Chapter 81: Dark Forest Preparations (9)

"Three pieces," Pagan said out loud, counting out three pieces. But the leader lizard shook his head and pointed at one more.

This went back and forth until Pagan cut a 4th piece in half and held it in front of the lizard. The leader paused for a moment as if thinking about it, before reluctantly nodding its head. And the exchange was made.

"The Lighted One will be proud of my skills," Pagan said proudly.

"What was the point? You only went half a notch down of what it asked for. It isn't as if you did anything worth praising," the shroom said as it cleaned the meat.

"It's about the principle. I made their leader compromise for a mere servant of the Lighted One. That enough is a victory worth praising," Pagan announced delightedly, inspecting the fangs that he had won for his master.

"This guy sure has crazies following him around," the shroom whispered to itself, a bit sorry for Lucius.

Once the shroom had finished purifying the meat and had collected water for Lucius, the two loaded everything onto the cart and walked back. The moment they were back to the main spring, Lucius jumped down from one of the trees, right beside Pagan.

"What did you trade all those pieces of meat for?" Lucius asked immediately, grabbing the two fangs out of the carriage.

"Weapons, for the Lighted One. And I made their leader compromise... by HALF," Pagan explained excitedly.

~So you traded 3 and a half pieces of arachnid meat for something you aren't eve-~ however Lucius stopped as he inspected the fangs more carefully.

The fangs were much like blades, with one side being quite sharp, and the other being jagged. The fangs were bony but felt polished, and it was clear that they weren't naturally sharp but had been sharpened by some tool.

~They have sharpening tools?~ Lucius thought to himself. He was certain that even his grinding tool couldn't come close to this. As he looked closely he noticed that there were patterns on the fangs, they seemed very similar to the ones on the needles.

~Same creature? Then that means this is probably just as hard,~ he thought, attempting to break the object. He put in a reasonable amount of strength and found they could handle the considerable strain.

"Well done, Pagan," Lucius said once he was done. The blades were a little large to be daggers, but they would work well as long knives... for now at least. His constantly growing body would prove to be a problem when it came to owning weapons.

**

"Oi, you haven't found me a place to ferment the organs yet. If we wait too long, they'll dry up and we won't be able to use them anymore," the shroom said once they arrived back at his cell.

"Right, I forgot about that," Lucius replied.

"Pagan, stay here, I'll be right back," he ordered, before giving the shroom his share of the arachnid meat and going back to the camp.

He quickly fed Ghost's pod all it required before bringing the leaflings down. Today he would build the shroom a large cottage-type building, but at the same time, it would act as its workshop, as well as a storage area for all the reagents it would require to make the concoctions.

During all this, he planned to kill three birds with one stone.

While he was building the cottage, he would show the leaflings the different steps required in the construction of buildings, as they would soon be evolved and be able to build on their own. At the same time, he would test the shroom's reaction to them and their reaction to it as well.

He was certain that only Alpha's man had any idea how the shrooms looked, and in turn, were the only ones who knew about the shroom being the creatures that slaughtered the other leaflings.

"Lighted One, where are we going?" one of the leaflings asked as Lucius led them towards the shroom's area.

"I'm going to be teaching you guys how to create cottages. So I'm expecting all of you to try your best," Lucius replied with a coo'ed tone.

Once they got to the shroom, Lucius noticed it flinch just a little. It was clear that it reacted to the leaflings, but it was also clear that its urges had quickly been contained.

"Everyone, this is... Asclepius, our alchemist," Lucius said, introducing the shroom.

"Asclepius?" the shroom and Pagan asked in unison.

"Shut it," Lucius whispered, as the leaflings repeated the name over and over.

"Asepius," one of them tried saying.

"You can just call him uncle," Lucius decided, seeing the shroom's reactions as the leaflings began getting closer to inspect it.

"What's uncle?" Pagan asked, but Lucius ignored him.

"Hello, uncle. Will you be learning how to build with us today?" one of them asked, getting annoyingly close to the shroom.

"You mere prey creatures da-" the shroom was about to shout, before looking up at Lucius. Lucius had that 'fuck around and find out' glare in his eyes. And he wasn't kidding, he would kill the shroom right here and now if it failed this test.

"No, sadly I will not be learning with you guys today," Asclepius replied, gently nudging the leaflings off it.

"Why not?" some of them asked, getting even closer.

"Can you guys please not get so close to me? I don't like -" Asclepius was about to say, before looking up at Lucius and changing it's tone. "I need space to walk," it said with a smile.

"Great," now everyone watch carefully as I work. "Pagan, you stay here with Asclepius, make sure he doesn't do anything funny," Lucius ordered, before shifting his gaze to Alpha's men who were hidden behind some trees.

He did a 'stay and watch' gesture, to them before leaving with the leafling to collect materials for the build.

Collecting all the required branches of wood was quite a boring process, but at least it showed the leaflings how cutting up planks ought to be done. After about three hours he had chopped and stripped all the wood into usable planks.

He then began climbing trees to collect vines and explained to the leaflings why he would need it later.