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 accustomed 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 left completely 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 accompanied the message.

"Wait, how ???? you absorb sunlight?"

He figured that since he was a plant 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 it coming 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; 『Skill Tree』, 『Stats』, and 『System 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 『Photosynthesis』.

~Right, plants absorb sunlight for photosynthesis~ Though it was supposed to be obvious why plants 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 related 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?

[Take-in sunlight, and store it within your chloroplasts.]

~Great, like I remember what chloroplasts 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, chloroplasts, 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 Quest complete.]

[+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 explain once we get to our new location. Someplace 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~

┏━━━━━━???━━━━━━┓

─────?? Player Details ??─────?

[Lucius Elwood ]

[Level 1: 10/100]

[Leafling lvl.1- [1/100]]

[Sunlights blessing] +1 to all stats

─────?? Stats ??─────?

[Agility: 1(2)]

Nove l B(in).C OM

[Strength: 1(2)]

[Stamina: 1(2)]

┗━━━━━━???━━━━━━┛

~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?~