Chapter 130 Becoming A Great Settlement (1)

"However, I'd rather not trust them with vital information, not yet at least. So you may use them if you want to send the chieftains or other shrooms on errands, but refrain from sending them on anything that has to do with the internal matters of the camp," Lucius said after some thought.

Upon hearing this Hannibal nodded his head, as if heavily agreeing with Lucius's way of thinking.

"As you wish Lighted One, I shall put them to good use on other matters then," Pagan replied.

"One of you get the arachnid and the insectoid. And... ah Pagan, perhaps you can go call Alpha. He isn't trusting of these shrooms," Lucius said after.

The arachnid and insectoid were brought after a minute, apparently, during the four days Lucius was away they had eaten to their heart's content, as their abdomens had bloated quite a bit.

"Ease down on the amount of food you allow it to eat," Lucius said to the shroom that was carrying the arachnid, as it ran up his body, before settling on his shoulder.

"Exipor!" the insectoid shouted, before scurrying around him once and settling comfortably at his feet.

Alpha came three minutes later, his entire body moist from training.

"Captain," Alpha greeted, before bowing on one knee.

"So you picked up that habit as well?" Lucius asked, before going to raise him.

"Pagan told us that you said it was a sign of respect," Alpha explained, kind of confused.

"You misphrased that, Alpha. I told you I felt it was a sign of respect. I would never dare to put words in the Lighted One's mouth," Pagan shot back.

~Hmm, they are a lot more complex than before,~ Lucius realized, as they quarreled.

"Where's Asclepius?" Lucius asked, realizing that she was the only one missing.

"Ahh, she's in her new accommodations," Pagan answered, pausing from his quarreling for a bit before pointing towards the mushroom dome at the furthest edge of the inner camp.

"She moved in, huh?" Lucius whispered to himself.

"That was my doing, forgive me if it was against your future plans," Hannibal explained.

~Hmm?~

"And what was your thought process in doing that," Lucius asked, looking towards him, before ordering one of the little shrooms to go get her.

"She finished the concoction you had ordered her to make while you were asleep. She said that she managed to make it even more potent than she had first estimated," Hannibal began explaining.

"Since we are partners of the same Department, I asked if I could assist her in her research of refining the concoction," he continued, stopping in between sentences to see Lucius's reactions.

"So I thought it would be easier if she stayed closer. That way you could monitor her, and in case we do fall under attack, we won't have to risk losing a valuable asset," he finished explaining.

~Valuable asset, huh?~ Lucius thought to himself in amusement. It was a crude way of thinking about someone, but he generally had the right thought process. Asclepius was more an asset than anything else. If he viewed the leaflings as his kids, Asclepius was like a work friend.

"Well done," Lucius said, patting Hannibal on the head.

Once Asclepius arrived, the group began their photosynthesis session. Pagan had dismissed the shrooms and told them to stand by someplace close by.

The session took place in the largest dome structure in the camp, apparently Pagan had made this building specifically for the sessions. It was large enough to fit nearly the entire leafling population at least twice over.

"Let us bathe in his Light, and forever strive to repay our debts," Pagan announced before starting the session.

[『Pagan』 requests a relay.]

[Please select relay link]

─────⋅☾Relay links☽⋅─────•

[『Tree mark』- lvl.1]

[『User』]

[Select all]

────────────────────

​ Lucius promptly chose the 'select all' option.

[『Pagan』's +5% increase has been added. 『Tree mark』has added 1000 helios per second.]

[⚠ Target(s) lack certain requirements.]

[Continue Shared Photosynthesis at 50% efficiency?]

~Yes~

[Absorbing 822.675 Helios per second.]

The arachnid, insectoid, and Asclepius held on for three, six, and 10 minutes respectively, and after their links had been severed, the Helios absorption went back to 1645.35 per second.

The session lasted about 2 hours and 30 minutes, with Pagan and Lucius being the only ones left at the end. Lucius could sense that Pagan's evolution was close. If they had one more session like this, he was certain the Pagan would evolve.

~About 17.7 million helios in one session?~ Lucius thought to himself before pulling out 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: 19,497,160)

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

~Hmm, after another session like this, I'll have enough to cover the total cost for the leaflings' evolutions,~ Lucius thought to himself before putting the system shop away.

"Lucius, I wanted to talk to you about the concoction," Asclepius said, derailing Lucius's train of thought.

"Ahh, right," he replied, before standing up.

He noticed that Alpha was completely knocked out from the session and was currently sprawled across the floor. Both Alpha and Hannibal were now about the size of small boars, at least 55 centimeters tall.

Pagan was slowly approaching Lucius's height and was about 1 meter tall, just 20 centimeters shorter than Lucius.

Just like Lucius, their green flesh was slowly turning to a woody brown. This was especially true for Alpha, whose body was beginning to harden, and the wood armor that coated him was becoming more pronounced.

The patterns on Pagan's skin had become more distinct as well, though it was still hard to make out what exactly they were needed for.

The arachnid was now the size of the little shrooms, about five centimeters tall. The insectoid on the other hand was now the size of a rodent, about 10 centimeters tall with its legs fully stretched, and about three times as long.

"Pagan, take Alpha to his quarters," Lucius ordered before following Asclepius.

"Hannibal you might want to come along too," Asclepius said as she and Lucius were about to leave for her dome.

*

"What is it?" Lucius asked once he entered her dome. About half the room was crowded with different types of herbs and plants, all grouped separately in little bundles.

A quarter of the dome had purple plants growing out of the ground, much like the ones she had shown him when he had first returned from the shri'killian mission.

"You've found a way to grow them successfully?" he asked as he passed by the growing plants.

"Hannibal helped me. He broke down the steps I took when I accidentally caused it the first time, and after a few iterations we found out that it had to do with the quality of the soil. Of course, it took us a while to get the requirements right, but we managed," she replied, still taking large strides toward one end of the dome.

Lucius looked back at Hannibal, and he had a slight smirk on his face. ~A valuable asset,~ Lucius thought to himself.

Hmm, she's at least 14 centimeters now, nearly the same size as the chieftains, Lucius thought to himself. Due to the fact he was so large, noticing these differences required a good amount of attention from him.

"This is what I wanted to show you," she said, showing Lucius a worm sack filled with a glowing purple liquid.