Lucius attempted to get up from the sled to have a better look at the pod but fell over the second he got to his feet. Of course, he could've asked the leaflings to pull the sled closer, however, he already felt annoyed at his helplessness, and letting them do even that much more would make him feel worse.
~Hmm, this seems more manageable,~ he thought to himself as he tried walking on all fours. He hadn't noticed it before, but his proportions allowed him to do it quite comfortably.
However, it all still felt odd as he wasn't accustomed to it, but at least his unruly tail didn't hinder his movement as much with this method of walking.
"How did this happen?" he asked as he stared at the pod's surface. It looked smooth, almost as if it had a waxy layer covering it.
"We aren't sure. When we woke up we found you unconscious and Pagan missing. So we just assumed that the pod must've been him since there was no other explanation," Alpha responded.
"Hmm."
"These flower petals are indeed the exact same as the ones at the tip of my tail," he whispered, inspecting the bottom of the pod. However there was a minor difference between the two, the flowers surrounding the pod had small root-like tendrils that dug into the ground from beneath them.
~Is it pulsing?~ he wondered, noticing that the pod seemed to be pulsating, like a beating heart. In fact, he could feel a sort of warmth emanating from it, calling out to him.
He slowly reached out his hand and felt the pod's warm surface. In an instant he was thrown into the white void, however this time it wasn't his.
He was almost certain of this because there was no burning sphere at the center of it. And though the space seemed to go on into infinitely, it felt smaller than the one he usually went to.
"Pagan?" Lucius called out, noticing a creature floating in the distance.
[100,000 Helios is required to complete evolution.]
[Accept] [Decline]
Lucius quickly accepted, and the creature began glowing a brilliant yellow.
[Purchase 『Sobriquet』 from 『System Shop』 in order to add creature to linked commune.]
~Sobriquet? I never saw an item like that in the system shop before~ he thought to himself before opening the shop.
┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
─────⋅☾System Shop☽⋅─────•
[Evo points] -100 Helios
[Solis fragments] - 1000 Helios
[Sobriquet] - 1,000,000 Helios
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
"What the? This is daylight robbery! What exactly does this do for it to cost this much?"
However, the cost wasn't really a problem for Lucius right now. He hadn't allocated any of his absorbed Helios from the last two sessions, which had both lasted an hour and in total amounted to 2.3 million helios points.
So he quickly purchased the Sobriquet, and though Helios points weren't exactly real currency, he still felt a sense of buyer's remorse afterward.
~Sigh, I could've used them for growth.~
[Input creature's title.] The system prompted, to which Lucius answered, "Pagan."
[『Pagan』 has been linked to your commune.]
[『Pagan』's stats can now be viewed.]
[『System Shop』 items may now be shared with 『Pagan』.]
[『Pagan』 has unlocked title [First in the commune].]
[+5% to all stats, helios, and growth gains have been awarded to 『Pagan』.]
With that, Lucius was thrown out of the void.
~I'll never get used to that,~ he thought to himself as he opened his eyes, his mind feeling a bit fuzzy from the experience. However, that was short-lived as a ripping sound emanated from right in front of him.
"Huh?" he whispered, watching the pod peel open to reveal the newly evolved Pagan.
Pagan's new form wasn't much different from Lucius's old one. He had forest green skin, two small wood-like knobs protruding from his scalp, and an atrophied tail..
Lucius tried to help him out but found it difficult due to the fact he himself could not stand, and the fact that Pagan was covered by a slimy amniotic fluid.
"Need to wash him off," Lucius whispered, slowly dragging the still unconscious Pagan towards the river.
"Huh? I look like some kind of forest demon from an old folklore story," he commented as he looked at his reflection in the gushing water.
The horns on his head were around the same length as his arms and were made from some kind of dark ebony wood. In fact, there were so dark he wondered if perhaps it really was wood.
Another noticeable change was the color of his iris, which was now the same sunflower yellow as the petals at the tip of his tail.
And his once green sclera was now obsidian black, the same color as his horns. If anything, no one would be able to guess he had any relation to the leaflings. He looked more like a fairytale now, like some mystical creature.
"Well, it's an upgrade I guess," he commented before carefully taking a scoop of water out of the river, and pouring it on Pagan's face.
He repeated the process several more times until Pagan's body was completely rinsed off the slimy substance.
"It doesn't seem like he's going to wake up right now," he realized after tapping him a few times on the face.
"Let's take him back," he ordered, turning to look at Alpha and his group. The looks on their faces were confusing, to say the least. Though they seemed happy that Pagan was safe, they also had a look of envy, as if they couldn't accept the fact that it really was Pagan.
"Don't worry. Your days will come soon," he comforted. The group pulled the sled closer and they loaded Pagan before preparing to move out. Seeing that everything was properly hooked up, Lucius began his four-legged walk back to the camp.
"Captain, ah, are you going to go back walking like that?" Alpha asked as he and the rest of his squad watched Lucius's tail wave from side to side, almost as if trapped in a trance.
"Yeah, I think I quite like walking like this," Lucius answered.
*
Once they got back to the camp, the leaflings began surrounding Pagan, everyone excited to see his new form.
"He looks, just like the Lighted O-" one leafling was about to say before getting a look at Lucius.
"Huh?" the leafling shouted in surprise, bumping into another as it jerked back. It seemed that only a few of them had seen his new form. Lucius turned to look at Alpha as if to ask what the hell.
"We couldn't let anyone in. We were afraid they would wake up the creature," Alpha responded, referring to the insectoid.
"So where have they been sleeping?" Lucius asked worriedly.
"Around the shed. We made sure to keep proper watch, so don't worry," this time it was Ghost who replied.
"Right..." Lucius responded, still a bit annoyed that they had done that. However, there was nothing he could say, if anything, it was the smarter choice... just not the choice he liked.
"The sun is almost down, so I don't think we will have a session today. But we can start collecting a few materials," he continued.
"Ahh, about that. We collected a few twigs, however, that was pretty much all we could do without..." she replied, gesturing to their lack of arms.
Lucius turned to look at the shed and found that there were indeed a bunch of twigs piled there. It seemed that the leaflings had been working hard while he was out.
~Hmm, then we just need some grass. I'll build another shed for the leaflings to use,~ he thought to himself as he walked towards the pile of twigs.
"Why is he walking like that?" Ghost whispered to Alpha as Lucius inspected the twigs.
"Don't think he can walk properly anymore. That thing on his back must be bothering him," Alpha whispered back, both of them staring at Lucius's tail as it swung from side to side in a feline-like manner.
"It's kind of cute, ain't it?" Ghost whispered back, before both of them burst into giggles.
"Kuk," Lucius whispered under his breath. ~To be reduced to a laughing stock,~ he wallowed inwardly.
~The quality of the twigs are quite good, well at least for a bunch of kids who didn't even know what to look for," he thought to himself. He noticed that most of the twigs were quite straight, and had an even thickness. Only a few of them were disfigured and thinned out in certain areas.
"Who chose the twigs?" Lucius asked.
Ghost instantly stopped laughing, and Alpha's mirthful demeanor quickly turned cold.
"Uhmm, it was Hannibal. He instructed us on which ones to pick," Ghost answered after a moment of silence. Most of the leaflings were playing around the shed, though Lucius couldn't see him among them.
"Where is he?"
"Probably down by the stoney area over there," Ghost replied, gesturing to where the quarry of pebbles was located.
"He seems fascinated by the things for some reason," she continued.
"Alpha call the rest of your squad and get the sleds. Today we're going to have a little training session. Need to build up those... fibers of yours," Lucius said after a moment of thought.
*
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