The truck travelled for four hours through the beaten path and covered a distance of eighty kilometres. This was already fast when compared to the rough routes filled with intercepting enemies.
Inala observed to the side, noticing the number of trucks had reduced significantly by now, 'It seems most of them require resources available in the Empire's vicinity.'
"Sir, we're approaching the territory of the Enrino." One of the drivers that had been resting climbed up to the top compartment where Inala and Wittral were seated to say, "Usually, people coming this far would be accompanied by an entourage. We want you to take care as it'll become dangerous from here onwards."
"Alright, noted." Wittral nodded and watched the driver return to his seat. He then grabbed the vial handed to him by Inala and drank it, "A Water Slip?"
"It has all the information I have about this place." Inala nodded. Most of the information present in the Water Slip was taken from Fhoong Brimgan. The rest simply consisted of information he heard by mingling with the travellers.
When a haired beauty approached them for a chat, many were happy to oblige. And this extended to even the women. However, most of their questions were regarding how Inala could grow and maintain such a pretty head full of hair.
"Sweet." Wittral nodded as he activated Mystic Mist Art and comprehended all the information available in the Water Slip. He then stared outside and muttered, "The Enrinos are a surprisingly weak race in comparison to the area they control."
Expert Iron Grade Pranic Beast—Enrino!
They had bodies made out of bark, with the head and arms resembling a leaf each. They had thin bodies, almost hair-like, barely reaching a height of two metres at their tallest. In a forest setting, they were capable of fully camouflaging themselves on the trees.
Enrinos survive by drinking tree sap and having an occasional diet of fruits. When they eat the fruits, they germinate the seeds, and once they shit out the excreta, a new sapling blooms out of it. Thanks to their interaction, the forest vegetation would be maintained lusciously.
Enrinos were a non-aggressive race and lived in peace. In terms of physical might, they were batshit weak, primarily reliant on camouflage to escape detection. While drinking tree sap, they were capable of circulating that through their skin, appearing no different to trees in the Prana detection methods of their predators.
Primary Nature—Satellite!
This was what they relied upon in case a predator managed to detect their existence and attack them. By drinking tree sap, the Enrino gathers necessary minerals in its abdomen and selects one based on its living condition.
By seeping its Prana into the mineral, the Enrino refines the object and condenses it outside its body in the shape of a leaf. This leaf remains close to its body and helps camouflage it better. When a predator comes close, the leaf acts as a shield to buy enough time for the Enrino to escape and camouflage itself in another spot.
The leaf can act as a Spirit Weapon when necessary and revolve protectively around the Enrino. Moreover, the speciality of the Satellite was that the Enrino could infuse its will into it, allowing the Satellite to function with a mind of its own.
The Satellite isn't capable of conscious thought but acts more like an instinctively driven single-celled organism. When a predator attacks, the Satellite moves in its way and blocks the attack. As long as the Prana in its body wasn't expended, it was capable of protecting the Enrino on its own.
Whenever the Enrino sleeps, it keeps a Satellite beside its body, which is how it can sleep in peace. Once created, a Satellite can function for days to even weeks, extremely energy efficient. When it doesn't move, it hardly expends any Prana.
Of course, as it actively keeps a lookout, it does keep consuming energy. But as long as the Enrino replenishes its Prana, the Satellite could function without issues. Typically, an Enrino maintains about three to four Satellites.
This is generally their limit, as their Prana replenishment rates wouldn't be able to handle any more Satellites.
As all Iron Grade Pranic Beasts were, the Enrinos had exceptional vitality. And considering their non-predatory nature, they had evolved to survive by making more of their numbers, having vitality on par with Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beasts, inferior only to the likes of Mud Vipers.
As a result, even in the resource-rich region surrounding the Brimgan Empire where many Gold Grade Pranic Beasts had established their territories, the Enrinos controlled one of the largest regions, all because of their sheer numbers.
Even then, Enrinos were defensive creatures. As long as a large Pranic Beast race invaded them and actively hunted them, it was just a matter of time before they were hunted down to extermination. The reason that hadn't happened was very simple—Mutation!
Inala and Wittral observed their surroundings as they unanimously activated Subtle Terrain Domination, attentive. A few seconds later, their truck screeched to a halt as the glass door dented alarmingly, causing countless cracks.
In the centre of the dent was a piece of branch. The truck's glass was reinforced, capable of handling attacks from Iron Grade cultivators without issues. But despite that, a casual piece of tree branch managed to dent it.
"Sir, we'll have to stop here." One of the drivers spoke to Wittral, "We'll park at a safe spot here. Please proceed with your hunt."
"Alright," Wittral nodded and stared at Inala, "Shall we?"
"Yes," Inala nodded and jumped out of the truck.
The reason the Enrinos were able to carve out and maintain dominance over such a large territory in a region filled with Gold Grade Pranic Beasts was thanks to the Mutated Pranic Beasts that appeared in their race.
Mutated Beginner Silver Grade Pranic Beast—Enran!
In terms of appearance, they looked similar to an Enrino, but had an even smaller stature, reaching a metre among their tallest. Their characteristics were similar to an Enrino, but their defensive aspect was taken to the extreme, taking on an offensive nature.
Secondary Nature—Comet!
They had the same Primary Nature as the Enrino, which they used for defensive means. But they feel that lacking in protecting their territory. Whenever an Enrino feels threatened by a spike in the number of predators, more Enrans would pop up among their kind.
An Enran would refine a Satellite to be offensive, usually creating it to resemble a leaf, tree branch, a piece of bark, or a pebble and position them in the appropriate location.
A Comet's function is similar to a Satellite, but instead of defending against the predator, the moment a foreign entity comes within its range—180 metres—it slams into them like a meteor, leaving behind them a tail of dust and energy, which is why they came to be called Comets.
The Comet could exist on its own for days at a stretch without any Prana input from the Enran. Oftentimes, the Enran would leave behind a Comet at the entrance of the forest and live deep inside.
As long as it had enough Prana, it could leave behind and maintain around a dozen Comets.
Entering the territory of the Enrinos was dangerous because you wouldn't know what part of the forest was a comet. It could be a leaf, a tree bark, a piece of rock at the side, etc. Any forest item could suddenly slam into you with tremendous force and wound you seriously.
This camouflaged attack strategy was how the Enrinos prospered.