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 occurrence amongst these creatures,~ he realized.

~Sigh, which means interactions with outsiders will have to be kept to a minimum, lest they realize that the commune evolves on a regular 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 welcome 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 placing 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, perhaps larger 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 whole commune 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.

[『Pagan』 requests to use you as a relay.]

[Accept.] [Decline.]

~Ahh, so he still needs me to perform photosynthesis?~ Lucius thought in disappointment as he read the system notifications.

~Accept.~

[『Pagan』'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 the large 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 recommenced on his own. However, it seemed he could only go an extra 10 minutes before the toll began to become 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 becoming 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, quite large compared to the leaflings, but still a little smaller than the shrooms.