"Lighted One, there you are," said Pagan, greeting Lucius as he returned to the camp.
"Ahh, you're awake. How do you feel?" he replied, lying down on the moist earth before Pagan even had the chance to respond.
"I feel stronger, bigger," Pagan replied happily.
"I see. You're the only one awake, huh," Lucius realized, noticing that everyone else was still fast asleep.
"Alpha's awake as well. But he said he was going to train until you came back," Pagan responded, looking towards the forest.
"He said that?"
"He was a bit worked up about me lasting longer than him," Pagan replied with a grin.
Lucius hadn't processed it earlier because he was so tired, but he just now noticed that Pagan was nearly the same height as him. His volume seemed to have increased as well.
~He must be close to evolving,~ Lucius realized, thoroughly inspecting Pagan's body while the latter went on about something.
"-so what do you think?"
"Huh?" Lucius replied, confused about what Pagan was asking him.
"The orb, it's a little bigger than last time. Do you think it's growing?"
"Bigger than last time? I didn't notice anything?" Lucius replied. The orb was as small as it was the last time they had done photosynthesis, at least as far as he could tell.
"I could feel it, it was slightly bigger, and its pulses were a little stronger than last time. Maybe I'm just imagining things, however, I did like that session," said Pagan, before going on about how enlightened he felt during the process.
Having no reason to leave, Lucius was forced to listen to him go on and on, as he was too tired to even move right now. After an hour or so, the other leaflings began waking up, each of them complaining about a massive headache.
"What's up with you? Isn't your head throbbing as well?" Ghost asked, taking a seat beside Lucius as he listened to Pagan describe in great detail how he felt an 'ascension' each time they did photosynthesis.
"Not at all, in fact, I'm rearing to have another round as soon as possible. For some reason, I feel like I'm on the brink of something, some sort of new discovery," Pagan replied, his voice sort of distant.
"Yes, yes, you've said that already," Lucius chimed in, growing bored of Pagan's talk.
~He's starting to sound an awful lot like those cult leaders back on earth,~ Lucius thought inwardly.
"Anyway, gather everyone. I want to see how much progress they've made," he instructed, picking himself off the ground.
After carefully inspecting the leaflings, he noted that most of them had negligible growth, with the exception of Ghost, Hannibal, and a few others. Pagan of course was on a different standard on his own, he was nearly two times Ghost's size, and about 1.5 times her volume.
"Rub that grin off your face, I'll catch up to you in no time," Ghost snorted, shooting an annoyed glare at Pagan.
"Hehe, calm down there, Ghost, we should be happy that he's made this much progress," Hannibal chimed in. Though this only proved to make Ghost even angrier, as Hannibal seemed to have surpassed her in growth and was the second largest leafling in the group currently.
"Drop the act, I can hear the smugness behind those lies," Ghost shot back.
"Anyway, has anyone seen Alpha?" she asked after calming herself down a bit.
"I think that's him," Hannibal replied, gesturing towards the distance. A glossy, moisture-covered leafling appeared from in between a few shrubs, its gait lethargic and irregular.
"Are you okay?" Lucius asked, running to give Alpha a hand.
He was so tired that he collapsed upon Lucius's touch, nodding in response as he allowed Lucius to carry him back to the camp.
"A bit excessive don't you think?" Pagan commented upon seeing the state Alpha was in.
"What were you even doing?" Hannibal asked as Lucius laid him down next to the group.
"Trai-*gasp* training," Alpha responded.
Lucius took a good look at him, and though he was lying on the ground, Lucius could tell that he had grown quite a bit. He was perhaps a few millimeters taller than Hannibal, but volume-wise, he was at the same level as Pagan.
~But how?~ Lucius wondered to himself. He was certain that the reason for their different growth rates was due to their varied endurance when it came to photosynthesis. But if there was an unproportionate increase in height and volume, then perhaps individual factors came into play as well.
~There's not enough information to make assumptions yet. I'll use Ghost as a control specimen since she seems to have the most average growth rate amongst all the leaflings,~Lucius decided before allowing Alpha to take a rest.
"Anyway, if any of you want to have a second session you are free to join. This one isn't compulsory," he announced to the group. Though apart from Pagan and Ghost, everyone else seemed reluctant to join.
"I'd join, but I don't quite like the confusion I get afterward, so you can count me out," Hannibal said shyly, before walking towards a group of leaflings that were chatting at the edge of the camp.
"Let's get started," Alpha whispered jadedly, barely able to lift his leaf off the ground.
"It's good to want to push yourself, but let's not overdo it. We still don't know much about photosynthesis and its repercussions."
"Take a good rest, I want you back to full strength before our nightly training session," Lucius instructed before taking a seat beside Ghost and Pagan.
"Okay, whenever you're ready," he said, turning to Pagan, before closing his eyes.
The session went on for 25 minutes, Ghost passed out at minute 1, while Pagan went out at around minute 23. It seemed his mental capacity decreased each time he did it without proper rest, an interesting discovery to note.
After some consideration, he decided that he would put all his helios into Evo points, aiming to complete the 1 million Evo point quest.
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─────⋅☾ Daily Quests ☽⋅─────•
─────⋅☾ Milestone ☽⋅─────•
<Buy 992, 910 Evo points> 600exp [Unlock ??? in item shop]
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~I chipped it down a bit. But at this rate it'll be a few days before I unlock that new item,~ he thought to himself, fighting off the urge to fall asleep.
