The next morning, Lucius woke up very early to begin his own personal training. It would consist of three parts, a pure martial arts session, followed by magical research, and then closed off with a mixed session.
His prior fight with the necromancer had made it clear to him that human combat didn't use his new body to its full advantage. And although he was no genius martial artist, the creation of a new kind of martial art was in order.
~This type of fighting has to be well equipped to fight massive monsters, and also be well developed to counter magic specialists,~ he thought, whilst doing pushups. Even if they did nearly nothing to increase his stats, the familiar movement helped him think better.
~It should also be flexible enough to avoid becoming obsolete as I grow larger,~ he continued. In addition to that, he also had to ensure that it could be easily adapted to the different variations of evolution his children might go through.
Magic aside, claws and tails were things that humans did not have. So movements involving them were not a part of the martial arts Lucius learned, which served as a good place to begin.
He would first try to mold his prior martial arts knowledge to better make use of his tail, claws, and fangs.
He also decided to adopt a more judo-like method of fighting.
He was insanely dense, which was made apparent by how well he could keep up with that shroom golem. So due to his high strength-to-size ratio, slamming monsters to the ground would be very effective.
In addition to that, his poison would be easier to inject into his enemy's body with his claws during grappling techniques.
With this in mind, he began his training. Of course, he didn't manage to make any real breakthroughs. For now, he was merely laying the foundations, finding out what worked and what didn't.
As he continued his martial arts training, an interesting idea came to mind.
Although Elmando was currently a weak skill, the strength with which the marked tree used it gave him hope that it might become crucial in the future. So if even slightly, he decided to add Elmando as an extension of the martial art.
For his magic section of training, he was limited to thinking of viable new spells to add to his arsenal. He couldn't cast any, as he had no means of replenishing solar energy right now. So that meant, even the spells he thought up would have to remain theories until he got to the pristine forest.
~Hmm, this one might be good,~ he thought to himself, after having thought of another spell idea. This was the only one of the spells he had thought of that came even close to being viable.
It was a spell that could hypothetically inject solar energy into the ground. It would work similarly to how solar cleanse worked, but he would attempt to use his strange connection to the ground to feed it energy.
He had gotten the idea after thinking about how the necromancer's decay zone must've worked. If he could create a sort of 'energy zone' then perhaps reclaiming their lands may be easier.
Though this was a crazy idea, the marked tree already did something similar. The area around its influence seemed to shine and even caused everyone with a core to recover energy at a faster rate.
After finishing off his training with the mixed session -which didn't include any actual magic as he had to conserve his reserves,- he left his room.
One of the local creatures was waiting for him outside. According to the Shayec, as he was named, he was to be Lucius's retainer. Though this just made Lucius feel like they had put a watchdog on him.
"Yesterday I requested to see the potential warrior candidates of the den. Can you have them meet up at your training area?" Lucius asked.
"The warrior's cave? Please wait here while I shall pass on your request," Lucius's retainer said eagerly before quickly walking down one of the many corridors.
~So much for a watchdog,~ he thought to himself, before using his tail as a sort of seat.
After a short time, Shayec returned and led Lucius toward the warrior's cave.
It was a massive space, almost as spacious as the war room, with embellishments, and trophies in the form of boar heads hung all along the walls.
Waiting in a single file were a few dozen young warriors, each of them having a sort of naive eagerness in their eyes.
"So you are this den's next generation of fighters?" Lucius whispered to himself, before walking towards the center of the room. Once he was there, he noticed a small trench to the side of the cave that had several spears placed within it.
He retrieved one of the spears, before inspecting its build. Its shaft was made from wood, however, it was of inferior quality to even the wood he had used in his first camp.
~Well, I can't blame them. They can probably only make use of branches that fall off trees. I highly doubt they have the means to process wood otherwise,~ he thought to himself, before using his claws to nick the sharp part of the spear. It was a porcelain white material, no doubt the sharpened bone of one of their meals.
Sadly, with a single strike, the brittle bone head snapped in half. The spears were a good show of their eagerness to advance, but Lucius couldn't imagine these weapons being of much use against something like an arachnid which had an incredibly tough hide.
"Is something the matter, Havon?" one of the young warriors waiting for him asked. This prompted Lucius to turn his attention for a moment.
The young warrior was just a little taller than Lucius and had multiple markings on his body, similar to the markings on King Shavak.
"These weapons, who creates them?" Lucius asked, before placing the spear down.
"Those are the weapons my father secured for the den. He arranged a deal with creatures from the pristine forest," the boy replied, clearly proud of himself.
"Who's your father?" Lucius asked, his interest piqued. If there was someone that had trade relations with the pristine forest, perhaps it would make it easier for him to find his children.
"I am Shavtil, second born of Shavril," the boy replied proudly.
~Shavril, of course,~ Lucius thought to himself in exasperation. He was already having a headache thinking about having to talk to that old man.
Just then, someone entered the room.
"A-Apologies for being late. It seems I was given the wrong information," a familiar voice called out.
"Zhayen," Lucius whispered, right before the albino Chames took his place in line. It was clear from the way everyone shifted, that they held a sort of aversion to him.
"I did not think that you'd have the courage to come here. Well done," Shavtil congratulated, before walking to stand next to him.
Lucius had to admit, he had been completely wrong about Shavtil's character. He had been certain that Shavtil was the type to bully others.
"Now go bring me my cloak, I forgot it in my father's cave," Shavtil said next.
Lucius hadn't noticed it before, but it seemed all the young warriors here wore a small leather cloak over their shoulders. Which was likely more a show of wealth than anything else.
"Shavtil, I don't know how it was before. But so long as I am training this group, I alone will give out orders," Lucius interjected, earning him a whispered insult.
Honestly, he wasn't that bothered by it. After all, these were the equivalent of teenagers, spoiled ones at that. However, he couldn't have members showing blatant disrespect to him, without the needed respect, this group would never be able to function.
"Does anyone else here have a father in the council?" Lucius asked, to which everyone raised their hands.
~For fuck's sake, I asked for all potential warriors. Not the spoiled pampered brand," Lucius sighed to himself, before looking to Shavtil.
"Okay, you, begin running around the room. Your hands should always be in contact with the wall. You will stop when I tell you to," Lucius said after some thought, before heading towards the door to correct this matter.
"W-what?" Shavtil asked in confusion.
"What, you didn't hear me? I said to run around the cave until I say stop. If your hand isn't always in contact with the wall then I'll have you kicked out," Lucius added, now standing right in front of the doorway.
"I-Is this a punishment? My fathe-"
Before the child could even finish his sentence, Lucius slammed his fist into the wall, creating a small crater. Everyone in the room stood up straight at this, as if for the first time this morning paying proper attention.
