~~~
"Get him, Reagen!" The entire gym was filled with the roars of blood-hungry soldiers. For most, the MMA club was the only space they truly felt free on this god-forsaken army base.
Right now, the new kid was facing off against one of their favorites. Reagen had been a sort of leader figure amongst the cadets before Lucius came along and contested that authority.
He had just transferred from another base, and though they had welcomed him with open arms, a lot of them wanted to see what the overly-confident newby was made of.
Reagen was at least two heads taller than Lucius, and from his size alone, probably two weight classes above as well. The army's MMA club didn't divide cadets into different weight classes, besides, the enemy wasn't going to skip you just because you were a lower weight than they were, so matchups like these weren't too uncommon.
Lucius took the initiative, seeing that he had the reach disadvantage, he had to opt for a close-quarters brawl.
"Oh, look the newby's got balls!" one of the soldiers shouted as Lucius rushed into Reagen's space, sending out three quick jabs towards Reagen's chest.
"Cute," Reagen smiled, tanking Lucius's punches like they were nothing, before throwing a right hook to his side.
Lucius put his left elbow down, trying to block the punch, but its weight rag-dolled him to the side, smacking the wind out of him. Even though he was certain he had blocked it, it still felt like he had been hit in the rib with a cinder block.
Reagen continued with an upper cup, finishing the combo with a thrusting push kick.
Lucius bobbed his head, avoiding the uppercut, but was not fast enough to avoid the kick, taking the brunt of the damage to his chest.
"Come on! Get up newby!" the soldiers jeered, as Lucius gasped for air on the hard canvas floor.
~Seems I won't have to go easy on this fucker,~ Lucius thought to himself before getting to his feet. This time standing in a different stance from before.
He quickly rushed back into Reagen's space before launching three quick jabs once again, thrusting his hip into each and every strike.
The jabs had an unexpected weight to them, winding Reagen with every strike. Though shrouded in pain, Reagen tried throwing out a right hook of his own.
Lucius moved into the punch, taking the hit before it could pick up strength, before latching onto his right arm and hitting him with a backhand fist to the face.
The crowd had gone quiet, and Reagen's nose was now bloody.
"I-I think we should stop it here," someone whispered, but Reagen wasn't going to have it. He threw out a flurry of punches, but Lucius's head bobbed and weaved past all of them, taking the hits of those that he couldn't dodge before they could become effective.
Though both of them stood in the ring bloody-nosed, it was obvious that Lucius was on the winning end. Someone of his build shouldn't have lasted this long against Reagen, and Reagen himself knew this all too well, making him even angrier.
Regardless, no matter how hard he tried to land a hit, it was as if Lucius had ten eyes, predicting every move Reagen could throw.
"Fuck this," Reagen cried out, trying to grab onto Lucius.
"Goodnight," Lucius smiled, his teeth stained red from the blood. He launched a straight punch, right through Reagan's outstretched arms, putting his full weight into it as it connected.
"For fuck sake greenhorn, it was supposed to be a friendly spar," a soldier whispered, trying to pick the bloodied giant off the ring floor.
~~~
"Luci.."
"Luci!" The words sounded muffled as they trickled into Lucius's ears.
~A dream?~ Lucius thought to himself as he slowly opened his eyes to the midday sunshine, the entire commune standing around him.
"The fire! Are you guys oka…" Lucius's question was answered as he saw the insectoid and Pagan standing right beside Alpha.
"The healing worked," Lucius sighed. Before getting up to look at the remains of his cottage.
"What happened?" Alpha asked, "Pagan said that you caused it."
"It was a new spell, Solar Burst," Lucius murmured in reply, trying to recall what had happened. "I didn't know that the crux could form tangible pulses, up till then it could only inspect bodies," he continued, more to himself than to anyone else.
"I'm glad that the healing worked, but what if the damage had been fatal?" he said as he inspected the carnage.
The fire damage seemed minimal, however, a few planks had been completely splintered and parts of them incinerated.
~This was dangerous,~ he thought to himself as he picked up a plank.
"Pagan, new rule. Using magic indoors is prohibited," Lucius said after a moment of thought. "And when testing for new spells, you have to be far away from the commune," he added.
Had it been the leaflings caught up in the explosion, he was certain that they would've been beyond healing.
~Sigh, now I have to build this all over again,~ he thought to himself. But at least the tools were still okay, and all that he had to do was collect more branches.
***
By midday, he had collected over 200 branches, more than enough to build two cottages. Though the work was tiring, he hadn't even gained a single stat point. He understood that his strength was maxed out, but what about his stamina, surely all this work should've triggered something.
~It's almost time for photosynthesis,~ he thought to himself, looking up at the sky. ~We still have a worm left over from yesterday don't we?~ he thought, going to check the supplies area.
"Ahh, here it is," he said as he grabbed the worm. His tail instinctively moved towards it, its petals opening up to reveal two tendrils that snaked forward, puncturing the worm's corpse before slurping up its insides.
[Catalyst absorbed.]
[Growth efficiency increased by 15%]
[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 15%]
[Stats increased by 0.5%]
[Quest complete.]
[+200 exp]
Level 5!
[Quest Complete]
[Stats cap increased by 5.]
"Come on, I was planning on saving some for Pagan," Lucius sighed as his tail slurped up the last of the worm's insides.
~And the mushroom is probably hungry as well,~ Lucius realized. ~Seems I'll need to start organizing hunting parties... it'll be good practice for Pagan anyway,~ he decided, before calling the checking his updated player stats.
~Just 5 huh?~ Lucius thought to himself as he inspected his updated player stats.
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─────⋅☾ Player Details ☽⋅─────•
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 5: 20/500]
[Leaf Being [Guardian] lvl.15- [155/1500]]
─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•
[Agility: 462 ]
[Strength: 750]
[Stamina: 716]
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
