Accompanying the Mammoth Clan Chief and the sixteen Mammoth Elders, Grehha arrived at the stomach biome of the 1st Empyrean Tusk and placed the box on the ground. Following that, he took out the eggs carefully using psychokinesis and placed them on the floor.
"Chief, please communicate with the 1st Empyrean Tusk and tell it to seep its Prana into the eggs." Grehha stared at Raaha to request. Since all eggs were covered by an Empyrean Incubator, it was very simple for the Empyrean Tusk to seep its Prana into the egg without destroying it.
As long as its Prana touches the surface, the Empyrean Incubator will do the rest.
"Done," Raaha nodded as the 1st Empyrean Tusk knew by reading his memories. Immediately in response, a gentle stream of Prana seeped into the twenty eggs that hatched immediately after.
They were unlike Zinger eggs that required to absorb Prana to hatch. The Prana requirement here was merely to imprint upon the Secondary Natures of the Bone Vipers that the 1st Empyrean Tusk was their home.
Twenty healthy Bone Vipers hatched from their respective eggs and slithered towards Raaha instinctively, since he was part of the 1st Empyrean Tusk's immune system.
In unison, they stared at Grehha, hissing, judging whether or not to eliminate him. Though, upon sensing the sentiments of their home, they didn't attack him.
"Phew!" Grehha heaved a breath in relief upon seeing that. Even though he had engineered them to behave in such a way, until he could confirm them behaving accordingly, he was nervous.
Now, he knew that the Bone Vipers knew what to do based on the Empyrean Tusk's emotions. Thereby, if someone foreign like him was granted entry, they wouldn't gang up on him and destroy him. But instead, they would make judgments properly.
The fact that Grehha wasn't killed meant that the Bone Vipers were able to make proper judgement. And upon witnessing it, the Mammoth Elders nodded in praise.
One of them commented happily, "They move according to the wishes of our Deity. That's more than enough."
He then stared at Grehha, "Give me all the details regarding them on a Bone Slip."
"I have it ready, Elder." Grehha took out a spherical Bone Slip from his pocket and presented it to the Elder.
"Ohh!" The Mammoth Elder's eyes opened wide in surprise as he accessed all the information regarding the Bone Vipers, "They can reach maturity in twelve years? That's pretty fast."
"It would have been faster had I maintained their strength at Beginner Iron Grade. But I wanted a competent defence, even if their growth time were to extend in response." Grehha explained his reasoning, "Economically, I calculated that it would have been perfect if they were at Expert Iron Grade. So, I made the choice."
"That means you could have upgraded them to the Silver Grade if you wanted?" The Mammoth Elder with a goatee asked.
"Yes, but their bodies became too big in response. And we would need to frequently stop for them to rush out and collect resources for their needs." Grehha said, "We'll be destroying our surroundings too much in that case. Our path will become barren of resources and probably won't recover even after a century. We'll be signing ourselves to our doom in that case."
"Moreover," He spoke right as the Mammoth Elders thought of dropping the subject about Silver Grade Bone Vipers, "At Silver Grade, they'll gain sentience and wouldn't actively be controlled through their Secondary Nature. They wouldn't live alongside us and instead plan to actively replace us, since they inherently dislike intruders in their home. We Mammoth Clansmen too would fall under that bracket."
"Only at Iron Grade are they fully controlled by their Secondary Nature and consider us too as part of their home."
"That's the bigger reason, huh?" The Mammoth Elder with a goatee nodded. He then asked, "How many Bone Vipers can you create in a month?"
"Easily over a thousand." Grehha said, "Since I have successfully reared a pair of Mud Viper parents responsible for laying Bone Viper eggs. With a bit of assistance through my Empyrean Incubator, they'll be ready to hatch."
Since the Bone Vipers reached maturity at the age of twelve, they wouldn't be laying eggs anytime soon. So, until then, the Mammoth Clan had to depend on Grehha to rapidly increase their numbers.
The conditions of the Empyrean Tusks were still dangerous. Though they had avoided a collapse, their resource reserves were still in red. In their weakened state, it was taxing on their stomachs to digest the ingested resources and supply the digested content to other biomes.
The addition of Bone Vipers was a necessity. That was the only way to avoid multiple Empyrean Tusk deaths in case the Mammoth Clan had to go to war again. In their present state, even a Minor Crisis was disastrous enough.
"Get to work, then." The Mammoth Elder stared at Raaha and nodded. Since the Mammoth Elders had given their approval, their work here was done. Raaha could take care of the rest, since he was the Mammoth Clan Chief.
Grehha then brought a box to the stomach biomes of each Empyrean Tusk in order and hatched twenty Bone Vipers there. Following that, he returned home and began to prepare another batch. Soon after, Raaha sent a bunch of resources necessary for his needs, allowing him to cultivate and do his work from the comfort of his home.
Unlike the rest, Grehha never had to fight or face danger. He could slowly, but steadily build up strength, which was why his Mystic Path was claimed to be the slowest but the most stable of them all.
At the same time, in a hotel room situated on the Geyser Cup of Longevity, hanging from the ceiling was the figure of Inala, his position stable.
Attached to the ceiling was a Life Bomb and connected to it was a string of Prana created out of his Tertiary Nature of Tangible Psychokinesis. The string spanned a length of a metre and dangling from it was Inala.
Its tensile strength was more than enough to handle his weight. He dangled like a pendulum and observed no damage to the string. With a thought from him, the string elongated in length, remaining structurally stable. It then contracted, pulling him to the ceiling with force.
Mystic Mist Art—Puppetry!
Two more strings of Prana came out of him and coiled to resemble a spring that absorbed all his momentum, ensuring he didn't collide with the ceiling. He had done this process enough times to react promptly and create the spring.
"Fuooh!" He exhaled softly as the three strings of Prana disappeared, causing him to fall to the floor. But right before his body slammed into the floor, a string of Prana flowed out of his head, chest, abdomen, and feet respectively. They coiled into a spring each and caused his body to bounce upon coming into contact with the floor.
But right as the elastic force stored in the spring was about to send his body springing up into the ceiling, their radius increased and dispersed their energy. A moment later, Inala dissipated them, sensing that he had gently touched the floor, his landing soft enough to not feel a thing.
His fall didn't generate the slightest sound as he stared at the Life Bombs attached to the ceiling and muttered, "Good, one more experimentation left. Once I'm done with that, it's time to take action."
"I'll make a move in a couple of days."
