Having finished dinner, Inala inspected the stock of food in his storeroom. "There's enough for a week. I can't waste any more money on this since they would get spoilt."
He intended to constantly consume and replenish the stock to avoid the contents from going bad. Just before he was about to leave, Inala carefully buried the Storage Lantern in a vacant cavity. Since his house was located at the edge of the settlement, the floor here wasn't flat or even.
It was also very porous. There was a large pore at a corner where the slope curved, creating a space where the Storage Lantern could be placed safely. He covered the entrance with a mattress and placed a table on it.
'Even if a Zinger raids my house, it would leave after wiping my storeroom clean. It wouldn't bother to turn this place upside down.' He was paranoid because the nature of a Zinger was similar to a monkey.
You just couldn't guarantee their behaviour. Hence, he was taking so many steps to safeguard his treasure. The food in the storeroom was a ration if he were to hole himself in his house in the case of a strong Zinger horde attack.
The food also doubled as bait to distract the Zingers that enter his house. As they perform hit-and-run tactics, the Zingers would hurriedly loot the food and fly away. They weren't good at direct combat.
'As long as they obtain enough food, they'll be satisfied and wouldn't thrash my house.' Thinking as such, he looked around the house.
The place wasn't clean. There was dust covering the floor and objects, as if no one lived there. At first glance, the house seemed abandoned, the characteristic he wished to maintain. Only then would the Zinger Queen's egg be laid at such a location. That's why he worked hard to erase all traces of himself from the house.
Relieved upon seeing his work paying off, he closed the door gently and slipped into the night.
Even though Zingers weren't nocturnal, some still attacked in the night. The Zinger community was pretty developed with a strict social hierarchy. Oftentimes, there were Zingers banished from their colony.
Such Zingers would be deprived of food and would rabidly attack during the night. 'Best to be cautious.'
He pushed his trolley and dashed to the channel entrance forty metres away, calming his thumping heart once he was safe inside. He then travelled through the route told by Grehha, soon exiting a channel.
He stared in surprise, seeing the door to Grehha's house positioned two metres from the channel entrance, 'Damn! He's prepared.'
In the likelihood of his house getting raided by the Zingers, Grehha would be able to quickly run into the safety of the channel. Due to their nature, the Zingers wouldn't be entering such narrow spaces, allowing him to survive.
'He too is doing everything to survive in this world.' Inala knocked on the door, watching it open immediately.
"No one noticed your arrival, right?" Grehha peeked out and looked around.
"I made sure of that," Inala nodded and quickly entered the house. It was best to avoid news of their alliance reaching the reincarnates. Even the location of their homes was kept secret. This was to prevent clues of their plan from being found out.
After all, a glance at Inala's residence was enough for Grehha to figure out his goal—the Zinger Queen's egg.
At present, only Grehha and Instructor Mandu knew Inala's address. Inala had requested Instructor Mandu to not reveal his address to anyone else. If anyone wished to commission him a portrait, he'll do it in a public space far away from his home.
But of course, seeing that it was a good opportunity to network with elites from other settlements, Instructor Mandu intended his own residence to be put into use for that. This way, while Inala worked on the portraits, Instructor Mandu could host the guests and talk to them freely and possibly even strike up a friendship.
It was a win-win for both and hence Inala accepted it.
Grehha was even more secretive about his house. He positioned it right next to a channel. And the underground network of channels was complex with hundreds of nodes. Grehha used a different route daily as he moved between his home and the academy.
Moreover, he only visited the academy to obtain food and water while handing over Mud Viper eggs.
"I had to walk a long distance today," Grehha commented. Cages filled the living room from top to bottom, all furnished by the Clan. Sealed within were Mud Vipers, kept sedated while their mouths were harnessed, preventing them from shooting Mud Balls.
"I need eighty kilograms of the mud and a litre of the toxin," Inala asked.
"I don't have an issue with the mud, but it'll be hard to make that much toxin." Grehha said, "I still need a lot of them for my use, you know?"
"I'll make up for it two days later." Inala expressed his urgent need.
"Alright," Grehha nodded and began to control the Mud Vipers to shoot out Mud Balls. He stopped once the trolley was filled to the brim.
Grehha then casually walked to the first floor and returned thirty minutes later, having collected a litre of the toxin, "I had some of today's amount saved up."
"You have more than I expected," Inala said in praise upon seeing that there were still a couple of Mud Vipers with toxins in their venom sacs.
He used the Toxin Refinement Skill on them to make 20 millilitres of the Mud Viper Tonic.
"I'll deduct today's expenditure from your Mud Viper Tonic share," Grehha commented.
"That's fine by me." Inala sneaked back home and holed up in his room.
Using the Mystic Bone Art, he refined fragments of bone obtained from Instructor Mandu into a large photo frame, three metres long and two metres tall.
After making clay, he covered the frame with it, popping a handful of Parute Fruits in his mouth as he began to carve on it. His face became twisted as he could feel a lurching sensation in his chest, 'Think of that scene from Sumatra Chronicles, the climax of volume 1.'
It made him emotional when he read that part. And now, as a Mammoth Clansmen, it subconsciously affected him even further. As Inala wholeheartedly infused all his emotions into the carving process, he didn't even realise when it happened, but he was bawling in desperation, in sadness, feeling absolutely devastated.