Chapter 56 The Dark Forest

"Hmm, then where do I find this... sh'klan? 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 clan members," the shroom explained.

~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 plans,~ 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 claim 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'm coming 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 become distorted. You will know once you have entered it," the shroom explained, struggling a little in its uncomfortable 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 Solar Cleanse," he chanted, and two strong pulses were emitted from the floating crux. The first scanned the shroom's body, while the second completely healed it.

He kept his eyes closed, before recalling it, remembering how he had gone blind the last time he had used his crux during the night.

Novel Top1.OR G

"M-Magic? H-How, that's impossible," the shroom stuttered, realizing that its pain had been completely 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 will come to replace 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'm coming 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 plateau 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 a larger platform 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, completely 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 solar cleanse each time he felt that his natural endurance had been completely depleted.

As he did this, he realized that his resistance to the healing's mind-numbing effect was becoming 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.