Chapter 253: Second Rise of the Elwood Family [II]

"Are you ready for your evolution?" he asked once they were alone, his tone shifting from one of a 'leader' to that of a friend.

"Well, I won't know until it happens," Asclepius replied. Although she always put up a strong front, Lucius could tell she was a little nervous.

And he couldn't blame her.

She would be the first non-leafling creature to try and evolve, and it went without saying that it wasn't completely certain it would go smoothly. As much as everyone took Lucius's words as fact, Hannibal and Asclepius in particular had the burden of 'higher thought' and obviously had their reservations.

"If things start going bad, I'll stop the process. I was considering adding the characteristics of one of the genomes in my library to your evolution, but perhaps we should play it safer," Lucius replied.

"Genome library?" Asclepius asked, her facial expressions betraying a mix between fear and uncertainty.

"I don't think you'll be able to understand exactly what I'm talking about. But if you insist, I'll explain it after you've evolved," Lucius said before falling silent.

"If it makes it any better, I've noticed that thinking capabilities go up with evolution... well, something along those lines. Hannibal wasn't always able to think on as large a scale as he can now," he continued.

Though he still had his reservations about this hypothesis. It was clear that rising in 'tier' entailed a complex change that would require a few more evolutions to properly map out.

"And what about you? You seem to have changed quite a bit since back then. Aren't you going to be evolving soon?" Asclepius asked, as Lucius took a seat on the altar.

He could hear an army of footsteps from the tunnels just outside.

The evolution and crux handout announcements had probably already been made, and those chosen were rushing to prepare.

"I'll hold off my evolution until we get the new camp and its security up in place. I want everyone else to be at a useful level before I go MIA for another week," Lucius replied after some thought.

"MIA?" Asclepius asked, an inquizitive look on her face.

"Missing In Action, it's a phrase used for when people leave the battleground without a trace," Lucius explained, as his mouth twitched uncontrollably.

The mention of 'battleground' instantly sent him back to a memory of one of the 'fake' realities he had been through during his mind torture days.

"Are you okay?" Asclepius asked, her voice sounding almost muffled.

Lucius turned to look at her, and only then did he notice his kumulipo floating right in front of her face.

"What? What happened?" Lucius whispered, a splitting pain suddenly wreaking havoc on his head.

"You were saying something, and then you just summoned that... what is that?" Asclepius stuttered, taking a step back away from Lucius.

Lucius quickly recalled kumulipo before looking towards the door to see if anyone else had seen it.

"It's... it's a new crux I'm working on. Top secret, so nobody knows about it yet," he said in a serious tone.

Asclepius was smart enough to read in between the lines. She couldn't understand exactly what was going on, but it was obvious to see that Lucius didn't want her talking about it.

"O-okay," she said finally.

~That was dangerous... what exactly was I about to do?~ Lucius pondered to himself.

~And why is it getting worse?"

Sure, he had been dreaming more and more about those wretched days, but he had never zoned out like this before.

Perhaps he would have to find some sort of spell that could heal mental illnesses. As it was now clear that there was something seriously wrong with him.

"I spoke to the chieftain who was working on an experiment under your department... the chieftain of the third pillar, I think he called himself," Lucius said after a moment of silence had passed, trying to change the subject quickly.

Asclepius nodded slowly in reply.

"I'm thinking of creating a sub-department for him, and it'd be really useful if you could spare a few of those saplings you salvaged from the marked tree," he continued.

"Hmm, I didn't think that thing he was playing with down there was going to be that useful," Asclepius commented thoughtfully.

"But I can spare one or two of my saplings. Since you're here now, it shouldn't be a problem getting more..."

"Wait you are planning on putting up another one of those trees right? We're already running out of samples," she added suddenly, as if only now realizing that Lucius had yet to set one up.

"I already have the tree... I mean flower I plan on using. Once I find a spot on the mountain for our base, I'll plant it," Lucius replied.

"Mountain? Isn't that Behemoth territory?" Asclepius asked.

"Indeed it is. But it's the best vantage point as far as I can see. If we want to prevent what happened with the necromancer last time, we need a place where it can't reach easily," Lucius replied.

He understood well that trying to set up camp in the mountains might cause some dispute between him and the behemoth races. Which was why he was hoping the trade agreements between him and Grenovarish went well.

Perhaps the Golem king might slide in a good word about him with the behemoth races, and they could make some sort of exception for him.

Worst case, he would have to entice them with some sort of payment in manastones, which was another operation he would have to go on.

Indeed, there was much to be done.

"But enough about this, you should go sort out everything with your department. Hand over your important projects to someone you can trust," he added finally.

"Oh, before I go, there's someone I'd like to recommend to join the council. Hannibal will probably tell you the finer details, but she seems to catch on to concepts quite fast," Asclepius said just as she was about to leave.

"Add someone to the council, huh?...I'll think about it," Lucius replied.

Once Asclepius was gone he looked to the altar one last time, before staring outside.

~Well, I suppose I should go see how things are outside,~ he thought to himself before stepping out of the altar room.