Alpha

The training went on for another two hours, it seemed that the leaflings weren't fast learners at all, however, with the exception of squad 3. After Alpha was put in command, the squad seemed to show steady growth in the exercise. Though they still managed to stumble over one another once in a while, they moved at the correct times and with an acceptable speed.

"Okay, enough. We'll pick this up again tomorrow, you guys should get some rest," shouted Lucius. Hearing this, the leaflings fell over in exhaustion, lengthy training exercises were simply too much for their leaf bodies.

"Savi-"

"I told you not to call me that. Anyway, what's wrong Alpha?" asked Lucius, interrupting Alpha before he could even complete his request.

"I wanted to thank you for training us. Ever since I sprouted, I've always been envious of all the other creatures. We weren't born with any specific advantages, it's as if we were created by the gods merely to be fodder for the other forest creatures. But you, you're different. I can tell you aren't like us," said Alpha, before sitting beside Lucius.

By now the rest of the squads had joined the injured leaflings on the moist patch of soil and laid down to get proper rest.

"No need to thank me, Alpha," he replied, stretching his legs out before folding them.

"This is all a dream after all. I'll probably wake up in a bit, and all this," as he said this he looked back at the sleeping leaflings "-will all just be a distant memory, a fun one, but a distant one nonetheless." To this Alpha began chuckling, though ever so softly.

"Is something funny?"

"You know Savior, you're not completely sane, are you? I guess wisdom like yours comes at a cost," he said in between chuckles.

"Sigh, is it so hard for you to call me Lucius?" replied Lucius, slightly annoyed by the leafling's laugh.

"There's no way I could refer to someone so far above me by name. Even if you asked me to, I can't see you as my equal," said Alpha, his laughter dying down.

"Then I guess you could call me captain for now."

"What's that? 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯?"

"It means leader, teacher, someone you can depend on," Lucius replied with a smile, remembering all the teams he had been a part of back in the real world.

"Captain, then. Aren't you going to get some rest as well, Captain?" asked Alpha as he stood up.

"Someone has to take watch. You can go get some rest, training was difficult." Hearing this Alpha sat back down, a determined look on his face.

"Then I shall take watch with you."

From that point on the only sound that could be heard was the whistling of the wind as it blew past the trees. The air was cool, retaining just enough heat from the day, though Lucius wasn't sure whether this was an illusion or not since his body probably didn't have any nerves.

Hours passed by and the temperature dropped a little, though not so much that it warranted starting a campfire. Not that he could start one even if he wanted to anyway.

~Are dreams supposed to last this long?~ Lucius wondered to himself as he watched the sleeping Alpha. Though the leafling tried his best, he too was exhausted from all the training, and so after succumbing to fatigue, fell asleep on Lucius's shoulders.

~Well, as long as I'm here, might as well watch out for these leaflings. God knows they wouldn't survive a day out in the open alone.~

***

"Okay, we'll rest here for a while. Disperse using the emergency procedure, one group over there, and the other over here," Lucius ordered, and within several seconds the group had divided into two and hid under two adjacent shrubs.

"Alpha, pick out four other leaflings and take up watch," he added before sitting down. Alpha quickly picked out four leaflings and directed them to different spots around where they were resting.

~He has a good head on his shoulders,~ Lucius thought to himself as he watched on.

[Daily Quest]

[Buy one Evo point from the system shop] The words appeared into view with the same blaring sound that he had heard the day before. It seemed that this would be a daily occurrence for him. Learning from his past, he quickly set out to do what the words instructed. The sound wasn't pleasant, and hearing it more than once was utterly annoying.

~Okay, so 1 Evo point is 100 helios. And I get 1 helio per second. This should be easy,~ he thought to himself before beginning 『Photosynthesis』. Once again he imagined that the rays of sunlight were being absorbed into his body, and the system notified him that helio was being absorbed.

"There he goes again," whispered the leaflings as they watched on.

After having absorbed 110 helios, he bought an Evo point from the system shop and allocated the remaining 10 to growth.

~Just as I thought, the growth is very negligble~ he thought to himself after looking down at his leaf body. ~But I guess I can sort of feel the difference somehow, I feel a little stronger,~ he thought as he squatted up.

[Daily Quest complete.]

[+40 exp]

~So going by what's written here, I only need 60 more exp to level up. I wonder what'll happen th~

"The others say they've rested enough, should we continue?" reported Alpha, interrupting Lucius's train of thought.

"Yeah... get them in formation. We'll move in a moment," replied Lucius. Alpha was a somewhat acceptable commander, though the leaflings didn't revere him so they were reluctant to follow orders. Lucius had to give a few glares here and there to help him out, but after a few moments, they were all in formation.

~I can't force them to like him. Heck, I hated it when the commander would give other cadets special treatment, but as it is now, I'll need someone to help me organize things in emergency situations. And the leader leaflings doesn't exactly have any noticeable strong suits,~ thought Lucius as he watched the leader leafling talking to the injured fellow he was carrying.

~Anyway, we need to find this new camp asap,~ he thought to himself before instructing the leaflings to begin marching.