Inala—Dhakha—and Asaeya—Hayaya—walked along the side of the street, acting nonchalant to each other's presence. They casually conversed with each other and spent the day working.
When night approached, they closed the shop and entered their home when Asaeya pounced on Inala, "You can't stop me anymore."
"I don't mean to," Inala smirked a little, making merry throughout the night. When he lived in his female form for too long, his male form was pent up. And now, he could be free as a man, embarking upon his wants and needs without any issues.
At the same time, in the dead of the night, a Bludder arrived at a location forty kilometres from the Brimgan Empire's entrance. Once it arrived at a halt, an orb fell out of its body. Immediately in response, a moustache grew out of the orb and strangled the Bludder, knocking it unconscious.
The orb enlarged to become the figure of Virala who performed a short dance before the unconscious Bludder, keeping up the task for close to an hour before the Bludder's body shrivelled up to become a Nature Weapon.
Mystic Nature Weapon—Eddy!
Upon seeing the practicality of the Bludder's Primary Nature, Virala took a path of diversion and farmed them. As a result, he had been delayed at the Guna Caves for so long. Otherwise, as long as he camped in the Nature of a mobile Silver Grade Pranic Beast, he would have arrived at the Brimgan Empire long ago.
He didn't just target the Bludders but farmed the Shifting Ants and Ewworms too.
Mystic Nature Weapon—Tunnel!
Gold Nature Weapon—Worm!
The Mystic Nature Weapon of Tunnel allowed him to create an underground maze of drifting gravitational fields, perfect to escape with in case the situation turned dire. Recently, the Boar King had been chasing after him.
Hence, Virala focused on upgrading the Nature of a Shifting Ant to Mystic Grade. Only then did he have the confidence to survive in case he ends up running into the Boar King.
Mystic Nature Weapon of Refiner, Mystic Nature Weapon of Eddy, Mystic Nature Weapon of Tunnel, Gold Nature Weapon of Tusk, Gold Nature Weapon of Artillery, Gold Nature Weapon of Leech, and finally, Gold Nature Weapon of Worm. That was his current accumulation.
It gave Virala the confidence to destroy Inala in the race towards the Major Treasure of Attribute, 'Once I get the Attribute, I'll be able to assimilate myself into the Nature slots of others better, steal their Natures with greater efficiency, and many more.'
'I can wholeheartedly focus on making Astral Chart mine.' That was Virala's end goal. As long as he manages to obtain Astral Chart, he'll be invincible.
Through his Weaponisation, he could equip Astral Chart with a bunch of Iron Grade Natures. Even if they get destroyed, he wouldn't have to worry, since he can stockpile tens of thousands of Nature Weapons in his biome.
It meant that he would never run out of abilities to put in Astral Chart, no matter how much he used. Moreover, by taking advantage of Astral Chart, he could use his Nature Weapon of Refiner to quickly build Nature Weapons to the Mystic Grade.
If that happens, he would end up becoming stronger than the Boar King. As long as he takes advantage of his child who ends up inheriting his Mystic Path and makes a Nature Weapon out of it, he could use that on himself and figure out a way to become a Mystic Grade Empyrean Tusk.
No one would be his opponent after that. 'Heh, and once I seize Blola's Transcendent Eater's Nature, I'll become unstoppable.'
Virala approached a clearing farther away from the Brimgan Empire and focused on a spot with as few Pranic Beasts as possible. He then assumed his Empyrean Tusk form and spat out Blola. Following that, he instantly reverted to his human form, sighing at the Prana expenditure, 'It costs a lot to transform even for a couple of seconds.'
Around a hundred Prana was consumed every second through Internal Inertial Gravity just to maintain such a massive body. Thankfully, Virala had enough biomes in him to sustain the expenditure.
But it was still a lot, as in his human form, he had excess Prana circulating through him. But that instantly became deficient once he took on his Empyrean Tusk form. 'I still need to accumulate a lot of resources in my biomes and develop them further.'
Biomes could only be maintained in his body while equipped with the Gold Nature Weapon of Tusk. Hence, he needed a lot of care and prior preparations to use it.
"Hah! I finally feel free." Blola stretched himself as he inhaled fresh air, "It was suffocating inside."
"My biome is no different from an Empyrean Tusk's, you know?" Virala commented from the side.
"Nah, it's a notch inferior." Blola retorted, "You created your biome in a hurry. It's just a disorderly mess of resources inside. An Empyrean Tusk's biome is a self-sufficient world that's delicately organised to maintain utmost balance."
"Fine, I get it." Virala shrugged, "Anyway, you said you can figure out the entry zones of Attribute's influenced region. Can you do it now?"
"Not so fast." Blola shook his head, "I need to root myself first. And then, I'll have to manually detect the affected locations and then derive the influence clusters in the land…"
"Don't explain it to me. I don't understand your Parute Tree shit." Virala waved his hand, "Just tell me where I need to bring you."
"Follow me." Saying so, Blola began to sprint through the wild. Along the way, a Pranic Beast leaped at him. In response, his arm shot forward, transformed into a carnivorous plant with an open mouth, and clamped upon the target.
With a clench, it crushed the Pranic Beast into a pulp as Blola casually threw it aside and reverted his hand to regular form.
Running behind him, Virala observed it in silence, 'So, he has partial transformations too.'
Resha had four partial transformations for his Empyrean Tusk form. Virala had the same four Partial Transformations. Inala had three partial transforms for his Empyrean Zinger form. Grehha had three partial transformations for his Empyrean Viper form.
It seemed that when the Transcendent Eater devoured Blola's Empyrean Tusk form, it also assimilated itself with his four partial transformations for an Empyrean Tusk. 'He probably has four partial transformations for a Transcendent Eater. The question is, which level of transformation is this where his hand can transform into a Transcendent Eater?'
Though they had allied, they hadn't revealed the entirety of their abilities to each other. As they continued to run through the wilds, Virala observed Blola, 'Once I get the Attribute, I'll have enough foundation to handle the Transcendent Eater's power.'
"I'll remain here," Blola said upon arriving at a spot twenty kilometres from the Brimgan Empire's entrance. "Visit me once a year at the same time. It will take me a few years to deduce the entrance, but we still have a decade before Attribute reveals itself. That's more than enough time."
"Alright, work hard." Saying so, Virala walked away, planning to head to the Brimgan Empire. However, he didn't leave yet, slow in his walk, intending to see how Blola hides himself.
Blola didn't say anything and took root, assuming his Transcendent Eater form. Suddenly, all carnivorous mouths budded and retreated into the branches, following which the branches joined into a stem and shrivelled up.
A few seconds later, the Transcendent Eater now resembled a Parute Tree. This was the strongest method Blola had to make himself scarce, which was to become a Parute Tree. A couple of minutes later, Parute Fruits began to form on it, releasing a faint scent that naturally drew in Pranic Beasts from the surroundings.
Upon seeing the appearance of a new Parute Tree, they gathered towards it in a hurry and began to form defensive arrangements, intending to protect it. After all, every Parute Tree laid a stronger foundation for their race.
'Troublesome bastard.' Virala observed from afar as he leaped further back, avoiding the Pranic Beasts blaring their fangs at him. Once he made note of the location, Virala made his way to the Brimgan Empire, casually occupying the Nature slot of a refugee to make his entry.