"Ha..haha…hahaha!" Inala burst into laughter once the Silver Grade Pranic Beast retreated into its home, keeping a watch on its children.
"Hehe!" Virala too broke into laughter, realising how comical the situation was. With their actual strengths, a Silver Grade Pranic Beast wasn't anything worth worrying about. However, their reason for laughing wasn't that.
"That was a horrible attempt," Inala wiped the faint tears he shed due to excess laughter and calmed down, analysing their actions, "We fought like shit back there and didn't even think of something as basic as guarding our prey against another predator."
Something that would have been common sense to them before was now a concept that had to consciously focus on. The problem stemmed from their presence.
Whether it was Virala or Inala's actual presence, the moment they unleash it in full swing, a Minor Crisis would be generated from the nearby Iron Grade Pranic Beasts losing their minds. And as long as they continued to emit their presence, no other existence would dare approach them, even if the other party was a Gold Grade Pranic Beast.
This had become their common sense upon becoming a pinnacle existence on Sumatra. As a result, even after sealing their strength, they hadn't thought of guarding their prey and instead remained careless about the three Silver Grade Pranic Beasts whose existence Inala had already detected at the very beginning.
What they did was nothing short of a blunder. It was why they were laughing, having come to realisation that in the pursuit of power, they lost a good majority of the components of survival necessary in Sumatra.
'That was why my original build was finalised at the Silver Grade.' Inala understood the thought process he had while reading Sumatra Chronicles and fantasising about his build if he could one day live on Sumatra.
Silver Grade was perfect in that sense. It created enough room for versatility and strength but still kept the owner on his toes, constantly forcing him to innovate in an effort to survive better.
The Royal Zinger's base state too was at the Silver Grade, but his Silver Grade strength wasn't like other Silver Grade Pranic Beasts. He had plenty of advantages, not to mention being able to stockpile Gold and Mystic Biome Bombs, which can exert the strength of the respective Royal Zinger Grades on their own.
So, even at the Silver Grade, his strength far exceeded his Grade. That caused Inala to gradually lose his edge for survival, dulling in response.
"It's good that we're able to experience this well in advance." Inala nodded, "I want us to be ready before the Third Major Disaster. Once we synchronise our experiences with our main bodies, we'll be able to truly destroy Brangara."
"Obviously," Virala nodded before patting his stomach, "But first, we need to find something to eat. I'm hungry."
"I'm not your mother," Inala shrugged and pointed at a bush nearby, "Those fruits resemble berries. Let's eat that."
"You eat it first," Virala smiled, "If it's safe for consumption, I'll follow suit."
"Wow, what a coward," Inala commented and plucked some of the berries and smelled them. He paused in patience and recalled the information in his memories. Soon, he popped a few in his mouth and began to eat them, "Alright, they aren't as sour as I had feared."
"Are they safe to eat?" Virala asked as he inched closer.
"Not entirely," Inala shook his head, "But we can heal the damage using Prana. Eventually, we'll be able to recover our Prana capacity."
"Heal the damage?" Virala sighed at the words before asking, "How long do you think we need to consume them to reach full capacity?"
"After using Prana to heal constantly and then consume them…let's see..." Inala trailed off a bit before saying, "Around four to five days?"
"That long?" Virala's eyes widened in shock as he realised just how different things were at the bottom of the power system. He then recalled his days at the Mammoth Clan where they constantly calculated the Parute Fruits in their possession, the price of whatever they purchased, etc.
As the duo began their survival, they were gradually awakening to the senses and logic they used to possess in the past as Mammoth Clansmen.
Five days later, at a small cave that they had drilled into a large boulder, Virala was on the floor, sprawled while clutching his stomach in pain. His face was bluish, showing signs of being poisoned.
Prana circulated through his body gradually, trying to expunge the poison as soon as possible. Inala was lying just nearby, his face a similar colour. But instead of lying on the floor like Virala, he was seated calmly.
Stomach ache was nothing to someone who had ripped his organs out. The pain was still horrible, but he had the necessary mental faculties to endure. His focus was currently on his palm as he gradually seeped Prana through it, observing the Prana beginning to change form.
'I see, so that's where Prana Stitch has been integrated and derived from.' Inala observed his palm print, outlining the circuit shown there.
Similar to humans, the race of Zingers too had palm prints. Moreover, unlike the other races, all the strength of a Zinger was concentrated in its arm. From gliding to condensing Prana Bombs, it was done through the hands.
So, anatomically speaking, the number of blood vessels flowing through a Zinger's arm was greater than the rest of its body. This allowed them to emit Prana from their palms the fastest in comparison to the rest of their body.
All the blood vessels ended at the palm, from where they emitted Prana. And as Inala thought about it, the Royal Zinger was similar in its fundamental composition. The majority of its strength was concentrated in its arms.
Though Inala was aware of it, he had been more focused on external aspects like the creation of Minor Treasures, Biome Lattice, etc. He had been subconsciously using his arms without actively thinking about them.
When he created the Minor Treasure of Prana Stitch in the hourglass, he seeped his Prana through his arms. Even when he activated Perfect Biome Domination, he unleashed it through his arms.
Now, he gained a better understanding of why he obtained Prana Stitch among the various options he had and why he subconsciously felt it to be the best for his purpose. It wasn't brought about by the Brimgan Founder's influence but by his own.
Prana Stitch was a circuit through which Prana can flow with the characteristics of a Prana Bomb and Tangible Psychokinesis. To unleash it, a Quip Clansman would have to weave a string of Prana.
They could also load the power up in a Piezo Slip, causing the Prana Stitch's circuit to form based upon the circuit formed by the Piezo Slip. That was all fine, as the power functioned as intended.
However, it was born from the Royal Zinger's characteristics. And the exact place it was derived from was his palms, or the palm print to be exact.
Since the Quip Clan were derived from him, possessing varying levels of the Royal Zinger genes according to their Grades, they too sported the same characteristics. It meant that every Quip Clansman was able to use a form of Prana Stitch naturally, as long as they had the necessary information.
This was possible even without the Tertiary Nature of Prana Stitch. Inala only needs to seep Prana into his palms and press them onto a surface to engrave the circuit there. This circuit will generate the power of Prana Stich in a certain form.
Stitching two objects together, stitching Biome Bombs into a singular whole, stitching the surfaces of living beings with inanimate objects, there were plenty of applications of Prana Stitch.
Curious about what application his palm print generated, Inala seeped Prana through it, slow and steady, watching it spread across his palm before it dissipated. He smiled wryly, 'My control is insufficient.'
Sighing, he observed a loss of five units of Prana just from the failed experiment. He got up and kept watch of his surroundings, carefully harvesting another batch of berries that grew plenty in the region.
He dragged the bag with him and entered the cave, only to see Virala instinctively move farther away.
"T-That thing, move it away!" He shouted while pointing with a trembling finger, "I'm not eating that crap even if you kill me."
"Don't be a drama queen, this is the only edible produce we can obtain without risking our lives," Inala said and dropped the bag on the floor. He scooped out a handful and stuffed them in his mouth, feeling his stomach heat up in response and increase the intensity of his stomach ache.
He scowled in response but continued eating, interested in training and getting the hang of his natural Prana Circuit. 'I'm discovering aspects of myself that I never knew existed.'
He then stared at a pile of neatly severed body parts nearby Virala, maintained in a pristine condition, 'This guy is exploring the possibilities of Mystic Humans too.'
"Don't you need to finish whatever you're doing there?" Inala asked as he pointed toward the pile, "Won't they rot at this rate?"
"As long as there's a portion of my Prana inside, they won't begin decomposing." Virala said, for a moment distracted as he stared at a severed finger, "I plan to finish creating them soon. But this will take me even longer to replenish my Prana to its full capacity."
"Then you must eat," Inala said and pushed the bag in his direction, laughing upon seeing him leap back reflexively like a startled cat. He had used psychokinesis on his legs to perform the action, hating the berries to such an extent.
"Scared?" Inala taunted.
"Fuck you!" Virala grumbled, expressively stating his distaste, "I would rather die than eat that…"
His stomach rumbled, thunderously in fact, as he had been constantly ripping out fingers and ripping them, consuming both his Prana and muscular mass. His resistance dropped in response as he dragged himself towards the bag of berries, resigned to his fate, "Fuck this shit!"
Inala ignored the sight of Virala shedding tears upon consuming the berries, feeling too disgusted to stare in that direction. Instead, he sat at the entrance of the cave and began to experiment with his Prana Stitch, his face beaming in joy gradually, 'There's more to Mystic Royal Art.'
The Mammoth Clan's Mystic Bone Art had been extensively developed, with thousands of Skills and dozens of Prime Skills. There even existed simple methods using which one could clean themselves, maintain their hygiene, etc.
All these facets of Mystic Bone Art had been extensively developed, practiced, and refined over a span of twelve to thirteen thousand years. The principal cause behind their creation was simple—necessity.
Necessity is the mother of invention!
This fact held true everywhere, which was why Inala only managed to create three Skills for the Quip Clan, not because he couldn't make more, but because he faced no necessity to think of Skills to create.
'Now, I can take this time to actually produce Skills, since my survival depends on it.' That thought alone caused him to smile, as even though he was batshit weak now, he was once again treading on the path of versatility, the core of his belief.