~What the hell is going on?~ Lucius thought to himself, taking a few steps back from the pod. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
It was purplish black in color, much like the arachnid's leathery-rock skin. It had multiple orifices, from which a toxic purple gas was constantly being emitted, giving it its ominous ambiance.
Though, as Lucius looked down, it had the same yellow flower petals that the others had, running all along its base. The tendrils that dug into the ground weren't much different either, but Lucius could tell that this pod would be a problem.
"Pagan take the others away from the pod. The gas it's emitting might be dangerous," Lucius quickly ordered.
[Daily Incubation Requirements.]
[4 pounds of tier 2 flesh.]
[100 Helios.]
[Mana infused water.]
[Note that failing to meet D.I.R may result in premature evolution leading to death or mutation of the incubated creature.]
~What's all this about?~ Lucius thought after reading the requirements. Sure, he had expected this evolution process to go a little differently, even the weird pod wasn't that surprising, but this?
Where the hell was mana-infused water, and where would he get it? Not to mention that it required flesh, which was odd for a leaf creature.
~Is it because I used hunter genes? Is she evolving into a hunger hybrid?~ he thought to himself. And as much as the idea seemed intriguing, he wondered whether it would change her normal psychological state. Would she try to eat the others as soon as she came out?
~No, this is a learning experience. But until she's evolved I'll refrain from using the arachnid genes on anyone else. Besides, 4 pounds of flesh a day? Just how much food is she going to cost?~ Lucius thought to himself with a sigh.
After moving all the leaflings away from the new pod, Lucius and Pagan continued their session. This time around they crossed the 2-hour 4-minute mark and Lucius allocated all his points into growth.
He could feel himself expanding, the world around him becoming smaller and smaller by the microsecond.
He had grown to the size of a large rabbit, with a tail that was now the same length as his entire body. The flower at its tip was now the size of a pebble and was taking a shade f yellow very close to orange.
His horns were now half his entire body in length and were forming branches making it look similar to the antlers of young bucks.
His skin became darker in color, becoming an almost brownish-green, and its texture seemed to become harder, woodier. And as Lucius felt his head to examine his horns, he found that small patches of grass-like protrusions covered his entire scalp.
~And they told me I'd be bald for the rest of my life,~ Lucius chuckled to himself, remembering the balding he had been going through back on earth.
He turned to examine Pagan, and found that he was now the size of a large rodent. His tail didn't seem to have grown and in fact seemed to be shriveling.
Lucius notices that Pagan's skin had also changed. It was a few shades darker and had very faint pentagonal patterns appearance all along it.
"Pagan, try picking me up," Lucius said after finishing his examination.
Pagan was confused of course, but obliged and attempted to pick the now massive Lucius off the ground. And just like Lucius expected, he had failed.
Lucius then quickly pulled out Pagan's stats and sighed in defeat.
┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
─────⋅☾ Creature Details ☽⋅─────•
[Pagan Elwood ]
[Level 4: 0/400]
[Leaf Being [Photosynthesis Variation] lvl.8- [000/800]]
─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•
[Agility: 11>14]
[Strength: 41>49]
[Stamina: 29> 32]
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
"Pagan what does your daily self-training look like?" Lucius asked, a bit annoyed by how even with a 5% stat buff, Pagan hadn't gone more than a few points up in every stat.
"Daily self-training?" Pagan repeated thoughtfully.
"Yes. Like the training Ghost, Alpha and even Hannibal do. The training that you do on your own," Lucius explained. And it dawned on him, perhaps he was asking too much. Ghost, Alpha, and Hannibal were hardworking in nature, but Pagan, Pagan was PAgan.
"Ah that. I use my crux until I feel tired four times a day. I can now use my crux a few minutes more than I could when I first got it," Pagan said proudly.
~Well at least he's taking magic seriously. Perhaps I should try training him in that,~ Lucius thought, before realizing that he himself had been procrastinating on training and experimenting with his crux.
"Right. Tomorrow morning we'll do a joint crux experimentation session," Lucius decided. It was high time he found out more about his crux.
"I look forward to it, Lighted O-" Pagan was about to reply excitedly, before Lucius halted him with a hand gesture.
"But first, 50 laps around the tree. Then 50 push-ups," Lucius ordered.
"But it's getting late," Pagan tried complaining, pointing to the now setting sun.
"Then better hurry up," he said, sitting down. "I'll be counting,"
As Pagan did his laps, Lucius saw the insectoid walk into the cottage, apparently exhausted from its daily activities.
~Evolution works on non-leaf creatures huh? I wonder what the insect would think about joining my commune?~ Lucius pondered.
It was a great fit. The insectoid already seemed to be liked by the leaflings, and by the way, it sometime played with them, Lucius could only assume that the feelings were mutual. And Besides, having a flying creature in the commune could prove useful.
~But the 50% penalty... Perhaps I'll hold a different session for it. But I don't have time right now. I need to do needlework on the arachnid hide, then go into the Dark Forest. Not to mention all the new buildings, and the fact that I might outgrow the cottage in a few more days,~ he thought.
Once Pagan had finished his laps and was taking a quick break, Lucius decided to get Ghost's pod requirements out of the way.
Though he didn't have tier 2, flesh he wondered whether tier 3 flesh would work. The required helios wasn't a problem as it would just take a second to get, but what really bothered Lucius was the water requirement.
The closest thing he had was the water they collected from the springs, though he wondered if that was mana infused.
Assuming that the orifices was the area he was meant to put the required items in, he tossed the flesh, and water in. And then touched the pod.
[Spend 100 Helios for daily requirements?]
Lucius accepted and another message came out.
[Requirements met!]
~Sigh,~ Lucius thought himself in relief.
***
