A Growing Civilization (1)

When Michael returned to the Lizardman dwelling, he finally had time to take care of his personal matters. The first thing on the list was to check on Aiden.

The Lizardman had been going through an evolution of sorts earlier. He had lost most of his scales and resembled a human, except for the small scattering of scales over his forehead, chest, elbows and knees. If Michael was correct with his assumption, then this would most likely happen to every Lizardman that was in the tribe, unlocking a new evolution path for them.

Michael pushed aside the tattered cloth that acted as a curtain to his room. Four of his Elite Guards were still in the room, seated around a blonde person.

"Leader!" All of them called out at the same time. The four Lizardmen who were seated around the blond man stood up, while the man struggled to get up to his feet. Michael waved his hand at them, signaling them to make way for him to pass. He stopped before the man before speaking,

"Aiden."

"Leader." Aiden bowed his head in shame. He seemed to view his inability to stand as a weakness that prevented him from acting as he should.

Michael smiled in his mind before ushering Aiden to sit back down. He would finally examine Aiden to see what could be done to change him back to normal.

When the both of them were seated with the four other Lizardmen surrounding them, Michael finally called up the game interface. Information about Aiden was listed out before him.\

[Yellow Scaled Lizardman]

-Rank - E - Peak

-Growth Stage - 3/3

-Overall Energy Level - 500

-Rank Elevation Possible

-Further Specialization Options Available.

-----

'Hmm? Specialization Options? Can you explain this, Mee?'

The spilt consciousness in Michael's mind took a few moments to come up with an answer.

'This probable means that the individual in question can pursue a different path than a simple creature. Perhaps magic, or some sort of martial arts.'

Michael nodded in understanding when he heard the explanation. His eyes drifted to a blinking line that was on the status bar.

-Human Form - Temporary. 7 minutes remaining.

In seven minutes, Aiden would revert back to his Lizardman form. Michael wasn't too surprised by this as there were certain races that existed which could temporarily change their forms. The duration of the change usually depended on their Energy Levels, and the amount of energy that was consumed during the transformation. If one was engaged in battle during the transformation, then the transformation time would be reduce sharply, but if one just stayed without doing anything energy consuming, the transformation time would be increased.

"Don't worry, this is only temporary. You will return to normal soon enough." The Lizardmen around him cheered when they heard this.

"Now, rest. There is much work to be done tomorrow."

***

The next day.

"Everyone! Everyone gather up!" A deep voice echoed through the depths of the cavern. Milizaus stood with his back straight, his light yellow scales shining under a beam of light. The old lizard from a few days back was completely gone, and a new Lizardman was present.

At first, Milizaus thought that it was just a dream. For an lowly lizard like himself, he was quite smart. He had a special intuition that let him know when he was approaching the end of his life. Not long ago, he could feel the age settling in his tiny bones, but with the coming of their new leader, he and every other lizard had undergone a change and become pure Lizardmen.

Now, Milizaus stood with a body full of energy and vigor. In this body, he remembered what it felt like to be young.

Numerous Lizardmen gathered around the raised rock that Milizaus was standing on. They all looked at him with curious eyes. There wasn't one person among them that wasn't aware of who Milizaus was. The adviser of their leader, and the oldest one among them.

Milizaus was a lucky lizard. There were rarely any lizards who lived through the rules of two different leaders. The advisor of the previous leader was usually killed when the position of leader was changed.

Little Lizardman children ran through the crowd, chasing each other as Milizaus waited for everyone to quiet down.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat. "Our leader has given us new instructions and I want everyone to abide by those instructions until they have been taken back." His narrowed eyes ran over the crowd.

"First, we are to gather wood." He raised up the broken branch of a tree as an example for the crowd to see. "I will assign a group that will carry out that task. Next, we are to gather fruits." He gestured to the small pile of fruits that were gathered earlier to serve as an example. "Last, we will hunt in the wilderness. I will assign more groups to carry out those tasks now."

Milizaus stepped down from the raised stone that he was standing on. He then began to split up the Lizardmen into groups of five. Two groups were tasked with gathering wood, another two were tasked with gathering fruits, while the group was assigned to hunt creatures for meat. The last group was made up of ten Lizardmen, to give them room for mistakes without any high cost.

Michael had assigned his 'Elite Guards' to the hunting group so they could gain experience from the hunt. He would follow them for the first few runs before leaving them to it.

By this time, Aiden had also changed back to normal and was eager to go out with the hunting group in order to make up for his weakness through another means.

The various groups set out one by one until the hunting group was the only one left.

Michael emerged from his room that was at a remote corner of the cavern and joined the group with a smile on his scaled face.

"Shall we depart?"