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 rest later. Right now I need to get moving as soon as possible,~ he thought to himself, rerouting his circulation so that it only circulated in areas with a high density of injuries.

Even with the circulation 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 been completely and utterly outclassed. 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 and come 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 not come 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 account that his definition of hours within the tunnels might've been completely 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.

N0 v el Next. CoM

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 dark lair. 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.