Chapter 103: Hidden in the Woods (1)

"Oi, it's been a while, huh?" Lucius said after a moment of awkward silence.

"Exipor?" the insectoid replied, before stepping a little closer.

"Exipor!" it shouted a moment after, running around Lucius like an excited puppy.

"Yeah, yeah I missed you too. It seems you're doing well, you even gained a bit of weight," Lucius commented, seeing that its belly was full.

"Exikilim deris kelix," it replied.

Lucius was really tempted to buy the encyclopedia to understand exactly what it was trying to say. But it was simply too expensive, it would take like 5 days for him to buy it. And 5 days' worth of helios was simply too much, especially as he would have to save up for the leaflings' evolutions.

"I'll see you later," Lucius said before waving goodbye to it.

"What a weird bug," he whispered to himself as he left.

"Dexi kilor exipor," it whispered to itself before leaving.

Once Lucius got to the stash, he took a slice of meat, placed it inside a worm skin bag and made his way toward the arachnid den.

As he entered, the arachnid babies rushed at him like before, but once they realized who it was, they went back to hiding in a corner.

"I brought food," Lucius said, breaking the meat into tiny pieces so that the babies could eat it easier.

He held out his palm with a piece of meat at the center and called out to them. But for several minutes they just stared at him in fear.

After a while though, one of the babies got a little curious and made its way ever so slightly toward his hand.

It got a whiff of the meat and he could see it literally shudder in hunger.

~Their senses must be weak,~ he realized. Perhaps they hadn't approached him sooner because they couldn't smell the meat.

He brought his hand closer, and for a moment the babies jerked back in fear but quickly relaxed once he stopped his hand.

It sniffed his hand once more and quickly scurried to grab the meat, before running off to a corner to eat alone.

Its brothers and sisters realized that it had gotten food and began fighting for it. That's to say, the tiny piece of meat finished in but a second.

Lucius put another piece of meat in the palm of his hand and held it out again. The same baby crept closer ever so slightly, before quickly grabbing the meat and running off, this time behind him so that it would not be disturbed.

The other babies were still skeptical and just watched their sibling ate. They were too scared to pass by Lucius to go bother it for food.

Once it was done, it walked back in front of Lucius, making sure to stay a distance away, before letting out a small shriek.

"More?" Lucius asked, before tearing off another piece and putting it in the palm of his hand. This time, he held it closer to himself.

The baby seemed a lot more suspicious of the meat this time and took longer to come. But after a few minutes of thinking, it rushed at the meat, grabbed it, and left.

Lucius tried the exercise a couple more times, but only that baby was brave enough to get the meat. The others wouldn't come near him, and after a while, the slice he had was finished, and the single baby's belly was about to burst.

"Well, hopefully, I have more luck tomorrow," Lucius whispered to himself before standing up to leave.

As he was about to leave he heard something that sounded like a mix between a whimper and a shriek. He turned back to see and found the babies were searching all over the floor for leftovers.

"Maybe tomorrow you'll all be more trusting," he said before leaving.

Once he got back to the camp it was getting late, and the time for their revenge would soon come. So he began preparing for their attack, which really didn't amount to much besides replenishing his solar energy reserves in case a third party joined the fray.

Once the sun had completely set, the group made their way into the forest, leaving Pagan behind to defend the camp.

Pagan didn't really feel the need to get revenge, he seemed indifferent to the deaths of the leaflings and said 'they were lucky enough to have died knowing the Lighted One,' as a response to Alpha's constant attempts at guilt-tripping him.

*

"This is the camp," Lucius whispered, noting down the familiar mound they had once taken residence in.

They began stalking their way toward the area where the shrooms had been spotted most often, and after a few minutes of walking, they started coming across poisoned vegetation.

~Just how strong are these shrooms' poison?~ Lucius wondered, already having solar cleanse at the ready.

As they got further in, they realized that the damage to vegetation wasn't as small scale as they had first thought. This didn't look like poison at all. It was as if the trees and plants here were literally rotting.

They had a bad pungent smell to them, like sour corpses, if that description made any sense. It smelled like a mass grave.

Though they weren't exactly sure where the shrooms were, they followed the decay, the worst part of it in particular. And after several minutes of walking, they finally arrived at their destination... or what was left of it at least.

A trench had been dug up, and a soup of what looked like purple ooze filled it to the brim. The hole was shallow, about 5 centimeters deep, and covered a small area. Lucius could tell from the outer edges, that a slime-like coating had been used to prevent the fluid from draining.

"Keep your eyes peeled, they could attack us at any moment," Lucius said, before moving to inspect the soup.

Once he got a closer look, he saw that there were a bunch of weird objects floating inside it.

"What the fuck happened here?" Lucius whispered to himself, realizing that this was primarily a mushroom soup, with dozens of shroom heads floating in the concotion.