On a flatland existed a mound, with one side of it forming a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff grew a dense shrub, covered with thorns. It reached a height of two metres and was shaped like an umbrella.
Camouflaged under its foliage was a tunnel entrance, out of which peeked out an Iron Grade Pranic Beast, shaped like a rabbit but sporting a thorn-filled back like a porcupine. Its tongue flashed out like a snake as it looked out for any traces of foreign scent in its vicinity.
Upon judging the surroundings to be safe, it stealthily crept out and exited the foliage, the thorns on its back receding to reveal a sparsely fur-covered skin, extremely vulnerable. It hopped on the ground, gradually entering the grassland expanding further.
Soon, it began to graze, its ears prickling from time to time in alertness. But unawares to it, a Pranic Beast began to approach it stealthily, its presence no different from that of a tree.
One wouldn't even notice it, for its body was built to resemble a shrub while its movements were like a snail's crawl, slowly but steadily approaching the grazing creature.
The Iron Grade Pranic Beast's ears turned around from time to time, hoping to hear anything. However, it didn't and hence continued to eat. By now, the shrub was right behind it as suddenly, vines jutted out of it and latched onto the Iron Grade Pranic Beast, easily capturing
it.
The Iron Grade Pranic Beast only spanned a length of forty centimetres, too small even in comparison to other Iron Grade Pranic Beasts. The shrub too was an Iron Grade Pranic Beast, but evidently stronger as it succeeded in its hunt.
The shrub's canopy wriggled to reveal a metre-long rat with legs resembling a serpent's tail and the eyes of a snail. It opened its mouth, revealing two needle-shaped teeth dripping a powerful digestive fluid.
The vines it used to capture prey were its legs, numbering six in total. Upon succeeding in the capture, it would inject the digestive saliva into the prey's body and melt it over time. Following that, it would suck in the fleshy slob, for its mouth was too narrow and lacked any canines or molars to rip into flesh.
In a similar fashion, it bit onto the Iron Grade Pranic Beast, injecting its digestive saliva when suddenly, spikes sprouted out of the Pranic Beast's back, their speeds and timing allowing some of the spikes to pierce through the shrub's mouth and damage the brain.
Kieeek!
The shrub screeched in pain but didn't let go of its hold, continuing to inject its digestive fluids while the spikes stabbed deeper and deeper into its brain. A couple minutes of struggle later, both the Pranic Beasts lay dead on the grassland.
There was silence in the region, occasionally accompanied by the gentle wind ruffling the grass and dried leaves. A day passed in such a fashion as a rabbit head peeked out of the tunnel entrance, sensing for any dangers in the surroundings.
It slowly walked out and approached the grassland after an hour's walk, staring at the shrub's corpse that was resultant of the previous day's fight. The other corpse seemed to have vanished mysteriously.
It opened its mouth and began to nibble on the shrub's corpse, taking its time to consume as much as possible. Once that was done, it deftly rolled the remaining flesh into a ball and rolled it on the ground, making way into its tunnel, from where it didn't appear for the next five days.
And only after it was running out of food did it venture out, proceeding to the grassland where it grazed in alertness.
Seated on a tree's branch 400 metres away was a Free Human, his expression haggard and his eyes covered by veiny lines of red, highlighting his strained nerves. His Prana condensed to form a convex object of water, through which he peered onto the rabbit-like Pranic Beast with greater clarity.
'Indeed, that's the Iron Empyrean Tentacle. It uses itself as bait and commits double suicide with its predator. And once it revives, it waits until the next day for its Primary Nature to load up. Only after setting up a checkpoint does it exit its home to consume its spoils from the previous day.' His breathing was somewhat ragged, but the man's eyes glinted with vicious determination.
Upon seeing the Iron Empyrean Tentacle die in the mouth of another Pranic Beast that had lunged at it, the man retracted the convex lens of water and jumped down from the tree branch. He gradually changed his spot and waited for the Iron Empyrean Tentacle.
"Alright," He muttered upon seeing it enter the grassland the next day, approaching the corpse that it had committed suicide with. But right as it was about to munch on the corpse, an arrow of water pierced its body.
The injury wasn't serious, but it had begun to bleed. Any other Pranic Beast would have healed itself and tried to resist. However, the Iron Empyrean Tentacle was built different thanks to the influence of its Primary Nature.
It had no combat abilities and its physical body was incapable of hunting even the weakest prey. Its only means to kill something was by targeting its predator the moment it was being eaten. Hence, since it was targeted from afar, it meant it would die before it could kill its predator.
And hence, in order to conserve its power, it committed suicide, dropping dead. A couple of minutes after it had died, the man who had hurled the water arrow approached it and scooped its body, watching it dissipate gradually, 'Yes! It's this! A concept that couldn't be controlled! This is the power I seek! For revenge!'
The following days, the man kept hunting the Iron Empyrean Tentacle, preventing it from having any food, and forcing it to use up all of its stored food.
Three months later, right as the Iron Empyrean Tentacle moved out in desperation, the man began to dig into its home, 'It has exhausted its food reserve. So, to restock on supplies, it'll probably target a larger Iron Grade Pranic Beast. That works in my favour, since I need time to lay down my trap.'
The man was at the Spirit Stage, sporting 99 units of Prana, only one unit away from attempting to enter the Body Stage. He slowly made his way through the tunnel by enlarging it, digging for hours as he constantly consumed all the rations he had stockpiled, using it to replenish his Prana slowly.
Soon, he entered a decently large cavern, enough for ten of him to stand within and still have some leftover space. The man stared at the ground before him, spreading his Prana across the surface as his skin prickled in response, "Yup, the checkpoint is indeed here."
He set his bag beside him and began to lay down a simple trap weaved using grass strands sourced nearby. He had treated them to raise their tensile strength, creating an intricate net after an hour. Following that, he waited patiently for five more hours, smiling upon seeing his skin prickle sharply, 'It's coming!'
The man's eyes brimming with desperation and insanity widened in awe as Prana gathered across the floor before him out of nowhere and rapidly condensed into a sphere, following which it solidified into the body of the Iron Empyrean Tentacle.
The process barely took a few seconds, a tad quicker than his expectations, as this was his first time witnessing the revival process. However, he had extensively prepared for it until now, and hence reacted promptly, tugging a rope that caused the net to curl around the Iron Empyrean Tentacle and constrict it.
Kieek!
The Iron Empyrean Tentacle screeched in protest as spikes jutted out of its back, stabbing into
the net. However, the man had weaved individual strings to form a rope. Hence, the spikes simply pierced into the rope and only caused gaps to form between the individual strings. The rope was still intact and its body remained bound.
"Capture complete." The man laughed like a maniac as tears streamed out of his eyes, "Finally! After four years of relentless pursuit, I've captured you!"
"You..." He stared at the Iron Empyrean Tentacle and shouted while patting his chest, "Pour your Prana into me. Make me your Tribesman!"
Kiek!
The Iron Empyrean Tentacle didn't understand what he spoke and simply continued to resist.
However, the man didn't give up. Instead, he took out a needle and pocked its belly, causing it
to scream, "Do it! Just pour your Prana into me while activating your Primary Nature. That should be sufficient!"
"Do it!" Five days later, he was still at it, occasionally torturing the Iron Empyrean Tentacle while feeding it from time to time. He didn't torture it to the extent it would choose suicide, but still tortured it enough that it was finding it hard to resist him.
As it didn't have sentience, not to mention no cultivation technique, it was hard for the man
to convey his wishes to it. However, he simply beat the process into it, repeating what he wanted it to do by pouring his Prana into its body, "Pour it like this, aim for the heart!"
"Aim for the heart!" He roared a month later.
"Why can't you do it, you fucking beast? Are the Empyrean Tentacles simply incapable of
creating a Ravaged Tribe? No, I know you can do it, but you refuse to do it since you have nothing to gain from it!" The man roared two years later.
With the passage of every day, every month, and every year, he grew crankier, teetering in and
out of insanity. Finally, eight years since he managed to capture the Iron Empyrean Tentacle, the man stared at the bloated Pranic Beast before him, one too heavy to even walk.
Since torture didn't work, he started to overfeed it, eventually freeing its bindings too. However, having been living confined all along, the Iron Empyrean Tentacle forgot what it felt like to walk and was also too heavy to do it.
It simply lay flat on the ground, mechanically following the process that had been beaten into
it all along, activating its Primary Nature of Daily Checkpoint as it seeped its Prana into his heart.
The man accepted it with a twisted smile of relief as he watched his Spirit Container getting influenced by the Iron Empyrean Tentacle's Prana. Slowly, as time passed, with the Iron Empyrean Tentacle performing the same action daily, a change erupted after another year.
Ravaged Tribesman!
"Ha...haha!" The man chuckled in elation before he collapsed to the floor, crying blankly, "How...how long did it fucking take? For what am I even doing this? Are...is anyone even alive
by this point?"
He slowly got up and exited the cave, ignoring the Iron Empyrean Tentacle that had fallen
asleep out of exhaustion. As he walked, his hundred Spirit Containers combined into a unified whole, smoothly bringing him to the Body Stage.
He hadn't attempted it, but rather, the influence from the Iron Empyrean Tentacle collated his gains and brought him to the Body Stage, causing a stream of information to barge into his mindspace as the man stared at the sky, tears streaming down his cheeks, cold, "I finally
gained what I sought."
Primary Nature-Daily Floater!
He stared at the figure of a balding man who walked towards him, dragging his limp leg, "Are
we..."
His hesitant voice resounded once the balding man stopped before him, "Are we too late,"
"Brimgan?"
"Late?" The balding man smiled wryly and collapsed to the ground, kneeling as he shouted,
"Where have you been all along, my Lord?"
"There's no one left at home, Lord Torq!" The balding man cried as he uttered weakly, "That
bastard converted them all!"