Chapter 45: Slow and Consistent Growth (2)

After watching over Ghost's training for a little while, Lucius took his rest, leaving the losing squad from Alpha's little race to take the first watch.

*

He woke up early the following day and decided to do his regular morning training routine. However, it turned out to be anything b𝘶𝘵 regular.

For one, it was as if he had to start all over from scratch. Since he could not stand up straight for more than a few seconds, he first had to practice stability before he could even dream of moving on to martial arts practice. However, even this proved to be futile, as his tail simply would not allow it.

Realizing that he would get nowhere without mastering control over his tail, he decided to try just that. Unfortunately, after several failed attempts, he was beginning to think that its sole purpose in life was to mock him, as it seemed to do the exact opposite of whatever he wanted it to.

Reverse psychology didn't seem to work on it either, as it would just do something else completely unrelated if he even so much as thought about tricking it.

~What is up with this thing? It's like it has a mind of its own,~ he thought to himself as he watched it sway from side to side, as if happy with the anger it had caused him this morning.

~Stay still,~ he thought, willing it to stop moving. And for a moment it seemed to have listened, it stopped swaying, but just as Lucius was about to celebrate, it lashed out at him, whipping him right in the face.

~I give up,~ he sighed, holding his face in pain. Deciding that he was getting nowhere with this type of training he decided to train his stamina instead, by taking a few laps around the camp on all fours.

"I'm really getting the hang of this quadrupedal movement thing," he whispered to himself as he practiced different gaits.

He wasn't exactly an expert, but his wife had been very into horse riding so he had picked up quite a bit about the different types of gaits over the years.

He started off with a slow amble, a sort of relaxed four-beat rhythmic movement. Keeping to the rhythm was sort of difficult for the first few laps, but after sticking to it for a bit he got the hang of it.

[+2 Stamina.]

[+6 Agility.]

~Giving me agility for learning how to walk? I'll take it,~ he thought to himself before breaking out into a canter. This type of gait was a tad faster than the relaxed amble but was still somewhat comfortable. However it was a lot harder to perform, and he found himself tripping over several times.

[+4 Stamina.]

[+20 Agility.]

On the plus side, it gave way more agility than the amble, even if he couldn't perform it properly. Growing bored of the canter, he broke out into a gallop. The gallop was the fastest gait he knew from horse riding, and for some reason, it felt the most natural.

With every lap he did, he got more and more comfortable, till eventually, he was moving at speeds he never would've hoped to achieve on two limbs. At some point his tail stopped wagging, and adjusted according to his movements, somewhat giving him more stability to run even faster.

~This is fun,~ he thought to himself, before running towards the shed. He had no idea what came possessed him to do it, but just as he was about to crash into it, he jumped up, bouncing against the tree trunk, before launching himself into the air.

~I'm flying,~ he thought for a moment. And for a moment it seemed so, he was so high up that he could nearly touch one of the tree's branches. It was like jumping over a four-story building, which quickly begged the question...

~How am I gonna get... ahh fuck,~ And just like that he crashed into the ground and his little session came to an abrupt end.

[+20 Stamina.]

[+80 Agility.]

~Maybe next time I shouldn't jump so high,~ he thought as he dusted himself off. His body was riddled with scratches and bruises, and though they were manageable, it felt like it had been run over.

~This is going to be a problem. I can't work like this,~ he realized, finding that his right leg was in so much pain that he could hardly walk without limping.

~Hmm, what about...~ he pondered, remembering the spell he had used back when he was poisoned.

He closed his eyes and quickly released his crux. Once his crux was out, he imagined its light completely engulfing his body, before whispering, "solar cleanse.". And just like that, he could feel his wounds slowly close, till eventually, his body felt as fresh as when he first woke up.

"So I hadn't imagined all that," he whispered to himself.

However, in exchange for a healed body, he got a clouded mind. He felt extremely drowsy, and a wave of fatigue washed over him, completely throwing his thoughts into disarray.

~I need another rest,~ he realized. After confirming that his spell had indeed completely healed his body, he went back to the shed and took a little rest.

*

When he woke up later in the morning, he found a commotion going on in the other shed. He groggily got up and trotted his way towards the source of the noise to see what all the fuss was about.

"Captain, he's awake," Alpha said to him as he entered the shed.

"Can everyone please get out, you'll wake up our other guest," Lucius ordered, rubbing his eyes to get the sleep fully out of his system.

"Lighted One, I have evolved," a familiar voice said to him as he got to the center of the crowd.

"Pagan, welcome back," he replied with a smile, inspecting Pagan as they spoke.

Though initially, he had assumed Pagan's form was exactly the same as his old one, there were slight differences. For one, Pagan's eyes were completely yellow, both the sclera and the iris, making him look like he had been possessed by some spirit.

Another change was Pagan's skin. Though forest green, it had very tiny pentagonal patterns running all along it.

"How do you feel?" Lucius asked him, as he got a closer look at the pentagonal patterns.

"I feel... I have ascended," Pagan replied, looking at his new body.

"But I feel unsatisfied," he said right after. "I know there is still more, this isn't my final ascendence. Isn't that right Lighted One?" he continued, looking up at Lucius's horns, then at the tail that was wagging behind him.

"Yet again you are a step ahead of me," he said finally.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. You're at a good enough level as it is," Lucius replied, just as a system notification came up.

[『Pagan』's stats available.]

~Hmm, let me see them,~ Lucius thought, before willing Pagan's stats up.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

─────⋅☾ Creature Details ☽⋅─────•

[Pagan Elwood ]

[Level 1: 0/100]

[Leaf Being [Photosynthesis Variation] lvl.1- [0/100]]

─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•

[Agility: 9]

[Strength: 8]

[Stamina: 3]

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

~Eh? What the hell are these stats? No wonder he couldn't run for more than a few meters without breathing like a fish out of water,~ he thought to himself, before pulling out his stats for a better comparison.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

─────⋅☾ Player Details ☽⋅─────•

[Lucius Elwood ]

[Level 3: 120/300]

[Leaf Being [Guardian] lvl.4- [10/400]]

─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•

[Agility: 6>112 ]

[Strength: 267]

[Stamina: 247>273]

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

~Wait a moment, something isn't right here. Why is my agility so low? I could've sworn that it was close to the 300s.~

~Hmm... but I guess it makes sense if these are real-world representations of my capabilities,~ he thought to himself. Realizing that perhaps his agility has been drained as a result of him not being able to stand.

"I'm sorry to say, but your stats are absolute trash, Pagan. I'm putting you on a strict training regiment," Lucius said after pondering for a moment.

"B-But Lighted One, what use are these stats? Surely they can't be as powerful as photosynthesis," Pagan complained.

"Hmm, you have a point,"

"I knew you would understand me, Lighted One-" Pagan was about to celebrate before Lucius interrupted.

"I'm going to have to give you an incentive or you'll never get it all done. So how about this, you can only take part in photosynthesis sessions if you meet a quota. The more work you get done, the more time you get," Lucius smiled.

"W-wha? Ghost, surely you under-" Pagan tried saying, but Ghost just looked the other way.

"Alpha, talk to h-" Alpha did the same, even walking out a moment later.

"To be forsaken by my own people," he mumbled to himself in a defeated tone.

"The creature's been out for a while. Why hasn't it woken up yet?" Lucius whispered to himself, turning his attention towards it.

~Perhaps Solar Cleanse will work on it as well?~ he thought, before calling out his crux.