"I see, so that's how it is," Inala muttered as he stared at the woman encased in a Biome Bomb, unconscious. The Biome Bomb extracted data from her, causing waves of pain to course through her sensory system.
But having been knocked unconscious, she was unable to react. As Inala was only at the Silver Grade, his data extraction process was forceful and damaging to the target. It wasn't as seamless and undetectable as when he unleashed it as a Mystic Grade Royal Zinger.
Thankfully, he had more than enough Lifespan stored in his two Mystic Grade Biome Bombs, which he supplied to the woman and healed the damage sustained by her body.
Mystic Royal Art--Tangible Piezo Slip!
Inala unleashed a few screeches that slammed into her skin and condensed in her mind as an information cluster. This gave her a memory of her engaging in a baby-making process with Inala.
Even if she fails to become pregnant, it would never be an issue, since there were more chances of failure than success. Typically, if two Ravaged Tribesmen were to copulate, there was almost zero chance of pregnancy.
In the Ravaged Federation, before copulating, both parties would consume Nectar, which raised the chances of success. Nectar was pretty much the only reason the Ravaged Tribesmen here could have children.
After all, none of them was a pure Ravaged Tribesman--having genetic characteristics of a single Pranic Beast. Even the weakest had at least three to four Pranic Beast characteristics.
So, there was basically zero chance of creating a progeny for these Tribesmen, only if they didn't have Nectar. Thankfully for Inala, there was no information relating to the Quip Tribe in this city, so the people living here had no idea about the genes of the Zingers.
Therefore, even if none of the women supposedly mating with Inala managed to birth an offspring, no one would bat an eye. They'll just assume that the difficulty was steep for the Zinger genes to assimilate with other genes.
None would expect Inala to not even touch the women and instead extract their data. Inala was simply accessing and copying the data of the woman. So, the woman wasn't forgetting anything part of her life.
And in the off chance he fails to control his strength and ends up extracting some data from her mindspace, Inala could rely upon the Tangible Piezo Slip Skill to return the data to her. This way, it was impossible for the woman to realise what he was doing.
For the rest of the day, Inala remained holed up in his house, making many women living in the neighbourhood curse the woman who jumped the gun and lucked out to mate with him. Unaware of the truth, they kept watch on the entrance of his house like a pack of hyenas, ready to pounce on him the moment the doors opened.
By now, Inala had accessed the most important pieces of information from the woman held captive in his Biome Bomb, understanding the details about the Comb's functions.
Firstly, a Ravaged Tribesman would fish for Phells and consume them for food on a daily basis. If they had luck, they would chance upon a Key that would instantly fuse in their bodies.
Once the Tribesman enters the Comb, he arrives at a hexagon chamber, faced with another Ravaged Tribesman for a death match. The two will duke it out until there was one survivor.
Following that, the survivor had two options. First was to consume the corpse in the chamber, followed by Nectar that would appear at the death of one of them. Second was to ignore the corpse and consume only the Nectar.
By consuming only the Nectar, they could focus on rearranging the genes already existing in their bodies by labelling them as dominant and recessive genes. Once this process is repeated enough times, the Ravaged Tribesman will be able to refine their accumulations to become a perfected version of themselves.
This was a time-consuming process and there was no guarantee they could survive so many death matches. The most important point to note here was the Nectar.
When one of the contestants dies, a drop of Nectar is produced in the hexagon chamber. It would hover in the centre. If the survivor tries to bring it out, the moment they leave the boundaries of the hexagon chamber, the droplet of Nectar transforms into influence and gets absorbed by the Comb.
So, it had to be consumed within the hexagon chamber where it was produced.
Opponents in the Comb were decided based on a complex series of suggestions. Only opponents on a similar level of power appeared. There was never a power disparity. Hence, the chances of survival in all death matches were fifty-fifty.
The Comb was situated at the core of the planet. The paths leading to the hexagon chambers were tunnels similar to the ones at the Guna Caves. Somehow, even while free-falling through a tunnel for a long distance, oftentimes taking hours, the cultivator didn't burn up due to air resistance.
The cause was the Keys fused into their bodies. Similar to the hydrophobic coating given by the Keys in the Attributed Region, allowing the owners to pass through the gates and enter different Compartments, the Keys given by the Sanctuary gave a coating on the skin that shielded them from the harms of air resistance.
The Ravaged Federation had been investigating the arrangements of the Comb's match-fixing patterns but were unable to gain any leads. With the Brimgan Founder's data, Inala was capable of figuring everything out, able to predict who he would be matched with and why.Currently, he was at the peak of the Body Stage. As long as he remains an Expert Silver Grade Royal Zinger, Inala could stack up on bodies. With enough preparation, he could allow the Quip Clan to face him and defeat him.
With the aid of Nectar, once they consume his corpse, the Quip Clansman would accumulate more of the Royal Zinger's genes. With the gene accumulation characteristics of Mystic Royal Art, the Quip Clansman would grow in strength rapidly and be able to mutate or even evolve eventually.
As the Nectar could do the same, upon observing the information in the Brimgan Founder's data, Inala added the gene accumulation characteristics in Mystic Royal Art. As it was realistically possible and possessed infinite potential, he included it as part of his cultivation technique.
As long as he becomes capable of producing Nectar, the Quip Clan would have a future wherever they set up base, as long as they have one of his Biome Bombs to produce the Nectar.
Inala planned to set up a base for the Quip Clan at the Ravaged Federation and have his Quip Clansmen farm for Nectar. They'll continue to consume his body and eventually evolve to higher Zinger variants.
Two days later, Inala finished extracting all the valuable information from the woman and retracted his Biome Bomb, hanging its miniature version on his hip, "Get up, it's morning."
"Already?" The woman woke up with a start and stared around casually, as if used to it. After all, in her memories, this was the third day in his house, so it was almost a routine.
"Guess it's time to leave," The woman smirked as she got up and whistled away as she exited, leaving behind a comment as she left, "I'll return next month if I fail to get pregnant."
'There won't be an opportunity to do so.' Inala thought as he sported a fake smile and waved at the woman, surprised to see the latter return in a couple of minutes and give him a tub filled with water. Swimming peacefully in it was a Phell.
If a Cooter Clansman were to see a Phell behaving so docilely, he would rage quit. After all, the Cooter Clan based at the Dralh Sea faced the strongest aggression from the Phells.
"This is for you." The woman smiled, "Because of me, you haven't entered the Comb yet. Since it's your first time, there will be a Key inside."
"I pray for your survival." She said like it was clockwork and left the place. She wasn't emotionally connected to Inala or anything. Such things didn't exist at the Ravaged Federation. She was only after Inala's genes.
If she fails to become pregnant, she will return the next month for another attempt. If Inala was dead by then, she would simply switch targets to another man who catches her fancy. All men and women in the place behaved the same, for it was the norm there.
'So, there's a key inside this.' Inala smiled as he closed the door and stared at the Phell. He didn't kill it immediately and instead placed it inside a Biome Bomb and absorbed its Prana and Lifespan.
Once the Phell was dead, he used two strings of Prana to dissect it, observing a shiny Key inside, seemingly made of coral. If he were to touch it, the Key would fuse into his body. But now, encased in the Biome Bomb, it remained as is. 'So, it needs physical contact.'
Some sophisticated individuals were capable of extracting the Keys without coming into contact with it. These individuals typically supplied the Keys to their children until the latter became strong enough to gather their own.
'I can do this too.' Inala smiled. By taking advantage of his Biome Bombs and Perfect Biome Domination, Inala could gather a large number of Keys in a short duration. 'This will be perfect for the Quip Clan.'
They'll remain in hiding while steadily gathering strength through the Comb. Inala would only be bringing them out when necessary, stealthily gathering strength by creating as many Quip Zingers as possible.
With enough Keys in his storage, he could send the Quip Zingers into the Comb, of course after full preparations to ensure they only faced his bodies.
From the peak of the Body Stage, Inala could condense a second body to enter the 2-Life Stage. This second body will be sent into the Comb repeatedly for the Quip Zingers to consume and become Zinger Aristocrats as soon as possible.
With enough Zinger Aristocrats, the population of the Quip Clan will balloon exponentially in a few decades. With that thought in mind, Inala watched the Key fuse into his body as he made his way to the City Lord's house at the centre of the city.
In the Ravaged Federation, every single city was built around an entrance leading into the Comb. According to the memories of the woman, the entrances only appeared on the land. But soon, that will change as Inala planned to create an entrance of his own, hidden deep in the water.
Once he accumulates enough Prana and Lifeforce, Inala will enter the Mystic Grade to create a train of Biome Bombs to layer the ocean floor around the entrance he would be making. The Zingers will remain in hiding here to secretly gather Nectar.
'Soon, I'll figure out the means to achieve it.' Inala smiled as he began to think like the Brimgan Founder to figure out the ins and outs of the Comb's mechanism.