"Urgh..." Shuwrak Zahara woke up with a groan. He had a searing headache while his limbs felt weak, from a lack of exercise. He looked around, surveying the place hazily, "Where...am I?"
Lying on the ground next to him on the right was the Knell Clansman. However, two unfamiliar people lay on his left, a teenage boy and an old lady. ’Who are they?’
"My Prana reserves...somewhere around thirty percent." He inspected his condition and slowly got up. It was hard to stabilise himself. His feet wobbled while his fingers constantly trembled like a drug addict. It was getting harder and harder to orient himself, ’My condition is strange.’
"It’s like...it’s like..." He frowned, unsure, but he had read such records, "It’s like I had overdosed on Elixirs."
Consuming Elixir would increase the Prana capacity of the Spirit Container, allowing the cultivator to skip a lot of training time. However, there needed to be a cooldown before another Elixir could be ingested again.
The stronger the Elixir, the longer the cooldown. Even a Low-Grade Elixir required a cooldown ranging from a couple weeks to a few months before another could be ingested. Consuming another Elixir in this period did more harm than good.
It strained the Spirit Container, sometimes even imploding it. A Free Human only took the risk in situations where his life was at risk and there wasn’t enough Prana to heal his injuries amidst the battle.
Elixirs are precious, as that was pretty much the only method to store Parute Fruits that had a shelf life of a year. Elixirs didn’t have an expiry date, as the Prana’s recovery mechanism kept the contents fresh and preserved it for as long as possible.
In some Kingdoms, with poor refining capabilities, some Low-Grade Elixirs would spoil after some decades. Mid-Grade and High-Grade Elixirs had a lower chance of being spoilt, as the Prana quality in them was higher, which implied a stronger preservation capability.
Prana had the traits of recovery, preservation, and maintaining the natural state of the body. That was why Brangara used the Gaja Enclave as a storage facility for the Empyrean Tusk corpses he had hunted. They never spoilt, even when they lay in the Enclave for multiple centuries.
Only in small Kingdoms with poor refining techniques did an expiration date for Elixirs occur. In the Cooter Clan, which was famed for its medicines and obviously Elixirs, even their lowest Grade Elixirs had a perennial shelf life.
In any force, Elixirs were one of the most valuable resources. They were used sparingly, and only when desperately required, like in times of war to rapidly raise the strength of the populace.
Therefore, a condition where a cultivator had overdosed on Elixirs were extremely rare. Even in the Brimgan Empire, such a situation happened rarely, and only during the worst invasions they faced. ’And I...am in such a state? How?’
Shuwrak Zahara stared at the three other people near him and observed their conditions were similar, ’What happened?’
The last he remembered was the Quip Clan rushing towards Leukeu, which he had been accompanying. And next, he woke up here, on a grassland.
There were small groups of Iron Grade Pranic Beasts scattered about in the region. Around four hundred metres away was one such group, staring in their direction. However, they didn’t try to get close for some reason.
’Hmm?’ Shuwrak Zahara then felt the presence lingering around him and his companions. It was all at the Gold Grade, "Wait!"
All the presences were familiar. There was the presence of a Free Human, which was him. There was a Clansaman’s presence, which came from the Knell Clansman. The remaining two, despite being in human form, emitted the presence of Pranic Beast, rather familiar ones at that, "I know these!"
"Leukeu?" He stared at the teenage boy. He then eyed the old woman, "Loya?"
What was even stranger was the fact that these two wore strange, frilly clothes, ’It’s like te customs of a Free Human Kingdom.’
"However," He frowned, "I don’t remember there being any Free Human society whose clothes...occupied this much space."
Loya’s dress was a five-layered umbrella-shaped gown, with each layer made of a different colour. The blouse resembled a coil, woven using ribbons of green, grey, and gold. Frills shaped like root tendrils hung around the arms while the shoes were long, sporting a sideway coil like a yak’s horns.
Leukeu’s dress was like a layered stack of scales, with each scale created out of woven cloth. There was the scale gown that reached the knees, and on the legs was a garment with a rough, bark-like texture. The shirt was a series of coloured plates of cloth, tough but marginally easy to move in.
In the distant past of the Brimgan Empire, a similar fashion was relevant. This was then adopted with a bit more extremity and became part of the Ganrimb Kingdom’s culture. Gannala was nostalgic about this culture, since she spent the first three years of her life here.
Hence, she adopted the same in the kingdom she had rebuilt in the Sanrey Plains. The clothes donned by Inala and Loya were added by her.
Shuwrak Zahara didn’t know that and was hence puzzled. He observed their surroundings and turned alert.
Currently, the four of them were steadily releasing Gold Grade presence, which had scared away the native Iron Grade Pranic Beasts. Of course, there were still a few among them to hurt Shuwrak Zahara’s group.
’I see, thank goodness.’ He observed a patch of blood smeared on the grassland a bit farther away. there were mandible traces there. A glance at it, and he knew it was his Tangible Millinger.
When Shuwrak Zahara was unconscious and the Iron Grade Pranic Beasts tried to attack him, the Tangible Millinger protected him and his group. ’At least, I can resort to its protection in this state.’
It would take him a long time to recover from his condition. Until then, it was wiser to rely on the Tangible Millinger. And until he made a complete recovery, consuming both Elixirs and Parute Fruits was extremely dangerous.
"Where...are we?" The one to wake up second was Loya. She was extremely defenceless as she slowly, lazily turned around, "Did everything become bigger suddenly?"
"No, you turned smaller." Shuwrak Zahara said as he assumed Human Avatar form, polished the chest region with his sleeve and pointed the shiny surface at her face.
"That’s...me?" Loya stared at her reflection on the dull, reflective surface. An instant’s confusion later, she hurriedly closed her eyes and focused on her Spirit Container, ’Did I gain Cultivator by luck?’
She was met with disappointment soon as there was just one Nature in her Spirit Container. Groaning lazily, she stared at Shuwrak Zahara to ask, "What happened?"
"I’m not sure either," Shuwrak Zahara shook his head, "We were already here when I woke up. Other than us four showing signs of Elixir overdosage and the two of you gaining a human form, there is nothing strange here."
"The two of us?" Loya turned to her side, stared at the teenage boy and gasped, "Is this...Leukeu?"
"He’s so young." Loya commented, extended her hand and pinched Inala’s cheeks, "So chubby."
"He might consider it an invitation to fight," Shuwrak Zahara said with caution.
"That’s why I’m doing it when he’s unconscious." Loya grinned mischievously. She then tilted her head and pondered, "I feel I can revert to my Panger form whenever I want. But I don’t think I’ll be able to become a human again after that."
"That’s a strange situation," Shuwrak Zahara commented, "But I feel this is more convenient. With the two of you being so small, travelling will become easier."
"And how long do you plan to keep pinching his cheeks?" He grunted.
"I don’t get many chances to see a child among Gold Grade Pranic Beasts." Loya retracted her hands upon noticing Inala showing signs of waking up.
"Now, why do you look like that?" Inala frowned the moment he got up and stared at Loya in human form.
"I’m small and cute now." Loya twirled once, "This dress is kind of useless, but I’ve seen the females of the Brimgan Empire wear them and always wanted to try one."
The Panger Race had a habit of adding ornaments to their getup. These ornaments consisted of the heads of their enemies, with their faces frozen at the exact moment their attacks were countered by a Panger and they died.
Before Loya fled from the Brimgan Empire, she flaunted a skull chain made with the head of the 6-Life Stage Brimgan Royal she had killed. It was eventually destroyed during her journey to the Varahan Empire.
"Hmm..." Inala behaved like he had absolutely no idea, even though he had purposefully consumed some Elixirs just to be in the state as the rest. He also knocked himself out with a punch to the lower jaw.
Acting oblivious, he stared at his hands whose texture changed to become Billakin, "It seems I can use my powers the same as usual. The strength...is obviously weaker. The speed is lower too."
"Well, that doesn’t matter too much." He then stared at Shuwrak Zahara and pointed his Billakin arms, "Doesn’t this look like a Body Stage Free Human’s Human Avatar transformation?"
"Indeed, it does." Shuwrak Zahara nodded, "However, anyone in the Life Stage can sense that you are a Pranic Beast. Your presence is a dead giveaway."
"Hoho!" Loya chortled in absolute arrogance and casually spiked her Prana. And slowly, her presence began to change. It was a subtle difference. The presence was Loya’s, but it no longer revealed that she was a Pranic Beast, but instead a Free Human.
Mystic Sumatra Art—Free Human!
"I’ll be damned!" Shuwrak Zahara gasped, "I never saw such a Skill being created in the Varahan Library."
"I made it just now," Loya said and pointed at Inala’s Billakin hands, "By referencing what he did just here."
"That’s impressive," Inala observed Loya’s clothes, "You’ve covered your body with your Primary Nature, right?"
Primary Nature—Shield of Thorns!
It could be unleashed in both matter and energy forms. Energy form was spontaneous to form but weaker in effect. The matter form took a while to accumulate, but was extremely power. The tips of the thorns, in matter form, when ground to dust, was a mineral.
By cranking up this mineral’s presence, Loya suppressed the Pranic Beast counterpart of her presence. That way, her presence was the same as usual, but now had a Free Human’s signature.
"It is not perfect though." Loya commented, "I have to supply a steady stream of Prana into my Spirit Weapon to maintain this. I am compromising my Spirit Weapon to hide my presence. So if I were to fight, I’ll have to use my Spirit Weapon, which would reveal my original presence."
’It’s still an amazing Skill!’ Shuwrak Zahara observed Loya in awe and in a matter of seconds, also thought of a few ways to counter. Armed with the necessary knowledge, it was extremely easy to counter the Skill.
He didn’t express that thought though and instead spoke casually, "We can probably head to a Free Human Kingdom and seek refuge there."
"No, we have a destination in mind." Inala pointed at Loya while using an Information Slip to gain information about the Skill of Free Human. Once he analysed it, he improved upon it and gave it to Loya. There was a back and forth a few times, at the end of which the Skill’s effectiveness increased.
’Both of you are Librarians, alright? Your speed of Skill improvement is pretty scary.’ Shuwrak Zahara smiled wryly and then stared at Loya, "You have a destination in mind?"
"Yes," Loya nodded, deciding to reveal the truth upon seeing Inala nod subtly, claiming to trust Shuwrak Zahara, "We intend to head to the Rumtara Kingdom."
"Something extremely strange is happening there. And I want to take advantage of it."