For close to a month, the Quip Clan fought against the Bludders while making their way to the Abyss Ring. Inala made sure that they would be appearing here before the Cooter Clan, keeping watch through his exceptional eyesight to prevent the Cooter Clan from coming within Wittral's line of sight.
If they ever came in proximity, Inala picked faint traces of them over the horizon. It was so far away that even Wittral couldn't make out the Cooter Clan. Immediately in response, Inala moved the Biome Bombs deeper into the Dralh Sea.
'We can no longer stay here.' Inala thought as he judged that in a couple of hours, the Cooter Clan would be arriving at the Abyss Ring. "Let's get going. Everyone, return home."
At his words, the Quip Clansmen entered the Biome Bomb whose interiors were filled now. Like the compartments of a train, two Prana strings—one per Biome Bomb—connected to form a passageway, allowing for travel between the two Biome Bombs.
The region was a mimicry of the Dieng Canyon in terms of terrain, except for massively elevated plateaus. There wasn't enough space within the Biome Bombs to construct the elevated plateaus, so Inala simply resorted to building 40-metre-tall plateaus.
Water flowed through some of the canyons while trees littered the place, with the majority being Baobab Trees. The terrain was condensed through Prana while the trees were condensed using Lifespan.
The Biome was rich with life now, making it a suitable place for the Quip Clan to live. But upon finishing it, Inala wasn't satisfied, 'Range, I need more Spirit Weapon range.'
If Inala obtained the Tertiary Nature that boosted his Spirit Weapon range, at the Mystic Grade, Inala would have a range of 18 kilometres. It equated to him being able to create Biome Bombs with a radius of 18 kilometres.
Basically, each Biome Bomb would be as massive as a city, capable of housing a large population of Quip Zingers. Once such a massive biome is created, at least one Parute Tree would spawn within, allowing the Quip Clan in it to be self-sufficient.
But Inala couldn't give up Cultivator either. Being able to stack bodies elevated him whole in the fields of body, mind, and soul. His Royal Zinger form would have enough physical strength to hurl projectiles farther than he could at present.
His mind would be more robust, capable of performing actions even a Royal Zinger struggled to do. Basically, if he had enough stack of bodies, Inala's mind would be robust enough to freely manipulate even Bolts of Transcendence and the grey sand that he could create in his Biome Bomb.
When he fought Brangara at the Attributed Region, Inala struggled to freely manipulate grey sand even in his Mystic Grade Royal Zinger form. But if he was at the 4-Life Stage or above, this would be a cakewalk.
Bolts of Transcendence, Sandy-Grey Void, Attributed Region; Inala would be able to freely create and control them once he has enough bodies stacked upon himself.
Both were vital to his strength. Honestly, if he could manage to somehow obtain both powers, Inala would become a terrifying opponent even against the Celestial Boar. 'But I don't have any ideas on how to stably integrate them with my existing powers.'
This was the issue he was facing. The Royal Zinger could skip grades, and when it did, its Primary and Secondary Natures evolved or devolved accordingly. To ensure that the influences positively stack upon his ideals and not collapse his fine-tuned powerset, Inala had to build his Tertiary Nature and seamlessly integrate it with his existing setup.
Otherwise, even a mild miscalculation would result in his implosion if the Tertiary Nature is anything less than perfect for him. Currently, he didn't have a method to possess both the first and second of his three paths for a Tertiary Nature, 'I need to work on that next.'
In the past month, Inala spawned 100 Quip Zingers, realising how large of a money sink this process was. The reason was simple.
A Life Bomb hatched a Zinger Scout through the Prana of an Iron Grade Pranic Beast. A Silver Grade Pranic Beast's Prana hatched Zinger Captains, with a faint chance of Zinger Commanders.
The Prana of Expert Silver Grade Pranic Beasts such as a Centinger and Grim Knell had a higher chance of hatching a Zinger Commander.
The Prana of a Gold Grade Pranic Beast was guaranteed to hatch a Zinger Commander, with a non-zero chance of birthing a Zinger King.
Only the Prana of Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beasts such as an Empyrean Tusk or Empyrean Snapper was guaranteed to birth a Zinger King. Similarly, a Zinger Queen could only be birthed through the Lifespan of an Empyrean Tusk or Snapper.
Expert Iron Grade Pranic Beast—Zinger King!
To birth this, the Prana of an Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beast was necessary. Quip Zingers were Expert Iron Grade Pranic Beasts too. They were similar to Zinger Kings. The only difference was their potential for evolution.
Therefore, to hatch a Quip Zinger, Inala needed Prana on the quality of an Empyrean Tusk. Currently, as a Silver Grade Royal Zinger, whatever Prana Inala absorbs would be converted into Silver Grade Prana.
For the Royal Zinger, one unit of Silver Grade Prana is produced by absorbing 18 units of Prana of an Expert Iron Grade Pranic Beast.
As an Expert Silver Grade Pranic Beast, the Royal Zinger stored Prana at the peak of the Silver Grade. Therefore, 18 units of a Bludder's Prana became one unit of Prana in his possession.
To convert it into Gold Grade Prana, 180 units of Silver Grade Prana were compressed and refined into a unit of Gold Grade Prana. This conversion would naturally happen when Inala elevates himself to the Gold Grade.
Iron Grade Prana was the simplest, followed by Silver Grade. Hence, it was easy to compress and refine Iron Grade Prana into Silver Grade. However, it became progressively harder for higher levels, which increased the refinement cost.
As a result, a whopping 1800 units of Gold Grade Prana were required by the Royal Zinger to refine one unit of Mystic Grade Prana. Prana at the Mystic Grade was perfect, an energy medium without defects.
Mystic Grade Prana alone had power on par with a Nature. It was why many Pranic Beasts could mutate simply by consuming the Boar King's Prana.
Kenzar, Kenka, and Zaihaya had infinite growth potential just because they were birthed using the Boar King's Prana and Lifespan. Similarly, Inala held five Natures at one point in time solely through the Boar King's Prana.
The Mystic Grade Royal Zinger's Prana was equally special. So, it wasn't a wonder that the refinement costs were blatantly astronomical. After all, the closer to perfect one got, the greater the resources consumed.
It was easier to get from 10 percent efficiency to 20 percent. But getting from 99.8 percent to 99.9 percent required everything to be perfect, without any room for error. And the production costs were also exorbitant.
Inala calculated that to spawn a Quip Zinger, he needed to consume 21,600 units of Silver Grade Prana. This merely equalled 120 units of Gold Grade Prana on the quality of an Empyrean Tusk.
Basically, Inala had to absorb the Prana of 332 adult Bludders to birth a Quip Zinger. Honestly, it was a serious drain of resources, but there was no other choice.
For the time being, Inala had to increase their population of the Quip Zingers. Once enough of them appeared, they'd accumulate Prana through Prana Bombs, making it less stressful for Inala to gather Prana.
Moreover, the Zinger Aristocrats would be able to mate through the traditional way to birth more Quip Clansmen. Depending on their Royal Zinger gene accumulation, the strength of their progeny was decided.
If the Quip Zinger was significantly developed, there was a higher chance of his mating with the Zinger Aristocrat to result in a Zinger Aristocrat as progeny. Once there were enough Zinger Aristocrats, the Quip Clan's numbers would increase on their own.
Inala could then conserve the Prana he was stealing to focus on the creation of Sumatra Gold, Bolts of Transcendence, etc.
'Everything requires Prana.' He thought as the two Biome Bombs swam through the water region in the Abyss Ring. Many Pranic Beasts tried to target this tiny entity swimming in their midst. But with the release of the Mystic Grade Royal Zinger's presence, their bodies became numb in fright.
A total of twelve strings of Prana jutted out of the train of Biome Bombs, absorbing the Prana and Lifespan of all Pranic Beasts in its vicinity. The Gold Grade Pranic Beasts parted ways while the Silver Grade Pranic Beasts fled in a hurry.
The Iron Grade Pranic Beasts lost their minds and wreaked havoc. Ignoring the chaos caused by him, Inala brought the Biome Bomb train to the Abyss Fall and stared at the geyser reaching a height of eighty metres, continuing to increase in size and volume.
Eventually, it would recover to its original grandeur once the water levels of the region recover to normalcy.
"Let's go." At his words, the Biome Bomb train leapt into the Abyss Fall, revealing its true weight. As a result, it fell through it, despite the pressure of water projecting upwards.
Through the water, it fell, heading deeper and deeper until they were plunged into darkness. The only sounds originated from the impact of the water on the Biome Bomb train. From time to time, Inala reverted some of the terrain to Prana and used it to repair the damage on the Biome Bomb train.
Thanks to its sheer density, it continued to fall. Inala modified its shape to resemble a bullet, making it easier to continue falling. Continuously, constantly, while being bombarded by the turbulent water, the Biome Bomb train fell, for days.
"How long?" Wittral asked, getting unnerved by the constant darkness which made him recall the Sandy-Grey Void.
"I don't know." Inala scratched his cheek, "This is the first time I'm using this path."
"What?" Wittral trembled in worry, "We're doomed!"
