Chapter 12: Shared Photosynthesis

~It works,~ thought Lucius, bringing shared photosynthesis to a halt.

~So it is a sort of catalyst, I wonder if them touching me will have an effect on growt-~

"What was that?" interrupted Ghost, breathing loudly as she tried to catch her breath. She wasn't alone though, all five of the leaflings seemed to be exhausted, as if they had just ran a marathon.

"Are you guys okay?" Lucius asked. Perhaps this method of catalyst absorption wouldn't be as useful as he initially thought. If it left the leaflings exhausted, he wasn't willing to use it.

"I-I feel... stronger," replied Alpha, looking down at his leaf body.

~What? Does this mean that they also gain the benefits of photosynthesis? If that's true, then that maybe... evolution might be possible for them,~ he thought to himself

"Can you guys carry on?"

"I can continue," Alpha replied quickly.

"Me too," said Ghost almost immediately.

"What about you guys?" asked Lucius, turning to look at the other three leaflings. They seemed to be even more exhausted than Ghost and Alpha, but they moved their leaves up and down in affirmation, willing to soldier on.

"Okay, touch me when you're ready."

[Shared photosynthesis]

[Absorbing 2.125 Helios per second]

This time only one minute passed before four of the leaflings collapsed in exhaustion. Only Alpha remained, though even he was struggling to keep consciousness.

~Perhaps we pushed it a little too much. But this was a good exercise to test their limits,~ thought Lucius, before picking Ghost up.

"Alpha, will you be able to walk back to the camp?"

"Y-Yes," Alpha replied as he tried and failed to stand.

"So you can't huh. I'll come get you once I drop Ghost off."

After dropping all five of them back at the main camp, Lucius sat next to the river to properly examine his new form. Though he hadn't noticed it at first, there were two black stumps at the top of his head, poking out ever so slightly. His teeth were razor sharp, as if he were meant to be eating meat, and he had a very short limb protruding from his back, though he couldn't feel or move it.

~So the leaflings can only handle about 255 helios per session. Though it seems like some of them will be able to handle a little more, like Alpha,~ he thought to himself as he stared at his reflection in the water.

The ripples distorted the image, making it look bendy in some areas of the water. Lucius stood up and picked up a small pebble, before skipping it over the river, which proved to take a lot of energy as he still wasn't even close to having the strength of a human child.

For a moment he saw an image of his former body, of Lucius Mc. Conol, in the water, before a ripple erased the image, leaving only that of his Leaf Being body.

~I guess this isn't a dream... but perhaps I always knew that. So Riley was right huh... the cycle of rebirth. To think I was reborn as a leaf creature, the gods must be jesters.~

After sitting still for a moment, taking time to properly accept his new circumstances, he decided to complete his daily quests. After all, it was the only thing he could do now.

He closed his eyes and imagined that a bundle of roots was protruding from his body, snaking all the way to the water. This time the roots felt more like vines than wisps, and instead of appearing out of nowhere, he could feel them coming out of the limb on his back.

[Water absorbed.]

[Growth efficiency increased by 2.5%]

[Photosynthesis efficiency increased by 2.5%]

[Quest complete.]

[+20 exp]

After completing his water absorption quest he carried on to start photosynthesis.

[Absorbing 2.05 helios per second.]

For half an hour Lucius sat still, taking short breaks in between to prevent completely exhausting his mind like he did last time. Over this period he absorbed over 2000 helios, allocating most of them into growth while making sure to save 1000 for the solis fragment.

[Solis fragment purchased]

After purchasing the fragment, Lucius opened his skill tree and hovered over it to see which skill was glowing.

~Ahh, that one,~he thought, locking on a skill that was glowing a brilliant white hue.

[Are you sure you want to purchase 『Solar Core』with 1 Solis fragment?] prompted the system, to which Lucius quickly accepted. A moment later his vision went blurry and his body numbed, it felt as if there was something burning a hole deep within him.

~Not aga-~ He passed out before he could even finish the thought.

[『Solar Core』is being created...]

[Creation complete.]

[Linking 『Solar Core』to 『Photosynthesis』....]

[Link complete.]

[Creating 『Solar Sorcery Index』...]

[Creation complete.]

[System rebooting...]

***

"Ugh, my head hurts," croaked Lucius, holding his head in pain.

"He's awake!"

~Probably passed out for a day again,~ he thought to himself as he looked at the leafling who was screaming and running towards the camp. This time there were only a few leaflings surrounding him, perhaps they had gotten used to him passing out already.

After a few moments, he saw a familiar leafling running from the camp towards him. "Luci, you're awake," whispered Ghost, stopping right in front of him. Her body language was odd, she seemed awkward, which was very unlike her character. At least from what Lucius knew.

"I thought that maybe- you were just asleep for so long- and we didn't know what to do- Alpha tried but even he-"

"Slow down Ghost." Lucius's head already hurt, and Ghost's mumbling wasn't helping him too much. He decided to first inspect his body to see if there were any changes, but found that he was the same as before. A leaf Being.

"You need to give us a warning before you do things like that," said Ghost, her voice breaking in emotion as she said this. It was the first time Lucius had ever seen Ghost this worried, usually, she was smug, and even the first time he had passed out she didn't seem that affected.

"Calm down Ghost, I'm okay. You don't need to worry," he assured, before hugging her. Perhaps it wasn't common practice for leaflings, but Lucius was still human in mind. And hugging was the only way he knew how to deal with upset girls.

"How long was I out anyway?" he asked after she had calmed down a little.

"1 week."

"Huh?"