"There are ways," replied Lucius before taking a moment to think.
"Firstly, we need more information. Ghost-" he said looking towards Ghost, "Get ready for hell. We'll start serious training from now on. You'll be our eyes and ears in their camp, you'll gather information and report back every day. We'll discuss the finer details of the training later," he finished before turning towards Alpha.
"As you guys are right now, you aren't much of a fighting force. You'll all need to evolve before we can even think about trying to engage in anything combat related, however that doesn't mean I can't beat some fighting instincts into you while we wait," he said, still eyeing the small group.
"Alpha… We'll start discussing tactics, though I don't think it will be necessary for this little campaign, I still think you have a ways to go before any of these leaflings can look to you as a reliable leader," he said bluntly before turning to the leader leafling.
"And what of me?" asked the leader leafling.
"I've yet to see an area where you excel in, I'm not one to force gifts," Lucius replied. Right now he was in full-on leader mode, he wasn't going to pull his punches even if it meant hurting their feelings.
"For now you will just take part in the photosynthesis sessions," he said after a moment of thought.
~I'm sure there's something special about you, just like Ghost and Alpha,~ he thought to himself. Though it wasn't clear exactly where the leader leafling's gifts lay, it was obvious that much like Ghost and Alpha, he had a higher intelligence than the rest of the group.
"Very well," the leader leafling replied.
After discussing what each of them would do individually, Lucius began discussing the timetable for their different sessions.
He would have Alpha train with the leaflings in the night, while he instructed Ghost. They would have their shared photosynthesis sessions in the middle of the day, when the sun was directly overhead. It was the time they were least likely to be attacked and could afford to have nobody patrolling the borders.
In the mornings Lucius would begin work on a few structures he wanted to build. Right now the leaflings had no arms, so they couldn't help him much. And it wasn't as if he could discuss the buildings with them as they weren't nearly intelligent enough to be engineers of any sort, so he had to deal with that himself.
~Sigh, I have a lot of work to do,~ he thought to himself after dismissing the group.
It was currently nearing midday, meaning they would soon have their first shared photosynthesis session as a committee, though right now Lucius still had work to do.
~First order of business, building supplies,~ he thought to himself looking towards the interior of the forest away from the river.
As he went further away from the camp in search of twigs, or any branches small enough for him to carry, he started moving more carefully. There was no telling what dangers he might encounter, so he decided safety was the best course of action.
"Ah, perfect," he whispered to himself as he spotted a group of twigs right under a shrub. He picked one of them up, straining to do so as it weighed what felt like the equivalent of a 60 kg barbel to him.
[+ 1 Strength]
~Huh? An increase in stats?~ he wondered as he wiped perspiration off his face.
~Makes sense I guess,~ he decided. After all, carrying this was a sort of exercise to him, perhaps he could put the leaflings on leg exercises while they waited to evolve. Even if they didn't have a system like he did, they could increase their strength if they did this for long enough, and surely that would carry on when they evolved.
After a few moments of thought, he decided that he would build some sort of mini sled so that they could help him gather resources, however for now he had to make due.
***
After an hour of strenuous and perspiration-inducing work, he had carried nine twigs towards the camp. He piled them up neatly on one side and took a moment to inspect the stats he had gained from the exercise.
┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
─────⋅☾ Player Details ☽⋅─────•
[Lucius Elwood ]
[Level 3: 0/300]
[Leaf Being lvl.1- {10/100}]
[Sunlight's blessing] +5 to all stats
─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•
[Agility: 1(6)]
[Strength: 10(15)]
[Stamina: 6(11)]
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
~9 additional points to my strength, and 5 to stamina. I guess the last few rounds did feel a little easier,~ he thought to himself as he tried to catch his breath.
"Lighted One, is the reason you've brought these here?" asked one of the leaflings who were inspecting the pile of twigs. They seemed quite interested in whatever it was that he was doing.
"I plan on building a few things," he replied, swallowing hard as his saliva- or whatever it was that leaf beings had in their mouths- felt dry and sticky.
"𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨? Can we help?" the leafling asked. Though the other leaflings acted as if they weren't listening, Lucius could see their pupils facing them, the sneaky runts.
"Not sure you guys will be able to handle this kind of stuff," Lucius teased.
"We can!" blurted one of the leaflings, blowing his cover.
"Oops," he whispered shyly before hiding behind one of his friends.
"How about this. I'll build a sled for you guys to help me gather materials, then once we've gathered enough, you guys can help me build," said Lucius.
"Seriously?" asked one of the leaflings, however his friends were already jumping up and down in excitement behind him. Spreading the news of how they would be the 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦 and 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 leaflings who got to help the Lighted One build things. Not that they had any idea what building actually entailed though.
"Ahh, they should be here soon," whispered Lucius as he looked up to the sky. The sun was directly above him, it was time. He planned on doing photosynthesis until they dropped to the ground, giving them just enough time to gain consciousness before continuing. He had no time to lose. If they were anything like him, it would take a while before they evolved since they seemed to get exhausted faster than he did.