Reincarnated As A Plant Life
chapter-116

As the group took rest, Lucius thought of some way to bring about the question of this morphing technique.

They had claimed that they were capable of doing this simply because they had consumed the shri'killian, meaning that if they could teach it to him he might be able to speed up the rate of development manyfold. Not to mention the battle accessory it seemed to promise as well.

"So, this building technique you guys are using, who taught it to you?" he asked after some time had passed.

"Those before us," one of the chieftains replied.

"Hmm, so it is a tradition passed down from chieftain to chieftain then?" Lucius asked, faining interest in the little creatures' traditions.

"You are right in that line of thinking, Lighted One," the chieftain replied awkwardly.

"Interesting..." Lucius said, and once again silence fell upon the group.

The chieftains continued their work after a few more minutes of rest. It seemed that the structure they had laid out before was just a foundation, as they began morphing even more mushrooms, before placing a larger tower-looking structure on top of the first.

~I guess even creatures like termites knew a little about structural integrity,~ Lucius thought to himself.

"Will you guys be able to finish this before tomorrow?" he asked as the chieftains took yet another rest. They looked at each other with worried glances, before nodding their heads slowly.

~Lies,~ Lucius thought to himself, noticing how scared they seemed. Even though they preferred him to Pagan, it was clear that his presence was still oppressive, and for them to say no to him was probably something they could not even think of doing.

"Look, teach me this morphing technique and perhaps we can hasten things up. I have other duties to take care of," he said in a commanding tone.

"I don't think you can lea-" one chieftain was about to say, but another quickly interrupted him.

"F-Forgive him, Lighted One. We can give tell you how it works, however, everything else will depend on you," the chieftain who had stopped his comrade said instead.

"Very well, then," Lucius replied, and the chieftains grouped around him to explain the process.

From their explanations, Lucius learned that 'earth sense' was not a unique feature to him or the leaf beings alone.

The shrooms seemed to have something similar, though vastly weaker in both range and feel. They used this 'earth sense' of theirs to 'link' with vegetation, and by doing that, bend it to their will.

Lucius closed his eyes and tried his hand at this. Having been accustomed to his 'earth sense' quite a bit, it didn't take him long before he could feel the vegetation around him.

[Unlock Skill『Elmando』?] prompted the system, automatically opening the skill tree tab.

One of the newer branches that had been added after he had consumed the shri'killian was highlighted and one of the circles along it kept blinking. He infered that this must be the skill that would allow him to morph.

It cost 1000 Evo-points, lowering his current helios balance by 100,000.

[『Elmando』 skill has been unlocked...]

[『Elmando』 has been deemed a linked skill and can be shared with creatures linked to the user.]

~With this I can probably build a city in a few months... no with the number of leaflings in the commune, and potential others, I could build a kingdom in a few months,~ he thought to himself. Though he was aware that structures alone did not equate a kingdom, it was a start.

He quickly stretched out his mind and found that his earth sense had been broadened even further than before. He started with something small, morphing a nearby leaf into a cubical shape.

"Impossible," one of the chieftains whispered.

Lucius then proceeded to try and morph the structure they had been working on, though he was quickly brought to a sudden halt.

The 'weight' from the mushroom structure was unexpectedly higher than that of the leaf, and he found himself stunned due to the fact he hadn't accounted for that.

After taking a few moments to reset, he tried again, but this time he used even more mental pressure. With sufficient concentration, the structure began morphing to his will, at an even faster rate than the chieftains could manage together.

~Is it because I'm bigger? Or is it that I have a higher mental strength than them?~ he thought to himself.

He tried morphing the structure into a shape similar to houses back on earth but found that it would not stay in a regular shape. That's to say, that turning them into cubes wasn't hard, but impossible.

~Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the paste is made from mushrooms?~ he thought to himself as he tried morphing it into different structures he remembered from earth.

All the while the chieftains watched in utter shock.

"How did he learn it so fast?" one of them whispered.

"It took even our elder a year to master it, and he is doing it with the strength of a whole clan's worth of chieftains," the largest one amongst them commented, making sure to not allow Lucius to hear him. Though his efforts were wasted as Lucius's senses were way too keen for them to hide their words while they were so close.

"Perhaps he had already known how to do it," another replied after some thought,

"Then why ask us to build these structures when he could do it himself? Why ask us to teach him?" another asked.

"I think I know why," the smallest amongst them whispered. The others turned to face him and waited in silence for his answer.

"He is doing this to show us the real difference in our strengths. He is doing this to show us that he does not need us, and rather we would do well to kneel to him," the chieftain explained.

"But to think that... that something like this could exist?" the chieftain whispered, watching as the structure increased in size as Lucius fed more mushroom paste into it, morphing it at such a rate it seemed alive.

"Truly a monster above monsters."