"That went easier than expected," Virala commented as he inspected the spheres he had collected. There were a total of four, but the fourth was damaged. It was the purple sphere he used to extract blood from the Empyrean Tusk heart.
Virala inspected it for a while before crushing it, "It's damaged beyond repair. I won't be needing it anyway. So let me get rid of it."
Secondary Nature—Weaponisation!
This was the Mammoth Ancestor's signature ability, one she used to forge one of the greatest Clans of Sumatra. Weaponisation was an overpowered ability and could only be obtained by Mammoth Clansmen—her descendants.
But, to prevent those unworthy from getting it, the Mammoth Ancestor broke her inheritance into riddles and encrypted it to the limit. Only someone with exceptional intelligence would be able to access it.
Unfortunately for her, she had overestimated her descendants as not one managed to decrypt it. Over the years after her disappearance, her inheritance was forgotten. After thousands of years had passed, it was reduced into a children's tale recounted to the students at the Academy of Refinement.
Yes, the most common book accessible to all Mammoth Clansmen was in truth the Mammoth Ancestor's inheritance.
Oftentimes in Sumatra Chronicles, there came verses hinting about the worlds floating in the sky, observable from all across Sumatra Continent.
At times, there existed one world, sometimes two, and sometimes even a dozen. Their numbers varied randomly, but at least one world floated in the sky. And it was so far away that it couldn't be accessed, since no entity in their world could fly.
Virala linked all these verses and concluded that the Mammoth Ancestor was indeed alive. She was in one of these worlds. And before heading there, she left behind an inheritance.
It took Virala one month to determine that the inheritance was in the children's book. Following that, he only had to activate his cultivation technique while reading the book. A month later, words began to hover in his mind, becoming a puzzle.
Four more months later, Virala finished piecing the puzzle together, obtaining the inheritance, which was the Secondary Nature of Weaponisation.
Virala had strict rules to follow for Weaponisation to take effect. So, it wasn't easy to use it. But that wasn't an issue for someone like him.
Depending on the strength of the target, the number of rules increased. Once Virala satisfied all the rules, he could use Weaponisation on the target.
When applied, the target wouldn't be able to move as their body would be compressed and refined into a fist-sized sphere. This sphere was called a Nature Weapon and it contained the Primary Nature of the target.
A Nature was how an entity lived as. The Mystic Bone Art allowed the cultivator to refine bones as they pleased while digesting everything their stomachs consumed. Weaponisation was a combination of the two taken to the extreme.
It refined the target body into a portable sphere while preserving its Nature. As a result, the Nature Weapon possessed in it the essence of the target's Primary Nature.
A cultivator could possess three Natures in total. Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary were simply the names given to the three slots.
Through Weaponisation, Virala could freely equip and deequip these Nature Weapons in his empty slots. And the day he obtained this Secondary Nature, Virala knew what Ruvva was up to.
After all, Granny Oyo gained inspiration from Weaponisation to create the Primary Extortion Skill. While interrogating Inala, she was inspired and managed to unlock some of the puzzle pieces from the children's book.
She didn't know the truth and hence stopped at creating the Primary Extortion Skill. But had she focused on her inspiration and researched the children's book deeply, maybe she might have discovered the inheritance.
Whenever Ruvva activated the Primary Extortion Skill, Virala could feel its effects. But, he didn't stop her. After all, he wanted her to steal his Primary Nature of Internal Inertial Gravity.
When stolen, it freed up his Primary Nature slot, allowing Virala to freely equip a second Nature Weapon. With two free slots, he could change his combination of Natures—depending on the situation—with greater variation.
It gave him more freedom to work with. Hence, he patiently waited for Ruvva to take action. He had already satisfied all the rules necessary to steal the Primary Natures of both Ruvva and Luttrena.
Eventually, things fell into his plan just as he had expected.
Weaponisation had some limits though. First was that it could only be used on an individual with one Nature. Meaning, people like Inala—who had three Natures—were out of the question. Secondly, Nature Weapons only possessed 75% power of their original.
But that didn't diminish the fact that he could freely change his Natures through it. He only had to carry a bag of Nature Weapons and remain unstoppable. Moreover, even though he lost his Primary Nature, he was still an Empyrean Tusk.
Meaning, he had the lifespan and Prana capacity of an Empyrean Tusk, allowing him to freely use as many abilities as he pleased.
Virala equipped two Nature Weapons and ran through the channel, stealthily returning to the shelter. Now that he had entered the Body Stage, his goal was to survive the First Major Disaster. From time to time, he attacked the Zingers, all while on the lookout for a Zinger King.
He intended to capture one and steal its Primary Nature. 'Prana Bomb is a very useful ability. It'll allow me to steal Prana from my enemies and replenish my reserves. It will also conserve my training expenses. And a Zinger King's Prana Bomb is the most effective.'
There were thousands of Zingers attacking the shelter alone, overwhelming the Mammoth Clansmen hiding within. Among them was a Zinger King.
Upon noticing it, Virala equipped the Natures of Mud Bomb and Internal Inertial Gravity, perfect for capturing a target. But the moment he equipped Internal Inertial Gravity, he stopped and stared at his hands in shock, seeing them tremble nonstop, "This is…fear?"
A few seconds of pondering later, he realised this was a fear that innately stemmed from an Empyrean Tusk's nature. And there existed only one entity that could make them feel that way, "the Boar King…"
The moment he arrived at that conclusion, Virala rushed out of the shelter and tanked the Prana Bombs that slammed into him by raising his weight to the limit. He sprinted until he reached the edge of the settlement and shot a Mud Ball onto a Zinger Scout's stomach, raising its weight until it brought the Zinger within his range.
Virala grabbed a Zinger corpse from nearby and refined its bone into a rope that he slung around the Zinger Scout's neck and jumped from the settlement.
While the Zinger Scout struggled to break free, he climbed onto its back and held it for dear life, watching it fly away from the 43rd Empyrean Tusk. Soon, it crashed into a cliff as Virala jumped out and grabbed a dangling tree root.
He climbed to the peak soon after and took refuge at the top of a Baobab tree, trembling as he sensed the Boar King's presence draw near. He watched the herd move away from him, witnessing the sight of Gannala collapsing.
Soon, he was paralysed by fear, unable to move. Not to mention being able to move, Virala felt difficulty in even breathing, "Fuck! He's as broken as Sumatra Chronicles hyped him up!"