Rumtara Kingdom!
Otherwise called the wall less Kingdom. It was the only Free Human Kingdom that had open borders, without any proper walls, not that they didn’t try to build one, but whenever they did so, they suffered more.
The cause for such a unique phenomenon was a rather docile existence.
Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beast—Wallrot!
It was in the shape of a worm, reaching a maximum length of a metre upon maturity. At its thickest, the Wallrot barely spanned a finger’s thickness. In terms of strength, they had none, absolutely none. And that was what made them scary.
Pranic Beasts without strength relied on one survival mechanism—mass spawns.
A Wallrot was born in the topsoil of various plains on Sumatra. They had a decent movement speeds, capable of short bursts of speed when pressed for life.
Upon birth, they would gradually slither through the dirt, consuming moss and other organic substances growing in the topsoil and eventually burrow into walls.
The Wallrot Race was extremely strange and by far one of the Races that was testament to most Free Human societies never succeeding in accumulating strength.
Primary Nature—Refined Ruin!
It merely allowed the Wallrot to secrete a certain toxin that could turn whatever the Wallrot clamped upon brittle. This toxin was universally acting, capable of damaging most, if not all materials on Sumatra. However, the trade-off was that its potency was absurdly minimal.
To destroy an object created using an Iron Grade mineral would take months, if not years, even with a group of Wallrots acting upon it. However, this was the biggest issue with them.
The Wallrot Race had zero necessity to use its Primary Nature for survival, since the Nature wasn’t geared for itself. To live, the Wallrot consumes moss and other plant produce available abundantly in plains, where this Race is mostly located.
Refined Ruin exists solely to destroy objects that had been refined for some purpose, whether in manufacturing, forging, brewing, etc.
"It is as if these creatures have been created solely to prevent Free Human societies from advancing." –A scholar from the Brimgan Empire.
Historically, a Wallrot appeared only after the Brimgan Empire had been established. It was unknown how they appeared, but many scholars theorised a group of Gold Grade Pranic Beasts had joined hands to create this race.
A smaller group had theories with minimal clues that point to a Mystic Tentacle being responsible for it.
The Wallrot Race singlehandedly destroys walls, buildings, medicines, Elixirs, etc.; anything that went through a processing round across varying disciplines would be subject to a Wallrot’s target.
Of course, if left alone, they would eventually collapse a Kingdom. Hence, most Kingdoms had a solution to them.
The moment they appeared in the Brimgan Empire and infested crazily, the Empire’s defences fell, which was when a Pranic Beast invasion happened. But once the invasion ended, the Brimgan Empire swiftly created a solution.
Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beast—Mewcat!
It was a creature that had evolved to appeal to Free Humans and be sheltered by the latter. Most of the time, a Mewcat did nothing other than to laze around and act cutely towards its owner.
Many households in the Brimgan Empire had a Mewcat as a pet. They served the aesthetic eye of a Brimgan Empire’s Free Human, who was as rich as the nobility of large Kingdoms and even the Kings of small Kingdoms.
Mewcats loved to munch on Wallrots. Historically speaking, just like how someone purposefully created the Wallrots, the Brimgan Empire researched and created the Mewcats.
These Mewcats cleaned up the Brimgan Empire of any strange, invasive Pranic Beast species that was released into the Empire by its many enemies.
Oftentimes, the appearance of Wallrots signified that the respective Kingdom was about to fall into ruins. Those were the earliest signs. It meant the Kingdom either ran out of strength or had grown so corrupt that they couldn’t even counter these creatures that lacked strength.
The nearby Pranic Beast groups monitored for the Wallrots. If the Wallrot numbers reached a certain level, it meant the Pranic Beasts had a green light to invade, for the Free Human Kingdom was now a fat, juicy piece of prey.
The appearance of the Wallrots was also a cue for the average Free Human citizen to start preparing for a journey through the wilds, in search of seeking refuge at a new Kingdom or build one themselves.
Wallrots usually became common at the end of a Kingdom’s life. However, the Rumtara Kingdom was the only place where they were a common occurrence.
Patara City!
Located around the edges of the Rumtara Kingdom, the city was a series of shacks made from simple materials such as wood, damaged hides, and even a coat of clay. The place was no different from a slum.
The majority of the Free Humans here were only at the Spirit Stage, and very few even had Prana in the double digits.
"Hehe! Pass the ball!" A child shouted as he ran behind a clump of torn hides haphazardly woven into a ball.
"Shoot it!" Another child said and kicked the ball to his friend, who launched the ball into a small bucket placed at the side of the road. Four children were playing the game. They were teenagers, aged between sixteen and eighteen. However, one might mistake them for a twelve-year-olds.
They were in a severe state of malnutrition. However, they retained simple innocence towards life, spending their days playing and looking for something to eat. The adults mostly sat around the house, doing nothing.
They just waited to be given rations by the City Lord during the evening to eat. Following that, they would sleep to wake up the next morning and repeat a life of zero drive.
"Ah!" A child gasped in shock when, by mistake, he kicked the ball in the direction of an approaching group. Unlike the thin people in the city, this group had robustly built people, all at the Body Stage.
"Hmph!" With a stomp, a man at the front of the group flattened the ball. He then continued to drag the Rascl with two humps alongside his group.
The Rascl was fully bound at the legs, preventing it from gathering strength. Its Spirit Weapon was the energy field that surrounded its body at the activation of its Primary Nature. It didn’t have the cutting power necessary to free it from the ropes.
Helpless, it could only watch it being dragged on a platform with wheels, being pulled by the team of eight Free Humans, all at the Body Stage. Judging by their presence, they had Iron Grade Human Avatars.
The group sauntered through the city, which was completely littered by shacks. There was obvious disdain in their eyes as they stared at the shacks. They too hailed from the same city.
Their parents had already died. They didn’t have any siblings or anyone close enough to be called family. They were orphans, but had a decorum of talent. It was why they had been picked by the City Lord to hunt Rascls.
They made a trip once a month and were only allowed to return upon successfully capturing a Rascl with two humps.
Patara City had a total of two teams, one to capture a Rascl and the other to gather the refined substance in the humps of regular Rascls. It wasn’t on par with a Muscl’s Elixir Hump, but it still had great benefits.
It was one of the only ways to benefit from the properties of Krave Fil. Two hundred kilometres was too long a distance to transport Krave Fil, which spoilt within two hours.
The group soon reached the City Lord’s mansion, a sprawling fort occupying fourteen acres in area. Around its edges were the soldier’s and servant’s quarters.
A man became a soldier, and a woman became a maid at the mansion. Their children, too, were segregated in the same fashion. The maids had anywhere around twenty to thirty units of Prana. The head maid alone reached the Body Stage.
She was granted a mineral whose properties were related to farming and gardening. The estate alone was able to produce the food necessary for the City Lord and his family’s needs. The excess was then distributed across the city as rations.
There were a total of 200 maids and 200 soldiers in the City Lord’s mansion. The soldiers all had Iron Grade strength and were at the Body Stage. Those who managed to enter the Life Stage became captains.
There were currently three of them.
The group hurling the Rascl entered the City Lord’s mansion after being inspected by the guards. They entered the main building and arrived at a side room specifically meant to store Rascls. Currently, there were four Rascls, legs hammered with nail clamps to prevent them from gathering strength in the legs.
In a corner, specially held was a Muscl, treated with extreme care.
The City Lord had Silver Grade strength and had currently reached the 4-Life Stage. He had absolute dominion over Patara City.
His family consisted of his wife, four concubines, and over twenty children. As for his parents and siblings? He killed them to gain power, which wasn’t all that rare in the Rumtara Kingdom.
The City Lord’s grandmother was alive, however. And with a 5-Life Stage cultivation, she was the strongest in Patara City. Currently, she was gently rubbing the underbelly of the Muscl.
Upon noticing the Rascl with two humps being brought in, her eyes lit up as she exclaimed, "That’s a good haul."
"It’ll become a Muscl in less than three days!"