The rollers of a three-storey house among the caravan made cluttering noises as it ran over rocks and other uneven terrain constantly. The entire house tremored incessantly due to a lack of suspension.
Blola installed a suspension system for a house before, but due to the constant shocks, it malfunctioned all the time. After repairing it a bunch of times, the Mammoth Clan decided to simply reinforce the houses to not shatter upon repeated shocks.
Yennda was working on improving the suspension system but it would take a while before he could create a working mechanism. Besides, he was still chucked first into any region the Mammoth Clan intended to raid for resources.
With the herd having 104 Empyrean Tusks, their requirement for resources increased voraciously. Simply consuming the resources along their path wasn't sufficient, as by the sixtieth Empyrean Tusk, anything of value was long since consumed.
This left the ones at the back hungry. The increased level of safety due to the passive suppression unleashed by the herd after crossing a hundred in number caused the Mammoth Clan to feel greater safety.
As a result, they increased their birth rate. After all, now that the Mammoth Clan was bigger, they could afford larger and stronger raid teams for resource collection, as a result allowing the Empyrean Tusks to sustain a larger population.
From forty thousand per Settlement, the Mammoth Clan decided to increase the numbers to fifty thousand. This was a ten thousand increase per Settlement. Adding across the entirety of the Mammoth Clan, the increase in numbers crossed a million.
It meant the Mammoth Clan had to be more proactive in their raids to ensure all Empyrean Tusks got enough resources to consume, which ranged from luscious trees to mineral-rich soil. And of course, the most important of them all—Parute Trees.
A Parute Tree would wither when disturbed. Therefore, without Mudropper's power, it was impossible to relocate one. But even if it withers when an Empyrean Tusk swallows it, every Parute Tree was abundantly rich in nutrients, enough to satiate even an Empyrean Tusk.
Therefore, they were targets with the highest level of priority. And since every Parute Tree was closely guarded by Pranic Beasts, all these raids became messy.
Dragging his bloody self towards the tremoring home was Virala, having just returned from a small-scale raid. As an elite of the Mammoth Clan, he had to follow the Clan's orders and do the tasks of an elite.
He was commanded to join a raid targeting a lone Parute Tree in a region of Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beasts. There was just one race controlling this lone Parute Tree. But despite being weak individually, just like all Iron Grade Pranic Beast races, they made up with their numbers.
Virala suffered lots during the chaotic battle, since the Pranic Beasts desperately defended the Parute Tree with their lives, for it was their race's lifeline. Without it, developing their strength would become a lot slower.
Eventually, they would be forced to relocate to a region less abundant with resources. It would trap them in a vicious cycle of losses until their race possibly gets annihilated in a matter of decades. Hence, they gave their everything to protect the Parute Tree.
Virala was stuck with the excuse he gave to Resha about possessing the power of an evolved Shock Lizard. Hence, he was forced to equip the Nature Weapon of a Shock Lizard in both his slots.
This power was a horrible matchup against their foes. As a result, he ended up taking quite a beating.
Bam!
He slammed open the door to his tiny room, ignoring the blood splattering from his bleeding fist, "Resha, that fucker."
"He knew I wasn't well matched for this raid. But he still sent me there." With Resha's increasing influence, even Bora Tusk listened to his words, although rarely. It was why Virala was put on this raid team in the first place.
The raid was a failure. Virala sustained a lot of injuries. And worst of all, his evaluation in the Mammoth Clan dropped, voiding his contributions for the past two months.
'If I could display my true power, these shits would mean nothing.' He sighed and downed some medicine before beginning to heal his injuries, 'But Resha wants exactly that. He's not convinced about my claims and thinks I'm hiding my true strength. Well, he's right about that, which is why it's so frustrating.'
There were too many eyes on Virala, forcing him to move every step of the way carefully. Every time he did something, he had to exercise utmost caution and subtlety.
As he began his recovery process, his moustache hair grew in length and reached toward his Storage Lantern, pulling out another medicine vial from it. The moustache grew to a length of three metres, behaving like a pair of arms as they began to work.
The left moustache pulled out vials from the Storage Lantern for his consumption. The right moustache used a piece of cloth to wipe off the blood stains on him. Once it was done, it coiled around a dumbbell made out of bone and began exercising.
Controlling both sides of his moustache like a pair of arms was taxing on his mind, especially during his recovery process. Sweat covered his forehead as Virala began training, stopping after a while to think, 'My dexterity and control have improved. Soon, I'll be able to use it in battle.'
Minor Treasure—Goated Moustache!
This was a strand of moustache hair that upon contact fused with Virala's moustache, allowing him to control it. He could either grow out his moustache or retract it fully. With some training, he was now able to grow or retract at least twenty centimetres of moustache hair in a second.
The Minor Treasure of Goated Moustache allowed him to control his moustache like an extension of his limb, able to flexibly use them. It wasn't easy at the start, but upon repeated training, he was gradually getting the hang of it.
The Minor Treasure of Goated Moustache didn't change the physical or chemical properties of his moustache. The hair was just regular moustache hair. But the reason for its name was in its ability to conduct Prana.
That aspect had been improved by a lot, allowing Inala to carry Storage Lanterns with it. When activated, a Storage Lantern reverted to its original size, painting a large target for enemies to attack.
He would have to then manually look for the necessary item from the Storage Lantern. If there were plenty of items inside, he would have to fish out the right one, which was difficult in a battle. In such a case, he could leave it to his moustache.
One side would control and carry the Storage Lantern while the other side would fish through it to retrieve the necessary item. This would perfectly come in handy for his abilities, since he needed to swap out Nature Weapons promptly according to the changing situations in a battle.
As it was just hair, his moustache couldn't be used to attack or restrict his opponents. The faintest of fire could burn them. And even though their tensile strength was high, that meant nothing before Pranic Beasts with tough bodies.
Therefore, his moustache was purely supportive in nature, "Well, it's still goated though. I now have an extra pair of hands."