Reincarnated As A Plant Life
chapter-108

"Gather everyone in front of the main cottage, we'll be having a session in a minute," Lucius ordered.

It was mid-afternoon, so there was still quite some time available to hold a session, however, Lucius had other things to do and wanted to get this out of the way quickly.

"Yes, Captain," Alpha replied, before shouting out orders.

Lucius began walking towards the cottage that housed Ghost's pod, water and meat in hand.

"So will I be having a session along with everyone else?" Asclepius asked, following close behind him.

"You still haven't completed your mission. I'll hold a session for you after you've done it," Lucius replied, opening the door to the cottage.

"I understand why Pagan's mission was based on hunting, but how does forming information lines relate to my department?" Asclepius asked, following him into the cottage.

"Your department deals in information, I don't see how it isn't related. You can use this chance to enquire about information they may have on herbs, or other techniques that you might not have access to."

"In fact, you can even hire a few of them to pick out herbs for you to make your life easier, but make sure to secure hunter locations. I don't want to have to go back to the glass forest, it's way too far, and way too crowded for my liking," Lucius replied, feeding Ghost's requirements into her pod.

[Requirements met!]

~Probably a day more and she'll be out,~ he thought to himself, before turning to leave.

"Makes sense... I suppose. But the only information lines I'll be able to form are with others of my kind. Wouldn't it make more sense for you to do it? Since you can talk to creatures around the same size as you, won't they be better information sources?" Asclepius asked, following Lucius out.

She had a point, shrooms were limited in the information they could provide. If Lucius formed information lines with others on the same tier as him, or above, he would gain access to more than just hunting spots. He might be able to gain information on techniques and other details about this world.

And of course, he planned on doing just that. However, this wasn't his only goal.

"We aren't doing this for just information alone. This is just an excuse to form relations with these creatures. We'll slowly make them depend on us, and then bring them into the commune," he explained, the other leaflings currently waiting on him.

"But couldn't you do that with higher-tier creatures?" Asclepius asked.

"Lower-tier creatures are easier to manipulate and easier to deal with if they end up betraying me. However, higher-tier creatures are more complex, and there is a chance they may have some way of retaliating if I try to get rid of them," Lucius explained, before joining the leaflings.

"You can continue your research, I'll come get you once we're done," he said, before addressing the leaflings.

"Are you guys ready? This is your last day as leaflings," he announced, to which the leaflings responded with cheers of excitement.

He quickly arranged them into neat lines, taking into account how he wanted their pods to be lined up once they began the evolution process.

"Pagan, you may begin the session," he said after.

"Everyone, open your minds to the Lighted One, receive this blessing in his name, and work to repay him till your final days," Pagan said dramatically, before beginning the session.

~Just who gave him the idea to say all this before starting a session?~ Lucius thought to himself, before closing his eyes and bringing out his crux.

[『Pagan』 requests to use you as a relay.]

[Accept.] [Decline.]

~Accept.~

[『Pagan』's +5% increase has been added. Photosynthesis efficiency has been increased by 32%]

[Absorbing 792 Helios per second.]

~What?!~

Ever since Lucius had evolved, he hadn't done a photosynthesis session with his own crux. So it was a surprise to see that his absorption rate had nearly tripled since his last evolution.

At this rate, he and Pagan may even evolve before the leaflings wake up.

During the session, the leaflings began evolving one after the other, which was very strenuous for Lucius's mind as he was constantly being sent to the white void.

They even had to take a few breaks in between to allow his mind to get some rest. During all this, Lucius discovered a few things about the evolution process.

For one, he could only use the genomes of creatures he had consumed once. Meaning that the genome he had given to Ghost was unique to her alone.

He figured this out after opening the genome's library, which apparently was only accessible when someone was evolving. The genomes were listed in terms of their main attributes, and possible 'modifications'.

The one that he had used on Ghost was greyed out, and when he tried choosing it the system gave him the message [Genome currently in use.]

There were two other genomes on the list, and based on the descriptions given he could more or less tell which creatures they belonged to. One of them belonged to the centipede he had eaten in the dark forest, and the other to the weird creatures he had recently devoured.

Sadly, this meant he would have to be careful about giving genomes away.

In his head he was already reserving the centipede gene for Alpha, hoping that he would get the metallic shell. The invisible dog creature, which he was calling a shimmer-wolf, was reserved for a future member of a shadow division within the Warring Department.

He decided that he would go hunting for a creature with characteristics to his liking later on, as he was unsure whether he could have more than one genome at a time.

After about 3 hours, the whole commune had evolved, and pods of different designs were lined up neatly in front of the main cottage.

"Hmm, that was quite a good session," Lucius said, noting down Hannibal, Alpha, and Pagan's growths.

Hannibal and Alpha were now the sizes of large rodents, with Alpha being a lot bulkier. Pagan on the other hand was now the size of a small boar, about 25 centimeters shorter than Lucius.

~Hmm, this is odd. Is he not going to go through the guardian evolution?~ Lucius thought to himself.