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.

[Solar 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, comparing 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

Nove l B(in).C OM

~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 the last 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, comparing his height to every leafling in the vicinity.

"Thank you... Pagan," Lucius said, deciding that he would conduct a few experiments on the orb later.

"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

"It's from a fairytale I used to know, it's a strong name," Lucius replied, before walking towards the camp. It was late 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 plant flesh from the surrounding shrubs to use as rope. After toiling for several minutes, he completed the first object he had planned 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, placing the last 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

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 glance 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!"