beginning to feel a slight tingle, like something welling up inside of him. Someone was close to evolution, though it still felt so out of reach.
After 45 minutes, only Ghost, Hannibal and Alpha were left, and Lucius could feel that all three of them were worn out. At the 50-minute mark, Ghost called quits.
Now only two of them remained, and the feeling was bing slightly more intense. Though their connection with him was beginning to waver, perhaps due to their exhaustion.
He made sure to stop more frequently to check up on them, however, each time he was met with the same response. "I can go on, don''t worry about me." It was clear that there was a sort of rivalry between the two, neither one of them wanting to be the first to give up.
~Can they feel it too?~ Lucius wondered as he rmenced the session. He tried to pinpoint who exactly it was that was so close to evolution but was unable to. Unlike the time with Pagan, the feeling wasn''t pronounced, and their link with him was practically non-existent whenpared with that of Pagan''s.
The two of them continued to push forward. Unfortunately, it seemed that their drive wasn''t enough for them to surpass their endurance limits, as Lucius could feel the link between both of them disconnect after the 55-minute mark, and he was left alone to cultivate.
He decided to use this opportunity to test his current limits, so he carried on. He got past the 90-minute mark without issue, and eventually past the 2-hour mark.
His mind was in apletely serene state, and his connection to the outside world became clouded, almost as if he had disconnected. However this was different from the times he had passed out, this felt more natural, like floating on clouds.
He eventually got to the 150-minute mark, and his mind was beginning to feel like it was melting. Taking this as his queue to stop, he opened his eyes.
~2.2 million Helios,~ Lucius thought to himself as he got up to stretch his limbs.
He quickly allocated half of that towards Evo points and the other half to growth. It seemed that he had reached an adequate density as he was beginning to show signs of actual growth, size-wise.
He was now about the size of arge rodent, and his horns were now a little longer than his arms were -which was bound to make walking a little awkward now. His tail also had some noticeable changes, as it was now a tad longer than his entire body, and the flower at its tip was now two timesrger than it had been before.
"Perfect," he whispered to himself, trying to stand up tall to see howrge he was now.
If he had to be honest, he felt like apletely different species from the leaflings. At this point, he was very different from even Pagan, due to his horns and tail. But he supposed that with time everyone would grow to be this way.
"It seems everyone already left," he whispered as he went to the tent to check up on Pagan. There he found Hannibal and Alpha sleeping side by side, right next to Pagan.
"They aren''t going to like this when they wake up," heughed to himself before touching Pagan.
~When is he going to wake up?~ he pondered, before calling out his crux. He used the lesson he had learned from healing the insectoid to inspect Pagan''s body.
After sending in a few pulses he got a clear image of Pagan''s internal status. It was pure white, which usually meant that everything was okay, so he supposed that it was just a matter of time before Pagan woke up.
Opening his eyes he noticed that the crux had changed slightly as well. If before it was the size of a pinhead, it was now the size of a grain of sand. Its pulses felt stronger as well, allowing him to feel some parts of Hannibal and Alpha''s bodies without even trying to.
~I wonder how many bodies I can inspect at once,~ he thought to himself, before sitting down and closing his eyes once more.
This time he put even more power into the pulses, timing them exactly as they spread out of the crux. He started off with just a little bit of power, trying to get a feel for exploring more than one foreign body at a time.
Once he felt a little morefortable he put more power into it, continuously feeding it until he could feel Pagan, Alpha, and Hannibal''s bodies at once.
From his little inspection, he could sense that two bodies were clouded with malicious energy, however, he couldn''t discern which was which.
But knowing that both were Hannibal and Alpha, he decided to use sr cleanse on the two. He tried chanting the spell, but it didn''t work. After a few more failed tries, he decided to do it manually, putting more power into the pulses so as to incinerate the malicious energy.
It worked, he could sense their bodies being cleansed. However, the toll on his mind hit him several fold what it usually would, instantly numbing his entire mind.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSpacial Sr Cleanse¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSpacial Sr Cleanse¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSpacial Sr Cleanse¡» has been added.]
"Nic-" Lucius was about to say before losing consciousness.
*
Chapter 54 A Completed Tree Base
" A new spell, huh?" Lucius whispered to himself, waking up a few minutes after he had passed out.
He was beginning to get the gist of how creating new spells worked. It was basically experimenting until a system event was triggered.
Though he was curious as to what kind of spells he could create, he had to get started on his work before sundown.
~I feel parched,~ he thought to himself, finding that his whole body felt dry. So he took a quick trip to the river before returning.
"Ah, you guys are awake," he whispered as he entered the shed. Though Alpha and Hannibal were conscious, they still seemed incredibly weak, so much so that they couldn''t even stand up properly.
"Perhaps you guys should continue resting," he said to them, before heading out to resume work.
The first thing he would have to do was make a simple pulley system to get all the materials up on the tree. Seeing that most of the vines he had cut earlier were too short for his uses, he grabbed his knife and searched for a suitable one.
The thing was, in order to cut a vine of the required length, he would have to climb up high onto a tree, and cut it from the top. The problem was how to get up there.
"Sigh, I hope this works," he whispered to himself, staring up at one of the taller trees next to the camp. He put the stone knife in his mouth and moved a good distance away from the tree before galloping towards it at full speed.
Just as he was about to crash into it, heunched himself into the air, bouncing off that tree to the one next to it, and so on, using them as tforms to get higher. With every leap he made, he moved faster and faster, jumped higher and higher till eventually, he got to one of the higher branches of the tree.
~No strength, no agility, nothing?~ he sighed, disappointed at theck of system notifications. He didn''t even feel slightly exhausted, which was sort of scary. Had hepletely teaued in terms of agility?
Suppressing those thoughts, he quickly cut the vines he needed and got to the ground using the same method he used to get up.
Next, he got to the camp''s tree, and tree-hopped his way to the top.
~If only everyone else could do this, I wouldn''t have to build a pulley,~ he thought to himself as he hung the vine over the branch he would be building on.
~But I''m almost sure my adaptations are because of this ''guardian'' evolution,~ he considered, realizing that the only reason he could do this was because his body had been modified during hisst evolution.
After creating the makeshift pulley, he got down and tied as many twigs as he could to one end of the vine, before pulling on the other end. Once the twigs were at the top, he tied the vine around the tree to prevent them from falling, before hopping back to the top.
The first step of construction was to shave off bark from key areas he would use for building. So after using his shaving tool to remove a good chunk of the bark, he began cing the stripped twigs to form the foundation.
The twigs used for the foundations were way longer than the other twigs, to allow for arger floor. He stacked down about 60 of such twigs side by side, covering a length of about 1 and a half meters. Each twig was tightly tied to the branch, and then to the following twig, each of them being tested for stability before the next was nted.
Once the foundations were set, Lucius began with the walls. He loaded even more materials onto his makeshift pulley and began stacking twigs vertically along the foundation.
This was the most dangerous part, as he would mainly be working at the edges of the foundations. So to avoid idents, he tied a vine around his body and tied the other end to the branch directly above the one he was working on, so that if he fell he wouldn''t be injured.
The leaflings came around a few times to see what he was up to, however, Ghost quickly ordered them to get back to work, as she knew Lucius would need the extra twigs. Somewhere during construction, Hannibal came to watch, staring silently as Lucius ved away.
After Luciuspletely finished all four walls, he realized that there weren''t enough twigs for the roof. So he quickly went in search of more.
Searching for them, and then chopping and stripping them to his requirements took an hour as most of the twigs he came across were either badly shaped or too short. Perhaps an effect of the leaflings collecting all the good one''s closer to the camp.
But after all that was done, he got to finishing the roof. The roof was one of the hardest parts to build, as he had to suspended in the air to actually ce them on top of the walls. It was a bit difficult doing it alone, but he found a way to tie the safety vine he was using to get the job done.
"Perfect," he whispered. It was just about sunset when he had finally finished, and he was quite happy with the build.
It wasrge enough to house all the leaflings, however he doubted that it would be able to house them all once they evolved. But that was an issue for another time, as he nned to have them help with further builds.
Now came the finishing touches. He used the remaining twigs and lengths of rope, to create even more stability for the base. He ced the extra twigs at areas of stress, and used the rope to form even more links with the tree''s branch.
"Look!" shouted a few leaflings, noticing thepleted structure.
"What is it?" another asked, looking up at it.
~Ah the pulley,~ Lucius realized, before getting to the ground. Amotion began, with all the leaflings surrounding the tree, trying to figure out what exactly Lucius had built.
Meanwhile, he began constructing a small tform for the leaflings to use as an elevator. After he was done with that, he tied it to the safety vine he had been using and used the branch above the base as an axle.
"I introduce to you, the Elwood Kingdom''s first structure," he announced to the leaflings, a satisfied smile on his face.
*
Chapter 55 My Deadly Ambitions
After showing all the leaflings to the new base, Lucius went to visit his prisoner with Alpha apanying him as well.
"You can go rest, I''ll take over from here," Alpha said to the leafling on duty once they arrived.
"So, have you figured something out?" Lucius asked, looking into the makeshift cell. The shroom was in bad condition, its wounds were beginning to rot, and its bindings had cut so deep into its flesh that it was beginning to swell.
"Did you bring me something to eat?" the shroom croaked, its movements slow and lethargic.
"Depends on your answer," Lucius responded.
"Kukk, I hope the forest swallows you whole," the shroom spat.
"You bas-" Alpha was about to shout before Lucius gestured for him to calm down.
"Then I take it you prefer starving to death? Or maybe your wounds will get you first?" Lucius said calmly, before sitting right in front of the cell. "I don''t believe there''s this much loyalty between you lot, so I''m inclined to believe that you indeed have no connection to the beings that killed my children," he continued.
"Then let me go!" the shroom screamed in reply, struggling against its bindings.
"But that doesn''t mean a thing. You are the same species as the beings that killed them, and though I have no business with you, I still need information," Lucius replied.
"I told you everything I know already," the shroom responded, more calmly this time.
"No, you haven''t. I want to know everything you know, everything. Where your kind is found, what their hunting patterns are, their weakness, and their strengths."
"Everything you know about the forest, hunters and prey, and this tier system you seem so fond of talking about," Lucius continued.
"T-then you''ll let me go?" the shroom asked.
"No, I won''t. I''ll integrate into mymune, but I will never release you," Lucius replied.
"Captain! His kind killed the others, you can''t let him join ourmune!" Alpha shouted, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"So what? We''ll just hunt down every member of his species, even if they had never done anything to offend us?" Lucius asked, turning to Alpha.
"Remember when I told you you''d have to start thinking if you wanted to be a good leader? Now''s the time to prove to me that you are worthy of keeping the name Alpha. I know that you sense it, you are close to evolution, but that means nothing if you''re just going to end up a muscle-brained, Captain."
"So, tell me Alpha, what benefit does having him join ourmune represent?" Lucius finished off.
Alpha thought about it for a moment, running through every possible benefit that this monster could offer the leaflings, but came up with nothing. All he could think about was how his kind had killed the other leaflings, and how one day it might do the same.
"I see," Lucius whispered in a disappointed tone.
? "Then let me help you. For one, he could help us get the rest of his kind under our rule," Lucius answered.
"Captain, you can''t be serious. You want the rest of his kind to join themune?" Alpha asked,pletely bbergasted.
"Of course, we''ll take our revenge on the group that wronged us, but the rest of them might help the growth of themune," Lucius replied seriously.
"Your n will never work," the shroom interrupted. "My kind will never listen to prey, no hunter ever will. I don''t understand why it is you are helping these leaf creatures, but I can tell you this. If not by the hands of my kind, all of them will eventually end up food for another," the shroom finished off.
"And that''s exactly why I n on ruling over your kind. I will grow themune sorge, that nothing will be capable of threatening it," Lucius replied.
The shroomughed at this, a crazed sort ofugh. Perhaps its hunger had finally gotten to it, or it was doing it as a way to mask its pain. After whatever joke it had told itself died down, it spoke.
"I don''t know what kind of world you''re living in. But even if you got every single member of my kind on your side- no, every single low-tier being, we''d only amount to dust next to the high-tier ones. The true owners of this forest would look at your littlemune, and squash it for fun," it said finally.
"We will see about that. But for now, what do you say?" Lucius asked, ignoring the sardonic tone in the shroom''s voice.
"After you treated me this way? Why would I join you?" it asked.
"Because if you don''t I''ll leave you to starve. Letting you go was never an option, I''m sure you would''ve gone with revenge in your mind. This is the only way that I can make sure you won''t," he replied.
"And what if I attack yourmune the moment you let me free?" it asked.
Alpha moved towards the cell, his mind clouded with anger, however, Lucius held him back.
"You can try. But I assure you, starvation would''ve been a better option," Lucius replied.
"After all, I''m only offering you this chance because I feel that we''ve bonded so much over the few days I''ve held you captive. But I can always offer this chance to someone else, maybe someone I haven''t tried to kill yet," he added on with a smile.
Though he knew that choosing this route would be hard. Finding another shroom in solitude would be unlikely, and approaching them when they were in a group was bound to end in ughter.
This shroom was his best chance at creating a bridge between their kinds, as well as his best shot at learning all he could about the shrooms that had attacked hismune.
"I''ll join, but first I need proof that you won''t just lead me to my death. My kind have an initiation for elders, the Shri''kilian fruit of the Dark Forest. If you can bring it back here, and eat it in front of me, I will join yourmune and forget about everything," the shroom replied after careful consideration.
"You think you are in any position to negotiate?" Alpha spat.
"This is not a negotiation. My kind will only follow an elder, and this is the only way for him to be one. It is a minimum requirement for you to gain the subservience of the others," the shroom exined.
"That is, if you don''t die trying," it smiled after.
Chapter 56 The Dark Forest
"Hmm, then where do I find this... sh''n? And what exactly does it do?" Lucius asked after a moment of thought.
"You trust this thing? It just said you might not survive," Alpha protested, however, Lucius wanted to hear it out.
"It''s called the Shri''kilian, and it grants those that are capable of attaining it a better vessel for poison. It makes them bigger, stronger, and an elder among their n members," the shroom exined.
~This sounds an awful lot like evolution,~ Lucius realized.
"How many times can one eat it? How many times can you grow from it?" he asked.
"Just once. Eating any more would be useless, however finding one is already hard enough. As for where to find it, it can only be found in the Dark Forest, near the trees protected by the hairy-folk," the shroom replied.
~Hmm, so it''s a limited evolution, huh? But still, it sounds well worth investigating if it will allow an instant evolution. Besides, the additional poison add-on might prove to be a worthy weapon for my ns,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"What are the hairy folk?" he asked after a moment.
"They are high-tier beasts that make their dens within the trees. They are poison specialists, their toxins are leagues more potent than ours. But it is said, that an elder can attain poison equal to theirs, and one day im a spot for our kind among the owners of the forest," the shroom replied, a sort of dreamy tone in its voice.
"But the legend is a tale spoken to children. The hairy-folk are real enough, and their poison more so. You will have to sneak your way around them, past the clouds of toxic poison, and rip a fruit from the very top of one of the Shri''kilian trees," it continued.
"Sounds fair enough. Where is the Dark Forest?"
"Wait, you''re actually going?" Alpha asked.
"If what he says is true, then just getting the fruit will be well worth it," Lucius replied.
"Then I''ming too," Alpha responded.
"You won''t be able to. I''m not taking you along before you evolve, and the cooldown period after evolution is 4 days, 4 days too long for me to wait," Lucius whispered in Alpha''s ear, to which Alpha gave a defeated sigh.
"If you keep heading in that direction, the forest eventually begins to decay, and the trees be distorted. You will know once you have entered it," the shroom exined, struggling a little in its ufortable bindings.
"And how will I know which one the Sh''klian tree is?" Lucius asked.
"The Shri''kilian tree glows with a purple hue. They are found closer to the entrance of the forest," it replied.
"Good, I''ll go as soon as I''ve finished preparing. For now, I''ll leave you with this, as a token of our future partnership," Lucius said, closing his eyes before calling out the crux.
"Spacial Sr Cleanse," he chanted, and two strong pulses were emitted from the floating crux. The first scanned the shroom''s body, while the secondpletely healed it.
He kept his eyes closed, before recalling it, remembering how he had gone blind thest time he had used his crux during the night.
"M-Magic? H-How, that''s impossible," the shroom stuttered, realizing that its pain had beenpletely erased. Lucius on the other hand felt drowsy, the effects of healing taking its toll.
"You use it too, no? Your poison, I mean," Lucius whispered, holding his head in pain.
"Poison is not magic. J-Just what are you?" the shroom asked, looking at Lucius in a new light.
"Goodnight. I hope you understand that I can''t release you from your bindings until our deal is made official," Lucius said as he walked back to the camp.
"Alpha?" he asked, turning back.
"I will stay on guard duty, someone wille to rece me in a few hours," Alpha responded.
Once Lucius was gone, Alpha looked into the cage, his eyes burning with hatred.
"What? Are you afraid that I might steal the favor of your benefactor?" the shroom asked sardonically.
"As soon as I evolve, I''ming to end you,"
"Evolve? What do you mean by that?"
~Crap,~ Alpha thought to himself, realizing that he was saying too much.
"Nevermind, just keep quiet," Alpha said after a moment, turning to face the other direction.
"Interesting," the shroom whispered with a smile.
*
Lucius started off the next day with a mini-building project. Since he had reached a teau during his strength training yesterday, he decided to increase the number of pebbles he used during each set. And in order to do that, he needed arger tform to hold the pebbles, so he decided to link a few sleds together.
Seeing this, Alpha decided to join in as well, wanting to build as much strength as he could before he evolved.
Last night''s talk was still fresh in his mind, and though Lucius had already told him that he would be venturing into the dark forest alone, he hoped that perhaps by showing Lucius his strength he would change his mind.
Lucius started off, with 15 pebbles on each sled, getting a feel for the new weight before adding more. He gained around 10 strength points for every 12 reps he did, and once he increased the load to 20 pebbles each, the efficiency increased to 15 strength points for every 12 reps.
In between resting periods, Lucius would watch over Alpha''s training, making sure that he didn''t hurt himself. It seemed Alpha hadn''t made much progress from the previous day, as he could still only manage a set of 10 reps with a single pebble on each sled.
Though this was to be expected, as he didn''t have stat points yet.
After Alpha had exhausted himself, Lucius continued his workout,pletely filling both sleds with the maximum number of pebbles they could carry. This amounted to about 25 pebbles on each of the extended sleds.
He pushed as much as he could, using sr cleanse each time he felt that his natural endurance had beenpletely depleted.
As he did this, he realized that his resistance to the healing''s mind-numbing effect was bing stronger and stronger, however, it was still present, and he still felt like his mind was melting.
[Inadequate growth. Strength Cap reached.]
~Huh?~ as Lucius read the system notification he couldn''t help but be confused.
Chapter 57 Worm Hunter
[New Quest. Reach Growth cap.]
~Now that I think about it, this has happened before, hasn''t it?~ he thought to himself, remembering the time he had reached a level cap.
~I wonder,~ he thought, pulling out his yer stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 4: 0/400]
[Leaf Being [Guardian] lvl.9- [19/900]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 462 ]
[Strength: 460>750][Capped]
[Stamina: 613>712]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Why are there two levels again?~ he wondered, noticing that one of his levels had increased to level 9.
~That one increases by aplishing quests, but how does this one increase?~ he pondered for a moment. The only logical exnation he coulde up with was that it had something to do with his growth.
"I''m gonna have to test that theory out-"
"Captain! Perimeter patrol spotted three wormsing from the north!" a leafling interrupted. Lucius recognized him as one of Alpha''s men.
"How far away?" he replied immediately, already grabbing his stone knife.
"Fuck," he grimaced, a massive headache reminding him of all the sr cleanse spells he had just used.
"With how fast they''re moving, they''ll probably be here in 3 minutes," the leafling replied.
"But there''s no way they could''ve known we had a camp here, right? Is this just a coincidence?" Lucius pondered for a bit.
"No, it''s very possible that they have a way of tracking their prey down. Maybe smell or something of the sort. Believing it''s a coincidence would be naive," he realized, before galloping towards the area the leafling had mentioned.
*
"They''re just up ahead, they seem to be looking for something," one of the leaflings at the site whispered to Lucius once he had arrived, gesturing towards four worms standing still in the distance.
They were lifting their bodies into the air, wiggling them around as if searching for something up in the sky.
"Hmm, suspicious indeed. They''re looking for something in the trees... so perhaps I was right. They do have a way of tracking prey, and they''re aware that the prey has moved up," he whispered to himself, dismissing the leaflings as he thought about his next move.
Strength-wise, he was certain he couldpletely obliterate these worms. Though they seemed massive when he was still a leafling, they were now a few centimeters shorter than him even in his quadrupedal stance.
However, the threat they posed was in their numbers and the sharp projections in their wide maws. To make matters worse, Lucius''s vision was beginning to blur from mental exhaustion.
"Need to take care of this quickly," he whispered, putting the knife in his mouth, before tree hopping his way towards to worms.
He decided to tree-hop around them, choosing toe from their blind spot. However, this was easier said than done, as he had to focus quite a bit not to trip up in his current mental state.
After gaining an appropriate amount of momentum, he locked onto his target, andunched himself towards it, twisting in the air with his knife ready to strike.
"Fuck," he whispered under his breath. Having missed the worm by just an inch, he looked up at his confused enemies.
It took them a moment to realize what was going on, but the instant they did, they all attacked. Their speeds were nothing to write home about, but they were indeed fast for something of their sizes.
They lunged at him haphazardly, with their maws wide open, snaking in different directions to confuse him.
He let out a sigh, before dodging three of the iing maws, and mming the fourth with a fist to the face.
He twisted around, swinging his knife at one of the worms behind him, while his tail wrapped around the one he had just smacked to the ground.
As he stabbed into the worm in front of him, his tail squeezed the life out of the fallen one, its guts splurging out its bottom end due to the pressure.
~I don''t even need this, it''s just messing up my stance,~ Lucius realized, putting the knife on the ground.
The strength difference between them was simply too high, and the worms caught onto this. Leaving their brethren behind, they tried to flee. But even in his weakened state, it wouldn''t require much to catch up to them.
He ran after the closest one, dragging it back by its back-end, before spinning it and mming it to the ground, bursting its head.
Thest one had fled quite the distance, but if he tried he would still be able to catch up to it, however the moment he tried to run, something locked him in ce.
"What? Is one of them still ali-" as he turned back to see what it was he got a system notification.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 15%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 15%]
[Stats increased by 0.5%]
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
"What are you doing?" he sighed, watching as his tail basically slurped up all the juiced within the dead worms. In mere seconds, one of the worms was turned into a dry skin bag, and already it was moving on to the next.
"Wait, wait, calm down!" he shouted trying to pull it back.
~What the? How is it this strong?~ he wondered, straining himself to keep it away from the remaining worms.
~For fucks sake, why does it seem like its stats are even higher than mine?~ he asked as he curled into a ball with his tail at the center.
"Oi, listen. If these worms give this many bonuses then save some forter. We don''t need anymore," he tried exining, but his tail worked on sub-conscious urges. And though his mind was telling him no, his ''hunger'' was whispering sweet promises to his tail.
After wrestling with himself for what felt like 15 minutes, his tail finally stopped trying to eat the remaining prizes, and went back to its usual mild manner, swinging from side to side.
"Finally," he sighed to himself, standing up.
Chapter 58 "Oh Great Lighted One, Thank You For This Power"
"So meat can act as a catalyst, huh? Who knew?" Lucius whispered to himself. Though he was aware that corpses could dpose into nutritious fertilizer for nt life, he didn''t think it would work if he just absorbed it raw.
"And 15% at that. If I can get a stable supply of these, then getting everyone to evolve will be an easier task... in fact, who knows, other creatures might give even higher benefits," he whispered. Though something was bugging him.
If he wanted to unite as many low-tier creatures into his camp as possible, then wouldn''t this hinder things? How was he any different from the shrooms who had hunted down his children for their betterment?
"But these things didn''t seem to be sentient," he whispered to himself as he dragged the two remaining worms behind a shrub for safekeeping.
"They didn''t seem to speak any sort ofnguage like the insectoid and failed to work together to try when I attacked them," he whispered.
"I mean, even when I first found the leaflings, they were capable of warning each other," he continued, putting the worm-skin bag in his mouth before heading back to the camp to grab a few sleds. He wasn''t in the mood for bncing on two legs in order to carry the worms back.
*
"This thing has a foul taste," he grimaced, spitting the worm skin bag out of his mouth once he got back to the camp. ~But I''m sure it''ll have its uses,~
He quickly grabbed the sleds and returned the two worms back to the camp. The leaflings on guard duty began surrounding the corpses, and the leaflings still up on the tree base kept begging to be let down so they could see as well.
"You killed all two of them?" Alpha asked,pletely bbergasted.
"Three," Lucius replied, pointing at the skin bag. "But it wasn''t that hard," he finished off, before making his way to the ground shed to take a rest.
"Ghost, do you see that? He hunted three worms, by himself. I mean- I knew the Captain was strong, but-"
"Yeah... I know. It''s scary," Ghost replied staring at the worms as well.
"To think, he hunted down the creatures that saw us as prey. And one day, we will do the same," Alpha whispered under his breath, a determined look in his eyes.
~What are they even going on about? But I guess I sort of understand,~ Lucius thought to himself as he entered the tent.
He realized that the older leaflings must''ve seen wholemunes wiped out by single worms, so to see them so easily hunted down must''ve been a shock.
"L-Lighted One," a voice whispered as Lucius got into the shed.
"Ahh, finally. I was wondering how long it would take," Lucius whispered as ay down on the ground.
"How are you feeling," he said after getting himselffortable.
"A bit dizz- wait, what is this?" Pagan said to himself, shooting to his feet.
"Slow down there, it takes a while for the dizzine-" however Lucius''s warning came toote, and Pagan fell to the ground with a thump.
"Yeah, well," Lucius sighed, before helping him up.
"Now what were you so excited about?" he asked, calling out his crux to check up on Pagan''s status.
"This," Pagan replied, calling out a crux of his own. Compared to Lucius''s, it was quite small, but Lucius could just make it out, floating above Pagan''s head.
"Are you bigger?" Pagan asked, just now realizing that Lucius was almost too big to fit in the shed even in a crouched posture.
"You''ve been out for three days. Had you been here, I''m sure you would''ve grown just asrge," Lucius replied. ~But not that it''s going to be a problem much longer,~
"Sr Sorcery Index?" Pagan whispered slowly as if he were just learning to read.
~The sobriquet did state that the index would be linked- wait does that mean he can cast the spells as well?~ "Pagan, what else is there?" he asked out loud.
,m "Sr Cleanse and Spa-Spatial Sr Cleanse," Pagan replied after a moment,
"Lighted One, what are these?" he asked.
Lucius smiled excitedly before replying. "Spells, can you try using them?"
"M-Magic?" Pagan asked, before freezing in shock.
"Pagan?" Lucius whispered, tapping him on the side of his face.
"To think. that ???? have been awarded so graciously. I knew you were special, but I never would''ve imagined you had the power to offer me magic," Pagan mumbled to himself, staring at Lucius with scary reverence.
"Calm down, I didn''t offer you anything. This is all the system," Lucius tried exining. But Pagan couldn''t hear a word of what Lucius was saying over all the praises he was mumbling.
"Can you please just try the spells?" Lucius sighed. His mind was too numb to deal with all this right now.
"Hmm, I see. So link the crux..." Pagan whispered after a moment of thought, before his crux began pulsing more vigorously.
~He got the hang of that quite fast,~ Lucius thought. But it only made sense, he had practice linking with Lucius''s before all this.
"And exert more power into the pulse," Pagan whispered, before closing his eyes, "Like this?" And at that moment a pulse passed over Lucius.
It was hard to fully describe, but it was as if something were watching him, invading his personal space. A momentter another pulse passed over him, and he could feel the fuzziness from his mind float away.
"I-I did it?" Pagan was about to cheer, before being hit by a wave of sudden fatigue.
"You learned that pretty fast," Luciusmented, his entire body feeling rejuvenated.
"But you might want to rest before trying Spatial Sr Cleanse, though," he warned after, before leaving the shed. He had something else to take care of, and now that he was refreshed he could deal with it immediately.
*
"I hope you like worm," Lucius whispered, dragging a sled behind him as he approached the imprisoned shroom.
"Food, finally," the shroom shouted in excitement, struggling against its binds.
"Careful, you''ll cut yourself again," Lucius warned.
Chapter 59 [Bonus Chapter]Beasts And Sentients
"Untie me then, I''m starving," the shroom replied excitedly.
"Will you join mymune?" Lucius asked as he pulled a stone knife from the sled.
"I cannot join your n unless you be an elder. I told you this already," the shroom replied briefly, before going back to drooling over the worm.
"Then I cannot release you," Lucius replied curtly, pulling the worm from the cart before dropping in front of the cell.
"Then have youe to mock me?" the shroom asked, its tone bing less excited as It stared at Lucius with a wary gaze.
"No, I''ll feed it you," Lucius answered, taking the pebble off the top of the cell beforepletely lifting it off the shroom.
"I have a few questions for you," he continued, using the knife to cut off arge chunk of worm flesh.
"Yes, yes. But feed me first," the shroom interrupted, its gaze fully focused on the piece of worm.
"Ah," Lucius whispered, putting the chunk in the shroom''s mouth. The shroom bit down instantly, nearly biting Luciuc''s finger off, before munching down on its food vigorously.
"Why don''t these creatures talk? I mean like you and I do. They don''t seem to have anynguage of their own," Lucius asked after the shroom had swallowed its meal.
"More," the shroom grunted, opening his mouth for another bite. Lucius cut off another piece and fed it to the shroom.
"Language? What do you mean by that?" the shroom asked in between mouthfuls.
"The words that you and I speak. We can understand each other no?"
After swallowing down a good amount of its meal, the shroom opened its mouth once again for another bite, and Lucius obliged.
"Mmm, this tastes good," the shroom mumbled before swallowing. "Why would a beast talk?" it answered finally, before opening its mouth once again. It clearly wasn''t interested in whatever Lucius had to ask.
"Answer me properly or your meal ends here," Lucius warned, before threatening to stand.
"Okay, okay. Beasts are different from you and I. They do not speak and do things merely on instinct. Most of them don''t even form ns... ormunes as you call it, and merely group together for the purpose of hunting," the shroom answered.
"But even then, they hardly work together," it murmured after.
"If that''s the case, then why don''t your kind just hunt down beasts? Why hunt down creatures that are like you?" Lucius asked, tossing another piece of worm flesh into the shrooms mouth.
"Like us? What are you on about? Why would it matter whether our meals are like us or not?" The shroom replied in between mouthfuls, "sometimes you make no sense," it said after, swallowing down its food.
~Well, I guess morals developed very differently for these guys. They are practically animals, after all,~ Lucius realized. And besides, he was basically trying to fit in human concepts that held no benefit to the shrooms.
"What if I asked your kind to only hunt beasts? What do you think they would say?" Lucius asked, tossing another chunk into its mouth.
"Hmm," the shroom mumbled in thought, gnawing down on the worm flesh. "Maybe if you asked them not to eat your little... ah, n members, they might understand. But that understanding would be that they were yours to eat alone," the shroom said after it had swallowed.
"Without a proper reason, they will continue to eat others that are not in your n," it finished off.
"I mean, there is no difference, right? If I could get a steady supply of food for everyone under me, wouldn''t that be reason enough for them to stop?" Lucius asked, confused about why it seemed the shrooms were so adamant in eating sentient creatures.
"Beasts don''t help increase poison potency. Only creatures that are of higher intelligence do. And besides, there isn''t much difference between low-tier creatures like the ones you are protecting, and beasts. They both have flimsy n rtions, but at least beasts can have offspring without outside help," the shroom replied, before opening its mouth for another bite.
~I see, so sentient creatures are a necessity for them to be stronger?~
"Wait, did you just say flimsy n rtions? Aren''t you the one that left your n to die?" Lucius shot back.
"It is the way of the forest. I merely epted it, I don''t know why you can''t," the shroom replied, before gesturing for Lucius to toss the piece of worm flesh he was currently holding into its mouth.
"Did you feel nothing when your n was wiped out? No remorse? Regret for not having done anything?" Lucius asked.
"I feel remorse that I left without eating, I''ll tell you that. But our elder was a weak one, he couldn''t defeat the webbed ones and as a result, everyone died," it replied in a thoughtful tone. "Maybe I have regret for following that guy. He was old, and his poison was waning," it continued.
"Besides, if I was you I''d be happy that half of your n was wiped out. The less of those creatures to take care of the better, right?" the shroom said, before opening its mouth expectantly.
"I think we are done talking for the day," Lucius replied before standing to leave. He didn''t n on exining the importance of those close to him, especially to someone who seemed to have no remorse for their lost ones.
"Wait, I have a question for you as well," the shroom whispered as Lucius ced its cage back on top of it.
"Go on," Lucius replied, cing the pebble on top.
"Were you once like those creatures you protect?" it whispered slowly, staring at him with an intrigued look. A dangerous sort of intrigue, like a snake watching a mouse.
"I only just noticed, but there are some simrities no?" the shroom continued with a smile.
Lucius kept quiet and tossed the knife back into the sled before pulling on its harness with his mouth.
"And you are way bigger than thest time you visited," the shroom said as he began dragging the sled back to the camp.
"So you know magic, have the ability to growrger, and can advance in tier level," the shroomughed as he left.
"Interesting! Interesting indeed! Get the fruit, I can''t wait to follow you!" the shroom shouted, an excited smile on its face.
"How interesting indeed," it whispered once he was out of sight.
Chapter 60 Growing
~Was it that obvious?~ Lucius wondered to himself as he walked back to the camp. He wouldn''t have thought that anyone would be able to recognize that he had once been a leafling, after all, it was quite the stretch, he looked nothing like a leafling at this point.
~But if I gained anything out of our little conversation, it''s that evolution seems to be a rare urrence amongst these creatures,~ he realized.
~Sigh, which means interactions with outsiders will have to be kept to a minimum, lest they realize that themune evolves on a regr basis,~ he thought.
Though he wondered if the same could be said for the so-called ''owners of the forest''. Were they able to evolve more easily, or would they try to do tests on him if they found out? Would they wee a new species? He pondered.
Once he got back to the camp, he decided to start work on a storage unit for excess materials, seeing that the insectoid had once again decided to relieve itself near the materials pile. However, though it was annoying, Lucius wasn''t going to say no to free catalysts.
So he picked the droplets up, using the skin bag to store them, before cing them neatly next to the twigs that the leaflings had collected.
"Perhaps I should use branches for this build instead," he whispered to himself, snapping a twig effortlessly with a single hand. He had only used twigs because it was about the only thing he could carry, but now that he was many times stronger, perhapsrger materials were an order.
"Yeah, it''s about time," he said after a moment of thought. "I''ll head out with Pagan to collect the rocks to make stronger tools, then I''ll start on building stronger structures," he continued.
"But first, the photosynthesis session. Need to take advantage of the 15% increase," he decided before calling the wholemune out. Soon they were all seated in a circle, one leafling touching the next like they usually did.
"Lighted One, can I start this session?" Pagan asked, floating his crux around his head as he spoke. The other leaflings looked at him in amazement, while some others -Alpha and Co.- were in a mix of both envy and awe.
Lucius wasn''t aware that it was at all possible to move the crux like that, however, that was to be expected as he had always been too busy upgrading this, or trying to build that, to even properly explore his magical powers.
"Sure, you can have a try," he said, closing his eyes.
[¡ºPagan¡» requests to use you as a ry.]
[ept.] [Decline.]
~Ahh, so he still needs me to perform photosynthesis?~ Lucius thought in disappointment as he read the system notifications.
~ept.~
[¡ºPagan¡»''s +5% increase has been added. Photosynthesis efficiency has been increased by 20%]
[Absorbing 282 Helios per second.]
~At this rate, even I might evolve soon enough,~ Lucius thought to himself in satisfaction, seeing therge increase of helios absorption.
Since the leaflings didn''t need to collect materials anymore, Lucius was okay with having all of them push as hard as they could. He could carry them into the tree base if need be, so it posed no disadvantage to have them pass out. So long as it meant they would all evolve sooner.
Most leaflings got to the 20-minute mark, and only at 25 minutes did a good number of them pass out from mental exhaustion.
From the 30-minute mark, at least one leafling would pass out per minute, until the 40-minute mark was reached, and only the ''elites'' were left.
Everyone pushed to their limits, and the first of them to fall was Ghost, stopping at the 45-minute mark. Lucius, Hannibal, Pagan, and Alpha continued through to the 1-hour mark, and it was from this point on that the ''welling-up'' sensation began to tingle once more.
With every passing minute, the feeling got stronger, more intense, all the while it still felt unreachable, so out of range.
Eventually, the group reached the 1 hour 20-minute mark, a milestone for Alpha and Hannibal. Though he could tell that they were basically unconscious at this point, as their link was now non-existent.
The 1-hour 30-minute mark came, and it felt as if their evolution were mere steps away, if they could just hold out for another hour or so, Lucius was certain that they would be there.
However, he was asking too much of them, as they both broke their link at the exact same moment, passing put at 1 hour 31 minutes.
Lucius and Pagan continued on to 140 minutes before Pagan had to call quits, and Lucius rmenced on his own. However, it seemed he could only go an extra 10 minutes before the toll began to be a nuisance.
"A total of 2.64 million Helios," Lucius whispered to himself as he thought about how to allocate the points.
He could try and finish off the Evo-points quest he had, which had the chance of dropping an item that would give him an edge in the forest. Or, he could allocate them all into growth, which was sure to give him a better chance in the forest.
Splitting them in half right now would make no sense if he wasn''t going to reach the target Evo-points before he left. That would just take away from the growth that he might end up needing, for realistically nothing in return.
"Sorry quest, I just don''t like working with variables," he whispered to himself before allocating all 2.64 million Helios into growth.
In that instant, he could feel his body growing, expanding in every direction. He was now the size of a small rabbit, his horns were about 1/3rd the size of his body, and his tail was nearly longer than he was.
The flower at the tip of his tail was now the size of a marble, and its once vibrant yellow color was begging to grow into a darker shade. The same could be said for the rest of his body, its once green color was bing dull, browner, like tree wood. Though the area around his face shone with a more vibrant shade of green.
"Massive," gulped some of the leaflings as l they looked up at Lucius.
"Hmm, that''s some good growth as well," Lucius said, looking towards Pagan. Pagan was now the size of a small rat, quitergepared to the leaflings, but still a little smaller than the shrooms.
Chapter 61 Project "Settlement -> Village" (1)
61 Project "Settlement -> Vige" (1)
"Pagan, grab a few of the leaflings and help me load them up on the elevator over there," Lucius ordered, pointing at the leaflings that were unconscious.
"You guys should head up as well, Pagan and I will be leaving camp for a bit so it won''t be safe to wander around," he said to the few that were currently surrounding him.
"What about her?" one of the leaflings asked, gesturing towards the insectoid that was currently scurrying a few meters away, in search of what Lucius assumed was food.
"??????? Never mind that, she can take care of herself," he replied, before quickly grabbing a few of the leaflings and scaling the tree.
~That was quite easy,~ he thought to himself as he got up to the tree camp in just three hops.
He quickly picked up the remaining few on the ground before Pagan could even load them on the elevator, and dropped them in the tree base.
"Am I faster than before?" he wondered, checking his yer stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 4: 300/400]
[Leaf Being {Guardian} lvl.15- {155/1500}]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 462 ]
[Strength: 750]{Capped}
[Stamina: 712>716]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
"Apart from the increase in level, It''s all still the same. So why do I feel like everything has increased?"
He had thought that his stats determined his physical capabilities, but it seemed that they acted as more of a multiplier to his size. Everything felt way too light, too fragile. It felt as if he couldpletely stter a leafling with just a simple tug.
~Interesting,~ he thought before ordering Pagan to grab the sleds.
"Isn''t there a way of doing this with magic?" Pagan asked as he reluctantly grabbed the sleds from the supplies area.
"All of them," Lucius said once Pagan only returned with two.
"All of them?" Pagan replied in an exasperated tone, before collecting the rest. His stats were so low, that even carrying all ten of the sleds looked like quite the workout for him, which was what Lucius had hoped for.
In actuality, Pagan wouldn''t even be that much of a help to him on the trip, as he didn''t n on using the sleds to carry the rocks back anyway.
But he wanted Pagan to gain some stamina and strength during the trip, as he would be the camp''s only line of defense when he was out on his dark forest quest. So after loading a few vines on the sleds, they set off.
*
"Come on, pick up the pace," Lucius shouted out as he jumped from tree to tree, hopping around Pagan in circles as they carried on their journey.
"Are you sure there isn''t a way to do this with magic, Lighted One? Surely I can make use of your gifts?" Pagan asked in between breaths. They had only been marching for 10 minutes, and already he looked like he was about to pass out.
"That would be beside the point, now keep marching," Lucius replied.
They eventually reached their first destination an hourter. Though it should''ve been at most a 25-minute trip had Lucius gone alone, due to all the breaks they had to take for Pagan''s sake the journey was made inconveniently long.
"Come on, it isn''t that bad," Luciusughed as Pagan fell to the ground gasping. "We still have another spot to hit, so rest up," he continued, opening Pagan''s stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Pagan Elwood ]
[Level 3: 50/300]
[Leaf Being {Photosynthesis Variation} lvl.3- {100/300}]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 9 > 11]
[Strength: 8 > 41]
[Stamina: 3 > 29]
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~A reasonable increase,~ he thought in satisfaction.
"Okay," he whispered, before tying the vines he had brought around a medium-sized rock and loading it on his back, fastening the vine firmly around himself like a backpack.
"It''s not that heavy," he whispered as he hopped up and down to get a feel of the weight.
"Hmm, you can handle yourself, right? I think I can return to the camp ande back," Lucius said, to which Pagan replied with a wave of his hand, still too tired to do anything.
"Be back in sh."
Going anding back took him 45 minutes, way faster than he had estimated. He hadn''t gained a single point in either strength, agility or stamina. Though it was to be expected as the rock didn''t feel like it weighed all that much, at best he had a bit of back pain, but that was only because of the rock''s rough surface.
"Pagan?" Lucius called out, finding that Pagan wasn''t where he had left him.
"Over here," Pagan replied, hiding behind a shrub, his crux floating around his head like a sort of pet.
"You''re using your crux again, huh?" he asked, watching as Pagan shifted it from side to side as he approached him.
"I was trying to see if there was a way to carry the sleds with magic. But I can''t seem to do it," Pagan replied in a defeated tone.
"Well, like I said, even if you could," Lucius replied, before ordering Pagan to carry the sleds once again.
"But Lighted One, you don''t even need them." Pagan protested.
"They''re carrying the rope," Lucius replied with a grin, before ambling ahead. "Come on, let''s move on to the next spot,"
It took them 30 minutes to get to the next location. Lucius loaded up a rock like he had thest time and returned to the camp, this time with Pagan in tow.
*
"Okay, all done," Lucius said in satisfaction, looking at the two rocks he had brought back. One of them was a rock for grinding, while the other was the hard-crystal rock that he would use to make tool heads.
"Rest up while I make the tools. You''ll help me build once I''m done," Lucius said to Pagan, however, Pagan was already fast asleep,pletely exhausted from the journey.
"Can we watch?" a few leaflings called out from the tree camp. Lucius quickly brought the leaflings to the ground, and those that were interested watched as he tried to break the crystal rock.
He loaded it up on his back once more and hopped up the tree, which proved to be sort of tricky due to the extra weight. But after a few hops to get a feel for the added weight, he got to one of the higher branches of their tree.
Chapter 62 Project "Settlement -> Village" (2)
"Get away!" he shouted towards the leafings at the bottom, before tossing the rock to the ground. Due to itsyered structure, it broke into multiple tes, with a few crystal chunks sprawled here and there.
"Perfect," he whispered, before getting to the ground.
He collected the small pieces that had broken off from the main tes, putting them aside to use as chiselster on. After which he began collecting the bigger tes to use for the tool heads.
The edges of the tes were especially sharp, so he ended up with a few cuts here and there, but it was nothing that sr cleanse could not heal.
After an hour of work, he had ground up two shovel heads, three axe heads about the size of his head, and two long knives that could act as both weapons and cutting tools.
"These will probably be too big for Pagan to use," he whispered to himself before looking towards Pagan who was currently ying with his crux again.
"But I don''t think that he will use them anyway. I''ll just give him my old stone tools to gather some vines," he decided a momentter.
Next, he collectedrge twigs to use as handles and carved holes into them using the crystal chisels, before inserting the stone heads and fastening them with a few vines.
"Pagan time to get moving," Lucius ordered once he had finished with all the tools, the leaflings following his every move with interest.
"Can we help?" one of them asked excitedly, to which the others began jumping up and down shouting ''me too! me too!''.
"Sadly this job is a little too hard for you guys. Once you guys grow a little I''ll work you to the stem, so just work hard at photosynthesis until then," Lucius replied in a cooing tone, to which the leaflings let out sounds of dissatisfaction. However, they were content with just watching for now so that when their turn dide they would know what to do.
"Still trying to find a way to do everything with magic, huh?" Lucius asked as he handed Pagan a stone knife.
"Can I heal your cuts?" Pagan asked. looking at the sap-covered cuts on Lucius''s hands.
"Be my guest."
A momentter, Lucius''s wounds began to heal, without even a single chant being whispered by Pagan.
"How did you do it?" Lucius asked in amazement, looking to make sure that it wasn''t some illusion.
"I realized that you don''t have to chant the spells, you just have to think about them and they activate themselves... like this," Pagan replied excitedly, before his crux pulsed with magnificent luminosity covering a small area around him.
"What did you just do?" Lucius asked, unable to feel any difference.
"I don''t know yet, but I can tell I''m close to something," Pagan replied with crazed mirth.
~It''s just been a day,~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise. But then it wasn''t too surprising. It wasn''t as if he had made a new spell. Perhaps if Lucius himself had spent some time tinkering around with the crux, he would''ve found out about this eventually... maybe.
*
By the time Pagan finished collecting the vines, Lucius had already chopped up a good number of branches for construction.
He had gained 5 stamina points for his efforts, which seemed like all he was going to get as the work was tiring at best, but not at all difficult.
After Pagan dropped off the vines he had collected, he went back to tinkering with the crux, while Lucius began chopping up the branches he had collected to his liking.
The work took a total of 2 hours before he had 113 pieces of chopped and stripped nks for construction.
He asked Pagan to heal him so that he could continue without feeling tired, to which Pagan healed him using spacial sr cleanse. The toll of the spell was way higher than regr sr cleanse, but Lucius guessed he had his reasons so didn''t think much of it.
Lucius then began work with the foundations. He used the spades he had made earlier to dig a hole about the same depth as his height. After he had finished digging the rectangr trench, he ced the nks into the ground one by one, covering them with dirt one side at a time.
Not long after he hadpletely nted all the necessary nks and had something simr to a miniature cottage, big enough for him to fit in even while standing up straight. The build was the equivalent of a three-story building for him, and perhaps a near skyscraper for the leaflings.
"Perfect," Lucius whispered as he admired his work.
"Are you going to use the pulley to build the top?" Hannibal asked,ing to look at what Lucius hadpleted so far.
"Indeed I will," Lucius nodded in agreement, inspecting the tree to see where he would put the axle.
~There probably,~ he thought to himself, referring to a branch a little high up. ~I just need a really long vine.~
After searching the surrounding area he returned with a vine long enough for the job, and quickly set up the make-shift pulley.
After trying to stack the nks on top of the build one by one, he realized that it was too tricky and opted for a different method.
Instead, he constructed the roof first, and only then did he lift it up to ce it on top. He decided on building an angled roof instead of a t one to ount for rain. The clouds were bing thicker with every passing day, and he didn''t want water to collect on the roof and copse the entire structure.
After he was done with the build, he hooked it up to the pulley and began trying to stack it neatly on top. He ended up having to repeat this process a few times, as it seemed his measurements were always slightly off.
Sometimes the roof was too small inparison to the space avable, which was mostly due to the angling involved. And other times he would find an issue with the stability of a certain area.
Without proper measuring instruments, everything was an estimation, which didn''t always end well. However, after a few tweaks here and there, the roof waspleted and ced on top of the build.
Chapter 63 [Bonus Chapter]Project "Settlement -> Village" (3)
Once that waspleted Lucius built a makeshiftdder and had Pagan go up and tie the ropes to stabilize the roof. He would''ve done it himself, but his tail seemed extra fidgety today, and he didn''t want to fall off thedder and destroy his progress.
*
"All done," Pagan sighed in exhaustion after tightening the ropes for what felt like the 50th time due to Lucius''s orders.
,m ~Yhup, this is pretty solid,~ Lucius thought to himself, pushing its walls to see if it would fall over. ~Good enough at least.~
"Can we stay here as well?" a leafling asked, entering the massive building.
"It''s not safe enough for you guys yet. Maybe when you guys-"
"Evolve, we know," the leaflings said in unison before he could finish.
It was close to sunset, so Lucius called quits for today. Though he had not yet built the materials storage, there weren''t any actual materials to store so it wasn''t that big of a deal. And besides, he needed a new ce to sleep as the shed would not cut it anymore.
After dropping the leaflings up on the tree base, he joined Pagan in the cottage.
"You best stop using your crux, once night falls it''ll make you go blind," Lucius warned, once he found Pagan ying with his crux once again.
"Exort."
"Ahh, there you are," said Lucius, turning to look at the insectoid who was scurrying about at the entrance of the cottage.
"Yea, it''s the new shed,e in," he continued, gesturing for the insectoid to enter. The insectoid reluctantly obliged, looking around the new environment with a wary gaze.
"So where have you been?" Lucius asked, though he knew he would not get a proper answer in return.
"Exim," the insectoid replied as it checked the ce out.
"Ahh, the old Exim, huh? Wonderful ce that," Lucius replied, before getting up to inspect the insectoid.
~Ahh, let me try what Pagan taught me earlier,~ he remembered, before calling out his crux. He thought about spacial sr cleanse, and in turn, two pulses emanated from his crux.
He got a reading off the insectoid, and though it seemed somewhat exhausted it was fine all in all, however, the odd thing was that he couldn''t get a reading off of Pagan.
"Pagan?" Lucius asked in confusion.
"You just tried examining me, didn''t you Lighted One?" Pagan asked smugly.
"Yeah, but what did you do?" Lucius asked, trying once again. Still nothing.
"I wondered what would happen if both of us tried inspecting at the same time, it seems that they cancel each other out, and you can''t get a reading," Pagan replied in a proud manner.
~Interesting concept¡~ Lucius thought to himself, remembering his physics lessons on the destructive interference of waves.
~Odd though, light clearly doesn''t follow thews of my old universe, but I guess some concepts still apply somewhat,~ he thought, before sending out a pulse with even more power.
Pagan tried canceling this one out, but found it was too powerful, allowing Lucius to get a glimpse of his internal status.
"How?" Pagan asked in confusion.
"Your concept only works if the pulses are of equal strength, mine was stronger, hence I beat you," Lucius replied smugly.
"Wait, wait, again," Pagan begged, not willing to let it end at that.
"Hmm, but let''s make it quick, the sun is about to set," Lucius said, before sending out a pulse. Pagan tried increasing the power of his pulse, but it was still slightly weaker than Lucius''s, much to his angst.
"But what did I expect?" he sighed after a few rounds. "You are the Lighted One after all."
"Though is that your full strength?" Pagan asked after a moment, genuine interest on his face.
"Full strength? I haven''t tried exerted my full strength in a while," Lucius replied, looking at the insectoid who seemed to be staring at the two of them with a mesmerized gaze.
"Try it, I want to see what I might be capable of in the near future," Pagan begged.
~I guess I am interested in seeing what a full power pulse looks like now,~ he thought, before closing his eyes, trying to collect as much concentration as he could.
For a moment his crux stopped pulsing, and its light dimmed. He held his breath, drawing in every wisp of sr energy he could, beforepacting it. And In turn his crux was halved in size.
He remained that way for 10 seconds before releasing it all, the image of a supernova ying in his mind.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSr Burst¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSr Burst¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSr Burst¡» has been added.]
~Huh?~
**
"What happened?" A few leaflings shouted out, looking down at the rubble that was once the main cottage.
"Step back," Ghost called out, making sure the leaflings were as far away from the edge of the tree camp as possible.
~Were we attacked?~ she thought to herself, looking for Lucius on the ground.
She found Lucius looking around himself in confusion, as if he was unable toprehend whatever had just happened.
"Luci! What happened?" Ghost called out, but it seemed that he couldn''t hear her... or perhaps wouldn''t.
The ground had ck marks all around it, and the nks that Lucius had used to build the cottage looked as if they had been scorched.
Ghost looked around more carefully, and saw the insectoid lying a distance away from the carnage, its wingspletely charred, and its body somewhat burnt.
Pagan was lying closer to the rubble but had suffered considerably less damage. However, it was still apparent that whatever had attacked them, had hit him as well.
Lucius on the other hand waspletely unscathed, physically that is.
~What the hell is going on down there?~ Ghost wondered in worrying anxiety as Lucius picked up the insectoid and ced it next to Pagan. By now the sun hadpletely set, and she was relying solely on the moonlight to see what was going on.
A momentter the crux came into view, and Lucius''s eyes shone with a magnificent luminosity, lighting up a small area around him. An instantter, two pulses were sent out in quick session.
Pagan and the insectoid began moving, most of their injuriespletely gone, but something seemed to have happened to Lucius, as he fell unconscious.
"Pagan! What''s going on!" Ghost shouted, just about ready to jump off the tree, to see what had happened.
Chapter 64 An Old Dream
~~~
"Get him, Reagen!" The entire gym was filled with the roars of blood-hungry soldiers. For most, the MMA club was the only space they truly felt free on this god-forsaken army base.
Right now, the new kid was facing off against one of their favorites. Reagen had been a sort of leader figure amongst the cadets before Lucius came along and contested that authority.
He had just transferred from another base, and though they had weed him with open arms, a lot of them wanted to see what the overly-confident newby was made of.
Reagen was at least two heads taller than Lucius, and from his size alone, probably two weight sses above as well. The army''s MMA club didn''t divide cadets into different weight sses, besides, the enemy wasn''t going to skip you just because you were a lower weight than they were, so matchups like these weren''t too umon.
Lucius took the initiative, seeing that he had the reach disadvantage, he had to opt for a close-quarters brawl.
"Oh, look the newby''s got balls!" one of the soldiers shouted as Lucius rushed into Reagen''s space, sending out three quick jabs towards Reagen''s chest.
"Cute," Reagen smiled, tanking Lucius''s punches like they were nothing, before throwing a right hook to his side.
Lucius put his left elbow down, trying to block the punch, but its weight rag-dolled him to the side, smacking the wind out of him. Even though he was certain he had blocked it, it still felt like he had been hit in the rib with a cinder block.
Reagen continued with an upper cup, finishing thebo with a thrusting push kick.
Lucius bobbed his head, avoiding the uppercut, but was not fast enough to avoid the kick, taking the brunt of the damage to his chest.
"Come on! Get up newby!" the soldiers jeered, as Lucius gasped for air on the hard canvas floor.
~Seems I won''t have to go easy on this fucker,~ Lucius thought to himself before getting to his feet. This time standing in a different stance from before.
He quickly rushed back into Reagen''s space beforeunching three quick jabs once again, thrusting his hip into each and every strike.
The jabs had an unexpected weight to them, winding Reagen with every strike. Though shrouded in pain, Reagen tried throwing out a right hook of his own.
Lucius moved into the punch, taking the hit before it could pick up strength, beforetching onto his right arm and hitting him with a backhand fist to the face.
The crowd had gone quiet, and Reagen''s nose was now bloody.
"I-I think we should stop it here," someone whispered, but Reagen wasn''t going to have it. He threw out a flurry of punches, but Lucius''s head bobbed and weaved past all of them, taking the hits of those that he couldn''t dodge before they could be effective.
Though both of them stood in the ring bloody-nosed, it was obvious that Lucius was on the winning end. Someone of his build shouldn''t havested this long against Reagen, and Reagen himself knew this all too well, making him even angrier.
Regardless, no matter how hard he tried tond a hit, it was as if Lucius had ten eyes, predicting every move Reagen could throw.
"Fuck this," Reagen cried out, trying to grab onto Lucius.
"Goodnight," Lucius smiled, his teeth stained red from the blood. Heunched a straight punch, right through Reagan''s outstretched arms, putting his full weight into it as it connected.
"For fuck sake greenhorn, it was supposed to be a friendly spar," a soldier whispered, trying to pick the bloodied giant off the ring floor.
~~~
"Luci.."
"Luci!" The words sounded muffled as they trickled into Lucius''s ears.
~A dream?~ Lucius thought to himself as he slowly opened his eyes to the midday sunshine, the entiremune standing around him.
"The fire! Are you guys oka¡" Lucius''s question was answered as he saw the insectoid and Pagan standing right beside Alpha.
"The healing worked," Lucius sighed. Before getting up to look at the remains of his cottage.
"What happened?" Alpha asked, "Pagan said that you caused it."
"It was a new spell, Sr Burst," Lucius murmured in reply, trying to recall what had happened. "I didn''t know that the crux could form tangible pulses, up till then it could only inspect bodies," he continued, more to himself than to anyone else.
"I''m d that the healing worked, but what if the damage had been fatal?" he said as he inspected the carnage.
The fire damage seemed minimal, however, a few nks had beenpletely splintered and parts of them incinerated.
~This was dangerous,~ he thought to himself as he picked up a nk.
"Pagan, new rule. Using magic indoors is prohibited," Lucius said after a moment of thought. "And when testing for new spells, you have to be far away from themune," he added.
Had it been the leaflings caught up in the explosion, he was certain that they would''ve been beyond healing.
~Sigh, now I have to build this all over again,~ he thought to himself. But at least the tools were still okay, and all that he had to do was collect more branches.
***
By midday, he had collected over 200 branches, more than enough to build two cottages. Though the work was tiring, he hadn''t even gained a single stat point. He understood that his strength was maxed out, but what about his stamina, surely all this work should''ve triggered something.
~It''s almost time for photosynthesis,~ he thought to himself, looking up at the sky. ~We still have a worm left over from yesterday don''t we?~ he thought, going to check the supplies area.
"Ahh, here it is," he said as he grabbed the worm. His tail instinctively moved towards it, its petals opening up to reveal two tendrils that snaked forward, puncturing the worm''s corpse before slurping up its insides.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 15%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 15%]
[Stats increased by 0.5%]
[Questplete.]
[+200 exp]
Level 5!
[Quest Complete]
[Stats cap increased by 5.]
"Come on, I was nning on saving some for Pagan," Lucius sighed as his tail slurped up thest of the worm''s insides.
~And the mushroom is probably hungry as well,~ Lucius realized. ~Seems I''ll need to start organizing hunting parties... it''ll be good practice for Pagan anyway,~ he decided, before calling the checking his updated yer stats.
~Just 5 huh?~ Lucius thought to himself as he inspected his updated yer stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 5: 20/500]
[Leaf Being [Guardian] lvl.15- [155/1500]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 462 ]
[Strength: 750]
[Stamina: 716]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
Chapter 65 The Ascension Of Alpha And Hannibal
After returning to the camp, Lucius summoned Alpha to have a talk with him about perimeter control. He was certain that both Alpha and Hannibal would evolve today, which meant that they would be out ofmission for a few days, so he wouldn''t get another chance.
"Yes, Captain?" Alpha reported upon arrival.
"I need you to pick out a right-hand man that will report to me while you''re out. You are aware that you will be out ofmission after today''s session, right?" Lucius replied as the other leaflings prepared for the photosynthesis session.
"Right-hand man?" Alpha asked, clearly confused by the concept.
"Who do you trust the most amongst your squadmates? Who would the others follow if you weren''t around?" Lucius rified, to which Alpha gestured towards a leafling that was currently talking to another.
"So you''re Alpha''s right hand, huh?" Lucius asked as the leafling appeared.
"Right hand? Not a clue what that is, Captain," the leafling replied.
~A girl huh,~ Lucius thought to himself as he heard her speak. Based on the way she had approached, Lucius could tell that she had a moreid-back demeanorpared to Alpha.
"Forget that. Alpha will be going through evolution after this session, so you''ll be directly under me, meaning that you''ll have to give daily reports," Lucius exined.
"Sigh, so basically Alpha''s putting even more work on me?" the leafling sighed in response before nodding.
"Sorry about that," Alpha replied.
"I''m only kidding. Congrattions on your evolution, the rest of us will join you soon," she said, before nodding to Lucius once more and returning to her spot in the photosynthesis circle.
~Seems they''ve formed a little family, good,~ Lucius thought to himself as he noted down the familiarity with which they spoke to each other.
Shortly after, Pagan began the photosynthesis session, once again adding his 5% photosynthesis efficiency increase to Lucius''s 15%.
*
As usual, most leaflingssted up till the 20-minute mark, from which point they began dropping out inrge numbers. However, a few more seemed to have breached the 30-minute mark this time around, making their way closer and closer towards the elites of themune.
Apart from Hannibal, Pagan, and Alpha, Ghost and two other leaflings were still in the race. But by the 35-minute mark, the two other leaflings dropped out.
The 40-minute mark came to pass, and the ''welling-up'' feeling appeared. It felt as if it were right within reach, at any moment Alpha and Hannibal would evolve.
Just as the sensation was bing palpable, Lucius could feel another leafling show its first signs of evolution. A third ''welling-up feeling'', though it quickly disappeared as the leafling''s link was severed.
By the 50-minute mark, the ''welling-up'' sensation was akin to a burning sun, like it would melt his skin if he carried on any longer. He could feel the world around him slowly fade away, his mind drawn away from his physical body.
*
~This space again, huh,~ Lucius thought to himself as he opened his eyes to the white void that surrounded him. Just likest time he wasn''t exactly sure when it had happened, only that it had, the welling up feeling hade to pass.
[Evolution of secondary creatures hasmenced.]
[Rewriting creatures'' genomes...]
[Genomes have been sessfully rewritten to amodate for the evolution process.]
"Well done you too," Lucius whispered to himself before being kicked out into the real world.
Unlike thest time he had been there, he didn''t seem to have spent all that long inside the void, as everyone was still where he had left them. Of course, only Pagan, and a few other leaflings were still awake.
Lucius stood up to inspect the two pods that had appeared in ce of Hannibal and Alpha. They were much like the pod that Pagan had been in, except both had their own minor differences.
One of them had wood-like vines of a simr color to Lucius''s horns -a charred ck wood- surrounding its base instead of flowers. It also had wood-like venations running across it, forming mesmerizing patterns all along its surface.
The other pod had flowers, however, the tendrils that sprouted from underneath it seemed thicker, and the flowers noticeably smaller. This pod did not have any venations or patterns and was as smooth as silk.
~More variations?~ Lucius thought as he touched the pods.
[Creature''s evolution is iplete.]
~Figures. Thought I could get them out like I did with Pagan,~ Lucius thought to himself before returning to Pagan. He still had quite a bit of energy and wanted to grow as much as possible, so he decided to carry on with the session.
"Shall we continue?"
***
The photosynthesis session continued until the 2-hour mark before both of them decided that they were at their safe limits. Once again Lucius allocated all his points to growth, however this time there were no noticeable changes to his size.
Though he could feel a few internal changes within his body. For one, there was a slight density increase. He could also feel that his senses had be sharper, more intense.
He could now feel the cold chill of the moist forest floor, the warmth of the sun''s rays. He could smell the dirt all around him, the scent of tree bark in the air. And he could somewhat sense the vibrations from the ground in a small area around him, the snores of his sleeping children.
~Kind of chilly,~ he thought, a slight shiver traveling up his body.
Though it wasn''t obvious to him, his body heat had shot up significantly as well, and the organ that acted as his brain had grownrger. The connections that held his body together had be stronger, and the internal framework that acted as his skeleton even denser.
But the most significant change to his body was this slight pulling sensation he felt from the ground. It wasn''t a hard tug, but he felt a sort of attraction to the earth beneath him. As if a weak ma was calling towards him.
Chapter 66 Arachnid Hunter (1)
After getting a bit ustomed to the changes in his body and making sure that everything was okay with the pods, Lucius got back to building the cottage.
Everything went way smoother than the first time he had built this as he already had all the right assumptions about the required dimensions and other minor details that could possibly be miscalcted.
Of course, that''s not to say that things went perfectly. There were a few instances where he cut up the nks wrongly or had to redo crucial steps due to new problems arising, such as slight differences in ground elevation.
He finished building the cottage about 5 hours after the photosynthesis session, making sure to build it around the two pods so as to keep them safe.
After asking Pagan to heal him to get rid of the fatigue, he decided to pay a little visit to the shroom.
He wanted to secure some food before nightfall, and though he was certain he could easily kill anything around the same size as him, he wasn''t sure where to even begin looking for them.
*
"Ah, finally. Did you bring me food?" the shroom whispered in greeting.
"That''s actually part of the reason I came here. I wanted to ask if you knew any good hunting spots," Lucius replied.
The shroom took a moment to think, before looking up at Lucius with a sadistic smile.
"I know of a ce... though its denizens are quite dangerous, toxicly so," the shroom replied musingly. "Of course, it won''t be a problem for you, seeing as how you are nearly two times bigger than thest time you visited," the shroom continued, taking note of Lucius''s now humongous size.
"Hmm, this sounds more like a luxury request. Why do I need to hunt down dangerous prey, don''t you know any safer spots?" Lucius asked.
Though he was more than willing to hunt down poisonous prey as practice for the Dark Forest, he wanted the shroom to understand that he was doing it a favor by taking this risk. And as such, it would have to act ordingly.
"Think of it as a favor from one of your future subordinates. I never had the luxury of tasting the flesh of a poisonous creature," the shroom replied, realizing what Lucius was getting at.
"A future subordinate, huh?" Lucius replied with a smile, before taking a seat in front of its cell. "Tell me about the creature."
"We call them the eight-legged beasts. They are a tier-4 hunter species, with poison many times stronger than ours," the shroom started. As it described the creature, Lucius could tell that it was simr to arachnids from back on Earth, however, a few things made him wonder whether hisparison was fair at all.
"Wait, so they are nearly two timesrger than I am, have tails that shoot poison, as well as fangs that can inject venom into your flesh?" Lucius asked for rification, to which the shroom nodded in agreement.
"And let me get this straight, their skin is, and I quote ''harder than stone''?"
"Indeed," the shroom replied.
"Just how did your people hunt these down?" Lucius asked, unable to believe that this thing was hunted down by mere shrooms.
"We didn''t. These are merely observations my n made on the few asions we encountered them. We found one of them nesting around one of our old n dwellings, forcing us to move," the shroom exined.
"I see..." Lucius whispered thoughtfully, wondering whether he should go after this or not.
"If you hunt it, I can show you a technique my n used to produce poison resistance concoctions. Of course, with such high-quality poison, I''m sure it will be many times more effective than what the others of my species are capable of making," the shroom continued, as if realizing that Lucius was about to give up on the idea.
~Poison resistance?~ This was news to him. He hadn''t thought that the shrooms would be smart enough to concoct such substances.
"Hmm, and this concoction won''t kill me?" Lucius asked.
"I don''t know," the shroom shrugged in response. "But if you actually do get the Shri''kilian, then I''m certain it will work on you as well. Besides you already have a resistance to poison, so why wouldn''t it work?" the shroom continued.
~Resistance to poiso- ahh, it''s talking about how its poison had no effect on me the first time we encountered each other,~ Lucius realized. However, he wasn''t very well going to exin the confusion, if the shroom believed he was resistant to poison then it could work to his advantage.
Though he was in the process of gaining its trust, he knew that it wouldn''t forgive him for what he done to it so easily. So for now, it was best to keep rtions on the scale of business partners rather than actualrades.
"Very well then. Tell me where I can find it," Lucius said after some careful consideration.
The shroom gave him very detailed directions, using something called endiems as a unit of measurement. One endiem was apparently the length covered by 10 trees standing in a straight line beside each other.
The leafling instructed him to follow the river going south from here, till he reached the outskirts of the Green Forest, just before the Dark Forest. After that, he would have to walk 10 endiems west from the river, and there he would find arge quarry of rocks.
Amongst them was a hole, a small cave that the creature was nesting in, well, if it was still living there of course.
"What do you suggest I take along for the hunt?" Lucius asked after making sure he had the directions taken down right.
"A strong heart, if you try running, you''ll die..." the shroom warned.
"So no weaknesses you are aware of?" Lucius asked, ignoring the shroom''s taunts.
"As I said, my kind has never hunted it before. However, its eyes are the only part of its body not cloaked in its rough stony carapace, so perhaps that might help," the shroom replied.
Chapter 67 Arachnid Hunter (2)
Night was approaching, and Lucius was preparing himself for the uing hunt. The shroom had advised him that night would be the best time to attack, as that was the period the creature would leave its nest.
Otherwise, he would be forced to look for it in its cave, a territory that even the shroom knew nothing about.
"Are you sure you don''t want me toe along?" Pagan asked for what felt like the tenth time. And once again Lucius rejected his request.
This hunt was too dangerous to take someone as slow and weak as Pagan. And though Pagan had spells of his own, the night would blind anyone trying to use the crux, so he would basically be deadweight if he tagged along.
"I need someone to take care of the camp while I''m gone. I told you this already, didn''t I?" Lucius said instead, fastening a line of vine around his waist, before loading it with two stone knives.
"Lighted One, I''m really against the idea of hunting down this creature. From what you described, it sounds worse than even boars," Pagan warned.
"Don''t worry, I''m not stupid. If I see that things are bing too dangerous, I''ll get away. Just stay here and keep me in your prayers," Lucius said, patting Pagan on the back before heading out.
"Prayers?"
"I won''t be long," Lucius replied, before galloping into the darkness of the forest.
**
After about 4 hours of travel, Lucius reached the outskirts of the ''Green Forest'', deciding to take a quick break before searching for the quarry of rocks the shroom had described.
"Okay, I''ll have to start moving silently from here on. The creature might be out hunting,~ he thought to himself, before proceeding towards the quarry slowly.
The terrain here was vastly different from what he was used to. For one, the shrubs had beenpletely reced by ckthorn bushes.
The trees weren''t as densely packed as before but were wayrger in volume, however, despite theirrge sizes, they seemed to be hollow and dead for the most part.
For the first time in a while, he could almost clearly see the night sky, which felt both freeing, and scary. Like he was now naked to the watch of the stars.
Not to mention the weird feeling he was getting from the ground. Up till he reached here, he had felt a strange sort of pull, a connection if you will, to the earth. However, that connection was now very faint, as if he had been severed from some sort of watchful presence.
What reced was a cold emptiness, an almost revulsive force that warned him to get off this decrepitnd.
As he snuck beside the stone quarry, searching for the creature''s nest, he could feel the sticky mulch that was the forest ground squirm around his feet.
He had already confirmed that there was nothing in the ground, yet it felt as if something was crawling up his body, perpetually journeying up his leg, but never quite getting past the soles of his feet.
~Huh, what was that?~ Lucius thought to himself, having heard a crunching sounding from the distance. He slowly drudged his way towards the source of the sound, hiding behind the massive, extraterrestrial-shaped trees.
As he got closer, the crunching sound became more prominent. Every crunch was apanied by a wet squelch. It became obvious that something was feeding and after getting within range, Lucius confirmed that it was his prey.
~That bastard,~ he groaned as he took a look at the creature.
Sure it was two timesrger than him, but the shroom had heavily undersold it. Its eight legs were long and spindly, making it look bigger than even arge boar. Its eyes shone with a red gleam, and its skin seemed rough, like tree bark.
Lucius squinted his eyes to see what it was eating, and found that it had a small creature, about the same size as he was between its massive chelicerae.
~Just stick to the n,~ Lucius thought to himself, shaking off his instinctive fear. He waited silently for his time to strike, standing perfectly still as the creature took its time doing whatever it was that it was doing.
He was waiting for it to getfortable, which took a while, as its stinger tail swayed from side to side as if expecting an enemy to approach at any moment.
After waiting for a few more minutes, the arachnid began covering its fallen prey in a weird stringy substance. Perhaps nning to take it back to its den to finish it off there.
Lucius took this as his chance, he quickly snatched one of the knives tied to his waist, taking only a few short moments to aim before hurling it towards the arachnid''s eye.
It zipped through the air with a swish, impaling its target with an audible squelch, which was followed by the arachnid''s ghastly screams.
As it iled around, he rushed at it, hurling the remaining knife at another one of its eyes. However that wouldn''t do, the arachnid used its front legs to block its eyes, while at the same time sending out squirts of poison at its attacker.
~ The same trick won''t work twice, huh?~ Lucius thought to himself, however, he had aplished all he wanted to do. Having cleared the distance between them, he was at the advantage.
He grabbed the arachnid by the leg, before mming it into the ground with all his might. He did it over and over, not giving it even a second of respite.
He knew he couldn''t pierce its stony skin, but blunt damage was another matter altogether. Regardless of how hard its outsides were, he was certain that if he smacked it around enough, it would eventually die.
And for a moment his n seemed to have been working. Riddled with the pain emanating from its eye, and not being given even a moment''s rest from Lucius''s continuous mming, it seemed to be doomed.
However, as Lucius was about to m it once again, he felt something prick his skin.
"What the?" he whispered, watching as a white fluid dripped from his hands. The arachnid''s skin was now covered in millions of tiny projections, each about the size of a pinhead.
~Fuck,~ Lucius grimaced as he felt a cold sensation run up his hand.
Chapter 68 Arachnid Hunter (3)
The sensation quickly became a blistering heat, making it feel as if his very skin was boiling, before being reced once again by the deathly cold chill.
The poison continued to act in this way, making him feel alternate cycles of freeze and thaw, and in this way attempting to break his psyche.
The arachnid slowly got up, still affected by all the damage that Lucius had dealt to it.
~I need to finish this now,~ Lucius thought to himself as he tried to move. However, he found that he had absolutely no control of his limbs. And at the same time, his flesh felt as if it were being petrified, its weight bing like stone, threatening to tear off at any moment.
The arachnid regained its senses, before looking in Lucius''s direction. Though Lucius was certain he was in its field of vision, it didn''t seem to be looking directly at him.
~IIs it blind?~ he wondered as the arachnid approached him. Once it got closer, it locked on to him, its stinger tail thrusting towards him.
Just as it was about to gore him, his tail rushed out to meet it, wrapping around it to stop it from impaling him.
~That was close,~ he sighed in relief. However, the poisonous projections seemed to run along the arachnid''s tail as well, poisoning him even further.
~Fuck this,~ he thought, his world slowly dimming. ~It''s the only way...~
Lucius quickly called out his crux, casting sr cleanse the moment it was out. And with that, he felt the effects of the poison slowly being dispelled from his body. A thick ck goop being excreted from his pores.
The arachnid scurried back the moment it saw the strange glow, watching Lucius''s luminescent form light up the night forest. For a moment it seemed frozen in shock, choosing to observe rather than attack.
~I''m not blind?~ Lucius realized, noticing that he could see just fine. In fact, he seemed to be able to see even better than before... something had changed.
,m Paired with every image his mind was fed, an extra detail was attached as well. It was difficult for him to describe, but he could almost feel the amount of radiant heat that each image came with. A concept that was mildly confusing, but one that he was not about to delve too deeply into.
~This is good and all, but this thing is like a tank,~ Lucius thought to himself as he stared at his prey. It still had its two front legs in the air, ready to deflect any attacks to its eyes, which seemed to be its one vital spot.
Quickly running every possible viable action in his mind, Lucius came to a conclusion.
He rushed towards it, and in response it scurried back, shooting streams of poison as it created some distance. Lucius danced around every shot, able to see them clear as day.
"If I can''t break through your skin, I''ll just have to incinerate it," he whispered, casting sr burst as heunched himself at it.
*
"I don''t think the mushroom is going to be too happy about this," Lucius whispered as he inspected his prey, recalling his crux.
Though it was still alive, patches of its rocky skin had been incinerated, its eyes had beenpletely vaporized, and the spell''s explosive force had mangled its legs.
A green puss, which Lucius assumed was its blood oozed from hidden orifices, and its tail hung at an obscure angle, coagting in its owntent poison.
After carefully tying a vine around its body, he began his journey back to the camp. Traveling at night was dangerous, so he had to keep his guard up. He made sure to check every little sound he heard, and would asionally climb a tree to scout ahead.
~It''s odd though. Howe I can see clearly now?~ he wondered, calling out his crux as he got closer to the camp.
In that instant, his senses were overstimted, literally blinding him. The pain came like a lightning, causing him to fall to the ground with his hands on his head.
~Is that why?~ he realized after some thought.
His vision reminded him of infrared, but a seemingly more powerful version. Sure it allowed him to gain information on the surrounding area''s radiant heat, but that only amounted to a weakness outside of the Dark Forest, as it seemed that the sheer number of trees in the ''Green'' forest was enough to cause overstimtion.
~Hmm, so I''m guessing all the trees in the Dark Forest were really dead, huh. That''s kind of creepy...~ he figured, before taking a quick break to let the overstimtion cool down.
~But with some getting used to, I suppose I''ll be able to use my ''sr'' vision in the normal forest after some time,~ he thought.
After a few minutes, his vision had returned, somewhat confirming his hypothesis. As he was getting ready to leave, he noticed that the arachnid had left a trail of poison on the ground. Clearly visible even under the dim light of the moon.
~How didn''t I take this into consideration?~ he thought, beating himself over the danger he had nearly caused for the camp.
He figured that many creatures would avoid a trail of poison, but for creatures like the shrooms for whom poison seemed to be a valuable resource, it might seem like a money trail. So he reluctantly backtracked, using the surrounding dirt to cover up the tracks that he had left.
~No, but this won''t work,~ he realized as he was nearing the camp. The poison probably let off some sort of smell that he couldn''t sense but might trigger hunter species. So he decided not to take the spider back to the camp after all.
He would hide it in a tree nearby, ande break pieced from it whenever he needed to. Until of course, he built enough safety measures around the camp to allow such a security threat inside.
**
"Lighted One, you''ve returned!~ Pagan shouted in joy as he saw Lucius''s figure emerge from the forest. It was now early morning, and the sun was just about to rise.
Though he had healed himself, his body was filthy, and the abhorrent stench of rotting poison clung to his being.
~Did anything happen while I was gone?~ Lucius asked, already half asleep.
"Nothing," Pagan replied, choking on the smell that emanated from Lucius''s body.
"Is something wrong?" Lucius asked before yawning, noticing that Pagan seemed ufortable.
"No, nothing. H-However Lighted One, I do think that all the liquid clinging to your body might be dangerous. Is there no way to get rid of it?" Pagan asked, trying to hold back the coughs as he stared at the green and ck marks all over Lucius.
"Huh?" Lucius replied, just now noticing that he waspletely covered in dried-up poison and dispelled excreta.
Chapter 69 The Alchemist(1)
69 The Alchemist(1)
"Later," Lucius whispered in reply,pletely oblivious to his foul stench. "Right now I need some rest," he continued, dragging himself to the cottage.
As he entered the cottage, his odor woke up the insectoid with a start. It buzzed its wings at him as hey down on the floor, slowly backing away with a wary stance.
It took several moments for it to realize that it was him, at which point it gave out a soft huff, looking at him apprehensively before walking out of the cottage.
"Yeah, but when you leave poop everywhere it''s normal," Lucius whispered to himself before sumbing to the heaviness of his eyelids.
*
When he woke up it was close to midday, and because he had missed thest session, he had to put priority on having a session today. He hoped to get Ghost to evolve before Pagan and Hannibal woke up, and with the arachnid perhaps it would be possible.
"Ugh, I stink," he grunted as he got a whiff of the toxic odor that clung to him. It had a sickly sweet smell, that somehow made his throat feel itchy, causing him to have a fit of coughs.
"A bath would be perfect right about now," he whispered to himself as he made his way out of the cottage.
It seemed that Pagan had brought the leaflings to the ground as Lucius found some of them running around the tree, ying with the insectoid. Pagan was seated just a bit in front of the cottage, his crux periodically zipping here and there around his head.
~I should really start doing some proper research as well,~ he thought as Pagan''s crux let out a series of pulses.
"Lighted One?" Pagan whispered, turning to look at Lucius.
"I''m going down to the river to wash this stuff off. We''re going to have a photosynthesis session in a few hours, so be prepared," Lucius replied, before walking towards the river.
On his way there he pondered overst night''s hunt. Though there had been many unexpected variables, he still thought he could''ve been better prepared for the fight. For one, he would need to find a way to make some sort of clothing that could protect him from poison.
The ''furry-ones'' that the shroom spoke about would probably be even more poisonous than the arachnid, and he didn''t want to find out how painful theirs would be to the touch would be.
~Maybe the mushroom will know some natural poison-resistant materials,~ he thought as he reached the river.
Though the river''s current had once been a near-fatal force, it now seemed more gentle. This segment of the stream had aminar flow, strong, but not nearly strong enough to take Lucius along with the current in his present state.
Perhaps the only danger it now posed was its depth, but even then he doubted he would drown. Worst case, he could hang on to the river banks. However, being the person he was, he decided to take the safe route, using a vine to tie himself to a nearby tree before getting in.
"Soothing," he sighed as the river washed off the gunk that had stuck to his body.
~After today''s session, I should finish off the materials storage. Maybe there are flowers, or some kind of nt around here that could mask the arachnid''s scent,~ he thought before diving underwater.
After finishing his bath, Lucius decided to go to the mushroom to sort out the details on the production of the concoction.
*
"You''re back. Did you get it?" the shroom asked as Lucius approached its cage.
"Yeah, but I can''t bring it here. Its smell might attract hunters," Lucius answered before removing the pebble that kept the cage grounded.
"Seriously? You actually got it on your first attempt? You don''t even look like you got h-" the shroom was about to saay, before Lucius lifted off its cage. "What are you doing?" it asked in confusion as Lucius began untying it.
"We''re going to see it. You said you were going to show me your n''s technique didn''t you?" Lucius replied as he removed thest few lines of rope.
The shroom rubbed its wrists, feeling the imprints that the rope had left. It looked suspiciously at Lucius, who now towered over it. And though he had a calmed look on his face, his tail stood straight above him, as if ready to rush at the shroom if it tried anything.
"If you run away I''ll have to kill you," Lucius said before walking on ahead. "It would be a direct hit to the trust I have in you. And if I can''t trust you, I can''t let you live... even if you are of use to me," he continued, his tail turning to face the shroom as if it had eyes of its own.
"Wouldn''t even dream of it. But can you tell your... appendage to calm down?" the shroom asked as it followed close behind Lucius.
"Oh that. The thing has a mind of its own, it doesn''t listen to me," Lucius replied.
The shroom stared inquisitively at Lucius as it walked behind him. The fact that Lucius allowed it to walk behind him only proved to it that it was that much beneath him. That he needn''t even worry about it throwing a sneak attack.
~But what kind of insane creature hunts an 8-legged one alone? Even with healing magic, breaking through its skin should be impossible for him,~ it thought as it watched Lucius''s tail sway from side to side.
~And why does he walk like a beast?~ it wondered, trying its best to keep up with Lucius''s four-legged gait.
They finally reached the tree that the spider had been perched on top of about 15 minutester. Lucius quickly hopped up the tree and brought the corpse to the ground.
"Eh?" the shroom uttered in shock, unable to believe what it was seeing.
"What exactly did you do to it?" it asked, moving past Lucius to carefully inspect the arachnid''s corpse.
"Does it matter?" Lucius asked before sitting.
"If its organs are crushed it will," the shroom replied, noticing that certain parts of the arachnid''s corpse seemed to have copsed in.
"You didn''t tell me anything about that," Lucius whispered. If he had known that he needed its organs, perhaps he wouldn''t have mmed it as hard.
"But you can still work on it right?"
"Perhaps... but I can''t be certain. Let''s open it up and see if its poison organ is still intact," the shroom replied, stepping back as if gesturing for Lucius to take over.
"And how exactly will we do that?" Lucius asked after a moment of awkward silence had passed between the two.
"You''re asking me? I don''t know how to cut through rock skin, use magic or something. I mean, you clearly did ?????????????????? magical to bring it back in this state," the shroom said, pointing at the several patches of skin that seemed to have been ''rubbed'' off.
Chapter 70 The Alchemist (2)
Thinking about it for a moment, Lucius pulled out the knife that was still impaled in the arachnid''s eye and began cutting a line from its eye down to its torso. When he reached the part that was covered in rock skin, he took a look at its inner portion.
~Ah, it''s as I thought. Its skin seems rocky on the outside, but on the inside, it''s as fleshy as the rest of its body,~ he noticed.
The rock skin was merely ayer that covered its real skin, so after taking a careful look, he poked his knife in between the line where the two skinyers met, and began separating them.
His work was shoddy, cutting off chunks of flesh along with the rockyer. Though he had experience skinning animals, this was apletely different rodeo.
The flesh that stuck onto the rock skin was unbelievably soft, tearing away with just a touch of his de. What''s more is that he couldn''t even get a good grip as the poisonous spikes were still sticking out of the tiny pores in the rock skin, and at times he had to cut at odd angles as the arachnid''s body had a curvilinear surface.
"There," he sighed, finally done with the skinning. What was left was a pinkyer of skin, making the arachnid look like apletely different creature. He put the rock skin aside, its characteristics had piqued his interest, hard but malleable, he would have to look into turning it into some sort of armor for himselfter on.
"Can I have that tool?" the shroom asked as it stared at the arachnid''s naked body, gesturing for Lucius to hand it over as he knelt down in front of the corpse.
Lucius hesitated for a moment, before reluctantly cing it in the shroom''s hands. However, right after he removed his crux and took a few steps back.
He knew this wouldn''t be ideal for forming a deeper rtionship with the shroom, but if he had to lower the trust between them for his safety, it was a good trade in his book.
The shroom slit the corpse open with a practiced hand, carefully looking over its innards. Most of the arachnid''s organs were an unrecognizable mush, different raptured textures mixed together to form a disgusting sludge.
"Hmm..." the shroom mumbled, using the knife to move the raptured organs to the side as it inspected further.
"Hmm? That''s it? Did I mess things up, or can this still be used?" Lucius asked, feeling slightly annoyed that all his work might''ve been for naught.
"This is my first time looking at this creature''s insides. I''m not even sure what anything is, so if you could just give me a moment," the shroom replied, a hint of annoyance in its voice as well.
It continued inspecting the body, going up and down moving different organs around.
"I''m certain this is the poison organ," it said after a moment, using the knife to point at a bottle-shaped organ near the arachnid''s head.
"It''s slightly raptured, but that''s okay. So long as it''s all intact, we can still use it," the shroom continued, before moving the knife a little further up.
"This is probably the brain, it''s very simr to that of a 6-legged one. We can use it as well," it said, before shaking its head as it looked down.
"Everything else will have to be purified and consumed. If we try using the raptured organs in the concoction, it could kill us. I have no idea what is mixed inside this mush, so it''s better we only use the two that seem to still be intact," it said, before standing to its feet.
"A shame. If its heart were still intact, it would''ve made the concoction even more potent," the shroom continued, handing the knife over to Lucius.
"So how long will it take to make?" Lucius asked, happy that he could at least get something out of it.
"It usually takes a week to ferment, but with poison this strong... maybe two, three if we want to be certain."
"Eh? Three weeks? Wait, you never said anything about all this when we spoke," Luciusined. He had hoped to have some poison resistance before heading for the Shri''kilian.
"What? Did you think I would just chop a few things up and have it done in a second?" the shroom asked haughtily. "Or maybe if you teach me magic, it''ll be possible," it continued, half yfully.
"Just get it done," Lucius sighed in defeat. Even if he couldn''t use it now, it might help on future missions.
"Sure. I''ll just need something to seal it in while it ferments, a dark ce to store it, and a few herbs," it said, before sitting down as if expecting the ear full that Lucius was about to give it.
"You''re doing this on purpose aren''t you? Why didn''t you tell me howplicated the whole process was going to be? I could''ve collected all this before I came here," Lucius said, more in disbelief than annoyed.
"You never asked. Oh, and I want half of this thing''s meat as payment for my services. After you purify it course," it continued smugly.
"Don''t you think you should practice a little more hubris? After all, you''re still a prisoner," Lucius replied, his tail swaying above him in a threatening gesture.
"???????????¡ê???3???a???¡ä?" the shroom repeated in confusion. "Is this how you pay your subordinates? All I asked for was a fair share for the work I am going to put in. I did nothing wrong," the shroom answered.
Up til now, Lucius had only worked with the leaflings. And since his rtionship with them was more of a father-child one, they never really asked for payment and did everything without a second thought.
It just now urred to him that if his n actually worked out, all the different races under him would probably behave the same way the shroom was acting.
These were the first breaths of his little civilization''s economy. However, half of the arachnid''s corpse was simply too much.
"How about this? I''ll purify it... but only if you give me a detailed exnation. Also, I can''t give you half for work that isn''t even done yet. I''ll give you a quarter of the meat, and if your concoction lives up to what it promises, I''ll add something extra as reparation," Lucius said, trying to bargain.
He would need as much of the arachnid''s meat as possible to use as a catalyst, so he couldn''t afford to give any extra.
"Giving you detailed exnations on the purification process will have to be a talk on its own. And let''s not forget about the skin over there, I want a piece of it as well. It''ll prove to make good coverings," the shroom replied, clearly versed in haggling.
"You have experience in trade?" Lucius couldn''t help but ask. He would never have guessed the shroom would counter-trade.
"My n used to trade with the neighboring ns all the time. However, what we are talking about ismon sense that I am certain even a spore-ling could follow," the shroom taunted.
The two continued their haggling for a few more minutes beforeing to an agreement.
Lucius would give the shroom 1/3rd of the arachnid''s meat, a small piece of its skin, and 1/4 of the concoction that would be made.
In return, he could keep everything else and would gain detailed exnations on the purification process, as well as the location of other possible prey. Of course, the shroom wanted a small cut of the prey as well.
"I hope you realize that I will no longer feed you for free," Lucius said as he handed the shroom the knife to get to work.
"For now you mean. You promised me food if I joined yourmune," the shroom replied as it carefully cut out the arachnid''s poison nd.
"Kukk."
"Besides, you will soon be paying me of your own will once I begin bringing the others to your feet. And I have just the story... dear Chosen One," the shroom smiled.
~Why does he sort of remind me of Pagan?~ Lucius thought to himself.
Chapter 71 The Alchemist (3)
"What do you mean by Chosen One?" Lucius asked as the shroom inspected the poison nd it had just extracted.
"You don''t remember? The story of the Shri''kilian," the shroom replied, using the de to cut off any excess flesh from the nd.
"I thought the Shri''kilian was the name of the fruit."
"Shri''kilian is the name of the Chosen Elder. The elder that will take our kind to the higher tiers. We just call the fruit Shri''kilian because it is the means by which such an elder will be chosen," the shroom replied. "Can you get me a leaf," it said after, holding out its hand in wait.
"But I''m not of your kind. This doesn''t sound like it will work," Lucius replied, ripping a leaf from a nearby shrub, before handing it over to the shroom.
"The legend never said the Chosen One would be of our kind, only that they will get us to the higher tiers," the shroom said before cing the nd on the leaf and beginning work on the brain.
"So you want to lie to them?" Lucius asked, trying to understand what exactly the shroom was getting at.
"I''m not really lying. You do have the ability to get us to the higher tiers, or are you going to act like the creatures that have been watching me aren''t bing bigger with every passing day," the shroom replied, stopping his de mid-way through work to stare at Lucius with a knowing gaze.
"Even if that was true, what makes you think it will work on your kind?" Lucius asked.
"Hmm," the shroom mumbled, getting back to work. "A hunch. I can tell I''ll go far following you," it whispered.
"But that''s obvious. Any blind creature would be able to see that you''re not like the rest of us lower tiers. Even if they don''t believe that you''re the Chosen One, the smart ones will follow us regardless," the shroom continued.
"And those that won''t? It''s better they don''t join this n anyway," the shroom added, putting the brain it had cut off onto the leaf.
"Captain!" a voice shouted from behind them.
"What''s the matter?" Lucius said, recognizing the voice as Alpha''s right-hand woman.
"Oh, there it is," she replieding into view.
"Ahh, I hadn''t told you guys that I took the mushroom with me, huh? But what happened to the guard? When I came for it there was anyone on duty," Lucius replied.
"There was some confusion with who was supposed to be on duty. With the gap Alpha left, everyone is still confused on the new schedule," she replied with an awkward smile.
"Make sure everything is sorted out. We can''t have this happening again," Lucius said after a moment of thought. "Anyway, go get Pagan and ghost. And tell Pagan to get all the leaflings on the tree base," he said after.
"You got it, Captain," she nodded, before leaving to carry out her assignment.
"Let''s talk about all the materials you need. You said you need a few herbs, a dark ce to store the organs, and something to contain them in," Lucius said, running over all the things he could remember.
"I know where to find the herbs, as for containment..." the shroom whispered, pausing for a moment. "We can use the long one''s skin," it continued after some thought.
"You mean the worms?" Lucius whispered, to which the shroom nodded in reply.
~I can build a small cottage over here to store the organs while they ferment. And I guess I should also make some sort of living space for it, putting it back in a cage would be... unsuitable,~ he thought to himself.
"And what about the purification process?" he asked after.
"It uses the same herbs, as well as some water. And the process itself will only take a few hours," the shroom answered.
"Hmm, we''ll get everything we need within the next hour, I need the flesh before the sun sets," Lucius said after thinking for a moment.
"Why before the sun sets? Does it have something to do with your growth?" the shroom asked almost immediately.
"You''re getting ahead of yourself. I''m just hungry, that''s all," Lucius replied calmly. "We''ll wait for my children to arrive, I want to take them along on our journey," he continued.
"Your children?" the shroom asked suspiciously.
"Mymune members," he corrected.
After a few minutes had passed, Pagan and Ghost came into view, chatting to each other about Ghost''s uing evolution.
"Lighted One, what is that creature?'' Pagan asked as soon as he got there, looking at the shroom with a wary gaze.
"Ahh, you were going through... you weren''t awake when I captured it huh?" Lucius replied, remembering how Pagan wasn''t around.
"This will be a creature we''ll be working with to strengthen themune," he exined after.
"Ghost, you knew about this... thing?" Pagan asked, turning to Ghost. To which Ghost nodded in reply.
"Thing? I never thought I''d hear that from a mere prey creature," the shroom said, taking a few steps forward.
"Lighted One, how important is this thing? I don''t like the way it speaks," Pagan said, walking to stand in front of the shroom. At this point he was a little bigger than it, however, hisck of natural weapons made him look considerably less dangerous.
"Don''t get too cocky, if your ,???¡°???a???¡§???????¦Ì???|???£¤ ???¨C???¡¥???|, wasn''t protecting you, I would devour you in a second. Do not forget your ce in the natural order, I am a hunter and you are food," the shroom replied.
Lucius let it happen. He was nearly certain that the shroom was bluffing. And if they didn''t get this out of their system in front of him, it could prove to be dangerous in his absence.
Pagan began chuckling at the shroom''s provocation, before calling out his crux.
"If anything, you should now you ce. You are that much below me that I could erase you in an instant," Pagan said, making his crux float right in front of the shroom''s face.
"For something that can''t even wield magic to talk to me like this. You are a brave one... little thing," he continued, now using his body to nudge the shroom backward.
"So you really can give others the ability to use magic?" the shroom asked, turning to look at Lucius.
"Only those that go through evolution. And it might be impossible for someone not born of our kind," Pagan replied instead.
"Idiot," Ghost whispered under her breath, walking to stand beside Lucius who was now holding his head in disbelief.
~I should''ve known that his big mouth would leak all our secrets,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Did I say something wrong?" Pagan asked, turning to look at Ghost and Lucius in confusion.
"So you''re saying there is a possibility?" the shroom asked.
Chapter 72 The Alchemist (4)
"We don''t know," Lucius replied reluctantly. At this point, it would just be insulting for him to deny it.
"How do we check?" the shroom asked, walking away from Pagan towards Lucius.
"You aren''t part of mymune yet, so I have no reason to even attempt it," Lucius exined, walking to retrieve his knife from the arachnid corpse.
"We should get moving, we''re burning sunlight," he said after, as he cleaned his knife on a nearby leaf.
"If you attempt it now, I''ll join yourmune right here," the shroom insisted.
"What happened to getting the Shri''kilian?" Lucius asked, turning to look at the shroom.
"It''s a requirement for gaining the trust of the others. I doubt you''d want to advertise yourmune as being free tickets to gaining stronger bodies," the shroom replied.
"Right, but I''m still not going to do it," Lucius said after some thought.
"What? Why?"
"It''s the wrong timing. There is nothing keeping you from evolving and running away, and even if you do stay, you share no bond with me or mymune. Helping you evolve wouldn''t make sense. However..." Lucius replied carefully.
~But I do wonder whether or not this will work,~ he thought as he stared at the shroom. After some consideration, he decided to check whether it would actually work on non-leafling creatures but decided against going any further.
"Close your eyes," he whispered, before putting a hand on the shroom''s head cap.
~Shared Photosynthesis.~
[a? Targetcks certain requirements.]
[Continue Shared Photosynthesis at 50% efficiency?]
~Continue,~ Lucius responded after reading the notifications.
[Absorbing 100 Helios per second.]
After confirming that the shroom could indeed go through photosynthesis, he immediately stopped it.
"I-I felt it," the shroom whispered in disbelief, before staring at Lucius in awe.
"Hmm, so it does work. Interesting..." Lucius whispered.
~Though the 50% penalty is a bother,~ he thought to himself.
"Think about it this way. If you somehow gain my trust, I''ll start your evolution process. However, before then, I won''t waste a single second on you," he said after some thought.
"Lighted One, won''t that just encourage this... thing, to fall victim to its own deceptive nature?" Pagan interjected. "You won''t only have to gain his trust, but the trust of the wholemune as well. We won''t let you take advantage of the Lighted One''s kindness," he continued.
"Right, Ghost?" he added, turning to look at Ghost.
"Y-Yeah," Ghost replied, apparently having paid no attention to what was happening.
"Ahh, thank you?" Lucius whispered awkwardly.
"What if I give you something of equal value? Like a trade," the shroom asked.
"I highly doubt anything you can give me will be worth it, but be my guest. Now let''s get moving. Take us to where the herbs are."
After securing the spider corpse and skin on top of a tree, the four of them set off on their journey.
The shroom led them west of the camp, all the while exining to Lucius how shroom ns worked.
"Usually the elder, and senior hunters would travel to secure the herbs for purification. Those that were not born with the gift of poison would prepare it and only eat after everyone else had finished," the shroom exined.
"And why are you telling the Lighted One of your barbaric customs?" Pagan asked as they walked past a brush of flowers.
"If he wants to rule over my people, he should know our customs," the shroom responded, before immediately halting.
"What''s wrong?" Lucius asked, his tail whipping from side to side as if to express his sudden alertness.
"These tracks, an owner of the forest passed by here recently," the shroom said, pointing to the weird curvilinear-triangle footprints on the ground.
~Hmm, these are exactly the same as the ones I saw the other day,~ Lucius thought to himself, remembering the tracks he had seen when he was hunting for stones.
"These owners, are they dangerous?" Pagan asked, his crux already floating above his head.
"Pagan, please put that away," Lucius whispered. Using magic would just make them even more interested than they otherwise would be.
"Let''s just move on. It looks like the tracks lead in that direction, so let''s not stay around to see if theye back this way," he said after.
Though he was curious to see how these ''owners'' looked, he knew that he wasn''t at a level where he could protect the others withplete certainty.
The group carried on walking for another hour, at this point the forest had be even denser than before, with different colored rose bushes recing the shrubs and thorn bushes that had once been prominent.
Even the trees that stood like pirs around them began to change in texture and appearance. The trees were somewhat shorter, but had a more lively brown bark, with bundles of colorful flowers growing on their branches.
The vines in this section of the forest dangled from the highest branches of the trees, all the way down to the ground, forming a sort of curtain on the forest floor. Lucius could feel the ground tugging at him, in a sort offorting way, as the sound of unknown creatures yed a melodious tune that seemed to echo to and fro.
"Why are there so many creatures here?" Lucius asked as he noticed what seemed like a squirrel run up a tree a bit in front of them.
"That''s just the way things are. The further away we are to the Dark Forest, the more creatures there are," the shroom exined, before marching on.
As they continued, the ground became even more and more popted with grass, till they couldn''t see even a spot of dirt. Eventually, they reached the area that the shroom had spoken about. It was a meadow-like area, with thousands of different colored flowers leading off into the unseen distance.
Lucius could spot multiple creatures frolicking amongst the flowerbed, forming what looked like waves on a rainbow.
"This ce is... beautiful," Pagan whispered as the shroom began pointing out which ones they had to collect.
"Let''s not take too long. Some hunterse here searching for prey. And though the flowers can mask our scent, it won''t stop the flyers from seeing us," the shroom warned.
"So these flowers will help with the purification?" Lucius asked as he began plucking a few flowers off ground.
"The orange and purple ones will help cleanse the meat. The green herbs over there will help strengthen the poison, that''s the one we will use for the poison resistance concoction," the shroom exined, before ripping a bundle of green herbs himself.
Chapter 73 Dark Forest Preparations (1)
The group quickly picked out as many of the required reagents as they could possibly carry. Meanwhile, Ghost kept watch of the sky to make sure that they weren''t being watched by any flying hunters.
~I''lle back here with a cart or something. There might be other useful herbs, but it''ll take some experimenting to find out which ones will be worth it,~ Lucius thought to himself as the group prepared to leave.
"Did your kind ever consider growing these flowers close by your dwellings? Or do they have specific soil requirements? " Lucius asked as they began making their way back to the camp.
"Soil requirements? I don''t know about that, but whatever you''re trying won''t work close to the Dark Forest," the shroom exined.
"I see," Lucius whispered.
"And why is it that flowers like these don''t grow close to the Dark Forest?" Pagan asked, struggling with therge bundle of herbs that he was currently carrying.
"I don''t know, it''s just the way things are," the shroom replied after some thought.
Once they got back to the camp, Lucius set aside a few of the flowers to attempt growing themter, before bringing the arachnid corpse to the ground.
"So let''s begin the purification process," he announced. It was now a little past mid-noon, so there was still enough time to get both the purification process and photosynthesis done.
"We need water," the shroom replied, attempting to pick the arachnid corpse up.
"Ah, the river," Lucius realized before helping him pick it up.
"No, we need special water. We''re taking this to a spring a little past where we just were. Oh, and she''ll have to remain. The creatures that lurk there won''t take too kindly to an obvious prey creature," the shroom said.
"That''s quite far away, we''ll have to be careful moving this around then," Lucius whispered.
"Not necessarily. This flower-" the shroom said, picking out a blue flower from the herbs pile, "masks the scent of meat. It should be enough to prevent others from tracking us. Besides, it wreaks of poison, and there aren''t many poison-loving hunters where we''re going."
"Still, we left it out here for quite a bit. Better safe than sorry. Chop it up into smaller pieces, we''ll hide some in a different location and use those flowers to mask its scent, while we take a few of the pieces for purification," Lucius ordered after some thought.
"Worst case, we dump the small pile we left with, and return here," he added.
The shroom quickly cut the arachnid into several pieces, and Lucius picked out a few chunks.
The shroom also picked out a few of the herbs they had collected and asked Lucius for something to carry some water in. Lucius quickly rushed to the camp and returned with a worm sack in hand, and the group began preparing to leave.
"Am I really staying?" Ghost asked, as if she had been waiting for this moment to speak.
"We can''t take chances. You can join the leaflings on guard duty while we''re gone," Lucius replied as the group was leaving.
"Oh, okay," Ghost sighed, before heading back to the camp.
*
The journey to the spring was arduous as they were constantly on their toes looking around for potential threats. After an hour of walking, they got back to the flower bed, and the shroom directed them past it.
After another hour of walking, the vegetation around them was bingpletely alien. Not just foreign, but extra-terrestrial in nature, or at least it appeared that way to Lucius.
It seemed like straight out of a sci-fi nature movie. The trees were now pale white, and incredibly thin. So thin in fact, that Lucius at his miniature size was thicker than a few of them.
The vines that once formed a curtain now formed an actual nket, but that was beside the point. They now shone with avender glow and seemed to be made of some sort of see-through substance, periodically letting our bursts of dim light.
The flowers hadpletely changed in appearance as well, they were smaller but moreplex. Their petals were cut into unnatural geometric shapes, that seemed to change depending on the angle Lucius viewed them.
Not to mention that the once slight tug he felt from the ground was now a full-on pull, making it feel like there was a line connecting him directly to the earth.
"Interesting... is stuff like this normal?" Lucius whispered, feelingpletely out of it as he passed by a bush of what looked like crystal flowers.
"Eh? What do you mean?" the shroom asked, still directing them forward.
"You can''t tell? Everything seems like it''s from apletely different world," he said after. The difference in appearance between the section of the forest they lived in and this one was too vast. It was as if they had grown inpletely different climates.
"That''s just the way things are. The further away-"
"I get that. But a solid exnation would go a long way right about now. Does it have to do with magic?" ~Or are the climates of this world just that much different from Earth?~ He thought inwardly.
"Lighted One, Look," Pagan said, pointing to the sky.
The trees here had see-through crystalline leaves that created a sort of rainbow-like kaleidoscope effect, making it look like the sky was multi-colored.
Above it, were the shadows of massive creatures, with several pairs of wings zipping through the sky. Lucius wasn''t sure whether this was his imagination or not, but he could hear their low-pitch calls, like whales singing in the ocean.
"Let''s hurry up. I have a bad feeling about this ce," he whispered, hastening the pace they were walking at.
After about another 30 minutes of travel, a body of water came into view. It was so perfectly clear that it acted like a mirror, creating a sort of mirage that made it look like there was a whole other world in the water.
"So do we just dunk it in here?" Pagan asked as he stood at the edge of the spring.
"Step away from there," the shroom warned, pulling Pagan back. "Creatures lurk in the water as well,"
"There are a few streams that my n usually used, it''s down this way," the shroom said, before directing them a little further up the spring. There they found a whole host of creatures, and instantly Lucius''s body tensed.
"Pagan, don''t," he said almost immediately, realizing that he wasn''t the only one rmed.
"Oi, are you sure this is safe?" he asked, turning to the shroom.
"I never said it was safe. But most creatures wouldn''t start fights out in the open unless they are certain they can walk away unscathed. There are others counting on someone making the mistake of getting hurt in a failed attack," the shroom said, gesturing towards the top of the trees.
Lucius could just barely make it out, but he saw several figures sitting atop the highest branches of the needle-like trees. Watching like gargoyles, perfectly still.
As the group proceeded to the stream, Lucius was already running through the different ways he could react in a hostile situation. Marking out enemies, and positions he would retreat to if things got messy.
Chapter 74 Dark Forest Preparations (2)
There seemed to be at least five different groups of creatures at that one stream, each of them cleaning different materials of their own in the clear water.
As Lucius and his group passed by them, they would whisper something in their tongues nguages that seemed impossible to him. Perhaps it was because the creatures had developedpletely different vocal cords, but they didn''t even seem to be forming words as they spoke.
The group picked out a spot at the very end, and the shroom got to work. Meanwhile, Lucius stood on guard, literally standing on two feet for the first time in a while to show his full size. He was a bit wobbly, but with his hand on Pagan''s shoulder, he gained some stability.
Though he wasn''t the biggest out of the creatures present, his horns and tail made him monstrous, not to mention his obsidian ck eyes that seemed to stare at everyone with mild killing intent.
Lucius made special care to check out a specific group of what seemed like humanoid lizards. They were a little taller than Lucius, but thinner. Their tails were also considerably smaller, but what caught Lucius''s attention were the objects that they carried.
They seemed to be carrying make-shift spears with what looked like a metallic needle-like tip. They also had minimalistic armor, made from what looked like reptilian flesh, that covered their forearms, chests, and shins.
They were looking suspiciously at Lucius''s group and exchanged words with every nce. After about a few minutes of them exchanging words, one of them approached, leaving its spear behind.
Lucius wondered if that was perhaps a gesture of amity, however theypletely destroyed the gesture as Lucius spotted several lizard-beings pointing spears at him from the top of a few trees just barely within of eye-shot.
~Can they even throw it that far?~ Lucius wondered as he waited for the lizard-being to get closer.
"Thu?woi mu?thuju?toi nouha thoia," it uttered. However, the sounds it made were soplex that Lucius could hardly understand what it was saying.
"Do you understand it?" Lucius asked, looking to the shroom. The shroom shrugged before continuing with its work, even faster than before.
"Be careful. That''s a tier 3 creature," the shroom whispered, his hands shaking a little.
~The same level as the Arachnid?~ Lucius thought doubtfully.
"Athoi gu?bu?jadou," the lizard-being added, taking a step forward. On instinct, Lucius''s tail rushed forward, grabbing the lizard-being by the neck in reaction to its movement. The lizard-beings on the ground moved to attack, while those on the trees seemed to tense up.
"Gu?bu?jaha ou!" the lizard-being shouted, holding out its hand in a halting gesture. The other lizard-beings immediately halted, though Lucius could tell from their bodynguage alone that they were ready to attack at any moment.
"Don''t approach us carelessly. We don''t want trouble, but we won''t hesitate to defend ourselves," Lucius said to the lizard-being, hoping that it would somehow understand some of what he was saying.
The lizard-being seeing that there was an apparentnguage barrier began using hand gestures. It pointed to itself, and then to Lucius, before folding its arms in a cross, touching its shoulders with the opposite hand of each arm.
~Peace?~ Lucius thought to himself, and his tail slowly let go of it.
"Athoi gu?bu?jadou," the lizard-being said again, this time pointing at the meat that the shroom was working on, before pointing at the needle that its people were working on.
At this point, all the other creatures at the stream were watching on in expectation, and Lucius noticed that several of those gargoyle-like creatures were watching intently as well.
"Trade?" Lucius asked, using his hands to make a give and take gesture as best he could. The lizard-being took a moment to process it, then nodded its head.
Lucius took one of the pieces and gave it to the lizard-being, who then returned to its people, and began counting a few of the needles that they were cleaning.
"Are you sure you should''ve done that? That''s some high-quality meat you gave away," the shroom said as he watched the lizard-beings fawn over the meat Lucius had just given them. In fact, all the creatures in the stream began talking more loudly, pointing at Lucius''s group as they chattered.
"I thought you said they were the same tier as the arachnid. This shouldn''t be a big deal for them then, right?" Lucius asked. After all, it only made sense that they would be able to get much better.
"They are the same tier, but they can''t hunt an arachnid. The arachnid was a dark forest hunter, these ones are from here. Besides, they wouldn''t even know where to go looking," the shroom exined.
"Then how can you tell that they''re of the same tier as the arachnid?" Lucius asked as the lizard-being returned with a huge chunk of green meat.
"The marks on its forearm, three straight lines, just like the arachnid," the shroom exined.
~Three straight lines?~ Lucius had never seen something like that before, even on the arachnid.
"Vuthadu? uju?ma, vuth," the lizard-being said once it arrived. As it spoke Lucius looked at it''s forearm -unlike all the other lizard-beings, this one only had a forearm armor on one hand- and there it was, three white lines.
After finishing what it had to say, it bowed and presented seven needles to Lucius. On closer inspection, the needles seemed more organic than metallic. Though sharp and shiny, they had very small groves that formed intricate patterns along their lengths.
After it was done, it began spouting even more indiscernible sounds, before pointing at the sky.
~Is it pointing at the sun?~ Lucius thought, looking at where it was pointing. It then pointed at Lucius''s meat, then the meat from its group, and repeated the same give and take gesture Lucius had done earlier.
"Ah, it wants to trade again, same time tomorrow," Lucius made out.
"This ce is dangerous Lighted One," Pagan said, looking as the other creatures stared greedily at the meat that the shroom was purifying.
~It is dangerous, but these needles look like they will be useful. They''re considerably strong,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he tried to snap one in half but found himself failing. ~ And besides, it might just be needles today, but soon they might be offering even more useful things.~ he continued, before nodding and bowing to the lizard-being.
The other lizard-beings saw this and began ulting, before starting the purification process on the arachnid flesh Lucius had just given them.
"Hmm, it seems they see you as an equal," the shroom said as it worked on the arachnid meat.
"Oi, those lines, do I have them? Do you?" Lucius asked once the lizard-being was gone.
"Mine are here," the shroom said, pointing under his head cap. It was in a spot that Lucius would''ve never seen otherwise, unless he was looking for it of course..
"As for yours, it''s at the center of your back," the shroom said, pointing to Lucius''s back.
"I always wondered what that was," Pagan said, apparently aware of the lines.
"So that''s why I never noticed it," Lucius whispered in realization.
"How many lines do I have?"
"Two, but there''s an extra symbol, I don''t know how to describe it," the shroom replied as it worked
~I''m a tier two? Makes sense, myst evolution didn''t seem to be based on growth but was an event caused by Pagan''s evolution.~ Lucius reasoned.
"So every creature is born with these lines?" Lucius asked after some thought.
"Probably. But if you''re thinking that this is a viable way of sizing up prey, it won''t work. Finding those lines isn''t easy, and most creatures make sure to hide them. I don''t know why that one is unting his," the shroom replied.
Chapter 75 Dark Forest Preparations (3)
While the shroom finished up with the purification process, Lucius inspected the needles that he had gotten from the lizard beings. They seemed to have been the appendages of an animal, as he could see tiny bits of flesh still stuck to the blunt ends.
The needles had an odd color, if he was asked to describe it perhaps obsidian purple. They were a little longer than him, making them the perfect length for a spear. And they felt ssy cold to the touch, making him wonder exactly what material they wereposed of.
He carefully picked one out and inspected its tip. Its sharpness was beyondpare, well at leastpared to anything Lucius had ever seen. And though it had groves around its shaft, it was surprisingly smooth, as if the groves themselves did not add any friction whatsoever.
~Hmm, I might be able to do some needlework on the arachnid skin with this,~ Lucius thought to himself, hoping that the needles would be both strong enough and sharp enough to puncture through the stone-like hide.
By the time the shroom had finished purifying the meat, all the other creatures had left and it was close tote afternoon.
The shroom quickly ran over the process, showing Lucius step by step the different things he would need to do if he ever decided to purify meat himself. Most of it seemed fairly simple and was more a matter of sitting and waiting than actually working.
"So this is safe to eat now?" Lucius asked once the shroom was done exining.
"Should be, yes," the shroom replied, standing up.
"Then you won''t mind eating some of it?"
"Of course," the shroom said with a wicked grin, before taking arge chomp out of one of the pieces of flesh.
Drool fountained out of its mouth with that bite, and the shroom took a moment to process what exactly it had just tasted. A momentter it began munching down on the remaining meat, not even taking a moment to breathe as it swallowed bite after bite, its mouth juices dripping to the floor at a disturbing rate.
"Oi, not all of it!" Lucius shouted, but his tail was already ahead of him and it grabbed the piece that the shroom was about to munch on out of its hand.
"This, I''ve never tasted anything like it," the shroom said after a moment, as if just only regaining its sanity.
"The two pieces you just ate areing out of your share," Lucius said, before using catalyst absorption to test the quality of the meat as a catalyst.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 35%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 35%]
[Stats increased by 5%]
[Slight resistance to poison.]
[Questplete.]
[+200 exp]
~Amazing,~ Lucius thought to himself as he read over the system notifications.
"Lighted One," Pagan whispered in warning.
As Lucius read over the system notifications, his tail was consuming chunk after chunk of meat at an incredible rate. It wasn''t even four seconds before it had finished two pieces and was midway through its third.
"Ugh, Pagan grab the pieces," Lucius ordered quickly, trying to hold his tail back. ~Was I that hungry?~ he thought to himself.
Though his body did not seem to hunger, he felt a sense of satiation whenever his tail absorbed something. Sort of like a high from doing drugs.
"Pagan, have you ever tried catalyst absorption?" Lucius asked once his tail had calmed down.
"Catkyst, what?"
Lucius quickly exined to him the theory behind catalyst absorption and asked him if he could replicate it. But after several tries, it was clear that this wasn''t a skill avable to him.
~Makes sense though. Catalyst absorption is a system skill. And when I bought the sobriquet it never mentioned anything about sharing of skills~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Okay, then just eat it," he said after some thought.
"Wait, you want him to eat that?" the shroom interjected, shocked at themand.
"Yeah, is it a problem?"
"He is a prey creature. Prey creatures can''t eat meat," the shroom replied as if stating the obvious.
"And who told you that?" Lucius retorted. However deep down he also felt that the shroom was right. The leaflings never ate anything, so he doubted they had the capability to absorb food, however, leaf beings were a new evolution, so perhaps.
"Hmm, I''ll test it then," Lucius was about to say before Pagan abruptly bit into a piece of meat.
For a moment he kept still, however, another momentter his body began shivering and he regurgitated it. His body seemed to be rejecting the meat.
~Not possible, then,~ Lucius noted down.
"Anyway, let''s get going, it''s gettingte," he said as he picked up the needles. The others picked up the meat and the remaining herbs before setting off on their journey back home.
They reached the ''normal'' section of the forest in thete afternoon, and Lucius was more than happy to be back.
All the different creatures and weird nt life in the other section made him feel like he had to be constantly on high alert, like at any second some weird unknown creature might jump out and kill him. At times it felt like even the trees were in on it as well, like they would sprout from the ground and devour him whole.
However if there was one thing he missed about that part of the forest, it was his warm link to the ground. It was perhaps the only thing that gave him any semnce of safety.
Once they arrived at the area where the shroom had been imprisoned, Lucius put it back in its cage. However, did not bind it in ropes.
In part, this was a test to see whether or not the shroom would try to escape given the chance. However what it did not know, was that Lucius used a bigger pebble this time, one which pushed even the sticks that held the cage up to their limits.
After getting to the camp and bringing everyone down, Pagan began the photosynthesis session. Altogether the efficiency had been scaled up by 40% and Lucius was almost certain that Ghost would evolve today.
The session carried on like any other, the leaflings fell unconscious at different rates, with thergest chunk dropping out at around the 30-minute mark.
By the 35-minute mark, only three leaflings were left. This was the point at which Lucius began to feel the ''evolution'' sensation emanating from Ghost. And in addition to this, he could feel a slight tingle emanating from the other two leaflings who remained as well.
By the 45-minute mark the other two leaflings had dropped out, and only Ghost remained. The ''evolution'' sensation had be stronger and came in powerful waves.
Though evolution felt distant, from past experience Lucius could tell that it would only take a few more minutes for it to happen.
Slowly but surely Lucius''s senses became duller, and his tie to the physical world felt weak. By the 50-minute mark, the feeling had be a burning sensation, threatening to melt his head, and that''s when it happened.
Lucius was abruptly pulled out of the ''white'' void.
Already he knew that this space wasn''t his own. Just like with the Pagan''s and the others, there was no burning ball, and though the area seemed to go off into infinity, he couldn''t shake the feeling that this ce was way too small to contain him.
~Seems I''m getting used to doing this. I remember exactly when I got here,~ he thought to himself as the system fed information into his mind.
[Evolution of secondary creatures hasmenced.]
[Rewriting creatures'' genomes...]
[ A new gene has recently been added to the Genome library.]
[Use new gene in creature''s evolution process?]
~Huh? Was it the arachnid meat? But howe nothing happened after I ate the worms?~ Lucius wondered to himself.
After some careful thought, he epted. Though he wasn''t certain where exactly the new genes hade from, he wasn''t very well going to miss out on the chance to see a new variation.
To be honest, he felt kind of excited. Before he had just been doing this for the sake of survival, but now he was looking forward to every evolution. To see what new thing he would turn into, to see how his children would turn out.
This world was beginning to be... exciting.
[Genome has been sessfully rewritten to amodate for the evolution process.]
And with that Lucius was ejected from that realm.
"Interesting," Lucius whispered, staring at the ominous pod that stood in front of him.
Chapter 76 Dark Forest Preparations (4)
~What the hell is going on?~ Lucius thought to himself, taking a few steps back from the pod. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
It was purplish ck in color, much like the arachnid''s leathery-rock skin. It had multiple orifices, from which a toxic purple gas was constantly being emitted, giving it its ominous ambiance.
Though, as Lucius looked down, it had the same yellow flower petals that the others had, running all along its base. The tendrils that dug into the ground weren''t much different either, but Lucius could tell that this pod would be a problem.
"Pagan take the others away from the pod. The gas it''s emitting might be dangerous," Lucius quickly ordered.
[Daily Incubation Requirements.]
[4 pounds of tier 2 flesh.]
[100 Helios.]
[Mana infused water.]
[Note that failing to meet D.I.R may result in premature evolution leading to death or mutation of the incubated creature.]
~What''s all this about?~ Lucius thought after reading the requirements. Sure, he had expected this evolution process to go a little differently, even the weird pod wasn''t that surprising, but this?
Where the hell was mana-infused water, and where would he get it? Not to mention that it required flesh, which was odd for a leaf creature.
~Is it because I used hunter genes? Is she evolving into a hunger hybrid?~ he thought to himself. And as much as the idea seemed intriguing, he wondered whether it would change her normal psychological state. Would she try to eat the others as soon as she came out?
~No, this is a learning experience. But until she''s evolved I''ll refrain from using the arachnid genes on anyone else. Besides, 4 pounds of flesh a day? Just how much food is she going to cost?~ Lucius thought to himself with a sigh.
After moving all the leaflings away from the new pod, Lucius and Pagan continued their session. This time around they crossed the 2-hour 4-minute mark and Lucius allocated all his points into growth.
He could feel himself expanding, the world around him bing smaller and smaller by the microsecond.
He had grown to the size of arge rabbit, with a tail that was now the same length as his entire body. The flower at its tip was now the size of a pebble and was taking a shade f yellow very close to orange.
His horns were now half his entire body in length and were forming branches making it look simr to the antlers of young bucks.
His skin became darker in color, bing an almost brownish-green, and its texture seemed to be harder, woodier. And as Lucius felt his head to examine his horns, he found that small patches of grass-like protrusions covered his entire scalp.
~And they told me I''d be bald for the rest of my life,~ Lucius chuckled to himself, remembering the balding he had been going through back on earth.
He turned to examine Pagan, and found that he was now the size of arge rodent. His tail didn''t seem to have grown and in fact seemed to be shriveling.
Lucius notices that Pagan''s skin had also changed. It was a few shades darker and had very faint pentagonal patterns appearance all along it.
"Pagan, try picking me up," Lucius said after finishing his examination.
Pagan was confused of course, but obliged and attempted to pick the now massive Lucius off the ground. And just like Lucius expected, he had failed.
Lucius then quickly pulled out Pagan''s stats and sighed in defeat.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Pagan Elwood ]
[Level 4: 0/400]
[Leaf Being [Photosynthesis Variation] lvl.8- [000/800]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 11>14]
[Strength: 41>49]
[Stamina: 29> 32]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
"Pagan what does your daily self-training look like?" Lucius asked, a bit annoyed by how even with a 5% stat buff, Pagan hadn''t gone more than a few points up in every stat.
"Daily self-training?" Pagan repeated thoughtfully.
"Yes. Like the training Ghost, Alpha and even Hannibal do. The training that you do on your own," Lucius exined. And it dawned on him, perhaps he was asking too much. Ghost, Alpha, and Hannibal were hardworking in nature, but Pagan, Pagan was PAgan.
"Ah that. I use my crux until I feel tired four times a day. I can now use my crux a few minutes more than I could when I first got it," Pagan said proudly.
~Well at least he''s taking magic seriously. Perhaps I should try training him in that,~ Lucius thought, before realizing that he himself had been procrastinating on training and experimenting with his crux.
"Right. Tomorrow morning we''ll do a joint crux experimentation session," Lucius decided. It was high time he found out more about his crux.
"I look forward to it, Lighted O-" Pagan was about to reply excitedly, before Lucius halted him with a hand gesture.
"But first, 50ps around the tree. Then 50 push-ups," Lucius ordered.
"But it''s gettingte," Pagan triedining, pointing to the now setting sun.
"Then better hurry up," he said, sitting down. "I''ll be counting,"
As Pagan did hisps, Lucius saw the insectoid walk into the cottage, apparently exhausted from its daily activities.
~Evolution works on non-leaf creatures huh? I wonder what the insect would think about joining mymune?~ Lucius pondered.
It was a great fit. The insectoid already seemed to be liked by the leaflings, and by the way, it sometime yed with them, Lucius could only assume that the feelings were mutual. And Besides, having a flying creature in themune could prove useful.
~But the 50% penalty... Perhaps I''ll hold a different session for it. But I don''t have time right now. I need to do needlework on the arachnid hide, then go into the Dark Forest. Not to mention all the new buildings, and the fact that I might outgrow the cottage in a few more days,~ he thought.
Once Pagan had finished hisps and was taking a quick break, Lucius decided to get Ghost''s pod requirements out of the way.
Though he didn''t have tier 2, flesh he wondered whether tier 3 flesh would work. The required helios wasn''t a problem as it would just take a second to get, but what really bothered Lucius was the water requirement.
The closest thing he had was the water they collected from the springs, though he wondered if that was mana infused.
Assuming that the orifices was the area he was meant to put the required items in, he tossed the flesh, and water in. And then touched the pod.
[Spend 100 Helios for daily requirements?]
Lucius epted and another message came out.
[Requirements met!]
~Sigh,~ Lucius thought himself in relief.
***
Chapter 77 Dark Forest Preparations (5)
"Lighted One, when you said early, I didn''t think that this was what you meant," Pagan said with half-closed eyes. The sun had barely even risen, and Lucius was already doing his daily morning routine.
"Finally awake, huh? Took you long enough, I must''ve woken you up seven times," Lucius grunted as he tried his best to walk bi-pedaly. He could now walk several steps, even with his tail disrupting him.
"Call out your crux," he ordered, dropping to his regr quadrupedal stance.
"Okay," Pagan yawned, calling out his crux with familiar ease.
"Now, take a few steps back," Lucius ordered after, taking a few steps back as he said this. Pagan obliged and moved several steps back as well, till there were about two meters away from each other.
"I want you to use your pulse to inspect me from there, I''ll try to do the same," Lucius called out, before sending out a pulse.
It took him a few tries, but after putting a bit of energy into it, he sessfully covered a radius of 2 meters with a single pulse.
Pagan on the other hand was incapable of doing it. Try as he may, his pulses just seemed to dissipate after a radius of 1 meter was passed.
"I don''t get it. Am I not putting in enough power?" Pagan asked, now fully awake.
"I don''t think so. I think it has to do with the size of your crux, yours is smaller than mine," Lucius said, pointing towards his crux.
Their cruces were indeed of very different sizes, Lucius''s was now the size of his pupil, whereas Pagan''s was only visible due to its luminosity.
"But, that''s just a theory, we still have to do a few more tests to make sure. Let''s move a bit further away from the camp, I want to test a few more things out," Lucius said, before moving just outside of the camp''s boundaries. Close enough to react if the camp was attacked, but so far as to not pose a threat to it with their magic.
"Now we''re going to test sr burst," Lucius said, to which Pagan nodded with excitement.
"Wait! Wait! Let me step back first," he warned, nearly getting caught in Pagan''s insanity.
"Oh, right," Pagan replied shyly. Once Lucius was a safe distance away, Pagan cast sr burst. The spell was like a ball of white energy engulfing an entire area. Now that Lucius had gotten a look at it, it seemed more like an incinerating attack than an explosive one. Though its quick expansion did allow it to be defined as ''explosive''
~Around a 1-meter radius,~ Lucius noted as he inspected the scorch marks on the floor. ~And not much heat was emitted from it,~ he continued, touching the soil.
Though he did notice, that not a single de of vegetation could be spotted around the area.
"Stand back," Lucius said once he was done with his analysis.
"Further," he called out, noticing that Pagan was still too close. After there was at least a distance of 3 meters between the two, Lucius cast sr burst.
His sr burst had equal qualities of explosiveness, and incineration, expanding a good amount of heat as it was cast. His scorch marks traveled a little over 2 meters in radius, and even some vegetation that was not caught in the initial st had been burnt a little.
"Is it because of the difference in our cruces again?" Pagan asked.
"Maybe..." Lucius replied thoughtfully. "Pagan, when you''re casting the spell, what image do you have in your mind?" he asked after a moment of thought.
"The sr burst you first cast," Pagan replied.
"I see..." ~Perhaps that''s another thing. How you imagine the spell seems to have an effect on its qualities. If it was a matter of power difference, I''d expect the radius, and intensity of the two spells to be different. But the difference in quality has to arise from some difference in spell casting,~ Lucius thought to himself.
Of course, he understood that these were all the theories of an amateur ''mage'' if he could even call himself that.
~And I can''t very well tell him to imagine a supernova if he''s never even seen one,~ hed realized, before moving on to the next phase of his test.
"Next I want to test the destructive interference you were using the other day," he called out.
"Destructive what?" Pagan asked, clearly confused.
"Try to inspect me," Lucius answered briefly, to which Pagan obliged. Two quick pulses were sent in quick session, to which Lucius replied with overwhelming pulses of his own.
"Again," Lucius called out, and once again Pagan sent out two quick pulses. This time Lucius blocked them with weaker versions, trying to match their energy levels exactly. Though he found that his were now slightly weaker, and Pagan was able to get a somewhat sloppy reading of his status.
"Again," Lucius called out. He modified his pulses a little more, getting closer to perfection this time, though it was still not quite there.
~More practice and I''ll probably get it within a few days. Though I half expected that a new spell would be added to the index. Does this not count as a spell? Or am I doing something wrong?" Lucius thought to himself before turning to Pagan.
"Again?" Pagan asked.
"No I think that''s enough," Lucius replied
~What''s missing?~ he wondered, sitting on the ground to think things over. ~What was consistent every time I gained a new spell? What urred before the spell was activated?~ he tried to reason, and after just a few moments it came to him.
~Visualization! It always starts with visualization. I have to have a mental image of the spell to create it,~ he realized.
~Okay, let''s try this,~ he thought, letting a pulse out of his crux. However, he slowed it down as much as he could, till it was almost static.
In his mind, he visualized a force field that he had seen from some sci-fi movie he couldn''t remember the name of and imagined that the pulse he had created manifested itself as that force field.
Chapter 78 Dark Forest Preparations (6)
He could only hold the pulse still for a fraction of a second so he had to retry it multiple times. All the while Pagan watched in awe, as a series of static pulses began forming and unforming in front of him.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSr Field¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSr Field¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSr field¡» has been added.]
~Perfect!~ Lucius thought to himself in excitement. The feeling of bringing his spell to life was satisfying, likeing back to HQ after sessfullypleting a mission.
Lucius used silent chanting to call on the spell a few times and found that it worked perfectly. Afterward, he tried moving whilst the force field was up but found that it stayed stationary and disappeared once he was out of its confines.
~Makes sense, after all, it''s based on stationary pulses,~ he reasoned as he tried estimating the radius that the force field covered. It was just a little smaller than the radius with which his crux could interact,ing in at about 1.9m.
Now all that was left was the strength test. He wasn''t sure whether the spell could block any physical attacks, as he could walk into and out of it even while it was up, or whether it was just because he came from inside of it.
"Pagan, trying kicking the force field," he ordered. Pagan kicked it, and his leg went right through, proving that the spell indeed could not block any physical attacks.
~So only magical attacks then?~ he wondered, looking up at Pagan.
"I want you to cast sr burst, but this time I''ll stand right beside you," he said.
"No," Pagan replied briefly. It was the first time he had ever been rejected in this world, it felt odd, and for a moment he could hardlyprehend what he had just heard.
"Why not?"
"To put the Lighted One in danger -Of course, I do not mean to insult you by thinking that I could- but I cannot willingly try to endanger the one who has granted me this power," Pagan continued.
~What is he on about?~ "I''m testing something. Just do as ordered," Lucius replied.
"And what if something goes wrong? Alpha will have my head. And you saw Ghost''s pod, who knows what she''ll turn into, and what she''ll do if this goes wrong," Pagan mumbled, but Lucius was already standing in position.
After mumbling on for a few more moments, Pagan realized that Lucius wasn''t going to back down, and got into position as well.
"Tell me when to go," Pagan said reluctantly.
~Sr Field,~ Lucius chanted, before giving Pagan the green light.
And just like he had anticipated, the forcefield protected him from the explosion. However, the way it did it was beyond his expectations.
He had expected the initial st to be blocked, but its physical manifestations; such as its shockwave was supposed to be able to pass through. However, it was as if the sr field hadpletely nullified its effects, including even its physical attributes.
~So its working is a little moreplex than it seems?~ he thought to himself.
"Lighted One, how did you do it? How did you create a new spell?" Pagan asked excitedly, eyes of expectation starting at Lucius.
"I didn''t create it, I merely read it out of a list in my mind," Lucius replied, lying through his teeth.
If he had learned anything about Pagan, it was that he could not be trusted with sensitive information. Perhaps he would tell him how to create spells at ater time, but for now, telling him would risk having it just blurted out.
"Oh, so it''s impossible for me then?" Pagan asked in a defeated tone.
"Not necessarily. There might be a way for you to do it, keep trying," Lucius replied. There was usually more than one way to do things, and he wasn''t very well going to dash Pagan''s reason for experimenting with magic just like that.
"I''ll try my best to approach your heights, Lighted One," Pagan replied, his tone filled with reverence.
"And Pagan, drop the cultish act. It''s kind of disturbing," Lucius said, feeling ufortable with the gaze Pagan sometimes peered at him with.
"Cultish? What do you mean?"
"Sigh."
"Thest thing I want to test out is the range of our shared photosynthesis," Lucius said.
He wanted to know if there was a way for Pagan to continue the photosynthesis session even while he was out in the dark forest. The two of them started at a distance of 1 meter, before trying the linked photosynthesis.
[Pagan requests to use you as a ry for photosynthesis.]
[ept.] [Decline.]
~ept.~
Photosynthesis seemed to work just well from that distance, so they moved on to a distance of 2 meters. The result was the same, photosynthesis happened just fine.
However, at 3 meters, an extra message appeared along with the usual request.
[Pagan requests to use you as a ry for photosynthesis.]
[Note. Target is not within effective range, as such photosynthesis will only be 75% efficient.]
[ept.] [Decline.]
~I see,~ Lucius thought to himself, before moving even further. Every extra meter he moved away, photosynthesis''s efficiency would drop by another 25%. Until eventually, at 6 meters, the system would not allow photosynthesis to even take ce.
~I see, so it won''t be possible,~ he realized after noting down the results of his experimentation.
They had worn themselves out a bit due to repeated use of their crux. And though it wasn''t a mental or physical sort of exhaustion, Lucius felt empty somehow, like some unknown resource of his had been drained.
~Probably the equivalent of mana,~ he thought to himself as he and Pagan walked back to the camp.
As a child he had never really been into all the fantasy shmuck that kid''s his age seemed so crazed over. But he knew at least the basics. Mana, mana cores, and magic spells. However, everything else was beyond him.
*
Chapter 79 Dark Forest Preparations (7)
Once Lucius had rested up he decided to get his needlework done before mid-afternoon, as he had arranged a trade with the lizard-beings and didn''t want to bete.
So he quickly grabbed one of his needles, his knife, and a vine and went to where he had hidden the arachnid hide.
The hide still had pieces of flesh stuck to it, so he had to clean it in the river with his knife before he could do any work. Once it was clean, he began inspecting it carefully. He pulled on it to test its shear strength and found that with a good pull, he could somewhat tear it.
"I thought so. If it was too tough, the arachnid wouldn''t have been able to move the way it did," he whispered to himself. "But still, a flexible material that''s hard? Quite the fabric."
He quickly began tearing the arachnid hide to get it into more square-like pieces, which proved to take a great deal of strength, even with the help of his knife.
[+4 strength.]
[+2 Stamina.]
In the end, he managed to get it into five squarish pieces. The work was quite ugly, and the pieces weren''t even of equal area.
"Well, I''m no fashion designer, that much is apparent," he whispered to himself before taking the needle and trying to puncture it through one of the pieces.
His n was to puncture holes into the fabrics and craft a makeshift cloak by sewing them together with threads of vine.
However, this was easier thought than done, as the material was quite tough. He ended up having to use pebbles to hammer the needle through.
Every hole took at least a minute to make, but after an hour or so he managed to make holes in all but one of the pieces of arachnid skin. Thest would be the shrooms share.
He then began stripping the vines and used the threads to sew the pieces back together into the form he wanted. Which again ended up being shoddy work, as he had no idea what he was doing.
In the end, he had a sort of fleece-type thing, with a small hood. He put it on and began inspecting.
~Ugly, but it''ll work,~ he thought to himself. The cloak was a little on the small end since he had grown, but it covered him just until his upper leg so it worked well as a protective measure against poison attacks.
By the time he had finished, it was getting close to midday, and he still had one more thing to do. So he returned to the camp and collected a few branches before chopping them, this time however he did not turn them into nks.
He left chopped them into smaller cylinder-shaped pieces, before using the grinding stone to smoothen them out. In the end, he was left with something that more resembled a wheel.
He then used the needle to poke holes at their center, before using the chisels to carve the holes out.
Once he had finished that, he began working on the nks. He fashioned them together like he had done before with the sleds, using rope tobine them, but this time he added small ledges on each side, to allow them to carry more stuff.
He then ran carved and ground axles out of a long branch and connected the wheels.
All in all, it took an hour to make, but he finally had arge cart. It was now very close to the allocated time for the trade, so he decided to get photosynthesis out of the way before going to the spring.
He ate one of the pieces of arachnid meat before gathering everyone, and Pagan began the session.
During this session, Lucius could feel the ''evolution'' sensation emanating from arge number of leaflings. Though it was faint for most of them, he would soon have arge number of them evolving.
~I''ll have to go to the Dark Forest soon. I can''t leave when all of them get into their pod state, it''ll be too much to ask Pagan to protect them all,~ he realized as he invested all his points into growth.
This time there were no visible changes, though internally his systems were bing moreplex. His ''heart'' organ beat with more power than before, increasing the rate at which his bodily processes took ce.
His body heat had increased, and all his senses were sharper. The pulling feeling he got from the ground was beginning to feel more like a 6th sense than a mere feeling, though he couldn''t quite put his finger on what exactly he was supposed to be sensing.
His internal framework as well as the fibers that ran throughout his body had be stronger, denser, and he seemed somewhat more built than before.
Pagan had also grown, however much like Lucius, it wasn''t a growth in size but rather in density and bodyposition.
"We should get going," Lucius said as he began picking up the leaflings that had fallen unconscious and putting them in the tree base.
They were getting a little toorge to all fit in the tree base, so he had to put a few of them in the cottage. He closed the door and put the grinding stone in front of it to stop small hunters from essing them.
Once all that was done, Lucius ordered Pagan to pull the cart along, and they set off to get the shroom.
"I see you''ve gotten even bigger," the shroommented as Lucius removed it from its cage. "And is that the arachnid skin?" it asked, touching the cloak that Lucius was currently wearing.
"Yeah," Lucius replied off-handedly, already moving towards the spot they had hidden the remaining pieces of arachnid meat.
"Where''s mine?" the shroom asked as they walked.
"I have a piece of arachnid skin left, that one is yours," Lucius replied as he tried to remember which tree he had hidden the meat in.
"You made one of these... things," the shroom said, gesturing towards the cloak, "-for me as well?"
"No," Lucius replied, stopping by a tree, before jumping up to retrieve the meat and herbs.
"Why not?" the shroom asked once he was back down.
"Why would I? You aren''t in mymune yet," he replied, cing the herbs in the cart.
Chapter 80 Dark Forest Preparations (8)
The journey to the springs took longer than it did yesterday due to Pagan''s constant whining about how heavy the cart was. He begged multiple times for the shroom to take his ce, but Lucius denied his pleas.
And in the end, it bore fruit. His stats had all increased by leaps and bounds, though it left him drenched and haggard.
"What is that thing anyway?" the shroom asked, pointing towards the cart, as they stopped in front of the main spring to allow Pagan to rest. It seemed that there were quite a number of creatures around today.
These creatures were wayrger than Lucius, the smallest of them being the size of a small boar. However, they all seemed preupied with whatever they were doing, perhaps seeing something of Lucius''s size as insignificant.
"Listen up. Pagan, you''re going to trade this piece of meat with the lizard beings, okay? If theye up to you, this is what you give them. And don''t forget to fill the sac with water," Lucius said, trying to make sure that the exhausted Pagan understood his assignment.
"Why aren''t youing? I don''t feel safe with just him," the shroom said, pausing to take a look at the wheezing and ''sweat'' covered Pagan.
"I can''te. I''m too different from thest time I was there. It might cause suspicion," Lucius replied.
"Isn''t this guy bigger as well?" the shroom asked, wondering whether it was just its imagination or whether Pagan had really grown as well.
"It can be argued that Pagan is a different person from before. They didn''t talk to him or look at him that much. I on the other hand am very hard to forget," he said, pointing to his horns and tail.
And he was indeed right. If he went, the lizard-beings would instantly know that he had grownrger overnight.
"I''ll be watching from afar, don''t worry," Lucius said, before the two went off to the section of the stream they had been at yesterday.
The lizard-beings were already waiting, and as Pagan and the shroom walked towards the end of the stream with their cart, the lizards began discussing amongst themselves. Perhaps wondering why Lucius was not with them.
After a bit of talking, the leader of the lizards decided to approach Pagan and began making hand gestures. Of course, Pagan didn''t get what the lizard was saying at all but merely showed it the piece of meat that Lucius had set aside for them.
After inspecting the piece of meat the lizard handed over the needles. Once that part of the trade was done the lizard brought forward a weird egg-looking object, and made another trade gesture.
"More trade, huh?" Pagan sighed, before turning to the shroom.
"Do you think this thing will be of any value to the Lighted One," he asked, trying to look around to see if his Lighted One was in sight.
"It looks like the egg of some creature. I''ve never eaten eggs, and I''m not sure of its uses past consumption," the shroom replied.
"So basically useless, right," Pagan said, before looking back at the leader of the lizards.
"Sorry, I cannot make this trade," he said, shaking his head profusely at the lizard''s further attempts to insist on the trade.
The lizard went back to discussing with his men, before returning with an assortment of herbs, making another trade gesture.
"What about these? Are any of these useful?" Pagan asked, once again interrupting the shroom as it was purifying the meat.
"Why are you asking me? This isn''t part of the agreement between me and your master," the shroom replied, apparently annoyed.
"Eh, this much should be the minimum you''re willing to do. Why do you need agreements to do work for the Lighted One? I thought it wasmon sense to do his bidding," Pagan shot back.
"You''re crazy," the shroom whispered, looking at Pagan as if he were disturbed.
"Anyway, they are trying to rip you off. Those herbs can be found back in the flower bed, and the amount isn''t even worth a few minutes of work," the shroom whispered after looking at what the lizard was holding.
"So they''re trying to rip us off because the Lighted One isn''t here, huh?" Pagan deduced. "Disgusting creatures," he said more loudly, looking at the lizards as if they were devil worshippers.
"Oi, calm down. Are you trying to get us killed?" the shroom said, trying to calm Pagan down before the lizards noticed the aggression in his tone.
"If I were them I''d try to punk us too. Just reject their offer," the shroom added. And once again Pagan rejected their offer, giving them a nasty re as he shook his head at their trade.
The lizard leader reluctantly went back to his men and once again discussed something with them. This time however a few of them kept looking over at Pagan and the shroom with killing intent in their eyes, it seemed that they were tired of trying to trade and wanted to resort to violence.
Of course, Pagan wasn''t the least bit afraid of this. With a single spell, he could light up these heretics, and send them back to the dirt for trying to cheat the Lighted One.
However, it seemed things would not fall to such a state as the leader calmed his men down and returned with tworge fang-shaped objects. They were obsidian purple, the same color as the needles, and were about half Pagan''s size in length.
This time the leader pointed to four pieces of meat, four times the price they had asked for seven needles.
"This guy must be crazy! I''ll smite them right here for their tant attempts at spitting on the Lighted One''s trust," Pagan shouted in anger.
"Oi, Oi, calm down. Look carefully, those are weapons. I don''t know what animal they are from, but I can assure you they are valuable," the shroom reasoned.
"Why did he entrust you to do the trade? Isn''t there anyone better in yourmune?" the shroom whispered to him.
"Hmm, they do look nice," Pagan said inspecting them more carefully. "But are they worth four pieces?" Pagan asked. If he gave four away, they would only be able to take 6 pieces back home.
Chapter 81 Dark Forest Preparations (9)
"Three pieces," Pagan said out loud, counting out three pieces. But the leader lizard shook his head and pointed at one more.
This went back and forth until Pagan cut a 4th piece in half and held it in front of the lizard. The leader paused for a moment as if thinking about it, before reluctantly nodding its head. And the exchange was made.
"The Lighted One will be proud of my skills," Pagan said proudly.
"What was the point? You only went half a notch down of what it asked for. It isn''t as if you did anything worth praising," the shroom said as it cleaned the meat.
"It''s about the principle. I made their leaderpromise for a mere servant of the Lighted One. That enough is a victory worth praising," Pagan announced delightedly, inspecting the fangs that he had won for his master.
"This guy sure has crazies following him around," the shroom whispered to itself, a bit sorry for Lucius.
Once the shroom had finished purifying the meat and had collected water for Lucius, the two loaded everything onto the cart and walked back. The moment they were back to the main spring, Lucius jumped down from one of the trees, right beside Pagan.
"What did you trade all those pieces of meat for?" Lucius asked immediately, grabbing the two fangs out of the carriage.
"Weapons, for the Lighted One. And I made their leaderpromise... by HALF," Pagan exined excitedly.
~So you traded 3 and a half pieces of arachnid meat for something you aren''t eve-~ however Lucius stopped as he inspected the fangs more carefully.
The fangs were much like des, with one side being quite sharp, and the other being jagged. The fangs were bony but felt polished, and it was clear that they weren''t naturally sharp but had been sharpened by some tool.
~They have sharpening tools?~ Lucius thought to himself. He was certain that even his grinding tool couldn''te close to this. As he looked closely he noticed that there were patterns on the fangs, they seemed very simr to the ones on the needles.
~Same creature? Then that means this is probably just as hard,~ he thought, attempting to break the object. He put in a reasonable amount of strength and found they could handle the considerable strain.
"Well done, Pagan," Lucius said once he was done. The des were a littlerge to be daggers, but they would work well as long knives... for now at least. His constantly growing body would prove to be a problem when it came to owning weapons.
**
"Oi, you haven''t found me a ce to ferment the organs yet. If we wait too long, they''ll dry up and we won''t be able to use them anymore," the shroom said once they arrived back at his cell.
"Right, I forgot about that," Lucius replied.
"Pagan, stay here, I''ll be right back," he ordered, before giving the shroom his share of the arachnid meat and going back to the camp.
He quickly fed Ghost''s pod all it required before bringing the leaflings down. Today he would build the shroom arge cottage-type building, but at the same time, it would act as its workshop, as well as a storage area for all the reagents it would require to make the concoctions.
During all this, he nned to kill three birds with one stone.
While he was building the cottage, he would show the leaflings the different steps required in the construction of buildings, as they would soon be evolved and be able to build on their own. At the same time, he would test the shroom''s reaction to them and their reaction to it as well.
He was certain that only Alpha''s man had any idea how the shrooms looked, and in turn, were the only ones who knew about the shroom being the creatures that ughtered the other leaflings.
"Lighted One, where are we going?" one of the leaflings asked as Lucius led them towards the shroom''s area.
"I''m going to be teaching you guys how to create cottages. So I''m expecting all of you to try your best," Lucius replied with a coo''ed tone.
Once they got to the shroom, Lucius noticed it flinch just a little. It was clear that it reacted to the leaflings, but it was also clear that its urges had quickly been contained.
"Everyone, this is... Asclepius, our alchemist," Lucius said, introducing the shroom.
"Asclepius?" the shroom and Pagan asked in unison.
"Shut it," Lucius whispered, as the leaflings repeated the name over and over.
"Asepius," one of them tried saying.
"You can just call him uncle," Lucius decided, seeing the shroom''s reactions as the leaflings began getting closer to inspect it.
"What''s uncle?" Pagan asked, but Lucius ignored him.
"Hello, uncle. Will you be learning how to build with us today?" one of them asked, getting annoyingly close to the shroom.
"You mere prey creatures da-" the shroom was about to shout, before looking up at Lucius. Lucius had that ''fuck around and find out'' re in his eyes. And he wasn''t kidding, he would kill the shroom right here and now if it failed this test.
"No, sadly I will not be learning with you guys today," Asclepius replied, gently nudging the leaflings off it.
"Why not?" some of them asked, getting even closer.
"Can you guys please not get so close to me? I don''t like -" Asclepius was about to say, before looking up at Lucius and changing it''s tone. "I need space to walk," it said with a smile.
"Great," now everyone watch carefully as I work. "Pagan, you stay here with Asclepius, make sure he doesn''t do anything funny," Lucius ordered, before shifting his gaze to Alpha''s men who were hidden behind some trees.
He did a ''stay and watch'' gesture, to them before leaving with the leafling to collect materials for the build.
Collecting all the required branches of wood was quite a boring process, but at least it showed the leaflings how cutting up nks ought to be done. After about three hours he had chopped and stripped all the wood into usable nks.
He then began climbing trees to collect vines and exined to the leaflings why he would need itter.
Chapter 82 Dark Forest Preparations (10)
Once he was done with that, it was time for the actual build. He began marking out the areas for the foundations, digging holes over the allotted space.
The alchemist''s cabin would cover an area big enough to fit tworge boars, which for someone of his size was quite an ambitious task.
"Say after me leaflings. If my foundations are wrong, the beatings I get will be strong," Lucius chanted as if he were back in the army.
And the leaflings innocently repeated the chant, watching carefully as Lucius filled the foundations with nks.
"Isn''t this song kind of odd?" one of the leaflings whispered to its colleague.
"I don''t know what you mean," the other leafling replied, having fun with the army chant.
Next Lucius started with the walls. This time he changed the chant to "If I build a bad wall, off a cliff I will fall," and once again the leaflings repeated. This time with even more vigor.
"I''m telling you, the Lighted One is trying to tell us something, and it sounds scary," the same leafling from before tried telling its colleague once again.
"You''re reading too deep into it. It''s just a fun song, why do you always do this?" his friend asked, now annoyed by his conspiracist friend''s theories. "Look, just enjoy the song and watch carefully, he might test us on thister," he added, more calmly this time.
As Lucius constructed the walls he realized that each binding would require two times as many vines in order to make it stable due to the increased size of the building.
He also had to ount for support pirs within the build as it was simply too wide to support itself with only the outer frameworks like the smaller cottage required.
At times when he thought he was nearly done, he realized that he had ced certain nks a little skew, which made the entire build tilt to one side.
Of course, matters like this would not have been a problem for an everyday person, after all, Lucius had no constructing experience -apart from making makeshift camps-prior to this. So one would''ve thought he would be happy with a somewhat decent build.
But no, if it required him to remove a few nks, he would do just that, to ensure the stability of the structure. The energy was something he could easily replenish, a dead leafling due to his ipetence not so much.
"Okay leaflings, now is the most important part, the roof," Lucius said, setting up the rope he would use as a pulley to ce the roof atop the build.
"Repeat after me. Build proper rooves, or get boar hooves," he said, starting with the roof build.
"Build proper rooves, or get boar hooves," the leaflings shouted over and over.
"Are you going to say that there''s some hidden meaning to this too?" the leafling asked to its conspiracist friend.
"I''ll remain quiet for now. But when the Lighted One says that he was trying to teach us something with this song, I''ll be there to shout I told you so in your face," the conspiracist leafling replied with a huff.
After finishing off with the roof, and cing it on top of the build, Lucius brought thedder he had made before and began securing it.
"Now leaflings, I''m going to test you guys to see if you remembered everything," Lucius announced, taking this time to rest.
As he asked the leaflings to list all the different processes they would have to go through to create a cottage, but it seemed that only a few of them remembered well. Of course, the others would learn over repeated practice, but he decided to put the ones that remembered the first time into a special group anyway.
"From now on, you guys will be called my builder''s unit," he announced.
The leaflings stood proudly, visibly gloating over theirrades who had not been chosen. Among them were the conspiracist leafling and his not-so-conspiracist friend.
"Ha, builder''s unit? I tell you, there''s something deeper to it. Perhaps we''re the next to be named?" the conspiracist, whispered to his friend.
"He told us not to worry too much about naming. We will be named eventually, now stop talking nonsense, he might hear you," his friend replied.
"I wonder what my name will be? Don''t you? Maybe something like BuildAlhpa. Or BuildGhost,"
"Those are stupid names," his friend quickly shut down.
***
"Will this area suffice?" Lucius asked, introducing Asclepius to its new home.
"All this space is for me alone?" Asclepius asked, finding it hard to believe.
"Yes and... for storing all poisonous resources. Oh, and also for all the processes rting to the brewing of concoctions," Lucius exined.
"I guess this will suf-"
"And Pagan will be keeping guard here. So you will be staying together from now on," Lucius interrupted.
"Ahh, and this isn''t free. I will have you do experiments on different herbs to find out their uses. There could be more concoctions that you don''t know about, don''t you want to find out?" Lucius asked.
Asclepius seemed hesitant, taking their time to think things over.
"I can increase the amount of meat you get from every hunt. Also, we will discuss the pay for every new discovery you make. However, your discoveries can be shared with me alone. And all new concoctions you make will be under my ownership." Lucius exined.
"All concoctions? So basically everything I make is yours?" Asclepius asked.
"I will supply all the reagents. And I know you are going to sneak some for yourself regardless of our deals, so it sounds fair to me," Lucius said with a certain finality that could onlye from a tyrant.
"Sigh, agreed," Asclepius said reluctantly.
"Great. I''ll make a small garden for you here, and I''ll teach you how to grow flowers," Lucius said, already walking towards a patch of dirt right beside the alchemist''s cabin.
"Grow flowers? With magic?"
"No, agriculture. It''s close to magic, but not quite," Lucius said. Though he was a bit hesitant to divulge his other world techniques to the shroom, he decided that he would have to use the techniques to grow hismune anyway. And one way or another, it would find out eventually.
Chapter 83 Dark Forest Preparations (11)
"Why are you doing all this all of a sudden? And don''t try saying that it''s just business, there were¡ safer ways of handling this," Asclepius whispered, hinting at the fact that Lucius brought the leaflings along. "I thought you said I wasn''t a part of yourmune, yet you gave me some weird title," it added.
"You''ll be part of it in a few hours. I''m heading into the Dark Forest after this," Lucius replied as he began digging up the soil.
"I see," Asclepius replied in a more serious tone, as Lucius sprinkled the soil with some of the remaining water they got from the springs.
"If you know anything about the Shri''kilian tree, now''s the time to tell me."
"What I know are only the ramblings of my former Elder. And he wasn''t exactly a ''trustworthy'' one," Asclepius said after some thought.
"That will have to do. Anything that can help me prepare," Lucius replied, digging deeper into the ground to loosen up the soil even more.
"He said that the Shri''kilian tree was bigger than any tree he had ever seen before, and that it stood alone, just at the entrance of the Dark Forest. Its branches were apparentlyrge enough to house even the biggest creature in the forest," Asclepius started.
~Hyperbole, an obvious exaggeration,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"He said that the tree''s entrance was marked by the remains of arge creature, and that past that was a darkness darker than the night. He imed that the darkness descended so deep that it went past the very ground itself. And he apparently had to climb down for many days and nights before he finally got to the bottom,"
~This guy, ~ Lucius thought to himself, wondering if it was even worth listening to this.
"Once he got to the bottom, he said that the space got sorge that it was at least twice the size of any one of the tree''s branches. And that those tunnels went on forever, with many different paths all seemingly leading to nothing. It nearly drove him insane he said," Asclepius continued.
"Apparently the worst of it wasn''t even the pitch ck darkness that made him think he had gone blind. No. He said that it was the screams, the cries of a million different creatures. He said it tormented him, and that he could still hear them to that."
As Asclepius was telling the story, Lucius ordered Pagan to collect all his tools and take everything back to the camp.
"He said that he met many creatures on his journey. And had to fight them off without even being able to see them, and that only his strength got him through it al-"
"Please cut all the parts where you feel he was exaggerating. Did he speak of any enemies? Maybe of how he found the fruit, or where it was located? Did he have a method or a n?" Lucius interrupted, having enough of the fairy tale.
He already had a rough idea of what the ce was like from Asclepius''s description. It seemed like a sort of maze, that ran within the tree''s roots. Whether its size was being exaggerated or not, he would have to find out. But one thing was certain, there were others lurking in the maze, so he would have to be prepared.
"He said that he found the fruit after stumbling around for a few days, that time holds no meaning in that space. The ce he found the fruit had a trail of red light running along its walls. As for methods, I think the fool just got lucky," Asclepius exined.
"Lucky? I''m guessing Elders aren''t that rare then," Lucius chuckled.
"They are rare. There are perhaps only 4 elders for every 400 of us," Asclepius replied seriously.
"Then how many people are in a n?" Lucius asked, the math not making sense in his head.
"Less than 50. Most ns don''t have Elders. Those are the ns that die off after a few generations¡ if they don''t find an elder to cling to,"
"Elders can''t be that important. Sure they arerger and more powerful than everyone else, but surely the others can survive without one. I mean, all you have to do is find food," Lucius counterargued.
"All you have to do is find food? I guess that''s a way of living. And I bet most of us start out with those thoughts," Asclepius said, looking to the sky.
"But after living for a few years, what point does eating even have? If you are always stationary, and every passing day is the same, is that living anymore? And I think that''s where the Sh''killian''s story began. A reason for our kind to live, a hope that maybe one day life will be more than just eating," it continued.
"The Shri''kilian was not designed just to give power, it''s there to give hope. And every time someone passes the trial, every time a new Elder is born, it''s a new ''what if''. And I know the story is dumb, probably made up, but sometimes I hope that maybe it''s real. Or else¡ what''s the point?" Asclepius asked.
~What is the point of it indeed? Why am I doing all this again?~ Lucius wondered for a moment.
~Sure, he decided to help the leaflings, to grow this littlemunity into somethingrger, to protect them, but why?~
Was it because he could never spend time with his family in his old world? Did he want to spend time with one here?
Was it because he was responsible for the death of his wife and child? Was he trying to make up for it now? To prove to himself that he could save people past being the pawn of a corrupt nation?
Or was he just bored? Did he do all this because he had nothing better to do? And at the time helping the leaflings and growing amunity seemed like the most interesting thing do?
Maybe it was all those things¡ or none of them. If Lucius had to answer, he would remain silent. Even in his old world, questions such as ''what do you want to be when you grow up?'' would always leave him speechless.
He studied engineering because he liked it, but that was it, he had no ns on what he wanted to do with it, no world-changing ideas. And in the end, he joined the army anyways, again on a whim because it seemed interesting at the time.
His whole past life he wandered from ce to ce, from scenario to scenario. Thoughts such as ''if I just continue pushing, continue trying, it won''t matter what I chose. It''ll all work out,'' were what filled his mind. He was the ''get things done'' guy, even if he couldn''t give a fly''s arse about why he was even doing it.
And for the most part, it worked. He achieved everything he never set out to do. He got a beautiful wife, got into a high position in the military, he had money,rades, and sometimes he was happy.
But at the edge of his mind, there was always this lingering thought, whispering to him that he was lost, that he had no idea what he was doing. And he knew that if he hesitated for even a moment, that if he took time to rethink anything, it would alle crashing down.
And eventually, it did.
And he paid for it dearly.
"Lu¡"
"Lucius!"
Chapter 84 Mission For Ascendance: The Shrikilian (1)
"Oh, I zoned out. What were you saying?" Lucius replied.
"Forget everything I said towards the end. I don''t really care about all of that stuff," Asclepius said, though the act wasn''t fooling anyone.
? "I''d rmend going in the early morning. That''s when most of the creatures of the Dark Forest go to sleep. And whatever you do, avoid the ''furry-folk''," Asclepius warned.
"Right, you mentioned them. What exactly are they?"
"They are the ''owners'' of the Dark Forest. From what most creatures understand, they were there at its creation. Do not try to fight them, you WILL die. Even the ''owners'' of the green forest fall victim to them. And this is no legend. I have seen an owner lying dead in the Dark Forest with my own eyes,"
~So they''re the higher tier beings of the Dark Forest, huh? Probably intelligent,~ Lucius thought to himself. He was definitely going to try his best to avoid them, though it would''ve been nice if he had been given hints as to what to look out for.
"Pagan,e here, I need to talk to you," Lucius said, stepping away from Asclepius for a moment.
"Yes, Lighted One,"
"I''m leaving for a solo mission tomorrow, and it might take me some time," Lucius exined.
"Am Iing alo-"
"No, I''m going alone. I need you to stay and protect themune while I''m gone," Lucius interrupted.
"I understand Lighted One, I shall watch over the others," Pagan replied.
"The watch force will report to you if they find anything suspicious. The leaflings will probably be safe in the tree base, but you never know what might happen," Lucius whispered.
"And listen, I''m not fond of the idea of sacrificing anyone, but priority is on the pods, so you can''t let anyone breach the cottage," he continued, before pausing for a moment.
"No, in fact, get the idea of sacrificing anyone out of your mind. If even a single leafling falls while I am away, I''ll have your head, understood?" he said after.
"No beast of the forest will touch a single being under your protection. I can promise you that much, Lighted One," Pagan replied, calling out his crux.
"Good," Lucius smiled.
"Oh, and the green herbs you mentioned, the ones that have poison-purifying qualities. Do you think they would work on poison still in the air?" Lucius asked, turning to Asclepius just as he was about to leave.
"Like poison that''s emitted?" Asclepius asked thoughtfully. "To some degree, but if anything, just by a small margin," it continued.
Lucius nodded his head and picked out a few of those herbs from the remaining pile, and gave the rest to Pagan, ordering him to take everything else inside the Alchemist''s Cabin.
"Don''t hesitate to kill him if you think he''s doing anything suspicious," he whispered to Pagan, before leaving with the other leaflings.
Once they got back to the camp Lucius began his final preparations before the mission. For one, he had to make a small cottage to house Ghost''s pod.
It was sort of inconvenient that the pods couldn''t be moved from the spot they sprouted in. Perhaps he would have to start holding the photosynthesis sessions in some sort of building to prevent having to do this over and over again.
Once he was done with the small cottage, it was already dark. So he helped the leaflings get up into the tree base, and took those who couldn''t fit there into his cottage.
However, he didn''t go to sleep just yet as he still had a few things to do regarding his kit. He realized he would need a sort of gas mask, even if it only reduced his poison intake by a small amount, it could be the difference between winning or losing.
So he took the green herbs he had gotten earlier and stuffed them in a worm skin sac. He then used a needle to poke several small holes through which he could breathe from, and tied the sac around his face.
"Ugh," he grunted. The smell was horrible, nearly causing him to throw up. But he soldiered through, he would get ustomed to the smell eventually.
Next, he had to modify his long knives. It would be very ufortable for him to hold onto his des throughout the entire journey, and even in fights, he couldn''t hold on to them for more than a few moments without it feeling ufortable. So he tied vines around them, and then tied the other ends to his waist.
He would alternate between making them ranged swinging weapons, and close-range handheld weapons depending on his stance. He also decided to take a needle spear with him, who knows what tough-skinned creatures he mighte across?
Once he was done he sort of looked like an adventurer¡ albeit one with very bad equipment. He tested out a few moves with his weapons to get a feel for them before retiring for the day. He would have to wake up very early if he wanted to reach the Dark Forest as the sun was rising.
***
Lucius woke up early the next day, in fact, he had only slept a few hours. After saying his goodbyes to the leaflings, and giving Alpha''s right-hand woman her final orders, he left on his journey.
Throughout the journey he took a medium pace, making sure not to exert himself before he reached the Dark Forest. He wasn''t sure how long he would stay in that maze. Whether it be a few hours or a few weeks, so he had to be prepared.
After a few hours, he passed the area where he had once hunted the arachnid in. It was sort of hard to believe that this wasn''t even the Dark Forest, yet everything seemed so¡ odd.
The further in he went, the more ominous the environment became. The trees got bigger and bigger till eventually, their trunks were sorge that they could fit small houses within them.
They were beginning to have a more flesh-like texture, like old, wrinkled skin. Odd shapes and patterns covered their trunks, at times making them look like they had faces, demons smiling at him with wide open maws.
The diversity of nt life dwindled, and eventually, all that was left were different-looking trees.
Oddly enough the ground was beginning to be more level. Eventually bing like a man-made pathway. Though to Lucius, it felt like a pathway riddled with invisible writhing worms, making it ufortable to traverse.
Eventually, he got to a section where a curtain of purple fog hung over the air. It was like a clear-cut line, a border if you will, indicating that this was the start of the Dark Forest.
After that point, even the sky looked different. It looked like an amalgamation of shapeless ck nightmares, but whenever Lucius tried to focus on any one of them, the image would distort and it would seem like a normal cloud.
"I''m here," he realized, before continuing his journey.
Chapter 85 Mission For Ascendance: The Shrikilian (2)
After walking for just a few more minutes, he finally saw it, the Shri''kilian tree.
The tree stood solitary, like a looming giant, each of its branches big enough to house whole cars. It was like standing in a cemetery, and though there were no graves in site the smell of death filled the air.
The skeletal remains of arge creature, seemingly fused into the tree marked its entrance. Which was a gaping ck abyss that seemed to stare at him, daring him to enter.
Lucius carefully walked in, and just like Asclepius had described, the path descended into the darkness. A pitch ball holerge enough to swallowrge construction vehicles.
Lucius used his knives to anchor himself onto the walls and slowly made his way down. After going down for about 30 minutes, he finally reached the bottom, the start of the maze that Asclepius had described
~The dimensions here don''t make any sense. Just how deep do these roots go? And why does it seem like the tree has more area beneath the ground than on top of it?~ he thought to himself. Wondering if perhaps the ce had something to do with magic.
It was pitch ck, unnaturally so, and Lucius couldn''t see a thing. He quickly called out his crux, epting the risk of being discovered, over going in blind. And though the crux offered little ambient light, it allowed him to see at least 2 meters ahead.
As Lucius walked deeper in, the hollow root walls around him began expanding, eventually bing tunnel-like the deeper he went. After a few minutes of walking silently, he came to a crossroads. This one tunnel, branched off into several different paths, each identical in size and shape to the other.
"Roots parting," Lucius whispered to himself, before randomly choosing one of the paths.
As he continued walking, the hollow walls began to cause an echoing effect, and he could hear the murmurs and movements of creatures deeper in the roots.
He tugged on the ropes that connected to his des and slowed down his pace to reduce his noise.
~One''s close by,~ he thought to himself unsure of how exactly he knew. It wasn''t as if he could see it, and the echoes were like an incoherent amalgamation of different creatures, each at different locations, so it wasn''t as if he could hear it either.
No, it was something like a feeling that he got from the ground. The pulling ''feeling'' felt a little off, it was hard to describe but he sensed something was walking ahead of him.
He walked silently, recalling his crux. And after walking for not more than 10 meters, he heard something dragging itself across the ground. Though he couldn''t make out its body, he could hear its breathing over the echoes, a ragged type of breathing, like it was extremely exhausted or had been injured.
Lucius threw one of his daggers toward the source of the sound. The de seemed to have wrapped itself around something instead of impaling into it, but Lucius didn''t panic.
He quickly pulled out the needle spear from his back, pointing it straight out as he tugged on the rope with all his strength. The unknown creature squealed as it rushed towards its demise, before being silenced by a loud thud.
Feeling that the spear hadn''t driven into the creaturepletely, Lucius struck the blunt end of the needle with all his strength,pletely driving it into the creature.
Once it stopped moving, he called his crux to take a look at what he had caught.
"An arachnid. Arge one at that," he whispered, removing his weapons from the creature. "Too bad I can''t take it along,. Hopefully, it''s still around when Ie back," he said, before continuing on his journey.
The ce was more like abyrinth than a maze, if that made any sense. Often times there were weird openings that looked like they had been made by other creatures, and other times the walls suddenly became fleshy in appearance.
Lucius avoided those paths, as they gave off an unnatural warmth like they were some kind of living creature.
Sometimes he woulde across crossroads that had markings on every path, at times like these he would backtrack and try to choose a different path at the prior crossroads.
The marks were obviously made by intelligent creatures as they seemed to be some sort of aliennguage, he assumed that these were the dens of the so-called ''furry-folk.''
The deeper he went, the more creatures he encountered. He took a very stealthy approach at fighting them. He would throw his de towards the source of the sound, and if it impaled into something he would tug at it to see how heavy the creature was.
There were a few times when he threw his de and fund that the creature on the other end was so heavy he couldn''t pull them. At times like these he ran like the wind, not caring to look back as the creature roared in pain and tried to chase after him.
By the time he had reached a crossroads that had a red trail glittering across one of them, it had been several hours, or so he thought.
"Finally, a path that has a fruit," Lucius sighed to himself. Though he probably wasn''t the only one that had arrived here. Moving slower than he ever had, he walked into the pathway, following the glowing red trail.
The trail glowed with such intensity that it illuminated the entire area in a red ominous light. Lucius tightened the mask on his face, fearing that the hallways might be filled with toxic gas.
~Something''s here,~ he thought to himself, sensing something close by with his weird earth sense. For some reason, it felt stronger, like it was telling him to run, to turn back.
Once the fruit was in view, he realized why his senses had told him to run. In front of the glowing red fruit was a massive centipede, the size of a small boar, with a body that extended at least 6 meters.
Chapter 86 Mission For Ascendance: The Shrikilian (3)
The creature''s long feelers twitched and its seemingly thousands of sharp-tipped legs began writhing about as it slowly moved around its den. It looked around as if searching for something, before exuding a thick cloud of poison.
~It can''t see,~ Lucius realized, before bracing himself. He didn''t know why the creature had yet to eat the fruit, but he had his guesses.
The fruit seemed too small to be of any significance to a hungry creature of this size, so he guessed that it probably slept here, lying in wait for the creatures that woulde after the fruit.
The creature began walking up the walls, its body now covering every possible path towards the fruit. Was this its method of seeing? Lucius wondered.
As he looked closer at the creature, he noticed that its body had a shiny glint, and right then he realized.
~It has metallic armor.~
His chances of winning against this thing as he was right now were zero. Not even his magic could save him, as he heavily doubted the efficiency of sr burst against a metal shield.
~I''ll have to find another path,~ he decided. However as he was about to leave, the smoke cloud reached him.
And as if just suddenly seeing him, the centipede rushed at him, its speed unreal. Lucius just barely dodged it, running along the wall as fast as he could, before using his knife totch on to a point a little off the ground.
~What the?~ he wondered, now just a small distance away from the poison cloud. And like before the centipede returned to a docile state, now seemingly unaware of Lucius''s presence.
~So it uses the poison cloud as a way to sense its prey, huh?~ Lucius deduced, making his way back to the ground.
~I wonder,~ he thought to himself. ~Perhaps there''s a way.~ Besides, even if he left, there was no guaranteeing he would find another fruit, much less one that did not have a centipede, or something worse guarding it. So he decided to take his chances here.
He swiftly ran into the poison cloud, and like before, the centipede rushed at him. However, a split moment after he entered, he cast sr field, and the poison cloud within its radius disappeared, and with that, the centipede lost track of him and halted.
It writhed its feelers in the air, and once it sensed nothing, it went back to a docile state.
~This''ll work,~ Lucius thought with a tired smile.
He quickly jumped out of the force field, and covered a small distance before bringing it back up again. The n seemed to be working, however, with every run he did, the creature got closer and closer. Eventually, he would not have enough room to move, and he would be forced to face the creature.
~Surely this poison cant tell living from non-living,~ Lucius thought to himself, before throwing one of his daggers at the wall. The creature instantly lunged at it, opening its wide maw and smashing into the dagger, shaking the floor with its force.
Lucius used that time to cover arge distance, and by the time the creature realized it had been duped, he had already set up the next field.
The fruit was now within reach, its magnificent red glow almost mesmerizing. In fact, it felt hypnotizing and Lucius could feel himself being drawn toward it.
~Is that singing?~ he wondered, as he heard what sounded like sirens rece the horrid echoes that once gued his ears.
He took a step forward, seeing an image in the fruit.
"Martha?" he whispered. The fruit''s light seemed to project the image of his wife. Lucius took a step forward, to get a better look, as the image seemed a little blurred.
Another step and the image got clearer.
Another, and the image was almost in clear view. Meanwhile, he was slowly heading out of the force field. One more step and the image would be clear, one more step and he would have his wife, one more step and he would be out of his force field.
~What a cruel trick,~ Lucius thought to himself, stopping his foot right as it was about to exit the force field.
~Martha''s dead, how could I forget that for even a split second. Matha''s dead, and I killed her,~ Lucius thought to himself, before steeling his resolve.
He threw his other de at the wall, once again buying time for himself before making the final lunge for the fruit, grabbing it with both hands before casting sr field.
~Finally,~ he thought to himself, inspecting the fruit in his hands.
~Wait, why didn''t the-~ before he could even finish the thought he was forced to dodge one of the centipede''s attacks.
~What the?~ he thought to himself, realizing that the fruit felt hot like it was burning him. He tried to let go of it but found that it had stuck to his hands like glue.
~Wait, this isn''t a fruit,~ he realized, dodging yet another attack.
The thing had threads leading to the centipede. In fact, it was part of the centipede.
~It''s a fucking lure! But howe I couldn''t see the threads before?~ he thought to himself, now running for his life, with his only weapon now being the needle. Meanwhile, he was slowly sumbing to the effects of the poison.
~Then where''s the real fru-~ as he was running, his eyes came across a small red glint in the distance. Its light had been overpowered by the lure''s luminescence, and Lucius could only now just see it.
Redirecting his course, he ran towards it. However the centipede was faster than he was, it would reach him before he reached the fruit.
~There''s a way,~ he realized, stopping midway. It was a gamble, a gamble with his life on the line. But for the first time in a while, he felt truly excited with himself.
He allowed the creature to swallow him, and the world around him went pitch ck.
Death''s door in front of him, once again.
"Sr Burst!!!!!"
Chapter 87 Laendryte
The creature''s internal juices mixed with its blood, creating a putrid mixture that burned away at Lucius''s skin. Even though the creature''s internals had been torn to shreds, its body continued to swallow him, inching him further into its stomach.
Lucius didn''t have it in him to cast another sr burst and have enough sr energy left to heal himself, so he tried to pull out the needle spear from his back, fighting against the creature''s stomach muscles. He thrust his needle at the fleshy walls, before sticking both his hands through the hole and tearing it wide open.
The creature shrieked, trying its best to regurgitate him, but its throat muscles were in too much disarray to follow instructions, and Lucius continued to stab holes within it. All the while his skin was burning, he held on, making the creature regret every second of trying to devour him.
No one could im that the creature did not have a strong will to live, it fought for nearly two minutes with a bloody throat, and holes appearing at random spots on its body. But still, it tried to wrestle Lucius out.
However, in the end, the one with the stronger will survived.
[+10 Agility.]
[+10 Stamina.]
[+1 Strength.]
Lucius stood atop the creature, his obsidian ck eyes staring at his fallen opponent. His skin had melted, and his face was beyond recognition. Though it didn''t hurt as much anymore, at some point he had be numb to the pain.
He quickly cast sr cleanse, and his skin slowly returned to its former state. The ck goo that his body secreted -in response to the cleansing of the toxins that had entered his body- created a sort of protectiveyer that prevented him from getting burned further.
~There it is,~ he thought to himself, staring at his prize. He was so fatigued that walking felt like a chore, but he dragged himself towards the red fruit, inspecting it as he held it up in his hands.
It was more a thorn than a fruit, with spiky projections sticking out its entire circumference. Lucius crushed it with his hands, before tossing all the pieces into his mouth, and with that he was thrown into the ''white void.''
[Processing...]
[Warning, foreign matter is attempting to rewrite the user''s genome...]
[Allowing foreign matter to rewrite the genome may result in the loss of system processes...]
[Allow foreign matter to rewrite genome or proceed with system rmendations?]
Lucius didn''t even think twice before choosing ''proceed with system rmendations.'' He didn''t care what the fruit would give him, he wasn''t going to risk losing any system processes.
[Processing...]
[Several genes possessed by foreign matter have been deleted. The system has selected genes suitable for use.]
[Proceed?]
~Proceed.~
[Rewriting users genome...]
[A System Event has begun.]
[All creatures linked to the user will receive select genes as well.]
[Processing...]
[Genome has been sessfully rewritten.]
[Species has been updated: Leaf Being Guardian-> Laendryte Rojo [Guardian]]
[¡ºSkill Tree¡» has been updated.]
[¡ºQuests¡» has been updated.]
With that Lucius was thrown out into the physical ne.
~Huh?~ The sudden changes to his body made him feel dizzy, and he had to struggle just to remain standing.
He quickly called out his crux, to get some light to observe the changes in his body.
He was now the size of a boar, or perhaps a better definition would be the size of a dwarf. By all ounts, he could fit the description of ''human'' of small stature if he were back on earth, but he looked the furthest from just ''human.''
Unbeknownst to him, most of his eye was now obsidian ck, with only a forest green snake-like slit now acting as an iris.
His horns had branched out even further than before, now appearing like the antlers of a fully grown buck. They were now about 50 centimeters at the longest branch, with razor-sharp tips.
His skin was nowpletely brown, like the color of wood, with only the portion of skin covering his face being forest green. The white markings on his back now had an extra line, and were now dark red in color.
His tail had be thicker as well and was now 2 meters long. The flower at its tip had dried and its petals now had razor-sharp edges that could merge to form onerge stinger.
His hind legs had also morphed, bing like those of a wild cat, with elongated feet that made it easier to run in a quadrupedal stance.
~What the hell is this feeling?~ Lucius wondered to himself, his senses being overrun with a sudden urge, like a burning sensation emanating from his stomach.
He subconsciously licked his lips and razor-sharp teeth sliced at his tongue, drawing blood. As he lifted his hands to feel the wound, a set of ws emerged from his fingertips.
~Am I a-~ he didn''t even need to finish the thought to realize it. The moment he caught a glimpse of the centipede''s corpse, his body forced him to move towards it. Before he even knew it he was takingrge bites out of the poisonous meat.
? He tried to stop, but his body would not respond, the best he could do was repeatedly cast sr cleanse until it was full.
After finishing a good portion of the centipede''s body, he felt satiated, and his stomach stopped burning.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 65%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 65%]
[Stats increased by 2%]
[Questplete.]
[+200 exp]
[+5 points added to ¡ºPoison Resistance¡» in ¡ºSkill Tree¡».]
~This is some good quality meat,~ Lucius thought, savoring the taste of raw meat, while at the same time being disgusted at the thought of it.
~Huh? A new skill?~ he thought, reading thest line carefully.
He quickly opened his skill tree to confirm and it was indeed the case. A whole new branch had been added to the skill tree, and this one seemed to be poison based, as the first two skills were already unlocked. ¡ºPoison Resistance¡», and ¡ºPoison Secretion¡».
"This is nice and all but," Lucius stopped mid-sentence as he realized that the words that came out of his mouth were in a foreignnguage. He could understand them, but he was near certain that this was not thenguage he spoke before.
"This is going to be a problem," he realized, before sitting down to better inspect all the changes to his system.
A new item had been added to the system shop. As if an answer to his prayers, it was a "Language Encyclopedia," which he guessed would allow him to talk to the leaflings even with this newnguage barrier.
Next, he inspected his quests tab and found that on top of the catalyst absorption, and Evo points quests, he now had hunting, eating and poison consumption quests as well.
"I ate nearly half of this centipede. And if the system made changes to Pagan as well, I''m guessing he''s a hunter now. Which means food will actually be an active issue," he thought to himself, already thinking about what the changes would mean for the future.
Chapter 88 The Furry-Folk (1)
"I only left 4 pieces of meat, that probably won''t be enough to feed both Ghost and Pagan. Not to mention that Asclepius might need some more too," Lucius thought to himself.
"But they''ll probably just go hunting for more meat¡ right?~ he wondered, before realizing that it was Pagan he was talking about. The guy would probably just neglect Ghost''s pod and eat all the meat himself.
~If my mental clock is still trustworthy, is been just under a day since I got here. With 4 pieces of meat, they can probably survive another day, before neglecting Ghost''s pod,~ he thought, quickly doing the maths.
~Ok, let''s get out of here,~ he decided, retrieving his long knives from the walls. As he held them in his hands, he realized that they were more like short daggers than long knives at the moment.
Just as he was about to leave, he remembered that his entire body was coated in blood, which would probably attract other hunters around him. He had no means to clean himself, so there was no way for him to avoid it.
"If I''m going to attract attention, I might as well have something to eat along the way," he whispered to himself, picking the centipede carcass up before going on his way.
As he walked, he realized that he didn''t have to be too worried about hunters sneaking up on him as he had his ''earth sense''. Which seemed to have grown even stronger than before as he could now sense creatures that were further away.
In addition to that, he also used his crux to scan past corners and walls to see whether there was anyone ahead.
His scans found that the walls weren''t at all very thick. He couldn''t get an exact reading from his sr pulses alone, but if he had to give a rough estimate, they were about 2 inches of material between adjacent walls.
~There''s something close by, and it''s moving fast,~ Lucius thought to himself, sensing that something was approaching. Based on the speed it was moving at, it was probably already aware of Lucius''s presence and was aiming to attack him.
The creature came into view a few secondster, running from a tunnel path to Lucius''s right. It was a humanoid frog-type creature, with purple smooth skin, and very muscr legs.
It was about the size of arge rabbit and was carrying a spear about the same length as Lucius in its hands.
Before Lucius could even drop the centipede on his back, the creature jumped to the tunnel''s ceiling. Which was quite the feat, as the ceiling was more than 10 meters high.
It ricocheted off the wall, zipping past Lucius, andnding right behind him, before twisting around to thrust its spear in his back.
However, it was hasty in its judgment. Lucius wasn''t even threatened by it, for some reason he had an unreasonable new confidence in himself.
With but a single thought ''kill it,'', the razor-sharp petals at the tip of his tail closed up into a stinger and impaled the frog''s head. Before blooming and sttering its insides everywhere.
It whipped in the air to throw the blood off itself before going back to its neutral state.
~I knew my tail felt more¡ essible than before. So it works on conscious thoughts now?~ he thought, before giving it anothermand.
''Pick it up,'' and with that, the tail picked the frog-being''s corpse off the ground, its fibers flexing as it took on the weight.
Lucius proceeded, using the same tactic as before. Sr pulse to check corners, and earth sense to get an idea of what was close by.
Though he wished that the echoes would stop as they interfered with his senses, and somewhat irritated him. So much so that sometimes he would find himself growling without even realizing it.
Hours passed by, and he made short work of many lower-tier creatures with ease. The strength of his new body allowed him to split skulls, andpletely crush even boar-sized creatures with rtive ease.
Soon he even had to get picky with the type of meat he carried, as there were simply too many carcasses to take along.
~Ugh, it''s only been two hours since thest time I ate,~ he thought to himself as he took his sixth meal of the day. Hisrge body seemed to have high food requirements, but that wasn''t at all surprising. With great strength came a greater price, something that he realized would be quite the inconvenience.
The section of the forest he stayed in didn''t have many creatures to hunt, apart from worms and boars, which he was certain would not be enough for his and themune''s diet.
"Anyway, that''s a problem for when I get out of here," he whispered, wiping the blood of his mouth before continuing his journey.
*
Several more hours passed by but it seemed like he wasn''t making any progress towards the exit. He had memorized the turns he had taken during the first segment of his journey and though his memory wasn''t crystal, he was certain that if he just followed the general direction he would eventually be led to an exit.
However, that wasn''t the case. Something was off.
As Lucius was walking down a path, he noticed that the end of the path had fleshy walls, and was giving an odd warmth. He had encountered paths like these before, so he didn''t think too much of it, and just backtracked to thest crossroads.
"Wait a moment," he whispered, looking at the ground in front of him. "Where is the trail of blood?"
He was carrying bloody corpses, so the trail of blood would be a given. But when he finally got to the crossroads, the trail he had left there was nowhere to be found.
"Huh? This pathway didn''t lead straight. It bent to the left, I was just in it," he whispered, looking at the path he had just been in. He sat down for a moment and observed all the paths. And after sitting there for five minutes, the tunnels began to distort, and they changed in appearance.
"The tunnels are moving," he realized. The ce was indeed a Labyrinth.
"Fucking hell, how didn''t I n-"Lucius''s words clung to his throat, and his entire body tensed up. It took him a moment to realize what was going on, and when he finally did he couldn''t believe it.
Fear.
A veteran, who had seen the face of war, of fallenrades and dead enemies countless times, was now experiencing fear beyondprehension.
He couldn''t even think properly. Nothing had even happened, nothing had approached him, so why.
**It''s around here somewhere. Something was trying to sense us.** Lucius could not understand thenguage. It sounded extra-terrestrial, like a random mix of sounds than an actualnguage.
As the voices approached, he realized why he was frozen in fear. His earth sense had sensed an enemy beyondprehension. An enemy so above him, that it shut down his brain. It was telling him that it was hopeless, that he would never escape.
**Deruvon, need I remind you that we are 4 lunar cycles behind on reporting the findings of our mission? We don''t have time to be searching for creatures** this was a different voice. Though Lucius couldn''t understand what they were saying, he could tell that their cadences were different.
**There it is. Found it.**
The two creatures finally came into view, and Lucius could now tell why his senses were telling him that running was a hopeless cause. A ck cloud began to coalesce around his body, and his fight or flight kicked in,pletely blurring his vision.
Chapter 89 The Furry-Folk (2)
He had experienced this phenomenon two times before. The first was when he found out about the death of the leaflings, under extreme grief he lost control of his body, and inadvertently made promises of iming the entire forest.
The second time was when he first met Asclepius. Under extreme anger, he lost control of his body again and nearly killed him. And now, under extreme fear, his body was once again possessed by the unknown presence.
He was now an observer, a mere watcher, and from his standpoint, time seemed to be slowed down, everything dted. Oddly enough, the two creatures still traveled at seemingly normal speeds.
Lucius could tell that his body was already in the process of running, that he was already twisting to gallop in the opposite direction from these beings. But it all felt too slow, like his mind was running at speeds hundreds of times faster than his body could handle.
While this was going on, he took a careful look at the creatures in front of him. Well, if he could even call them just that.
The bigger of the two stood at 4 meters tall, while the other was a few inches shorter. They had obsidian ck reptilian skin, withrge scales that ovepped each other like those of a fish. Not quite the ''furry'' that he would''ve expected from the furry folk.
However, he understood where the misconception might''ve arisen from. The garments they wore were lined with fur, though the fur seemed more like an aesthetic add-on than anything functional, as the main material itself was made of what seemed like a pearl-blue metal.
Though the garments seemed simple, Lucius could tell at just a nce that they held technology even past that reached by humans in his old world.
It was only because he had once been a part of a world''s ''greatest species'' that he could even tell that what he was looking at wasn''t as ordinary as it advertised itself to be.
The creatures in question were humanoid, however, if he had to give a better description, they were like a mix between a dinosaur and a human. No, a dragon and a human.
They had perfectly scaled human proportions, with ws, fangs, and reptilian eyes. Lucius could spot a tail swinging behind therger one, and horns that curved straight forward like those of a bull.
By now he was already quite a distance away from them, though they didn''t seem to be trying to chase him. They were merely conversing with each other in their weirdnguage.
**Is it a Tarragon? I thought we didn''t have those in our cluster** therger one said to its partner.
**That is no Tarragon. Even as an infant, none of our kin are that slow. And with a mystic mantle active at that,** the other replied, an unbothered look in its eyes as it watched Lucius run.
Less than a microsecondter, Lucius felt a gust of wind swat him to the walls. And the bigger of the two beings now stood in front of him.
~Im-impossible,~ Lucius thought to himself. But he knew there was no other exnation. He wanted to believe that the creature had used magic to teleport, or had done some other trick rting to magic. But the gust of wind denounced any theories is he might''ve thought up.
The creature was just that fast, so fast that he could hardly register its movements even in his enhanced mental state.
**Oi, but it has a mystic mantle. So doesn''t that mean it has ess to the arcane? If something like that was walking around our tunnels, shouldn''t we report this?** the creature in front of him spoke.
**I guess it wouldn''t hurt to have it dissected and examined. But it hardly seems worthwhile. Just kill it, I''m tired of staying in these ugly tunnels,** its partner replied.
Lucius''s body was already running up the walls, trying to get past the creature, but just like before, a gust of wind swatted him to the ground and the creature appeared in front of him.
**You can''t be serious right? Come on, is that the limit of your speed?* the creature spoke, looking at Lucius with bored eyes. He couldn''t understand what it was saying, and frankly, he couldn''t care less about what it was trying to convey.
~Give me back control of my body!~ Lucius screamed internally. His body had decided that his chances of escaping were zero, so it was now preparing to fight the creature.
His crux floated out of his body, and a split secondter sr burst was cast. A sr burst more powerful than any he ever could''ve ever managed. In fact, he felt his mind go numb from the stress of expanding that much sr energy in one go.
For a moment, it seemed to have worked. Dust clouded the tunnels, and his body took this as its chance to run. He made it five meters down the tunnel before another gust of wind swatted him to the wall.
**What kind of crux is that?** the creature asked, not so much as a bruise on its body. The sr burst did more damage to the tunnel walls than to the creature. In fact, it seemed like his spell didn''t even register as an inconvenience to it.
**Deruvon, capture the creature in tact,** its partner replied, now seemingly interested.
**That''s a new crux. Our arcanists will want the creature alive for their research,** it continued, before doing a hand gesture. With that, two floating orbs appeared behind it.
No, those weren''t just orbs. Lucius could tell, they were cruxes.
One was blue, while the other was green. They were about the size of arge wheel but what was really impressive about them was their density. Usually, you wouldn''t be able to tell the density of something at just a nce, but Lucius could feel the gravity around him being affected. The very fabric being bent around the two cruxes.
The presence controlling his body processed all the information it got in mere fractions of a second. essing every ounce of Lucius''s knowledge, and deciding its next move ordingly.
It cast another sr burst, shoving dust into the air, before springing up at the creature''s face and thrusting his tail into the creature''s eye.
However before it could reach it, the creature swatted Lucius to the ground like a fly.
Before evennding, the presence controlling him was already nning its next move. He rolled to soften thending, throwing one knife at the creature''s eye, while already running up the walls. Heunched himself at the creature as it deflected the de, and tried kicking it at the side of the head with all his strength.
*Crack*
His leg snapped in two, his body unable to handle the strength it possessed.
And to make things worse, the creature didn''t so much as flinch at the attack. Seeing that his attack had failed, he cast another sr burst, to allow himself to get away without worry of being targeted.
His mind switched off from using two sr bursts in session, but before he passed out he could tell that his body would continue the fight.
*
He woke up a few minutester, the hallways were nowpletely destroyed, and the creature in front of him seemed to beughing.
~Ugh,~ a sudden pain ran from every crevice of his body.
His arms were both broken, and he felt like several of his organs had been ruptured. The creature however seemedpletely unharmed. In fact, from its demeanor alone, it seemedpletely unphased by the interaction.
Chapter 90 The Furry-Folk (3)
Lucius could feel his body constantly trying to call on his sr crux, but it would note out. His sr energy reserves had been depleted, and with it, any chance of him healing.
**Enough Deruvon, you''re injuring it too much. Any more, and its mind might copse,** the smaller of the two beings said, before performing a ''go'' gesture with its hands. With that, several tendrils extended from the green crux behind it and tried to wrap Lucius into a vyse.
His body reacted in kind, side-stepping and dancing around the tendrils as they shot toward him.
~Fuck,~ he grunted internally. His body didn''t seem to care that his arms and legs were broken, as he dodged the attacks like nothing at all was damaged. Each and every step driving his internals further past their limits.
**Oi, what are you doing? I said it''s mine. I found it first,** the bigger creature said, before flicking a finger. At that, the tendrils werepletely disintegrated, and the smaller creature looked at itsrade with an irritated gaze.
**Okay, okay. I''ll end this fast. But I still can''t wrap my head around this creature. Why would it use a crux, while it seems to be versed in hand-to-handbat? Of course, it''s weak¡ and slow, but surely it''s an augmenter and not a sorcerer,** the creature said as it held out its hands to grab Lucius.
Once again Lucius''s body dodged the attack, but using his limbs in such a state came at a steep price. His ''bones'' dug into his muscles,pletely paralyzing his right leg, and left arm. And his ruptured organs had been shaken around, causing them to bleed out at an even faster rate.
Yet the presence that was controlling him didn''t seem to care at all. It still attempted to call out the crux, and once its attempts failed several more times, it decided to try casting while the crux was still within his body. All the while he basically dragged himself to dodge the creature''s bored attempts to catch him.
If the being in front of him really wanted to end this, it would''ve been over a long time ago.
No, the creature wanted a challenge. It stared at Lucius hoping that there was more to him, hoping that he would excite it before it had to go back to its mundane post. Like a human who found an odd-looking cat on its way back from work, hoping that the cat would excite it a little before it had to deal with its nagging wife at home.
But sadly, it was all for naught. Lucius''s body copsed under all the damage, and heypletely drained on the ground.
~Give me back my body,~ he shouted, but his screams were but trapped thoughts. To die in a strange ce, without even choosing how it would all end. Was this how he would go out?
**You killed it, you muscle-head!** the smaller of the beings shouted, running towards Lucius.
**Rx, it''s not dead. I can still hear its internals. I''m sure the healers back in the cluster will be able to fix it up. Now let''s get moving, the creature wasn''t as exciting as I thought it would be,** therger being said, already walking down the tunnel.
**Idiot,** the smaller one replied, before attempting to pick Lucius up.
As Lucius''s body was lifted into the air, he felt something welling up inside of him. A painful sort of feeling, like something at his core was sizzling his ruptured innards. It seemed the thing that was controlling him wasn''t finished just yet.
[Creating ¡ºRadiant Augmentation Index¡»...]
[Creationplete.]
**Step back,** the bigger creature shouted suddenly, appearing right in front of Lucius in a sh. Blocking his attack right as it was about tond in the smaller creature''s eye.
[Processing...]
[New technique acquired... ¡ºRadiant Cowl¡».]
[Adding ¡ºRadiant Cowl¡» to ¡ºRadiant Augmentation Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºRadiant Cowl¡» has been added.]
**Look, it learned how to augment,** the bigger creature said in excitement as it stared at Lucius.
Lucius''s body was now covered in a thinyer of light. And though he was still in pain, it was like a pump of adrenaline had been shot into every fiber of his being.
Unbeknownst to him, thousands of tendrils spread from the crux at his core toward every inch of his body. Circting what little radiant energy he had left to make one final attempt at fighting.
He ran at the bigger creature, now double the speed he could once move at, using only his right arm and left leg to achieve this.
Heunched at the creature''s eyes, aiming to gouge it with his ws. But the creature had grown ustomed to his attempts, andzily swatted at him, as if disappointed.
However, that was not his intention. He used the creature''s hand to vault himself toward its head, before essing his skill tree and using ¡ºPoison Secretion¡» to secrete droplets of poison from his tail, thrusting it between the creature''s scales.
And he almost made it¡
No. There was never a chance.
The creaturepletely disappeared from the spot it had been just a moment ago. And Lucius felt his bodypletely crumble.
**Why did you do that? Now we''ll never find it,** the smaller of the beings shouted, unable to believe why its partner was such an idiot.
**The creature was about to poison me**
**So you kicked it through a wall? You know that these tunnels change on their own,** the smaller being said, staring at the hole through which Lucius had just beenunched through.
**Who decided on that anyway? Constantly changing tunnels? Sounds like a dumb idea to me,** the bigger being said, walking down the tunnel with a rxed demeanor.
**Look, we''ll search the forestter. Maybe there are more creatures like it. But it was no fun anyway, even the mutts from the Elron Federation are more exciting,** it added, scratching its head.
~I can''t believe it managed to hit me,~ it thought to itself, already regenerating from the small dose of poison Lucius had managed to inject into it.
**Still, we''re going to have to report this. A creature that can augment and cast at the same time? Not to mention that strange crux,** the smaller one said, before following itsrade.
*
Words could not describe the pain Lucius was going through. His body felt like mush, not a single thing was in its right ce. The presence had left once he was out of danger, but it left him to deal with his injuries alone.
Frankly, he wasn''t certain whether he would even survive. He was at the mercy of any creature that would pass by. He couldn''t move, not even so much as open his eyes.
He fought to stay conscious, continuously circting what little radiant energy he could replenish every second through his ''meridians''. The process seemed to dull the pain, if even by a small amount. And had minor healing properties.
Though a sr cleanse would probably have been a better solution, Lucius could tell that if he stopped circting the little ounces of radiant energy, he would surely die.
He did this for hours on end, and many times he felt his mind about to slip away due to the pain. He spoke to himself to keep from losing consciousness and dying as a result, but this only pushed him closer to the brink of sanity.
~Riley?~ he thought to himself, seeing the image of one of his military buddies holding his hand out to him.
Chapter 91 Radiant Augmentation Index (1)
"Sergeant, what''s your reason for fighting in this war?" asked a blood-soaked soldier, his wordsing out as mere gasps of air.
"Enough, Riley, stop talking. You''ll just make the bleeding worse," Lucius responded, trying his best to apply pressure to the massive hole on Riley''s side. Deep down he knew it was a hopeless effort, Riley was going to bleed to death, and he would be forced to watch.
"You know, I''d rather be in my room right now¡ watching anime or reading manga. But that isn''t the way a man should live, or at least that''s what paps said. He always wanted to have a son in the army," Riley mumbled, his eyes looking to the sky with a sort of distant gleam.
"A stupid reason to fight, I know," he tried to say, before breaking into a fit of bloody coughs.
"I''ll carry you back to base, don''t worry. The docs will fix you right up," Lucius triedforting.
Riley was 18, an adult in the eyes of the country, but still a kid nheless, the youngest in Lucius''s squad. From their time together, Lucius had realized that the kid hadn''t even had his first kiss, hadn''t explored all that there was to explore.
War is such a cruel thing.
"You''re usually so good at lying Sergeant," Riley said before coughing again. "I don''t want to die."
"And you''re not going to," Lucius replied abruptly, his hands still fidgeting to try and stop the bleeding.
"I feel cold."
"Say, where do you think we go once we die? I read something about the cycle of rebirth¡ reincarnation," Riley said, his voice now a whisper.
"I hope in my next life, I get to do things differently¡" he said finally, a single tear running down his cheek.
On that day, Lucius was thest soldier left in his toon. He had several bullet wounds, three cracked ribs, a broken foot, and a fractured arm.
They were losing the war, and public sympathy was at an all-time low. Many people were starting to believe that the war wasn''t worth all the money they were investing into it, all the deaths. And though a leader ought not to think this, Lucius knew that they would soon lose the war entirely.
? He used what little strength he had left to dig a makeshift grave for Riley and the others. Burying a soldier on foreign ground was probably against what others might''ve thought, but Lucius wasn''t even sure if he would make it back alive. And chances were that their bodies would lie there anyway, so as a final show of respect, he buried all those he could, before falling to the ground in exhaustion.
"Why do I fight this war huh?" Lucius whispered to himself, taking a gulp of alcohol from a sk while holding a handgun in his other hand.
At the time he had no family, no wife to go home to, no father to make proud. He wasn''t a patriot, apart from his trivial human attachment to the country he called his ''home'' he didn''t care all that much. Not enough to fight in a war they had no business being in at least. So there was no point lying to himself that he was fighting for some greater cause.
So why?
As he cocked the pistol in his hand, embracing the pain that resounded throughout his entire body, he tried to get an answer.
He ced the pistol to his head, hoping that in his final moments he would think of something. Something to ce meaning to the amalgamation of random events that was his life.
*Click*
The gun failed.
He cocked it and tried again, but once again it failed. He quickly pointed it to the sky and fired, and a loud bang resounded. He then pointed it to his head once more, and again nothing.
Theughter of a single soldier yed a symphony over the dusty battlefield.
The ''Undying Boogeyman''.
Lucius had been skeptical about the name at first, but he couldn''t deny it. If life was fair, he would''ve been dead a long time ago. Yet he had survived multiple deployments, him alone, the soldier without reason for living.
Ironic.
~~~
~Damnit,~ Lucius grunted inwardly, still fighting the pain. His mind had been tip-toeing on the line of sanity for hours, doing anything it could to get him away from his reality.
He had probably been circting radiant energy for 10 hours at this point. If his time constantly doing this had taught him anything, it was that the energies that powered his crux when it acted externally, and the one that powered it internally were two different resources.
His radiant energy seemed to being from within his body, like some organ which he supposed was his crux, was secreting it at regr intervals.
Whereas his sr energy, the one that powered his spells, seemed toe from the sun. And due to the fact that very little amounts of sr energy got this low into the ground, it was taking its sweet time to be replenished.
Circting the radiant energy had stabilized him, but it was akin to a thin thread acting as the support for arge bridge. If he so much as moved a fiber, all his hours of work would go to waste.
He was hungry, thirsty, exhausted, and in pain. He felt like pure shit, it was a wonder how he was surviving. Though he noticed that the longer he went without eating, the less radiant energy his body was secreting. Which meant that eventually, he would die anyway.
Though all he could do was circte. While all this was going on, he was learning more and more about the Radiant Augmentation Index.
Unlike the Sr Sorcery index, it seemed like there was no physical limit to how long he could ''cultivate'' for. A fixed amount of radiant energy was let out into his body, and each time hepleted a full cirction, he could feel his vessels bingrger, and moreplex.
Multiple times he tried to see if creating new techniques in this index was the same as the sr sorcery index, however, he found that visualizing what he wanted had no effect.
His best bet right now was to wait until he had enough radiant energy to perform a Radiant cowl and hunt something small to eat. From what the remembered Radiant Cowl seemed to protect every part of his body, temporarily ''freezing'' his injuries in ce.
Chapter 92: Radiant Augmentation Index (2)
Chapter 92: Radiant Augmentation Index (2)
His earth sense still worked well enough, and during the time he stayed here there were quite a number of times he detected creatures nearby him. Each time he felt a creature wasing too close, he would prepare his radiant energy to activate Radiant cowl.
But the moment he did this, the creatures would backtrack and runoff. He guessed that radiant energy must be something that others could sense as well. Perhaps the creatures assumed that it was the energy reading of some higher-tier being and did not want trouble.
Either way, it was what helped him avoid being eaten for so long.
After two more hours of continuously circting radiant energy, Lucius felt that he had enough to work with. Now all that was left was for him to let a creature get close enough to hunt without him having to move too much.
It took just over an hour before a creature small enough for him to handle came walking by.
The creature followed the scent that clung to his body, and with himpletely halting cirction, it wasn''t rmed by the presence of radiant energy.
Just as the creature was about to inspect his seemingly lifeless body, he activated Radiant cowl. Radiant energy was injected into his ''blood'' stream,pletely covering every part of his body in a protectiveyer and enhancing their operations.
''Kill it'' Luciusmanded, and with that, his tail quickly thrust out and impaled the creature in the head. Once the job was done, he recalled the radiant energy to save as much as he could.
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
~Aghh,~ he grunted inwardly, fighting the urge to jerk in reaction to the pain. Radiant cowl prevented the injuries from bing worse, but once it was gone, the pain seemed to be magnified.
Now was the tricky part, eating.
He had thought of a way for himself to eat without making his injuries worse, but couldn''t get around to testing out his n as he didn''t want to waste radiant energy before he had the chance to find a meal.
During his time here, he had noticed that the vessels that carried the energy around his body seemed to be very simr to blood vessels. This made him wonder whether the outline of the paths they took drew a picture of how his internals worked. And that was when he got the idea, if he could circte energy in the areas he needed for eating, he could save as much radiant energy as possible.
Of course, it took quite a bit of circting for him to find out what each segment of his body did, but using some medical knowledge from his old world he got a rough idea of his bodily systems.
However, that''s not to say his system waspletely the same as a human''s, but they had their simrities. For one, he had a digestive system, which was probably the easiest to spot as it came from the area where he felt his ''burning'' hunger.
He also had a sort of circtory system, with a heart-like organ that seemed to be right in the area his crux was. He could tell this because the beating of the organ seemed to affect the flow of radiant energy.
Apart from that, he got a rough idea of where his nervous and sensory systems were as well.
His idea was to only circte radiant energy to his digestive system, his jaws, and his tail so that he could eat. It was sort of awkward at first, as he had to find vessels within himself that looped back to the required areas and didn''t flow to others, but after several minutes of searching, he found adequate paths.
He then activated Radiant Cowl, and a protectiveyer covering only the specified areas was brought up.
~Perfect,~ he thought to himself.
He then quicklymanded his tail to feed him, and it used its petals to cut a chunk of meat off the creature and feed it into his mouth. He made sure to take slow careful chews, before swallowing the small chunk of meat.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 20%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 20%]
[Radiance Production increased by 20]
[Stats increased by 0.95%]
[Questplete.]
[+200 exp]
[Level 7!]
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
If he had to be honest, he was taking a gamble eating this meat. From what he could see using the radiant light that his body was emitting, the thing he had killed seemed to be a six-legged creature very simr to an ant.
Whether it was poisonous or not was yet to be determined, but if it was, he would be in trouble. So he took the first bites as a test, only taking a morsel small enough to not affect him too badly, but just enough so that if there was poison he would know.
He then deactivated Radiant cowl, and waited. After seeing no ill effects after half an hour, he continued his meal, this time more freely.
~Ah yes, that feels better,~ he thought to himself, now somewhat satiated. Though not a single piece of the creature was left, he had even devoured its exoskeleton.
~Now that I''m not so hungry I can think more clearly,~ he thought to himself. All the while he kept his radiant energy circting, he could feel that the rate at which he was producing it was slowly increasing, which somewhat boosted his morale.
~Now time to figure out if there''s a ''healing'' equivalent in this index,~ he decided. His sr energy reserves were still far from being enough to perform even a sr pulse, so waiting for sr cleanse waspletely out of the question.
However, if he could find a technique that would allow him to heal, he might have a chance.
~There''s always some logic to the way things work. With the sr index, it was visualization of the general idea of what you want your spell to be. Though it doesn''t work with the radiant index, there has to be some corrtion,~ he thought, before running over how Radiant cowl worked to see if he could reverse engineer it to get something.
Chapter 93: Radiant Augmentation Index (3)
Chapter 93: Radiant Augmentation Index (3)
~The way I see it, radiant cowl is sort of like sr burst. They both seem like the first step to what ''it'' is supposed to be. When I activate radiant cowl, the only thing that actually happens is my radiant energy being absorbed into my body, whereas it''s usually in a system of its own,~ Lucius thought to himself.
~So if I wanted to go about making a new technique, perhaps I should use radiant cowl as the first step, and move on from there,~ he continued.
He then activated radiant cowl on his tail alone, however, this time he heavily restricted the flow of radiant energy. Until he was at a ''biting point, where if he restricted it anymore, the cowl would disappear.
He tried moving his tail to see how this ''low power'' version managed and found that though his tail was a little slow to respond tomands, it didn''t seem hindered by its injuries at all.
~Perfect, now I can do a few experiments without having to worry about depleting my reserves too quickly,~ he thought.
He closed his eyes and quickly shut off radiant cowl, before immediately turning it back on. He wanted to examine in great detail the process of how radiant energy was being absorbed into his body.
~Hmm.~
After doing it several times, he realized something interesting. The vessels that his radiant energy was being ''absorbed'' into seemed to ovep with the vessels that it usually flowed in. This meant that the vessels he was visualizing when circting his radiant energy were identical to those of his body.
~An interesting discovery, but that doesn''t help me much right now,~ he thought, staring at the mental image he had created of the circting energy.
~Wait, what''s this?~ he thought, seeing that the flow seemed to be slower in particr areas. Usually, this meant that an organ was close by, interrupting the flow, however, there were no organs in his tail, at least from what he had gotten over his several hours of cirction.
~Besides, it''s way too insignificant for it to be an organ,~ he deduced. Organs usually caused noticeable resistance to the flow, however, these were more like tiny ''buffer areas'', where the energy stayed a little longer than usual.
~Wait a minute,~ Lucius thought, quickly trying to map the areas where he felt pain to those of the buffer areas.
pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 They were identical. It seemed the cuts and tears inside his body caused a slight resistance to radiant cirction.
~Maybe they''re too small to cause any significant change when the cirction is at maximum power,~ he realized, before performing a full-body cowl.
He kept the flow at the biting point and began making mental notes of all the buffer areas he noticed.
~I''mpletely messed up,~ was all he could think. There were just too many buffer areas to note down, it was as if every inch of his body was covered in them.
[Processing...]
[New technique acquired... ¡ºRadiant Examination¡».]
[Adding ¡ºRadiant Examination¡» to ¡ºRadiant Augmentation Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºRadiant Examination¡» has been added.]
~So a process must be done for a new technique to be added, huh,~ he thought, reading the system notifications.
He activated radiant examination several times to see if there was anything more to the process. He tried slowing down the flow of radiant energy even more than before, but it instantly dismissed radiant examination once it got too below the biting point. He tried increasing the flow, but it seemed to be capped at a certain flow rate.
~Come on, there has to be another step to this,~ he thought. If radiant cowl was the first step, and radiant examination was the second, then there had to be more.
Perhaps it seemed like wishful thinking for him to think that there was a healing technique to be acquired from all this. But radiant cowl had qualities very close to healing, but it seemed to be a temporary effect.
He thought that maybe there was a chance he could extract that quality and enhance it, if that made any sense. But after a bit more experimentation, he realized that he was expanding too much radiant energy.
~I''ll rest for a while and continue,~ he decided, before rxing his mind.
He hadn''t slept in three days, but he was sort of used to this sort of thing. Back in the military, there were times on deployment, when sleeping meant death. So most soldiers had developed a habit of being extra ''light'' sleepers.
A small footstep and they would be at attention, gun in hand ready to fire at whatever had just made that sound.
After ''resting'' for an hour he continued the experimentation. This time, he tried examining the root of everything, his crux.
If he could speed up and slow down the rate at which the energy circted, perhaps he could change the qualities that it possessed.
First, he tried randomly doing things to see if it was at all possible. For instance, he tried to make his crux glow brighter and dimmer. And in turn, the radiant energy that was produced also changed.
A brighter crux seemed to have a toll on his vessels, causing a somewhat ''burning'' sensation, while a dimmer crux seemed to have a sort of cooling effect, soothing if you will.
He decided to go with the cooling effect, making his crux glow dimmer while circting the soothing radiant energy.
~There it is, the healing quality,~ he thought to himself, realizing that his body was stitching itself up at a faster rate.
However, this ''stitching'' was nothing like sr cleanse. It seemed more, ''scientific'' less wishy-washy, and more solid. It seemed to be helping his body regenerate, or at least that was the way he viewed it.
~Besides, I''m starting to doubt that sr cleanse would''ve helped me all that much,~ he realized. He remembered how when he tried healing the insectoid the small tears on its wings hadn''t healed.
Though it was just his theory at this point, sr cleanse probably worked to clear up lessplex ailments. Like exhaustion, external trauma, and other external injuries. He highly doubted that it could fix ruptures and tears this deep within his body.
[Processing...]
[New technique acquired... ¡ºRadiant Restoration¡».]
[Adding ¡ºRadiant Restoration¡» to ¡ºRadiant Augmentation Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºRadiant Restoration¡» has been added.]
Chapter 94 A Reason To Amass Power
This is taking too long,~ Lucius thought after having had radiant restoration running for just over an hour. Though it didn''t seem to use up radiant energy as radiant cowl did, it was still mentally taxing to keep it running continuously.
~Hmm, I''ll heal essentials first, and do the restter. Right now I need to get moving as soon as possible,~ he thought to himself, rerouting his cirction so that it only circted in areas with a high density of injuries.
Even with the cirction restricted it took about 3 hours before his most fatal injuries had been somewhat mended. Though a good hit would definitely open them up again, they were good enough for him to move around with.
He slowly got up, for what felt like the first time in a week. He used the soothing blue ambient light that emanated from his body to get a look at himself.
His cloak was in tatters, it seemed that the fight with the ''furry-folk'' had been intense enough to destroy rock-like armor. And though his limbs had been healed, he noticed that they were at odd angles, perhaps a side-effect of not having them straightened before he started healing.
~They''ll need to be set once I return to the camp,~ he realized. The thought of breaking one''s own arms and legs to get them straightened might''ve been a repulsive thought for others, but to Lucius, it was nothing more than a matter of fact.
After doing a quick inspection of his body, he began to move. He took slow careful steps, simultaneously running radiant restoration while checking with his earth sense.
On his journey, he avoided all enemies, big or small. Which weren''t very many to begin with as he had radiant energy currently coursing through his body.
As he dragged himself through the dark tunnels of this graveyard, he couldn''t help but reminisce about his fight with the ''furry-folk.''
He had beenpletely and utterly outssed. Sure, he could try to console himself and say that he was better at fighting than them, but they hadn''t even tried to fight him. The best they had done was swat him like he was a minor annoyance.
And besides, even with all his years of military service, he knew he couldn''t replicate what he had done before. That type of fighting was insane, everything happening in fractions of a second.
,m Now that he was in a normal state of mind, he realized the talking that the creatures did was longer than the actual fight. If he wasn''t in that state of his, he probably wouldn''t even have been able to read their movements.
~I''ve been taking things too slowly. I don''t know why I thought that I was somehow special, perhaps this system blinded me,~ he realized as he took a right at a crossroads.
~Even with this system, even if I evolved a few more times, would I be able to beat them?~ he thought to himself. Though he came to the conclusion that it was impossible to know.
Sure his strength would multiply with size, but he had no idea of those creatures'' true strengths. Besides, the other creature with the two cruxes, that guy alone was probably beyond what Lucius could reach even with five evolutions.
~No, the system isn''t enough. But for now, I''ll have to start using its gifts to my full advantage,~ he thought, his ''heart'' beating with excitement.
~This again?~ he thought, realizing that he was smiling from ear to ear.
~For the first time, things are genuinely exciting. A reason to grow stronger, a reason to amass power~ he thought.
"When I get back, I should form more concrete divisions. Specifically, a disaster division to deal with threats like these," he whispered.
**
After wandering around for seven hours, Lucius finally got out of the maze. The added time had allowed his body to mend itself quite a bit, to the point where he could get into minor fights ande out without reopened injuries.
However, Lucius didn''t waste time snooping around the Dark Forest. The moment he got out, he began galloping towards the safety of the ''Green Forest''. He''d rather note face to face with another ''furry-folk'' right now.
Once he got to the ''Green Forest'' his first order of business was food. He had probably been gone for four days total, taking into ount that his definition of hours within the tunnels might''ve beenpletely wrong.
He snuck around the rocks where he had hunted the arachnid earlier, using his earth sense to track down any prey that might be lurking nearby. And to his surprise, he sensed five of them, small creatures, and apparently slow as well.
He followed his sense toward a cave that seemed eerily familiar.
"Wait, isn''t this that arachnid''s cave?" he whispered, remembering that he had in fact seen this cave before.
As he walked in he was greeted by the foul stench of rotting flesh. Whatever was in here had probably kept its meat in for way too long. He doubted that even an animal could devour flesh this rotten without having side effects.
As he got deeper into the cave, he checked with his earth sense again to make sure there was nothing trying to sneak up on him. But all he got were the five tiny creatures, each of them giving off minimal ground vibrations.
The cave started off like a tunnel, but once he was deep within it opened up into a sort of darkir. In the corner, Lucius could see five groups of glowing eyes. The creatures scurried towards him, and in turn his activated radiant cowl.
Seeing this, the creatures ran back to their corner, and began shivering, letting out little screeching noises as they stared at him.
"The arachnid had babies?" he whispered to himself, stopping the flow of his radiant energy.
The things were about the size of the leaflings, no even smaller than that. From what Lucius could see, they didn''t even yet have stingers and seemed to be starved from the way they were moving.
"What, it''s been like 5, maybe 6 days since I hunted it down. If it left any food, it probably finished a while ago," Lucius whispered to himself as he thought about what he was going to do about these babies.
If he had to be honest he felt no remorse for what he had done. He left the creatures motherless, but that was just the way the world was.
~I''m slowly turning into those I hate the most,~ he thought to himself, realizing that his way of thinking was exactly like the shrooms that had killed his people.
"I''m sorry kids, but the strong make the rules," he decided after a bit of thought. So long as he could amass power, he was allowed to be as hypocritical as he wanted.
"So now what? Do I eat you, or keep you?" he thought to himself.
Chapter 95 Developing Camp (1)
"Well, you guys are too small to even count as an appetizer anyway. So I guess you''re alling with me then," Lucius whispered, trying to approach them.
~I can run experiments on them to find out how the evolution of non-leaf creatures work,~ he thought to himself. He also had the added benefit of them being babies, he could manipte them into seeing him as a parent figure, and wouldn''t have to worry about them betraying himter.
However just as he was about to pick one of them up, he felt them bite him, or try to bite him at least. Their pincers were too weak to break through his skin, but it was obvious that they weren''t just going to allow him to take them.
"Won''t follow a stranger, huh? That''s not a problem, I''m sure with a bit of food, you''ll be more willing," he whispered, deciding that he would leave them here for now.
"I''lle back with food if I catch any, don''t die while I''m out," he said, before leaving.
He had hoped that on his way back to the camp he would find something to hunt, but this section of the forest seemedpletely devoid of animals. Or perhaps, the animals were just that good at hiding. Either way, he didn''t find anything to eat.
"At least it''s still standing," he whispered to himself as he looked at the alchemist''s cabin in front of him. The build had once been reasonably big, but at this size, Lucius doubted that he could live inside itfortably.
~Perhaps I should just go ahead and start making the builds human-sized, because at this rate I''ll have to rebuild structures every two weeks,~ he thought to himself as he knocked on the door.
"Pagan, open up, it''s Lucius," he shouted.
A momentter, the door creaked open, and the smell of herbs attacked his senses, temporarily chocking him.
"Ahh, you''re back. Couldn''t find one hu-" Asclepius was about to say before getting a look at Lucius.
"You''re massive," was the first thing they could say, walking out to inspect Lucius. It was sort ofughable how tiny Ascelpuis seemed to him, like a slightlyrge bug scurrying around him.
? "So did you get it?" Asclepius asked.
Lucius nodded his head in reply, before looking into the cabin. "Where''s Pagan?"
"Ah, that idiot. While you were gone he went through some sort of transformation, an evolution he called it. I tell you, I don''t think it''s natural," Ascelpuis said in a hushed tone.
"He became a hunter?" Lucius asked, interrupting Asclepius before they could finish.
"How did you know?"
Lucius held out his hands and drew out on his retractable ws, before retracting them back into his fingertips. He then opened his mouth to show a double set of razor-sharp teeth and moved his tail to show that it was now a weapon as well.
"The Shri''kilian turned me into this once I ate," he exined.
"But that still doesn''t exin why he turned into a hunter as well, he didn''t eat it," Asclepius replied,pletely confused. However, after a moment of silence, it was clear that Lucius wasn''t going to shed light on that matter.
"So, where is he?"
"Ah, probably out training that magic of his. It''s all he does when he''s not hunting," Asclepius answered, suddenly losing interest in the conversation.
"Hunting?"
"Yeah, I told him of a spot where he could get loads of meat," Asclepius said, with a toothy grin.
"What has he been eating?" Lucius asked, kind of relieved that there had at least been enough meat for them to feed Ghost''s pod.
"I didn''t actually expect him to destroy their whole n. But after I told him about the webbed-ones who destroyed my vige, he came back iming to have killed all of them," Asclepius started exining, clearly satisfied with what had been done.
"But they were all burnt, the guy has no technique. We even had to throw away some of the meat."
"I thought you said you didn''t care about your - wait. Aren''t the webbed-ones sentient?" Lucius asked.
"Sentient? Ah, you''re asking if they''re beasts or not. No, they aren''t" Asclepius answered.
"I thought I made it clear that eating sentients was out of the question," Lucius replied, annoyance audible in his tone.
One could debate that it wasn''t really an issue right now, besides other animals did it, right?
Wrong. A problem would arise when they evolved further, the act was akin to cannibalism. If he allowed the people in hismune to eat sentients now, it would cause all sorts of social issues for themter.
"When you see him tell him toe to me. I''ll be in the main camp," Lucius said, deciding that it was a special circumstance as he hadn''t told Pagan beforehand.
"Wait. There''s something I want to show you. I discovered something while you were away," Asclepius said, weing Lucius into the cabin.
Lucius took up a good amount of space, knocking herbs and flowers aside as he walked towards what Asclepius was trying to show him.
"Look," Asclepius said, pointing at an odd-looking purple fruit.
"What is that?"
"I left a bit of the arachnid meat in a corner, and one of the flowers fell on top of it. I didn''t think much of it, but while I was trying to clean the meat up with water from the spring, this thing sprouted," Asclepius exined.
~Did he really discover agriculture by ident?~ Lucius thought, in awe of the coincidence.
"Have you tried to see if it can be used in potions yet?" Lucius asked.
"I''ve been trying randombinations, but realistically I can''t even test them to see if they work. It''s simply too much of a risk to test them myself," Asclepius exined.
"So you''re in need of testing dummies?" Lucius murmured to himself. "That can be arranged," he continued, inwardly apologizing to any animal that nned on antagonizing him in the following days.
"Good work, I''ll try to manage some sort of payment for your efforts," he said. It was important to keep Asclepius motivated.
"Evolution. I want what Pagan has. You got the Shri''kilian right? So that means I''m now an official member of your n," Asclepius said before Lucius could turn to leave.
"That can be arranged," Lucius replied after some thought. ~However only after the leaflings have all evolved. I''ll have to keep you a few steps behind them so you don''t pose too much of a threat,~ he thought to himself.
"Also, I need some help. There are simply too many different kinds of flowers for me to pick and carry alone. Not to mention all the time it takes to try and mix the differentbinations," Asclepius exined.
"I sometimes lose track of thebinations I''ve already done as well. Maybe with a bit of help it will be easier to do,"
"I suppose it''ll benefit having a reliable team for this. I''ll see if anyone is interested in this sort of thing, I''ll keep you posted," Lucius said before leaving for the main camp.
Chapter 96 Developing Camp (2)
"Come out," Lucius called out, hearing something moving within the bushes after having walked for a good distance within the perimeter of the camp.
"Captain?" A familiar voice called out in reply. It was Alpha''s right hand.
"Ah, so it was you guys. We need to work on your stealth, all that noise, if I was a hunter I would''ve been feasting on you by now," he said as several leaflings came out of hiding.
"Noise? I''m certain we didn''t make so much as a sound," one of the leaflings murmured.
"Captain, you''ve... evolved?" Alpha''s right hand asked, staring at Lucius.
"My mission was a sess. I take it you''ve seen the changes in Pagan as well," Lucius replied as he walked towards the camp with them following behind.
"Ah, so that was you''re doing, Captain?"
"Yes, yes. And soon the wholemune will be like that," he said, the camp finallying into view.
"How have the leaflings been doing? Anything happen while I was away?" Lucius asked.
"Ahem," one of the leaflings in the watch division coughed, before turning to look at Alpha''s right hand.
"What? Did something happen?" Lucius asked again, walking even quicker than before to see if the pods were okay.
"Ghost''s pod seemed to be attracting a lot of hunters. Not to mention all the meat that Pagan has been bringing back," she exined.
~Ugh, Pagan,~ Lucius thought inwardly.
"So what''s the damage?" he asked, preparing himself to hear of the causalities.
"None. Pagan took care of all the threats. Along with early warnings from the patroles we''ve been doing, the threats never made it past the perimeter," she exined.
"Hmm, well done. Run me down all the enemies that were defeated," Lucius said as he opened the cottage where Alpha and Hannibal''s pods were being stored.
"Three of those... worms I think you called them. Four webbed-ones, and two ground walkers," she said, trying her best to remember them all.
"Ground walkers?" Lucius asked, walking into the cottage. It was a tight squeeze getting through the door, and he even had to try and make himself a little smaller so as to not take up so much space inside the building.
"Asclepius called them that. They were the hardest to deal with because we couldn''t see them. The only reason we noticed them was because Pagan said he could ''sense'' something in the ground," she exined as Lucius stared at the pods.
"Earth sense," he whispered in reply. ~So it seems it''s something that everyone will have. Good,~ he thought to himself before touching Hannibal''s pod.
~They should be ready by now.~ Just as he was thinking that, he was transferred to the white void. He now felt a lot morefortable in this ce, it didn''t feel as foreign as all the previous times.
[100,000 Helios is required toplete evolution.]
[ept] [Decline]
~Ah, I''ll need to have a session before I can do this,~ Lucius realized before declining. He was then promptly thrown out of the void.
"Is Alpha''s evolution notplete?" one of the leaflings in the watch division asked.
"It''splete, there''s just something I have to do first," Lucius replied, before quickly walking out of the cottage as if just now remembering something.
"Where are all the leaflings?"
"They''re watching Pagan perform magic," Alpha''s right hand answered. Upon Lucius''s request they directed him toward where Pagan was training.
As they got closer to the location, Lucius could sense something approaching him, and based on its vibrations he could tell it was a sizeable threat.
"Everyone get back," he warned, quickly circting radiant energy through his vessels. He was still not a 100 percent healed from his fight in the maze, but he was certain if he ended it quickly he would not sustain that much damage.
"Pagan?" Lucius asked, asked Pagan ran out of a shrub, rushing towards him with his crux already out.
"Lighted One?" Pagan replied, a sr burst already emanating from his crux. However, as if time were being reversed, the explosive pulse was being recalled.
~Reversing a spell?~ Lucius thought, recalling the radiant cowl he had activated to protect himself from the explosion.
"I sensed something big and thought it was an enemy approaching," Pagan exined, before bowing in front of Lucius.
"Is it the Lighted One?" whispered one of the shrubs behind Pagan, before the leaflings came tumbling out.
"You grew bigger," one of the leaflings noted as they slowly approached Lucius.
"And he has teeth just like Pagan''s," another noted, prompting Lucius to inspect Pagan.
It seemed Pagan''s major changes were limited to his teeth, and he most probably had grown ws as well. He hadn''t grown a tail, nor did he seem to have any horns sprouting out. Though Lucius also noticed that the pentagonal patterns on his skin had changed to octagonal ones, a minor detail.
"Lighted One, what is that strange magic? It doesn''t feel like the sr crux," Pagan asked, as he stood up.
~Forgot to turn it off,~ Lucius thought to himself, before answering.
"I''ll exin thatter, but first let''s get back to the camp. Ah... do you have meat left over from your hunts?" Lucius asked as he was about to turn around.
"I''ve stored it on top of a tree on Asclepius''s request. He said it would attract hunters, but to be honest, I''d rather wee them," Pagan answered, to which Lucius replied with an annoyed re.
"Be careful how you speak, Pagan. Admitting to wanting to put the lives of the leaflings in danger in front of me isn''t in your best interest," Lucius warned, before asking Pagan to lead the way toward the food.
"The Captain''s sort of different, don''t you think?" one of the leaflings whispered to another. Though Lucius was certain that it was just a whisper, he could hear it clear as day.
~My sense of hearing must''ve improved drastically,~ he realized, as he could hear the river''s water gushing even though they were quite a distance away from it.
"Here it is," Pagan said once they got to the spot, before quickly hopping up the tree and retrieving the stash.
~Hmm, his agility seems to have increased quite a bit for him to be moving up trees this confidently,~ Lucius thought to himself, before pulling out Pagan''s stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Pagan Elwood ]
[Level 5: 50/500]
[Leaf Being [Photosynthesis Variation] lvl.3- [100/300]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 130]
[Strength: 51]
[Stamina: 40]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
Chapter 97 Developing Camp (3)
~His agility is reasonably high, I''m guessing it''s from all the running he must''ve been doing during hunts and trips to the spring. But as for his strength-~
"Lighted One, are you not eating as well?" Pagan asked, interrupting Lucius''s train of thought. He held out a slice of red meat that had sprinkles of what looked like red herbs on top of it.
Lucius epted the meat and quickly tossed it into his mouth.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 20%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 20%]
[Radiance Production increased by 20]
[Stats increased by 0.95%]
[Questplete.]
[+200 exp]
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
[Level 8!]
~Cayenne pepper?~ Lucius wondered, his mouth salivating in near ecstasy as he swallowed thest few chunks of meat.
"Where did you get these red herbs?" he asked, taking another slice from Pagan''s hand and devouring it in two quick bites.
"It''s one of the herbs Asclepius has been experimenting with. He thought it smelled interesting so gave me a bunch to taste," Pagan replied, devouring a slice of meat as he spoke.
~Taste? More like test,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Okay, let''s hurry up and have this photosynthesis session," he said, before taking a seat. The other leaflings got into position as well, and Pagan called out his crux to begin the session.
~What the hell is going on?~ Lucius thought to himself, trying and failing to call out his crux. It was as if it were stuck to his core, as if something were holding it in ce.
"Lighted One, is something the matter?" Pagan asked, prompting everyone to look at him.
~Don''t tell me...~ Lucius sighed, realizing what must be going on. He closed his eyes, to get a better feel of his crux, and his suspicions were confirmed. Thework of vessels that the radiant index had formed was keeping his crux froming out.
If he wanted to perform photosynthesis, he would have topletely destroy the vessels he had created, in order to free his crux.
~Come on, there has to be another way,~ he thought, running his mind through the possibilities.
~Wait, there might be a way~ he realized, pulling up his system shop.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??System Shop??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
(Current Helios: 0)
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~I just need 1000 Helios and I can just buy another crux,~ he thought to himself.
If he could have another crux for the sr sorcery index he wouldn''t have to destroy his radiant vessels. Of course, If he hadn''t seen that ''furry-folk'' with two cruxes he probably wouldn''t have thought of it this fast. But now, if nothing was stopping him, he would buy even more cruxes if it meant he could get stronger.
"Lighted One?" Pagan whispered, this time right beside Lucius.
"Ah, carry on. I''ll let you handle this session alone," Lucius replied.
"Alone? I-I am honored Lighted One," Pagan said in reverence, walking back to his position like some patriarch about to talk to his subjects.
"Today the role of granting everyone a piece of the Lighted One''s light falls upon me. ept this power, and give back unto Lighted One," Pagan pronounced before starting the session.
[¡ºPagan¡» requests to use you as a ry.]
[ept.] [Decline.]
~ept,~
[Absorbing 247 Helios per second.]
The session went for a total of 2 and 30 hours. Most leaflings had dropped out at the 45-minute mark, with a few elites making it to the 1-hour mark. However, even though there was quite a gap between those with a high tolerance for sr energy and those without it, Lucius could sense that arge majority of them were extremely close to evolving.
Perhaps if he had been able to join in, some of them would''ve evolved already.
"Pagan, take those who have passed out back to the camp," Lucius ordered as he stood up. "Ah, and all those from the watch division, I mean those of you who are still awake, stay behind. I need to have a talk with you," he continued.
"You too Pagan. It involves the future of the camp, so hurry back," he added before opening his system shop.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??System Shop??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
(Current Helios: 2,203,000)
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Hmm, it''ll cost 200,000 total for both Hannibal and Alpha''s evolutions. If Ghost''s pod is ready, that''s 300,000. That means I''ll only have enough left to buy one sobriquet, regardless of whether I buy a fragment or not,~ Lucius thought to himself, running the maths.
~Not a problem,~ he decided, before quickly selecting the solis fragment.
? [User must be Level 100 to equip 2 fragments.]
"Fuck," Lucius whispered under his breath.
"Captain?" Alpha''s right hand whispered, still a bit drowsy from the session.
~Level 100? How far off am I?~ he thought, before opening his yer stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 8: 220/800]
[Laendryte Rojo [Guardian] lvl.5- [1256/5000]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 472>790 ] [Capped]
[Strength: 755>790] [Capped]
[Stamina: 728>790] [Capped]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Level 8, hu- what!? When did my stats get this high?~ he wondered in surprise, before quickly realizing. ~Ah, the fight with the ''furry-folk''.~
He had noticed that he felt somewhat stronger and faster than he had before, even with his injuries, but he had assumed that it was all due to the radiant index.
~Anyway, let''s say Iplete all my daily quests. How many days will it take?~ he thought before pulling out his quests tab.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Daily Quests ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Iplete]
300 exp
[Complete]
< Eat> 300 exp
200 exp
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Milestone ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~This only amounts to 800 exp a day. If the exp bar goes up by 100 on each consecutive level, that means...~
To be honest, he didn''t even want to think about the number. It would take him more than a year to get to level 100 at this rate.
~No, maybe I''ll get more quests as I evolve. After all, that''s what''s been happening until now,~ he reasoned.
But there was still a looming question that he had to answer immediately.
Would he destroy his radiant vessels for his sr crux?
Chapter 98 First Watch
~Hmm, I wonder,~ Lucius thought to himself as he stared at the watch division members who were awaiting his attention.
If he had to be honest with himself, he felt more inclined to choose the radiant index over the sr index.
It had proved to be more useful during his fight with the ''furry-folk'' and had one vital advantage over the sr index- it could regenerate its energy so long as he was breathing. Whereas the sr index stopped functioning as soon as he was deprived of sunlight.
To add to that, it had a self-healing technique that he could leave on without repercussions apart from mental strain. Whereas he had a limited amount of sr cleanses. Not to mention, that even if he trained his sr crux like crazy, he probably wouldn''t be able to cast more than three sr bursts without getting exhausted.
~In an ideal world I would''ve chosen the radiant index, but realistically I have no choice but to choose the sr index,~ he decided.
A single feature of the sr index overruled any downside it might have.
Photosynthesis.
Lucius didn''t want to be reliant on the leaflings for his source of actual power. He was nothing without evolution, and he knew it. By throwing away the sr index, his rate of evolution would be exponentially slower as he was the only one with catalyst absorption. And for all he knew, there might be catalysts out there that give up to 1000% efficiency increases.
The radiant index showed promise, but sadly it was a road he could travel right now.
~It was rather fun using it though,~ he thought running radiant energy through his body onest time.
~Hopefully Alpha will pick this index over the sr index, and I''ll get to see the techniques I was unable to achieve,~ he thought, before trying to destroy the vessels.
However his pull on the crux was not enough, it seemed he would require help.
"Ah, Pagan,e here," Lucius called out once Pagan arrived. The watch division members who were waiting decided to genuflect in wait. Perhaps a gesture they had picked up from Pagan.
"What do you need Lighted One?" Pagan, asked genuflecting in front of Lucius as well.
"You don''t have to do that, that goes for you guys as well," Lucius said, before exining to Pagan the circumstances he was in.
"So you need me to help you pull it out?" Pagan asked for rification. He had shown an aversion to destroying the radiant index after hearing about it but helped anyway as it was his Lighted One''smand.
"Indeed," Lucius replied, before closing his eyes, and touching Pagan''s head.
The process was painful, to say the least. It felt like every nerve in his body was being incinerated, and then copsed in on itself. It took about 30 minutes for the crux to finally be set free, and even then there were still residual traces of the radiant vessels.
~Ahh, this doesn''t feel as good,~ Lucius thought to himself as sr energy rushed into his body from his crux.
He moved the crux around his head, then -with a hand gesture- made it float out as far as it could go, as if to stretch.
It went just a bit above 2 meters away, meaning that his evolution hadn''t affected it much. It seemed that it would only grow with continuous use, and not with continuous evolution.
~I''ll start leaving out until it exhausts its reserves,~ he decided. It was much like circting radiant energy even though he didn''t n on using it.
Though this could prove to be dangerous in the case they were attacked and he required the energy, which was part of the reason he hadn''t done it before. But now with Alpha and Hannibal evolved, he could afford to be a little bit careless if it meant a faster growth rate.
"Pagan, keep your crux out when you''re inside the camp. If I have a mission for you, then I''ll tell you in advance so you can save up energy," he said, after getting ustomed to his sr crux.
"Mission?" Pagan asked. Though he was clearly an important figure within the camp, he had never been sent on a mission before.
"Yes, mission. I called you all here to talk about the future of the camp, and this is going to be one of the major changes," Lucius said, turning to the watch division.
"Keeping you all idle was a mistake on my part, I had assumed that with time you would all grow naturally," he said, before stopping to look towards the direction of the Dark Forest.
"But my recent mission has taught me that it is not an option. I will force you all to be stronger, whether you all like it or not," he continued, realizing that he sort of sounded like a tyrant.
"Each of you will be given a mission every week, and depending on how well youplete it, a rank will be assigned to you," he started, looking at Pagan.
"I know that none of you know what a rank is, but think of it as a role of importance. As some of you are aware, I n on building argemune. Soon creatures from other species will join us," he said, imagining what his little settlement would look like in the near future.
"As such, I will require a way to decide who gets priority in certain things. Whether that be food, upgrades rting to the sr crux, or a say in the direction that themune must be led," he said after some thought.
"Of course, for the watch division, your mission will only be given to you once you have all evolved. But for the work you have done thus far, I am going to hold a naming ceremony," he said, before looking towards a leafling that looked confused.
"Will we all be named?" it asked.
"I''ve watched your group for long enough. And even though I gave you guys the choice to leave, you decided to continue your duty anyway. So as a reward, you will all be named," he answered.
The leaflings shivered in excitement, perhaps the only one to be able to keep theirposure was Alpha''s right hand, but even she had a small smirk on her face.
"From this day on, you will no longer be known as the watch division. That''s an umbre term now. From today on you will be known as the first watch, work hard to stay in this position," he said before going back towards the camp.
He had seeded in doing what he wanted to do. Motivate them. Give them a reason to work harder, and give the others something to strive towards.
Though this whole thing was not in line with the way he wanted things to go, he had no time for leaflings who didn''t want to help themune grow in one way or the other.
There were simply too many threats for themune to carry dead weight,
Chapter 99 Awakening Of Alpha And Hannibal
Pagan followed quietly behind Lucius, leaving the first watch to celebrate their recent promotion.
"Lighted One, you said you would start giving out missions. Since I''ve already evolved, does that mean I''ll be getting one soon?" Pagan asked once they reached the cottage.
"That''s correct," Lucius answered as he walked in.
"Then what will my first mission be?" Pagan asked as Lucius observed the pods.
"To hunt a boar," he answered with a smile, before touching Alpha''s pod and being sent to the white void.
[100,000 Helios is required toplete evolution.]
[ept] [Decline]
~ept.~
[Purchase ¡ºSobriquet¡» from ¡ºSystem Shop¡» in order to add creature to linkedmune.]
Lucius then quickly purchased the sobriquet and used it.
[Input creature''s title.] The system prompted, to which Lucius answered, "Alpha."
[¡ºAlpha¡» has been linked to yourmune.]
[¡ºAlpha¡»''s stats can now be viewed.]
[¡ºSystem Shop¡» items may now be shared with ¡ºAlpha¡».]
[¡ºAlpha¡» ''s genomes have unlocked a natural skill.]
[¡ºAlpha¡» has a 0.05% chance to¡ºSurpass¡» causing his strength stat to be doubled for a short duration.]
And with that Lucius was thrown out of the void.
~Surpass? That sounds interesting,~ Lucius thought with a smile, as a ripping sound emanated from the pod. Within a few seconds, an evolved Alpha emerged from the pod.
Alpha''s new form was very different from Lucius and Pagan''s. His entire body was covered in a sort of wood-like armor, making him look more like a tree golem than a leafling. Though the wood still had a green color to it, so he didn''t look too foreign.
Lucius moved to pull him out of the pod and found that though the ''armor'' looked like green wood, it was quite soft, perhaps only a little harder than his own skin.
Luciusid him on the ground and noticed that his ws weren''t retractable like Pagan''s and his own. Instead, the wood armor that covered his body, continued to his fingers, forming sharp projections at his fingertips.
He was also a lot bulkier than Pagan was when he first evolved, and with some growth, Lucius could see him bing sort of like a moving tank.
~Sr Cleanse,~ Lucius chanted, waking Alpha from his induceda.
Two green dots came into view under his woody helm, instantly looking toward Lucius.
A split secondter, Lucius found himself flinging Alpha towards a wall, mere moments before Alpha could strike ws into his eyes.
"Lighted O-"
"Keep Hanibal''s pod safe. Something isn''t right here," Lucius interrupted, looking at Alpha as he got to his feet.
Once Alpha was up, he let out a ghastly shriek, akin to that of a wild animal.
~That shriek, is it because of the hunter thing?~ Lucius wondered. It was probably because he had been unconscious during the change, so this was probably all too sudden for him.
Alpha charged toward Lucius, and Lucius swatted him away like a bug. There was a considerable size difference between them. One was the size of a boar, while the other was the size of a small soda can.
"Alpha, get a hold of yourself. It''s Lucius," Lucius tried calling out, but once Alpha got back to his feet he charged toward him again.
"I guess you need a time out then," Lucius decided, grabbing Alpha just as he was about to strike, and holding him into a tight grip.
After about 3 minutes, Alpha ran out of energy and stopped struggling. Only then did, he seem to regain his senses.
"Captain?"
"You''re finally back to normal," Pagan said, a sort of annoyed look on his face.
"You scratched the Lighted One you know," he continued, staring down at Alpha.
"Pagan?" Alpha said, turning to look at Pagan.
Lucius could understand the confusion. After all, they were many timesrger since thest time he had seen them.
"It''s us yes. There''s a lot I need to exin to you. But for one, you are a hunter now. So watch your urges around the leaflings," Lucius warned, before ordering Pagan to take him to the river so he could wash off the goo that acted as an amniotic fluid in his pod.
"Feed him once you''re done with that. I''ll be there soon with Hannibal," Lucius said as the two left the cottage.
"Sigh, I hope Hannibal will be easier to deal with," Lucius whispered to himself before touching Hannibal''s pod.
[100,000 Helios is required toplete evolution.]
[ept] [Decline]
~ept.~
[Purchase ¡ºSobriquet¡» from ¡ºSystem Shop¡» in order to add creature to linkedmune.]
[Input creature''s title.]
"Hannibal."
[¡ºHannibal¡» has been linked to yourmune.]
[¡ºHannibal¡»''s stats can now be viewed.]
[¡ºSystem Shop¡» items may now be shared with ¡ºHannibal¡».]
~No special additions, huh?~ Lucius thought to himself before he was thrown out of the void.
A momentter Hannibal''s newly evolved form emerged from the pod. It was the same form that he had when he had first evolved into a leaf-being. In fact, there were no differences whatsoever, he even had a tail, unlike Alpha.
~Sr Cleanse~ Lucius chanted, already holding Hannibal tightly in his hands.
The moment Hannibal woke up, he thrashed around, shrieking uncontrobly, however that only went on for a few seconds, before Hannibal stared at Lucius.
For a moment there was silence, and then he spoke. "Lucius?"
"Ah, at least. I didn''t want to have to hold you like this for three minutes," Lucius replied, before setting him down.
"Head over to the river. You''ll find Pagan and Alpha on the way. I''ll exin things to you after that," he continued, staring at all the goop on his hands.
Lucius then tried to see if Ghost''s pod was ready, but found that she was still in incubation.
~Perhaps a few more days,~ he thought to himself before joining Pagan and the others.
After everyone was washed up and fed, Lucius began exining to them what had happened. How they were now hunters due to him eating the Shri''kilian, and how he had nned on creating a rank system that worked on missions.
He purposefully left out the part about how he had fought the ''furry-folk''. Right now it wouldn''t help to have them scared, he decided it would be better to reveal things when they were a little stronger.
"Hmm, so food will be a problem for us now. I''m guessing securing it will be among these missions," Hannibal said after digesting everything.
"You''re correct in that line of thinking. I myself can probably run through the supplies we currently have if I really wanted to satiate myself. And it will only get worse as the wholemune evolves," Lucius exined.
"And you spoke of ranks, I don''t exactly understand what you meant by that, Captain," Alpha said after.
Though they had juste from what can practically be described as aa, it was obvious that there was still tension between the two. As such, Pagan had to be between them, much to his annoyance as he would rather be standing beside Lucius.
"You can think of rank as a right to lead. I want this to be a meritocracy. As themune grows, seniority will be a requirement," Lucius exined, before adding, "And though I understand that you worked hard to be a leading figure, you''ll have to do more if you want to keep that position."
"So when will I have my first mission?" Alpha asked immediately, already itching to gain as many ranks as he could.
"You won''t be getting your mission any time soon. You and Hannibal will be given your cruxes either today or tomorrow, so you''ll be in anothera for a few more days," Lucius exined.
"But don''t worry, during today''s naming ceremony, you''ll be awarded themune''s first-ever rank for the work you have already done. Guard B-grade."
Chapter 100 Departments
Chapter 100 Departments
"Huh? Him?" Pagan asked, apparently confused.
"I haven''t forgotten about everything you''ve done for themune as well. But Alpha was the first, so he gets the first rank. You will be awarded your rank right after," Lucius exined.
Though it was true that Alpha had done a lot of work toward keeping themune safe. Pagan had single-handedly protected it from a variety of threats while Lucius was out on his mission. And if he wanted his ranks to hold any value in terms of measuring strength, then it would only make sense that Pagan''s rank be higher than Alpha''s.
"Ah, I understand Lighted One," Pagan replied, now satisfied.
Lucius watched on as Pagan gloated over Alpha, showing off how much bigger he was, and by means of picking him up, how much stronger he was as well.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Alpha Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf Being {Armored Variation} lvl.3- {0/300}]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 4]
[Strength: 50]
[Stamina: 42]
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~Alpha''s strength and stamina stats are higher than Pagan''s?~ Lucius thought as he inspected Alpha''s stats page.
~Hmm, I guess it makes sense since Alpha did do an excessive amount of exercise. But it''s kind of disappointing since Pagan has that 5% buff,~ Lucius thought before looking toward Hannibal.
Ever since he mentioned that Pagan and Alpha would be getting ranks, Hannibal seemed to be very ufortable.
Lucius could imagine what was going through Hannibal''s mind. Hannibal had saved themune before, but it was achieved at a steep price. So though it made sense that he ought to get a rank as well, he was probably conflicted over whether it would really be appropriate.
"Work hard to catch up to the others," Lucius whispered to him, to which Hannibal straightened up and nodded in response.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Hannibal Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf Being lvl.3- {0/300}]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 4]
[Strength: 5]
[Stamina: 4]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Hannibal wasn''t really part of any of the collection squads was he? I''ll have to make some of his missions more body intensive,~ Lucius decided, before calling themune together.
"Pagan, go get Asclepius," he ordered, as the leaflings began crowding in front of the main cottage.
"As I''m sure most of you are aware. Most of you will be evolving soon," Lucius started, once the leaflings had quieted down.
"This not only means that you will be bigger, but will also mean you will all require food to survive from now on," he continued, looking down at the leafling''s faces. Some of them seemed to understand and were nodding their heads, while others whispered to theirrades in confusion.
"As such, I cannot allow a single leafling without a role to y to stay within themune. Before it wasn''t an issue, but now that work is required to survive, things must change,"
"That is why I will be giving all those who don''t want to y a role a chance to leave themune. After evolution, you will not be allowed to leave. And as selfish as that may seem, you have to understand that an evolved leafling may lead others to discover themune if they are allowed to leave," Lucius exined, before giving the leaflings time to digest what they had just heard.
Even though there were a fewzy leaflings within themune who would rather not do anything, they couldn''t very well leave themune at this point. They had formed bonds with the others, they had felt growth, learned different things from Lucius, and were more protected than they had ever been.
Lucius''smune was like a safe haven they had never thought would arise. And if they had to work to stay under his protection and watch, they would do it.
"So I take it none of you are leaving?" Lucius confirmed after several moments of silence. "Okay then, this takes me to my second announcement."
"Themune will begin epting others from outside. That means beings from other species," Lucius said, noting that Asclepius had just arrived with Pagan.
"For instance, Asclepius," Lucius said, before calling Asclepius to the front.
"As I''m sure all of you can tell, Asclepius is not a leafling. However he is a part of ourmune, and will be treated no differently from the rest of you," Lucius said, patting Asclepius on the shoulder as he arrived at the front.
The leaflings nodded at this, understanding what Lucius meant.
"As themune growsrger, there will need to be some sort of way to organize everyone or things won''t work well. So in this regard, I have designed different ranks and departments. I will start giving out rewards based on rank, and every member of themune will be required to join a department," Lucius called out.
"So far, there are four departments, of which you guys can choose to join three," he continued, which brought about whispers from the leaflings. Especially the watch division who had thought themselves to be the only division.
"There is the Internal Security Department formerly known as the watch division, of which Alpha is the leader, or Premier as I will be calling them. If you wish to join a division within this department and learn more about what they do,e speak to Alpha after this," Lucius announced.
"The second department, is the Research and Experimentation Department, as of now Asclepius and Hannibal are the premiers. If you want to join one of their divisions or learn more about what they do,e speak to them after," he continued.
Asclepius shuddered at the announcement, not expecting to be given any roles as they were quite sure that Lucius didn''t trust thempletely. And to be fair, Lucius didn''t, but taking emotions aside, Asclepius was currently worth more than most of the leaflings, and as such had to be given a role worthy of that.
21:47
"The third department will be the Fabrication and Creation Department, the role of Premier is currently open, but all those who I''ve put into the building squad are automatically members of this. If others want to learn more, you cane to me after this, and I will exin more about this detail," he said, before turning to Pagan.
"Finally, thest department is the Warring and Special Operations Department. Frankly, it''s the most dangerous department to be a part of. And joining is not an option avable to any of you, but I will tell you about it anyway," he said.
"This department represents the fighting force of themune, they will be responsible for hunts and offensive missions. The Premier of this department is Pagan, and recruitment in this department will be done by invitation," Lucius announced. Alpha visibly jerked at the announcement, apparently ufortable with it.
ranks," Lucius said after giving some time for the leaflings to digest "The announcement of these departments leads me to the issue of everything.
Chapter 101 Rankings
"The ranking system will determine how well you are treated within themune. As more and more creatures join, I am sorry to say, but I won''t be able to give each and everyone on of you the attention I have been giving all along," he started.
"Of course, photosynthesis will be provided to all working members of themune, but it might not be in my presence. There simply won''t be enough space for it to happen, and frankly, I won''t have the time to go out of my way to see everyone," he exined.
Having a session with him would mean that they would grow at an increased rate as he had catalyst absorption. But once themune grew to the size of a few hundred, holding sessions that big will be both a logistic and safety concern.
"Also, benefits such as names and cruxes are expensive, and soon it will be too much for me to give to every single person. So cruxes, names, along with other blessings, as I''m going to be calling them, will be distributed ording to ranking," he announced.
Giving cruxes wasn''t the problem, after all, they cost about 1000, and he made 2,000,000 helios on average these days. The problem was the sobriquets, which were a requirement in order to receive a crux. They cost a million each, meaning he would only be able to hand out 2 a day, that''s if he decided to throw growth out the window of course.
"Now, since every department will be given different tasks, the ranking systems ought to be different as well. So don''t worry if the names seem different," Lucius exined before gesturing towards the first watch, toe to the front.
"With all this exined, today we will be holding the first of many ranking ceremonies," he announced once everyone quieted down.
"To Alpha, for the role of leadership, and working towards keeping themune safe. I award the rank of Guard Second Grade, two grades above the entry point in the Department of Internal Security," Lucius exined.
In turn, Pagan made a gesture, and everyone genuflected. Lucius was beginning to suspect that Pagan had held some sort of bowing ss or something.
Lucius helped Alpha to his feet, and the others stood up as well.
"Next, the first watch."
"For your role as acting leader during Alpha''s absence, and for protecting themune, I award you the name Artemis, and the rank of Guard Third Grade," he said, calling Alpha''s right hand to stand in front of him.
Once again, Pagan made a gesture, and everyone genuflected.
Lucius called out the others from the first watch as well, six in total. Their names were Avril, Harold, Richard, Mark, Eleanor, and Miles. All names he had taken from respected soldiers back on earth. Each of them was awarded the rank of Guard Fourth Grade.
"Next, Pagan," once Lucius said that everyone genuflected without a missing a beat. Lucius had no idea what Pagan had been spewing into their minds, but he had done a great job at manipting them.
"For your role of defending themune from multiple threats while I was gone. I award you the rank of Raider First Grade, the highest grade in the entry point of the Warring and Special Operations Department."
After a few moments, Pagan let out a pulse from his crux and stood up. The others stood up shortly after.
~Visual effects?~ Lucius thought, not wanting to ruin Pagan''s over-dramatic promotion.
"Andstly, Asclepius. For your role in the experimentation and research you have done thus far, I award you the rank of Novice Fourth Grade," Lucius said, having to shove Asclepius a bit to stand in front of the others.
The leaflings genuflected, and Asclepius was wide-eyed. This was a first, and it felt good.
"That''s it for today. You guys will be allowed to talk to the Premiers shortly, I just have to have a quick word with them," Lucius said, before calling all the Premiers for a quick discussion.
"Okay, I know that I didn''t tell any of you that you would be getting roles today, but that was all part of the surprise," Lucius exined quickly.
"The leaflings will soone to you guys to ask about what your different departments entail, and possibly join as well."
"Alpha, I''m sure you already know what your department is all about, I don''t need to exin anything, right?" Lucius asked, turning to Alpha.
"That''s what I am confused about, Captain. Why aren''t I in Pagan''s department? I don''t even have to lead, or be a Premier, I just want to be a part of it," Alpha replied.
"I''m sure you''d would be a great fit, but your people need you. You''ve developed a good rtionship with the first watch, and for now, you are worth more in that role than as a fighter," Lucius exined.
It was clear that Alpha wasn''t in full agreement, but he couldn''t argue with Lucius''s authority.
"Asclepius, you asked for helpers, this is your chance. Frankly, I don''t know much about herbs, so exining what your division in the department entails will be up to you," Lucius said, turning to Asclepius.
"Hannibal, even though you two are in the same department, your division is a little different from his," Lucius continued.
"She," Hannibal interrupted.
"What?" the sounds of confusion came from everyone except Pagan, and Asclepius.
"Asclepius is female," Hannibal exined.
"Asclepius?" Lucius asked, turning to look at... her.
"I didn''t think it mattered. I told Pagan, but he didn''t seem to believe me. Though, I have no how this one found out," Asclepius said, turning to look at Hannibal.
"You have a pouch, just like Ghost and some of the others. I noticed it the first day I saw you," Hannibal exined, pointing to a small pouch on Asclepius''s back.
"Aha, okay, not important," Lucius whispered, quickly dismissing the many questions that everyone had.
"Hannibal, your division will be focused on the research of other materials and world concepts. I''ll try to help you in exining what it''s about, but I''m sure you get the general idea," Lucius said, to which Hannibal nodded in reply.
"And Pagan, if anyone approaches you remind them they can''t join, got it?"
Chapter 102 Choose Your Departments
"Okay, it seems we all understand our roles. And don''t forget to note down the number of leaflings that chose to join your departments. I''ll be expecting the numbers right after this," Lucius said to them before gathering the crowd''s attention once more.
"You guys cane to the Premiers whose departments you''re interested in. You all have until thetest tomorrow to choose a department. You will begin working as soon as you''ve evolved," Lucius announced, prompting the leaflings to begin crowding around the Premiers.
Almost half of the leaflings crowded around Lucius. He wasn''t sure whether they actually wanted to join the Fabrication and Creation department, or whether they came simply because he was the temporary Premier.
However, he was rather happy with the number, as this department would be responsible for the construction of most of themune''s infrastructure. So the more hands the merrier.
A good chunk of leaflings were also crowded around Alpha. Perhaps because they had all once been a part of the squads, they felt that integrating into it would be easy. Though they were going to be in for a rude awakening, as from what Lucius had seen with Alpha''s training, there was no rest.
A minority of the leaflings were spread between Hannibal and Asclepius. With Asclepius having only about 3 around him, and Hannibal having 5.
"Will we be building cottages once we join this department?" one of the leaflings asked, pulling Lucius from his pondering.
"Among other things, yes. In this department you will create all sorts of things. From cottages to weapons, to fun contraptions. I assure you, of all the departments, this will probably be the most interesting," Lucius replied, remembering his army recruiter days.
"If we join, will we be named faster than the others? Since this department is led by what many are calling the ''Supreme Premier''," asked another leafling, in a somewhat overly suspicious tone.
"Supreme Premier? This is a temporary seat, one of you will be named Premier once you''ve evolved. And no, sadly joining this does not give you the chance to be named faster than anyone else," Lucius exined.
~And what does he mean that many people are calling me the Supreme Premier? I just announced the Premiers a few minutes ago,~ Lucius thought to himself,pletely confused by this.
"I told you not to ask that, why are you always like this," another leafling whispered to the one that had just asked the question.
? "Are you saying this just because you want it to seem fair on the surface? Can this be taken as a sort of confirmation for the tant favoritism you are about to show your Department?" the same leafling asked again.
~What''s wrong with this little guy? He sounds like a conspiracist,~ Lucius thought to himself before answering. "No, I actually mean it. There will be no favouriti-" however before he could even finish the leafling shot his next question.
"Why hasn''t Ghost been named a Premier? Are you perhaps hiding one of the Departm-"
"Sorry Lighted One, my friend isn''t okay. He hasn''t been getting enough sleep... isn''t that right?" the conspiracist leaflings friend interrupted, shoving the leafling back.
Once that little fiasco had died down, the leaflings began asking questions as well. Things such as what benefits they could expect to get, how long they would have to work, and how they could climb up the ranks.
Lucius promptly answered the questions, with most of them being answered with ''I''m still thinking about that'' as he needed more time to think properly about the incentives. If the leaflings didn''t find their rewards to their liking, their productivity would be low.
Once all the questioning was over, he noted down the number of people who wanted to join the department and went to check on the other Premiers.
It seemed most of them had finished as well and had noted down the numbers.
The Department of Internal Security had 10 new recruits.
The Department of Research and Experimentation under Asclepius had 2, while the department under Hannibal had 4.
And finally, the Department of Fabrication and Creation had a total of 16 new recruits. A few leaflings still needed time to think about which department they wanted to join.
"Great work guys. It''s getting a littlete, and I still have a few things to do. So I will allow you guys to do whatever you want for now. We''ll discuss the finer details of the departments tomorrow," Lucius said to the Premiers, before dismissing them.
Asclepius hurried back to herb, apparently excited to get back to work. The others however remained behind, it seemed they had more questions, much to Lucius''s dismay as he really wanted to go see the arachnid babies.
"Captain, before I get the crux. Can we deal with the shrooms that attacked us? From what I''ve heard from Artemis, it seems Asclepius might not be so bad, but seeing her reminds me of what happened. I can''t go back to that... ''sleep'' state before I know our attackers have been dealt with," Alpha said.
~I''ve been so busy Ipletely forgot about them,~ Lucius thought.
And to be fair, who could me him? The shrooms were such a minor enemy at this point, he could probably kill them all without so much as breaking a sweat. But there were advantages to doing this past just revenge.
"We''ll head over there tonight," Lucius replied before turning to look at Pagan. "There are still needle spears left over right?" he asked.
"Indeed, Lighted One. Asclepius and I secured a few more since you left," Pagan replied.
"I thought you guys ran out of arachnid meat. What have you been trading?" Lucius asked, in surprise.
"They seem fond of webbed-one flesh as well. And sometimes they give it to us for free," Pagan exined.
~Hmm, for free you say? No, nothing is free. They''re probably just trying to create good rtions so that when we do get more arachnid meat, they''ll be the first people we go to,~ Lucius deduced.
Which to him, was quite respectable. Nothing could beat good business rtions. So Lucius made a mental note to hunt for more arachnid flesh soon.
"You''ll arm yourself with the needle spears, and what about you Hannibal? Do you want to be a part of this?" Lucius asked, turning to Hannibal.
"Definitely," Hannibal replied. Alpha acted like he did not hear it, and continued to look at Lucius.
"Listen, when we go there, we will not face them as enemies. So do not make them suffer, their deaths should be quick," Lucius began.
"I know that you guys are still upset over the deaths of the leaflings, and so am I. But remember, they did not hold malice to those leaflings, they did not hate us. They killed us as a means to live, and though I do not condone their actions, remember that we too will soon do the same," he exined.
"So let us not be hypocrites. We will not always do right toward the goal of growing ourmune, so let''s try to make things as logical as possible. The main reason we are going to kill them is to make an example out of anyone who threatens ourmune," he exined.
"So leave one or two of them alive. You may injure them however you will, but leave them just good enough to pass on the story,"
~If anything, the survivors will only be able to tell other shroom ns about what happened. Fear can work to our advantage when we devour some of them into ourmune,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"I understand, Captain," Alpha replied.
"Good. Now, if you''ll excuse me," Lucius said, before heading to the area where Pagan had stored the meat. On his way there he met the insectoid, who at first stopped dead in its tracks, acting as if it were dead.
Chapter 103 Hidden In The Woods (1)
"Oi, it''s been a while, huh?" Lucius said after a moment of awkward silence.
"Exipor?" the insectoid replied, before stepping a little closer.
"Exipor!" it shouted a moment after, running around Lucius like an excited puppy.
"Yeah, yeah I missed you too. It seems you''re doing well, you even gained a bit of weight," Luciusmented, seeing that its belly was full.
"Exikilim deris kelix," it replied.
Lucius was really tempted to buy the encyclopedia to understand exactly what it was trying to say. But it was simply too expensive, it would take like 5 days for him to buy it. And 5 days'' worth of helios was simply too much, especially as he would have to save up for the leaflings'' evolutions.
"I''ll see youter," Lucius said before waving goodbye to it.
"What a weird bug," he whispered to himself as he left.
"Dexi kilor exipor," it whispered to itself before leaving.
Once Lucius got to the stash, he took a slice of meat, ced it inside a worm skin bag and made his way toward the arachnid den.
As he entered, the arachnid babies rushed at him like before, but once they realized who it was, they went back to hiding in a corner.
"I brought food," Lucius said, breaking the meat into tiny pieces so that the babies could eat it easier.
He held out his palm with a piece of meat at the center and called out to them. But for several minutes they just stared at him in fear.
After a while though, one of the babies got a little curious and made its way ever so slightly toward his hand.
It got a whiff of the meat and he could see it literally shudder in hunger.
~Their senses must be weak,~ he realized. Perhaps they hadn''t approached him sooner because they couldn''t smell the meat.
He brought his hand closer, and for a moment the babies jerked back in fear but quickly rxed once he stopped his hand.
It sniffed his hand once more and quickly scurried to grab the meat, before running off to a corner to eat alone.
Its brothers and sisters realized that it had gotten food and began fighting for it. That''s to say, the tiny piece of meat finished in but a second.
Lucius put another piece of meat in the palm of his hand and held it out again. The same baby crept closer ever so slightly, before quickly grabbing the meat and running off, this time behind him so that it would not be disturbed.
The other babies were still skeptical and just watched their sibling ate. They were too scared to pass by Lucius to go bother it for food.
Once it was done, it walked back in front of Lucius, making sure to stay a distance away, before letting out a small shriek.
"More?" Lucius asked, before tearing off another piece and putting it in the palm of his hand. This time, he held it closer to himself.
The baby seemed a lot more suspicious of the meat this time and took longer toe. But after a few minutes of thinking, it rushed at the meat, grabbed it, and left.
Lucius tried the exercise a couple more times, but only that baby was brave enough to get the meat. The others wouldn''te near him, and after a while, the slice he had was finished, and the single baby''s belly was about to burst.
"Well, hopefully, I have more luck tomorrow," Lucius whispered to himself before standing up to leave.
As he was about to leave he heard something that sounded like a mix between a whimper and a shriek. He turned back to see and found the babies were searching all over the floor for leftovers.
"Maybe tomorrow you''ll all be more trusting," he said before leaving.
Once he got back to the camp it was gettingte, and the time for their revenge would soone. So he began preparing for their attack, which really didn''t amount to much besides replenishing his sr energy reserves in case a third party joined the fray.
Once the sun hadpletely set, the group made their way into the forest, leaving Pagan behind to defend the camp.
Pagan didn''t really feel the need to get revenge, he seemed indifferent to the deaths of the leaflings and said ''they were lucky enough to have died knowing the Lighted One,'' as a response to Alpha''s constant attempts at guilt-tripping him.
*
"This is the camp," Lucius whispered, noting down the familiar mound they had once taken residence in.
They began stalking their way toward the area where the shrooms had been spotted most often, and after a few minutes of walking, they starteding across poisoned vegetation.
~Just how strong are these shrooms'' poison?~ Lucius wondered, already having sr cleanse at the ready.
As they got further in, they realized that the damage to vegetation wasn''t as small scale as they had first thought. This didn''t look like poison at all. It was as if the trees and nts here were literally rotting.
They had a bad pungent smell to them, like sour corpses, if that description made any sense. It smelled like a mass grave.
Though they weren''t exactly sure where the shrooms were, they followed the decay, the worst part of it in particr. And after several minutes of walking, they finally arrived at their destination... or what was left of it at least.
A trench had been dug up, and a soup of what looked like purple ooze filled it to the brim. The hole was shallow, about 5 centimeters deep, and covered a small area. Lucius could tell from the outer edges, that a slime-like coating had been used to prevent the fluid from draining.
"Keep your eyes peeled, they could attack us at any moment," Lucius said, before moving to inspect the soup.
Once he got a closer look, he saw that there were a bunch of weird objects floating inside it.
"What the fuck happened here?" Lucius whispered to himself, realizing that this was primarily a mushroom soup, with dozens of shroom heads floating in the concotion.
Chapter 104 Hidden In The Woods (2)
~Crap,~ Lucius thought to himself, sensing that arge hoard of creatures were slowly approaching the area. He quickly grabbed Hannibal and Alpha with his tail, before scaling up a nearby tree.
"Keep quiet," he ordered, before making sure that he was properly hidden behind the decayed tree''s yellowed leaves.
After a few moments, the sound of hundreds of tiny footsteps could be heard just a small distance away. It was quite dark since the moonlight just barely made its way to the forest floor, however, Lucius could still make out the several dozen figures that he had sensed.
~What are they?~ he thought to himself, watching as something like a hundred creatures from different species, dragged what looked like corpses toward the soup.
Leading them was a decayed creature, just a little big bigger than Lucius. It stood at 1.5 meters tall, with a hunched back making it look like a little old man. It had purple glowing eyes, and rotting ck skin that seemed to be peeling off. In fact, Lucius could make out what looked like a woody bone structure at a part of its face.
"Drop them in the soup," the creature ordered, speaking in the same strange dialect that the shrooms used.
Lucius squinted his eyes and just barely made out the odd object hanging from its head, the decayed remains of what looked like a shroom cap. However, it looked more like a tuft of sagging skin than a cap at this point.
~It''s a shroom? But how did it get that big?~ he wondered to himself, as the hoard of creatures began dropping the corpses they were dragging into the soup one by one.
He noted that their movements were odd, like they were heavily injured and drowsy at the same time. He couldn''t quite put his finger on it, but they didn''t seem natural.
Besides, there was no way that these creatures were in their right mind. What arachnid would stand alongside a boar, and what boar would stand alongside a leafling?
A whole army of creatures that were very unlikely to stand next to each other without fighting were obediently following this creature''s orders.
"Go back to the Dark Forest and collect more fuel for the hoard. Prioritize bigger creatures this time, I do not want anything smaller than a boar in my collection," the creature ordered, and the hoard began marching away.
~Fuel? Hoard?~ Lucius thought, an eery sensation creeping up his back.
A momentter, a purple orb emerged from the creature, about the size of Lucius''s head. At first nce Lucius could tell that it was a crux, it would seem the creature knew magic.
"Arise," the creature whispered, and a dozen wisps shot out from the crux and made their way into the soup. A momentter, the soup began stirring, as ifing to life.
~No,~ Lucius thought, in total shock at what was happening.
The body parts floating within the soup beganing together, reforming the creatures they had once been a part of. Shrooms, boars, arachnids, frog-beings, creatures that looked like bats, a fewrge metal-shelled centipedes, and even a few dozen shrooms began emerging from the soup.
~He''s bringing them back from the dead. Then that hoard he sent out...~ Lucius realized.
"Half of you start digging another pit. Go west of here and you will see the others working already, you can build yours right next to thetest one," the creature ordered, using a hand gesture to divide the hoard into two.
"The rest of you go into the Dark Forest and collect more fuel for the hoard," it said, before sniffing the air. After a moment of hesitation, it looked up directly at where Lucius was.
"But first, kill those creatures," it ordered, pointing towards Lucius.
~Did it sense me?~ Lucius wondered, alreadyunching himself toward an adjacent tree.
Though there seemed to be quite a number of creatures in the hoard, their movements were hindered, perhaps a side effect of being reanimated. The leader itself stood still, Lucius guessed that it couldn''t run without his body falling apart.
Unfortunately for them, Lucius was insanely fast. Especially with his tail helping to catch on to branches, allowing him to swing from tree to tree like a monkey.
Within a few minutes, he had lost sight of the hoard. However, he could still sense them approaching him.
~Relentless,~ he thought to himself, deciding to increase his speed in a direction away from the camp.
He had to run for 30 minutes non-stop before the hoard stopped chasing him. And even then he was sure it was just because their leader could not sense him anymore.
"Captain, what was that?" Alpha asked as Lucius let him and Hannibal on the ground.
"I don''t know, some sort of... what did they call it, ncer? He brings things back from the dead, I''m guessing it''s what its crux specializes in," Lucius replied, still monitoring his earth sense to make sure they weren''t being followed.
"Lucius, did you notice it?" Hannibal asked, his body shaking.
"It grew ever so slightly after it brought those creatures back from the dead," Lucius answered after a moment of thought. He had hoped that his brain had been ying tricks on him.
"We should go back and kill it. We can''t let a monster that controls that many creatures so close to that camp," Alpha said, gripping his spear tightly.
"No," Lucius replied, his head already hurting from all the fail-safes he would have to create because of this thing.
"How will we kill it? What about its army? I''m sure I can take down a few dozen of its minions, but we don''t know how many there are. We don''t even know if that thing can die," he continued.
"Bu-"
"Look, Alpha. I am not a god, we need to be careful before strange unknown enemies like these," Lucius replied.
~Who knows, it might be a creature owned by the ''furry-folk''?~ he thought to himself.
"Besides, its crux was visiblyrger than mine, so it''s safe to say that it''s probably stronger than me as well," he continued, running through all the possible scenarios where he might win.
Perhaps if this had been before his encounter with the ''furry-folk'' he might''ve thought he had a chance. But he had learned that spells didn''t always work on every creature, and he was uncertain whether the creature couldn''t just bring itself back to life.
"So what do we do? That thing clearly wants to drag every living thing into its little army," Alpha replied, angry at his own uselessness.
"We do nothing... for now. We need more information on it, why it''s here, what it wants, why it''s gathering an army," Lucius replied, thoughtfully.
"But what are the odds that it''s at the exact same spot our attackers used to camp? And the fact it''s a shroom..." Hannibal said, breaking his silence.
Lucius did not respond to that. There was no use making that assumption out loud. But the thought had also crossed his mind.
What if that was the shrooms'' leader?
Chapter 105 Pagans Mission (1)
~The leaflings need to start pulling their own weight as soon as possible. If that thing continues to do as it pleases, the decay might eventually spread deeper into the forest,~ Lucius thought to himself, before grabbing Hannibal and Alpha with his tail, and galloping towards the camp.
On his way there, he pondered over things more carefully. Could he and that creature be linked somehow?
It was far-fetched, but he had felt abnormal levels of hostility towards the creature''s energy. Like mas repelling each other.
~In fact, what the hell am I even doing in this world?~
? Lucius had long epted that this wasn''t a dream, and perhaps due to his former training, he had gotten over that fact a little too quickly. However, he had never actually stopped to ask himself why. Why was he here? Who brought him here?
At the very least, he knew that whoever brought him here must''ve had a very important reason. Otherwise, why else would he have a system attached to his brain?
~A god perhaps?~ he thought, finding the thought a little idiotic. However, rationally speaking, the presence of magic through everything on the table.
~Let''s say it was a god. Why did it bring me here without saying anything to me?~ he pondered.
Though after some consideration he realized that once again hisck of knowledge was stopping him from making any viable theories.
~If only the ''furry-folk'' weren''t such aggressive creatures. Perhaps I could''ve enquired more about this world from them, since they seem to be the dominant species. But there was mention of the ''owners of the green forest'' perhaps they might have some information,~ he thought to himself just as he arrived at the camp.
"You guys go rest, speak nothing of what you saw. I''ll give an order to avoid going to that section of the forestter. Right now I don''t want the leaflings getting frightened over something they have no effect over," Lucius ordered, before climbing up a tree to continue his pondering.
He left Alpha and Hannibal with a lot of unanswered questions. The two of them were notplete idiots, they had lived a few years, and not once had they seen a creature like that. They were near certain that whatever was going on involved Lucius.
The two abnormalities just had to be linked, and Lucius knew that they might''ve suspected this. But he had no answers for them... he had no answers for himself.
~Hmm, this should be a secondary task. Though I am itching to know what brought me here and why, I have to gain enough power to hold some form of influence. Otherwise, the owners of the forest won''t deal with me. Or worse, whoever brought me here might decide that it was a mistake and I''ll be powerless to stop it,~ he thought to himself.
~Only more reason to get everyone locked and loaded as fast as possible,~ he decided, before closing his eyes for a few minutes of rest.
*
Early the next morning, Lucius gathered Asclepius and Pagan and headed for the forest. He had ordered Alpha and Hannibal to keep watch of the leaflings while they were away.
"So are you going to tell me why exactly you dragged me from my experimentation?" Asclepius asked.
"Pagan is going on his first mission, and you on yours," Lucius exined, both Pagan and Asclepius riding on top of his back as he galloped deep into the forest.
"Lighted One, are we really going to find boars out this far?" Pagan asked.
"Probably not," Lucius answered promptly.
"Wait, what''s my mission?" Asclepius butted in before Pagan could ask a follow-up question.
"You are going to acquire information lines, boar hunting spots specifically," Lucius replied.
"Information lines? You really think creatures are just going to tell me where their hunting spots are?" Asclepius asked, unconvinced by Lucius''s apparentck of logic.
"For the right price, yes. Besides, creatures of your size wouldn''t be able to hunt boars anyway. If perhaps they saw a nesting ground during their travels, I''m sure they''d be more than willing to spill for a bit of meat," Lucius replied.
"Ah, I see. But we didn''t bring any meat," Asclepius said after some thought.
"That''s where the first part of Pagan''s missiones in. The Warring and Special Operations Department''s first division is the hunter''s division. I need to know that I can rely on you to hunt even when I am not around. And that means being able to differentiate creatures that you can handle from creatures that you can''t," Lucius exined, before halting at a trail.
They were now well within the pristine part of the forest, as Lucius called it. And though the trees here were incredibly thin, they were also very densely distributed, making for excellent cover.
"Okay, now start your hunt," Lucius said, taking Asclepius and Pagan off his back.
"Lighted One, where is this beast I will be hunting? Is it perhaps up one of these trees?" Pagan asked,pletely lost.
"There is a trail here, meaning that this path is traversed quite often. You also have your earth sense, so you should have an idea if a creature is close by, and whether or not you can handle it," Lucius exined, already sensing three creatures a distance away.
"I don''t sense anything," Pagan said after a moment.
"Amature," Asclepius snorted, brushing past Pagan as she followed the trail.
"The creature is probably smaller than a boar based on the footprints. A beast definitely, a four-legged one," Asclepius whispered, bending over to get a better look at the footprints.
"How do you know that?" Pagan asked, moving close to take a look as well.
"I was born a hunter," she answered rather quickly, shoving Pagan away as he got a little too close forfort.
"Guess you aren''tpletely useless then," Pagan replied, shoving her back with even more force.
~They remind me of me and my sister when we were younger,~ Lucius thought, quickly suppressing the memory as it was about to dig its way out.
"So Lighted One, should we follow it?" Pagan asked.
"You''re the leader of this operation, I''m merely here to give you marks," Lucius replied.
Chapter 106 Pagans Mission (2)
The trail led the group deeper into the forest, going even past the water springs. Once again, the vegetation around them slowly began to change in appearance, until eventually, they were in a section of the forest even more alien than the one prior.
In this section the trees, if they could even still be called that, had been reduced to the width of soda cans. What should''ve been bark, was now a weird shimmering coating, that seemed to change color depending on what angle it was being viewed from.
The grass, which now formed a sort of nket over the ground, seemed to be made of ss. However, the way it swayed in the breeze and its rather soft texture made it apparent that it was not the case.
The leaves that hung on the thickets of bushes, which formed the majority of the vegetation here, were made of different colored crystals, a few of which Lucius collected to inspectter.
The rather ss-like nature of the vegetation here should''ve made the sun''s re unbearable, but it didn''t somehow. It was as if the ss absorbed the sunlight instead of reflecting it, which made Lucius''s head hurt just trying to think of the physics of it all.
Though he had to admit, this was a natural masterpiece. If not for the fact that he was constantly on edge due to the vast variety of animal sounds that now echoed in the forest, perhaps he would''ve enjoyed it more.
As the group searched for their prey, they had to avoid a great number of other bigger creatures, taking detours, and hiding behind the crystal bushes to avoid being seen.
Frankly, the beasts here were nothing like those on earth. Previously Lucius was able to mirror the creatures here to ones he had seen before, as they seemed more or less like copies with a few modifications. But now, the creatures werepletely alien to him.
For instance, just a few minutes ago, they had to sneak past a massive creature the size of an elephant, that had six legs, six eyes, and tusks that were more than 2 meters long. Its skin was an autumn orange color, that seemed to have a ss coating on top of it, much like the trees.
In fact, most all creatures here had that same coating, making them look more like ss sculptures than actual living creatures.
"Pagan, consider moving more quietly. With all the chatting you and Asclepius have been doing, we won''t be able to catch up to this creature before noon," Lucius said.
It seemed that whatever animal they were tracking down was aware it was being followed. As he could sense it constantly moving away from them, stopping only for a few brief moments before running along once again.
Of course, he could''ve given Pagan this piece of information earlier, but he wanted Pagan to figure it out for himself, though he was clearly expecting too much from someone who had just until recently been a prey creature.
Though it was quite surprising that Asclepius hadn''t told him anything. But with the passive-aggressive rtionship between the two, she was probably doing this on purpose so that Pagan would fail his mission.
"Ah, I can sense it, now," Pagan said, stopping abruptly.
Lucius could sense that the creature had stopped moving as well, however, there were a whole group of other creatures standing suspiciously still just outside of his sense range.
"Pagan, you should watch your surroundings, there might be others of its kind lurking close by," Lucius warned, realizing that perhaps the creature had lured them back to its den.
"I''ll go deal with it quickly," Pagan announced, apparently having heard nothing of Lucius''s warning. He called out his crux and dashed through a thicket ofvender crystalline shrubs toward his prey.
"Pagan, wait," Lucius called out, however, Pagan was already gone.
"Stay here, I''m going to make sure this idiot doesn''t get too hurt," he whispered to Asclepius, before peaking his head past the shrub.
The creature that Pagan was hunting was just a small distance away, staring at the sky apparently unaware that it was being pursued.
It was a dog-like creature, slightly smaller than a boar. It had fourrge ears, two of which stood up like horns, while the other two drooped down over its eyes.
Its skin was scaly, and though it was primarily ssy ck in color, it seemed to shimmer and shine with the different colors around it, like a sort of chameleon.
~Where are the others hiding?~ Lucius wondered, checking with his earth sense again. He could clearly sense that there were five other creatures with more or less the same readings as this one. Though there were nowhere to be seen.
~Are they hiding behind those shrubs?~ he wondered, staring at a line of shrubs just in front of the creature.
By now, Pagan was already within range of the creature and was preparing to cast a sr burst.
But right then, something odd happened...
The creature vanished, gone without a trace.
"Pagan, get back!" Lucius shouted, already running towards Pagan. But it was toote, in mere seconds Pagan''s body had severalrge bite marks from which sap was constantly gushing out of.
~Sr cleanse,~ Lucius chanted instinctively, before grabbing Pagan with his tail, and galloping back towards Asclepius.
"What''s goin-" but before Asclepius could even finish her sentence, Lucius grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulder, before increasing his speed.
"What''s going on?" she asked as Lucius zipped in between the pole-like trees.
"They''re invisible," Lucius exined, pushing his limbs to their limit. He turned to look back and found that the beasts were still chasing them. Their camouge wasn''tpletely perfect when they moved, so he could just make out their outline.
~They''re fast, but they''re nothingpared to the ''furry-folk''~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Pagan, watch closely. I''ll leave one of them for you to deal withter," Lucius ordered, before tossing Asclepius up a tree, andunching Pagan up the same tree with his tail.
"I wonder how you all taste," Lucius said as he slid to a halt, spinning around to look at his prey.
Chapter 107 Pagans Mission (3)
The creatures halted for a moment, as if sizing Lucius up. They began moving very slowly, trying to surround him, though Lucius kept moving to make sure that that wouldn''t be possible.
If not for the fact that he couldn''t see them clearly, he would''ve attacked already. He decided to take this time to observe them, observe their movements and find out how they attacked.
Giving up on surrounding him, the creatures moved to pounce on him in unison.
~Sr burst,~ Lucius chanted, making sure to decrease its potency so as not topletely destroy them. He wanted their bodies in usable condition to run a few experiments.
The creatures were flung back and their camouge was temporarily brought down, revealing their locations.
That was all it took, in two swift movements, Lucius mmed his knee into the head of one of the creatures, before impaling its skull with the tip of his stinger tail.
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
Just as he was about to move on to the next, their camouge came up again, and all he could see was their faint outlines.
The creatures began backing away, realizing that what they thought was prey might actually be too dangerous to hunt.
"Pagan, did you see that?" Lucius called out, still staring in the general direction of the remaining creatures.
"Indeed Lighted One, these creatures are but twigspared to your greatness," Pagan shouted back.
"He''s talking about how the spell revealed them," Asclepius exined in a tired tone.
"I saw that too Lighted One," Pagan added after.
"Make sure to tone down your sr burst to make sure you don''t damage them. I want their bodies in good condition," Lucius announced before, letting out a sr pulse.
The sr pulse gave him information on the state of the beasts and a rough idea of where they were. However, in addition to that, something odd happened.
The creatures'' camouge came undone for a split moment.
~It''s almost as if... the sr energy is disrupting their camouge,~ Lucius realized.
He had been under the impression that their camouge went down because the burst disoriented them, but that did not seem to be the case.
"Lighted One, how did you do that?" Pagan shouted down.
"Sr pulse. Pagane down here," Lucius called out, before sending out a series of sr pulses at high frequency.
Of course, it was mentally straining and ate away at his sr energy reserves at a fast rate, but he took it as practice as the beasts were now substantially less dangerous now that he had a method to kill them.
He sent out the pulses at a rate of 3 pulses per second, meaning that he got information on them at an almost continuous rate.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSr Trace¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSr Trace¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSr Trace¡» has been added.]
~A new spell?~
Pagan obliged and dropped to the ground, quickly casting sr trace. At this point, the beasts were basicallypletely visible, as the intervals of their invisibility were so short it was nearly impossible to tell.
At this, the creatures were put into a confused daze. They simply stared at each other, unable toprehend why their invisibility wasn''t working.
"You aren''t allowed to use any other spells, and you can only strike them in the head. Preferably a single thrust with your ws..." Lucius called out, before galloping towards one of the still confused beasts, running his ws through its head "Like this," he finished off.
The attack shook the creatures out of their daze. They decided to cut their losses and try to escape, stumbling over each other in an attempt to get as far away as possible.
"Chase after them," Lucius shouted, before running after them.
The hunt took around five minutes, though Lucius could''ve ended it in one. He was purposefully letting the creatures live longer to take note of their movements, and also to force Pagan to increase his stats.
In the end, Pagan gained 20 points in strength, 38 in stamina, and 30 in agility.
"You need to work on your aim, I said strike them in the head," Lucius said as he dragged the creatures back towards the spot they left Asclepius at.
"I will try to do better, Lighted One," Pagan replied. Though deep down he knew that he wouldn''t be able to. The creatures were moving too fast for him to urately aim for their heads. In fact, Pagan suspected that Lucius viewed things at a faster rate than he did.
"Overall, you scored 5/10, 6/10 because they were a bit tricky," Lucius said, stacking the beasts atop each other.
While Lucius was inspecting the prey, Pagan got Asclepius from the tree she was still waiting on.
"Hopefully their camouge skin will still work even with them dead," Lucius whispered to himself before tearing off a piece of meat.
~Now, for the quality test,~ he thought before tossing the meat into his mouth.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 27%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 27%]
[Radiance Production increased by 27%]
[Stats increased by 1%]
[Questplete.]
[+200 exp]
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
[Level 9!]
~This is pretty good quality,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Let''s head back to the camp. We''ll grab some water for Ghost on the way," Lucius ordered, pulling out a worm sack from the vine belt around his waist.
***
The group got back to their section of the forest three hourster, even though it should''ve been a two-hour trip. The problem was that they had to take a few detours due to the smell of blood attracting hunters toward them.
This was especially troublesome in the ss forest as there was a huge density of different creatures. Though with Lucius''s speed, they managed to escape most of them.
After securing the meat atop a tree a distance away from the camp, taking only a small amount for Ghost''s pod, the group proceeded to wash themselves off at the river.
"Captain, you''re back," Alpha called out once they got to the camp.
Chapter 108 Ascendance Of The Commune
"Gather everyone in front of the main cottage, we''ll be having a session in a minute," Lucius ordered.
It was mid-afternoon, so there was still quite some time avable to hold a session, however, Lucius had other things to do and wanted to get this out of the way quickly.
"Yes, Captain," Alpha replied, before shouting out orders.
Lucius began walking towards the cottage that housed Ghost''s pod, water and meat in hand.
"So will I be having a session along with everyone else?" Asclepius asked, following close behind him.
"You still haven''tpleted your mission. I''ll hold a session for you after you''ve done it," Lucius replied, opening the door to the cottage.
"I understand why Pagan''s mission was based on hunting, but how does forming information lines rte to my department?" Asclepius asked, following him into the cottage.
"Your department deals in information, I don''t see how it isn''t rted. You can use this chance to enquire about information they may have on herbs, or other techniques that you might not have ess to."
"In fact, you can even hire a few of them to pick out herbs for you to make your life easier, but make sure to secure hunter locations. I don''t want to have to go back to the ss forest, it''s way too far, and way too crowded for my liking," Lucius replied, feeding Ghost''s requirements into her pod.
[Requirements met!]
~Probably a day more and she''ll be out,~ he thought to himself, before turning to leave.
"Makes sense... I suppose. But the only information lines I''ll be able to form are with others of my kind. Wouldn''t it make more sense for you to do it? Since you can talk to creatures around the same size as you, won''t they be better information sources?" Asclepius asked, following Lucius out.
She had a point, shrooms were limited in the information they could provide. If Lucius formed information lines with others on the same tier as him, or above, he would gain ess to more than just hunting spots. He might be able to gain information on techniques and other details about this world.
And of course, he nned on doing just that. However, this wasn''t his only goal.
"We aren''t doing this for just information alone. This is just an excuse to form rtions with these creatures. We''ll slowly make them depend on us, and then bring them into themune," he exined, the other leaflings currently waiting on him.
"But couldn''t you do that with higher-tier creatures?" Asclepius asked.
"Lower-tier creatures are easier to manipte and easier to deal with if they end up betraying me. However, higher-tier creatures are moreplex, and there is a chance they may have some way of retaliating if I try to get rid of them," Lucius exined, before joining the leaflings.
"You can continue your research, I''lle get you once we''re done," he said, before addressing the leaflings.
"Are you guys ready? This is yourst day as leaflings," he announced, to which the leaflings responded with cheers of excitement.
He quickly arranged them into neat lines, taking into ount how he wanted their pods to be lined up once they began the evolution process.
"Pagan, you may begin the session," he said after.
"Everyone, open your minds to the Lighted One, receive this blessing in his name, and work to repay him till your final days," Pagan said dramatically, before beginning the session.
~Just who gave him the idea to say all this before starting a session?~ Lucius thought to himself, before closing his eyes and bringing out his crux.
[¡ºPagan¡» requests to use you as a ry.]
[ept.] [Decline.]
~ept.~
[¡ºPagan¡»''s +5% increase has been added. Photosynthesis efficiency has been increased by 32%]
[Absorbing 792 Helios per second.]
~What?!~
Ever since Lucius had evolved, he hadn''t done a photosynthesis session with his own crux. So it was a surprise to see that his absorption rate had nearly tripled since hisst evolution.
At this rate, he and Pagan may even evolve before the leaflings wake up.
During the session, the leaflings began evolving one after the other, which was very strenuous for Lucius''s mind as he was constantly being sent to the white void.
They even had to take a few breaks in between to allow his mind to get some rest. During all this, Lucius discovered a few things about the evolution process.
For one, he could only use the genomes of creatures he had consumed once. Meaning that the genome he had given to Ghost was unique to her alone.
He figured this out after opening the genome''s library, which apparently was only essible when someone was evolving. The genomes were listed in terms of their main attributes, and possible ''modifications''.
The one that he had used on Ghost was greyed out, and when he tried choosing it the system gave him the message [Genome currently in use.]
There were two other genomes on the list, and based on the descriptions given he could more or less tell which creatures they belonged to. One of them belonged to the centipede he had eaten in the dark forest, and the other to the weird creatures he had recently devoured.
Sadly, this meant he would have to be careful about giving genomes away.
In his head he was already reserving the centipede gene for Alpha, hoping that he would get the metallic shell. The invisible dog creature, which he was calling a shimmer-wolf, was reserved for a future member of a shadow division within the Warring Department.
He decided that he would go hunting for a creature with characteristics to his likingter on, as he was unsure whether he could have more than one genome at a time.
After about 3 hours, the wholemune had evolved, and pods of different designs were lined up neatly in front of the main cottage.
"Hmm, that was quite a good session," Lucius said, noting down Hannibal, Alpha, and Pagan''s growths.
Hannibal and Alpha were now the sizes ofrge rodents, with Alpha being a lot bulkier. Pagan on the other hand was now the size of a small boar, about 25 centimeters shorter than Lucius.
~Hmm, this is odd. Is he not going to go through the guardian evolution?~ Lucius thought to himself.
Chapter 109 Trade Relations
Over the course of the session Lucius had absorbed about 6.6 million helios, of which only 1 million went into growth.
He had to save 2 million Helios for both Alpha and Hannibal''s cruxes. And after that, he had to take into ount the uing cost of evolving all the leaflings, which would amount to about 3.5 million, with an additional 35 million for the sobriquets.
He also wanted to finish the milestone quest as soon as possible, as there was a chance that the rewards would help increase the rate of growth of themune.
So sadly, his growth would have to wait for a while. Though at the rate he was going, within a week he would meet the required helios.
Besides, he wanted to take this time to allow his crux to catch up with his body. From what he could tell, his crux was extremely weak, and he hadn''t exhausted all the possibilities for spell creation.
And if it ever came down to it, he doubted that a stronger body would be of much use against an enemy that used magic. Especially now since he did not have ess to the radiant index.
"Pagan, go get Asclepius," he ordered, before turning to Hannibal and Alpha.
"Are you two ready?" he asked, to which both of them nodded their heads.
"It took me and Pagan only a few days toplete the process, so you guys should be up before the leaflings have evolved," Lucius exined, before opening his shop.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??System Shop??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
(Current Helios: 5,600,300)
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
"See you guys in a bit," he said, before selecting two solis fragments and using them on the two of them.
They passed out the moment the fragments were used, and after checking their statuses with a sr pulse, Lucius took them into the cottage.
"I''ll start construction tonight," he whispered to himself, as Asclepius and Pagan came into view.
"I''ll be frank, I don''t feel safe giving you a higher rank with your performance during the hunt," Lucius said, looking toward Pagan.
"I''m giving you this second mission as a second chance to prove yourself," he added after a moment of thought.
"Asclepius will be visiting a few shroom ns, and you''ll be going there as her security. You''re to show no aggression... regardless of what provocations they may throw at you. However, if they so much as move to harm Asclepius, kill all of them," he said, to which Asclepius gave a dumbfounded expression.
She had taken Lucius to be a peaceful creature, and who could me her? He had even banned the devouring of sentient beings.
"And then loot their den, take everything of value," he added.
"Why don''t we just do it right now, Lighted One? Surely there will be enough of those creatures left over to bend to your will," Pagan asked.
"Being barbaric will only get us so far. If other creatures find out we have a history of senseless violence, they might be less inclined to join themune," Lucius replied, before stopping to think for a moment.
"And others might see us as a threat that needs to be taken out. We still don''t know everything about this forest, it''s better to act things out in a logical manner... at least until we have considerable control of the area," he exined.
~Amongst the leaflings, Pagan is probably the least merciful,~ Lucius thought to himself.
Pagan didn''t seem to hold any sense of remorse for anyone, perhaps besides Lucius. Even during the night when half themune had been wiped, Pagan didn''t seem the least bit bothered by their deaths.
~Ironic,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"I shall do your bidding Lighted One," Pagan said, with what sounded like a tinge of disappointment.
"Asclepius, tell them that I offer a ce in mymune. They will be fed and taken care of so long as they obey," Lucius said.
"I will do my best to get them on your side," Asclepius replied.
"As will I," Pagan added.
"Ahh... Pagan, you don''t have to. I think Asclepius is enough," Lucius said immediately.
He didn''t need the shrooms thinking that hismune was full of crazy ''Lighted One'' cult leaders.
"Which n are you heading to first? I need to know where to start looking incase the two of you don''t return," Lucius asked.
"There aren''t many ns close by here, most of them are closer to the nnds on the other side of the forest," Asclepius said, pointing towards the west, away from the river.
"I''ll be visiting a well-known n. Their structures are quite vast, so I doubt you''ll miss it," she exined.
"nnds?" Lucius asked, it was his first time hearing of these.
"An area of the forest with vegetation near identical to my people. It''s simr to how the forest here is a representation of the other creatures in your n," Asclepius exined.
~So an area of the forest with a fungal infestation?~ Lucius wondered, imagining a forest filled with mushrooms.
"Hmm, this might be more dangerous than I thought," he murmured out loud.
"Pagan, I understand you feel confident because you can use magic, but don''t let your guard down. The poison that shrooms emmit can wreak serious havoc on your insides, and even I found it hard to keep my mind straight after using sr cleanse," he warned.
"Not to mention that elders are a higher tier than normal shrooms," he continued, remembering how the shri''kilian causes evolution.
"Are there no other options?" he asked after a moment of thought. Talking to shrooms in this section of the forest was one thing, but in an area filled with mushrooms, there was no telling what tricks they might have.
"Lighted One, let me prove myself. I promise to fulfill your request to your exact liking," Pagan said.
~I can''t hold their hands forever anyway,~ Lucius thought, trying to convince himself.
"Okay, just make sure to avoid the area where our old camp once was. There are odd creatures lurking around there, if you see any that look like they are rotting, run away," Lucius warned.
The two of them nodded their heads in understanding, though they were a bit confused about the odd creatures he was talking about. Once they left on their journey, Lucius began construction on a cottage to house the pods.
Chapter 110 We Come In The Name Of The Lighted One (1)
***
"I think this is it," Asclepius whispered, staring at a group ofrge mushroom-shaped towers, clustered under a mushroom-like tree.
The mushroom towers were about 1.5 meters tall, and apart from a few odd openings they looked near identical to normal mushrooms. These towers were spread across quite a distance, though one wouldn''t be able to discern them from the rest of the mushroom-esque vegetation in this section of the forest.
"Aren''t those just nts?" Pagan asked, wondering why they were hiding behind a patch of mushrooms when there was nothing close by.
"Those aren''t just nts. It''s a den. elders have the ability to create structures that look very simr to natural vegetation," Asclepius replied, before slowly walking toward the structures.
"Keep quiet and let me do the talking," she whispered to Pagan, before looking towards the top of the mushroom-tree that stood over the structures.
"Ie to speak to your elder. We mean no harm," she shouted towards the tree.
A momentter, several shrooms appeared, standing atop the tree''s branches.
"What is the creature that stands behind you?" one of the shrooms asked.
"One of the chieftains of my n. I was sent by my elder, so it is a given that hees along," she exined.
The shroom she had been talking to slid down the tree with movements so fluid that could only havee from repetitive practice.
"Your n houses creatures thisrge?" the shroom asked, walking past Asclepius to inspect Pagan.
His confidence made Asclepius certain of the fact that there were probably many more guards hiding somewhere close by. Though if they did the mistake of confusing Pagan for a mere boar-sized creature, they would have her eternal pity.
"Give me a reason as to why we should not just kill the both of you, and eat the big one?" the shroom asked after walking around Pagan once.
"It would not be wise to anger my elder or his chieftains. One of his chieftains holds enough power to kill a thousand of your elders," Asclepius replied.
Though the reply may have seemed aggressive, to shrooms a show of power was as natural as breathing
The shroomughed at thement, before ordering one of his men to inform their elder of their guest.
"This elder of yours, is he so powerful that he got such arge creature to obey him? Or is it that this creature is so meek, that even a weakling could do such a task?" the shroom asked, staring at Pagan.
"Asclepius, I take it that him being so close to you is a sign of aggression? ording to the Lighted One''s wishes, I shall now destroy this entire n," Pagan announced, mere moments away from calling his crux.
"Pagan, if you call out your¡ remember what he said. I''ll have him fail you if you don''t calm down," Asclepius warned, trying her best to diffuse the situation.
"No matter how big you are, you will still fall to our poison. We have dealt with creatures bigger than you before, you are nothing to us in our domain. So watch your tongue," the guard replied.
"Listen, if you don''t stop talking, I will not be responsible for what he does to you," Asclepius said, staring dagger at the guard. She could already tell that things were not going to end well.
"Stand down," shouted an old voice, before the figure of arge shroom being, just a few heads shorter than Pagan came out of the fungal towers.
"So you are the messengers that your Elder has sent?" the old shroom asked, sizing Pagan up.
"A chieftain?" he asked, recognizing that Pagan had signs of being modified by the shri''kilian.
"It is so," Asclepius replied, before offering her hand to the elder.
The chieftain received her hand with his own, before putting his other hand on top of it.
"May the shri''killian guide you," the elder said, before turning to look at Pagan.
"He does not follow our ways. He knows not of the legends," she exined.
"To think that one who knows nothing of our ways haspleted our trails. But such is the way of the forest," the elder said with a slight chuckle.
"So what is it that your elder wishes to tell me?"
"He requests that rtions be formed," Asclepius replied.
"We are a n, 400 strong. Our den spans quite the area, and I have ten chieftains of my own. Though they are smaller than this one, their poison would be enough to defeat him, if not kill him. So tell me young one, why should we form rtions with this elder of yours?" the elder asked with a near-evil smile.
"Topare yourself to the Lighted One is heresy. In fact, I could see it as an act of aggression," Pagan said, once again mere moments away from releasing his crux.
"Pagan! Let me talk," Asclepius said, straining her words.
"My elder offers food in exchange for information," she continued, facing toward the elder.
"You have not answered my question. This is the biggest n this side of the forest, whatever food your elder can secure, we can secure many times more. Have youe here to waste my time?" the elder asked, his smile only growing more wicked.
"Enough of this," Pagan shouted before Asclepius could reply.
"Pagan, if you mess this up Lucius won''t forgive you," she shouted at him.
"It seems that this elder of yours has ipetent chieftains. If this creature speaks one more time, I shall end our discussions here, and prepare a feast for my children," the elder warned.
~No you won''t, you idiot,~ Asclepius thought to herself.
This was way harder than she had anticipated. She had gone to thergest n hoping to create the best link possible, but she hadn''t taken into ount that their strength might''ve made them conceited.
Now she had to make sure that Pagan didn''t delete what could be their best allies.
"My elder is the shri''killian. I have seen his gifts myself," Asclepius said, realizing that if she didn''t find a way to resolve things, the talks would soon fall through.
The shrooms who were currently watching the negotiations began murmuring. And even more shrooms beganing out of the den, to see what all themotion was about.
"It seems you have indeede here to waste my time," the elder said, a bored look on his face.
Chapter 111 The Monster Under The Light
"Do you really want to throw away your only chance at ascending to another tier? At standing among the greatest, merely because you would not take a few moments to listen?" Asclepius asked, trying to tempt the old man.
She could feel Pagan shaking with excitement, if the old man tried anything he would have full right to destroy everything. And Asclepius was starting to believe that this was the only way Pagan wanted things to pan out.
"I want to see this elder for myself then. The one who ims to be the Shri''killian," the old man said after some thought.
"Bring him to me," he added.
"Pagan!" Asclepius shouted, however it was already toote. Pagan held the elder by the throat, picking him up into the air with a single hand.
"Did you just refer to the Lighted One as if he were on the same level as you?" Pagan asked.
The shroom guards began surrounding the two of them, a thin membrane of poison already being expelled from their bodies.
"Call the chieftains!" a few of them shouted.
"I was told you came here to speak and that you meant no harm. However, it seems I was lied to," the elder said, apparently unphased by Pagan''s aggression.
"Tell your elder that we do not wish to form rtions¡ Never mind, you will not live to report back to him," the old man added before releasing a cloud of green gas.
Pagan''s eyes seared in pain, and he instinctively let go of the old man.
The old man moved his hands, and the poison cloud began moving with it, burning the rest of Pagan''s body.
"I tried to help you all," Asclepius sighed, as a group ofrge shrooms which she guessed were the chieftains emerged from the mushroom towers.
"You guys did not have toe. Prepare for a feast, today this creature shall fill our bellies," the elder announced, still controlling the poison, forcing it into all of Pagan''s orifices.
"So this is the pain the Lighted One had to endure? He is indeed above us all," Pagan said, coughing up sap.
"Forgive me Lighted One, for I came here hoping that the mission might fail. So that I may punish all those rted to your prior suffering," Pagan announced, poison stillpletely decimating his insides.
"You will all do well to beg for the Lighted One''s mercy in your final moments," he said, before casting sr cleanse.
The entire shroom n was in utter shock. Never had they seen a creature instantly heal itself.
However, the elder recovered quickly and began emitting an even denser cloud of poison. This time moving it around like a hurricane, even picking Pagan''s body slightly off the ground.
"Do not fight it. You will all die under his light," Pagan announced, before casting sr field. The poison cloud, along with any other sources of prison within a 1,8-meter radius waspletely dispelled.
Once the poison was dealt with, Pagan cast sr cleanse once again.
The other shrooms stepped back from the forcefield, afraid that they might be grievously harmed. Only the elder, along with a few guards were still inside the, staring at the monster they had just pissed off.
"A Fae?" the elder asked after some thought.
"No, I am much greater. I am a servant of the Lighted One," Pagan replied, before casting sr trace. With every pulse, he added a very powered-down version of sr burst, making it take on more incinerative qualities than explosive.
The result?
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºBursting Trace¡».]
[Adding ¡ºBursting Trace¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºBursting Trace¡» has been added.]
The elders and his guards screamed as their very skin was being incinerated, at a rate of three pulses per second.
And just as they were about to die, Pagan cast sr cleanse on them, and the screaming started all over again.
"You will not die a quick a death. I want you to feel a fraction of what he felt," Pagan said, standing over the elder who was now begging for it all to end.
~Pagan, I know for a fact that your power isn''t infinite. What happens when you run out?" Asclepius worried, standing just out of range of the bursting trace and sr field.
"Oi, if we get her, he might stop," a few guards said, having regained theirposure.
"Fuck," Asclepius whispered, before letting out a thick cloud of poison gas. Though hers was not on the level of an elder, thanks to the arachnid and all the food that Lucius had hunted, her poison was way above that of an ordinary shroom.
While the shrooms were trying to ovee her poison, she ran up a tree, and hid, watching Pagan from above.
"You have paid the price for your wrongdoings, now join his light," Pagan said, after having put the elder through three cycles of bursting trace. With this, he cast a higher-powered version of sr burst, this one with equal quantities of incineration and explosiveness.
And in turn, the elder''s body wasunched into the air, being reduced to little pieces of flesh.
Frankly, Pagan didn''t have any sr energy left. Perhaps one or two sr cleanses, but using them would probably overheat his mind due to the strain.
"Now, I shall give you one more chance. Kneel before the Lighted One, and you shall all be spared," Pagan announced.
"That guy was getting too old anyway," one of the chieftains said. This shroom was very bulky, a head below Pagan, but with nearly the same volume.
"I said kneel, not speak," Pagan replied, before rushing over to the shroom. The shroom attempted to block Pagan''s attack, but the difference in raw strength was too much.
"Clean strike through the head," Pagan whispered, remembering Lucius''s teachings as he thrust his ws through the shroom''s skull.
"Anyone else?" he asked, turning to look over the close to 100 shrooms that were currently crowded outside the mushroom towers.
Perhaps they did have ast resort, some n that could take down any enemy. Perhaps they had some sort of special poison that could incapacitate Pagan, and allow them to be rid of this monster. But whatever that n may have been, it was currently at the back of their minds.
The creature that spewed random words in front of them seemed invincible. It could heal its injuries in mere moments, cause mass destruction at just the thought of it, and above all... tormented its prey beforepletely destroying every fragment of their being.
And even after all that, the shrooms realized that it had the raw strength to kill all of them even without its strange power.
To them, they had already lost. No amount of poison, no amount ofst resorts could save them. They were mentally defeated.
Chapter 112 Subservience
"Then I take it you all want to serve under the Lighted One''s rule?" Pagan asked, to which all the shrooms began nodding their heads.
Asclepius was thoroughly surprised. Of course, she could understand that Pagan must''ve seemed like some sort of iprehensibly powerful being, but they hadn''t even put up that much of a fight.
"Well, not what I was nning, but this will work," she said, climbing down from the tree.
Currently close to 400 shrooms stood silently, waiting to hear what their fate would be.
"But when Lucius said that he offered them a ce in themune, I don''t think he meant this many," she said, realizing that themune could never house 400 neers.
"Shall I kill a few more then?" Pagan asked, referring to the shrooms as if they were things rather than living creatures.
"T-This is insane. This creature won''t let us live even if we surrender," a shroom shouted, apparently unable to bare Pagan''s overbearing presence any longer. It tried to make its escape, however, Pagan was already on it, thrusting his ws clean through its skull.
"Pagan, can you stop killing them for a moment?" Asclepius shouted.
Sure, shrooms killed each other all the time, but to see her own kind being ughtered like this was a little nerve-wracking. Pagan wasn''t the most stable being, so she wasn''tpletely certain if he would eventually just wipe everyone out because ''they were unfitting to serve the Lighted One''.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" he asked cleaning his fluid-drenched hand on the dead corpse.
"Lucius is very thorough about security, he only just recently allowed me to get into the main camp, so I doubt we could even take a quarter of them back. And leaving a few of them isn''t an option, as they might just run away and warn others," she whispered thoughtfully.
"We''ll need to ask Lucius how to proceed with this," she said finally.
"Can we not just take the bigger-looking ones and kill the rest? I doubt they would be of much use to the Lighted One anyway," Pagan said, staring at the smaller shrooms with a hungry re.
"W-We can be of use," one of the smaller shrooms whispered, shivering in fear.
"What was that?" Pagan asked, walking towards the kid-shroom.
"Pagan, if you kill one more, I''ll report this to Lucius," Asclepius warned. She wasn''t all that concerned that the shroom was a kid, but killing too many might break their minds. And that would mean an automatic fail, and maybe even a punishment.
"Hmm, we will take all the chieftains, and the youngest ones in the n," she said after a moment of thought.
The chieftains signified the power of the n, and the children the future. Besides, the children would be easier to manipte, whereas taking the chieftains would cripple any resistance they might form.
"And the rest?" Pagan asked.
"The rest we move closer to themune. Lucius will find a way to deal with them," she said finally.
"But before we move, there was the issue of looting," Asclepius smiled, happy to take all the concoctions and herbs at the n''s disposal.
"Bring everything you have. Concoctions, herbs, eggs, meat, everything," she shouted with a smile.
However the shrooms didn''t so much as move, all of them stared at Pagan as if waiting for his say.
"The Lighted One awaits us, hurry and bring everything out," he shouted. "And if she feels that you are not giving everything you have, I will cull half the n," he threatened. Whether or not he meant it was another story.
~To think that one subordinate can conquer an entire n... and thergest one at that. I chose the right path, this is indeed interesting,~ Asclepius thought to herself as the shrooms began hauling out all their goods.
A good 40 minutester the front of the mushroom towers was crowded with herbs, concoctions, and misceneous items of all sorts. Of course, during this period a few shrooms tried to escape, and sadly Asclepius could do nothing to stop Pagan from killing them.
At this point she doubted that the shroom would be able to function correctly, however, Lucius never mentioned needing them to be totally sane. Besides, her job was to form rtions and what better rtions that a ve-master rtionship?
"Before we leave, I have a few rules to announce... regarding how you are to act in front of the Lighted One," Pagan announced in a dramatic manner.
***
"Bursting Trace?" Lucius whispered to himself, reading the system notification that he had just gotten. This was the first time he had to read a spell from the index, which was very different from already knowing it.
Though the general idea of it was imnted in his head, it took him a moment to figure out that it was just a sr trace, and a sr burst fused together. And even then he had to find the right intensities, as giving too much or too little power to any one step could mess up the bnce, and hence the spell.
~I think this is it,~ he thought to himself, watching as sr bursts were sent out almost sessively. His bursting traces spanned a radius of about 2.2 meters, just a little above Pagan''s, though he wasn''t really trying to test its areal limits.
~It seems that Pagan might be having some trouble, or why else would he be forced to create a new spell?~ he thought to himself.
Though he decided to give it a bit more time before searching for them. So he continued the construction of the pod incubation cottage. He was nearly done, all that was left was the roof.
***
About 40 minutester, Lucius had finished the final touches on the cottage and was lounging around in wait for Pagan.
He decided that he would give them until sundown before he started his hunt, however just as he was about to getfortable he sensed arge number of creatures heading for the camp.
"The undead creature?" he whispered, already galloping towards the source, crux out and spells at the ready.
Chapter 113 Domination?? I Didnt Ask For Domination!
He pushed his body to its limits, reaching very dangerous speeds as he got towards the approaching hoard.
He wasn''t sure how the undead creature had tracked down his camp, but he couldn''t let it get to the pods. Or at least he would make sure that it paid a steep price for attacking hismune.
As he zipped from tree to tree, causing a few of the branches to crack from the force with which heunched himself, he used his earth sense to detect which of the creatures were the strongest.
But there were so many creatures that he couldn''t pinpoint a single one, so he decided he would open things up with a high-powered sr burst to cut down as many enemies as possible, before going hand-to-hand with the remaining few.
He would''ve liked to sneak up on the undead mage and kill it, but that wouldn''t be possible as he was certain it had an ''earth sense'' just like his.
~It''s time,~ he thought to himself, just a few meters away from the hoard. With one final push, he leaped into the air, pushing as much sr energy as he could into the sr burst he was creating.
The very air exploded from the heat he was releasing, and just as he was about to let the 3-meter radius ball of death lose on his enemies, he heard a familiar voice.
"Lighted One?"
And immediately, he dissipated the energy, blowing off the surplus as a sr pulse that reached a radius of 4 meters beforepletely disappearing.
"Pagan? What''s all this?" he asked,nding on the ground with a loud thud.
***
~What have we gotten ourselves into?~ thought shroom A, one of the many that had been captured by the monstrous creature.
They had been forced to carry their belongings from their home toward the monster''s den. The shroom was nearly certain that they would all be devoured once they reached their destination, but couldn''t say anything out of fear that the monster might hear it.
~Why is she siding with that thing? Can''t she see that it''s just using her and will eat herter?~ shroom A thought to itself as it walked behind the monster and the female shroom who had led it to their den.
They had been walking for nearly an hour, and it was beginning to get tiring. But to slow down meant bothering the monster, and that was something it would not tolerate.
"If this monster is just a chieftain, how powerful do you think the elder is?" one of the shrooms next to it whispered. However, it knew not to reply to such an idiot. It was quite obvious that there was no elder, this monster could have no superior, and it doubted even the owners of the forest could fight against the thing.
~What''s the soun-~ shroom A couldn''t even finish its thought as it found its answer flying in the sky. Arge creature, with a tail longer than its own body and horns long enough to gore through a boar carried a burning sun in the palm of its hands.
~So this is death?~ the shroom thought, certain that it was seeing an apparition.
"Lighted One?" the monster said excitedly, not the least bit worried that it would soon meet its death.
~No, even a monster like this would go mad from seeing such power. How creatures like these have been living amongst everyone else is a mystery to me. But I am d to have seen such brilliance,~shroom A thought to itself, watching as the very sun was about toe crashing down on it.
"Pagan what''s all this?"
~Eh?~
***
Lucius quickly shook off the pain fromnding so hard, inspecting the nearly 400 shrooms that Pagan had led here.
"We wish to serve the Lighted One," the shrooms said, all of them lowering their heads before genuflecting in unison.
"Pagan, what the hell is going on?" Lucius asked again.
"These are the creatures that wish to join themune... however, if they displease you I can quickly take care of them," Pagan replied. At this several shrooms began shivering in fear, Lucius was even certain that he saw a few of them pass out for a split second.
"Asclepius?" Lucius whispered, unable to take Pagan''s word for it.
"It is as he says, they all wish to join themune," Asclepius replied awkwardly.
"And you trust their word?" Lucius asked, skeptical that they had agreed even though they knew nothing about themune or its goals.
"Y-you can trust u-" one of therger shrooms was about to say, but one look from Pagan and it went silent.
"I thought I told you not to use strong-arm tactics," Lucius sighed. It was tantly clear that these creatures were all traumatized.
"Lighted One, they were being uncooperative. And I made sure to only kill those who I figured would be a nuisance," Pagan replied.
Lucius turned to Asclepius as if asking for confirmation.
"Well, the few he killed were indeed troublesome. He dealt with it way better than I could''ve," Asclepius said.
To be honest, she figured it would be too much to exin to Lucius that his subordinate was a kill-crazy lunatic who was spreading even crazier ideals. All she wanted to do now was have a photosynthesis session as payment for her troubles.
"Hmm, but even if you say that, these are still too many. I''ll need to think of a way to deal with them," Lucius whispered thoughtfully, still skeptical that he could trust these creatures.
"I can deal with the ones you don''t need, Lighted One," Pagan said, at this the shivering began once again.
"It''s okay, your mission is done. I''ll reward you your rank after this," Lucius said, dismissing Pagan''s suggestion with a wave of his hand.
"Are any of you familiar with building... uh, creating living spaces," Lucius asked, looking towards the creatures.
Though after waiting for nearly a minute none of them responded.
"Is that a no?" he asked after, confused by their silence.
"The Lighted One is speaking to you," Pagan shouted, to which one of therger shrooms began stuttering.
"H-he did not allow us to speak. Y-you said we would only speak when he allowed it," the shroom exined.
~Just what did Pagan do to them?~ Lucius wondered.
"Pagan, head back to the camp, I left it unprotected," he ordered. Perhaps they would be morefortable with Pagan gone.
Chapter 114 One More To The Cult Bandwagon
"So about the housing. Do any of you have any experience building?" Lucius asked once Pagan was gone, to which all therge shrooms raised their hands.
"Perfect, we''ll be making a few sleeping quarters close by here. Are there any specific requirements you need to start work? Wood, vines, stone perhaps?" Lucius asked.
One of the shrooms raised its hands, looking left and right as if expecting to be attacked.
"Yes, you," Lucius said, pointing to the shroom.
"We have partaken of the shri''killian, just like you Lighted One. We have the ability to morph the vegetation," the shroom exined.
~Morph the vegetation?~ Lucius thought to himself, before asking the shroom to show him.
The chieftain stood up, and walked next to a nearby shrub, before holding his hands out. After a bit of mental strain, one of the leaves on the shrub began extending until it touched the ground.
"Interesting, and all of you can do this?" Lucius asked, looking at therger shrooms which he guessed were the chieftains. The group ofrge shrooms all nodded their heads.
"Hmm, you seven will join the Fabrication and Creation Department. I award all of you the rank of constructor grade-D," Lucius announced, hoping that he would remember all the ranks he was giving out.
The chieftains looked confused at this announcement.
"It is a position of importance," Asclepius exined, realizing that her people didn''t know of any other ranks apart from elder and chieftain.
"Can you guys morph wood?" Lucius asked once the confusion was cleared.
"Surely you jest, Lighted One," one of the shrooms replied, before instantly covering its mouth.
"You may speak freely, and enough of this Lighted One nonsense. You can call me Lucius, or what was it... elder?" Lucius announced, before falling into silent thought.
"So what else can you morph, because leaves aren''t going to make a good enough shelter for you guys to stay in," he said finally.
"We can collect materials from our oldnds," one of the shrooms suggested.
~Mushrooms, huh? I guess it will have to do for now,~ he thought to himself.
"How many of you will it take to bring the materials over here?" he asked after, realizing that it was getting dark.
"To create housing of our own? A hundred at least," one of the chieftains replied.
Lucius made a mental note of the chieftain that kept replying, making sure to manipte first.
"Okay, this is what we''ll do. You guys will divide yourselves into 8 groups," Lucius announced, he estimated that there would be around 50 in each group. He was doing this to weaken any resistance they may be able to form and make it easier to manage them.
"You six wille with me, you will live in a separate area from the others," he added. He wasn''t going to allow their leader figures to stay in the same area as the rest of them.
The chieftains, walked towards Lucius, before genuflecting right in front of him, while the others began buzzing around looking for groups to join. After around 20 minutes of moving around, 8 distinct groups stood in front of him.
"Okay, you two groups go get the required materials," he announced once everyone had settled down, pointing at the two groups closest to him.
"Once youe back, you''ll have your meals and get to work," he said after.
~Though this will probably burn through all our reserves,~ he realized.
"Aren''t you scared that they might just run away?" Asclepius whispered as the two groups marched towards the nnds.
"I thought you guys said they came here of their own coalition? Are you telling me that these are all just captives?" Lucius asked. He had suspected that Pagan may have traumatized them by killing a few of their forces, but in the end, he thought that they came here because they were being offered food and security.
Asclepius looked to the side and shrugged, "I don''t know what to say," she whispered after.
"Stop," Lucius sighed.
"Listen, I offer you food and security, in exchange all I ask of you is your help and trust. I can give you rewards beyond your imagination, but only if I deem that you are trustworthy enough," he announced, though this did not invoke any sort of reaction from the shrooms.
It seemed that their trauma blinded them from any possible rewards that could be given to them.
"Pagan has the ability to track down any creature he has seen before. That means if you run away he will be able to find you," Lucius said after, realizing that this was perhaps the only way.
And he was right, to that, the shrooms tensed up, and it was clear that any hopes of escape had been squandered.
~I''m never sending Pagan out on a rtions mission again,~ he thought to himself, before looking at what seemed like an injured shroom.
***
~So this is the Lighted One?~ shroom A thought in awe. A creature more powerful than the monster, but a lot more logical.
In fact, although both creatures had the same powers, shroom A could feel that the Lighted One''s powers were less malicious.
It listened on as the Lighted One spoke, noting down theplete control he seemed to have over the monster. Though it had been a bit skeptical at first, after the Lighted One banished the monster, it knew that it was safe here.
It began to move forward, slipping past the many shrooms who were listening on as it tried to get a better view.
Once it finally reached the front lines, the Lighted One was asking for those who could build. Shroom A nearly raised its hand, naturally trying to be of use, but quickly realized that lying could get it on the Lighted One''s wrong side so dropped it immediately after.
~What is wrong with me?~ it thought to itself. How could it be so entranced by a creature it had just met?
Was it because of what it had seen earlier? Was it doing this merely because this Lighted One seemed like the only force that could save from being hunted down and killed by the monster?
~No...~ Shroom A told itself, staring at the Lighted One. It had never seen a creature so beautiful before. Deep ck eyes, that seemed to be filled with infinite knowledge, a sort of glowing radiance that seemed to dip into infinite power. And above all, a calmed calcted demeanor, one that signified his strength as an elder.
Shroom A knew that the life it had been living up till this point had been nd, mediocre at best. Eat, sleep, hunt, that was all they ever did.
The lucky few who could get the shri''killian had the chance to do something greater, but they all squandered it living bleak lives like the rest of the shrooms.
~Perhaps this really is the Shri''killian,~ shroom A thought, moving closer towards the Lighted One.
"Is something wrong?" the Lighted One asked, looking straight at it. .
Chapter 115 Natural Builders (1)
Shroom A froze in shock, certain that its life was all over... and just as it had found a reason to live.
However, as it closed its eyes, waiting for its demise, it felt a strange warmth cover its body.
"I''ve healed any injuries that you may have sustained," the Lighted One said to it, before announcing to the rest, "If you''ve been injured line up in front of me and I''ll heal you."
***
~Pagan''s already ying the role of bad cop, so I might as well use it to my advantage,~ Lucius thought to himself after making the announcement.
Ever since he had figured out he could reduce the intensity of spells, he began applying it to everything. This included sr cleanse as well.
The spell he was currently using was nothing more than a light show, in actual fact, very little sr energy went into it, and hence it didn''t do much more than cover the patient''s body in light.
"Oi, are you okay?" Lucius asked, his train of thought being disturbed as he noticed that the shroom he had just healed was still staring at him.
"If there''s nothing wrong with you do you mind moving aside, there are others who require healing," he said after the shroom failed to reply, slightly shoving it to the side. He could feel it falter to his touch, he figured that perhaps it was just that much tired.
In a few minutes, a line of shrooms had formed in front of him, and he had begun healing them. Though from his sr pulses, he could tell that none of them were actually injured which made him wonder why exactly they all seemed so bent on having the spell performed on them.
~Perhaps they want to test the power for themselves?~ he thought as he watched the shrooms chatter to each other in excitement.
"So about my session," Asclepius whispered once Lucius had finished healing thest shroom.
"Ahh, yes. It''s nearly dark. Call Pagan toe take watch," Lucius replied.
Once Pagan came back, the atmosphere visibly changed, the shrooms were tenser than they had been before. And the few of them that had even begun talking to each other went silent once again.
"I''ll be back in a few minutes," Lucius said, before going back towards the camp with Asclepius.
"Okay, since this is your first time, you probably won''tst more than five minutes. The burning sensation is normal, just bare with it," he exined as the two of them sat in front of the main cottage.
Asclepius nodded her head in understanding, before touching Lucius''s body.
[? Targetcks certain requirements.]
[Continue Shared Photosynthesis at 50% efficiency?]
~Yes.~
[Absorbing 381 Helios per second.]
Just like Lucius had predicted, the sessionsted for a little over five minutes. Though it was not like he could go past that even if he wanted to as his mind was still recuperating from today''s earlier session.
As he carried the unconscious Asclepius into the cottage, he opened up his system shop to check his current helios bnce.
~3.7 helios, huh? That''s about 37,000 Evo points~ he thought, before purchasing 10,000 Evo points and allocating them to the milestone quest.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Daily Quests ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Complete]
300 exp
< Eat> 300 exp
200 exp
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Milestone ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Just 97 more days,~ he thought to himself with a sigh. ~Perhaps now that the leaflings are all evolving, I can start scouring the forest for high-quality meat,~ he thought to himself. He really needed to find something that gave him higher efficiency increases, or it would take forever to get anything done.
***
By the time the two groups of shrooms had brought back the required materials, it was already dark.
Lucius led the 8 groups towards sections of the forest around to the main camp, allocating spaces for each of the eight groups. Which formed a sort of octagon around the camp.
Though it seemed a bit harsh to be using them as buffers to protect the main camp, he hardly knew them. And if they could be used as fodder shields to protect his children, he was going to do it without any remorse.
~But still, these are a lot of mushrooms,~ he thought to himself, watching as each shroom carried at least 3 mushrooms the same size as them on their backs.
~I wonder what a shroom''s base stats are,~ he thought to himself, realizing that these mushrooms must be heavy for them.
"Okay, you guys can start building this group''s housing," he ordered, stopping at what he was calling the first pir of the 8 camps.
The chieftains got together, concentrating on the mushrooms that the shrooms had ced on the ground. The area was right beside a tree and hidden behind a thicket of shrubs, so it was quite out of sight. Though arge mushroom tower would probably attract attention anyway.
After a few moments of silence, the mushrooms began morphing, turning into a sort of past before fusing into one giant blob. The chieftains then began moving their arms in sync with slow practiced motions, and the paste began raising into the air.
However the whole process was very slow, in fact, it took a good 30 minutes before the general structure of the mushroom tower was even recognizable. And once it was, the chieftains stopped there, breathing heavily as if they had just run a marathon.
"Why did you stop?" Lucius asked. Even though he wasn''t sure how the structure ought to look once it was finished, it was clear that it was nowhere close topletion.
"Morphing vegetation is tiring. We apologize for the dy, however, if we continue at this rate, it mightpromise the strength of thepleted structure," one of the chieftains exined.
"Lighted One, allow me to dispose of these... things," Pagan said in an annoyed tone, before moving towards them with his crux out.
"Pagan, unless I order so, you are to leave every single one of them untouched. They are under my protection, remember," Lucius said, to which the shrooms sighed in relief.
"Forgive me Lighted One," Pagan replied, however, he still stared at the chieftains as if they were a nuisance.
"Go check up on the other camps. I told them not to wander, go make sure they''re listening," he said after.
"I will take my leave, Lighted One," Pagan said, genuflecting before leaving Lucius''s presence.
Chapter 116 Natural Builders (2)
As the group took rest, Lucius thought of some way to bring about the question of this morphing technique.
They had imed that they were capable of doing this simply because they had consumed the shri''killian, meaning that if they could teach it to him he might be able to speed up the rate of development manyfold. Not to mention the battle essory it seemed to promise as well.
"So, this building technique you guys are using, who taught it to you?" he asked after some time had passed.
"Those before us," one of the chieftains replied.
"Hmm, so it is a tradition passed down from chieftain to chieftain then?" Lucius asked, faining interest in the little creatures'' traditions.
"You are right in that line of thinking, Lighted One," the chieftain replied awkwardly.
"Interesting..." Lucius said, and once again silence fell upon the group.
The chieftains continued their work after a few more minutes of rest. It seemed that the structure they hadid out before was just a foundation, as they began morphing even more mushrooms, before cing arger tower-looking structure on top of the first.
~I guess even creatures like termites knew a little about structural integrity,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Will you guys be able to finish this before tomorrow?" he asked as the chieftains took yet another rest. They looked at each other with worried nces, before nodding their heads slowly.
~Lies,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing how scared they seemed. Even though they preferred him to Pagan, it was clear that his presence was still oppressive, and for them to say no to him was probably something they could not even think of doing.
"Look, teach me this morphing technique and perhaps we can hasten things up. I have other duties to take care of," he said in amanding tone.
"I don''t think you can lea-" one chieftain was about to say, but another quickly interrupted him.
"F-Forgive him, Lighted One. We can give tell you how it works, however, everything else will depend on you," the chieftain who had stopped hisrade said instead.
"Very well, then," Lucius replied, and the chieftains grouped around him to exin the process.
From their exnations, Lucius learned that ''earth sense'' was not a unique feature to him or the leaf beings alone.
The shrooms seemed to have something simr, though vastly weaker in both range and feel. They used this ''earth sense'' of theirs to ''link'' with vegetation, and by doing that, bend it to their will.
Lucius closed his eyes and tried his hand at this. Having been ustomed to his ''earth sense'' quite a bit, it didn''t take him long before he could feel the vegetation around him.
[Unlock Skill¡ºElmando¡»?] prompted the system, automatically opening the skill tree tab.
One of the newer branches that had been added after he had consumed the shri''killian was highlighted and one of the circles along it kept blinking. He infered that this must be the skill that would allow him to morph.
It cost 1000 Evo-points, lowering his current helios bnce by 100,000.
[¡ºElmando¡» skill has been unlocked...]
[¡ºElmando¡» has been deemed a linked skill and can be shared with creatures linked to the user.]
~With this I can probably build a city in a few months... no with the number of leaflings in themune, and potential others, I could build a kingdom in a few months,~ he thought to himself. Though he was aware that structures alone did not equate a kingdom, it was a start.
He quickly stretched out his mind and found that his earth sense had been broadened even further than before. He started with something small, morphing a nearby leaf into a cubical shape.
"Impossible," one of the chieftains whispered.
Lucius then proceeded to try and morph the structure they had been working on, though he was quickly brought to a sudden halt.
The ''weight'' from the mushroom structure was unexpectedly higher than that of the leaf, and he found himself stunned due to the fact he hadn''t ounted for that.
After taking a few moments to reset, he tried again, but this time he used even more mental pressure. With sufficient concentration, the structure began morphing to his will, at an even faster rate than the chieftains could manage together.
~Is it because I''m bigger? Or is it that I have a higher mental strength than them?~ he thought to himself.
He tried morphing the structure into a shape simr to houses back on earth but found that it would not stay in a regr shape. That''s to say, that turning them into cubes wasn''t hard, but impossible.
~Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the paste is made from mushrooms?~ he thought to himself as he tried morphing it into different structures he remembered from earth.
All the while the chieftains watched in utter shock.
"How did he learn it so fast?" one of them whispered.
"It took even our elder a year to master it, and he is doing it with the strength of a whole n''s worth of chieftains," thergest one amongst themmented, making sure to not allow Lucius to hear him. Though his efforts were wasted as Lucius''s senses were way too keen for them to hide their words while they were so close.
"Perhaps he had already known how to do it," another replied after some thought,
"Then why ask us to build these structures when he could do it himself? Why ask us to teach him?" another asked.
"I think I know why," the smallest amongst them whispered. The others turned to face him and waited in silence for his answer.
"He is doing this to show us the real difference in our strengths. He is doing this to show us that he does not need us, and rather we would do well to kneel to him," the chieftain exined.
"But to think that... that something like this could exist?" the chieftain whispered, watching as the structure increased in size as Lucius fed more mushroom paste into it, morphing it at such a rate it seemed alive.
"Truly a monster above monsters."
Chapter 117 Natural Builders (3)
After around 20 minutes of morphing, Lucius used every bit of mushroom that had been allocated to this group and found that it was not sufficient. Of course, he could make the structure he was envisioning a little smaller, but he doubted that it would be able to house 50 shroomsfortably.
"This is not enough," he said out loud. "We''ll need at least five times this amount to build a suitable structure," he continued.
The chieftains looked at each other in fear, perhaps worried that Lucius might get angry due to the inconvenience.
"Can you guys bring the mushrooms that the other groups collected.... and order them to go collect as many more as they possibly can," he ordered after some thought.
"Not you guys, you guys stay," he said quickly, as the chieftains were about to stand. Even if the other groups decided to run away, so long as he had the chieftains it wouldn''t be aplete loss.
The shrooms stumbled over each other to carry out their task. While they were doing this, Lucius began experimenting with this new skill of his.
First, he tried morphing the dirt but found that it was not possible. Then he tried a nearby stone, and again nothing. Lastly, he tried morphing one of the chieftains, and that as well did not work. This confirmed that the skill did indeed only work on vegetation.
Next, he tried morphing a branch on a nearby tree, however, he found that its weight was way above what he could currently handle. Afterward, he tried morphing a few nearby vines, snaking them along the ground toward himself.
The chieftains watched in awe. Every second, their thoughts being pushed to a single conclusion. The creature they were currently watching, the one that had sent a monster to kill their elder, that same creature was the savior of legend.
"The shri''killian," one of them whispered as Lucius used Elmando to turn the vines into what seemed like living snakes.
~I''m not quite proficient enough to weaponize it,~ Lucius thought to himself as he yed around with the vines. ~Though perhaps with a bit more practice, it might be viable.~
After a few more minutes, a few hundred shrooms came carrying the mushrooms they had been ordered to bring. Once they sat them down in front of Lucius, they waited in silence, expectantly staring at him.
~They must''ve told the others,~ he thought to himself.
There were close to 270 mushrooms on the ground, and in mere seconds he turned them into paste. He then added them to the structure he already hadid out, and stretched it as thin as structurally viable, before reshaping it.
In the end, the structure he had created was a sort of oddly shaped dome, simr to a miniature stadium. Its radius was about 28 centimeters on the inside, and 33 on the outside, leaving 4 centimeters as thickness. Its ceiling reached a height of 21 centimeters, and its roof 35.
He had decided on this taking into ount that the average shroom was about 10 centimeters tall, and took up an area of around 3 by 3 centimeters. This meant at least 273 shrooms could fit in the structure if he packed them like sardines.
He had carved a few windows into the structure and did what little he could to make it more aesthetically pleasing, but in the end, it still looked ugly. Which was to be expected as it was his first time doing this.
~I would need at least 6000 mushrooms to create a structure about the size of a human room, but that''s ignoring the fact that mushrooms might not be viable when creating structures that big,~ he thought to himself as the shrooms began chattering around him.
~No, I''ll have to start training to morph wood. Yet another thing to add to the list,~ he thought to himself. Though he put it as a lower priority than experimenting with his crux.
"Pagan,e here," he called out, noticing that Pagan was standing a distance behind the crowd of shrooms.
As Pagan was walking towards him, he quickly opened his shop, and just like he had expected, the skill [Elmando] was listed there now. He bought it and sent it to Pagan.
"Did you receive what I sent you?" he asked.
"Y-yes lighted one," Pagan replied, the information on how to use it being fed into his mind.
"Once the shrooms bring back more mushrooms, create a structure simr to the one I created. It would be ideal if they could bring enough to create additional structures," Lucius began, before going into detail about the dimensions.
"Build one at each of the 8 camps I set out. I''ll be back to help you in a bit," he said finally, before turning to leave.
"Oh, and don''t forget to feed the shrooms. The beasts we hunted today should be enough to feed them all at least once," he added with his back still turned to Pagan.
"I will do so, Lighted One," Pagan replied, though little did Lucius know that the shrooms would have to endure endless work before they would be fed.
Lucius headed to where they had stashed the meat they hunted before tearing off several small pieces. After cing the pieces in one of the worm sacks he had taken from the camp''s storage, he proceeded toward the arachnid cave.
It was now dark, but the moon shone brightly, so the path was visible even with the trees covering much of the light.
On his way he made sure to watch for any decaying vegetation, fearing that the undead creature might have invaded this part of the forest as well. However, he found that the vegetation was as it had been before, withered, but not quite as decayed as the presence of the undead would indicate.
Once he walked into the arachnid camp, one of the little arachnids ran towards him, before running circles around him.
He brought out his crux to shed some light and found that it was the arachnid baby that had eaten all the meat he broughtst time. He could tell this because it was a shade of blue, whilst the others were closer to purple.
"Okay, okay, here you go," Lucius coo''ed, holding out a piece of meat in the palm of his hand. The arachnid scurried onto his palm, before digging into the meat. Not at all worried about its safety.
Chapter 118 Magus Experimentation (1)
While the baby ate off of his palms, Lucius studied it with his sr vision. It seemed that the information he was receiving was not hindered at all by the fact that it was small, which was quite interesting as he expected the radiation it emitted to be insignificant.
After watching the baby eat for a few more moments, he began moving his crux around the room. Seeing the glowing orb flying towards them, the other babies scurried around in fear. Their sibling stopped eating for a moment to stare at them, letting out a little shriek, as ifughing at their anxiety.
~Hmm, at this rate they''ll nevere over,~ he thought to himself, before tossing a few pieces of meat toward them. They looked at the meat for a moment, then at him, then at the meat again, before scrambling for the pieces and retreating to their individual corners.
~I''ve been wondering about the rtion between the sr and radiant index,~ Lucius thought to himself as he watched the babies literally choke on the meat as they ate.
~They both use the crux, so there should be an equivalent cowl, in the sr index, right?~ he thought, trying to cover himself in sr energy. However, that was all it did.
This wasn''t the first time he had attempted this. The effect increased the power of his spells ever so slightly but caused his mind to overheat at an even faster rate, so it wasn''t worth it if a battle were to go on for a long period of time.
He had also tried forcing sr energy into his body but found that it would not prate his skin. It could only cover him, but for it to go into his body was an impossible task.
~Though there was something interesting that I discovered back when I had the radiant index. How changing the intensity of the energy also changed its effect,~ he thought to himself, remembering how he had created the healing technique.
With this, he eased up on the crux, rxing it so much that he could hardly feel it anymore. It felt odd, unsafe almost, but there was a change.
The crux expanded, from the size of a coin to that of a tennis ball. Large amounts of mist-like sr energy coalesced around it, and it was almost see-through at this point. If he eased up any more than this, it felt like it would disperse into the air.
~Spacial cleanse,~ he chanted, healing all the babies around him. From doing this he found two differences with this type of crux.
The first was its range, which was now almost two timesrger than in its normal state. And the second was that its spells were absolutely weak. From the feedback he was getting from spacial cleanse, he could tell that very little of the babies'' injuries had been healed.
Though in exchange, almost none of his sr energy had been used, which perhaps could be seen as a fair exchange, though he couldn''t imagine this being useful past scouting for information.
~Sr trace,~ he chanted, this time pushing the pulses out as far as they could go.
The sr trace was nearly two times faster than in its normal state, and the pulses reached a radius of 6 meters, now 3 times their normal value.
~Hmm, so if I try my best its six meters, huh?~ he thought to himself after having run sr trace for a few cycles.
At this point, all the babies stopped eating to look at him for a second, before going back to their meals.
~I can see this being useful for when I need to harm arge number of enemies, but notpletely kill them,~ he thought to himself, imagining a 6-meter radius bursting trace.
? Next, he increased the intensity of the crux, pushing past the hold he normally had. Though he found that he could notpress it past the point it was naturally in, which figured since he had tried increasing the intensity of spells through this method before but found nothing.
Just as he was about to ease up on it once again to further experiment with it in its eased mode, a thought crossed his mind.
He increased the intensity of the crux, but did so only in small regions. He was trying to create streams from his crux, simr to the vessels that the radiant index formed, but this time in the air.
After a great amount of strain, the first small vessel was formed. Though the second he eased up on the intensity it retreated back into the crux.
He had no idea what he wanted to do with this, but such was the method of experimentation, he only knew that he was onto something.
Several minutes passed, and his efforts bore no fruit.
~This is tiring,~ he thought to himself, though it seemed he was not the only one who was tired. The baby arachnid was sleeping soundly on his hands, and even the others slept in the corners where they had eaten. That meant that they at least trusted him enough to do so, though he doubted they were all fully asleep.
~Hmm, the vessels from the radiant index had a medium for creation, they were imposed on top of my own vessels. Perhaps that''s what I am missing? A sort of medium?~ he thought to himself.
After some thought, he came to only a single possible medium, sr energy itself. Perhaps it was hard for him to do whatever it was he was trying to do because he was essentially trying to force small streams of sr energy into the air.
So he cast sr field, creating a forcefield around himself. After the field had stabilized, he eased on the crux turning it into its coalescing form, and in turn, the force field began shimmering a lighter hue of yellow.
~I hope I''m right about this,~ he thought to himself, before sending out very slow pulses of sr energy. His n was to have the mist-like sr energy that coalesced around the crux fill up the inside of the sr field. Since magic couldn''t get in, it only figured that it could get out as well.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSr Pit¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSr Pit¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSr Pit¡» has been added.]
Chapter 119 Awakening Of Ghost (1)
~Good,~ he thought to himself, taking a moment to read the system notifications before carrying on with his experimentation. Once the sr pit waspletely saturated, he proceeded to increase the intensity of the crux before trying to send out streams of sr energy.
~Nice, I finally did it. Whatever this... is,~ he thought to himself as multiple streams of what looked like miniature lightning streaks, spread from his crux toward the edges of the force field.
The baby was currently underneath the streaks, so he made sure not to move them around carelessly. As he moved them around the force field, he could feel the heat with which they burned.
~No new spell huh?~ he thought to himself after having moved the streaks around for some time.
Just as he was about to recall them, an interesting thought urred to him.
~Laser beam,~ he thought, before focusing the streaks into one area. With that, a powerful focused beam shot out of the crux, piercing even the sr field, and scarring a hole in the cave walls.
The babies woke up with a start, instinctively trying to push themselves even deeper into their corners.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSr Beam¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSr Beam¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSr Beam¡» has been added.]
"With this, I might have a chance against the undead," he whispered, his vision suddenly bing blurry and his mind fuzzy.
~It seems I overworked myself,~ he realized, before cing the arachnid baby back on the ground.
~I''ll continue this experimentation tomorrow. I need to rest first,~ he thought as he stood up to leave.
As he was exiting the cave, he heard the sound of little footsteps following behind him.
"You want toe back with me?" he asked, turning to find that the baby who seemed to be ustomed to him was following.
The arachnid stopped as he did and simply stared at him.
"I hope the insectoid doesn''t mind," he whispered to himself before picking it up.
***
"Exipor, derux arex?!" the insectoid shrieked as Lucius brought the arachnid into the cottage.
"I''m guessing you don''t like it then?" he asked, watching as the arachnid ''y'' hunted the insectoid, biting at it repeatedly.
"Arum Deverex!!!!!!!!!"
~Does it know that this is its prey?~ Lucius thought to himself, all the while the insectoid shouted what Lucius could only assume were profanities.
"Oi, enough," he said after a while, picking the arachnid of the insectoid.
"Derux arex, Exipor," the insectoid whispered in defeat, like an old grandmother fed up with her grandchildren.
~Anyway, I''mpletely worn out. I''ll check up on the progress with structures tomorrow morning,~ he thought as he dropped the arachnid in the same cottage that Ghost was in. He figured it would feel more at home there.
***
Early the next morning, Lucius went to the cottage that the arachnid baby and Ghost''s pod were in.
~It''s time,~ he thought to himself, before touching Ghost''s pod.
[100,000 Helios is required toplete evolution.]
[ept] [Decline]
~ept.~
[Purchase ¡ºSobriquet¡» from ¡ºSystem Shop¡» in order to add creature to linkedmune.]
He then quickly bought the item and tagged her as ''Ghost''.
[¡ºGhost¡» has been linked to yourmune.]
[¡ºGhost¡»''s stats can now be viewed.]
[¡ºSystem Shop¡» items may now be shared with ¡ºGhost¡».]
[¡ºGhost¡» ''s genomes have produced three natural skills.]
[¡ºGhost¡» has gained ¡ºPoison attributes¡», allowing ess to all poison based skills.]
[¡ºGhost¡» has gained ¡º???¡» skill .]
[¡ºGhost¡» has gained ¡º???¡» skill .]
"Ghost?" he whispered once the pod had opened up. Ghost slowly wed her way out, a thin membrane of mist following her around.
She was now 12 centimeters tall, with a stinger tail about 30 centimeters long. Two pairs of what seemed like spider legs carried her nearly 5 centimeters off the ground, her body hanging almost limply as they moved around to support her.
Her skin was now primarily dark purple, however, there were streaks of obsidian ck wood running along her body.
Her proportions were now more simr to Lucius''s than Pagan''s, with her arms and legs nearly being the same length. As if she were built to run on all fours as well. Her ws were different from his though, hers were like fingers, in fact, they were. Sharp, seemingly poison-tipped fingers.
After a few moments of silence had passed, she looked up at Lucius her eyes staring at him in a deranged manner. They were the exact same as Lucius''s, but where there was green in his, there was purple in hers.
"Eyaghhh!" she shrieked, before the spider legs that carried her scurried towards him.
"High speed, good," he whispered, noting down that she was just as fast as he was when he was around her size.
With a single swat, he sent her flying toward the wall, however, once he looked down at his hand he found three small holes.
~Poison?~
[+5 points added to ¡ºPoison Resistance¡»]
~I forgot I even had that,~ he thought as he read the notification.
The arachnid baby shivered in fear as he watched on, moving slightly behind him as Ghost stood up.
"Holding you down will be an issue with that tail of yours," he whispered, noticing that her tail was now standing up, ready to strike at him.
"Though mine''s better," he said right after, his tail whipping out to wrap around her. She stabbed at his tail with hers, poisoning him, though this did nothing but increase his resistance as it was too weak to be of any effect to him.
It took quite a while for Ghost toe to, but after five minutes she seemed to be back to her right state of mind.
"What are you?" she asked, looking up at him.
"A ghost," he replied, before letting her down.
"Luci?"
"Indeed, now let''s get you washed up. I''ll exin everything on the way to the river," he replied.
As they spoke, the arachnid baby peaked out from behind him, and stared at Ghost as if deciding whether or not to approach her.
It gave out a little shriek, and Ghost immediately looked toward it. There was a moment of silence, and Lucius feared that perhaps there had been some permanent change to her personality.
But just then.
"Cute!!" she shouted, picking the arachnid off the floor and looking into its eyes.
Chapter 120 Awakening Of Ghost (2)
"These spider legs, are they like your primary legs now? Do the ones on your body not work?" Lucius asked as he and Ghost walked towards the river.
Ghost was currently holding the arachnid baby in a bear hug, whispering shrieks to it.
"Hmm, they work just fine," she replied after a moment of thought, dropping the baby to the ground before retracting the spider legs.
Lucius checked behind her back to see where they had gone, and found a sort of hard shell that he assumed must be what housed them.
~This is odd. When I first got my tail I had to learn how to use it, but she can just do things like this upon waking up? Interesting,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"And the shrieking that you''re doing. Can you speak uh... arachnid tongue now?" he asked as Ghost continued talking to the baby.
"Oh, this? I''m just making random sounds, they don''t mean anything," she replied.
"So, how long was I out," she asked, putting the baby on the ground.
"A week maybe? I was gone for some time myself, and I lost track of time while I was there," Lucius responded, just as they had reached the river.
"A lot has changed since you were out, as you can see, I''ve evolved. And as an effect, have be a hunter now," he said, showing off his ws.
"Oh, is that why I look like this?" Ghost asked, staring down at her body.
"About that. During your evolution I had the chance to give you the genes of the arachnid, perhaps I should''ve confirmed with you first, but I assumed it was the best course of action at the time," he replied, wondering if perhaps she felt a little alienated as she looked vastly different from the others.
"But since we are all hunters now, you won''t have to worry about being different," he added as she got into the river, using her spider legs to anchor herself to the banks.
"Have the others evolved yet?" she asked after a moment of silence. She was still staring at her body, at her legs, feeling her skin. There were traces of disgust sometimes, but she did a good job hiding it.
"Hannibal and Alpha havepleted their evolutions, they are currently having their cruxs installed," he replied. " And the rest of themune is in their incubation stage," he added.
"Have you used these... genes on anyone else?" she asked, apparently having alreadye to terms with her body, or at least having decided that she just had to live with it.
"Are you notfortable in your new body?" he asked, sitting on the edge of the river as she washed herself off.
"It''s not that I''m notfortable... it''s just that... don''t I look scary?" she asked.
"Scary? Have you seen me?" Lucius said grandly, before standing up, whipping his tail on the ground.
On all ounts, he looked like a literal demon. He opened his mouth wide and showcased his many rows of unorganized teeth, that still had chunks of meat stuck to it.
"Besides, this little guy seems to like you, and soon, ourmune will be filled with creatures with all sorts of different appearances," he replied.
~This feels like I''m exining puberty to my daughter,~ he thought to himself, remembering how the guys in his squadron wouldin about how awkward the talks always were.
He then went into detail about the changes he had made to themune, mainly the departments, premiers, and the newest addition of the 400 shrooms.
"Can we really trust these creatures?" she asked as she got out of the river.
"We can''t," he replied immediately.
"Right now they seem to be obedient out of fear. I don''t exactly understand what happened, but Pagan seemed to have traumatized them. Anyway, we''ll be using them as a workforce for now. I''ll take in their children since they can be manipted more easily, and maybe a few of those who prove to be trustworthy," he exined.
? Unlike leaflings, the shrooms had kids, it must''ve been due to the fact that they were second-tier creatures whereas leaflings were first-tier. Though that made him wonder where exactly other leaflings came from. He remembered Alpha was about to exin it to him once but had been interrupted midway.
"So which department do I fall under?" she asked after a moment of thought.
"A secret division in Pagan''s department. I''m going to have you act as a spy for the shrooms for now. And after youplete a few missions, I''ll set you on a growing enemy to our southwest," he replied.
"A growing enemy?" she asked, as they walked back to the camp.
"There''s a creature with a crux, gathering an army. I''m currently too busy to keep tabs on it right now, and frankly, I''m afraid if I fall, then there will be no one to lead themune," he exined.
"Gathering an army? So, is he trying to create something simr to what you have nned?" she asked after some thought.
"No, his army is filled with brainless ves, that''s to say, he rules over the undead."
A look of confusion crept up her face, but she quickly understood the danger that such a creature would pose.
"I can start keeping tabs on it right now if you show me where it is. I had been practicing while I was still a leafling," she said.
"You mean all the times you thought you were sneaking around me? No, that level of hiding won''t do. Besides, you''re going to be out before the end of the day. I want to get you fitted with a crux as soon as possible," he exined.
"Already? Don''t you think I''ll be of more help if I stay around while Hannibal and Alpha are still getting theirs?" she asked.
"No, Pagan is more than sufficient. I need to increase the strength of themune as fast as possible, and from the looks of things, you''re the greatest asset so far," he exined, right as they reached the main camp.
~If I can fit her with the radiant index, then she''ll be a very reliable asset,~ he thought to himself as he looked at her stats.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
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[Ghost Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf-Arachnid [healthy-hybrid] lvl.1- [0/100]]
[Sunlight''s Blessing +5]
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[Agility: 60 (65)]
[Strength: 10 (15)]
[Stamina: 10 (15)]
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~With cowling and a bit of stat increase, she should be able to surpass me in at least speed, judging from the way she was built,~
Chapter 121 Im Sorry, But You No Longer Exist
"Can I at least talk to Pagan before I get it done?" Ghost asked after a moment had passed.
"Hmm, I don''t think he came back from his workst night," Lucius replied, realizing that he hadn''t seen Pagan when he woke up.
"His work?"
"I had him building some structures for the shrooms to sleep in," he exined.
"Pagan can build now? I''m impressed, I wouldn''t have thought that thatzy idiot would be able to carry around all those materials like you do," Ghostmented.
"Carry around materials? As if. The shrooms are the ones carrying them. Also, he isn''t building the way I used to, we learned a new method from those creatures," he exined, using Elmando tomand two vines to snake toward him from a nearby tree.
"You can control nts?" she asked in awe.
"Indeed," Lucius replied, making the vines snake up Ghost''s leg, and wrap around her body.
"I''m going to start researching a means of weaponizing it. Right now it would be more viable to use my ws," he exined, trying to tighten the vines'' grip on Ghost but finding that it wasn''t strong enough.
"In fact, I might as well give it to you now," he said, before dismissing hismand over the vines.
He quickly purchased the Elmando skill from the system shop and gifted it to Ghost.
"The system will exin to you how it works. It shouldn''t be too hard. Even Pagan got it within seconds," he said.
Though after a minute had passed, Ghost was still unable to properly use the skill.
"I don''t get it. I have to spread out my mind? How do I spread out my mind? What is this?" she asked in frustration.
~Ah, she isn''t ustomed to her earth sense yet. That must be why,~ Lucius thought to himself. Though a thought lingered at the back of his head.
What if Pagan was just a prodigy when it came to these kinds of things? After all, Pagan could perform newly created spells just seconds after reading them off the index. And though the system exined how spells worked, he knew that it wasn''t as simple as just that.
~We''ll see once the others get their cruxes. If the others really can''t learn things like this as fast as he can, then it might prove to be a hindrance,~ he thought to himself.
"So are we going to go find Pagan?" she asked, apparently giving up on Elmando for now.
"No. I don''t want the shrooms to know of your existence. In fact, I don''t want anyone besides those in our council knowing of your existence," he exined.
"Remember when I said you were going to be part of a secret division?" he asked, to which Ghost nodded her head.
"Themune will soon begin growing at a tremendous rate. And though I will try to only have those that I trust evolve, there''s no ignoring the fact that some may begin to put their own goals above that of themune," he began exining.
"And that''s okay, but I need someone to keep an eye on that and make sure it doesn''t cause discord. You and the others that will be in the secret division will live for that purpose, and as such your existences will be erased from themune''s record," he said after some thought.
Ghost was silent at this, taking a moment to process it all.
"This is what your name means. To be an apparition, a seemingly dead, not existent being. This is part of the list of things you pledged to do... to make sacrifices for the camp," he added.
He gave Ghost some time to think things over, before walking with her into the main cottage where Alpha and Hannibal were sleeping.
"It''ll only take a few days. When you get back, a lot will have changed and I''ll need you to be ready," Lucius said, before buying a solis fragment and sending it to her.
***
After checking Ghost''s status and making sure she was okay, he left for the shroom camp with the baby arachnid in his hand.
As got to the first camp, or the first pir as he was calling it, he found that exact replicas of the structure he had created yesterday had been constructed.
This was good and all, however, there were three such structures in this camp, which made Lucius wonder just how many mushrooms had been brought yesterday.
"Oi, you," he called out, noticing what seemed like a guard standing outside one of the structures. It turned drowsily and for a moment it couldn''t even process who it was talking to. However, the moment it came to its senses, it bowed, before announcing what sounded like a recitation.
"I greet you Lighted One," it said.
"Yes, yes, I greet you too. Where is Pagan?" Lucius asked.
"Oh, the Lighted One''s supreme servant? He is in the eighth pir, they are yet toplete their structures," the shroom exined.
~Jesus Pagan,~ Lucius sighed inwardly, before calling out his crux. He turned it to its eased mode, and cast spacial sr cleanse in a 6-meter radius, covering every single shroom in the area.
~T-Thank you Lighted One!~ the creature stuttered, bowing multiple times even as Lucius left.
~Well, it will be good practice anyway,~ he thought to himself.
As he passed by every camp he cast a spacial cleanse, taking on the fatigue of the shrooms. And though his mental strength had increased quite a bit since he had first gotten the crux, it was beginning to take a toll... even though he was using the lowered version.
~Okay, that''s enough practice for now,~ he thought, realizing that his reserves were almostpletely emptied.
By this time the eighth camp was in sight, and Lucius could see Pagan currently morphing their third structure.
"Oh Lighted One," Pagan said, before genuflecting. The shrooms in the area did the same and only got up after Pagan had done so.
"Have you been working all night? You should get some rest," Lucius said, taking over from Pagan.
"Thank you Lighted One. These creatures are at least useful when ites to gathering resources, so I thought I would take advantage of that," Pagan exined, his speech a little slurred.
"I see," Lucius replied.
~This can''t be normal,~he thought to himself. ~How was it possible that Pagan could stay up all night doing this?~
And he was right, it just wasn''t physically possible. The fact was that Pagan had passed out several times, and upon waking got back to work all in the name of the Lighted One.
At first, Lucius had thought that this whole ''Lighted One'' thing was just a weird gimmick that Pagan was trying to pull off. But now that he thought about it more carefully, there might be something more to him.
~He mentioned something about ''Fae'' when I first formed the council. Back then I had been too busy trying to think of ways to fortify the camp to ask about it. But maybe that has something to do with this whole thing he has going on,~ Lucius thought to himself before voicing it.
"Pagan, what are the fae?"
Chapter 122 The Fae
Looks of confusion spread throughout the entire camp once the question was asked, though none of the shrooms voiced this as they feared offending their new overlords.
"Well?" Lucius asked again, as Pagan looked to the sky. For the first time since he had known Pagan, there was a serious look on his face.
"Would the Lighted One mind if I told him a story?" Pagan asked, his voice nearly a whisper.
"Go ahead."
"This story is not like the Shri''killian that these creatures speak off. It is not a tale, Lighted One, for I was there, and I lived it," Pagan exined, a faraway look in his eyes,
"Lighted One, can you guess how old I am? How manymunes I have cycled through?" he asked.
"10?" Lucius answered. He knew from what Hannibal had told him that Pagan was manymunes past the others, so he figured ten would be close enough.
"10... I think thismune was my 1005th," Pagan answered. And to this, coughs of disbelief filled the camp. Pagan''s im was just to shocking for anyone to keep theirposure. But before he couldsh out at the shrooms, Lucius voiced what everyone was thinking.
"Surely you''re mistaken, Pagan. 1005munes? How many days are in between each? A rough estimate," Lucius asked.
Pagan took a moment to think about it before answering, "Communes sprout once every 300 days."
"So you''re saying you''re close to 300 000 days old?" Lucius asked out loud. ~Thats 826 earth years,~ he thought to himself.
"I was around when the dark forest was still a but a blemish in the Fae forest," Pagan answered.
"The Fae were the original residents of the forest. Before these so-called ''owners'' came and killed them all destroying everything. They were the original nt life, the creators of us all," he said grandly, referring to the shrooms as well.
"There were others, god-like creatures such as yourself Lighted One," Pagan continued to exin.
"Creatures with horns and eyes, and powers just like yours. Creatures with scaled skin, and long tails. They crafted the forest on mere thoughts," he continued.
At this, Lucius couldn''t help but remember the furry folk. If what Pagan was saying was true, then it made sense that he was referring to them.
"What was your role in all this?" Lucius asked.
"I was thest creation of the Fae. The first leafling," Pagan announced.
At this point, Lucius wasn''t certain whether he ought to believe all this rubbish or ignore it. Though, with all the strange things in this world, he was more inclined to believe it. There was no harm in making a hypothesis based on this, it was better to be safe than sorry.
"You are the first leafling and thest they created?" Lucius asked out loud.
"That is so Lighted One."
"Then how did themunes start to sprout?" Lucius asked.
"Every 300 days, I and as an extension, all other male leaflings release seeds into the air, while the females release pods. Creatures such as the one we have in the camp... the insectoid as the Lighted One calls it, collect these and nt them in specific areas," Pagan exined.
"Specific areas?"
"Yes, the Fae said these were areas of high energy. I believe, that it is simr to the energy the Lighted One is able to exude,"
Lucius took a moment to process all this. He understood that he had never asked Pagan about this, but he hadn''t thought it would be this deep. Who would''ve guessed that the Pagan, the crazy cult leader, was an 800-year-old being.
"Let''s say that what you''re saying is all true, Pagan. Why are you so fixated on this Lighted One stuff? Besides the whole power thing, why are you so obsessed? The others see me as well, but only you behave the way you do."
"Because only I have seen the bounds of power. Only I have seen the power of gods. And you Lighted One, they spoke of youring even back then. They spoke of a being, that will be born at the bottom of power, and lead thest creations to the top, to stand among the gods," Pagan began exining.
Lucius couldn''t help but feel that this story had a close simrity to the Shri''killian''s tale. A creature at the bottom brings others to the top.
"But why? Why would a creature need to do that?" he asked out loud. He wanted a reason, bringing them up wasn''t enough.
"Because... because," Pagan tried saying, thinking hard. "I... can''t remember," he said finally.
"Seriously..." Lucius whispered in defeat.
"Pagan... I know I hadn''t asked about all this before now. But at some point, didn''t it ur to you to tell me something of this magnitude?" he asked after a few moments of thoughtful silence had passed.
"I was under the impression that the Lighted One already knew all this, that he came here with that intention. The Lighted One began helping us as soon as he sprouted, he began giving us power that we never would''ve imagined holding. Since the Lighted One was already doing what the Fae said he would do, I believed that he already knew," Pagan exined.
"I see," Lucius replied after some thought.
"Ah... The shrooms... the shrooms, what was I about to say?" he whispered to himself, his mind still in disarray.
"Ah, have you fed them yet?" he asked finally.
"They have been fed Lighted One,'' Pagan replied.
"The bones, bring them to me. As well as the fur," he ordered. "You''ll find me at the camp," he added before turning to leave.
"Oh, and have the chieftains stand by at Asclepius''s cabin. I need to brief them on a few things."
On his way back to the camp, Lucius tried to piece together everything he had just learned. If what Pagan was saying was true, then the furry folk might be allies. That''s assuming that Lucius was actually this savior being that the Fae allegedly spoke of.
~It''s highly likely that it''s true though. My powers are able to link others to me, I am able to share skills and items. It''s like my system was built to empower the weak," Lucius thought to himself.
~But it''s all so curious. Why would these god-like nt creatures need someone to empower their weakest creations? Why couldn''t they just make them all strong to begin with?~
Chapter 123 It Seems I Am A Main Character
~Hmm, so that means I may need to make contact with the furry folk. But right now they don''t see me as more than a mere bug. What if they don''t believe in the prophecies of the Fae? Besides, if they really did live alongside them, why aren''t they trying to look for this savior?~ Lucius thought to himself, just now reaching the camp.
~Curious. I''ll ask the other creatures of the forest about this during trades. If Pagan was alive when the Fae were around, then there must be other creatures too. Someone should know something. Though that will mean I need the encyclopedia, and that thing''s expensive,~ he thought, cing the arachnid baby on the floor.
After waiting for several minutes, Pagan came with the fur and bones that Lucius had requested.
"The chieftains are waiting at Aclepius''s cabin, Lighted One," Pagan said, as he ced the materials in front of Lucius.
"Good," he replied, picking up the fur to inspect its condition.
"This was cut quite well, who did this?" he asked, surprised by how well the meat had been separated from the fur.
"I ordered the shrooms to be careful with how they took the meat off the creature. I expected that the lighted One would want his materials in order. Though I apologize about the bones, I hadn''t expected that you would want those as well," Pagan exined, looking towards the dirt-covered bones.
"That''ll be okay, I can clean them myself. Though tell the shrooms that cut this I want to talk to them. They''re quite skilled," Lucius replied, before doing a more thorough inspection of the fur.
"Pagan, have you tested out the new spells?" he asked as he tried running sr energy through the fur to see if it would trigger its camouge mechanism.
"Indeed, Lighted One. I tried them as soon as they were added. Though it seems I can''t quite get either to work," Pagan replied in a defeated tone, as if he were a disappointment.
"I expected as much," Luciusmented, finding that the fur''s function would not activate with sr energy. "There are a few steps I have to show you first," he added, removing his crux as he dropped the fur to the ground.
"The first step is to reduce your hold on the crux to a minimum and rx your mind. Do this until you feel like your crux is about to dissipate into the air."
Pagan attempted this, and after a few tries, he was able to make an eased version of the crux.
"Now, the working of sr pit requires you to fi-" however before Lucius could even finish exining this, Pagan had already figured it out, and cast sr pit.
"I-I''ve done it Lighted One," Pagan said with a proud smile on his face.
"Perfect. Now, increase your hold on the crux, push the intensity to your limits, but this time, only do this in smaller regions of the crux. You''re trying to push out some of the energy into the pit," Lucius exined, before casting sr pit, and then causing streaks toe out of his crux.
After a few minutes, Pagan managed to produce results.
"Now you should be able to cast sr beam. Though I rmend you don''t do that right now. It expands a lot of sr energy at once, and you haven''t slept in a while," Lucius warned. Pagan understood this and decided to try it all out after he had gotten some sleep.
"Also, there''s a mission I have for you. It''s a special operations mission," Lucius exined, before picking up one of the bones.
"Yes, Lighted One, I live to serve" Pagan replied.
"I need you to gather all the children from the pir camps. Anyone born within thest few days, and bring them into the main camp. When they''re here, you will indoctrinate them into our ways," Lucius exined, snapping the bone he was holding in half.
"I want them to be a trustworthy force. Exin to their parents that I am taking them in to teach them our ways. Though if you have to be a little violent, then it can''t be helped," Lucius added. However, he doubted he needed to tell Pagan that.
Though Lucius felt a little morally conflicted about separating these kids from their parents and essentially brainwashing them, he knew it had to be done. He was trained to be practical, and for themune to grow, he would require as many trustworthy creatures as fast as possible.
"The creatures will be grateful that you have taken an interest in their children," Pagan said with a smile.
"By the way, Lighted One. What is that creature?" Pagan asked, just now noticing the baby arachnid trying to eat scraps off the bone pieces thaty on the floor.
"Oh, this is one of my personal beasts. I am going to try and see if non-sentient creatures can evolve," Lucius exined.
"So this creature is marked with your blessing?" Pagan asked, picking up the creature to inspect it.
The baby shrieked at this, biting Pagan''s hand. It seemed to know that Pagan was a lunatic. Though its poison was basically nothing at this point.
"The Lighted One''s first beast. The First Beast... yes that is a name worthy of the Lighted One''s possession," Pagan announced.
"Sigh, it''s nothing that grand," Lucius replied, before crushing the bones in his hand into very thin pieces.
"Lighted One, am I allowed to have a beast as well? A beast that can be marked with your blessing?"
"Hmm, that''s actually a good idea Pagan. The more creatures we have the better. Well, if you manage to tame a creature then I suppose it won''t be a problem. Though I will only permit babies, anything older will be harder to dominate," Lucius exined.
"I thank you, Lighted One. I shall bring a beast to your liking," Pagan announced.
"Anyway, go get some rest. I want to have a session in a few hours before going out to hunt," Lucius ordered, and after saying goodbye to both Lucius and the arachnid, Pagan went to take rest.
Chapter 124 To Dominate (1)
Lucius then got to work using Elmando tomand a few vines from nearby trees to snake toward him. He then picked up a few of the bone pieces he had crushed, and used the sharp tip of one of them to bore holes into the others, creating makeshift needles.
Once he had made around ten of them, he used Elmando to split the vines into fine thread-like strings and pushed them through the needle eyes.
Once all that was prepared, he got one of his stone knives and began cutting the fur up into equal squares. He had learned a few tricks from thest time he had created a cloak, so they were less crude this time. Though, his cutting skills still weren''t at the point where the end product would look professional.
He then began sewing, this time he made sure to make veryrge cloaks. And since these creatures were around the same size as him, the fur harvested from one was enough to cover himpletely.
"Hmm, it would''ve been nice if the camouge worked. Perhaps I''ll need to capture one alive and study it first," he whispered to himself.
The arachnid began scurrying around him as if to inspect his handiwork and after looking at it for a while, it let out a small shriek before climbing up the cloak onto his shoulder.
"You like it?" Lucius asked, before sitting down to continue his work.
He made smaller versions for both Pagan and Asclepius before setting them aside to take a rest. Around an hour had passed at this point, and the chieftains were probably still waiting, so Lucius went to brief them on the issues he had.
*
"Lighted One," the chieftains said in unison once he came into view, genuflecting.
"Sharing info?" he asked, noticing that they were discussing something with Asclepius.
"That is so," a chieftain replied.
Lucius made a hand gesture for them to stand, he had long be tired of telling them they did not have to kneel whenever they saw him.
"Anyway, I''ll make this brief. I want you to pick out the fittest shrooms among the 8 pirs, and have them stand guard on the outer rims. If they see a threat, tell them to report it to me before anyone else, especially the southwest pir. I want twice as many guards in that area," Lucius ordered.
"We understand Lighted One," they replied in unison.
"And you will be living in this area from now on. I shall construct personal quarters for the 8 of you beside Asclepius''s cabin," he added.
By doing this Asclepius could keep a better eye on them, and on a smaller note, perhaps attempt to manipte them into trusting Lucius instead of fearing him.
"We understand Lighted One," they said once again.
"Good, go collect the men," he said, and they left in an organized manner.
"Pagan trained them well," Asclepiusmented as the chieftains left.
"He''s quite proficient at it it seems, though his methods are... crude," Lucius replied.
"Oh, and this is yours," he said after, holding out the cloak he had made for her.
"T-thank you," she replied as Lucius helped her put it on. It was kind of on therge side since he had made it with her future growth in mind, but she would soon grow into it.
"We''ll be holding a session right now,e along," he said after, and the two left back for the camp.
After Pagan woke up, the three of them, along with the arachnid had a session. Lucius would''ve liked for the insectoid to be a part of it, but the darn thing always disappeared in the mornings and only returned at night.
During this session, the arachnidsted only a minute before passing out, while Asclepiussted 6, it seemed she was already beginning to improve. Pagan and Lucius stopped the session there, as they did not want to wear themselves out before they had a proper one.
This one did not have a catalyst and was merely for Asclepius and the arachnid to get a session in. If they were willing to do another when Pagan and Lucius were doing theirs they would be more than wee.
"Hmm, she''s at least a few millimeters taller than the other shrooms. Though it will probably be a few more sessions before she''s on the level of the chieftains," Luciusmented as Pagan picked Asclepius up and took her to the main cottage.
"On the other hand, this is quite odd," he continued, now looking at the baby arachnid. Even though it had only been absorbing helios for one minute, he noticed that it had grown quite a bit.
~Is it because it''s still a baby?~ he thought to himself. But it was also likely that it might be due to other factors, so he decided to refrain from making conclusions right now.
"Here this is yours," he said, handing Pagan his cloak.
"T-Thank you Lighted One," Pagan replied, before genuflecting. Lucius then ced the cloak on him, before gesturing for him to stand.
"It looks good on you," hemented. "I would''ve made bone weapons, but I realized that whenpared to our ws and magic, they are quite redundant."
"Anyway, you can practice sr beam, and sr pit while I''m out hunting. I didn''t fully explore their applications so you might be able to find something interesting," he said, before turning to leave.
"Am I not apanying you this time?" Pagan asked.
"Someone has to look over the camp. Though the pirs will act as a boundary defense, there''s a chance that an enemy might break through," Lucius exined.
"Such is your foresight, I understand Lighted One," Pagan replied, and the two went their separate ways.
This time Lucius decided to explore the ''nnds''. He had gotten reports from Asclepius that there were herds ofrge creatures here that the shrooms had spotted, so he wanted to check that out.
"This must be it," he whispered to himself, as he spotted a mushroom tree in the distance. From that point on, the vegetation became fungus-based, with little to no green nt life.
~They said that the creatures grouped up further north, closer to the pristine forest, so that should be... that way,~ he thought to himself, before stealthily making his way up north.
On his way he came across many odd creatures of different shapes and sizes, each carrying some sort of resemnce to mushrooms. They crowded on top of trees and under mushroom bushes, scurried across the mushroom-covered floor, and some even took the skies. The area was quite noisy, reflecting just how dense life here was.
~Hmm, what''s this?~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing massive footprints on the ground.
~This''ll probably feed us for a while,~ he realized, before stealthily following the trail.
After following it for a while, something massive was picked up on his earth sense, and he figured that it must be his prey.
"What the hell is that?" he whispered in shock, spotting 6 meters tall mushroom golem stalking the area ahead of him. It was currently shaking down a tree, apparently attempting to devour a creature that was perched at the top.
It wore clothing made of a material that Lucius had never seen before. Though based on this fact alone, he knew that it must be a sentient.
~Could my earth sense be broken? Howe it doesn''t seem like an impossible threat?~ he thought to himself. He had expected the golem to give off the same feeling as the ''furry-folk'', however, his earth sense only registered it as a medium threat. In fact, it wasn''t even telling him to run.
~Maybe I can talk to it? If it''s sentient, we might be able toe up with some sort of deal,~ he thought to himself, before staring at it for a while. It had no weapons on its person, and it seemed to be the only one of its kind close by. Worst case scenario, he would st it with a sr beam, and run away.
"Okay, here goes," he whispered to himself before quickly galloping up one of the tallest trees close by him. He used Elmando to create tforms from which he could jump onto, allowing him to move up with ease.
"Oi, you there!" he shouted from high up on the tree.
No response.
"Oi!!" he shouted again, this time the creature began looking around.
~We should speak the samenguage if it''s a sentient. I mean, it''s still a type of mushroom creature, and I can understand those,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Puny creature, is it you that calls me?" the golem asked, looking toward Lucius.
"Yes, it''s me. I wish to trade with you!" Lucius replied.
The creature let out a boomingugh, before standing up and walking towards the tree that Lucius stood on top of. Each of its steps let out a loud thud, applying considerable pressure to the soil.
Once it got to the tree, it stretched its arms out in an attempt to grab Lucius, but found that he was just out of reach. It tried shaking the tree, but this was among one of thergest, and it couldn''t quite get him to lose his footing.
"Cowardly creature,e down here so that I may devour you," the creature said.
Chapter 125 To Dominate (2)
~Sigh, well I suppose creatures wouldn''t want to reason with what they assume is a creature weaker than them,~ Lucius thought to himself.
~I''ll use this chance to test my strength,~ he decided, beforeunching at the creature''s face. The tree that he hadunched from cracked under the pressure, and the golem went falling to the ground with the attack.
"Do not get things twisted, I am above you, now submit," Lucius announced, attempting to dominate it.
The creaturey frozen in shock for a moment, before attempting to swat him off. Although powerful, its movements were slow and sluggish.
~I wonder,~ Lucius thought to himself, before taking on the full brunt of the swipe.
It moved him ever so slightly, however, he managed to stop it dead in its tracks.
"Huh!?" the creature shouted in surprise.
"That can''t be," Lucius whispered to himself, before getting off the golem. The golem took this as its chance to try and trample him, but with a bit of struggle, he managed to stop its foot right before it could squash him.
"So this is the extent of 790 stat points at this size? I''m at equal strength with something more than 6 times my size," he realized.
"What trickery are you using little creature? Why can I not destroy you?" the golem asked, before mming its fists into the ground, in yet another attempt to tten Lucius.
Lucius dodged the attack with ease, seeing as how slow the creature waspared to him, before throwing an all-out punch of his own. The punchnded on the golem''s ankle, tearing through its skin into its flesh.
~I have the strength, but not the size. I guess it''s a given my punches won''t have that much of an effect,~ he thought to himself, realizing that the wound was but a minor inconvenience to the golem.
"Huh? You injured me?" the golem asked in surprise, before moving its ankle away from him. He took a few steps back as well, seeing as how the golem seemed more willing to talk now.
"You are strong... for a little creature," it said, as its wound began healing at a visible rate. Within seven seconds the wound had fully healed.
"Now can we talk?" Lucius asked.
~I can probably move more than 8,000 mushrooms with this thing''s help. No, if I make some sort of construct to carryrger hauls I could double that,~ he thought to himself.
Though he had the strength to do it himself, hecked the size necessary to haul numbers sorge. And he doubted he could find materials that could withstand the pressure he would cause while pulling due to his reduced area.
"Talk is boring, Crenog does no talk. Come back to my vige, my elder likes talk. He give you what you want," the golem replied.
~Crenog? It has a name?~ Lucius thought to himself.
~Perhaps only lower-tier creatures do not have the concept of names,~ he realized.
"I cannot do that. My safety would be endangered going off into a ce I do know, surrounded by creatures I have never met," he replied.
"You are strong but cowardly. You are unlucky not to have been born into the behemoth races. Come, I shall take you as my dravuth," it announced.
~Behemoth races? Hmm, perhaps this might be the information pool I needed. If I can form some sort of alliance, themune will definitely develop faster. But it''s risky,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"How far away is it?" he asked.
"It is towards the Hignds, west of here. My vige is thergest behemoth vige this side of the Great Forest. You will be safe there," the golem replied.
"Thank you for your offer. But I will have to decline for now," Lucius said instead. He was of equal strength to this golem, but it had mentioned an elder, meaning that there were others much stronger than it. And the insane healing factor only made them that much more dangerous.
"A shame, little warrior. You would''ve loved to fight in the shu''hakan. The giants gather in a week for it, you are invited as my dravuth, my fighting brother. Though you are little, our strengths are even, we make good team you and I," the golem said, before looking toward the sky.
"What do they call you?"
"Lucius," Lucius replied.
"A weak name. I shall call you Havon, after the nt warrior of legend. You remind me of those tales, Havon. I shall tell my elder of your existence," the golem said, before squatting.
"Journey to the top of the highest mountain when you are ready. There you shall find my vige. Call for Crenog the earthsplitter, and I shalle. If there are other little warriors like yourself bring them, they too can partake in the shu''hakan."
With that, its entire body began glowing in a red hue.
"Magic," Lucius whispered to himself, but before he could ask any questions, the creature lept into the air, a stream of red light following in its wake.
"What the hell is going on here? Howe I couldn''t sense any magic from it before?" he thought to himself, watching as the giant soared through the sky.
After that encounter Lucius scoured the entire nds in search of another mushroom golem. Had he known that it could use magic, perhaps he would''ve been more willing to go along with it.
After finding that there were no other golems, or footprints thatrge to speak of, he tried imitating the spell it had used. His only hint was the trail of red that was left in its wake.
Though try as he may, he couldn''t get it to work. The trail had been expelled from its body, so he guessed that perhaps it would only be possible with the radiant index, but not the sr.
~But still, I should try to make a flight spell. Maybe I can use theories from back on earth to get it to work,~ he decided, epting that he would just have to journey to this vige if he wanted to learn more.
Chapter 126 To Dominate (3)
~It spoke of the shu''hakan, a fighting tournament,~ Lucius thought to himself as he stalked the forest in search of something to hunt.
~Hmm, if these... behemoth races are gathering there, then that''s probably my best chance to get information about this world. Not to mention the fact they might have valuable items, and techniques I could trade for,~ he thought to himself.
~Though I''ll need something of equal value to trade with,~ he realized, spotting a mushroom buck in the distance.
~Man, this just keeps getting more and more exciting,~ he smiled to himself, before sniping down the deer with sr beam. He modified the spell so that the beam was thinner, and packed less of a punch.
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
During the hunt, he killed seven mushroom deers, three unrecognizable mushroom creatures, and arge snake-like creature that seemed to have mushroom skin.
Of course, he could''ve killed much more, though logistics was a problem. Walking through the forest with arger haul would just be begging for trouble.
He used Elmado to morph the surrounding mushrooms into arge cart that could he use for transport. Each individual part had to be crafted on its own until he could put them all together.
He had to do this a great number of times,pressing andyering his build so that the weak mushroom material could withstand the weight of his load.
After several minutes ofpression andyering, the build was done and he could feel that his strength in Elmando had increased.
He loaded his haul onto the cart and used Elmando to make all the wheels turn in unison. He managed to achieve quite a considerable speed, though he would''ve been faster on foot.
After around 20 minutes of moving the wheels, his mind was beginning to fail him, and he realized he was at his limit.
Sr cleanse wouldn''t work to reset this, as he would just take on his own mental exhaustion, and make it even worse. So he pulled it himself the rest of the way.
Though once again his strength in the skill felt like it had increased, which was what he had been hoping for.
During the journey back, the smell attracted a few hunters, but with a bit of intimidation from his crux, they all backed down. Whenever he sensed arger one that he deemed would be too much of a hassle to handle, he would just pick up the pace, and make detours to avoid it.
***
"Lighted One, you''re back," Pagan said, running to meet Lucius as he pulled the cart towards the first pir.
The shrooms began whispering excitedly as they saw therge haul that he was carrying. In fact, the creatures were stacked so high on top of each other that the shrooms couldn''t even see the top.
"This should be enough to feed these guys for a while," Lucius replied.
"I want the skin, horns, and bones, so make sure not to destroy those," he announced.
"Pagan, can you go collect mushrooms? Just make a cart simr to this one and bring back as many as you can. We need to make an airtight storage to prevent monsters froming," Lucius ordered.
*
An hourter Pagan returned with close to 1000 mushrooms, though you could tell that he waspletely exhausted from doing so.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Pagan Elwood ]
[Level 9: 50/900]
[Leaf Being [Photosynthesis Variation] lvl.8- [100/800]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 160]
[Strength: 71>200]
[Stamina: 78>230]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Perhaps I should send him on more of these. It''s doing wonders for his stats,~ Lucius thought to himself.
~Sr cleanse,~ he chanted, healing Pagan of his fatigue.
"Please go get more. You''re doing quite well," Lucius ordered. Pagan was shocked at this, pure disbelief fraught on his face.
"I need to make a spell for this," Pagan whispered to himself, walking back towards the nnds like a zombie.
An hourter Pagan returned with 3000 mushrooms. His strength stat had increased to 300, and his stamina to 310.
Lucius was tempted to have him go out again, though constantly doing this might be seen as some sort of pattern to onlooking hunters, and as a result, might coax an ambush. So Lucius decided that it was enough for now.
He and Pagan used around 3000 mushrooms to create a sort of air-tight silo in the first pir. It was cylindrical in structure, with an inner radius of 2 meters, and an outer radius of 2.5 meters. Its ceiling was 4 meters off the ground, and its roof was 0.5 meters above that.
Lucius designed the door using the theory of suction, so it required a great deal of strength to open, meaning that only he and Pagan were capable of doing it.
He could''ve made moreyers instead of maxing out the dimensions this way, however, he wasn''t trying to make a stronghold. The only purpose this served was to prevent hunters from smelling their reserves.
"Perfect. Let''s take the remaining few of these toward''s Asclepius''s cabin. I have to build housing for the chieftains," Lucius said, turning toward Pagan.
Of course, Pagan would''ve made the shrooms do all this work if they were strong enough, but sadly this waspletely out of their realm.
"Weak, useless things," Pagan whispered to himself as he dragged one of the carts behind Lucius.
Once they got to Asclpepius''s cabin, they used the remaining 1000 mushrooms to create arge dome-like residence for the chieftains. It had an inner radius of 40 centimeters, an outer radius of 45 centimeters, and a ceiling 80 centimeters of the ground.
He made sure toyer andpress the mushroom paste multiple times in order to make sure it could withstand a hit. So he had topensate on the dimensions a little.
"We''ll head outter to gather materials to build ours, for now, let''s rest," Lucius said once they were done. They were both mentally exhausted, doing any more would probably cause them to pass out.
"Pagan, how well do you think you''d fare inbat against me?" Lucius asked as they sat down in front of their most recent build. The chieftains were currently exploring their new home, which to them was like a mansion.
"Combat? As in a fight?" Pagan asked.
Chapter 127 The Difference Between Talent And Skill
"That''s exactly what I mean," Lucius replied. "I met yet another magical creature today, it seems that magic isn''t as rare as we once thought," he whispered.
"We ought to start practicing magicalbat. There''s something I want us to join and we have to increase ourbat strength if we want to be ready for it. Not to mention the current enemies we have lurking in the forest," he said after.
"Since you''re the only other one with magic, I''m afraid we''ll have to spar with each other," he added.
Lucius knew that Pagan wouldn''t be up for the idea of fighting against him, but after some thought Pagan nodded his head.
"We''ll start after replenishing our reserves. The sun is still up, so it should replenish within an hour or so," Lucius said.
After resting for an hour and a half, the two prepared for their duel. It was mid-afternoon, so the sun was directly overhead.
"They''ve started to gather?" Lucius wondered, realizing that nearly the entire shroom poption had gathered once they saw Pagan and Lucius preparing.
"I hope there are guards posted at the pirs," Lucius called out.
"They have strict orders to stay at their posts. I doubt they would disobey even if there was something interesting going on," Pagan replied, clearly still bothered by the fact he had to fight him.
"Everyone move back, at least past that tree over there," Lucius announced, pointing towards a tree 15 meters away. Which was quite far for the shrooms, barely enough for them to even see the fight properly.
~Actually, this is good. Showing them our power might motivate them to work harder. Not that I''ll give them power even if they do, but hope is a good weapon,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Since I''mrger than you, we''ll keep this battle purely magical. Realistically, I would''ve wanted to simte fullbat, but it won''t be much of a fight if we do it that way," he announced to Pagan, who was currently standing 6 meters away from him.
"Keep your spells controlled, we don''t want to set the forest alight. First, one to sustain grievous damage loses. We''ll keep it to a level that sr cleanse can heal," he exined, before pulling out his crux.
"Ready?" he asked, to which Pagan called his crux out as well before nodding his head.
"Begin!"
The moment the words were uttered, a sr beam began powering up from Pagan''s crux, and based on its luminosity Lucius could tell it was high-powered.
~Sr field,~ he chanted in response, inferring where the beam would hit him, and maxing out the sr energy being fed to that point.
The beamunched a momentter, hitting more or less around the point that Lucius had predicted it would.
~Hmm, I hadn''t realized this before. But sr beam telegraphs its attacks,~ Lucius thought to himself as Pagan loaded yet another sr beam.
~And there''s a four-second gap.~
~He''s probably trying to break through it,~ Lucius thought to himself. And though Pagan had no experience fighting, his thinking wasn''t too off.
Keeping sr field active took sr energy, and blocking an attack took just as much energy as it costed. If he managed to break through, Lucius would''ve wasted sr energy, as well as sustained damage.
So Lucius let down the field and dodged the attack as it came. The distance between them, coupled with the telegraphing made it easy to dodge even though the beam was sent out at incredible speeds.
~Okay, my turn,~ Lucius thought to himself, before making a gesture for his crux to move behind his head.
Pagan stopped for a moment, before putting up his own sr field. Casting two sr beams in quick session must''ve pushed him close to overheating his mind.
~Sr beam.~
At the instant Lucius cast the attack, he moved his crux ever so slightly out of the bottom right corner of his back, catching Pagan by surprise.
Pagan couldn''t react in time to strengthen the region of the field it would hit, and with one beam, his defense broke, causing him to take the hit on his chest.
Lucius sent out yet another one, this time sending a lower-powered beam from the right side of his head.
Pagan managed to set up another field in time, but it broke through this one as well, causing him to sustain damage to his right arm this time.
If Lucius wanted to end this, he could''ve done so. But this exercise was for the purpose of learning, and there wouldn''t be much to learn if it finished too quickly.
Pagan realized that staying stationary was a disadvantage so after healing himself he began moving. He made sure to keep his crux behind him, out of Lucius''s sight, mimicking thetter.
As Pagan moved to close the distance between them, a sr beam came rushing from the bottom left side of his back. And perhaps the attack would''ve worked if Lucius wasn''t watching out for it.
A sr field came up just in time, however due to the fact that Lucius couldn''t predict its trajectory, he had to strengthen the entire thing, draining arge chunk of his sr reserves.
~This is getting interesting,~ he thought to himself, before running back to create some distance between them. Pagan kept sending out lowered versions of sr beam, perhaps realizing that his reserves were running low.
And in turn, for each attack he dished out, Lucius countered with a sr field. The speed with which the crux showed itself wasn''t fast enough to full the sensespletely, so it was now a battle of attrition.
After watching for a bit, Lucius began sending out attacks of his own, and the two were in a constant battle of block and attack. However, Lucius added an interesting twist to his beams. He would snap his finger from the direction from which he was about tounch them.
Casting spells required focus, and it was getting easier to slip up as he had to juggle between moving and setting up sr field in between attacks.
Pagan himself had slipped up a few times, and got hit as a result, though he was smart enough to realize that Lucius''s method had a vital downside.
Pagan picked up on the pattern that had beenid out, now creating sr fields that strengthened only the region where the attack would strike.
Slowly he applied more and more pressure to Lucius, bing more and morefortable as the telegraphed beams came.
It became a sort of sequence for him now. The sound queue from the snap instantly told him where the attack wasing from. And after setting up the field he would quickly counter with a sr beam.
Their minds were both dangerously close to overheating, and their reserves slowly diminishing. And though Lucius had arger reserve than Pagan, the amount of full-powered sr field he had cast put him at a disadvantage.
"I''m d you''re a quick learner," Lucius announced with a smile on his face.
"It seems the Lighted One has gone easy on me and allowed me this victory. I shall ept this gift," Pagan replied, realizing that he must have more sr energy left as he had managed to block a great deal of the attacks.
Lucius snapped his fingers, this time from the top left side of his face, and Pagan immediately set up a sr field to block it in response.
"Checkmate," Lucius whispered, as a full-powered beamunched from the opposite direction of the snap. Breaking through the shield and goring through Pagan''s left shoulder.
The snapping of fingers had all been a rouse to confuse his senses. A calcted risk Lucius had taken to teach him to be warier of tricky enemies.
"I have been bested," Pagan said, before genuflecting, sap still dripping from his open wound.
~Does he feel no pain?~ Lucius thought to himself. Though he quickly realized that Pagan was just putting doing this out of twisted reverence.
"I can heal half your injuries, though my sr reserves are nearly depleted," Lucius said before moving to heal him.
"There is no need Lighted One, I shall keep this wound for now... as a reminder of your strength," Pagan replied, still bowing.
"Enough of that... we don''t know whether that can get infected," Lucius said, healing Pagan''s injuries for a small amount.
"Heal the rest of your injuries and get some rest. Think of new ways to use your crux inbat while you''re at it," Lucius said, before turning to look at the crowd of shrooms that were still watching on.
The shrooms were all staring inplete awe. Not one of them could move or speak. The fight they had watched was akin to titans battling, no... gods. Just one of those lower-powered beams could eradicate them, and that was a skill they had never seen before.
This fight made two things even more clear to them.
These overlords had a whole arsenal of spells at their disposal, in fact, as far as they were concerned they had the ability to do anything. And the other thing was that Lucius was not just Pagan''s master in strength, but in thought as well.
Lucius was a supreme being and coupled with the growth that everyone had noticed in Asclepius, there was no doubt he was the shri''killian.
"All hail the shri''killian!" the chieftains shouted. And in unison, every shroom genuflected, "All hail the shri''killian!"
"They dare rubbish the Lighted One''s name?!" Pagan shouted in anger. Regardless of how much worth they put in that name, to Pagan, it was sphemy.
"It''s okay Pagan. it''s their custom, basically, their religion. If it will open their minds to me, then let it be," Lucius said, calming Pagan down with but a hand gesture.
"Religion?" Pagan asked, after calming down.
"Forget I said that," Lucius replied immediately, biting his tongue.
Chapter 128 Within This Kilometer I Am A... God! (1)
"I''ll call you in an hour or so to hold a photosynthesis session. Maybe we''ll hold another duel as well, but for now, eat and take rest," Lucius ordered, before heading to the silo to get something to eat.
His encounter with Ghost had reminded him of the fact that he had poison-based skills within his arsenal. Yet another weapon he could use to turn the tides of battle. He was certainly going to ask the chieftains to teach him a few techniques after the photosynthesis session.
So in an attempt to increase his poison aptitude, he decided to pick out the snake amongst the trove. He used his knife to carefully cut away its skin, realizing it would work well as a skin bag as the worm bags were way too small for practical use.
After he had fully skinned the snake, he cut out all its organs -unsure of which could be used for concoctions- before cing them on the snakeskin.
~Speaking of which, Asclepius''s concoction should be nearly ready by now,~ he thought to himself as he took a bite out of the remaining snake flesh.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Poison resistance increased.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 35%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 35%]
[Stats increased by 1.3%]
[Questplete.]
[+200 exp]
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
[Level 10!]
[New quest! -unlock new skill from ¡ºSkill Tree¡».]
~A new skill?~ Lucius thought to himself almost excitedly, already opening his skill tree tab.
Along the branch where photosynthesis was located, the circle directly above it began glowing, indicating that it could now be unlocked.
~It''s rted to photosynthesis huh? This should be interesting,~ he thought to himself, before selecting the skill.
[Use 100,000 Evo points to unlock new skill?] the system prompted.
~Yikes costly,~ he thought to himself. Though a new skill would open a whole new world of opportunities for him, so he decided to make the investment.
[1,000,000 Helios has been depleted,] it responded, and a moment after the new skill became visible.
¡ºSr Ry¡»
[This ability allows the user to mark a tree to act as a ry, allowing for increased helios absorption during photosynthesis for a duration of time. Additional helios, duration, range, and number of marks avable scales ording to level. Marked rys carry out photosynthesis throughout the day, and increase in level automatically.
Current Level: 1
Number of marks avable: 1
Duration: 3 hours per connected being
Additional helios absorption: 1000 per second
Range of photosynthesis: 1km radius
]
~W-wait, what?~ Lucius thought to himself in pure shock, unable to believe the numbers that he was reading. This changed everything, the way the camp would operate, and the rate at which they could grow.
He quickly made his way towards the main camp, a thousand different questions already running through his head.
~I wonder whether catalyst absorption can be used to increase that number. Are the non-leafling restrictions applied to it as well?~ were among some of the thoughts.
Once he got to the camp, he found the arachnid baby waiting for him in front of the main cottage. Apparently, the insectoid hade home early today and was currently ying babysitter.
~Exipor!! Exerum Rexor,~ the insectoid shouted as Lucius came into view, but his mind was already focused on the task at hand.
He nned on marking the tree that they had built the cottages around. It was at the center of the entire camp and encapsted the 8 pirs as well. So in the case he ever wanted to help them evolve, then it would be way easier.
~Mark,~ he thought to himself as he touched the seemingly dead tree.
[Processing....]
[Linking photosynthesis to selected tree...]
[Linkplete.]
[¡ºSr Ry¡» tab has been added.]
[All attempts of ess will be notified to the user.]
[A cklist option is avable to prevent certain creatures from attempting ess.]
With that, the tree began shining in a brilliant yellow hue, its leaves sparkling in an almost ethereal green. The once dead tree now seemed like a mirage, an illusion of the mind. Lucius stretched out his hand to touch it, to make sure what he was seeing was real.
~I can... feel it,~ he thought to himself and it wasn''t just in the literal sense.
He could feel everything that the tree was currently feeling, from the way its roots felt in the soil, to the way its leaves waved in the wind. He could feel therge amounts of helios it was absorbing per second, arge number to him, yet a drop to the tree itself.
He realized that his earth sense had also been magnified, he could currently sense every single shroom in the 8 pirs, and even past that. He attempted to use Elmando, at the furthest edges of what his link to the tree would allow and found that it worked.
In fact, it was not just his range that had increased, he could now move vegetation that he wasn''t capable of moving before. At the outer edge of the second pir, he used the shrubs in the area to build a 6-meter fence along a 12-meter perimeter.
Within the 1km radius that the mark''s effect stretched out, he could see all; sky, ground, or even underground.
His Elmando could move just about anything apart fromrger trees using the mark as an anchor. In fact, for something to attack him within the 1km radius, they would have to be able to fend off nearly every shrub in the area.
In this 1 km radius... he was... a god. This 1km radius was his yground.
However, everything came at a price.
After doing all that, Lucius felt his brain turn to mush, sap trickled out of his nose... before he inevitably passed out.
***
"Huh?" Lucius croaked, as he opened his eyes.
"I passed out," he whispered, remembering what had happened. He had gotten so high off the feeling of power that he hadpletely forgotten about his earthly body''s limitations.
~Where... where am I?~ he thought to himself, noticing that he was sleeping inside a white building. He quickly looked at his body to make sure that he had not somehow gone back to earth, but found that he was still the same as he always was.
"Lighted One, you have awoken," a little voice said. Lucius turned to look behind him and found a kid shroom bowing towards him.
"What''s going on?"
Chapter 129 Within This Kilometer I Am A... God! (2)
"You have been resting in the housing that the Lighted One''s supreme servant has built," the shroom replied in its almost angelic little voice.
"Pagan built this? When? How long was I out?" Lucius asked, already walking towards therge double doors.
"4 days, Lighted One," the shroom replied.
"Four days?? No, no, no, that''s too long," he whispered to himself, this would set him back way too much. ~I have a tournament to attend... four days lost is way too mu-~ his train of thought was lost once he got past those doors.
Three, 4-meter tall dome-like structures currently stood next to the structure that Lucius was just sleeping in.
The tree he had marked, had doubled in size over the days he was out, and seemed close to bing one of the tallest in this section of the forest. However, what was most surprising, was the seemingly tangible sr energy that floated in the air.
He could feel his body constantly being rejuvenated as it automatically absorbed the surrounding energy.
"It''s releasing excess energy?" he thought to himself as he realized that the sr energy was actuallying from the marked tree''s leaves.
"Ah, Lighted One, you have awoken," Pagan said, a whole entourage of child shrooms following close behind him as he approached Lucius.
"You built all this?" Lucius asked, still in shock.
"It is so Lighted One. After you birthed this blessing, it became easier to use Elmando. I can almost infinitely cast sr cleanse," Pagan exined.
"Infinitely..." Lucius whispered to himself, it all still felt surreal.
"Ah, Lucius," another voice called out.
"Hannibal?" Lucius asked, turning to look at where the voice wasing from. ~I guess 4 days have passed, so their cruxes should be done installing by now,~ he realized.
"Where''s Alpha?" he asked, realizing that Alpha was nowhere to be seen.
"He''s training. Ever since he woke up it''s all he has been doing," Pagan said, a hint of disgust in his voice.
"Training? You taught him how to use magic then?" Lucius asked.
"He''s using the other one. The radiant index," Hannibal exined.
~Makes sense, I suppose,~ Lucius thought, before leaning against the mushroom tower.
"Run me through everything that happened while I was out, I''m still a bit out of it," he said after some thought.
Pagan began exining things from the moment he apparently felt Lucius''s presence all around him. Like thetter was watching every single corner of the camp.
Lucius quickly put two and two together, realizing that that had probably been when he was testing out the new mark.
Pagan then spoke about how he suddenly felt Lucius''s presence disappear, and once he came to the camp found Lucius lying on the floor, and the ''Lighted One''s tree'' as he was calling it, standing behind him.
Apparently, he was convinced that Lucius was going through another evolution, and had all the shrooms go out to collect mushrooms to prepare a ce for Lucius to stay while he was going through the process.
As they were collecting mushrooms, and Pagan was using sr cleanse to heal them of their fatigue, he realized that he wasn''t running out of sr energy. He quickly figured that it was due to the Lighted One''s blessing and used the ''blessing'' to its full potential.
For two days, every second of each day, the shrooms were put to work. Each time they were about to copse from exhaustion, Pagan healed them. The same went for Pagan as well, he worked himself till his mind couldn''t handle it anymore. But he found that under the tree, even his mind recovered faster.
The four structures werepleted on the third day, and that was when Alpha and Hannibal woke up.
They had both attempted to use the sr index, but Alpha found that the spells were too difficult for him to learn. While Hannibal, for his own reasons, decided that it wasn''t for him either.
They both ended up using the radiant index and practiced the techniques that were already in there.
Pagan had collected the children like Lucius had asked him to. And after seeing the glow from the magical tree, most of the shrooms begged to have their child go train under the Lighted One. Apparently, after the tree hade up, everyone was asking permission to visit it, but of course Pagan did not allow this.
Hannibal and Alpha had gone on four hunting missions since they returned, apparently being supervised by Pagan. They had increased their stats by a good amount, and with Pagan''s help had secured a bit more food.
Four more silos had been built in the first pir to house the additional meat. And through repeated trial and error, as well as some help from Hannibal, Pagan had figured out how the suction doors operate.
"You''re a natural, Pagan," Lucius said, patting Pagan on the shoulder. "Well done," he added.
"What about Ghost? Has she woken up yet?" he asked after.
"Not yet," Pagan answered.
"Hmm. Four days is a lot of missed helios, let''s have a session," Lucius decided. There was a lot he had to do, and a session would help him gather his thoughts.
"Where is the arachnid?" Lucius asked. Just then remembered that there were still a few babies left in the cave, and they had gone unfed for four days. He hoped they were still alive.
"The First Beast? He is currently eating in that building," one of the kid shrooms replied, bowing before it spoke.
"Pagan, why do you have these ones following you around?" Lucius asked. He was certain that these were not all the kids, so what made these ones special?
"These ones have a soothing voice, I thought it would please the Lighted One," Pagan replied And he was right, their voices were rather nice, though having them around was sort of awkward.
"They are to act as messengers, Lighted One. So that time may not be wasted walking towards your subordinates," Pagan exined.
"I see..."
Chapter 130 Becoming A Great Settlement (1)
"However, I''d rather not trust them with vital information, not yet at least. So you may use them if you want to send the chieftains or other shrooms on errands, but refrain from sending them on anything that has to do with the internal matters of the camp," Lucius said after some thought.
Upon hearing this Hannibal nodded his head, as if heavily agreeing with Lucius''s way of thinking.
"As you wish Lighted One, I shall put them to good use on other matters then," Pagan replied.
"One of you get the arachnid and the insectoid. And... ah Pagan, perhaps you can go call Alpha. He isn''t trusting of these shrooms," Lucius said after.
The arachnid and insectoid were brought after a minute, apparently, during the four days Lucius was away they had eaten to their heart''s content, as their abdomens had bloated quite a bit.
"Ease down on the amount of food you allow it to eat," Lucius said to the shroom that was carrying the arachnid, as it ran up his body, before settling on his shoulder.
"Exipor!" the insectoid shouted, before scurrying around him once and settlingfortably at his feet.
Alpha came three minutester, his entire body moist from training.
"Captain," Alpha greeted, before bowing on one knee.
"So you picked up that habit as well?" Lucius asked, before going to raise him.
"Pagan told us that you said it was a sign of respect," Alpha exined, kind of confused.
"You misphrased that, Alpha. I told you I felt it was a sign of respect. I would never dare to put words in the Lighted One''s mouth," Pagan shot back.
~Hmm, they are a lot moreplex than before,~ Lucius realized, as they quarreled.
"Where''s Asclepius?" Lucius asked, realizing that she was the only one missing.
"Ahh, she''s in her new amodations," Pagan answered, pausing from his quarreling for a bit before pointing towards the mushroom dome at the furthest edge of the inner camp.
"She moved in, huh?" Lucius whispered to himself.
"That was my doing, forgive me if it was against your future ns," Hannibal exined.
~Hmm?~
"And what was your thought process in doing that," Lucius asked, looking towards him, before ordering one of the little shrooms to go get her.
"She finished the concoction you had ordered her to make while you were asleep. She said that she managed to make it even more potent than she had first estimated," Hannibal began exining.
"Since we are partners of the same Department, I asked if I could assist her in her research of refining the concoction," he continued, stopping in between sentences to see Lucius''s reactions.
"So I thought it would be easier if she stayed closer. That way you could monitor her, and in case we do fall under attack, we won''t have to risk losing a valuable asset," he finished exining.
~Valuable asset, huh?~ Lucius thought to himself in amusement. It was a crude way of thinking about someone, but he generally had the right thought process. Asclepius was more an asset than anything else. If he viewed the leaflings as his kids, Asclepius was like a work friend.
"Well done," Lucius said, patting Hannibal on the head.
Once Asclepius arrived, the group began their photosynthesis session. Pagan had dismissed the shrooms and told them to stand by somece close by.
The session took ce in thergest dome structure in the camp, apparently Pagan had made this building specifically for the sessions. It wasrge enough to fit nearly the entire leafling poption at least twice over.
"Let us bathe in his Light, and forever strive to repay our debts," Pagan announced before starting the session.
[¡ºPagan¡» requests a ry.]
[Please select ry link]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??Ry links??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[¡ºTree mark¡»- lvl.1]
[¡ºUser¡»]
[Select all]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
? Lucius promptly chose the ''select all'' option.
[¡ºPagan¡»''s +5% increase has been added. ¡ºTree mark¡»has added 1000 helios per second.]
[? Target(s)ck certain requirements.]
[Continue Shared Photosynthesis at 50% efficiency?]
~Yes~
[Absorbing 822.675 Helios per second.]
The arachnid, insectoid, and Asclepius held on for three, six, and 10 minutes respectively, and after their links had been severed, the Helios absorption went back to 1645.35 per second.
The sessionsted about 2 hours and 30 minutes, with Pagan and Lucius being the only ones left at the end. Lucius could sense that Pagan''s evolution was close. If they had one more session like this, he was certain the Pagan would evolve.
~About 17.7 million helios in one session?~ Lucius thought to himself before pulling out his system shop.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??System Shop??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
(Current Helios: 19,497,160)
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Hmm, after another session like this, I''ll have enough to cover the total cost for the leaflings'' evolutions,~ Lucius thought to himself before putting the system shop away.
"Lucius, I wanted to talk to you about the concoction," Asclepius said, derailing Lucius''s train of thought.
"Ahh, right," he replied, before standing up.
He noticed that Alpha waspletely knocked out from the session and was currently sprawled across the floor. Both Alpha and Hannibal were now about the size of small boars, at least 55 centimeters tall.
Pagan was slowly approaching Lucius''s height and was about 1 meter tall, just 20 centimeters shorter than Lucius.
Just like Lucius, their green flesh was slowly turning to a woody brown. This was especially true for Alpha, whose body was beginning to harden, and the wood armor that coated him was bing more pronounced.
The patterns on Pagan''s skin had be more distinct as well, though it was still hard to make out what exactly they were needed for.
The arachnid was now the size of the little shrooms, about five centimeters tall. The insectoid on the other hand was now the size of a rodent, about 10 centimeters tall with its legs fully stretched, and about three times as long.
"Pagan, take Alpha to his quarters," Lucius ordered before following Asclepius.
"Hannibal you might want toe along too," Asclepius said as she and Lucius were about to leave for her dome.
*
"What is it?" Lucius asked once he entered her dome. About half the room was crowded with different types of herbs and nts, all grouped separately in little bundles.
A quarter of the dome had purple nts growing out of the ground, much like the ones she had shown him when he had first returned from the shri''killian mission.
"You''ve found a way to grow them sessfully?" he asked as he passed by the growing nts.
"Hannibal helped me. He broke down the steps I took when I identally caused it the first time, and after a few iterations we found out that it had to do with the quality of the soil. Of course, it took us a while to get the requirements right, but we managed," she replied, still takingrge strides toward one end of the dome.
Lucius looked back at Hannibal, and he had a slight smirk on his face. ~A valuable asset,~ Lucius thought to himself.
Hmm, she''s at least 14 centimeters now, nearly the same size as the chieftains, Lucius thought to himself. Due to the fact he was sorge, noticing these differences required a good amount of attention from him.
"This is what I wanted to show you," she said, showing Lucius a worm sack filled with a glowing purple liquid.
Chapter 131 [Bonus ]Becoming A Great Settlement (2)
"What is this?"
The liquid seemed magical, he hadn''t expected it toe out this way.
"I have no clue. Ever since that tree started glowing, most of the nts here began reacting to it. Yesterday when Hannibal and I were trying to refine the concoction, it began glowing," Asclepius exined as she handed the sack over to Lucius.
"It absorbed the sr energy," Lucius murmured, seeing how the liquid was glowing brighter at regr intervals, almost as if it had a pulse.
"You said the nts started reacting, what do you mean?" he asked after inspecting it for a bit.
"Those purple nts are three timesrger than they were yesterday morning. I have no idea how fast they usually grow, but I''m sure it''s not supposed to be that fast," Hannibal answered.
"Some of the other herbs have increased in size as well, even though nothing has been done to them," Asclepius added.
~So it''s affecting everything then?~ Lucius realized.
"Try nting all of them. Right under the tree, you can mix in the soil you guys created," Lucius ordered.
"And have you tried taking sap samples from the tree? Maybe leaves as well," he added, realizing that direct contact may increase the changes.
"That may increase the changes," Hannibal whispered right after, he began murmuring to himself, before shaking his head.
"I can''t believe I didn''t try that," he said after.
"Also... you have to radiant index right?" Lucius asked, to which Hannibal nodded his head. "Try running radiant energy through them, perhaps they will react differently since it''s absorbing sr energy right now," he said.
"Again," Hannibal whispered, his tone filled with disappointment.
"So, have you tried the concoction yet?" Lucius asked, turning to Asclepius.
"I took a sample," she exined. "It''s too potent," she said after a moment.
"Too potent?" Lucius asked, looking at it.
"My body couldn''t handle even a sip of it. Of course, my poison has increased by leaps and bounds, but if it wasn''t for Pagan''s healing, I probably would''ve been out for a while," she exined.
"Hmm," Lucius whispered, before taking a few sips of the concoction.
Cold.
That was what it felt like, an ice-cold chill rolling down his throat, freezing everything it touched. He could feel it spreading throughout his body, but funny enough, the feeling was intoxicating.
He took a few more sips, then gulps, until there was nothing left.
[+400 points added to ¡ºPoison Resistance¡»]
[+400 points added to ¡ºPoison Secretion¡»]
[¡ºPoison Secretion¡» upgraded to ¡ºPoison Projection¡»]
"Interesting," Lucius whispered to himself. The information pertaining to his new skill was being fed into his brain, and it was indeed interesting.
It allowed him to create and control clouds of poison gas, already the covert applications of such a skill were running through his mind.
"How much more do you have?" he asked after he was done.
"Three more sacks," she said, snapping out of her daze. She was bbergasted by how Lucius had just downed something that was intoxicating even for a naturally poisonous creature.
"Leave one for yourself, and one for further refining if that''s possible. The other one I''ll be giving to someone else," Lucius said.
"Who?" Hannibal asked.
"Confidential," Lucius replied immediately, before making a quick sweep of the room with his eyes.
"Have you picked out any helpers yet?" he asked after.
"I have pirs three, four, and five to help with herb and nt retrieval," she replied.
"I''m not talking about nt retrieval. I''m talking about help with research, maybe someone to run through some experiments while you work on others," Lucius said.
"No, none. The others from themune are still evolving, and I thought you would not trust the others of my kind," she replied.
"You''re right. Ask for some of the children under Pagan, they could be of some use. But only allow them to do menial tasks, make sure not to expose anything about the concoctions or any other important information," Lucius said after a moment of thought,
"You guys did well here," he added.
"Then may I ask something," Asclepius said after a moment.
"What is it?"
"Arachnids, I need- we need more. Now that you mentioned the tree sap, I was wondering what effect using it instead of the spring''s water would have," she said.
Both Hannibal and Lucius looked at each other at this, realizing how brilliant that was. The potential was unfathomable.
"We''ll go hunting for a few today," Lucius answered after a moment.
Asclepius continued to fill Lucius in on all the progress she had made, which mainly amounted to her understanding of what different herbs and nts could be used for.
As for their agriculture, it seemed it was still mainly guesswork, as all their knowledge was limited to how to nt them, and not what they required during the growth stages.
After his talk with Asclepius, Hannibal spoke with him in private. His talk was mainly about the changes to the camp, and what his views were on certain things.
For one, Hannibal did not like the amount of influence Pagan had over the shrooms. Something that Lucius had noticed himself and was going to address sooner rather thanter.
Another thing Hannibal was concerned with was the indexes. From what he learned during his day with the index, it was difficult. The instructions fed to him were vague, and even with an understanding as fast as his, he hadn''t yet managed to properly perform radiant healing.
Of course, Lucius already had a solution for this. He was going to implement a school-type system to teach the others, however, he had been unconscious when they had woken up so up til now their growth had been kept to a minimum.
"Hmm, what do you think about Asclepius?" Lucius asked as they walked back to the camp.
"She seems trustworthy," Hannibal said, before pausing for a moment. "At least from what she has shown me," he added.
"What is she driven by? What is she after? Judging someone''s trustworthiness based on what they show you are ultimately useless. Anyone can fake that. But if we find out what exactly is that drives her, we can use that to buy her loyalty, at least as much as necessary," Lucius exined.
This was something he had learned as a human, nobody could be trustedpletely. But if your goals were aligned, you could depend on them.
"Hmm, she seems convinced that you are some chosen one. I''ve heard her whisper to the shrooms sometimes during runs. They seem convinced as well, so as far as what drives her... she wants toe off as indisposable," Hannibal said after some thought.
Chapter 132 Becoming A Great Settlement (3)
"Worst case scenario I''ll get Ghost to take her out if she breaks away,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing Pagan approaching from the distance.
"Ahh, Hannibal. I''ve yet to give you the Elmando skill, huh?"
"Yourmandment?" Hannibal asked, a tinge of unexpected excitement in his voice.
"Commandment?" Lucius repeated, side-eyeing Pagan.
"What I said was The Commandment. It is the power you gave me to bend the forest to my will," Pagan exined, before calling two nearby vines toward him.
"Elmando... Commandment... anyway, here," Lucius whispered, opening his system shop and giving Hannibal the skill.
"The skill seems to scale with mental power, so you should practice it on your off time. It''s an interesting skill, and I''m sure you''ll find a creative way to use it for your research," he added, as the information pertaining to the skill was being fed into Hannibal''s mind.
Pagan and Lucius watched as Hannibal tried and failed to use the skill for several minutes. Right as they were about to call quits, Hannibal managed to make one of the leaves on a nearby shrub move.
~Hmm, this settles it then. Pagan is in fact a prodigy,~ Lucius thought to himself as Hannibal smiled with a sense of self-achievement.
"Hmm, you sully the gifts the Lighted One has given you," Pagan said, before moving the entire shrub that Hannibal''s leaf was on.
"And you sully me. What use will putting him down do?" Lucius asked, staring daggers at Pagan. Though Hannibal didn''t seem phased by Pagan''s taunting, it greatly annoyed Lucius how sardonic Pagan was bing.
~Hmm, is this what they call bad parenting? Pagan has be so powerful that I shouldn''t even be surprised he''s acting this way,~ Lucius thought to himself, easing down on his stare a little.
"Nevermind, this isn''t your fault, Pagan," he said out loud.
~Losing to me won''t teach him anything... he needs to be beaten by the others. Talking won''t make him see them as equals,~ Lucius realized.
And besides, they ought to be training anyways, since he would soon be leading small-scale missions to stop the advance of the necromancer, as well as to prepare for the Shu''hakan.
"Hmm, you guys follow me," Lucius ordered, before making his way toward the marked tree.
"ce your hand on it," he said to the two of them, and after some thought they obliged.
[¡ºHannibal ¡»and ¡ºPagan¡» request ess to ¡ºTree mark¡».]
~ept,~ Lucius responded, before touching it himself.
~I can see... everything.~ This was Pagan''s voice. The three of them were currently sharing the same vision, and Pagan was constantly shifting it, exploring the entire camp.
~Lucius, what is this ce?~ This was Hannibal, he seemed to be taking a back seat, observing how things worked before trying to do anything himself.
~This is the mark. Currently the most powerful skill at our disposal,~ Lucius exined, mentally overpowering Pagan for control.
~This tree increases the power of Elmando, photosynthesis and...~ Lucius paused his exnation to cast a sr burst above the camp. The thing seemed like a second sun. It had a 10-meter radius and caused the air around it to boil, making the whole scene look a bit odd.
~... and increases the strength of spells. When I am not around, and you guys cannot stop whatever enemy may be approaching,e here and use the mark. I doubt anything will be able to get past this...~ he continued exining. However the image of the furry-folk yed in his mind, and he doubted that this would be enough to stop them.
~You''ve met the dragons, Lighted One?~ Pagan asked, and an image of a furry-folk walking alongside a nt-human creature was disyed in Lucius''s mind.
~Wait, we can share... memories?~ Lucius wondered, admiring the scene that was apparently being broadcast from Pagan''s mind. At this, even more, images were shared amongst the three, however majority of them were Pagan''s.
~It seems to be the case Lighted One... in that case, let me show you...~ Pagan responded.
His memories told an interesting story, like a timepse of the forest. The creatures in his memories were indeed god-creatures. They seemed to have a skill simr to Elmando, that allowed them to change the structure of the forest with mere gestures. However, it was at the level where they could shift the very earth itself.
The forest looked... beautiful. It was like a portrayal of the Garden of Eden... millions of different creatures living in harmony. The forest was filled with many vibrant colors, ever-changing as if the trees were more than alive... sentient.
~Pagan... you lived through this?~ This was Hannibal, his voice shrouded... as if he couldn''tprehend what he was seeing.
The images now shifted to an ancient city. The structures seemed to be made out of a white marble substance. For a memory of the past, its technology seemed way too advanced, as Lucius could not even tell what some of these things did.
However, some things were clear. The ancient city had transport, fast-moving objects simr to cars, but it would seem Pagan''s memories did not go into detail on their working... so Lucius couldn''t hypothesize past this.
Another thing was that the city seemed to have some sort of religion, as a giant statue of the sun stood at the center of the city.
~So even god-creatures like these served gods? Ironic~ Lucius thought to himself.
The vision shifted once again. This time it focused in on the sun statue. Its center was made of a ss-like material, unbelievably clear, and unfathomably circr. In fact, its shape seemed eery, like something that mortals were not meant toy their eyes on.
The vision showed the god creatures bowing to it, and chanting something in their ancient tongue. Odd writings began appearing on the center of the sun statue, and a beam shot, seemingly from the very sun itself, passing through the ss part of the statue and covering the god-creatures in its radiance.
~Photosynthesis,~ Lucius realized as the creatures seemed to have grown in both size, and power.
The image shifted once more, it showed new types of creaturesing into the forest... Lucius was familiar with these creatures, in fact, he had hoped he would never have to see them again.
Humans... and for some reason, he could already tell how this was going to end.
In this new vision, the humans began having talks with the god-creatures. They brought gifts, and they seemed to be forming good rtions with the city.
The city thrived for a time, and humans began to integrate into its civilization.
The image shifted once again, but this time the creatures seemed to be fighting amongst each other. The fae and furry-folk especially seemed to be at each other''s throats.
The next vision showed the furry-folk leaving the civilization. The fae fought for them to stay, but the humans seemed tofort them, allowing the furry-folk to leave.
~No... don''t believe them,~ Lucius whispered.
No person, regardless of how cold, would not fall in love with the beauty of this ancient civilization. It was like a paradise, no... more than that. And to see the selfishness of humans destroying it... it could break even the devil''s heart.
Chapter 133 Becoming A Great Settlement (4)
The rest of the memory went on as aspected. Soon the humans began extracting minerals from the ground, odd-looking gems simr to azure, but Lucius could tell at a nce that they were magical in nature.
They also sucked the manakes dry and chopped down the trees that were lined all along the city. From what Lucius could tell, they were all marked, however, they seemed wayrger, and seemingly more radiant than the one he had.
Of course, this was not done without retaliation from the Fae. Eventually, they realized that the humans were only acting in self-interest, but it was toote. The once god-like creatures were powerless... for what reason they could no longer wield their powers, Lucius could not tell, but he was certain the humans were at fault.
What ensued was a ughter. Powerless, the Fae tried to run, but were hunted down... their greater creations sent back to the earth with them... and their lower ones thrown out into the forest.
This was the tale of the forest... the ''owners'' were more colonizers than anything else.
For a moment the three remained in silence, not a single thought being shared amongst them.
~So the ''owners'' are actually a threat huh?~ Lucius realized. If the humans found out about the littlemune he was trying to grow, and how he and the leaflings were slowly evolving to resemble the once god-like creatures, they would definitely snip them in the bud.
~No, we''re lucky they haven''t spotted us yet. We have to get rid of the necromancer before they get the chance...~ he continued.
~It would''ve been nice if we could rely on the furry-folk... or perhaps we can. Amon enemy... but we currently have nothing to offer. Our prowess is impressive for forest creatures, but judging by the suits they were wearing during my first encounter with them...~ Lucius said, bringing up the memory of his first encounter with the creatures. ~...I''d say that they wouldn''t care to have us help them.~
~These are the furry-folk?~ Hannibal asked, inspecting the creatures that were currently on disy.
The furry-folk Lucius had met were slightly different from those in Pagan''s memory. These ones seemed less bestial, and way smaller, whereas their ancestors were massive 9-foot-tall creatures, with massive wings, worthy of the title dragon.
The newer version seemed more... humanoid, with less exaggerated features, and no wings to speak of.
~Perhaps evolutionary changes, they do live underground, after all,~ Lucius exined.
~Pagan, do you have any more memories? Perhaps something that may help us?~ he asked finally.
Pagan thought over it for a minute, before showing the group a memory of him walking around one of the Fae. The creature was reading something resembling a book, though Lucius could not understand its writings.
~The Encylopedia,~ he realized, before bringing out his system shop.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??System Shop??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
(Current Helios: 19,497,160)
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~I was going to need it anyway,~ he thought to himself, grimacing at it''s price before purchasing it.
[Processing...]
[Linking all identifiednguages to ¡ºEncyclopedia¡».]
[...Ancient Sentinel Tongue added.]
[...Human Arrkonic Language added.]
[...Revised Sentinel Tongue added.]
[...Reptilian Tongue added.]
[...Hexapoda Tongue added.]
[Processing...]
[Creating Language harmonizer...]
[Harmonizer added...]
[¡ºEncyclopedia¡» tab has been added to system.]
Lucius quickly pulled up the Encyclopedia tab to inspect it.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??Encyclopedia??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Language Libraries]
[Personal Language creation]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Personal Language creation, huh? I''ll check that outter,~ he thought to himself, before taking another look at the book that the Fae was reading.
~~Scriptures of Havon... a novice''s guide to Sr Incantation~~ it read.
The excitement held between all three of them was palpable, they all held their breaths as the image shifted, each of them hoping to learn at least something of their magical powers.
~Pagan, what are you doing?~ Hannibal shouted, as the vision began to recede. It would seem that back in the day Pagan had no interest in the book, and decided to leave the Fae without so much as checking a single page.
~Bring up others, surely you''ve seen more,~ Lucius ordered, and Pagan began bringing up more memories.
~~Scriptures of Havon... Radiant techniques revised,~~ read one of the books in the memory. Sadly, just like the other one, Pagan hadn''t stuck around long enough to see even a single page.
This went on for some time, each time Pagan failed to look at the pages, however, he couldn''t be med, as it would take him great effort to see anything apart from the front page since the Fae were about 8 feet tall. Even as they sat, they were at heights that Pagan could not hope to reach without trying to climb them, and perhaps offend them in the process.
However as they were about to give up, a memory came up where a Fae was ying with him. It would seem that leaflings were nothing more than pets to those creatures.
The Fae picked Pagan up and ced him on a table. On the table was an open book, and the lines on the open page read...
~~Radiant Mirage is a foundational technique that will be used as a base for many of the moreplex techniques.
Radiant Mirage requires the user to imagine an exact copy of their body being projected on the air right next to them. Proper knowledge of one''s body is a must for this technique to work.
The more mirages are created the faster the caster''s radiant reserves will deplete. Radiant Mirage in itself is not a hard technique, and inversely it is also nothing more than a cantrip.
Due to the fact that Mirages are not physical, and can only copy exactly what the caster is doing, a well versed enemy will be able to tell at a nce which the actual caster is based on interactions with the environment.
The process for casting the technique is as follows;
Lower radiant energy intensity, and let it permeate out of the skin. Once out of the skin, perform several pulses of high and low-intensity circtions, whilst imagining a replica of your body besides you.
Remember... imagination is key!
~
Chapter 134 Fight Me!! (1)
~Lucius...~ Hannibal whispered.
~I know, but let''s test it out before we get too excited. There''s a chance that the techniques don''t work with our index,~ Lucius replied, before disconnecting everyone from the tree.
The three of them walked to a spot just outside the central camp, before Hannibal began trying to execute what he had read. While he was doing this, Lucius tried to see if he could replicate the technique with the sr index.
[Processing...]
[New technique acquired... ¡ºRadiant Mirage¡».]
[Adding ¡ºRadiant Mirage¡» to ¡ºRadiant Augmentation Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºRadiant Mirage¡» has been added.]
It took about two minutes before Hannibal had finally gotten it, and around the same time for Lucius to realize that it was not a possibility with the sr index.
"Hmm, so it''s literally a mirror copy. Try moving around," Lucius ordered, inspecting the duplicate that Hannibal had created. Sadly, the notes had been right when it said a well-versed enemy could spot it out at a nce.
The image was a little translucent, meaning it wouldn''t be much help in closebat. Also, it couldn''t move independently, so it couldn''t even be used to confuse the enemy properly.
"Can you create more?" he asked after, and Hannibal closed his eyes to concentrate. However, after 2 minutes of arduous strain, he only managed to make a very faint second copy.
"With more practice perhaps you''ll be able to create more, maybe then it''ll be a little more useful," he whispered. "But for now, it''ll do for long-distance confusion and baits," he said after.
After the group was done, they went back to the tree to try and see if there were any more memories with spells. However, they came to find that that was thest memory Pagan had that rted to the spell books.
~Do you know where the ruins of this ce are located?~ Lucius asked, hoping that perhaps there might be a few books left over.
~Lighted One, there are no ruins. Those creatures in the memory sit on the Fae''s throne as we speak,~ Pagan replied.
~Was there only one civilization? Perhaps there were other cities?~ Hannibal asked.
~If there are, then I do not know of them,~ Pagan replied.
~So getting those books is going to require either searching or espionage... both of which can be arranged,~ Lucius decided.
~Anyway, let''s finish what I brought you guys here to do. I want to get a bit of building done, this will help Hannibal increase his Elmando as well,~ Lucius said, before showing the group an image of an ancient roman colosseum he had seen in a movie.
~I want to build a smaller-scale version of this using wood. It''ll probably take a few days to finish as we will have to do it in little bits and pieces to avoid passing out, but that''s okay,~ he said before the group began.
They managed to set up a 4-meter tall, 50-meter radius cylinder on the ground. For now, it would work as the foundations they would add ontoter.
After that was done, they disconnected to go and inspect what they had made.
"What are we going to use this for?" Hannibal asked as they walked through the entrance into the center of the unfinished colosseum.
"A training area. After a while we''llpress the wood more and more, at some point, hopefully, we be strong enough to use rock material," Lucius exined.
"Training?" Pagan asked.
"Like the match you and I had the other day," Lucius replied, before taking off his cloak, and walking to the center.
"Pagan, heal Hannibal," Lucius ordered, and Pagan obliged. Hannibal was a little confused about what was going on, but quickly realized it once Lucius started throwing air punches.
"We''re going to fight?" Hannibal asked.
"It''s the best way to increase stats. You can make use of the radiant index, as a handicap, I won''t use any magic," Lucius replied, before throwing out three quick kicks, each of them sounding like a whip.
"Pagan, you can announce when we should start," Lucius ordered before walking back a few steps to create a safe enough distance between him and Hannibal.
"You ready?" Pagan asked, looking toward Hannibal.
"I think so,"
"Ready?" he asked, this time looking at Lucius. Lucius just nodded his head in response.
"Go!"
The fight ended in less than six blinks. In the first two seconds, Lucius covered the almost 4-meter distance between them, while Hannibal activated his cloak.
In the next two seconds, Lucius threw out a number of feints in an attempt to estimate Hannibal''s reaction time. And though he moved fast, his reactions were slow.
The rest of the match was aplete ughter. Hannibal could only attempt to dodge the many kicks and punchesing from seemingly all directions. He had both the speed and strength in cloaked mode to try and contest Lucius, but he had none of the battle knowledge.
In the end, he lost terribly, with not a single punch scored against Lucius.
"As expected of the Lighted One," Pagan said before going to heal Hannibal.
"Heal himpletely, and go get Alpha," Lucius ordered. Of course, he knew that Hannibal would not be able to score a hit against him, much less win. The whole point of this was to grow his stats, and his battle iq through repeated sparring.
And from the looks of his stats, it was working.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Hannibal Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf Being lvl.6- [0/800]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 4 -> 40]
[Strength: 5 -> 60]
[Stamina: 4 -> 84]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
"Hannibal get up," Lucius ordered as Pagan left to get Alpha. "The tree offers a faster recovery rate, and Pagan should''ve healed youpletely," he added.
"Still hasn''t healed my emotional damage though," Hannibal whispered as he got up. This time he stood in the same stance that Lucius was standing in. It would seem he was learning.
"You can say when," Lucius said, and a momentter the bout began.
This time the fight ended even faster, however, Hannibal''s performance had improved.
In the first few seconds, while Lucius was running to cover the distance between the two of them, Hannibal used radiant mirage, before instantly kicking dirt into the air.
It was a cute little trick, but something like that wasn''t going to work against a man who had spent half his life-fighting. Sure he struggled against spiders twice his size, or some other monstrous creature, but when it came to hand-to-hand, he was indeed a veteran.
A whip-like kick came thrusting through the sand cloud, before hitting the real Hannibal square in the chest, sending him bouncing off the ground like a ball.
Hannibal coughed up sap as hey on the ground, struggling to get air into his body.
"Heal yourself," Lucius whispered, before casting a healing spell on him.
Chapter 135 Fight Me!! (2)
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Hannibal Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf Being lvl.6- [0/800]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 40 -> 46]
[Strength: 60->62]
[Stamina: 84 -> 112]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
"Hmm, the increase in stats reduced. Should I actually get serious then?" Lucius whispered to himself, and upon hearing this Hannibal ''fainted''.
Hannibal thought himself a tactician... a thinker, he had no ce being rag-dolled by the strongest creature in the camp, and probably this side of the forest.
"Hannibal are you okay?" Lucius asked, picking up his limp body.
"Guess he fainted from mental exhaustion," he whispered, before carrying him to the side. Little did he know of the little tactician''s grin, and his ''tactical retreat n''.
A few minutester Pagan returned with Alpha.
"What happened to him?" Alpha asked, looking towards the ''unconscious'' Hannibal.
"Mental exhaustion," Lucius replied, before exining to Alpha what they were doing here.
"Training? I''m all in," Alpha replied quickly.
~Let''s check his stats,~ Lucius thought to himself as he and Alpha walked toward the center of the arena.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Alpha Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf Being [Armored Variation] lvl.3- [0/300]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 62]
[Strength: 224]
[Stamina: 343]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
"Alpha, have you been lifting rocks?" Lucius asked jokingly.
"Several, Captain," Alpha replied.
"Figures," Lucius whispered to himself, before Pagan gave the go.
Like his prior fights, Lucius rushed in to close the distance between them, funny enough, unlike Hannibal, Alpha did not activate his cloak, or try to run radiant energy through his body. He just rushed at Lucius as well.
As expected, Alpha went flying backward, losing the collision terribly. However, even as sap dripped from his mouth he stood up and rushed towards Lucius again.
And again Lucius sent him flying back. This went on several more times, and each time Alpha got slower and slower.
"You know you can use magic, right?" Lucius said, at this point feeling a bit of pity for Alpha. Though the ''undying'' demeanor made him feel a little proud.
"But you haven''t used a single spell yet," Alpha replied in between gasps.
"I''m bigger than you and have higher stats. We''re training, I''m trying to make this as stimting as possible," Lucius exined. And after a short internal battle, Alpha cast radiant healing on himself and rushed toward Lucius.
~A living tank,~ Lucius thought to himself as Alpha rushed him. ~The sad thing about tanks is that theyck maneuverability,~ he thought after, before side-stepping the initial rush, and using Alpha''s own momentum to m him into the ground.
"Interesting," a voice from the sidelines whispered. It would seem that Hannibal had ''woken up''.
Alpha''s body shone with a soft blue radiance for a second, before he stood up, this time looking at Lucius with wary eyes.
Pagan gave the go, and once again Alpha rushed Lucius. Though this time he cloaked himself, increasing his speed mid-journey.
Lucius side-stepped the initial rush, however, Alpha could just barely keep up with his speed while cloaked, so he followed in his direction.
Instead of a throw, this time Lucius swept Alpha, sending him into the air, before grabbing and mming him into the ground.
Though perhaps he had overestimated Alpha''s strength and armor, as thetter was no longer moving.
~He''s alive, just knocked out,~ Lucius thought to himself, sensing Alpha''s presence with his earth sense.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Alpha Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf Being [Armored Variation] lvl.3- [0/300]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 62 -> 78]
[Strength: 224 -> 324]
[Stamina: 343 ->503]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~Well, he did get up a bunch of times,~ Lucius thought to himself before carrying him to the sidelines.
"Okay, now the both of you at the same time. This time I''m going to be a little serious since it''s two against one," Lucius said.
Besides, Pagan wasrge enough to pose an actual threat to him, and with Pagan''s magic, he wouldn''t surive without trying.
Pagan opened up the bout with a high-powered sr beam, making sure to hide the crux behind his body to prevent Lucius from seeing where the attack woulde from.
Lucius in turn put up a sr field, using a chunk of his sr reserves topletely nullify the super-powered attack.
The two then began throwing cantrips at one another, Lucius snapping his fingers with each one he sent out.
For a moment Hannibal stood in silence as the two attacked each other with seemingly masterful execution. He quickly picked up why they hid the crux behind their bodies, but he could not understand why Lucius was snapping his fingers.
From what he could tell, the winner would be the one with therger reserves, but due to Lucius''s snapping, most of his attacks failed, so even if he had therger reserves he would end up losing.
~Why?~ Hannibal thought to himself, before putting up his radiant cloak and rushing towards Lucius. Even though he knew he would lose at closebat, so long as he distracted Lucius long enough, Pagan would finish things off.
Lucius began targeting Hannibal as well, now a little more mentally strained as he had to both deflect Pagan''s attacks, and monitor both their movements.
Fortunately for Hannibal, Lucius''s snapping made it easy for him to dodge, so it wasn''t so difficult to cover the distance.
"Oi, you imbecile! It''s a trap!" Pagan shouted, just now realizing that Hannibal wasn''t aware of Lucius''s nasty trick.
With that small distraction, a sr beam hit him right in the face.
And the nowfortable Hannibal who had been expecting a snap before the sr beam was hit square in the stomach. Both of them were defeated due to one second of distraction.
"Teamwork isn''t easy," Lucius said as he walked towards the two.
"Pagan, you should''ve shared that information earlier... and that imbecile thing, do it again and I''ll make you run around the entire outer camp 100 times," Lucius warned.
"And Hannibal, I don''t me you for falling for my childish trick, but even if you did get close, have you forgotten about my sr burst? Surely you would''ve found out about it while you had the sr index," Lucius said, turning to Hannibal.
Of course, Hannibal had seen the spells in the sr index while he had it, but because he had never gotten to the stage where he could perform them, they were stuffed into the back of his mind.
Chapter 136 Recon (1)
"Anyway, we''ll be doing this at the same time every day from now on. The goal of this isn''t only to increase your stats, but to ingrain some battle instincts into your minds," Lucius exined as the three of themy on the groundpletely exhausted.
"You two remember the necromancer and his undead horde right?" he asked, looking towards Hannibal and then Alpha, both of whom replied with an exhausted nod.
"Now that you guys are powered up, we have a chance at dealing with them. But first, we need to whittle down their forces, which will require both of you to be at least on par with Pagan," he continued exining.
"Additionally, we are also going to take part in a tournament of sorts. This will be our chance to gain a few allies, and perhaps resources we wouldn''t otherwise have ess to. But that''s on the basis that we prove we are worth allying with," he said, before pulling out his system shop and giving Alpha the Elmando skill.
"Practice using it in your free time."
"And don''t fail me," he finished before leaving.
"Sometimes I think Lucius hates us," Hannibal whispered, to which Alpha replied with a grunt.
"Losers don''t get to talk, especially if it''s about the Lighted One," Pagan said before healing himself.
*
It was currently close to mid-afternoon, and the camp seemed fairly active. For some reason the little shrooms were walking back and forth, carrying small bits of meat to and fro a particr building.
Lucius followed them, and found that they wereing from the ''First-beast''s quarters''.
"Oi, look, it''s the crazy creature," the insectoid said, before scurrying towards Lucius, its mouthpletely covered with food remains.
The arachnid baby was currently stuffing its mouth and didn''t even pay it any mind.
"Watch this, all I have to do is run around and shout random words and it''ll be happy," the insectoid continued, before scurrying around Lucius shouting "crazy creature" over and over again.
~So that''s what exipor means,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"What a simple-minded creature... well at least it''s powerful, I''ll give it that," the insectoid said, before giving Lucius onest up and down and going back to its meal.
"Why are you guys feeding them so much food?" Lucius asked as one of the little shrooms came into the room, still, a little amused by the insectoid''s... unique personality.
"The First beast requested we feed it," one of the shrooms replied in a squeaky voice.
"And how did you figure that?"
"It kept clinging on to us, and chasing us around... it only does that when it''s hungry," the shroom exined.
"Sigh, so it''s bullying kids now?" Lucius sighed, before going to grab the arachnid. The arachnid shrieked as it was lifted from its food.
"Oi, enough of that," Lucius said, pointing a finger at the creature. It continued shrieking for a moment, before looking at Lucius with almost innocent eyes, like a child begging for mercy.
"Nope, it seems I need to put you on a training regiment as well," he said. Though the creature did not understand what Lucius was saying it could tell that it was in trouble.
"Yeah, the crazy creature does is like this sometimes..." the insectoid said in between mouthfuls. "No respect I tell you..."
"We ought to teach it who''s boss... though you can go first. I don''t really feel like doing all that right now," it continued, before almost choking on its food.
"You too," Lucius said, looking towards it, and for a moment he felt something weird happening to his voice.
[Words harmonized.]
"What? Wait, did it just speak?" the insectoid asked in shock, before looking at Lucius with an incredulous gaze.
"Take these two to the training grounds and tell Alpha to have them do a few exercises," Lucius ordered, turning to one of the kid shrooms.
"As you wish Lighted One."
"It must''ve been my imagination," the insectoid said in relief before going back to its food.
"If you don''t follow them, I''ll kick you out of the camp," Lucius said, turning back to the insectoid, and once again his voice changed.
"Wait! You can talk!? For how long?" the insectoid asked, a more submissive tone to its voice.
"I got the ''Crazy creature'' part if that''s what you''re wondering," Lucius replied as he was about to leave the building.
"Hehe, the child can''t even understand me. It''s just a little joke," the insectoid exined, rubbing its front legs together.
"Just follow the shrooms. By the way, I want to talk to youter," Lucius replied, before leaving.
"I think I made it mad," the insectoid whispered to itself with a gulp.
*
After getting a bit of meat from what Lucius assumed was the ''kitchen'' building of the internal camp, he set off for the arachnid cave.
Apparently, Asclepius had found a way to enhance the effect of scent-covering herbs, so the smell of meat would not attract hunters to the camp. He had to admit, his investment in her was slowly paying off.
However, before Lucius went to his destination, he wanted to take a quick look at how far the necromancer had invaded. He had avoided checking earlier out of fear it might''ve prepared for his return, and found some way to follow him back to the camp.
But with the marked tree, the 8 pirs, and Hannibal, Pagan and Alpha now evolved, he doubted the necromancer could prate to the center.
~Its only moved a few meters?~ Lucius thought to himself as he looked down at the decayed forest floor from high atop one of the trees. It would seem that there was a line of the undead standing guard over the outermost decayed parts, though their numbers seemed a little smallpared to what he had seen earlier.
~What''s going on? Are they facing some problems?~ Lucius thought to himself before it hit him.
The decay extended towards the dark forest from here, and if his memory was correct, the necromancer''s undead horde had been carrying dead creatures from there as well. What if some force was drawing the necromancer''s attention?
Perhaps a few dark forest ns had realized that the necromancer was a threat.
~I figured that this would happen... though I wonder how much of its forces it has redirected to deal with this threat,~ Lucius thought to himself, before sneaking deeper into the decayed part of the forest.
Chapter 137 Recon (2)
From the looks of things, the perimeter had 3yers of protection. Twoyers of undead guards holding the perimeter line, and a bunch of creatures hidden somewhere within the decayed forest watching over. If not for his earth sense, perhaps he would''ve fallen for the trap.
~Are they... building?~ Lucius thought to himself as he noticed an odd-looking structure just out in the distance. Pushing himself to the limit, he quickly dashed from tree to tree, going higher up with each leap.
~Oh lord,~ he thought to himself as he watched a group of undead shrooms using the Elmando skill to build what looked like the foundation for a massive structure.
~So they retain their skills even after they''re dead?~ he thought to himself. He was unsure what skills the other sentients had, but this was bound to spell trouble if the necromancer somehow managed to kill a creature on the level of a furry-folk.
After following the structures deeper into the camp, all the while going higher and higher atop the trees to ensure he would not be whiffed out by any short-range ''earth senses'', he finally made his way to the center of the necromancer camp... or at least its center''s border.
At least 400 undead creatures were standing guard in front of what looked like a massive temple made of decayed matter. And those were just the ones that he could see.
The temple itself had a pyramidal shape, with a base the size of a football court, and its length reaching the uppermost canopy of the forest (which was about 90 meters off the ground.)
The creatures standing guard here were unlike any he had ever seen before. Among them were humanoid bats, at least 1.4 meters tall. He counted 12 giant beetles with a row of horns on their heads, at least 2 meters tall. And a whole squadron of humanoid insects, at least 1.7 meters tall, with each of them carrying some sort of weapon on each of their four arms.
The rest of the undead ''guard'' consisted of what he could only describe as ghouls. They resembled no creature had ever seen and were vast in number. Their skin seemed to be in a perpetual state of shifting, seemingly made of a ck goop.
~Hmm, the beetles will probably be the most troublesome,~ Lucius thought to himself as he tried to gather what little he could from merely observing them.
If these beetles followed the same logic as the ones on earth, then they could probably carry many times their own weight. And from the looks of it, they probably weighed more than an elephant, as they had heavy-looking metallic shells... which wasn''t too out of ce as he had once fought a centipede with the same shell.
~Basically tanks... and it''s safe to assume their wings work, so tanks with the maneuverability of a bomber jet,~ he thought to himself. Though their massive size probably meant that they would not be able to properly maneuver due to all the trees.
Second to them would probably be the humanoid insects. As well as having metallic armor, and wings, they were smaller, and more nimble. They also had four arms, meaning they could possibly pose a threat when it came to hand-to-handbat.
The bats, although scary looking, seemed to be of lower intelligence than the insects as they held no weapons, and were smaller inparison. At the bottom of the shelf would be the ghouls... they moved without goal as if theycked any intelligence.
~They probably just attack any non-undead thing in sight,~ Lucius thought to himself.
This concluded his reconnaissance, though he doubted that these were the strongest creatures in the necromancer''s arsenal.
After exploring a bit more, all the while making sure to use earth sense to avoid being caught, he got a general idea of the outer camp perimeter. He didn''t dare go in towards the temple, as there was a high chance that the necromancer himself was in there.
~Assuming that none of these creatures have magic, I''m sure the boy''s and I can wipe out the first threeyers of protection. Whatever enemy they are facing can take advantage of this, and there''s the chance the necromancer might think it was them and not suspect us,~ Lucius thought to himself.
~For the main temple Pagan and I can probably start a forest fire, since dead and decaying nt material makes good fuel. Though I doubt this will stop the necromancer, it might help it''s enemies win,~ he thought as he made his way out of the decayed forest.
~If all goes to n, then we can use this attack to help in negotiations with the necromancer''s enemy... an enemy of my enemy is my friend, or however that went,~ he thought to himself.
Waiting had proved to be useful.
*
"Hello," Lucius called out as he walked into the arachnid cave. It had been 4 days since he had fed the babies. so he doubted that they were still here.
~I can''t sense anything,~ he thought to himself as he walked deeper into the cave. Calling out his crux, he moved it around to see if the babies had died or fled.
~It''s the runts,~ he thought, spotting two arachnid baby corpses at a corner of the cave. They had been the smallest out of the group, and probably stayed hoping that someone woulde to help them.
"Sorry I took so long," Lucius whispered before going to collect their corpses. As he was picking one of them up, he sensed a very small signal from one of them. It was still alive, but just barely.
~Sr cleanse,~ he chanted, hoping that it would work. THough as expected, the spell failed. Sr cleanse only worked on superficial injuries, anything moreplex could only be healed through radiant healing.
Lucius put the still alive arachnid in his hand, before bolting out of the cave, towards the camp.
"Just hold on, I''ll get you fixed up and fed... then you''ll work for me," he whispered to it, before gently handing it to is tail and galloping on all fours.
Chapter 138 Hannibal Of Radiance
Once Lucius got back to the camp, he went straight for the training grounds, expecting at least Alpha to still be there. But to his surprise, the entire ce was crowded.
The arena had been divided into 3 sections. One part had a whole range of different-sized rocks, one of which Hannibal was currently carrying.
In another section, Pagan and Alpha were currently sparring, though they really ought to have built a wall since stray beams threatened to hit a few of the kid shrooms who were currently runningps around one of the other sections.
"Hannibal!" Lucius called out, setting the baby arachnid on the ground. Two kid shrooms immediately approached Lucius once they heard him shout, both of them bowing before saying their greetings.
"Enough of that, get food!" he shouted towards them, and the two set off towards the kitchen.
"What''s going on?" Hannibal asked once he arrived.
"I need you to heal this," Lucius replied, looking up at him. At this point, the other kid shrooms began to gather around Lucius, along with the insectoid and the first beast, both of whom looked very exhausted.
"I-I can''t heal that... radiant healing requires me to know its internal structure... I''ve never dealt wi-"
"Just try," Lucius insisted, gesturing for the kid shrooms surrounding them to space out.
"Is it alive?" the insectoid asked, as the baby arachnid slowly approached its sibling, a sad look on its face.
"I don''t know," Lucius replied, looking towards the insectoid, to which Hannibal gave him a strange look.
"It''s the encyclopedia... but I''ll exin thatter. For now, I need you to start running radiant energy through it, to map its internals," Lucius ordered.
Though he knew the task he was asking was difficult. It took him a day to map out his own internals, though he was the pioneer, he still had to factor in the fact that he had known something about medicine from his old world.
"There should be a heart... something that pumps fluid around the body. You know what I''m talking about right?" Lucius asked, looking toward Hannibal as he touched the arachnid baby.
"The second crux? Yeah," Hannibal replied. The heart did act like a sort of crux, so the descriptions fit, after all, there was no way he would know what a heart was.
"Okay, find that first. It should have vessels that lead to all its other organs, any trails where radiant energy moves faster, map those out as well," Lucius ordered, and Hannibal''s eyes lit up.
"Genius," Hannibal whispered before getting to work.
"When you find something, tell me. I''ll try to exin what it is,"
"Got it," Hannibal replied as both his and the baby arachnid''s body began glowing in a faint blue hue.
"What''s going on here? Did I say you guys can stop running?" It was Alpha.
"Lighted One," Pagan said, before even getting a glimpse of Lucius. "You will all do well to keep your distance from His Radiance," Pagan shouted, and the kid shrooms all fell into neat little lines and stood behind Lucius and the others in wait.
"Has the Lighted One brought in another beast?" Pagan asked, to which Lucius only nodded in response. Whilst Hannibal was running radiant energy through the baby, he was also attempting radiant healing in the areas he had already mapped out, so to prevent him from burning out, Lucius was constantly casting sr cleanse on him.
"Let me help," Pagan said, taking over from Lucius.
"I found something in its abdomen.... a lot of somethings," Hannibal said out loud, his voice strained as he kept his eyes closed.
~Fuck, thest time I saw an insect''s insides was back in high school biology... its brain was in its butt, right? Or something like that?~
"Just heal everything," Lucius said finally. He had hoped to save a bit of radiant energy by only healing what he needed to, but it seemed there was no helping it.
~We really should map out every single creature in the camp and draw the figures somewhere. There''s no telling when we might need to save someone from a different species,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"We have brought what you asked for Lighted One," a kid shroom said, holding out a piece of meat.
~The creature probably can''t chew right now... much less properly digest this itself,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"I''m going to try something," he whispered, an idea shing through his mind.
He had his tail move towards the meat, and ordered it to eat it. Ever since he had evolved he no longer required his tail to use catalyst absorption, but had its working changed?
His tail zipped toward the food and quickly devoured it. He then instructed it to digest the food but not consume it. The catalyst absorption message popped up, but right as it came, Lucius ordered the tail to feed the liquid to the baby.
"If you feel radiant energy being obstructed through any vessels, follow them and heal the structure they end up in. The food should cause resistance, and the trail it''s going to pass through is its stomach," Lucius exined.
"That probably sustained a bit of damage due to starvation," he added.
The healing went on for 5 minutes before the arachnid was out of danger. Though it was still noticeably weak as Lucius could hardly sense its presence.
"I think that''s it," Hannibal said, falling to the ground in exhaustion.
"Well done, Hannibal... you too Pagan," Lucius said. "Can you guys take it to rest under the tree, I''m not sure if the tree''s healing will help non-linked members, but it''s worth a shot," he added, and a kid shroom took it away.
"The rest of you can get back to training," Lucius ordered, to which the insectoid seemingly groaned.
"Take the baby arachnid to its sibling, it might be confused when it wakes up," he added, and another shroom led the arachnid baby towards its sibling.
"Hannibal, Alpha, Pagan, with me. We''re going to discuss a mission briefing, it''s your chance to increase in rank," he said as he was about to leave, and the three followed close behind him.
Chapter 139 Planning Operation: Rage
Lucius led the group to one of the empty buildings within the internal camp. Once they had all entered he used his Elmando skill to close the door, before creating furniture for the four of them to sit on.
The others were confused by the chairs at first as they had never had to sit before, but once Lucius took a seat they all followed. Lucius then used Elmando to create a round table at the center, before creating a map of the necromancer''s camp on top of it.
"This is ayout of the necromancer''s camp," he said finally.
"You went back there?" Alpha asked in surprise. "Why didn''t you tell us? We could''ve helped," he added after.
"I didn''t train you all in stealth, and from your movements, I don''t think it''s your strong suit," Lucius politely exined. Hannibal was well aware that both of them had no talent for hiding, whereas Pagan was mildly disinterested.
"Anyway, there are threeyers of protection... twoyers of guards here and here," Lucius said, at the same time using Elmando to put x''s on the discussed points. "There''s also a hidden squadron somewhere here," he said, adding another x a bit behind the secondyer of guards.
"They are probably arachnids, or some sort of naturally stealthy creatures. So you can expect them to be fast," he added, before moving on to the camp''s internals.
"They have been constructing buildings, here, here, here, and here," he said marking out the areas. "They seem to be the foundations for temples," he added, before drawing a massive x at the center of the camp.
"This is the main target. It''s thergest structure in the camp, and probably where the necromancer resides. I estimated at least 600 guards here, all of them highly dangerous," he exined.
"You memorized all this?" Hannibal asked, amazed by how detailed Lucius''s drawing was.
"Would you expect any less of the Lighted One?" Pagan asked, currently ying with his crux.
"Now here''s the mission briefing. The whole point of this mission is to cripple the necromancer enough for its other enemies to finish it off, or at least deal a somewhat fatal blow," Lucius began exining.
"Other enemies? You mean there''s another group trying to stop them?" Hannibal asked.
"It seems so. From thest time we were there, the undead have only imed a small portion of the green forest. I fail to believe that a creature capable of spawning armies every so often is moving that slow, so it''s safe to assume something is hampering it," he replied.
"Perhaps food?" Alpha asked.
"That would be a good argument, except they are undead. Even if they do need to eat, I highly doubt they would be against eating each other. And besides, if they can secure bodies to create more undead, they can secure food as well," he said before carrying on with his briefing.
"We''ll attempt to burn down all the buildings they have constructed, as well as their main temple, he continued.
"Dead and decaying nt material makes for good fuel for fire, so the fire will spread quickly. Though we have to be strategic to prevent it from spreading too much," he added.
"And what about the undead creatures? Shouldn''t we focus on destroying them as well?" Alpha asked.
"That''s where you and Hannibale in. You two will be responsible for the first segment of the n," he said before drawing another camp next to the necromancer''s camp."
"We''ll create a ''dummy'' camp a bit into the dark forest, one just big enough for the undead creature''s to believe is an actual camp. You two along with the chieftains will use Elmando to create traps around the ''dummy camp'', and we''ll burn and poison the undead we trap."
"This will probably take care of arge chunk of their external security so that in itself will be a mission sess," Lucius said, with a half smile.
"But you''re not looking for just a ''mission sess'', are you? You have something else nned.." Hannibal said.
"Right," Lucius replied with a smirk. "I doubt that burning the main temple will seed, since the necromancer could have some sort of spell to stop it... so while Pagan is burning down all the other structures, and you guys are taking care of the external security, I''ll be lurking through the temple,"
"Too dangerous, let me," Alpha and Pagan said at the same time.
"You''re thinking they might have valuables, huh?" Hannibal whispered with a far-away look in his eyes, before remembering how they had discovered a new technique today. "Spellbooks... it makes sense I suppose, that the necromancer would have something like spellbooks," he realized before looking at Lucius.
"But isn''t that a little dangerous," he said, finally agreeing with the other two.
"Dangerous, but necessary. If I can loot the temple during all the distractions, we might gain something that will give us an upper hand in the future. And out of all of us, I''m by far the strongest, so I have the highest chance of surviving in case I encounter the necromancer," Lucius said.
"I understand... but isn''t that a little too... I mean sure, but what happens if you... die?" Hannibal asked. For a moment silence fell upon the room.
"To ask the Lighted One such a question... you must be going mad," Pagan mumbled, though Lucius could sense the doubt in his voice.
~I miss war,~ Lucius thought to himself. It was a feeling that had recentlye up, a lingering urge for war. The one thing he had once loathed in his old world was calling him... The Undying Boogeyman wanted to breathe again.
"We''ve been building up this camp for a while now, it''s time to test our mettle. In this mission, kill and destroy as much as possible," he said after a moment of silence.
"From the moment the mission starts, forget who you are, forget that you are breathing... seek to destroy... rage. The necromancer and his undead won''t have mercy on us if they grow toorge, so when we go out there, be the very hands of destruction... that''s what I intend to do. And if I can''tplete my side of the mission, then you guys are better off without a half-assed leader anyway," Lucius said, and for a moment the others looked at him in confusion.
"The hands of destruction... I like the sound of that," Alpha said with a smile.
"Finally the Lighted One has permitted me to wreak havoc on those that oppose his light. I shall show them your radiance Lighted One, I shall rage, and leave nothing of the decayed forest," Pagan added.
"I hope you find good books," Hannibal added.
"I highly doubt they''ll be crippled for long, even if this mission is a sess. So long as the necromancer stands, it can recreate its army in a matter of days... but for now, it''ll do. Until we are strong enough topletely destroy it," Lucius said out loud, however that did not mean he wasn''t going to try and kill the necromancer.
"What about Ghost?" Alpha asked, disrupting Lucius''s train of thought.
Chapter 140 Operation: Rage (1)
"There was about a day and a half difference between your instation times, so she should be back sometimeter today, or early tomorrow," Lucius exined.
"I mean, will she not be a part of this mission?" Alpha asked.
"Her stats will be too low, and we need someone to protect the camp while we''re gone. So sadly she won''t be participating in this," Lucius replied.
"Speaking of which, the others are about toplete their evolution process soon, aren''t they?" Hannibal asked, to which Lucius nodded his head in response.
"And Pagan''s about to go through another evolution, isn''t he," Hannibal added, noticing how close Pagan was to reaching Lucius''s size.
"That''s correct," Lucius responded.
"Since we''re about to be the strongest we''ve ever been, I''d like to request that the camp be opened up to outsiders," Hannibal said.
"You want to let outsiders into the camp?" Alpha asked in confusion.
"I second that... we should give the creatures of this forest a chance to choose the right ruler," Pagan added.
"Captain, surely you won''t allow this to pass. That''ll be a security nightmare," Alpha said, looking at Lucius with pleading eyes. To him, everyone else had gone mad.
"Hannibal, for what reason will you have outsiderse into the camp?" Lucius asked, for now ignoring Alpha''s pleas.
"If we can rebuild the civilization we saw in Pagan''s memories, or at least something simr to it, other creatures will be persuaded into allying with us. And after weplete this mission, and take im for the damage dealt to the necromancer, our fighting capabilities will be known by many sentients. I think those two coupled together will put us at least somewhere among the top creatures in the entire forest," Hannibal exined.
"So you would have them have a look at our ''civilization'' and decide for themselves whether or not they want to join?" Lucius asked. Though he got the general gist of what Hannibal was trying to do, he wanted to test how deeply he had thought about it.
"And what if these creatures choose to join, but decide to use us merely for our resources and protection? Have you thought of a way to counteract that?" Lucius asked, to which Hannibal was silent.
A usible answer to that would be to create a currency system. Having those creatures who wish to ally with them pay through currency would ensure there was an equal give and take, and would be easier to monitor. Though setting up a currency system wasn''t all that easy.
"Hmm, and what about security? Alpha''s right you know... even with everyone evolved, and the marked tree acting as a major defense, there is still the chance an enemy might destroy us from the inside... I don''t need to remind you about the downfall of the civilization we saw in Pagan''s memory, do I?" Lucius said after a moment of silence had passed.
"We could... we could, ah," Hannibal stuttered.
Lucius had thought up a way to have other creatures integrate into the camp, which had arisen in the form of the outer pirs. They could build the camp in such a way that the outer part acted as a sort of cover-up, while all important buildings and matters would be dealt with in the inner camp.
Though that would require a good amount of building it was still entirely usible.
"We will hold another meeting for this after the mission. This will require the representatives from the Fabrication and Creation Department, as well as the Internal Security Department to be here, otherwise, the whole thing will just be a drag," Lucius replied after a bit of thought.
"If the others believe that it''s too dangerous then sadly we will have to deny the request," he added after. Though he could see the benefits in carrying on with Hannibal''s n, it wouldn''t matter much if the very people that would benefit from it decide it isn''t worth it.
"Every day, when the sunes down, all the department premiers will meet up here. We''ll use this building as a discussion room of sorts, it should make things flow smoother if we all report progress," he said after.
"Ah, Pagan, get some of the kid shrooms to bring the chieftains. We''ll be starting construction of the dummy camp soon, and it''ll go a little faster with their help," Lucius ordered, before standing up from his chair. He had to put his tail in an awkward position the whole time, so it felt kind of stiff.
"Lighted One, will it not be faster if just me and you go?" Pagan asked, before standing up as well.
"You''ll be going on a hunting mission. I need more of the glimmer wolves... the creatures that can turn invisible I mean. I want to do a few experiments so I''d prefer if they are taken in alive. Talk to Asclepius for some non-lethal poison, and report back to me," Lucius said.
~I can use this as my chance to have the chieftains teach me a bit about poison as well,~ he thought to himself as Pagan left to carry out his orders.
**
"The Lighted One calls for you," a kid shroom shouted as he reached the chieftains'' amodations.
"Do you know what he wants?" one of the chieftains asked, looking at the child as if it were a messenger of doom.
"You dare ask? What if the Lighted One''s supreme servant can hear you? We do not know how powerful their senses are," another chieftain interjected.
"You''re right... forgive me your Radiance," the first chieftain said, looking towards the sun.
"Where shall we meet him?" another chieftain asked.
"In the main circle, under the Radiant Tree," the kid shroom responded. The manner in which it spoke to the chieftains wasn''t like that of a child speaking to an elder. No. The kid shroom thought itself above the chieftains since it worked directly within the main camp, and even the chieftains treated the kid shroom as such.
"T-The main camp?" a chieftain asked. Even from here, they could see the magnificent buildings within the camp, and what''s more, they could see the golden rain that continuously fell from the Radiant Tree.
From the rumors that were circting around the pirs, apparently, the tree had the power to make you grow... and that was the reason why Asclepius was bing sorge.
Chapter 141 To Be In HIS Presence
As the chieftains were being led towards the building that Lucius was waiting for them in, they walked past the training grounds where the kid shrooms were currently training. Right now they were attempting to lift pebbles, most of them being too weak to even get it off the ground.
"They would have the children perform such feats of strength? I was not aware that the Lighted One led a warrior unit," one of the chieftains whispered, as he himself wondered whether he would''ve been able to lift some of those pebbles without the shri''killian''s blessing.
Just as they were about to leave, one of the kids managed to get a pebble off the ground ever so slightly. This one was a little plump for its size, something about it was definitely abnormal.
"It''s the Radiant Tree," another chieftain whispered as if answering the unspoken question that filled everyone''s mind.
The group then proceeded deeper into the main camp, with every step they moved closer toward the Radiant Tree, and they could feel their fatigue slowly being alleviated.
"Will we be visiting the Radiant Tree?" one of the chieftains asked their guide.
"Those from the external camp are prohibited from going near the Lighted One''s tree," the kid shroom replied. Of course, this was a lie, it just felt that it would not be smart for Pagan to find them anywhere near that area. After all, Pagan treated the thing almost as highly as he treated the Lighted One.
As they walked past the many structures within the internal camp, a single thought gued the chieftains'' minds. ~Can I join the Lighted One''s warrior unit?~
The chieftains were well aware that the Lighted One did not trust them very much, otherwise, why would he have their people live on the outskirts, and even the chieftains live a distance away from the main camp?
Though the reason for this mistrust was something they could not understand. Thoughts such as; ''He could just kill us in an instant if he wanted to.'' or ''Does he really see us as a threat? We who are creatures fundamentally beneath him?''
They hade to the conclusion that the Lighted One saw them as tainted. And perhaps he had only taken the children in because they could be saved somehow.
"I don''t know about you guys, but I''m going to request that I officially join his warrior unit. If I can work directly under him, the-"
"Oi, oi. What''s this about ''I''? We thought that it was a given that we would ask for that. Are you trying to get ahead of us?" another chieftain asked, staring daggers at the first.
The group then broke out into a bit of a squabble, however, a momentter the child shroom who had been leading them stopped.
"Prostate yourselves, we are about to be in the presence of the Lighted One and his Supreme Servants," the kid shroom announced, before gesturing for the chieftains to wait outside.
"Lighted One, the chieftains await your word, shall I allow them entrance?" the kid shroom asked. Of course, the chieftains understood why it was doing all this. It wasmon courtesy to ask to be in the presence of the Lighted One. At least ording to Pagan.
"Ah yes, let them in," the Lighted One replied. The chieftains shivered for a moment, before walking in.
The Supreme Servants were currently sitting on odd objects that looked somewhatfortable. The shrooms had no concept of royalty, but sitting around the round table, Hannibal and Alpha seemed like lords.
~For them to be soposed in the presence of absolute power. These Supreme Servants truly are in a league of their own,~ one of the chieftains thought before turning to look at the chosen one.
Although they had seen him many times, they could never get over the way he looked. It was as if he were built for battle.
His ws and teeth were sharper than that of any creatures they had ever met. His tail which was currently waving in the air, like a snake searching for prey, wasrger than even he was, making him look twice the size he should''ve.
And even as he spoke to his Supreme Servants, he spoke withplete confidence in himself. There was a time they had thought that if all the Supreme Servants banded together, they could kill him, but it was established that even they do not know of hisplete strength.
*
"Have you guys been well?" Lucius asked, after all, it had been a while since he saw them. For a moment the chieftains were quiet, though they moved their hands as if they were talking.
~Have they forgotten how to speak?~ Lucius wondered, watching as the chieftains moved their mouths.
"Did something happen to them?" he asked, looking towards the kid shroom.
"The Lighted One has asked you a question, why do you take so long to answer?" the kid shroom asked, and the chieftains realized their mistake.
A look of dread filled their faces, they had been so deep in thought that they forgot that the Lighted One did not read minds.
"I understand, you guys must be tired," Lucius quickly interjected before they could plea for merciful deaths.
"Look, I''ll be taking you guys along on a little mission. You''ll be helping Hannibal and Alpha build a few structures," he exined vaguely.
"Do we have any mushrooms in storage?" he asked after. Since they were nning on making this little camp dispensable, there was no point in using stronger materials.
"F-Forgive us Lighted One. We used all the mushrooms to create the structures that the Lighted One''s second hand had requested us to build," one of the chieftains replied.
"Second hand? You mean Pagan?" Alpha asked, a tinge of annoyance in his voice.
"T-That is correct, your Supremeness," the chieftain replied.
"Supremeness?" Alpha whispered to himself. To him, it was like they were making these honourary names up as they went.
"So that means we''ll have to take a little detour to the nnds," Lucius sighed.
Chapter 142 A Lesson In Elmando (1)
"Shall we gather the others?" one of the chieftains asked.
"That won''t be necessary, just us three will be enough," Lucius replied reluctantly. Using massive carts, Elmando, and a bit of strength, they would be able foplete the work faster than the shrooms ever could.
"Though this means that we''ll only be able to build this structure tomorrow since its gettingte," he added. It was currentlyte afternoon, and he didn''t want to be doing construction work in the middle of the night.
"We''ll head out after eating and a quick session. Could you bring some food for them as well," he ordered, to which the kid shroom rushed off toplete its task.
"Take a seat," Lucius said, creating a round table for the chieftains as well as six chairs. The chieftains were a little confused at first but quickly copied from example.
"So how have you been finding life in the camp?" he asked once they had all settled down.
"G-Good," the chieftains answered in unison.
"Good to hear," Lucius responded, and an awkward silence ensued.
"Ask him," one of the chieftains whispered to another.
"Oh, by the way. The details I told you guys to report, the state of security, food levels, and so forth. Who have you been reporting them to?" Lucius asked.
"We have one of the Lighted One''s messengerse to use every day. We give our report to them, and they give it to the Lighted One''s second hand," one of the chieftains replied.
"Oi, Pagan isn''t the Captain''s second hand, I am," Alpha shouted. He was growing quite annoyed with the whole thing really. Sure, Pagan had been the first to evolve, and by extension had be the most active, but it was still Alpha who had been working by the Captain''s side all along.
~If I don''t catch up soon, then this''ll only continue. Can you imagine... Pagan, thatzy idiot? Second inmand? The entiremune would be in shambles,~ Alpha thought to himself.
"F-Forgive me... I''m confused. So then are you the Lighted One''s second inmand?" the chieftain asked. Of course, it would make some sense, since Alpha''s physique seemed a little scarier than Pagan''s.
"Ahem... neither of them is second inmand. There is no second inmand, we are Lucius''s hands, no second, third, or forth, we''re all equal," Hannibal exined. If this went on any longer, Alpha and Pagan would get into a fight, and Lucius would probably reprimand the both of them.
Besides, if there was truly such a thing as a second hand, it would be Hannibal.
~Who else does Lucius discuss the important matters of the camp with? Alpha? Pagan? If those two idiots were to be second inmand, the entiremune would be in shambles,~ Hannibal thought to himself.
"Hannibal''s right. There is no second hand, we are all equal. Now tell me, what structures did Pagan have you guys build?" Lucius asked after a moment of silence.
"He had us make buildings within each of the pirs dedicated to praise," one of the chieftains answered.
"Hopefully Radiant trees will soon sprout," another added, as if sighing.
"Radiant Tree? Sprout? Just what nonsense has Pagan been feeding you guys?" Alpha asked. How Pagan managed topletely brainwash an entire n was beyond him.
"The Lighted One''s hand told us that this Radiant Tree sprouted because of his praise to the Lighted One. And that the Lighted One would offer us such gifts if we praised enough,"
"I see," Lucius replied, looking towards Hannibal. Hannibal shrugged in response, this was news to him as well.
Soon the food arrived, and the group dined. After they were done Lucius began preparations to have a session.
"What about Pagan?" Hannibal asked, after Lucius had sent a kid shroom to gather all the residents of the internal camp.
"Pagan is about to... so he can''t have one," Lucius exined.
"L-Lighted One," a chieftain whispered, being nudged forward by the other five.
"Yeah?"
"M-May we... may we visit the Radiat Tree?" the chieftain blurted out, to which sounds of dissatisfaction came from the others. They had nudged him forward to ask if they could join his warrior unit, not see the Radiant tree. But that in itself was a gift, so they were willing to wait for another chance.
"Sure. Take them there," Lucius ordered, looking toward the kid shroom who was currently standing at the door of the building like a guard.
"And don''t touch anything there. I''m sure Asclepius has begun her experiments, and trust me, you don''t want to mess that up," Hannibal added.
*
The sessionsted 1 hour in total and Lucius had absorbed about 1.9 million helios.
The arachnid baby had grown by about 2 centimeters, now about the same size as an adolescent shroom. The insectoid on the other hand had grown to the size of a medium-sized rodent, about the same size as amon house rat.
Alpha and Hannibal had managed tost the entire session, though most of their growth had been in volume and dimension instead of height. As per usual, their skin was slowly bing more simr to the color of wood, and Alpha''s in particr was bing harder.
Since Lucius had decided to save all of his helios for the uing evolution costs, he hadn''t grown at all. Perhaps the only change was his mental capacity to channel sr energy.
After they were done, the group met up at the Radiant Tree, where the chieftains were currently giving praise.
"We''ll be heading out now," Lucius said, before touching the tree. He quickly used its Elmando boosting effects to morph one of the buildings into several carts. He then used a memory from one of his mechanics sses to create a pedaling mechanism that would allow them to move the carts without Elmando.
"Time for a little leg workout boys," he said with a smile, four carts currently standing right in front of the group.
"H-How?" one of the chieftains couldn''t help but ask.
"Get on, we''re burning daylight," Lucius said, before jumping on top of thergest one, and using Elmando to move it forward.
Chapter 143 A Lesson In Elmando (2)
"How are you doing that?" Alpha asked as he got on one of the carts.
"Use Elmando to make the wheels rotate," Lucius exined, skillfully maneuvering his cart between the trees. The reason he had used mushrooms instead of wood, was because it was lighter and easier to control. If he wanted the cart to be stronger, he could always condense the mushrooms to increase their strength.
"Like this?" Alpha whispered, moving his cart forward at a plodding speed.
"Once you start getting used to Elmando you will be able to push it faster. For now, you can use those two things over there," Lucius said, jumping from his cart onto Alpha''s to show him how the pedals worked.
He then adjusted the pedals to amodate him before exining how to use them. He also exined how the steering worked, and once he was done, he readjusted the pedals to amodate Alpha.
After adjusting the pedals for all the other carts as well, the group set off.
"Make sure you use Elmando as much as possible. We''ll be using the pedals more on our way back," Lucius exined, the wind muffling his words as he rushed past a multitude of trees.
"How is he going so fast?" Alpha asked in frustration, even with pedals he was slower. To make matters worse, Hannibal seemed to have gotten the hang of Elmando, all hecked was the mental experience.
"When the others get back, remind me to have the guys from Fabrication and Creation make an easier pathway to the nnds, because this is ridiculous," Lucius shouted from in front.
It was bing more and more difficult for him to weave therge cart in between the trees. In fact, even the tree roots were bingrger andrger, making the ride a lot rockier, and a suspension system was not something he had the materials to build right now.
"That''ll have to do," he whispered, using Elmando to change the shape of his wheels to better amodate the bad path.
"Oi look!" Alpha shouted excitedly, having built up quite a good amount of speed.
"Alpha, I don''t think you should be going that fast," Hannibal shouted from behind him. There was a reason Hannibal wasn''t trying to catch up to Lucius.
"Watch out!" Hannibal shouted, right as Alpha was about to crash into a tree.
However, right before impact, Alpha''s cart split in two, both parts maneuvering around the tree before forming back together.
"Keep a speed you can handle," Lucius said, slowing down to catch up with Alpha.
"That was you?" Alpha asked.
"I''m not at a level where I can do all that by myself. Some of it was probably Hannibal," Lucius exined.
The rest of the journey went on at a much slower pace. Lucius used this time to mark out the trees he would have the F and C guys chop down for the road.
~Hmm, that''ll mean I''ll have the get some security for the road itself. And there aren''t enough people in the Security department for a road this big," he thought.
~Perhaps I should start bringing in a few of the shrooms?~ he continued. ~If that''s the case, then I''ll build another road towards the manake. Perhaps even a sort of market for more secure trade with the higher-tier sentient creatures,~ he thought, finally reaching the nnds.
"Okay guys, use Elmando to load the mushrooms onto your carts. Make sure topress them as much as possible so that we can make the most of this trip," Lucius shouted.
"I''ll take up the perimeter," he added, before disappearing up a tree.
*
The group stayed there for about an hour before heading back. By the time they got back to camp, the sun hadpletely set, however, there was still quite a bit of light as the Radiant Tree still seemed to be glowing.
~Moonlight?~ Lucius thought to himself as everyone unloaded the mushrooms into the storage dome.
~Hmm, moon... light,~ he repeated in his mind, before bringing out his crux. As usual, the sudden stream of information rushing his senses temporarily blinded him. But after casting sr cleanse and slowly easing his way into it, he was able to open his eyes,
However, he didn''t dare look at the Radiant Tree, as he was sure that thing would fry his brain.
~Okay, the moon gets its light from the sun right?~ he thought to himself, before attempting to copy the concept. The book he had seen in Pagan''s memory had said that imagination was key, so he imagined his crux acting as a sun, in an attempt to power Hannibal''s ''moon'' crux.
The tricky part was finding a medium for the transfer of energy. For safety, he converted the crux to its ''eased'' state, until the light it emanated was a soft blue. Afterward, he attempted to use Elmando to move the wisps of loose energy that permeated from his crux toward Hannibal.
He did not expect this to work as Elmando could only be used on vegetation, and as expected it didn''t. However, each time he tried, he could feel something... like a part of his mind he didn''t have ess to before.
The others realized that he must be doing something important, so they all sat around him once they were done, waiting for him to finish.
~I see, so I have to use Elmando and the crux simultaneously,~ he thought to himself, managing to move the wisps of loose blue energy into a stream.
After a few more minutes he got morefortable with it. He began moving the stream around his crux, making it seem like a with rings. He then moved the stream faster and faster, and with that, a small gust of wind began picking up around him.
The whole time the image of a moon was still ying in his mind, and before he knew it, the wisps converged to form a ball... a miniature crux.
"Moonlight," he whispered, and a beam of blue, peaceful energy shot from his crux towards the miniature moon.
Chapter 144 Moon
With that, a beam shot from the Radiant Tree as well, and the two converged and struck a nearby tree. The tree in question was shrouded in blue light, before erupting into mes. Oddly enough, there was no heat from these mes, no smoke... the tree simply burnt down.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSr Satellite¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSr Satellite¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSr Satellite¡» has been added.]
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºSatellite Beam¡».]
[Adding ¡ºSatellite Beam¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºSatellite Beam¡» has been added.]
"A new spell?" Hannibal asked, watching in awe as the remains of the tree smoldered in the night.
The others were speechless. The chieftains did not know about this second form that the crux had, so to them, it was as if the infinite power that Lucius had was just doubled. And the fact that the Radiant Tree had reacted to his spell put a new fear within their minds.
They hadn''t thought that he could use it to attack like that, but now that they had seen this, Lucius wasn''t just a figurative god... he was a god. Nobody, nothing could challenge him, or so they thought.
In fact, it didn''t even matter to them anymore if he was the shri''killian, or whether the skri''killian even existed. What need was there for prophecy when they were in the presence of this?
"Lighted One, we ask.. no we urge that we may be allowed pledge allegiance to you," the chieftains said, genuflecting in front of Lucius.
Lucius still had his crux up, light blue sr energy was constantly leaking from his body and being guided toward the miniature moon.
"Haven''t you already pledged allegiance?" Lucius asked, the amount of raw energy being exuded from him affecting his voice.
"What we have currently is not allegiance, your Radiance. We merely leach off you. You have yet to ask anything of us besides that which benefits us. No, we mean to pledge our lives to you, to join your warrior unit," one of the chieftains replied.
"I see," Lucius replied, however, he wasn''t really focusing on them right now.
Something was off, for some reason his sr reserves seemed to be filling instead of waning. It was as if the sun were directly above him, and it was forcing sr energy into his body.
He stopped for a moment, easing the sr energy to his eyes until even they glowed blue, before looking toward the radiant tree. Although it still hurt his eyes, the information was not as much as before.
"So that''s it," he whispered, to himself.
"What is it Lighted One?" the chieftains asked, in awe of Lucius''s presence.
~It''s feeding me its power through my moon,~ he realized, seeing the stream of radiant blue that was constantly moving towards his miniature moon. However, the amount was simply too much.
If Lucius had to guess, the tree was feeding him the energy it had been absorbing since it was made, and that was something his body could not handle currently.
"How can I trust you?" Lucius asked, wondering whether he should just stop his experimentation or take this as a chance to test the limits of his current power.
"Lighted One, we would not dare to break your trust," the chieftains replied.
"That''s easy to say now. But when I give you power, you might change your minds," Lucius replied, deciding that he would use the energy to test a superpowered beam.
"T-Then the Lighted One could just kill us if we ever do that," one of the chieftains replied.
"I don''t like this idea," Alpha butted in, he had been watching Lucius so intensely that he had zoned out of the conversation.
"It was bound to happen. What, do you think we can defeat the necromancer alone? And even if we can, what happens when there''s an enemy we can''t handle? It''s best we start this rtionship now so that when that does happen, we''ve already gotten used to each other," Hannibal counter-argued.
"Lighted One!" It was Pagan, he was currently looking at the stream of blue that was converging at Lucius''s moon.
"The others will be awake tomorrow, we''ll hold a vote. Until then, know this... If you do anything to make me question you, I''ll have someone wipe out everyone you know," Lucius said, before looking up at the sky.
"Satellite Beam," he whispered, and all the energy he had collected within the moon shot out in a stream. The beam parted the clouds that were in the sky, shooting toward the Moon.
The forest came alive, it was as if day had temporarilye back.
The sounds of different creatures shouting in the far distance could be heard.
This night wouldter be known as the moon''s wrath. The night the moon bared its fangs against the forest.
*
Early the next morning Lucius had a quick meal before going to check on all the pods. First, he started with Ghost''s.
"Wee back," he said, as she opened her eyes.
"Good to be back," she replied before standing up.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, using spatial sr cleanse to inspect both her and the sleeping baby arachnid next to her.
"Okay," she replied, before looking toward the baby arachnid.
"What happened to it?" she asked, still a bit groggy from the long rest.
"It''s a different one. I brought it in yesterday," he exined, as she caressed it.
"I know," she replied, staring at it.
"You can tell?"
"Of course, I can, they look nothing alike," she replied in a surprised tone.
"I see," he whispered to himself.
"It''s out of danger, so you don''t need to worry. Anyway, how''s the crux? Want to test it out?"
Ghost closed her eyes, and called out the crux, as if by instinct.
"Try casting sr cleanse," he said. And she did just that, casting sr cleanse on the arachnid baby.
"So this is how it feels?" she said with a smile. "It''ll be fine," she whispered after.
Chapter 145 The Elwood Commune Awakens
"We''ll be having a session before I wake up the rest of themune. You should join us, the others will want to see you as well," Lucius said.
This session would only have Alpha and Hannibal since Pagan was too close to evolving to have on. And also because he wanted to maximize the amount of helios he would get, so non-leaflings would not be part.
"Ah, sure," Ghost replied, caressing the arachnid onest time before heading with Lucius to the ''Photosynthesis Dome''.
Lucius had ordered that all the kid shrooms temporarily go back to the pirs since he didn''t want them seeing Ghost. He also did this, because he wanted to exin to the others what had changed around the camp before allowing them to interact with each other.
"Ghost, it''s been a while," Alpha said with a smile.
"You guys have grown," she replied, gently punching Alpha''s armor.
"And you''re... different," Hannibal replied.
"Yeah," she replied, showing her tail, before shooting poison at the roof.
"I could totally take all of you on in this form," she joked. Oddly enough, nobody challenged that. They just stared at her for a moment, a little confused as she looked nothing like the Ghost they remembered.
"Ah, guys, maybe don''t stare at me so much," she said, subconsciously shuffling behind Lucius.
"Speaking of which, you guys should look for beasts with suitable genes. Something that will give you an edge in your line of work," Lucius said. "And stop looking at her like that," he added, and the two snapped out of their daze.
"You look...strong," Alpha said apologetically.
"Yeah, very...bat efficient," Hannibal added.
~Evolution really has brought them a long way,~ Lucius thought to himself. He still couldn''t get over the change in the interaction between them from when they were still leaflings. Right now it felt more... human.
~I wonder what they''ll be like at the higher tiers,~ he thought before beginning the session.
*
The sessionsted a total of 3 hours and 15 minutes. With Lucius being the only one to make it to the end. He had absorbed about 24.2 million helios, which had totally encumbered his mind.
Ghost, having juste out of a state ofa,sted only 30 minutes.
Her spider limbs had grown quite a bit and had solidified a little towards the tips. Her skin turned at least two shades darker, giving her a dark purple color overall. Where she was the size of a shroom before, she was now the size of a small rodent, and with her spider legs fully extended she stood at a height of 30 centimeters.
Hannibal hadsted a total of 2 hours. He had grown to about the size of arge boar, and was about the same size as Pagan, at 1 meter tall. His skin had be light brown, and his overall body weight had also gone up a bit. Lucius could tell that he would soon evolve.
Alpha hadsted 2 hours and 15 minutes and was currently lying on the floor passed out. If he had gone the full 3 hours, Lucius was sure he would''ve evolved.
Alpha was now 1.1 meters tall and was about the same body weight as Lucius. His body had turned to a darker shade of brown than Hannibal''s, with his woody armor now as hard as wood.
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[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
(Current Helios: 33,671,160)
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"This should be enough," Lucius thought to himself as he looked over his system shop.
"You guys want to wee the rest of themune?" Lucius asked, to which the others replied with excited nods.
*
The process took a total of 2 hours toplete since Lucius needed to take a few rest sessions in between.
All 35 leaf beings came out without issue. And among them, he bought sobriquets for the six who were part of the first watch.
Pagan had arrived somewhere during the process and helped the others continuously heal Lucius so that he could finish things up faster.
"Wee back everyone," Lucius announced, once everything was done. The new leaf beings were currently chatting amongst each other excitedly. There were quite a number of variations, however, Lucius decided he would get to thatter.
"I know it may be difficult to get used to your new bodies during the first few days, but as time goes on you''ll be alright," he said after.
"Now, you may have noticed that you guys are in a strange structure you have never seen before," he said, using Elmando to create a tform so that everyone could see him.
"While you were away we gained a number of skills, and among them is a skill that allows us to build structures. Of course, we''ll get into more detail on thatter, but for now, I want you to be aware that the camp has changed quite a bit overall.
"Another thing is that we have invited... a few new members into themune. We will be holding a vote on whether they will be allowed to integrate into the main camp or not. For now, if you face any problems with them, report it to the Premiers and they will deal with it," he announced, gesturing towards Hannibal, Alpha, and Pagan.
The leaflings weren''t aware that the shrooms were the ones who had attacked their first camp, so there shouldn''t be any friction between the two groups. And now that they were a hunter species as well, the natural inclination for the shrooms to hunt them would basically be nonexistent.
"Speaking of Premiers, I hope you all remember which departments you were a part of, as we will begin work right away," he said, to which a few of the leaf-beings replied with groans.
"Can the members of the First Watch please see me and Alpha after this? We have to discuss a few security concerns," he said, looking toward the others.
"For now I''ll allow the rest of you to rest before going to beginning work."
Chapter 146 The High Council
As the other leaf citizens left the hall, Lucius gestured for the remaining members to gather around. He then created chairs for everyone to sit on, before creating a massive round table at the center.
Once he sat down everyone else followed, and the discussions began.
"If I remember correctly, we had a meeting like this a few weeks ago... the only difference is that back then we had nothing," Lucius started off, remembering the little meeting the group had while they were still leaflings.
"Slowly but surely we''re meeting the goals we''ve set out to aplish... primarily creating a safe space for themune to thrive," he continued, before using Elmando to create a map on the table.
"However, whilst all of you were undergoing evolution, a few issues have arisen. Perhaps the most urgent being the necromancer," he said, marking out the necromancer''s camp.
"The necromancer is a being that can create an army from the dead. Its intentions are still unclear, but what we do know is that it seems to be trying to engulf the entire forest," he added, marking out the areas where the necromancer''s influence had spread.
"A mission has already been put in ce to prevent this. Ideally, I would''ve liked for the Warring and Special Operations Department to deal with it but there simply aren''t enough members to create a viable force yet. So Alpha and Hannibal are going to assist Pagan and I with the mission," he exined.
"Count me in," Ghost said, looking towards Lucius with a serious gaze.
"Me too," whispered a few of the other members of the first watch.
"Not possible. Things could go sideways during the mission, members could be lost. I''d rather the camp have some form of protection whilst we''re gone," Lucius replied. He kept the fact that they were too weak to help to himself.
"This leads me to our second issue. We recently discovered something about our past, well... the history of our species," he began, looking toward Pagan.
"Our creators... the fae as they were called, once had a civilization simr to the one we are trying to build. They were many times more powerful than we are, and had quite a number of allies who were more or less on the same power level as them," he continued, now looking at the table as he used Elmando to illustrate how the civilization looked.
"Then this fae... can''t we ally with them as well?" Eleanor asked.
"They''re all gone... wiped out. The only one of their allies who still seem to be active, or at least as far as I know, are the furry-folk. And they aren''t exactly hospitable creatures," he exined.
"Wiped out by what?" one of the other members of the first watch asked.
"Humans. Probably the most major threat we face right now. At a certain point, they wille to know of our territory, and though they used underhanded tactics to destroy the Fae''s kingdom, we should not forget that they had years to advance and fortify their civilization," he said, erasing the drawing from the table.
"If we don''t prepare for that day carefully, then we could have a second genocide on our hands," he finished off, allowing the information to sink in.
"As such, I ask this council the following. Shall we allow the shrooms to join our forces? Knowing the risks involved in allowing outsiders into our camp, while also acknowledging the risk we face by denying outside help, what does this council decide?" Lucius asked.
"These shrooms... are we certain they are not part of the group that hunted us down?" one of the members of the first watch asked.
"We''re certain. It seems the necromancer wiped out that group. Anyway, this group was settled quite far away from our previous camp," Lucius answered promptly.
"But aren''t they still a threat? What if they one day wake up and choose to devour us?" another asked.
"Not probable. We are now on equal footing with them, hunters don''t often hunt each other. And besides, the shrooms seem to believe that Lucius is some sort of living god... I honestly believe that out of all the forest creatures, they are our best bet," Hannibal exined.
"I vote no. Sorry captain," Alpha said immediately after.
Though it made no logical sense for him to do so, Lucius could understand where he wasing from. Alpha had been in charge during the first massacre, and living beside them would be a constant reminder of his failure.
"I vote yes," Hannibal said, looking toward everyone else.
Silence ensued, as the council took their time to decide.
"All creatures should be given the chance to bathe in his light. I vote yes," Pagan said.
"I vote no," Ghost said, looking toward Alpha.
"No," one of the first watch members said, also looking toward Alpha.
"I vote yes," Eleanor said, looking at no one in particr.
In the end, it was a 5-5 vote without Lucius''s say. His vote would tip the scale.
"Even if we find more leaflings, which will be a priority, it won''t be enough. I know humans, and what they are capable of. If they are anything like the ones I''ve encountered, we will need as much help as we can get. I vote yes," Lucius exined, and that was it. The shrooms would be joining the internal camp.
"However, I won''t ignore the obvious resistance to this motion. As such we will do this on a mentor basis. I will assign a specific number of shrooms to every council member; those deemed fit will be allowed to integrate into the camp," Lucius exined. Though he doubted any one of them wouldn''t since they all seemed to be heavily brainwashed with their ''shri''killian'' nonsense.
"What about the ones who aren''t deemed fit?" Alpha asked.
"We can''t let them go sadly, they have seen our abilities. They will either go through... fixing, or be dealt with," Lucius replied coldly.
This was a world of magic, there was no telling what others might gain from a creature that spreads news of a ''god'' living in the forest.
Chapter 147 First Day Of Work (1)
"Okay, now that that''s out of the way, I''d like to bring forward another topic. I''ll be leaving for the mountains in a day or two," Lucius announced.
Five days had already passed since he met Crenog, and the tournament it spoke of would soon begin.
"The mountains? Why?" Ghost asked.
"There is a tournament taking ce there, it''ll do well for foreign rtions. We could gain valuable allies and connections by sending a small delegation, as such I''ll be taking a few representatives as well," he said.
"Count me in," Hannibal, Alpha, Ghost, and Pagan shouted simultaneously.
"Pagan and Alpha, you two can''t go because you''ll be going into evolution soon. I wouldn''t want to stall that just because of this," Lucius replied.
They had defeated expressions on their faces, but they knew he was right. To slow down their evolution for who knows how long would be detrimental to the growth of themune.
"As for you Hannibal, you''re about to evolve soon as well, and on top of that, I feel you''ll benefit more from studying some of my memories. I''ll pass them onto you in the tree, and you can look over them whilst I''m gone," he continued.
If he could grasp some key concepts from Earth it would speed up themune''s rate of development.
"Ghost, you''ll being with me," Lucius said finally.
"Sorry guys, it seems its finally my turn," she said in a pitying voice, though everyone could tell it was mockery from the annoying grin on her face.
"As for the first watch, you guys are banned from going on external missions. Defense of the camp is the most important mission of all, and that will require everything you guys have with all our big guns gone," he said now looking towards them.
"As such, I''ll be giving you guys your first mission. Each of you are to achieve a stat count of 250 before I leave," he continued.
"I pity you," Pagan whispered, d that he would not have to go through all that.
"To help you all with that, you''ll be following a training regime. Morning training session with Alpha to build up those stats through exercise. An afternoon session with me forbat training. And an evening session of sparring to put everything into practice," Lucius said, to which everyone nodded in agreement.
"I''ll allocate buildings to each department to act as a base of operations. The mushrooms we collected yesterday should be enough," Lucius said in question, looking towards Pagan.
"Indeed, Lighted One," Pagan replied.
"Ahh, Alpha, perhaps you should instruct Eleanour on what her duties as Vice Premier will be since you''ll be helping the Warring Department with its current mission," Lucius said, looking toward Alpha.
"And Hannibal perhaps you should give your members to Asclepius for the day," he added, now looking at Hannibal.
Once the talks were over, the leaf beings were brought back inside the hall and told to go to their respective Premiers. Since the F and C Department was yet to choose a Premier, it fell upon Lucius to direct their operations.
"You guys follow me, I want to show you something," Lucius said, gesturing for the members of his group to follow him toward the Radiant Tree.
"The skill I am about to showcase is called Elmando, it''ll be the most used skill within this department. You will eat and sleep using Elmando," he said, before pointing toward the storage dome.
"That dome is the materials storage dome, watch carefully what''s about to happen," he added before touching the Radiant Tree.
Using the enhanced Elmando he created 4 new domes for each of the Departments, all the while the leaf-beings gawked in disbelief.
Once Lucius was done, all the leaf beings in the F and C department stared at him with puppy eyes.
"What''s going on?" Lucius asked,pletely confused.
"Can we try?" one of them asked.
"Ahh, you''ll need names to get the skill. Sorry little one," Lucius said apologetically.
"When do we get names?" another asked.
"Resources are tight right now, so I can only give them to those who I''m sure will use them to their full capacity. You could even get them today, depending on how well you do your tasks," Lucius replied.
"Then give us our tasks, what are we waiting for?" another leaf being added. He knew this voice, it was the leafling that sounded like a t-earther.
"Your task for today will be to learn the structure of the domes. I want all of you to be able to tell me in great detail, the inside and out of the domes," Lucius said with a smile.
For now, the only thing they could do was learn. If they could ingrain the structures in their mind, then building using Elmando would be easier for them.
"On it!" the conspiracist shouted, running towards the nearest building. The others were still confused, before quickly realizing this was essentially a race to see who could learn it first, as the spot for Premier was still open.
"Well, at least it''s motivated," Lucius whispered to himself before walking towards the other Departments to show them to their respective domes.
Once everyone had delegated tasks to their respective departments, the group prepared carts to set off on their little operation.
"Ghost, you should hang around the Internal Security guys, get those stat points up for the tournament," Lucius instructed before they left.
*
"Lighted One, I wanted to ask about the new spell," Pagan said as he drove his cart to move alongside Lucius''s.
"The satellite, huh," Lucius replied, looking ahead to make sure that no undead would spot them trying to sneak around the necromancer''s camp.
"The information I was fed is a bit confusing. It says that the moon gets its light from the sun, but how is that possible if they are never up at the same time?" Pagan asked.
~I see,~ Lucius thought to himself. Casting the spell would require some understanding of astronomy. Without that, imagining such a thing would probably seem absurd.
"I''ll pass a few memories to you once we get back. Hopefully, that will be enough," he replied.
"Also I wanted to ask if you could use that spell during the day," Pagan continued, his voice tinged with excitement.
"Hmm," Lucius whispered, removing his sr crux, before easing it to its light blue state. Once that was done, he cast sr satellite, creating a miniature moon that orbited around his main crux.
Chapter 148 Those With Skin That Flickers (1)
"Satellite Beam," Lucius whispered, but even after a few moments, nothing happened.
"It seems it doesn''t work during the day," he said out loud before recalling his crux. ~Hmm, does this mean that our battle power is higher during the night?~ he wondered to himself.
However, he would have to test the range with which he could borrow power from the radiant tree. Otherwise, the downside of not having sr reserves replenished would make night battles impractical.
During their travel, the group had to make a detour past the area where the necromancer''s camp was located to prevent being spotted. This turned the otherwise moderate journey into a lengthy one.
Once they finally got to the other side, Lucius picked out a spot around arge decrepit tree and instructed the others to begin unloading.
"This ce... it feels... wrong," one of the shroom chieftainsmented, shivering as the group used Elmando to unload the mushrooms from their carts.
"I get the feeling too," Alpha added, looking around at the abhorrently shaped vegetation. The ce looked like a Halloween set, especially the way the trees seemed to have grotesque faces stered onto their trunks.
"Let''s finish this quick, the less time we spend here the better," Lucius said, looking around. After around 4 minutes they had fully unloaded the mushrooms, and Lucius began exining how he wanted the ''dummy'' base to be constructed.
"Alpha, begin digging a hole at the center. I want it to span from over here," he said, pointing at an area close to the tree, "all the way till there," he continued, pointing at least 20 meters away.
"It should be at a depth of at least 3 times your height," he continued exining.
"Won''t that be too much for him?" Hannibal asked.
"The more people we involve the higher the risk of our movements being noticed. Besides, this is a good chance for him to build more stats," Lucius answered.
~If it''s really too much for him, I''ll call a few Laeyves from the F and C depertment,~ he thought to himself.
"Hannibal and the chieftains, you guys will begin with construction. For now, just build an outline about this high," he said, using his hands to illustrate the height. "I want to make sure you guys understood the outline I instructed before we carry on. It''s important that it''s urate," he continued, before going silent for a bit.
"Make the walls as thin as possible. We don''t need any strengthening, the weaker the base is the better," he said finally.
"Pagan, take up watch while the others carry out their tasks," he ordered, looking towards the direction of the necromancer''s camp.
"If anything happens just fire a sr beam into the air and I''lle running," he said before turning to leave.
"Where are you off to?" Hannibal asked.
"I want to see if I can find out who the necromancer''s enemies are. If I can tell them about our little operation, they might be able to take advantage of it sooner rather thanter," he exined, before going on all fours and galloping into the forest.
*
~There should be a few tracks around here, or a suspiciousck of them thereof. There''s no way you can move an attack unit without leaving some sort of trail,~ Lucius thought to himself as he searched the area around the necromancer''s camp.
~Ah, here,~ he thought, noticing a part of the floor which seemed to have been swept. ~Sentient definitely.~
As he followed the trail, he made sure to move as stealthily as possible. However, as hard as he tried, he couldn''t get past the feeling that something was watching him.
~How can anything live here,~ he thought to himself, noticing how the smokey clouds above him seemed to have purple eyes that followed his every move.
"The swept floor ends here," he whispered to himself, looking around for some sort of structure. However, the only thing he could see was a massive tree about the same size as the Radiant Tree.
"Perhaps it''s like the Shri''killian tree?" he whispered, looking around the tree for some sort of entrance. Just then he heard something zip through the air, instinctively his tail moved to intercept the object, and a loud ''thwack'' followed shortly after.
"I came to talk," Lucius called out, and yet another projectile came hurling towards him. He quickly locked on to the object before snatching it out of the air, bringing it close for inspection.
"A dart," he whispered to himself, admiring the skill with which the dart was made.
"Are you guys fighting against creatures that look like they have died?" he asked, yet no one responded. He tried his best to locate where the darts wereing from, but they seemed to appear out of thin air. And even his earth sense wasn''t picking up anything.
~Sigh, I had hoped I wouldn''t have to use this,~ Lucius thought to himself before calling out his crux and casting a sr pulse.
Immediately after, seven figures came into view, all of them hiding atop the tree.
"Cameleons, huh?" Lucius whispered to himself, noticing the likeness with which these humanoid creatures had with the earth reptiles.
"The creature knows magic! Perhaps it is the leader of that army," one of the chameleons said, though it took Lucius a moment to process it.
[Processing...]
[Language Identified...]
[Adding Southern Chamaeleo to the list of knownnguages]
~Ah, the encyclopedia probably needs to hear thenguage before it can add it,~ Lucius realized.
"Is that armor? And it looks well made... interesting I suppose," Luciusmented out loud, looking directly at one of the chameleon warriors.
"Creature, how is it that you speak our tongue so fluently?" one of the chameleons asked, its body flickering as it attempted to turn on its camouge.
"I came to talk," Lucius replied, trying to calm them down.
"Is this how shamans talk? Encroaching on the embankments of others without announcement?" the creature asked still attempting to turn its camouge on.
It clearly did not want to form any sort of conversation with Lucius. What it was doing right now was just an attempt at buying time.
"That army that''s been bothering you, I can help you guys defeat it," Lucius said bluntly, realizing he was going to get nowhere if he tried beating around the bush.
Chapter 149 Those With Skin That Flickers (2)
"We do not know this army you speak of, and we do not ept help from outsiders," the creature responded just as bluntly, its skin still flickering as it attempted to camoge.
It was obvious that these creatures were not going to trust him easily, and quite frankly he didn''t have time to be forcing issues right now. So for now having them take advantage of their operation was all he was aiming to aplish.
"By tonight your enemies will be in turmoil, I will hand them to you on a silver tter. All you have to do is lead your armies straight towards their base, the rest I shall take care of. Once a blue light pulsates from the moon, you will know it is done," Lucius replied after some thought.
"You speak of the moon''s wrath as if you are its herald. What authority do you have to say that such a thing will happen? Even the king''s shamans do not im to know such a thing," one of the creatures shouted in outrage, hisrades shushing him a moment toote.
"The moon''s wrath?" Lucius asked, a little amused at the fact they were calling his little party trick that.
"You''re right, I am its herald. I am the herald of both the sun and the moon," Lucius imed. It had worked for the shrooms, could it not work for these creatures as well?
Funny enough a few of the creatures broke out intoughter, while some of them just stared at him with incredulous gazes.
"The sun will melt the skin of your body and the moon will erase you from this forest. To im such a thing," one of them said midughter. It would seem they now perceived him more as a lunatic than an enemy to be wary of.
"W-What is your name, mighty herald of the sun and moon?" the leader of the creatures asked.
Lucius thought for a moment, if these creatures had a concept of names like the shroom golems, wouldn''t that mean that ''Lucius'' would also be seen as a weak name?
"My name is Havon," Lucius said finally, taking on the moniker that Crenog had given him.
This only served to make the creaturesugh even more, even those who had once looked at him in shock broke intoughter.
"sphemy," one of them said midughter. "To name yourself after one of the gods of the forest. So... Havon... you would have us believe you have the ability to send our enemies into turmoil?" the creature asked after.
"It will be done, just alert your higher-ups," Lucius replied, before recalling his crux, and galloping back toward the others. Right now they weren''t taking him seriously, it would be a waste of breath to continue the conversation.
~Gods of the forest huh? So even these creatures have some sort of creation theory involving the Fae? I wonder if all creatures of the forest have some sort of version... if so, then perhaps it might be easier to unite them after all,~ Lucius thought to himself as the windshed against his face.
Once he got back to the others he found that the chieftains and Hannibal were well into their work, having alreadypleted the foundations. Right now they were merely discussing whether they had gotten it right or not.
Alpha on the other hand was still quite far frompleting his task. Of course, Lucius had expected as much since it was quite arge task for a single being. However, there was another reason as to why he was taking so long.
"I didn''t tell him about shovels," Lucius whispered under his breath, slightly annoyed at how careless he had been. It seemed that Alpha had been digging the hole with his ws all this time, in which case the amount of work he had done was quite surprising.
"Oi, Alpha," Lucius called out as he jumped down from the tree he was hiding in.
"Ahh so it was you," Hannibal called out, sighing in relief. It would seem that Alpha and Pagan had sensed him too as their bodies visibly rxed.
~Were they watching me as well?~ he thought to himself.
"We were getting ready to fight, but when we sensed that there was no... anger in you, we decided to see how it ys out," Hannibal exined.
"Anger, huh?" Lucius whispered to himself. Perhaps he meant killing intent. That was something that Lucius was always able to pick up, even back on Earth he had a feel for when someone was about to attack him, like a warrior''s sixth sense.
"Very good, that was good decision-making," hemented before walking towards Alpha.
"I apologizefor not showing you this sooner," he said, pointing towards the remaining clumps of mushroom and willing a small stream towards him. He then fashioned it into a shovel with a massive bottom de.
"This is called a shovel, and it can be used to dig way faster," he exined, before thrusting the shovel deep into the earth and digging out arge chunk of dirt.
"Ahh," Alpha whispered, before calling on some mushrooms and creating a simr one after carefully inspecting Lucius''s. In just 15 minutes he cleared two times more than he had done in the past hour.
"So did we do it right?" Hannibal came to ask as Alpha and Lucius took a break. Lucius looked at the foundations they had built, and held his right arm out, morphing the parts they had gotten wrongly into their rightful positions.
"Yeah, that should be right, you can begin building the walls. Remember, make them as thin as structurally possible," he instructed, before getting up to continue his work.
It took about 3 hours before all the initial preparations had beenpleted. The overall structure of the ''dummy'' settlement had been perfected, and the ditch they were building was even deeper than they had hoped for which was a good thing.
"Okay boys, let''s pack up. I''ll send the others from the Fabrication department to finish up the finer details," he said, noticing that everyone was burnt out.
"A good rest under the... Radiant Tree should fix us right up," Alphamented as they packed up.
Chapter 150 Three F And C Premiers
Once they got back to camp Alpha and Hannibal went to take rest under the Radiant Tree, with Lucius giving the chieftains permission to join as well.
A few of the members from the F and C department rushed to meet him as soon as he arrived, iming to havepletely memorized the internals and externals of the mushroom domes.
~The conspiracist, his friend... and this one is new,~ Lucius thought to himself as he looked at the threeevyes standing in front of him.
"Follow me," he said after some thought, before leading them toward the Radiant Tree.
"You first," he said, pointing towards the conspiracist. He briefly exined how the tree worked, and each of them touched it one by one.
The conspiracist had most of the internals correct, though due to his limited height, he couldn''t see the top of the structure and had to assume how it looked... which ended up being wrong. Lucius quickly showed him the correct schematics and moved on to the next one.
The nextevye''s structure was more or less the same as the conspiracists, although her assumption of the roof was better than his by a great margin. The only thing wrong with hers was that she had assumed that the roof and the building were separate structures when they were not.
Lastly, the finalevye had everything correct. From its memories, it would seem it had climbed the Radiant Tree in secret which Lucius had to admit showed dedication, and out-of-the-box thinking. However he still warned theevye against doing it again as they were still unsure about the Radiant Tree and its behavior.
"Okay, you three pass," he said once they had all been tested.
"So does that mean one of us will be premier?" the conspiracist asked, all three of them showing their enthusiasm in different ways.
The conspiracist had a knowing smirk on his face as if he already knew that he would be chosen. The second one was trying to keep herposure, but her body was literally shaking in excitement. While the third seemed to be the most elusive, it had a kind of gleam in its eyes, not as if it was expecting to be chosen, but as if it was already content that it had passed.
"All three of you will be named interim premiers... which means the position is temporary. I''ll see which one of you is better suited for leadership and decide on it at ater date," he exined.
~I''m heading for the mountains tomorrow... so I ought to hold some sort of meeting tonight,~ he thought to himself as theevyes giggled in excitement.
"I''ll have a ranking ceremony for you tonight, whilst I''m giving out my other announcements. For now, go call the others, I''ll be sending everyone on a mission," he announced after a bit of thought.
Once the three of them hade back with the other members, he ordered them to divide themselves into teams, each premier heading their respective team.
"Okay, everyone at attention," he called out, silencing the excited murmurs and shouts of congrattions being shared amongst the members.
"Today all three squads will be going on a gathering mission. Squad 1, you''ll be gathering rocks for tool heads. We will be looking for a certain type of rock, just like those," Lucius said, pointing towards one of the tools leaning against the storage shed.
He used Elmando to have a bundle of vines bring it to him, before removing the stone head and passing it to the leader of squad 1.
Finding the vines useful, he decided to wrap them around his tail with Elmando forter use.
"Pagan will be acting as your security detail for today... so please be on the lookout. We all know Pagan isn''t the most... caring," he exined, before moving on to the second squad.
"You guys will be collecting a different type of rock. A grinding rock... simr to the one I used to use. It doesn''t have to be as specific as squad 1''s but it must have a rough and hard surface, enough to grind other stones at least," he said, before looking around the camp for the grinding stone he used to use.
Once he found one he used his bundle of vines to snake towards it and drag it back to him, which was good exercise for his Elmando.
"Alpha will be you-" The moment he mentioned Alpha sighs of exasperation were let out. It would seem everyone was aware that they would be working even harder than they usually would.
"He will be your detail... and any exercises he may add will be a part of your mission. Take this as an advantage, the stronger you be, the easier this job will be," Lucius exined.
Finally, he got to the third squad.
"You guys will be on transport duty. I want you to carry as manyrge branches as you can towards a... settlement just a distance away from here. I will be your security detail," he exined.
In truth, he would add Ghost to the detail as well. He nned on using this time to learn a bit about poison maniption from the chieftains, and have Ghost practice stealth while watching on to learn a bit herself.
"Is there a reason they have so much protection?" the conspiracist asked.
"So much protection?"
"To have the Lighted One protect them whilst Hannibal is still free... I don''t know seems like overkill," the conspiracist exined.
~Perhaps it''d be a waste to have you in the F and C department,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"That''s ssified, just focus onpleting your mission. I''ll award you guys based on the quantity and quality of the items you collect," he announced.
"I''ll create some transport for you guys... though you''ll have to pull it. I want you all to have high stats before you''re named," he continued.
~Sigh, administration... I forgot to have created an administrative department,~ he realized, painfully aware of how hard it would be to keep track of everyone''s rank and progress.
~Though it''s not like I had many suitable candidates... probably Hannibal and maybe Asclepius, but they''re already overworked,~ he thought.
For now he decided to jot down everything on mushroom bs using Elmando, he would file everything and create the administrative department once he came back from the Shu''hakan.
Chapter 151 Poison In The Air (1)
After creating several small wagons with the help of Hannibal, Alpha, and Pagan, Lucius went to check up on the Internal Security Department. He wanted to have a quick session before sending everyone out on their missions.
"Ah, sparring," he whispered to himself as he noticed that the group was currently watching the arena.
"Captain," one of the members whispered, noticing Lucius''s presence, and just like that everyone bowed before turning their attention back to the fight that was about to begin.
~I Need to teach them the salute or something, because this bowing stuff...~ he thought to himself, before making his way closer to the arena.
~Oh, this is interesting,~ he thought to himself, noticing who was currently fighting. It was Ghost, facing off against the entire Internal Security management team.
"Begin!" a ''referee'' shouted.
In that instant, Ghost''s entire body shed with a radiant light, and just as fast she closed the distance between her and her opponents.
~A bit hasty,~ Lucius thought to himself as Eleanor gave her menmands, surrounding Ghost just as fast as she came towards them.
Copying the same tactic they had once used against him whilst they were still leaflings, they ran at her from all angles.
~How will you deal with this?~ he wondered, and a momentter he was answered. Her spider legs bent, glowing brighter than the rest of her body, and for a moment his earth sense picked up arge umtion of power.
The next moment she was in the air, mimicking a somersault she had once seen Lucius do during one of his morning training sessions.
~How long were you practicing that?~ he wondered to himself. Although it was a good move on her end, Elenor reacted quickly enough, running to catch Ghost before she couldnd. The group moved as if they were a single organism, sending each other messages with intention alone.
~The benefits of being raised and trained as a unit,~ he thought as two of the members grabbed Ghost''s spider legs, dragging her down.
Up in the air, she had no leverage to use her strength, so she ended up being pulled towards the ground where four members were waiting to pummel her. However, despite all that, she still had a smirk on her face.
~What is she up to?~
Just as she was about to smash into the ground, Eleanor and her men released a flurry of punches at her, ending the match.
Or so it should''ve gone... instead they hit thin air.
Their confusion was palpable... however they were the only ones unaware of what had happened.
Ghost had created a mirage, and from the angle that Eleanor and the others were, they couldn''t see Ghost hiding behind it.
The shouts from their teammates who were holding on to Ghost''s legs came a moment toote, and just like that, Ghost rammed into Elenor sending her flying out of the arena.
~Take out the leader huh? Smart,~ Lucius thought to himself. It would seem that Ghost was a natural atbat, something that he hadn''t expected.
Though the remaining members were still able to move well enough without a leader, they missed decisive opportunities to take Ghost down. And with her radiant index, even their numbers stood no chance.
"Well done... all of you," Lucius announced once the match was over, calling out his crux as he jumped into the arena.
~Spacial cleanse,~ he chanted, easing his crux to increase its range.
"Everyone head over to the center dome, we''ll be having a session soon," he announced.
As everyone was leaving he called Ghost to walk with him.
"When did you change from sr to radiant?" he asked. Because thest time he checked she was still using the sr index.
"This morning when you were waking everyone else up. Alpha showed it to me and exined some of the techniques. I find this one way more... fitting than the sr index," she tried exining, unsure how to word it.
"I see," Lucius thought to himself. Though it was still odd. It had taken Alpha and Hannibal quite a bit of time to be ustomed to the radiant index. And even then her mirage was at a level that the others couldn''t replicate.
"And that thing you did with your spider legs... you concentrated radiant energy in specific areas. Alpha and Hannibal don''t know how to do that yet," he asked.
He had never taught it to them because it wasn''t something one could just exin. The only reason he could do it was due to his encounter with the ''furry-folk'' during the shri''killian mission forcing him to learn it.
"That... that sort of just happened. If you can cover your whole body in it, you can focus it more on specific areas right?" she answered, staring towards her spider legs. They were limp, exhausted from the high concentration of energy.
"Interesting... but don''t grow ustomed to it. In your line of work, it''s important to not overexert yourself. You never know when the next fight will be," he exined, though he was still thoroughly impressed.
~Another prodigy?~ he thought as he opened up her stats tab.
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[Ghost Elwood ]
[Level 1: 0/100]
[Leaf-Arachnid [healthy-hybrid] lvl.7- [30/700]]
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[Agility: 180]
[Strength: 110 ]
[Stamina: 94]
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"How long have you been sparring?" he asked, his earth sense telling him that she seemed ''drained''.
"I''ve been fighting against every member of the security department," she exined, still trying to catch her breath.
"And how would you say they''re doing?"
"Well, I copied some of the moves I saw you do... the ''kicks'' you called them. They were really useful. They on the other hand have nothing, so I can''t really say anything that will sound fair," she replied after some thought.
"The kicks you saw were useful?" Lucius asked in surprise.
shy moves like spin kicks were nice to look at, but to a person with nobat experience, knowing moves like those usually do more harm than good.
Most warriors or soldiers barely use shy moves like that inbat, because frankly even the most trained professional can slip or do some other mistake that might cost them the match... or their life.
Besides, even if Ghost saw him do the moves, it should''ve been unlikely that she could mimic them simply from memory, much less know when to use them efficiently.
"Perhaps we should sparter as well," he decided finally. He had to see this for himself.
"S-Sure," she stuttered.
~I''ll show Alpha a few basic moves to teach the others while I''m gone. But for now, livebat will be a faster means of getting them battle-ready,~ he thought to himself as they entered the photosynthesis dome.
"Pagan, you may begin," Lucius said, taking a seat at the front.
"Let us all open our minds to his light, so that we too may someday shine," Pagan announced, after calling out his crux.
"Let us begin," he said finally, before beginning the process.
*
The photosynthesis session only went on for a few minutes, so as to not exhaust everyone, and ensure that Pagan and Hannibal didn''t identally evolve.
Once everyone was informed of their roles and duties, they set off.
Lucius ordered Ghost to go stealth mode and follow him and the others as they went to the dummy camp, before going to call on the chieftains.
"Ch-chosen One," the chieftains stuttered as they saw him approach them. It would seem they had been talking about the Radiant Tree before he arrived.
"You''ve rested well I believe," he said, noticing the question on their faces.
"I-Indeed. Th-though there is something that bothers us," one of them said, the others looking towards it expectantly.
"Is it about joining themune officially?" he asked, before gesturing for them to follow him.
"Y-Yes. Have you decided?"
"You will join," he answered, to which they breathed sighs of relief.
"Though under a few conditions. Firstly all of you will be working under me as personal assistants, the same will go for every member of your ns. They will be assigned to premi... the chieftains of my n for a period before they are allowed to join," he exined, to which the chieftains nodded in understanding.
"Second of all, everyone one of your n members will have to join a... unit in themune. THey have specific jobs, Hannibal will exin this stuff in better detail," he continued.
"W-we understand, we shall inform the others," one of the chieftains said in excitement.
"By the way, I have something to ask of you. My people aren''t originally poison users, I''d like you to teach me all your techniques," Lucius said. He had used ''all'' on purpose, he wanted to see what reaction he would get... whether or not they would be against teaching him their secrets.
Chapter 152 Poison In The Air (2)
There was a moment of hesitation, just the slightest bit before they epted. However way Lucius wanted to look at it, there was going to be some sort of resistance to his sudden question. After all, he was basically asking them to hand over a piece of their culture after all.
"Our ways are yours... you are the Shri''killian, the Chosen One. It would be an honor to teach you," one of the cheiftains said, ncing over at itsrades.
"Very well, then, follow me. You''ll teach me while the others collect a few materials," Lucius replied, before gathering his group and heading out as well. Hannibal stayed behind on guard duty, and Asclepius was currently running poison trails with the two arachnids.
*
"There are four forms in the use of the arts," one of the bigger chieftains exined as theevyes picked branches nearby an open patch of grass.
"The first form is umtion... the forming and storing of poison," it exined.
"Poison cannot be used indefinitely. One can only use what one has stored. For instance, we store our poison in our caps," the chieftain exined, pointing towards its mushroom cap.
"For the Shri''killian, I assume it is within the tail," it said, pointing towards the stinger-flower tip of Lucius''s tail.
Lucius nodded in agreement, unsure where else it would be stored. HE highly doubted it was in his horns.
"To gather poison, focus the food you have eaten towards your storage area. We produce poison of the flesh of those we consume," the chieftain exined before closing its eyes. As it focused, a thinyer of purple gas surrounded its body, signifying that it was using poison arts.
Lucius closed his eyes and tried to mimic it, but after a few minutes of trying and failing, he came to the conclusion that he was missing something.
"How do you ''focus'' the food into your storage organs? Is there something you are supposed to imagine specifically?" he asked, still attempting to perform the first form.
The chieftains merely looked at each other, unable to answer his question.
"We have no idea, we just control the food towards the area... there is no other way we can say it," one of the chieftains said almost apologetically.
"Control? Did you just say control? Like Elmando?" he asked. They had said ''focus'' at first, but if it was ''control'' instead then perhaps it had something to do with the control skill.
It made sense since it was a skill granted by the shri''killian and besides this wasn''t the first time a skill of his waspatible with Elmando.
Lucius tried again, this time using Elmando within his body, and just like he thought it worked.
~Well, I am sort of vegetation so I gu-~ just then it urred to him. If Elmando could be cast on himself, then didn''t that mean it could be cast on others? A dangerous skill, especially for vegetative beings.
~Howe they''ve never attempted using it on me?~ he wondered. Even when they had encountered Pagan, howe they hadn''t used it? ~Are they just oblivious to the fact?~ he thought, though he would keep the fact in mind.
After a few minutes of focusing food toward the tip of his tail, he could feel a cold moisture condensing on the surface of his skin.
"W-Well done, Chosen One," one of the chieftains whispered.
"Why are you still surprised?" another asked, looking at Lucius as if he were a wild beast, a sort of primal fear in its eyes.
~Too fast? I don''t have time to feign weakness, I have to learn this today,~ he decided, before asking the chieftains to move on to the next step.
"The next form is expulsion. There are many ways to expel poison, depending on how forcefully you do it," one chieftain exined, before expelling a cloud of poison.
"With little to no force, you expel is like this," it said after.
"With a little more force," it continued, the cloud of poison now streaming out like steam out of a hot kettle.
"And with more force than that..." at this point the stream had turned liquid, and a small puddle soon formed around the chieftain.
"I see..." Lucius whispered before doing just that. With the help of Elmando it was more or less intuitive. With a little bit of force, he released a cloud of gas around the tip of his tail. A little more and a jet of poison gas shot in the direction his tail was pointing. And with a little more it turned liquid. Though he still had quite a bit of force at Elmando''s disposal.
~I wonder,~ he thought before using all his force. There was a build-up for a moment before a beam of poison liquid was sent towards the sky, jets of poison gas being sent out all around it.
"W-What was that," one of the chieftains asked as Lucius felt his reserves run dry.please visit
"It''s simr to what the old man could do," another whispered thoughtfully.
"But the old man was a-" a chieftain was about to say before the other''s gazes silenced it. Lucius was currently too busy trying to replenish his reserves to pay mind to their ramblings.
By the time Lucius had regained his reserves, the members of the F and C department hadpleted their gathering. After properly loading them onto the wagons, they proceeded towards the ''dummy'' camp.
Once they arrived, he gave the avable stone axes to the group so that they could create stakes for the traps that Lucius had nned out.
"Okay, what are the next forms?"
"The next form is control, this one should be easy for the Chosen One. Simply control the poison as you would mushroom," one of the chieftains exined, before expelling a cloud of poison and manipting it into different shapes.
Lucius tried as well and found that he could control it on his first try. After moving the cloud around a little, he tried to move the chieftain''s cloud as well, wondering whether he could manipte the poison clouds of his opponents if need be.
Right as he stretched out his mind to control it, he met some resistance to his pull, like a small rock hanging onto his slither of control.
~It must be ''his'' Elmando,~ Lucius thought to himself, realizing that the resistance must be the chieftain''s own pull on the cloud. Using a little more strength, he was able to yank control from the chieftain, and thetter fell to the ground, eyes rolled to the back.
"W-What happened?" the other chieftains stuttered, running to surround theirrade.
~I see. It''s the equivalent ofpletely breaking its mind,~ Lucius realized, feeling no presenceing from it with his earth sense.
~Spacial Cleanse,~ he chanted, healing the chieftain without being noticed.
"Are you okay? What happened?" the other chieftains asked their fallenrade came to.
Lucius studied it thoroughly, looking to see if realized that he had caused this to happen.
"I-I don''t know... it felt like I was being... pulled," it exined, though it was still clearly confused.
~So they aren''t even aware of this concept of... control theft. Perhaps it''s because they are still low-tier? Maybe they aren''t able to reason as I do,~ he thought to himself before helping the fallen chieftain up.
After giving them time to rest, and instructing the members of the F and C departments to begin nting the stakes in the ditch that he and Alpha had dug, they carried on to the final form.
"The final form is called change. We ourselves are unsure how this form works... and though there are multiple ways to do it, each of us has only one version," a chieftain exined, before closing its eyes.
As usual, a thin membrane of purple gas surrounded its body, but a momentter the purple gas began changing color until it was a light shade of red.
"And what effect does that have?" Lucius asked.
"Unlike normal poison, this has an extra effect. Upon touch it feels as if the prey has caught fire," the chieftain exined, before gesturing towards one of his otherrades.
One after the other, the chieftains closed their eyes, each of them creating a different colored poison, each with its own effect.
"Interesting... and can everyone do this?" he wondered. If that were the case, then the shroom n was way more powerful than he thought.
"No... only those who have partaken of the shri''killian," one of the chieftains exined.
~Then perhaps investing in gathering a few more might be in order. I''ll just have to think of a countermeasure for those creatures,~ he thought to himself, shivers running up his spine as he remembered hisst encounter.
"Okay, so how do I do it?" he asked finally.
"Between umtion and expulsion, you need to add... feeling to the storage area. The feeling is different for each one of us, hence why we have different versions," the chieftain said.
"Feelings, huh..."
Chapter 153 The Shadow Of The Lighted One (1)
For a long while, Lucius tried running through different ''feelings''; happiness, sadness, joy, anger... With each attempt, he would dig up some old memory to increase its intensity, though no matter how hard he tried he couldn''t seem to get it right.
He had assumed that heartache... sadness would be the answer. After all, he had experienced a great amount of that... the death of his wife, of his child, of hisrades. Though all those deaths meant nothing to his ''change''.
It was as if his ''emotions'' were going through a filter, and none of them were being let through. Though whenever he rxed, eased up on trying to force his way toward the storage area, a certain feeling was being drawn in.
The feeling of disconnect, of loss... the same feeling that constantly followed him back in his old world... the feeling of ''wander''... or so he called it. There was no better way describe it. He felt like a wanderer, a being with no real purpose but to go where life takes him.
A momentter, the purple membrane of poison that had surrounded his tail slowly disappeared, and it seemed as if he had failed.
"Do not fret, Chosen One, even the greatest eld-" a chieftain was about to say, however the moment it wandered too close, it felt its mind slip, and its entire body purged of all feeling.
"What happened?" one of the other chieftains asked, however, Lucius was still attempting topletely control his change, feeding more of his... disconnect towards the storage area.
The others backed away, realizing only a momentter what had happened.
"There''s no way right? I-I know you''re all thinking it... but it''s impossible, isn''t it? Even for the Shri''killian," one of the chieftains said out loud. Though the faint outline of poisonous gas made them aware of the reality of things.
"Invisible poison..."
*
Keeping up with Lucius and the others wasn''t really an issue for Ghost, especially with her additional legs and streamlined body making her extra agile. The main issue she faced came in the form of stealth itself.
As she followed behind Lucius and the chieftains, he would asionally stare directly at the tree that she was hiding on, as if telling her ''you''ve failed, try harder''.
After they had stopped at an open patch of grass to start their collection mission, she realized how it was possible that Lucius could still see her even though she was certain that she had hidden properly.
It was like he had eyes that extended out of his body... as if he could sense the very space around him without having to look. It took her some time to realize that the feeling of her being watched was actually him... he was the ''unseen'' eye that was constantly following her around, even in the camp.
~How is he doing that?~ she wondered, slowing down her pace so as to stay out of range of those unseen eyes of his.
Once everyone had begun collecting branches, Lucius called the chietains over toward him.
~I can barely hear a word of what they''re saying,~ she thought to herself as she watched the chieftains exin something to him. ~Just a little closer,~ she thought, before slowly inching her way closer to the group.
And as if she stepped over an invisible trip wire, Lucius made a sort of pointing gesture towards the tree she was on while he was talking. A slight gesture, but enough to let Ghost know she had been spotted.
~Yeah, yeah, but I have to hear what they''re saying,~ she thought to herself before retreating back out of his ''unseen'' eye''s range.~
"... first form is umtion. The forming and storing of poison," one of the chieftains said, his words barely audible. Ghost closed her eyes, trying to focus only on the chieftain''s voice.
"Poison cannot be used indefinitely. One can only use what one has stored. For instance, we store our poison in our caps," the chieftain continued.
This aligned with what Ghost already knew. She could only shoot out a certain amount of poison form her stinger tail before she felt drained.
The chieftain went on to exin how poison was produced, which wasn''t new information to her either, but rather an exnation of something she did subconsioudly.
By the time the chieftains got to the second form, she found that she could somehow hear them more clearly. However, the moment she opened her eyes and broke focus, their words went back to being near-inaudible whispers.
~How am I doing that?~ she thought to herself, focusing on the chieftain''s voice once more. Once again it''s voice became more clear, more audible.
"The next form is expulsion. There are many ways to expel poison, depending on how forcefully you do it. With little to no force, you expel is like this," one of the cheiftains said, before letting out a soft sound, like wind billowing past leaves.
Ghost opened her eyes to look at what was going on, and found that the chieftain had created a cloud of poison. The chieftain then said something else, and the cloud turned into a torrent of poison gas.
~Howe mine is liqui-~ but before she could even finish the thought, the cheiftains torrent of poison gas turned liquid.
~Oh, so I''m using too much force?~ she thought to herself, before closing her eyes once more. She attempted to shoot out poison, this time in gaseous form. However all that came out was a stream of purple fluid.
After trying and failing a few more times, she decided to focus in on what the chieftain''s were saying to perhaps get a better exnation of things.
Instead, she was met with a horrendous hissing sound. She quickly opened her eyes to see what was going on and found that Lucius had created something like torrent of liquid poison surrounded by gas.
~How is he doing that?~ she thought to herself, before deciding to ask him once all this was done.
After this, Lucius and the group began preparing to move on to their next destination, whilst they were doing this, Ghost decided to think of a way to counter Lucius''s unseen eyes.
~If they''re like eyes, then there should be a way to fool them. A way to hide from them somehow,~ she thought to herself. However she was aware that these eyes of his seemed to be everywhere at once, and normal means of hiding would not suffice,
~They''re almost like... magic! Then perhaps the only way to hide from them is through magic as well,~ she realized, before calling on her radiant energy.
From what she had learnt about hiding from Lucius, there were three basic fronts. The first was terrain.
Right now she her skin wasn''t as green as it used to be, so blending into the surrounding wasn''t really an option avable to her. However, that''s not to say magic couldn''t fix that.
~How would I use radiant energy to blend into the surroundings?~ she thought, before looking around.
~Firstly, how exactly do Lucius''s eyes see me? I doubt he can actually see me... that just wouldn''t make sense... I guess?~ she thought to herself. Ghost wasn''t Hannibal... not even close. Right now it was taking all her thinking power to get this far, and even then these were all just half-assed assumptions.
~If he can create unseen eyes then I should be able to do that too... though I don''t see anything in the radiant index that is simr to that,~ she thought, going through the index.
Just as she was about to give up, it donned on her... when she had given up her sight, her listening had be better. What would happen if she gave up her listening as well... would she be able to have invisible senses?
~If Hannibal were here I bet he would be impressed,~ she thought to herself, before closing her eyes, and covering her ear holes.
After several minutes passed and nothing happened, she decided to run radiant energy through her body, hoping that it would put things into motion.
~Why isn''t anything happening?~ she thought in frustration.
The way she imagined things, somehow a whole army of invisible eyes would surround Lucius, and keep tabs on him, just like he had been doing with her.
~What''s missing? Why isn''t it working?~ she thought, before opening her eyes... with that, a wave of nausea passed through her entire body while at the same time, radiant energy was being consumed by her eyes.
Radiant energy usually wasn''t ''consumed'', but rather weakened after use. But this time it was as if some of it had left her body.
[Processing...]
[New technique acquired... ¡ºRadiant Observation¡».]
[Adding ¡ºRadiant Observation¡» to ¡ºRadiant Augmentation Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºRadiant Observation¡» has been added.]
In that instant, she could see everything, every little detail as far as her eyes would allow. It was like having a million eyes at the same time... it was overwhelming, to say the least. However, with Radiant Energy running through her body, it was bearable.
~If this is how he sees... then how am I supposed to hide from this?~ she thought. Though she had to admit, this was fun... more fun then she had ever experienced. She could watch Lucius, and he didn''t suspect a thing.
~It''s like the eyes don''t even exist... That''s it!~
Just then she realized what she needed to do to avoid being seen, to hide even from these unseen eyes.
Chapter 154 The Shadow Of The Lighted One (2)
~I need to erase my being... I need to not exist,~ she thought to herself.
What Ghostcked in thinking capacity, she made up for with imagination. As Lucius and the others began moving, she began imagining different ways that radiant energy could mask her presence.
~These unseen eyes... I mean, radiant observation doesn''t just see things normally, they sort of see the... energy within things,~ she realized.
~So if I want to hide from them, I need to erase that first... though I don''t think that''s possible,~ she thought to herself, keeping a good distance away from Lucius and the others.
~Wait, the trees give off this energy too, don''t they,~ she thought to herself, realizing that the only difference between Lucius and the trees was the amount of energy they were giving off.
Lucius was like a walking sun, while everything else around him, including even the chieftains, were like dimly lit stars.
~If I want to hide from the unseen eyes, then perhaps I should use the surroundings... just like Lucius taught me,~ she thought, before attempting to lower the amount of radiant energy in her body to match that of the trees around her.
However, that was easier said than done, as even breathing caused an increase in radiant flux. What''s more, thinking also seemed to cause a slight change. Of course, this was almost unnoticeable, though she was sure even this much would be enough for Lucius to spot her.
~So I need to stop breathing and thinking?~ she thought to herself after several failed attempts at erasing her presence.
She started again, this time putting what she had discovered into motion. All the while, she imagined that she was blending into the surroundings, not just bing invisible but in fact bing one with everything around her.
She had to stop moving in order to even attempt this. However, even then after several more attempts she found that there were still slight pulses of radiant energy being released at regr intervals.
~What are these things?~ she thought to herself. Once she had brought her radiant energy to match that of the surrounding area, there were a few spots in her body that seemed out of phase with everything else.
~Why won''t it stop?~
As she tried to bring the radiant energy in one of those areas to a halt, she felt her entire body go limp, as if she had died for a split second.
~What was that?~ she thought after quickly casting radiant healing.
These troublesome spots seemed to cause some sort of reaction whenever she tried to forcibly manipte them. So she decided to take it slower, changing the flow of radiant energy little by little.
As she experimented to find the limit to which she could y around with them withoutpletely disabling herself, she felt the entire forest around her shift. Almost as if it were alive, it was a disgusting sort of feeling.
~What is this ce?~ she wondered, staring at the outskirts of the oing Dark Forest. Even as she spied on Lucius with her radiant observation, it felt like the entire forest was staring at her. Like her eyes were massive lights attracting attention.
~No... they aren''t watching me... they''re watching him,~ she realized, looking towards Lucius. Though from the way Lucius was behaving, she was certain he knew this as well. Whatever this ce was, she didn''t like it.
While the group marched on, Ghost continued attempting to blend in with the surrounding forest. However, this was made exponentially moreplicated due to the fact that the trees in this area had close to no radiant energy at all. And even then, the energy here moved... oddly. Like all the trees were somehow interlinked.
Usually, the patterns that Ghost could see with her radiant observation were individualistic, and could only be noticed on a tree-to-tree basis. But now, she had to look at a whole group of trees to see a pattern.
~We''re actually going in there?~ she thought, noticing that Lucius and the others were already heading deeper in.
Luckily enough, her body was more adapted to hiding in the Dark Forest anyway. Her purple exterior mixed in quite well with the purple-brown bark of the twisted trees. However, that''s not to say that it made her feel any morefortable getting close to them.
As they continued, Ghost noticed that the group seemed to move in a sort of curved arc instead of a straight line. Almost as if they were avoiding something.
~It''s in this general direction,~ she thought to herself, before casting radiant observation in the direction.
~This... this is the army we''re about to go up against?~
Ghost had thought that the shrooms on the outskirts of the camp were a lot, but these... they were at least 800, and that was just in this direction alone. To add onto that, most of them were creatures the same size as Lucius.
~Radiant observation can''t see any further... I have to get closer,~ she thought to herself. After looking towards Lucius and the others onest time, she headed off in the direction of the necromancer camp.
The closer she got, the worse it became. What was first 800 units, became close to 2000. And it seemed the deeper she saw, therger the creatures became.
Eventually, she was on the outskirts of the necromancer camp, and her vision allowed her to see the temple at the center.
~I-I don''t think we can win against this,~ she thought to herself. It wasn''t just the size of the creatures, it was the energy they gave off. Surrounding the temple were around 600 creatures, each of them giving off energy readings close to Lucius''s.
~I-I have to warn Lucius,~ she thought, however just as she was about to leave, her vision picked up something with a massive readinging out of the temple. The energy it was giving off was a million times more malicious than that of the forest, it was... unnatural, even for this evil ce.
In fact, the feeling of being watched instantly disappeared the moment it came out. The entire forest now seemed to have its attention on that specific creature.
~T-There''s no way we can win against this,~ she thought. Even if the strongest individuals in themune united to fight against this thing, there was no way they were going to beat it.
It was a 2-meter-tall creature that stood on two legs. It had greyish-green skin, and a massive shell-like shield on its back, epassing its entire torso. Its maw had two sharp de-like mouthpieces, Ghost could imagine it snapping her in half quite easily. And in its hand was a staff, with a green orb floating above it.
~This must be the necromancer,~ she thought to herself. However, nothing would have prepared her for what happened next.
Three other creatures, nearly identical to the first came out. The only difference between them was the color of the orbs that floated above their staves.
~T-These are just subordinates?~ she thought, and just like that she was a leafling again. She had thought that by evolving her feeling of helplessness would subside, but this...
If these were just servants, creatures the necromancer created, then what chance did anyone stand against the necromancer itself?
Her body screamed at her to run, even with her radiant observation, there was no telling whether or not they could see her.
~No... there might be more. Lucius never mentioned these creatures... and there''s no telling whether he is aware of their power levels either. I-I need to stay and continue gathering information,~ she thought, though she felt that she would regret this decision.
The four creatures, all began walking in opposite directions. From what she could tell, they were walking towards the upleted temples, perhaps for security.
With each one of them, fourrge armored creatures followed. Though based on the lower energy readings they were giving out, she was uncertain who was protecting who.
After about 30 minutes had passed there wasn''t much more movement.
For some reason, it seemed as if almost no energy was being given out from within the temples. Though Ghost knew for a fact that there had to be some trick to it. There was no way that these many creatures were protecting an empty structure.
~This is enough for now... I have to warn Lucius,~ she decided. There wasn''t much more she could do without putting the mission in jeopardy, so she headed back in the general direction that Lucius and the others were heading towards.
Chapter 155 Where It All Begins (1)
By the time Ghost caught up to the others, she found the chieftains looking at Lucius in disbelief.
~There isn''t any time for this,~ she thought to herself, before stepping within range of Lucius''s earth sense and increasing the amount of radiant energy circting in her body to attract his attention.
With that, Lucius'' eyes immediately shot open, before darting toward the direction that Ghost was hiding in. Ghost increased the radiant energy even more, prompting Lucius to check out what was going on.
*
~What the hell is going on?~ Lucius thought to himself. At first, he had thought that it was just Ghost being sloppy, though it was obvious now that something was wrong.
"Thank you for the lessons. Watch the others, I need to go check something out," he said to the chieftains, before quickly walking towards Ghost''s location.
"He has named us¡ protectors of themune?" one of the chieftains asked in disbelief.
"Ghost, what''s going on? You can''t be letting out that much energy, you''ll attract unwanted attention-" Lucius was about to say, however, he had to stop his scolding midway once he noticed Ghost shivering.
"What''s wrong?" he asked. He had never seen her this scared. Even back when they were running from boars, the leaflings never shook like this.
"The army- that army you want to go up against, we have to cancel the mission. It-its suicide," she blurted out, looking around in a paranoid manner.
"Calm down, tell me what''s happened?"
"They''re too strong¡ the necromancer- no, not the necromancer, four of it''s subordinates¡ those four alone can destroy our entire camp. Each of them are stronger than all of usbined," she tried exining, though her sentences came out as incoherent, like the ramblings of a madman.
"Subordinates? Just four of them? How do you know this? When did you see them?" he asked.
From what he could remember, the only subordinates worth noting were those part of the guard squad surrounding the temple. And even though they were all more or less around the same power level as him, he still had a n to take them out of the equation.
"Radiant observation¡ like your unseen eyes, I copied it, made my own. Then you weren''t walking in a straight line, so I thought in that general direction, I went there, and the eyes could see towards an odd structure. I was about to leave, but four of them, all of them strong, with weird sticks in their hands that look powerful¡"
It took every brain cell that Lucius had to piece together what she was saying. From the sound of it, she had created a new technique simr to earth sense. Which would be good news if thest piece of information had not been attached to it.
"So you''re saying that the necromancer has four units that are stronger than our strongestbined?" he asked for rification, to which Ghost nodded her head.
"Hmm, I see. We''ll continue with the operation¡ and don''t worry, I have a n," Lucius said in a calming voice.
"Y-You do?"
"Of course I do. This doesn''t change much, the amount of power they have is irrelevant to our n. However, I want you to go back to camp and report this to Hannibal. Tell him to use the Radiant Tree to create a wall of vines around the main camp. I''ll find you all there," he continued, putting on a smile before gesturing for Ghost to leave.
~Y-yeah, I mean it''s Lucius we''re talking about. Of course, he has a n,~ Ghost thought to herself, her fear disappearing the more she stared at Lucius''s smile.
"I''ll go as fast as I can," she said, before zipping back towards the camp.
"Four units¡ each of them stronger than everyone in themunebined¡" Lucius whispered to himself. The act he had put up was all a charade. A n? How could you n that?
"Even if I wanted to, I can''t drop this operation right now. If I don''t carry oot on what I promised, those chameleon warriors won''t trust me again. And besides, who''s to say that the necromancer won''t continue making stronger men?" he whispered to himself.
"No, there''s a way we can win this¡ it''s risky, but it''s our only shot," he thought to himself. There was a way to make everyone with a crux a walking god, or at least as close to one as possible... a way to defeat even the necromancer.
*
Lucius and his group finished off with their little mission after two hours, and by the time they got back to the camp, all the other groups had returned as well.
"Alpha, Pagan, with me," Lucius called out, as all the F and C groups loaded their hauls into the storage dome.
"Eleanor was calling me to ask about somethin-" Alpha was about to say.
"Her too, no... call everyone in the security department. Everyone with a name that is," he said quickly, before looking towards Pagan.
"Go get the chieftains," he ordered, before walking towards Asclepuis''sb.
*
"Ah Lucius, I was just about to report som-"
"Meeting in the main dome. Whatever you have to report, you''ll report there as well," he said, before looking around theb. It had changed since thest time he was there. It was a lot more clustered, and Asclepius herself looked like she hadn''t slept in a while.
"Where''s Hannibal?" Lucius asked, deciding to get her to take some proper rest after this whole issue was resolved.
"He''s sleeping. He''s been creating a wall for the past two hours," she replied.
"I see. Wake him up and tell him toe to the main dome," he said after some thought. As much as he wanted Hannibal to rest up, he would be an important part of the operation, so he had to hear what Lucius had to say.
As all the invited groups began pouring into the main dome, a fewevyes began whispering amongst themselves. Of course, no one could me them. All the most powerful people in the camp were gathering, and even a few outsiders were being called in. Whatever was happening, it was big.
"Ghost,e down from there. I need you in the meeting," Lucius shouted, looking directly at a tree just outside his earth sense''s range.
"How did yo- okay," she whispered to herself, before quickly making her way to Lucius''s side.
"You can stay on the ceiling while we discuss. Make sure to listen carefully," he said, before heading towards the main dome.
As he walked in, he waved his hand and created chairs for everyone in the building using elmando. On one of the walls, he created a sort of whiteboard and began tracing out a map on it. Whilst he was doing that, he also created a small pinhole in the ceiling so that Ghost could see, though he doubted she needed it with the new skill she had.
"I''m sure you''re all wondering why I''ve called you here, on such short notice at that," Lucius started off, before making a chair for himself and sitting on it. Thinking had proved to be more taxing than any amount of work he could do.
"The reason we''re here today is because we''re about to wage war. And unlike I would''ve initially wanted, everyone here will y a part in it," he said.
A few murmurs of excitement were let out at this, the only people who looked worried were the chieftains.
~The Laevyes know nothing of war, but the chieftains, I suppose they''ve had to fight for territory before.~
"War isn''t something fun, there''s a chance that some of us won''t make it... no, there''s a chance that none of us will make it. This isn''t something you should be happy to be a part of, honored perhaps, but not happy," Lucius said, before looking towards the whiteboard.
"To put things into perspective... the enemy has 400 or more units around the same power level as me in my current state. And ording to intel, there are four units in particr that are stronger than our whole attack forcebined," Lucius said bluntly. More in a matter-of-fact way, than anything else.
Silence filled the room, there was disbelief in everyone''s eyes. Particrly, Hannibal, and Pagan. Pagan because he could not believe that such a thing was possible, and Hannibal because he understood the detailed implications that such a thing would bring about.
"The cherry on the cake is the necromancer, who I believe is currently sitting in the center of the camp," Lucius continued, before indicating on the whiteboard map where the temple was.
"This necromancer, as most of you are aware is the creator of these creatures. And if it could create something more powerful than the entire attack force, it''s safe to say that he''s stronger than us by at least 10 fold," Lucius added, before looking toward his men.
"So like I said before, it''s quite possible that none of us will make it out alive. So are you still in?"
Chapter 156 Where It All Begins (2)
"D-Do we have to fight it?" Eleanor asked, fear apparent in her voice.
"We don''t have to do anything. We could sit this out, let someone else take care of it. However, there''s a catch to that," Lucius exined, before standing up.
"For one, we would lose the trust of the forest creatures, since they''re expecting some sort of opening on the enemy front lines today. Secondly, we risk the necromancer destroying the dark forest resistance, as I''m calling it. If that happens, we''d be left alone in our fight... which leads me to number three," he said, stopping for a moment.
"We have no idea just how powerful his units will continue to be. Last time I checked, his units weren''t as powerful as they are now, but in a matter of days that changed. We aren''t bing stronger at the same rate as them... time is not on our side," he continued.
"Besides, we aren''t nning on killing the necromancer. Only crippling it enough to give us time to catch up. I highly doubt we could kill it even if we wanted to," he finished off.
"What exactly is the n?" Hannibal asked, his tone showing that he had epted the reality of things.
"Before that, I want your answers. The n involves sending the rest of themune a little into the forest. Those of you who don''t want to be a part of this can join them. And don''t worry, we''ve surveyed the area multiple times and there aren''t any threats close by that you won''t be able deal with," Lucius replied.
"Move the rest of themune? Why would we need to do that?" Alpha asked this time.
"My n involves using the Radiant Tree, and I''ll need to draw enemy forces a bit too close for my liking. I''m not risking any of the nonbat members getting in the cross fire," Lucius replied.
"The Radiant Tree! Right, with that... maybe we have a chance," Hannibal blurted out, Asclepius quickly covering his mouth before he could continue his wild ramblings.
"Ahem. So those of you who don''t want to be here are free to leave. I won''t me anyone, this n is so short notice, and the stakes so high. If anything, I me myself for letting it get to this point," Lucius announced.
For a moment he waited to see if anyone would leave, but all he saw were the faces of his soldiers harden to their reality. They epted that if they had to... they would die, none of them giving way.
With an almost pitying smile, Lucius remembered how hisrades on Earth were like this too. At the end of the day, he would always be the only one left... he wouldn''t allow that to happen this time around though.
"Here''s the n. We''ll start off with how we initially wanted things to go, a forest fire. We''ll start the fires at key points," he said after a moment of silence, before walking towards the white board on the wall.
"We will start several small fires on the front lines using sr beam, sr burst, and fire torches. This will hopefully distract the front lines of defence long enough for the second part of the n toe into effect," he said, marking out the points on the front lines where they would start the fires.
"I don''t have much faith that those first few fires will grow into full scale forest fires, so we will set fire to several structures within the necromancer''s camp. At least if everything else fails, this should be the one thing that seeds," he exined.
"Aren''t the internal structures protected by those.... creatures?" Eleanor asked.
"Exactly. It''ll get a little tricky once we get in, that''s why only Pagan and I will be going," Lucius replied.
"What about me?" Hannibal and Alpha asked simultaneously.
"Alpha, you and the security department will round up the straddlers of the initial attack on the first line and lure them to the dummy camp," Lucius replied, turning to Alpha.
"There you will lead them into the pits we created, and the chieftains will fill the ditches with poison."
"Make sure to use your strongest toxins," he added looking towards the chieftains now.
"Pagan and I will make sure to stop as many of the stronger units from following you as possible, but even then, I doubt that you''ll be able to get all the straddlers into the pits. But don''t worry about that, once you''ve finished your part run into the dark forest and wait for my signal," he continued.
"Signal?" Alpha asked.
"A blue pir of light. Trust me, you''ll see it," he replied.
"What about me?" Hannibal asked.
"You''ll be setting up the ying field for the final step of this mission," Lucius replied with a smile.
"Once I send the signal, I want everyone to withdraw ande back to camp. Make sure you aren''t being followed. The forest creatures will probably be leading their armies towards the necromancer''s camp at this point, so be careful not to be attacked by ident as well."
"If the forest creatures are going to be fighting shouldn''t we be helping them?" Alpha asked.
"Pfft, as if they deserve our help. The Lighted One has already helped enough, let them deal with the rest," Pagan said in a knowing tone. Almost as if he thought that it was exactly what Lucius was about to say.
"Aren''t I right, Lighted One?" Pagan asked, mimicking the look that Hannibal usually had on his face when he was discussing important matters with Lucius.
"Idiot," a voice whispered. The entire war room looked around to see who it hade from, but were unable to find the owner. Luckily, she was a few meters up in the air, hidden behind a ceiling.
"No, not exactly, Pagan. I highly doubt that the forest creatures will be able to defeat the four problem units within the necromancer''s camp. However, I trust they will be able to deal a good amount of damage before they are defeated," Lucius replied.
"Defeated? Isn''t that more reason to help them?" Eleanor asked, her tone showing slight concern.
"I see," Hannibal whispered to himself. "You n on using this mission to have them weaken their own forces."
"But why would we want that?" Eleanor shot back.
"Because Lucius ns on dominating them after this," Asclepius replied in a sort of faraway tone.
"The Chosen One ns to take over the crippled remains of the forest creatures," the chieftains added.
Lucius couldn''t deny that this tactic of his was ruthless. But it was a win-win. With this, theirmune would grow whether they failed this mission or not .
"Anyway, the final part of this mission is the most dangerous. We will be taking on the four problem units," Lucius announced.
"Aren''t the other three steps enough though?" Hannibal asked. He was clearly still frightened at the prospect of engaging those creatures in battle.
"Not nearly. If we can take a few of them down, that''ll mean that the necromancer will have to rece them, crippling him even more. That also means we might learn a little more about the necromancer''s magic," he said out loud.
~Not to mention that if I can taste a bit of their flesh, I can use their genomes in Pagan''s evolution. I would''ve liked to get the necromancer''s flesh as well, so that I could use it for my evolution, but that''s too risky,~ he thought to himself.
Though he knew well not to tell anyone about this, as it would bring the issue of devouring sentients under scrutiny. Sometimes being a leader requires hypocrisy.
"But how exactly do we do that? Didn''t you say they are stronger than all of usbined?" Asclepius asked, noticing that everyone else was a little afraid to question Lucius''s logic.
"They are only stronger than us in our natural states, but not with the Radiant Tree by our side. Using Elmando, and the moon cores, we can defeat them if we take them on one by one. Sure it''ll still take a lot of sr energy and mental strength, but the Radiant Tree can help us there," he exined.
After this he went into the finer details on the roles to be yed in the third phase. This involved teaching Pagan how to cast the moon core, which was rtively easy using the Radiant Tree.
Afterwards, he presented the Elmando skill to the members of the security department and had them and Hannibal prepare a few traps, and advantageous areas of battle for the uing fight.
By the time they had finished all this it was night time. While the others rested, awaiting the start of the mission, Lucius began leading the evacuation of nonbat members.
**
"So there really is something going on," the conspiracist whispered, as he followed the security staff who were designated as his group''s leader. There were no namedeyves among them, which meant that what ever was going on required every bit of help they could get.
"Oi, I''m going back. I have to see what''s going on," the conspiracist whispered to his friend -the femaleeyve responsible for one of the F and C groups.
"Stop this crazy talk. If Lucius sent us away, it must''ve been for a reason," she shot back at him, gripping tightly onto his wrists to make sure he didn''t sneak off.
**
Chapter 157 Where It All Begins (3)
While the others slept, Lucius used this time to prepare himself for the fight toe. He knew that there mighte a time when he would have to make a difficult decision, where a sacrifice could be the only right choice. He loved everyone like his children, but one of them may have to die today, and even for him, such a task would take mental preparation.
An hour passed, and the moon was directly overhead. If anything, now was the time to strike.
"Everyone, wake up!" he shouted. though that wasn''t necessary, anxiety had kept most of the group up. Perhaps the only ones to have slept were Pagan and Hannibal. Hannibal out of pure exhaustion, and Pagan because he knew no fear under his lord.
As everyone gathered in front of the Radiant tree, Lucius inspected them. The grim expressions on their faces feltforting somehow.
Something about sending his children into war had not been sitting right with him. But with these expressions, perhaps it became easier for him to fool himself into believing they were just like his army buddies.
"Ahem. Hannibal, continue trying your best to convert sr satellite into its radiant index counterpart. Don''t stress if you don''t end up aplishing it, there''s a chance that it isn''t a possibility anyway," Lucius started off, turning towards Hannibal.
He hoped that Hannibal would be able to create the technique by the time they began luring the enemies back to the camp. And though he doubted it would help much, he had left Hannibal with images exining how the moon and sun interacted.
"Alpha, you remember what I said when you''re using this, right?" he asked, now looking toward Alpha.
Fastened on Alpha''s back was a massive wooden bulwark shield crafted through the Radiant Tree''s Elmando. Its front was covered by several wooden spikes, with a very long one protruding from the center.
"If the enemy gets too close I should run through them with this to let the others escape," Alpha replied.
"Exactly. Don''t hesitate. You''re the fastest and strongest amongst everyone here, if anyone can make it out of a tight situation it''s you. And even if you can''t, fall knowing you did everything to save your brethren," Lucius said in a serious tone.
To this everyone''s face became even more serious, the weight of the uing task pushing down on them even more.
"The chieftains have already left for their stations. By now, the entire area should be clouded with dangerous poison. Asclepius show them what you made," he continued, before gesturing for Asclepius toe forward.
"This should be able to give you guys a few minutes in even the toughest poison. All the herbs are fresh and have been grown under the Radiant Tree''s effects, so they''re even better than what''s usually possible. Though I can only guarantee safety for a few minutes, I didn''t have a lot of time to test these," Asclepius announced, holding up a mask made from animal hide, leaves, vines, and mushrooms.
Based on the hazmat-like design, it was obvious that Lucius had been the one to create the vessel using Elmando. Inside it was a bunch of different herbs, all glowing faintly ording to their individual colors.
Asclepius passed the masks around, and once all the Internal Security folk had donned them, Lucius continued.
"Pagan, are you ready?" he asked, before turning to Pagan.
"Of course, Lighted One," he replied, before closing his eyes. Both of them pulled out their cruxes simultaneously, before morphing them into their eased-up forms. Soon, streaks of blue light began circling around them before coalescing to a single point.
The single point began growing, till eventually, it was the size of a ser ball. Almost three times the size of Lucius''s crux, which was now the size of a tennis ball.
"Miniature moon," Lucius whispered, and a bolt of blue light shot from the Radiant Tree, before violently linking with the miniature moon that orbited his primary crux.
Pagan did the same, and now two bolts were emitted from the tree.
~I have to say something to them,~ Lucius thought to himself. As it was now, they looked prepared, but not riled up enough.
"I''ll tell you this, death is not something we should fear. If anything it is eternal rest. True and brilliant eternal rest. If you must fear anything, fear that you may never get to spend time with those around you," he said in a strained voice, as more and more energy poured into his auxiliary crux.
"Today we will rage. That thing tried to steal our forest from us, this forest that is rightfully ours," he continued.
"Who else could rule it except The Supreme One? Who else except his subjects could have dominion over it?" Pagan interrupted, his voice hollow, as blue energy filled his very being.
"Answer me!? Who else apart from us could dare to spread our influence? If not us, then who will protect our God''snds?" he continued. Though Lucius did not like to be deified, he could see that it was working. The others seemed angry... bothered.
"Us," Alpha replied.
"Then, why do you not show your anger? Why do you respond to the anger of our God?" Pagan asked, the blue bolt of energy that had been linked to him suddenly severed.
"I vow, and make no mistake, I will not break this promise. If anyone here dies before my God has had victory, I shall hunt you down wherever the dead areid to rest," Pagan said, his whole body shimmering in blue.
There was a fire in everyone''s eyes. Even if this was thest time they would see each other, it would be a good enoughst image to have.
"Then let us march," Lucius whispered, the bolt of blue that had been linked to him severed a few seconds after Pagan''s.
*
Lucius and Pagan led the group, moving forward at unnatural speeds. To everyone else, it was almost as if they were flickering. Even Ghost with her agile body struggled to keep up.
~If they''re this fast without the Radiant Index, I can''t imagine how fast I''ll be if I can grasp this power,~ she thought to herself.
As nned Lucius and Pagan reached the enemy lines first.
"Try not to use any energy from sr satellite," Lucius said, his voice kind of hollow from the effects of being powered up.
A split momentter, two super-powered sr beams were let loose, causing dirt and vegetation to shoot into the air.
The necromancer''s minions were in disarray as a fire began to erupt.
Lucius recalibrated the spell, giving it a higher energy than pration quality before firing another volley.
"Ghost, use your vision to take out the hidden creatures, we''ll cover you," he shouted from atop a tree. A momentter, a ck figure zipped past him, maneuvering its way through the confused minions toward the darkness.
"Let''s go," Lucius shouted to Pagan, before storming into enemy lines.
As Ghost went deeper into the darkness, she began to sense more and more creatures silently stalking her. Until eventually, they reached close to 100.
Fear crippled her, for a second she was not running because she want to prate deeper into enemy lines, but because she was trying to run away from these faceless apparitions.
"Pagan, take them all out," Lucius ordered, and Pagan shot past him.
"Sr burst," Pagan whispered, finding that the situation was too stressful to try silent casting.
Arge amount of radiant energy was dispersed, destroying a good dozen of the unseen enemies that had been following Ghost. However there were many more, and they had just realized that Ghost was not alone.
"Where are the others? At this rate, they''ll all crowd around us," Lucius whispered to himself, before dropping a few meters away from Pagan, casting a sr burst of his own.
Sr energy conservation was key, already their normal sr reserves were about to be depleted. And using the sr satellites before they got to the temples would mean that the mission was all for naught.
The problem was, even with his radiant vision, for some reason he couldn''t see the creatures. He could see that something was giving off radiation, but it seemed sort of mixed in with the surrounding. Like camouge.
"Bursting Trace," Pagan whispered, sending shockwaves of superheated air around him. The squeals of unseen creatures could be heard all around them. Though even as they died, it seemed that their camouge was not deactivated. This wasn''t just some trick of the skin, these creatures were truly invisible.
"Back in my day we never had to deal with invisible enemies," Lucius whispered to himself, before gesturing for Ghost and Pagan toe close to him.
"They''re approaching us," Ghost said, her unseen eyes noticing the irregr shifts all around them.
"Tell me when they''re right on us," Lucius replied, keeping perfectly calm. The only part of him moving was his tail, instinctively swinging around him to prevent sneak attacks from behind.
"They''re right on u-" before Ghost could finish that sentence, a massive hole appeared on Lucius''s torso. Sap spilled from the wound, revealing a de-like limb protruding from the site.
Chapter 158 Where It All Begins (4)
"Good. Hold your breath," he shouted, as even more holes began to appear on his body. A momentter, he let out a massive cloud of poison gas using his fourth form, ''wandering''. Using Elmado, he spread it out as explosively as he could.
Retching sounds followed by sudden thuds filled the air as Lucius healed himself. He didn''t have much practice with poison, so it took time for him to expel it, allowing for a few of the creatures to escape.
Noticing that the poison was quickly thickening, Pagan and Ghost dashed toward nearby trees, before quickly shooting up.
Lucius quickly realized that the unseen creatures might be trying to do the same, and followed suit, releasing so much poison that it felt like he would pass out at any moment.
Soon a section of the forest was covered in a purple mist. Sadly, spreading it out so thin diluted its potency, making it take a longer time for the creatures to feel its full effects.
"Huh? What''s happening?" Ghost whispered, noticing something odd in the distance.
She could see the silhouette of a creature running away, however only very small parts of it were visible. It was almost as if its invisibleyer had been burnt away by the poison.
"It''s the poison," Lucius quickly inferred, before running after the creature, turning into a ze of blue as he jumped from tree to tree. Once he was within range, his tail struck out, impaling the creature right where its head would be.
"Ghost, you know how to use your poison right?" Lucius shouted, his tail whipping back and forth impaling the unseen creatures that were so unlucky as to be running past him.
Ghost nodded her head, currently still holding her breath.
"Release a cloud of poison around yourself. You''re immune to your own poison, and it should block off mine," he ordered, his tail thrashing out to ughter yet another creature.
Ghost struggled for a moment,pletely forgetting how to produce poison due to stress. But after a few attempts, she let out a small cloud of poison around her face area.
"These things seem tock intelligence. They aren''t holding their breath, which means that dealing with them should be easy so long as this mist is up," he continued.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Stop as many of them from going deeper in as possible. I doubt that the necromancer is unaware of our presence, but it''ll be worse if these creatures report on our abilities," Lucius replied, before gesturing for Pagan to follow him.
"Got it," Ghost replied.
Pagan and Lucius ughtered as many of the unseen creatures as they could see on their way deeper into the camp, leaving Ghost to face off against the remaining ones.
"Don''t think it''ll be easy just because I''m alone," she said, noticing that a few of the creatures had stopped fleeing and were currently staring at her.
"You won''t even see what hit you," she whispered, before turning on her radiant cowl and disappearing into the mist. The purple backdrop helped to blend her in even more, making it difficult for the creatures to spot her.
For some of them, death came in the form of a spider leg to the head before they even knew they were being attacked. Like a thief in the night, Ghost robbed them of their life force, one by one.
*
"Lighted One, was it really okay to leave Ghost alone with all those creatures? I don''t believe she''s strong enough to handle that many," Pagan asked, as he and his master zipped towards the center of the enemy camp.
"She''s not strong enough, but it was the only option at our disposal. We already knew that we''d be at a disadvantageing here, however, the mission must bepleted, no matter the cost," Lucius replied, keeping his eyes forward the whole time.
"So we left her there to die?" Pagan asked. For the first time showing concern for someone other than himself.
"There is no we. I am the leader of this mission, if she dies then I left her there to die. Now keep quiet and focus on the mission, it''ll be our turn soon," he replied coldly. It was a force of habit for him to restrict emotion during missions, especially ones where the prospect of death was on the line.
"If things had to be done, let them be done. There is no use crying over spilled blood." Two motos he liked to keep in mind whenever he had to make stressful decisions.
After five minutes of constant running, the temple was finally in sight. It was just a few trees ahead.
"Stop," Lucius whispered, suddenly halting atop the branch of a tree he was passing over.
"What''s the matter?" Pagan asked, confused by the sudden halt.
"Something''s odd," Lucius said, his head snapping around in a paranoid manner as if something were watching him.
"Are we being attacked? I don''t see anyone here," Pagan said, suddenly inspecting the area around him as well.
"Exactly. This area was supposed to be guarded by at least 400 units. Not to mention that I haven''t been able to sense any life forms, for the past few minutes," Lucius replied.
"Perhaps they all left to the frontlines. Your n worked Lighted One. Not only are you the strongest being in the forest, but the smartest as well," Pagan said, his tension easing as he fell into self-deception.
"That part of the n was not a diversion. It was just to breakthrough. Something''s off, we''ve been trapped somehow," Lucius replied, realizing what was off about the surroundings.
The sky. The sky wasn''t giving off radiation like it usually does.
"We need to go back quickly. We''re wasting time here," he shouted.
~Of course it put traps up. Why wouldn''t it? Now it''s just a question of how exactly we were put in this trap, and whether I''m still conscious or trapped in some dream state,~ Lucius thought to himself, inspecting Pagan to see if there was anything off about him.
"Hey Pagan, I''m starting to think that this mission is too dangerous... I hadn''t ounted for all these obstacles. Perhaps we should retreat," Lucius whispered, before suddenly stopping.
"You want to give up Lighted One? But we were so close, I thought you said that the mission should bepleted no matter the cost," Pagan replied, stopping a moment after Lucius.
"I know I said that, but Gregory and the others haven''t arrived yet. Without the strongest fighters in ourmune, how can we hope to beat the necromancer?" Lucius asked in a defeated tone, before jumping a few branches over to the one that Pagan was standing on.
"Gregory and the others will be here soon. We should justplete our part," Pagan replied after a brief pause.
"Hmm, you know what?" Lucius whispered,ing closer to Pagan. "You''re right. We should do our part," he continued, now at an embrace''s distance away from him.
"Then let''s ge-" Pagan was about to say, before a beam of light pierced through his head,pletely disintegrating the upper part of his body.
Pagan''s headless corpse dropped to the ground with a thud, as the smell of burnt nt material wafted into the air.
"Interesting... I suppose that Gregory was not a real person then," a voice swept past Lucius, seemingly moving with the wind.
"What did you do to him?" Lucius replied, his entire body tensing. The fear he felt right now was simr to that he experienced when he first met the furry-folk. It was a sort of primal fear, one that no amount of experience could contain.
"Tell me, creature, for what reason have you invaded my domain?"
"You sound intelligent... so tell me why you would think I was the invader. Isn''t it you who appeared out of nowhere and started killing the forest creatures? Isn''t it you raising the dead, and spreading decay?" Lucius asked, his eyes darting in all directions to find where the voice wasing from.
"So you are a rebel? Fine, I have yet to add a creature that looks like you to my army. Come," the voice said. A momentter the world around Lucius wobled, and twisted, like a curtain falling to the ground.
"Lighted One, you stopped moving suddenly. I thought that something happened," Pagan said, appearing behind Lucius as if out of thin air.
Chapter 159 Where It All Begins (5)
"Who has the highest stats in themune? Get it wrong and you''re dead," Lucius replied, his tail thrashing out to grab Pagan by the neck and lift him into the air. Meanwhile, a sr beam was at the ready in case he tried to pull anything funny.
"W-What''s goi-"
"Just answer me," Lucius interrupted, his crux glowing even brighter than before.
"Apart from you... Alpha. But only because he has an abnormal desire for physical pain. If it were up to natural talent, it would''ve been me," Pagan replied.
"This level of obnoxious can''t be replicated," Lucius sighed in relief, before putting Pagan on the ground.
"Sorry about that. The necromancer seems to be able to use something akin to mind magic. I was trapped in a trance, where he had someone that looked just like you following me," he exined, before looking ahead.
The temple was still a ways away, meaning that either the necromancer was somewhere close by, or that the range of his spells was just this much greater than Lucius''s.
"Someone that looks like me?" Pagan repeated, the concept of such a thing happeningpletely foreign to him.
"Yes, so watch out. If I start acting weird, ask me something that only I would know. If I answer it wrong, even by a little bit, kill me... fast," Lucius said, before rushing off toward the temple.
~What''s this odd sensation?~ he thought to himself as he dashed from tree to tree. He hadn''t felt this sensation in such a long time... the fear of death.
*
"I can hardly breathe," Eleanor croaked in between coughs as she looked on at the massive fires that Pagan and Lucius had started at the outskirts of the necromancer''s camp.
Dozens of burnt undead corpsesy on the ground, while most of those that remained standing were heavily damaged.
"Something feels off," Alpha whispered, staring nkly into the mes.
"What do you mean?" Eleanor asked, trying to pinpoint exactly where Alpha was staring.
"We''ll split up here. Everyone follow Eleanor and circle around the fire. Gather all of the undead you can find and lead them back here. If I haven''t returned by then, you have permission to begin leading them toward the dummy camp," Alpha said, before removing the bulwark from his back.
"You don''t think I''m going to let you rush into that fire alone do you?" Eleanor asked, her tone showing that she was ready topletely defy Alpha''s orders.
"The fire''s too big, if we all go in, there''s a chance that all of us will die. Besides, all of you are just going to slow me down anyway. If I go alone, I can go all out without worrying about the rest of you," Alpha said, before moving forward.
"So basically you''re saying we''re useless?" Eleanor asked, before gesturing for her men to get ready,
"Well then, show me you aren''t by not dying. Remember what Pagan said, if any of you die, he''ll hunt you down. And trust me, you don''t want that idiot nagging on you for however long the dead stay dead," Alpha replied, before taking a few steps toward the fire.
"You know this wasn''t part of the n right? I know I don''t have the power or authority to stop you, but I will be reporting this to Lucius," Eleanor warned as she watched Pagan slowly walk into the mes.
"And I''ll take full responsibility," Alpha replied, his bulwark in front of him as he walked into the nket of mes.
"Let''s go round them up boys. This is our chance to prove that we are worthy of getting cruxes, and maybe then our Premier will stop treating us like useless sacks of nt," Eleanor hollered, before leading the others around the fire.
*
~Something feels off, I can''t put it in words, but it feels like Lucius is about to die,~ Alpha thought to himself as he dashed through the forest at full speed, enhancing himself in a full radiant cowl.
After running for a few minutes he came across a section of the forest covered in purple mist.
"What''s going on here-" he was about to say before a sharp object came rushing towards his face. He attempted to lift his bulwark up to block it, but it was already toote, the de was right in front of his face.
"Alpha?" a voice called out, right as the de came to a halt.
"Ghost?" Alpha asked recognizing the voice. And as if out of thin air, Ghost emerged.
"How did you- no, when did you learn that?" Alpha asked, for a moment the sensation that had been bothering him was overpowered by his surprise.
"I call it full-blend. I learned it from these creatures," Ghost replied, a smirk on her innard-covered face. It seemed that she had been busy, as her entire body was covered in all shades of creature innards.
"It was pretty simple once I-"
"There''s no time, we have to get moving," Alpha interrupted, once again staring nkly deep into the forest. It was as if something was calling to him. No, begging him toe.
"W-what''s going on? Isn''t our part of the missionplete? Shouldn''t we be heading bac- wait. What are you doing here, shouldn''t you be at the dummy camp?" Ghost asked,pletely confused.
"Something''s wrong. I can feel it. Lucius is in danger," Alpha replied vacantly.
"Well, of course he is. This mission is dange-" however before Ghost could finish, Alpha went rushing deeper in.
"Wait, stop. Lucius told us to retreat once we were done," Ghost shouted as she tried catching up, however, Alpha seemed trapped in a trance.
''Lucius is going to die. Lucius is going to die. Lucius is going to die.'' It felt like he was going insane. The trees around him began to morph into faces as he ran, and even they chanted the same thing as if in warning.
Soon the feeling turned into something of a certainty.
"Lucius will die if I don''t save him. If we don''t save him," he said out loud. And though Ghost wanted to follow Lucius''s orders, she couldn''t deny that even if Alpha sounded crazy, it was a huge possibility.
"What''s going on here?" Ghost whispered to herself, noticing the slight shift in the forest, and how the wind seemed to suddenly blow in the same direction as them.
It was as if the forest was alive, as if it was inviting them deeper in.
*
When Pagan and Lucius finally arrived at the temple, they were met with a whole army of undead. However, the creatures that Ghost had described were nowhere to be seen.
"Pagan, you''re up," Lucius said before Pagan advanced alone.
The n was simple; release moon''s wrath to take out as many of the guards as possible. And during the initial confusion, Lucius would slip through and release another one right on the temple.
If they were lucky, the necromancer would be killed in the st, though for some reason Lucius doubted that it would work.
The army of undead shook the ground as they charged Pagan. It was akin to a herd of elephants about to trample over an ant.
Pagan took a deep breath in, and right as the horde was about to reach him, his body began glowing in an intense blue color.
For a moment it seemed like there wasplete silence.
"Satellite Beam," he whispered, and the very air around him exploded.
A massive beam of blue light shot out of him, increasing in diameter as it ate at everything around him.
The shockwaves, sent even Lucius flying backward.
The spell was stronger than the first time Lucius had cast it. And just when Lucius thought it was over, the air was sucked back in, causing a secondary implosion.
Once all the debris settled, Pagan''s smoking body remained at the center, like a meteorite surrounded by earth. By this time, Lucius had already made it to the temple.
"Interesting creatures," a voice whispered in Lucius''s ear as he prepared to cast a moon''s wrath of his own.
"Satelite Beam," Lucius chanted quickly.
"Vim extermina," the voice added a momentter.
The energy that had begun collecting to carry out Lucius''s spell dispersed. However, the mental toll that the spell would''ve cost him went through, making him fall down to his knees.
"Wh-what''s going on?" he whispered to himself, feeling his mind slowly slipping out of consciousness.
Chapter 160 Where It All Begins (6)
"It seems I overlooked your species. If your kind is capable of collecting this much celestial energy, then perhaps I should start hunting for them specifically," the voice said.
~Satelite Beam~ Lucius chanted, attempting to silently cast the spell.
"Vim extermina," the creature said right after.
"Don''t bother. I can read the fluctuations in your crux. And besides, it''s not as if you have the rena to cast it anyway," the voice said before the space around Lucius began to wobble.
A humanoid mushroom at least 6 feet tall, dressed in a robe made of leaves emerged from what seemed like a hole in the very fabric of reality. Behind it were two massive orbs, one ck, and the other violet.
Instinctively, Lucius''s tail thrashed out, attempting to impale the creature in the head. But just as suddenly as the attack was unleashed, the undead creature grabbed it.
~It got faster?~ Lucius thought to himself, remembering how slow the creature had been the first time he had encountered it.
"You can still move?" it asked.
Lucius whipped his tail to the side, before releasing a cloud of poison from its tip. The poison burnt the necromancer''s flesh, disfiguring it as it attacked its orifices.
Using the cloud as a smoke screen, he used Elmando to snake the vines tied to his waist toward the necromancer in an attempt to tie it up.
"Sr beam," he chanted right after, pushing him through the mental strain that he was already suffering to.
The necromancer''s body was now nothing but a burning stump, tied to the ground by a bundle of vines.
"You are a third-tier creature, yet you fight like one of the more intelligent ones," a voice whispered from beside him. Lucius quickly turned around to find the necromancer, sitting atop a throne made of corpses.
The world around him began to wobble, and the dummy necromancer he had been fighting turned to ash.
"When- when did I get here?" Lucius whispered to himself, finding that even his surroundings were not familiar. He was currently inside the temple, surrounded by undead on all sides.
It was like a mosaic of abhorrence. He hadn''t noticed it from the outside, but the temple wasn''t made from vegetation, but rather corpses. All the skulls and undead decorations on the walls were lost on a living creature like him. To him, it all seemed so... macabre.
"Of all the creatures to attack me, you havee the furthest. Of course, that is purely because I allowed it," the necromancer began speaking, before waving its hands.
With just that gesture, a pile of bones moved toward Lucius in a snake-like manner. Luciusshed his tail out to stop its advance, but the bones merely disassembled and reassembled once they had gotten past it.
Right as they were about to reach him, he tried jumping over a few of them and punching the others in an attempt to shatter them. However, they did not yield. It felt like he was punching titanium, normal bones weren''t supposed to be that strong.
"Bursting trace," he chanted, sending out shockwaves of explosive energy around him. The toll was massive, for a second he had cked out due to the mental strain, his will being the only thing to pull him back.
Sadly, the trace did nothing more than send the bones back for a moment.
~Fuck this,~ Lucius decided, before locking eyes with the necromancer. He dashed towards it, dodging the undead that stood between him and the necromancer, before striking at its head with his ws.
The necromancer made but a simple gesture, and a hand made of bones extended from its throne to block the attack right as it was about to reach it.
The undead behind Lucius attempted to attack him, but he quickly foiled them with his tail before sending out a head kick to the necromancer.
Once again the necromancer made another gesture, and another hand appeared to block it.
At this point, Lucius''s attackscked the strength or the speed to kill anything. Attempting to cast the moon''s wrath earlier had mentally drained him.
~What was that spell? Vim extermina?~ Lucius thought to himself, before dashing backward, right to the center of the temple.
''Run. You''re going to die. Run.'' The words came like thunder in his mind. Though he paid them no heed, after all the necromancer knew mind magic, of course, it was attempting to do this.
The question was; if it was this powerful, why hadn''t it killed him yet?
"Frustrating isn''t it? Having that much mana, but no rena to use it," the necromancer said, before standing up from its chair.
Lucius''s poison tank waspletely empty, and unlike spell casting, there was no pushing it. Once it was empty it couldn''t be forced.
Lucius quickly ran through all his options as the creature slowly approached him. He could try fighting it, but that would just tire him out. And besides, he could sense that there were stronger creatures than the ones he could see hiding in wait. And amongst them, one of them was at least a bit stronger than he was even at full strength.
His other option would be to attempt to cast moon''s wrath and risk overheating his mind. It seemed that whatever spell the necromancer was using to counter it took a toll on it as well since it hadn''t attempted to cast it to block Lucius''s other attacks.
However, this would mean certain death for sure, if anything around him survived.
"Why are you ying around? Do you find some sort of sick pleasure in tormenting the living?" Lucius asked, attempting to buy more time.
"Attempting to buy time? No... it''s only right that the weak do anything in their power to win," the necromancer mumbled, almost as if it were talking to itself.
"Did it seem like I was ying around? Perhaps it would seem that way to a creature of your level," the necromancer continued, its twin cruxes moving in a calcted manner as if preparing to cast a spell.
"I was testing your capabilities. It would seem that your species is the strongest... second strongest I have encountered in this domain. Your affinity for celestial magics is what makes you the most interesting," the necromancer mumbled to itself once more.
It seemed that it had a few screws loose.
"Celestial magics?"
"It doesn''t matter. You will soon die and join my ranks. However, before I do that, I have one question," the necromancer said.
"What were you originally? Before you possessed this vessel. I can tell you''ve died before,"
Chapter 161 Where It All Begins (7)
"What?" For a moment, Lucius forgot about the situation that he was in.
~It knows... It knows I''m not from here?~ he thought to himself. The answers he had been looking for could be standing right in front of him... but in the form of death. How ironic.
''Run. Get away. Run.'' There it was again. The strange voice in his head. No, this wasn''t a voice. It was a feeling. His connection to the forest, his earth sense, it was telling him to get away.
~Is the necromancer really that out of my grasp? No, I know he is. This was a suicide mission to begin with... A suicide mission, how many times have I been in one of those,~ Lucius thought to himself.
~Pagan''s moon''s wrath should''ve alerted the forest creatures by now, they should be on their way,~ Lucius thought
"In fact, I''ve never felt something quite like you. You''re... foreign," the necromancer said, interrupting Lucius''s train of thought. "So answer me. What are you?"
"If I was foreign, where else would Ie from?" Lucius asked. He wanted answers, but he wasn''t very well just going to reveal that he was from another world.
"My curiosity is not so deep to be yed with," the creature said before pointing a finger at Lucius.
"Death''s grasp," it whispered,
"Sr field," Lucius shot back as if by reflex.
The near ethereal sr shield lit up as the necromancer''s spell made impact with it. It held on for but a second before bursting into nothing.
His mind was reaching dangerous levels of overheat, it was as if his were brain melting. It felt like it were nothing but a soup mixture at this point.
[User is in critical condition. Force shut downmencing...]
~Don''t you fucking dare. Don''t you fucking do it,~ Lucius screamed within his mind, as he could feel his motor functions being turned off one after the other.
[Canceling Force shut down...]
"A shield spell? That would require an index... how interesting. A third-tier creature with a magic index," the necromancer babbled to itself.
Lucius took this chance to try and attack, however, the minute he tried to use Elmando, he cked out for a moment.
"Sadly, it seems that shield spell requires rena. I suppose even anomalies at this level will be crude at best," the necromancer said almost whimsically. Its demeanor and actions were confusing. Lucius understood, that to a being of this nature, concepts such as evil, were but a matter of mood.
"However, I can''t entertain any more damage to your rena centers. I will retrieve the information I require once you have been reanimated," the necromancer continued, before pointing a finger at Lucius.
"Squeeze," it chanted.
"Sr field," Lucius shot back, however, he was met with a head-splitting headache that knocked him out for a moment.
He woke up to hell.
His innards felt like they had imploded, and were nothing more than mush.
[External forces have breached the user''s body. Attempting to expel...]
[Expulsion not possible. Usercks resistance to external force...]
[Analyzing external force...]
~What the hell was that,~ Lucius thought to himself, warm liquid flowing out of his eyes and mouth. He was on the floor now, unable to move a single fiber of his being.
His vision had gone entirely, and if not for the fact that he had earth sense, he wouldn''t be able to tell that the necromancer was approaching him.
"I hope that didn''t destroy the core. It''d be a waste of research material," the necromancer whispered to itself, before picking Lucius''s head off the floor.
Its touch felt draining, as if all his energy were being devoured by the second.
"Now, let''s get a look at you... my little anomaly," the necromancer said, before digging its finger into Lucius''s head.
[System has detected a foreign presence attempting to breach.]
"Sa-sa-satelite beam," Lucius stuttered, however, his crux had already been dissipated. And the remaining auxiliary crux was nothing more than decoration without the primary.
"Still alive? Fascinating. Even if this vessel I''m using is only an echo, for this creature to survive my spells like this," the necromancer whispered, before pointing its finger at Lucius once again.
"Sto-stop b-bl,"
"Begging for mercy? I do love when they beg for mercy" the necromancer asked, pulling Lucius up by his horns before bringing him close to its ear holes.
"S-sto-"
"Speak clearly," it said in an annoyed tone.
"S-stop bbering," Lucius groaned, before spitting on the necromancer''s face.
"I see," the necromancer whispered, before pointing its finger at Lucius''s arm.
"Death''s grasp," it chanted, and Lucius''s arm went limp.
At this point, his mind began to wander. Consciousness was nothing more than a memory now. His time in this world hade to an end. Perhaps he would reincarnate again. Maybe this time as something a little better than a nt.
*
"Why are we still standing around here? Everyone saw the moon''s wrath did they not?" a chameleon creature shouted, standing in front of a council of other chameleon creatures.
"We still do not know what that was. It could''ve been a natural urrence," another chameleon creature replied.
"A natural moon''s wrath but a day after the first? Am I the only one with any sense of thought?" the first creature asked, looking at its fellow brethren.
As everyone debated back and forth, the king sat quietly on top of his throne, watching all of them in a bored manner.
"Shaviki, what are you getting at here? Are you telling us to believe that Havon hase down to help us in this battle?" the king interrupted, tired of the bbering of his council members.
"My lord, I do not im that the creature that spoke to the guards was indeed the true Havon. However, we cannot deny the facts. Scouts have reported that the enemy''s border guard is in disarray, and a moon''s wrath was let off. It''s too much of a coincidence," Shaviki, replied, looking towards his lord with expectant eyes.
"My lord, I urge you not to fall for this madness. Shaviki is young, as your head advisor, I vote against this," another, older chameleon creature replied.
"As do I," another replied, looking towards the king. These words repeated like an echo as all but four abstained from repeating it.
"Shaviki, you understand that this n is based on votes. As much I see potential in you, I cannot send out troops without a majority ruling," the king said, before standing up.
"This meeting is over. You may al-" the king was about to say, before a chameleon creature stormed into the room, breathing haggardly as it ran to bow before him.
"My king-" the creature said, trying to catch its breath. "It''s the Zeldraves. They''ve advanced their armies towards the enemy camp," the creature reported. This report was met with sounds of disbelief, however, Shaviki had a wide grin on his face.
"My lord, do you still think it wise to abstain from this battle?"
Chapter 162 Where It All Begins (8)
"My lord, if we happen to be wrong, and that is indeed Havon leading the battle against those intruders, this''ll be the single biggest blunder in our n''s history. We will go down as the generation that failed to help the savior, and in turn, failed to have him owe us," Shaviki continued.
The king remained silent, an unbothered expression on his face as he looked at the other council members. In truth, the king had wanted to go to Havon''s aid. Battles had to be fought, and in that sense, it was the reason he was king.
"I stand my ground. Let the Zeldraves go help. With forces unprepared for this battle, it''s suicide," the eldest advisor said.
"I-I vote we go. We cannot let the Zeldraves have the upper hand on us. They''re too close to our territory. If Havon favor''s them over us, then it''ll only be a matter of time before they conquer ournds," another advisor said, causing Shaviki''s grin to grow even wider.
"As do I," everyone else repeated.
~Old fool, you chose the wrong side on this one,~ Shaviki thought to himself as he looked at the eldest advisor.
To Shaviki, this council room was nothing but a pit of yesman. Perhaps only three of his kinsmen here were worth the struggle, but with this win, Shaviki was probably ahead in the race.
"My king, if you will, let me lead the first squadron down the path," Shaviki asked, as the notion was about to be passed.
"What? My king, have him thrown into the pit for his hubris. He is not the head warrior, why should a council member have any position in the warfarers region?" the eldest asked.
~Pfft. You only say that because your son is the head warrior. But I won''t let you have even that much,~ Shaviki thought to himself before sighing.
"My king, should we encounter Havon, would it not be better to have an intellectual speak to him first? We do not know how deep in battle he is, what if he takes us as an enemy army? Should someone more capable of exining not be at the front line?" Shaviki asked.
Sure, he was putting himself at a higher risk of death. But this was the creature known as Shaviki, one with the goal of bing king. High risk bore high reward, and this was the riskiest y of them all.
"Shaviki is right. We can have the head warrior by his side. Ready the warriors, let us advance our forces before the Zeldraves reach there," the king roared, before moving to leave the room.
"Wait. We? My king, do you mean to join the battle?" Shaviki asked. For once everyone in the room seemed to be in sync, they hadn''t seen the king in true battle ever since this war against the intruders started.
"If this truly is Havon, then this will be thest time we see these invaders. I won''t sit while my enemies are dealt with by someone else," the king said, before moving through the door.
The Chameleon king, standing at 8 feet tall, with a massive build. On his back, four lines were tallied in red, with a fifth line striking through all of them. The brand of a guardian, a lord amongst his kin.
***
"Did you see that?" Ghost asked, noticing Pagan''s moon''s wrath in the distance. By the time she and Alpha arrived at the location, they found multiple corpses, lying around a singlerge crater.
"Pagan!" Ghost shouted, before dashing towards him.
"Take him back to the camp and have Hannibal heal him," Alpha said coldly, before staring at the temple ahead.
"And what about you?"
"Lucius''s spell wasn''t let off, and he wouldn''t just leave Pagan here. Something''s off. I''m going to check it out," Alpha replied.
"Then I''m goi-"
"You''re smarter than me, aren''t you? Both of us going, and leaving Pagan here doesn''t make sense. And you''re faster than me, so you can get him out of here quicker," Alpha interrupted, before rushing towards the temple.
''Save him. Save him.'' The voices in Alpha''s head screamed. He could feel that the sensation was reaching a boiling point.
As he got closer to the temple he began looking for openings from which he could sneak in. However, there seemed to be only one, arge door at the front, no doubt guarded by some pretty strong creatures.
Alpha cowled his body, releasing so much radiance into his system that it felt like his skin was boiling, before rushing towards the door with his bulwark out.
The few undead that were stationed directly at the entrance were bulldozed through, and Alpha found himself within the dark crevice which was the entrance to the temple.
He had never seen walls so smooth before, it was a great contrast to its rather crude exterior. Using the light emanating from his body, he attempted to find his way around.
Even though he had no idea where Lucius was, it felt like a string was pulling him to the higher floors, and that was as good a hint as any.
The deeper in he went, the smoother and more intricate the walls became. Soon, odd skeletons began to line the walls in decoration, and even though he didn''t have the time to look at them properly, he still got a sense of the creature that had wanted such decoration.
"I have to hurry up," he whispered to himself, as he bulldozed through yet another set of guards. He was like a beam of light, even the creatures stronger than him had no time to react to his blitzkrieg.
As he was running down the dark hallways, he saw a massive creature standing guard on the other end. The creature was so big that it covered half the corridor, a pathway that wasrge enough to fit two whole trees.
Alpha attempted to bulldoze through it like he had the other creatures, hoping that it was too slow to react, however, he just bounced off its armor.
He was sent flying back, his bulwark smashed to pieces.
"Radiant Mirage," he chanted, creating a perfect mirror clone of himself, before rushing at the creature again.
The creature thrust its front two legs into the air in response, before mming them down, causing the entire ground to shake.
Alpha was sent flying back once again, this time with a realization of the difference in raw strength between him and the creature in front of him.
Chapter 163 Surpass!
"I don''t have time for this. Move out of my way!" Alpha shouted, as he got back to his feet. Using the light emanating from his body, he tried to get a better view of what exactly was in front of him.
It was a creature with six legs and a silvery armour ting its entire body. Its face was helm-like, with two horns protruding from it; a longer one at the top and a shorter one at the bottom.
Even though Alpha had no experience dealing with metal, he could tell that the material that covered its skin was many times more durable than the wood covering his. If he wanted to beat this thing, he would have to find openings where it''s amour wasn''t protecting it.
~I''ll try getting around it,~ he decided to himself, before dashing towards the creature.
He made a quick feint to the right, before suddenly turning in the opposite direction, hoping that the creature would be toorge to react in time. However, it just repeated what it had done before, raising its two front legs into the air, and causing mini tremors to spread throughout the ground.
"Move!" Alpha shouted right after he had regained his bnce. He brandished his ws, before aiming to stab at the creature in the eyes. However, just like before, it caused mini-tremors that sent him flying back.
The concept of weight was foreign to him, so he couldn''t understand why the creature was able to toss him so easily. But one thing was clear, if he were stronger, perhaps he would''ve found a way out.
~If I had those techniques like Pagan, I could''ve dealt with this creature easily,~ he thought to himself in exhaustion.
He hadn''t realized it before because he was so caught up in the pursuit of getting to Lucius, but the fatigue caused by running while using full cowl for so long was finally catching up to him.
He tried stabbing at the creature several more times, but each time he was met with the same counter attack. He thought that perhaps he could outst it, through sheer will alone. But even willpower had its limit.
Once again he was limited by what he was. A mere leaf creature.
It was amon understanding that creatures of low tier were inferior to others. This was especially true for theevyes who were meant as prey for all the other forest creatures. Among them, perhaps one or twoevyes would cry out.... realize that this sort of life was meaningless. But it didn''t matter if nothing could be changed.
However, it could be changed. Lucius changed it, Lucius answered Alpha''s cries, his cries to be something better.
~Yet here I am. His blessing''s wasted. Why?~ he thought to himself, as more and more scratches filled his body with every attempt he made to get by the creature.
~Was it because I didn''t train hard enough?~ he thought to himself, pumping absurd amounts of radiant energy into his legs as he made another attempt.
~Did I not run enoughps? Were the rocks I carried not heavy enough?~ he asked himself as his opponent sent him flying back once again.
~No. No one worked harder than me. No one, not even Lucius,~ he answered himself, as he stood back up.
~Then why? Is this really just what I was meant to be, weak?~ he thought to himself. The radiant energy that was circting through his body now felt like moltenva. And his very skin was beginning to steam from the heat he was emitting.
"Tell me. How do I be strong like you?" he asked, seeing his massive adversary as something he wanted to be. "How do I be immovable like you are?" he continued, pumping even more radiant energy into his body.
Cracks began to appear on his crux, and the wood on his skin had begun to catch fire. Soon, half his face was a fiery mess, and the other half so steamed up that it couldn''t even be seen.
"I need an answer. Is it that armour of yours? Is it your extra legs? What, what is it that makes you so strong? Because I know you didn''t train as hard as I did," he whispered to himself, before brandishing his now ming ws.
[¡ºAlpha¡» has met system requires, special event has begun. Ability ¡ºSurpass¡» has been activated, strength stat has been doubled.]
[¡ºAlpha¡» has unlocked new auxiliary title ¡ºFirst to the event¡». During system events Alpha''s stats will increase by 40% .]
"If it really is your amour, or yours legs," Alpha spat out, steaming out of his mouth with every word he spoke. "Then I will take them from you and wear them as my own," he finished, every fibre of his body bulging just as he rushed towards the creature with a new found speed.
***
"My lord, all the enemy creatures on the front lines seemed to have been killed by this strange red flower," a smander creature reported.
"Then lead the troupes further in. Find the source of the moon''s wrath," arge, 8 foot tall smander replied, while looking into the fiery distance.
"Honour guard, with me! We will storm their base!" the leader shouted to his army, before running towards the temple.
A good number of smander soldiers stayed behind, killing off any stranglers they found in their path. At this point the fire had be massive, and even as they fought, wisps of it burned at their skin.
However, this did not seem to bother them much. They had a thinyer of mucous covering their skin that made the fire have nearly no effect on them. And whatever burns they did incur were instantly healed, as if they had high grade regeneration.
These were the Zeldraves, the smander people of the woods.
As the Smander lord was running through the fiery forest, a ck creaturended right next to him before running along side him.
"My lord, there is a purple mist up ahead. We believe it to be a mid-level poison. Though it''s effects are interesting," the ck creature whispered into the lord''s ears.
"This is war, speak clearly. What are it''s effects? Are you saying our immunity does not work on it?" the lord shot back, running even faster than before.
The clear difference in strength between him at his other men was apparent. He was running at a pace with which none ept the scout could keep up with. And even then, it was because the scout was running on all fours, whereas the lord kept his dignity and ran on two.
"The poison causes insanity, my lord. Three scouts have fallen victim to it and are currently incapacitated. However their regeneration does not seem to have been affected," the scout said in between breaths.
"Hmm. Collect samples, take them back to Trel. I''m sure she''ll be happy to study this," the lord replied promptly before gesturing for the scout to leave.
"There''s a trap up ahead, we''ll be going aro-" the lord was about to say, before an incredibly fast moving object came rushing towards him.
In one swift movement, he ducked, beforeshing out his tail in an attempt to catch whatever it was that had tried to attack him. However he was met with a dismembered tail instead.
Realizing he missed he attempted to grab the creature, but was instead met with four stabs to the torso.
"Get back!" his men shouted, only noticing the threat after it had its chance to deal damage.
The creature in front of them was currently glowing bright yellow, and though it looked like an arachnid, it was clearly too fast to be one.
"What is that?" the lord''s men asked, as they tried to get a proper grasp of the situation. Whatever it this thing was, they estimated that it was at least fourth tier. But even then, this level of agility shouldn''t have been possible.
"What are you?" the lord asked as his wounds healed, staring at the creature dead in the eyes.
For a moment, the creature stared at the lord''s wounds healing wide eyed. However this look of awe was quickly covered before it backed away and ran up a tree, disappearing into the forest.
Whatever it was, was highly intelligent. Seeing that it couldn''t cause any longsting damage to the smander lord, it retreated, though this only left the lord angry.
"What the hell is going on in this forest. Glowing creatures? Red painful flowers? A moon''s wrath but a moon after the first was let off?" the lord asked.
The lord would''ve liked to torture the creature and get his answers, but it was simply too fast and too agile to hope to catch-up to.
Chapter 164 The Tides Of War(1)
~What was that?~ Ghost thought to herself, gasping loudly as she tried to catch her breath. It had taken her everything she had just to move fast enough to evade being ughtered.
Her unseen eyes had made it clear that those creatures did not have radiant energy, however, they did have something quite simr.
~Especially the big one,~ she thought. The feeling she had felting off that thing was simr to the one she felting off the necromancer''s four guardians. Luckily it seemed that the creatures weren''t nearly as trained inbat as Lucius was.
"Were they the creature''s that Luci called?" she wondered to herself. She wouldn''t be surprised that Lucius was able to gather a group of creatures near, or above his power level, however, she couldn''t be sure in this situation.
"I wish I wasn''t on this stupid mission. Luci needs all the help he can get," she whispered to herself, feeling the weight of Pagan''s body on her spider legs as she continued running back to camp.
"But I''d rather feel helpless than be med for allowing the camp''s golden boy to die," she whispered, noting how Pagan''s crux was pulsating at an irregr rate.
~If we lose both Pagan and Luci, then the camp will be too set back for this whole mission to even matter,~ she thought.
*
"My lord, have you also noticed?" a Zeldrave soldier pointed out as the group reached the front of the necromancer''s camp.
"No guards," one of the other Zeldrave soldiers replied.
"Not just that. The forest is... angry," the Zeldrave king whispered, looking at the trees all around him. As the guardian of his race, he had a tie to the forest. Part of the reason he had evene at all was because the ''Voice'' of the forest kept calling on him to save someone.
"Choen and Roen, take your ns and surround the area. Kill anything thates out without my permission," the Zeldrave king announced, before two squads separated from the main group, and ran around the structure.
"Yavak, Kazan, with me. Everyone with a heal grade lower than Stravak''s stays behind. The creatures we''re about to face are nothing like the ones we''ve been ughtering before," the king said before rushing into the temple.
~Not even my greatest builders could make this,~ he thought to himself.
"My lord, enemies iing," someone announced.
"Avack Lestrom!" the king shouted, and a trail of white poisonous liquid shot at the undead that stood in front of him. In mere seconds, the fluid burned at the creatures'' flesh, quickly making them incapable of fighting. Once that was done, the king and his men trampled over them without a second thought.
In this way, most of the ''guards'' in the temple were disposed of. That of course was until they got to a corridor with a massive creature blocking the path.
"Everyone stand back, it''s a Heracles warrior," the king announced, prepared to fight against the armoured giant.
~Who would''ve guessed that even the Heracles could be infected by this disease,~ the king thought to himself before charging at the creature.
~Poison won''t work on it. I''ll have to destroy the parts of its body that aren''t protected-~ the king was thinking, right before he noticed that the creature didn''t seem to be moving, or breathing for that matter.
"What''s going o-" and just then he realized what had happened. There was arge gaping hole at the top of the creature''s skull. It looks like whatever had attacked it, didn''t give it a merciful death, as there were several other holes in the creature''s armour.
"What''s the matter my lo-" one of the smander warriors was about to ask before it noticed what had happened as well.
"Something was capable of breaking through a Heracles warrior''s armour?" the warrior asked in disbelief. To creatures at this level, it was unthinkable that anything could be that strong.
"Listen, from now on raise your guard," the king ordered. This was the first time he had ever met anyone, withstanding the Chamel king, that he thought could best him in battle.
"Avack Gestrom!" the king shouted, and the darkness of the night wrapped around him encasing him in shadowy armour.
"The king''s mystic mantle," one of the soldiers whispered in awe. For many, this power was but a legend, something that they may never have seen the king ever use.
"Foward," the king shouted, right before charging down the corridor, twice as fast as he had been doing before.
In this state he was like a juggernaut, ramming through whatever enemies dared to stand in his way. Though oddly enough, every creature he had passed by was either on its dying breaths or already dead. Something else was stalking around the temple, something nearlyparable to him.
~I have to move faster,~ the king thought to himself, pushing himself even more.
After running for several minutes, he finally made it to the final room. In all his years, he had never seen such a thing.
"Just what is going on here?" he whispered, tensing his muscles as he gazed upon the otherwordly figures standing in front of him.
"More pests?" a rotting figure asked in annoyance. It was the first time the Zeldrave king had ever heard an undead creature speak, in fact, it was the first time he had ever seen undead creatures that looked like this at all.
*
"Thank you for your service, Sergeant. You are being discharged."
"What''s going on here... The Necromancer! Did it win?" Lucius asked in utter confusion, looking around the unfamiliar room.
"Necromancer? It seems it''s gotten worse, are you sure we can just leave him like this?" another voice asked. Lucius hadn''t noticed that there was more than one person in the room with him.
"We''ve rmended a Psychiatrist and given him the best care we could''ve. There''s nothing more we can do," the first voice replied.
"Wait a moment. Humans?" Lucius whispered in sudden realization. What the hell were humans doing here?
Chapter 165 [Bonus ]The Tides Of War (2)
~So it was all a dream?~ Lucius thought to himself as he worked in the garden. His son was currently ying with his action figure right next to him, and his wife was watching him work from the porch.
Lucius just stared nkly at the nts he was working with. Everything felt so... ethereal, like a very realistic dream.
~Perhaps I shouldn''t be surprised, a world filled with magic and magical creatures? Of course, the real world would feel like a dream.~
Slowly but surely he was starting to get used to being back in the real world. Several months passed, and he was deemed mentally fit to get another job. Everything was going well, his wife was happy, his son was happy, and he was happy.
Sadly, it was all a lie. Not for a single second did Lucius believe that this world was real, and that in itself was proof of his mental disease. Whatever reality he wanted to believe in, meant that he was going insane.
Was he from a magical world trapped in a dream of the real world, or had he been in the real world trapped in a dream of a magical world? The issue was, that he couldn''t figure out which it was.
Certain... memories of his had been wiped, and others very clearly edited. He knew for a fact his son''s name was not Pagan, not this son at least. And even though he loved his wife, he couldn''t quite remember if this was the way her face really looked.
Even the details from the ''magical'' world he was so sure to have been a part of were shaky.
For instance, he couldn''t quite remember how he had gotten there. Had he been transported? Had he died and been reborn? And the terrain, what kind of ce had it been? The only things he could remember, were the names of his... children?
~Pagan, Alpha, Ghost, Hannibal, and all the others. Were they all fake?~ Thoughts like these made him unstable. He knew that amongst these names was someone called the necromancer, though he couldn''t remember whether they were friend or foe.
"Honey, are you thinking about them again?" his wife asked, wrapping her arms around his chest gently, as she moved closer to him on the bed.
"I know it''s hard, but you have to fight it... for me and for Pagan," she whispered in his ears.
"I-I know," Lucius replied. ~I''m being unreasonable, how can I sacrifice my wife for people whose faces I don''t even remember,~ Lucius thought to himself before caressing his wife''s hand.
"Honey can I ask a question?" his wife asked, prompting him to turn around and face her.
"Sure, anything," he replied.
"You''re always talking about this world you went to. How is it any different from the one we''re in?" she asked.
"I-I can''t really say I remember anything about it, but for one there wasn''t any techn-" Just then it hit him.
"Honey? What''s wrong?" his wife asked as he got up from the bed abruptly.
~Technology, there''s no technology here. Wh-where''s my phone?~ Lucius wondered, just now remembering what a phone was. It was like a fog had been lifted from his mind.
"What''s going on? Talk to me," his wife asked, getting up tofort him. Lucius''s eyes were wild, right now he didn''t want anyone to touch him.
"Should I call the doctor?" she asked, pulling out a device from the pockets of her gown.
"A-A phone?" Lucius asked in disbelief. But he was certain that he had never seen one since he woke up.
"Of course honey, here''s yours," she said, passing him another device.
"But-"
"I''ll call the doctor okay? Don''t worry this isn''t your fault," she said, smiling at him warmly as she turned to speak on the phone.
"But- But these aren''t phones, these are walkie-talkies," Lucius whispered before gently wrapping his hands around his wife''s neck.
"And you aren''t my wife are you? She died so long ago, I can''t remember her face properly," he whispered coldly, right as the creature''s figure began to morph back into its true form.
"You''ve locked your memories tight. But this time, at least we''ve gotten closer," the creature said, before the entire world around them fell apart, revealing a web of undead creatures all around him.
"This process is taking longer than anticipated. But we have all the time in the world," the creature said, before attempting to ce its grimy finger on Lucius''s head.
~Sr burst!~ Lucius chanted, attempting to escape the creature.
"Your spells do not work in this realm. Here, only mind eaters have power, and you- you are prey," the creature said in a taunting voice, before ordering all the creatures around Lucius to attack.
"How long, have I been here?" Lucius asked himself in cold disbelief as he watched thendscape around him shift once again, his memories slowly wiped.
"You''re awake!?" a woman dressed in white shouted in surprise.
"W-where am I?"
"Captain," Alpha whispered, his body copsing under its own power.
¡ºSurpass¡» and his new title had given him an incredible power boost, but it came at a price. He had noticed that with every second that went by, his crux suffered under more and more pressure.
And that wasn''t all. The visual effects on his body weren''t just for show. He was not immune to the mes on his body, it was actually overheating. He knew for a fact, that already the damage that had been done might never be healed.
"Captain," he whispered again. If not for his will, for the goal of saving his master, perhaps he would''ve died already.
No, even then, will itself was not enough to keep him standing.
No, the forest was helping him.
"Just what is going on here?" another voice called out, prompting Alpha to swing around.
It was a massive creature, covered in shadowy armor. It stood at 8 feet tall and had a tail longer than even Lucius''s.
Chapter 166 Mind Scape (1) [The First Descent]
Even though Alpha was the most powerful he had ever been, perhaps even more powerful than Lucius, he wasn''t certain whether or not he could win against the necromancer, let alone this new enemy.
"Who leads this army? Who is this den''s king?" the creature roared, its shadowy armor pulsating as it slowly approached the group.
~Friend?~ Alpha thought to himself
Right now the necromancer''s finger was still on Lucius''s head, wisps of purple light zipping from its crux towards Lucius''s body.
Alpha was no genius, but he could tell that he needed to separate the two, judging from the fact that the necromancer had been using long-distance spells to keep him at bay since he arrived here.
"That-" Alpha whispered, his mouth on literal fire. "-is enemy," he strained, before pointing at the Necromancer.
"Save-" he continued, now looking back at the Zeldrave king, "my Captain," he finished, now pointing towards Lucius.
Before the Zeldrave king could even respond, two bolts of purple light came zipping toward Alpha and him. The king dodged it without much effort, Alpha on the other hand was on hisst legs. Each step worsened his state, and now even dodging had caused his right leg to copse.
The ground where the bolts had hit began to disintegrate. It seemed that being hit by one of these meant instant death.
"Save- captain. Save- captain," Alpha whispered to himself as he attempted to pick himself off the ground.
His world was growing dimmer, and his crux felt like it would implode at any moment. Unbeknownst to him, his crux had thousands of stress cracks, it was a miracle that it could still function.
The necromancer sent yet another barrage of bolts, this time sending three toward Alpha and only one toward the king.
As the bolt approached him, all he could do was watch. His body would no longer respond to hismands, and besides, the pain was so intense that death felt like a blessing.
~Thank you, Captain...~ he thought to himself with a smile, embracing the bolts just as they were about to hit him. ~...for everything.~
And then darkness consumed his vision.
As he felt all the pain retreat from his body, he thought of how differently his life would''ve gone had he never met Lucius. He thought of how, instead of dying on a battlefield a near equal or at least a threat to his enemy, he could''ve died as mere prey.
His only regret was that he wasn''t strong enough to save Lucius, that he couldn''t fight for his Captain one more time.
*
"Get a job!" a man shouted, before dropping a few silver coins into Lucius''s cup.
"Thank you," Lucius whispered, his eyes downcast.
He had never thought himself prideful, but he had to admit this hurt. From serving his country to beingbeled mentally unfit, and basically having everything taken away from him.
"Oi, old man, hand those coins over," a voice shouted, Lucius didn''t even turn to look at where it hade from.
"Oi, old man, don''t act like you can''t hear me."
~A shabbily dressed young man, probably just a runaway,~ Lucius thought to himself, his eyes showing no signs of thought at all.
~Three, no four others with him. Two of them have knives,~ he continued, his pupils not moving as he made his deductions.
"Probably a looney," one of the boys behind the first said, prompting the entire squad to break out inughter.
"Yeah well, I''ll be taking those coins," the leader of the squad said, before reaching into Lucius''s cup.
~ Left-handed, bad eyesight,~ Lucius deducted, noticing how the young man was struggling to measure the distance towards the cup.
"Stop," Lucius growled, his hand shooting out to grab the delinquent''s. He squeezed at it tightly, before tugging with all his strength. He was attempting to use the leverage between them to his advantage by flipping the delinquent over.
"Crazy bastard," the delinquent shouted in shock, for a moment he had been scared, but that was just for a moment. He quickly realized that the old man in front of him was actually weak, and shoved his hand away.
The delinquent picked his foot up to attack Lucius, and though Lucius could see the attacking, his body could not match the young man''s speed.
And in turn, he was met with a boot to the face. By the time he got back up, his money and the sheets he had gotten as a donation had all been taken.
"Ahh yes, the gift of age," Lucius whispered to himself.
~20 years lost... in a dream,~ he thought to himself, looking down at his wrinkled hands.
"How I wish I could be young again," he whispered to himself, his eyes hot as his vision blurred.
Age didn''t bring wisdom just because of the experiences one went through, but also because one was closer to death. All the memories you had made in your youth felt that much sweeter when you knew they couldn''t be made again.
You''d learn to cherish everything in life, that much more.
The once wandering soldier was now a crippled veteran. No wife, no kids, and no family willing to take care of him. He could sleep in his own house because it was a constant reminder of how he had failed his wife, and it wasn''t as if he could pay the bills anyway.
Perhaps if he still hadrades from the military they would''ve helped him, but there was a price to pay for being the st man standing.
You ???¡é???3???| thest man standing... alone.
"Hey, are you okay?" a voice called out, but Lucius was still lost in thought. He had nothing more to give anyway, if it was another delinquent they could take what they wanted, it wasn''t as if he could fight back.
"Hey, you''ll catch a cold you know," the voice said again, and Lucius felt a strange warmthe over him.
He looked up and found a pretty young woman looking down at him. She had covered him with a jacket and was currently pulling out her wallet.
"Here, I bet you''re hungry," she said, offering him a 50-dor bill.
"Ghost?" Lucius whispered, a hot tear streaming down his face. He had no clue whose name that was, but after hearing that voice, it was the first thing that came to mind.
"Ghost? You''re funny," she giggled.
~Yeah, who''s... Ghost?~ Lucius thought to himself.
Chapter 167 Mind Scape (2) [The First Descent]
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"You kind of remind me of my father. Anyway, I have to get going, I''mte for work," the young woman said, before walking away.
Lucius just stared as she left, something about her felt... familiar.
"Wait, you forgot your-" he shouted trying his best to run towards her, but the woman was already getting into a taxi. "-jacket," he finished, before looking down at his legs.
~I''m not quite what I used to be,~ he thought to himself, before neatly folding the jacket. ~She''lle back tomorrow, I''ll give it to her then.~
Later that day Lucius used some of the money he had gotten from her to buy a bottle of scent diffuser. He didn''t quite care about how he smelled anymore, but he wasn''t going to let his stench infest her jacket.
The following day she walked past the street that Lucius hung around, just like he had predicted, but she didn''t even turn to look at him.
"Y-Your jacket," Lucius shouted, using what little strnegth he had to catch up to her as she was hailing a taxi.
"Oh, its you," she said, turning to look at him. There were several bruises all over her face, and even though it was zing hot today she was wearing a long sleeve shirt.
"Is everything okay?" Lucius asked, his heart dropping once he noticed the look in her eyes. She was scared, the vibrant woman he had met yesterday was no where to be seen.
"I''m okay, you can keep the jacket. You need it more than I do," she said right as a taxi stopped for her.
"This wasn''t how I imagined my life in the big city would be," she whispered as she got into the taxi. Lucius wasn''t sure whether it was his imagination or not, but he could''ve sworn he saw a tear.
As the taxi left, anger boiled within him. It felt like seeing his daughter cry, this woman he had only met twice.
For a moment Lucius just looked at the jacket in silence, and right then he decided something.
~I''m going to follow her tomorrow,~ he thought to himself. He didn''t want toe off as a stalker, even though that was basically what he was about to do, so he decided he would do it without her knowledge.
The next day came, and Lucius used up all the money he had saved up to hail a taxi to follow hers.
She ended up being dropped at a shady looking building, with thuggishly dressed men standing gaurd outside.
~What has she gotten herself into?~ Lucius thought to himself as she entered the building. He decided to do a quick look around before even attempting to enter, he had to get himself ustomed to the surroundings before he tried anything.
~This is a brothel,~ he concluded after inspecting the ce for an hour. Only young beautiful woman or working ss men entered. And without fail, every single one of them had a look of guilt on their faces.
The thought of what was being done to her inside enraged him. He understood money had to be made, but not like this. ~Not my daugh- I mean,~ he thought to himself before pausing.
~Why am I doing this? I have no right to decide what she can or cannot do, she''s a grown woman,~ he thought to himself, all the while still making ns to get her out.
At first, he had tried calling the police. After all, prostitution was illegal, however, no one would give their phone to someone who looked like they could be a thief.
And sadly he had used up all his money on the taxi, so he didn''t have enough to use a pay phone.
~Besides, the police probably already know about this ce,~ he thought. Such was the corruption of this world.
~Maybe I should just walk away,~ he thought to himself as he attempted to scale the back walls. It hurt his body just jumping up, so this was an excruciating experience for him.
After some struggle, he managed to climb over the wall. Even though his body had deteriorated his will was still strong.
~Okay, now where could she be?~ he thought to himself, fixing the jacket she had given him as he snooped around.
"Yeah, that new slut has zero skill, but somehow she''s a favorite. I tell you, these men have no ss," a woman''s voice shouted from one of the buildings to the right.
~They must be talking about her,~ Lucius thought, before sneaking towards the buildings.
The ce wasn''t nearly as heavily guarded as it should''ve been. The only guards here were stationed in front of specific rooms, probably where the ''workers'' serviced their clients. And even then, Lucius was certain that if he had his old body he would''ve been able to take them all on.
"You have another appointment at three o''clock," a man''s voice said, it wasing from the corridor ahead of the one Lucius was currently walking along.
He quickly hid behind a wall, covering his mouth as the man passed by.
~That''s her!~ he thought, noticing that the woman he came from was walking beside the man.
~But, those aren''t the clothes she came with,~ he thought, anger boiling within him.
They had her dressed in what could be called mere strips of fabric. And though they tried to hide it with foundation, he noticed the bruises on the back of her arms and legs.
[Use a spell to save her. Use anything at your disposal,] a voice within his mind shouted. Anger clouded judgment, it was as if a fog had settled on his mind, intensifying his anger to unreal levels.
He didn''t know anything about spells, but for some reason, a word popped up in his mind.
"Sr beam!" he shouted, though sadly nothing happened.
"What was that!?" the man in front of him shouted, swinging around to search where the shout hade from.
~What have I done?~ Lucius thought to himself, before running to charge at the man before he had the time to process what was going on.
Lucius''s withered body mmed against therge guard''s stomach, winding him and sending him to the floor.
Lucius''s shoulder stung, it seemed that the move had dislocated it, but he didn''t care. She was safe now.
"Let''s go," he said, grabbing onto her hand and leading her down the corridor.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, looking around as they snuck around.
"I''m here to save you, Ghost," Lucius replied, peeking past each corner before proceeding.
Chapter 168 Mind Scape (3) [The First Descent]
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"Save me? I work here, now stop before you get me in trouble," the woman shouted, before pulling her hand back.
"And my name''s not Ghost, it''s Athena," she continued.
~Athena? Th-that''s not right that''s- that''s my wife''s name,~ Lucius thought to himself, it felt like something inside his mind was unravelling, but before he could figure out what it was, he heard arge number of footsteps approaching.
"We have to get out of here," he warned, as he heard the footstepse closer.
" Are you crazy, what are you talking about?"
"You don''t have to work here, I can see that they''re hurting you. Why do you still want to stay?" he asked, his mind felt foggy, but he was certain that he was doing the right thing.
"And then what? How am I going to feed myself? Or do you expect me to sleep on the streets like you? And- and even if I wanted to, you think that they''d just let me go?" she asked, fighting back the tears that crept on the rim of her eyelids.
"I''ll sort it out, I''ll- I''ll protect you," Lucius replied, as a horde of guards appeared from the corner. He prepared himself to fight them, he wasn''t sure how he would do it, but he would.
~It''s not as if my life is worth anything anyway,~ he thought to himself as he resolved to die.
~I wasted my youth fighting for nothing, at least, for once, I''ll fight for something I care about,~ he thought to himself. Right now it wasn''t just Athena behind him, it was his wife, his son, and all the faceless names of the children he cared for.
"Stay back, this''ll g-" Lucius was about to say before he felt something cold stab at his back. The pain travelled across his body, effectively paralyzing him.
"Protect me? You couldn''t even protect your wife," Athena''s voice whispered into his ear as he fell to the ground.
No, that wasn''t Athena''s voice.
The world around him began to fall apart until only darkness remained. In ce of where Athena should''ve been stood an undead creature.
"Another step closer," the creature said as it walked around Lucius.
"Whatever it is that seals your memories cannot prevent you from essing them. Soon we''ll have what we want," it continued, before picking Lucius up by the horns.
Lucius moved to defend himself, but found that he was unable to.
"Didn''t I tell you? You have no power here, only us mind eaters do," the creature said, before gesturing to the infinite darkness behind it. Hidden in the shadows were a thousand glowing eyes, each of them staring at Lucius.
"W-why?" Lucius asked the memories of all the cycles he had gone through suddenly hitting him. This wasn''t the first, second, or third time he had been in this- illusion of the real world. No, hundreds of cycles had gone past.
Each cycle destroying him in some way. At first, it was easy for him to figure out that everything wasn''t real, but the more information these creatures got out of him, the more realistic the world became.
It was the ultimate form of torture interrogation, each time he fought against an enemy he didn''t know existed.
"Why? I don''t know either. My lord seems to think you''re special," the creature said in disgust, pulling Lucius closer.
"But I don''t see it. Even with your full power, you wouldn''t be able to harm our weakest soldier," the creature continued before letting go of him.
"It''d be best for you just to give up whatever secrets you''re hiding. You''ll be reborn in a stronger form once my lord adds you to hismune. You''ll be granted ess to abilities you''ve never dreamed of," it continued.
"W-What are you talking about? As if I''d let that monster take over the forest," Lucius spat.
"That monster will save the world. But I don''t expect a low-tier creature like you to understand that" the creature said, and with that, Lucius was in yet another illusion.
~Save the world?~ Lucius thought to himself as his memories were wiped once again.
**
"Monster, what business do you have with our forest?" the Zeldrave king asked as it carefully dropped Alpha onto the ground.
"How did you survive that?" the necromancer asked, staring at the three spots where its bolts had hit the Zeldrave.
"I asked you a question," the Zeldrave king asked as he got to his feet, before approaching the necromancer.
"That''s a mystic mantle, huh? A guardian ss then?" the necromancer whispered to itself, staring intently at the Zeldrave.
"Stop muttering!" the Zeldrave king shouted, before sending a stream of white liquid towards the necromancer.
At that moment a wall made of bones appeared to block the spell, however, arge gash still appeared on the necromancer''s back.
Instinctively it turned around to see what had attacked it, but found nothing there.
"Pay attention to the king when he speaks!" the Zeldrave king shouted, before throwing a punch towards the necromancer''s face.
Yet again a wall of bones moved to halt the attack, yet oddly enough another gash appeared on the necromancer''s body, this time on the back of its head.
"What is going on here? Physical attacks aren''t supposed to get past ''The gates'' even if this vessel is weak," the necromancer shouted in anger as its wounds began to heal.
"What trickery are you usi-" the necromancer was about to ask, before its wall appeared yet again, this time to its right.
A load boom resounded from behind the wall, where the Zeldrave had struck out its tail to pierce the necromancer.
Like before, another gash appeared on the necromancer''s back.
"W-What are you?" the necromancer asked pure confusion in its voice. Its hand was still on Lucius''s head, heavily restricting both its movements and the variety of spells it could cast.
"I am Avankor Zeldrave, the 100th Zeldrave king," the Zeldrave king replied.
"And the fool who has been stabbing you in the back is Shavak, the backstabbing king of the Chames," Avankor announced.
Chapter 169 Mind Scape (3) [The First Descent]
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"Shavak, you''d do well not to interrupt my fight you coward," Avankor shouted into the darkness.
The necromancer turned to look in the direction that Avankor was staring but found nothing. And that was all the distraction Avankor needed to close the distance between them.
It was a double-pronged attack, both his tail and fist came rushing down to crush the necromancer, however once again the wall thwarted his advance.
"So this thing moves even if you aren''t paying attention?" Avankor asked, as he swiftly jumped backward.
"Still, with your hand on Havon, you won''t be able to fight against me," he announced, before looking at Lucius.
~I hadn''t thought Havon would be so young,~ he thought to himself, before looking back into the darkness.
~That coward is still around here somewhere. I see he hasn''t outgrown that stupid habit of his yet,~ he thought to himself, noticing a liquid on the ground.
~Drooling because of a kill, how childish,~ Avankor thought before rushing to attack the necromancer once more.
Right now he was just feeling out the strength of the necromancer''s wall. With mystic mantle on, he was able to reach speeds and strength that shouldn''t even be avable to 7th-tier creatures.
~Though it''s almost time up. I have to finish this before it deactivates,~ he thought to himself, sending yet another punch at the necromancer, this time managing to crack the wall a little.
"W-What is going on here!" the necromancer shouted, before sending a barrage of purple bolts all around itself. More and more scars were appearing on its back, and they were nowing at a faster rate than they could heal.
The problem was that the attacks seemed to be timed perfectly with Avankor''s. so the necromancer couldn''t do much without moving.
"Insolent creatures! Fine, you don''t want my salvation? then you can all die!" the necromancer shouted, before gesturing its free hand towards the roof of the temple.
"Has it gone mad?" Avankor asked himself, not taking his eyes off the necromancer for even a second.
"Avankor, look," a voice whispered into his ears. And just then he noticed four creatures fall from the roof.
Each of them seemed to be ofparable strength to the necromancer, if not slightly stronger. They were odd-looking creatures, with armor on their torsos, and glowing staves in their hands.
"These creatures are not hindered by their vessels unlike me. I would''ve liked to link you to mymune, but I cannot allow such insolence to go unpunished. Artemis will forgive me once I exin this to her," the necromancer shouted, before gesturing for its creations to attack.
With that, two of the creatures charged at Avankor, while the other two sent massive orbs toward him.
He quickly dashed to the side to avoid being charged, and although he managed to dodge the two attackers, the orbs were still homing in on him.
~They can follow me?~ he thought to himself, before dashing once again, to create even more distance.
~These creatures are slow, but the orbs they create will be a problem,~ he thought beforeughing.
"Shavak, isn''t this interesting? Have you had this much fun since thest time those dragons came out of their nest?" Avankor asked before the shadows around him began to coalesce, increasing the size of his armor even more.
"If it''s 5 versus 2, we just have to use more power," he shouted before rushing at the armored creatures with even more speed than before.
He unleashed a powerful punch right at the center of one of the creatures sending out a powerful boom.
"Your minions are just as easy as you," he taunted as he dashed back to create space between himself and the creatures once more.
These creatures didn''t seem to have any battle experience what so ever as they stupidly hung around their master instead of taking up space.
Their defensive y allowed Avankor to move as he willed, it seemed that this threat wasn''t all it cracked up to be.
"Your hand," the necromancer said in a delighted tone.
Avankor looked down to see what it was talking about and found that his hand had decayedpletely. He was unable to even lift a finger on it.
"What the-" Avankor shuddered. ~They cause decay upon touch?~ he thought to himself. ~So that''s why they hang around him, their function is defense,~ he realized.
"Do you understand now? You sub 10 creatures are no match for me, whether in my original body or this one. Now perish," the necromancer said, before sending his creature to charge once again.
With that, Avankor used his other hand to chop off the decayed one, before rushing towards the creatures aswell.
*
"This world of yours is beyond interesting. Perhaps the lord was right in his interest in you," the mind eater in front of Lucius mused.
"How do these ''guns'' work? So even creatures without a crux can use them?" it asked as Lucius wreathed on the ground at the scene he had just been in. They had him watch his wife being tortured, and all they got out of it was that guns existed once he thought one up to try and save her.
"Why?" Lucius whispered.
"You''re still sane? How many times have we tortured that woman in front of you? Did you not love her enough? Should we search for someone who you have a stronger emotional tie with? Your son maybe?" the creature asked him, before kneeling down to pick him up by the horns.
"You''re sick," Lucius whispered, attempting to move his limbs.
"I''m growing tired of exining this to you Lucius. You have no power here. You can only move if I allow it," the creature said, before tossing Lucius back to the ground.
"But still, I hadn''t expected that there was a realm this interesting. With all this information, we can turn even the weakest being into a force to be reckoned with," the creature mumbled to itself.
~That''s if you can find out how they work,~ Lucius thought to himself. Physics was a prerequisite to attempting to make any of the devices in his memories.
"Oh, I''ll find out soon enough. Just you wait, Lucius," the creature said in a taunting voice.
Chapter 170 Mind Scape (4) [The First Descent]
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A few more cycles went by and the creature was beginning to grow impatient. Even though Lucius wasn''t supposed to know that he was in a simtion, he was starting to be more skeptical of the tricks.
Eventually, he stopped being tricked altogether and they had to resort to more direct methods of torture. For instance, pure ''physical pain.''
Though this proved less efficient than the mental torture as Lucius ended up dying before disclosing any details each time.
"It seems this is all the creature knows," one of the mind eaters said, looking down at Lucius''s body.
Lucius''s spirit had been crushed. Throughout every cycle, he became more and more aware of one thing, that he couldn''t protect anyone. Whether they were real or not, Lucius had failed to keep both himself and those he cared about alive.
"So should we leave?" another mind eater asked.
"Not yet, I want to enjoy myself a bit more. There''s nothing for us to do in Necros anyway," the leading figure replied, before picking Lucius up by the horns again.
"I''ll make sure that even if the lord turns you, you won''t be getting any funny ideas about thinking your special," the creature said before a metal rod appeared in its hands.
~This ce- this ce is worse than hell,~ Luicus thought to himself as the metal rod was slowly inserted into his chest, every minute detail of pain seemingly amplified as it happened.
This went on for what seemed like decades. This was a ce of the mind, so it was easy for the mind eater to manipte things like that.
Lucius''s mind had long broken, this wasn''t something that any living creature could withstand. The training he had gone through could not prepare him for lifetimes of pain.
Funny enough the only reason he was still able to function was because of the illusions the mind eater had shown him. He hadn''t been strong enough to protect anyone, and in some odd twist, he became obsessed with the fact.
He held on even unconsciously to any slither of hope that he could get back to the vige and protect his children. If they were even real that is. Though he long threw away the concept of real and fake, all that mattered was that he could protect them.
"I''m done here. Give the report to the lord''s original body in Necros, and have Lucius turned," the mind eater said with familiarity. Perhaps that was an effect of having spent whole lifetimes with Lucius in this ce. The creature hade to know more about Lucius than even Lucius knew about himself.
"Captain, are you sure you''ll be okay? Spending all this time in this ce," one of the other mind eaters asked in actual concern.
"Are you calling me we-" the Captain was about to reply before Lucius''sughing interrupted.
"Don''t make meugh," Lucius said in between gasps for air. The creatures stared down at Lucius, pure confusion fraught on their face.
"Can this creature even still be turned?" one of the creatures asked as Lucius tried to stop himself fromughing.
"Why are you acting like you aren''t monsters? Like you aren''t all undead, devoid of emotion?" Lucius asked, stillughing.
"We don''t expect you to und-"
"''We don''t expect you to understand, our lord is trying to save your forest.'' I know, you''ve said that," Lucius said, hisughter suddenly stopping.
"But I don''t believe one bit of it. You came here to kill my children didn''t you?" Lucius asked in a crazed manner.
"His children?" one of the creatures asked before turning to their captain.
"This creature calls the other creatures in its den its children," the captain replied in an angered tone.
"You''re still angry because you couldn''t get any information on them out of me, aren''t you?" Lucius asked before bursting out intoughter once more.
For some reason, the creature was unable to get any information rted to the system, which included allmune members that were linked to it. Lucius had hypothesized that it was probably a built-in system function.
"You dare," the captain asked, before kicking Lucius in the mouth.
Physical damage here didn''t work as it should. So although Lucius''s mouth was turned into mush, it turned back to normal after a few moments.
Though the pain was real enough.
"You know something, Aziel," Lucius said with a smile, as his mouth reformed.
This caused a shiver to travel down the captain''s spine.
"You''re wondering how I know that, aren''t you? I know about your wife too, oh and your son. I know about the pseudo city that creature built, and how you all y make pretend," Lucius spat out, pure hatred in his eyes.
"It took me a while to figure it out. Why this ce felt so familiar," Lucius began saying, before standing up.
"Captain, t-this shouldn''t be possible," one of the other creatures stuttered,
"This is MY mindscape isn''t it?" Lucius asked, before walking towards Aziel.
"You changed the ce up and had me believe that you held all the power and that I held none, so that''s what happened," Lucius exined.
"How?" Aziel asked, anger visible on his face.
"If you really had all the power here, you would''ve just ripped the memories out of my mind instead of going through all this. Besides, you can''t create a world you have no knowledge of, this was all my knowledge," Lucius exined.
Lucius had figured this all out a few more cycles ago, though he allowed the process to go on so that he could extract information from the creatures'' minds.
"Everyone leave! He''s stealing information as we speak!" Aziel ordered, and the creatures disappeared into thin air.
"I''ll find you Aziel. And when I do, I''ll do what you did to me, only this time it''ll all be real," Lucius said with a smile.
~I-I''ve created a monster,~ Aziel thought to himself before disappearing.
"That you did," Lucius responded, before waving his hand. With that, the entire ce turned pure white, and a massive sun-like object stood at the center of the room providing a soothing warmth.
Though this warmth did nothing to heal the psychological scars that Lucius had suffered.
"No one will harm my children," Lucius whispered to himself as he sat with his legs crossed, and attempted to get back to the real world.
Chapter 171 The Sleeping Hero
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"I have to admit, even for creatures as low-tiered as you lot are, you seem to be quite skilled," the necromancermented as he watched his minions beat on Avankor.
Even with Avankor''s enhanced healing and mystic mantle, there was only so much he could do against the necromancer''s seemingly infinite magic pool.
Every time he managed to kill one of the necromancer''s elite units, it would just bring them back to life. It seemed almost unfair, as if there were no restrictions to what it could do at all. A seemingly living, walking god.
Shavak wasn''t having much luck either. After the necromancer had called upon its elite troops, one of them cast a sort of barrier around it, preventing Shavak from doing any damage at all.
"This is a lost battle. I say we flee," a whisper carried into the Avankor''s ear. Although it sounded distorted, there was no doubt it Shavak''s voice.
"And unleash these creatures onto our subordinates? We''re the strongest beings this side of the forest besides those wingless dragons, and they won''te to our aid. Besides, we can''t leave without Havon. From what I can tell, that thing has him in some sort of spell, no doubt because he was giving it a tough time," Avankor whispered back as hezily dodged another attack.
His fatigue was so tantly apparent as the elite unit still managed to scratch his skin.
"My mystic mantle is running out. How long do you have?" Avankor whispered, before sending out a stream of white fluid toward the elite unit.
A green luminescent force field quickly covered the elite unit protecting it from the attack, before one of itsrades counter-attacked, sending Avankor flying into one of the walls of the temple.
"I don''t have much time either," a voice whispered into Avankor''s ears as he felt an invisible force help him up. "Why don''t youmand your subordinates to join? They''ve been waiting outside for quite some time now. They await your word," the voice added as Avankor steadied his feet in preparation for the next attack.
"Like your troops aren''t around here somewhere as well. No, if they join, they''d die without making a difference. The only reason we''re still alive is because of our mantles," Avankor replied, looking down at the shadowy mass that covered his body.
Unlike before, small patches of his skin were beginning to show, and the mass seemed to be dissipating every second.
"Listen, we need to find a way to get Hav¡ª"
"My children, where are they!" a voice boomed, interrupting Avankor.
The atmosphere seemed to change in that split second, as shadows from all over the ce began converging right next to the necromancer.
For a moment Avankor thought that perhaps it was one of the necromancer''s spells, until he saw Lucius''s damaged body floating up into the air. A shadowy mass, much like his began covering Lucius, forming a massive armor that seemed to heavily resemble some sort of enormous ancient creature.
Thunder and lighting could be heard from outside the temple. And it sounded as if the very forest itself were shouting, humming to Lucius''s voice.
The necromancer took a step back, dumbfounded by the sight for a moment. Lucius''s eyes were different from before. Where there was once the look of an aged warrior, now there was only cold scorn.
"Sr be-" Lucius was about to howl before his eyes rolled back and his head lolled to the side. His body hadn''t been healed from the previous fight, and the toll of being in the mindscape for so long was too much to bear.
The atmosphere slowly returned to its natural state, and the shadows that were once converging seemed to disappear back to whatever depths they had seeped from. Even the thunder and lightning seemed to die down.
However, this distraction was all Shavak needed. Before the necromancer could even process anything, Shavak, Avankor, Lucius, and Alpha were now nowhere to be seen.
Silence filled the halls for a moment as the necromancer stared vacantly at the spot where Lucius had been previously standing.
"The emperor''s mantle¡" the necromancer whispered, its look of fear quickly turning into one of deep sadness.
"Then that means he really is the Forest Guardian," it whispered before waving its hand. With that, at least one thousand highly skilled undead raised from the walls and the floors. It seemed that the entire temple had been built on the corpses of the undead, as they began to crowd the throne room.
These were the exact same units that Lucius and Ghost had scouted before the start of the battle.
"Find them, and kill everything in your path," the necromancer shouted angrily before the units began marching out towards the forest.
"T-then that means she''s really dead," the necromancer whispered, a trail of ck blood streaming from its eyes down its face.
*
"Hurry, we have to get him to the sages," Avankor shouted as he, Shavak, and the rest of their squadron ran out of the temple.
"The sages? We''re taking him to my n. You''re in no shape to protect Havon," Shavakmented as they sped from corridor to corridor, a rumbling sound following close behind them. Though it was hard to make out, both Shavak and Avankor could tell that those were footsteps.
"My lord, should we stay to stand guard? At this rate, they will catch up to us," one of Avankor''s subordinatesmented.
"He''s right," Shavak added.
"Rubbish. Just keep moving, once we get out we''ll meet up with the main group, and they will stall for time. As for where Havon will be staying..." Avankor replied, now looking down at Lucius''s limp body in his hands.
"He''ll need healing, and my n specializes in that. Though I understand that we wouldn''t have made it out of there without your¡ ability," Avankor continued, gripping tightly onto Lucius as if he were his actual gold.
"I will send my sages to your den. However, on the condition that Ie as well. Our techniques are ours alone, and though I appreciate your help, I will not be sloppy just to pay you back," Avankor said sternly.
"You''d put yourself in rival territory while your that injured? Your brain has really rotted over the past few years Avankor," Shavak replied after thinking about it for a moment. "The two kings in the same den once again, huh? It''s just like the stories¡" he continued, staring at Lucius with an expectant look on his face.
Chapter 172 The Hero Awakens (1)
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"H-Huh?" Lucius groaned as light burst into his eyes. It only took him a matter of seconds to recall what had happened. How he had fainted right when he was about to attack the necromancer.
He tried his best to lift his body from the fluffy cage he seemed to be trapped in, but found that his body was still in a lot of pain.
~This isn''t the temple,~ he noted, noticing that the walls here had a raw earthy texture, whereas the necromancer''s temple seemed a lot more polished.
~Sr pulse,~ he chanted after calling out his crux. The spell showed that there were at least a dozen creatures just outside the area he was in. For some reason, his earth sense wasn''t picking anything up, which only put him on edge as it meant that something was interfering with his senses.
~I''ve been gone too long, I need to find them,~ he thought, before casting sr cleanse on himself. Much of his pain was alleviated with this, but there was still a great amount left. It seemed that sr cleanse couldn''t prate deep enough into his body topletely heal him.
~I''ll get Hannibal to have me checked out,~ he thought picked himself up.
He found that his apparent ''cage'' had actually been a bed of some sort, filled with a bouncy white substance. No, now that he inspected it a little more, it was actually more akin to a bath than a bed.
"Interesting," he whispered, before having his tail ingest some of the substance. Judging from how there were no restraints on him, he could tell that at the very least the people who had brought him here thought of him as a guest.
~Did someone already defeat the necromancer?~ he wondered as his system processed the substance he had ingested.
[Hyaluronic Acid-pound-1 absorbed.]
[New status effect unlocked- Healing glimmer]
[Questplete.]
[+20 exp]
~A new catalyst?~ he thought to himself before bringing up his status screen.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤?? yer Details ??©¤
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 10: 140/1000]
[Laendryte Rojo [Guardian] lvl.5- [1256/5000]]
©¤?? Status effects ??©¤
[Healing Glimmer] [1 hour]
©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤
[Agility: 472>790 ] [Capped]
[Strength: 755>790] [Capped]
[Stamina: 728>790] [Capped]
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~So a new section was added huh?~ he thought to himself, before willing information on the new status effect to be brought up.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤?? Healing Glimmer ??©¤
Heals minor injuries instantly for a short duration.
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~So the people who brought me here really aren''t enemies...~ Lucius inferred, though he wouldn''t go as far as calling them allies. For that reason, he kept his crux at the ready. Even if they were trying to heal him, it didn''t mean that they were friendlies.
After reminding himself of all the spells he had in his arsenal, and preparing a sort of n of attack based on the information he got from several sr pulses, he slowly made his way to the wooden structure at the entrance of the room.
Whatever creatures had captured him were clearly higher-tiered than he was, based on their innovations.
The moment he pushed the wooden structure aside, he was met with a familiar-looking creature. It was one of the chameleon warriors that he had encountered before the siege on the necromancer''s temple had begun.
However, without so much as a second thought, he prepared a low-powered sr beam.
He couldn''t sense much sunlight in the air, meaning that if he was careless with his reserves he would be left to the devices of his fists. And there was no telling whether these creatures had special abilities or not.
"H-He''s awake-" a guard was about to shout, before Lucius covered its mouth with his tail, lifting it up into the air.
"Nobody move, nobody say a word," Lucius said in a foreign tongue. No doubt it was the work of his encyclopedia tranting everything.
"Where am I?" he asked, making sure not to squeeze the guard too tightly.
"Should we call the king?" one of the other guards whispered to their colleague, unaware of Lucius''s hyper senses.
"I said nobody talk, or do you not value the life of yourrade?" he asked, before squeezing the creature ever so tightly.
If everything did go to shit, he nned on releasing a cloud of poison in this hallway, before sting a hole through the walls.
He doubted that they had built this ce strong enough to withstand a high-powered sr beam.
"You are currently in Chamen, the Chame''s territory. We apologize for bringing you here without permission, but my lord you have to understand that circumstances didn''t allow us much of a choice," one of the creatures started exining.
This one was dressed differently from the others. Where all the other guards seemed to be dressed withbatfortability in mind, this one was dressed more for appearance''s sake.
It was wearing a beautiful green leather cloak, with gems lined all along the neckline.
~My lord? Some sort of diplomat?~ Lucius thought to himself, before inspecting the creature.
"Where are my children? The other creatures that look like me, did they make it out?" he asked.
"One of your... children is currently in Zeldrev, the Zeldrave king''s territory. The creature requires intensive healing, and we are unable to provide that here," the Chames diplomat exined.
~So they divided us? A hostage situation?~ Lucius thought to himself before dropping the guard that he had wrapped around his tail.
So long as he didn''t have Alpha in view, he decided it would be best not to offend them too much.
"How many more hostages have you taken?" Lucius asked, careful not to let any of the guards move out of his field of vision
"Hostage? F-forgive me, perhaps that''s the way we''ve made it seem. Everyone drop your weapons," the diplomat said, which earned him a few nasty looks from hisrades.
"My name is Shaviki, one of the king''s councilors. And you, Havon, are a pristine guest here," the creature said before bowing.
"Havon? Pristine guest?" Lucius whispered to himself in confusion, as all the other guards bowed reluctantly as well.
Chapter 173 The Hero Awakens (2)
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"Please follow me, the council has long awaited your awakening," Shaviki continued in a polite tone before turning to one of the guards.
"Somebody inform our lord that Havon has awoken. I will lead him to the council room," Shaviki ordered. "Alone," he added once he noticed that some of the guards had remained behind.
~So he''s made himself my hostage to keep me calm?~ Lucius thought to himself as Shaviki gestured for him to follow. ~These creatures truly are at a higher tier than my children.~
"You said that one of my children needed intensive healing? Describe them... and how bad is it?" Lucius asked as Shaviki led him down the cave-like hallways.
Though initially he had thought that these were just rough, ugly-looking walls, he now realized that they were lined with gleaming minerals. As if someone has sprinkled diamond dust all along their perimeter.
There were also a few gems lined along the walls as well. Some of which were arranged in intricate patterns, much like those on Shaviki''s cloak. Though this would pass off as no more than cave drawings back on earth, here they were a sign of a growing civilization.
"They were armored, tree bark I believe. But as for how bad it was..." Shaviki replied.
~Alpha.~
"The others would probably want me to tell you that your child is okay. But to tell you the truth, my lord. It''s bad. Most of his flesh had been burned off, and one of his arms had to be amputated to prevent the spread of THE CREATURE''S spell," Shaviki exined in a pained voice, almost as if he himself felt sad for Alpha''s situation.
Lucius''s heart stopped for a moment, his mind recalling a few scenes from the torture he had endured in the mindscape. But he quickly set that aside, hoping on the fact that radiant healing could heal whatever injuries Alpha had sustained.
~He''s good. First Alpha was just ''the creature'' and now he''s someone to dote over? He''s really good,~ Lucius thought to himself as he walked close behind Shaviki, his tail swinging from wall to wall, measuring the space he had avable in case some sort of fight broke out.
"When can I see him? Mymune''s healing is many times better than whatever methods you''re using. It''ll be better if I take him back home," Lucius said, cing his hand on Shaviki''s shoulder just near his neck.
"T-though I do not mean to insult the healing arts of yourmune, I assure you that the Zeldrave''s are the best healers this side of the forest. However, I will personally take you to him after the meeting with our king. You see, the war hasn''t been going too well after the attack on THE CREATURE''S den," Shaviki exined, his body only shivering slightly from Lucius''s subtle threat.
"The war? Then the necromancer hasn''t been defeated yet?" Lucius asked, a smile creeping up his face.
He had wanted it to be him to send the necromancer back to whence it came from. After all, it was all thanks to its subordinates that his mind was now in tatters. And besides, with the information he stole from Aziel, he now knew everything about the necromancer''s invasion, or at least what the necromancer had told his right-hand man.
~Who would''ve thought that there were powers thisrge at y? Still, this whole thing has cleared up many of the doubts I had. I know who I need to find to get my answers, and who I need to kill to make sure that the people I care for will never be hurt again,~ Lucius thought to himself as Shaviki opened a massive ckwood door.
~Oh my, they have their own congress room and everything,~ Lucius thought to himself as he walked into the room, brushing right past Shaviki as he was about to give some grand entrance-announcement.
With a room filled with their highest officials, Lucius was now more than certain he had enough hostages to get Alpha back.
Perhaps he would''ve taken things the more traditional route before his torturing. Perhaps he would''ve listened to what these creatures had to say, before trying to influence them into the direction that he wanted things to head in.
But after all that he came to realize that the tactics and mannerisms he had learned in the military were useless in this world. He had learned that painfully through nearly a million different cycles of what could basically be described as mind rape.
All that mattered in this world was power, and his system gave him ess to great amounts of it.
"Who''s the highest-ranking official here?" Lucius asked as he strolled up the earth stairs towards a massive seat that sat at least three tforms above all the other ones, looking over everything in the room.
For a moment everyone in the room remained silent, confused by what was going on before one old-looking Chame raised his hand.
"You, huh? Very well then," Lucius whispered before his tailshed out, curling around that official''s neck before lifting him into the air.
"Stop him!" the official shouted before all hell broke loose in the room.
Lucius quickly had his tail bring the official to him, before grabbing the official by the cloak, and dragging him up the stairs with him. All the while, a small cloud of poison began collecting at the tip of his tail as well.
The guards in the room moved to stop him, but a swing of his tail was all it took to send them flying.
Even in his weakened state, his stats were all maxed out, enough for him to go toe to toe with a shroom giant.
If these creatures had any chance at winning against him, they would need to activate any special abilities they had.
"M-My lord, wh-what are you doing?" Shaviki stuttered as Lucius mmed yet another guard into the earthy long table thaty at the center of the room.
"I''m addressing my council," Lucius said with a grin, before slumping on the king''s chair.
The view was indeed quite spectacr. Apart from the chaos, he could now see the beauty of this den constructed of earth.
The chairs were all intricately carved, and although they looked rough at first nce, Lucius could now tell that it was a sort of decoration to them.
Beautiful green, blue, purple, and red jewels lined every piece of furniture in this ce, creating beautiful glimmering patterns.
Above the door, was a depiction of a massive lizard drawn out of ck jewels. Lucius tilted his head ever so slightly and noticed that it was actually a depiction of a chameleon wearing a cloak.
As the officials stampeded to make their way out of the hallway, Lucius pulled out his crux and sent a low-powered sr beam towards the entrance as a warning shot.
"I''ll kill anyone who even thinks of moving through that door. Besides, there''s no need to worry, I''m not some beast. I just want my child back..." Lucius announced, before pausing to look around the room.
"And whatever information you have on medicines, magic, and the forest in general. That''s all I''m asking for, pretty fair right," Lucius said calmly, before making the official he was grabbing by the cor kneel in front of him.
Chapter 174 The Hero Awakens (3)
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"Why-- are you doing this?" the official kneeling in front of Lucius struggled to ask.
Lucius moved his head to look at the official, and for a moment an image of one of the military bigwigs back on earth superimposed with his.
"Because I''ve dealt with people like you before. You waste time arguing over everything, and in the end, the people I''m supposed to protect end up dead," Lucius replied, spite filling his voice as he stared at the official with hatred.
There were a few dozen cycles in the mindscape where he had gotten back into the military. Each time his entire toon would die because of the carelessness of the old men who called the shots.
"Besides, I''m not going to let you use me as you will. You think I''m too dumb to realize that you guys only saved me so that I would be your little ything?" Lucius asked, looking up to stare at Shaviki.
"So you saw right through me?" Shaviki asked the polite look on his face instantly disappearing as he said this.
"Tell your king to hurry up. I won''t hurt any of his people, I know how it feels to have children you want to protect. But if anyone tries anything funny, I can''t keep that promise," Lucius replied.
"I appreciate the gesture, though I would appreciate it even more if you would let my retainer go," a low-powerful voice whispered. A momentter, a massive creature appeared right beside Luicus.
Instinctively, his tailshed out to attack the creature, but just then an equally massive tailshed out to stop his. The two tails tussled for a moment, until eventually the more skilled one won. That being the tail of the Chame''s king.
"Who would''ve thought that Havon was such a troublemaker? I''m d we housed him here," another voice added before an even more massive creature entered the congress room.
This one looked very different from the others. Whereas all the Chame warriors had green skin, this one had orange skin.
~Why isn''t my earth sense working?~ Lucius wondered, as he covered himself in a thinyer of poison gas.
"Calm down, we aren''t your enemies," Avankor exined as he walked towards Lucius.
"Well, I could be, depending on how you choose your next few moves," Shavak added, a pissed expression on his face.
"You can turn invisible?" Lucius asked, dividing his attention between the approaching Avankor, and Shavak who looked like he would kill him at any moment.
"What of it?" Shavak asked, before moving to grab Lucius''s head. Lucius quickly moved to counter this, grabbing Shavak''s hand before it could reach him.
"Avankor, I don''t think this is the hero of legend," Shavak snarled, before trying to yank his hand away. Though he was surprised to find just how strong Luicus was. He tried again, this time putting in more effort, but still, his hand would not budge.
"What''s wrong?" Avankor asked, noticing that something was off.
"Isn''t he a tier 3 creature?" Shavak asked.
"His mark is on his back. You saw it yourself," Avankor replied thoughtfully, stopping at the earth-stairs to stare at Lucius.
"Something''s off," Shavak added before turning invisible. Lucius felt Shavak''s hand disappear as well, leaving him gripping at thin air.
~He really disappeared? Then it''s not just invisibility,~ Luicus inferred, before casting sr trace. With that Shavak appeared once more,pletely confused by what was going on.
"You''ve been moving carelessly. You know, I could be your enemy, depending on how you chose your next few moves," Lucius said, his crux floating right in front of Shavak''s face.
No matter how strong Shavak was, a point-nk sr beam would turn him into chameleon barbeque.
"Shavak, you''ve been outyed by a newborn," Avankorughed mirthfully, his whole body shaking up and down. He seemed to find the situation genuinely funny.
"What are your demands, Havon?" Avankor asked, as hisughter slowly died down.
"My child, Alpha, and whatever information you can spare to help me y the necromancer," Lucius replied sternly, now warier of Avankor. Something about howfortable Avankor seemed even after seeing just how helpless hisrade was uneased Lucius.
"Is that all? Then it''ll be done. However, before we do all that, do you mind if we talk? You see, the situation on the outside isn''t so good," Avankor replied, his tone more serious now.
"The situation?" Lucius asked, his crux still floating in front of Shavak''s face, holding him in ce.
"I see you aren''t in the mood to sit. Well, I understand. After fighting that creature alone and waking up in a strange ce I''d be this difficult too," Avankor sighed, before moving to sit on one of the earth chairs around the main table.
"Though I have to ask that you let the Chame''s king go. You have to understand that you''re scaring everyone in the room. Even if you''re only acting in your best interests, as the father of amune yourself, you have to understand," Avankor said, gesturing towards the shivering Chame warriors at the door.
Their eyes showed genuine fear, with some of them even having tears collecting at the rim of their eyes.
"You can go seat over there," Lucius replied, gesturing for Shavak to move slowly towards Avankor. Once the two kings were seated side by side, Lucius moved his crux so that it was floating just between him and the two of them.
"What''s this situation everyone keeps talking about?" Lucius asked as he slumped back into King''s chair. This earned an angry snort from Shavak, and another mirthfulugh from Avankor.
"The war," Avankor began, his tone shifting suddenly.
"THE CREATURE has taken over this side of the forest, and has begun its siege on the Orion Forest," he continued.
"The necromancer couldn''t have grown that powerful overnight. Weren''t you guys locking him in a stalemate?" Lucius asked, his heart suddenly thundering.
If he took over this sector of the forest, did that mean that the rest of hismune had already been killed?
"Except this didn''t happen overnight. It''s been 30 luna cycles since we retrieved you from THE CREATURE''S den. And in those 30 cycles, we''ve seen more deaths in our ranks than ever before," Avankor replied.
"30-- 30 days? No... no," Lucius thought in despair, the weight of whatever hope he had of saving his children crushing his entire being as it shattered to pieces.
Chapter 175 The Hero Awakens (4)
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"We tried to get the dragonkin to help us, but they''ve shut off the entrance to their kingdom. Though it''s unlikely that they''re afraid of THE CREATURE, it''s still very odd that they chose now of all times to disappear. Though we still have a few men trying to find another way in," Avankor continued.
"We haven''t made much progress, but if you c--"
"The tree, the glowing tree in the green forest. Is it still standing?" Lucius interrupted a vacant look in his eyes.
"The glowing tree? So that was--" Avankor whispered before pausing, a pitying look on his face.
"They-- they put up a good fight. That tree took down a quarter of THE CREATURE''S forces, our scouts say it spent 10 luna cycles holding their advance from spreading. But unfortunately, it- it stands no more," Avankor exined.
"Jesus Christ," Lucius whispered in a pained voice.
~I-I''m still in the mindscape... yeah, this is just another cycle right,~ Lucius thought to himself, as shadows began to collect all around him.
"Calm down, if you activate your emperor''s mantle now, THE CREATURE will find us," Shavak shouted, but all that earned him was an apathetic stare from Lucius.
"Don''t tell me..." Avankor whispered as the shadows began to grow thicker.
"He hasn''t been taught. Then this mantle is... natural?" Shavak whispered in disbelief, his eyes wide in shock.
"Suppress your emotions, bottle them. Don''t let them out!" Avankor shouted, before calling on his own mystic mantle. With that, a few of the shadows coalescing around Lucius began moving toward him instead.
"Hismand is strong, Shavak I need your help," Avankor shouted.
Shavak snapped out of his daze, before calling on his mystic mantle as well. With great strain, the both of them beganmanding the shadows moving around Lucius towards them instead.
The stream of emotions rushing at Lucius seemed to slow down with this, allowing him to keep them in check. After a few moments, the shadows all around him subsided, and he returned to his normal state.
"They can''t be dead," Lucius whispered as his vision cked out, and he fell unconscious.
"He''s too unstable, I don''t think he can help us. I say we travel to the Behemoth Mountains and recruit their warriors," Shavak said as he approached Lucius''s limp body.
"And what will we pay them with? Or do you have mana stones just lying around?" Avankor rebutted, before gently picking Lucius up.
"No, all we need is him. You saw it, didn''t you? His is an emperor''s mantle," Avankor whispered, as Shavak ordered everyone to leave the congress room.
"And power that strong is useless to us if he doesn''t even know how to use it," Shavak retorted, still angry over the stunt Lucius had pulled.
"Think about it. If he can''t control it, then that means he fought against THE CREATURE without his full power. If we can teach him, then this war is ours. No, not just that. If we can teach him how to use his Emperor''s mantle, then for the first time in millennia, the lower tiers will have someone seated on the forest council," Avankor replied.
"Rubbish, after all they''ve done you are still bent on getting on the council? Even as an entire section of the forest bes the feasting ground of these creatures they do nothing," Shavak shouted, before turning to one of his men,
"Bring me ruko, now!" Shavak shouted, before going to sit on his throne.
"Now is not the time to be drinking," Avankor sighed.
"And when else will it be? Once he wakes up again, he''ll probably destroy my den," Shavak shouted angrily.
"As he should. Remember, all kings are but stepping stones for-"
"You don''t have to repeat those stories to me. I heard them enough times already. I just hope that we get everything we were promised as well," Shavak interrupted before a Chame carrying a worm skin sak walked into the room and handed it to Shavak.
"Father!" a womanly voice shouted as a female Chame entered the congress room. Her figure was a lot more slender than that of the other Chame warriors, and where they had green skin, hers glittered... like emeralds.
Her cloak seemed to be made of blue cloth rather than leather, and it was decorated with all sorts of vibrant patterns.
A line of ck jewels had been set into her forehead, forming a sort of crown, intensifying her almost alien beauty.
"Shamira, what are you doing here? I told you women aren''t allowed in the congress room," Shavak shouted half-heartedly. He seemed more fixated on his drink than anything else.
"I heard the outsider tried to kill you," Shamira eximed as she ran towards her father.
"These councilmen, they whisper like women," Shavak rebutted, now a little annoyed.
"Shamira, it has been long," Avankor said, Lucius, lying in his arms.
"Lord Avankor, I did not see you," Shamira replied, instantly bowing down in respect.
"The princess of a n need not kneel. Besides, these titles are shortlived, now that he is here," Avankor said, before looking down at Lucius.
"Is that-- him?" Shamira asked, staring at Lucius in a mix of both interest and distaste.
"Havon in the flesh."
"That is the hope of the lower tiers? A newborn?" Shamira asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"She still doesn''t believe?" Avankor asked, looking at Shavak.
"You know the new generation," Shavak replied half-heartedly, nowpletely entranced by his drink.
"With all due respect father, how many ''Havons'' has there been now? Isn''t he the fifth this seasonal cycle? How do we know he isn''t just another fraud? How do we know that those stories are even real?" Shamira asked heatedly.
From the way she spoke, and the way Shavak sighed, Avankor could see that this was something they had gone over a number of times.
But he could sympathize. Even in his den, there were many who didn''t believe in the stories anymore. Too many winters had gone without food, too many summers being hunted by the higher tier beasts, too many frauds who promised them everything and left them with just that much less hope.
"He has the emperor''s mantle. And whenst have you seen a creature like this before?" Avankor asked, interrupting the squabble that father and daughter were having.
Shamira moved closer to inspect Lucius. Though Lucius was by no meansrgepared to her, she couldn''t help but feel overpowered even as hey asleep.
She hesitated to move closer, before looking at him properly. She squinted her eyes, trying her best to recall where she had seen this type of creature before. After all, as the princess of one of thergest ns in this section of the forest, she ought to know all the creatures that resided close by.
"I-- My studies didn''t cover this," she replied reluctantly.
"He''s fae, or something simr, but definitely a direct descendant," Shavak said as he took another shot of his drink.
"Huh? But isn''t he too small? And I heard he was just a third tier... aren''t the direct descendants of the fae supposed to be tier 10?" Shamira asked in confusion and doubt.
"Havon shall spawn forth, a child of the earth, the lowest among the low. And from there, he shall rise to power, and bring back paradise for all," Shavak replied in a sarcastically grand manner, his wordsing out in a drunken murmur.
Chapter 176 Plan Of Action (1)
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"I still don''t buy this. Shouldn''t we be trying to find a more tangible way to win this war?" Shamira whispered.
"Shamira, I told you that I will not have my daughter talking about war!" Shavak shouted, apparently nowpletely sober.
"I just think that if we ask the races in the Immacte Forest they''ll be w-"
"Enough, Shamira!" Shavak interrupted. Before gesturing for her to leave the room.
She stared at her father for a moment, before bowing to Avankor and leaving without a word.
"Sometimes It''s like she wants to go out and fight the battles herself," Shavak sighed, before getting up from his throne to approach Avankor.
"She might be right about the Immacte Forest. It''s closer than the Behemoth Mountains, and their prices are cheaper," Avankor said as Shavak walked past him.
"You know they''d never help us. Those snobs are worse than the forest council, they don''t even judge based on tier," Shavak replied, before leaving the congress room.
Avankor knew this himself, but they were running out of viable options. The Immacte Forest was one of thergest congregations of sentient beings, which was one of the reasons the necromancer''s influence hadn''t spread to that section yet.
Though to them, the necromancer and the creatures that lived in the Dark forest were one and the same. To them, the only difference was that the necromancer was baring its fangs.
Avankor took Luicus back to his room and ced him in the healing bath, before inspecting him. Even though Avankor was primarily a warrior, as a child he had been part of the healing n of his den, so he had quite a bit of know-how in the healing arts.
"He''s healing quite fast..." hemented. In fact, for a moment he believed that his vision was failing him as he couldn''t see a single injury on Licius''s body.
~To think that the descendants of the fae can heal faster than me,~ he thought to himself. And this was a big deal, as he was a guardian of a race that specialized in healing. Even if the fae were like gods, healing this fast was insane.
After inspecting Lucius, he began inspecting the substance in the bath, expecting to have to rece it.
"Has it stopped working?" he whispered to himself, noticing that there were no impurities floating around. For good measure, he closed his eyes and began breathing slowly, before excreating more of the white fluid from the palm of his hands into the bath.
~Who am I kidding, I need to call Nan, I have no idea what I''m doing here,~ he thought to himself as the white fluid overflowed, shimmering unnaturally.
~It''s almost as if he''s cleaning it himself,~ Avankor thought to himself before lying down beside Lucius.
*
"Ughh," Lucius groaned as he opened his eyes.
He found himself in the same bath that he had woken up in thest time.
For a moment he tried to remember what had happened before he cked out, but found that sections of his memory were missing.
Thest thing he remembered was being led to a congress room.
~Did I pass out while discussing with their officials?~ he thought to himself as he tried to get up from the earth bath.
"Oh, you''re up," a voice whispered from underneath him.
Lucius peaked his head over the edge and found a massive smander-looking creature lying on the ground.
"This is Chamen, Chame''s territory," Lucius whispered, remembering Shaviki''s words. "But you aren''t a Chame," he added a moment after.
"You''re right about that. I am a Zeldrave, a race from a neighboring den," Avankor said as he stood up, his eyes focused on Lucius.
"You''re the one treating Alpha?" Lucius asked calmly as he got up from the bath and began stretching his limbs.
"That''s right," Avankor replied, a bit uneasy by Lucius''s sudden calmness.
"Sorry, I don''t remember, but what exactly did we discuss? Before I passed out I mean," Lucius asked.
His instincts identified Avankor as a sort of ally, which was part of the reason why he was speaking so calmly.
After all, he had passed out in their congress room, and he woke up without any restraints, and only a single person guarding him. Anyone would think that they were on friendly terms.
"Then you don''t remember anything?" Avankor asked in realization.
"I think I may have caught something while fighting the necromancer," Lucius lied.
Honestly speaking, he was well aware that his mind wasn''t stable right now. Even as he spoke, he was sort of detached from reality. For him, there was no telling whether this was still the mindscape or not, so nothing felt real.
"We were discussing the situation on the outside," Avankor replied, before exining what he had exined before. Going over how the necromancer''s forces had conquered both the Green and the Dark Forest. And how its army had increased many more times than thest time they had fought against it.
"Then that means I''ve been out for quite some time huh?" Lucius whispered to himself. "The glowing tree in the Green Forest, has it been conquered?" he asked after a moment of thought.
Avankor paused for a moment, before saying, "The tree has fallen, but my scouts say its inhabitants retreated to the Immacte Forest."
"Immacte Forest? Ahh, the Pristine Forest... good thinking Hannibal," Lucius whispered to himself.
"Has the necromancer''s influence spread there yet?" he asked after some thought.
"No, and it''s unlikely it will. The Immacte Forest is a hub for higher-tier creatures, I doubt they will just sit back and watch it be destroyed," Avankor replied.
"Good, then they''re safe there. If you don''t mind me asking, how is it that this den hasn''t been conquered yet?" Lucius asked.
"We''ve destroyed the surface entrance. Even if the necromancer had terra-traveling creatures it would take them some time to find this ce."
"So you''ve been lucky?" Lucius whispered in dissatisfaction.
"If you don''t mind, I''d be more at ease if you brought my child here. I know I''m asking for a lot, but please make it happen," Lucius asked, staring at Avankor with the eyes of a worried parent.
"I-- I''ll try to make it happen," Avankor replied.
"Perfect, then shall we start discussing a n of action," Lucius said, a look of relief on his face. Though his eyes remained as vacant as ever.
"n of action?"
"Yes. You do want to reim yournds don''t you?"
Chapter 177 Plan Of Action (2)
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"Y-You think it''s possible?" Avankor asked in disbelief. Sure, he had been aware that Havon might offer some hope for the future. But he hadn''t thought that it would be so soon.
"Every battle is winnable," Lucius said almost tiredly. After all, he knew this fact all too well. He had beaten what seemed unbeatable.
"You said you closed the surface entrance, does that mean you have no troops on the outside?" he asked after some thought.
"Only a few men who volunteered to look for food... it''s been hard feeding the dens," Avankor replied.
"Death missions..." Lucius said inly. However he admired their valiance, this meant that morale wasn''tpletely destroyed.
"So that means there are back entrances then?"
"A few that we can copse at any time," Avankor replied.
"Good, we''ll need them. Do we have any information on the units the necromancer has, perhaps information on every possible creature he may have turned? I doubt they keep all their natural abilities, but it''ll be essential for the task forces I want to create," Lucius said in amanding tone. He didn''t mean to sound so presumptuous in territory that wasn''t his, but it was a force of habit.
"Necromancer? Task force? I''m sure that there are pundits here who have studied the various races, but I do not understand what that has to do with anything," Avankor asked in confusion. All this talk waspletely new to him.
"The creature we''re facing off against is a necromancer. He is able to raise the dead and use them to do his bidding. As for what a task force is; it just means a small specialized group created for a particr cause. For instance, this time around I''ll be creating food gathering, intel gathering, and gueri task forces," Lucius exined.
"Necromancer, huh? That is a more fitting name than THE CREATURE," Avankor whispered to himself, though Lucius could tell from his expression that the second part was still confusing him.
"Do you not already have such specialized groups?" Lucius asked, thinking that perhaps Avankor was confused by the specific groups he had mentioned.
"We have something simr called ns, however, I do not see how making them smaller would be beneficial. Wouldn''t that just lower the strength of those groups?" Avankor asked after thinking for some time.
~Ahh, I forgot, strategy must not be a widely used concept here. For the lower-tier creatures at least,~ Lucius realized.
"Hmm, how best do I exin this," he whispered, before bending over to draw something on the ground.
"Let''s say me and you are at war... and I have conquered all the territory surrounding your kingdom," he began exining, drawing a picture of it in the soil.
"If I wanted to gather food from the areas that you have taken over, which would be more ideal? Sending a group of 30 men, or sending a group of 7 men?" he asked, drawing a big and a small circle to represent the two groups respectively.
"30 men of course. This group will be stronger so they can deal with any threats that they encounter, and they can carry more food back," Avankor replied hesitantly.
"Okay. Let''s say you were the enemy king, do you think 30 men traveling in yournds would go unnoticed?" Lucius asked.
It took a moment, but Avankor nodded his head in sudden understanding.
"I see, so your intent is to not be discovered. But isn''t that hopeful thinking? What if you are noticed? 7 men won''t possibly be able to fight against enemy forces," Avankor replied.
These were the type of men Lucius liked to work with. Avankor reminded him of Hannibal. Asking questions was a true sign of understanding.
"And do you think 30 men will be able to fight against the enemy units? When we send men into heavily guarded enemy territory, it''s unlikely that they wille back," Lucius exined.
Avankor paused for a moment, surprised at the cold-bloodedness that Lucius was disying. How could he speak of his own men so lightly? Of course, Avankor understood the concept well. It was better to lose 7 men as opposed to 30, but even still.
"So probability-wise, it''s better to send 4 groups of 7, rather than 30," Lucius continued exining, apparently unaware of how cold he was being.
"And there is the added benefit that smaller groups can escape much easier than bigger ones. So even if they do encounter a threat, they don''t have to fight against them," he added towards the end.
"I see, that''s why you want to divide the groups!" Avankor shouted in realization. To him, this made much more sense than speaking as if his men were going to die. Realistically speaking, this would give his men a bigger chance of survival as well.
"Ahh, so you finally get it."
"I will call Shavak so he can hear about this... what did you it?"
"Strategy," Lucius replied.
"Strategy," Avankor repeated, before rushing out of the room to find Shavak. The 6-foot-tall being rushing around was quite a funny sight. Perhaps in a different world Lucius would''veughed.
A short whileter, Shavak returned with seven other Chame warriors, all of them dressed in what Lucius figured was the equivalent of an official''s attire.
"Havon," Shavak said, nodding at Lucius in greeting, a hint of anger visible on his face. Avankor had warned Shavak that Lucius didn''t remember anything, but Shavak was still wary of him.
"I take it the n was exined to you?" Lucius asked, looking up at the 5''8 king.
"These are the pundits of my kingdom," Shavak said, gesturing towards the Chame warriors standing behind him.
"Only seven? That means we can only make seven task forces at most," Lucius whispered, before drawing something else on the ground.
"Wait, you mean to take these men to battle? They haven''t fought a day in their life, what use will they be in war?" Shavak asked defensively. To him, Lucius was sentencing his best schrs to certain death.
"Each task force will need someone with intel on the possible enemies we might encounter. It''ll be easier for the task forces to make decisions if they know what they''re going up against," Lucius exined briefly before going back to his drawing.
"See, he''s qualifications are way higher than ours. He''s like-- like a pundit King," Avankor whispered, excited at the prospect of fighting alongside Lucius.
You see, unlike human kingdoms, the kings of these races were chosen based on fighting ability. The strongest fighters evolved into guardians and were named kings, besides that they had no other qualifications.
For a king, fighting was the best thing in the world. So to Avankor, all these ''strategies'' Lucius was talking about opened his mind to a new sort of fighting.
Fighting the ''smart'' way.
Chapter 178 Plan Of Action (3)
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"How much food do you have left in storage?" Lucius asked half-mindedly as he continued drawing up a n on the soil.
"Storage?"
"Food reserves, how many days do you have left," Lucius borated, pausing whatever he was doing to look up at Shavak.
"Thest boar we killed was several days ago. So we have a few more days before we have to eat again," Shavak replied hesitantly, unsure if he was answering Lucius''s question properly.
"What?" Lucius asked in confusion, it took him another moment to realize that although these creatures had intelligence, they were still nowhere near to being referred to as ''truly'' civilized creatures.
"So your species canst several days without eating? That''s good to know," he whispered to himself, realizing that he himself hadn''t eaten in a while as well. Though at least now he knew that it was going to be easier feeding these creatures aspared to humans who had to eat every so often for them to be healthy.
"Are you guys familiar with the herbs of the forest?" Lucius asked, now looking at the pundits. To which they replied with sardonic stares.
"This is our area of expertise. We know every herb from the Nightmare Forest till the Immacte Forest," one of them replied dismissively.
~Great, ego-maniacs,~ Lucius thought to himself, before pausing for a moment."Did you say, Nightmare Forest?"
"The section of the Forest south of here, the monster-infestednds," Avankor replied, a shiver traveling down his body.
"Monster infested? Like the predator creatures?"
"No, monsters. That''s where the necromancer is from no doubt," Shavak added.
~Is the Nightmare Forest and Necropolis one and the same?~ Lucius thought to himself before deciding to investigate that issueter. Right now he had more important things to arrange.
"How many creatures are in this den?" he asked after some thought.
"Three hundred fully grown, and forty young," Shavak replied, before looking toward Avankor. As a king himself, Avankor had a duty to provide for his people as well.
"And my den had two hundred and seventy fully grown, and thirty youngst time I checked," Avankor added, to which Lucius looked up with a sort of annoyance.
~Six hundred and forty creatures to feed? Meat won''t be a sustainable way to properly feed everyone,~ he realized, before going back to his drawing.
So far he had drawn up a sort of low-detail map of different resource areas around the green forest. Such as herb locations, rock locations, boar and other meat hot spots, and a small section of the Immacte forest that he and his children had explored.
"I''ll need to go out and make sure that I have everything in its right ce. I can''t formte ns without having a proper map to work with," Lucius announced.
The creatures in the room just stared at each other in confusion, of course, they didn''t know anything about maps.
"While I do that, I''ll need you to set aside a room with soft soil. Do you guys have a water source perhaps?" he asked immediately after.
"There is a river that runs throughout the den, will that be enough?" Shavak replied hesitantly. Lucius noticed that Shavak''s schrs seemed to think his revealing this information was unwise.
"Everything will run along smoother if you don''t hide anything. I understand that your people do not want to reveal all their secrets to an outsider you just met, but the lives of 640 creatures hang on every decision we make from this point on. Your secrets will rest with you in the grave if you don''t cooperate," Lucius said, though he was certain that the grave idiom was wasted on them.
"Can you lead me to this... ''river''?" he added shortly after.
Lucius had heard about subterranean rivers back on Earth, though he had never had the chance to visit one. If this really was a subterranean river, it was likely that it was connected to somerger water source, which could open up a new world of possibilities. Not to mention that the soil around that area would probably be extremely fertile.
A short silence followed shortly after, it seemed that Shavak and his schrs were unsure about whether to allow Lucius into the main den or not.
"Follow me," Shavak said after having debated with his schrs for nearly 5 minutes. It seemed that Shavak alone had agreed on this, as all seven of his schrs seemed unhappy with the decision.
After this, Lucius was led out of his room down a very long corridor, with guards stationed at regr intervals. Theyout of these tunnels reminded him of his mission in the Shri''killiansbyrinth, though the twists and turns weren''t nearly asplicated, and the tunnels here didn''t move.
After traveling for 30 minutes, they finally walked through a tunnel that led toward a wide opening.
"An underground cave," Lucius whispered to himself as he could hear the sound of people talking echoing from the walls.
Even though they were underground there seemed to be some sort of blue glowing from the sky. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that it wasing from the stctite on the cave ceiling.
Now that he thought about it, all the other rooms were lit up by the same kind of rock as well.
"It''s a beautiful ce," Lucius whispered as Shavak spoke to the guards near the entrance of the cave. Now that there was more light, Lucius could see that theck of food was really affecting everyone, as the guards seemed sluggish and frail.
As the group walked in, people began to gather around Shavak, adults and children alike stared at Avankor and Lucius in both fear and curiosity. Despair hung in the air, in was so thick that even Lucius himself was beginning to be affected.
He had seen this scene many times before; the most affected by war were usually the nonbatants.
"I take it they haven''t seen outsiders before?" Lucius whispered to Avankor.
"Food is brought down here for the women and children, so most of them have never been to the surface," Avankor replied.
This much made sense as Lucius noticed that the women were noticeably smaller than the males, and more slender in appearance. They also seemed more humanoidpared to their male counterparts, which probably made them that much weaker.
"Father," a female voice called out from behind the crowd before a Chame wearing a red-cloth cloak walked to the front.
~So he has a daughter,~ Lucius thought to himself as Shamira stared daggers at him. ~Well, she doesn''t seem to like me very much,~ he noted, before moving forward, and brushing past her.
Chapter 179 Plan Of Action (4)
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He came here to check on the river, not be some artefact for public posterity. So what if Shavak''s daughter didn''t like him?
Of course, him doing this didn''t go unnoticed. As the creatures began to whisper among themselves.
"Is that Havon? Isn''t he just a newborn?"
"He doesn''t see even the princess as an equal."
"He seems scary."
Were among some of the whispers that Lucius cared to listen to. Though one of them in particr bothered him more than the others.
~Newborn? Can they tell that I was spawned just a month ago?~ Lucius thought to himself.
From what he could tell, there had been no difference between him and Pagan who could be referred to as an ancient being.
Though he ignored all the gossip and instead focused his attention on the burbling of water that seemed to being from the distance.
"You know, I don''t know what customs you have where you''re from, but often visitors don''t walk off on their own," Shamira called out from behind him.
Lucius turned to look and saw that a long line of Chame people had formed a line in front of Shavak, one of them currentlyining about something to him. No doubt everyone had their fair share ofints at this time.
Avankor for some reason decided to stay behind as well, and the pundits seemed like they were happy to be rid of Lucius.
"My name is Shamira, princess of the Chame people," Shamira introduced, before bowing. Lucius looked at her vacantly for a moment, before realizing that she must''ve been waiting for him to reply as well.
"My name is L- Havon, saviour of the forest," Lucius said almost sarcastically. Though he knew it was a necessity for him to take up the role of saviour, he never was much of an actor, and pretending to be animal Jesus wasn''t exactly on the list of things he was dying to do.
"Hmm, so you say," Shamiramented as Lucius began walking towards the river once more.
"Is that what this is about? You have a problem with me being Havon?" Lucius asked in a bored manner as he saw a glimmering blue sparkle further out in the distance.
~There are so many soil patches... do they sleep in these?~ Lucius thought to himself as he walked over one such soil patch.
"You know, if you''re looking for mana stones, we don''t have any. You won''t gain much from fooling my father either," Shamira replied, looking down at Lucius as they walked. Perhaps this height difference alone was what allowed her to ovee Lucius''s somewhat cold presence.
"I''ll be out of your hair as soon as I y the necromancer," Lucius replied half-mindedly, before pausing to look up at Shamira. ~Ah, no hair,~ he thought to himself, before staring at the jewels on her forehead.
"Those look valuable, are they natural?" he asked though he wasn''t actually that interested in them.
"Natural? Of course, they a-" Shamira was about to reply, right as they reached the river. Before she could finish Lucius bent over to inspect it.
"You guys drink water from this no?" he asked, before having his tail ingest some of the water.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[+20 exp]
~There''s no vegetation here,~ he noted to himself as he looked up in the direction that the river came from, before walking there.
"There''s nothing up there," Shamira said, before hastily following Lucius. "You move so fast for someone so short," she whispered, unaware of Lucius''s hyper senses.
~I never thought a reptilian would be the one to make me have a heightplex,~ Lucius thought to himself.
After walking for a while, the river led to a sort of underground waterfall. The water pressureing from there would make it impossible for anything to go up through this way, and just as impossible for any living thing toe down without dying first.
"Do you know what this is connected to?" Lucius asked.
"No. And why would you need to know that? I don''t get how that will help us win the war?" Shamira replied defensively.
"If we can figure out where it''s connected to on the surface, we can send stuff down here without having to put the entrances in jeopardy of being discovered," Lucius replied vacantly before moving back towards the king.
"Send stuff? You''re a warrior, aren''t you? Can''t you just kill the necromancer? Aren''t you supposed to--- I don''t know, know how to fly?" Shamira asked after a moment of thought.
"Sigh, look, I get that you''re looking out for your people. But you''re annoying, you''d be a better help if you just stayed with everyone and lied to them that everything will be okay. And from what I can tell, fighting should be thest thing on your mind. Your people are starving, and your guards can barely stand at attention," Lucius replied.
This reality already felt far from being... real, and it wasn''t as if he cared about the princess of a race that might be wiped out the next morning. So it took him almost everything he had to keep his conversations civil.
"Lie to them?" Shamira asked in indignation.
"Or are you under some naive assumption that your entire race could not be wiped out tomorrow?" Lucius asked before heading back towards Shavak, leaving Shamira to think about what he had just said.
"Havon, you''re back," Shavak sighed in relief, the long line in front of him having barely moved.
"Can you show me to one of the escapes? I need to survey the surface," Lucius replied, causing silence to spread throughout the entire cave.
"T-The surface is infested with those creatures. I don''t th-" Shavak was about to reply.
"I need to draw up a map or we won''t be able to do anything. I''ll be fine, just show me to the escape," Lucius interrupted.
"Havon does not fear the creatures," one of the Chame people whispered. This consensus spread like wildfire until everyone there began silently reciting something like it was some kind of church mass.
"Havon the fearless, descendant of god--" they began.
"What''s going on?" Lucius asked as the people stared at him, now not in fear, but in adoration. The look reminded him of how Pagan sometimes looked at him.
"Havon shall spawn forth, a child of the earth, the lowest among the low. And from there, he shall rise to power, and bring back paradise for all," they continued, relief showing on some of their faces now.
"They have seen hope with their own eyes," Avankor whispered, before looking down at Lucius as well.
"I will go with you. You''ll need someone to have your back," Avankor added.
Chapter 180 The Surface... Or What Is Left Of It Atleast (1)
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For a moment, color returned to Lucius''s eyes. The ghost-empty look that dwelled within them dissapeared for a fraction of a second, and for that second he pondered whether he had be sort of narcissist that fed on the praise of others.
"No, it''s just the first time..." he whispered to himself as he followed close behind Shavak back towards the entrance.
This was the first time he had fought a war where the people didn''t see him as an intruder. The first time that he was on the side of those that were suffering, and although his derealization returned just as fast as it had gone, atleast now he knew that this was something he could enjoy doing.
Just as his figure was about to be swallowed by the cave''s exit, he raised his hand in gesture. Though the Chame did not know what it meant, they cheered.
A raised fist, whether it was a sign that Havon would beat the creature''s that gued the surface, or whether it was to show that he had strength they could rely on, it stirred up the same emotions.
~An infinite morale exploit... I suppose having your god fighting right beside you on the battleground will do that,~ Lucius thought to himself as he was led down another system of tunnels.
"Havon, before we head out there, I need to warn you. It''s nothing like how you left it," Avankor said almost in a whisper, not once looking down to regard Lucius.
"The necromancer''s decay..." Lucius whispered in understanding, he hadpletely forgotten about that little effect.
At this point Lucius felt a breeze of cold, rancid air wafting towards him. They were nearing the exit, and from the choking smell that hung in the air, he had a rough idea of how bad it was.
As they neared the exit, Avankor whispered something, and the shadows all around him began to twist and turn as if they hade to life. For a moment, Lucius paused, wondering if perhaps it was some sort of spell.
But once the shadows began grouping around Avankor, creating a sort of armor, Lucius recognised what this was.
It was simr to the time he had fought against the dragonkin, the time he had lost control of his body.
"Shavak, step back!" he shotued instantly, before pulling out his crux and preparing a high powered sr beam.
"Has he gone insane again?" Shavak asked instead, standing right beside thepletely cowled Avankor.
"Havon?" Avankor asked, before the shadows that covered his head moved to the side, revealing a small portion of his face.
"You can still talk?" Lucius asked in confusion, hesitatnly recalling his crux.
"Shavak, it''s okay," Avankor said, cing his hand on Shavak''s shoulder as he approahced Lucius.
"How are you controlling that thing?" Lucius asked, as he instinctively took a step back. He knew the hell that came with the power it offered, the hell of watching your own body being turned into a prison.
"This is Mystic Mantle, a king''s crown," Avankor exined calmly, beforepletely erasing the shadow armor from existence.
"It controls you no more than you control it... there should be an understanding between yourselves," he continued, before slowly willing it back.
The shadows appeared once more, this time slowly covering his body till his full armor was on once again.
Lucius was stunned at this... and for a minute he just stared in awe.
"I can teach it to you if you want," Avankor said after the silence had simmered for a while.
Realistically speaking, this was like a gift from the heavens. It had been clear to Lucius in his fight against the necromancer that most of his strength he had was magic based. And whatbat he carried over from Earth didn''t make efficient use of his new body. Sure it was the best a human could do, but it heavily restricted him here. So for him to find out that he could control this mysterious power¡
"I''ll... think about it," he decided after some thought.
Though the prospect of having that much more power would be a blessing, Lucius knew well he wasn''t in the head space to be messing around with something like that. Perhaps if he had his children beside hims his mind would be more at ease.But as it stood, he knew poking around that wasps'' nest would just make him a liability.
After travelling for a few more minutes the group found themselves staring right at the exit, and what an exit it was.
~No wonder the necromancer''s forces haven''t found this ce yet,~ Lucius thought to himself as he stared down the cliff face that Shavak had been so fondly referring to as the exit.
It was atleast a 1 kilometre drop down a massive ravine into ink ck waters. Thendscape down there was even worse than that of the ck Forest. Lucius had no doubt in his mind that this was the Nightmare Forest the schrs had spoken about.
"The nightmare Forest, this is where the monsters dwell," Avankor added as if to ascertain Lucius''s thoughts.
"Has anyone ever fallen down there?" Lucius asked, he never was one to be afraid of heights, but something about this ce reminded him of hell.
"The Nightmare Forest swallows anyone it deems unfit toy on its grounds," Shavak answered, as he pulled a vine-rope from somewhere at the top of the cave opening."Those who have fallen are forgotten," he continued as he handed it to Avankor.
"Swallow? Like they fall into a hole or something?" Lucius asked, the despair that came with staring at the Forest making him painfully aware that he was indeed in the real world.
"No, The Nightmare Forest lives, morphs, breaths," Shavak continued exining, and right then Lucius could''ve sworn that he saw something deep within the Nightmare Forest''s murky ck water smiling at him.
"Even the dragonkin rarely go down there," Avankor added, as he started climbing up the vine. apparently this was the ingenious method they had thought of to get into and out of their dens.
Dangling right on top of certain death.
Chapter 181 The Surface... Or What Is Left Of It Atleast (2)
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Lucius stared down at the water for a few more moments, checking to see if he could find the apparition that had ben smiling at him. But apparently it had all been a trick of the mind. Or at least he hoped so.
"I wish you strength in your hunting," Shavak said, as he passed another dangling rope towards Lucius.
"Yeah¡" Lucius whispered, looking at the water for another moment, before climbing up the rope.
For him, it was an easy task, what with his strength stat being maxed out. However, climbing this wasn''t merely an issue of strength.
Harsh ghost-winds howled at them, as if sucking, rather than blowing them towards the Nightmare Forest. Ghost-winds because they seemed to being from the cliff walls themselves.
With Avankor''s cowl, Lucius doubted that he could feel just how unnatural the wind''s temperature was. It was almost as if they were the hot breaths of some massive beast¡ a beast with a case of rancid breath as the smell alone was enough to have Lucius holding his breath for minutes at a time.
After 20 minutes of non-stop climbing they could finally see the top, though the moment Lucius attempted to touch the ground there, a cold-stinging pain travelled up his fingers. It felt like touching dry ice bare-handed.
~Sr cleanse~ he chanted almost instinctively, before taking a better look at the soil.
"Decay¡" he whispered, right as Avankor caught up to him.
"How¡ how are you so fast?" Avankor strained in between deep breaths, unable to understand how he was outperformed even with his mystic mantle on.
"Are you really only a third tie¡ª" Avankor was abut to ask as he climbed onto the top.
"Wait-" Lucius shouted, however Avankor was already standing on top of the decayed ground, apparently unaffected by the decay. "¡ªthe entire ground is decayed¡" Lucius added in whisper right after.
"Your cowl allows you to stand on this¡" he realised almost instantly, before looking around.
"Here," Avankor said, before making a gesture. With that, a small section of the shadows covering is face moved towards the ground making a small shadow puddle around him.
Lucius poked at it with his tail, and once ensuring that nothing happened, he stepped onto it.
"This''ll make things more difficult," Lucius whispered to himself as he looked out at thendscape.
Sure, the dark forest had always been a deste ce, with little to no vegetation, and a grim look to it. But this, this looked exactly like the images he had solen from Aziel''s mind.
The necromancer was terraforming this ce to look exactly like Necropolis, or alteast he was in the process of doing it.
Far in he distance Lucius could see a multitude of towers, as if a whole city had been erected in the forest. Massive creatures were at work, building even more towers, each of them moving in a coordinated manner.
"What are those?" Lucius asked as he pointed at one of the ''Leviathans'' that were currently unrooting a massive tree in the distance. The creatures were at least 80 maters tall, and with Lucius''s hyper vision,he could just make out what they seemed to beposed of.
They were walking amalgamations of corpses.
"Those came in after the Genera from the Behemoth ns tried fighting against the necromancer. He must''ve created them to fight against them," Avankor replied thoughtfully.
~The Behemoth ns, Cregnog¡ I missed the tournament,~ Lucius remembered, though that probably didn''t matter at all right now anyway.
"Let''s look round for any spots we can use as campster. Perhaps there are sections of the forest where the decay has not infected," Lucius said, before the two of them began walking around.
Lucius tried using his earth sense to scan the area for enemies, but found that it wasn''t working. It was almost as if his link to the forest had been severed. He had grown so ustomed to having earth sense, that it felt like he was walking around both deaf and blind.
After walking around for 30 more minutes they hadn''t encountered a single undead¡.or uninflected section of the forest for that matter.
If Lucius had to guess, most of the undead were probably in those ''cities'' helping with construction.
"Your shadows are thinning, perhaps we should head back," Lucius said, noticing that his feet were beginning to burn, and even the armour covering Avankor''s body had be more faint.
"The spirits haven''t been the same ever since the necromancer spread this muck everywhere" Avankorined before calling on even more shadows to cover him. "But you''re right, time is running out," he continued, failing tobine the shadows he had summoned into his armour.
~I wonder if¡~ Lucius thought before casting sr cleanse.
"Try again."
Avankor tried once more, but just like before, he failed to converge the shadows to his armour.
~It''s probably like photosynthesis. Sr cleanse can''t reset th-~ Lucius was thinking, right before he noticed Avankor staring at the ground in awe.
"What are you looking a¡ª"
Right then Lucius noticed it as well, the ground all around them had beenpletely purged of the necromancer''s decay. Tufts of purple grass poked through, tickling Lucius''s feet.
"This¡ this''ll work," Lucius whispered to himself before casting sr cleanse once more, this time at the maximum radius he could manage.
With that, a whole patch of purple dark grass appeared, and the necromancer''s decay shot back, as if it were being repelled.
"I think we can work with this. Turn off your cowl, we might need itter," Lucius ordered, before inspecting the grass beneath them.
In all the times he had been in the dark forest, he hadn''t once seen grass growing here, in fact he had never seen grass with this colour for that matter.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" he asked. Avankor seemed semi-ancient, so if there had been a time when grass like this existed in the far past, there was a chance he knew.
"No, vegetation this vibrant should not be growing in this section of the forest¡" Avankor replied hesitantly, as if something were bothering him.
"Well, it doesn''t burn my feet, so I''d say its safe enough," Luciusmented before walking forward.
"No, I mean this is unnatural¡ grass like this belongs in the Immacte Forest, not here," Avankor added, now caressing the grass with his hand, almost as if it were a long lost child
"I''m sure grass can grow anywhere," Lucius replied half-mindely, before casting sr cleanse again, creating even more purple grass.
"The curse¡ you''ve lifted it," Avankor whispered to himself before lying down in the grass, his eyes faraway.
Chapter 182 The Surface... Or What Is Left Of It Atleast (3)
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~Hmm... it seems sr cleanse is more than just a healing spell,~ Lucius thought to himself, noting down that he ought to do more thorough research on itter.
"It''s great that I can cleanse thend and all, but I doubt there''s anything edible here," he said out loud. ~And for some reason my sr reserves aren''t replenishing. it''s almost as if there''s no sunlight at all,~ he thought to himself, before looking up at the overcast sky.
There was a chance that the necromancer had figured out that his source of power was the sun, what with how it referred to it as radiant energy, so it was likely that this was one of its tricks.
"This is enough for today," Lucius decided after realizing that he would run out of sr reserves with a few more cleanses.
"Have you gotten everything you needed?" Avankor asked as he stood up from the grass.
"We''re both running low on energy, going any further will be too reckless," Lucius replied as he took a quick look around, "Any more exploration will require more thorough nning," he continued, before turning to head back towards the Chame Den.
The two managed to make it back to the cliff just as Avankor ran out of energy to keep his Mystic Mantle active. And after a perilous descent down the vine ropes, the two made it back to the entrance of the Chame Den.
"Wee back, Havon," one of the guards stationed at the entrance announced once he noticed Lucius approaching.
"Wee back, Lord Avankor," the guard said after, bowing with this greeting.
As they made their way back toward the main tunnels, the greetings were more or less the same. Though Lucius picked up something interesting after a few of them.
There were some who referred to him as Lord Havon, and others as just Havon. Though this should have otherwise just been a preference of title, he felt that it meant something deeper than that. Though he would need a little more information before he could just jump to conclusions.
"Can you get the king," Lucius asked one of the guards once he reached the tunnel that led to the congress room. Even though his memories from the first time he had visited the ce were still blurry, he remembered the room quite well, as its doors were decorated with interesting jewels.
Whilst they waited for Shavak, Lucius and Avankor entered the congress room and took a seat around the main table.
Lucius took an interest in the glowing blue rocks that lit up the rooms, inspecting them thoroughly as they waited. All the while, Avankor stared at him warily, afraid that he would remember what had happened the first time he was here.
That''s to say that he couldn''t use his mystic mantle right now, and if Lucius were to lose his mind it would probably result in theplete destruction of the den, as Avankor was certain that Shavak could not stop him alone.
"Havon," Avankor said out loud after the silence had gone on for some time.
"What is it?" Lucius asked half-mindedly, tapping at the glowing rocks as if they were some unconscious creature.
"How are you so... how do you have so much strength? I understand that you are... Havon, but the lines on your back show you are just a third tier creature. How is it that you are faster, and maybe even stronger than us who are fourth tier," Avankor replied, hesitant to admit that he was outssed.
"Oh that? Comparing yourselves to me would not be fair. I''m certain the strength I have transcends creatures many tiers higher than I am," Lucius began, before pausing thoughtfully. "Besides, I doubt that the tier systems are a measure of strength," he continued, now focusing his attention on Avankor.
"S-Surely you''re mistaken," Avankor replied, he had been around Lucius long enough to have developed some respect for thetter, but for someone to say this they had to either be ignorant of the system or insane.
"It''s well understood that lower tier creatures can easily be overpowered by higher tier ones. In fact, the Forest Council is built on this rule, those of higher tier have more right to the forest than those with lower tiers," Avankor exined.
"The Forest Council, huh? I''m guessing they''re the ruling body? Why haven''t theye to your aid then?" Lucius asked. This was the first he had ever heard of there being an organization of intelligent creatures in the forest.
~Perhaps after the Fae died off, their eldest children came together in an attempt to rebuild what was lost?~he thought to himself, though that was only a guess.
"The Council considers the necromancer... as you call the creature, to be one of the inhabitants of the dark forest. Its invasion is nothing more than a higher tier creature taking overnd to them. And since they believe it''s native to thesends, they believe it is within its rights," Avanokor replied.
"I see..." Lucius thought to himself.
He could understand where the council wasing from, after all making an organization that rules over creatures was a difficult task to begin with. These creatures had no rules against devouring each other, which made it tricky for the council toe to the aid of any one creature.
If all the creatures spent their days hunting each other, what was to discern an invasion on the necromancer''s level, to a king trying to feed his subjects?
~All the more reason to abolish the eating of other sentient creatures,~ Lucius thought to himself.
Though abolishing the consumption of creatures didn''t benefit higher tier creatures in any way, and was what probably stopped the Forest Council from passing such a rule to begin with.
"Anyway, all that aside. I think tier systems are a ranking of theplexity of a creature rather than how strong they are," Lucius continued.
"Many of my children are probably stronger than your best warriors, yet they are all second-tier creatures," Lucius began.
"Second tier? Then you mean the one that was fighting against the necromancer is not the same tier as you?" Avankor asked in clear disbelief.
~Is he talking about Alpha?~ Lucius wondered. Alpha was the only one they found, so it only made sense that he was referring to him.
"No, and even then, he isn''t the strongest of my children," Lucius continued exining. Although Alpha was probably the strongest in terms of raw strength, Ghost was faster and better at fighting, Hannibal could win in a fight if given time to n ahead, and Pagan was a beast at magic.
"Then does everyone in your den have ess to a mystic mantle?" Avankor choked, now standing in indignance.
"Mystic Mantle? No, only I do... why would you--" Lucius replied, confused about why Avankor would even ask that.
"Then was I mistaken?" Avankor whispered to himself. He had assumed that Alpha''s form had been another variation of a mystic mantle.
"Havon, you''re back," Shavak''s voice interrupted as he and several of his council members walked into the room.
"Have you brought back food?" one of Shavak''s council members interrupted.
"Shartrav, you embarrass the king in front of his guests," a familiar voice rebutted.
~Shaviki,~ Lucius thought to himself, staring at Shaviki''s cunning smile.
"Forgive my councilman, hunger has gotten the best of him," Shavak said, staring daggers at the councilman.
"Don''t be, I understand. Though I advise that all those whose minds will be affected by hunger leave the congress room. It''ll just hinder logical discussion," Lucius replied.
As he spoke he couldn''t help but notice that the councilmen seemed to stare at him with a mix between loathing and fear.
"And I advise that you not be so presumptuous, Havon," one of the older-looking council men rebutted, emphasizing the word ''Havon'' as if to imply something.
"You''re right, my apologies, Shavak," Lucius replied after some thought.
"Lord, Shavak," the older councilman added.
"A Lord need not refer to another Lord by title," Shaviki interrupted, to which dead silence filled the room.
~I knew it, there''s a divide over whether or not I am who I say I am,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing that a few people seemed to nod in agreement, while others just stared off into space angrily.
"And this bastard is taking advantage of it," he whispered to himself before nearly sighing. ~So it''s going to be one of these moments~ he thought, steeling himself for the long-winded political fights he was about to engage in.
"Shaviki is right," Shavak said after a while, breaking the silence. "Can everyone get to their seats. We have kept Havon waiting long enough," he continued, before silently making his way to his throne.
Chapter 183 Political Front
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Once all the councilmen had taken to their seats, which took some time as each of them seemed to be adamant about making themselves seen, Lucius stood up to begin his report.
"First, I''d like to report on what Avankor and I have discovered while we w-"
"Why is our guest the first to speak in the war room? And firstly is this even the ce for our guest to be reporting?" one of the council members interrupted, looking to several others for some sort of support.
"What?" Lucius couldn''t help but blurt out. There was no way in hell that these creatures were going to pull stunts like these when their entire popce could be wiped out at any moment.
"I understand that you are unaware of our ways, but as a guest, you should have to decency to wait and observe," the councilman continued with a sort of obviously-fake politeness.
"Or are we expecting too much from a third tier creature," he whispered to himself, earning a few nods from the councilmen seated closest to him.
"I see," Lucius whispered to himself, looking up at Shavak, who was currently covering his eyes in exhaustion.
"Then you may proceed," Lucius said, before sitting down.
"May the over-ruling councilor Shatrul please bring today''s discussion tomencement," one of the councilmen announced, before the eldest councilman stood up, and began bbering on about how grateful he was that everyone could make it here today.
"What''s going on here? Why hasn''t Shavak said a word since this started?" Lucius whispered to Avankor, as one of the other council members stood up and began summarizing what they had discussed the previous day.
"Kings are members of the council only as a matter of ceremony. The councils are a ce for pundits, those who excel at thinking. A king''s qualifications are only at fighting, their word has little value here," Avankor exined, feigning interest in what the current councilman was saying.
"Havon, will you refrain from speaking while a councilman is talking?" one of the councilmen at the other side of the table announced.
"Shavril, are you so stuck in your ways that you will not allow member pundits a discussion in the opening ceremony? Or are you iming that the word of Havon holds so little value that it need not be discussed before his presentation?" Shaviki shouted in response.
"I-I only ask that he keep his discussion to a minimum. We have little time on our hands, and his interruptions may dy us," Shavril replied.
"If time is what we need, then why not throw out ceremonypletely?" Shaviki pressed on, earning him dagger stares from many of his colleagues.
"Shaviki, hold your tongue! To throw out ceremony is to reduce ourselves to first tier creatures," one of the other council members jumped in.
"Then do notin about time when we seem to have so much of it," Shaviki replied before sitting down. Though most of the councilmen present were angry, there were a few who were nodding their heads in agreement with him.
As the councilman who had been talking before the interruptions continued his speech, Shaviki gave a nod toward Lucius.
It was obvious who was on Lucius''s side and who wasn''t.
~It''s everyone else against me,~ he thought to himself. It was clear that Shaviki and his backers were trying to gain something out of Lucius. But that wasn''tpletely a bad thing.
After nearly an hour of each councilman bringing up their own presentations -most of them talking about the issue of food, some about small scales issues like scuffles between different tribes within the den- it was now Lucius''s turn to present.
"I thank you all foring here today," Lucius started, mimicking exactly what the other councilmen had said before presenting. A few councilmen seemed bothered by this, perhaps they had been hoping to waste even more time.
"Earlier today, Avankor and I traveled to the surface, our findings are as follows; The necromancer haspletely covered the surface in a substance that causes a chilling burn effect. The necromancer''s army now has massive creatures that are currently in the process of constructing a city just several kilcks from here," Lucius began.
"From what I can tell, fighting those creatures is out of the question. I am unsure how far they can see, but they did not seem to be sentries and functioned only towards construction," he continued.
"We have found a way to clear thend of --" he was about to carry on before one of the councilmen raised an objection.
"There are terms there that we are not familiar with in your presentation. Please exin what construction, Klig... Kli...Klick? And senfies are? Or are these just made-up words," the councilman asked out loud.
"Piss dumb animals," Lucius shouted in English, leaving all the creatures confused. It felt odd enough having a conversation with talking animals, but their arrogance was what really pushed him.
"Construction is to build," Lucius began exining.
"Then why not just use that?" Another council member interrupted.
"Klicks are a measure of distance, much like how trees are used as a measure. I apologize for using that term," Lucius continued, ignoring the first remark.
"And sentries are specialized units trained to watch over territory," Lucius exined.
As he said this all the creatures nodded their heads in understanding, some of them in satisfaction even.
It seemed that they were academics at heart, even if they were unbearable pricks, they still admired learning about new concepts.
"I suggest that we form a team to head out towards the nnds to gather resources and properly survey the area," Lucius said once he was done with his presentation.
"How many teams have we sent out already? Should we not wait for them to return first?" one of the councilmen asked in an attempt to dismiss Lucius''s notion.
"Did you not listen to anything Havon said? The necromancer has made it impossible to traverse the surface, even if those men were to try ande back it would not be possible for them," one of Shaviki''s backers rebutted.
"Havon, you were mentioning that you found a way to clear thend. What exactly is it?" Shaviki asked.
The whole council room was now turned toward Lucius.
"This," Lucius said, before pulling out his crux.
Chapter 184 New Blood (1)
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All the councilmen visibly jerked at the sight of the crux, some of them even stumbling to run out the door.
"Everyone calm down," Shavak''s voice boomed, silencing themotion that had begun. "Havon, please exin," he continued.
"One of my spells purges the effects of the necromancer''s decay. I''m not sure why, but it seems the decay itself is like a sort of injury to the environment," Lucius replied thoughtfully.
"Which could mean that I can also purge the necromancer''s undead... we may not need to even fight these creatures to win," he continued, realizing everything just as it got out of his mouth.
"What? Are you saying that your spell is capable of healing?" Avankor asked, snapping Lucius out of his near trance-like realization state.
"Huh?" Lucius murmured, noticing that everyone in the room was looking at him as if he were crazy.
"Yes, it''s primarily a healing spell," he exined.
Silence.
"Could demonstrate this spell of yours?" Shaviki asked, the first to move a muscle among the others.
At this, Lucius used his ws to draw a line across his palm, causing sap to drip down from it.
~Sr cleanse~ he chanted silently, and with that, the wound began to slowly close.
Yet even still, silence filled the hall, some of the councilmen looked to Avankor as if in question,
"Havon, where did you learn this technique?" Avankor asked.
"That will be a difficult question to answer," Lucius responded.
"Can it be taught?" Avankor asked after some thought.
"Sadly it can only be taught to members of mymune," Lucius replied after some thought. It wasn''t as if he was lying anyway.
"Then all your children are capable of it?" Shavak asked this time.
"That is correct," Lucius replied, though not everyone could use it, it was true that they would be able to soon enough.
"Then it is a shame," Shavak whispered to himself.
"And why is that?" Lucius asked, to which Shavak froze for a moment before replying, "It is a shame that there are not here with you."
"H-Havon, if you don''t mind... my youngest daughter is ill. Could you try to using your powers on her?" It was one of the councilmen who had spoken against Lucius earlier, the irony of it all.
However he was not alone, it seemed that everyone in the room had at least one person that they wanted to be healed, including Shavak himself.
"How good is this spell?" Shavak asked, silencing the pleas that had filled the room.
"It isn''t the best spell I''ve seen, but it works for most injuries," Lucius responded, noticing the sadness in Shavak''s eyes.
"My wi--The queen has been ill for some time now. Would you mind having a look at her... of course I will pay you appropriately."
~I see, so that''s why I haven''t seen the Queen around here,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"If time allows us I''d be more than willing," Lucius replied.
~I can leverage this,~ he thought to himself, almost with a smile. With this, the people who sided with him versus those who didn''t would be tipped into his favor.
"My lord needn''t pay, let us not forget that we have already saved Havon from near-certain death," the oldest of the councilman said out loud.
~This one might need to die,~ Lucius thought to himself. He was showing to be too much of a hindrance to progress.
"Enough. Havon, you weren''t done with your presentation. You said you needed a team to head to the nnds," Shavak interrupted, his eyes still far away.
"I''ll need the fastest and strongest warriors you have. It''s mainly going to be recon to figure out viable hunting routes, but I also want to gather a few resources and some food," Lucius replied.
Though it would probably be faster if he went alone, he would need some men to be familiar with the routes, as he didn''t n on being a main part of this task force for long.
His main goal was to find safe routes toward the nnds, and from there find a way to the Immacte Forest to get all his children.
"That will be a problem," Shaviki replied. "Our fastest and strongest are still to return, the only warriors that remain are the inexperienced who have never been on a single hunt," he continued.
"Shaviki!" the oldest councilman shouted in indignation.
"Would you have me lie to him? You realize that if Havon falls in battle because of your petty pride then we are all done for, right?" Shaviki responded.
As unbearable as the old councilman was, Lucius could understand his annoyance with Shaviki. It was a little more than embarrassing to reveal that the den basically had no real warriors left and would have to relypletely on Lucius.
Though it was a good thing that Shaviki had exposed them, otherwise the warriors they would''ve appointed would cause the mission to fail.
"These inexperienced men, can I see them? Perhaps they can be trained?" Lucius asked.
"Trained? We cannot take them on hunts now, it''s too dangerous," Shavak replied, afraid that the young men of his den would also fall in battle.
"There are methods of training that do not require them to be on the ground," Lucius exined.
Shavak looked at him with an unconvinced expression, but still obliged to have them sent to Lucius.
"With that, we call this meeting to adjourn," the oldest council man announced after having given another ceremonious speech before everyone began exiting the room.
"You did pretty well for a fighter," Shaviki said as he moved towards Lucius.
"Shaviki," Lucius said in greeting. He couldn''t deny that today Shaviki had been the one to have his back today, but he couldn''t get past just how slimy he felt.
"Are you busy? There''s something I want to discuss with you," Shaviki replied, "In private if you don''t mind Lord Avankor," he continued, bowing politely to Avankor.
~This might be important,~ Lucius thought to himself. As much as he would''ve liked to escape the guy, he owed him at least this much.
"Perfect, follow me to my tunnel, we can discuss there," Shaviki said before leading the way,
As they walked through the tunnels, Luicus realized that none of the councilmen seemed to be going to the main cave. Each of them branched off towards another tunnel.
"You guys have your own private room?" Lucius asked.
"Yes, each council member is awarded a private room for them and their family. A thinking space... though I''m sure you understand what''s actually going on," Shaviki replied.
Chapter 185 New Blood (2)
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After a short walk through one of the several corridors within the area, the two arrived at Shaviki''s cave area.
"Wee to my quarters," he said with a sort of sarcastic grandeur, before drawing the leather curtain that acted as the door to his cave.
The inside of the cave was a rather crude space with nothing at all inside it, which proved even more that these creatures were very low in terms of technology and civilization.
Although they were at the level where they could create and maintain their own council, it seemed that luxury inventions such as beds, or even everyday furniture were not something that they considered. He had at least expected there to be a table and chairs like in the war room.
"I apologize again for being so forward," Shaviki said, with a distant look in his eyes, almost as if he were having an internal battle over what he was about to do.
This put Lucius on guard, even with the certainty that he could easily defeat him, he still moved a step back.
"A-Apologies, I didn''t mean to rm you. It''s just that what I''m about to ask is not an easy burden to put on someone. Especially you," Shaviki said, before walking towards the back of the cave and drawing another curtain that led into a smaller room.
"I would like to request you take my son as your apprentice," he requested, beforeing back with a child.
The child was just a little shorter than Shaviki, indicating that it was probably an adolescent. But besides that, it had quite peculiar features for a Chames.
It had unnaturally white skin, and was quite frail in appearance, even more so than the other starving children. Where all the other Chames'' had scales protecting their back, this one didn''t and instead had odd patterns that looked almost like symbols.
~An albino Chames? So gic disorders like that ur here too?~ Lucius thought to himself, before looking up at Shaviki.
"I greet you, Havon," the child said, a sort of defiant pride in its eyes. Almost as if the child was trying to challenge him in some way.
"My name is Zhayen," the child continued, before looking to Shaviki almost as if to ask ''did I do a good job?''
"What''s this about?" Lucius asked, now looking at Shaviki with a scrutinizing re.
"The den wants to kill him," Shaviki answered after a brief pause. Lucius only now noticed how tired Shaviki seemed, which was understandable what with him constantly being at battle with those old councilmen.
"Kill him? What crimes did hemit?" Lucius asked, his eyes still inspecting Shaviki.
"Some of the members believe that he''s a bad omen," Shaviki exined, before looking down at the child in sad defeat.
"My partner died birthing him," he whispered, his hands shivering slightly as he held on to his son''s shoulder. "He was bornst ''Cold Time'' the worst we''d had in a long time... though I suppose it''s going to be nothingpared to the oneing," he continued, before looking up at Lucius.
"There is no future for him here," he said finally.
It wasn''t surprising that this sort of discrimination was happening. After all, even an advanced race like humans were responsible for their fair share of this. Even after a civilized society was built, there were still some who held such beliefs.
"And him being my apprentice will stop them? Why don''t you speak to the king, he seems reasonable," Lucius countered. He felt pity for the kid, but his taking on an apprentice wasn''t going to be easy.
"The King has already done all he can. He speaks out against my son''s mistreatment, but Shavril has been manipting the people. He''s made them believe that if my son is thrown out of the den, we will be spared," Shaviki exined, with a sort of cynicalugh.
Lucius remembered Shavril as the old man who had been working against him during the meeting. He was an obstacle that had to be taken care of sooner orter, but after hearing about how much of a sway he had on the people of this den, it seemed he would have to be dealt with sooner rather thanter.
~Hmm, the question is, how much dirt am I willing to get on my hands to save this ce,~ he thought to himself.
"Look, I can''t give you a clear answer right now. Taking him as an apprentice will beplicated, someone as highly positioned as you should know that much. I''m only a guest her-" Lucius was about to respond before Shaviki interrupted with a sort ofugh.
"Havon, I mean no disrespect, but it''s clear to most that you''re here to take control of the den," Shaviki interjected. This left Lucius silent for a few moments.
It wasn''t an immediate intention of his to take over this ce. After all, he first nned on finding his children before he was even going to attempt properly help these people. So then where did Shaviki get that impression?
"It''s only been a day since they saw you, and already there are whispers of you seeding King Shavak," Shaviki said, before whispering something into his son''s ear, With that, his son took onest look at Lucius, before heading back to his room behind the curtain.
"Seed? Doesn''t he have a daughter, Shamir or something like that?" Lucius asked, in genuine curiosity. He had expected the rumors to be something like him usurping the throne, but for them to say he would seed it?
~Do these creatures not have a line of royalty like I thought?~
"A female cannot lead the tribe. ording to the council, the tribe must be led by a warrior, and the females of our race are born weaker than their male counterparts. The king had been nning to have her bound to Shavril''s son, the head hunter, but with you here, things may be different," Shaviki exined.
~Now it makes sense,~ Lucius thought to himself, realizing why the old man seemed so against him. All along it had been a race for the throne, of course, the old man wanted to make him seem as ipetent as possible.
"But still, I''m an outsider. The king wouldn''t trust me with his daughter," Lucius replied. Besides, he noticed the look Shavak gave him sometimes. It was a confusing sort of look, a mix between fear and aversion.
"But you are also Havon. To have his daughter mated with you will not only solve the throne problem but also mark our den as one of the most powerful in the future forest you will shape," Shaviki replied.
~Future forest?~
For a moment Lucius forgot about the role that he was currently ying. He had nearly forgotten about the lies he was feeding this nation. But even then, did they really believe he would be able to shape the entire forest?
He knew that his system would allow him to attain a monstrous amount of power, but he doubted even that would be enough. From the memories he had stolen from the necromancer''s right hand, he could tell that there were creatures far above anything he could possibly fathom.
The necromancer had enemies that made even him shudder at their names.
At best, Lucius was nning to create a small civilization, where he could give the lower-tier creatures in hismune the chance to change their fate. But to shape the entire forest?
"I see," Lucius murmured, his thoughts now shifting to the prospect of him being bonded with Shamira.
In all honesty, he had no valid reason to be against the idea. With him being put in as the natural leader, he would have a deeper tie to the people of the den. Meaning he would be in a good position to have them merge into hismune.
The only thing he had a problem with was the whole mating issue. Even if he was a non-human creature right now, he had to admit the prospect of sleeping with a chameleon-humanoid -regardless of how beautiful she seemed- itched him the wrong way.
And what else would be expected of him?
Would they want him to raise a child with her? That was something his mind wasn''t ready for. The torture he was subjected to by the necromancer had reopened old wounds. Wounds that if worsened could hamper the way he thought -even more than usual.
"Even with that in mind, there are other things I have to do first. My first priority is making sure my children are safe. Perhaps after we''vepleted the mission, and I''ve reunited with them, then I''ll be able to entertain the idea of participating in this game of thrones," he replied after some thought.
"Participating might not be your choice to make. But only time can tell," Shaviki replied, before escorting Luicus back to his room and saying his goodbyes.
Chapter 186 New Blood (3)
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The next morning, Lucius woke up very early to begin his own personal training. It would consist of three parts, a pure martial arts session, followed by magical research, and then closed off with a mixed session.
His prior fight with the necromancer had made it clear to him that humanbat didn''t use his new body to its full advantage. And although he was no genius martial artist, the creation of a new kind of martial art was in order.
~This type of fighting has to be well equipped to fight massive monsters, and also be well developed to counter magic specialists,~ he thought, whilst doing pushups. Even if they did nearly nothing to increase his stats, the familiar movement helped him think better.
~It should also be flexible enough to avoid bing obsolete as I growrger,~ he continued. In addition to that, he also had to ensure that it could be easily adapted to the different variations of evolution his children might go through.
Magic aside, ws and tails were things that humans did not have. So movements involving them were not a part of the martial arts Lucius learned, which served as a good ce to begin.
He would first try to mold his prior martial arts knowledge to better make use of his tail, ws, and fangs.
He also decided to adopt a more judo-like method of fighting.
He was insanely dense, which was made apparent by how well he could keep up with that shroom golem. So due to his high strength-to-size ratio, mming monsters to the ground would be very effective.
In addition to that, his poison would be easier to inject into his enemy''s body with his ws during grappling techniques.
With this in mind, he began his training. Of course, he didn''t manage to make any real breakthroughs. For now, he was merelyying the foundations, finding out what worked and what didn''t.
As he continued his martial arts training, an interesting idea came to mind.
Although Elmando was currently a weak skill, the strength with which the marked tree used it gave him hope that it might be crucial in the future. So if even slightly, he decided to add Elmando as an extension of the martial art.
For his magic section of training, he was limited to thinking of viable new spells to add to his arsenal. He couldn''t cast any, as he had no means of replenishing sr energy right now. So that meant, even the spells he thought up would have to remain theories until he got to the pristine forest.
~Hmm, this one might be good,~ he thought to himself, after having thought of another spell idea. This was the only one of the spells he had thought of that came even close to being viable.
It was a spell that could hypothetically inject sr energy into the ground. It would work simrly to how sr cleanse worked, but he would attempt to use his strange connection to the ground to feed it energy.
He had gotten the idea after thinking about how the necromancer''s decay zone must''ve worked. If he could create a sort of ''energy zone'' then perhaps reiming theirnds may be easier.
Though this was a crazy idea, the marked tree already did something simr. The area around its influence seemed to shine and even caused everyone with a core to recover energy at a faster rate.
After finishing off his training with the mixed session -which didn''t include any actual magic as he had to conserve his reserves,- he left his room.
One of the local creatures was waiting for him outside. ording to the Shayec, as he was named, he was to be Lucius''s retainer. Though this just made Lucius feel like they had put a watchdog on him.
"Yesterday I requested to see the potential warrior candidates of the den. Can you have them meet up at your training area?" Lucius asked.
"The warrior''s cave? Please wait here while I shall pass on your request," Lucius''s retainer said eagerly before quickly walking down one of the many corridors.
~So much for a watchdog,~ he thought to himself, before using his tail as a sort of seat.
After a short time, Shayec returned and led Lucius toward the warrior''s cave.
It was a massive space, almost as spacious as the war room, with embellishments, and trophies in the form of boar heads hung all along the walls.
Waiting in a single file were a few dozen young warriors, each of them having a sort of naive eagerness in their eyes.
"So you are this den''s next generation of fighters?" Lucius whispered to himself, before walking towards the center of the room. Once he was there, he noticed a small trench to the side of the cave that had several spears ced within it.
He retrieved one of the spears, before inspecting its build. Its shaft was made from wood, however, it was of inferior quality to even the wood he had used in his first camp.
~Well, I can''t me them. They can probably only make use of branches that fall off trees. I highly doubt they have the means to process wood otherwise,~ he thought to himself, before using his ws to nick the sharp part of the spear. It was a porcin white material, no doubt the sharpened bone of one of their meals.
Sadly, with a single strike, the brittle bone head snapped in half. The spears were a good show of their eagerness to advance, but Lucius couldn''t imagine these weapons being of much use against something like an arachnid which had an incredibly tough hide.
"Is something the matter, Havon?" one of the young warriors waiting for him asked. This prompted Lucius to turn his attention for a moment.
The young warrior was just a little taller than Lucius and had multiple markings on his body, simr to the markings on King Shavak.
"These weapons, who creates them?" Lucius asked, before cing the spear down.
"Those are the weapons my father secured for the den. He arranged a deal with creatures from the pristine forest," the boy replied, clearly proud of himself.
"Who''s your father?" Lucius asked, his interest piqued. If there was someone that had trade rtions with the pristine forest, perhaps it would make it easier for him to find his children.
"I am Shavtil, second born of Shavril," the boy replied proudly.
~Shavril, of course,~ Lucius thought to himself in exasperation. He was already having a headache thinking about having to talk to that old man.
Just then, someone entered the room.
"A-Apologies for beingte. It seems I was given the wrong information," a familiar voice called out.
"Zhayen," Lucius whispered, right before the albino Chames took his ce in line. It was clear from the way everyone shifted, that they held a sort of aversion to him.
"I did not think that you''d have the courage toe here. Well done," Shavtil congratted, before walking to stand next to him.
Lucius had to admit, he had beenpletely wrong about Shavtil''s character. He had been certain that Shavtil was the type to bully others.
"Now go bring me my cloak, I forgot it in my father''s cave," Shavtil said next.
Lucius hadn''t noticed it before, but it seemed all the young warriors here wore a small leather cloak over their shoulders. Which was likely more a show of wealth than anything else.
"Shavtil, I don''t know how it was before. But so long as I am training this group, I alone will give out orders," Lucius interjected, earning him a whispered insult.
Honestly, he wasn''t that bothered by it. After all, these were the equivalent of teenagers, spoiled ones at that. However, he couldn''t have members showing tant disrespect to him, without the needed respect, this group would never be able to function.
"Does anyone else here have a father in the council?" Lucius asked, to which everyone raised their hands.
~For fuck''s sake, I asked for all potential warriors. Not the spoiled pampered brand," Lucius sighed to himself, before looking to Shavtil.
"Okay, you, begin running around the room. Your hands should always be in contact with the wall. You will stop when I tell you to," Lucius said after some thought, before heading towards the door to correct this matter.
"W-what?" Shavtil asked in confusion.
"What, you didn''t hear me? I said to run around the cave until I say stop. If your hand isn''t always in contact with the wall then I''ll have you kicked out," Lucius added, now standing right in front of the doorway.
"I-Is this a punishment? My fathe-"
Before the child could even finish his sentence, Lucius mmed his fist into the wall, creating a small crater. Everyone in the room stood up straight at this, as if for the first time this morning paying proper attention.
Chapter 187 New Blood (4)
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"Zhayen, you do the same. Regardless of what your reasons are, this should be thest time you''re everte," Lucius added before leaving.
He knew that punishing Zhayen was unfair, as he had no doubt that his peers had given him the wrong information. However, this group was clearly undisciplined. If he left Zhayen without punishment, tomorrow one of the others might use it as an excuse.
After speaking to several of the guards, he was directed toward Shavril''s personal cave. Apparently, he was not only the most senior member of the council but also the overseer of the warrior n.
After walking for a while, he found himself standing in front of Shavril''s cave. Unlike Shaviki''s, this one had arge piece of wood acting as the door. Standing guard in front of it was a massive Chames, in fact, the biggest he had ever seen sinceing here besides Shavak.
"Is this Shavril''s cave?" Lucius asked.
"His Majesty is currently busy. Whatever business you have for him will have to wait," the warrior in front of the door answered dismissively, before acting as if Lucius wasn''t even there.
"His Majesty? Then is this Shavak''s ce?" Lucius asked in confusion.
"This is Lord Shavril''s cave. However he has ordered me to allow no one passage," the brute replied briskly.
"Tell him Havon is here to speak with him," Lucius said after a brief pause. Even if he wanted to question why this brute was referring to Shavril as a Lord, it wasn''t his ce so he let it go.
"Did you not hear me, outsider? Lord Shavril is bu-" As the brute said this his hand reached out to grab Lucius. Instantly, Lucius''s tailshed out, mming the brute into the wooden door, before picking him up and mming him into the ground.
~Now you''ve done it,~ Lucius sighed to himself. Although he now had a high level of control over his tail, it was still a sort of autonomous limb that acted in a way his subconscious saw fit. So in cases where things happened too quickly for him to think, incidents like this were bound to happen.
Whilst he poked at the brute''s body to check if it was still alive, he heard the wooden door slowly slide open.
"What''s going on here- You. What are you doing here?" Shavril asked, his voiceced with spite. Just as he was about toment on something else, he noticed his guard''s body lying on the ground, and his eyes shot open in odd realization.
"W-What''s the meaning of this? Have youe to kill me?" he stuttered, already taking a few steps back.
"What? No, this was just a mistake. Now help me get him inside, we can''t just leave him out here," Lucius replied, before attempting to pick the brute up. Even though he had the strength to do it alone, he wasn''t big enough to get a proper grasp on the creature without injuring it.
However, Shavril simply stared at Lucius incredulously for a moment before replying; "I cannot allow this brute to rest in my chambers. Have one of the other guards carry him back to themoner''s area."
Lucius couldn''t believe the tant elitisming from this old man''s mouth. At least back on Earth the people were subtle with it, though he supposed he couldn''t expect much from these creatures.
"Now tell me what you want, before I report you for attempting to take my life," Shavril said, now a little more confident. However, it was evident that he was still scared due to the fact he was standing as far as conversation etiquette would allow from Lucius.
"The young warriors I asked to be brought to me-" Lucius began, before Shavril interrupted.
"What? Have you realized that you are incapable of training warriors?"
"No, I came to ask why only spoiled brats were brought to me when I asked for every willing young warrior in the den. Are there no young ones from the moner''s area'' that want to be trained as well?" he asked.
"What? You want those people to be warriors? Look, I understand you are an outsider, so you do not know how things work around here," Shavril replied with a condescending smile.
"The only members of the den who can be warriors are those whose parents were warriors. Otherwise, the quality of our warrior n would be rubbished," he continued on to exin.
Even if it was a rather crude practice, Lucius could see what they had been trying to do when they passed that rule. Multiple generations of warriors would result in a new breed that was gically superior to everyone else in terms of hunting.
However, that was based on an environment where technology did not exist. With proper training and adequate equipment, even those from other families would have the chance to be viable warriors.
Though he now understood how someone as massive as Shavak came to be. He was probably the result of many strong warrior generations, a miracle amongst even this superior gic pool.
"If that''s the case, then why is your son in the n?" Lucius asked after some thought.
"Because his father served in the warrior n," the old man replied with a grin.
Lucius was honestly taken aback by this. But he could sort of see it now, below all the worn-out scales, and wrinkled skin was a very good build. Even in his old age, his muscles still looked well developedpared to most of the people he had met in the moner''s area''.
"Then I think that rule must be revised. We need as many able-bodied members as possible. And I''m not even sure I''ll be able to turn that pack of spoiled donuts into actual warriors," Lucius shot back.
"Do-donut?" Shavril asked in genuine curiosity, before visibly deciding he didn''t actually care. His confusion was slowly reced by another condescending smile.
"Even the king cannot help you here. This was aw passed by those before us, nobody has the authority to change them. However, you can bring it up at the meetingter today," Shavril replied, his smile growing only wider.
Lucius could tell that Shavril would turn this against him in the war roomter, but he still had to try. If these people could not understand, even at a time like this, then perhaps he would be better just leaving them to die.
After getting some guards to take the brute he had beaten up to rest somewhere else, he went back to check on his new trainees.
When he got back, he found Zhayen still runningps, whilst Shavtil and the others sat at the center sharing stories.
~I expected as much,~ Lucius thought to himself, before rushing into the room. The moment the children noticed him, Shavtil fumbled to get up and begin hisps. However, even he realized that it was toote when he saw Luicus shaking his head in disappointment.
"Zhayen, you may stop. Stand up straight here until I instruct otherwise," Lucius ordered.
Zhayen''s entire body shook as he struggled to stand where Lucius had directed him to. And try as he may, he was simply too exhausted to stand properly.
~Perhaps that was too much for him? He is pretty frail after all,~ Lucius thought to himself, before touching him on the shoulder. He silently cast sr cleanse, and with that, Zhayen''s entire body glowed before slowly subsiding.
As the light went out, so did all his exhaustion. His once-pained face now looked like he had just woken up.
"D-Did you do someth- Thank you Havon," the boy stuttered, bowing, before standing at attention.
~You raised a good boy Shaviki,~ Lucius thought to himself, before turning to the others. They were still visibly stunned at what had happened to Zhayen, so much so that they seemed to forget the trouble they were in.
"Everyone except Zhayen and Shavtil, start running," Lucius announced, snapping them out of their daze.
Many of the other trainees began raising objections, wondering why they were being punished. To which Lucius simply replied; "Maybe next time you will not allow your teammate to go against orders."
Although the trainees were still not content with that answer, they began doing theirps. Many of them learned from Shavtil that even whispers would not go unheard around their new trainer.
"A-And what about me?" Shavtil asked awkwardly, for the first time his demeanor wasn''t that of a prideful brat.
"You? You can do what you want. After all, you are no longer a part of this team," Lucius replied before turning to Zhayen.
Chapter 188 New Blood (5)
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"Do you mean for the day? I-I don''t understand?" Shavtil asked, before moving closer to Lucius.
"No, I mean for good," Lucius replied dismissively, before turning back to Zhayen. He was interested in what sort of training Zhayen and the others had been receiving before this, if even at all.
"The old warriors didn''t really let us train. Before they left, we weren''t even allowed in this room," Zhayen exined, side-eying Shavtil who looked like he would blow a fuse at any moment.
Lucius however paid him no attention and continued questioning Zhayen about his training history. He had to get a sense of their current level before he could create a n of action
After all, it would be easier to train someone who already had a regimen, than aplete beginner. However, strength and stamina aside, he was also interested in the kind of discipline they had cultivated. He was well aware that one of the main issues with training young people was theirck of discipline.
And sadly these young children were this den''sst hope. He was almostpletely certain that the older warriors who had left the den were already dead, it was a sad truth, but a truth nheless.
"What then? Are you saying that I won''t be a warrior?" Shavtil asked, anger souring his voice.
"I didn''t say you won''t be a warrior. You can find someone else to train you, just not me," Lucius replied without so much as looking at him, before instructing Zhayen on how his training would go from now on.
Since Zhayen was frailer than all the others, he would have to take things slower. So Lucius instructed him to run a fewps every morning, and every night to get his stamina up. After a few days, he would increase the intensity and variety of training. But for now, he wanted to test whether Zhayen was disciplined enough toplete his task without being watched.
"Just who do you think you are?" Shavtil whispered angrily from behind Lucius beforeing even closer.
Seeing this, Lucius decided to turn around. He would''ve liked it if the kid had just run away and cried to his father. But it seemed that he had some spunk in him.
"Shavtil, what exactly are you trying to do," Lucius asked. It was a bit of an odd sight as Chames were a generallyrger species than Lucius, so even as an adolescent, Shavtil had to look down to meet Lucius''s eyes.
"You''re just an outsider. What say do you have in who bes a warrior or not?" Shavtil shouted as he balled his fists.
"And what are you going to do? Hit me?" Lucius asked with a cold smile. In that instant, it felt as if the entire room had been filled with ice. The vacant look in Lucius''s eyes was now more apparent, it was as if his eyes were made of ss.
For a moment his mask slipped away. The mask he had created for the sake of ying the role of ''Saviour''. The same one he used to bottle up the negative emotions he had umted during the past few events.
"I- My father will hear about this," Shavtil stuttered after a brief moment of shock. A little embarrassed, he looked at Zhayen for a moment before storming out of the training area.
"Will it really be okay to let him go?" Zhayen asked, staring as Shavtil left. To which Lucius just sighed in response.
~This ce is tiring.~
After all the others finished their punishment as well, Lucius began taking down their respective levels of training. Although these kids were spoiled, Lucius couldn''t say they weren''t serious about bing warriors.
Some of them had apparently been training during their own free time. As most of them had older brothers already in the main warrior n they had been receiving a few pointers.
After considering their respective levels of training, he began prescribing regimens for each of them. At most, it was a short run around the den before sleep, with additional workouts such as push-ups and pull-ups -which he demonstrated ordingly.
Once the ss was over, he headed towards the main encampment where themon folk of the den lived. He had a n which demanded he at least have a rough idea of the den''s tunnelworks.
The problem was finding a suitable method to aplish this. Relying on his memory wasn''t exactly the most optimal practice.
So as a result, he smashed arge piece of earth from one of the walls, before using brute force to shape it into a sort of stone tablet.
After this, he used his tail to hold it out as he marked out the area from the start of the underground river, towards the rest of the camp.
"Havon?" an elderly voice called out as he was working. It was an old Chames wearing a decorated leather cloak. The two exchanged greetings as Luicus pondered on what section of governance the old man was from. After all, the cloak was very different from the type used by the high council members.
"I am Sherlin, one of the King''s pundits. We met just a few days ago," the old Chames exined, before gesturing towards his tail.
It took Luicus a moment to realize what he was asking for.
"Ah, this? I''m marking out the territory. It''s called a map where I''m from," he exined, before inviting the old man to walk with him.
"A map? I assume this is used to find your way in case you get lost?" Sherlin asked in a thoughtful tone. From the way he was inspecting the rock, Lucius could tell that he had a hunger for knowledge.
"That''s partially true. But rather I use it for nning. It helps to have a rough idea of the environment you n on working in," Lucius exined, as he marked another one of the branch tunnels within the den.
"Hmm, I remember you spoke of something simr thest time we met. Although I cannot say I fully understood what you were talking about, I think I may have something that can assist you," Sherlin said in a musing tone.
Although Lucius didn''t have much faith in what the old man was saying, he decided to follow the man as he needed a break anyway. The old man led him to one of the deeper branches of the den, before entering a small cave area.
"These are my living quarters," Sherlin exined, before walking towards a pile at the corner of the room. It was a whole mess of different misceneous items, among them were; boar horns, a few odd-looking bones, and several herbs of different kinds.
After scrummaging through it for some time, he came back with what seemed like a thin piece of tea-brown leather.
"And what does this do?" Lucius asked, as Sherlin handed over the odd leather.
"Try scratching it," Sherlin replied expectantly. As Lucius trailed his w on the piece of leather, careful not to slice it in half, a blue line appeared on the parts he had applied pressure to.
~Is this.. paper?~ Lucius thought excitedly. He had once considered inventing paper whilst he was setting up hismune, however, he hadn''t expected to find something this convenient already here.
"Have you guys recorded anything using this?" he asked. It would''ve been a lot of help if they had old records about the legends of Havon, even more, if they had anything on magic as well.
"Recorded?" Sherlin asked in a thoughtful tone.
~Of course,~ Lucius realized with a sigh. There was no way that a third-tier society had a form of writtennguage. At best, he could expect a few caves drawing from them, but from the clearck of them in the den, it was clear they didn''t even have that much.
~Hmm, perhaps...~ Lucius realized suddenly, before opening his system window and calling on the [Language Encylopedia].
After studying the list ofnguages it had recorded for a short time, he decided to select the ''Reptilian Tongue'' option as it was the only one that fit the description of thenguage these creatures spoke.
A momentter a system notification came up.
[Creation of Advanced Language base will require [50,000 evo points]. Proceed?]
50 000 evo points was the equivalent of 5 million helios, which was nearly half the helios he had umted thus far. After thinking it over, he decided that he would just cultivate them again once he reunited with hismune. He had to make use of any advantage he had at his dispense -who knew if he would be able to use themter?
[5,000,000 Helios has been depleted,]
The transaction left him with just above 4 million helios. However, on the upside, he now had a documented encyclopedia of the Reprilian tongue. For now, the only information it had pertained to its basic alphabet. However, there was also something interesting alongside that information.
[Absolute Language Base: 5/100]
Chapter 189 [Bonus ]History Lesson
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After inspecting the new feature for a while, making sure that he exhausted every aspect of it, he came to hypothesize a few things.
For one, he noticed that although the full alphabet was here that alone wasn''t enough exin why the system referred to it as a Language Base. He could only assume that there would be more toe as he continued using it. Which would exin why there was a meter.
Though he still wondered what counted as progress. Was continuously using thenguage all that was required of him?
"Havon? Is something the matter?" Sherlin asked, now growing a little concerned due to Lucius''s long silence.
Lucius stared at Sherlin for a while, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"There''s a saying where I''m from," he began, before scribbling something on one side of the piece of leather.
"And what do they say?" Sherlin asked in response.
"Nothing in this world is ever truly free," Lucius replied, before handing the piece of leather over to Sherlin.
Sherlin inspected the writings for a few moments, before looking at Lucius in defeat. "What is this?" he asked.
"An alphabet, interesting isn''t it?" Lucius replied, before briefly exining the most basic of basics. Thisnguage in particr waspletely phic, which meant that exining how to sound letters would more or less give a grasp of reading thenguage.
Now by no means did this imply that Sherlin immediately understood how to read. Although he caught on rather quickly to the concept as a whole, remembering the sounds certain characters made would require more time. In fact, it would take even more time for him to be able to im literacy.
Though from the short time that Lucius tried to teach him, he could tell that the elderly Chame was very passionate about learning this. He would even mumble about how useful it would be, and how his name would go down in the history of Chame pundits.
Of course, Lucius could understand the excitement, even if he wasn''t a schr himself. As anti-climactic as this was, it would go down in history as the first version of writtennguage for this den, and perhapster even hismune.
"So then does this have something to do with your earlier saying?" Sherlin asked, a satisfied expression on his face. He held the piece of leather as if his life depended on it and Lucius was nearly certain that he wasn''t going to be getting it back.
"You pundits are supposed to be the greatest sources of knowledge in this den right?" Lucius asked, before leaning back, using his tail as a sort of stool.
"Th-that is correct," Sherlin replied hesitantly.
"Then tell me what you know about the Pris- I mean Immacte Forest," Lucius asked.
A short silence ensued, indicating to Lucius that this exchange of information was not something that the council allowed.
After all, even with their low level of advancement, every civilization held information to a high degree. Even cavemen wouldn''t share their hunting spots without getting something in return.
Lucius could tell by Sherlin''s expressions that it was an intense internal battle. But a few nces at the Alphabet was all it took for him to eventually cave in.
"Hmm, where do I begin?" Sherlin began.
"The Immacte Forest is a region controlled by the Forest Council. A council created by the most powerful mid-tiers in the forest," he exined, his eyes looking at the wall as if searching for the information.
"You see, there was a time when the First descendants of the Fae, the tenth tiers, ughtered and consumed the rest of us until there were nearly none of us left. Young as you are, I''m sure you understand that Power means everything in this forest," he said, a pitying look on his face.
"The strongest of us, the ninth tiers, led a rebellion against them. You''d think that the sheer number of our forces should''ve been enough to overwhelm them," he said with a sarcastic smile on his face.
"But they didn''t. ording to the Pundits before me, those of us that survived the war came here. The more powerful creatures founded the Immacte Forest, shaping thendscape with magic," he exined, his eyes staring so dreamily at the wall that it seemed like he was really staring at the Immacte Forest.
"And the rest of us were left to fend for ourselves, denied both a ce and representative in the council. They im that Tier 6 is a minimum requirement, but they won''t even allow Shavak a ce in the council till this day," Sherlin spat, disdain clear in his voice.
Lucius took a moment to digest this information. It was a little different from what he was expecting.
For one, he hadn''t expected infighting between the creatures of the forest. He knew that rtions wouldn''t really be that good what with some creatures hunting each other, but at worst, he had expected a few skirmishes, not a full-out war.
~Besides, where do humans fit in this equation? If they wiped out the Fae shouldn''t they be defacto leaders?~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Then the huma- I mean the owners of the forest. Where do they stand in all of this?" he asked.
"The owners of the forest do not interfere with us forest creatures. I remember during myst visit to the Immacte Forest there was talk of trade with the owners. However it has been long since, and there are no other tales of them," Sherlin replied, straining as he tried to remember.
Lucius found it odd that the humans of this world were satisfied with such a small portion of the forest. Especially since the ce was so abundant in natural resources.
~Are the humans of this world just not that greedy?~ he thought to himself. Because if it were the same humans he was familiar with, the entire forest would''ve be real estate by now.
~Or is it because the tier 10 creatures pose too much of a threat?~
It was hard to determine who was more powerful.
The humans had wiped out the fae, who were more powerful than the tier 10s, but then again the humans had clearly employed some form of foul y to achieve this.
Whatever the case, both of them were potential antagonists to the growth of hismune. With time hismune would evolve to be entirely tier 10 - if the system allowed- but he doubted the tier 10''s would wee them with open arms.
Especially since he was iming to be Havon, the savior of the low tiers. As he was still deep in thought, he heard shoutinging from one of the corridors outside.
Confused, he and Sherlin slowly made their way to where the shouting wasing from and found all the guards running toward the main tunnel.
"What''s going on?" Lucius called out to one of the guards that were running ahead of them.
"The warrior chief and the others have returned," the guard shouted back, before running on.
Chapter 190 Return Of The Chief
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~They''re back?~ Lucius thought to himself in disbelief. "But that''s not possible, how did they get through the necromancer''s decay?~ he pondered. It wasn''t making much sense, so after saying his goodbyes to Sherlin he followed the guards.
There was a very real possibility that the necromancer had sent illusions here to deceive the members of the den. After all, if it had managed to send him to a mindscape, then it may very well be capable of creating illusions as well.
After running for a short while, he noticed a crowding into view toward the end of the main tunnel. The civilians murmured whispers of pity and despair as they swarmed whatever it was that deserved this much attention.
"What''s going on here?" Lucius asked as he tried to get through the crowd.
Those members that noticed it was him whispered words of respect before parting to let him through. In this way, he managed to make his way to the front, where he found Shamira staring at the scene in front of her with tears in her eyes.
"Good god," Lucius whispered in disbelief.
In front of him and Shamiray Five Chames warriors, the biggest he had ever seen besides Shavak. Their bodies were covered in tar-ck rashes that excreated an unpleasant purple fluid. The fluid itself released a rather sour smell, which was only intensified by Lucius''s evolved senses.
All but one of the warriors groaned in pain, and from the markings on that particr warrior, Lucius could tell it was the chief.
"-Princess, I think this is my end," Lucius heard the warrior groan, his voice so soft it was almost a whisper.
Whilst he pondered whether or not to use his sr cleanse to heal them, he questioned how they hade to be in this state.
~Did they just walk through the decay zone? Was that seriously the level of thinking their chief warrior could manage?~ he thought to himself hesitantly. It was difficult to believe that someone in such an important position could make such crude decisions. By this point, Shavak, Avankor, and a few members of the council had arrived as well.
Shavak and the council members stared in silent shock, unable to even fathom what the group could''ve gone through to fall victim to such wounds. Avankor however, having seen decay firsthand, wasn''t so surprised.
"We have to get him to the pod," Avankor said, already walking past Lucius to pick up the ailed warriors. However, that wasn''t wise.
"Don''t touch them. The decay could spread to you too," Lucius warned, before removing his crux. The crowd was in awe at the sight of the tennis ball-sized sun, as it zipped toward the warriors, before letting out a burst of light.
With that, the decay on the warriors began to disappear, until eventually even their wounds were gone.
It had been a while since Lucius cast spacial sr cleanse, so he had forgotten just how much of a toll it put on him. Healing all five of them hadpletely drained him, in fact, his fatigue was so intense that he nearly lost his footing.
"Y-You can heal even this much?" Avankor asked in stupefied awe.
"They''ll need some time to recover their energy," Lucius replied, noticing that all of them seemed to have fallen asleep right after their treatment.
"I think I myself need some rest," he whispered, a gnawing thought already guing his mind.
With the exhaustion of his sr reserves came a new urgency. There was a need for him to replenish them as soon as possible as it was too risky to stay long without them. Especially when the den was so deep in necromancer territory.
"Havon, King of the Sun," one of the Chames in the crowd whispered.
Lucius looked toward where the whisper hade from, surprised by the suddenness of it. ~King of the Sun? You''d think Pagan was here,~ he thought to himself, a little sad at the remembrance of his child.
However soon after someone else whispered it, and shortly after that another, until nearly everyone was chanting it.
Lucius was surprised at this, there seemed to be more people on his side now than just a few days ago. However, just as Lucius would''ve expected, those councilmen who supported Shavril remained silent. Though the clear awe in their eyes betrayed their intention.
In spite of all the chanting, Lucius paid more attention to Shavak. His people were calling someone else a king right in front of him. No doubt it was going to cause some sort of friction between the two of them.
However, it seemed Shavak was lost in thought, with a sort of confusing expression on his face. It was an expression Lucius often saw on Pagan when he performed magic. Though he doubted that Shavak and Pagan could even share simr thoughts.
"Who are you?" a voice called out from behind him, as he was about to speak to Shavak.
It was the chief warrior, and from the way he stretched his words, it was obvious he was running on fumes.
Shamira had himid on herp, with tears of joy on her face. It was obvious to Lucius that these two were more than just friends.
"Havon," Lucius replied after some thought before the chief passed out from exhaustion.
**
The warriors were taken to Avankor''s healing pod to run a quick check-up. It seemed that the fluid he used was quite effective at confirming the health status of those ced inside it. Something that Lucius nned to examine himself when he got the time.
Whilst he waited for the warriors to wake up, he decided to finish his map. Sherlin had 10 pieces of leather simr in size to the first he had shown Lucius, meaning that he could create even more maps for separate missions.
However, it was still a priority to secure more of them. If not more for hismune than this one.
After he finished his map creation, he decided to take a rest before he and other members of importance were called to the war room. Apparently, the chief warrior had awakened and wanted to share what he had seen.
As everyone was taking their seats around the table, the chief walked in with Shamira behind. This seemed to please Shavril as he had a satisfied grin on his face.
"I greet you wise Advisors," the chief began, the whole time staring straight at Lucius. "Ie back to the den a failure, the hunt did not bear fruit. Ten warriors were lost in this hunt... good warriors" he continued, now breaking eye contact.
"Forgive me chief warrior, but can you go more into detail? Eh- for record''s sake," Sherlin asked. It seemed he was already making use of words and concepts Lucius had taught him.
The chief warrior remained quiet for a moment, it was clear from his expression that the ordeal he had undergone was not one he''d like to remember.
Chapter 191 What Was Learned
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"Shortly after we left the den, our team was attacked by those creatures. Five warriors were ughtered before we even had the chance to react, and even then only the fastest of us were able to escape," the chief began after some time.
"Those of us that escaped decided to flee to the Immacte Forest. Returning meant putting the location of the den at risk, so we decided to take our chances with the Council," he continued, his face scrunching up into a sort of sad anger as he said this.
"When we finally got to the Immacte Forest, we found a wall of trees awaiting us. The guards stationed there told us that a neww had been passed," he added, his sad anger now changing to one of defeat.
"They have banned all lower forest dwellers from crossing the wall. When we tried to request a talk with the council members, they attacked us. They''ve trapped us in here with these monsters. They act as if we are no different from those mindless creatures," the chief continued, a tinge of anger in his tone.
~All lower forest dwellers?~ Lucius thought to himself. He pondered what that would mean for his children. With this neww, there was a good chance that they would be kicked out.
However, there was also a chance that they were still there. Pagan and the others could use magic, if need be they could''ve shown their abilities to survive.
~But knowing those idiots...~ he thought, realizing that none of them would show the gifts he had given them. Perhaps Hannibal would push for such an event as it would ensure the highest chance of survival, but Lucius doubted that Pagan would allow him. And as for Ghost, he just couldn''t see her staying still while he was still missing, so he doubted that she was even with them.
Still, the uncertainty caused by this neww angered him. It was almost as if they were doing all this to purposefully cripple this side of the forest.
There was no reason for them to prolong this war. If they had arge number of higher-tier creatures, they could''ve easily ended this war when the necromancer had first shown to be an aggressive threat. Or at least that was Lucius''s line of thinking.
~Are they underestimating the heights that the necromancer could reach?~ he thought to himself whilst the chief continued giving his report.
~No, even they should be able to tell that he''ll eventually be too powerful to stop. So then why is thergest organization of forest creatures passing aw that would effectively mean the execution of all lower forest dwellers...~ he thought to himself in slow realization.
Now that heid it all bare, their intentions were beginning to seem more clear; The denial of lower-tier creatures from the council, their not sending help when the initial war began, and finally, this neww being passed. ~They''re hoping the necromancer will wipe us all out... but why?~
Food-wise, this didn''t make any sense. An extinction threat at this level would leave nothing for them to feed on. And besides the food factor, they would be losing important foot soldiers, which would mean an utter loss for them in the event of another war with tier 10s.
~What exactly are they so afraid of that they''d be willing to lose this much for?~ he pondered. In reality, he already knew the answer to that question, though it was still too early to be drawing conclusions.
One thing was clear though, the Immacte Forest as well as their council were now enemies. An organization that selfish shouldn''t have been allowed to be put into existence.
~For my children, and those I will call family in the future, I''ll destroy this council. And ughter anyone who aids their rule,~ he decided to himself, his eyes staring nkly like the crevices to a dark void.
"I apologize for interrupting, but how far does the decay spread?" he asked, interrupting the chief''s report.
The members of council looked to each other in surprise for a moment, before Shavril stood up, no doubt in an attempt to make Lucius look foolish.
"Shavril, you''ll do well to sit down. If you want me to leave your den, speak now and I''ll be out of here. But if you value even a bit of the fighting chance I give this den, then sit," Lucius warned in a cold tone.
"Now chief, where did you and your team firste into contact with poisonous earth?"
He suspected that it couldn''t have been too far out if the chief and his men managed to survive. After all, willpower could only get them so far.
"It stretches as far as the green forest. We had to use mushrooms we had collected from the nnds to travel most of the distance. But even then, the ground sapped all the life out of all of them before we were halfway here," the chief exined.
~Perhaps there''s hope for them,~ Lucius thought to himself. It was unexpectantly inventive of them to use mushrooms to traverse, a standard he had not expected from them at least.
"Wait, does that mean the decay hasn''t spread to the nnds?" he asked next.
The chief nodded his head in response.
"Wait, does that mean it remains free of the necromancer''s rule?" Lucius asked after. The chief looked confused for a moment, before realizing what Lucius could be referring to.
"The area is currently engaged in many fights. It seems the shroom golems are giving them difficulty," the chieftain replied.
~The golems huh? They may be useful in winning this war,~ Lucius thought to himself.
As the rest of the chief''s report went on, there was a cold silence within the room. In fact, a few members seemed to have trouble breathing.
It was only after he noticed Shamira staring at him with a petrified expression did he realize he was letting off too much intent. After all, these were still wild creatures, they could sense when something may be a threat.
Chapter 192 Back To The Clan-Lands (1)
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After noticing this, he tried to calm himself down. With some time, the others began to rx as well, until only a few of them were left staring at him; most of them being backers of Shavril.
Once the report was over, and everyone was returning to their posts, Lucius called Shavak, Avankor, and the chief to the side.
"Shamira, I will speak to youter," the chief said to Shamira, who seemed content on being a part of the discussion. However, from the serious expressions on everyone''s faces, she could tell that this wasn''t the time for debate.
"So why have you called us here... Havon?" the chief asked, a skeptical tone in his voice as he pronounced ''Havon''.
"I n on going to the surface tomorrow morning. I''ll need you toe with me since you''re more familiar with the path to the nnds. Avankor, you''lle with us as well since your mantle can act as a nket against the decay," Lucius replied after some thought.
The chief seemed shocked, perhaps at the tone that Lucius was using whilst speaking in the presence of two kings.
However, Lucius didn''t care in the slightest, he was done with the political nonsense. The number of enemies they had to fight against had doubled over thest few minutes, enough time had been wasted already.
"Why the nnds? What do you seek there?" Shavak asked after a moment of silence had passed.
"If the golems are fighting against the necromancer''s forces, we need to extend an offer of alliance," he replied.
"We''ve already tried allying with the golems. The behemoth tribes only respect power, and to them we are but pests," Shavak exined.
Lucius took a moment to think about this, before staring Shavak in the eyes.
"Power? If power is the only thing they understand, I myself can be quite fluent at it," he replied finally.
During the rest of their discussion, it was decided that they would leave after all of them had rested. Of course, Shavak would have to remain, his duty as king superseding any notable role he could y in the mission.
After they were finished, Shavak and Avankor left in a hurry, apparently having other matters to discuss.
"Are you really Havon?" the chief asked, just as Lucius was about to leave.
Lucius stopped for a moment, his back turned to the chief.
"I healed you, didn''t I? I''m as real as Havon will ever get," he replied, before continuing on his walk back to his room.
That night was the first of many nights he would spend nning the downfall of thergest organization on this side of the forest. Some of the tactics that came to mind were so inhumane that he questioned his sanity. Though he wasn''t surprised since his mind was still in tatters, after all, the scars that infested it were still fresh.
*
The next morning, the three of them met up at the exit and began their ascent. Just as before, Lucius felt a strange presence staring at him from the murky waters of the Nightmare Forest, though he was wise enough to stare back too long.
Once they were at the surface, Avankor called on his mystic mantle, and the group began their travels. It was a race against time, as Avankor couldn''t keep his mantle up forever, so they had to find a bnce between stealth and speed.
Avankor and Lucius were speed devils in their own right, however, the chief was but a normal forest creature so they were forced to move at a slower speed than either of them would''ve liked. However, the chief proved to carry his own weight as they directed them past necromancer camps he had seen on his way to the den.
The camps were pits of purple soup, from which new undead were spawned nearly every minute. Seeing this made Lucius realize just how powerful the necromancer was, in fact, it was as if the necromancer himself had a sort of cheat system.
"I don''t think I can hold out much longer," Avankor whispered hoarsely, a fatigued expression on his face.
His mystic mantle now only stuck to a few parts of his body, and even the nket he had cast on the ground was beginning to let a lot of holes through.
"How much longer can you go on?" Lucius asked. He knew he was pushing it, but so long as they could get into the nnds, and out of necromancer territory, he was certain he could protect the group alone.
"Maybe a few more trees, but no more than ten," Avankor replied.
From what the chief told them, apparently there were about 100 trees away from the nnds, meaning they would have to walk through decay for the rest of the journey.
Using branches to protect themselves would''ve been a viable option, if not for all the vegetation being covered in decay. To add onto that, his reserves werepletely drained, so there would be no more get-out-of-jail-free cards this time around.
"Will you be able to run?" Lucius asked. At first, Avankor nodded his head, before rethinking and slowly shaking it in the negative.
Anyway, it wasn''t as if Lucius had expected he''d be able to.
"Once your mantle runs out, both of you get on me," he said after some thought. Both the chief and Avankor stared at Lucius as if he were insane.
"Trust me, it''ll be okay," Lucius added, before wrapping his tail on his back and creating a sort of circr shape with it.
Once Avankor had reached his limit, Lucius got on all fours and asked the two to get on. After a moment of hesitance, Avankor took a step onto the circr tform Lucius''s tail made and sat atop with crossed legs.
He was big enough topletely fill the space, with his knees poking out on either side. Seeing that there wasn''t any space, he picked the chief up and put him on his back.
The chief had an embarrassed look on his face, after all, even as an adult creature, he was being handled like he weighed nothing.
As Lucius began moving, Avankor sat in silence, a skeptical look on his face as his mystic mantle began topletely disintegrate.
Once Lucius touched the decayed floor, a chilling burn began to gnaw at his hind legs and hands. And for a moment, he faltered... but that was all.
Chapter 193 Back To The Clan-Lands (2)
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Avankor''s face turned from one of skepticism, to one of shock, then to one of understanding. He seemed to be thinking; "Of course, this is Havon after all." And even after they had trekked a good distance, the look of surprise never left his face.
By this point the decay had spread to Lucius''s shoulders, however, he did not seem to decrease in speed at all. It was almost as if he felt no pain.
But that was furthest from the truth. The pain was there, gnawing at him, constantly tempting him to copse and scream out in pain. What kept him going were the memories of his time in the mindscape. Nothing else in this world would ever be able topare to that, not even this.
Still, his life was at risk. He could feel his body slowly turning against him, and even the system began to give warning notifications.
[Warning, corruption of core eminent!]
[Warning, corruption of core eminent!]
At this point, the nnds were in view, and with it, the beautiful radiance of the sun. This prompted Lucius to increase his speed, pushing his body to its utmost limits.
[Warning, corruption of core in; 3!]
[2!]
[1!]
Right as he felt his core about crack, he lunged into the air, both the chief and Avankor being flung up as well. Theynded a mere millimeter away from the decay, Lucius just a hair''s breadth away from death.
"Are you okay?" Avankor asked, recovering rather quickly.
It wasn''t looking too good. Every inch of Lucius''s body was covered in ck tar, and at certain spots, the decay had broken through his firstyer of skin, exposing his moist nt insides.
"A m-moment," Lucius struggled to reply, before closing his eyes.
[Absorbing 1600 Helios per second.]
After some time, he felt a bit of his sr reserves return, so with each inkling he umted, he healed himself just as much. After an hour, and 5.76 million worth of helioster, he was finally at a state where he could now walk.
He decided to allocate all the helios he had absorbed towards his evolution. Uninterstingly, not much seemed to change after that. However, after a quick examination, he noticed his tail was slightly longer, but not to a considerable degree.
Meanwhile, the chief and Avankor stared in astonishment, as they had been witness to both the glowing of his body, and its healing. They couldn''t help but stare mouths agape as Lucius casually stretched his limbs, only moments after being at death''s door.
"Let''s go," Lucius announced after clearing his thoughts.
It was a shame he couldn''t use photosynthesis whilst moving, though he supposed there would be time to photosynthesize after finding Cregnog. His only hope of holding a discussion with the golems was his old friend. He just hoped that Cregnog was not angry at him for missing the behemoth tournament.
As they traversed through the nnds, evidence of the necromancer''s advance was evident. The squashed corpses of the necromancer''s undeady sprawled about, like piles of manure. It seemed -at least for now- that the golems were winning this war.
Still, Lucius decided to traverse using the trees, not just because it provided a better vantage point, but because it felt more natural to him.
Whilst he jumped from tree to tree, surveying the area ahead of them, the chief and Avankor were frozen in silence. They were still processing the feats that Lucius had performed. Not only had Lucius shown to them he was many times stronger than he appeared to be, but also that he was nigh unkible. It was obvious to them, that so long as he was not killed he would survive any encounter.
Of course that fared well for their cause, however, it was still unnerving to be in the presence of such an entity.
After searching for a few more hours, they found themselves so deep within the nnds that the terrain was starting to change. If they went any higher, they would be encroaching on the behemoth mountains, something Avankor warned against.
Apparently, the beasts that resided there were tier 8 at minimum. And although Avankor acknowledged that Lucius was in a realm of his own, he warned that it took whole teams of behemoths to take even one of those creatures down.
~No point in risking it I suppose,~ Lucius thought to himself. Though he couldn''t fathom what kind of creatures would take a team of behemoths to hunt.
"Okay, then let''s rest here for a while. I spotted several golems to the west and a few more to the south. Though none of them is the one I''m looking for," Lucius said as he sat down. Avankor and the chief sat down next to him, forming a sort of triangle.
"It seems we''ll have to approach one of the golems to ask if they''ve seen him. Though I want everyone to be prepared forbat," Lucius continued. He remembered that the first time he met Cregnog, thetter had attempted to hunt him unprovoked.
"You are familiar with one of the golems?" the chief asked. Clearly impressed by Lucius''s seemingly vastwork of connections.
"Not familiar, but there is a level of respect we share," Lucius replied, before pulling out his crux.
"That thing gives you your power right?" the chief asked, whilst staring at the crux as if in a daze.
"Not entirely, but you can say that," Lucius replied. There was no harm in revealing this much. The orb was ethereal, and even if someone attempted to use magic to destroy it, he could always buy another.
He moved the crux around them in a circle in an attempt to stretch his ''magic muscles'', before lowering its density and converting it into its eased version.
~Might as well attempt that spell I thought off yesterday,~ he thought to himself, before clearly imagining the spell, one step at a time.
First, he attempted to tap into the pulling force he felte from the earth. This required him topletely empty his mind, something he found difficult what with the current state it was in.
He attempted this several more times, before eventually giving up.
Realizing that he was getting nowhere with this process, he decided to switch tactics. Instead of attmpting to tap into the pull-force, he ced his crux right above the ground and tried forcing sr energy into it.
Chapter 194 A Black Hole
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As expected, things weren''t going to be that simple. Though he couldn''t be entirely sure, he could feel that the ground had an energy of its own, repelling his and preventing it from spreading into the ground.
From the direction his sr energy was being deflected, he could tell that the ground''s energy moved in streams, like a massive river. And unfortunately, the wave-like nature of the energying from his crux did nothing but create ripples in the infinitelyrge stream - Ripples that were corrected before any noticeable change could even be seen.
~Perhaps if I change its form?~ he thought to himself, though his n was based purely on theory.
If light acted in the same way here as it did back on Earth, then it would have the duality property. If he could convert the sr energy into its particle form, and inject it into the ground, there was a chance it would work.
"What are you doing?" Avankor asked curiously.
From the longing expression he had on his face, Lucius could tell that he had a deep interest in magic, no doubt in its healing capabilities.
"I-I don''t know yet," Lucius replied, still thinking of a n.
~Back on Earth, higher-frequency light disyed a more particle-like nature. Though my knowledge of light ends at introductory quantum mechanics, I''m pretty sure that was the caase,~ he thought to himself, whilst trying to increase the frequency of the sr energy in his crux.
In reality, he was only increasing its intensity. The crux got so dense, that the light emanating from it was beginning to burn even though Lucius wasn''t casting any spells.
He pressed on past this point, until the tennis-ball-sized crux became as small as a coin. The heating from it caused the smallest of the nearby mushroom vegetation to catch fire, though oddly enough he couldn''t feel a thing.
By this point, Avankor and the chief had already created distance between them and the crux.
Usually, Lucius would''ve stopped by now -the mental strain of dealing with so much sr energypletely draining him- however, things were different this time. It was as if the mental strain did not exist, no rather it did but he couldn''t feel it.
Perhaps his mind had be more immune to this sort of pain. And so, he pressed on, squeezing even further.
The crux became even smaller, reducing from the size of a coin to that of a pinhead. At that moment, the world around him disappeared and was reced by a white void.
~I''m back here, huh? Does that mean I did it?~ he thought to himself, staring at the familiar massive sun at the center of his white space.
[New Version of Sr Crux discovered...]
[New version is being processed... Syncing to current database...]
[System Updated.]
[¡ºKumulipo¡» crux has been fully integrated.] his system notified him.
As he felt his consciousness being pulled back to the real world, he noticed a dark spot on the Sun in his white space. It was a minuscule spot, but still, one that concerned him.
~I wonder what it means.~
With that he was pulled out, the white void around him now reced by the mushroom vegetation of the nnds.
~Kumulipo, huh? Strange name,~ he thought to himself, before willing his crux to float in front of him. He was curious about what made this version so different from the others, so much so that it had even been given its own name.
And he soon got his answer. As the pinhead-sized crux came towards his face, he noticed distortions all around it, which was what allowed him to spot it so fast. In fact, it was almost as if it were bending light.
"A ck hole?" he eximed in shock.
His instincts told him to run, but his education reminded him that it would be useless even if this was a ck hole. Which he quickly realized it wasn''t.
~If this was a ck hole, this entire would''ve been gone by now,~ he thought to himself. ~And besides, the gravity it''s emitting isn''t that much.~ At best it tugged at his skin a little annoyingly, but that was only when he brought it close.
"What is that thing?" Avankor asked interrupting Lucius''s train of thought. His body twitched as he stood in abat-ready stance, and even the chief seemed to be on edge. Though Lucius couldn''t me them. Where the sr crux was like a weing light, the Kumulipo seemed malevolent.
So without wasting time, he tried to cast his usual spells to see if there were any differences.
~Nothing,~ he realized, after havingpletely exhausted the list.
In the first ce, the nature of Kumulipo was different from the sr crux. It was like the second half of it, the particle nature to its duality.
To test this, Lucius tried to see if injecting sr energy into the ground would work. And after cing the crux right above it, he felt no resistance.
His sr energy was being fed into the ground at a very stable rate. And soon a section of the ground beneath him seemed to glow ever so brightly. Even the mushroom vegetation that was present around the area grew ever so slightly.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºImbue¡».]
[Adding ¡ºImbue¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºImbue¡» has been added.]
~Imbue huh?~ he thought to himself, whilst studying the effects of his new spell. In addition to being able to inject sr energy into the ground, he was also capable of controlling the way it flowed, moving it to different ces on the ground.
~This is... interesting,~ he thought to himself in sparking excitement. He noticed something odd about the interaction the sr energy had with the energy of the ground.
Whenever his sr energy came into contact with it for too long, the ground energy would start changing... converting.
He quickly decided to pull back his sr energy, sapping it from the ground back into his crux.
~I was right,~ he thought to himself, staring with an almost crazed smile at his crux.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºDrain¡».]
[Adding ¡ºDrain¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºDrain¡» has been added.]
~I can drain energy straight from the ground,~ he thought to himself, before another idea hit him.
He quickly injected all his sr energy into the ground before bombarding the ground''s energy with it.
Chapter 195 Just A Dumb Giant
And just like that,rge amounts of ground energy began converting into sr energy.
He controlled as much as his crux would allow him before sapping it from the ground, right into his crux.
He quickly noticed that the toll he felt from using Kumulipo spells was very different from that of the normal crux. Where the normal crux felt like it was melting his brain if he strained too much, this instead felt like his mind was being frozen.
In fact, what he was feeling couldn''t even be called mental strain. It felt freeing, like his burdens were being chilled away, leaving an ice-cool breeze within his mind.
It had been a long while since he felt this good.
"Look," Avankor whispered grimly, staring toward the piece ofnd Lucius had absorbed energy from. it had been reduced to a grey state, its once vibrant textures now dull and lifeless.
~This isn''t surprsing,~ Lucius thought to himself. This just proved that this world''s physics followed thews of conservation of energy.
~I could probably fix this with sr cleanse,~ he thought to himself. With the amount of energy he had absorbed from the ground, his crux was filled to the brim. Even though it was still basically the size of a pinhead.
Strangely, the moment he attempted to switch back to his original crux, he felt an extreme heat run up his body.
It was like nothing he had ever experienced before, and he knew that if he continued he would be consumed by the hot white pain.
He quickly stopped the attempt, just as it was about topletely consume him. ~Of course it won''t let me use both in quick session,~ he thought to himself. If that were possible, there was no doubt that he would be among the top 5 strongest beings in the forest.
The ability to absorb energy nearly infinitely, whilst cooling off the mental strain from using sr crux spells. He would effectively be an infinite, unyielding machine... infinitely attacking, infinitely healing.
~I can only dream now,~ he thought to himself in disappointment. ~But still, at level 100 I unlock the ability to have a second crux. Perhaps instead of the radiant index, I''ll opt for this one.~
Though this was something he still had a lot of time to think about.
"I''ll fix thister, have you guys rested?" he asked.
He was met with silence, as the chief and Avankor were still staring at his crux as if it were a ghost.
"We have to get moving," he said whilst snapping his fingers before deciding to recall his crux. As it joined his body, he felt an odd satiation, as if he had just feasted at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
"Ah-yes, you''re right," Avankor replied, still in a sort of daze.
"Good. We''ll be approaching one of the golems to the south. They''re currently far away from all the other golems, so if things go to shit, we can attempt to take it down," Lucius exined, before pointing in the direction of what he was calling south.
Of course, the directions he was using were made on the assumption that this world''s sun rose in the east and set in the west. Though even then, he doubted that it was the case.
He had instructed the group to approach slowly and silently, encouraging them to use the vegetation to their advantage. However, he came to learn that these guys were no novices at hunting tactics.
The chief camouged himself, only his outlines causing slight distortions around him. Avankor on the other hand, got into an odd prone-crawling stance, keeping his tail on the ground, which reminded Lucius how simr the former''s race was to Earthen smanders
Once they got close to the creature, Lucius whispered for them to stay behind while he attemptedmunication..
The golem in question was currently munching down on a pile of fruits it had collected. It was slightly smaller than Cregnog in build, and though it was just an observation, its eyes seemed to hold less intelligence than that of Cregnog''s.
"Hello there," Lucius called out almost awkwardly.
The golem abruptly stopped what it was doing before looking around. Once it noticed Lucius atop one of the trees, it quickly stood up, towering to just around 6 meters tall.
"Do you happen to know anyone called Cregn-" Lucius was bout to ask before a loud roar interrupted him. The smell of rotting fruit caused him to gag, as the golem''s foul breathshed at his face.
*
"Puny creature!" the golem shouted, before swinging at the tree and smashing off the branch that the puny creature had been standing on. The golem looked at the debris, searching for the squashed remains of its prey, however, it was surprised to find that its prey was now nestled atop another branch.
"I''d like for you to reconsider," its prey said next. Gevrot did not like the way the puny creature spoke. It spoke words Gevrot could not understand, and so it decided to swing at the tree again, destroying yet another branch.
"If you aren''t willing tomunicate, I''ll leave you alone. Sorry for bothering you," the puny creature called out from higher up the tree.
Gevrot did not understand what kind of trickery the creature was using to move so fast. Neither could it understand theplex words that came out of the creature''s mouth. However, Gevrot was certain of one thing, the creature thought it could run away after Gevrot had already decided to eat it.
"Puny creature, die!" Gevrot shouted, before pping its hands like its tribesmen had taught him. Red energy defused from its hands, before sending out a powerful shockwave that knocked over every tree in a 5-meter radius around it. Therge crater at the center made it seem as if a small asteroid had crashed into the forest.
Gevrot was certain that this would be enough to kill that pesky creature. Even the ugly, rotting beasts that sometimes attacked Gevrot fell to this attack.
Chapter 196 A New Side To Havon
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*
Lucius had just about had enough of this golem. Sure, he could understand it not wanting to let go of prey, but did it really have to cast such a destructive spell? Even worse, to kill something as small as he was?
Still, despite its destructive power, much of its damage seemed to have been absorbed by the trees around him, so he was barely affected. Though he had to admit, being trapped under so much debris would''ve killed him if his strength stat hadn''t been maxed out.
~Good thing I told the others to stay back,~ he thought to himself as he wed his way out of the debris. When he finally got out, he found the golem jumping up and down in celebration.
~It didn''t even find my body and it''s celebrating?~ he thought to himself, before attempting to sneak away. There was no merit in fighting the creature right now, besides, from all the noise it had made, more creatures would probably be approaching.
Though just as he was about to leave, he felt his body being lifted into the air. The golem was currently pointing its index finger at his floating body, sparkles of red energy exuding from its hands.
"How creature still alive?" the golem shouted, before attempting to p its hands. Just then, Lucius shot a stream of poison from his tail, hitting the golem right in the eyes.
~I''ll knock it out with my poison,~ he thought to himself, before converting his poison to its fourth form. However, just as he had suspected, this version of his poison wasn''t enough to knock the golem out.
~The fourth form probably doesn''t work on beings past a certain threshold of power ~ he thought to himself, as he struggled to free himself from the creature''s magic. Unfortunately, even with his poison attack still causing it to scream out in pain, its magic did not halt.
"What have you done to Gevrot!?" the golem cried out, before lowering its index finger, sending Lucius crashing into the ground.
It felt like he had just been bumped by a truck, and there was no doubt in his mind that some of his internals had been broken.
The golem repeated this several more times, all the while Lucius attempted to escape. His poison wasn''t like the arachnid''s, it didn''t burn away at skin but instead had to be injected for it to properly render its effect. So despite all the poison he was shooting at the creature, only the stream he shot into its eyes seemed to deal any damage.
At this point, he was beginning to feel like broken ss, with cuts and bruises all over his body.
~ Things wouldn''t have gotten to this point if I hadn''t tried being so kind to this creature,~ he thought to himself in realization as he was smashed into the floor yet again. It seemed the golem wanted him to suffer before he died.
He had wanted to start off on good terms with the golems, after all, they would be allies soon enough. However, that was an intention now buried far away in his mind at this point.
"I''m not weak," Lucius whispered, as the golem raised him into the air with its magic once again.
"Huh?" the golem called out, covering its eyes in an attempt to block any more of Lucius''s attacks.
"I said, I''m not weak. You think I''m weak... don''t you," Lucius asked, before calling out his crux. Being clobbered like this reminded him of how helpless he had been during his torture... which only served to fuel his fractured mind.
The golem swatted at his crux as it came towards it. Of course, its hands flew right through.
"I''m not weak, look, look at just how much power I have," Lucius said with a sort of grin. The sap on his face so much, that only his teeth were visible.
He then injected sr energy into the golem, sending it on a rampant within the golem''s body.
The golem seemed to notice this and began using its magic to try and push Lucius out. As it battled for control over its own body, Lucius fell down to the ground, no longer a prisoner to the golem''s magic.
At first, Lucius was losing the battle for control, but soon enough he began to get a special feel for it. It was like a circuit, he just had to choose the paths of least resistance.
Before soon, his energy had spread throughout the creature''s body.
The golem spasmed onto the ground, breathing loudly as if it were suffocating.
"I''m not weak, see," Lucius whispered, before limping his way towards the creature. White sap still covered his face, but the yellow''s of his eyes pierced through now, like those of a predator.
"F-Forgive Gevrot. G-Gevrot did not know that puny creature was not prey," the golem strained to say. However, its pleas fell on deaf ears. Lucius was now more interested in the information he was collecting from the golem''s body.
There was a small area at its left leg that for some reason he could not run his energy through. However, after a moment of thought he realized what it was.
~So this is your core?~ Lucius thought to himself, limping to climb on top of the golem''s body.
His energies slithered around the golem''s core, trying to get a read of the interactions between the two.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºEclipse¡».]
[Adding ¡ºEclipse¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºEclipse¡» has been added.]
He hadpletely cut off any energy that the golem tried to send out from its core, effectively taking away its magic.
"I wonder what''s inside it?" he whispered to himself, before attempting to force his energy into the golem''s core. To his disappointment, it was incredibly dense, so struggle as he may, his energy could not pierce through
Still, it seemed to have an effect on the golem as it began convulsing and howling in pain.
"P-P-Please," Gevrot struggled to say in between convulsions. Lucius was visibly surprised it could use such words, however, it was wasted on him.
There was no pity to be seen in Lucius''s eyes, to him, Gevrot was nothing but a science experiment.
Chapter 197 A Questionable Promising Power
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After realizing that he was making no progress with his attempts to pierce through to the core, he decided to switch tactics. Instead of trying to break in, he would just break it entirely. So he wrapped his energy around the core, before constricting it from all directions at once.
Initially, there was a strong resistance, but soon after he could feel cracks appearing on the core. Strangely, the golem went silent at this, a mortified expression on its face.
As he increased the intensity with which he constricted even more tiny cracks began to appear, until eventually they became gaping fissures, releasing clouds of raw energy from within it.
As this energy seeped out, he could sense its density, it was a different sort of energy from anything he had ever experienced before, and it seemed to be affecting his crux as well.
Immediately, his energies snaked their way into the cracked core, before doing something odd. Unlike before, where foreign energy would first be converted and then absorbed, his energies began consuming that of the cores immediately.
In doing this, the core waspletely shattered. Red light burst from Gevrot''s eyes, dimming with every split second until eventually, all that remained were two ck circles. Gevrot''sst words were something of a whimper - and even Lucius could not decipher them.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºGlutonous Distortion¡».]
[Adding ¡ºGlutonous Distortion¡» to ¡ºSr Sorcery Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºGlutonous Distortion¡» has been added.] his system notified him, as he recalled his energy from Gevrot''s body.
Its usual pure-yellow appearance had strips of red intertwined with it, much like the magic that Gevrot had used. It looked eerily simr to human blood, reminding Lucius of his time at war. He was well aware that back on Earth, what he had done would have him branded as a war criminal.
His utter silence was a testament to this, no creature deserved to squirm and scream in itsst moments. Though sadly, he was in no position to amodate such concepts. With this science experiment, he now had a better understanding of the nature of cores, and theworks they created within the body.
This would help him improve his magical research, after all, even on Earth, some of the greatest advances in technology were the fruits of the most heinous research.
~But what do I do about this?~ he thought to himself, as the reddish-yellow energy he had drained from Gevrot orbited around his crux.
He was a little skeptical of allowing foreign energy into his crux, after all, what if something like consciousness was present within it?
Unfortunately, his carefulness would go unrewarded, as his crux -as if having a mind of its own- absorbed the energy into itself.
An unreal rush traveled throughout his body, and for a moment he felt more powerful than he had ever felt before.
He got to his knees in unfamiliar euphoria, as thoughts that he never believed he could even fabricate ran through his mind. Thoughts of doing this again, over and over, of feeling this strange euphoria repeatedly, until there was nothing left.
However, it would take more than foreign thoughts to consume him at this point. This delusion of grandeur would have to try harder if it wanted to hinder his ns.
Once the feeling passed, he got back up to his feet. At this point, Avankor and the chief were making their way toward him, seeing that the threat had been neutralized.
"It seems that these creatures are more aggressive than I thought. The one I encountered first didn''t use magic, even after I attacked it," Lucius exined to them as they approached. Now that he thought about it, Crenog could''ve killed him the first time they had met, it was a miracle that it was smart enough not to try and squash a bug with a truck.
Suddenly, Avankor and the chief paused, their fangs and ws bared at Lucius as if they had gone rabid.
"What''s gotten into you guys?" Lucius asked, jumping off of Gevrot''s body onto the ground.
~It healed me?~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise. The injuries he had sustained were nothing to scoff at, he had at least expected his legs to be unfunctional until he could cast sr cleanse.
"We should start moving again. We''re burning daylight," he said after a few moments, realizing that his travelpanions would not respond to him.
"Is that really you?" Avankor asked, his fangs still bared as he stared at Lucius skeptically.
"Who else would it be?" Lucius replied, before taking a moment to look at his arms, legs, and tail. After which he understood why they seemed hostile toward him.
His green skin had lost some of its colors towards his extremities, giving him a sort of ck tip on his fingers, hind limbs, and tail.
Even past that, he noticed a slight difference in his size. Avankor and the chief didn''t look asrge as they seemed before.
"It seems the spell I cast made changes to my body," Lucius exined, trying to get a better look at how much he had grown.
Afterparing his height to that of Avankor''s, he estimated that he was at least 1.4 meters tall now, nearly a 15-centimeter difference from before.
His tail was now 3.5 meters long, which messed slightly with his bnce as he walked around to get a feel of his new body.
~Mana cores are something else,~ he thought to himself. Even the around 5 million helios he had allocated towards evolution when he got here hadn''t made this much of a difference. As heinous as destroying cores was, he had to admit, the benefits were nothing to scoff at.
[Processing...]
[Foreign mana sessfully converted.]
[20 million Helios added.]
~20 million?~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise.
The benefits just kept getting better and better, something which bothered him quite a bit. There was always a catch to these things, if the normal sr crux prevented absurd amounts of helios from being absorbed at once, what limiters did the Kumulipo have?
Sadly, it seemed that would be a question for another time, as he heard massive footsteps approaching from the distance.
Avankor seemed to notice this just a moment after, as he spun to look in the direction of the sound.
Chapter 198 A Scholarly Golem
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"There''s at least 3 of them moving together. We should leave, there''ll be easier encounters," Lucius said.
Avankor and the chief hesitated for a moment, before looking at the golem''s body.
"What about your hunt? Will we leave this for the other golems to devour?" the chief asked.
Lucius hadpletely forgotten that consumption of once sentient creatures wasmonce here. However, he had already stained himself enough by what he had made the creature go through. And anyway, there were a multitude of non-sentient creatures they could hunt here, instead.
The core of the matter was that he wanted to keep certain lines from being crossed, especially with this new crux. There was no telling what kind of senseless beast he could be if devouring sentient creatures became daily bread for him.
"No, we''ll find something else to eat," he replied, before quickly frisking Gevrot''s corpse for any usuables.
On Gevrot''s waistband, he found a pouch filled with several pieces of strange meat, weird herbs, and a glowing blue stone. He quickly tossed the pieces of strange meat -as they had a strong scent to them- before using Gevrot''s waistband to fasten the pouch on his back.
Once he was done looting the group began moving away from the sound of the advancing golems.
When they were a good distance away, Lucius decided to climb to the top of one of the more massive mushroom trees around, to get a better grasp on the locations of the other golems.
Two groups were currently heading toward where he had just killed Gevrot, and from their statures, he could tell that none of them were Crenog.
~This will take all day,~ he thought to himself. He couldn''t see a single golem who was moving alone, at best they were in groups of two. It seemed the Gevrot was an outlier... no doubt due to hisck of intelligence.
~I''ll start with the groups of two, if I don''t find Crenog beforete afternoon, I''ll just have to create new connections,~he decided, before making up his mind to approach a duo to the north.
"And if they''re too aggressive, then I''ll have no choice," he whispered to himself, before climbing down.
*
Once the group got close to the golems, Lucius gave Avankor the pouch he had looted and ordered him and the chief to stay far behind. With two golems, things going bad would mean widespread destruction.
Though he doubted it''d get to that point. Learning from his encounter with Gevrot, he would blind them before they tried to use their magic.
And if need be, he could send his crux to take away that magic, though he wanted to avoid that. If word spread that he was ughtering golems and taking their cores, others might begin to hunt for anyone simr in description to him. Meaning that he would be putting his children in danger.
With his poison at the ready, he slowly approached the two golems -who seemed to be in conversation right now.
Once he got a little closer, he noticed a pile of what he could only describe as rotting flesh beneath one of them.
"Hello there," he called out, to which the golems immediately swung around to look at him.
"I don''t mean any harm. I''m just looking for someone called Crenog," he continued, though the golems just stared at him with a scrutinizing gaze.
They clearly sensed that he was a threat, so much of a threat in fact that they were hesitant to attack him even though they had the numbers advantage. "What business do you have with Crenog puny creature?" one of them replied. The tone they used was rather surprising, it was almost as if they were a schr rather than a dull-giant.
"My name is Havon, and I''vee to offer him my help," Lucius replied.
His interactions with the den''s councilman had made him more aware of the politics of things. Even if he wasn''t going to bow to their king, it still helped to make matters clear from the start; he was helping them, not the other way around.
The creatures broke out intoughter at this.
"Havon you say?" the schrly golem asked in betweenughs.
"Well Havon, If you want to know the whereabouts of the prince, then you''ll have to prove to me that you''re really who you im to be," the golem added before whispering something to its partner.
Lucius was a little surprised at this, as he hadn''t expected Crenog to be golem royalty. However, he supposed it made sense since Crenog had been confident enough to invite him to the Shuk''ahan.
"And how will I do that?" Lucius asked hesitantly, poison already flowing towards his tail.
"A battle of course. The true Havon should be able to fight hand-to-hand against even a behemoth. No magic, this will purely be a show of strength," the schr golem exined, before stepping forward.
"My name is Wise, and my partner here is Guhron. Don''t worry, Guhron will respect our duel- so long as you do not use magic," Wise exined, before getting into an odd fighting stance.
It was quite aical sight, a 6.3-meter tall giant squaring up against a 1.4-meter tall creature. In fact, Lucius couldn''t even understand why Wise bothered to get into a fighting stance.
"Very well then. How will the winner be decided?" Lucius asked as he stretched his limbs. He was a little worried since his recently erged tail slightly threw off his bnce.
"When the other yields. Shall we begin?" Wise asked. To which Lucius nodded his head before rushing at the former.
Wise stamped its foot into the ground in response, sending small-scale tremors in a small radius around it.
This put a halt to Lucius'' rush, allowing Wise to throw a punch at his now unstable body. However, Lucius reacted quickly, his tailshing out to grab the punch.
Even though Wise seemed to be on the advantage, he halted, giving Lucius''s tail a skeptical nce before backing away.
"You had him, why do you falter Wise?!" Guhron shouted in frustration. Though Wise remained silent, staring at Lucius with a confusing expression.
~Hmm, did he sense something?~ Lucius thought to himself.
Usually, creatures would only be able to get a read of his true strength after they exchanged a few blows, something they were yet to even do.
~Is he just a careful fighter?~ he wondered, before rushing at Wise once again. This time he decided to use the trees, going around Wise in a circle as he tried to look for openings.
Wise''s body shifted to keep up with Lucius''s speed. Something that wouldn''t have been possible if not for Lucius''s hindered bnce, which forced him to reduce his speed to better control it.
"If you keep turning like that, you''ll get dizzy," Lucius said with a smile, beforeunching from the tree he was on and zipping through the air towards Wise''s face.
Chapter 199 Tell The King
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Wise lifted its massive arms to block the oing attack, seeing as how it was too dizzy to properly move out of the way. However, that did little to stop Lucius''s attack.
The speed with which he hadunched himself basically made him a bullet, and as tough as a golem''s skin was, it wasn''t stopping his ws.
With a thump, Lucius pierced into Wise''s skin, the momentum from hisunch enough to push thetter back. Coupled with its dizziness, it lost its bnce, and this was all that Lucius needed.
He jumped off Wise''s body as thetter attempted to regain its bnce, before using his tail to pierce into Wise''s ankle and using his ws to grab onto the ground.
With a tug, he performed a pseudo-judo throw, mming Wise into the ground.A cloud of dust erupted into the air like a mini-hurricane, effectively creating a smoke screen.
By the time it had subsided, Lucius was onto Wise''s body, his ws millimeters from thetter''s eyes, and his tail wrapped around its neck.
"I-I yield," Wise whispered reluctantly.
"Impressive. I Guhron will take on the tiny warrior next," Guhron chuckled in amusement.
Lucius slowly let go of Wise before getting off. He attempted to call out his sr crux in order to heal Wise, however, he could still feel the burning pain, so decided against it.
"I apologize for injuring you so badly," Lucius said, as Wise stared at the goring holes that Luicus had left on its arm.
"These wounds are nothing, I was the one who asked for a duel. It seems there is much I have to learn," Wise replied, before pulling out a herb from its waistband and rubbing it on its wounds. It then twinkled its finger, and slowly but surely the wounds began to close up.
~So they have healing magic, huh? However, it doesn''t seem to be as effective as Sr Cleanse,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing that there were now 8 scars where the wounds had once been.
"I am not certain whether you really are Havon or just a very strong creature. However, Wise is a Behemoth of its word. I shall tell you the whereabouts of the prince," Wise said before sitting down.
Lucius followed suit, sitting in front of Wise before thetter began speaking.
"Crenog has ventured to seek aid from the High-Behemoth races, it has been a week now since he left. I am unsure when the prince will return."
"High Behemoth races? Then you mean the higher tiers?" Lucius asked.
"Indeed. However, I do not think they wille to our aid. We are barely behemoths ourselves, and even then Behemoths aren''t the kind to stand in solidarity. Only weak creatures band together, as we say," Wise replied in sad spite.
~So that''s the kind of creatures they are,~ Lucius thought to himself. However, it wasn''t surprising, seeing as how they seemed to value power over everything else.
"And they will be right to do so. Guhron does not think we need help. Guhron alone has killed many of these rotten creatures, why does Crenog fear them so much?" Guhron asked from where it was standing.
From the sigh Wise let out and the expression on its face, it was clear that this was a conversation the two had gone through many times before.
"Tell me, tiny warrior, do you know anything about the king of those creatures?" Wise asked, pointing towards the pile of rotting flesh just a few meters away from them.
Lucius took a moment to think about this, after all, he didn''t want to reveal too much. He still needed them to need him.
"I know a lot, but I cannot say much without speaking to Crenog. However, I can say that you lot won''t be able to defend against them alone. From the corpses spread around, I can tell that only the smallest units were sent here," Lucius replied, remembering the massive creatures that the necromancer had put to work at their main base.
"You underestimate Guhron," Guhron replied stubbornly.
"Perhaps you would be willing to talk to our king instead? We are uncertain when Crenog will return, and I fear what you say is true. Already we have begun to lose warriors, and though most do not see it, Wise can tell that it is only the beginning," Wise said after some thought.
~The king, huh?~ Lucius thought to himself. If the golems used the same system as the Chames, that would mean their king was an evolved version of them, a guardian just like Shavak, Avankor, and himself.
That would also mean that the king would be the strongest creature, after the necromancer and dragonkin, that he had met thus far. A risk he was uncertain of taking, especially since they wereplete strangers.
"Where is your king?" Lucius asked after a moment of silence had passed.
"His den is below the Grand Mushroom, at the foot of the Behemoth Mountains. Wise can speak to him to arrange an audience," Wise replied.
Still, Lucius was hesitant to ept the invitation. After all, the resistance still favored the golems, so at this point his promises meant little.
"If you had to say, who is stronger between your king and me?" Lucius asked thoughtfully, to which Wise''s expression turned to one of hesitance.
Guhron however did not have the etiquette to hide his amusement and beganughing uncontrobly.
"Grenovarish is the strongest golem that has ever lived. Even during the Shu''kahan Grenovarish sat as an equal among the high behemoths," Guhron said in betweenughs.
"Guhron will admit you are strong. But you are nowhere near Grenovarish," it continued.
~Hmm, so that means that he is significantly more powerful than the version of myself I presented to these two,~ Lucius thought to himself. Of course, if he pulled out all the stops, he would be at least two times more powerful than what he had shown, and in addition to that, his magic would make him quite dangerous.
However, this Grenovarish also had magic. And there was no telling what kind of items he had ess to, as the king of a semi-high tier race.
"That is only to be expected. Strong as you are, you cannot escape the limitations of your tier. Our king is 8th tier, and from what I can tell, you are fourth tier correct?" Wise asked.
Chapter 200 Magic Weapons Research (1)
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Wise and Guhron had done well to hide their tier markings, as most of their body was covered in shoddy leather clothing -which in reality wasn''t much different from what hunter-gatherers wore.
"Y-You are correct," Lucius replied, realizing that he ought to get some clothing soon. Even if it wasn''t necessary due to the protection his skin already gave him, it was still embarrassing for sub-par creatures to seem more civilized than he was.
~But still, the 8th tier doesn''t sound right,~ Lucius thought to himself before asking out loud; "What tier are you lot?"
Wise looked hesitantly at Guhron, before shrugging its shoulders and turning back to Lucius.
"Guhron and I are 6th tier," Wise replied shortly after.
~6th tier, so even Shavak and Avankor will be average soldiers to them. Mystic mantle aside, they don''t even have any magic at their disposal, so they might even be a little less than that,~ Lucius thought to himself.
~As it is now, all I have are promises and wishes, something I can''t expect an 8th-tier king to buy into. So I suppose that''ll be it for now. The connections themselves were worth the effort,~ he decided before standing up.
"Thank you for everything. It''ll be enough if you tell your king about me, and my invitation for aid. If not in fighting power, then perhaps I could interest him in weaponry," he said after some thought.
If he couldn''t form bonds through fighting power, then he''d do it the way countries on Earth used to do it, through the arms trade. Of course, this in itself was just a pipe dream at this point, however, weapons would be lessplicated to produce aspared to raising the tier of the Chames.
"Weaponry? Ah- I will inform the king. However, I do not think Grenovarish will be fond of it. We Behemoths rarely find weapons strong enough to rece our fists," Wise replied hesitantly.
Of course, this was something that Lucius could sympathize with. He had grown so used to his ws that any weapons would just seem like a hindrance.
However, that was before he had gotten the Kumulipo.
"Tell the king I am capable of supplying magical weapons if need be, weapons specifically made to deal with these creatures," he replied.
It was just a theory at this point, but Lucius spected that Kumulipo''s Imbue spell might open the door to magically imbued weapons. And if the weapons could keep Kumulipo''s energy-converting effects, then the necromancer''s spell might be dispelled with each attack... meaning that they''d be very efficient against the undead.
However, he knew it was easier said than done, as much magical research as well as research into materials, would have to be done.
"Magic weapons? I am not familiar with those, but perhaps this might excite the king. I cannot make promises, however, if what you say about their effectiveness is true, then the king might not have a choice. Where will we be able to find you?" Wise asked as he stood up.
Lucius thought about this for a moment. After all, if they were interested, he would need to show them something.
"7 days from now, at this exact ce. If your king is interested, he can send someone to meet me here," he replied.
And with that, the two groups parted ways.
~7 days to invent magic weapons, huh?~ he thought to himself as he made his way back to where Avankor and the chief were.
Lucis briefly exined the situation to both of them and of course, the obvious question came up.
"Where will you find these weapons?"
They had only seen spears up till this point, and even then, those had been traded for. However, Lucius was pretty confident in at least being able to create the weapons. All he needed were a few materials to run tests on.
The material would have to be easily manageable, strong, and be able to withstand holding magic. ~How hard could it be?~
*
Before they returned to the den, the three decided to hunt down a few beasts for food. They couldn''t take back too much as that would no doubt draw attention to them, so they opted to hunt down arger beast and take it back.
The creature in question was a 6-legged elephant-like mushroom creature that they found roaming close toward the dark forest. It was no surprise that there were a lot of undead remains in the area, as these creatures were no easy meal.
However, Lucius now had the means to hunt creatures without much effort.
He opted to use Kumulipo to disrupt the systems within the creature''s body, which worked without much resistance as the creature was not intelligent enough to realize that his crux was dangerous.
It served as both practice and a means to kill the creature without drawing blood and creating a strong scent. He was unsure whether undead could smell blood, but it wouldn''t hurt to be careful.
"How did you do that?" Avankor asked as he and Lucius struggled to pick the creature up. As strong as they were, it wasn''t easy to pick up the 7-meter creature.
"Magic," Lucius replied as he scanned the area around them for something to use.
~These mushrooms should be enough,~ he thought to himself, before using Elmando to convert all the mushrooms into a paste, and turning it into a sort of cart with a closed top.
"Im-Impressive," Avankor stuttered, as Lucius jumped onto the rather massive cart.
"Climb on," Lucius called out, using Elmando to begin moving the cart''s wheels.
Once the chief and Avankor were on, Lucius increased the speed, rotating the wheels as fast as his Elmando would allow. Of course, this required the utmost concentration, as maneuvering through the forest with something so massive was no easy chore.
*
It was alreadyte afternoon by the time they reached the border that divided the decay-guednd and the nnds. The same border that divided the sunny sky from the dark-overcast one.
~I still can''t call out my sr crux, huh,~ Lucius realized after a failed attempt. Pulling out his Kumulipo, he attempted to perform photosynthesis, though after a few moments, he came to understand that it simply wasn''t possible for this version of the crux.
However, this didn''te as a surprise to him. After all, he had gained helios from consuming Gevrot''s core, and it would''ve been wishful thinking on his part if he assumed that this crux had multiple methods of umting helios.
Chapter 201 Magic Weapons Research (2)
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"Should I use my mantle?" Avankor asked, perhaps assuming that Lucius''s silence was due to the decay that blocked their path.
"Oh, don''t worry about that," Lucius replied.
With that, he used his crux to inject his energies into the ground, parting through the decay that gued the path in front of them. And just as he had expected, the decay began breaking down, before converting into usable energy.
However, something rather odd happened, as if the decay were alive, it began trying to fight back, slithering and snaking around the area he had just purged. However its resistance was futile, as the presence of Lucius''s energy prevented the decay from reiming the area.
Unfortunately, that also meant that when he moved his energy, the area he left behind was immediately reimed.
~Hmm, this could work to our advantage though,~ he thought to himself as he moved the cart through the areas he had cleared.
It would be very suspicious if a trail of cleared ground was left behind, and especially risky since that trail would lead straight toward the den. So this was sort of a blessing in disguise.
~Though that also means that the purging effects won''t work as well as I had initially thought,~ Lucius thought to himself, whilst Avankor and the chief stared in awe at the scene in front of them.
For some reason, a self-moving cart seemed to amuse them even more than all the spells he had cast before.
~Sigh, that means I''ll have to run a few experiments on the undead as well,~ Lucius decided to himself. Indeed the next 7 days would be the busiest he had had in a while
*
The journey proved to be more difficult than Lucius had initially anticipated. Even though the dark forest had rtively less vegetation and tree roots blocking the paths, they were more likely to be attacked due to the number of undead that patrolled the area.
This threat was only amplified due to the decay blocking Lucius''s earth sense, leaving them practically blind to sneak attacks. Of course, it didn''t help that it was beginning to get dark, so Lucius was the only one with any actual vision.
"Havon," Avankor whispered, as the group traversed through the now pitch-ck forest.
Lucius had been moving the cart as slowly as possible in order to prevent making too much noise, so Avankor''s whisper startled him quite a bit.
"What''s wrong?" Lucius asked, his eyes darting left and right as he assumed that Avankor had seen something he hadn''t.
"I know that this is not my prize, and I have no share in it, but still I have a duty to fulfill to my den as king," Avankor whispered, his tone very ambiguous, almost as if he were purposefully beating around the bush.
It took Lucius a few moments to realize what he was going on about.
"Ah, it''s been a while since you''ve seen your people. I take it that you want to drop off a share of this food to your den?" Lucius asked.
Avankor hesitated for a moment, the shame of basically having to beg for food clogging his throat.
"Y-yes," he said finally.
Of course, Lucius didn''t mind doing that, after all this meat was more than enough to feed the Chames den. And if need be, he could hunt another whilst looking for materials tomorrow.
"Of course, there will be payment for the share you will provide us. I am not so dishonorable to expect it free of charge," Avankor added right as Lucius was about to reply.
"A-And so will we," the chief added right after.
Payment hadn''t even crossed Lucius''s mind, after all, he was indebted to these people for saving both him and Alpha.
However, he could understand why they would want to pay. Getting free handouts would challenge their sovereignty - after all, what good was a state that had to rely on the goodwill of others to survive?
"Consider this a small repayment for all the help you guys have given me," Lucius replied. Even if they said they would pay him, he knew very well that the Chames den had nothing to offer, and there was no doubt Avankor''s people were in a simr situation.
Besides, asking for payment simply did not align with the role he was ying. What savior expected something in return for their work?
"That was our duty, just as you will save us, we have saved you. It''s apletely different matter from this, please allow us toplete this trade honorably," Avankor replied immediately after.
"You saved one of my children. That should be enough," Lucius responded.
"You did not ask us to do that. How can I face my people after making Havon pay for treatment he never requested?" Avankor shot back. And from the determined look on his face, Lucius was certain that he wasn''t going to win this argument.
He took some time to think about what sort of payment he could take without crippling Avankor''s den too much, and a thought suddenly came to mind.
"How many able-bodied warriors do you have left in your den?" he asked.
Avankor took a moment to think about it before replying; "I left my den with around 50 warriors, though that was many days ago."
The chief was visibly surprised at this, and Lucius could guess why. The Chames den had nearly no warriors left, and even though they were currently cooperating with Avankor, the difference in fighting power was too staggering for them to be considered equals.
"Then let me borrow 10 of them for my mission tomorrow," Lucius said after some thought.
Even with his new power, doing missions on the surface was still a considerable risk, and he did not want to put too much of a burden on Avankor and his people.
"Then the trade isplete," Avankor replied with a satisfied expression.
The chief however still seemed troubled. After all, the Chames den had nothing left to offer. Even the spears they had traded for were too much of a burden for them to bargain with.
"You don''t have to worry about payment. Shavak has given me a ce to rest, and I owe quite a bit to a pundit called Sherlin. So I will just be repaying a debt... a debt I consciously made," Lucius said to him.
The chief hesitantly nodded his head, though from his expression Lucius could tell that the former was not satisfied with how this ended.
Chapter 202 Magic Weapons Research (3)
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"So how far is your den?" Lucius asked, trying his best to make out his surroundings.
Without his sr crux, he didn''t have ess to his night vision. So he was relying solely on his sense of smell and hearing.
"It''s beside the water, a distance away from Shavak''s den," Avankor replied.
~He''s probably referring to the river... then it''s this way,~ Lucius thought to himself before turning the cart. He could just barely make out the sound of water gushing in the far distance.
"Sigh, I don''t think we''ll make it back to the Chames den if we take a detour," Lucius said as he moved the cart in between two horrifically contorted trees.
"Then we can go there tomor-" Avankor was about to say before Lucius shushed him. He had heard the sound of footstepsing a short distance from their left.
The single set of footsteps quickly became a horde of them, until eventually, it became like that of an army.
"Avankor, pull the cart and keep going straight. You should reach the river if you don''t go too off course," Lucius said before jumping off the cart.
"Where are you-" Avankor was about to ask, before going silent. It seemed he could now hear the footsteps as well.
"Will you be able to take on so many alone?" he asked, already cloaking himself in his mystic mantle.
Meanwhile, the chief looked around, trying to see what exactly Avankor and Lucius were talking about.
"I don''t have a choice, this is the best we can make of the situation," Lucius replied, preparing himself for battle. "Go. I''ll try to make sure nothing attacks you while you''re moving," he added, before moving towards the sound of the footsteps closest to them.
His mind felt cold from using the Kumulipo for so long, which, strangely enough, allowed him to think more clearly.
After running for a short distance, he came face to face with the advancing horde. There were around 20 dark figures, and from what Lucius could tell the smallest among them was an arachnid -just a few centimeters shorter than he was with its legs stretched out fully, and thergest among them was a 2-meter humanoid owl with massive glowing eyes.
His chilled mind quickly inferred that the owl creatures had to go down first, what with them seemingly having ess to magic due to their glowing eyes. Of course, he couldn''t be too certain, but he wasn''t willing to take the risk.
The creatures moved like a single-minded mass toward him, some even trampling over each other to get to their meal.
Lucius quickly let out a cloud of poison, using its fourth form to quickly take down any low-leveled creatures. With that, only 4 creatures were left conscious.
One of the creatures -the owl humanoid- began pping its tattered wings, sending gusts of decayed dirt into the air. The particles burned at Lucius''s eyes, poisoning them and blinding him.
[Foreign substance detected.]
[Processing...] his system notified.
However apart from the pain the poison caused, it didn''t change much. It wasn''t as if his vision had been helping him much anyway.
Using the sound of pping wings to detect the owl, he thrashed his tail out to impale it. However something stopped it midway, and he heard a squelch sound right as he felt a sharp pain emanating from it.
~Bastard,~ he thought to himself, using his tail to wrap around whatever had caught it, before squeezing it to a paste. Usually, the pain from all this would''ve been enough to hinder his thinking a little, however, the chill from Kumulipo continued to keep him calm.
He only wished that he could''ve used it to deal with these creatures quickly. Sadly all its spells required him to inject energy into his opponents, making it unsuitable for use againstrge numbers.
And even if he wanted to, it was currently preupied with making sure that the ground beneath him wasn''t reimed by the decay. A process that in itself took arge chunk of his concentration.
There was no movement for a moment, it seemed that the creatures were shocked at how easily Lucius had turned theirrade into pulp. Though that shock was quickly outlived as he heard two of them approach him from behind.
He thrust his tail out wildly toward the sound of the noise, grabbing the two attackers before mming them to the ground. He felt their rotting vessels turn to juice under the impact.
Now only a single enemy remained -the owl that had blinded him. He thrashed his tail out wildly in an attempt to find its location, though in the end, its cowardice gave it away.
He heard the creature p its wings once more, no doubt in an attempt to run away and warn the necromancer. Sadly for it, there was no escaping this.
Lucius'' tail shot out towards the sound, goring through the creature, before dragging it back down and burying it in the ground.
Once all that was done, he used his tail to kill the creatures he had knocked out with his poison before quickly moving on to the other horde that had been advancing toward the cart.
The sharp pain he had been feeling from his tail now felt more like a cold chill. And even the pain in his eyes had subsided a little bit, no doubt the work of Kumulipo''s effects.
Running through the forest blind proved to be less of a hassle than he had initially thought. He used his tail to feel around in front of him, and with his vision gone his sense of hearing felt slightly stronger than before.
~They''re already on Avankor''s tail,~ he thought to himself, realizing that the sound of the horde wasing from near the cart.
[Analysisplete.]
[Decay poison attribute has been added to the skill tree.]
[Minor resistance to internal decay has been added.]
[High Resistance to external decay has been added.]
His system notified him and with that, his vision began to clear up. Of course, the pain from the particles in his eye still irritated him, but it was enough for him to bare through.
~The Shrikillian mission might''ve been the best thing I''ve done sinceing here,~ Lucius thought to himself, before recalling his crux.
Chapter 203 Magic Weapons Research (4)
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And just as expected, the burning effect from the decay no longer affected him.
~So it was really just a type of poison?~ he thought to himself, before increasing his speed. He had been moving at a slightly slower pace so that his crux could have time to purge the path ahead. However, he wasn''t limited by such things anymore.
By the time he caught up to Avankor, he found him fending off 30 dark figures. And as anyone would''ve expected, he was being mauled down, even with the protection of his mystic mantle.
Lucius quickly got to work, grabbing a few of them off of Avankor''s back, whilst his tail thrashed back and forth knocking some of the others around.
Of course, his poison would''ve been a better option, but unfortunately, he had already used up all of it during his prior fight. And he hadn''t advanced his poison skill to the level he could use the cloud multiple times a day.
"Avankor, keep going," Lucius ordered, the sound of the river now just a few meters ahead.
Sounds were carried quite a distance in this sparsely vegetated forest, so Lucius had no doubt in his mind that more undead would start moving to this area. And although he was confident in keeping himself safe from grievous danger, he couldn''t say the same for his twopanions.
"We''ll wait for you at the river," the chief added, as he used his fists to club an undead who had hopped onto the cart.
~These things didn''t move this fast during the day,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he chased down the few undead who were still trying to attack the fleeing Avankor.
Once he had the attention of the entire hoard, he decided to lead them back to the area he had been fighting in earlier.
Leaving undead remains everywhere would prove to be a problem if the necromancer somehow got word of it. And if that happened it would no doubt increase patrols in the area, which would hinder future operations.
Luckily enough, there didn''t seem to be an owl-humanoid or any other flight-capable creature in the group. Meaning that Lucius had the mobility advantage, allowing him to chip at their durability even before they got to his destination.
Of course, his attacks did note without cost. Even though he was leagues more powerful than them, they were still a horde, and he simply wasn''t fast enough to dodge attacks that came from all directions.
So by the time they reached their battleground, Lucius'' body was covered in scratches, bite marks, and bruises.
~It seems they retain some form of intelligence when they''re brought back,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing that the horde paused once they saw the massacre that he had left here. Undiscernable piles of rotting flesh, numerous limbs, and even a whole owl-humanoid practically driven halfway into the ground.
"Yes, that''s right, this will be your final resting ce," Lucius whispered, not in a taunting way, but more as a fact. None of them would leave here alive, even if they mauled him half to death, he would take their energies and continue the battle.
And so he did.
Initially, the horde seemed to have the advantage, if one of them was taken down, the others would bite, and w at Lucius. Tossing him around the battlefield with sheer numbers.
But soon, their numbers began to dwindle. What started as a single loss at a time, became three of four, as Lucius began to get more space to move around.
Skulls were crushed into the ground as he choke-mmed them in his furious rush. Three of four of them were impaled at a time as his tail moved around him like a hungry snake, and those that weren''t lucky enough to meet such a fate werepletely erased by the Kumulipo.
It seemed that when the Kumulipo drained the energy of an undead it left nothing but ash. Lucius was unsure why this was the case, but he would have his chance to find answers.
When there were only four undead left, they began attempting to flee. However, their rotting limbs stood no chance against Lucius''s speed. In a few moments, he circled them all up, ripping their legs and arms off so that they would not move.
Undead juices covered Lucius''s body, and the surplus energy he had gotten from draining so many undead made his eyes glow yellow in the dark.
He hadn''t had time to properly realize it during the battle, but at some point, he had gotten the ability to see in the dark. Somewhat proving that the sr crux and Kumulipo shared simrities.
"Now, what was first? Oh yes, your internal energyworks," Lucius whispered to himself thoughtfully as he used Kumulipo to inject energy into one of the undead. During the battle, he didn''t have time to properly analyze what was going on, and instead just converted all their energy haphazardly.
But now he would take a more scientific approach. He sat in front of his limblessb rat and slowly used his energy to map out its internals.
"Interesting," he whispered to himself. It seemed that the necromancer''s reanimation spell had created a sort of pseudo-core within each of its undead. However, it seemed that this was nowhere near as dense as a true core, and didn''t even radiate a small fraction of its mana.
"Hmm," he whispered, before driving his energy into the pseudo-core. Without much resistance, he got through.
However, this seemed to cause the undead great pain. In fact, it was the first time he had ever heard an undead react to any infliction of pain.
"Stop," Lucius shot back angrily, before crushing the creature''s throat. Even though this fight had been easy, there was no telling what sort of undead were wandering around here, and he wasn''t going to risk attracting something he couldn''t take on.
Though even with the crushed throat, the creature continued to struggle around in pain, using its limbless torso in an attempt to crawl away.
"That''s enough, I have what I need," Lucius whispered, before using his tail to tten the creature.
Chapter 204 [Bonus ]Magic Weapons Research (5)
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From the information he had collected, he came to understand that the pseudo-cores were nothing but an image, more of an illusion than an actual functioning core. He was uncertain why the necromancer would do that, but at least he understood the creatures this much more.
After he was done confirming this conclusion with the remaining undead, he began turning their remains into pulp, to make them easier to hide away.
However as he was doing that, he heard something move behind him.
He swung around, still on high alert from the battle he had been in just a few moments ago.
It was the owl-humanoid he had driven into the ground earlier. Its body was beginning to contort, creating make-shift limbs as they rearranged themselves.
~So theye back even after you''ve eliminated them?~ Lucius thought to himself.
Perhaps that would''ve seemed obvious to anyone else, after all, these were undead creatures. However, Lucius could recall from the war he had fought the month prior that once enough damage was dealt they would effectively be dead again.
The only variable between that time and now was the decay that covered the ground. It seemed it acted as more than just a poison.
With that in mind, he used Kumulipo to inject energy into the rearranging corpse to determine how it was interacting with the ground.
And he had been right. It was drawing energy from the ground to recreate its pseudo-core, whilst simultaneously regenerating itself.
~Interesting,~ Lucius thought to himself. The applications he had studied today would no doubt prove fruitful for him when he could create a light zone simr to this decay zone.
But for now, he was satisfied with mangling the creature''s body beyond recognition, before smashing it into a slimy pile.
Once he was done doing the same for all the other intact remains -ensuring that they would not be able to reform themselves- he began digging small ditches with his tail and burying the pulpy remains.
~ There are a few more groups approaching,~ he thought to himself as he took a rest. ~I have to start moving,~ he thought in between deepbored breaths. However as the seconds trickled by, and his mind began to calm down, the fatigue from fighting began to weigh down on him even more.
Eventually, he could no longer see in the dark, and his body ached in all the areas he had received damage.
Even though Kumulipo''s drain spell had healed him, the pain was still apparent, even its mind-cooling effect was gone.
"Huh? Wait, what?" Lucius whispered to himself. It wasn''t as if he couldn''t remember what he had done, but rather he was confused about the methods he had employed whilst doing it.
Although his fighting had been just as efficient, if not even more than it usually was, it had been more savage than usual. Sure he didn''t care for the undead, but the things he had wanted to do to them. It was like he hated them... like he hated their very existence.
~Kumulipo,~ he realized. That was its side effect. Where the sr crux burned your mind if you used it too much, the Kumulipo brought out the worst in you. And in Lucius''s case, it was the mind of a war criminal.
~Still, it''s not like I care how I treat these creatures. But perhaps I should avoid using it whilst fighting the natives of the forest,~ he thought to himself. Lest the creatures band together against him, thinking that he was some sort of tyrant.
He could still hear the hoards of undead approaching from all around. And even with Kumulipo, his body was at its limit. Anymore fighting would just result in damage... damage he was not sure he would be able to repair.
"Then I suppose I''ll have to do this," he whispered, before running in the opposite direction from the sound of the hoards.
Once he had moved a good distance away, he took a deep breath before letting out a loud shriek. The ear-piercing sound traveled quickly through the forest, no doubt attracting the attention of any wandering undead nearby.
"A shriek? That''s the sound my species makes?" Lucius thought to himself in slight disappointment, already running away from that spot.
*
By the time he got back to Avankor and the chief, he waspletely out of breath and required quite a bit of effort to even move a limb.
"Was that you?" Avankor asked, visibly rxing as he recognized that it was Lucius approaching them.
"Ye-yes," Lucius replied in betweenbored breaths.
"A might battle cry," Avankormented, to which the chief nodded his head in agreement as well.
"The... the entrance, where is it?" Lucius strained to say, before Avankor stepped closer to the bank of the river, and released a white fluid from his palms into the water.
Lucius stared in confusion at this, before noticing a blue light shining from a spot deep within the river.
"There is an entrance over there," Avankor replied, before diving into the water. He used his tail to help him propel against the current as he dove deeper toward the seemingly blue portal.
For a moment, he disappeared from view, before returning a few secondster with four other Zeldraves.
Once all of them got back up to the river bank, the Zeldraves began greeting their King. It seemed that Avankor only had time to gesture for them to follow him whilst he was down there.
"We thought those Chames had done something to you," one of themmented once they had finished with their greetings.
"Do not speak ill of them, Shavak has treated me well. In these times, it''s the best we can do to treat them as close allies," Avankor replied, before looking toward Lucius.
"My warriors, this is Havon. Ever since he has awoken, there has been great hope for the future. Treat him as you would me, if not even higher," Avankor said, to which the Zeldrave warriors immediately bowed.
Unlike their king, the average Zeldrave was around the same height as Lucius''s current form. Which he supposed was the reason they treated him with more courtesy than the Chames during their first interaction.
That or the respect Avankor had garnered among his people was more absolute than that of Shavak''s among his.
Chapter 205 Magic Weapons Research (6)
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"We greet you, Havon," the warriors said after.
Lucius, however, was too out of breath to give a reply and instead lifted his hand in kind gesture.
"Warriors, please take this into the den," Avankor ordered after, pointing towards the cart.
The chief jumped off it, and exchange pleasantries with the warriors before all of them grabbed onto it and pushed it into the river. Its weight along with the push Avankor was giving it from behind was enough to push it under.
Luckily there wasn''t much air inside it, so its buoyancy was near non-existent.
Whilst the others moved towards the blue portal, Lucius stayed behind for a moment, pondering why the necromancer''s decay hadn''t affected the river or the river banks.
The decay zone stopped just inches away from the embankments, making him think it had something to do with the water. Though even after he threw water on the decayed soil, the ckyer on top of it did not peel back.
~More and more questions keep arising,~ he thought to himself with a deep breath, before jumping into the river.
Even with his high-strength stat, he had to put in a lot of effort to ovee his fatigue. Fortunately, he managed to get through the ''portal'' right before it disappeared.
*
"ce it in my quarters, and if Trel is there, inform her that she''s not allowed to y around with it," Avankor said to the warriors, before turning to Lucius -who was still inspecting the passage they had just passed through.
"What exactly is this? It isn''t magic, is it?" Lucius asked. At first, he had thought that the portal opened in response to something rted to Avankor''s mystic mantle. But now that he had a look at it from the inside, it was actually just a hole covered by what looked like blue rocks.
"We do not know what it is. It was here from even before the first king. All we know is that it reacts to our nature''s blessing," Avankor replied, before showing Lucius the white fluid his species was capable of secreting.
Just as Lucius was about to touch it, Avankor moved his hand back.
"This is like poison to those who are not Zeldrave. It causes grievous wounds upon touch," Avankor warned, before reabsorbing the fluid.
Lucius could remember hearing something about smanders being able to excrete poisonous fluid back on Earth, he supposed that this was something simr.
But still, there were a lot of questions about the ''portal'' left unanswered. Howe the water hadn''t passed through with them? What were these blue rocks? And if this wasn''t a magic spell, how had they suddenly be ethereal?
~More questions,~ Lucius thought to himself in exasperation. But still, the properties of this blue rock were interesting enough to make up for the headache of their mystery. It was another possible material he could use to create weapons and gear.
But experimentation would have to wait until after he had taken a rest.
Avankor led the group down the tunnel, taking a series of lefts and rights at the multiple intersections that seemedmon within this underground system. The tunnel walls were very simr to that of the Chames, apart from a few spaces where the walls were unnaturally polished.
Lucius assumed that the Zeldraves had probably used the properties of their fluid to smooth out these areas.
As they went deeper into the camp, they found more of the glowing blue rocks lighting the path. Upon closer inspection, Lucius realized that they were nearly identical to the rocks that lit up the Chames'' den, the only difference was that these rocks seemed more dense.
Different colored gems were embedded within the doorways to a few of these tunnels. However, unlike the Chames'', they did not seem to depict anything of historical value and instead were indicators of what sort of corridors they were entering.
He had picked up the pattern rather quickly; blue gems meant intersection, green gems meant a dead end, and red gems meant living area -or at least areas whererge numbers of Zeldraves lounged around.
Of course the appearance of strangers in the den drew a lot of attention as Lucius could hear the Zeldraves whispering to each other as Avankor led them down the corridors.
Soon a small group had begun following them from behind. And regardless of how many times Avankor asked them to stop following, their curiosity seemed to get the best of them.
"We''ve been walking for some time. I thought you would be taking us to meet the rest of your people, but it seems that''s not the case," Luciusmented.
To which Avankor nodded his head hesitantly, before letting out a sigh.
"Havon, you have to understand, when you first woke up, you were not stable. There were things, I could not reveal to you yet," Avankor whispered grimly.
"Your child... there was not a lot we could do. However, we kept him alive. Perhaps your healing techniques will be able to rece what he has lost," Avankor continued rather quickly, perhaps sensing that Lucius was about to react.
However, to his surprise, Lucius was unnaturally calm. The fatigue that had scrunched his expression was now gone, and instead reced by one of detachment.
The rest of the walk went on in silence before the group came to a doorway with purple gems on on top of it.
"This is my sister''s room, I put her in charge of treating him," Avankor exined, before drawing the leather curtain to the side.
Lucius slowly entered the room. It was a simple space, with its only piece of furniture being a makeshift earth bath in the center.
A purple-skinned Zeldrave was currently pouring white fluid from a worm sac into the bath.
"So that''s what all that noise was about. You took your timeing back... brother," the purple-skinned Zeldravemented, not lifting her head from what she was doing.
"Trel, I''ve brought Havon... he''s here to see his child," Avankor said stiffly, prompting the female Zeldrave to quickly raise her head.
She looked at Lucius with a scrutinizing gaze, almost as if she saw him as more like a science study than anything else.
However, Lucius paid her no mind and went straight to the earthen bath.
"Alpha..." he whispered in anguish.
Chapter 206 Magic Weapons Research (7) [The Price Of War]
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The shadows in the room began to quiver, with every moment of silence that passed they grew more and more restless, slowly inching their way toward Lucius.
"Havon, please calm down. He''s still alive," Avankor exined, however, his mystic mantle was already on. What Lucius was seeing was enough to throw anyone into a state of despair, never mind someone with a mental state as damaged as his.
"How?" Lucius asked, trying to calm himself down a little. This did nothing but cause the shadows in the room to quiver and shake even more, in fact, even the shadows that covered Avankor''s body seemed to resonate to this effect.
"He misused his mantle against the necromancer. He tried handling more power than his body co-" Avankor tried exining.
"Alpha doesn''t have a mantle! What happened to my child!" Lucius snapped, sinking his hands into the liquid to caress Alpha''s face.
Or what was left of it at least.
Where Alpha''s eyes should''ve been were two charred depressions, that were seemingly the result of healing from an even more heinous injury. Alpha''s body was littered with simr charred wounds, but this wasn''t even the worst of it.
A massive x-shaped scar covered his entire torso, and where his left arm should''ve been was a stump. The woody armor he had been growing was now nowhere to be seen and was instead reced by a charcoal-like material.
"It''s the truth... I''m sorry," Avankor whispered in reply, however, Lucius was not there. His mind was elsewhere, in a space where he was constantly ming himself for what had happened.
Dozens of buts, ifs, and whys crossed his mind; But how had Alphae to fight the necromancer? If he were stronger perhaps this wouldn''t have happened. If he had waited a little more, perhaps they would''ve been better prepared. Why had he involved his children in the fight? Why hadn''t he trained them more?
~No, calm down,~ he thought to himself. He knew he was falling victim to his mental scars, but even knowing that was not enough to ovee it.
With his emotions still in turmoil, he tried to call on the sr crux. The white-hot pain that had been restricting him earlier began to engulf his body once more, however, the difference was that this time he didn''t care. He pushed through pain, allowing it to scathe him as he willed the crux from the depths of which it seemed to be hidden.
For a moment he was sent to his ''white space'' and he got a glimpse of the sun at the center. The ck dot that he had seen earlier had grown into a noticeable impurity, however, now was not the time to pay it mind.
Once he returned back to the normal ne, he called out the sr crux, withstanding the exhaustion he had built up from fighting against the white-hot pain, before casting sr cleanse.
"Oh," Trel whispered in wonder, as Alpha was bathed in bright luminescence. The spell took more energy than it usually did, but Lucius did not care.
Once the light had subsided, Alpha''s body began twitching. A momentter, he coughed out the white substance he had been emersed in for all these days.
"Captain!" he shouted, struggling around as if fighting an imaginary enemy.
For the first time in a while, tears streamed down Lucius''s face.
"I''m here, don''t worry, you''re safe now," Lucius said, before helping Alpha sit up in the bath and hugging his head.
"Captain, I thought- I thought," Alpha tried saying.
"It''s okay now, it''s okay now," Lucius whispered in response. The tears did not stop, and even Avankor seemed to look on in pity.
"Captain, why is it so dark?" Alpha asked, before touching his eyes. There he found the rough -charred surface of his wounds.
For some reason, sr cleanse had failed to heal any of the wounds he had sumbed to.
"And my arm, where''s my arm," Alpha shouted, before struggling to get away from Lucius''s embrace, sending the healing liquid flying everywhere.
"It''ll be okay," Lucius replied firmly, holding on to Alpha even as thetter struggled to get away.
Alpha screamed and shouted for what felt like hours, repeating the same questions over and over again. And all the while, Lucius held him, whispering that everything would be okay.
That night, Avankor ordered that everyone leave the room and that the two be left alone for some time.
*
Hours passed, and even though he was now exhausted, Alpha still whispered his questions in agony. At this point, he hade to understand what happened to him, but the reality of it was too painful to ept.
His questions had changed somewhere during the night. He no longer asked about his missing body parts, but rather why he wasn''t healed. But Lucius had no answer to that. And so he replied; "everything will be okay."
After a few more hours, Alpha fell asleep. It was a shock he had been able to stay up so long, but Lucius could understand, or perhaps could sympathize with what he was going through.
Alpha had been the hardest working in themune, and now he had lost both his sight, and perhaps even his ability to do battle. Something he had seemed fond of.
Whilst Alpha slept, Lucius rested with his head on the earth bath. He couldn''t leave Alpha alone for even a moment. He had to be here when Alpha woke up... he had been absent long enough.
*
Morning came, and Lucius had barely slept. He had spent much of the previous night deep in thought.
As he was casting yet another futile sr cleanse on Alpha''s body, Avankor walked into the room.
Even though he could sympathize with Lucius, there was a lot he and even the rest of the forest still expected from their savior. And though he understood that everyone needed time to grieve, there was no rest for someone in Lucius''s position.
Something Lucius himself understood well enough, even in this state.
"Havon," Avankor whispered after standing in silence for some time.
"I know," Lucius replied, not a hint of emotion in his voice. He had spent all of that, the night prior.
"Have your people eaten?" he asked shortly after, before turning to look at Avankor, a tired look in his eyes.
Chapter 207 Magic Weapons Research (8) [Tale Of A Samurai Part 1]
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"You are yet to choose the warriors you requested for the trade," Avankor replied.
Lucius paused for a moment, before standing up.
"Bring me any that are willing, and take half for you and your people," he replied after some thought, before starting with his morning training routine.
Avankor watched him for a moment, before leaving the room. After some time, he returned with 9 male Zeldraves -made apparent by their orange skin color- and a single female -who he recognized as Trel.
By this time Lucius had already finished his morning training and was once again sitting beside Alpha.
Without even looking at his new men, he ordered half of them to prepare themselves to leave for the surface, and the remaining half to collect a few of the blue rocks that he had seen at the entrance.
"Havon, my brother has ordered me to give this to you," one of his allocated warriors said, once all the others had left to fulfill their orders. It was Trel, and she had the pouch that Lucius had given Avankor yesterday.
"Ah," Lucius whispered, before opening the pouch.
The glowing blue gemstone, as well as all the herbs, were still inside. Well, it wasn''t as if he was expecting a king to steal stuff from him, even if his people were in dire straits.
"You''re something of a scientist in this den, aren''t you?" Lucius asked tiredly, as he ced the herbs in neat little columns in front of him.
"Scientist?" Trel asked. Even though she was confused by the question, she still had a look of amusement on her face.
"You study things, I can tell by the way you stare at me. You''re interested in me, no... you''re interested in studying me," Lucius said inly, as Trel sat beside him, and began inspecting the herbs as well.
"Am I that easy to see through?" she asked, yfully. However, Lucius did not respond to that.
"Do you know what these herbs do?" he asked after a moment of silence had passed.
Trel inspected the herbs for a few moments, picking one of them up, before sniffing it and cing it back down again.
"We use these to make the meat taste better. Though perhaps there are more uses to them?" she replied, as if expecting an answer from Lucius.
"Then give these to Avankor. Tell him they are payment for the blue rocks I''ll be using," he replied, before removing the blue gemstone.
"And this?" Lucius asked after.
Trel stared at it in awe for a moment, before reluctantly shaking her head.
~I thought so. Perhaps I should ask one of the golems,~ he thought to himself before putting it back into the pouch. Of course, he would run his own experiments as well, but first, he wanted to create a few stone-cutting tools for ab.
As stones and other simr mineral formations were the only materials he could easily mold at this point. And even if he somehow found a way to mold metal in theing seven days, he would need prototypes to start with.
"I haven''t seen a creature like you before. And I''ve seen all the creatures this side of the forest," Trelmented after some time had passed. However, Lucius did not respond to that and instead began making a mental list of all the materials he would need for hisb.
"And you said that he''s your child, but from what I can tell, he''s older than you. How does that make sense?" she asked after. But yet once again, Lucius did not respond.
"The glowing tree that fell many days ago had the same light as the magic you usedst night, was that yours as well?" she continued, now standing in front of Lucius.
The two looked at each other in silence for a few moments, Lucius with a tired expression on his face, whilst Trel with one of youthful curiosity.
"You can find the answers yourself. But first, give the herbs to Avankor, and tell him we''ll be leaving for the Chame''s den in a few minutes. Their people are hungry, we need to drop the rest of the meat to Shavak before doing anything else," he replied, before moving past her toward Alpha''s bath.
She stared at him for a moment, before reluctantly leaving the room.
"Alpha, I know you''re awake," Lucius said once she was gone. His enhanced senses had allowed him to pick up the slight movements Alpha had made in the water.
"I apologize for earlier," Alpha whispered after a moment of silence, before attempting to sit up.
Lucius quickly dropped the pouch and moved to help him get out of the bath.
"Eleanor can take over for me. Even if I''ll no longer be useful inbat, perhaps I can help the F and C department," Alpha whispered. This confused Lucius for a moment, as it had been a while since he had heard about the departments. But it only made sense, since only a day had passed for Alpha.
"Alpha, the others are missing," Lucius exined.
"Missing? Are they-" Alpha replied in disbelief.
"No, they''re alive. Ghost and Pagan''s status screens are still active. I checkedst night," Lucius replied quickly.
Of course, concepts such as ''status screen'' confused Alpha, but so did half the other concepts Lucius often talked about.
"And as for you switching departments. That''s entirely up to you, however, I don''t think yourbat potential is entirely ruined," Lucius added after.
"Then there''s a way to heal me?" Alpha asked.
Of course, there was probably a way to heal him, but Lucius knew how damaging misced hope could be. No, instead he wanted to offer Alpha a chance to use what he had left.
"I-I can''t say for certain. But, there''s a story I want to tell you," he said, before helping Alpha sit down on the ground.
"A story?" Alpha asked, audibly confused.
"It''s about a great warrior, a samurai, one who was born without eyes," Lucius replied.
Of course, there was no such samurai that Lucius knew of. The story he was about to tell Alpha was one he had made upst night, though the message he wanted to pass on was real. In this world of magic, sight was not necessary for battle. Though he couldn''t deny that Alpha''s standard of life would greatly be diminished due to his new disabilities.
"What''s a samurai?" Alpha asked, his interest piqued.
Chapter 208 Magic Weapons Research (9) [Tale Of A Samurai Part 2]
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"Hmm..." Lucius whispered to himself, trying to recall exactly what they were, or better yet what he wanted them to be in this story.
"A samurai is a great warrior... a protector. They live their lives ording to a set of principles called the Bushido code... the way of the warrior. They are more than just fighters, they are noble even in their way of life," Lucius said after some thought.
Apart from the few times he had seen them on television, he couldn''t quite remember what exactly their deal was. However, he did remember a few things he had read on the Bushido code, something he had been quite interested in.
"The way of the warrior," Alpha whispered to himself, his head down-turned in thought.
"The Samurai in our story is an unnamed warrior, a prince and son to a useless king," Lucius began.
"Useless king?" Alpha asked before Lucius could go on.
"A Captain with no talent for it," Lucius replied briefly.
"As things go, the useless king''s orders eventually led hismune to fall to the hands of an enemy. And whilst his people were ughtered, and his warriors fought against the enemy, he was sound asleep in his quarters," he continued.
"He slept while hismune was being attacked? What kind of captain does that?" Alpha asked, a hint of anger in his tone.
"Indeed, what kind of captain..." Lucius whispered to himself, before going on; "His son, the unnamed samurai, believing that his father would soone, fought alongside the samurai that served the king."
"Sadly, their enemies were very powerful, and the samurai began to fall one by one until only a single warrior was left fighting for the king," he continued.
"The blind samurai," Alpha whispered.
"Indeed, the blind samurai. Even though he had no eyes, he fought as if he could see the enemies'' every move. What hecked for in sight, he made up for in tenacity and courage. And even when faced with an enemy he had no chance of winning against, he continued to wage war," Lucius replied.
"He died, didn''t he," Alpha asked, a sort of sadness in his tone.
"No... quite the opposite. Against all odds, the blind samurai was victorious," Lucius replied.
Alpha''s mouth moved in an odd way as if to show that he was confused with Lucius''s story.
"You''re wondering how a blind samurai was able to do that, aren''t you?" he asked, to which Alpha nodded his head.
"To tell you the truth, I don''t know either. Some say that the blind can see a world that those of us with eyes can''t. But I think you''re in a better position than me to answer that question," Lucius replied.
Alpha thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head in defeat.
"Questions worth answering cannot be solved in a single day. You can take your time, maybe one day you''ll be able to tell me," Lucius said quickly.
Alpha remained silent for a few more moments, opening and closing his mouth as if debating on whether to voice what he was thinking.
Even after a few minutes had passed, Lucius did not try to force him to speak, he wanted Alpha to find his own way. To ask the questions he saw fit, and find the answers he needed to believe in.
For now, Lucius''s role was that of a guide, nothing more.
Though even if he wanted this, he wasn''tpletely sure if it was the right way to go about it, after all this was new territory even for him. He had to admit, he wasn''t the best parent, and his near non-existent rtionship with his Earth son was a testament to this fact.
"Do you think I could be a Samurai?" Alpha asked finally.
Lucius was tempted to say yes immediately, but once again, remembered the detriment of misced hope. The whole point of the story was to make Alpha aware that things that seemed impossible could be made possible. He wasn''t trying to indoctrinate him into samurai-hood.
"I think you have the qualities to be one. But whether or not you can, is entirely up to you," he replied finally. Right as he was about to add onto that, Avankor and Trel walked into the room.
"Havon, we''ve prepared everything," Avankor whispered to him.
"Thank you," Lucius replied tiredly, not even bothering to look at him.
"Alpha, I''ll be back in a few hours. We can continue our discussion then," Lucius said softly, before turning to Trel. "Can you stay beside him and help him move around? He hasn''t gotten used to the darkness, so he might hurt himself bump-" he was about to say before Alpha interrupted.
"I''ll be okay," he said.
Lucius looked at him for a moment, before giving a sort of half smile -one filled with more sadness than joy.
"Then I''ll leave you be," he said before turning to leave.
"Captain," Alpha called out right as they were about to leave.
"When youe back, can you tell me about the Binshu-" he tried saying, mumbling thest word as he tried to figure out how exactly it was said.
"Bushido code? Of course," Lucius replied.
*
"What did you guys use to cut the meat?" Lucius asked as he stared at the state that the remaining meat was in.
They had loaded the cart with what looked like a half-ravaged carcass, and even the cart itself seemed to have incurred some damage from when they tried removing the meat.
"Cut?" Avankor asked in confusion. That in itself answered Lucius''s question. The meat looked half ravaged because that was exactly what had happened to it.
The Zeldrave had eaten it right from the body, and sure Lucius could understand that hygiene wasn''t exactly something primitive creatures had to worry about, but giving Shavak a half-eaten carcass felt like an insult.
"So you guys have no weapons?" Lucius asked as he used Elmando to repair the damaged areas of the cart.
"We have weapons," Avankor replied, gesturing towards the warriors that were currently under Lucius''s service. Each of them was wielding a wooden spear with a sharp-bone tip.
These spears looked identical to the ones in the Chames''s den.
"I take it you guys got those from the Immacte Forest as well?" Lucius asked, now creating a sort of air-tight cover around the remaining meat in order to prevent its scent from lifting into the air whilst they were traveling.
"How did you know?" Avankor asked in surprise.
Chapter 209 Magic Weapons Research (10)
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"A wild guess. Though I can''t imagine these spears being that useful during hunts," Luciusmented, as the group began moving to the entrance.
"You''re right, forrger prey, we often resort to using our ''nature''s blessing''. We mostly use these for hunting smaller prey, like boars," Avankor replied after some thought.
~The issue with these spears isn''t that their tip is made from bone, it''s that whoever made them clearly didn''t care for their longevity,~ Lucius thought to himself as he side-eyed one of the warriors carrying a spear.
The bone tip had been fastened on with what looked like dry string, and the creator of these weapons hadn''t even bothered to create a notch for the tip to rest in, so it was at risk of falling off at any moment.
Not to mention that the wood the spears were made from hadn''t even been worked on, and were clearly justrge, crooked branches.
"Avankor, how would you like to form another trade?" Lucius mused, as the group got closer to the entrance.
"A trade?" Avankor asked hesitantly. Lucius was well aware that the Zeldrave didn''t really have a lot to trade, apparent by the fact Avankor had offered warriors as a substitute for their earlier trade.
"Don''t worry, the terms on your end can be the same asst time. Where I''m from, your den would be called a Mercenary group," Lucius exined.
And though he wasn''t going to be using these guys for fighting, the extra hands were much needed as he couldn''t be everywhere at once.
~Besides, treating them as mercenaries allows me to trade with them without them having to worry that they''re relying on me too much,~ Lucius thought to himself.
However, from Avankor''s silence, it was apparent that he was hesitant to ept the terms. Lucius assumed that Avankor doubted that he really needed the men, after all, Avankor had been witness to him ying a golem alone.
"I won''t be using them for battle. They''ll mainly work for resource gathering, nothing too dangerous," Lucius exined.
"I-If that''s okay with you," Avankor replied hesitantly.
"In exchange for their services, I''ll supply your den with weapons and gear," Lucius said after. This earned a few shocked expressions from the warriors around them. It seemed that weapons were a big deal to these people.
However, Trel seemed more amused than anything else.
"And where will you get these weapons and gear?" Trel asked, whilst her kin were still trying to process what Lucius had said.
"I''ll make them," Lucius replied inly.
"That''s a little much, don''t you think Havon? If you are going to give us so much, then let me join this ''Mercenary group'', but even then I feel like we''re still taking advantage of you," Avankor said hesitantly.
There were a few of the warriors who seemed against the idea of their king working for an outsider, however even they could not voice their opposition. They seemed to understand the situation their king was in.
"No, these guys will be enough. If I need more warriors I''ll tell you," Lucius replied.
Though they would soon find out that the work he was going to put them through would be well worth the ''prototype weapons'' he would be supplying them. They were merely going to act as a bin where he would throw all the weapons that weren''t good enough for the golem king, which sadly would probably still be of higher quality than the weapons they currently had.
And besides, Lucius would benefit from both the Zeldrave and the Chames''s den being better outfitted with weapons.
With enemies on two sides- those being the necromancer and the Immacte Forest Council- he needed his allies to be as powerful as possible.
After all, he no longer nned on bringing the two groups into hismune. Last night he had a lot of time to think things over. And he came to realize that bringing them into hismune would be irresponsible.
He could hardly protect his children, how was he going to protect amune that would effectively be three timesrger?
No, instead he would work with his currentmune until they were at a level where they could fend for themselves.
Until themune was developed enough to operate, even in the event he died, he would treat everyone else as a resource.
Though this did not mean he didn''t have ns to develop the two camps. No, quite the opposite. He nned on making them something of a vassal state, so if another council was built in the future, he would already have two additional votes in his favor.
When the group finally reached the entrance, Avankor used his blessing to open up the passageway and the group began trying to get the cart through.
"Stand back," Lucius ordered after they had been at this for a few minutes. With a few gestures, he used Elmando to create legs at the bottom of the cart, thrusting it upward, before using his tail to direct it through the passage.
"Uhm... thank you, Havon," each of the warriors mumbled as they walked past him, before awkwardly going through the passage.
"You''re just full of surprises, aren''t you?" Trel whispered as she passed by, before going through.
"I apologize for my sister, she does not understand that living creatures are not her ythings," Avankor exined, before going through next.
"I noticed," Lucius whispered to himself, being thest to leave after the chief.
*
The journey to the Chames''s den went on without any hurdles. In fact, even the undead pits that the chief had warned the group about seemed to be empty now.
Lucius guessed that it was probably due to the stunt he had pulled yesterday. No doubt all the creatures in the area were patrolling around that region, probably searching for where he had run off to.
*
When they finally got to the cliff face, the group turned to Lucius with expectant gazes, almost as if they were saying -oh great Havon, what magics will you use to ovee this obstacle?-
Chapter 210 Magic Weapons Research (11) [Written Language Is Passed On]]
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After all, the cart was way toorge to descend with using a mere rope. That and the warriors had growncent, what with there being a mage in their presence.
With a sigh, Lucius used Elmando to convert parts of the cart into ropes with very dense nail-like tips.
Of course, regardless of how dense he wanted them to be, his level of mastery in Elmando simply would not allow for them to be able to pierce through rock easily, so descending would still be a challenge.
He decided to go down first, whilst using Elmando to slowly move the cart towards the edge.
Once the first set of wheels went over the edge, he converted them into even more ropes and began driving their sharpened tips into the rock face.
This proved to be a difficult task since the mushroom material kept getting ttened under the pressure of the hammering action. But after a few attempts, he managed to make a hole big enough for it to anchor onto.
And that was just one of the 8 ropes he had created for anchorage, not to mention the first of many cycles he would need to actually reach the entrance to the Chames'' den.
The rest of the group watched on in awe as Lucius dangled over certain peril whilst mming the nail-like rope ends into the rock face.
*
After around an hour of doing this, the group managed to make it to the entrance to the Chames'' den, with Lucius beingpletely exhausted.
If not for his level restrictions, he was certain his stats would''ve doubled due to this little exercise.
"Good work, Havon," one of the warriors whispered to him, as the group collected at the mouth of the entrance.
"Indeed, a mighty warrior," another added.
Once everyone had gotten down, they began moving toward the main tunnels of the den.
Due to the strain he had put on Elmando whilst descending, he couldn''t use it to move the cart anymore, so the warriors were forced to move it manually.
Which proved to be difficult for them since Lucius did not reform the wheels. Something he could''ve done, but decided not to.
"Mighty warriors," he whispered as he walked passed them.
~Though I really need to find the river route that leads into the inner den,~ he thought to himself as he stretched his limbs. His legs and tail still hurt from supporting his weight for that long.
Once they got to the den''s main corridor, the chief instructed one of the guards stationed there to alert Shavak of their arrival. And the group moved to the Council room whilst they waited.
However, Lucius decided to visit Sherlin instead. They were here to hand over the food, and nothing more. And he was almost certain that the guards would call the council members as well, something he wasn''t sure he could handle in this state.
He was both mentally and physically exhausted, if he had to deal with Shavril''s nonsense in this state, he might actually kill the ''senior advisor''.
~Perhaps I should stop by the children as well, after all, I''m supposed to be training them,~ he thought to himself as he tried recalling which tunnels led to Sherlin''s quarters.
After a few wrong turns, dead ends, and several guards offering him directions, he was finally on the right track.
Though this little exploration tour of his made him realize just how small the Chames'' poption was inparison to the Zeldraves. Of course, Lucius could understand why their warrior poptions had such a clear disparity.
Whereas Avankor seemed to ept anyone as a warrior -made apparent by the fact that warriors and normal Zeldrave were the same size- Shavak only epted those specially bred for the task. This meant that a lot of the able-bodied adult poption ended up being guards, which to Lucius was quite a waste.
When he finally got to Sherlin''s quarters, he found the old pundit reading the leather parchment he had given him some time back.
"Havon... you''ve returned," Sherlin said with a smile, before lifting the paper into the air. "I''ve figured it out. This ''alphabet'' of yours, I''ve figured it out," he continued, as he approached Lucius.
Lucius on the other hand doubted the pundit''s words. He had only written a few words for practice on the parchment, and even then he doubted that the pundit could properly read those.
After all, it had only been a few days, even if this was primarily a phguage.
Before Lucius could even reply, the pundit began reading the words off one by one. Sure, he took some time to form the sounds, but he was at a level where most non-native speakers of anguage would be called fluent.
Lucius stared at the old Chames in shock for a moment, wondering if he was some genius. But this wasn''t even the end of it.
Next Sherlin used his ws to write a few words on the parchment. Due to Lucius''s encyclopedia, he could tell the words were spelled wrongly, but that was beside the point.
He could understand the words that Sherlin was trying to inscribe. It was a short sentence.
''This is an interesting tool.'' it read.
"I spent every moment of thest few days practicing. It''s the most fun I''ve had since I was a child," the pundit chuckled as Lucius just stared at him.
~This old man.~ Perhaps the only other creature Lucius had ever met on the same level of adeptness at learning was Hannibal. But even then, he doubted Hannibal would''ve dedicated this much time to such a boring task.
"Have you taught anyone else yet?" Lucius asked.
"Of course not," Sherlin replied harshly, before quickly calming down. "As if those old skin bags would ever share their knowledge with me. Besides, I''vee to realize that our trade was unfair. How can I share what I am yet topletely repay," he continued.
Lucius couldn''t understand what it was with these creatures and honoring trades. If it were up to humans, they''d be happy to leave with a bargain. Sure it was nice to know that they wouldn''t cheat him, but it was annoying when he just wanted it to be over with.
Chapter 211 Magic Weapons Research (12) [The Postal System]
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"I need you to teach everyone," Lucius said after some thought.
Sherlin stared at him with a nk expression, as if he could not understand the words he had just hearding out of Lucius''s mouth.
"I understand you want to keep the information for yourself, but this Alphabet is useless if only me and you know how to use it," Lucius exined.
"If you want to pay me back, I need you to teach the other pundits... no, anyone you think can learn this fast enough. And in exchange for the knowledge, tell them to teach someone else," he continued.
All the while Sherlin''s expression grew more and more worried.
"You want the whole den to know this information?" Sherlin asked finally, his tone betraying his hesitance to do so.
"This isn''t information, it''s but a tool formunication. Imagine how efficiently you will be able to gain new information if more people knew how to use this tool," Lucius tried exining, though Sherlin still seemed against the idea.
"Look, there''s a concept I''ve been thinking about for a long time now. That''s the reason I came up with this Alphabet," he whispered, looking over his shoulder in an almost paranoid manner.
"W-what is it?" Sherlin asked, Lucius''s paranoid demeanor only making whatever he was about to say that much more enticing.
"It''s a system. A system of information exchange that will help bring us lower tiers to a level that even the Immacte Forest Council is yet to reach," he began.
"The limitations you previously had will no longer exist. Forget exchanging knowledge on a peer-to-peer basis. You could gain valuable information on the history of different parts of the forest, on trade locations, hunting spots. You''d be able tomunicate with someone on the other side of the forest if need be, and it could be done discreetly as well," he continued.
Sherlin gulped audibly at this, looking over Lucius''s shoulder himself, as if the paranoia had infected him as well.
"Havon, if it''s so important, do you think we should be discussing it here?" Sherlin whispered softly. If not for Lucius''s hyper senses, he probably wouldn''t even have heard him.
"There''s no other time for this. There are other things I have to do. But now that I''ve found someone worthy of sharing this information with, I need to take the risk," Lucius replied.
This act was honestly eating away at Lucius''s social battery. However, for the future of hismune, he had to push through.
"So, what is it?" Sherlin asked.
"I call it... The Postal System," Lucius whispered, making it seem as if it were some mystical concept.
"P-Postal System, that does indeed sound like a powerful system. Is it one of your magics?" Sherlin whispered in reply.
"Wait, we''re getting too ahead of ourselves now. Even if I think you are worthy of this information, there''s still some doubt in my mind," Lucius said, before pausing in exaggerated thought.
"If you can get more than 30 Chames to be as good, if not better than you are right now at using the Alphabet, then that''ll be proof enough," he continued.
Just as Sherlin was about to reply, Lucius added; "Or I could go to another pundit and offer them the trade."
And this was all he needed to get Sherlin on board. The pundit agreed to the terms faster than Lucius could even say ''deal'', before rushing off to teach one of his colleagues.
"Havon, they have summoned you to the Council room," a guard called out as Lucius was looking through Sherlin''s pile of oddities.
"I''ll be right there," Lucius replied, before retrieving the leather parchment he had used to draw the den''s tunnel systems and putting it into his pouch -Gevrot''s pouch.
*
When he finally arrived back at the council room, he found Shavak and Avankor with defeated expressions on their faces, whereas Shavril and some of the other council members seemed to be quite happy with themselves.
Lucius had been expecting Shavril to pull something while he was gone, especially after the threat he had given thetter during theirst meeting.
"Havon, forgive me. I tried everything in my power, but it seems my position means nothing in this room," Shavak said angrily.
"Ahh, Havon, it has been a while, hasn''t it," Shavril said, as Lucius took a seat at one of the empty chairs.
"It''s only been a day, Shavril, but anyway, what''s this about?" Lucius asked.
"Firstly, we''d like to thank you for the food you gave to our den. It was so kind of you to offer us such a generous gift for our hospitality," Shavril continued, to which a few of the council members, and even his own son, the chief, seemed bothered by.
"Father, there are limits," the chief warned, a sort of cold hostility in his tone.
Lucius would''ve thought the two were on good terms what with Shavril having gone through all this just to put his son as king.
"Well, he is quite aware that the den has nothing to offer him in exchange. However, that is a matter for another time. Right now, we are discussing the punishment that this council has decided upon," Shavril replied, just as coldly.
"Punishment?" Lucius asked in confusion. As far as he could tell, he hadn''t done anything wrong.
"Or are you going to deny the allegations sent against you? Did you not kidnap the chief, and disappear with him for an entire day, knowing that the den has lost so many already?" Shavril asked.
The chief opened his mouth toin, but Shavril spoke over him.
"Have you not allowed the people of this den to refer to you as the ''Sun King'' even though you hold no such position in this den? Ignorance is not a defense, Havon, we have already warned you before," Shavril continued.
"And finally, did you abuse the young warriors you were instructed to train? We found them with bruises from your training, and many of them were told to run until they copsed, apparently as punishment for beingte. Was that not a bit much?" he asked, his tone usatory at first, and then changing to one of sympathy towards the end.
~Ahh, I see,~ Lucius thought to himself.
The allegations were all a bit of a stretch, but for the first, he could understand their worry. He had taken the leader of their warrior n, a mere day after he had returned. As a father, he could sympathize with Shavril on that.
However, that was all.
It was clear to Lucius that this was all another ploy to win the game of thrones that Shavril thought they werepeting in. And even if Lucius somehow found a way out of this one, he was certain more woulde the moreplex his operations became.
Chapter 212 Magic Weapons Research (13) [The Seeds Of Revolution]
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As Shavril continued speaking, Lucius could hear an army of footstepsing from the corridor just outside.
Initially, he had been on guard, but his earth sense made him aware that the approaching army was not much of a threat. In fact, from the readings he was getting, he could tell that they were primarily themon folk of this den.
~I see, so he called them in for insurance, huh? In case Ish out at him likest time,~ Lucius realized rather quickly.
In all honesty, he felt Shavril was a waste of talent. Anyone smart enough to think up a n like this would''ve been of good useter on, however, Shavril had crossed a line Lucius could never forgive.
Anyone willing to go to these lengths for something as meaningless as the leadership of a small group was too short-sighted and selfish to ever change their ways to any meaningful degree.
No, it was already decided. Shavril would die. Perhaps not by his hand, but if this den was serious about their future, Shavril would have to be the sacrificialmb they''d pay for salvation.
"Ahh, it seems everyone is already here," Shavril whispered once the crowd had appeared at the door.
"I''ve called you all today to oversee the punishment of this outsider. I''ve called you here to show you that he is no king, but inst-"
"Enough," Lucius whispered as Shavril went on.
"I said enough!" he shouted a moment after, prompting Shavril, and even a few of the bystanders behind him to lurch back in surprise.
"I will not carry through with the punishment," he said nkly.
Shavril needed some time to recover from his scare, but soon after was back on the offensive.
"Do you see? Look, look at how your ''king'' behaves. Even after his wrongdoings he-"Shavril tried saying, before Lucius interrupted once more.
"Silence!" Lucius shouted, his mental exhaustion at the point where he contemted letting it all out on the old council member. However, he used what was left of his sanity to control himself.
If he let his emotions consume him, he knew that he would end up ughtering Shavril, and perhaps even a few of his backers. No, Shavril was needed, he had a role to y in the development of the Chames.
"I''m d you called everyone here. You''ve saved me some time," Lucius said out loud, before turning to the people.
¡¤?¦Èm "I don''t know how these people came to be your leaders, and frankly I don''t care about their history or what family they are descendants of. However, there''s one thing I''m certain of," he began.
"The state your den is in at this moment is not due to the necromancer, or his undead. It was only a matter of time before their leadership got you here. And each and every one of you is just as responsible for this," he continued.
Shavril tried to speak up, however, an over-shoulder nce from Lucius was all it took for him to keep quiet again.
"How long do you n to be treated like sub-ss? I''ve seen the way Shavril treats you all... the way this council treats you. For what reason do you guys silently sit at the back of the den, allowing yourselves to be stepped over whilst hoping that one-day food will be handed to you?" he asked.
At this, a few of the Chames looked down in guilt.
"Even your children are denied a better future. Why? Because they were born into the wrong family they are stripped of the choice to be warriors if they see fit? And all you the rest of you do is watch on. What do you tell them when you go to sleep? What will you tell them when this council has led you all to your final days?" he asked before pausing in wait for an answer.
However, they remained silent.
"Well, it''s not like you have to give me that answer. It''s them you''ll be answering to soon enough," he said in disappointment after a moment, pointing towards the children who seemed confused with Lucius''s speech.
"Forget I said anything. Shavril is right, I am not your king, and I never will be. If you are content with getting through this disaster, I will rid the forest of the necromancer soon enough, and all of you can go back to your subss lives," he continued before pausing abruptly once again.
"However, if it''s change that you want. If you want your lives to mean something even after this is over. If you want to live in a world, where your children and those after you have a future, then you will need toe together and overthrow this council," he said finally.
This caused the council members to jump up in indignance, many of them screaming and yelling ''political'' profanities at Lucius, however, Lucius paid them no mind.
"If you can do that, then I promise you a better future. Listen, if you can do this one thing, then this entire forest is as good as yours," he added.
Even though he may have been exaggerating about the forest being as good as theirs, he was serious about everything else.
After all, there was no use in doing everything for them. If they would just be senseless drones, that did nothing but devour resources, then he had no reason to affiliate himself with them.
What he needed was allies, not liabilities. And if they could notplete this one task, then he would cut ties with them permanently. There would be other groups he could use, groups in a better state than this.
"Before I leave. Shavak..." Lucius shouted, trying to get his voice above the shouts and screams that some of the council members were throwing at him.
Once they heard the name of their king being called, most of them kept quiet, wondering what Lucius could possibly have to say to him as well.
Chapter 213 Magic Weapons Research (14) [Sons And Fathers]
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"There is no doubt in my mind that you are an excellent warrior and a valuable asset to your people. However, your position and your talents are not a good match, they are wasted on each other. If there is one right thing you will ever do in your position as king, it''ll be to dismantle your current form of leadership, and help your people put those more suited for the task into power," he said finally, before gesturing for Avankor and the others to leave.
With this, the entire room was left in silence, some doing so in self-reflection, whilst others remained quiet solely due tock of words.
"Havon, wait," a voice called out as Lucius and the others were trying to pass through the crowd that had collected at the door.
Lucius turned around and found Shaviki walking towards him.
"Ahh, thank you for everything, Shaviki. Truth be told, I think you''re the only one who deserved their position in this council," Lucius said as Shaviki approached.
"Will you be returning?" Shaviki asked, a worried expression on his face. No doubt he knew that without Lucius here, the survival of his den was reduced to nearly zero.
"There are a few ties I have here, although I won''t be returning, rest assured I will be sending you supplies. And you don''t have to worry about repaying me, Sherlin is already doing so," Lucius replied. However Shaviki''s worried expression did not soften.
"Is something else the matter?" Lucius asked.
"My son. C-can you take him with you?" Shaviki replied, and before Lucius could even say anything he added; "He can be a part of the trade deal between you and Sherlin."
Though it seemed cold for a father to trade his son away, Lucius understood where he wasing from. Even if a new council came into power, it would not change the way his son was viewed, some things just couldn''t be solved in a short time.
"You''d dare offer that bad omen in exchange for all he has given us? My father has already embarrassed us enough, I expected more from you Shaviki," the chief shouted in indignance.
"If we are trading members, then I would be a better fit. We have cheated him enough," he added, now in a softer tone.
Words could not describe the expression that the chief had on his face. He seemed to regret being born a Chames, chained by his duty to the den, he couldn''t leave with Lucius.
"I will take him," Lucius said finally. After seeing the state Alpha was left in due to his mistakes, he had more sympathy for Shaviki. Even if it wouldplicate things, he was now more willing to go through with it.
"If that child leaves with the outsider, then he is banished from the den. Do you understand that Shaviki?" Shavril shouted.
Shaviki thought about it for a moment, before nodding his head.
"Then I disown him. Yes... I disown my son," Shaviki whispered to himself, the tears on the rim of his eyes threatening to fall.
Lucius understood that this was no easy task to carry out. With this, Shaviki''s family would bepletely destroyed. He would be left alone, something Lucius had recentlye to fear.
"Come," Shaviki called out towards the crowd, and a momentter, an albino Chames squeezed through.
Shaviki whispered something into his son''s ears, and the two looked at each other for what seemed like thest time before thetter left with Lucius and his group.
Lucius was uncertain how things would y out in the Chames'' den, however, he knew that whatever did happen would be for the best.
*
Once the group had finished with their business at the Chames''s den, they shortly returned to the Zeldrave''s den to drop off Avankor -who had a few outstanding duties toplete as King- and Trel -who Lucius had instructed to go make sure Alpha was fed- before the others ventured on to the nnds.
"Okay, listen up. I''ll only say this once," Lucius began, as he had the group stand at attention at the fringes separating the dark forest and the nnds.
"We will be doing some resource gathering, that is all I am expecting of you. If you see any danger, alert me and I will take care of it. You are not to engage in battle understand?" Lucius ordered.
"Your den has lost enough, and frankly Avankor is the only Zeldrave warrior worth anything in battle, so nobody try to be a hero. You''ll have your work cut out for you as is," he continued. To which the warriors nodded their heads in understanding.
"Okay, I''ll give each of you a specific resource to look for as we move through the forest, and you''ll load it onto the cart," Lucius said as he used Elmando to morph the nearby mushroom''s into a cart.
After this, he gave each of the 4 warriors under his service their specific resources which were primarily; herbs, two different types of rocks, and whatever branches had fallen to the ground.
"Zhayen, I want you to watch me over the next few days and learn what you can. Though your father has entrusted you to me, I''m not sure where your talents lie yet, so try your best to show me what you''re good at," Lucius whispered to Zhayen as the group began moving.
Lucius used Elmando to move the cart along, making it bigger as they passed more and more mushrooms. He also threw in whatever materials he thought would be useful, which were mainly odd-looking nts, vines, and rocks too big for the warriors to carry themselves.
After three hours had passed, the group was starting to tire, however, Lucius gave them no rest. The cart -which at this point was the size of a garbage truck- was only quarter-way full, and Lucius wanted to minimize the number of times he woulde back here.
Plus, he was using this as a training exercise for these warriors, something they apparently needed a lot of.
After another hour passed, productivity was starting to take a heavy decline, so he reluctantly decided to allow them a few moments of rest.
"We can rest here for an hour," Lucius ordered, as they came by a stream. It had been a while since he had drunk water, and even though it seemed he was specially adapted to survive long amounts of time without it, he was beginning to grow thirsty.
Chapter 214 Magic Weapons Research (15) [Golem Herders]
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[Water absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 2.5%]
[Questplete.]
[+20 exp]
~Sigh, okay time for photosynthesis,~ Lucius thought to himself, before looking hesitantly at the exhausted warriors around him.
Sure his earth sense could detect any threats in a close radius around him, however, he was still skeptical about having a session without anyone trustworthy around as his full attention would be drawn towards absorbing the sunlight.
"I''ll be taking a short break tomune with the sky spirits, whilst I''m doing that I''ll need all of you to be on high alert," he said after some thought. After all, if he were going to be doing this every time they left the den, he had toe up with some kind of excuse. And what better excuse than the mystical Havon, doing mystical things?
The warriors looked at each other in confusion for a moment, before nodding their heads in agreement.
All of them stared intently at Lucius as he got into a cross-legged position.
[Absorbing 1640 Helios per second.]
*
45 minutes hadn''t even passed before Lucius felt someone touch his shoulder. His eyes instantly shot open, and with that, his earth sense alerted him of a low-level threat approaching.
~So earth sense doesn''t work while I''m using photosynthesis?~ he thought to himself as he looked toward the direction he sensed the threating from.
It was a whole herd of the giant-elephant creatures he had hunted two days ago. Though from the way they were charging towards them, they were clearly running away from something.
~Fuck, the cart,~ he thought to himself as he looked back at the cart. At the speed the herd of beasts was charging, he wouldn''t have enough time to move itpletely out of the way.
"Everyone stand back!" he shouted, before calling out his crux and rushing towards the charging stampede.
As he got closer, he began overcharging his crux with sr energy, realizing that none of his spells would be strong enough in their normal version to take thisrge a group out.
But anyways, his n was to redirect them away from the cart. He didn''t need to actually kill them.
~Sr pit,~ he chanted silently, now exuding sr energy as if it were a mist cloud.
It was a spell he hadn''t used ever since he had created it back when he was with his firstmune, however, yesterday''s drama had reminded him of many of the unused weapons he had in his arsenal.
Sr pit allowed his crux to ease even more than it usually could, greatly increasing the range of his spells.
By the time collision with the herd was imminent, his crux was now around half the size of his body. Though it wasn''t as dense as it seemed in its natural state, what he needed now was a powerful-looking spell, not an actually powerful one.
"Sr beam," he shouted, and for a moment there wasplete silence all around him.
A millisecondter, a trail of light shot forward from his crux, its thrust strong enough to send him and the air all around it gusting back.
It sounded like a thunderp had just been unleashed as the heat from the beam caused the air to expand rapidly.
The trail of light hit four of the nearly 15 beasts in the herd,pletely disintegrating their flesh and leaving their pink insides exposed.
[Questplete.]
[+300 exp]
Sand and rock debris were sted into the air as the injured beasts fell to the ground. Seeing this threat, the herd took a sharp turn right and began rushing off in that direction.
~They''re likerge cows,~ he thought to himself, finding their herd mentality a little amusing.
However, what wasn''t amusing, was the toll the spell had taken on him. His vision cked out several times in the span of the few seconds since he cast the spell, and his body was temporarily frozen from exhaustion.
In fact, as soon as the spell had been unleashed, his crux had immediately recalled itself, havingpletely used up all its reserves.
~Perhaps I overdid it,~ he thought to himself as he waited for his body to start responding to hismands. Though even when he was able to move his fingers, it felt simr to how limbs became when they hadn''t been getting enough blood for some time.
~Noted, tone it down just a little bit more next time,~ he thought to himself. Though this was actually good practice for him. It had been a while since he tested the limits to his power, and from what he could tell the crux became bigger the more sr energy he used, so this ought to have grown it a few levels.
It was just a pity that he had exhausted all his magic in unsafe territory.
By the time he regained full control of his body, he noticed a group of 5 golems running toward him. Their massive builds trampled down what little vegetation the elephant-beasts had left behind from their stampede.
~I see,~ Lucius thought to himself, before gritting his teeth.
With his magicpletely drained, he would have to rely on pure brute strength to take on these golems. But even then, they were simply too many, and his body was still undergoing the overheating effects of the spell he had just cast.
"Why do you hunt in ournds?!" one of the golems shouted once they got into earshot range of Lucius.
Three of the golems continued chasing after the herd, whilst one of them remained with the golem that was currently speaking.
~They''re not attacking me?~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Look Geynor, it''s the tiny warrior Wise told Grenovarish about. Are those not the ck horns, and the green skin he spoke about?" the other golem asked as hisrade continued questioning Lucius about the fallen beasts.
"Yes, Geynor can see that. What other tiny creature would''ve been able to cause this much damage? But still, Geynor does not understand why this tiny creature has killed our prey. What right does it have to hunt here anyway?" the golem called Geynor asked in indignance.
"So let me get this straight. The problem here is that I killed some of the creatures you were hunting, not that you want to kill me?" Lucius asked in confusion, standing up straight from the fighting stance he had been in.
"What does this tiny creature think Geynor is? What use would you have to Geynor? You could not even feed an infant," Geynor retorted.
Chapter 215 Magic Weapons Research (16)[Introduction To High-Golem Society (1)]
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"It even killed the eldest females," Geynor snorted as he side-eyed the beasts that had been hit by Lucius''s sr beam.
"Wait, eldest females? Are you guys farmers?" Lucius asked in audible shock.
After all what other use would golems have for knowing whether a beast was male or female?
"Farmer? You speak strange words for a thief. How are you going to pay Geynor and his family back for the damage you caused? It was nearly time for these to be bred. You have caused the loss of at least 4 beast infants in addition to the ones you have ughtered," Geynor mumbled as he walked towards the fallen beasts, before caressing their corpses and whispering to himself.
"Forgive Geynor tiny warrior, these beasts are Geynor''s pride and joy," the other golem said as they both stared at Geynor shedding tears at the loss of his livestock.
"I am Triden, Greynor''s mate," the golem said.
Now that Lucius had a better look at it, he could kind of tell that its build was slightly different from all the other golems he had met before. Well, the two mounds covered by beast hide should''ve alerted him of this difference the moment he saw her anyway.
Lucius could not respond to Triden, as he was still trying to process what was going on. Of course there were female golems, after all, how else would new ones be born, perhaps the demeanor of all the other golems he had met before blinded him to this obvious fact.
¡¤?¦Èm "We herded the animals towards you, so I suppose it''s partially our fault. Though using magic to kill them was a bit much, so you have to understand Geynor''s anger," she continued.
Even the way she spoke was confusing. Whereas the males seemed sort of mentally challenged, she spoke as if she were from apletely different species.
"You''d do well to avert your gaze, tiny warrior. I am pleased that you find interest in my body, however, I am already spoken for," Triden said softly, snapping Lucius out of his daze.
"What? No, I was just... confused," Lucius murmured.
Truly baffling.
"You can keep the creature''s you killed, however we will need payment. One mid-grade mana stone should be a fair trade, don''t you think?" she continued, whilst staring at her husband still making a fuss over the death of their dead animals.
~So that''s what it is,~ Lucius thought to himself, before removing his pouch from his back, and pulling out the bluestone inside it.
"This is a mana, correct?" he asked, presenting it to the giant woman,
"A high grade? Hmm, we have a few low grades at our homestead. If you follow us we canplete our trade," she said after inspecting the stone for some time.
Lucius had a lot of questions, however, the first he had to ask was; "Are you guys really golems?"
"What else could we be?" she asked in confusion.
"I haven''t met any golems as..." Lucius said, trying to find a way to say things without insulting their entire race.
"Oh, have you only encountered low-tier golems? I thought that after meeting Wise you would''ve seen the difference. We are high-golems, our low-tier brethren are indeed an odd lot, so I understand your confusion," she exined after some thought.
~Well, that''s beside the point. Your husband is singing, dancing, and crying around a dead animal. I''d say he''s just as odd,~ Lucius thought to himself as he stared at Geynor nkly.
At this point, Zhayen was now hiding behind a tree just a few meters behind Lucius. From the way Triden was ncing at the tree, he could tell that she had sensed him too.
"Sorry, he''s with me," Lucius exined.
For the first time in a while, it felt like he was conversing with a creature that had actual intelligence. Perhaps their use of farming had created that perception within his mind.
~What other advancements have these creatures made?~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Is it fine if my warriors apany us to your homestead? Leaving them out here would be..." he said out loud.
Triden thought about this for a moment, clearly against the idea. Lucius assumed that it probably had something to do with the way they referred to him as tiny -and sometimes even puny- warrior.
There seemed to be some kind of discrimination against smaller creatures, though he supposed it only made sense. After all, they were a species who valued strength over all else, and he was certain the only reason she was even speaking to him as an equal was due to the fact that he was leagues more powerful than his small stature let on.
"They can follow us, however, make sure they do note anywhere near Geynor or my sons. The men of our kind do not look kindly to small creatures, especially those who can''t even use magic," she said after some thought.
Lucius quickly ran back toward the group and informed them of the n. Of course, there were a few warriors who voiced their concerns, apparently, there had been many altercations where their kind was left as roadkill on the floor. Though Lucius assured them that he''d step in if anything were to happen to them.
And so Lucius and his group made their way toward Triden and her husband. By this time it seemed that Geyron had finished with his mourning ritual.
"Hmm, give me a moment," Lucius said, as he stared at the four beast corpses on the ground. Asrge as Geyron and Triden were, he doubted they could carry this many on their backs.
So after taking a deep breath, he began molding some of the nearby mushrooms into a massive cart. Though he couldn''t make it nearly as dense as he wanted to, as his mind was still suffering the effect of overheating.
~The abundance of mushrooms here is really convenient,~ he thought to himself. If the golems had the power to use Elmando like their tiny mush-being counterparts, he had no doubt in his mind that they would''ve created a great civilization by now.
"Interesting, so you have powers simr to the tenth tiers," Geyron murmured, once Lucius had finished creating the cart.
Chapter 216 Magic Weapons Research (17) [Introduction to High-Golem Society (2)]
Chapter 216 Magic Weapons Research (17)
[Introduction to High-Golem Society (2)]
"Simr to the tenth tiers?" Lucius asked in confusion, as Geyron loaded the fallen beasts into the cart.
It strained under the heavy weight due to itsck of density, however, the bend wasn''t incredibly terrible. At worst, it would probably copse after several minutes and Lucius could patch it up again.
"Apparently the tenth tiers have morphed the section of the forest they live in, much like you are doing right now. However those are just the whispers we''ve heard around, we haven''t actually seen this for ourselves," Triden replied, as her husband began silently pushing the cart toward their homestead.
This wasn''tpletely surprising, seeing as they were the closest descendants of the fae. Though this did raise the question of how far they had gotten in terms of civilization. If they had continued building where the fae had left off, then there was a chance they had technology far beyond what present-day humans could imagine.
However, Lucius had his obvious doubts. After all, any civilization advanced enough would''ve had control of their entire, much less a forest.
~That''s assuming that this forest doesn''t span the entire,~ he thought to himself.
"Speaking of which, where do the tenth tiers live?" he asked as the group began moving, with Triden pushing the other cart.
"They live past the Behemoth mountains, next to the never-endingke," Triden replied.
~Never endingke probably means ocean,~ Lucius thought to himself. Which answered the question of where all the rivers led to.
As they continued on their journey, Lucius took this chance to ask as many questions as he could. Even though he risked looking ignorant, it was better to have information than put up an act.
"The mana stones... what are they used for? Is it what''smonly used for trade here?" he asked.
"Hmm... only the tenth tiers know what they are used for. And yes, many of the higher-tier beings of the forest use it for trade. After all, it''s the only thing the tenth tiers ept in exchange for their odd devices," Triden replied after some thought.
"Wait, I thought you guys had been at war not long ago. Howe you''re able to trade?" Lucius asked in clear confusion.
"That war was many years ago, even my mother''s mother was not alive when it happened," Triden replied.
"And how long does your kind live for?" Lucius asked immediately after. Perhaps his rapid-fire questions weren''t the best show of etiquette, but then again, most of the information he had gotten thus far was of myths, legends, and fallen civilizations.
"My mother''s mother diedst Zerwinst, and she lived 500 Zerwinsts. So the war was many years before that," Triden replied after some thought, prompting Lucius to sigh in response.
"Zerwinst?"
"When the flowers bloom," she replied.
~So spring? I see, so the war was more than 500 years ago. And the Fae were alive 1000 years ago, I''m starting to see the timeline,~ Lucius thought to himself.
Though he still couldn''t get over how long creatures in this world lived.
"How long do you guys usually live?" he asked, now talking to one of the warriors walking behind them.
The warrior''s seemed to have confused expressions on their faces, and Lucius could tell that it wasn''t because of the question he had just asked them.
"What? What''s wrong?" he asked. He was certain he hadn''t sensed a threat nearby.
"I think they are confused about how you are able to talk to these creatures," Zhayen said after a moment of silence had passed. The warriors quickly gestured for Zhayen to keep quiet, however, his expression showed that he couldn''t care less.
"They can''t understand us either, you know," he said, before turning to Lucius.
~Was this kid always like this?~ Lucius thought to himself.
"So how are you able to talk to them?" Zhayen asked.
However, he had to admit that he''dpletely forgotten about the fact, perhaps because the Encyclopedia made transitioning betweennguages so seamless.
"As Havon I''m able tomune with all creatures," Lucius replied, after some thought. He was really getting the hang of this mystical savior bs.
"How does thenguage sound to you?" he asked after. Curious about the possibility of teaching it to others.
"It sounds like yours snorting random sounds," Zhayen replied after a moment of thought.
That was what Lucius had been afraid of. If thenguages sounded too alien to non-native speakers, then it would be very hard to teach even developing children, much less fully grown adults who had already gotten used to using their primarynguage.
"I see. But my question remains unanswered. How long does your kind usually live for?" he asked again.
The warriors thought about it for a moment before one of them replied; "My mother lived to 25 winters."
"She lived well," the others murmured, indicating to Lucius that even 30 years was rare amongst their kind. It made sense biologically, of course, however, it didn''t align with the amount of time Pagan had stayed alive for. But then again, Pagan was an oddity in so many ways, and even now Lucius doubted that his ancient fanatic had told him the entire truth about his history.
~25 years, so they must grow from child to adult rather quickly,~ he thought to himself. Before turning back to Triden.
"You said that you trade for odd devices with the tenth tiers, what sort of devices are they?" he asked next.
"I haven''t seen one. Our kind wouldn''t dare to trade directly with the tenth tiers. Rather we trade with the ninth-tier Behemoth Races, and they in turn trade with the tenth tiers. Though even the High Behemoths keep those devices behind their city walls, many creatures in this forest are hesitant to show off their prized possessions," Triden replied, saying thest few words with a bit of spite.
Of course, that would give some exnation as to why a race as powerful as the golems still lived like early civilization humans. That and perhaps the fact that they just hadn''t found the need to evolve past this stage.
The rest of the journey was mainly filled with silence as Lucius digested the information he had collected thus far, and tried to find ways to take advantage of it. For instance, if he wanted to develop hismune the most efficiently, he would have to find a way to start trading with the High Behemoth races directly.
Though this would also mean he had to increase the rate at which he was evolving if he wanted to do so without fear. Something that was going to take a very long time if he kept using photosynthesis as his primary method of evolution.
Chapter 217 Magic Weapons Research (18) [Introduction to High-Golem Society (3)]
Chapter 217 Magic Weapons Research (18)
[Introduction to High-Golem Society (3)]
When they finally reached the homestead, they found a massive cottage-like structure created from uprooted trees in the center of a cleared-out patch of earth.
Right in front of the cottage, was a massive fence made from even more trees, these however looked like they had been nted that way initially instead of being ced there. These trees in particr were hardwood trees, simr to the ones that used to grow in the green forest before the decay had caused them all to rot.
~Though it doesn''t seem like it made much of a difference,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing a portion of the fence had been knocked over.
Using animals thatrge as livestock was bound to be a chore, though he supposed that there wasn''t any other animal that''d be able to feed their family adequately.
"Are there many others like you?" Lucius asked as the group walked towards the massive front door of the cottage.
"No, Geyron''s family is the only one," Geyron replied stubbornly, before dropping the cart he had been pushing. He then mumbled something to Triden, who gave him the mana stone before storming into the house.
"Don''t worry about Geyron. He''ll forget about this after a while," Tridenmented as they watched Geyron shut the door.
Though it wasn''t as if Lucius really minded much, they probably wouldn''t see each other after this transaction anyway.
"So does that mean you guys only recently started this practice?" he asked after a moment of silence had passed, pointing towards the fence.
"No, Geyron''s family has been doing this since our kind settled in the forest," Triden replied, before dropping the handles of the cart she had been pushing as well. Though the golems were powerful, it seemed they didn''t have nearly as much stamina as Lucius had. Which proved to be a valuable piece of information.
"Howe his family is the only one then? Surely the others have seen what you guys are doing as well," hemented, as Triden invited them to take a closer look at the fence.
"Geyron''s family was blessed with unique magic. They are the only ones who could possibly build boundaries strong enough to contain a group of Gargans," Triden replied, before using her brute strength to fix the part of the fence that had fallen over.
"It''s just that yesterday one of our sons was responsible for strengthening the fence. Though he''s still young and his magic isn''t as good as Geyron''s," she continued. Once the fence was fixed, a red glow began emanating from it.
Curious about this strange aura, Lucius reached out his hand to touch it.
~Incredible,~ he thought to himself in awe. Although these trees were clearly made of wood, it felt like he was pushing against steel. Even after he had put in a considerable amount of strength, he wasn''t able to move them an inch.
~If this is the work of someone who hasn''t mastered the art, then I wonder how strong Geyron makes them,~ he thought to himself, suddenly regretting the fact that he and Geyron were on bad terms.
This was clearly a form of augmentation, a powerful one at that. With magic like this, he could make even a mushroom settlement into a nigh imprable fortress, which was part of the reason Lucius couldn''t understand why they had settled to be farmers.
~No, I have to win these golems over,~ he decided.
Forget turning mushroom settlements into imprable fortresses, armor enchanted with this magic would turn even the frailest of soldiers into walking tanks. Add swords, spears, and all sorts of other war gear and the conception of a god-like army was not out of the question.
In fact, Lucius even pondered if this effect could be increased if they had sr cruxs to power the enchantment. But perhaps he was getting ahead of himself.
The fact was, these guys were going to be a good part of the answer to magic weapons, though one question still remained unanswered.
"Has Grenovarish ever asked Geyron''s family for their services?" he asked.
Triden looked at him with a confused expression for a moment.
"Services? What use would the king have for this sort of magic? I doubt there''s anything this side of the forest that could ever warrant Grenovarish needing this," she answered.
It was a little disappointing that the king hadn''t been using this gift to his advantage, though Lucius could see his reasoning. Perhaps asking for help would make him look weak in front of his people, or maybe the king was just too ignorant to see the world of possibilities it opened.
Whatever the case was, it created a market gap. One Lucius looked to exploit.
~Though their primary currency, mana stones, is something I''mcking. And I doubt anything I can collect in the forest would be a worthwhile trade to these guys,~ he thought to himself.
However, this made him realize something. If the tenth-tiers wanted the mana cores so badly -for reasons that Lucius hoped to find out through experimentation- how did the lower-tier creaturese to get them?
The only viable reason for this is that they were a resource found somewhere in close vicinity to the lower-tier areas, otherwise, the tenth tiers wouldn''t bother trading with the lower tiers at all.
"Triden, do you know where mana stones are found?" Lucius asked after some thought. Perhaps asking someone where the equivalent of ''do you know where I can mine gold?'' wasn''t the smartest question, however even an answer as vague as ''mostly in gold veins'' would do the trick.
At this point, Geyron wasing out of the cottage, with three small mana stones in hand.
"Magic beasts of course," Triden replied briefly, before walking towards her husband.
"Take these and leave," Geyron said roughly, before cing the mana stones on top of the cart filled with other resources.
Lucius had gotten enough time to recover, so he was more than well enough to push the carts back to the Zeldrave den, however, he couldn''t leave things as they were.
Chapter 218 Magic Weapons Research (19)
?
"Geyron, have you ever thought about offering your magic as a service for trade?" Lucius asked as he used Elmando to begin moving the carts.
Moving two extremely heavy carts simultaneously was quite the exercise, however, it would only help to increase the mastery he had over Elmando, so he wasn''tining.
"Who would pay for such a thing?" Geyron snorted, already walking back towards his cottage.
"I would. Name a price," Lucius replied. This prompted Geyron to pause for a moment, before turning around to look at Lucius.
"Geyron heard that you were able to defeat Wise, but that means nothing. Geyron does not know you, or where you came from. Even if you were to give Geyron 3000 mana stones, Geyron would never help you," Geyron spat, before marching off into the cottage.
~Those Gargans must''ve meant a lot to him,~ Lucius thought to himself as the warriors next to him cowered behind him. Even though they couldn''t understand what Geyron had just said, they could sense the obvious hostility behind it.
~But its no matter. I still have 6 days, and enchantments will have toest anyway. I''ll find a way to get him to enchant them. If not him, then his sons,~ Lucius thought to himself, before heading back towards the Zeldrave den.
*
On the way back, Lucius interchanged between pushing the carts using Elmando and using his own strength, as the strain proved to be way more than his Elmando could handle for elongated periods of time. Even with ''sr cleanse'' resetting some of the strain, they were dyed by at least an extra 3 hours due to this.
However, he wasn''t solely to me for this dy, as the warriors themselves begged for rest stops just as often. Lucius had ordered them to put even more materials into the cart, and there was only so much energy they could recover from ''sr cleanse'' and the short rests they were taking.
When they had gotten a little closer to the dark forest, Lucius decided to take an even longer pit stop than usual. They were about to go back into enemy territory, so having a sluggish crew was a big no.
Whilst they were taking this break he got about an hour of photosynthesis in.
All in all, he managed to umte 10.3 million helios, all of which he allocated towards evolution. In addition to that, he allocated all the helios he had saved up thus far -which amounted to about 24 million helios.
His body glowed slightly for a moment, as his height increased from 1.4 meters to nearly 1.5 meters.
His tail grew thicker and was now 4 meters long. His ws turned a few shades darker than they had been before, now nearly jet ck.
His horns began to form even more branches, with the longest branch now extending to 0.6 meters. Its once buck-like structure now seemed more alien, demonic almost.
And something odd was beginning to happen with his skin. Where it was once just in green, with a few areas turning brown, it now seemed like there were patterns immerging. However, even with his hyper senses, he could just barely notice the difference in tint, much less make out what the patterns were.
However, the biggest difference of all was the tighter pull he felting from the ground. It felt as if gravity had been doubled, however, that clearly wasn''t the case as his movements did not seem hindered.
In fact, this wasn''t a bad feeling at all. For some reason the tighter pull made him feel safer, like he knew the earth was protecting him somehow. And although it was only slight, he could almost hear something whispering to him from the ground, though it very well could''ve been due to his now more enhanced senses picking up something in the distance.
"Y-You grew," one of the warriors shouted in shock. All the other warriors were too stunned to even speak.
Usually, Lucius would''ve been worried about them seeing this, however, he was Havon. Anything was possible.
"The Sky spirits have blessed me," Lucius lied, before ordering the group to proceed.
This was more than enough to fool everyone else, however, Zhayen gave him a skeptical look. Though Lucius didn''t want to question him about it in front of the others. If they perceived Zhayen''s skepticism as an insult to their savior, then there was a chance he would be alienated even in the new den.
*
In order for them to pass such a massive cargo through the now corrupted dark forest unnoticed, Lucius had to employ a number of tactics.
For one, he had to divide one of therger carts into several smaller carts, each of them carrying a specific resource.
Unfortunately, this wouldn''t be possible for therger cart carrying the Gargans, so he would have to find some other way to get it through.
Luckily for them, the undead seemed to be way less active during the day, so after clearing out what few undead were wandering about -and burying their pulped remains- Lucius ordered the warriors to begin pulling the smaller carts towards the den.
Due to the weight each of the carts carried, it took all four of the warriors to push a single cart at a time. And Lucius couldn''t help much either as he had to stay with therge cart to ensure that nothing happened to it.
So this little excursion took them around 2 hours toplete, at which point only therge cart was left.
"What are we going to do with that one?" Zhayen asked.
The child had been patiently sitting with Lucius whilst all this had been happening. Lucius had told him he was allowed to go back to the den with the warriors and rest, though it didn''te as a surprise when he declined the offer.
Lucius was the only person he knew now, and his history of being alienated didn''t give him much hope in the hospitality of the patrons of his new home.
Chapter 219 Magic Weapons Research (20)
Chapter 219 Magic Weapons Research (20)
"We''re going to take each Gargan corpse back one by one," Lucius replied, with a tired smile.
Using Elmando, he created different partitions within the cart for each Gargan corpse, before separating thempletely. At best, he could pull two at a time without attracting too much attention, so he would have to leave the other two unguarded.
Of course, if he had someone more reliable around he could''ve left them to guard the remaining corpses. However no such person was here right now, and it wasn''t worth the risk of leaving the warriors behind when nearly every creature in the forest could pose a fatal threat to them.
So, he reluctantly pulled two of the carts back to the den, with Zhayen following close behind him.
"Are we really leaving all that food behind?" Zhayen asked, still notpletely understanding Lucius''s thinking. Even after he had exined it to the child several times.
Wherever Zhayen''s talentsy, they surely weren''t in his thinking capacity.
*
The first trip went without any interruptions. Once Lucius helped the warriors get the two Gargan corpses into the den, he ordered that they move all the carts to the area that Avankor had allocated for him.
And though Zhayen insisted that he go back as well, Lucius had the warriors take him to the room as well. -As he wasn''t certain whether Avankor had allocated a room for Zhayen yet.
When he finally started his second trip, it was beginning to get dark, meaning that things were going to get a little more dangerous.
So he decided to move even slower than usual, hoping that the lowered sound would attract less undead.
Sadly, that didn''t seem to be the case, as several undead seemed to have heard his movement. Though at least a horde hadn''t appeared - something he had ensured earlier by killing every small group of undead in proximity-.
Of course, this did not mean that things were easy. Initially, he had been able to move some distance without having to fight them directly through the use of his poison''s fourth form. However, he still had to stop to crush the undead remains and bury them.
Later on, he had to engage in actual battle, which proved to be more of a chore, as the undead had a habit of trying to rip apart anything that didn''t have the necromancer''s energy inside it. That included the mushroom cart and its contents.
And as dense as he had tried to make the carts, they were still made from mushroom material, and a few of the stronger undead managed to w their way into one of the carts.
Perhaps the fights would''vested shorter periods of time if he just sted them with sr beams, however, the light from the sr crux and its spells would no doubt alert the undead in the far distance so it was not worth the risk.
By the time he had made it back to the Zeldrave den, one of the Gargan corpses had been tainted with decay, and as such could not be used as food. Though Lucius was certain he would be able to find another use for it anyway.
*
"Havon, it seems your hunt has gone well," Avankor greeted as Lucius walked down the Zeldrave den''s main corridor.
"Indeed, it has. Speaking of which, I was just about to look for you," Lucius said, gesturing for Avankor to follow him.
It seemed that the Zeldraves were still curious about Lucius as many of them tried tailing the two, though Avankor gave a stern warning for them not to interfere with Lucius''s operations.
The two of them had agreed that it was for the best that he wasn''t introduced to the den just yet. Regardless of how well Avankor was respected here, there were bound to be those like Shavril around, so until Lucius finished creating the magical weapons for Grenovarish, nobody would be told anything solid about him.
For now, he was just a ''merchant'' from the Immacte Forest, offering the den food in exchange for manpower.
"So what is it you wanted to ask me?" Avankor asked as the two of them walked briskly down the corridors. Avankor noted how close Lucius was to reaching his height, and even though he clearly wanted to ask about the sudden growth, he kept things professional.
"I wanted to ask if your people know anything about magical beasts. Perhaps one of your past kings fought one or something?" Lucius asked.
"Hmm... Maybe when we first settled here. But there hasn''t been a magical beast past the nightmare forest for many winters," Avankor replied after some thought.
This is exactly what Lucius had feared. It was either the magical beasts were all in the nightmare forest, or they were deep in the Behemoth Mountains. Because ever since he had gotten here, he hadn''t encountered or seen anything remotely simr to magical beasts.
Except of course for the shimmering foxes, though he doubted camouge in this world required magic to perform.
~Sigh, so I''ll have to prepare to go to the nightmare forest,~ Lucius thought to himself. It wasn''t that he was scared, he could just imagine how vile the forest floor felt there. And with his newly enhanced earth sense, it was going to be even worse.
"Was that all?" Avankor asked after a moment of silence had passed. At this point, they were already turning into Lucius''s new living area.
It was quite arge space, at least two times bigger than the space he had been given in the Chames''s den. Lucius wasn''t sure whether Avankor was just generous or whether he was trying to get on Lucius''s good side, either way, he was grateful for the extra room.
Avankor''s expression changed to one of shock once he saw all the carts inside Lucius''s room. Apparently, he had just heard whispers of how much stuff Lucius had brought into the den and hadn''t actually checked it himself.
"These two are yours," Lucius said, gesturing towards two of the containers in the room.
Chapter 220 Magic Weapons Research (21)
Chapter 220 Magic Weapons Research (21)
"What''s inside them?" Avankor asked hesitantly, before stepping forward to get a closer look.
Using Elmando, Lucius opened a small section of the container, to reveal its contents. Avankor immediately shook his head once he saw what was inside.
"The half you gave us yesterday was a feast for my people, I couldn''t possibly take two whole ones from you. And besides, we have nothing to trade in exchange for them. I''m sorry Havon, but I can''t ept these," Avankor said.
Lucius had been expecting him to say something like this. However, the fact was that Lucius himself had no use for two whole Gargans either. And vacuum-storing them could only slow down the rotting so much. If he didn''t want these creatures to go to waste, this was the only way to go about it.
"Tell me, have you ever heard of something called credit?" he asked after some thought, to which Avankor slowly shook his head.
"It''s a concept in trade, where one side offers something, and the other side promises to repay them at ater stage. Simple, right?" he exined.
Though from Avankor''s expression, he could tell that the king wasn''t fond of this concept.
"How can you be certain that the other side will repay you? What if they choose not to honor the trade and disappear," Avankor asked, shaking his head in disapproval.
"That''s why credit is only reserved for those who you trust. If you were to disappear without paying me, the loss of our trade rtionship would be worse than whatever goods you could''ve stolen," Lucius exined.
"Hmm... I see," Avankor whispered in understanding, though he clearly still had his doubts.
"Look, if I don''t give these to you they will rot. And I''ll be at a loss anyway," Lucius insisted.
Avankor fell into thoughtful silence at this.
"Why don''t you give one to Shavak''s den?" he asked finally.
Of course, that was an option, however, Lucius had his reasons for not bringing it up. As evil as it sounded, he had to ensure that Shavak''s den stayed in a constant state of depression. If he could continuously put them on the brink of starvation, feeding them only enough for them to survive, then the internal turmoil would reach an all-time high.
The people needed to realize that under their current leadership, things would not change. And if they needed to visit death''s door to see that, then so be it.
"I already have ns regarding that," he said after some thought. "So? Will you take them?" he added after.
Avankor reluctantly nodded his head, and the two shook on it. He then ordered some guards toe to remove the two containers from Lucius''s room.
"If you need anything, anything at all, please ask one of my warriors toe seek me out. Even though this ''credit'' thing of yours sounds reasonable, I don''t like the feeling of being in debt," he said before leaving Lucius''s room.
Once Avankor was finally gone, Lucius looked to one of the bigger containers in the room, before quickly losing interest.
"You cane out now," he said before moving to inspect the other containers.
With that, something began fumbling behind the big container he had been looking at but a moment ago, before Zhayen appeared from behind it.
"Why were you hiding?" Lucius asked as he opened each container to note down their contents.
"How did you know I was there?" Zhayen asked instead.
"I''ve been in a lot of fights, if I couldn''t sense a kid hiding behind a container I''d be dead by now," Lucius replied, before using Elmando tobel each container.
"We will be staying with these people for a while, and I''ll be leaving the den quite often. It''d be in your best interest to get ustomed to them," he continued.
Zhayen gave an odd expression at this, before mumbling something. It was so soft that the child obviously hadn''t wanted Lucius to hear him. Unfortunately for him, Lucius had hyper hearing.
"I''ll just sneak out and follow you," was what he had mumbled. Prompting Lucius to sigh in exasperation.
"Come with me. I''ll introduce you to one of my children," Lucius said, before leading the child towards Alpha''s room.
*
Once they reached the room, they found a thinyer of mist wafting through the air, and Alpha in the center doing one-armed push-ups. His entire body was glowing, indicating that he was using radiant cowl, and from the moisture drenching his entire body it was clear he had been doing this for quite some time.
Zhayen was immediately interested, taking a seat near Alpha''s ''healing bath'' before Lucius could even say a word.
Though Lucius had to admit, even he was a little impressed. For there to be literal mist in the air meant that the heat Alpha was producing was nothing to scoff at, at the very least he had been doing this for a few hours.
~Now that I think about it, I wonder if the loss of his arm has reduced his stats,~ Lucius thought to himself before opening Alpha''s status screen.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Alpha Elwood ]
[Level 16: 0/1600]
[Leaf Being [Armored-Variation] [81%]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
[Agility: 400]-Maxed
[Strength: 200->400]-Maxed
[Stamina: 400]-Maxed
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Titles ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
¡ºFirst to the event¡»-Inactive
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~So his stats really had been reduced,~ Lucius thought to himself, the arrow indicating that Alpha''s strength stat had just recently increased -no doubt due to the extremely strenuous workout he was currently doing.
Though as Lucius looked at all the other details, he found himself suprised at a few things. For one, he hadn''t realized that Alpha was at a higher level than he was.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 10: 160/1000]
[Laendryte Rojo [Guardian] [66%]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
[Agility: 790 ]
[Strength: 790]
[Stamina: 790]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
And despite everything Lucius had done thus far, he hadn''t gained any titles either. Though if this revealed anything, it was that subsidiaries of the system were treated more leniently than the actual user.
For instance, he noticed back when themune was still together that Pagan''s level increased through trivial things, like training. Whereas Lucius had toplete very specific quests.
Chapter 221 Magic Weapons Research (22)
Chapter 221 Magic Weapons Research (22)
?
Though at least this reminded him about the existence of his quests. He had been so caught up in everythingtely that he had even forgotten that his system had features other than the crux.
~If I ever want to reach level 100 and get the dual crux unlock, I''ve got to start paying more attention to it,~ he thought to himself before calling up his quest screen.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Daily Quests ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Complete]
[Complete]
< Eat> 300 exp
200 exp
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Milestone ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
It was a little depressing to see just how little experience the quests gave. It would''ve been nice if every kill he got dropped some, though he supposed such a perfect world would make him even morecent than he was already.
~Still, this milestone quest has been here for a while now,~ he thought to himself. Nine hundred thousand Evo points was the equivalent of 90 million helios, which wasn''t too far out of reach at the rate he was umting it at this stage.
But that would mean he''d have to dy his evolution. Unless of course there were some other source of helios he could use.
~Kumulipo gives a fairly good amount of helios each time I absorb a core. And it also seems to contribute some progress towards evolution at the same time, though I can''t just go around ughtering golems,~ he thought to himself. After all, the golems were the only creatures he knew that had mana cores.
~Wait!~ he realized suddenly, before bolting out of the room, to retrieve his pouch from his room. He quickly pulled out one of the mana stones, before closing his eyes and bracing himself for the pain it would take to change from sr crux to Kumulipo.
With a good amount of effort, he pushed through, allowing the white-hot pain topletely consume him.
By the time he was back from the ''white space'' his mind felt like it had been chewed up, swallowed, and regurgitated. However, he was still tingling with excitement at the prospect of his theory being correct.
With this, he attempted to inject his energies into the mana stone.
Of course, there was resistance, however, due to his prior experimentation with Kumulipo, he had learned a few tricks to get past the natural resistance objects had toward his energy.
As he pushed even harder, he noticed a few small cracks begin to form on the stone. It was a shame he would be losing something so valuable, however, he was certain it would be worth it.
He manipted his energy so that it would put more pressure where the cracks were forming, until eventually a piece of the stone broke off, and his energy rushed into it.
Once his energy filled every corner of its insides, he pulled it out and absorbed the energy he had retrieved from it.
His body began glowing slightly, and he felt as if a deep hunger he hadn''t even realized he had until now was being satiated. Once again, the feeling threatened to consume him, however, his mind had already been toughened by worse, and he easily dismissed it.
[Processing¡]
"It worked," he whispered to himself in disbelief, before pulling out all the other stones and doing the same for them.
And before he knew it, he had done so for the other two mana stones as well. Each time he absorbed the energy, the satiating feeling got stronger, and as a result, it tried even harder to consume him. But the scars already present on his mind acted like an imprable wall, bouncing them off just as quickly as they came.
Each time he absorbed the mana from the stones, he noticed a very slight change to his physique. He had grown a few centimeters and was now 1.55 meters, his tail was now 4.1 meters -which sort of bothered him since it would soon mean he wouldn''t be able to fitfortably into certain spaces within the den-.
His horns began branching even more as well, and the faded patterns on his skin became more apparent. Though they were still too light for him to properly discern what they were.
Though something odd happened. Whereas everything else seemed to evolve closer to some final form, the pull he felting from the earth seemed to grow a little weaker.
It wasn''t as if his earth sense had be weaker- quite the contrary, he could now sense things a little further than before- it just felt like whatever attractive force was calling to him was beginning to fade away.
~Should I be worried?~ he thought to himself. He really wished he had some sort of manual to this or an assistant of some sort. Perhaps if he had been into fantasy books he would''ve known what this meant, though he supposed that wishful thinking would get him nowhere.
What he knew right now was that using Kumulipo was the fastest way to evolve and finish the milestone quest. And he had even found a more morally eptable way to achieve it.
~Though I haven''t gotten the helios notification yet,~ he thought, worried that perhaps mana stones couldn''t be converted.
Just for good measure, he sat silently and waited for 2 more minutes, before finally-
[30 million helios absorbed]
This meant that each mana stone gave fewer helios than the golem''s, however, it was better he killed mana beasts than Grenovarish''s people. Morals aside, he didn''t want to find out how powerful an angry golem king was, so he''d have to settle for this.
~Besides, if one small mana stone gives this much, then how much does the mana stone I gave Triden and Geyron give?~ he thought, his greed threatening to make him forget that he still had other things to focus on.
~No, I have to calm down. So far I''ve been focusing on a single thing for too long while neglecting everything else. I need to find a bnce,~ he thought to himself.
Chapter 222 Magic Weapons Research (23)
Chapter 222 Magic Weapons Research (23)
?
~Right now the most immediate thing is creating the weapons. Forming trade rtions with Grenovarish will get me one step closer to trading with the High-Behemoths. Though I should also try to finish up the quests each day, and steadily progress towards evolution,~ he surmised, before opening his skill tree.
New skills seemed toe at random, and he had no sure way of unlocking one. Thus far, he had only unlocked photosynthesis and catalyst conversion through natural means, and the poison skill branch by gaining the shri''killian.
Which meant that if he continued evolving, he would naturally unlock more skills. And if he wanted to force unlock a few more, he would have to go after world items like the shri''killian. No doubt there were a few myths shared amongst the creatures here that would point him towards that.
However, this was just something he would keep in mind. Perhaps after he was done with his magical weapon creation, he would start hunting for them.
~Though my poison skills arecking behind everything else,~ he thought to himself. Analyzing his fight with the necromancer, one of the major reasons he had lost was because he had relied too heavily on his magic.
And although his hand-to-handbat was good, it did little against the necromancer.
As he was thinking about this, he began pacing around the room.
~For me to say that I''m fully prepared, I have to have a form of long-distance attack, as well as something to defend myself. Those spells that the necromancer was casting clearly can''t be blocked with normal shields though,~ he thought to himself.
Yet another answery in magical weapons.
~And as for long distances, I have my poison. Though it''ll need to be increased by a few more levels for it to be effective against something that strong,~ he thought to himself.
And the answer to this was obvious to him.
If he wanted to get stronger poison, he had to devour creatures who had stronger poison than him. Or at least that''s what he had gotten based of what Asclepius and the shroom chiefs had told him,
"There''s no time, I have to get moving," he whispered to himself before moving towards the storage containers.
It was the first time he had properly sat down for self-reflection, something that he supposed he ought to start doing more often.
However, all this thinking had gotten him riled up, and even though he was exhausted from all the work he had done today, he pushed on and decided to get everything set up.
~The first thing I need to set up is a stone sharpening machine. Something like a stone grinder,~ he thought to himself, as he began searching through the containerbeled ''stone''.
He removed the smallest rocks from it, before knapping them onto each other, creating sharp edges for tool sculpting. From the several rock edges he had created, he selected the ones with the hardest properties before cing them on one side and putting the remaining ones in a corner.
Next, he removed thergest rock from storage, before using the rock edges he had made to begin sculpting the rock. He was aiming to get the rock as close as possible to a wheel-like structure as his current tools would allow.
After 30 minutes, he had done all he could to achieve this.
From there, he began creating a hole at the center of the wheel, and once that was done he put it aside.
Next, he removed several vines and used Elmando to strip them, before intertwining the strips to create a stronger length of rope. Once he had a few dozen meters created, he began collecting some mushroom material from each of his containers and molded them into a base structure for his machine.
The only parts missing on them were the center wheel -on which the stone tools would be sharpened- and the ropes that would be used to create torque on the wheel.
After running the rope along the holes he had created -connecting them to the paddles at the bottom of the machine- he ced the wheel at its spot before creating a stopper that would prevent it from falling out of ce.
What would''ve taken him a few hours without Elmando had been reduced to just under an hour.
~Now to see if it works,~ he thought to himself, before slowly stepping on the paddle.
With that, the stone wheel began turning. However a momentter it came to a sudden halt, and he heard somethinge loose somewhere inside the machine.
~Huh?~ he thought to himself, before inspecting where he had gone wrong.
It seemed that there were a few parts that he had identally molded as a single structure, when in fact they should''ve been two independently moving parts. So he quickly fixed the error and tried again.
After this, there were a few more very minor errors. After all, even though he now had what could be considered intermediate mastery at Elmando, he wasn''t quite an expert, so even though he had an image in mind, it didn''t mean that his Elmando would be able to create such aplex structure in one go.
~Next time I should just create the parts one by one to avoid these incidents,~ he thought to himself, after fixing thest error.
With this, the stone sharpening tool was ready.
He quickly got to work, taking the smaller -less hard- stone edge he had created earlier, and sharpening each of them into spearheads. Of course, he wasn''t nning on giving these to Grenovarish, but instead, they were to better equip the people of the den.
With the stone sharpening tool, work carried on quite quickly. The only hindrance to progress was the fact that Lucius was a novice at tool creation, so there were times he had misaligned edges. And other times when he put too much pressure on the stones and caused them to break.
However, when all was said and done, he managed to create several eptable spear edges.
~That was good practice,~ he thought with a sigh.
It wasn''t as if the work was tiring, it was more mentally straining than anything else, as he had to pay a lot of attention to how thin he made each edge. Which was quite difficult due to his high strength stat involuntarily putting too much pressure more often than not.
Chapter 223 Magic Weapons Research (24)
Chapter 223 Magic Weapons Research (24)
As he was about to start working on a few axes, and othermon tools he would need around his new smithingb, he sensed two presences approaching.
~Alpha and... Zhayen,~ he thought to himself without so much as taking his eyes off the work he was doing.
That was the level his earth sense had now reached. Not only could he tell the threat level of the beings he was sensing, but he could tell other things now as well. For instance what size they were, how much energy they were carrying, and if he focused a little more, what kind of mood they were in.
Even though his earth sense could sort of tell all this before he had started making more progress towards evolution, it wasn''t as pronounced and would''ve required him to spend unnecessary time trying to figure these things out.
~Wait, earth sense, that''s it,~ he thought to himself, walking towards the curtain that acted as a door to his room, before drawing it for his two guests.
"Alpha, I found a way for you to see," he said as Zhayen led Alpha through the door by his hand.
Even though Lucius had basically predicted they would be there, Zhayen didn''t seem at all shocked by this. It seemed seeing Alpha''s insane workout had made him immune to whatever ''mystical'' powers Lucius could disy.
"W-What?" Alpha stuttered in disbelief, moving his hands around in the air -as if trying to feel out where Lucius was.
"Here," Lucius said, grabbing Alpha''s hand before guiding him towards the center of the room where the two sat down.
Although what he was about to tell Alpha was basically amune secret, he supposed that letting Zhayen sit around wouldn''t be too dangerous. After all, the child was still anti-social towards everyone else, and he was basically on a sort of apprenticeship trial run for themune anyway -since he had been disowned by his den.
"How well can you use your earth sense?" Lucius asked.
Alpha took a moment to think about this, and from the way his mouth was moving he seemed to realize what Lucius was onto.
Though after a few more moments, the smile that had been creeping up his face suddenly disappear, and he slump his head in defeat.
"I can only tell that there are others in this room with me, but that''s all. I can''t even discern the difference between the two of you," Alpha replied.
This sort of made sense, since Alpha was still one evolution behind Lucius. And there was also the matter of Lucius being a guardian that might''ve increased his earth senses ability.
However, if he could get Alpha to evolve, and perhaps have him train using his earth sense to a proficiency that even Lucius himself hadn''t reached yet, perhaps he might be even stronger than he was before. After all, there were limits to how well Lucius could use earth sense due to his reliance on vision- whereas Alpha had no such limitations.
Of course, there was no fix for the loss of his arm, but with training, he could be proficient at using one arm as well.
~At the rate I absorb sunlight right now, one full session should be enough. But the problem is the logistics of it all,~ he thought to himself.
They could only absorb sunlight on the surface, and although he had no doubt he could get Alpha out of the dark forest, and into the nnds, the issue of the location of his evolution pod arose.
He wasn''t certain if he could move the pod, much less how it would do without contact to sunlight during the process. He didn''t want to risk having something bad happen because he had been too hasty.
~Maybe if I build a small base for him on the surface?~ he thought to himself. He could run all his operations from there, though that would mean he''d have to go with the warriors that had been stationed to him.
And there was still a clear risk that one of the undead had noticed movement to and fro the den, so in the event that they were attacked he wouldn''t be here to help them.
~So it''ll have to wait until I''m finished with this,~ he thought to himself, before looking at the spearheads he had crafted.
If he could actually craft magic weapons, then that ought to be enough for the Zeldraves to defend themselves. Or at least fend off any attackers until Lucius could arrive -as he would have to do daily security checks to ensure nothing happened to them.
"Alpha, just give me a few days, and I''ll take you to the surface to have you evolve. Your earth sense''s sensitivity should increase by a great amount after that. But for now, train to make use of what you have. Earth sense is like a limb, the more you use it, the stronger it''ll be," he exined to Alpha.
"T-Thank you, captain, I''ll do my best," Alpha said after a moment of silence, his face a bit brighter than before.
Whereas anyone else would''ve been disappointed by this, Alpha took it with determination.
"Before I go, can you tell me a bit about the Buri- Bushi-" Alpha mumbled.
"Bushido code," Lucius corrected with a smile, before telling him a bit of what he knew.
He briefly told him about the eight virtues of the bushido code, and gave a few more examples of famous samurai he knew of.
He even told a few anecdotes about how they went about their day upon Alpha''s request - it seemed he was bent onpletely immersing himself in the role.
All the while Zhayen listened on as well. In fact, the child seemed more interested in this than any of the spells Lucius had cast in front of him.
After around 2 hours of chatting, and even sharing a fewughs at some of the odd things samurai sometimes did, Alpha left to his room to digest what he had learned. Zhayen offered to guide him back, but Alpha insisted that he walk back by himself.
Of course, this didn''t turn out well, as his earth sense was still very weak, but Zhayen helped guide him in the right direction when he was struggling for too long.
~It''s good that Zhayen seems to like Alpha,~ Lucius thought to himself. Not only because he was worried about Alpha being alone all this time, but also because he wanted to work without the child distracting him.
*
Chapter 224 Magic Weapons Research (25)
?
After another hour, Lucius had finally finished creating all the other tool heads, as well as the handles for each of them.
He was in the process of attaching the handles when he sensed someone approaching.
Though he could tell it was a Zeldrave with a small stature, it wasn''t someone he had been around too often, so he wasn''t familiar with this signature.
~Ah, Trel,~ he thought once she had gotten to the curtain.
"What do you want?" Lucius asked, not stopping his work to even acknowledge her presence.
"I brought the rocks that you sent the others to collect," she said, before dropping three worm sacs filled with the blue glowing rocks on the floor next to where he was working.
"And what''s all this?" she asked in curiosity, before walking towards the machine Lucius had created. Even though she had no idea what it did, her eyes immediately went towards the pedal and then followed the ropes that led all around the structure.
~ She has good intuition,~ Lucius thought to himself, now looking at her as she pushed the pedals with her arms. With that, the stone wheel began spinning, catching her off guard and sending her lurching backward in surprise.
"It''s a machine I''m using to make my work easier," Lucius replied, before losing interest and going back to his work.
It was a shame that someone as intelligent as she was limited due to the level of civilization she lived in. However, that was something quitemon and had happened many times in history where great minds were restricted by the times they were born in.
Trel looked back to Lucius and picked up one of the tool heads he had made, before touching its tip.
"These are even better than the ones we got from the Immacte Forest," she said as if impressed by Lucius''s work.
Though thepliment was wasted on him. In fact, it felt like an insult that she was so surprised.
"Why did it take so long to bring the rocks?" he asked, trying to change the topic. The amount in the worm sacs didn''t make sense for a whole day''s work.
"Well, the sages wanted to make sure that none of the den''s secrets would be revealed, so they had to inspect them first," she replied, now admiring the alreadypleted tools Lucius had created.
She seemed particrly fond of the climbing axe Lucius had created to help him scale down the cliff face to the Nightmare Forest.
"The sages?" Lucius asked, taking a break from what he was doing. His fatigue was finally starting to get to him, so he decided he would continue after a short rest.
"The sages, you know... the den elders," Trel replied, before staring at Lucius. She seemed to only now notice that he was different from thest time they had met.
"Vige elders? So like the advisor council?" Lucius asked, a bad taste in his mouth as he remembered the shenanigans he had to deal with due to Shavril.
"Advisor council? My brother doesn''t need anyone to give him advice, we aren''t like those Chames," Trel replied beforeing closer to Lucius to better inspect his body.
Lucius stepped back in slight annoyance, though Trel continued to approach.
"Then what are they?" he asked, trying to ignore the fact that he was being treated like a guinea pig.
"They create the Sankor, the healing fluid. And other things," she said, now touching Lucius''s horn. Though she had to go on the tip of her toes since Lucius was now a head taller than her.
"What other things?" Lucius asked, grabbing her hand as she was about to touch his tail.
"If I''m going to reveal my den''s secrets, then I at least expect my own curiosities to be satisfied," she said, prompting Lucius to reluctantly let her hand go so that she could continue her examination.
"The sages are those among us who have gotten to the next tier. They are the past queens and kings of the den, and taught Avankor how to use his mystic mantle," she said, as she trailed her hand down the length of Lucius''s tail.
Due to the progress he had made in evolution, it seemed whatever neuralworks fed his brain sensory information had be more sophisticated, so he could feel her fingers trailing along him. It felt like a tickle.
"They evolved naturally?" Lucius asked in skepticism.
Though, perhaps it made more sense than he was allowing it to let on. Some of the golems had managed to make it to the next tier by themselves, so it shouldn''t be a surprise that there was a whole group of evolved Zeldraves.
It was just difficult for him to believe since he hadn''t seen anything like that with the Chames.
"What, you''re wondering why the Chames don''t have sages?" she asked, apparently done with her inspection.
"Well, it''s because the current king has to defeat the past king inbat. Defeat means death for a Chames king," she exined, before sighing.
"It seems you''re progressing towards the next tier. Though I suppose as Havon you''re a guardian as well," she said, a wistful look in her eyes.
Lucius could guess that she probably held a bit of jealousy toward her brother. After all, her mention of past queens made it apparent that in some other life, she could''ve ended up as ruler of the den, and been the one to evolve.
"You wish it was you, don''t you?" Lucius asked.
"That was long ago, it doesn''t matter now. Besides, I''m standing here with Havon, if the stories about you are true, then there''s a chance I may get another chance at bing queen," she said, staring into Lucius''s eyes.
~Is she hitting on me?~ Lucius thought to himself in confusion.
"Look, Trel. You''re nice and all, but if you''re looking for someone to mate with, then you''re looking in the wrong ce," Lucius said, before moving away from her towards a corner- which he had designated as his sleeping ce.
"You''ve hurt my feelings, Havon," she replied in exaggerated grief.
"I look forward to working with you more," she said, after realizing that Lucius wasn''t going to reply to her anymore.
"Later then," she added a moment after, before leaving.
*
Chapter 225 Magic Weapons Research (25)
Chapter 225 Magic Weapons Research (25)
When he woke up from his short rest, he gathered all the weapons he had created and began the initial trials.
He started with the weapons he had done the shoddiest jobs on -the ones with the most misaligned edges- and used [Imbue] to force his energy into them.
For a moment, a bright luminescence radiated from within the weapon''s handle, before suddenly dimming.
A split secondter, a few cracks began to appear on it, and the reddish-brown color it once had slowly turned to a shade of grey.
Before Lucius could even ce the weapon on the ground, it began to disintegrate, leaving only ash behind.
"Sigh, I was afraid this would happen," he whispered to himself as he dusted the weapon''s remains off his hands.
Next, he tried Imbueing only the stone head, and for a moment it seemed to be working. Though a few seconds after that, it began to glow brighter, and brighter until eventually shattering.
"Okay, it wasn''t as if I was expecting this to work on the first few tries anyway," he whispered to himself calmly, before putting the shattered weapon aside.
If he wanted to prevent the materials from shattering under pressure, he realized he would have to carefully control the amount of energy he was injecting. Which was easier said than done as he was already imbuing them with the minimum threshold he could manage.
He attempted to reduce the amount of energy a few more times, before noticing an emerging pattern on all the weapons that shattered.
It seemed that their initial breaking point was the area he was injecting the energy from, which was obvious enough, however, it highlighted something less obvious. The pattern that the weapons were shattering along, were identical to the patterns with which his energy traveled through them.
~So, maybe if I spread out the pattern a bit more?~ he thought to himself. Yet another concept that was easier said than done.
Sure he had control over the general direction that his energies were traveling in, however, he had no such control over the small tendrils with which they moved. It was a skill he would have to develop from scratch, and thus far he had never attempted to do something so sophisticated.
Hours, upon hours passed.
On his breaks, he shared more anecdotes about samurais with Zhayen and Alpha before going back to work. And on other breaks, he ate some of the meat from the remaining Gargan corpse in his room.
The few hours became a whole day, and what started off as just a little experimentation became a burning obsession.
He was beginning to figure out that the magical energies of this world weren''t all that different from electricity in his old one.
It wasn''t just that hecked the control to guide his energies in the right direction, it was that the materials he was using had natural areas of resistance. And as a result, his energies took whatever paths had the least of it.
Another thing he realized was that even if that natural resistance wasn''t present, the material would only hold his energies for a short time.
This was made apparent when he injected a small amount of energy into one of therger rocks in storage. Although the energy was not enough to shatter it, the rock only retained the sr energy''s trademark glow for but a few seconds.
"I''m running out of materials," he whispered to himself. Before taking out the final weapon he had at his disposal.
An axe.
He had already tried everything there was to try, it was clear that what he was missing was not from hisck of control over [Imbue] but something else entirely.
Going on a hunch, he began to etch patterns on the stone axe''s head, hoping that the hollow points would act as areas of low resistance. It was a shot into the darkness, but it was better he try something new than continue doing the same mistakes.
So after etching an arbitrary pattern on the stone axe, he began to slowly inject energy into it.
Initially, the energies moved in the hap-hazard manner they usually did, but once one of the tendrils touched the hollow point, the energies began moving along the patterns.
Lucius''s tired expression slowly turned into one of joy, it felt right that he shout something like ''eureka'' at this moment.
However before he could even stand up to celebrate, the stone head shattered.
"But still, I was onto something," he whispered to himself after some thought, a small tired grin still present on his face.
From what he had seen, the axe head had shattered due to an overload, not because the energies had gone rampant.
It was just that once it reached the end of the circuit he had etched onto the stone, it had nowhere to go, and the stone head could not handle that much energy for long periods of time.
"I''ll need something to store the energy. Something to act as a capacitor, or better yet a sort of battery," he whispered to himself, before going into his pouch.
Only then did he realize that the batteries he had been wanting to use, or more clearly, the mana stones, were not there.
~Right, I already used them for helios,~ he thought to himself in slight irritation. Just then, he remembered the bag of glowing rocks that the warriors had collected for him.
There was no evidence that they were glowing due to mana, in fact, it was more likely they were glowing due to some sort of algae-like organism. However, that odd effect they disyed at the entrance gave him some hope, so he attempted to Imbue them with energy.
Though his hopes were quickly shattered.
Whatever these rocks were, they acted as if they were ethereal to his energy. It wasn''t a matter of the level of resistance being too high, but rather that his energies didn''t even register them as objects.
Of course, he was certain this property would be interesting to study, but right now he was still bent on solving the magical weapons issue.
"But even if this worked, stone just isn''t a good material for this. A few minutes of exposure at best, and it''ll disintegrate. No... I need better materials," he whispered to himself, trying to remember if he had evere across something that seemed strong enough.
Just then he recalled a ce that might have materials like that, a ce that seemed alien-like, with trees made from very interesting materials, and no doubt had other such oddities that might work.
"But sneaking past the border the Immacte Council Forest created will be dangerous," he whispered. Though even as he was saying that, he was already nning to do a bit of reconnaissance so he could retrieve a few materials.
"Well, if they want to fight me, I''ll have no choice but to fight back. Who knows, I might even collect a few mana cores while I''m at it," he whispered to himself.
Chapter 226 Magic Weapons Research (26)
Chapter 226 Magic Weapons Research (26)
Using the remaining materials he had in storage, he quickly crafted three axes, a pick-axe, and another set of climbing axes.
He then used vine ropes to tie the tools to his back and attached double-strengthened vine ropes to the climbing axes to support his weight.
Since he was running out of time to create Granovarish''s weapons, he nned on doing only a bit of surveince before actually carrying out the operation, so there would be no time for him to return and make more tools.
Once he was done with his preparations, he left for Alpha''s room.
There he found both Alpha and Zhayen doing pushups -Alpha once again doing his one-handed radiant cowl pushups, while Zhayen was struggling to do even the regr ones.
"Zhayen, is someone here?" Alpha asked as Lucius approached.
"It''s Havon," Zhayen strained to say, before falling to his belly in exhaustion.
"Master, do you need something from me?" Alpha asked, immediately getting to his feet and facing the door.
"I''m over here," Lucius said with a soft smile. Even though Alpha still had a long way to go, it was good to see that he was able to tell someone had entered the room.
"You know, if you use your hearing in addition to earth sense, you''d be able to tell it was me by my gait alone," Lucius exined, before moving to help Zhayen get up.
"Gait?" Alpha asked, wiping the sweat off his face.
"The way I walk. Have you noticed that everyone''s footsteps sound different?" Lucius replied, before sitting on the edge of the earth bath at the center of the room.
"I-I''ll take that into consideration," Alpha responded after some thought.
"Anyway, I''m going out on a mission. I might be away for a day or two, so if you need food I''ve left the container with meat open. You can eat as much as you want, I''ll probablye back with more," Lucius said.
"I''m going with you," Zhayen said, fatigue still apparent on his face.
"No, you''re staying. You''d just get in the master''s way. You need to at least have a sr crux for you to ever hope to go on missions with him," Alpha scolded. To which Zhayen drooped his head in defeat, before going on his knees and silently begging Lucius toe with him.
~Ah, Alpha''s infamous training session has gotten to him,~ Luciusughed to himself inwardly. Though if Zhayen hoped to be a part of themune this was a bare minimum.
"Alpha, try not to talk about too manymune secrets around him. He''ll be told about them when the timees, for now, he still has to prove that he''ll be useful to us in some way," Lucius said after some thought.
"And Zhayen, I have no idea why you''re on your knees, but with the form you were using to do your pushups, I''d say you have to start over," he added, prompting Alpha to begin scolding him. Apparently Alpha had already warned the child about doing them incorrectly.
It was a heartwarming sight for him. Even though he would''ve liked it if his whole family were here, it was good to see that Alpha was still the same as always.
~Who knows, maybe I''ll find them while I''m out on my mission,~ Lucius thought to himself before pulling out their status screens.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤
[Pagan Elwood ]
[Level 26: 0/2600]
[Leaf Being [Photosynthesis-Variation] [93%]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
[Agility: 400]-Maxed [+5%]
[Strength: 400]-Maxed [+5%]
[Stamina: 400]-Maxed [+5%]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Titles ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
¡ºFirst in themune¡»- active +5% to all stats, helios, and growth gains.
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©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤
[Ghost Elwood ]
[Level 25: 2456/2500]
[Leaf Being [healthy-hybrid] [43%]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
[Agility: 400]-Maxed
[Strength: 400]-Maxed
[Stamina: 400]-Maxed
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©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤
[Hannibal Elwood ]
[Level 21: 0/2100]
[Leaf Being [73%]]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
[Agility: 400]-Maxed
[Strength: 400]-Maxed
[Stamina: 400]-Maxed
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He felt infuriated that he hadn''t made the time to search for them properly. But with everything that had happened during the past week, it was all he could do to hope that they were safe.
~Well, wherever they are, it looks like they''ve been doing a lot,~ he thought to himself, noting just how high their current levels were.
It was no surprise that Ghost and Pagan had managed to max out their stats and get to those levels, but for Hannibal to achieve that as well must''ve meant that they were carrying out a lot of operations.
"I''m sorry I''m taking so long. Soon," he whispered before willing all the screens out of view.
As he was about to leave, Zhayen stepped in front of him, and got on his knees once again, the tears at the rim of his eyelids threatening to roll down his cheeks.
''P.L.E.A.S.E'' he mouthed.
To which Lucius just shook his head, and walk past him without a hint of mercy.
"You guys enjoy yourselves," he said, before venturing towards the exit.
*
Staying underground was quite confusing since one could never be certain what time of day it was. However, Lucius was lucky enough to find that it was still daytime. It was just a shame that the necromancer''s spell blocked a good amount of the sun''s rays.
Before proceeding to the nnds, he decided to check how much progress the necromancer had made toward building his second necropolis.
And apparently, construction was going well from the looks of it.
There were now several massive skyscrapers in the city, and there were even a few more undead giants working now, making production go even faster.
In the past Lucius would''ve felt like he was useless for letting the necromancer get this far, however, he knew better now. He was not taking on some random creature that had just spawned out of nowhere.
No, from the memories he had stolen, he came to know that the necromancer was at least as old as the fae, if not older. And the spells he had at his disposal would''ve been enough to make a weaker man give up.
However, he had also discovered several of the necromancer''s weaknesses. For instance, his true body was still in Necropolis, and the body he was using here was being tethered by something called ''The Conduit''.
He hadn''t gotten enough time in Aziel''s mind to find out exactly what, or where it was. But he knew it had to be kept close to the necromancer at all times. If he could find that, then it didn''t matter how many creatures it created.
"I''ll kill you eventually. Just you wait," he whispered to himself, before dashing off to the Immacte Forest at full gallop, his determination only stoked by the necromancer''s progress.
*
Chapter 227 Magic Weapons Research (27)
Chapter 227 Magic Weapons Research (27)
Because the green forest waspletely covered in decay, and therefore probably infested with undead spawning pits, Lucius decided to take the route through the nnds.
Though he wasn''t familiar with this particr path, he knew that if he just continued going west of the Behemoth mountains, he would make it there eventually. So he ventured on, avoiding whatever wild beasts attempted to attack him on the way.
He hadn''t traveled more than three hours before the massive wall the chief had spoken about came into view. However, something even more interesting arose just a small distance before the wall.
From here it looked like a thick ck cloud, billowing past the tall trees of the nnds into the sky. However, even from here the thick choking smell that it was emitting made it quite clear what was going on.
"A fire," Lucius whispered to himself, before increasing his speed.
Usually, people would run in the opposite direction from fires, however, there was something peculiar about this one.
The forest winds were currently blowing in the direction of the wall the council had built, and from the areas where the fires were, it was obvious what the arsonist''s n had been.
Though he was a bit curious as to who the arsonist was, he was more interested in the effect it would have on whatever creatures were guarding the wall. With such a big distraction -which from what Lucius guessed was probably what the arsonist had wanted- there would be enough room for him to sneak through.
~Well, what do you know,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he got closer. A crowd of forest creatures had gathered around one of the trees that werepletely engulfed in mes.
It was spreading quickly, and the wind fanning its mes only made it growrger by the second.
Once Lucius had gotten even closer, he decided to climb up one of the trees to prevent being seen. With the direction the wind was currently blowing, there was a low chance that the tree he was on would catch fire.
~Why aren''t they putting it out?~ he wondered, as he watched the forest creatures stare at the fire as if it were their first time seeing one.
~Don''t tell me they don''t know what fires are,~ he realized, as he witnessed one of the creatures touch it, and instantly go ame. This seemed to make all the creatures realize the danger it posed, as they began running off in different directions.
The fox-like creature that had touched the fire and was currently burning to death, ran straight towards the council wall, like a kamikaze. Causing a small fire to erupt on the wall, when it should''ve taken at least a few more minutes for it to happen naturally.
The small embers became a full-fledged fire, that quickly ate away at the tree pirs that made up the 7-meter tall council wall.
From atop the tree, Lucius could see the guards stationed at the top of the walls. They all seemed to be focused on the fires that were on the trees in front of them, and none of them seemed to notice the fire beneath them.
~I''ve never seen those creatures before,~ he thought to himself, already moving to get into an optimal position to take advantage of the frenzy that was about to begin.
Forck of a better reference point, Lucius could only describe the guards as humanoid tigers. They seemed to be wearing well-made armor, though from here he couldn''t tell what exactly that armor was made out of.
Once he was just a few meters away from the wall, and the fire had now devoured three of the tree pirs, effectively creating an opening in the wall, only then did the guards seem to realize.
Many of them shouted things in their strange tongues, before floating orbs came -seemingly out of oblivion- right next to them.
~They know magic,~ he thought, now hiding behind thest few lines of trees before the wall. He was going to wait until the fire got a littlerger before going through. Or at least until all the guards were solely focused on the part of the wall with the fire.
From what he had gathered so far, this wall spread towards both ends of the forest, and there were guards stationed every 4 meters or so. If all the guards nearby could just clump up, he would take his chance.
That or he would just dash through the smoke and hope for the best.
Fortunately, whatever spells the guards were casting seemed to have no effect on the fire, which baffled Lucius.
Sure he too had no spells in his arsenal that could possibly stop a fire, but it was justical that superpowered existences couldn''t even put out a simple fire.
Though a few minutester that simple fire became sorge that Lucius doubted even arge fire department could stop it. It was at the level where it could threaten to destroy the entire forest, however, he knew that would not happen.
Although this forest was dense, there were many areas where the river divided thend. Those rivers woulda act as fire breakers, though that didn''t mean the fire wouldn''t deal some serious damage first.
~ Whoever this arsonist is, they sure are radical,~ he thought to himself, now taking this chance to dash through the walls.
The column of smoke that now clogged the air made visibility near zero, so he doubted that anyone had seen him. However, he wasn''t going to stick around to confirm that.
Once he got through the wall, he kept going straight, not bothering to try and see past the smoke.
After running at full speed for a few more minutes, the burning wall was now a good distance away from him, and visibility was now back to normal.
He was now surrounded by the familiar alien-like environment that was the Immacte Forest. Crystalline stalks of different colors reced what should''ve been trees, odd shrubs that seemed to have rubies, sapphires, and all sorts of other gems as fruits were now spread all around him.
Odd purple grass covered the ground like a nket, and purple vines wrapped themselves around the crystalline trees.
"The floor here feels... good," he whispered to himself. He had nothing against the nnds, but he couldn''t deny that this ce felt more pure, like he belonged.
Chapter 228 Magic Weapons Research (28)
Chapter 228 Magic Weapons Research (28)
"But still, what are the odds that a fire erupts right when I n oning here? Talk about perfect coincidence," Lucius whispered to himself, as he continued moving deeper into the forest.
It was times like this when he truly felt like a main character.
Though this little event made him aware that there were others who wished for the downfall of the council.
Even if the guards somehow found out that fires could be put out using water, the wall was bound to take some serious damage. And unfortunately for the council, that very same wall would act as a guide for the fire, taking it as far along its length as it would be allowed.
~If the wall separating this section of the forest and the green forest goes down, then the necromancer will be able to advance its units through,~ Lucius realized.
He wasn''t certain whether to be happy about this or worried.
Sure he wished for the council''s downfall, but if the necromancer was even the slightest bitpetent at strategy, it would take up as much space as it could before the council could get another wall back up.
And unlike everyone else, its army didn''t need food or rest, so if the council wanted to keep them back like the golems were doing, they''d have to expend a lot of resources.
~Resources they have enough of... for now,~ he thought.
The more he thought about it, the more curious he became about the arsonist''s identity.
Whoever they were, they had ess to information that even the seemingly high-tiered guards didn''t have ess to. What with them acting like it was the first time they had ever seen a fire even though they had cruxs at their disposal.
~Are they working independently like me... Or are they part of an advanced group?~ he pondered. Sure, it would be a bit of an exaggeration to im that having knowledge of fire made a group advanced.
However, most scientists would agree that humanity''s most important discovery was that of fire. Most, if not all of humanity''ster advancements were built on the foundations that the discovery of fire had built
And if this group had hoarded such information, for who knows how long, then perhaps they had ess to equipment that this side of the forest had yet to see.
Still, though, this was all merely spection. For now, he would focus on what he came here to do; Find any signs that his children may have been around, and collect as much material as possible.
At this point in his journey, ake wasing into view in the distance. He recognized it as theke where he had done his first trade.
It felt, nostalgic somehow.
The creatures gathered there were all staring off into the distance behind him, no doubt at the giant smoke plume that now filled a great section of the sky.
~Regardless, whoever they are, they''re too reckless. Starting a fire in the forest should be ast resort, and they started it in areas with a lot of wildlife too,~ he thought, before moving to join one of the groups of creatures close to his size.
They were a group of humanoid deer, with horns just a little shorter than his. Thenguage they were speaking contained a lot of bleating.
[Processing...]
[Creating database for... ¡ºNew Cervus Tongue¡».]
[Adding ¡ºNew Cervus Tongue¡» to ¡ºEncyclopedia¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºNew Cervus Tongue¡» has been added.]
When he finally got to the group and tried squeezing into the discussion, they all stopped talking and stared at him.
"I wonder what it is," he said, ignoring the odd stares he was getting and looking off toward the smoke plume.
The creatures seemed to rx once they heard him speak in their tongue and continued their discussion.
"It''s probably those night monsters again. Just a few days ago they nted that same red flower in one of the council members'' dens," one of the creatures said after a slight pause.
"You think it''s the same guys who poisoned Councilor Eikthyrnir?" another asked, to which all the others slowly nodded their heads in response.
If what these guys were saying was true, then whoever these guys were, were quite organized. In fact, the mention of poison made him ponder whether it was his children doing all this.
~Though it''d be very unlike Hannibal to use fire as a tactic,~ he thought to himself. Before quickly remembering who his child actually was.
Sure he wanted to believe that Hannibal was a mild-mannered and generally good person. However, he had to remember that that same Hannibal had sacrificed half the initialmune to guarantee the safety of the others.
When need be, Hannibal could be cruel.
~But let''s not jump to conclusions just yet,~ he thought to himself, as he continued to listen on.
"I wish they would just leave. The council already has enough to deal with as it is. Those Forsaken Forest bastards. I still can''t believe they''re attacking us like this," one of the other creatures said.
There was a slight pause at this, as if no one wanted to speak on this topic.
"Well, it was only a matter of time. What''d you think would happen when we don''t even allow any of them a seat in the council," Lucius said.
Perhaps remaining quiet would''ve been the safer option, however, he would get no information by doing so. And besides, based on what he had heard so far, it seemed they were under the impression that the dark forest denizens and the necromancer were working together.
It wasn''t a surprise that propaganda like this was being spread around, after all, in times of great distress, the governing body of the area would risk being med for everything if they didn''t find scapegoats.
"Pfft, you''re one of those guys, huh? It isn''t our fault that they don''t have a single high-tiered creature amongst them. If we let just anyone join in, then even the low-tier creatures might think they have a chance," one of the creatures replied, some hostility present in their tone.
Chapter 229 Magic Weapons Research (30)
229 Magic Weapons Research (30)
"And what''s wrong with that?" Lucius shot back.
At this point, a few more of the deer humanoids were beginning to crowd around the argument. And even though the other creatures clearly couldn''t understand what the argument was about, they too began to gather around, perhaps expecting a fight to break out.
"Come on, don''t make meugh. What are you anyway, you speak ournguage but you don''t look like us," the creature replied, looking Lucius up and down as if searching for the marking that showed his tier.
~It''s a good thing I tied these tools to my back,~ he thought to himself. If any of these creatures had realized he was actually a low tier, they probably would''ve tried something. And now was not the time for him to bemitting mass murder.
"Spending all your mana stones on stupid objects instead of buying something to cover yourself. I''m not surprised you have such backward views," the creature said finally. Apparently noticing the tools on Lucius''s back.
After a few insults, that the encyclopedia couldn''t seem to trante for him, the humanoid deers all left. As they were leaving, one of the creatures'' cloaks pped to the side with the wind, and Lucius noticed the six white marks on the back of its right arm.
~Sixth tiers, huh?~ he thought to himself as he walked away as well. Having drawn too much attention from the surrounding creatures, he hoped to find another group to squeeze into.
Still, the conversation he had just had, had been well worth the attention. It had confirmed certain things for him.
Although the council imed that lower-tier creatures were not allowed past the wall, from what he could see, there were quite a number of them all around. Now this didn''t mean that the council was all epting, however.
From the way those 6th-tier creatures spoke, it seemed the council was governing the area in such a way that it benefitted those of considerable tier, and Lucius himself having once been a part of a government that favoured certain groups, knew that this could not be aplished without the other groups suffering the consequences.
It wouldn''t be a stretch for him to believe that the lower-tier groups were being mistreated. In fact, he believed the only reason they were still allowed here was to act as a food source.
~After all, why do they all look so terrified?~ he wondered, noticing how most of them were grouping at the fringes of theke. And even as they drank, they did so hesitantly with their eyes scanning the area all around them.
~Maybe that''s why the Arsonist group keeps terrorizing the region,~ he thought to himself. Which strengthened the theory that Hannibal and the others were the ones behind the attacks.
It was very unlikely that a high-tier group of terrorists would sympathize with lower tiers, unless of course he was mistaken about their cause, and they were just terrorizing the region for some other reason, say... resources.
~Though that isn''t a bad idea actually,~ he thought to himself, as he slowly approached a group of what seemed like lower-tier creatures -made apparent by theirck of clothing.
~I mean, those guards had pretty good-looking armour. And I think they''d fit me more or less,~ Lucius thought to himself. He didn''t like the idea of stealing, but if everyone here seemed to have resources to spare, he was certain they wouldn''t mind if he borrowed a few of their garments.
As he got closer to the group of lower tiers, they began backing away. And since Lucius hadn''t heard them speak yet, he couldn''t add theirnguage to the encyclopedia, and hence couldn''t talk to them.
So he decided to act like he was going to drink water instead.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 30%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 40%]
[Stats increased by 3%]
[Slight increase in rate of energy replenishment.]
[Questplete.]
[+200 exp]
~Huh?~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise. Sure he remembered this water being some sort of catalyst, however, he was certain it hadn''t granted him all these benefits thest time he had been here. Still, he quickly wiped the surprised expression off his face, worried that it might scare the creatures away.
After the creatures saw what his ''apparent'' intent was, they moved a small distance away and continued drinking their fill from there.
The creatures looked like overgrown moles, with a semi-humanoid build. Semi humanoid, because they retained a lot of beast-like features. For instance, they were standing fully erect like everyone else and instead walked on all fours. They also seemed to have way more fur than most of the anthropological creatures here, which meant they still heavily relied on natural means of protection, making Lucius doubt they had made any considerable advancements- equipment wise.
Once they had finished drinking, they began preparing to leave, the whole time they had been there, having not said a single word.
~Should I look for another group?~ Lucius thought, now fake drinking from theke.
Just then, one of them said something. Theirnguage sounded like a string of high-pitched squeals, but as his encyclopedia processed it, and added it to itsnguage base, the squeals quickly turned intoprehensible words.
"Hello there, if you don''t mind I wanted to ask you guys something," Lucius called out.
The creatures lurched back at this, all of them staring at him like he were some kind of apparition.
Now that he had a better look at them, he could tell they were a nuclear family of sorts. There was an adult male, an adult female, and six juveniles.
"It won''t take a lot of time," he added after a moment of awkward silence had passed.
The father of the group looked around suspiciously, before whispering something to the others, prompting them to move behind him.
"Weren''t you just talking to those Venari? Are you a council speaker?" the father asked. Even though Lucius had just learned thenguage, he could tell that the words being used here were put in such a way that they were showing unnecessary respect.
~Council speaker?~ Lucius thought to himself, before realizing what that might mean.
After all, when you were governing a group of species who couldn''tmunicate with each other, you''d need a few people to act as interpreters. Though that posed the question of how the interpreters themselves had learned the other race''snguages.
Chapter 230 Magic Weapons Research (31)
Chapter 230 Magic Weapons Research (31)
"Your Furtong is even better than mine. You must''ve been taught since you were an infant," the father added, before letting out what Lucius could only describe as the fakestugh he had ever heard.
~Are interpreters that respected? Or is it just because he thinks I work for the council?~ Lucius pondered to himself. However, this was to his benefit as he doubted they would''ve spoken to him any other way.
"Yes, thank you. I was sent out here to ask everyone if they know anything about what''s going on at the wall," Lucius began.
"Do you know anything about the red flower?" he asked afterwards. He wasn''t actually interested in this information, however, it would seem suspicious if he just started asking the questions he was actually wanted to, so he was forced to beat around the bush like this.
However, the reaction the mole creatures gave was quite a curious one. He had expected them to give their answers immediately, after all, what would low-tier creatures know about the fire? But the adolescents in the group gave very suspicious expressions, which made Lucius suspect that they may actually know something about this.
"Red flower? We don''t know anything about it," the father replied firmly. Which in itself was suspicious since just a moment ago he was speaking in a very submissive manner
~Are they affiliated with the Arsonist group?~ Lucius thought to himself, acting as if he didn''t find the way they were acting at all strange.
"S-Sorry Speaker, perhaps you could ask someone else these questions. I have to get back to my work, I only came along with my family to make sure nothing happened to them," the father added immediately after. Apparently aware that he was indeed acting suspiciously.
~Work?~ Lucius thought to himself. Forest creatures hadn''t struck him as the type to go to work.
"And what work is that?" Lucius asked, now allowing some scepticism to seep into his tone. After all, if he acted too oblivious they would realize something was off.
"I am part of the tunnel sub-council, sir. I''m currently working to rebuild Councillor Eikthyrnir''s den," the father replied hesitantly. From the way he was moving his ws around, Lucius could tell that the creature was getting ready to defend itself.
"Ah, is that the case? You may go then. I''ll ask someone else," Lucius said finally.
~Eikthyrnir, where did I hear that name?~ he thought to himself as the family hastily made their retreat. Just then he remembered what one of the deer humanoids- or Venari as the mole had called them- had said.
~Councillor Eikthyrnir was the one the Arsonist group poisoned not long ago, huh? Well, these moles obviously know something about it,~ he thought to himself.
His short mission was beginning to look like it was going to take a lot longer than he had expected. And although he was running out of time, he had a feeling that after he was done with all this, he would have more than enough materials to get his work done.
~Besides. If the Arsonists are actually my children, then it''ll be well worth the risk of keeping Granovarish waiting,~ he thought to himself, before slowly following the mole family. Making sure to give them enough space so not as to notice him following.
*
After following the family for nearly an hour he was led towards a part of the forest he had never seen before. It seemed that the alien-like nt life and vegetation were only restricted to the earlier parts, as most of the environment in this section seemed like a rtively more simr version to the green forest.
Well with a few major exceptions. For one, the trees were unnaturally tall, some of which Lucius couldn''t even see the top off -and he had hyper vision. If not for the fact that the leaves of the trees in this area were oddly translucent, no light would''ve reached the bottom surface.
He collected a few of these translucent leaves and put them in his pouch forter study. They seemed to have a slight magnification property to them, making the surface warmer than it should''ve been otherwise.
This translucency also caused the third major difference between the green forest and this section. The leaves created a sort of kaleidoscope light effect, making different coloured rays of light bounce around. It was only a slight hue, but due to the diversity of colours, it was like there was a permanent light show going on at the bottom levels.
The family was currently hanging around an odd-looking rock, and scanning the area as if to make sure that nobody was around. Though from the tree that Lucius was hiding in, he doubted they could see him.
~Still, I''m not the only one watching them,~ he thought to himself in slight pity.
He could sense at least four other creatures in the vicinity, even though he could not see them, he could guess that they were probably higher up in the trees. Though perhaps with the odd colours the leaves were creating they couldn''t see the family ¨C still he heavily doubted that.
Once the family was confident no one was around, they began digging at an area close to the rock, before everyone except the father quickly went in. The father looked around onest time, before covering up the area they had just dug up and walking off deeper into the forest.
~Where are you off to?~ Lucius wondered, before following.
*
The deeper in they went, the taller the trees became. In fact, he was beginning to wonder how he hadn''t noticed a whole section of the forest had trees at least 10 times taller than everywhere else.
Though the downslope of the ground made him guess that it was perhaps linked to that. And with the odd light properties that these leaves introduced, he wouldn''t be surprised if they created some sort of optical illusion for the rest of the forest.
*
After about another 30 minutes of travel, the pattern that the trees were nted in was beginning to show some order.
Instead of their former haphazard arrangement, they were now arranged in columns, which created pathways in between them, that seemed to have been smoothened out by some device.
~What is this ce?~ Lucius wondered in awe, as he stared at the structures that wereing up in the distance.
Chapter 231 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (1)
Chapter 231 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (1)
?
The pathway outlined by the pirs of trees began to spread out towards the distance, surrounding what seemed like a massive woond mansion and creating a sort of fence around it.
~Deer?~ Lucius wondered, as he noticed that many of the pirs closer to the mansion had very detailed depictions of deer-heads, with massive horns that created archways along the path.
~No... it''s probably the venari. Eikthyrnir''s den,~ he quickly realized. Though he hadn''t expected their den to look like this. Even if they were humanoids, it was uncanny just how humanlike the architecture was.
Apart from the multiple venari depictions, it was what you''d expect an earth millionaire''s forest home to look like.
It blended well with the surrounding areas, was a triple-storey architectural masterpiece, and was made from polished dark wood, a type of wood Lucius had yet to see around here.
~Did they copy this architecture from the owners of the forest?~ he hypothesized. After all, it wasn''t far-fetched that the humans in this world had simr infrastructure to the humans of his.
There were currently a few creatures working on the front of the building, they worked on the wood with practised and precise movements. Using a rhythm of taps, and knocks, to morph the wood they came into contact with. Almost like Elmando, though clearly a more powerful version, with the restriction of contact being added.
~Beavers?~ Lucius inferred, noticing the ttened tails that they were using to p the wood.
~If we had a few of those, creating perimeter walls would be child''s y,~ he thought to himself, still following close behind the mole-humanoid he had been stalking.
The creature reached the main gate of the woond mansion, where two venari guards were stationed. They were wearing green tunics, that looked to be made of vegetation at first, but clearly had a leather-like texture.
~Honour guards?~ Lucius inferred, looking at them from behind one of the tree pirs. The tunics they were wearing had interesting patterns engraved onto their fabrics, though they offered almost no protection. This was also true for the spears they were holding. They had beautiful crystals as a spearhead, though he doubted those would act well as weapons.
~Still, I''m not trying to start a skirmish here,~ he thought to himself, though that didn''t mean he was going to give up on trying to get in.
He had no doubt in his mind that there were materials of great value within the mansion. In fact, forget just trying to gain materials, he could probably find magically rted objects as well.
His reasoning was that Eikthyrnir was someone of high importance within the council, so if anyone owned magical items, he would be among them.
~And who knows, maybe I can also rid myself of a yet-to-be enemy,~ he continued, as he snuck around the mansion walls, trying to see if there were any areas of weakness he could exploit.
Lucius had learned from his encounters with the necromancer, that it was better you get rid of a nuisance before they became one. And even though he wasn''t yet at war with the council, he knew that it wasing.
~And besides, I''ve been feeling awfully hungrytely,~ he thought to himself, noting that his earth sense could now pick up energy emissionsing from the guards. No doubt courtesy of his recent growth.
~Though I''d feel a little guilty for unnecessarily consuming their mana-cores. But if they be a threat, it''ll be beyond my control,~ he thought to himself sarcastically.
After sculking around the mansion a few times, he felt that he had a good enough outline of their security, and he had to say-
~Absolutely poor security protocols.~
There was only a single guard stationed at the guard tower, and even then the tower was erected in such a way that it could only give a back view of the mansion.
And apart from the two guards at the front gate, there was no one else patrolling the perimeter.
He gave them the benefit of the doubt, that they had concentrated most of their manpower inside the actual mansion.
~Still, I can''t just approach the walls. Maybe they have invisible guards.~
Though he honestly doubted this, as he wasn''t picking up any additional energy signals.
~Maybe that''ll work,~ he thought to himself, now eyeing a massive decorative shrub just outside the mansion walls. He had to admit, Eikthyrnir had an eye for mboyance. If this was the den of a councillor, he wondered what the building of a king in this area might look like.
After slowly making his way to the shrub, he ripped it out of the pseudo roots that it had been given for anchorage, to use it as a disguise.
With this, he slowly approached the walls, making sure to keep an eye out for anyone approaching.
Once he was at the walls, he used earth sense to scan for nearby energies behind the wall.
~Good, clear,~ he thought, before calling out his sr crux and taking in a deep breath.
He cast [sr beam], however, an extremely thin, and focused version of it. in fact, it would be better to just call it aser at this point.
He noted, that the super thin beam, was beginning to exhibit slight tinges of violet, something that had never happened before even when he put the utmost focus into his spells.
~I suppose I''m getting better at this magician thing,~ he thought to himself, as he used theser to carve out an opening in the wall.
He wanted to make things quick, but it took great mental strain just to keep theser continuous, much less move his crux quickly.
Though luckily there was very little chance someone would notice, as apart from a low humming sound, theser strangely didn''t emit any sound.
~Yeah right, getting better at this my foot. I''mpletely drained,~ he thought to himself.
He had put way too much power into the spell, after all, it was only wood he was cutting through. Still, he didn''t want to risk theser not being strong enough and starting a fire.
Deciding that it would be too risky to continue on with depleted reserves, he switched to [Kumulipo].
Chapter 232 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (2)
Chapter 232 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (2)
After passing through the opening, he covered it with his shrub disguise, hoping that it would be enough to fool any passersby.
~A garden?~ he thought to himself, noting that he was now surrounded by an entire courtyard of various flowers. Some of which he recognized, though it seemed that they had been manipted in some way as they were growing way taller than usual. In fact, most of them were taller than even he was.
~How did he get them to grow so... orderly,~ he thought to himself, as he tried his best to navigate through the small-scale flower forest without causing too much of a disturbance.
He unrooted a few of the smaller, more unique-looking ones, forter testing. However, there was one in particr, that caught his attention.
He could just barely see it through the tiny spaces in between the flower stalks that surrounded him. It was a massive flower, with green-crystalline petals, and what seemed to be a massive red gemstone at its centre.
For a moment he wondered if it was just an ornament, though he quickly dashed that thought as he could sense some radiant energying from it.
~That has to count as valuable, right,~ he thought to himself.
Still, there was a problem.
From what he could tell, this flower area covered the entire backyard of the mansion. And the crystal flower was at the centre, with two wooden statues of venari warriors on either side of it.
The problem arose from the guard tower just a few meters in front of it. Even if the guard stationed there was facing in the opposite direction, it would be too risky to try and do anything without first dealing with him.
~Hmm... this might work,~ he thought to himself, ripping a massive petal from one of the flowers beside him, before closing his eyes.
He began attempting to produce a very concentrated version of his ''wanderment'' poison - trying to reduce its volume, and increase the amount of emotion he fed it.
However, as he did this, he noticed something odd.
Where once he could ess his ''wanderment'' emotions with rtive ease, he now struggled to find them.
Indeed, the emotions that currently ran rampant in his mind were no longer those of detachment and uncertainty.
No, they were much different... much darker.
He tried his best to prevent these new emotions from tainting his poison as there was no telling what sort of change they might bring to its effects.
If it would even work at all.
Still, after great strain, and some skilful use of Elmando to manipte the process, he managed to produce five drops of poison from his tail. So potent, that a mist of purple vapour wafted from it, as they dripped onto the petal he had ripped off.
~That took way too long,~ he realized with a sigh.
If he were in a battle situation, there was no way that this would be viable. In fact, he wondered if it was even viable at all. The fatigue that now consumed his body made it feel as if he had just exuded clouds of poison.
~Hopefully, this works,~ he thought to himself, as he pulled out a reinforced vine rope from his pouch, moving the axes he had packed to the side.
He then used Elmando to fuse the petals together, creating a small payload of poison, before using Elmando once again to fuse the payload to one end of the vine-rope.
~Go,~ he whispered inwardly, guiding the rope along the ground as if it were a snake.
Soon, it had made its way to the base of the guard tower, though this was where he could feel his hold on it growing weaker.
Still, he guided it slowly up the guard tower, inching ever so slightly with every second that went by. And with every second, it was getting harder to control it. The distance was simply too great.
By the time it had reached the top of the tower, a thinyer of precipitate covered his face, and it took every iota of mental fortitude he had to keep control of it. It felt akin to lifting a sack of rocks from the end of a very long stick.
"Okay," he whispered under his breath, detaching the payload from the rope.
The rope now hung onto the supports of the guard tower, decreasing the amount of strain he had to deal with. However this wasn''t going to make the next bit any easier.
With explosive force, heunched the now lightened payload towards the guard''s face.
The guard let out a confused grunt, perhaps wondering how the petal had flown all the way up there.
However before he could find his answer, Lucius''s poison took effect. And the guard lost consciousness.
Lucius quickly surrendered control of the payload, now focusing solely on the rope, using it to hogtie the guard. Which in itself took a few minutes, as he could clearly see the now prone guard.
~That should keep him upied for a bit,~ he thought, ensuring that the payload was directly on top of his face. Continuously feeding the poisonous vapour into his orifices.
After taking a moment to catch his breath, he quickly moved to the crystal flower, taking a quick nce at the statues next to it, before trying to dig it out.
Oddly enough, it didn''t seem to have any roots. It was anchored down by a wooden structure, that hugged its entire base.
~Then how does it get its nutrients?~ he thought to himself, not stopping to think too much about it.
Lucius had be many things, but a professional-alien-botanist was not one of them. He would figure out whatever questions it brought upter.
After prying it out of its support, he carried, the extremely heavy and no doubt fragile flower back to the opening he had created on the wall.
He hid it outside the mansion, within one of the surrounding shrubs, before moving back in.
~Hopefully I have enough time toe retrieve it, once I''m done,~ he thought to himself, before venturing toward the main mansion itself.
Chapter 233 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (3)
Chapter 233 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (3)
He could sense a few presences at the front of the building, and even more on the first floor.
From what he could tell, that''s where they were most concentrated. With barely anybody on the higher floors.
~Then I suppose we''ll have to work our way down,~ he thought to himself, before taking out the set of climbing axes he had created, and using Elmando to anchor them onto the roof of the mansion.
The renovations being done were currently causing a lot of noise, so he doubted that anyone would hear his picks anchor onto the roof. And even if they did, they''d probably assume that it was one of the workers.
~Still, have to be prepared for anything,~ he thought to himself, pulling out [kumulipo] as he tested the strength of the rope against his weight.
After he felt confident with its strength, he began scaling the building, making sure to avoid the window-like openings.
"Hmm, there''s two readings in this room," he whispered to himself, as he dangled near the top of the mansion, waiting for the presences to move away.
However, after waiting there for a few minutes, it was clear that they weren''t going anywhere.
~Well, it''s safe to assume, their guards. So we''ll go with n b,~ he thought to himself, beforepletely scaling the building, and climbing onto the roof.
For a moment, he justid there, with his belly to the roof''s warm wooden surface. After a few breaths, he used [kumulipo] to drain away the life force from a small section of the roof causing it to decay and fall through.
"Huh? Did you hear that?"
Lucius heard, through the tiny pinhole opening he had created.
The ashy remains of the roof had fallen right on top of one of the guard''s heads, prompting them to look up in curiosity.
"Hear what?" the other guard asked,ing to look up at the pinhole with hisrade.
Lucius was frozen still, hoping that they wouldn''t be able to notice the tiny hole he had made.
"You see that?" the first guard asked, pointing directly at Lucius''s eye.
For a split moment, he wanted to move, but he realized that it would only blow his cover, by allowing light through the hole.
"Yeah, so what, the colour''s a little different. You want to tell Master Eiknyr about this? Who knows maybe he''ll reward you by throwing you into the dungeon like the others," the second guard said sarcastically, before patting hisrade on the shoulder.
"Speaking of which, Lord Eikthrynir will being tomorrow. Someone should remind the Master, otherwise we''ll be med for the... mess he''s left in the dungeons," the second guard continued, as he walked away.
~Master Eiknyr? So the Councillor isn''t home?~ Lucius thought to himself in slight relief. He was confident in his current powers, though he wasn''t sure where exactly he would stand with someone on the council.
If the guards could use magic, there was no telling what sort of powers Eikthyrnir would have at his disposal.
"I hate this job," the first guard sighed to himself, looking at the hole one more time before focusing his attention on the room around him once more.
~That was a little too close forfort,~ Lucius thought to himself, lying perfectly still.
After a few more minutes of waiting, one of the guards left the room.
~It''s time,~ Lucius thought to himself, before scaling down the building once more, until the window of the third floor.
After taking a deep breath, heunched himself into the room.
Right as his legs made contact with the ground, his tail whipped out towards the guard. He had made certain to remember the general area he would be in to prevent wasting any time.
The guard could only let out a confused ''Huh'' before Lucius''s tailpletely wrapped his mouth.
"Shhh," Lucius whispered, suffocating the guard as his tail constricted.
He was careful not topletely snap the guard''s neck as he didn''t want any unnecessary deaths. After all, these guards were only doing their jobs.
Still, it wasn''tpletely off the table for him.
The guard struggled of course, but Lucius had lifted him off the ground, preventing him from creating any sort of noise.
As the guard''s struggling grew weaker, he seemed to remember it had something else up his sleeve, pulling out a dark red crux that hovered right next to his head.
However, no spells came out.
Lucius could feel the guard trying to move his jaws, however, that only offered more room for him to constrict into.
The instant the guard''s body went limp, Lucius gently dropped him to the ground.
~Hmm, still barely breathing,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he noticed the guard''s torso rise up slightly.
He cut off a small length of rope from his climbing axes, before hog-tying and gagging the guard. Once the guard was secured, Lucius began stripping him.
Even though the tunics would no doubt makecklustre armour, he was interested in the sort of techniques used to create them. So after cing it in his sack, he moved the guard toward a corner of the room.
From what Lucius could tell, this was a sort of materials storage room. As there were piles of different types of wood arranged all around the building.
Apart from wood, there were also rolls of a strange-looking string.
Upon closer inspection, Lucius found it to be dried sinew. However, this amount of it made him wonder what sort of genocide they had tomit to get it.
~No, even if they act like humans sometimes. These creatures are still animals at their core. It probably wasn''t a genocide to them... rather a means to an end,~ he decided to himself. Before cing a few meters of the sinew into his pouch.
At this point, his pouch was beginning to bulge, and he doubted he''d be able to fit any more into it.
~There are five downstairs,~ he thought to himself, spreading his earth sense out as wide as he possibly could.
~And twelve on the first floor,~ he continued, before opening his eyes. Now staring at the hog-tied guard.
~I''ll need all the energy I can get, or it''ll be too risky,~ he thought, a dark look on his face as he moved [kumulipo] forward.
Its ink-ck exterior exuding an unquenchable hunger.
Chapter 234 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (4)
Chapter 234 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (4)
At the moment, absorbing the guard''s core seemed like the most logical, and obvious thing to do
~No... this isn''t right,~ Lucius thought to himself, fighting back his urges.
In fact, it wouldn''t be too far-fetched for him to think that this was a sort of addiction he was beginning to develop.
~That much pain will definitely wake him up. And I''m not going to use such a cruel method to kill an undeserving opponent,~ he thought, almost as if he were convincing himself of his own reasoning.
In the end, he decided to absorb the life force of everything else in the room - which was quite a small amount inparison, as most of the items here had already been severed from whatever life force they had been a part of in the past.
Still, the energy was enough to take off some of the fatigue that came from using his poison earlier.
~There''s nothing of value in this room,~ he thought to himself, as he searched through the final pile of materials.
Just then, he sensed someone approaching.
He quickly looked around the room before rushing to hide behind one of therger stacks of wooden logs in a corner of the room.
"Huh? Where did he go?" a voice asked from the stairway.
Lucius recognized it as the second guard.
The guard''s footsteps began echoing closer towards his hiding spot.
"Are you sleeping on the job again?" the guard asked, a hint of concern audible in his voice.
Lucius side-eyed the corner in which he had hidden the first guard. Sure he was well hidden behind a massive roll of sinew, however all it would take was for the second guard to approach it from an angle for him to notice.
"Master Eiknyr wants everyone to help with clean up before Lord Eikthyrnires home. If he counts that we''re less than usual... well you know what he''s like," the second guard continued, his footsteps now only a few inches in front of the stack that Lucius was hiding behind.
"Come on, I heard you moving around a few moments ago. Stop messing arou-"
*
The guards eyes shot open once it noticed what looked like a tail wiggling around behind one of the stacks of wood.
However, just a momentter, he felt something wrap around his throat and tighten.
The tail had just been a distraction!
He tried to scream for help, but the vyse around his throat wouldn''t even allow him to breathe.
He pulled out his crux, hoping that his ess to magic would scare off the intruder. But this only seemed to make the vyse tighten even more.
~What kind of creature is this?~ he thought to himself.
He felt like a twig in this vyse, he could feel a sort of restrained violence as it tightened around his neck in an almost calcted manner.
All those years at the councillor''s magic acquisition n, for him to be killed in such acklustre manner.
His only sce in all this was that he wouldn''t have to hide Master Eiknyr''s secrets any longer. There was a distinct line between natural needs and the horrors that he wasmitting.
Who knows? Perhaps this was judgement.
And so, his vision dimmed, and he felt his mind drift off into nothingness.
*
~One less to worry about,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he used his remaining lengths of vine-rope to hogtie and gag the guard.
~This Master Eiknyr guy sounds like aplete douchebag,~ he thought to himself, as he moved the now restrained guard to the same hidden corner as hisrade.
~Still, he''s saving me a lot of trouble by calling all his men,~ he continued.
This also meant that Eiknyr probably wasn''t an intellectual threat. What with him calling all the guards on duty to clean up what was probably his mess.
Though Lucius had to admit, he was now a little curious as to what exactly this mess was all about.
*
"They''re gone," he whispered to himself after sitting around for a few minutes. All of the energy signalsing from the second and first floor had descended lower into the mansion.
~There''s a basement?~ he thought to himself, as he made his way downstairs towards the second floor.
This floor, much like the third was also a storage area. However, this time, it seemed to be a storage for various seeds, fruits, and herbs.
Of course, Lucius filled his pouch with whatever spoils it could carry. By the time he was done, the pouch was now bulging, threatening to rip at the seams if he attempted to stuff in anymore.
~If I find anything more valuable, I''ll ditch the tunic,~ he thought to himself.
It would''ve been nice if he could just wear it. Sadly, although the venari were taller than him, theycked his volume, meaning that he would just rip through them.
Besides, the material they were made from would hinder his movement.
~I''m sure this''ll fit Alpha, maybe a little too snuggly, but it''ll do,~ he thought. At least until he could figure out and imitate the sewing techniques they had used on it.
After he was satisfied that nothing else of real value was on the second, floor he slowly made his way to the first.
"I can see why the guards weren''t hesitant to leave everything here unattended," he thought to himself, as he took in the scenery.
The first floor, although not a storage room, was something of a meeting area.
Multiple venari statues decorated the room. These ones were made of expensive ck wood, polished so well that Lucius could almost see his reflection on a few of them.
At the centre of the room was an obsidian-ck marble table, also polished to perfection, with matching chairs on all four sides.
One of the chairs had runes engraved into it, and several mana stones etched into those runes.
That was no doubt Lord Eikthyrnir''s personal chair.
~What did I expect? This is the councillor''s mansion after all,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he moved towards the chair.
~Still, as alluring as these mana stones are... these runes are rather-~ he thought to himself, taking a step back from the chair.
Although he had never seen anything like it, his body was urging him to move away. Simply looking at the runes gave a creepy feeling, in fact, for a moment he had forgotten to breathe as he tried to make sense of what all the runic depictions meant.
~Is that what I was missing from the magic weapons? Runes?~ he thought to himself.
Chapter 235 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (5)
Chapter 235 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (5)
Now that he had taken a step back, and scrutinized the almost other-worldly runes inscribed on the chair, he noticed that it looked awfully familiar.
~It''s a massive circuit,~ he thought to himself, noting how each pattern of runes began and ended around one of the mana stones.
Sure, he was aware that it might''ve been a stretch for him to conclude that. However, it fell in line with what he had discovered earlier in his magic weapons research.
~Still, I can''t just copy these runes. Their effects might be different from what I''m looking to achieve. And there''s definitely something ominous about them... maybe even more than what I felt whilst standing in front of the necromancer,~ he thought to himself.
However, one thing was clear.
He was definitely going to take it back with him. He wasn''t sure how yet, or if it would even be possible, but he was going to exhaust every means at his disposal to get it done.
Even if it meant making a bloodbath of this mansion.
"It seems even the workers were called to help," he whispered in realization, noticing that there were no more knocking and hammering soundsing from outside.
~Should I try to make a run for it right now? Or go downstairs?~ he pondered.
He had already gotten a few seeds, herbs, the tunic, and the odd flower outside. Not to mention the chair in front of him.
However, he still felt that this was not enough.
~Besides, what''s to say that those runes won''t start glowing the second I touch it and do some weird magic thing,~ he realized.
At the very least, he would need to make sure that there was no one around to interfere with him whilst he was trying to get away.
And beyond that, he had a gut feeling that something interesting was going on down there.
However, after scouring the entire first floor, he couldn''t see any potential entrances into the basement.
~But I can sense them down there,~ he thought to himself, spreading his earth sense out as far as it could reach.
The energy signals were now way lower than they had been before, in fact, he noticed that a few of the energy readings he was picking up earlier had disappeared.
~What could be a hidden door in this room?~ he pondered, inspecting everything that looked even the slightest bit suspicious.
Apart from the refined statues, and furniture, there were a few trophy heads on the walls. A little odd considering that these creatures were basically animals themselves, though he was self-aware enough to realize he still had some human bias.
Among the trophies were a few familiar heads. For instance, there was a Chame head and another of one of the owl creatures he had fought against before.
The others didn''t look so humanoid and instead were full-on beasts. There were several midnight ck hounds, with gnarly fangs, and gleaming red eyes.? A massive fish abomination, with a wide open mawpletely lined with razor-sharp teeth. Two feline-beast things, that he could only describe as cat demons. And a single venari head, the centrepiece of the collection.
Unlike all the other heads, this one didn''t seem to have been chopped off of an actual creature and was instead fashioned together using hyper-realistic materials. It exuded a sort of pride and elegance, its facial expressions showing no signs of malice, fear, or abhorrence.
"It''s you, isn''t it," Lucius whispered to himself, before inspecting the trophy head.
He fiddled with it, attempting to find any hidden mechanisms it might have. However, that proved to be a fruitless endeavour.
"Am I missing something?" he whispered, now looking around the room to see if he had been mistaken.
Just then, his eyesnded on the runic chair once more, and an idea came to mind.
He quickly called out [kumulipo] before presenting it in front of the venari head.
Nothing.
Just as he was about to give up-
The entire row of trophy heads began emitting beams of light from their eyes, each of them falling towards a spot on the floor right at the centre of the room.
A momentter, a massive rune appeared on the floor, before a section wobbled off into oblivion, and a flight of stairs leading down into darkness revealed itself.
~Again, he''s the councillor. I''m not surprised,~ Lucius told himself, though he had to admit, this was the most magical thing he had seen sinceing to this. Even above all the ''raise the dead'', and ''shoot literal light beams out of floating magical balls'' stuff.
After making certain there were no presences in close vicinity, he began his descent.
Once he had made his way a little further down, the floor reappeared above him, closing off the light and covering him in darkness.
Though this was exactly what he wanted. He would still be able to feel his way downstairs and Earth Sense would be enough for him to tell if anyone was approaching. The same couldn''t be said for whatever guards he might find on the way down.
*
After walking in darkness for a minute or two, he saw a lighting from further down the tunnel. However, he still could not sense any nearby presences.
~A crossroads,~ he thought to himself, once he reached the source of the light.
It was an orange gemstone, etched into the wall, with runes inscribed all around it. It emitted a constant orange light, that didn''t exude even the faintest bit of heat.
Lucius studied it for a moment, before pulling out the tunic and using his ws to tattoo the runes onto its fabric. Unlike the runic chair, these ones were lessplex and only consisted of ten different patterns. So there was little chance he would get them wrong.
After he was done with that, he used earth sense to try and get a feel for who was in each of the tunnels.
~Stronger readingsing from further down,~ he thought to himself.
With that, he decided to go further down.
Whatever he was looking for was definitely where all the strong people were.
Chapter 236 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (6)
Chapter 236 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (6)
As he made his way further down, he began sensing more and more presences.
At first, he pondered whether they were alling from the guards -in which case there were many more than he had initially presumed- however he quickly realized that this wasn''t the case.
The additional energy readings he was picking up were dim, and not in the sense that they were too far away -in fact, he could sense that they were just a short distance ahead. No, these signals were those of a weakened creature, it was as if they had been exhausted of all their energy.
~What''s going on here?~ he thought to himself, as he heard the echoed moans of a multitude of creaturesing from the tunnel hallways that he was about to walk into.
He paused for a moment, trying to make sure that there was nobody of considerable power within the area, before continuing his advance.
Like at the crossroads, there were a few light-runes in this hallway, emitting enough light for him to see the horrors that were locked down there.
~A prison?~ he wondered to himself, as a column of warm and putrid air wreaked havoc on his advanced senses.
The odour was enough to clog his breath at his throat, sending him to his knees due to the pure suddenness of it. For a moment he thought he was being attacked, and called out [kumulipo], however, he quickly realized that this was simply the smell that hung onto these creatures.
~What did they do to deserve this?~ he wondered to himself, as he regained hisposure, trying his best to cover his nose, but failing at it terribly.
There were dozens, of narrow jail cells dug into the tunnel walls, their bars made from the extremely hard wood of the earlier section of the pristine forest.
Each of them was just wide enough for the creatures they held captive to stand up straight.
Though many of them were leaning against the walls, their flesh grated by the hard earth.
There were a number of runes all over the walls, which perhaps exined why the smell hadn''t wafted all the way to the surface. And also why he couldn''t hear their moans all the way up there even with his advanced hearing.
He slowly strode past each jail cell, checking to see if any of his children were among the captives.
However, this proved detrimental to his already fragile mental state.
Among the captives were pups, cubs, and other kid versions of various creatures. It seemed the venari did not discriminate, as he noticed a few of them down here as well.
The more he saw, the surer he was that these creatures had been wrongfully put down here.
Their bones pushed against their flesh, not an ounce of meat on their bodies as if they were all on the brink of starvation.
The tunnels should''ve been cold, but he found that the warm putrid atmosphere wasing mostly from a few of the captives'' defecation. In which dozens of tiny -and no doubt parasitic- worms had decided to make their home, causing heinous infections on the captive''s feet, that were slowly spreading up to the rest of their body.
~This guy''s a real sicko,~ Lucius decided to himself, hastening his pace.
Death wasn''t an issue for him, but this?
"H-Help me," a voice strained to call out. It came from one of the jail cells that he was passing through.
For a moment, he stopped to check who it was.
But that was a mistake.
He had noticed that small pieces of flesh had been missing from most of the other prisoners, though initially, he assumed it was due to chafing with the walls.
However, he now knew better.
It was a venari -it''s short horns and feminine build hinted at it being a female. Its mouth was covered in blood, and pieces of flesh hung from its teeth.? Which was difficult to ignore, as a bite mark of simr size had bored a hole in one of her arms.
The best he could do for her was kill her, but he was not in a position to freely use up magical energy. And physical means would mean getting some of her blood on him, which could be tainted with unknown diseases based on her rabid nature.
"I''lle back for you guys once I''m done here," he whispered, before carrying on with renewed vigour.
Now there was no question in the matter. Lucius didn''t consider himself a hero by any means, but no sane person could leave a viin willing to do all this unchecked.
He was not certain what they had done to deserve this, but the fact that children were among them- animal or not- meant that the system was badly designed.
*
The next section of the tunnels was fully lit up, with runes spaced at regr intervals. Even the tunnel walls here had been polished, and as he ventured deeper, he found that their material had begun to change as well.
The earth walls were now coated by a substance akin to epoxy, which made it seem as if they were marbled.
With these changes, came an increase in the energy readings he was getting.
He could sense at least 12 medium to low threats, which he assessed were the guards. However there was a single presence in that room who qualified as a high-level threat, someone Lucius would actually have to pull out all the stops for.
In addition to that, he could sense a higher level of energying off from something else. Usually living creatures emitted pulse-like signals, however, this one was constant, so it was safe to assume that it was some kind of mana-infused item.
He paused just a little before the entrance to that room came out, and stood there silently... listening, assessing how he would have to go about this.
"My father will no doubt be in a terrible mood after his meeting with that creature," a voice mumbled, it sounded as if they had food in their mouth as they spoke.
"But, as disgusting as that thing is, it''ll make us richer? Don''t you agree?" the voice asked, to which mumbled sounds of approval echoed throughout the room.
"And who do you think all that wealth will fall to once my father ascends the throne? He won''t have need for all this once he does that, he told me himself," the voice continued.
"You of course master," another voice replied meekly.
"Hmm?" the first voice mumbled, and a momentter the sound of a scuffle echoed throughout the room.
And then silence.
~One less energy reading,~ Lucius thought to himself, shaking his head in disbelief.
He was about to deal with a madman.
Chapter 237 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (7)
Chapter 237 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (7)
"I had to do it, I already warned him about speaking to me without permission," the voice said dismissively, before taking a bite out of something.
Lucius so wanted to see what exactly was going on in the room, but he was not yet certain of the exact location of the energy readings. It would take him some time to properly map out where each of them wasing from, so for now he decided to remain quiet.
"Like I was saying. You can all expect to attain high positions within the council after my father finishes his dealings with that creature. That''s of course if you stay by me," the voice continued, before pausing briefly to swallow.
~Creature? Are they making deals with the necromancer?~ Lucius pondered, anger boiling up within him.
"I''m the only one who cares about you guys. My father is too focused on the throne. See how long it took for him to give me some of his gifts?" the voice asked, to which the other voices in the room mumbled in agreement.
"But these powers are magnificent are they not?" the voice asked, and once again mumbles of agreement echoed throughout the room.
"Bring me another, and please begin cleaning up. You guys know how my father is. He won''t appreciate all the... blood," the voice said.
A flurry of approaching footsteps followed shortly after, and for a moment Lucius thought that they were heading his way.
However, the footsteps quickly died down, before a loud thud.
"Friends, this one is barely moving. Who''s in charge of taking care of the food?" the voice asked.
Silence.
"Am I being ignored? Who was in charge?" the voice asked calmly.
"No one huh? Then you, you''re in charge from now on," it said next.
And a moment after that, another energy signal disappeared.
"I hate people who don''t do their job," the voice said, before sighing.
"Friends, I really don''t like being this violent. But sometimes you guys anger me. Get recements for the two that died on us. Send their families a few of those herbs from our garden- say it was a work-rted ident," the voice continued before an audible ''munch'' sound echoed throughout the room.
Lucius could just barely make out a soft moan, followed by a few silent quivers.
"Can you not cry while I eat, it''s really disturbing?" the voice asked politely, before going back to its meal.
"And honestly, how long will I be forced to eat these sorts of things? When are you going to find more of those green creatures?" it asked, before whispering - as if to itself- "They were really packed with life force."
~Green creature?~ Lucius thought to himself in disbelief and for a moment he forgot where he was. The description was vague at best, but to even consider that his children might''vee past here and endured this.
His worst fears wereing true.
[Kumulipo] came out almost instinctively, as Lucius fought against himself not to act too rashly. He had not yet properly pinpointed the locations of all the energy signatures in the room, to act now would put him at a disadvantage.
And oddly enough, even with images of what his children might''ve suffered through still ying through his mind, he calmed down.
He would get his answers, and if need be, his revenge. Or at least that was what the surrounding world seemed to be telling him.
His pull to the earth had tripled over thest few seconds, and he could just make out a few shadows shifting all around him.
[Requirements for system event have been met.]
[System event... [Rise of the Bedonna] has begun.]
[Eliminate sources of user turmoil.]
The notifications popped up one after the other in quick session, however, Lucius was in no state to pay them any mind. He was fully focused on the task at hand. Nothing except his weapons and the enemies in front of him existed.
A few moments of silence passed, and he was finally certain of everyone''s exact location and was confident that these were the only signatures in the room.
With that, he began doing something that seemed odd on paper but felt natural at the moment.
He let a few of the memories he had endured in the mindscape go rampant in his mind. Guiding those emotions, and using them as fuel for his poison.
At the same time, he could feel [kumulipo] interacting with the poison nds in his tail, feeding it some of its strange energies.
[Processing...]
[ System Event has reconfigured Skill Tree!]
[¡ºPoison¡» branch has been moved to [Kumulipo Index].]
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºNever Ending Fear- Poison¡».]
[Adding ¡ºNever Ending Fear- Poison¡» to ¡ºKumulipo Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºNever Ending Fear- Poison¡» has been added.]
He was uncertain what exactly was going on, though right now he did not care to know.
A momentter, clouds of poisonous gas streamed from his tail, into the room, it''s speed hastened by Elmando.
"Huh? What is that?" the voice asked, as Lucius sauntered in, the room nowpletely filled with ink-ck gas.
The guards had covered their mouths and noses in response. However, that would not be enough.
"Sumb to your fears," Lucius whispered, using Elmando to force the ck gas through the eyes of the guards and into their bodies.
For a split second nothing happened, and the guard''s bodies just dangled there.
The calm before the storm.
A momentter, they went rabid, screaming, and rushing at each other with ckened eyes.
They gouged, and they stabbed, and they choked each other. Victim to the strange poison that now consumed their body.
Despite the ensuing chaos, Lucius''s eyes were focused only on the venari sitting at what looked like a dinner table, made from obsidian ck marble.
On top of the table was a venari fawn, a bloodied chunk of meat missing from its arm. Despite this, it was moving ever so slightly. It was resting over a pentagram of sorts, where its blood glimmered over the depiction.
The venari that had been consuming the fawn had longer horns than the guards, was visiblyrger, and had gleaming red eyes.
A mist of red energy wafted from the fawn, towards it''s mouth.
Lucius wasn''t sure what sort of heinous magic rituals it was performing, however, based on its appearance he could tell it was an evolved venari... a guardian.
Still, he approached.
"What''s the meaning of this?" Eiknyr asked, before making a gesture with his hands.
With that, dozens of threads made from red energy appeared seemingly out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around Lucius''s arm.
"You... you''re like one of those green creatures aren''t you?" Eiknyr asked, his eyes wide open in realization.
"You''re a little bigger, but I can tell. You guys are... unique," he mumbled to himself.
"They said you wereing. What did they call you? The... the, what was it? What did they call you?" Eiknyr asked, with a tilted head.
Lucius used [kumulipo] to drain the energy from his restraints, dissolving it and freeing him from their grasp.
"Yes! The Lighted One I remember. They said you wereing," Eiknyr continued, hisugh now echoing throughout the already noisy room. The walls were made from ck marble as well, so theughter bounced quite a few times, creating a sort of eerie effect.
Lucius froze at this, his focused expression breaking down into indifference as he processed what the venari had just said.
Chapter 238 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (8)
Chapter 238 Eikthyrnir Compound [Mini-Arc] (8)
The shadows in the room came to life, twisting and snaking their way in between the chaos of the shing guards, before slithering past Eiknyr, whispering ancient nothings as they made their way to Lucius.
Eiknyr froze in shock for a moment, before abruptly standing up.
He stood at 2.6 meters tall, 3.2 with the length of his horns. His muscles rippled under the silk-ck robes he was wearing, which fluttered unnaturally as the streams of shadows, rushed past him towards Lucius.
"Mystic Mantle?" Eiknyr asked, his once musing tone now one of utter seriousness.
Still, Lucius did not reply and the influx of shadows did not stop.
ck ink seemed to ooze from the walls, before joining the river of shadows. At this point, Lucius''s body was nowpletely encased, only a small section where his eyes peered through could be seen.
"You break into my den, and you make all my friends start killing each other? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get new friends?" Eiknyr asked, taking a step back, before pulling out a sceptre from his robes.
Just then, one of the crazed guards behind him tried to gore through him with its horns. However, one gesture from him was all it took to stop the attack in its tracks.
The guard, still in its crazed state, stopped for a moment before streams of red mist gushed from its orifices. At the same time, its skin greyed, and its once muscr body reduced to shrivels.
With that, Eiknyr grew slightly in size, and his eyes glowed a deeper darker crimson.
A split secondter, he shot a bolt of red energy towards the shadows that cowled Lucius, vaporizing them, and creating a gaping hole within the inky armour.
However, nothing was there.
Although he could still see Lucius''s eyes peering from the shadow cacoon, there was no body.
"Sumb to your fears" Lucius whispered in a hoarse voice, and a small patch of the shadows surrounding him zipped towards Eiknyr.
Eiknyr waved his sceptre in a circr motion, creating a red force field around himself. And the shadows turned to nothing, upon contact.
However, his eyes shined a little less, and he decreased in size that much more.
"Abhorrent creature," Eiknyr spat, an annoyed expression on his face.
With another wave of his sceptre, red mist began to seep out of his body, before coalescing into more than a dozen orbs at random points around him.
With a pushing gesture, the balls all zipped forward, flying around in seemingly random trajectories, making them nearly impossible to track.
They spread around the room, beforeing at him Lucius from all directions.
From the depths of the inky cacoon, came [Kumulipo] swiftly moving to the top.
"Sr field," Lucius whispered, and streams of dark energy erupted from [Kumulipo] before spreading in all directions to create a force field.
However, this was a wasted effort.
The crimson balls vaporized their way through the force field in a matter of milliseconds, before continuing towards their target.
The cacoon managed to dodge a good portion of the attacks, however, at least several holes had now appeared in its casing.
And with that, the density of shadows covering Lucius''s body visibly lessened.
Eiknyr smiled, realizing that Lucius''s shadows were finite, as even the shadows that were streaming to cover up the vaporized areas were beginning to slow down.
"Sr beam," Lucius whispered hoarsely, his body still nowhere to be seen.
With that, a massive beam of dark energy erupted from [Kumulipo], thrashing through the air before smashing against the red force field that protected Eiknyr.
For a moment, the force field held up, but like acid on flesh, it slowly seared through, before piercing Eiknyr right at the centre of his forehead.
Blood and fleshy paste sttered to the floor.
Still...even without a head, Eiknyr''s body stood upright.
"Sumb to your fears," Lucius whispered, and again a shroud of shadows, moved to infiltrate Eiknyr''s seemingly lifeless body.
The shadows invaded the corpse, and awork of pitch-ck veins appeared.
Within the corpse, the shadows searched for Eiknyr''s core, before wrapping around it and tightening. Shattering it into a thousand pieces, and iming the escaping energy as their own.
As the shadows came back towards Lucius, carrying his prize within their tendrils, he realized something was off.
Right as they were about to rejoin his cacoon, he cast a sr beam on them, incinerating them into a fine mist.
And for the next few seconds, his eyes simply peered from the cacoon... waiting.
Soon, the blood and grey matter that had sttered on the floor began squirming around, before turning to red mist, which entered the dead bodies of those guards who had fallen in the earlier skirmish.
"That was a favourite vessel of mine," several voices called out in unison, as the once dead bodies rose into the air.
Quickly, Lucius''s eyes moved towards the sceptre, as it spun into the air as well, before moving straight into the hands of one of the reanimated guards.
"Abhorrent creature," the voices said in unison.
"You wreak of the life force of -"
"Bursting trace," Lucius interrupted.
And with that, several high energy pulses strobed out of [Kumulipo], slicing through the air towards the now floating corpses.
Three of the corpses quickly moved behind the others, using them as meat shields.
The energy from the pulses shed into the shield corpses, invading their internals, and turning their cores to dust. This happened simultaneously for all the corpses, a feat that Lucius never would''ve been able to aplish in any normal circumstance.
In the instant that their cores had been shattered, the remaining corpses waved their hands, and crimson runes began to appear on the walls.
With that, fettered chains erupted from the runes, before wrapping around the cacoon, and dragging it to the floor. They vaporized the shadows as they held onto the cacoon, continuously lowering its integrity.
"Sr pit," Lucius whispered, and fumes of dark energy began to exude from [kumulipo], eating away at the chains, whilst cloaking the cacoon in a ck cloud.
Lucius''s eyes locked onto the sceptre in one of the corpse''s hands, before dozens of tiny hands formed from the shadows of the cacoon.
In fact, even more hands began forming from the tunics of the guards, and whatever other nt-based materials were present in that room.
The army of hands all stretched out, in an attempt to grab the sceptre, however, with a wave of the corpses'' hands their bodies disappeared into a crimson dust.
They reappeared all around Lucius, their hands outstretched as they murmured something under their breath.
The army of hands changed trajectory to catch them, whilst Lucius began mouthing another spell.
In the moments before the hands reached the sceptre, and he was mouthing his spell-
A red pentagram appeared on the ceiling above him, glowing in crimson magnificence. Arge concentration of energy appeared with it, sending shockwaves throughout the room.
A nanosecondter, the pentagram began bubbling, and from it, something began to arise.
Chapter 239 My Children Have Worked In The Shadows
Chapter 239 My Children Have Worked In The Shadows
"Shadow beam," Lucius whispered finally, right as the creatureing from the pentagram was about to be fully released.
Using the same temte as [moon beam], [shadow beam] took arge chunk of the energy he had, and set it loose upon the pentagram and its monstrosity.
An almost solid pir of shadows erupted from the cacoon and rammed against the pentagram.
It didn''t seem to cause any visible damage to the creature that was about to be unleashed, but it managed topletely destroy the pentagram from which it wasing.
At that moment, the hands under Lucius''s control got a hold of the sceptre and pried it from the hands of the corpse.
Lucius''s body was now visible, the shadow cacoon that had been covering him,pletely sacrificed to cast [shadow beam]. However, there would be no need for it now.
The sceptre was in his possession, and the summoning spell that the corpses had attempted to cast hadpletely destroyed their mana cores, leaving them lifeless ragdolls on the floor.
The once pristine marble room waspletely covered in blood and the scent of decaying flesh. There was now a massive hole in the ceiling where he had cast [shadow beam], going all the way up to the surface.
And Lucius could sense his emperor''s mantle slowly slipping away from him. There was no doubt in his mind that the energy withdrawal would leave him unconscious, and a sitting duck for whoever came to find out what had happened here.
So, holding the sceptre in his hand, he limped towards the chair that Eiknyr had been sitting on, before taking a seat.
The fawn had apparently died sometime during the fight, though he was certain it was a better fate than staying alive.
For a moment, he stared at the sceptre, its crimson gemstone still emitting faint amounts of power.
After taking a deep breath, he smashed it on the floor, sending sparkles of red energy all over the room.
he could''ve sworn he saw something lift off into the sky after he did that, however, he was too tired to pay it any mind.
[System event... [Rise of the Bedonna]plete!]
[+ 6000 exp!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[New item unlocked!]
[New skill unlocked!]
[Title ''Bedonna'' has been acquired!]
It was over, he had gotten revenge.
Though still... it didn''t feel like it.
Just then he heard footsteps approaching, and even in his state, he tried to stand up to respond. However, all the fatigue from earlier had caught up to him, and although the emperor''s mantle had been healing him since earlier, it could not rece the energy it expanded without his shadows.
"Sum to your fears," he tried to chant, though sadly [Kumulipo] wouldn''t evene out.
He stared at the entrance to the chamber, waiting to see who his opponents would be.
"Master Eiknyr..." a voice called out, as a group of figures entered the chamber.
It was the workers.
For a moment they looked shocked, staring at the remains of Eiknyr''s corpse, and that of all the guards. It was a bloodbath, and amongst them, only a single figure remained alive.
Sitting on the throne at the centre of the room, with light piercing from the ceiling, and shining down upon him.
"It''s him," some of the workers whispered, their shocked expressions turning to one of realization.
"Sr bea..." Lucius was about to attempt once again, however, his vision went dark for a moment.
He fought against his consciousness,ing back only a few momentster.
When he opened his eyes, the workers were dragging him somewhere.
He instinctually shrugged them off and tried to attack them, however, his limbs felt like sandbags.
The workers opened their mouths to say something to him, however, he could not hear a thing.
Though the fact that they had not attempted to kill him whilst he was out, gave him some hope that they were not enemies.
"T-The chair on... the first floor," Lucius strained to say, "Bring it," he continued. And a few of the workers rushed off to do his bidding.
"Out-outside. A red flower in the shrubs... bring it," he added. Every time he spoke, it felt like sandpaper was rubbing against his throat, however, he could not leave without at least those two prizes.
As the next set of workers left to do that, his vision dimmed once more.
The next time he opened his eyes, he was being led through another set of tunnels. He tried to shrug the workers away so that he could walk on his own, but he faltered on his own weight. And they had to pick him up once more.
"Where...?" was all he could ask now, still extremely drowsy.
"The Lord''s First Son," the workers replied in a serious tone. Lucius wanted to ask more, however, his consciousness failed him once more.
*
When Lucius awoke, even before he opened his eyes, he sensed several beings of significant power surrounding him.
Without much thought, he swung his tail all around him as he opened his eyes, before lining up a list of spells he would use depending on the enemies.
"The Lighted One has returned," a voice called out, from below.
Lucius was currently standing atop a risen b of earth, much like an altar. And all around him were familiar, faces, amongst them were a few new ones as well.
"Pagan," Lucius whispered, aplex rush of emotions taking over him.
For a moment he wondered whether it was a dream, as a figure appeared seemingly out of the shadows to hug him.
"Ghost," he whispered, his stoic expression threatening to break down.
"We felt the surge of energy and knew it was you," a voice called out from somewhere at the back of the crowd.
"Hannibal..." he said finally.
If this was a dream, then he was content with staying here.
"How?" That was all Lucius could ask.
It seemed they were underground, with multiple runes acting as light sources. Although they were in a rtively simple room, he could see multiple tunnels leading into this section, which made him wonder how his children had managed to aplish all this.
"Your new followers, Lighted One. They have understood the truth of this world," Pagan replied, gesturing towards several dozen mole people, who were currently bowed down.
Chapter 240 A cross-roads (1)
Chapter 240 A cross-roads (1)
All around Pagan were a multitude of other creatures, groups from various races.
To the right were the shrooms, perhaps the smallest of the groups, with the chieftains standing at the forefront.
Directly behind Pagan were the members of the Internal Security Department, with Artemis at the helm. And behind them were the rest of the leaf beings.
To the left were therger creatures of the group- several dozen mole people, at least a dozen beaver-like humanoids, and a few other small mammalian creatures.
Though they were different in appearance, at that moment, they were united.
For a moment Lucius pondered what sort of mind magic Pagan had used on them, but he quickly understood what this was all about.
The creatures here were from the same groups that filled those cells he had seen in the woond mansion. They were the groups being exploited by Eiknyr- mistreated, and devoured like food.
Though there was probably a bit more to it than just that, he understood at least this much.
"M-My lord, we heard you killed Eiknyr," one of the smaller mammalian creatures stuttered. It looked almost like a prairie dog, and unlike the mole people, this one was not humanoid. Though it''s speech was clear as day.
Pagan turned towards it with an annoyed expression, no doubt to silence the creature, however, Lucius quickly raised his hand.
"He''s dead... Eiknyr is dead," Lucius responded.
And to that, several creatures lifted their heads with looks of disbelief stered onto their faces.
"It''s true, we saw his headless corpse lying on the ground," one of the other mammalian creatures added.
"Silence in front of the Lighted One," Pagan interrupted, his voice strained to keep from shouting at them too roughly.
"I''m sorry about what happened to your people," Lucius added after a moment of silence had passed, remembering the state that they had been in.
The creatures went silent at that, the relieved expressions on their faces turning to one of guilt.
~Most of these are tier 5 creatures. Though their power levels are...~ Lucius thought to himself, noting the marking on some of the mammalian creatures'' bodies.
This confirmed his earlier theory of the tier system being more of aplexity indicator than one of power.
"Where are we? What is this ce?" Lucius asked a moment after, walking away from Ghost''s embrace, and down from the Altar.
As he walked forward, Pagan moved aside, and the creatures behind made a path for him to walk through.
"We are deep underneath the pristine forest, The Elwood Den," Pagan responded, as Lucius continued walking towards one of the runes on the wall to inspect it.
"Then was it you who set the walls on fire?" he asked, looking at the inscriptions around the rune. It was an exact copy of those he had seen at the mansion. They''d probably just stolen a few from somewhere else and ced them down here.
Although the area wasn''t nearly as decorated as the woond mansion, he had to admit his children had done well for themselves. At least this was better than anything he could''ve offered them.
"The red flowers? Yes, it was us," Hannibal responded this time, walking to stand beside Lucius.
Complex emotions now clouded Lucius''s mind. On the one hand, he was happy to have found his children, though, on the other, he wondered if they would''ve been better off not meeting again.
This seemed like a rtively stable ce where they could live safely, and he had no ns to stop trying to kill the necromancer. In fact, recent events had even opened up the possibility of there being another enemy force at y, yet another danger he would be exposing them to.
He could very well start over, and look for dispensable soldiers that he''d have no problems sacrificing for his goals.
However he also understood that he was mentally exhausted, and perhaps these thoughts weren''t the most logical.
"We tried to fend off the necromancer. We thought you woulde back... but..." Hannibal began exining, staring at Lucius -as he looked off into the far nothingness.
"I tried to use The Great Tree... but I didn''t know how. They destroyed it, but at least we all got out safely," he continued, still no reply from Lucius.
"When we came here, we tried to get the council to help us. We told them that you were still fighting outside the walls, but they wouldn''t listen...
Eiknyr and his father captured some of us... we still don''t know what happened to them," he proceeded.
Lucius nodded slowly at this, now running his fingers over the inscription.
"We''ll get our revenge. On the necromancer... and the council," Hannibal finished.
Lucius noted how different Hannibal sounded. Although his voice hadn''t changed, his intonations seemed moreplex, like he was a different being. Although the symbols on his back signifying his tier still showed only 2 marks.
"Would you all excuse me? I want to talk to the members with cruxes in private. Only for a little while," Lucius whispered, after some thought.
With that, the other creatures began standing up, and slowly leaving the chamber, most of them taking a nce at Lucius as they went, whispering awe-filled remarks as they did so.
"Artemis and Internal Security, you guys can stay," he added, as he noticed them leaving as well.
*
Once the original council were the only ones left in the area, Lucius began:
"I can help evolve all your new members, and you guys will be able to create a good settlement for yourselves somewhere in the n Lands. If they were able to construct these tunnels, I''m sure they''ll be able to do even more once they''ve evolved."
The others nodded their heads in understanding, as he spoke.
"You guys will be safe there. There aren''t a lot of creatures that could pose a threat to you guys, and I''ll even stop what I''m doing to help if things get too hard," he continued. However, at this, Hannibal realized something was off with the wording he was using.
"What exactly does this mean?" Hannibal asked.
"I''m giving you guys an out. You can focus on building a safe space for the rest of themune. You can go looking for other leaflings if you want, I''ll evolve them as well... if their still any left that is," he exined.
"And what will you be doing?" this time it was Ghost that asked.
Chapter 241 A cross-roads (2)
Chapter 241 A cross-roads (2)
"I''ll be waging war against the necromancer... andter, against the council. I''ll take out anything else that poses a threat to the settlement you guys are going to build. And after that?... Maybe I''lle visit," he replied.
The others were stunned at this.
"Why?" Hannibal asked after some silence had passed.
"Because it''s the most logical line of action. At the very least, it means that if I fail, you guys would''ve made enough progress to protect yourselves," Lucius replied.
They would be able to develop without the hindrance of being involved in Lucius''s ploys. And the chances of them losing a crucial member of their settlement would be greatly decreased.
To Lucius, this was the surest way to achieve his goal.
"I am sure Hannibal will be able to manage all that. However, I cannot leave the Lighted One to fight his battles alone any longer. We have been separated long enough," Pagan replied immediately, his expression having remained the same throughout the entire conversation. It seemed he had made up his mind on this before Lucius had even begun speaking.
"And I won''t be of much use to this n either. I''ll go with you," Ghost added, nodding towards Pagan as she said so.
"I don''t think this n will work Lucius. Nobody''s going to allow you to fight alone, at least not anyone from themune. And if you say no, they''ll just sneak off to your side anyway," Hannibal said finally.
"We made a promise when you invited us onto this council. And without you, there is nomune. In fact, the only reason we''re still together is because Pagan wouldn''t stop talking about how you were fighting on the outside," Artemis added, to which her men nodded their heads in agreement.
"I had visions about it," Pagan added hesitantly.
There was a fundamental w in Lucius''s line of thinking.
Safety wasn''t what themune wanted
He had never once forced any of the leaflings to follow him. Of course, he had forced them to make oaths, pacts, and such. But those were empty words that could''ve easily been broken once they had gained their powers.
No, everyone had followed him of their own free will.
If he left him to build this settlement he dreamed of without his presence, they would be reduced to the same life they''d been living before he met them. Aimless existences.
Perhaps a little stronger than before, but nheless undirected.
"Are you guys sure about this?" Lucius asked after a moment of thought.
To which the council members slowly nodded their heads in agreement, as if extinguishing any doubts they had in their minds.
~Hmm... then it''s settled,~ Lucius decided to himself. epting that his children would once again be risking their lives for him, while at the same time understanding that - if he nned things well enough- he could make their risks worthwhile.
"Then I''ll give you a quick rundown of what''s going on the outside, and what the n is moving forward," he said finally, a look of relief appearing on the council members'' faces.
*
He briefly exined how he had woken up in the Chames'' den, how he had tried to get them to help him... and how he had failed. He told them about the civil war he was nning to orchestrate within their ranks, and how he would use them in the future.
He then told them about the Zeldraves, about what had happened to Alpha, and how they tried had heal him... to the best of their abilities.
The council members were happy to hear that Alpha had survived as well, but the loss of his limb and the information that he couldn''t be healed properly came with much sadness.
Lucius also told them about the deals he had made with the golems and the magic weapons he had promised to make for them. And how the deadline was fast approaching.
"Magic weapons? I haven''t thought about that," Hannibal said thoughtfully.
"I already have the basics down. All I need are the relevant runes, and manastones to power it. The materials I''ll use for them aren''t really a problem right now," Lucius replied.
"Runes?" Hannibal asked, prompting Lucius to gesture towards the markings around the gemstones that lit up the chamber.
"So they''re called runes... Asclepius led a raid on one of the council structures not too long ago. She and the Furtong stole a few dozen chunks of earth with those runes, maybe one of them might help," Hannibal replied thoughtfully.
"I can search the other buildings for them if you want. The main settlement isn''t too far from here," Ghost added, though Lucius shook his head at that offer.
"Too dangerous, not worth the risk. I''ll check with Asclepius and see where I go from there, speaking of which... where is she?" Lucius asked, only now noticing her absence.
"She''s cleaning out Eikthynir''s den. Lately, she''s been... a collector of sorts," Hannibal replied, with a sort of exhausted expression on his face.
Just then Lucius remembered the items he had asked the workers to bring and began scanning around the room for them.
However, they were nowhere to be seen.
"Did Asclepius''s group bring back any from the mansion yet?" he asked.
Hannibal looked confused for a moment, before suddenly remembering, and gesturing for Lucius to follow him.
*
"How far do these tunnels go?" Lucius asked as Hannibal led the group down one of the manyworks within this underground hideout.
"They connect the central area of the forest to just until Eikthyrnr''s den. We''d been nning to take him down for a while now, but he and Eiknyr coupled with the guards were going to be too much for us," Hannibal replied thoughtfully, walking right beside Lucius.
"At the very least we''d lose a few good members," he continued.
Lucius pondered over this answer for a moment. It was a stark contrast to the type of tactician Hannibal had been when they had first met.
A wee change.
Chapter 242 New Unlocks
Chapter 242 New Unlocks
~Speaking of change,~ Luicus thought to himself, just now remembering that the system event he hadpleted had given him a few new unlocks.
With that in mind, he quickly called up his status screen.
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©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? yer Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 15: 120/1500]!
[Laendryte Rojo [Guardian] [66%]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Agility: 790 ]
[Strength: 790]
[Stamina:790]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Titles ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
¡ºBedonna¡»- Poisonous excretions gain 300% potency when user is subjected to turmoil.
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~Huh, this is interesting, though its activation ability is a bit vague. What counts as turmoil?~ Lucius thought to himself.
As good as the skill was, it was expected after what he had gone through... after he had almost lost his life to get it.
He had no doubt in his mind that if that creature Eiknyr had been summoning was actually unleashed he would''ve beenpletely destroyed. In fact, he was nearly certain that that creature was even stronger than the necromancer.
He still wondered what that creature had been, it was a shame he couldn''t have kept Eiknyr alive to ask him.
~I guess we''ll just have to capture Eikthyrnir and torture it out of him,~ he decided to himself before opening his system shop.
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©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??System Shop??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
[Sr key(1)] - N/A
(Current Helios: 0)
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~Sr key?~ he thought to himself, noticing the new item that was listed. And just like that, he felt a strange warmth building up within his hands, before finally-
"Is that a new spell, Lighted One?" Pagan asked, already at the front of the group, mere seconds after he sensed the strange energy swelling up within Lucius''s hands.
"No..." Lucius replied in a distracted tone, as he inspected the item in his hand.
At this point they were very close to Asclepius''sb, however, the group halted to look at the golden skeleton key in Lucius''s hands.
"The energying from this feels... different," Pagan whispered in awe.
~But what does it open?~ Lucius thought to himself, before- as if my instinct- cing the key into an imaginary door, and twisting it.
With that, a door made of hard light appeared out of thin air, and swung open, revealing a radiant staircase leading off into a white space.
The group stopped and stared at Lucius, who was currently staring at the door with a mix of exhaustion and intrigue.
Everyone else was just chalking this up as ''Lighted One hocus pocus'' but Lucius knew well that this was beyond the scope of any magic spells he could hope to create.
"It''s a portal," he said after a moment of silence had passed. However, his words were wasted as no one except him knew what portals were.
"Where does it lead?" Ghost asked, before moving closer to the wide open door.
"Don''t," Lucius warned.
Although the door looked interesting, he wasn''t just going to head in there without any preparations.
Besides, it was odd that he couldn''t feel any sort of energy signaling from it. This thing that was currently glowing so brightly that it looked like the sun was right here in the tunnel hallways with them.
He slowly moved forward and attempted to close the door.
~It''s tangible,~ he realized, once he shut it, before pulling the key out.
With that, the door disappeared, and a few secondster so did the key.
For a moment Lucius was afraid he hadpletely blown it, but after opening his system shop, he saw that the? [sr key] option still had one next to it, signifying that it had just been returned to inventory,
"What was that?" Hannibal asked, the group now staring at Lucius with intrigued expressions.
"I don''t know yet but we''ll find out soon enough. First, let''s get the magical weapons out of the way," Lucius replied, before gesturing for Hannibal to continue leading them.
~Hmm, there was a new skill if I''m not mistaken,~ Lucius thought to himself, right as Hannibal led them into a hallway that opened up into a small cave structure.
In this cave were all sorts of herbs, sacks, runes and other odd items ying around. From its haphazard arrangement, Lucius could tell that this was Ascelpius''sb.
At the very back of theb, was the obsidian ck chair, and right in front of it was the odd flower.
"These are the items you asked for right?" Hannibal asked as he gestured for the prairie-dog creatures that were currently sorting some items in theb to leave.
"Lighted One," the prairie dogs whispered, before bowing ever so slightly and leaving.
Lucius nodded to them, before approaching the chair, deciding to look at the skill right after he was done with this.
He stood in front of it in silence for a moment, before reluctantly running his fingers along its surface.
It felt unnaturally cool to the touch.
~Good, at least it''s not emitting any sort of pulse,~ he thought to himself.
He had been half afraid that it had some sort of tracking device or spell on it, however, it was only emitting the faint emissions that mana stones gave off.
"Are there any tunnels far from here that you aren''t afraid of losing?" Lucius asked, side-eyeing Hannibal.
"Afraid of losing?" Hannibal asked, in confusion, standing right beside Lucius and staring at the chair with interest.
"I want to run a few experiments with the runes and mana stones on this thing. But in case things go bad, I don''t want to put this ce of yours at risk," Lucius replied.
"Hmm... I''ll have to ask the Furtongs, I''m not certain about the structure of this ce," Hannibal replied thoughtfully.
"Good, get it done," Lucius said, patting Hannibal on the shoulder before eyeing the flower.
He already had ns for it, he just needed to find the right requirements for his n toe to fruition. Though for now, he decided to feed it with a bit of radiant energy to see how it would react.
As energy from his crux came into contact with the flower, its crystalline body began to emit a faint light, which stayed for a few seconds, before going dim.
With that, the flower grew ever so slightly.
~Good, this''ll definitely work,~ Lucius thought to himself, as Hannibal stared at him like he had just seen a ghost.
"How did you do that?" Hannibal asked, kneeling over to inspect the flower.
Chapter 243 Runic Circuits [I]
Chapter 243 Runic Circuits [I]
"Hmm? That isn''t a spell, I just directed sr energy towards its core. Pagan could''ve done that if he wanted to," Lucius replied, to which Hannibal turned back to look at Pagan with a slightly annoyed expression.
"Perhaps the Lighted One is overestimating how well I can use the powers he gave me," Pagan replied, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Just then Lucius realized that this was a skill he had only recently mastered. In fact, the only reason he could move sr energy so urately was because of the nature of the kumulipo, something that Pagan had yet to gain.
~That''s if I''m even going to reveal it to everyone,~ he thought to himself.
As much as he loved them, Lucius understood that Pagan wasn''t the sanest leaf on the tree. If he gained ess to a power like this, there was no telling what he might do in the name of ''The Lighted One''.
Besides that, the kumulipo clearly had an effect on one''s psyche, which could risk the user developing strange tendencies. Lucius himself was aware that his mental state was worsening every time he used it too much. Though, in these hard times, it was hard to keep from using such a powerful weapon.
"You''ve gotten stronger, haven''t you?" Ghost asked, breaking the silence that had descended on the room.
"And so have the rest of you," Lucius replied thoughtfully. Just now remembering that back at the altar room, Ghost had appeared seemingly out of the shadows.
"Perhaps a bit of sparring is in order," he added afterwards. Though with his advanced earth sense, he had a good enough read on just how powerful everyone was.
Pagan was still in the lead, by a good margin. If Lucius had to say, Pagan was probably around the same level as Avankor with his mystic mantle on.
Ghost was second, though her readings were a bit odd. Although the energy signals he was getting from her were lower than even Hannibal''s, she was emitting a higher ''threat'' level. No doubt due to the arachnid augmentations she had gained from her previous evolution.
Hannibal was the weakest amongst the three, with a threat level lower than even Alpha''s -despite his missing limb and blindness. However, his energy readings were quite high, so his weakness was not due to ack of effort.
"I''ve been wanting to test my new skills on someone who won''t just run away and use magic the entire time," Ghost replied with a slightly annoyed tone, staring daggers at Pagan.
"A spar is supposed to be a test battle, you use the gifts given to you, and I use mine," Pagan replied,pletely unphased.
However, Ghost had a point. Lucius had seen just how fatal relying solely on magic could be. And without any spells to counter the necromancer''s anti-magic skills, he would have to retrain Pagan from the start, as he was the weakest in terms of hand-to-handbat.
That, or he would have to find a spell that negates negative effects... which would be even more difficult.
"But perhaps we can do thatter. Right now let''s focus on finishing up the magic weapons. If we get this right, then we might increase our chances of defeating the necromancer, and even the council by several folds," Lucius exined.
Things were going to be easier than back when they were at their first base, since they had a lot more subordinates.
Hannibal called on a few of the Furtong and Beaver-people who were currently on standby to go out and collect stone, wood and other materials for the creation of weapons.
A few of the prairie dogs were also called in to search for any odd-looking gems they might find around the manake. As Hannibal had reported noticing the formation of a few, very tiny ones around the area.
Ghost left with the rest of the First Watch somewhere during the work since they had a duty to watch the surface entrances. Though, honestly, only Hannibal could understand what Lucius was attempting to do, so they would''ve just been in the way if they stayed.
Pagan of course did not leave, as the Lighted One''s right-hand man, he had a duty to always be at his side. Though the extra sr energy reserves were a wee addition.
As the materials were brought in, Lucius and Hannibal began trying to study the runes on both the obsidian chair and the various other rune bs that Asclepius had ''collected''.
*
Initially, progress seemed to be moving well, as they noticed a few simrities among all the runes.
For one, every rune had a hexagonal border surrounding the main inscriptions. It seemed to be a sort of foundation, that was required for its activation.
They had even stronger reason to believe this after Lucius began running energy through some of the runes, to see how it flowed. And indeed, before any effects took ce, the entire hexagonal border had to be filled.
They also managed to extract the definitions of a few of the simpler runes.
For instance whenever a certain symbol that looked like 3 concentric circles appeared, a light emission urred. And when a symbol with three lines was seen, it had a sort of heating effect.
Quickly, Lucius and Hannibal attempted to test their hypothesis and etched the runes they had extracted onto stone bs.
Some of their hypothesis proved to be true, whilst a good number of them were false.
For instance, they had assumed that simply putting two different runes together couldbine their effects.
However, the flow of energy didn''t seem to act so linearly, as two runespletely changed the rules by which energy within the runic circuits flowed.
And just like that, several hours of intense studying went by.
More and more materials filled the room, and more and more failed runic circuits were discarded.
* A few hourster
"Well that''s not fair, you guys started without me?" a voice called out, snapping Lucius and Hannibal out of their studious daze.
Chapter 244 Runic Ciruits [II]
Chapter 244 Runic Ciruits [II]
Luciuszily turned around to look at who it was, his mind still ying images of all the runes he had etched over the past few hours.
"Asclepius... it''s nice to see you," Lucius saidzily, regarding her with a tired nod before slowly looking toward the squad she hade with.
It seemed her team wasprised of the most massive this colony had to offer, with the smallest among them being bigger than even he was. They were a species he had never seen before, though they reminded him slightly of a more humanoid and less feral ck bear.
They hade back with several carts crafted from a mixture of different types of wood. He guessed that Hannibal had probably asked one of the beaver people to craft it to his specifications. After all, it likely wasn''t very difficult for them to mold wood.
Though Lucius couldn''t say he was that interested in whatever they had brought back. Right now his mind waspletely focused on the rune he and Hannibal had been trying to understand for the past two hours.
This specific rune seemed to have some sort of energy flow function, as it changed the normal paths that energy would usually take and was never found in istion, but always linked to the moreplex runic circuits. However, even with Lucius''s ability to control and sense energy flow, it was hard to discern exactly why it was required.
It seemed they would have to figure out what theplex runes did, before attempting to decipher this one.
"I guess since you''re actually here I won''t get to keep these then," Asclepius whispered, with exaggerated disappointment, as she stared at the runes as well.
Lucius looked to see what she was referring to and noticed that one of the bear-men behind her was carrying his sack and Einyr''s sceptre in its hand.
~How did I forget about this,~ He thought to himself before standing up and approaching the Bearman.
Lucius had to admit, the 7-foot-tall, muscr bear creatures were a bit intimidating. Sure he had metrger creatures before, however as a former human, his bias towards bears, or anything that looked like a bear was a bit...
"Lighted One," the bear said softly under its breath, before bowing and presenting the items to Lucius.
Unlike the other creatures here, these bear creatures seemed a lot less... advanced. As if their intelligence wasn''t up to par with the others.
And as if to confirm his hypothesis, Lucius noted the markings on the bear-man''s shoulder. It had three strikes- a third tier.
Whilst all the others had two strikes.
~So this is their leader,~ he thought to himself.
However, this raised another question.
How exactly had a group of creatures this strong found themselves here? Low tier or not, Lucius''s readings ced the leader on the same threat level as Ghost, and the others a little lower than Hannibal.
"Bow lower," Pagan shouted from the corner of the room. Even as pious as he was, standing and watching Lucius and Hannibal mumble over their work had bored him half to death, so he had been napping close by.
The bear-man bowed lower and presented the items even higher.
~Ahh, so Pagan,~ Lucius thought to himself, realizing that he shouldn''t have been surprised to begin with.
"You can stand," Lucius said as he took the items. "All of you," he added, to which the rest of the bear-men stood up.
He looked through the sack and confirmed that everything was there, before tossing it towards Pagan.
"Can you take the contents in there, and ask around if anyone has the skill to replicate the work?" he asked, to which Pagan bowed before leaving the room.
Lucius inspected the sceptre for a moment, before calling out his crux and using ¡ºSr Beam¡» to turn it to dust.
Hannibal and Asclepius looked at Lucius in disbelief, in fact, if not for their respect for him, he was certain they would''ve punched him in the face.
"This was too dangerous to try and use in our research. The type of magic Eiknyr was using was even more morbid than the necromancer''s. I don''t know what kind of spells they were, but without a doubt, we''d be asking for trouble if we messed around with it," Lucius exined, with a finality that showed he was not willing to discuss the matter further.
Hannibal and Asclepius nodded in apparent understanding, however, it was obvious from their bodynguage alone that they were a little disappointed at the fact that Lucius had destroyed it.
"Then I guess you won''t be wanting this either?" Asclepius asked, holding her hand out towards the bear-man to her left, who ced what looked like ck silk onto her hands.
"Eiknyr''s robe," Lucius whispered as Asclepius handed it over to him.
He inspected it for a moment, using earth sense to see if it was emitting any sort of energy.
However, even after trying to run energy through it to see if it had a runic circuit engraved into it, nothing happened. It seemed it was just a normal robe.
Lucius slowly put it on, and though it was a little too big for him, it felt nice on his body.
"It suits you, Lighted One," the leader of the bear-manmented, before bowing once more.
Lucius nodded in response, before attempting a fewbat moves. It restricted his movements quite a bit, so he definitely wasn''t going to be going into missions with this.
However, it did give a rather regal look to him. Something that would help in his image as nt Messiah.
"Thank you, Asclepius, and..." Lucius said, looking towards the bear-man. He understood that his concept of rting animals from this world to those from his old one was ignorant.
"This creature has no name. Lord Pagan has deemed that we are unworthy," the leader replied.
Lucius sighed at this, before making a mental note to have everyone in this colonye together for a meeting. He could admit that Pagan was good at conquering, but this sort of dominance would definitely be a problem over time.
Especially if they nned to grant everyone in theirmune ess to the sr and radiant index.
"You guys can continue doing what you came to do. Don''t mind us," he said finally, before sitting down to continue with his research.
Chapter 245 Runic Circuits [III]
?
The bear-men began unloading the carts whilst Asclepius took a seat beside Hannibal to have a look at what they were studying.
"I would''ve been of more use if I still had the sr crux. Right now it kind of feels like I''m just slowing you down," Hannibalmented as Lucius attempted to run energy into one of the moreplex runes.
The problem in this was that the paths weren''t as intuitive as in the simpler runic circuits, and Lucius had no idea if he was actually guiding the energy in the correct direction.
What''s worse is that all theplex runes they had collected were missing their mana stones. He guessed that Asclepius had found these in some sort of dumpsite for warn-out runes.
And the mana stones on the simpler runes were too small to power the moreplex ones. So it seemed it was going to be a process of blindly guessing until he somehow got them to work.
"Perhaps, but there''s no ruling out the possibility that the radiant crux might have a simr ability," Lucius replied with his eyes closed.
It helped to better visualize the paths he was taking to avoid repeating themter on.
"So why exactly are we running energy into them?" Asclepius asked after staring silently for a bit.
"We''re marking out the paths. We think that if we can understand the way energy moves inside them, we can create new runes that do what we want," Hannibal exined, not removing his eyes from the rune that Lucius was working on.
Asclepius watched on for an hour or two, however even as curious as she was, she got bored after a while. After all, her interestsy in herbs and poisons, and without a crux, there wasn''t much she could do except listen.
So she left to carry out some of her own studying.
The two spent several more hours in their work, delegating all the other tasks they had to Pagan, who seemed happy enough to be of use to TheLighted One.
And with the other creatures carrying out the materials logistics, Lucius and Hannibal only had to stop to eat.
*
After nearly 22 hours of work, and at least a dozen short naps, they had finally figured out a way to decipher even the mostplex runes.
"Wait, I don''t understand, can you exin it again," Hannibal asked, a concerned expression on his face.
"Okay, let me start from the bare bottom," Lucius replied with a tired smile.
"We understand that runic circuits are a connection of paths that direct energy towards the active parts of the rune, right?" he began, to which Hannibal nodded his head.
"But why do they do that?" he asked.
"To cause an effect, like with the light or heating," Hannibal replied thoughtfully.
"Exactly, but our problem was that we were unsure of how the effect was caused. Because it seems like such a big jump from merely directing energy to causing an effect, we''d been convinced that the active part of the runes was some infinitelyplex structure," Lucius replied, before picking up a stone b and using his ws to etch a pattern onto it.
"However, it''s simpler... or at least rtively simpler than we''d been making it out to be. The active part of the runes are justpressed pathways, but with added functionality," he continued, as he drew a symbol that Hannibal had never seen before onto the stone b.
"It''s something like an integrated circuit, and inside it are even tinier little circuits we''re going to call transistors. The moreplex runes -or integrated circuits- have millions of these tiny transistors in them," he said, pausing his etching for a moment to look up at Hannibal, who was nodding his head slowly.
"And you said transistors can choose when to stop or allow energy to flow, and also... amplify it?" Hannibal asked, still confused about the concept.
Lucius wasn''t at all surprised by Hannibal''s confusion, it was going to take a bit of time for him to understand university-level topics as he didn''t yet have a stable educational background. However, it would be enough for him to work with circuits for a while to understand them.
"You''re right, but perhaps it''d help for you to feel exactly what I mean... though sadly you don''t have the sr index," Lucius whispered, before suddenly something came to mind.
He recalled that when he had first created the radiant healing spell during the Shri''killian mission, he had done so by mapping out the pathways in his body. So he was certain the radiant index wasn''tcking in its ability to direct energy flow.
The dead-end came in the fact that it was restricted to the body, however, if what he was thinking could work, then perhaps...
"How proficient are you at using the radiant crux?" he asked after a moment of thoughtful silence had passed.
"Hmm... I''m not exactly sure, probably terriblepared to you," Hannibal replied after a bit of thought. He said this in more of a matter-of-fact way than anything else.
"Here, try this," Lucius said, handing Hannibal the rune that he had created.
"Close your eyes, and act like this rune is a part of your body," he continued.
Hannibal stared at him with a confused look for a second, before realizing what he was trying to do.
He quickly closed his eyes and began focusing.
His body began glowing slightly as ¡ºRadiant Cowl¡» cloaked his entire body. After a moment, he began glowing brighter... and brighter... and-
"Stop," Lucius called out, interrupting Hannibal''s focus.
"This sort of thing requires a subtle method. If you pump out too much energy, you won''t be able to control it, and the only thing you''ll manage to do is tire yourself out and blow up the rune," Lucius said, before calling out his sr crux.
"Look," he continued, before casting a very low-powered sr beam. After a few seconds, the constant beam of light slowly decreased in diameter to form aser-width beam.
After that something strange happened. The beam flickered for a moment, before wiggling like a string and going dim.
This was nothing more than a party trick, he had shed the beam dozens of times and used Elmando to attempt to redirect the beam, giving the illusion that it had wiggled.
The point of the demonstration, however, was to show Hannibal that Elmando could be used to modify spells, and even more so, that it was more effective when a lower amount of energy was used.
Hannibal caught on to this, having felt the pull from Elmando when Lucius had cast his spell.
He closed his eyes and attempted it once more. This time, his body only glowed slightly and kept a constant energy flux.
~So he really is more of a practical learner,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he felt Hannibal using Elmando.
Lucius watched on patiently, using ¡ºSr Pit¡» to redirect some energy to Hannibal whenever he seemed to be running out.
And after around two hours.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... ¡ºRadiant ession¡».]
[Adding ¡ºRadiant ession¡» to ¡ºRadiant Augmentation Index¡»...]
[Complete. ¡ºRadiant ession¡» has been added.]
"This- this is perfect," Lucius whispered, watching as Hannibal''s ¡ºRadiant Cowl¡» covered both his own body and the rune.
Chapter 246 The Altar
?
However, the effect onlysted for three seconds, before Hannibal''s ¡ºRadiant Cowl¡» began to flicker, after which itpletely dimmed and he copsed to the ground in exhaustion.
"I need to get some sleep too," Lucius sighed to himself, before picking Hannibal up and walking down the hallway back toward the altar room.
Although they were yet to build Gravenovarish''s magic weapon, it was just a matter of finding the rightbination of effects to mount onto a massive sword or warhammer. And now that he had an idea of the internal workings of the runes, it wouldn''t be too hard tobine the simpler ones.
~After all, this is just a quality test. Once I show him I can actually create magic weapons, then we can discuss more powerful ones,~ Lucius thought to himself.
Besides, he was not foolish enough to try and give Gravenovarish a perfected product after their first exchange. After all, leaving your customers wanting was a tactic on its own.
As he was walking he noticed a small energy presenceing from right ahead. However, he didn''t think much of it, as this ce was teeming with smaller creatures.
"Lighted One, I''ve been waiting for you," a voice called out.
Lucius recognized them as one of the shroom chieftains. Indeed it had been so long that he hadpletely forgotten how their energy signals felt.
"Ahh, Chieftain," Lucius whispered, forgetting whether or not he had named them.
"Guardian of the third pir," the chieftain added, before bowing. "It is okay if the Lighted One has not remembered me. After all, back then I had nothing to show," he continued.
From the way he was talking, Lucius could tell that he had some sort of motive he was trying to push.
~I''m really tired right now,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he gestured for the chieftain to follow him.
Sadly even though he was tired he couldn''t very well just tell the chieftain toe see himter. He knew well that he had a tendency of getting too caught up in the things he was doing, he would no doubtpletely forget about this if he slept.
"Has something happened to Lord Hannibal?" the chieftain asked, to which Lucius just shook his head tiredly.
~This is the second time I''ve heard this lord title being used in the colony. I wonder if it''s because of the new additions,~ Lucius pondered to himself.
He hadpletely overlooked the fact that adding different species to themune would bring about social and cultural changes from the individual groups. It was something that he would definitely have to study once everything died down.
"So why were you waiting for me?" Lucius asked after some silence had passed.
The chieftain struggled to find his words for a moment before saying in almost a whisper;
"I wish to join the Research Department."
"Hmm, then ask Asclepius or Hannibal. If they think you''re good enough, then you don''t need my permission," Lucius replied.
As much as he was the leader of themune, he had to admit that he had no idea what everyone''s current skill level was. So for him to make decisions like this would probably just be to the detriment of themune.
"Y-yes, I''ve already spoken to Asclepius. We''ve been working on something, and she already rmended that I join," the chieftain said, his tone indicating that he was beating around the bush somehow.
"I suppose you want me to see what you''ve been working on?" Lucius asked, realizing that the chieftain was not going to borate further.
At this point, they had made it to the altar room.
"And perhaps... if you believe it to be beneficial to the entire n, I request a rank up," the chieftain said, as Lucius carried Hannibal towards the stone altar.
There were currently two bear-man standing guard in front of it as if it were housing some prized possession.
"Lighted One," they whispered, before bowing.
"A rank up, huh?" Lucius whispered to himself, trying to recall what exactly the ranks he had created were. Still, he couldn''t believe that there were people who remembered despite all that happened.
~I suppose it makes sense for the shrooms since they had an actual hierarchy before all this,~ he thought to himself.
"If you can wait, I need a little rest. We can discuss this after I''ve woken up," Lucius announced before, moving to ce Hannibal on the altar. However, before he could get him on there-
"Lighted One... forgive us, but we request that Lord Hannibal not be put to rest on the altar," one of the bear-man exined, its voice trembling as it spoke.
"Huh?"
"Lord Pagan has deemed the altar as The Lighted One''s throne. Of course, if the Lighted One wills it, then he may do as he pleases, however, our heads will be had for allowing the throne to be dirtied," the bear-man exined.
~So like a sacred item?~ Lucius wondered to himself.
Normally he would speak to Pagan about this, however he understood that for these people this was a sort of religion. And desecrating this would not only unnecessarily hurt Pagan''s feelings, but also cause doubt in the colony members.
~Well, I did say I was going to go along with all this,~ Lucius sighed to himself, before handing Hannibal to one of the bear-man.
"Then can you take him to a ce he can restfortably? Make sure there is someone on guard as well," he instructed.
"As you wish, Lighted One," the bear-man replied, before going off.
Lucius then got onto the altar, too tired to care about the fact that he was currently being watched.
*
When Lucius woke up from his nap, he found the chieftain still waiting for him, clearly, he was very serious about this rank-up thing.
So after stretching a little, he allowed the chieftain to lead him to where this ''experiment'' he had carried out with Asclepius was stored.
As they walked, he remembered the skill he had unlocked in the fight against Eiknyr and opened the skill tree to check it out.
There was a new skill glowing right on top of ¡ºSr Ry¡», which got him a little excited, seeing as how ¡ºSr Ry¡» was probably the highest potential skill he had in his arsenal.
[Use 100,000 Evo points to unlock new skill?] the system prompted.
Chapter 247 True Elmando [I]
Chapter 247 True Elmando [I]
Lucius stared at the notification for a moment, a little disappointed as he recalled that such microtransactions existed within the system.
~I''ll absorb some sunlight after this,~ he decided to himself, before paying attention to the chieftain walking before him.
The chieftain seemed to have gotten a lot smaller since thest time they had interacted. Still, Lucius recognized that it was not the chieftain who had changed; it was him, a reminder of how behind the rest of themune was in terms of evolutionary progress.
But then again, with the level of absorption he was at right now, it would probably only take two or three sessions to get everyone evolved. Which would be a necessary boon to the construction of the new camp they wanted to build.
~Hmm, I wonder how the shrooms will turn out after evolution,~ Lucius mused, contemting the potential oues.
He had already observed variations in the evolution of the leaflings, and even then they were the same species as him. What now would be of the shrooms¡ªwould they be leaf-shroom hybrids, or would their evolution take a more natural course?
~I suppose I can only wait and see, he thought to himself,~ as the chieftain took a turn into one of the more shadowy passages of the hideout.
Before entering this section of the tunnel system, the lighting runes had been ced every 2 or so meters away from each other, as it could get quite dark down here. However, in this section, the runes were more spaced out, leaving quite a few regions of pitch-ck darkness.
After walking for a while longer, Lucius could sense an energy presence somewhere ahead, and a momentter, the grizzly figure of a bear-man came into view.
At this point, the chieftain was a bit ahead of him, not because he was faster, but rather because Lucius had a tendency to follow others from a distance, perhaps a side effect of his previous life, and the life he had to live sinceing here.
The chieftain began gesturing something to the bear-man, who in turn gestured something back to him.
Hmm, so this is how they interact with each other when a crux-bearer isn''t around, Lucius noted to himself, stepping out of the shadows he had been shrouded in and into the bear-man''s line of sight.
The bear-man instantly bowed once he recognized Lucius, letting the two through without exchanging any more gestures.
The rest of the passage sloped downwards, and from the rtively rough texture of the ground here, it was clear that it wasn''t traversed often. No doubt only a few eyes had ever peered at what the chieftain was about to show him.
The tunnel was slowly bing darker and darker as the runes became more and more spaced out.
"What''s the reason for it being so dark down here?" Lucius asked, before calling out his sr crux. He didn''t bother to activate sr vision since there probably weren''t a lot of life forms releasing radiant energy down here.
"The thing we have created is very sensitive to light. It is hard to control if it is not kept in the dark," the chieftain replied.
~What exactly am I about to be shown?~ Lucius thought to himself, already preparing a spell chain in his head in case things went awry.
"Among the chieftains that the Lighted One has conquered, I am by far the most practised in using the Shri''killian''s control... Elmando. It was many lunar cycles ago when I first started this project," the chieftain began exining out of nowhere.
"At first, I had no interest in such things; back then, I thought the only way for me to be recognized was to excel on the battlefield. But it became clear to me... and all the others that without your gifts, that would be impossible," he continued.
Lucius listened in interest, as someone in his position, he knew very little about anyone who was not in the council. Not out of disinterest, but rather because he didn''t have enough time on his hands.
So small anecdotes like these were valuable resources for him to peer into the lives of the more ordinary members of themune.
"But one day while I was moving materials in Asclepius''sb, I noticed a strange feelinging from one of her flowers. It felt like the pull of Elmando, but... stronger," just as the chieftain said that, Lucius could feel a strange pulling from up ahead.
It was unlike anything he had ever felt before.
It wasn''t anything powerful; in fact, he doubted it could even pull a cart. However, two things made him stop in disbelief.
For one, who could sense that the source of this pull wasing from further ahead, meaning that it was causing this pulling force from quite a distance.
And secondly, it was pulling on sentient creatures. Sure Lucius had somewhat explored the concept of using Elmando to try and manipte sentient creatures before; however, the effects were not what he had expected.
Yet this... thing was doing it, and at a constant rate, no doubt.
"What is it?" Lucius asked, his tail swinging above him on high alert.
He was wary of whatever object or creature was capable of Elmando this powerful.
"I don''t know what it can be called. However, it will cause the Lighted One no harm. It is one of his creations," the chieftain replied, a concerned expression on its face as it stared at Lucius.
"Didn''t you say that this was your experiment?" Lucius asked, looking at the chieftain skeptically. He held out on pushing any hostility in his tone or gaze; however, he had to admit that the chieftain was starting to seem suspicious.
"I-I only helped it get to where it is right now. However, my skills have reached their limits, for it to continue growing it requires someone stronger..." the chieftain started exining, which only served to confuse Lucius even more.
"It-it truly is your creation, Lighted One. Shall we proceed?" the chieftain asked.
~I can''t sense any strong presencesing up ahead, and the chieftain''s energy signal doesn''t seem to be showing any sort of hostility,~ Lucius thought to himself, before reluctantly gesturing for the chieftain to continue.
The deeper in they went, the stronger the strange pull became. At a certain point, even Lucius''s crux was beginning to distort due to this strange force, which proved to stoke his curiosity and skepticism even more.
"Here it is, Lighted One," the chieftain said, gesturing towards an opening that led into a pitch-ck room.
Chapter 248 True Elmando [II]
Chapter 248 True Elmando [II]
"Lighted One, I ask that you not proceed with your sun drawn. The... nt, is very sensitive," the chieftain said meekly. It was clear to Lucius that the chieftain was concerned about how he would react to whatever it was he was about to see.
He thought it over for a moment, spreading out his Earth sense as far into the dark room as he could before turning to look at the chieftain.
~Well, there''s only a single presence in that room, and its energy readings are even lower than Zhayen''s~, Lucius thought to himself, still staring at the chieftain.
"Very well then," he said out loud, before recalling his sr crux, and entering the dark room, continuously using Earth sense to give him an idea of where he was walking.
Once he sensed that the presence was right before him, he stopped.
"How am I supposed to inspect this thing without any light?" he whispered to himself, as he stared into the area of darkness where the object would''ve been.
After a few seconds of silence, he felt something nudge at him from the ground. It wasn''t physical contact, but rather something pulling at his Earth sense.
This was the first time Lucius had ever felt anything apart from the forest itself do something like this.
~Hmm, is it trying tomunicate with me?~ he wondered to himself, before attempting tomunicate with his Earth sense as well. However, after straining for some time, he found that this was not an ability avable to him.
~It seems I''m not as good as you; you''ll have to settle for Elmando," Lucius whispered, before stretching out his Elmando to the object in front of him.
For a moment, the pull from his Earth sense halted, and he thought that he had messed up by trying to use Elmando.
However, after a few seconds, he began to feel a tug pulling at his body.
Lucius and the strange entity in front of him tugged at each other in this manner for a few more minutes, each time tugging just a little harder.
Although he couldn''t exactly understand what the thing in front of him was trying to say, two things were clear to him.
One, the object... or creature held no malice towards him. Them continuously increasing the strength of their Elmando was sort of like a trust fall between the two; it showed that although the other had some power, they did not intend to hurt the other.
And secondly, this creature was indeed a nt.
This was a realization he couldn''t quite exin. But a big part of it came from the fact it had used Earth sense to try tomunicate with him initially. For some reason, it just felt like something only nts could do.
Their Elmando pulls on each other felt almost like a sort of pinging system. Whilst they ryed their trust in each other, the nt creature was also trying to see if Lucius was still there.
Every time he took even a second too long to respond to its pings, its next ping would be a little harder, almost as if it had gotten desperate.
"Are you scared being all alone down here?" he whispered to it, before reaching out his hand.
He was hesitant to touch a creature he barely understood, with little to no light no less; however, for some reason, he felt like he already knew this creature. Like they had interacted before this.
And so, after a few seconds of thought, he touched it.
His mind felt fuzzy, then warm. The darkness around him was slowly burned away by a blinding light until he was in a white void simr to the one he went to during evolutionary processes.
However, instead of a sun at the centre, there was a small sapling, with glowing golden leaves and obsidian ck branches.
Lucius stared at it for a moment, in awe of its beauty, before suddenly remembering where he had met this creature before.
"The Marked Tree," he whispered to himself.
And the sapling sent out a sr wave; it felt like a warm embrace to his skin.
"Then are you the seedling?" Lucius wondered, before trying to float closer to it.
The sapling sent out yet another sr wave.
"This is... incredible," Lucius whispered.
Earlier he had taken a look at his skills, and he was certain that it had shown him he still had one Sr Ry charge. Meaning that if he could replicate whatever process had created the sapling he would be able to have multiple marked trees.
With this, defeating the necromancer would almost be child''s y.
However, as if being able to read his mind, the sapling sent out another sr wave. This one felt cold... unweing.
"No?" Lucius asked, unsure about what the sapling meant exactly.
The sapling froze for a moment, before releasing one of its golden leaves. The leaf floated towards Lucius, before touching his head.
With that, a series of images yed within his mind. All of them portraying some sort of infant in a situation of weakness.
A baby crying after it had attempted to kill an ant but was instead bitten.
A puppy whining after it had tried to pick a fight with a cat but lost.
In all these images, the parent came to save it.
The next few images were hard to describe. In fact, Lucius wondered if the images themselves were important or whether it was the emotions they were invoking within him. A feeling of being unimportant... being washed out, a fraction of what he once was.
"Then are you saying you can''t be like how you used to be?" Lucius asked, to which the sapling replied with a warm sr wave.
"Hmm."
"Then what is it you want me to do?" he asked after some thought.
The sapling released another one of its golden leaves, and once again, it floated towards Lucius''s head.
This time it yed images of two things joining together and bingrger. It didn''t take a lot of these images for Lucius to understand what it was trying to tell him.
~Can I trust this thing?~ Lucius wondered, and right then, the sapling sent a warm sr wave.
~I suppose if you were going to try to do something, you''d have done it already,~ he thought to himself, realizing that this thing hadplete ess to his mind.
After all, most of the images it had yed were of his old world, and not of this one.
"Then, I''ll help you... if you can help me," Lucius said out loud.
The sapling began glowing brightly until it was almost indiscernible from what seemed like a sr crux.
The crux slowly hovered towards him, before floating around him, as if inspecting his body. After a few moments, it decided on a spot, and hovered towards the area where his tail met his body.
[Foreign entity detected...]
[System traces detected within entity... attemptingmunication...]
[Communication established...]
[¡ºSr Ry¡» remnant requests symbiosis]
~ept.~
[Processing...]
With this, Lucius felt an embracing warmth cloak his entire body.
A momentter, the warmth retreated towards a spot right next to where his tail met his body.
[Symbiosis Complete!]
[Skill Elmando has been chosen as shared trait.]
Chapter 249 True Elmando [III]
Chapter 249 True Elmando [III]
Lucius drew out his crux to inspect the changes that had urred to his body and found that he now had a new tail, identical to his first.
However, unlike his initial one, he didn''t have a direct link to it. Although he could feel it was a part of him, he could not feel any sort of control system in ce for him tomunicate with it.
"Interesting..." he whispered to himself before testing out a theory.
He used Elmando to send a small ping towards the tail, and it replied in kind with a stronger pull using its own Elmando.
~Hmm, so this is how it''s going to work, huh?~ he thought to himself before walking out of the dark room toward the chieftain.
"Was it to your liking, Lighted One?" the chieftain asked, staring up at Lucius expectantly.
"It seems I may have ruined your experiment," Lucius replied, as his new tail wagged in synchronicity with his old one.
"However, it''s clear that the work you have done here will be very useful to the advancement of themune," he continued.
After all, if this thing worked as he thought it did, it would imply that Elmando could evolve into a more effectivebat tool. What with this ''second tail'' being able to use Elmando on sentient beings without a problem.
Besides, there was a chance that it could do much more than just that.
At first, Lucius had assumed Elmando was restricted to vegetation, but after seeing the scale at which the mole creatures could create tunnels, he theorized that they had their own type of specialized Elmando that dealt with rocks specifically.
It was likely that the True Elmando -that the fae were capable of using- was spread amongst their children, each version being a limited variant of the true form.
That''s to say, this new tail or... ''sapling'', could hold the key to gaining ess to theplete version, or at the very leaste closer to it than all the versions that most other creatures had.
~I suppose research will have to be done. But for now, there''s already so much we have to do,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"I want you to continue with this experiment. I''m not sure how many more of these nts we have at our disposal, but whatever resources you need, I will personally make sure that they are seen to," he said after some thought.
He would try to oversee the experiment whenever he had the time to, but between the magical weapons and setting up a new base, he doubted he would have enough time for it.
"Then does that mean¡ª" the chieftain was about to ask.
"Indeed, I''ll rmend your rank up to Asclepius and the others. If you need help, feel free to reach out to me," Lucius replied.
"Oh, and your crux. I''ll be going to the surface for a photosynthesis sessionter today. One or two sessions should be enough to have you evolve... if you have the mental strength to see them through of course," he continued.
The chieftain nodded happily, before bowing.
"I will try my best," the chieftain said after.
"We should head back. There''s a lot I have to do. I''d rmend preparing everything you need to continue with your experimentation before you have the photosynthesis session. I know all too well that evolution can set you back a couple of days if you go into it unprepared," Lucius warned, to which the chieftain nodded in reply, clearly still excited at the prospect of evolving.
"And if you need anything, juste look for me. I''ll stop what I''m doing to make sure you get what you need," Lucius said finally, as the two began walking back to the main part of the underground camp.
"If that''s the case then... there are three other nts like these; however, Asclepius has stored them away. Perhaps she ns to run other tests on them herself," the chieftain said.
"I''ll speak to her," Lucius replied.
*
As they were walking, Lucius ran a few tests on his new tail. He used various intensities and approaches with Elmando to see how the tail reacted to the different pings.
And after a few cycles, he found that it had seemed to lose its ability to manipte sr energy and share images due to their symbiosis. However, in return, its strength and range in Elmando had increased.
In fact, he found that when paired with his earth sense, he could reach out to creatures far in the distance.
For instance, he was slightly pulling at the bear-man standing guard a few tunnels ahead, and as it reacted to this, he could kind of feel its response. The same way one would feel a piece of metal trying to move away from a ma.
Although the strength of the force reduced drastically past a certain distance, just being able to scout out enemies far ahead was a powerful weapon on its own.
And once he mastered it, there was no telling what he''d be able to aplish.
However, that seemed to be a distant dream.
It required a very intricate understanding of Elmando to properly get the tail to do what he wanted.
It was sort of like training a dog. Making it go out and tug at a distant object was much like throwing out a stick - but in this case, an Elmando tug - and telling it to go fetch it - in this case, directing Elmando towards the direction you wanted to scout.
If he wanted to do things like say; moving a cart, or picking things up and cing them somewhere, he would have to find simrmands. Which would no doubt require some very fine handling.
*
Well, it''s a work in progress, but it''s still useful, he decided to himself once they finally reached the main camp.
After parting ways with the chieftain, Lucius quickly returned to Asclepius''sb, to survey the materials she had collected.
He was searching to see if any of them would be suitable for use in Grenovarish''s weapon.
He needed something sturdy, able to withstand both the energy of the runic circuits, and whatever force Grenovarish might ce on it as he used it.
Of course, if he found a way to convince Geyron to enchant it, this wouldn''t be much of a problem. Though with their current rtionship, he doubted that this was even a possibility.
Though he had a n in mind to deal with that.
Chapter 250 Demitas
Chapter 250 Demitas
He spent the next several minutes scrounging through Asclepius''s storage for something suitable.
He was hoping to find some strange or interesting stone material, but apart from the runes, and a few odd trinkets, there wasn''t really much of interest here. Most of what she had collected was of herbal nature.
Of course, he could try to use the obsidian throne he had ''seized'' from Eikthyrnir''spound; however, without any research on it, he was rightfully sceptical about this idea.
Besides, he doubted he would have the means to grind such a tough-looking material into what he wanted.
~Speaking of which, I doubt I even need those grinding tools anyway,~ he thought to himself, realizing that the mole people could probably manipte rock material way better than he could ever hope to with the tools he had made.
~Better yet, I might be able to learn how to manipte stones as well,~ he continued, now looking at his new tail that still seemed to be mirroring the movements of his old one.
~I should probably get one of the Furtongs to teach it to me, and while I''m at it, one of the beaver people could help me learn wood maniption as well,~ he thought to himself.
Of course, he didn''t have much faith that he would learn anything substantial right now since he had just gotten the True Elmando tail, though he knew he''d have to start somewhere.
So he began walking back towards one of the central hubs of the underground camp where he noticed most of the off-duty creatures hung around.
It was arge open area with all sorts of food, and materials stored to the sides. Kind of like a market district, but leagues cruder, and lessplicated -economically.
Once he got to the entrance, the bear-men on guard there bowed before trying to enter before him, no doubt to announce his presence.
"I''d rather you not do that," Lucius instructed, stopping the bear-man before he could begin speaking.
The bear-man looked hesitant for a moment before reluctantly nodding and allowing Lucius into the area whilst the creatures were still shouting and making noise.
It was a little odd to see creatures of different speciesmunicating with each other, as opposed to the manakes on the surface where each species formed little cliques.
It wasn''t as if these creatures could understand one another either... though they seemed happy enough to interact with each other whilst they ate an odd nt.
As Lucius passed by, a few creatures noticed his presence and went silent. Some of them stared at him in fear, no doubt afraid that he would punish them for making noise in his presence.
~Hmm, I must seem like som sort of enigma to them,~ he thought to himself, making sure not to look at any of them in particr. If just his presence scared them, there was no doubt his monstrous eyes would cause some of them to roll over in terror.
~Yeah, but I suppose my looks don''t exactly make me the most approachable creature,~ he thought to himself.
Remembering that he was currently wearing a ck silk robe, had two monstrous tails, obsidian eyes, and these horns that looked like they could gore through meat like butter.
~When I choose a creature to mix into my genomes for my next evolution, I should try to get something less... demon-looking,~ he thought to himself, as a few of the creatures began to whisper.
"Why didn''t they tell us he was here?" he heard one of them say.
"We''re done for," another whispered.
"Do you think he''s angry?"
"Of course he is; he hasn''t said a word."
Lucius ignored thements, making a beeline for what looked like a stone table at the far end of the room. It was stacked with an assortment of foods, the most abundant of which seemed to be this nt they were all eating.
Once he reached the table, he nodded towards the bear-man who seemed to be the ''lunchdy'' there, before grabbing one of those nts.
It was a small nt, about the size of a shroom - which was no bigger than a bear-man''s palm. It had green leaves and a sort of blueish stalk. And from the looks of it, it left a blue colour in the mouth when consumed.
Lucius turned to look at the group of creatures silently waiting for him to say something before taking a bite of the nt.
It tasted sweet but bitter and had a slight chlorine aftertaste to it. However, the real kicker was what came after.
He felt a jolt of energy pass through his body, then euphoria... like a warm tickle running up his nerves - or whatever systems he had in ce.
~It''s like a mix between coffee and tobo,~ he realized to himself, intrigued by the effect.
As a former chain smoker, he was sort of relieved that something like this existed in this world. Of course, it could do with a bit of refining, but he could see himself using these during times of stress.
"What is this?" he asked, in a thoughtful tone.
The creatures in the room looked at each other in confusion for a moment, all of them too scared to reply.
Until one of the older-looking mole-people spoke up.
"It''s demitas, Lighted One," it said.
"Hmm, interesting..." Lucius whispered to himself, before finishing the remaining demitas.
"I''m d you all look well," he began, now addressing the crowd in front of him.
"I apologize that I haven''t had the time to address you all, I will get to that soon. I''m sure that a lot of you have questions about the future of this camp now that I''m here. And I can assure you that your questions will be answered in due time."
"There are just a few details we have to finalize before we can hold an official meeting," he continued, before looking to the older mole-person who had helped him.
"For now, I''m looking for assistance in a very important project. I will need one or two... creatures.. who are skilled in wood maniption, and another small group skilled in stone maniption," he said finally.
Instantly, all the mole, prairie-dog, and beaver people present raised their hands.
Chapter 251 A show of ability
Chapter 251 A show of ability
"Can those who believe that they''re the most skilled, please step forward," Lucius added after a moment of thought.
After some hesitation within the crowd, three older-looking furtong, two prairie-dog, and three beaver people stepped forward.
Those who found themselves in this small group of ''the most skilled'' looked at each other with dismissive expressions. It was clear to see that each of them regarded the others of their species as phoneys.
"Thank you for your cooperation. You guys can continue with what you were doing before I disturbed," he announced, before gesturing for his small group to follow him.
He led them towards the altar room so that they could have some privacy.
"Lighted One," the bear-men on guard whispered before bowing, as Lucius and his entourage walked past them.
The bear-men stared at Lucius''s new tail in confusion for a moment, before quickly turning their attention to the group behind him, however, they did not dare ask any questions.
"Are any of you guys involved in any important projects?" Lucius asked, as he sat atop the altar, looking down at his entourage.
Two furtong raised their hands at this. Which didn''t reallye as a surprise, as they were the mainbour force when it came to tunnel creation.
~Speaking of which, I need to create a map of these tunnel systems. Though I wonder where I can find that parchment paper Sherlin showed me,~ he thought to himself.
This served to remind him about the Chame''s den. It had been a while since he had left them with his ultimatum, he wondered if Shavak had actually gotten down from the throne, and whether Shaviki had been put into power.
Honestly, that was the only way he could see himself working with the Chame people. That or he could kill off a few of the council members and take control by force, however, it wouldn''t be worth the risk of giving them power only for them toter rebel against him for those crimes.
"Okay, from today on all of you are pardoned of those tasks," Lucius said after a moment of silence.
"You will be helping me with a top-secret mission, which means that you cannot share the details of this with anyone," he added.
Even if they were all going to be part of the samemune, it would be safer to keep the existence of magic weapons privy to a small group of people.
Their loyalty was not what he was questioning. As a soldier, he had seen even the toughest of men give in to torture techniques. And with their next enemy being the council, he did not put it above them to use such tactics.
"The beav... I mean- what are your people called?" Lucius asked, regarding one of the beaverpeople.
"We are the Castor," one of the beaver-people in the group replied.
"Ah, for now I''ll be putting all the castors, and the furtong in the group to work. I need you guys to name the strongest materials you are able to work with, and where to find them. We''ll be hosting a mission to gather those materials in a few hours," he announced.
"I can tell you guys don''t like each other, but you''ll have to discuss and agree on something. I will not take failure lightly," he added.
This was a very important project, and although he wasn''t usually so forceful in his ways, it just felt somewhat easier to do it to these guys.
Perhaps it was because they were not as close to his heart as his children were, or because of the obvious changes to his psyche due to his torture. However if it would help things move faster, he was willing to push them just a little out of theirfort zones.
The furtong and castors in the group stared at Lucius for a moment before looking to their fellowmen.
There was only a moment of hesitation before they began their discussions.
~Hmm, I''ve seen these creatures often, however, I''ve never actually seen what they''re particrly good at. Perhaps building burrows? ~ Lucius thought to himself, beforeughing.
The creatures in the room turned to look at him in surprise, perhaps shocked that a creature like him was capable of such a thing.
"Sorry, never mind me," Lucius said in betweenughs.
It had just urred to him that assuming prairie-dogs were good at building burrows was somewhat speciesist. Which in itself was an even funnier topic as concepts like these were probably only considered by humans.
"It''s been a while since I''ve had a goodugh," he said in betweenughs, before turning his attention to one of the prairie-dog people, his tired mood somewhat lifted.
"And what are your people called?" he asked.
"We are the Cynomys," one of them replied meekly.
"The cynomys. And what is your people''s speciality," Lucius asked thoughtfully.
"If I may, Lighted One," the oldest-looking of them asked, to which Lucius gestured for it to proceed.
Although Lucius assumed it to be the oldest, he was using a human basis for this; such as white hair, and the firmness of muscle. It was very likely that the animals aged differently from those on earth.
The older cynomys walked towards one of the walls of the altar room before cing its palm on it.
One of the bear-men on guard instantly moved to stop it, however with a simple gesture from Lucius, the bear-man took a step back and let it happen.
From its facial expression, Lucius could tell it was somewhat worried.
"If Pagan asked what happened, tell him that it was of high importance to one of themune''s most important missions," Lucius said with a smile.
At this, the bear-man seemed somewhat more rxed, though it was clear it was still bothered by the cynomys touching the wall.
~Well, this is basically holy ground after all. Perhaps I should find a new ce to hold my meetings,~ Lucius thought to himself, as the cynomys closed its eyes.
A momentter, the wall it was touching changed texture, making it seem like it had been polished by some machine.
"Hmm, that''s interesting," Luciusmented after some thought. He could still hear the other creatures discussing next to him.
"We can also imitate the skill of the furtong to some extent," the cynomys creature said, before creating a small burrow in the wall it had been touching.
"However, we are nowhere as skilled as they are," it finished off.
It was clear to see that they had evolved to create rtively small burrows, and using them for such a task would be a poor use of skills.
Though judging from the rough texture of most of the walls in the camp, it was clear to see that Hannibal had been using them as borrowers much like the furtong.
~Knowing Hannibal, he isn''t one to try and make things look pretty. He probably thought it would be more efficient to have them do what little they could towards advancing the scale of the camp,~ Lucius thought to himself.
But then again, Lucius had to admit that Hannibal had been right for doing so. Until now, there wasn''t really much -besides aesthetic purposes- that their skills could be used for.
"For now, I''ll need you guys to try and teach me how your abilities work," he said out loud, after some thought.
At this, another wave of surprised faces washed over the room.
Chapter 252 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [I]
Chapter 252 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [I]
"I know, perhaps you''re thinking that only your fellowmen can use your abilities, however, I''m testing something. And if I''m correct, then one day it''ll be possible for all of us to manipte whatever it is that we want. Whether it be magic, or the forest itself," Lucius announced.
At this, the creatures seemed even more shocked than before. Their faces ran through several expressions at once. Most of which Lucius was unable to identify since differences in anatomy made some expressions seem very alien to him.
However, in the end, most of them seemed toe to the same conclusion. They all had a look of eptance on their faces.
Lucius didn''t ask what this conclusion was, nor did he care for it. For now, all he could offer were empty words; he would have to actually show some results before hearing their thoughts.
Little did he know that it was just more of the ''Oh, so it''s Lighted One mumbo-jumbo'' conclusions that most creatures in themune seemed to bring up whenever they could not understand something.
*
"This should''ve been more than enough time for you guys toe to a conclusion," Lucius announced after several minutes had passed.
He would''ve usually given them a day to think about this. After all, there was usually some legend being passed down among creatures rting to things like this. However, his meeting with Grenovarish would be happening in less than a day, so he didn''t have the time for all that.
"Indeed, Lighted One," one of the furtong said, looking to itsrades before continuing.
"The strongest material we know of is Davoros; however, it has been long since that stone has been spoken about."
"We assume the Lighted One seeks to use the material right now, so we rmend Aternite. It is a material used by the councillors; however, they have restricted ess to the areas where it is found," the furtong reported.
"Very well then. One of you go tell Pagan I need to speak to him," Lucius instructed after some thought.
If the council was protecting this material, it meant that it would probably be worthwhile to ''seize'' it from them.
"And what about you guys?" Lucius asked, now regarding the castors?as one of the bear-men left to summon Pagan.
"If we had to say, the strongest material we can work with within the forest is Miran; however, like Cavenite, the council has restricted its ess. In particr, the Gorul have upied the area of the forest where it grows," one of the castors reported.
Lucius noted how the creature seemed to be more well-spoken than its furtong counterpart.
~So two different areas in one day. I would split us up, but that would be unnecessarily dangerous. Besides, I''d like to see just how powerful we are as a single force,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"Someone else call Hannibal. And tell him to call everyone in themune''s council," he added, before lying down on the altar.
He had a feeling that he wouldn''t be able to lie down for a while after this.
*
After a few minutes, the members of council began to arrive in the room one by one.
Lucius had ordered his entourage to wait outside, while the bear-men on duty had been instructed to not let anyone within earshot range of the altar room.
Ghost was the first to arrive, and found Lucius in deep thought.
"When did you get that?" she asked, gesturing towards Lucius''s new tail.
"Ah, this, it''s a new source of power. Hopefully, you''ll have one soon too," Lucius replied, before falling back into deep thought.
As the other members came in, all of themmented on Lucius''s new tail as well, and his reply to all of them was the same... ''a new source of power''.
Once everyone had arrived, Lucius got off the altar to address them.
"Eleanour, today you and your men will all receive your cruxes. Pick out a few other leaf-beings who you think deserve one as well and have them wait for me outside the altar room," Lucius instructed.
Eleanour made a gesture to one of her men, and he went to carry out the task.
"That''ll mean the entire First watch will be out ofmission for a while. Hannibal, you''ll take lead of security and recruit a few of the bear-men for your own personal group. Don''t pick them hastily, you''ll be with that group even after this. I want to test how well you handle smaller groups," Lucius instructed.
He had noticed that although Hannibal was the ''de facto'' leader of the camp, his decisions didn''t really involve the individuals of themune. Pagan seemed to be the one handling those issues, the ''people''s leader'' as it would be called.
This didn''t quite sit right with him, knowing that Pagan probably didn''t even acknowledge everyone as anything more than ''tools for the Lighted One''. Perhaps a useful perspective in some cases, but not when it came to leadership.
"O-Okay," Hannibal replied hesitantly.
~It''s been a while, hasn''t it? Thest time you were in charge of a group like this... half of them died,~ Lucius thought to himself, feeling a little sorry for his son.
"I know you''ll do well," he encouraged, before turning to Pagan.
"You''re doing well so far; however, I want you to pick out a few... followers, from our newer additions who you think you can trust. We need to bolster our strength for the uing missions," he said, before going silent for a moment.
"And prepare yourself; you and Ghost will be going on a mission with me today. Meaning you won''t be a part of the photosynthesis sessionter," he added.
Ghost seemed okay with this, however, Pagan had a distraught look on his face.
"Lighted One, have I done something to anger you?" Pagan asked in disbelief.
"With the first watch being out ofmission, Hannibal will have to y the role as head of the department. And without Alpha, it''ll mean we''d be spread too thin if you or Ghost evolved," Lucius exined, before turning to Asclepius.
Ghost tried her best to hide her smile as Pagan broke down in dejection, though she couldn''t help but make fun of his sorry state.
"And finally, Asclepius. You''ve been with us for a while now, and I haven''t paid much attention to your evolution. If it''s possible, that''ll be corrected today. There''s a few things we need to discuss before we head to the surface for the session, but I''d rmend you put everything in order before that," he said, before taking a sweeping nce at all of them.
"Ghost, stop making fun of him," Lucius sighed, noticing that Ghost was whispering something in Pagan''s ears that seemed to making him even more distraught than he was before.
"I was just trying to help," she whispered, before straightening herself out.
~Pretty soon everything will be bnced out,~ he thought to himself, noting the vast difference in sizes between his children.
Asclepius, rnour and the rest of her men were the smallest out of the group, being about the size of small rodents,pared to Pagan who was already about the size of a human dwarf.
Hannibal was only a little smaller than that, and although Ghost should''ve been around the same size as him, she stood way taller than the rest due to the spider legs that came out of her back.
"Well then, I''ll give you all a few minutes to arrange yourselves while I talk to Asclepius," he announced.
As the members of the council dispersed to sort out their various issues, Lucius turned his attention to Asclepius.
Chapter 253 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [II]
Chapter 253 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [II]
"Are you ready for your evolution?" he asked once they were alone, his tone shifting from one of a ''leader'' to that of a friend.
"Well, I won''t know until it happens," Asclepius replied. Although she always put up a strong front, Lucius could tell she was a little nervous.
And he couldn''t me her.
She would be the first non-leafling creature to try and evolve, and it went without saying that it wasn''tpletely certain it would go smoothly. As much as everyone took Lucius''s words as fact, Hannibal and Asclepius in particr had the burden of ''higher thought'' and obviously had their reservations.
"If things start going bad, I''ll stop the process. I was considering adding the characteristics of one of the genomes in my library to your evolution, but perhaps we should y it safer," Lucius replied.
"Genome library?" Asclepius asked, her facial expressions betraying a mix between fear and uncertainty.
"I don''t think you''ll be able to understand exactly what I''m talking about. But if you insist, I''ll exin it after you''ve evolved," Lucius said before falling silent.
"If it makes it any better, I''ve noticed that thinking capabilities go up with evolution... well, something along those lines. Hannibal wasn''t always able to think on asrge a scale as he can now," he continued.
Though he still had his reservations about this hypothesis. It was clear that rising in ''tier'' entailed aplex change that would require a few more evolutions to properly map out.
"And what about you? You seem to have changed quite a bit since back then. Aren''t you going to be evolving soon?" Asclepius asked, as Lucius took a seat on the altar.
He could hear an army of footsteps from the tunnels just outside.
The evolution and crux handout announcements had probably already been made, and those chosen were rushing to prepare.
"I''ll hold off my evolution until we get the new camp and its security up in ce. I want everyone else to be at a useful level before I go MIA for another week," Lucius replied after some thought.
"MIA?" Asclepius asked, an inquizitive look on her face.
"Missing In Action, it''s a phrase used for when people leave the battleground without a trace," Lucius exined, as his mouth twitched uncontrobly.
The mention of ''battleground'' instantly sent him back to a memory of one of the ''fake'' realities he had been through during his mind torture days.
"Are you okay?" Asclepius asked, her voice sounding almost muffled.
Lucius turned to look at her, and only then did he notice his kumulipo floating right in front of her face.
"What? What happened?" Lucius whispered, a splitting pain suddenly wreaking havoc on his head.
"You were saying something, and then you just summoned that... what is that?" Asclepius stuttered, taking a step back away from Lucius.
Lucius quickly recalled kumulipo before looking towards the door to see if anyone else had seen it.
"It''s... it''s a new crux I''m working on. Top secret, so nobody knows about it yet," he said in a serious tone.
Asclepius was smart enough to read in between the lines. She couldn''t understand exactly what was going on, but it was obvious to see that Lucius didn''t want her talking about it.
"O-okay," she said finally.
~That was dangerous... what exactly was I about to do?~ Lucius pondered to himself.
~And why is it getting worse?"
Sure, he had been dreaming more and more about those wretched days, but he had never zoned out like this before.
Perhaps he would have to find some sort of spell that could heal mental illnesses. As it was now clear that there was something seriously wrong with him.
"I spoke to the chieftain who was working on an experiment under your department... the chieftain of the third pir, I think he called himself," Lucius said after a moment of silence had passed, trying to change the subject quickly.
Asclepius nodded slowly in reply.
"I''m thinking of creating a sub-department for him, and it''d be really useful if you could spare a few of those saplings you salvaged from the marked tree," he continued.
"Hmm, I didn''t think that thing he was ying with down there was going to be that useful," Asclepiusmented thoughtfully.
"But I can spare one or two of my saplings. Since you''re here now, it shouldn''t be a problem getting more..."
"Wait you are nning on putting up another one of those trees right? We''re already running out of samples," she added suddenly, as if only now realizing that Lucius had yet to set one up.
"I already have the tree... I mean flower I n on using. Once I find a spot on the mountain for our base, I''ll nt it," Lucius replied.
"Mountain? Isn''t that Behemoth territory?" Asclepius asked.
"Indeed it is. But it''s the best vantage point as far as I can see. If we want to prevent what happened with the necromancerst time, we need a ce where it can''t reach easily," Lucius replied.
He understood well that trying to set up camp in the mountains might cause some dispute between him and the behemoth races. Which was why he was hoping the trade agreements between him and Grenovarish went well.
Perhaps the Golem king might slide in a good word about him with the behemoth races, and they could make some sort of exception for him.
Worst case, he would have to entice them with some sort of payment in manastones, which was another operation he would have to go on.
Indeed, there was much to be done.
"But enough about this, you should go sort out everything with your department. Hand over your important projects to someone you can trust," he added finally.
"Oh, before I go, there''s someone I''d like to rmend to join the council. Hannibal will probably tell you the finer details, but she seems to catch on to concepts quite fast," Asclepius said just as she was about to leave.
"Add someone to the council, huh?...I''ll think about it," Lucius replied.
Once Asclepius was gone he looked to the altar onest time, before staring outside.
~Well, I suppose I should go see how things are outside,~ he thought to himself before stepping out of the altar room.
Chapter 254 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [III]
Chapter 254 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [III]
As he walked through the hallways, he could sense excitement in the air. It seemed even those who were not going to evolve were preparing to go to the surface as well.
Normally Lucius would stop this, as showing such arge group on the surface would no doubt attract some attention.
However, he supposed that this was probably Pagan''s doing. No doubt an attempt to show his ''followers'' what sort of gifts they could attain if they continued to follow the Elwood family.
In other words, it was a high-risk high-reward scenario. Their loyalties... or blind faith, would be strengthened even further with this.
"Tell Hannibal to scout out the surface before we leave. I want him to secure as much area as possible. Tell Ghost to help as well," Lucius said to one of the leaf-beings who was passing by him.
"Got it," the leaf-being replied in a whisper, looking over its back as if it were an escaped convict.
"I''ll carry out this mission with utmost secrecy, Lucius," it shouted, as it sped off into a crowd of furtong up ahead.
"Lucius? How many of my children call me Lucius?" Lucius wondered to himself in confusion, before marching on.
*[The Conspiracist Leafling]
~The Leader has just given me a top-secret mission, and already it seems there are others at y who wish for my failure,~ the conspiracist leaf-being thought to himself as he stood in a long queue that had formed in one of the tunnels.
"Or is this part of the test? I find it odd that he chooses now of all times to give his most powerful servant a mission. Coincidence? I think not... he''s considering giving me a Premier position and this is probably a test to see if I still have what it takes," he whispered to himself smugly.
"Well, I can''t me him for doubting me; it''s been a while since he''s been with us. It seems I''ll have to remind him why he once considered making me a Premier during our first encounter," he continued beforeughing to himself.
"What are you mumbling on about?" another leaf-being asked from behind. He was all too familiar with this voice; it was his best friend... and arch-rival.
"Not now, I''m doing something important," the conspiracist said, before skillfully slipping through the tiny spaces that all the creatures in front of him had left in between each other.
~Even Ghost can''t move this fast,~ he thought to himself smugly, staring back at the tiny spaces he had just gotten through.
To his dissatisfaction, his arch-rival had mimicked him almost effortlessly, making it seem like second nature.
~Well, she''s my rival for a reason,~ he thought to himself before advancing.
The bear-men at the door were currently controlling the traffic of creatures moving into and out of the next few rooms. Hannibal''s quarters was just a few tunnels past this.
~I can''t just tell them I''m on a mission; that would blow my cover. Can''t be too careful with this sort of information around all these unnoticed,~ he thought to himself, before staring at the bear-men on guard with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Now that Luci is back, I think you should let him have a look at you. You''ve been acting even stranger after your evolution," his arch-rival said, making a greeting gesture to a small group of prairie-dogs that were moving in the opposite direction from them.
"Don''t call him that; it''s distasteful," the conspiracist said dismissively, his attention still focused at the bear-men.
"Ghost calls him that; I think it sounds better. And it''s easier to say," she replied, her eyes scanning the room for whatever it was that the conspiracist was looking at.
"Are you trying to get through?" she asked, after focusing on the bear-man.
"Huh? How did you... You should leave; you''ll mess this up," he said, before moving forward.
The bear-men were currently speaking to a ratherrge furtong; the time was nigh.
Just as the conspiracist was about to slip through, one of the bear-men on duty instantly turned to look down at him.
"Halt! If you''re going to the surface for the Lighted One''s gift, you should stand in line. Lord Hannibal is still sorting out the details," the bear-man shouted.
"We''re part of Asclepius''s department; we''re heading up to clean out herb since she''ll be gone for a while," the conspiracist''s arch-rival chimed in from behind.
The bear-man took a moment to discuss with hisrade, before they staring skeptically at the odd duo.
"Hmm... You may proceed," the bear-men said after a moment.
After they had walked a good distance away from the guards, the conspiracist turned to look at his partner with a skeptical gaze.
"How did youe up with that?" he asked.
"I didn''t; it was the truth... or at least half the truth. Now tell me what''s going on," she replied.
The conspiracist hesitated for a moment, before sighing in exasperation.
"Lucius gave me a mission. He wants me to pass on a piece of information to Hannibal... I can''t share what though. However, I believe that this is a test for a Premier position," he exined, taking a right turn at one of the intersections.
"Oh, they''re also considering giving you a premier position? What department?" she asked, apparently happy for the conspiracist.
"Yeah, it seems our rival rtionship hase to an- wait. What did you just say? Also? Are you getting a premier position?" he asked in disbelief.
"I''ve been helping Asclepius and Hannibal, and they both said they would rmend me for a seat on the council. It''s not a Premier position yet, but with the opening in the Building department, I might be chosen," she replied.
At this point, they were right in front of Hannibal''s personal quarters.
"Hmm... Wait here; I have more questions to ask you," the conspiracist whispered to her before entering Hannibal''s room.
~It seems she has one-upped me yet again... well done. But I still have a duty to carry out; whether I am noticed or not,~ he thought to himself before approaching Hannibal.
Hannibal''s quarters seemed more like a personalb than a resting space. There were several failed inventions lying all about, most of them copies of the contraptions he had seen Lucius create before.
There were a few runes scattered about as well, and several odd materials he had been experimenting with.
"If you''re here to ask about evolution, the answer is still the same. If you''re able to withstand the sr energy long enough, you''ll evolve," Hannibal replied, currently upied with his pushups.
"I''m here to pass on a message," the conspiracist replied, his tone serious.
*
Chapter 255 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [IV]
Chapter 255 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [IV]
*[Lucius]
As Lucius strode through the hallways, he noticed the leader of the bear-men standing guard at one of the tunnel checkpoints.
At this moment everyone was already prepared, they only awaited word from Hannibal and the other scouts to proceed to the surface.
"Allocate one of your kinsmen to this post, I want you to walk with me," Lucius said as he came to stop, regarding the leader of the bear-men.
"My lord," the bear-man leader whispered as he bowed, before turning tomand one of his kinsmen to take over for him.
The two of them ventured forward, deeper into the tunnels that led to the surface. For a moment there was silence, and the two merely regarded all the other creatures that they were passing by on their journey.
"What do you think of thismune that my children have created? You can be honest, I''m not like Pagan, I''m not unreasonable," Lucius said nkly, now regarding a group of Cynomys kits who were ying in one of the tunnels to their left.
He hadn''t seen many children here, though he supposed it only made sense; since to the creatures of the Immacte Forest they were nothing but rebels at best, though it was likely they were widely regarded as a terrorist group.
"I think that the Lords have done well with what resources they have. Especially since our rivals are the Forest Council itself," the bear-man said carefully.
Lucius took special note of how the bear-man leader had used the word ''our'' instead of ''your''.
"Your sentence seems iplete. You said we''ve done well with what resources we have, do you think we could do better?" Lucius asked. Though he already knew the answer to this question all too well.
If he and his children had chosen to be more aggressive, perhaps they would''ve made it further by now. Still, even if he could rewind time, he probably wouldn''t have taken that route anyway.
When he had first gotten here he had very little information on the world, and was finding it difficult just to survive. Above all that, he had no real reason for doing anything, besides keeping the cute creatures he had encountered safe.
Perhaps after the discovery of the necromancer, he found drive. And not ying more aggressively earlier on was something that haunted him till this day. He had to admit, he was out of his element, there was more he could''ve done, things he?shouldn''t have done.
However that was all in the past, this was going to be their second shot, and with arger portion of evolved members, they would have arger safety.
This didn''t mean he was going to y things over-aggressively.. gueri warfare would be a nice way to put the tactics he would be using in the uing campaigns.
"I wouldn''t dare say such a thin-" the bear-man leader was about to say, before Lucius raised his hands in a ''halting'' gesture.
"I can tell when lies are spoken. There isn''t a bigger insult to me than when one of my children lies to my face," Lucius added.
A white lie course.
However, this served well as a two-pronged attack.
On the one front, the bear-man would be wary of lying to him, and no doubt rumour would spread of this fake lie detection ability. With the notion of ''lighted one hocus-pocus'' going around, it was likely that they would believe him without question.
And besides, anyone dumb enough to test it would probably be squashed in the bud by one of Pagan''s fanatics.
On the second front, he was making the bear-man leader feel like an integral part of his family. Something that woulde with time of course, though there was more to gain if it coulde even faster. Lucius didn''t doubt that an evolved bear-man would be a needed powerhouse for the battles toe.
"A-A truthseer, of-ofcourse," the bear-man stuttered in shock, before quickly rxing. No doubt the ''lighted One hocus pocus'' buffing into effect.
~Truthseer? Yet another legend?~ Lucius thought to himself. Though he was curious as to what exactly the legend was about, he couldn''t very well ask the bear-man leader without putting himself into question.
So he decided to put his questions on hold for now. He would find some other time to bring it up without arousing suspicion.
"I will speak my lord, however I ask you forgive my crudeness. My people do not have a tradition of speaking, we are children of battle," the bear-man leader warned after some thought.
~I don''t doubt that,~ Lucius thought to himself as he eyed the multiple scars that littered the brown fur covering the bear-man''s body.
"You can speakfortably," Lucius replied.
"Lord Hannibal is a good leader, however from the battles he has led us through, he seems too meek- hmm, perhaps worried would be a better word. There were times we could''ve taken more, yet he prioritized safety. Indeed I do not me him for this, however, it is not something me and my people are used to," the bear-man began, his eyes faced forward in thought.
"Perhaps Lord Pagan is better in this, in the battles he has led us through we took everything there was to offer. Much of Lord Asclepius''s items were from the spoils of Lord Pagan''s battles. Still, Lord Pagan''s goals are sometimes unclear. I-I do not doubt his power of course," the bear-man leader stuttered, his body shivering each time he mentioned Pagan''s name.
"However, there are times he seems to act like the maddened warriors of legend. Sometimes he attacks a ce, and destroys everything, spoils included," the bear-man leader continued.
~I see, there''s no bnce. It only makes sense since I wasn''t here... though Hannibal is leader on paper, Pagan has no obligation to listen to him. In fact, I doubt they go on missions together... they aren''t there to bnce each other''s vices,~ Lucius thought to himself.
At this point, they were already at thest tunnel checkpoint before the exit to the surface. Lucius could see Pagan in the distance, staring out into the sunlight that crept into the tunnels.
"Perhaps we will finish this conversationter. For now, follow me, you''ll be my personal bodyguard from now on," Lucius said, before walking towards Pagan.
He wanted to form a strong rtionship with the bear-man leader as fast as possible. The sooner the bear-man leader evolved, the better.
"Yes my lord," the bear-man leader replied.
Chapter 256 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [V]
Chapter 256 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [V]
"Any word from Hannibal?" Lucius asked as he approached Pagan, who seemed to be daydreaming.
"Pagan?" he called out, now standing right beside him.
~He''s probably still upset about not taking part in the photosynthesis session,~ Lucius thought to himself as Pagan snapped out of his daze.
Pagan''s facial expressions went through several changes over the span of a second once he realized that it was Lucius who was right beside him. In the end, he bowed with both his hands on the ground and whispered pleas of forgiveness under his breath.
"It''s okay Pagan, get up," Lucius sighed in exasperation before helping Pagan to his feet. "I asked about Hannibal, whenst did you see him?"
"Hannibal? I''m no-" Pagan was about to reply, before Lucius''s head turned to look behind them instinctively.
His earth senses had picked up the sudden appearance of an energy reading; it felt like cold water being sshed on the face whilst in deepfortable sleep.
"Ghost?" Lucius whispered a momentter, his crux already floating beside him.
"I was sure I''d perfected this technique," Ghost''s voice called out -from one of the shadows the light from the exit was casting on the ground- before her figure appeared seemingly out of thin air.
"We''ve scouted the area, there''s no one nearby. Hannibal has a few members still on lookout, they''ll alert us if anyone approaches," Ghost began reporting, a look of slight disappointment on her face.
~Perfected a technique spell? Just what kind of technique did she create?~ Lucius wondered to himself, before mentally calling upon the system information pertaining to the ¡ºRadiant Augmentation Index¡».
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤? Technique Directory?©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
?¡ºRadiant Examination¡»
?¡ºRadiant Restoration¡»
?¡ºRadiant Cowl¡»
?¡ºRadiant Mirage¡»
?¡ºRadiant Eclipse¡»
?¡ºRadiant ession¡»
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~It seems she''s talking about Radiant Eclipse,~ Lucius thought to himself, before mentally selecting it.
Information pertaining to its workings were instantly transmitted to his mind. It seemed -at least in theory- that it was a slight tweak to Radiant Mirage, where light around the user was refracted to produce an illusion.
However, there were additional requirements. For instance, one had to control the flow of radiant energy in their body to match that of the surrounding environment, which in itself required some degree of skill.
Besides that, the technique was crude, and from the looks of it could only work if the user already had somepetency when it came to stealth.
"Thank you," Lucius responded nkly, before staring at Ghost with a sense of pride. "And well done," he added before turning to regard Pagan, who had fallen back into his depressive daze.
Ghost looked confused at theplement, however this did not stop her from smiling in satisfaction.
"Look Pagan, it''s not that bad. Think about it this way. While everyone is evolving, you''ll be with me learning new spells, so cheer up," Lucius said, patting Pagan on the shoulder.
This seemed to raise his mood ever so slightly, though Lucius knew it would take more than that to make him happy. After all, he was basically being denied a chance at what he would probably term ''Ascension.''
"Go tell the others that we''ll be proceeding. I''ll go out to look for a good ce to hide the evolution pods," Lucius ordered, before gesturing for the bear-man leader to follow him.
"Ghost, take a position between us and Hannibal. If something happens, I want someone fast rying the information," he added, before moving out towards the exit.
*
As the mid-afternoon sunlight showered upon his body, he felt rejuvenated. As if feeling the sun''s rays alone were enough to heal him.
~I suppose despite all the additions from my Laendryte evolution, I''m still a nt at the core. Speaking of which, I probably should have eaten something beforeing out here,~ he thought to himself, before turning to ask the bear-man leader to have someone grab something for him quickly.
Once everyone had made their way to the surface, and Lucius had arranged the potential evolvers where he wanted them -with Asclepius on one side followed by the chieftains and all the other shrooms, and Eleanour on the other, followed by the remaining first watch and all the other leaflings- Pagan took a moment to say a few words.
"Today we are gathered to witness the greatness of the Lighted One''s blessings, the power of thest fae," Pagan began, standing right behind Lucius with their backs facing each other.
Those who were not going to be a part of the session stood in a circle around the evolving group, their eyes staring at Lucius in awe as his crux floated above his head like a halo.
"Those who follow his light will be granted such blessings in due time, and in return all the Lighted One asks isplete obedience and submission to his wi-" Pagan was about to say before Lucius cleared his throat in an exaggerated manner.
"I mean, that you follow him truly as a part of themune," Pagan continued gracefully.
"Lighted One," he added, before bowing, to which everyone else followed suit.
~Okay, time to begin.~
[? Several targetsck certain requirements.]
[Continue Shared Photosynthesis at 50% efficiency?]
~Proceed.~
[Absorbing 1045 helios per second.]
With this, Lucius could feel pulses of energy flow from his crux, straight towards Asclepius and Eleanour who had their hands on his back.
It felt like trying to force arge amount of water through a thin hose, and only a few minutester he felt several leaf-beings and shrooms disconnect from thework.
4 minutes past, and nearly half the members had fallen unconscious. And the half that were hanging on by mere threads. It was as if the temperature in the area had gone up several degrees, and a few of those present threatened to erupt into pure energy.
A feeling he was all too familiar with... evolution. Another minute passed, and this threat was carried through.
Someone in thework had ascended.
[Evolution of secondary creature hasmenced.]
[Rewriting creature''s genome...]
*
Lucius found himself in the white void, with Asclepius''s body floating just a short distance away from him.
~This ce seems different~ he thought to himself, before realizing the cause of this feeling of unfamiliarity.
Instead of there being a sun at the centre, there was a mass of red and purple vegetation that looked eerily simr to a floating ball of shroom flesh.
~I suppose their cores would be different,~ He thought to himself in disgust.
[Creature''s current genome diverts too greatly from the host''s.]
[Warning! Chance of mutation is increased!]
[Proceed?]
~Hmm, well, this is sad. It seems we''ll have to think about this a bit more,~ Lucius thought to himself before denying.
As much as he wanted Asclepius to evolve, he wasn''t about to test the mutation chances on someone so valuable.
[Warning. Genome Reconstruction process has already changed certain characteristics. Forfeiting the process will result in disfigurement.]
~You aren''t giving me much of a choice now, are you?~ he thought in annoyance, before taking some time to think about things properly.
Though no matter what angle he came at this from, moving forward seemed to be the best option. Sure, there was a chance of mutation, but mutation, in itself, just meant a deviation from expected characteristics, or at least as far as he could remember.
Disfigurement, on the other hand, was akin to disability. One was certainly a bad thing, while the other could be a bad thing.
~Proceed,~ he replied hesitantly.
[Extracting Genome from host andbining it with target creature''s...]
[...]
[...]
As the system continued processing, the white void all around them began to visibly adjust to the changes it was making. Streaks of radiant energy began to seep out from the shroom core at the centre of the void, whilst simultaneously the outer fringes of the core slowly disintegrated.
Soon all that remained was a small pulsing ball of energy, simr to the sun in Lucius''s own white space.
~So this isn''t a crux but rather a requirement for photosynthesis,~ Lucius realized, as the ball of energy began to expand.
As it got bigger, its concentration of energy began to grow weaker; where at first he couldn''t see through it, it was now nothing but wisps of glowing matter barely holding onto its form.
~Something isn''t right here-~
[Error! Photosynthetic core copse eminent!]
[Expelling host to prevent damage in...]
[3...]
[2...]
~You''ve malfunctioned if you think I''m leaving Asclepius here alone.~
Chapter 257 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [VI] {The Stars Seek Compensation}
Chapter 257 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [VI] {The Stars Seek Compensation}
[Warning! Excessive exposure to Soran from copse of photosynthetic core could result in-]
~Skip. Just tell me how to fix this!~ Lucius interrupted, already attempting to use Elmando to try and force the constantly expanding ball of energy back into a more stable form.
[Manual re-stability of core required.]
~Yeah, no shit. Tell me how!~ Lucius shot back, the core now at a stage where it seemed like it would burst at any moment.
Sadly, try as he might, Elmando simply would not work. The energy he was trying tomand was not his; an apparent prerequisite required by Elmando for the maniption of energy.
He quickly turned to his newest weapon, True Elmando, hoping that it could do what Elmando couldn''t.
However, after attempting tomunicate this to the tail, he realized he was in over his head. The task he was asking was simply too great for his current method ofmunication.
The tail could not do what he couldn''t evenmunicate.
~Work, damn it!~
[Warning! Copse of photosynthetic core imminent.]
The system''s words sounded muffled, and time seemed to slow down as Asclepius''s core began to glow erratically in multiple ces.
Abandoning Elmando, he ran closer towards the core, stretching out his arms in an attempt to push it back manually.
The unstable core felt excruciatingly hot to the touch, searing at his body and causing pieces of him to disappear.
Still, the pain felt almost relieving. It gave him a needed distraction from what seemed like an inevitability at this point.
Asclepius was going to die.
"Please," he whispered, as the expanding core pushed him backward, now glowing even brighter and more erratically than before.
In thosest few seconds, he could feel the membrane that held Asclepius''s core together fizz away. And its energies began to seep out.
He attempted to call on his sr crux, on kumulipo; but it seemed that this vessel of his did not carry those over into the white void.
Yet another one of his children was going to die, the only difference was that this time they were dying right in front of him, and there wasn''t a damn thing he could do about it.
In this sense, this world wasn''t so different from the mindscape.
~I need to save her,~ he thought to himself, as he felt the Soran from her core burn away at his body. Still, even as he felt the wave ofva-like energy wash over him, he continued to recite this one thought.
She can''t die.
Even though it was past time for wishful thinking, every iota of his mind willed for this singr task.
[Warning! Continued exposure to Soran will result in corruption!]
He could barely hear the system''s words, as he suffered through this mental nightmare.
He could hear the voices of everyone in themune asking to save her, taunting voices, impostors.
No, she will be saved! he thought to himself,pletely certain without anything to back up this im.
He opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by a sea of floating Soran.
Despite the agonizing pain that threatened to push him out of the white void every ticking second, he moved forward, stretching out both arms and his tail.
Save her, hemanded, imbuing Elmando with this single message.
He was uncertain of how exactly he was doing this, but still, he waspletely convinced it would work.
Perhaps he was in denial of the reality of things.
...
~That''s right, faster, stronger, use all my energy if you want. Just do it,~ hemanded, as his True Emando Tail began glowing.
With this, the tides of Soran began to flow backward, as if time itself were reversing the flow of a river.
And indeed it felt like he was fighting against literal tides.
As True Elmando was in effect, it felt as if he were drowning, while at the same time his very life force was being drained from his body.
~Faster,~ hemanded, pushing past the suffocating feeling to take a step forward.
At this point, multiple areas on his body were missing, the Soran had burned away strips of his vessel, leaving tiger-like patterns.
After a few moments, his mind began to overheat, though at this point all the Soran had been pushed back into the core.
~Mend~! hemanded next, shes of light blinding him as he tried to push forward.
He could feel his hold over True Elmando slipping away... he was running out of energy.
Though it seemed that he had enough toplete this task, as the area of the membrane that fizzed away had been repaired.
Now all that remained was to stabilize the core. However, at this point, his mind had overheated to the point where he couldn''t tell whether he was still conscious or not.
"Contract it!" he heaved, falling down to his knees. With this, he felt TrueElmando slip away from him, and his world slowly go dark.
~So useless,~ a voice called out to him, as his mind began to wander off.
~So truly... useless...
"Contract it!!" he shouted, interrupting the voice. He fought to stay conscious, though it felt like a very thin thread held him together.
As True Elmando pushed on the core from all sides, he could feel something within his mind set aze.
Indeed, there would be a price to pay once he got back; however, that wasn''t something he was going to worry about right now.
[Photosynthetic core stable...]
[Evolution processmencing...]
"I-I did it..." Lucius whispered to himself, as his mind slowly untethered from this realm.
*
Once he got back to the physical world, he found that he was all alone, not a singlemune member in sight. In fact, even Asclepius''s pod was missing.
~Something''s... different,~ he thought to himself, before looking up at the sky.
Even thoughthe sun was out, the sky was dark as if were night. With seven stars, all grouped together shining brightly.
The sun itself seemed dwarfed by the brilliance of these stars.
"What''s going on here-" Lucius was about to ask before the sky elerated down towards him. Or rather, he elerated towards it.
A momentter, he found himself standing in a room of pitch-ck abyss, with the seven stars floating but a few meters in front of him.
With his knowledge of physics, he knew well that these were no stars.
"The Forest Guardian, so it is you who tries to cheat me?" a voice boomed.
No, rather it wasn''t a voice, but a will. He understood what it meant, merely because it willed him to.
An instantter, one of the stars began to glow, and the light it emitted started morphin into a figure.
"W-what?" Lucius stuttered, noticing what the star had fashioned itself into.
It was a mirror copy... of him.
Chapter 258 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [VII] {The Stars Seek Compensation}
Chapter 258 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [VII] {The Stars Seek Compensation}
"Champion or not, working above the means of your Rena is a crime. A toll must be paid," the... thing in front of Lucius boomed, its voice identical to his as well.
To say the least, Lucius waspletely caught in a daze, unable to process what was going on.
"The punishment for this crime would normally be your life. But yours is one of greater destiny. As my champion, I cannot snuff you out before you carry out my will," the thing continued.
"God... you''re a god?" Lucius stuttered, more to himself than to the entity in front of him.
"No gods exist," the thing replied dismissively before walking around Lucius, assessing his body with great scrutiny.
It felt uncanny to have something so eerily simr to him inspect him. However, their mannerisms and presence couldn''t be worlds apart, so the illusion was somewhat iplete.
"The others will not let your crimes pass without adequate punishment. And I cannot sully my seat by giving favour. As such, for the punishment of working past your means, I mark you with the brand of the thief," the thing said, its voice holding no emotion.
It raised a finger towards Lucius, and with that, Lucius felt streaks of searing hot pain wrap around his body. This pain did not subside and instead grew stronger by the second, until eventually, he was on the ground wailing.
This was a pain beyond anything he had ever experienced, and if not for this strange entity keeping him conscious, he was certain he would''ve passed out.
"As repayment for the Rena you have stolen, I take your left eye, so that I may peer through it as I see fit, and ensure you do not steal again," the thing continued. And with that, the vision from Lucius''s left eye dimmed, and with it any connection he had.
The thing then turned back to look at the other stars, "Is this not enough? I have crippled my champion, are you not satisfied?"
The stars twinkled in response, before one by one, they grew dim and disappeared.
"You¡ªyou''re a god, you are. Tell me, wh-why am I here? You-you called me your champion, wh-what am I supposed to do?" Lucius struggled to say, as the pain that had been consuming his body slowly alleviated.
"This is not an audience but an adjudication. If you seek to speak with me, venture to one of my temples, and give offering. If it suffices, I shall hear your query," the thing replied, before morphing back into a star.
"W-wait, where is your temple," Lucius shouted, his body nowpletely recovered from the pain. Though his left eye was still lost.
"I shall tell you this, dear champion of mine. Time is ticking, the enemies gather their forces. It is time you stopped fighting your brethren. In the end, your forces will have to unite," the thing said, before Lucius felt the ground beneath him disappear.
With this, he fell back to the ground, and the strange sky returned to normal.
*
"Lighted One!" Lucius heard Pagan shout as he slowly opened his eye.
When his vision finally adjusted, he found Pagan and all the other members of themune staring at him with worried expressions.
~What was that?~ Lucius wondered himself, at first believing his strange interaction to have been some sort of dream.
However, the fact that he could not see through his left eye made him aware that it was no work of fiction.
"What¡ªwhat happened?" Pagan asked, his voice tainted with concern as his gaze swept over Lucius''s body in disbelief.
The ck robe Lucius had been wearing had been reduced to charred tatters, exposing his skin. Obsidian marks now gued his entire body and made it look as if he were wearing a green and brown tiger''s pelt.
After some time in shock, Pagan tried to cast ¡ºSr cleanse¡»; however, it did not work. These were not marks that could be healed away.
~The brand of the thief,~ Lucius thought to himself, caressing one of the marks on his arm.
"And your eyes, Lighted One," Pagan whispered, staring deeply at it. "Did something happen?" he asked, now looking at Lucius''s good eye.
Lucius stopped to think about it for a moment. The god thing had mentioned that this was a punishment. That he had worked above his means... that he had used more Rena than he had.
This wasn''t the first time he had heard the word Rena; the necromancer had used it as well. It seemed that it was a sort of energy tied to the use of magic.
~I definitely need to find out more about this,~ he thought to himself. And it was highly likely that Pagan might know something since he was so ancient... however.
"I''ll exin to youter," he decided after some thought. There was nothing he could really say at this point without scaring everyone anyway.
Besides, if themune heard that their previous saviour had been branded as a thief by the gods, then what would happen?
~I just hope this mark doesn''t attract unwanted attention,~ he thought to himself. After all, branding a thief served a purpose. It was to let others know of his crimes. And there was no doubt that anyone who recognized these marks would be a creature of considerable power.
"Shall I tell everyone to get back into the camp?" the bear-man leader asked, earning him a dirty look from Pagan who was still doting over his Lighted One.
"No, let''s try to finish this," Lucius replied, realizing that he didn''t at all feel exhausted.
~Did it replenish my energy?~ he thought to himself. However, after thinking about it for a bit, he realized that this was very likely. After all, the thing had called him their champion. So it was a benefactor of sorts, even though it had disgraced him.
~Still, it was worth it. I wasn''t going to let her die,~ he thought to himself, eyeing Asclepius''s egg, which was right beside him.
A few shrooms were gathered around the egg-shaped pod, which was about the size of arge boar. Wayrger than any other pod Lucius had ever seen.
It was primarily purple, with streaks of bright green and yellow. And unlike all the previous pods, instead of roots, it had dozens of small mushrooms growing around its base.
He moved to ce his hand on it, to see how she was doing inside. And after a quick sr pulse, he got back a positive result.
"She''s finally ascended," Lucius whispered to himself, a wave of relief washing over him.
Chapter 259 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [VIII]
Chapter 259 Second Rise of the Elwood Family [VIII]
"Take all those who passed out back inside. Those of you who want to rest can go in as well," Lucius added right after, now looking at the few leaf-beings and shrooms who remained.
In total, only around 6 minutes of photosynthesis had gone by, amounting to approximately 373,000 helios, meaning that Asclepius had taken around 400 000 helios total to evolve.
No doubt the remaining shrooms - which consisted of only the chieftains - would evolve soon as well. Something that Lucius wasn''t ready to go through again. At the very least, he would need to master True Elmando to a level where he wouldn''t need to over-exert himself to repair a photosynthetic core.
~Still, they are quite a good size as it is,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing how the chieftains were now about the size of medium-sized boars¡ªalmost a meter tall. And for their height, they were quite girthy; in fact, one could mistake their robust physique for being muscr.
"I faced an issue while trying to get Asclepius to evolve. I''ll need time to study the phenomenon, so perhaps we should take a break before trying again," he said out loud, much to the displeasure of the chieftains.
It was clear from the envious looks they were giving Asclepius''s pod that they were eager to evolve as well. However, Lucius''s word was final, and they bowed in gratitude, whispering words of praise to the Lighted One as they joined Pagan and the others on the outer circles.
~Hmm, the remaining leaf-beings are the members of the first watch, and... wait, I know this guy,~ Lucius thought to himself in surprise.
Of course, he had expected the first watch to be able to push through; however, it was his first time noticing another leaf being who seemed above average.
The leaf-being in question had a smug look on its face and stared at Lucius as if there was some secret that only the two of them were privy to.
"Shall we continue?" Lucius asked, realizing that this leaf-being probably had some issues.
*
The next photosynthesis sessionsted around 10 minutes before the entire first watch, except Eleanour, copsed. With a base rate of 1740 helios per second and an additional 10 helios per second per leaf-being, they umted a total of about 1.086 million helios.
Altogether, with the first session, they had moved approximately 1.46 million helios towards evolution.
~If I''m correct, it takes between 6 and 7 million helios umted to evolve to Laendyte,~ Lucius thought to himself as the others carried the members of the first watch back into the camp.
They had all grown by a good amount, now around 1.2 meters tall each. With their skin having changed to various shades of brown depending on their variations.
Most of them seemed to have taken after Alpha, having protective bark emerging on their forearms, shins, and head¡ªcreating a sort of helm.
The only member of the first watch who was of a different variation was Eleanour, who seemed closer to Hannibal¡ªnormal.
"Do you guys want to continue?" Lucius asked, now regarding Eleanour and the odd leaf-being.
Eleanour was barely conscious, only able to nod her head in response. The other leaf-being, however, seemed to be in a better state, though it made absolutely no sense how this was possible.
"Have you perhaps been cking off the entire time before this?" Lucius asked nkly, regarding the odd leaf-being.
It was the only way this would make sense. The leaf-being had beenzy all along and was only trying right now.
"Ku-ku-ku, Lucius, Lucius, Lucius... we both know how I''m able to do this. Pagan already told me the secret to amassing energy and evolving," the leaf-being replied.
~What sort of conspiracies has Pagan been feeding the children?~ Lucius sighed to himself.
Though he wasn''t going toin, whatever cebo effect Pagan''s words had ced on this ''conspiracist'' seemed to be working.
"Then let''s continue."
*
The next sessionsted only a minute before Eleanour fell unconscious. She had tried her best; however, these things couldn''t be rushed.
She was now 1.3 meters tall and stocky.
Lucius contemted whether he should try to work with her towards evolution before having her gain her crux or just give her a crux and dy her evolution for another 4 to 5 days.
~Hmm, I think we''d benefit from having her remain while all the other members of the first watch got their cruxes. Besides, by the time they wake up, I don''t doubt that she''ll be in her evolution pod,~ Lucius thought to himself.
~I''ll speak about it with her and Hannibalter,~ he decided, before carrying on the photosynthesis session.
*
In the end, the ''conspiracist''sted a total of 30 minutes and had umted close to 2.92 million helios.
Though he was now a near-lifeless sack of nt flesh lying unconscious on the ground, he had grown to be thergest leaf-being after the executives.
He now stood at 1.4 meters tall, just a little shorter than Pagan, though he did not have the same girth, and no doubt his internal systems probably was not as advanced. Still, his size was good.
~I should get a sobriquet for him... even if he is a little weird,~ Lucius thought to himself as he inspected the ''conspiracist''s'' skin pattern.
It was a very peculiar variation, with streaks of green ced randomly around his figure and obsidian highlights around the primary brown of his body.
Lucius hadn''t quite noticed it before, but he supposed that this little guy was the closest version to him within the entiremune.
~But what will I name him?~ he wondered to himself.
"Is something the matter, Lighted One?" Pagan asked, noticing that Lucius was inspecting the ''conspiracist'' a little more thoroughly than the rest.
"Pagan, do you know this one?" Lucius asked, still staring at the ''conspiracist''.
"Oh, this one, he is one of your greatest followers, Lighted One. He has even taken it upon himself to watch you and everyone else in case something goes wrong. Though he is weak, he has the right attitude," Pagan replied fondly.
~Pagan liking someone? That''s new,~ Lucius thought to himself in disbelief.
~Though from the sound of it, this guy''s probably good at deception,~ he continued.
"What did you tell him about photosynthesis? He mentioned knowing a secret," he asked out loud after a bit of thought.
"Ahh, that. I told him that true energy can only be amassed once he opens himself to your light," Pagan replied instantly, as if reciting a verse he said every day.
~So random nonsense. Well, the little guy is clearly going to be a useful asset,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"When he wakes up, tell him to wait for me in the altar room," Luciusmanded, before going back to his session.
Chapter 260 Malus
Chapter 260 Malus
Lucius managed to get to the 2-hour mark without much issue; however, only an instantter, the ''overheat'' from photosynthesis came like a tidal wave, hitting him all at once.
Before he knew it, the ''branding'' marks on his body began to glow brightly before catching mes. Pagan and the bear-man leader rushed to Lucius''s side, with Pagan instantly casting ¡ºSr Cleanse¡».
However, this did nothing to satiate the branding.
Only a momentter, Lucius''s eyes were forcefully opened by some strange force, and a set of chains erupted from his left eye.
They were golden chains, seemingly made of pure light, emitting the same type of energy as most of the sr crux''s spells. The major difference being that its energy felt a million times denser.
As the chains wrapped around Lucius''s body, he felt his link to the crux severed, and he could no longer call on any energy.
[You have exceeded the limits of your Rena.]
~I see,~ Lucius thought to himself before slowly lying on the ground. The pain from the marks wasn''t as intense as it had been the first time, but they still hurt quite a bit. Like someone was using a knife to carve something into his skin.
The chains themselves couldn''t really be felt, but their effect was troublesome.
As the members of themune stared at Lucius''s state in confusion, he was caught up in deep thought about theplexities that this new... ''restriction'' would bring upon him.
~So no more pushing myself, huh? I suppose that means that I can only reliably depend onbat and Elmando now,~ he thought to himself.
~Though I wonder what would happen if I tried using Kumulipo,~ he pondered. After all, Kumulipo did not cause the same ''overheating'' effect that the sr crux did.
~No, but if I use that, Pagan might wonder why I haven''t taught it to him yet... and I already decided it''s for the best he doesn''t try to use it,~ he realized, before attempting to touch one of the chains.
~Hard light constructs? I''d never thought about that.~ This was definitely something he was going to run a couple of tests onter.
"Everyone back to the camp!" Pagan ordered after a moment of silence had passed. From the concerned look on Lucius''s face, he could tell that his master would benefit from some silence.
"Tell Hannibal to return to base. I want him to personally guard the pod while we''re away," Lucius added before getting up.
By now, the branding marks had simmered down and were only glowing slightly. However, the golden chains were still wrapped around his body, though oddly enough, they did not seem to restrict his movement in the least.
"Y-yes, Lighted One," the bear-man leader responded before bowing and rushing off into the forest. He was surprisingly fast for someone of his size.
"Is that a new spell, Lighted One?" Pagan asked, staring at the chains.
"No, it''s something else," Lucius replied before mentally calling on the system shop. He hadn''t forgotten about the skill he wanted to unlock.
"Have you ever heard of the word, Rena?" he added right after, as he confirmed the amount of helios he had umted.
[(Current Helios: 12,316,000)
~This''ll do,~ he thought to himself as Pagan''s face scrunched in thought.
"Take your time," Lucius whispered before purchasing 10 million helios'' worth of evo-points.
[100,000 evo-points purchased!]
He then quickly moved over to the ¡ºSkill Tree¡» and selected the newly highlighted skill.
[Use 100,000 Evo points to unlock new skill?]
~Proceed.~
[Processing...]
[New skill unlocked... ¡ºBlessing of Malus¡».]
[...]
[High skill synergies detected! - ¡ºBlessing of Malus¡» and ¡ºSr Ry¡»]
[Combine skills?]
~Skill synergies, huh? Interesting,~ Lucius thought to himself, before approving the process.
[Combining ¡ºBlessing of Malus¡» and ¡ºSr Ry¡»...]
[Skill ¡ºMother of Malus [lvl.1]¡» created!]
With this, the information pertaining to the skill was immediately uploaded into Lucius''s mind.
"Well, this is..." Lucius whispered to himself as he processed what exactly the skill could do.
It seemed that the new skill gave him greater control over ¡ºSr Ry¡», allowing him to now control when it absorbed sunlight and when it couldn''t. Of course, it didn''t seem very useful right now, though he wasn''t going toin about an extra feature.
However, this wasn''t the fun part. This... ¡ºBlessing of Malus [lvl.1]¡» skill was a creation type, allowing Lucius to create what was basically a fruit, using sr energy. At level 1, the fruits replenished sr reserves and gave a small amount of helios. However, the addition of levels meant that perhaps the benefits would be even better with time.
Still, that wasn''t the end of it. Whenbined with ¡ºSr Ry¡» to create ¡ºMother of Malus [lvl.1]¡», it allowed him to use the energy absorbed by the tree to create the fruits. And from the looks of it, there was no limit to how many fruits he could create. All that was needed was a solis fragment to act as a base for the fruit''s growth.
~I suppose this means I''ll have to hurry up and ce the marked tree,~ Lucius thought to himself, somewhat excitedly. If they could take these fruits into battle, the only thing they would have to worry about would be their ''Rena'' reserves... whatever that meant.
"Well, have you remembered anything?" Lucius asked after a few more seconds went by.
"I remember the fae spoke of that word often, but I can''t remember what it was exactly. Maybe I once saw something, but my memory is blurry," Pagan said apologetically after racking his brain a little longer.
~It seems we won''t be able to move forward in this matter until that tree is nted,~ Lucius thought to himself, recalling how the marked tree allowed them to view each other''s memories.
~I suppose I''ll do that right after I finish Gravenovarish''s weapons,~ he decided, as he spotted Hannibal approaching in the distance.
He and the bear-man leader were near equals in speed, though Lucius was unsure whether that spoke to the bear-man''s prowess or Hannibal''s weakness.
"You called?" Hannibal asked once he was right in front of Lucius.
The bear-man leader stood right next to him, panting uncontrobly. In fact, from hisboured breathing, Lucius wouldn''t be surprised if the poor creature rolled over and died.
~Ahh, so he was pushing himself,~ Lucius realized before turning his attention to Hannibal.
"I''ll be going on a mission with the others; I want you to stay close by and protect Asclepius''s pod," Lucius ordered.
Hannibal seemed slightly happy with this news, turning to look at Asclepius''s pod with an expression Lucius had never seen on him before.
~Hmm.~
Chapter 261 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons [I]
Chapter 261 Gravenovarish''s Weapons [I]
"We won''t be too long. If something happens, make sure the rest of themune gets to safety and protect Asclepius''s pod as long as possible. Worst-case scenario, try to make as much noise as possible while you battle. My hearing has improved, so there''s a chance I''ll be able to hear it," Luciusmanded, to which Hannibal nodded his head slowly.
Lucius understood that leaving Hannibal as the sole protector of the camp was going to be risky, to say the least. However, without Ghost and Paganing along, the mission might take longer than needed.
And with the risk of there being other Eiknyr-like entities in this forest, Lucius didn''t want to be left alone to rely on otherwise risky powers¡ªsuch as the mystic mantle or kumulipo.
Not to mention that he was now restricted on the amount of Rena he could use.
"Hmm... well, if you do get into battle, remember all the techniques at your disposal. There''s always more than one way of using those skills, especially your most recent one," Lucius added.
"Don''t worry about me; the remaining guards are more than enough to give me support," Hannibal replied, apparently noticing the worry in Lucius''s voice.
"Then I''ll leave you to it," Lucius responded.
*
After collecting the members of his entourage, he and all the others set off towards the first target location: ''The Aternite mines''.
The furtong in the entourage knew of one rtively nearby, where several of their rtives were being forced to ve away. Apparently, such mistreatment of lower-tier creatures has been going on for so long that escape attempts don''t happen often anymore.
Of course, Lucius''s main priority was going to be the Aternite itself; everything else was secondary.
As they moved through the forest, they were arranged such that Lucius scouted the front as he was the fastest, Ghost remained ''invisible'' alongside the bear-man leader to protect the entourage, and Pagan took the vanguard, since he had the most firepower after Lucius.
Their journey took them back towards the inner areas of the forest, where the trees grew to touch the heavens and their translucent leaves fell to the ground like snow.
*
Lucius was a blur as he zipped past the falling leaves, leaving a small gust of wind in his wake. Whenever he spotted even a small presenceing in the path ahead, he made a detour, not wanting to waste any sr energy or Rena on unnecessary encounters.
Of course, this meant he had to stop often and ask the furtong of the group whether they were still heading in the right path.
*[2 hourster]
~This is the fourth break we''ve taken in the past two hours. Something needs to be done about the group''s stamina,~ Lucius thought to himself in slight annoyance.
In fact, even Pagan hardly seemed exhausted, as allergic to physical activity as he was. However, he supposed it was unfair topare himself and his children to these creatures who didn''t have a system.
"How far away is it from here?" Lucius asked, looking far into the forest.
It was a beautiful ce... serene. One would think it paradise if they weren''t aware of the creatures that nestled high on the treetops.
Lucius was yet to find out what exactly they were, but he knew them to be all over the pristine forest, even at the earlier ''alien zone''.
He suspected that they were opportunistic beasts of sorts, as they never moved to attack. However, he noticed several of them following the group earlier, particrly above the cynomys within the entourage.
~Whatever they are, I doubt going up to find out will do me any good,~ he thought to himself.
"I believe we are almost there, Lighted One," one of the furtong replied a little hesitantly.
~It''s settled; we need maps,~ Lucius decided before gesturing for the group to continue their advance.
*
30 minutester, Lucius noticed several energy readings spring up in the distance. And with each passing tree, more and more readings appeared.
"We''re here, aren''t we?" he whispered to himself, before suddenly halting.
Several meters away, thendscape abruptly transitioned from vibrant vegetation and colossal trees to an odd blue substance. From here, it sort of seemed like a part of the ocean had cut off into the forest; however, theck of waves and the rather dull nature of the colour rubbished this thought.
"Hmm, no guards? Suspicious," Lucius whispered to himself, right as the rest of the group arrived behind him.
"Is something-" Pagan was about to ask, before Lucius gave a ''shushing'' gesture, immediately cutting him off.
"Ghost, go scout that area over there. There might be creatures hiding behind some of the trees. Keep an eye above as well," Lucius whispered, pointing towards thest line of trees before thendscape changed.
No response came; however, Lucius was certain that she had already gone to carry out her task.
"I''m guessing the blue stuff over there isn''t Aternite," he asked, now regarding one of the furtong.
"Unfortunately not, Lighted One. The Aternite can only be found deep underground. The blue rock is Acron, a verymon material," the furtong replied.
"How do the mines usually look? How big are they? How much protection do their entrances have?" Lucius asked next, speaking quickly, without letting a breath pass between his words.
Two of the furtong in the group shook their heads apologetically, apparently unsure of that information. Though it wasn''t surprising, Lucius doubted that anyone who had worked in the mines would be a free man today.
"The mines have several magic users at the entrance; however, they are only there to protect the Aternite being sent out. I''ve never been inside the mines myself, but my father once told me a story that there are high-level magic users within the mines that protect the workers from Terra-beasts," one of the furtong replied suddenly.
~Terra-beasts?~ Lucius wondered to himself, before quickly dismissing the thought. Whatever they were was of no importance right now as they wouldn''t be entering the mines anyway.
"You said that they ship out Aternite... to the council members, I''m guessing?" he asked instead, to which the furtong nodded.
~Good, then today it seems that the council will be losing a few tons of Aternite... and maybe a few good magic users,~ he thought to himself, before turning to Pagan.
"How well can you use the sr beam?" he asked, before pulling out his crux. At this point, the ''Rena chains'' had alreadypletely disappeared.
"Not as well as you, Lighted One," Pagan whispered back.
"When you cast it, prioritize intensity over everything else. And use Elmando to make it extremely thin; it''ll take some getting used to, but I''m sure with your talent you''ll manage," Lucius exined, showcasing the skill on a spot on the ground.
His control over Elmando seemed to have improved after his time in Asclepius''s mindscape, as he was now able to keep the size of the beam quite steady.
"I will try my best, Lighted One," Pagan said, nodding his head.
All the while, the other creatures in the group watched on in awkward silence, understanding that at the level they were at, Lucius couldn''t see them as anything more than the extra weight that needed to be protected.
"We won''t be taking on any prolonged battles. It''ll be a hit-and-run. If we can''t get the materials we need fast enough, we''ll hit them from multiple ces until they retreat," Lucius whispered.
He wasn''t yet certain about theyout of the mine they would be attacking, however, he wanted Pagan to have a general gist of the way things were going to be done. Lest he try something crazy.
"The sr beam I''m teaching you is rtively hard to spot and doesn''t attract as much attention as all our other spells. It''s also very prative, with enough energy you can probably kill within a few seconds," Lucius continued, in a serious tone.
"If possible, I want you to avoid killing any magic users. Disfigure them as much as you want, but I want them alive. I want to learn more about the magic they use, so keep them sane enough to answer questions," he added.
Chapter 262 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons [II]
Chapter 262 Gravenovarish''s Weapons [II]
~Hopefully, one of them knows something about Rena. Or at the very least, they may be able to teach us new spells,~ Lucius thought to himself.
"A-As you wish, Lighted One," Pagan replied hesitantly, clearly disappointed with the way things were going to turn out.
*
A minute passed, before Ghost''s figure appeared right above Lucius''s shadow, four of the eight spider legs that spawned out of her back slowly lifting her off the ground.
"You were right Luci, they have several guards hidden behind the trees. They covered themselves in this... stuff," Ghost reported, blotches of blood on her face.
Lucius turned to look at one of the four front legs she kept raised in the air, and found a Venari warrior impaled through the skull.
"And you''re certain no one heard you?" he asked, as Ghost slowly brought the body to the ground.
"I wasn''t spotted. The guards are spread out quite a distance, and I didn''t see any reactions from the others when I took this one down," Ghost replied, as Lucius began to strip the Venari of his camouge armour.
It was a green tunic, with dozens of leaves attached to the back and sides.
"Put this on," Luciusmanded, holding the outfit out towards one of the Furtong.
As the Furtong tried to get into the camouge, Lucius furrowed his brows in thought, trying to figure out what the best course of action would be.
"How many guards are there?" he asked a momentter, now regarding Ghost.
"From what I can tell, they span the entire line," she replied.
"Use your poison to disable the guards positioned from here-" Lucius instructed, pointing at a spot just a few meters to their left, "-all the way to there," he continued, drawing an imaginary line that spanned towards the right.
It was about a 20-meter line he wanted disabled, justrge enough for them to sneak past under the cover of vegetation without risking being spotted.
"Bring back the bodies. We need their gear," he added.
"Done," Ghost replied, her body flickering with light for a split second beforepletely disappearing.
Several minutes passed between each body that she brought back, hinting at the fact that she was taking her time with each strike. A fact that Lucius was happy to discover.
Each time they stripped the guard of their armour and gave it to one of the members of the entourage.
Of course, the Venari¡ªwho were about the same height as humans¡ªwererger than the Furtong, Cynomys, and Castor¡ªwho were about the same size as their Earth animal counterparts¡ªso the armour ended up being very loose-fitting.
This would no doubt hinder movement, however, they were going to be moving slowly from this moment on, so it was worth more than it took away.
The problem came in the bear-man, who was about the same size as... well, a bear.
Their fix? They threw a few of the camouge tunics on him and used Elmando to manipte some of the nt material on them to bind them together.
"You guys go ahead, I''ll act as vanguard," Lucius ordered, gesturing for Pagan to take lead.
The group was a little confused about why they were changing their formation now. However, they didn''t question themand and hesitantly moved forward, clearly not asfortable with Lucius not being the one beside them.
~Okay, let''s see,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he watched his group slowly encroach on the guarded line.
He made sure to keep his eye on the edges of the line he had told Ghost to disable; it would fall upon him to take out any guards who noticed their movement.
However, that was not the sole reason he had asked to stay behind.
He had asked Ghost to use her poison to disable the guards instead of killing them, however, he couldn''t leave them here alive. Perhaps if they were on their way back, he could''ve taken them in for questioning, unfortunately, there was no telling how long they would take.
"Your death is not in vain. You help bring my children one step closer to safety," Lucius whispered, before changing his core to Kumulipo.
Recently he had noticed that it was getting easier and easier to change from sr crux to Kumulipo; however, the opposite was bing more and more strenuous.
Perhaps it had something to do with howfortable he felt using it, or perhaps due to the differences in their characteristics. However, it wasn''t something he was going to put much thought into at the moment.
Right now, there was free Helios and evolution points to be had.
"Gluttonous distortion," he chanted, moving the Kumulipo towards one of the poisoned guards.
With that, his energies went rampant within the guard''s body, searching for its core like a pack of hungry snakes. In mere seconds, the energies wrapped around the guard''s core and shattered it.
Ghost''s poison was potent enough topletely disable them, but even then Lucius could hear a muffled gurgle as the energies seeped out from its core.
Once he was done, he quickly absorbed the stolen energies and repeated the process with the remaining guards.
Each time he absorbed their energies, he felt a wave of relief wash over his body; as if drinking fresh water after days of thirst. A thirst he didn''t even realize he had.
Unlike before, there was no remorse, no guilt. Perhaps it was because the guards didn''t seem to be suffering all that much, or because Lucius kept telling himself that he was doing this for the good of his children.
But whatever the case was, he crushed their cores with the practiced patience of a professional. Not taking a second longer than necessary.
However, it was on his final core that something strange happened.
At this point, Pagan and the others had already made it past the line and were no doubt waiting for Lucius to catch up.
~Huh? What''s this?~ Lucius wondered to himself, slightly annoyed.
It seemed that something was pulling at his crux, obstructing him from properlypleting his final ¡ºGluttonous Distortion¡».
~You?~ Lucius realized, noticing that his True Elmando tail was glowing.
~It''s for themune. We can''t let Helios go to waste,~ Lucius exined, before pushing through the tail''s Elmando and draining the final guard of his energies.
All in all, he had absorbed 60 million Helios and had grown to 1.6 meters. He could feel that his evolution was close; it was an edging feeling, as if he were about to lift off into the sky but a small string were keeping him tethered.
~Hmm, if I use this again I''ll probably evolve... not ideal right now,~ he realized, before putting away the kumulipo.
He took a moment to change from kumulipo back to sr crux, and with this, he could feel the branding that marked his skin begin to warm up. It seemed that this process required Rena, which hinted at what type of energy it could be.
As far as Lucius could tell, Rena may refer to the mental energy involved in spells. For instance, he had been med for over-using his Rena only after his mind had overheated.
However, something told him that mental energy wasn''t all there was to it.
After he had managed to sessfully switch over to the sr crux, he essed his helios reserves.
[(Current Helios: 62,316,000)]
~This should be enough to buy sobriquets for the entiremune. A bit more, and I might even be able toplete the evo-points quest~ he thought to himself, waves of euphoria still washing over his body from the cores he had ingested.
*
After dragging the corpses into some nearby vegetation, he made his way towards the rest of the group.
His camouge wasn''t as good as it used to be, what with his body being covered in obsidian marks now. However, with his greatly enhanced senses -which seemed to have gotten even better with the absorption of those cores- he could just make out the sound of the guards breathing in the close distance, better yet, he could smell their scent.
In fact, in conjunction with his newly enhanced earth senses, it felt like he could even tell where they were currently looking, even though that made no sense to him.
After a few minutes, he made it through the lines and slowly snuck his way towards one of the hills in this new blue rockndscape.
"Good job, everyone," he said promptly, before looking out into the field ahead.
The ce smelt of sulfur, a putrid smell that clogged his throat if he breathed too deeply. And the gusts of wind that blew towards the forest felt warm and dry, a stark contrast to the moist cool air of the forest.
From here on out, the only cover they would have were rocky hills, which weren''t very many to begin with. And with the rough rocky texture of thendscape, moving stealthily wasn''t going to be the easiest endeavor.
"Keep your guard up, things are only going to get more difficult from here," he warned, before gesturing for them to proceed.
Chapter 263 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons [III]
Chapter 263 Gravenovarish''s Weapons [III]
Advancement through the ''Bluends'', as Lucius was terming it, was perilous to say the least. What seemed like a vast open teau turned out to be a series of incredibly steep rock dunes. Even at the slowed pace, they were moving with, there were several times where the members of the entourage nearly slipped and fell into what was no doubt certain death.
Earth Sense did little to help in this situation, with Lucius himself being injured on several asions as he was the spearhead of the advance. Without sr cleanse, the group probably wouldn''t have made it past a few kilometres.
What made the journey even more dangerous were the thick sand storms, which seemed to blow every so often. They not only clouded the vision, engulfing the group in near total darkness each time they swept by, but also wreaked havoc on the ears, the sound of their approach like a million rumbling bees about to attack.
And it seemed the further they went, the more ss-like the particles became. Eventually traversing through a sandstorm felt like being whipped with ss and the group had to take shelter within the small ditches that separated neighbouring rock dunes.
"How do the workers pass through this terrain?" Lucius asked, as the group descended yet another rocky dune. His voice sounded a little groggy, as dozens of odd particles had lodged themselves into his throat.
The group was currently huddled within a ditch, a sandstorm passing by overhead.
"The council has Morrentors, tamed Terra beasts. They use magic that protects them from the elements," the eldest furtong in the entourage replied, his voice almost inaudible as the sand storm above them raged past.
"Tamed? Where did they get these¡ Morrentors?" Lucius asked. If he could get his hands on some of these Morrentors, then perhaps he could start his own mines.
"The Deste Sea, however, I hear that even the best magic users in the council die trying to get them," the furtong replied.
"Deste Sea? Where is that?" Lucius asked, his voice now a shout as he tried to speak over the rumbling sound of the sandstorm.
"If we continue moving forward we will eventually reach it. However, I do not rmend going Lighted One. Truly, the councillors are foolish for sending anyone into that ce. Several of their best magic users are now lost, and in exchange, they have only gained a few Morrentors. And even then, the creatures are in their infancy," the furtong continued.
~Well if it gets worse the deeper in you go, I''m certain that the Deste Lands are a death zone. Perhaps it might be better if I just steal the ones the council has. Apart from making themune stronger, it''ll no doubt weaken the council to a great degree,~
"How much further?" the bear-man leader asked, as Lucius pondered over the creatures.
"I haven''t been here for many seasonal cycles. Thest time, I was brought as a potential mine worker, but my knowledge of Ordem was limited, and they sent me back. Back then they had cleared a path to the mines, but it seems it was lost to the elements," the furtong replied.
~I wonder if the Councillors just care so little about minerals or whether maintaining the paths was hard,~ Lucius thought to himself.
By now the sandstorm was beginning to die out.
"Where does the Aternite go, after it''s taken from the mines?" Lucius asked.
The furtong remained silent for a moment, trying toe up with an answer before eventually shaking their head.
"I hear rumours that they trade with the owners of the forest, but I wouldn''t put much trust in any whispers that involve them," the furtong replied.
~The owners of the forest, huh? It''s been a while since I thought about them. Well, I suppose it would make sense humans are interested in minerals. Though I wonder why they don''t juste out here and do it themselves. Do they not have magic?~ Lucius thought to himself, as he stared up the opening above him.
The storm was now nothing more than a gust of wind.
"Let''s continue," he said,
*
The journey had them marching through the searing hot sun and stabbing gravel terrain for another hour before Lucius sensed several dozen energy readingsing from up ahead.
"A volcano?" he whispered to himself,cking any other words to describe the structure in front of them. It was a hill much taller than all the others, about the height of a skyscraper.
And unlike the terrain all around them, it had a red-ssy colour to it, that glimmered like ruby gems. At the top were several ck dots, it seemed even with Lucius''s enhanced vision, he couldn''t make out what sort of creatures were guarding it.
However that worked to their advantage as well, as that meant that the guards up there probably couldn''t see them either.
"I suppose this is it," Lucius said to the others, still staring up at the volcano-like structure.
The group was currently hidden behind a massive boulder, several meters from the base of the mountain.
There seemed to be a pathid out that spiralled around the volcano towards the top. From the looks of the massive footprints that wereden all across it, it seemed the workers used the Morrentors to get to the top.
~Can''t even call themzy, this path looks insane,~ Lucius thought to himself. Even at full speed, it would take a good amount of time to get to the top by feet.
And that was assuming you were being reckless and didn''t care about potentially falling to your doom.
"We''ll wait for a sandstorm before we move," Lucius started, now drawing something on the ground with his index w.
"There isn''t any cover on the way to the top, so if we hope to go up unnoticed it''ll be our only bet," he continued, before looking up towards Pagan.
"It''ll be dangerous, and I''m sure we''ll get hurt on the way up, so we''ll take turns healing any injuries we may incur," he said, before looking towards Ghost.
"When we get to the top, me and Pagan will need time to recover our sr reserves and Rena before proceeding, so it''ll be up to you to take out the guards," he added.
Before drawing a top-view replica of the volcano structure on the ground.
"From what I can tell, they are stationed here, here, and here," he exined, drawing X''s on the corresponding locations. "There could be more, but we''ll have to scout that out once we get to the top," he finished.
He took a moment to make sure that Ghost and Pagan understood what he was saying, and after they nodded in approval, he proceeded.
"Even from here, I can sense that these guards are a few notches above the ones we faced at the line. So be careful, me and Pagan will provide assistance if you have any issues. However, I want them taken care of quickly and silently. Everything will be for nought if we''re discovered," he warned.
Before looking back up at the volcano structure.
"There are several massively powerful individuals in there that even I would have a hard time taking care of. If any of us are spotted, we''ll take that as our queue to leave," he said, before looking back towards Pagan and Ghost.
"Understood?"
Chapter 264 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons [IV]
Chapter 264 Gravenovarish''s Weapons [IV]
The two of them slowly nodded their heads in response.
"The rest of you will follow us from a distance, hopefully by the time you arrive up there we''ll have taken out all the guards," Lucius said, now looking towards the other members of the group.
As they waited for a sandstorm, Lucius continued to use his earth sense to try and get a better read of the battlefield.
Though he had mentioned the presence of several?massively powerful entities somewhere within the volcano structure, there was one entity in particr that he was wary of.
It wasn''t so much the intensity of its signal, but rather the sort of ''ambiance'' it was giving off. He hade across a simr energy signal only a few days ago and had nearly died trying to y its owner.
~Seems Eiknyr isn''t the only one using that odd magic... perhaps it''s moremon than I thought,~ Lucius thought to himself, though he doubted it.
Regardless of what sort of society the Forest Council was trying to forge, there was no way that abhorrent magics like the one Eiknyr used were allowed. It sacrificed allies for greater power, and was capable of summoning abominations not of this world - or atleast not of natural origin- with but a few chants and symbols.
~Though I suppose this just means there''s something worth taking in there,~ he thought to himself with a false smile. A tinge of fear igniting within him like the first embers of a forest fire.
However this wasn''t fear for himself, no, this was fear for his children. Fear that they may fall at the hands of this strange enemy. In the past he would''ve given up on the mission and told them to go back, but time had taught him that he wouldn''t always be there for them.
It''s better they learn how to fight insanely powerful enemies beside him now, than for him to shelter them away even as they plot war against the Forest Council.
"Lighted One," Pagan whispered, pulling Lucius out of his daze.
A massive shadow approached in the distance, dwarfed only by the angry brown cloud above it. It was a sandstorm, the biggest they had seen thus far.
"Prepare yourselves. Cynomys, Furtong and Castors, for this mission you''ll be known as the Argonauts, Bear-man you''ll be known as Ursa," Lucius exined quickly.
"Argonauts, attach yourselves to Ursa. The storm looks tough, it''s likely that some of you might be blown away without proper anchorage," he continued before looking to Ghost.
"Ghost, time to go invisible. Begin your ascent and only engage once the sandstorm arrives, no need to take unnecessary risks."
With that Ghost''s figure vanished into the darkness of Lucius''s shadow, and he could just faintly make out her energy signal moving towards the volcano.
The sandstorm arrived just three minutes after she left, and it descended upon them with the wrath of the wind gods itself. Even with both of Lucius''s tails anchoring him to the ground, he struggled to keep himself rooted to the ground.
Thinking of a quick way to provide even?more anchorage, he instructed Pagan to get on his back so that theirbined weight might keep them both grounded. And though this idea worked to an extent, it required all the strength Lucius had to keep Pagan from flying off his back.
The bear-man chief however seemed to be having better luck. His massive body was enough to shield the Argonauts from the harsh winds, and his weight was sufficient to keep him on the ground without much struggle.
Lucius considered using the bear-man as a windbreak, however it would put the other members at jeopardy in the event they were attacked on the way up the volcano structure. So he gritted his teeth, squinted his eyes and took on the raging tempest head on.
What was already quite a dangerous trip became one of great peril, several times Lucius found himself having to save the Argonauts from certain death after one of them had stepped into unseen crevices, or after stumbling and somehow falling out of the bear-man''s windbreak.
It didn''t help that he himself was susceptible to missteps, as the sandstorm reduced visibility to just past his hands. The only reason they were not lost -or hopefully not at least- was because he had memorized the path up the mountain.
~I really need to look into acquiring some armor, because this is...~ he thought to himself, as he inspected the many wounds that now gued his body, courtesy of the rock material being flung around within the sandstorm.
~Should be easy enough with all the different forms of Elmando we have at our disposal. I''ll have it done as soon as we get some materials from this mine,~ he decided.
Lucius and Pagan reached the top after 20 minutes, and still it did not seem like the sandstorm would die down any time soon.
Lucius spread out his earth sense as far as possible, trying to pinpoint the location of the guards within this cloak of dust and sand. However he found no energy signals present close by, all of them wereing from somewhere within the structure.
~Did they retreat inside because of the storm?~ he thought to himself, before instinctively swinging his tail to a location right behind him.
He had sensed the sudden but faint appearance of an energy signal, suspicious to say the \least. However right before the hitnded, he stopped it midair.
"Ghost, I warned you about sneaking up on me," he shouted, trying to get his words over the howling of the winds.
"I got them all," she replied, one of her spider legs raised into the air. She had impaled three venari heads with it as if she were trying to make some sort of kebab.
"Toss the bodies over," he replied, gesturing towards the area where they had been hiding earlier.
Whilst Ghost was getting rid of the evidence, Lucius proceeded to what should''ve been the crater of this would-be volcano.
Chapter 265 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons {Minecrawlers} [V]
Chapter 265 Gravenovarish''s Weapons {Minecrawlers} [V]
A cloud of dust steadily made its way down the crater, obscuring visibility beyond a few meters. However, Lucius could just barely make out a sort of earth tform along the circumference of the inner walls, that spiralled downwards towards the deep unseen.
Taking a deep breath, he unleashed his earth sense, pushing it to its limits to gather as much detailed information as it could provide. However, due to the constantshings he was getting from the wild winds, he couldn''t focus to the level he normally would, and thus it didn''t cover as wide an area as normal.
~Restritcted to a few meters it seems. Still, it will do. With Ghost taking the vanguard, she''ll be able to deal with whatever guards we might meet on the way down there,~ he thought to himself, just as Ghost appeared right beside him, like a phantom emerged from the dirt clouds.
"I don''t sense anything for the first few meters. I''ll go in first and confirm, follow after five breaths," Lucius ordered, before jumping off the ledge, aiming for the tform along the inner walls.
Hended with a thud, perhaps not the stealthiest ofndings, though luckily it seemed that there really was nobody around.
And fortunately enough, although the dust from outside had made its way down here, the wind waspletely blocked off, meaning he could now focus properly.
"Pagan, heal yourself then begin to heal everyone else. If we encounter anyone on the way, I''ll be dealing with them. Reserve your sr energy for real threats," Lucius ordered, before closing his eyes to release his earth sense once more.
This time it covered a massive area, nearly reaching the bottom of the volcano. Once he was certain that there were no obvious energy readings bouncing back, he decreased its coverage, deciding to do a more thorough search.
This time it only covered around 7 meters, however, he waspletely confident that within those seven meters there truly was nobody there, invisible or otherwise.
Unless of course there were creatures down here capable of hiding their energy readings. However, apart from Ghost -who couldn''t even do it all that well to begin with- the only other creature he knew capable of doing that was Shavak. And even in that case, he had to make use of his mystic mantle to perform that trick.
Ghost dropped down a few momentster, as he was scanning the areas around the walls, ensuring that no creatures were hidden within.
"Ghost, trying using your earth sense to see if you can pick up anythin-" Lucius was about to say, right before he got a glimpse of her.
While they were still standing outside, he couldn''t really see much. And although he could make out Ghost''s figure within the dust cloud, it was just an outline, nothing detailed.
Now that they were down here, where the visibility was considerably better, he could see all the wounds that covered her body. Her breath wasboured, and her eyes were drooping- as if she hadn''t slept in a while.
"Were you hit?" he asked, as Pagan healed him. Although thetter could obviously see that Ghost was in dire need of it, he chose to heal Lucius first.
"Sorry," she replied, gripping onto arge gash at the side of her arm.
"How? I thought you were invisible," Lucius replied, subconsciously pulling out his crux to heal her, before stopping himself.
Now that he had the brand of the thief covering his body, he had to be very frugal with his spells. Even if it was something minor like healing, he couldn''t waste even an iota of sr energy.
"I haven''t figured out how to attack and keep my technique active. I was sort of hoping you could help me with that... I just never got around to asking," she replied, her voice a ragged whisper.
~And it seems that she''s nearing her limit. Using it so much in a single day must be taking a toll on her... This is going to be tricky,~ he thought to himself, realizing that he wouldn''t be able to depend on her for a while.
"Hmm, for now take rest. Pagan, you''ll take over the rear, I''ll take the front. Ghost, you''ll group up with the Argonauts," Lucius decided. Just then, he sensed the Argonauts make it up to the rim of the volcano.
"I''ll be right back," he said as he got to his feet. At this point, Pagan had begun healing Ghost.
Lucius looked up at the rim, before taking a few steps back. With a running start, he jumped onto the inner walls and began running up, using his ws to keep him somewhat anchored.
With some strain, he made it back up to the rim.
"It''s a four meter- I mean the drop is around twice your height," he said to Ursa, to which thetter responded with a nod.
"You''ll probably make it without much injury, but I don''t have much faith for the others. We''ll have to carry them," he continued, before using his tail to pick up one of the cynomys. His true-elmando tail followed suit and picked up another nearby cynomys.
With that, he wrapped them tightly, like a snake would wrap around its prey, before bringing them close to his body.
"Aim for the tforms," he added, before jumping off the ledge once more. This time however hended a little more gracefully, having learned to crouch down with the impact from thest time.
A momentter, Ursanded right beside him with an echoed thud, like a meteorite fallen from the heavens. Dust and debris were sent flying all around, and visible cracks had developed on the tform.
Lucius quickly used his earth sense to see if anything wasing, fortunately for them, it seemed that the howling winds outside were enough to mask the sound.
"You okay?" Lucius asked.
"Not used to falling," Ursa replied with a sort of pained tone, cradling the Argonauts in a sort of hug. They were currently staring nkly into space, no doubt in shock from what had just happened to them.
"Anynding you can walk away from is a goodnding. Anyone injured?" Lucius asked sort of humorously, gesturing for Pagan to attend to them.
Chapter 266 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons {Minecrawlers} [VI]
Chapter 266 Gravenovarish''s Weapons {Minecrawlers} [VI]
Once Pagan had finished healing everyone, the group began moving. Although the tform was ratherrge rge enough to fit the enigmatic creature known as the Morrentor- it was also uneven, having been made with obviously crude methods.
It also descended at quite a steep rate, so the heavier members of the group -Ursa- were finding it quite difficult to make it down at any considerable rate. Thus Lucius was forced to move slower than he would''ve otherwise wanted.
Still though, it gave him time to get a good grasp of the sort of environment they were going to be working in.
The rocks here were considerably different from those outside. Whereas the outsidendscape was mainlyprised of blue rocks, here the rocks seemed to be made from multiple minerals, as they hosted a plethora of rainbow-like colours.
In addition to that, there seemed to be a lot more crystalline rocks -that grew out of the ground much like pirs- creating obstacles that the group had to manoeuvre around. Whether they had been included in the initial construction of this tform, or grownter on was a mystery.
"Are you guys familiar with these?" Lucius asked after a long silence had descended on the group. He was starting to notice that more and more of these crystals were emerging as they went down.
"Cerphin, the living rock," one of the furtong replied. It was the eldest of them, the same one who had mentioned having an uncle trapped within one of the mines.
"Living rock?" Lucius asked, staring at one of the crystals they were passing by with sudden interest.
"They are like the vegetation of this area. They grow and grow, most of these probably originate from deep within the earth. I''ve even heard rumours that certain creatures can eat them... my uncle told me that some furtong resort to this when they can''t meet their quota for food. It grows in the body... doesn''t end well for them," the furtong replied.
Lucius made a special note of how the elder furtong seemed to have a story for every answer. It wasn''t a bad thing, though it added an interesting dimension to a creature that was otherwise a stranger to him.
As they descended lower and lower, Lucius was beginning to realize that the inside of this structure went deeper than he had initially thought. It seemed that a good section of the ground here had been mined out as he was certain that they had already covered the length of the volcano.
Soon, the light from the outside was beginning to grow faint, and the first of many light runes appeared - embedded within the sides of the wall.
The deeper they went, the more light runes they found, and the more ''living rocks'' grew from the ground.
Here they had begun to take on the same sort of orangish-yellow being emitted by the light runes. Lucius was sure that this wasn''t a mere reflection, as the Cerphin themselves were emitting a light of their own.
~Hmm, these look interesting. They almost remind me of the flower I stole from Eikthyrnir''s den,~ Lucius thought to himself, realizing that the flower was just a multicoloured variant... albeit being a lot moreplex than these crude pirs.
~I''ll take a sample, we could grow these in our new den... maybe they might even work well as material for better tools,~ he realized, before pulling out one of the tools he had packed from the sack tied around his waist.
He swung at one of the several crystal pirs around him, creating a small crack. However, with that single swing, his tool shattered -apparently these crystals were a lot harder than they looked.
~These will definitely make good materials,~ he thought to himself with a sort of excited smile, before turning to one of the furtong.
"Can you guys mould these using your... abilities?" he asked.
The furtong looked at the crystal pir hesitantly, before stretching out its hands. After closing its eyes, and making strained gestures for a little while, it gave up.
"F-forgive me, it''s too heavy," it replied, a dejected expression on its face.
"Even though the Lighted One has only asked you this much, you can''t deliver? Yet you expect him to-" Pagan was about to go off, before Lucius gestured for him to stop.
"Can you guys work together? Maybe with all of you pulling, you may be able to break off a small piece. That''s all I need," Lucius asked again.
The furtong stared at each other for a moment, before they collectively closed their eyes, and stretched out their hands.
After a few minutes and great strain, they managed to break off a small piece, around the size of an egg. The group fell to their knees in exhaustion, apparently this small prize had taken everything out of them.
~And this material we''re looking for is supposed to be harder than this?~ Lucius thought to himself as he pocketed the crystal.
*
By the time they had made it to the base level, their surroundings were almostpletely covered in crystal pirs. They had begun to take on very odd shapes, sometimes looking like leafless trees and other times like the works of some sort of extra-terrestrial sculptor.
Regardless, there were several pathways past the bushy mess of crystal art, that led to openings within the ground.
It seemed this was the true entrance to the mines.
Each opening had a series of light runes all around it - and though very slight- Lucius could tell that they were different shades of yellow.
~I wonder what it means,~ he thought to himself, divided on which path to take.
"Should we split up?" Ghost asked, realising the dilemma they now faced.
"No, there''s no point in finding the material quickly when it''ll just put us in danger. We''ll move as a single unit and overwhelm whatever we find blocking our path," Lucius replied, before closing his eyes.
He spread his earth sense down each hole, trying to find out which path was the least dangerous.
"Fuck," he whispered under his breath as he scanned one of the openings, falling to his arse with a sort of dejected expression.
"What''s wrong?" Ghost asked, walking towards Lucius, before sending out her earth-sense as well.
A momentter her eyes went wide as she slowly turned her head to look at Lucius.
"S-should we still continue?" she asked, her body shivering slightly.
Chapter 267 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons {Minecrawlers} [VII]
Chapter 267 Gravenovarish''s Weapons {Minecrawlers} [VII]
"What''s going on?" Pagan shouted from the back of the group, annoyed that he had to be so far away from Lucius, and impatient because he had expected to have killed something by now.
~What the hell was that?~ Lucius thought to himself, ignoring the questioning gazes that surrounded him.
~Was that a Morrentor?~ he wondered, trying to rationalize the immense energy signal he had just sensed. Sadly though, he was acquainted with earth sense well enough to know that the owner of this energy signal was a sentient being and not some beast.
~It''s more powerful than the necromancer... or at least the version of the necromancer I fought back in thest war,~ he realized.
Sure, if he put all his cards on the table -counting Bedona and using kumulipo to its full sadistic potential- he was probably slightly stronger, but what really worried him was that the creature was emitting this much energy at base level.
Usually, there was a huge discrepancy between the energy readings someone gave off when they weren''t in battle and when they were. For instance, even Eiknyr wasn''t this powerful before they had engaged in battle.
To make matters worse, there was the fact that his earth sense may not have urately measured its energy readings since it was still so far away. This mission was starting to look more and more dangerous.
However, Lucius already knew the consequences of shying away from dangerous situations. Enemies only grew stronger, and if he wasn''t willing to put things on the line every now and then, they would surpass him at an exponential level.
"No, we''re moving on. We''ll just avoid the pathways that creature is in," he announced, before exining the situation to the others.
Pagan didn''t seem bothered in the slightest, no doubt in his mind nobody could overpower the lighted one, especially if he was there by?his side. He already doubted the ims that Lucius had lost to the necromancer, suspecting that there was some sort of foul y at hand during their duel.
As for the Argonauts, they seemed to be in a simr boat. They understood the words that came out of Lucius''s mouth, but could not fathom that the god creature in front of them could be bested by anything these tunnels had to offer.
After all, he had already proven himself by ying Eiknyr, an enemy that they had once thought unyable.
Ursa however had a more realistic response to the information, understanding that strengths shifted every waking moment -one couldn''t im to be the strongest person in existence. Still, he seemed excited at the prospect of fighting against a strong opponent -which made Lucius suspect that the old bear had a few tricks up his sleeve.
"We''ll be taking this opening," Lucius announced, pointing to one of the mine entrances to their left.
"Our mission is to find the Aternite and leave, avoid any unnecessary encounters," he continued, as he walked towards the entrance.
"But if something does stand in our way, don''t hesitate. Knock it out immediately... remember though, I want a few captives, so don''t go around killing everyone you find," he finished, before going through the entrance.
The inside of the tunnel was quite spacious, reminiscent of the tunnels back in the Shrikillianbyrinth, though at least these ones weren''t constantly shifting.
There were a series of light runes lined along both sides of the wall, making it seem as if it were daytime, even though they were underground.
After walking for just a few minutes, the group came across the first of the precious minerals the mines had to offer. It was an ember-coloured rock embedded within a huge bolder where dozens of other simr rocks were trapped.
Judging by the way the boulder protruded from the side of the wall, it was likely that the furtong could not use their abilities to interact with it. Still, Lucius turned to look at one of the furtong to confirm whether it was what they were looking for.
The elder furtong replied with a disappointed shake of his head.
~Well, that would''ve been too easy, wouldn''t it,~ Lucius thought to himself, before venturing on.
The deeper in they walked, the more prevalent the ember rocks became. At one point he used the crystal chunk they had extracted earlier to test which was harder -the crystal won, though just barely.
So, using the crystal chunk, he began hacking away at one of the ember ores, extracting severalrge pieces.
Realizing that his sack would be too small to store it all, he Elmando to morph the tunic he was wearing into a knapsack, in which he stored the minerals he had extracted.
As they explored deeper within the tunnels, the earth walls were beginning to showcase patches of crystalline material. It was the same sort that the crystal pirs were made from, though here they seemed to be growing more like fungal mould terally along the earth instead of upward.
Once they had gotten deeper, they found that most of the tunnel walls had bepletely infected by this crystal growth, giving the illusion that the earth around them was made from glowing ss -as the crystals had absorbed the light being emitted by the light runes.
It was a magnificent sight, to say the least, like walking under an aquarium tunnel, only instead of aquatic life, the shimmering kaleidoscope internals of the crystals were the ones on disy.
"Hold," Lucius whispered, gesturing towards a fork in the path up ahead. There were three possible paths they could choose from, and only two of them seemed to have creatures in them.
"Are we taking the empty one?" Ghost asked, standing only a few steps behind Lucius. Even though he had ordered her to take rest, based on her positioning and stance, he could tell that she would join a fight as soon as it broke out.
"No, we''ll take this one," Lucius replied, gesturing towards one of the popted paths.
Ghost turned to him in confusion, not understanding the reasoning behind his decision.
Chapter 268 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons {Minecrawlers} [VIII]
Chapter 268 Gravenovarish''s Weapons {Minecrawlers} [VIII]
"We''re looking for a precious mineral, it''s more likely that the creatures down here are in tunnels with such materials," Lucius exined, already making his way towards the aforementioned tunnel.
"Pagan,e to the front," he whispered, gesturing for Pagan toe.
"Follow through after ten breaths. Once you enter, focus your attention on the far end of the tunnels, I''ll have already dealt with those close by. And don''t use bursting trace, they''ll probably furtong around, I don''t want them getting hurt," he instructed, before looking towards Ghost.
"Ghost, stay behind with Ursa and protect the Argonauts. In case an enemy slips past us, you guys are the final line," he added, before rushing towards the tunnel.
He nned to blitzkrieg them, taking them out before they even knew what was going on.
The tunnel led into a small cave, around the size of a house, with a ceiling at around the same height as a four-storey building.
There were seven furtong in the cave, all of them ving along the edges of the walls to extract a ck rock -which at first nce looked to be obsidian.
Apart from them, there were three venari guards, all of them around the same height as a fully grown human male. Two of them wore yellow robes, whilst the third -and more powerful one based on energy readings- wore a purple tunic.
Before any of them had even realized he was there, Lucius used his tail to grab one of the yellow tunic guards -who was the closest to the entrance- before dragging it back towards him.
Quickly he mmed the guard against the wall, with enough force to shatter bone, knocking the guard unconscious.
At this point, the others had realized something was off. However, Lucius was already rushing towards them.
The creatures were in shock at the sight of him, never before had theyid their eyes on such a creature. Lucius was the stuff of nightmares, enigmatic even amongst these wild creatures. If they told their children stories of the boogeyman, he would be it.
Whilst the yellow-tunic guard fumbled to call out their crux, the purple-tunic already had theirs out, positioning themselves against the far end of the wall as they tried to get a scope of what was going on.
As Lucius sent out three quick jabs towards the yellow tunic- two to the throat, and one to the side of the head- the purple tunic was already chanting something.
Its mouth moved at unfathomable speeds, chanting faster than Lucius could ever hope to. As it did, the purple crux that floated right beside its head began glowing with power.
Luckily for Lucius, he didn''t need to chant.
~Sr beam,~ he thought to himself, releasing his crux, and sending out the spell with less than a second dy between the two. He had never done it before, but after using his crux for so long, this level of proficiency felt normal to him.
The beam came out as a very thin line, around the width of a branch, with tinges of violent tainting its radiant yellow colour.
Right as the purple tunic''s spell was about to go off, the beam of light shot through its head, killing it instantly. Its body stood up straight for a while as if confused over whether it was dead or not, before falling to the ground.
Pagan arrived a split second after the fight had ended, his sr crux already glowing with power as he dashed into the room.
"I-If I may Lighted One, please leave some for the rest of us next time," Pagan said, a sort of embarrassed look on his face as he spoke.
The furtong were huddled up against the walls, shivering at the sight of the intruders who had killed their wardens. One would think that they''d be grateful for being freed, though Lucius understood that as a lower-tier creature, it was hard to trust anyone with power as immense as his.
"We aren''t going to hurt you," he announced, speaking fluent furtong.
The creatures seemed surprised for a moment, however, their fear quickly consumed that, and they were back to pushing against the walls as if they hoped it would swallow them.
In fact, Lucius could see that one of them was trying to create an escape path behind them.
"Don''t, I won''t be able to help you if you disappear into the walls. I''m Havon, and I''m here to save you," he said -cringing slightly- before using [Spacial Sr Cleanse].
Waves of radiant energy pulsated from his crux, causing the furtong to glimmer as they were healed of whatever minor injuries they had.
Their bodies rxed for a moment, and their eyes drooped, as if their fatigue were only now catching up to them right now.
~They must''ve been really injured if sr cleanse is draining them of this much energy,~ Lucius thought to himself, before looking at Pagan.
"Go get the Argonauts, maybe they''ll trust us more if they see we''re already walking around with some of their own," Lucius whispered.
Pagan quickly disappeared back towards the tunnel they hade from, returning a few momentster with the Argonauts.
"Exin to them that we''re here to help," Lucius said, gesturing towards the furtong. There was a quick scramble between the Argonauts over who would talk, with the elder furtonging out on top.
He quickly approached them and began exining to his brethren that Lucius and his group meant no harm.
As the elder furtong did that, Lucius frisked the unconscious yellow-tunic guards, in search of any valuable loot. However, it seemed they were just low-level scrubs, with nothing -apart from their tunics- in their possession.
He quickly used the vines he had packed in his sack to tie up them up, before dragging them towards Ursa.
"You think you can carry them the rest of the way, big guy?" he asked, to which Ursa nodded solemnly, before picking them up and hoisting them over his shoulders like they were sacks of potatoes.
Lucius then approached the purple-tunic guard and frisked him as well. Based on the way the guard reacted to his attack, Lucius could tell that it was of a considerably higher level than the yellow tunics.
And luckily this showed in the sort of loot it had.
Chapter 269 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons {Minecrawlers} [IX]
Chapter 269 Gravenovarish''s Weapons {Minecrawlers} [IX]
It had an obsidian short knife in its right pocket, decorated with beautiful purple gemstones along its hilt and engraved with several odd patterns along its de -making it look more like a ceremonial knife than one meant forbat.
And in its right pocket was a small pink colored gemstone -about the same size as a seed. Although it looked rather unimpressive, Lucius could sense an odd energy emanating from within it, he suspected that it might be something simr to a manastone.
He would''ve ran sr energy through it to see if it would have any reaction, however, he didn''t want to risk it whilst they were so deep in enemy territory. So after inspecting it for a moment, he ced it in his knapsack.
~Hmm, the knife is pretty sharp, but it''s not exactly my size,~ he thought to himself, noting how his hands made the weapon seem like a toy -although he was smaller than the venari, his hands were massive, nearly the same size as Ursa''s, who was two timesrger than he was.
"Ghost, an early birthday present," Lucius said, handing her the knife as he walked back towards Ursa and the others.
"Birthday?" Ghost asked, inspecting the knife with a sort of curious gaze.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" she asked.
~Ah, I never really taught these guys how to use weapons, did I? Though we''ve never had a reason to honestly,~ he thought to himself. After all, their ws and appendages were better than any knife they could''ve crafted back in the day.
However now with the prospect of magical weapons on the horizon, it was high time he began their training. Though it was a shame that he was limited with the number of weapons he could train them in.
After all, as a soldier of the 21st century, most of the weaponry he had used was in the form of firearms. And he had little hope of creating something of the sort this early on- or at least that was the way things looked right now.
Apart from that, he was well versed in knife y, though Ghost was the only one with an ability kit allowing for such close-rangebat, what with her proficiency with the invisibility technique.
"I''ll teach you how to use itter, you can just hold on to it for now," he said finally.
"L-Lighted One, did I do something wrong?" Pagan asked, a look of utter disbelief on his face as he stared at the knife in Ghost''s hands. Even though he had no idea what it was, he could tell based on how beautiful it looked, that it was worth quite a bit.
"I haven''t forgotten you, Pagan. Your early birthday present is the clothing that?guard is wearing. It''s all yours," Lucius replied, trying to keep his son happy.
Pagan''s look of disbelief quickly turned into an expression that Lucius was not quite familiar with. Pagan took a moment to kneel down in front of the purple-tunic guard, before quickly relieving it of its robes.
"Th-thank you Lighted One," Pagan shouted, inspecting his new outfit with wide excited eyes.
"Be-behold, the Lighted One has shown favour upon me," Pagan said, facing the Argonauts now.
"I, his most trusted have proof that I am the favourite of all his kin. Speak of this when we return to themune, speak of the Lighted One''s love for me," he announced grandly, making his crux send out waves of sr energy to create a sort of light show.
Indeed, he looked like a priest with his purple robes and glowing aura, however, where everyone else seemed slightly in awe of this, Lucius was very annoyed.
"I told you not to waste your sr energy. Now put that away," he snapped, before pushing pasthim and walking to the elder furtong and the miners.
"So, how are things going here?" he asked, again shocking the miners with how fluent his furtong tongue was.
"A-are you really the saviour?" one of the miners asked, a sceptical expression on its face.
"In the flesh," Lucius replied, a steeled expression on his.
"Another fraud," one of the miners whispered under its breath, earning an elbow from one of itsrades.
"If you really are the saviour, can you free all the others? My father and brothers... remaining brothers are in this mine as well. This ce is not... it''s not what was promised," the furtong pleaded. However, from the expression on its face, Lucius could tell that it did not have much hope in its request.
Even after seeing what Lucius was capable of, it did not think that this task was achievable. Perhaps it hadid its eyes upon the monster that walked these tunnels, that creature that had a higher base level power than even Eiknyr.
"I cannot promise that all your brethren will be saved, but I can promise that we will save who we can," Lucius responded.
"I-I understand," the furtong replied, a sort of disappointed expression on its face.
Lucius wanted badly to be the hero the creature needed, however saving all the furtong simply was not a part of the mission. He was not going to put the lives of two of his first children at risk because he wanted to y superhero.
"If it isn''t too much, I''d like some help from you guys as well. Do you know where we can get Aternite? It''d be much appreciated," he asked after a moment of silence had passed.
The creatures looked at each other for a moment, as if pondering whether to help or not, before the furtong at the centre of the group -the one who had been talking earlier- nodded his head in response.
"Follow me, I will take you there," the furtong replied.
*
The furtong led the group deeper into the mines, passing through several other caves where their brethren were being put tobour.
And just as quickly as Lucius had dealt with the first one, he dealt with all the others. Luckily for him, most of the guards he came across were yellow tunics, who seemed to be the weakest of the bunch, allowing him to use minimal sr energy.
They were steadily building up an army of furtong, and though many of them were sceptical about his im of being the saviour, a good number of them looked to him like he was a hero.
No doubt themune would have a new stream of members. However Lucius was anything but happy.
Chapter 270 Gravenovarish鈥檚 Weapons {Minecrawlers} [X]
Chapter 270 Gravenovarish''s Weapons {Minecrawlers} [X]
"So when are you nning on actually taking me to the Aternite?" Lucius whispered into his guide''s ear.
After they hade across the second mine camp, Lucius had begun to suspect that his guide was using him for its own agenda. However, after the fourth, this suspicion became fact.
He merely allowed the furtong to lead him around out of kindness, hoping that perhaps the creature would have enough shame to actually take him to where he needed to be after saving a few of its brethren.
Though it seemed that the furtong had no shame.
"I-I''m taking you there. I just thought we could save the others we found on the way. Rest assured, I''m leading you to where they store the Aternite," the furtong replied after some thought.
"I hope you realize that I''m not so kind to those who lie in my presence," Lucius warned, patting the furtong on the shoulder with enough force to cause a bit of pain.
"I-I understand," the creature replied, shivering in fear slightly.
The army of furtong they had ''liberated'' were beginning to get rowdy. Some were reunited rtives who hadn''t seen each other in a long time, so naturally they had a lot of catching up to do, which meant a lot of talking.
Others had lost rtives, and now with fresh hope in the form of Lucius and his entourage, they began to speak of vengeance, going on and on about how they would torture any guards they found.
Whilst some others, though very small in number- spoke ofrger goals. They spoke of change in the forest, and how the return of the saviour meant that the lower tiers would soon rule.
It was dangerous talk.
The way they made it sound, it seemed as if ''the saviour'' was nothing but a tool, a means to an end for them. They spoke as if their ascension was promised, a right rather than privilege. And the things they whispered thinking he could not hear them, the things they promised to do to the venari and the other ruling races... they were things that sane creatures ought not to talk about.
~Giving some of these guys powers could be dangerous... especially the ones we saved today,~ Lucius thought to himself as he followed behind the guide.
~But I can''t stunt the growth of themune by withholding the system''s benefits. Should I create a spy division? Maybe they could monitor the members carefully and choose those who have a lower chance of misusing the power I give them,~ he pondered.
Of course, he understood that there would be a few bad apples who would put up an act, only to go rampant once they gained their powers. However, that couldn''tpletely be avoided. Besides, what''s to say that they wouldn''t only be that way once they got a taste of the power anyway?
~Then perhaps instead of just a spy division, it''ll be a secret police force. They''d spy on the members, and take out any of them that showed to be plotting any schemes that''d hurt themune,~ he thought to himself.
He understood that organizations like secret police were historically the weapons of dictators and such, however he also understood that hismune was basically just that. With him as the sole leader, it was nothing more... in fact, it was closer to a cult at this point... which was probably worse.
~I''ll set it up as soon as I get back to themune. I''ll let Ghost be the premier of this one,~ he decided, looking over his shoulder towards her.
She was currently staring daggers at some of the furtong behind her -no doubt annoyed at the amount of noise they were making.
"With the amount of noise your people are making, I''m not sure I''ll be able to continue going on with them," Lucius said to the guide, not bothering to whisper.
With that, the furtong went silent.
"S-sorry," the guide replied, shooting an annoyed look at his people.
*
After walking for several more minutes, the guide suddenly stopped.
Lucius could sense a terrifyingly-powerful bestial energying from somewhere up ahead. It had been one of the several energy readings he had been wary of before they entered the mine. Luckily, however, it was not the one on the same level as the necromancer.
"The Aternite is stored in the cavern up ahead... however there are probably venari in there as well," the guide said.
Lucius looked at the guide for a moment with a scrutinizing gaze.
"If you have something more to say then just say it," he replied calmly, having given the guide ample time to continue.
"Th-they also keep the Morrentors in there... it''s where they rest," the guide added reluctantly.
"I-it shouldn''t be more than one though. This side of the mine only has two," it added quickly, as if that would make things any better.
~So that''s the bestial presence I was sensing,~ Lucius thought to himself.
Based on energy readings, he was confident that he and the others could take on the Morrentor -that was if energy readings were anything to rely on, after all, when it came to beasts it was likely they had natural weapons that would make fighting against them messy- but that was on the condition it was alone.
Sadly, there his earth sense was picking up arge group of high-level guards surrounding the creature. The weakest of them was at least on the level of a purple-tunic, meaning that this wasn''t something he could just brute force his way through.
~I''ll need to actually think this one through, huh,~ he thought to himself, before gesturing for Ghost and Pagan toe forward.
"Tell us what you know about theyout of the cavern ahead, as well as the Morrentor and the venari guards that take care of it," Lucius said regarding the guide- as Ghost and Pagan joined the conversation.
"I-It''s been quite some time since I passed by the cavern, but I''ll try to tell you what I know," the guide replied, before beginning its exnation.
Chapter 271: Minecrawlers [XI]
ording to the guide, the cavern up ahead was the biggest in this section of the mine-of which there were five sections in total. It was around two times bigger than thergest cave they had passed by and had dozens of sharp protrusions hanging from the ceiling.
It was a sort of hub, where minerals and other materials were deposited and guarded by the strongest venari the mines had to offer, which ording to their guide, were capable of making the earth rattle with but a stomp of their hooves -something Lucius doubted heavily.
Within the cavern there were two tforms on either side which were a considerable distance off the ground. They each carried one cage, both of them crafted from Miran - the rare material the castor had spoken of. Apparently it was the only material strong enough to hold the Morrentors - as they were capable of morphing every kind of rock material.
This part in particr intrigued Lucius the most. If what the guide was saying was true, that meant the Morrentors hadpletely mastered one of the various forms of True Elmando.
If perhaps he could take it back with him, he may be able to study it, and use it to gain True Elmando for himself. And with one of his tails already being capable of it, it may not be all thatplicated.
Though sadly, as the guide continued exining, Lucius''s dreams were shattered.
Apparently, the only reason the Morrentors co-operated with the venari was because of the use of magic. And from the sound of it, this was likely some form of mind magic... which was only going to make their fight against the Morrentor guards all the more challenging.
"So you''re sure they don''t use weapons," Lucius asked after the guide had finished its exnation. To which the guide nodded its head slowly.
"Whenever there are escape attempts, they make use of magic only. And I''ve never seen any of them carrying any sort of spear," the guide responded.
~Perhaps they just never felt the need to use weapons in front of them. After all, the purple-tunic we encountered earlier had a knife on it. And there''s no telling whether they''re capable of using it in conjunction with their magic,~ Lucius thought to himself, looking down the tunnel towards the cavern with a wary expression.
There was an earth wall that blocked ess to the cavern, which apparently could only be opened by a Morrentor. The good news was the sounds they were making probably weren''t carrying past the earth wall. The bad news was that they had no sure way of getting through it.
Lucius proposed using all the furtong they had collected to try and morph the wall. However there was no guarantee that even that many furtong would be able to do anything.
"Ghost, have you fully recovered yet?" Lucius asked, now facing her.
"I''ve rested enough, I can fight," she responded immediately.
~She still looks a little drained... might slow us down,~ he thought to himself, before asking her to use her invisibility technique.
Her camouge flickered frantically, like a faulty light bulb. And even though she could try fighting with just this much, Lucius wasn''t going to risk it.
"Stay behind and protect the furtong once we''ve breached. Continue resting up, we might need your technique on our way out," he responded after some thought.
Ghost drooped her head in disappointment, before reluctantly agreeing to Lucius''s order.
"Ursa," Lucius called out, gesturing towards the bear-man leader.
"Am I being allowed to take part in the next battle?" Ursa asked with an excited smile. However, this did nothing to make his scared face look more approachable.
"I hope you have some sort of secret power you''ve been hiding because with the energy output I''m sensing from you right now, I don''t think you''ll be of much use in there," Lucius said frankly.
Sure Ursa was around the same energy level as Hannibal, but this simply wasn''t going to be enough in there. Regardless of what sort of trick Lucius was going toe up with, anyone below a prime condition Ghost would probably die.
"Though age weakens me, I am still a guardian to my people. My mystic mantle has not left me," Ursa replied.
~I forgot about that... all guardians have ess to the mystic mantle, huh,~ Lucius thought to himself. Now recalling how he had left the Zeldrave den before Avankor could teach him how to properly use the technique.
~Good, perhaps he can teach me,~ he decided, nodding at Ursa.
"Go round up your people and tell them about our n to break through the earth wall," he said to the guide, who promptly left to carry out his task.
~Though this still leaves the issue of actually fighting them. Even with Ursa''s mystic mantle, our chances aren''t good... and I don''t want to use Bedona or the kumulipo in front of everyone,~ he thought to himself.
Kumulipo clearly had a deteriorating effect on his psyche, and now was not the time for him to be having a mental episode. And Bedona had a poisonous effect to it, meaning that it would effect Pagan and Ursa if used during the battle.
~My mystic- or emperor''s mantle, whatever it''s called is out of the question as well. Sure I might be able to win with it, but at what cost,~ he pondered. After all, he had no control over his body when that primal energy consumed him.
As he was thinking, his eyes naturally shifted to stare at the glowing crystals above him. Their beauty was enthralling, and perhaps if they weren''t about to put their lives on the line, he would''ve taken more time to admire them. Though even now as he stared at them in thought, his eyes slowly grew tired due to the immense light.
~Ahh... that''ll work,~ he thought to himself with a smile, an idea having crossed his mind.
"Listen!" Lucius shouted towards the crowd of furtong -who seemed to be whisperingints at being put to work right after being freed.
"Extract all the light runes from the walls, and bring them here," he continued, pointing to his feet.
*[The Furtong]
Though an array of beautiful light shone on the creature from the glowing crystal ceiling above, it still managed to look like a demon from the old stories. The ones that stalked the earth, dragging unsuspecting creatures to the deep depths and devouring them whole.
Even the creature''s horns were simr to those mythical beasts, twisted and gnarled.... cker than ck. It wasughable that this abomination imed to be Havon. However, no one dared to openly question this.
"Why aren''t you moving?" the creature growled.
Just then, some of the furtong could''ve sworn they saw its left eye flicker... that eye which waspletely white, as if the creature had been in a fight with the Queen of the Forest Council herself.
*[Lucius]
Chapter 272: Minecrawlers [XII]
Within a few minutes, most of the light runes had been extracted from the walls andid at Lucius'' feet. For some reason the furtong were working at an almost frantic rate, as if there was some sort of time limit to their task.
He wasn''tining though. If they had found some kind of motivation to work harder, then that was good for them.
Once all the light runes had been collected, he began to exin his n.
...
"Your wisdom knows no bounds, Lighted One," Pagan whispered under his breath once Lucius had finished exining, his eyes staring at the ground in pure awe.
"It''s really not that impressive," Lucius replied.
For the first time in a while he was reminded that the leaflings weren''t really on the same level as humans in terms of creativity and ingenuity. Even after having exined the idea to Pagan a few times, he clearly couldn''t fullyprehend why or how it worked.
Ursa however seemed to have a better understanding, though from the anectode he shared, it was clear that even this was merely due to past experience.
"So then are you ready?" he asked, to which Ursa and Pagan responded with a nod of their heads.
Lucius quickly packed some of the light runes into his knapsack and ced the remaining ones into the sack he had brought from the den, before handing it over to Pagan.
"Furtong, gather around, we are about to begin," he announced.
WIthin a few moments, the furtong were all lined up against the crystal-earth wall that separated this tunnel from the caverns.
"When I say go, all of you will try to tear it down at once," he announced, standing right behind them, ready to pounce through the moment the walls came down.
"Go," he shouted, and the furtong strained to tear the wall down. A few stress cracks began to develop on the outer surface, however, it did not amount to anything substantial.
"Again! Go!"
The furtong strained once more, and even more stress cracks began to develop.
"Aim at the spots where the cracks appeared! One more time, go!"
The stress cracks became longer and deeper, however the wall still stood. And now, several furtong were already on their knees, their breathingboured from the strain.
"Come on, get up!" he shouted, though the furtong did not move. It seemed what ever motivation they had before was not enough to push through the fatigue.
"What will I tell your families once I make it out of here? That their brothers, fathers, and uncles couldn''t escape because they forgot how to mould earth? That they were too ipetent to use the gifts they were blessed with at birth?" Lucius asked.
"Tell me. Did all your suffering and anger amount to just this?" he continued, a little annoyed.
"Just a moment ago I heard some of you iming you would take seats on the new Forest Council. Some of you said you would be the new rulers, new kings... you spoke of the atrocities you wouldmit against the venari. Yet this is all you amount to?" he asked, breaking out into a sort of uglyughter.
"If this is truly all you can do, then step aside. Your anger is luke warm, and you will never have your revenge. Your people were ughtered and mistreated for generations, and it will continue till the end of time because their fathers and brothers were too weak to do anything," he finished, before walking towards the wall.
~Eh, what''s this?~ Lucius thought to himself, hearing a rhythmic beat thumping from all around him.
After a few seconds of searching, he realized where it wasing from.
~Did I really rattle them up, that much?~ Lucius thought to himself, nearly breaking out intoughter at the absurdity of it all.
It seemed his enhanced senses were picking up their heartbeats... the angry thumps of a legion of mistreated creatures. Evidence that they were not just going to lie down and let some saviour work to save their brethren alone.
"I like the looks on your faces. If you want to prove me wrong, tear that wall down," he said, this time more calmly.
"Go!" he shouted after a few breaths, and a choir of grunting sounds rang out from the horde of furtong in front of him. They strained till their eyes went red fromck of oxygen, and srained even further than that, until a few of them copsed.
Still, the expression on their faces did not soften, and Lucius wasn''t going to let them quit after just this much.
"Come on! You lot are better than a simple crystal wall. Go!!" he shouted, and another chorus of grunting sounds rang out.
The walls began to rumble slightly, and the cracks on the crystal began to travel as if it were made of ss.
The furtong continued to push, sending the cracks deeper and further with every passing breath.
A few more seconds went by and-
The crystal wall shattered into millions of tiny shards. The air glittered with beautiful crystal snow, as the path ahead was revealed. Every single furtong had passed out from exhaustion, however, their job wasplete.
Now it was Lucius''s turn to prove himself.
"Ursa, Pagan, with me!" he shouted, before rushing into the cavern at an incredible speed.
He pulled one of the light runes out of his knapsack, and held it up in the air.
The venari guards within the cavern only froze in shock for less than a fraction of a second, beforey moving to deal with the threat in front of them.
"Cover your eyes," Lucius shouted, regarding Ursa. He now spoke in the bear-man''s native tongue, meaning only he, Pagan and Ursa could understand it.
In the next few milli-seconds, he pumped energy through the runic circuits of the light rune, causing it to glow with blinding intensity. Much like a shbang, it took the sight of everyone in the room, before exploding with a pop.
~Should''ve thought of this earlier,~ Lucius thought to himself in satisfaction, as he rushed towards the closest purple-runic in the room.
He grabbed the creature by the throat, before mming it into the ground- its head bouncing off the floor from the force of it all.
Even as he was doing this, his tailsshed out to catch the other blinded enemies, sending them flying around the cavern like rag-dolls. One of the guards found itself on the bad side ofdy luck, and was impaled into the stctite on the ceiling.
"Use the barrier spell, that attack was magic-based!" one of the venari at the backlines shouted.
It was dressed in blue robes, and emitted an energy reading far above the purple tunics... on the same level as Lucius''s current output.
Chapter 273: Minecrawlers [XIII]
A massive semi-translucent bubble surrounded the group of venari guards a momentter, however, a moment was all that Lucius''s cohort needed to wreak havoc.
Lucius was within the bubble only an instant after it was set up. He grabbed two of the venari, each in one hand, and willed his tails to finish them off.
They tore the venari''s heads off, before tossing them towards the others.
With the threat of the blue-robed venari so close to him, he couldn''t afford to let any of them live.
The venari guards tried to cast their spells, however, their chant times were too long. Lucius decapitated or incapacitated them before they could even get a cantrip off.
However, his surprise advantage was quickly snuffed out. The blue-robed venari seemed to be able to cast faster than all the others and had positioned itself so that the other venari guards would act as a shield between the two of them.
A swarm of earth chains emerged from the ground, sending slight tremors all around Lucius. Theyshed at him wildly, trying to find angles in his blind spot so that they could hold him down.
However, his enhanced senses kept him several steps ahead of them. He managed to dodge a few of them, whilst simultaneously avoiding hits from the venari warriors around him.
His tails swung back and forth at a devastating pace to keep the wave of guards from overwhelming him, however between all the things he had to pay attention to, he slipped up, and one of the chains caught his arm.
In that instant, he felt arge chunk of energy immediately leave his body.
A venari guard managed to cast a cantrip, hitting him in the chest, and goring a hole through his body.
~Bursting Trace!~ he chanted, and with that, a burst of sr energy exploded all around him, repeating dozens of times a second.
He had reduced the intensity of the spell to save energy, however, that was enough to barbeque the flesh of most of the venari around him.
Unfortunately, the blue robe, who was still standing quite a distance away from him, had put a forcefield up to save some of its men, whilst simultaneously preparing for another spell.
~Sr cleanse,~ Lucius chanted, healing the hole that had been gored through his chest. However, for some reason, the pain in his arm did not subside.
~It''s been casting that spell for a while now,~ he realized, recognizing that the blue robe had been moving its lips since the first chain had caught him.
Just then, he felt something tingling in his arm. It was a burning sensation that seemed to increase in intensity with each passing second.
~What a tricky bastard,~ he thought to himself, before using his tail to rip his arm off. An instantter, he silently cast [sr field].
His dismembered arm exploded mid-air, causing the entire chamber to tremble.
"Ursa, Pagan what are you guys doing!" he shouted, not daring to take his eyes off the blue robe. White fluid bled profusely from the stump where his arm had once been attached, and the pain that riddled his body was enough to shake his consciousness.
"Lighted One, there are more of theming in from the back!" Pagan shouted in from wherever he was. He sounded out of breath, which was not very promising as they had only been engaged in battle for a few minutes.
~If I keep trying to save energy, we might end up losing more than it''s worth,~ Lucius thought to himself, before allowing a wave of sr energy to enter his crux.
It was the first time since the woond mansion fight that he was using this much energy. It felt... freeing.
His sr crux bulged in response to the energy, its mere presence causing the air to swelter. The venari began to perspire at the heat that emanated from it.
"Stop him, we have to alert the Lord Eiryn!" the blue robe shouted, its eyes wide in terror.
"This is for my arm," Lucius whispered, before casting ser beam]. He let loose its full force, not attempting to save energy in the slightest.
The crux pulsed unnaturally for a moment, before unleashing a dragon''s breath of an energy beam. It tinged blue and violet along its edges, indicating just how hot it was.
The venari in front of it were burned not just to a crisp, but to bare bone. A few of them along with the blue robe attempted to put up a forcefield, however it did little to stop the devouring beam.
All that remained of them were ashes. The ground smouldered red with heat, and some of the rocks had begun to turn to ss.
[You have exceeded the limits of your Rena.]
An instantter, a series of radiant chains erupted from his eyes and wrapped around his body, searing his skin with their power. The brandings on his body began to glow red, making it feel like someone had pouredva on him.
~Used a little too much there,~ he thought to himself as he tried to fight against the chains to stand up. However, they were several dozen times more powerful than him, and each push made them tighten even further.
~Need to fall back,~he thought, realizing he might pass out.
He turned to find that Pagan and Ursa were still dealing with the leftover venari forces. None among them was anywhere near the level of the blue robe, however, they were still strong enough to finish him off should he pass out here.
"Cover m-" he was about to shout, however, Ghost was already there to pull him out of the field.
She brought him back outside the chamber, to rest with the furtong.
"Thank you," he said, his voice a hoarse whisper.
"You''ve gotten... stronger," Ghost whispered, staring at her hands.
Her skin had been seared off due to the heat that Lucius''s body was emitting. Even now, the air around him boiled, making it hard for her to breathe.
However, she seemed to be thinking about something else entirely.
Chapter 274: Minecrawlers [XIV]
*[Ghost]
For a few seconds, Ghost stood silently looking towards the battleground where Pagan and Ursa were still fighting.
~They need help,~ she thought to herself, before taking a step in their direction. However, a hand grabbed onto one of her auxiliary legs... it felt warm.
"Y-You need to stay here and take care of them. As- as you can see, I''m not in the best shape," Lucius said, coughing andughing in between words.
She looked down at him and couldn''t help but feel a sense of guilt. Why did it always end up like this?
She had promised herself that after what happened during the fight against the necromancer, she would never allow Lucius to fight alone. Yet here she was, staring at him all beaten and bruised, while she stood and did nothing in the backlines.
She looked at the battlefield once more; Ursa and Pagan seemed to be doing okay, but still, she couldn''t shake off the feeling that she was being useless.
"Okay," she replied, before sitting beside Lucius.
After all, what could she do? She wasn''t Pagan¡ Lucius didn''t trust her that much.
*[Lucius]
"I-I know you want to help Ghost¡and you are helping. You''re the only one here with the nece-necessary skills to protect these guys. And we both know we can''t trust Pagan not to kill one of them on a whim," Lucius said in betweenboured breaths as he leaned against the wall.
His eyelids were growing heavy, he needed rest.
~Not here. I can''t sleep... not right now,~ he thought to himself.
Who''s going to protect everyone? What if something happened to them while he was asleep?
No, even if his body felt like it was being held together by string, he had to fight to stay conscious.
He looked to the side -even this small movement caused blistering pain- and found Ghost looking up at him.
~I should- I should just let her take care of it. If I don''t rest¡ I might slow the group downter,~ he thought to himself, before focusing his attention on the battlefield.
He would only allow himself to lose consciousness once the fight was over.
However, his body had other ns for him, and the world darkened only a few secondster.
*
"When did I... fall asleep?" Lucius whispered to himself as he slowly regained his senses. It took him less than a second to remember where he was.
He instantly shot up from the soft ''cushion'' he had been sleeping on and looked around him.
Everyone was here, all around him, staring... waiting.
Pagan was at the forefront, and everyone else was seated behind him as if they were about to have a photosynthesis session.
"You''re all¡ fine," he whispered to himself, the realization calming him down quite a bit.
"How long was I out?" he asked, now regarding Pagan.
"Not too long, Lighted One," Pagan replied, before gesturing towards someone behind Lucius.
Lucius turned to see what was going on, and found that the ''cushions'' he had been lying on were actually Furtongs.
He would''ve liked to have a word with Pagan about using the other creatures as furniture, but now was not the time.
Sure, he had managed to eliminate one of the more powerful enemies within the cave, but a handful still remained. And if they had any ability to sense energy whatsoever, they more than likely felt him use his powers earlier.
~If we''re going to get the Aternite, it has to be soon,~ he thought to himself, before turning to Ursa.
"How are you feeling? Can you continue fighting?" he asked, turning his attention to Pagan as well.
"I am yet to use my mystic mantle. Rest assured, I will be at your side during theing battles," Ursa replied, somewhat stoically. It seemed that the battle had sharpened his focus.
"Yes, Lighted One," Pagan replied, though he looked a little worse for wear. Lucius could sense the heat resonating off him, he was reaching his Rena limits and knowing Pagan, perhaps he already had.
"You need rest. You should fall back to guarding duty," Lucius said, before patting him on the shoulder. Pagan was just about to say something before Lucius added- "And good work."
Pagan stood there frozen still, staring off into the abyss.
"Ghost, you ready?" Lucius asked, still looking at Pagan to see if he was okay.
"I''ve been ready since we came in," she replied in a low voice, it seemed that she was still upset over being put on the sidelines for so long.
"Good. Time to show me just how much you''ve grown," Lucius replied. He was interested in seeing how Ghost scaled inparison to Pagan at this point.
It was obvious from their earlier battles that Pagan had grown quite a bit, if not in his magical ability, then in its raw potent power.
With a thought, he quickly opened up her stats screen.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Creature Details ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Ghost Elwood ]
[Level 16: 0/1600]
[Leaf-Arachnid {healthy-hybrid} [83%]
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?? Stats ??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤
[Agility: 550]-Maxed
[Strength: 450]-Maxed
[Stamina: 330]-Maxed
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
~She''s grown quite a bit,~ he thought to himself, a little proudly. ~Though I still need to evaluate if she''s at the level I can properly rely on her.~
Even though they were all his children, Lucius couldn''t help but rely on Pagan more than the others. He was the closest in power level to Lucius, so it went without saying that he was the wisest choice for any dangerous missions that Lucius could not do himself.
However, if Ghost proved to hold her own, themune would be better for it. Though Lucius couldn''t say he was too excited for his daughter to prove she could go on more dangerous missions alone.
After taking sighing and shaking his head, he turned to Ursa. "Did you already loo- I mean search the fallen enemies?" he asked, breaking the silence.
"Pagan ordered that they only be touched once you awoke," Ursa replied, taking a quick nce atPagan -who was still frozen.
Chapter 275: Minecrawlers [XV]
"Have you checked the area further back?" he asked as he walked back into the cavern.
Venari corpses were sprawled all across the floor, most of them half charred-flesh and half bone ¡ªLucius''s handiwork.
Others had chunks of flesh missing from their necks, and w marks all over their bodies. But the most unfortunate of them were those with the charred eyes, no doubt Pagan''s doing. Who knew what reason he had for taking their eyesight before killing them?
"No, not yet," Ghost replied.
Lucius pointed towards the darkness at the end of the tunnel, and Ghost understood her task. With a whisper, she disappeared into thin air, and Lucius felt her presence withdraw into the darkness.
"Start picking up anything that looks valuable and put it in a pile over here," he announced to the rest of the group, pointing at the cavern''s centre.
As everyone began to search the remains of the fallen enemies, Lucius''s attention was drawn to something shimmering within a pile of ashes to his right.
He quickly picked up the object and dusted the ash off its surface. ~What''s this?~ he thought to himself, inspecting the object. It was a green gemstone with several runes etched into its surface.
As he touched it, he felt a strange electric buzz rush into his body. It felt soothing, like the pain from his rena overuse was slowly seeping out.
~Interesting,~ he thought to himself, before cing it into his knapsack. It would require further research to determine its exact function, though he could already guess what effects carried.
"If anyone finds a green gem, report it to me," he announced, before moving towards another corpse.
Just then, he sensed a presence approaching, it took him only a few moments to realize it was Ghost.
"What''s going on?" he asked before she could even unveil her invisibility.
She gave a sort of disappointed expression, once she made herself visible. "There''s something you have to see," she said quickly, before going invisible once again.
"Ursa, Pagan, be on your guard. I''ll be back in a moment," Lucius announced before running after Ghost.
As they moved deeper into the cavern, the earth walls all around them became clearer and clearer. Even the living rock, Cerphin, was stripped of its colour, leaving a glimmering water-coloured mineral behind.
It all sparkled brightly under the luminescence of the light runes like a tunnel of diamonds. Beautiful to say the least. However, the bestial energy that he was sensing from up ahead made it hard to appreciate all this.
"What is that?" he asked, slowing down. He was wary of confronting something so powerful when he was still recovering from exceeding his rena limits earlier.
"I think it''s a Morrentor, the creatures furtong were talking about. But its¡ you have to see for yourself," Ghost replied, without turning visible.
"Hmm."
Lucius continued, albeit slowly, holding the green gem in his hand. He was hoping that it would make him recover his rena faster.
After walking a little longer, a pathway came into view on his right. It led into another, smaller cavern, this one pitch ck, with not a single light rune in sight.
~Why would they keep a sectionpletely dark?~ he thought to himself, trying to call out his crux. However, the moment he tried to release it, he felt a bright hot pain sear his mind.
~I should get used to using light runes instead of my crux for light,~ he thought to himself, before pulling out his knapsack -which was currently glowing brightly from all the light runes inside it.
After a moment, he pulled one out before slowly entering the dark cavern.
The moment he passed through the doorway, a strong pungent stench attacked his nose. It was acid against his throat, and was like a punch to the stomach, making him feel nauseous. It didn''t help that his senses were enhanced.
~What is this sick smell?~ he thought to himself. It made his heart pound, it reminded him of the undead¡ of the necromancer.
Covering his nose and mouth, he used the light rune to inspect the room. There were a few minerals piled in one corner, and in the other was a-
"A Morrentor," Lucius whispered to himself.
But something was wrong with it.
It was trapped inside a cage made of dark orange wood, that glowed every so slightly. The creature in question wasrge, perhaps the size of an elephant, though its frame was skeletal. Like a bag of bones, barely covered by a thinyer of brown skin.
It had no eyes and arge maw that took up half its massive face. Right at the centre of its forehead was a brown gem, cracked at it through the middle, which oozed a pungent-smelling liquid.
It had three pairs of legs and massive razor-sharp ws on each foot that looked to be madepletely out of precious gems. Four of these ws were missing, and left in their ce were horrid wounds that smelled of rot.
The rock-like skin that covered its body was peeling off in some ces, exposing white flesh that added to the odour within the room.
"Did you check the area for enemies?" Lucius asked into the darkness, his attention drawn to a glimmering puddle right below the Morrentor''s cage.
"I checked. And nothing," Ghost replied from somewhere within the dark.
Lucius approached it, and once he was close, the creature began to move¡ or at least attempted to. It could hardly pick itself up, and even when it did, each movement was like a shiver.
It let out a weak bellow, that ended in a bubbling sound, as if it had mucus in its lungs.
"It seems you''ve been mistreated here," Lucius began, before moving towards the front of the cage to look the creature in the eyes.
"How long have they kept you like this?" he asked.
It stared at him weakly, a detached look in its eyes. It had clearly lost the will to fight a long time ago, and judging by the state it was in, Lucius was certain it would appreciate being put out of its misery.
"I can offer you something better than death," he continued, moving even closer to the cage before holding his palm out.
For a time, there was silence, and the creature just stared at him as if it were a corpse. Its mind was broken, perhaps saving it was impossible.
Lucius pulled his hand back, still staring at the creature.
~I don''t have the resources to heal you right now, but once I do, you''reing with me whether you like it, or not,~ he thought to himself, before reluctantly moving away from the cage.
His eyes wandered throughout the dimly lit room, beforending on the minerals piled at the other corner of the room.
"Go get some of the others to collect the minerals," he ordered, "And anyone who has worked with a Morrentor before. I want to know why it was being kept in such bad conditions," he added.
Chapter 276: Minecrawlers [XVI]
A group of furtong arrived a minuteter and got straight to work.
Ursa hade along with them.
"We found Aternite in the other cavern. Pagan ordered that they be collected and brought to you."
Lucius breathed freely for the first time since he came down here; it was like a heavy weight had been lifted from his chest.
However, he fought against the urge to drop his guard, no good woulde from it. After all, he still had the issue of the diseased Morrentor to deal with.
"Tell Pagan to have them ready, separate from the other minerals, and wait for further instructions," he replied.
As Ursa was leaving, a furtong with greyed skin approached Lucius. It had a hunched back and trembled with every step it took.
"We cannot be here," the furtong said in a slow shaky voice.
"And why is that?" Lucius replied, regarding the furtong. Despite being nearly the same height as him, it lowered its gaze against his.
"That creature is cursed, we must leave before it spreads. You should not have shown it the light," the furtong said. As it spoke, it took several nces at the Morrentor, shifting and trembling with every glimpse.
"Cursed?"
"The first ones punish us for our work here, for the Council''s work here," the furtong replied, talking as if it had a foul taste in its mouth. "It gets the Morrentors first, and then us¡ but it kills us quicker."
"By first ones, you mean the creatures that made the forest?" Lucius asked. It seemed that every species had their own version of the fae, their own myth based around them.
The furtong nodded its head slowly, not paying him much attention ¡ªits eyes fixed on the Morrentor.
"There''s nothing to be afraid o-" Lucius was about to say, right before something ''cold'' crawled down his neck. He instantly turned around, already taking a step away from the Morrentor.
The room went silent as everyone turned their attention to the cage. A thick mist began to seep out of the Morrentor''s rotting skin, glowing bright red as it shifted in the air. It slowly took the form of an eyeball, which scanned the room, before focusing on Lucius.
~I know this presence,~ he thought to himself, already trying to call out his crux.
He was a blink toote.
The eyeball fired a beam, zapping right past him and piercing the Furtong he had just been talking to. An instantter, he fired a beam of his own and -despite itcking any substantial power- the eyeball poofed out of existence.
Ghost was by his side only a beatter.
"Everyone, out!" Lucius shouted.
A gurgling sound filled the air, drawing Lucius''s attention to the furtong that had been struck. It was on the floor, convulsing, with blooding out of its nose, eyes and mouth. Its skin, turned to a rotten shade of green right before his eyes, tearing open to reveal puss-filled wounds. He covered his mouth, taking a cautious step back.
The furtong stopped moving only a few secondster, a trail of red mist emerging from its bloody mouth. The mist collected into a ball and began hovering towards the Morrentor.
Lucius fired a sr beam at it, poofing it out of existence.
"Should I kill it?'' Ghost asked, her eyes glued on the Morrentor.
"Wait," Lucius replied, his head down-turned in thought.
~Should we kill it? If this energy presence is really what I think it is, then this mission just got a lot more dangerous,~ he thought to himself.
He would''ve said yes, under any other circumstances. However, the prospect of getting a Morrentor was too good to throw away just like that. With it, they would be able to create bases twice as fast, start their own mines, and even employ battle tactics that weren''t viable before.
"No. Whatever curse this is seems to only target the furtong. Nothing happened when it was just you and me," Lucius exined. "It seems there''s also a time requirement. Maybe two minutes before it attacks a furtong."
~But even if I know all this, how am I going to deal with it?~
His energy reserves were low and he wasn''t going to underestimate this ''curse''. Waiting around was also out of the question, especially considering the nature of the energy presence they were dealing with.
Amotion outside interrupted Lucius''s train of thought. The furtong were stumbling over each other to make way for someone.
Pagan emerged from the crowd a momentter, his crux bathing the entire room in its golden intensity.
~He sensed it too?~ Lucius thought, as Pagan walked into the room.
"Lighted One," he sighed in relief, his eyes studying Lucius for a moment before fixing on the Morrentor.
Without a word, he moved to stand in front of Lucius, his face scrunched up in anger. The sr energy in the room began to surge, as his crux glowed brighter.
"Stop," Lucius said, grabbing Pagan''s shoulder as if to pull him back.
"That creature, it''s-"
"I know."
Pagan red at the Morrentor for a moment, before rxing. His crux, however, did not go dim, he still very well wanted to sear a hole through the creature''s head.
~I could have him try and heal it, while Ghost and I cover him. But that would risk losing all of our most powerful at once, ~ Lucius thought to himself.
~Maybe just me and him?~
~ No, it won''t be enough.~
He already knew what he had to do, what he had been scared to do sinceing down here.
Kumulipo.
He wasn''t fond of the idea of potentially falling into a magic-induced psychosis, but it was either that or they left the Morrentor here. Though, Lucius had half a mind to do just that.
~If I can destroy the curse energy inside the Morrentor then it should take care of the curse. And in the event, it''s more trouble than just that, Kumulipo is the only viable weapon in my arsenal,~ he decided.
He wasn''t going to make a habit out of using kumulipo¡ or at least that''s what he was telling himself.
"Move everyone further back down the tunnels," he said. "I want to try something."
Pagan gestured to the furtong to go, not moving from his position.
"You and Ghost too. It might be dangerous, and I''ll need someone to clean up my mess in case things go wrong," he added.
Pagan opened his mouth to protest, but decided against it, bowing before heading out with the others.
Once everyone was gone, Lucius began to call out Kumulipo. It was like trying to turn rusted gears. However, a few breathster, its dark glistening energy filled the room. A cold chill came with it, soothing against the damage that his Rena overuse had done.
Chapter 277: Minecrawlers [XVII]
Lucius took a moment to savour the sheer volume of energy he had just unlocked, its cold weight like pure ecstasy. He stared at the kumulipo with a satisfied expression as it pulsed in excitement, sending waves of the darkest ck around the room. It wasrger than before, about the size of a pineapple ¡ªsame as the Sr crux.
~Did it always feel this good?~ he thought to himself, as he sent the kumulipo towards the Morrentor. Tendrils of energy writhed out of the kumulipo as it got closer to the cage.
"Imbue."
In that instant, the tendrils surged with even more energy, bing something more akin to tentacles. They thrashed through the air towards the Morrentor, phasing through both the cage and its skin like a ghost gue.
The creature howled, its entire being trembling in pain. The stink of its rotting flesh became even stronger as its shivering tore open old wounds.
Lucius sent his energy rushing through the creature''s channels, aiming to finish this as fast as possible.
He quickly discovered that the creature did not have a manacore, and even after doing several circuits, he couldn''t find the source of the curse energy. Which was strange since he could still sense it in there.
"I see, so that''s how it must be," he whispered. At that moment, he sent his energy rampant, filling every channel all at once.
The creature howled even louder, now struggling to get up.
It was just as he thought; the curse had been hiding in the channels he already searched. From this, it was obvious to him that it had ''some'' sort of intelligence. The only way to catch it was to remove every ce it could hide, all at once.
Once he had it surrounded, he began to devour it, breaking it down into millions of particles; food for his kumulipo energy.
The howls became ear-piercing shrieks, enough to make Lucius''s ears ring. The creature began convulsing, its massive body shaking the entire cage.
The curse tried to fight back, tried to infect the kumulipo energy as they shed. However, it was a futile effort; the kumulipo devoured all, whether it was the curse or its own infected limbs.
The Morrentor''s shrieking stopped a few secondster, and its breathing returned to normal.
~A new addition to themune. It will serve my children well, ~ he thought to himself, before turning to go get Pagan. Now that the fight against the curse was over, they could heal it and go home.
But things were never so simple.
Just as he was about to leave, he sensed a small remnant of the curse energy move behind him.
"You think you can just escape me like that?" Lucius asked, sending kumulipo to destroy what remained.
However, before he could reach it, the curse attached itself to the wall, creating a crimson array of alien symbols. Despite their foreign shape, Lucius could tell that they formed some sort of rune.
He sent kumulipo towards the wall, draining and destroying the energy inside it.
The glowing subsided, but the runes did not disappear.
~We have to leave, now,~ Lucius realized, now rushing to get Pagan.
Using sr cleanse on the creature took quite a bit out of Pagan, which was expected considering its massive size. What was not expected, however, was that the creature would still be too weak to stand up.
~Sr cleanse can heal wounds, but not starvation, huh?~ Lucius thought to himself, as he and Pagan stared at the creature, thinking of how they would move it.
The first issue was how they would get it out of the cage. The cage in question seemed to be made out of wood, well if wood was stronger than steel that is. There was a reason they had decided to use this material to cage a Morrentor, Lucius had little hope of trying to break it open.
"Call the group of beaver pe- I mean Castor, we came with. I have an interesting feeling about this ''wood''," he ordered.
Pagan returned a minuteter with the group of Castor. It took them only a few seconds to realize what they were called here for ¡ª much of which was spent starting in fear at the caged Morrentor.
"Well, so what kind of wood is it?" Lucius asked, already knowing the answer.
"Miran," one of the olderCastor replied.
~I guess it was the best option avable to cage the Morrentors, since they can''t use their elmando on it.~
"Can you guys morph it?" he asked.
The Castor stared at each other for a moment, before nodding their heads.
Of course, bringing the cage down proved to be anything but easy. The Castor were at their absolute limit, just trying to bend one bar.
Lucius tried to help, but he couldn''t ''feel'' wood in the same way he could leaves and other nt material. It felt like pulling a cinder block with a thin rope, there wasn''t nearly enough strength in the medium for him to use his full might.
However, he did learn a bit about ''wood elmando''. The paths, or methods used werepletely different from what he knew. It was almost as if they were different dances, ''leaf elmando'' was vibrant and a little fast, ''wood elmando'' on the other hand was slower, more grounded.
~Am I not trying hard enough for you?~ Lucius thought, regarding his true elmando tail. However, there was no response.
After trying and failing a few more times, he epted that his efforts were wasted here. ''Wood elmando'' would be learned, just not right now.
He pulled out the green gems he had looted from the venari mages earlier. He was calling them rejuvenation gems, based on the regenerating effect they seemed to have.
"Here, have these," he said, handing them to the Castor.
As they held it, he could feel their energy presences rise slightly. It wasn''t so noticeable as to change the oue of a battle, but perhaps it would help them with the task at hand.
And help it did. After 15 minutes of heavybour -and all but one of them passing out- the Castor had managed to break down the cage and morph it into a wagon ¡ªat Lucius''s request.
Once that was over, he pulled the wagon towards the other cavern.
"Make sure we have all the Aternite, light and green runes. If we don''t have enough ''furtong'' power to carry the rest, you can leave some of the other minerals," he ordered, once he arrived.
*
Before long, they started their journey back up the tunnels.
Chapter 278: Minecrawlers [XVIII]
"What did you use back there? Pagan wouldn''t stop mumbling to himself," Ghost whispered into Lucius''s ear as the group trekked back to the surface.
"A new spell, I''ll show it to you guyster," he replied, before picking up his pace.
It was for their own good. How could he tell them about a power he can''t even control? What if they wanted to learn it? Would they be able to deal with its psychotic effects?
~Still, I''ll have to show it to them someday. I should be prepared for that eventuality,~ he realized.
As they journeyed, he couldn''t take his mind off the ''alien'' runes the curse had left on the wall. Sure he couldn''t sense any hostile energy following them, however, he still found it strange that the rune had no effect whatsoever.
It put him on edge. All sudden movements were met with a readied gaze, every odd sound, with a readied battle stance.
"Is something the matter, Lighted One?" Pagan asked, now walking beside Lucius. He took a brief moment to nce at the Morrentor with disdain.
He was against the idea of the Lighted One toiling for such a creature, however, when he suggested that the furtong pull the cart, the Lighted One pointed out that HE was the only one strong enough to. Earlier, he had tried taking on Lighted One''s burden himself but found that hecked the needed strength and stamina.
"I can''t ce my finger on it, but something feels¡ off," Lucius said after some thought.
He was certain it wasn''t just paranoia. The runes definitely did something, and he was certain that the ''something'' was right under their noses. They just weren''t seeing it.
"Wait, that''s it. Have you noticed something odd with your earth sense? It feels artificial almos-" Lucius was about to say.
Toote.
The ground rumbled and the tunnel walls shook, the suddenness of it sent almost everyone stumbling to the ground. Only Lucius, Pagan and Ghost remained standing, staring at a spot on the ground a few meters away.
However, it wasn''t the ground they were staring at, but rather the energy presenceing from a ce just beyond it. Something powerful was approaching them, and at an impossible rate.
~How did it get this close without me noticing it?~ he wondered, though he already knew the answer. Whatever was approaching them had something to do with the curse.
But still, for it to be moving this fast in a straight line towards them, it would have to be ignoring the tunnel systems altogether.
~A Morrentor,~ Lucius realized, preparing himself for the battle toe.
After all, running away from a Morrentor down here would be futile.
"Ghost, the next time you show yourself, it should be behind whatever is about to attack us. Preferably with a hole in its head," Lucius ordered.
He was a little surprised at the way he had put it; it wasn''t the way he would usually say things, but it felt¡ natural for some reason.
"Pagan, your reserves are low, only take shots when you''re sure they will connect. Hide among the furtong, and lower your energy presence. You know how to do that right?" he asked, now looking at Pagan.
Pagan nodded his head, hesitantly.
"Good, go now. Ursa,e to the front with me. Activate your mystic mantle as soon as the battle starts. But wait for mymand, we have to make sure that fighting is the only option avable to us," he added.
The thing was almost upon them, yet Lucius felt calm...posed. A chilled air clung to him, cooling him with every breath he took,forting him.
At the back of his mind, he thought of kumulipo, of how it was a shame he had to use it, but also of how nothing could stand against it. His children would be safe, and what''s more, he would have a manacore to devour, of course, that would be ''a shame'' as well.
A few breathster, the ground in front of them copsed, giving way to a massive creature, with two massive tusks seemingly made out of deep purple diamonds. It had obsidian rock-like skin and a glowing brown gem at the centre of its forehead.
"It seems you were correct, Eilphyr. The pests were in this tunnel," a voice said from above the creature.
Two venari dressed in ck robes stood atop it, the speaker being one of them. Behind them were five brown-robed venari mages, all of them murmuring something in unison. Their brown glow seemed to synchronize with the gem in the Morrentor''s forehead.
~That must be the mind magic~
"Which begs the question, how did you know?" the venari added. It seemed like there was some in-fighting going on.
"Excuse me, but could you move your¡ Morrentor, you''re blocking our path," Lucius shouted out. He could just barely make out Ghost''s outline behind the venari called Eilphyr.
"I have my methods, just as you have yours. Now let us deal with these pests before the Queen finds out that there was an escape attempt," Eilphyr replied.
~Deal with us? Well, that''s our queue,~ Lucius thought to himself, before gesturing towards Ghost.
"Watch where you point that filthy thing," the other venari said, now regarding Lucius.
His partner was dead before he even had time to process what was happening. Despite Eilphyr being more powerful than Ghost, assassination didn''t care whose head was being impaled.
"Pagan," Lucius said, pointing at the remaining venari.
It pulled out its crux, a green glowing ball around the size of arge pineapple, and began chanting something.
However, Ghost was already upon it.
It dodged backward, right into Pagan''s sr beam.
And just like that, the threat was dealt with.
"Quickly, take out the other-" Lucius was about to say. Though it seemed that he had a knack for saying things toote.
Before Ghost could reach the group of mind mages, they had already managed to set one of their spells in motion.
The Morrentor roared in anger, its brown gem glowing brightly before the entire tunnel began to shake. Cracks appeared on the walls, first slow, then all at once.
In that instant, as the rocks began to break off from the walls, and the tunnel seemed like it would give way, Lucius could only think of how his children were going to die. Not because he wasn''t there to protect them, no, but because he wasn''t strong enough to.
"Stop!"
Chapter 279: Minecrawlers [XIX]
His entire being screamed this singr thought, this¡ intent. There was nothing more he so desired, than for all the falling rocks to stop in ce.
He had his eyes closed in wait, for the -no doubt- excruciating pain that apanied being crushed to death. However, it never came. There was a silence all around him, even the Morrentor''s screaming had died down.
Though, this peace was short-lived. The excruciating pain dide, however, it was not from falling rocks, but rather from somewhere deep within himself. As he fell to the ground in agony, he caught a glimpse of what was going on. The rocks were suspended mid-air, each and every fragment of rubble glowing in the same golden brilliance as much of his spells.
~Who?~ he wondered, as his vision flickered. Who did he have to thank for this?
The look on Pagan''s face gave him his answer. It was him.
~Now you decide to help, ~ he thought to himself, giving his thanks to the true elmando tail.
However, things weren''t over just yet.
On the other side of the ''floating'' rubble, an energy presence surged, sinister and grotesque. This presence wasn''t a mystery to Lucius. No, he had gone up against something like this before, back at the woonds mansion, back when he almost died fighting Eiknyr.
"Get back!" he shouted, trying to pick himself off the ground. His skin sizzled from the heat of the Rena chains trying to restrict his movements.
His body swayed back and forth as he tried to regain his bnce. The world spun around him, and despite his best attempts, he could not stop his head from throbbing.
"Move away," he shouted, staring at Ghost. Though from the steeled look in her eyes, he could tell she wouldn''t listen.
"Pagan, get the others to safety," he shouted now. However, Pagan''s only response was to move in front of him.
A massive pentagram appeared on the floor in front of them, and a momentter dozens of crimson chains erupted from deep within it.
Pagan tried firing a sr beam at it, but it did little but act as a light show. Lucius tried to call out kumulipo but could barely focus enough to even link to it.
The ck-robed venari corpses were dragged towards the pentagram, and once in the centre, a beam of crimson light shot out of it.
When the light subsided, only Eilphyr''s corpse remained, the hole in its head had disappeared.
It remained motionless on the ground, however, it wasn''t fooling anybody. Everyone there could sense the sinister energy that writhed and squirmed within it, even the furtong seemed aware.
Eilphyr began to rise, like a puppet on strings.
Ghost disappeared from view, and only a breathter she was behind it. She thrust one of her auxiliary legs at Eilphyr''s head. ~ Good girl,~ Lucius thought to himself.
However, a set of chains appeared seemingly out of thin air, and Eilphyr was dragged away, to somece behind ''floating'' debris. Well, in reality, the rubble wasn''t ''floating'', true elmando had just created a weblike system that kept them from falling to the ground. So right now, there were dozens of ces where Eilphyr could be hiding.
Lucius''s body was still steaming from the overuse of Rena, however his psyche was recovering. In a minute or two he would be able to call out kumulipo. Though, Ghost couldn''t wait a ''minute or two''.
Her entire body began to radiate with golden energy, and before Lucius could even say anything, she disappeared towards the floating rubble.
She was fast, in fact, faster than Lucius. Although the rubble blocked much of his vision, he could see the crimson and golden energies shing against each other. One moment they zed on the left, the next on the right. It was as if he were watching a light show.
All the while, he attempted and failed to call out kumulipo.
The shing lights stopped, and Ghost appeared in front of Lucius and Pagan,pletely out of breath, with cuts and bruises all over her body.
Lucius was livid, but anger would not make him recover faster.
"Where did it go?" he asked, and Ghost pointed towards the Morrentor and the mind mages who seemed to have been frozen in ce.
A massive pentagram appeared beneath them, and a momentter, Eilphyr''s figure was right in front of them. Chains emerged, dragging the Morrentor into the ground.
Pagan fired another sr beam, however, a crimson chain swatted it away as if it were only a minor inconvenience.
"We know you," Eilphyr said, however, its voice was different this time. It sounded like a sinister choir speaking all at once, hollow, hoarse, and ancient.
"You were the thing who purged the other vessel. We didn''t like that," Eilphyr continued. Lucius tried calling out kumulipo once again. Another failure.
Pagan fired another sr beam, and yet again it was swatted away.
"But we hold no grudges. We will make up for losing one vessel, make up for it with another," by now, the Morrentor and all but two of the mind mages had been devoured.
One of the mind mages tried to run away, however, a chain grabbed it by the ankle and dragged it in as well.
"Your vessel will serve them well," it finished, just as the pentagram disappeared.
Its power doubled in that instant. The air became so dense with sinister energy that Lucius could barely breathe. The furtong had all passed out from the mere pressure that Eilphyr was emitting, and the others were barely standing.
"But first, you will entertain us, as you entertained the other," it said with a smile, before turning into a crimson sludge and phasing into the ground,
A pentragram appeared right beside Ghost.
She dodged to the right, however, a pentagram had been forming there as well.
She jumped into the air, and a set of chains chased after her.
Lucius used his tail to block a few of them, however, they tore through him like wet paper, rushing towards her and wrapping around her neck.
She screamed out in pain, struggling to get them off her as they tightened around her.
Lucius could hear his head throbbing, and each of her screams seemed to intensify it. He shed at the chains with his ws, tearing several of them off in his fury, however it did not put a dent in them.
Pagan fired what little was left of his sr energy, and Ursa, who seemed to be in a magically enraged state wed at it as well. Yet nothing.
The chains tightened, and Ghost screamed even louder.
Laughter echoed throughout the tunnel.
"Yes, you will entertain us well."
Chapter 280: Minecrawlers [XX]
"Entertain you? I see, my children''s lives are just a joke to you, huh?" Lucius replied. The shadows in the room began to twitch, coiling around each other as he spoke.
He grabbed onto the chains, his flesh searing upon contact. It felt like someone had ripped his skin open and poured salt all over it. This only made him angrier, seeing what she had to go through. He pulled back, trying to root them out of whatever dimension they had sprung forth from.
Several more pentagrams appeared around him, floating mid-air.
"I''ll make you suffer for this," Lucius whispered, as the pentagrams unleashed bundles of chains at Ghost. They grabbed every one of her limbs, before tightening and pulling back.
They were going to rip his little girl apart.
Her screams became cries for help, and perhaps the only things as loud as that were her sizzling flesh and Eilphyr''sughter. Her eyes rolled back, and after one final struggle, she went limp.
"..."
The shadows in the tunnels came to life.
Like hungry snakes, they slithered from every corner, every crevice towards Lucius. They roared, and they cried, and theyughed like demons freed from hell.
[Requirements for system event have been met.]
[System event... {A Guardian''s Wrath} has begun.]
[Punish the source of turmoil.]
[Title: Bedonna, has been activated.] - [Poisonous excretions gain 300% potency]
The notifications popped up in quick session, however Lucius was not there to view them. He was somece else, a ce so clouded with power, that the outside world felt like a bad dream.
The shadows had wrapped around him, cowling him in an inky armour. He looked like a thing from some abyss, an eldritch being, something ancient, something foul.
Kumulipo emerged from that being, sending tidal waves of dark energy all around the room. Pagan and Ursa were thrown back, tumbling on the ground like ragdolls.
Kumulipo soared towards the chains, its energies coiling around them like tiny snakes, before hardening. An instantter, the chains shattered, and Ghost was set free. However, her body was riddled with streaks of crimson, and she still wasn''t moving.
"You will scream as she did, and you will sing that song until she awakens," Lucius said.
He opened his mouth and ck energy shot forth destroying the web of floating rocks above him. There stood Eilphyr, upside down like a bat on the ceiling.
"There it is. This is the power we were promised," Eilphyr said,a pentagram appearing right beside him.
"Sr beam," Lucius said, pointing his finger at Eilphyr.
A beam of shadows tore out of kumulipo and boomed through the air like a thunderp.
A wall of chains emerged from the pentagram to defend Eilphyr, however in front of the beam they were more akin to a bread wall. It through them and gored a hole in the ceiling directly behind it.
However, Eilphyr was not there.
The shadows that cowled Lucius grew thin, he had used quite a bit of his energy in that one shot.
"You are slow," Eilphyr said from behind him.
A pentagram appeared on the ground directly beneath him, and chains emerged to drag him down. The shadows, slithered around them, absorbing their energy, and making them his. They continued down towards the pentagram, draining even that of all its energy.
The pentagram''s crimson colour dimmed until it was pitch ck.
Eilphyr stared at this in confusion.
"Sr pit," Lucius whispered. A dark vapour discharged from kumulipo, and slowly draped to the floor like a ck veil.
As that was happening, several dozen pentagrams appeared all around Lucius.
"We have seen all we wanted to see. Your entertainment is no longer required," Eilphyr announced. The tunnel became a pit of crimson snakes, all striking at Lucius, and trying to coil around him.
His inky armour turned to a cacoon, which the chains slowly ate away at.
The dark vapour had now covered much of the floor, only a few spaces were left untouched, as if on purpose.
"Sr field," Lucius whispered from within the cacoon, and the vapour hardened in ce, creating an obsidian-like barrier.
"Never-ending fear," he said next, and a thick purple cloud began to exude from the cacoon. It corroded everything it touched, including the furtong not covered by his sr field¡ªa small price to pay for the safety of his children.
Eilphyr beganughing, a sick sort of twisted cackle. The poison reached it and began to eat away at its flesh, soon it was nothing but aughing skeleton. "We underestimated you," it continued.
The pentagrams all around Lucius had turned pitch ck, their energiespletely drained. Lucius -or at least the Emperor''s mantle- had used the poison cloud as a medium to drain the energy from them.
"But no more."
Eilphyr chanted something at an impossible rate, as if a dozen people were chanting several different things at once. Lucius barely had time to react before a pentagram appeared, spanning the entire floor.
It began to glow, brighter and brighter with each passing second.
The furtong that had fallen to the corroding poison, came to life, a crimson outline coating their skeletal remains.
Several of them began to circle around Eilphyr, some ran towards Lucius''s cacoon, and others towards the sr field he had set up.
Despite their frail-looking bodies, the crimson coating empowered them a great deal. Their punches cracked the sr field, and despite Lucius''s efforts, he could not absorb their energies.
"Bursting trace," he whispered.
With that, disks of ck thrashed throughout the room, knocking all the skeletons back. He had to expand even more power, regenerating the damage done to the sr field.
He could feel his power slipping away, he was reaching his time limit. He had to end things now. However, it seemed like Eilphyr had other ns.
"We will show you what the other could not. We will show you what they have created," Eilphyr said, as the skeletons around him began to sing.
Lucius sent several beams at them, however they had lost most of their power by the time it reached Eilphyr. The pentagram on the floor glowed even brighter in that instant, the runes around its circumference shifting and morphing.
"Rise, Morrghul, child of theher."
Chapter 281: Minecrawlers [Final]
The floor rumbled and cracked, prying open to reveal a crimson abyss. The skeletons, and all those not protected by Lucius''s sr field, were swallowed whole. In exchange, blood began to bubble out of the cracks.
Eilphyr stared at the blood in satisfaction, as it rose and took a humanoid form. A crimson creature, nine feet tall, with nothing but a set of eyes on its face, came to being.
Lucius could barely sense the creature, it was as if it had no energy presence whatsoever. He could only detect it because of the scent of blood that clung to its body.
However, it wasn''t the only thing with a negligible energy presence. Eilphyr had spent all its energy summoning that thing, and Lucius could sense Eilphyr''s weakness like a shark in bloodied waters.
He sent his shadows after Eilphyr, grabbing its arms and legs, just as it did with Ghost.
"Morrghul, destroy that creature''s core," Eilphyr said, staring at Lucius''s cacoon with unconcerned eyes.
However, Morrghul did not respond. It stared at Luicus with the curiosity of a newborn. Unmoving even as its master was dragged towards Lucius.
"Morrghul! Kill it!" Eilphyr shouted, anger now seeping into its voice. Still, Morrghul did not react, it looked to its hands, and then towards the walls, then back at Lucius''s cacoon.
"Listen to us! We areyour master!" Eilphyr shouted. It struggled against Lucius''s shadows, wing at the ground as it was hauled to its doom. It managed to rip several of its ws, leaving a bloody trail in its wake.
"I told you, you would pay," Lucius whispered, before lifting Eilphyr into the air. The shadows began pulling at all its limbs, and they snapped out of their sockets with an audible pop.
"Did you think we would scream just because of this? This is but one vesse-" Eilphyr was about to say, before kumulipo made contact with its chest.
"No. But this is the part where you scream," Lucius interrupted, sending his energy gushing into Eilphyr.
Eilphyr screamed like no living being should. Even from within the coon, Lucius''s ears rang, and a hot painful liquid dripped out of them. However, that was a small price to pay to see Eilphyr writhing and squirming within his grasp.
Despite theplexity of Eilphyr''s channels, he quickly discovered where its manacore was.
"Morrghul!" Eilphyr shouted, its voice now gurgling. Blood dripped out of its mouth, and its eyes were deep red from pain.
Morrghul was on the ground, covering its ears, confused over what was happening.
Lucius surrounded Eilphyr''s manacore, before slowly crushing it. He savoured the screams¡ the singing that Eilphyr let out with every crack that appeared. Sweet energy began to seep out of Eilphyr''s manacore, perhaps the only thing sweeter was the snapping sound of Eilphyr''s body slowly being mangled.
"Wherever it is you are go once you die, tell them the forest is off limits. Tell them what awaits them, if they choose toe here," Lucius said, before shattering Eilphyr''s core.
Eilphyr convulsed violently. Bloody foam bubbled from its mouth, and blood seeped out of its eyes and ears. Its final scream was more akin to a squeak, nothing left of the once powerful creature it once was.
[Processing...]
[Foreign mana sessfully converted.]
[220 million Helios added.]
The shadows encasing Lucius began to flicker, before disappearing altogether. He was left there, with the newborn Morrghul, who still stared at him as a newborn would its mother.
The fatigue from using Emperor''s mantle for so long was beginning to weigh on him. His limbs felt like cinder blocks, however, that did not stop him from moving closer to the creature.
"It seems Eilphyr summoned a baby to fight his battles," Lucius said, his voice tired and slow.
As he moved closer, he noticed the shadows around the creature begin to twitch. He stopped in his tracks, studying the creature carefully.
An instantter, the shadows came to life, and grabbed Lucius''s arms and legs, in much the same way he had Eilphyr. He was dragged towards the creature and lifted into the air. He felt his limbs slowly being pulled out of ce ¡ªthe excruciating pain fast followed by a popping sound.
Despite the agony, Lucius couldn''t help butugh.
The creature didn''t even seem aware of what it was doing. It still studied him like a puppy would an interesting toy.
It emitted no malice or hostility.
The shadows began to coalesce into an orb, almost identical tokumulipo albeit crimson. It even had small tendrils writhing excitedly along its circumference.
"So you can copy Emperor''s mantle and kumulipo, huh? I bet you would''ve been a pain to deal with if you weren''t so clueless," Lucius whispered, as his arm was pulled to its outer limit.
The agony from using so much power was much more than any physical pain. In that regard, he understood why Eilphyr hadn''t screamed when he had done the same to him.
"But still, child of theher, huh? Why did he wait until now to summon you?" Lucius thought out loud. However, he quickly decided that now was not the time to question crazy demons.
"Tell your parents they shouldn''t send you up here alone. It''s dangerous," he added.
Kumulipo floated right behind the creature, awaiting Lucius''smand.
"Drain," Lucius said before looking to the ceiling.
Morgull howled in pain.
Lucius found it funny that it screamed just like its master, even more funny that its energy tasted better.
His eyes were heavy¡ too heavy to keep open.
[...]
[Processing...]
[Foreign mana sessfully converted.]
[300 million Helios added.]
[System event... {A Guardian''s Wrath}plete!]
[+ 10 000 exp!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Reward granted: Complete Quest Pass]
[New Item unlocked: ???]
[Level 20 Acquired!]
[Guardian Quest Avable!]
"That''s all well and good. But I think I''m going to take a nap before reading all that," Lucius whispered to himself, as his vision went dim.
"I hope everyone is okay."
Chapter 282: No time for rest
Lucius couldn''t remember when he had opened his eyes, or when he had closed them for that matter. He had just found himself here; staring at a familiar fiery ball.
Well, almost familiar.
There were now several dozen golden chains surrounding it, like rings around a. It was bigger than before, and brighter. However, some spots were brighter than others and bulged like fiery tumours.
He wasn''t certain what this area was; whether it was his core, or the sr crux itself. However, what he was certain of was that it had be unstable.
He knew it wasn''t the chains; in fact, they seemed to have a stabilizing effect. They were preventing the bulging areas, which tremored with energy, from growing evenrger than they already were.
He suspected that it had something to do with the amount of helios he had collected. It seemed there was a soft limit to how much he could store at once.
~Well, the solution is simple,~ he thought to himself, staring at it with azy gaze.
Despite the obvious instability, he found this ceforting. Here he didn''t have to deal with the weight of all his problems, the weight of all his fears.
He could stay here forever.
~...but, they''ll miss me. And I''ll miss them.~
He turned around and took a deep breath. There was still so much he had to do.
Too much.
***
His vision came back to him in an ufortable burst of light. He was forced to cover his eyes, squinting even once the pain had subsided.
His sight still not yet with him, he tried to stand up but stumbled over something.
A hand came to his aid before he could fall. It was furry and had a familiar musk.
"Ursa," he whispered to himself, as his vision cleared up a little.
The massive bear man was kneeling in front of him, with his arms held up to support Lucius.
He took a moment to get a feel of his body. His legs were numb, perhaps from sitting for so long, and his arms hurt. To top it off, it felt like something was burning a hole from the inside of his chest.
~The excess helios,~ he thought to himself, clutching at his chest.
As his vision cleared up, he realized that he was in the throne room. There were several dozen others there as well; Hannibal, a handful of leaf beings, and a few bearmen.
He had grown ustomed to Pagan greeting him whenever he woke up from a battle, so it was strange not to see him here.
Just then, his memories from the fight began returning to him. "Ghost!" he shouted, realizing she was not there.
"She''s fine," Hannibal replied quickly, before gesturing towards one of the bearmen at the back of the room. They brought what looked like a wooden bowl and offered it to him. He in turn offered it to Lucius.
It was filled with a green liquid; thick and sweet smelling.
"It''s Demitas. While you were gone, one of Asclepius''s helpers, I think they were a chieftain actually, found a way to mix remnants of the Lighted Tree with it."
From the way Hannibal said ''Lighted Tree'' Lucius could tell that he didn''t quite agree with the name.
"It seems to improve focus, or at least that''s what I picked up after using Radiant Examination on a few test subjects," he finished.
"Who''s watching Asclepuis''s pod?" Lucius asked, taking a swig of the concoction.
It tasted exactly like it smelled, sweet. With its thickness, it reminded him of honey. It had a bit of a herbal aftertaste to it, though he could see himself bing fond of the drink.
"Pagan," Hannibal replied. He had a sardonic smile on his face. "I think he''s ashamed to show his face in front of you. Something about everyone around you being useless," he added, before gesturing for another bearman to take the bowl away.
"How many days?" Lucius asked, stretching his limbs.
"Five sunsets. We tried healing you¡ but."
"But?"
Hannibal sighed, before pointing at the ck orb that was floating right beside Lucius. He hadn''t noticed it up til now.
"It was out all this time?" he asked, immediately recalling it. However, it would not go back inside. It felt like he would explode if it did.
"What is it? A new crux?"
"I''ll exin everything during the next council meeting," Lucius replied with a sigh, before walking down from the elevated tform on which the throne rested. Hended with an audible thud, and a few bearman took a cautious step backwards.
It seemed that he had not won them over yet.
"Did we leave the Morrentor behind?" he asked, remembering all the loot he had collected from the mines.
"I dragged it back. We could not leave the spoils of your battle. Pagan would not let us, even if we wanted to," Ursa replied.
~Good.~
"Hannibal, prepare a room for us. I want to have a quick meeting regarding a few things moving forward," he said out loud, before opening his system view. "Also ask the Furtong and Cynomys to choose a few representatives, and have them in the meeting room as well," he added.
He quickly went through all the notifications he had gotten after the fight.
~Forget the Morrentor. This would''ve been worthwhile even if we hadn''t brought it back with us,~ he thought to himself, finding it hard to keep a straight face as he read over them.
"I''ll get it done," Hannibal replied, before leaving the room. A few leaf beings and a single bearman left with him, walking behind him like personal attendants.
"The rest of you guys can get back to what you were doing. Thank you all for watching over me while I rested," he said with a smile.
The others bowed, before leaving. Only Ursa remained behind.
~First things, first. I have to use the helios before my core explodes.~
He called up the system shop.
©³©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©·
©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤??System Shop??©¤©¤©¤©¤©¤?
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000
[Sr key(1)] - N/A
? [MycorrhizalNodule] ¨C 10,000,000 ?
(Current Helios: 532,316,000)
©»©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥???©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¥©¿
Even though he had already read the system notifications, he found it difficult to process the sheer amount of helios he had gained from that one fight.
~I could evolve right now if I wanted to,~he realized. And for a moment, he considered it.
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