Varahan Empire!
Two days remained for the Varahan Challenge to begin. In his study, Narkahamy remained in a meditative pose, inhaling and exhaling softly. It would be a lie to say he didn't feel tense. However, he had to do this.
Otherwise, the Varahan Empire would hit a roadblock in their development plans. From a logical perspective, his actions made perfect sense. However, from an emotional standpoint, he was nervous.
After all, he was facing a Boar King, an existence that stood at the peak of the Gold Grade. "Phew!"
Narkahamy assumed his Human Avatar form and observed it, eyeing the various influence concentrations across it. Each concentration was a cluster of Natures, whose combined influence resulted in the power of a Blessed Influence.
It was his strongest power, the source of his confidence. However, the source of his power was the mineral Vara, which hailed from an Empyrean Boar. Therefore, it could be sabotaged by the enemy, which was his primary concern.
After all, the enemy had already shown such a capability. Therefore, Narkahamy had to be prepared against it, 'KalTara is capable of absorbing two Blessed Influences. He wouldn't waste the chance and target my strongest Blessed Influence. He'll defend against the rest of my attacks with his set of Natures.'
Astral Chart at the Gold Grade could only store 10 Natures. An Empyrean Boar typically carried more Natures on its body, which affected its mind. Technically, KalTara too could do the same. However, he would avoid that, as the influence generated from the Nature stored on his body would interfere with the functions of his Astral Chart, 'He won't have the need.'
"Merely ten Natures of Prana Shock can change everything once he stacks them all." Narkahamy thought. This stack was the biggest issue in facing someone with Astral Chart.
It was unlike a 10-Life Stage Shock Lizard. KalTara's attacks were already reinforced by his 10-Life Stage stack. If he were to use Astral Chart, then this Life Stage stack would reinforce the attack—which is Astral Chart's stack.
It was a stack—Astral Chart's—being treated as an attack and then being stacked ten times by the Life Stage stack. The sheer amount of power that could be exhibited through this manner surpassed Gold Grade.
Back in the days, as the Empyrean Boar King, Brangara only used Prana Shock stacked eight times to overwhelm the Mammoth Clan. He had a 3-Life Stage cultivation when he had done so.
'The sheer control and stacking capabilities he gets from Astral Chart places him above me in terms of brute power.' Narkahamy thought as he observed his Human Avatar and focused on the chest region, 'I too can unleash a similar level of power, but it's less sophisticated.'
Blessed Influence—Astral Stack!
It allowed him to stack two Blessed Influences atop each other, which was the limit of his build. The stack had the same effect as Astral Chart; however, he was treating the Blessed Influence as a Spirit Weapon.
Therefore, the second Blessed Influence had a significantly lower potency in the stack. Even though the Prana expenditure was exceedingly high for this, with the result only being a tad stronger than a single Blessed Influence, this was Narkahamy's reason for issuing the Varahan Challenge.
Blessed Influence Poison!
Consider his Blessed Influence of Ring Blade, for example. It was derived from the influence of the Nature of Eddy Blade alongside other Natures. The result was an Eddy Blade in the shape of a ring that appeared around the user and revolved with their body serving as the axis of rotation.
With the series of improvements to its creation, activating Ring Blade consumed only 220 units of Prana now, as compared to its initial 250 units.
Eddy Blade consumed 300 units of Prana and placed a sharp strain on the Spirit Container. Ring Blade placed less strain, resulted in a stronger attack, and could be unleashed faster.
Blessed Influence—Macro Eye!
It consumed 12 units of Prana to activate and allowed the user to zoom onto a far-away location like using a telescope. It was on the expensive side of Prana consumption. The ability had strategic value but hadn't been used much. As a result, Narkahamy hadn't refined it further, turning it stagnant.
These two Blessed Influences had no business being used together, as one was to scout far-away locations while the other was a close-combat attack. Using the two Blessed Influences separately cost 232 units of Prana.
Activating the Blessed Influence of Astral Stack only cost 2 units of Prana, which was a paltry sum. However, when Ring Blade and Macro Eye were used with Astral Stack, instead of 234 units of Prana, which was how much they would have individually taken to activate, the activation costs jumped to a whopping 418 units, a 180 percent increase.
And the result? There was no change in power.
Narkahamy could stack Blessed Influence atop each other, irrespective of what they were. That was the power of Astral Stack. Of course, there was a solid chance KalTara would notice the difference between the output and the sheer drop in Narkahamy's Prana reserves and get on guard instead of trying to absorb it.
As a result, Narkahamy had an easier trap, which was to stack two Ring Blades instead. Individually, they cost 442 units of Prana—Ring Blades multiplied by two plus units for Astral Stack activation.
However, in the Astral Stack, the cost jumped up to 796 units of Prana. And the power of the Ring Blade only increased to 130 percent the strength of the original. It wasn't even double the result for a Prana cost almost four times what it took to activate a Ring Blade.
'KalTara would be wasting one of his two opportunities by absorbing this. And to be rid of it, he would have to sever the tusk, at which point, I can try to steal it.' Narkahamy thought. As it was his power, he was capable of absorbing and relaunching the Blessed Influence without any extra cost.
Every time KalTara absorbed it, he would be forced to sever his tusk and regenerate a new one. This would cause him to waste Prana, all while Narkahamy was simply recycling the ability infinitely. His only expenditure would be the 796 units used at the start.
And of course, if KalTara were to activate it, he would be wasting the same amount, 'There's a good chance he'll fall for it since this Ring Blade would be stronger than the usual.'
"But I cannot depend on only this method to win the fight. He'll have his set of trump cards too." Narkahamy thought and focused on his strongest card.
Blessed Influence—Boar King!
It allowed him to become the Boar King. The Nature of Boar King transformation was sourced from YoriBuntara after she became the Boar King. In her Wean Clansman form, she only had her Primary Nature.
Only after the transformation were her Secondary and Tertiary Natures unlocked. Once they were in use, she could use them even after reverting to human form. And upon deactivation, they would vanish, leaving her with only the Primary Nature in the human form.
This was how the powers of the Wean Clan worked, created to make them free from the plaguing influences of the Natures they stored on their bodies.
By consuming her body, Narkahamy obtained her Primary Nature. And he complimented it with the Natures of Yoked Wyrm which had a consumption power, the Balghat that could control its fur, and a Razor Rat with its lunging capabilities.
Four Yoked Wyrm Natures of Bio-Synthesis, two Balghat Natures of Wool Expansion, and six Razor Rat Natures of Shredded Lunge were combined with the Nature of Boar King Transformation to create the Blessed Influence of Boar King.
The result was a Boar King with a stronger digestive capability and tougher fur. Its teeth and hooves also grew sharper and more pronounced. It could go from a state of rest to maximum mobility in under a second, while a normal Boar King required anywhere from three to four seconds to achieve the same.
The limb muscles had a better explosive trait, allowing for its top speed to be way faster than a Boar King. However, these explosive muscles came at a cost of endurance. Narkahamy made the conscious decision since he would be making high-pitched attacks at short intervals instead of running across a vast region in the wilds.
If such a situation were to appear, he'd remove the Natures of Shredded Lunge from the Blessed Influence, which reduced his transformation's burst capabilities but regained its endurance.
'In transformed forms, I'll be stronger. But it's still not enough.' Therefore, his eyes shot open as Narkahamy exhaled sharply and activated the Blessed Influence of Boar King while in his Human Avatar form.
At first, he resembled a Boar King in terms of appearance.
State of Harmony—Blessed Influence!
However, Narkahamy's Tertiary Nature of Vara Accum came into effect as the tusks of his Boar King form grew for a few seconds before shrinking. The Vara generated as a result spread across his body, turning parts of it from flesh to a mineral—Vara.
The process was slow as Narkahamy observed his declining Prana reserves, nodding an hour later to see that his entire Pranic Beast form had been replaced with Vara. "Now, this is perfect!"
Blessed Influence—Vara Boar King!
Upon completion, Narkahamy reverted to human form, observing all the Vara he had generated was absorbed into his Spirit Container. 'Now, I possess a volume of Vara in my Spirit Container that's more than my body's volume times ten.'
Usually, the limit of a mineral stored in the Spirit Container was their body's volume. After all, they used the mineral to forge their Human Avatar, which reflected their physique. The Brimgan Empire had techniques to carefully hollow out their Human Avatars without losing their powers to create Spirit Weapons.
Their technology was in designing hollow Spirit Weapon with structural integrity equal to or at times greater than their solid counterparts. The Brimgan Empire excelled the most in this field.
In Narkahamy's case though, by relying on his State of Harmony alongside the properties of his Tertiary Nature of Vara Accum, he accumulated more Vara in his Spirit Container. Of course, the rules couldn't be broken. He could only store as much mineral as that could be built into his Human Avatar.
Which was where the Blessed Influence of Vara Boar King came. This influenced his Spirit Container into believing he was a Boar King instead of a human, allowing Narkahamy to build Human Avatars in the shape of his Boar King form.
"YoriBuntara!" He bellowed as YoriBuntara promptly rushed into the study, assumed Boar King form, severed her limbs, and served it to him on a platter. Narkahamy consumed them and used a Blessed Influence to digest the food faster to recover his Prana.
He began to fill up his Huma Avatar in the shape of a Boar King with Vara, 'I should be done soon.'
The Blessed Influence of Astral Stack and Vara Boar King were Narkahamy's reason for issuing the Varahan Challenge, 'Since with this, the Wean Clansmen would be relegated to irrelevancy since we Free Humans can now tap into their strength completely.'
'And through Shuwrak Zahara's assistance, it's just a matter of time before we figure out a method to gain our Secondary and Tertiary Natures even without consuming Wean Clansmen.' Narkahamy thought, 'In the future, even if the Wean Clan disappears, we'll still retain every ounce of our power.'
The Varahan Challenge was basically Narkahamy declaring to the rest of the Free Humans that they could not only steal all the powers of the Empyrean Boar Race, but also own it.