Chapter 112 Subservience

"Then I take it you all want to serve under the Lighted One's rule?" Pagan asked, to which all the shrooms began nodding their heads.

Asclepius was thoroughly surprised. Of course, she could understand that Pagan must've seemed like some sort of incomprehensibly powerful being, but they hadn't even put up that much of a fight.

"Well, not what I was planning, but this will work," she said, climbing down from the tree.

Currently close to 400 shrooms stood silently, waiting to hear what their fate would be.

"But when Lucius said that he offered them a place in the commune, I don't think he meant this many," she said, realizing that the commune could never house 400 newcomers.

"Shall I kill a few more then?" Pagan asked, referring to the shrooms as if they were things rather than living creatures.

"T-This is insane. This creature won't let us live even if we surrender," a shroom shouted, apparently unable to bare Pagan's overbearing presence any longer. It tried to make its escape, however, Pagan was already on it, thrusting his claws clean through its skull.

"Pagan, can you stop killing them for a moment?" Asclepius shouted.

Sure, shrooms killed each other all the time, but to see her own kind being slaughtered like this was a little nerve-wracking. Pagan wasn't the most stable being, so she wasn't completely certain if he would eventually just wipe everyone out because 'they were unfitting to serve the Lighted One'.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" he asked cleaning his fluid-drenched hand on the dead corpse.

"Lucius is very thorough about security, he only just recently allowed me to get into the main camp, so I doubt we could even take a quarter of them back. And leaving a few of them isn't an option, as they might just run away and warn others," she whispered thoughtfully.

"We'll need to ask Lucius how to proceed with this," she said finally.

"Can we not just take the bigger-looking ones and kill the rest? I doubt they would be of much use to the Lighted One anyway," Pagan said, staring at the smaller shrooms with a hungry glare.

"W-We can be of use," one of the smaller shrooms whispered, shivering in fear.

"What was that?" Pagan asked, walking towards the kid-shroom.

"Pagan, if you kill one more, I'll report this to Lucius," Asclepius warned. She wasn't all that concerned that the shroom was a kid, but killing too many might break their minds. And that would mean an automatic fail, and maybe even a punishment.

"Hmm, we will take all the chieftains, and the youngest ones in the clan," she said after a moment of thought.

The chieftains signified the power of the clan, and the children the future. Besides, the children would be easier to manipulate, whereas taking the chieftains would cripple any resistance they might form.

"And the rest?" Pagan asked.

"The rest we move closer to the commune. Lucius will find a way to deal with them," she said finally.

"But before we move, there was the issue of looting," Asclepius smiled, happy to take all the concoctions and herbs at the clan's disposal.

"Bring everything you have. Concoctions, herbs, eggs, meat, everything," she shouted with a smile.

However the shrooms didn't so much as move, all of them stared at Pagan as if waiting for his say.

"The Lighted One awaits us, hurry and bring everything out," he shouted. "And if she feels that you are not giving everything you have, I will cull half the clan," he threatened. Whether or not he meant it was another story.

~To think that one subordinate can conquer an entire clan... and the largest one at that. I chose the right path, this is indeed interesting,~ Asclepius thought to herself as the shrooms began hauling out all their goods.

A good 40 minutes later the front of the mushroom towers was crowded with herbs, concoctions, and miscellaneous items of all sorts. Of course, during this period a few shrooms tried to escape, and sadly Asclepius could do nothing to stop Pagan from killing them.

At this point she doubted that the shroom would be able to function correctly, however, Lucius never mentioned needing them to be totally sane. Besides, her job was to form relations and what better relations that a slave-master relationship?

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"Before we leave, I have a few rules to announce... regarding how you are to act in front of the Lighted One," Pagan announced in a dramatic manner.

***

"Bursting Trace?" Lucius whispered to himself, reading the system notification that he had just gotten. This was the first time he had to read a spell from the index, which was very different from already knowing it.

Though the general idea of it was implanted in his head, it took him a moment to figure out that it was just a solar trace, and a solar burst fused together. And even then he had to find the right intensities, as giving too much or too little power to any one step could mess up the balance, and hence the spell.

~I think this is it,~ he thought to himself, watching as solar bursts were sent out almost successively. His bursting traces spanned a radius of about 2.2 meters, just a little above Pagan's, though he wasn't really trying to test its areal limits.

~It seems that Pagan might be having some trouble, or why else would he be forced to create a new spell?~ he thought to himself.

Though he decided to give it a bit more time before searching for them. So he continued the construction of the pod incubation cottage. He was nearly done, all that was left was the roof.

***

About 40 minutes later, Lucius had finished the final touches on the cottage and was lounging around in wait for Pagan.

He decided that he would give them until sundown before he started his hunt, however just as he was about to get comfortable he sensed a large number of creatures heading for the camp.

"The undead creature?" he whispered, already galloping towards the source, crux out and spells at the ready.