Extreme Iron Transcendent, a title given to Torq due to his insane obsession towards remaining at the Iron Grade. Typically, when a Ravaged Tribesman accumulates enough Pranic Beast genes on a qualitative level, they will mutate into a higher Grade.
When this qualitative accumulation is harmonised across the body, mind, and soul to create a functional whole, they'd evolve into a Clansman. Therefore, a Ravaged Tribesman typically focuses on one of the two for development.
The majority focused on increasing their Grade to gain more strength and lifespan. After all, as long as they could enter the Gold Grade, they'd live for at least a millennium. Honestly, many were not even confident in living for that long and not becoming bored with life.
So, that was the typical goal. The ambitious ones rushed to become a Clansman the moment they finished accumulating to a satisfactory extent.
"He was in the Federation two millennia ago, so all records related to him are still intact." Pettenac began to speak, "His gene accumulation had reached the threshold multiple times to spark a mutation. But somehow, he stopped the process and forcefully reined himself to the Iron Grade. He had successfully assimilated enough Pranic Beast genes in him to reach the Gold Grade, but he didn't."
"It didn't even take long once he became a Clansman." Pettenac expressed in excitement, "It only took him nine years to go from the 2-Life Stage to the 10-Life Stage and enter the Transcendence Stage."
"That's amazing!" Inala exclaimed with a star-struck expression, displaying respect for the eleventh statue. Mentally, he was gearing up for a battle, 'This old man is revealing too much information to a newcomer. As I suspected, he wants to influence me through these tales and make me follow the path of the Royal Zinger. And once my gene accumulation attains a certain level, he'd consume me.'
'Too bad, I'm the Royal Zinger.' Inala continued to listen to Pettenac's tales, acting like he was subconsciously influenced by them, saying in the end, "I want to become like him!"
"You can!" Pettenac patted Inala, "I'll help you succeed. You just have to listen to what I tell you. With my experience, you're guaranteed to become a Transcendent."
"Yes, City Lord!" Inala thumped his chest in excitement and rushed towards the flight of stairs, behaving ignorant of Pettenac's true intentions.
The flight of stairs descended for a couple storeys worth before leading into a sectioned room. There was a hole in both sections. The left hole was for entry while the right hole was for exit.
Right as he arrived, a Ravaged Tribesman was ejected out of the exit hole, plopping to the floor as a bloody mess. He was alive but wasn't in a state where he could move properly.
His eyes shot a glare at Inala for a moment before closing as the man focused on healing his injuries. He had some Prana left, so he could recover from his worst injuries first. He could then take time by consuming Phells and generating the Prana necessary to heal the rest.
He was nervous, fearing that Inala would ambush him. After all, he had just consumed Nectar after defeating his opponent in the Comb. The effects of the Nectar were still circulating through his body, so consuming him could benefit Inala.
"You don't need to be nervous." Inala waved his hand casually and jumped into the entry hole. He was interested in observing the Nectar's effect on the man's body. Honestly, trapping him in a Biome Bomb would have allowed him to accumulate data in real time of the changes experienced by the man.
But Inala didn't intend to take action, because he could feel Pettenac's eye on the place. This place was well within the latter's Spirit Weapon range and hence, the moment Inala took action, Pettenac would intervene.
Inala didn't wish to let go of an opportunity to steal Pettenac's data by focusing on an irrelevant character. With Gold Grade strength, and being Myore City's City Lord, not to mention his ability to adjust Skills to suit an individual's needs rapidly, Pettenac was a treasure trove of information.
Inala felt that through Pettenac, he would be able to obtain the clues necessary for his Tertiary Nature. Hence, he didn't take action. Dealing with him was easy, but there would be a lot of chaos when Myore City loses its City Lord.
It would just mess up his plans. Hence, he only planned to deal with this old man once he had carved his own path to the Comb. 'I am getting a lot of ideas just through the data of that one woman.'
The tunnel was similar to the ones in the Guna Caves. As Inala free fell through it, he observed a layer forming on his skin that protected him from friction due to free fall. But it formed atop his skin and not over the Biome Bomb layer.
Between that and the Key only fusing with his body upon physical contact, Inala had an idea, 'This will work. There is a possibility I can safely transport Nectar through my Biome Bomb. But I'll have to experiment and see which Grade of Biome Bomb can safely carry it.'
As he fell for close to three hours, Inala continued to think about everything Pettenac told in regards to Torq, 'There seems to be a way for accumulate genes without mutating. If I can figure it out, I'll have an easier time establishing the four paths in my Quip Clan.'
As long as the four paths were established clearly, his Quip Clansmen would be able to decide on their route from day one and proceed in that direction without wasting any time, energy, and effort. Zinger Guard, Zinger Princess, Zinger Prince, and Zinger Representative; these were the four endpoints for the Quip Clan.
As long as the means to achieve them were laid out fully, the Quip Clansmen would be able to grow without issues. He continued to think about it while observing his surroundings through the Brimgan Founder's knowledge.
Primary Nature—Prana Circuit!
This was the Brimgan Founder's Primary Nature, a formation- type power capable of drawing out the specialities of a terrain, curbing them, enhancing them, etc.
The same can be performed upon living beings too, generating special powers as a result. Prana was transported through a living being's body through blood. Prana Circuit creates a pathway for the flow of Prana, able to emulate the existence of blood without it actually being present in the pathway.
Packets condensed from Prana resembling blood cells flow through the pathways, carrying Prana. These packets were pretty stable, created using Spirit Containers moulded through psychokinesis.
Nodes existed in the circuit, formed by a cluster of Spirit Containers, acting as a hub for Prana to supply in and out from numerous channels. The nodes were established within 180 metres from each other, allowing them to direct Prana flow to each Node as if they were Spirit Weapons.
Prana Circuit uses this simple process to condense, mould, and shape the effects of psychokinesis to unleash a variety of effects. The Brimgan Founder was an individual driven by curiosity.
He had engraved Prana Circuits on the skins of countless Pranic Beasts, making them unleash psychokinesis on the ground to cause them to hover, obviously for them to be erased by the Influenced Region of Hidden Eye soon after.
How fast can it erase someone? Does the erase speed vary between people and Pranic Beasts of various Grades? To what extent can the concept of 'no flight' be extended before the Hidden Eye takes action? This was just one aspect the Brimgan Founder researched in his life.
Though Inala didn't have the Nature of Prana Circuit, he was damn intrigued by it. After all, Prana Circuit had infinite applications, especially for preparatory types like Inala.
If he could use it, Inala was instantly capable of engraving a circuit that allowed him to unleash the Bludder's Eddy Blades, the Shock Lizard's Prana Shock, etc.
All sorts of abilities unleashed through moulding Prana in its empirical form were capable of being generated through Prana Circuit. Best of all, once Inala engraves them on his body, he only needs to pour Prana into them to activate them.
Basically, he could obtain the same capabilities as Yarsha Zahara. Moreover, since he was just pouring Prana into his Prana Circuit to unleash the effect, his activation of the abilities would be faster than Yarsha Zahara.
It didn't end there though. In his hands, its effects would become significantly more pronounced. After all, through his Primary and Secondary Natures, Inala was capable of gathering the data of all sorts of living beings, including information related to their Natures.
With that sort of data in hand, creating Pranic Circuits would be damn simple for him, unlike the Brimgan Founder who had to research significantly and create one through repeated trial and error.
Best of all, there was one possibility that made him crave it, especially due to the significance and the possibilities it would open up for him.
Through the Nature of Prana Circuit, Inala would be capable of unleashing the Millinger's Secondary Nature of Inhibition Dome. That would be an absolute game-changer. And it was just one of the thousands of possibilities.
Inala's Prana had the same effects as his Primary Nature. So, when this attributed Prana flows through the Prana Circuit, the generated power would be on a whole other level. "I'm just getting greedy at this point."
Shaking his head followed by a helpless chuckle, Inala halted his distracting thoughts and instead observed the tunnel through the principles established by the Brimgan Founder atop Prana Circuit. It was through this that he figured out the means to turn the Northern Lakes and Southern Veins into the Brimgan Empire of today.
The tunnel approached a node and branched into one of the thousands leading from it as Inala began to gain insight into the place, 'The selection process has begun. Now, the Comb will match me with a suitable Ravaged Tribesman to fight. It always creates a match with a 50 percent chance of victory for both parties.'
'But, will it sense my Silver Grade strength as the Royal Zinger or the Silver Grade strength I'm emitting as a Quip Tribesman? Or, would it see through my abilities and judge based on my full power?' Inala thought and touched his two Mystic Grade Biome Bombs. If necessary, by absorbing the Prana and Lifespan stored in them, he could elevate himself to the Mystic Grade.
Even Brangara, using twenty-plus Natures of Internal Inertial Gravity failed to kill his Mystic Royal Zinger form. So, Inala wasn't afraid of challenging the arrangements of an Influenced Region. Worst comes to worst; he could carve his way out.
Soon, the tunnel reached its end, pointing at the ceiling of a hexagon-shaped chamber. The ceiling was a filament, appearing similar to the gate of the Attributed Region, but was made out of compressed air instead.
As he had the key, Inala was able to gain entry, barely feeling a mild breeze as his figure landed in the hexagon chamber, noticing a well-built middle-aged man land forty metres away from him.
'I see, so that's what the Comb used to make a judgement.' Inala thought as he stared at his opponent, sweating in response, "This will be tricky."