Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Lucius' plan to use the Plow Worms was simple—but the necessary information to gather it was not.

It was easy to make the assumption that Plow Worms were diurnal, creatures who were active in the day and slept in the night, but the Plow Worms took quite some time before they actually fell asleep.

"Ugh, when are they going to stop digging?" Albus groaned as he shifted in his makeshift sleeping bag. "Some people are trying to get some hours in."

"I can feel all the vibrations all the way up from here." Ariana complained as she tried to bury her head in a pillow. "But it's the noise that really gets you, isn't it?"

"People aren't going to be able to rest if the two of you complain that loudly." Finch shook her head as she stood outside of the tent and stayed by the fire with Barty and Gellor.

"Will you not be trying to sleep yet, Finch?" Barty asked as he tended to the fireplace.

"You don't have to accompany me and Barty for the first watch." Gellor insisted. "We've made our arrangements already."

"No. Like the two said, it is a bit difficult to get some sleep now. And we're not the only ones still currently up—it doesn't feel right to get some sleep while Lord Asher and Kiana is still awake." Finch said while glancing slightly further away from the camp.

Unlike most members of Gellor's team, Lucius was still sitting by the rock by himself and was still observing how and when the Plow Worms were finally going to stop.

"Out of twenty four hours, how long exactly do they work?" Lucius muttered quietly to himself.

"It's getting cold, Asher." Kiana handed Lucius a thick blanket. "Are you sure that you do not want to stay with Gellor and his team by the fire… or for me to start one here?"

Lucius shook his head. "No need, Kiana. We need to observe the Plow Worms in their natural state and the lack of human activity is the most important thing. Having a fire this close to them, or even a bit of light, might change how they operate. We're not going to… aha, finally."

As Lucius tried to explain to Kiana on why he needed to observe the Plow Worms without any visible light or fire, the Plow Worms rose to the surface of their tunnels.

"So they only sleep with their heads outside of those holes to be able to breathe." Lucius observed and jotted down the note.

"Does that mean that you'll be able to sleep now, Asher?" Kiana asked.

"No. I need to record on how long exactly they'll be sleeping." Lucius shook his head. "It's not enough to know how they sleep, we also need the duration, among other things."

"…how about I record that for you, Asher?" Kiana said and then glanced towards Gellor and the others who were awake. "I think Gellor's team would also be happy to do the same thing."

"I'll be fine. You can sleep for tonight, Kiana and if I feel exhausted, then I will swap out with you or have somebody in Gellor's team fill over. Perhaps Finch or Gellor might be able to do it, but for now, I'll be taking over." Lucius said.

It wasn't the fact that Lucius thought of Gellor's team as incompetent when it came to this matter, but there were still a lot of moments where Lucius still preferred to do things by himself.

When it came down to research, this had been Lucius's forte and if anybody was going to do excellent work on it, then it would be him.

***

"How's Plowy doing? Did he excrete a lot today and beat Wormling?" Albus asked when he woke up late and joined the others for lunch time.

"Nope. Wormling still's got more excrement covered." Ariana said and glanced out into the area where the Plow Worms were digging. "But Plowy did make a lot more holes today if you're going to be happy about that, Albus."

"Why yes, Ariana? I will be happy about that. Pass me some of that wolf meat. I'm starving." Albus reached out to Barty's food.

"We're going to be out of it soon with how much you're asking. Don't eat too much." Barty sighed.

"You haven't done anything for the past day, Albus. You're going to have to work for the meat." Finch rolled her eyes and swatted his hand down.

"No fair."

"Oh, it is going to be fair." Finch said. "I can't believe you and Ariana even went to the effort of naming all of the Plow Worms here."

Ariana cleared her throat.

"Actually, we still haven't decided on that big one. We were either going for Pow, or Orm. Actually, Orm sounds really good, Albus. I don't see why you're disagreeing with me on this."

"It just sounds ridiculous, Ariana."

"…Well, we're actually going to do something today, so please listen closely." Gellor interrupted the team from their bickering as Lord Asher approached them with Kiana.

"I will be asking all of you to go down and check the area to see which places are safe to pass through." Lucius said and offered them papers. "I've done the liberty of making a rough map, but the additional information will be filled in by the rest of you. Your work will be appreciated."

"Of course, Lord Asher." Gellor said. "It will be done."

"We'll start right away." Finch added.

"Alright, thank you." Lucius said.

"Asher, I'll be taking over the watching of the worms today, go get some rest, okay?" Kiana said, as she led Lucius to one of the tents. "I'll just make sure that they did the same thing as yesterday and note discrepancies, right?"

"Yes, that will be it." Lucius nodded, finally deciding that it would be better to delegate, at least in this matter.

He was willing to do it by himself, but he needed to be in peak condition when it was finally time to encounter the Plow Worms.

Two days soon quickly passed by as Lucius deepened his understanding of the Plow Worms and the general area of the rune beasts' territory.