Reincarnated As A Plant Life

He could sense a few presences at the front of the building, and even more on the first floor.

From what he could tell, that's where they were most concentrated. With barely anybody on the higher floors.

~Then I suppose we'll have to work our way down,~ he thought to himself, before taking out the set of climbing axes he had created, and using Elmando to anchor them onto the roof of the mansion.

The renovations being done were currently causing a lot of noise, so he doubted that anyone would hear his picks anchor onto the roof. And even if they did, they'd probably assume that it was one of the workers.

~Still, have to be prepared for anything,~ he thought to himself, pulling out [kumulipo] as he tested the strength of the rope against his weight.

After he felt confident with its strength, he began scaling the building, making sure to avoid the window-like openings.

"Hmm, there's two readings in this room," he whispered to himself, as he dangled near the top of the mansion, waiting for the presences to move away.

However, after waiting there for a few minutes, it was clear that they weren't going anywhere.

~Well, it's safe to assume, their guards. So we'll go with plan b,~ he thought to himself, before completely scaling the building, and climbing onto the roof.

For a moment, he just laid there, with his belly to the roof's warm wooden surface. After a few breaths, he used [kumulipo] to drain away the life force from a small section of the roof causing it to decay and fall through.

"Huh? Did you hear that?"

Lucius heard, through the tiny pinhole opening he had created.

The ashy remains of the roof had fallen right on top of one of the guard's heads, prompting them to look up in curiosity.

"Hear what?" the other guard asked, coming to look up at the pinhole with his comrade.

Lucius was frozen still, hoping that they wouldn't be able to notice the tiny hole he had made.

"You see that?" the first guard asked, pointing directly at Lucius's eye.

For a split moment, he wanted to move, but he realized that it would only blow his cover, by allowing light through the hole.

"Yeah, so what, the colour's a little different. You want to tell Master Eiknyr about this? Who knows maybe he'll reward you by throwing you into the dungeon like the others," the second guard said sarcastically, before patting his comrade on the shoulder.

"Speaking of which, Lord Eikthrynir will be coming tomorrow. Someone should remind the Master, otherwise we'll be blamed for the... mess he's left in the dungeons," the second guard continued, as he walked away.

~Master Eiknyr? So the Councillor isn't home?~ Lucius thought to himself in slight relief. He was confident in his current powers, though he wasn't sure where exactly he would stand with someone on the council.

If the guards could use magic, there was no telling what sort of powers Eikthyrnir would have at his disposal.

"I hate this job," the first guard sighed to himself, looking at the hole one more time before focusing his attention on the room around him once more.

~That was a little too close for comfort,~ Lucius thought to himself, lying perfectly still.

After a few more minutes of waiting, one of the guards left the room.

~It's time,~ Lucius thought to himself, before scaling down the building once more, until the window of the third floor.

After taking a deep breath, he launched himself into the room.

Right as his legs made contact with the ground, his tail whipped out towards the guard. He had made certain to remember the general area he would be in to prevent wasting any time.

The guard could only let out a confused 'Huh' before Lucius's tail completely wrapped his mouth.

"Shhh," Lucius whispered, suffocating the guard as his tail constricted.

He was careful not to completely snap the guard's neck as he didn't want any unnecessary deaths. After all, these guards were only doing their jobs.

Still, it wasn't completely off the table for him.

The guard struggled of course, but Lucius had lifted him off the ground, preventing him from creating any sort of noise.

As the guard's struggling grew weaker, he seemed to remember it had something else up his sleeve, pulling out a dark red crux that hovered right next to his head.

However, no spells came out.

Lucius could feel the guard trying to move his jaws, however, that only offered more room for him to constrict into.

The instant the guard's body went limp, Lucius gently dropped him to the ground.

~Hmm, still barely breathing,~ Lucius thought to himself, as he noticed the guard's torso rise up slightly.

He cut off a small length of rope from his climbing axes, before hog-tying and gagging the guard. Once the guard was secured, Lucius began stripping him.

Even though the tunics would no doubt make lacklustre armour, he was interested in the sort of techniques used to create them. So after placing it in his sack, he moved the guard toward a corner of the room.

From what Lucius could tell, this was a sort of materials storage room. As there were piles of different types of wood arranged all around the building.

Apart from wood, there were also rolls of a strange-looking string.

Upon closer inspection, Lucius found it to be dried sinew. However, this amount of it made him wonder what sort of genocide they had to commit to get it.

~No, even if they act like humans sometimes. These creatures are still animals at their core. It probably wasn't a genocide to them... rather a means to an end,~ he decided to himself. Before placing a few meters of the sinew into his pouch.

At this point, his pouch was beginning to bulge, and he doubted he'd be able to fit any more into it.

~There are five downstairs,~ he thought to himself, spreading his earth sense out as wide as he possibly could.

~And twelve on the first floor,~ he continued, before opening his eyes. Now staring at the hog-tied guard.

~I'll need all the energy I can get, or it'll be too risky,~ he thought, a dark look on his face as he moved [kumulipo] forward.

Its ink-black exterior exuding an unquenchable hunger.