An object engaging in free fall from a state of rest accelerates due to gravity. The simplest of kinematic equations was capable of calculating the distance the object would fall through for every interval in time.
The reason was simple. After a certain duration, the object attains terminal velocity. Basically, after this point, its speed of descent remains unchanged. So, those entering and exiting the Comb travelled through the tunnels at terminal velocity.
The immunity coating against air resistance given to the Ravaged Tribesmen existed for as long as they had a Key. For those exiting, even after the Key vanishes from their body, its residue effects remain.
This residue would protect them during their fall. And the amount was calculated to be enough until they reached the surface. Whether it was the tunnel route or the coating, all functioned based on a calculation preprogrammed in the Comb.
A small clearance amount was factored into the calculation for any inconsistencies. For a Ravaged Tribesman who had finished consuming the Nectar, there was a window of time within which he could enter his tunnel and safely reach his destination.
It probably ranged around a couple dozen seconds. But as Inala spent more than that at the edge of the tunnel, he missed the window to return to Myore City. As a result, he now barged into the path traversed by another.
'It's similar to train compartments. Each compartment is meant for an individual. And there's typically some gap between two compartments to ensure two people don't see each other.' Inala thought, 'Only then will everyone continue to think that they are falling down a straight tunnel and not through a winding path that is rapidly changing every few seconds.'
Because of his actions, Inala's compartment was alarmingly close to the compartment of the guy before him. If there weren't any changes, both would be reaching the same destination. But that would be troublesome to Inala.
'I don't want to get into a conflict or any compromising situation this early in the picture.' Sighing at the thought, he condensed a Biome Bomb and aimed, focusing on the guy falling before him.
Though he was only in human form, Inala was currently a Beginner Gold Grade Royal Zinger, so his physical might was significantly stronger than his base self. He hurled the Biome Bomb, ambushing the target.
"What the…?" The targeted man only noticed what was happening after the Biome Bomb slammed into him, the impact alone almost killing him. To avoid pulverising his body, Inala held back on the throw.
Anyhow, once the Biome Bomb slammed into the target and began to absorb his Prana and Lifespan, the sheer pain combined with the impact and knocked him unconscious.
Secondary Nature—Perfect Biome Domination!
Inala caused one of his Mystic Biome Bombs to reveal its actual weight, resulting in his body falling faster. He stopped it after a few seconds upon reaching the targeted man. The latter had lost all Prana by now.
Inala casually ripped apart the man's skin, ears, eyes, the nasal cavity and the buccal cavity. Immediately after that, he healed him, stripped him of his clothes and enveloped him with the Gold Biome Bomb he had just created.
He removed all his Biome Bombs hung on his hip and attached them to the clothes that he had stripped from the man. Following that, he entered the Gold Biome Bomb too. Right after that, the space within compressed, creating a biome inside that was spherical in shape with a radius of 180 metres.
It absorbed some Prana from one of the Mystic Biome Bombs and created air for Inala and the man to breathe. In the outside world, the Gold Biome Bomb was thumb-sized. Four tendrils of Prana jutted out of it and grabbed onto the skin and other organs extracted from the man.
Like filling up a balloon, the tendrils of Prana propped them up, following which the thumb-sized Gold Biome Bomb appeared in its centre, gradually expanding in size.
Through his Secondary Nature of Perfect Biome Domination, Inala morphed its shape from a sphere to one resembling the man perfectly. The man's peeled skin latched perfectly on this Biome Bomb, now making him seem no different from the original.
The eyes appeared in the eye socket while the ears were stuck to their respective spot. The nasal and buccal cavity too took their respective spots while Inala modified the Gold Biome Bomb's shape accordingly.
The end of the throat funnelled into a hole that opened in the Gold Biome Bomb, through which Inala could generate sound mimicking the man's voice. The ear canal fed into a hole in the Biome Bomb to carry soundwaves until they reached Inala.
He then positioned himself at a spot right behind the eye, peeking through a hole in the eye which was like glass. From his perspective, the hole was massive, but from the outside, it was smaller than a pinhole.
This perspective difference allowed Inala to hide an army within a single individual from the perspective of others. With that, he created a puppet that was an exact replica of the man, one that Inala could freely control as he pleased.
The Gold Biome Bomb had enough of the man's Prana and Lifespan to perfectly encapsulate his presence. Moreover, the man was beside Inala. Any information he wanted could readily be extracted from the man.
So, even without knowing anything about the man, Inala could readily make a response in real time. Any sounds echoing through the puppet's ear canal could be turned into Zinger Shrieks through Perfect Biome Domination.
When these Zinger Shrieks land on the man's skin, relevant information would echo out from him, which Inala could use to take action. Or rather, he didn't need to take action personally. The will he had imbued in the Gold Biome Bomb was enough to do all these on its own.
He could just chill inside and replenish the expended will from time to time. As he began to manually construct the puppet, the related information conceptualised in his mind, causing Mystic Royal Art to activate, "So this is the new version, one suitable for the Royal Zinger."
Mystic Royal Art—Puppetry!
It was the new Puppetry Skill that he had developed, one that could only be activated through the combined usage of his Primary and Secondary Natures alongside Mystic Royal Art. At present, only he could use it, but Inala had enough ideas to modify it to be suitable for all Gold Grade Zinger variants.
The puppet now behaved as the man and continued to fall, soon reaching the surface. Upon arriving at the underground room, the puppet headed up the flight of stairs and entered the room on the ground floor, staring at the eleven Transcendent Statues.
It paused for a moment before the eleventh statue before nonchalantly exiting the City Lord's house, walking through the streets like nothing was amiss. The puppet conversed with a few people along the way and naturally headed to the ocean, following which, the man never appeared in the city.
"These puppets will prove to be useful for a variety of causes," Inala muttered as he floated on the surface of the ocean thirty kilometres away from land.
For his upcoming experiments, Inala was curious about two things. First, if he kills a group of people in a hexagon chamber, after equipping them all with a Key each, will he get an equal amount of Nectar?
Secondly, how long would he have to draw in presence from the Comb to condense a drop of Nectar?
While thinking about them, Inala extended four strings of Prana from his body, causing them all to latch onto a Phell each and suck their Prana and Lifespan. He began to amass energy in a large amount, using it to build a terrain in his Gold Biome Bomb.
At his Prana reserve as a Beginner Gold Grade Royal Zinger, Inala could safely create four Gold Biome Bombs. Once he starts condensing his fifth, he'd have used up the Prana values of his Beginner Gold Grade form and would return to his base state.
He wasn't condensing Prana and Lifespan to form a landscape in the Gold Biome Bombs. They weren't necessary for his upcoming plans. Having a landscape in one Gold Biome Bomb would be enough for his emergency needs.
In the rest, he was trying to condense a Bolt of Transcendence. "Time to test the amount necessary to condense the weakest Bolt of Transcendence."
With that thought in mind, Inala continued to spam Gold Biome Bombs. Using four tendrils of Prana, they gathered Prana and Lifespan from the Phells, hunting on their own. From time to time, Inala replenished his Prana reserves in them, using which they could act with his mind.
Once he reverted to Silver Grade, Inala absorbed Prana and Lifespan from a Gold Biome Bomb and elevated himself to Beginner Gold Grade, repeating the process. He gradually began to head deeper into the ocean, away from all Ravaged Federation activity.
Soon, he located a region with no Ravaged Tribesman activity but was dense with Phell activity. They acted like schools of fish and moved around in clusters. The Gold Biome Bombs became active here.
As the days passed, the number of Gold Biome Bombs increased in number. Each Gold Biome Bomb was spherical in shape, occupying a metre in radius. Tendrils of Prana jutted out of them in four directions, with each reaching a length of 179 metres, which was their maximum length.
At the end of their length, the ends of a string of Prana met with another end, making a connection. This string originated from another Gold Biome Bomb. A net was being created here, three-dimensional in nature.
Hundreds of Gold Biome Bombs filled the water, with each positioned 358 metres from the other, positioned similar to the lattice structure formed by carbon atoms. As Inala replicated the same, he called this formation 'The Biome Lattice.'