LENIN

I hadn't been to The Village of Facio for a long time. The last time I arrived, this place was more like an oasis for people, but now times have changed. 

That was an apparent fact, and I could do nothing to change it. 

It was a pity to see the Village in this state before its former glory, but of course, the Kingdom of Juvo paid no attention to a village like this. 

I managed to go to a familiar area that had changed far too much for me to like.

Different buildings, but the same people who lived there.

I watched Felix and Rachel talk to one another as they noticed me approaching. 

"By the Deus's. . . I never thought I'd see you again." 

"Me too." I chuckled as I hugged Felix. 

He was one of my best friends, and although I hadn't seen him in forever, it was nice to know he was still alive. 

Felix patted me on the shoulder, looking at me with a bright smile. "Rachel and I always expected you, but we didn't expect you to be here soon." 

I chuckled nervously, "It seems as though they found out where we were sooner than I thought."

"Well, we're glad you're here to say, even if it has to come to these circumstances." Rachel chimed in. 

I could always count on them to be there when I truly needed them. 

"Speaking of which, you have a son!?" Felix questioned me in excitement, "Since when did that happen?" He punched my shoulder playfully. 

I scratched the back of my head, "Surprise. . . Yeah, we felt like we needed something else in our lives." 

Rachel nodded, smiling, and nudged Felix, "That's exactly what Felix and I thought." 

Wait a minute. . . 

"You guys also have a kid?" I tilted my head in confusion. I never thought this would happen, but I'm still in disbelief that it did. 

They both nodded, "Yeah, I'm the same age as Maro." Felix happily declared, nudging me on the ribs, "Trying to copy us, huh?"

I chuckled, shoving him away, "Whatever you like to think." I looked around at my surroundings a bit more, which Felix noticed. 

He placed his hand on my shoulder, "This place here is a little start-up project that I made in my little fun aspirations of the world of science!" He raised his fist in the air. 

Rachel laughed nervously, patting Felix, "Still need resources."

Felix returned the same nervous chuckle, slowly placing his hand down. "Right. . . We still need to do that, " he muttered. 

"Resources?" I asked curiously. 

Felix nodded, "I got so excited that you came here that I forgot that I needed to get Solum and other minerals to power this science lab." 

I smiled as I raised my hand, showing him my palm emitting Purpura. 

"Now you're just showing off," Felix muttered, smiling, "It's a good start, but still, we're going to need a bit more firepower than that."

"Well, what can I do to help?" 

"There's been some pretty vicious attacks from some Plantea Beasts that come for the Solum we have on the farms." Felix continued, "We try our best to defend our farms, but they're so relentless that we can't do anything but just watch." 

I remembered that the only thing that would be a problem in this Village was the occasional. 

I smiled, placing my hand on his shoulder, "Things will change now that I'll help you." 

Felix sighed, smiling softly at me. "Thank you. We'll need all the help we can get." 

"So, when do we start?" 

"How about in a couple of hours?" 

"That can be arranged," I nodded, ready to do anything to help a once-amazing village. 

A few hours had passed, and now it was the dead of the night. 

This was when the Plantea Beast was said to attack constantly.

They never attacked the village people, only the Solum, as that was what they needed to survive. 

I stepped foot with some of the other civilians, preparing themselves with the bit of armour they had on their bodies. 

This Village's lack of material is a testament to this, and Felix's leadership of this expedition was crucial. 

From the looks of it, those who were all here were volunteers wanting to keep the Solum that they had safe. 

"Look who arrived!" Felix applauded as the others looked at me with different reactions. 

"Can this handsome boy even fight?" Women scoffed with their arms crossed, looking at me disinterestedly. 

Her face had marks of battles fought and scars earned, but the beauty of her look enhanced her, adding depth and character to her features.

Her dirty brown hair emphasised the surroundings in which we were currently. 

Something told me that the others were feeling the same way about me. 

"Now, Tara, there's no need to be aggressive." Felix smiled, calming everyone down as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. This guy here is going to turn the tide for us." 

"Please, " another person scoffed. "We already have all the people we need for an expedition." 

"Lusan, have some faith in my man here." He patted my shoulder. 

I cleared my throat, grabbing everyone's attention. "If it makes you feel better, I'll gladly observe you guys." I did my best to bow politely to them all. 

"Woah, woah." Felix asked me, "Are you sure you want to do that?" He whispered in my ear.

I nodded, "It's the only way that they'll let me tag along with you guys." I answered, as Felix could not return the nod, since he was looking at the others. 

"Let's get to it!" 

While we walked to the farm, I followed everyone else to see how they felt. 

Lusan and Tara seemed prepared for what was to come, even if the only thing I saw was their backs. With Felix leading the charge, I never would have thought that he would be leading a group of people. 

When we were younger, it was the other way around. I was just glad to see how much he has changed. 

As we finally approached the farm, there was nothing there—at least not now. 

"So this is where you farm, Solum?" 

Felix looked over his shoulder, "Yeah, but it gets smaller and smaller because you know all of these Mana Beasts." 

Solum was a valuable resource; it would be worth it if you could sell it. 

People could become wealthy with only a small amount of Solum. 

"These damn Plantea beasts are constantly attacking our home for scraps of Solum." 

I heard Tara grumble. 

These Plantea beasts were wreaking havoc on the people living here. 

I am speaking of the Plantea beast. 

"They're here." I declared as they all looked over at me.

"How do you know that?" Tara asked in an annoyed tone, but I could tell she was inclined to listen to me as she gripped the hilt of her sword a bit more tightly. 

"Let's just say I'm different."

Lusan widened his eyes in disbelief, "You're a Solum Gene?" He paused for a moment, looking at Felix. Doesn't that make sense for him to be part of the Roy-"

Felix nodded, answering his question. 

We shared silence as we readied ourselves for an upcoming battle. 

WHOOSH! 

PHOOSH!

The Plantea beasts came rushing at us as a pack of Plantea Parvuns pounced, thirsty for a piece of blood. 

They were a twisted form of plants and beasts. 

That was what most Plantea Beasts were usually like. 

It lunged forward, its vines lashing out with deadly precision, but my Purprus sword gleamed as I met its head-on. 

With each swing of my blade, I cut through the tangle of vines reaching out to me. The beast thrashed and withered, its roars echoing as I continued my attack.

More came to swarm as I slashed them down fairly quickly. In the corner of my eye, I noticed that the others were doing well, but they were still struggling. 

As I was attacking the beast with my sword, I quickly raised my hand against the Plantea Parvuns, who were attacking Lusan, and he attempted to fend them off. 

I emitted Purpura out of my hand. 

BOOM!

The Purpura had utterly ruined the Plantea Parvuns and incinerated them all.

Lusan took a deep breath and gave me a nod of thanks. I continued to emit Purpura as I incinerated all the remaining Plantea Parvuns that came to attack. 

Until there were simply no more.

They were now taking a moment to recover as they slowly looked up at me. 

"Purpura. . ." Tara muttered lowly, "Seriously, who is this friend of yours?" Tara said in a sense of respect, asking Felix. 

"Told you he'd be changing the tides for us." Felix winked at me proudly. 

It was the first time they had managed to fend off the Plantea Beasts without gaining any damage. 

Seeing that something so simple could mean something so big to others was fascinating. 

"Look at the Solum that they dropped." Felix gleamed excitedly. "We can use more of this to plant some more for our farm." 

Depending on the Plantea Beast, the better Solum they would drop as a gift for your success in battle. 

But it was the same for us as well. 

People who died also dropped Solum, and you could use that Solum intake for yourself, usually; it would be temporary. 

However, if you were to kill someone who had Solum genetically, that would be a different story. Kill that person, and you will have that Solum forever. 

But that rarely happened because it would be either too dumb to even think of killing someone like that or too rare to find someone like that in the first place.

"This is some amazing stuff." Lusan smiled. If we keep this up, we might be able to get more Solum!"

While everyone was talking about Solum, I was just glad that I could do anything to help protect and restore this little community to be what it was. 

"Alright!" Felix clapped his hands together. "Drinks on me!"

We all cheered as we followed him, leading the way. 

"You have to tell us more about yourself!"

"Yeah!"

Despite us all getting drinks, I would be the centre of attention. This was not what I expected, as I looked over at Felix, trying to plead with him. 

He chuckled, shrugging, "Don't look at me; I'm just as curious what you've been up to."

I sighed, telling them bits of prices of what I had been up to lately without giving them everything. 

Of course, there were a few things that I wanted to hide from them, as they were a bit personal for me.

Nonetheless, they seemed interested in and convinced by what I was saying. 

"Alright, that's it for us!" Lusan chuckled lightly, placing his hand on Felix's shoulder, "You know you're not a bad guy, Lenin." 

As the others left me, Felix, to ourselves. 

We shared silence, as Felix was the first to speak, breaking it with a question: "So what happened?" He looked amused. 

"You knew?" 

Felix nodded, "How long have we known each other? We may not have seen each other yet, but I know when you're lying." 

I looked down at the ground. "It's been interesting." 

"I can tell... Look, we don't have to speak about it." He gave his usual reassuring smile. But we can talk about moving forward with the science lab." 

"Yeah, we can do that. What do you have in mind?"

Felix's eyes immediately lit up, and I knew I would be here for quite some time. 

By the time he started finishing what he had to say, I would be out like a light. 

"So! What do you think?" He happily said, "I know with the Solum that the Plantea beast dropped, we could power it for a couple of weeks!"

"I mean, we could always use electricity." I joked as he waved his hand in dismissal.

"We are not using electricity. Compared to Solum, that stuff is worthless." 

He wasn't wrong about that; anything else compared to Solum was worthless. 

Yes, we had electricity, gold, and all that. But why would you want all that when Solum could do everything these minerals could do combined?