Chapter 148 Those With Skin That Flickers (1)

"Satellite Beam," Lucius whispered, but even after a few moments, nothing happened.

"It seems it doesn't work during the day," he said out loud before recalling his crux. ~Hmm, does this mean that our battle power is higher during the night?~ he wondered to himself.

However, he would have to test the range with which he could borrow power from the radiant tree. Otherwise, the downside of not having solar reserves replenished would make night battles impractical.

During their travel, the group had to make a detour past the area where the necromancer's camp was located to prevent being spotted. This turned the otherwise moderate journey into a lengthy one.

Once they finally got to the other side, Lucius picked out a spot around a large decrepit tree and instructed the others to begin unloading.

"This place... it feels... wrong," one of the shroom chieftains commented, shivering as the group used Elmando to unload the mushrooms from their carts.

"I get the feeling too," Alpha added, looking around at the abhorrently shaped vegetation. The place looked like a Halloween set, especially the way the trees seemed to have grotesque faces plastered onto their trunks.

"Let's finish this quick, the less time we spend here the better," Lucius said, looking around. After around 4 minutes they had fully unloaded the mushrooms, and Lucius began explaining how he wanted the 'dummy' base to be constructed.

"Alpha, begin digging a hole at the center. I want it to span from over here," he said, pointing at an area close to the tree, "all the way till there," he continued, pointing at least 20 meters away.

"It should be at a depth of at least 3 times your height," he continued explaining.

"Won't that be too much for him?" Hannibal asked.

"The more people we involve the higher the risk of our movements being noticed. Besides, this is a good chance for him to build more stats," Lucius answered.

~If it's really too much for him, I'll call a few Laeyves from the F and C depertment,~ he thought to himself.

"Hannibal and the chieftains, you guys will begin with construction. For now, just build an outline about this high," he said, using his hands to illustrate the height. "I want to make sure you guys understood the outline I instructed before we carry on. It's important that it's accurate," he continued, before going silent for a bit.

"Make the walls as thin as possible. We don't need any strengthening, the weaker the base is the better," he said finally.

"Pagan, take up watch while the others carry out their tasks," he ordered, looking towards the direction of the necromancer's camp.

"If anything happens just fire a solar beam into the air and I'll come running," he said before turning to leave.

"Where are you off to?" Hannibal asked.

"I want to see if I can find out who the necromancer's enemies are. If I can tell them about our little operation, they might be able to take advantage of it sooner rather than later," he explained, before going on all fours and galloping into the forest.

*

~There should be a few tracks around here, or a suspicious lack of them thereof. There's no way you can move an attack unit without leaving some sort of trail,~ Lucius thought to himself as he searched the area around the necromancer's camp.

~Ah, here,~ he thought, noticing a part of the floor which seemed to have been swept. ~Sentient definitely.~

As he followed the trail, he made sure to move as stealthily as possible. However, as hard as he tried, he couldn't get past the feeling that something was watching him.

~How can anything live here,~ he thought to himself, noticing how the smokey clouds above him seemed to have purple eyes that followed his every move.

"The swept floor ends here," he whispered to himself, looking around for some sort of structure. However, the only thing he could see was a massive tree about the same size as the Radiant Tree.

"Perhaps it's like the Shri'killian tree?" he whispered, looking around the tree for some sort of entrance. Just then he heard something zip through the air, instinctively his tail moved to intercept the object, and a loud 'thwack' followed shortly after.

"I came to talk," Lucius called out, and yet another projectile came hurling towards him. He quickly locked on to the object before snatching it out of the air, bringing it close for inspection.

"A dart," he whispered to himself, admiring the skill with which the dart was made.

"Are you guys fighting against creatures that look like they have died?" he asked, yet no one responded. He tried his best to locate where the darts were coming from, but they seemed to appear out of thin air. And even his earth sense wasn't picking up anything.

~Sigh, I had hoped I wouldn't have to use this,~ Lucius thought to himself before calling out his crux and casting a solar pulse.

Immediately after, seven figures came into view, all of them hiding atop the tree.

"Cameleons, huh?" Lucius whispered to himself, noticing the likeness with which these humanoid creatures had with the earth reptiles.

"The creature knows magic! Perhaps it is the leader of that army," one of the chameleons said, though it took Lucius a moment to process it.

[Processing...]

[Language Identified...]

[Adding Southern Chamaeleo to the list of known languages]

~Ah, the encyclopedia probably needs to hear the language before it can add it,~ Lucius realized.

"Is that armor? And it looks well made... interesting I suppose," Lucius commented out loud, looking directly at one of the chameleon warriors.

"Creature, how is it that you speak our tongue so fluently?" one of the chameleons asked, its body flickering as it attempted to turn on its camouflage.

"I came to talk," Lucius replied, trying to calm them down.

"Is this how shamans talk? Encroaching on the embankments of others without announcement?" the creature asked still attempting to turn its camouflage on.

It clearly did not want to form any sort of conversation with Lucius. What it was doing right now was just an attempt at buying time.

"That army that's been bothering you, I can help you guys defeat it," Lucius said bluntly, realizing he was going to get nowhere if he tried beating around the bush.