Chapter 97 Developing Camp (3)

~His agility is reasonably high, I'm guessing it's from all the running he must've been doing during hunts and trips to the spring. But as for his strength-~

"Lighted One, are you not eating as well?" Pagan asked, interrupting Lucius's train of thought. He held out a slice of red meat that had sprinkles of what looked like red herbs on top of it.

Lucius accepted the meat and quickly tossed it into his mouth.

[Catalyst absorbed.]

[Growth efficiency increased by 20%]

[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 20%]

[Radiance Production increased by 20]

[Stats increased by 0.95%]

[Quest complete.]

[+200 exp]

[Quest complete.]

[+300 exp]

[Level 8!]

~Cayenne pepper?~ Lucius wondered, his mouth salivating in near ecstasy as he swallowed the last few chunks of meat.

"Where did you get these red herbs?" he asked, taking another slice from Pagan's hand and devouring it in two quick bites.

"It's one of the herbs Asclepius has been experimenting with. He thought it smelled interesting so gave me a bunch to taste," Pagan replied, devouring a slice of meat as he spoke.

~Taste? More like test,~ Lucius thought to himself.

"Okay, let's hurry up and have this photosynthesis session," he said, before taking a seat. The other leaflings got into position as well, and Pagan called out his crux to begin the session.

~What the hell is going on?~ Lucius thought to himself, trying and failing to call out his crux. It was as if it were stuck to his core, as if something were holding it in place.

"Lighted One, is something the matter?" Pagan asked, prompting everyone to look at him.

~Don't tell me...~ Lucius sighed, realizing what must be going on. He closed his eyes, to get a better feel of his crux, and his suspicions were confirmed. The network of vessels that the radiant index had formed was keeping his crux from coming out.

Nove l B(in).C OM

If he wanted to perform photosynthesis, he would have to completely destroy the vessels he had created, in order to free his crux.

~Come on, there has to be another way,~ he thought, running his mind through the possibilities.

~Wait, there might be a way~ he realized, pulling up his system shop.

┏━━━━━━???━━━━━━┓

─────??System Shop??─────?

[Evo points] -100 Helios

[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios

[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios

[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000

(Current Helios: 0)

┗━━━━━━???━━━━━━┛

~I just need 1000 Helios and I can just buy another crux,~ he thought to himself.

If he could have another crux for the solar sorcery index he wouldn't have to destroy his radiant vessels. Of course, If he hadn't seen that 'furry-folk' with two cruxes he probably wouldn't have thought of it this fast. But now, if nothing was stopping him, he would buy even more cruxes if it meant he could get stronger.

"Lighted One?" Pagan whispered, this time right beside Lucius.

"Ah, carry on. I'll let you handle this session alone," Lucius replied.

"Alone? I-I am honored Lighted One," Pagan said in reverence, walking back to his position like some patriarch about to talk to his subjects.

"Today the role of granting everyone a piece of the Lighted One's light falls upon me. Accept this power, and give back unto Lighted One," Pagan pronounced before starting the session.

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

[Accept.] [Decline.]

~Accept,~

[Absorbing 247 Helios per second.]

The session went for a total of 2 and 30 hours. Most leaflings had dropped out at the 45-minute mark, with a few elites making it to the 1-hour mark. However, even though there was quite a gap between those with a high tolerance for solar energy and those without it, Lucius could sense that a large majority of them were extremely close to evolving.

Perhaps if he had been able to join in, some of them would've evolved already.

"Pagan, take those who have passed out back to the camp," Lucius ordered as he stood up. "Ah, and all those from the watch division, I mean those of you who are still awake, stay behind. I need to have a talk with you," he continued.

"You too Pagan. It involves the future of the camp, so hurry back," he added before opening his system shop.

┏━━━━━━???━━━━━━┓

─────??System Shop??─────?

[Evo points] -100 Helios

[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios

[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios

[Language Encyclopedia] - 10,000,000

(Current Helios: 2,203,000)

┗━━━━━━???━━━━━━┛

~Hmm, it'll cost 200,000 total for both Hannibal and Alpha's evolutions. If Ghost's pod is ready, that's 300,000. That means I'll only have enough left to buy one sobriquet, regardless of whether I buy a fragment or not,~ Lucius thought to himself, running the maths.

~Not a problem,~ he decided, before quickly selecting the solis fragment.

? [User must be Level 100 to equip 2 fragments.]

"Fuck," Lucius whispered under his breath.

"Captain?" Alpha's right hand whispered, still a bit drowsy from the session.

~Level 100? How far off am I?~ he thought, before opening his player stats.

┏━━━━━━???━━━━━━┓

─────?? Player Details ??─────?

[Lucius Elwood ]

[Level 8: 220/800]

[Laendryte Rojo [Guardian] lvl.5- [1256/5000]]

─────?? Stats ??─────?

[Agility: 472>790 ] [Capped]

[Strength: 755>790] [Capped]

[Stamina: 728>790] [Capped]

┗━━━━━━???━━━━━━┛

~Level 8, hu- what!? When did my stats get this high?~ he wondered in surprise, before quickly realizing. ~Ah, the fight with the 'furry-folk'.~

He had noticed that he felt somewhat stronger and faster than he had before, even with his injuries, but he had assumed that it was all due to the radiant index.

~Anyway, let's say I complete all my daily quests. How many days will it take?~ he thought before pulling out his quests tab.

┏━━━━━━???━━━━━━┓

─────?? Daily Quests ??─────?

[Incomplete]

<Kill> 300 exp

[Complete]

< Eat> 300 exp

<Absorb catalyst> 200 exp

─────?? Milestone ??─────?

<Buy 988,680 Evo points> 600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]

┗━━━━━━???━━━━━━┛

~This only amounts to 800 exp a day. If the exp bar goes up by 100 on each consecutive level, that means...~

To be honest, he didn't even want to think about the number. It would take him more than a year to get to level 100 at this rate.

~No, maybe I'll get more quests as I evolve. After all, that's what's been happening until now,~ he reasoned.

But there was still a looming question that he had to answer immediately.

Would he destroy his radiant vessels for his solar crux?