Fifteen years since the end of the Third Major Disaster!
"T-Thank you," Bowing its ten-kilometre-long head in respect, its voice trebling in gratitude, was the 216th Empyrean Snapper, "I will treasure it."
"Treasure your Settlement more," Wally said as he gave the 216th Empyrean Snapper the Influenced Region of Teary-Eyed Snapper. "They are your true fortune."
"I will." The 216th Empyrean Snapper nodded as a tunnel opened on the mountain it carried. The Influenced Region Teary-Eyed Snapper was then brought into the tunnel to be stored in a hemispherical cave with a radius of 180 metres.
The Influenced Region of Teary-Eyed Snapper only spanned a size of four metres. This was enough to produce a Lightning Plasma Spirit Pool for a Cooter Clansman to reach the 10-Life Stage.
The 216th Empyrean Snapper was the last one to receive a Teary-Eyed Snapper. With that, every Empyrean Snapper was now able to produce a Lightning Plasma Spirit Pool.
"Urgh!" Wally collapsed in exhaustion right after, having been at it for more than four years without rest.
His skin had dulled a little as his Prana was sluggish. He had been overtaxing his body for a while. And now, rest was a necessity.
However, Wally couldn’t afford to rest immediately. ’There’s still a lot more to do.’
The Cooter Clan, as a whole, only had one Nature. They had yet to figure out a method to obtain a Secondary Nature. The situation with the Empyrean Snappers was similar. However, they had three Natures now.
It would be a while before new Empyrean Snappers emerged. Only then was a method to gain Secondary and Tertiary Natures for them essential. So, the priority was to help the Cooter Clansmen first.
"I have a solution," Wally said as he eyed the heads of the Empyrean Snappers facing him. They were all in their Pranic Beast forms, assisting the Cooter Clansmen in forming Spirit Pools for their growth.
In Sumatra Chronicles, Yarsha Zahara was the one to invent the method to gain a Secondary Nature. Inspired by her, Resha created a suitable method for the Mammoth Clansmen.
The greatest advantage of this method was the fact that it capitalised on surviving an extreme state. Mammoth Clansmen had robust bodies, especially in their transformed states. Moreover, Mystic Bone Art was a digestive-type cultivation technique.
These two advantages meant a Mammoth Clansman only needed to survive in an extreme state to obtain a Nature. If they lived in an extreme state with a special diet, then accordingly, they would gain a Nature.
This method could be used to gain both a Secondary and Tertiary Nature. It was faster to gain a Secondary Nature. Depending on the type of Nature, it took anywhere from a few months to a few years.
However, gaining a Tertiary Nature was harder. Since by then, the Mammoth Clansman had two Natures. This made the influence pervading their body very complex, making the changes brought by an extreme state minimal.
It would take decades at the very least to gain a Tertiary Nature for a Mammoth Clansman. However, the ones attempting this would mostly be those with long lifespans, so they could afford it.
Free Humans had a mineral-based build. Minerals wouldn’t change in an extreme state. As inanimate substances, they wouldn’t mutate or evolve to adapt to a situation. Therefore, Free Humans couldn’t take advantage of an extreme situation.
It was a boon given only to the Clansmen, as their power was genetic and biological.
...
"Do you mean to say the Cooter Clan too could take advantage of the extreme state?" Wally asked as he sat on a dune beside Resha.
The dune was situated two kilometres from the border. Seated on it and staring blankly into the Sandy-Grey Void was Resha. He raised his hand and used External Inertial Gravity to pull in a Pranic Beast from who knows how far.
A piece of bone formed on his hand, extended like a fluid and solidified into a spike, piercing the Pranic Beast that was pulled to it. Tearing off a piece of flesh from it, Resha offered it to Wally, "Want some?"
"Thank you," Cooter Clansmen were usually more sophisticated with their dining habits. However, living beside Resha, Wally was influenced by the latter’s habits. He grabbed the dripping piece of flesh and tore into it.
He eyed Resha, nudging the latter to speak.
"Extreme state alone isn’t enough." Resha said, "Suppose I don’t eat for a month. That is equivalent to an extreme state of hunger. My body will just be hungry. I am not stimulating it in any direction."
"Direction?" Wally asked.
"Yeah, direction." Resha nodded, "If I were to consume Spirit Moss in that situation, I am giving a direction to the body."
"See, if you want to survive, you need to accommodate Spirit Moss into your system." Resha said, "So, in extreme hunger, I consume Spirit Moss. It is hard at the start to get enough nutrition from it. But eventually, my body adapts to digesting it."
"If you cannot digest it, you’ll die." Resha tore into another piece, "Once the body adapts to a diet of Spirit Moss, an interesting situation happens in the body."
"If I am maintaining the diet of Spirit Moss, there’s a portion of it being digested in my stomach. And the essence of the Spirit Moss, after digestion, is carried by the blood ad circulated through my body." Resha eyed Wally, "And do you know what else the blood carries?"
"Prana!" Wally exclaimed.
"Exactly," Resha nodded, "The essence of the Spirit Moss is now a neighbour to Prana in every blood cell. Over time, Prana gradually warms up to the neighbour. Eventually, it would no longer consider the neighbour as an external component."
"When it considers the neighbour an internal component, it begins to assimilate the latter into it." Resha then asked, "What is a common factor in all Humans from the Body Stage onwards?"
"I...don’t know." Wally shook his head, "Do we have something in common?"
"We do," Resha nodded, "To build a Human Avatar, a Free Human ingests a small quantity of the respective mineral. Their Prana recognises the mineral as an internal component once the cultivation technique is activated. It allows the mineral particles to attach to the blood, which is then carried to the heart."
"When it enters the heart, the Prana pulls the mineral into the Spirit Container." Resha explained, "The prime function of a cultivation technique is to make our Prana consider the target substance as an internal component of the body. Otherwise, it will flush the mineral out of the body through mucous, shit, urine, sweat, and in some extreme cases, even blood vomit."
"Free Humans ingest the respective mineral to build their Human Avatar, Mammoth Clansmen ingest Tusk bone powder, and..." Resha pointed at Wally, "Cooter Clansmen ingest Spirit Pools."
"The process is the same for all three Human categories."
When the mineral is pulled into the Spirit Container, it builds the Human Avatar for a Free Human, and the body for a Mammoth and Cooter Clansmen.
"So, since Mystic Bone Art is a digestive-type cultivation technique, you only need a diet of the substance that is related to the type of Nature you seek." Wally analysed the theory.
"Yes," Resha nodded, "That’s why a diet of Spirit Moss in an extreme state of hunger gives a Mammoth Clansman the Nature of Spirit Moss Cultivator. We need to eat Spirit Moss to survive. That is our Prana’s interpretation due to the situation we subjected the body towards. So, it influences the Spirit Container to generate a Nature that allows the Mammoth Clansman to create and cultivate Spirit Moss."
"Then," Wally fell into deep thought, focusing on the type of cultivation technique Mystic Mist Art was, "Fluid dominance."
"You got it." Resha chuckled, "Now, you only need to create a suitable extreme state with a direction while considering the type of Mystic Mist Art."
"Do that, and you’ll gain a Secondary Nature."
...
"You’ll be living here for the rest of your life." Wally dragged a 2-Life Stage Cooter Clansman and pointed at a Spirit Pool.
"In it?" The Cooter Clansmen was stumped for words, failing to understand Wally’s reasoning.
"Only your second body." Wally said. And once the Cooter Clansman split his stack, he pushed the second body into the Spirit Pool, "You’ll keep Mystic Mist Art active without rest. And the only fluid you’ll control is this Spirit Pool. Focus on extracting the Prana in the Spirit Pool, because you’ll need it to sustain yourself."
"You won’t be getting anything else." Saying so, Wally sealed the Spirit Pool after placing a small patch of moss on its ceiling, away from contact. This moss only existed to purify the air and was hidden behind a layer of rock, preventing the Cooter Clansman from touching it, even with his Prana.
The rock was semi-porous, only allowing for the diffusion of air between it. This kept the air circulating between the moss section and the section with the Spirit Pool and Cooter Clansman.
"Now, let’s see how it goes." Wally eyed the main body and said, "You’re restricted from approaching anywhere within your second body’s Spirit Weapon range. If your second body succeeds, it’ll have a Secondary Nature."
"And ten I’ll kill myself," The Cooter Clansman managed to figure out what was happening as he eyed himself, "Since this body only has one Nature."
"It’s good that you caught my drift." Wally nodded, "But if it fails, it’ll die. We’ll try it again."
The Cooter Clansman’s second body wasn’t fully built. So, it was impossible for him to make another body. If it ever becomes possible, either the second body reached maturity or it died.
Reaching maturity wasn’t possible as the Spirit Pool available to the second body wasn’t one it used to create its body. Therefore, the moment the Cooter Clansman is able to make a new body, it meant his second body had died.
"Attempt to make a new body once every day. That way, we’ll be aware of whether your second body has succeeded or not." Wally said and sent away the Cooter Clansman.
Mystic Mist Art—Spirit Pool Assimilation!
It was a Skill he created using his understanding of grey sand. It allowed a Cooter Clansman to better assimilate with the properties of a new Spirit Pool, making it a bit more realistic to adapt in dominating this fluid’s power, and eventually gaining a Secondary Nature.
Yarsha Zahara’s method relied on gaining the polar opposite property of a mineral as the Secondary Nature. Once this property becomes assimilated by their cultivation technique, a suitable Secondary Nature is born.
Whether it supported, reinforced, or countered the Primary Nature, its functions were still born out of the same mineral. So, the Secondary Nature will be compatible with the Primary Nature.
This implied the Free Human could continue building their Human Avatar in the same manner, because they only required one mineral.
However, that wasn’t possible for the Cooter Clansmen, which was where Wally’s headache originated. ’If only I could repeat what the Supreme Tusk Gannala had done and spawn seven chaotic individuals, all this would be solved in a matter of years.’