Through his psychokinesis, Inala made an Empyrean Zinger Scout fly 60 metres diagonally upward, allowing it to keep watch over the area and alert him beforehand of any danger.
The second Empyrean Zinger Scout revolved around him as Earth did around the Sun while the Sun moved in its path through space. This Empyrean Zinger Scout made course corrections on its own and whenever its altitude dropped, Inala lifted it up.
As both Empyrean Zinger Scouts were in their miniature forms, it was hard to notice them. This was one among the dozens of reasons Inala obtained this power.
In terms of brute power, it wasn’t all that high in the power scale of Sumatra. But in terms of versatility and survivability, he felt it stood at the top.
Especially his Tertiary Nature. It was the most important variable that gave him the necessary versatility. It first allowed him to treat all Empyrean Zingers as Bone Slips, either by touching them with his body or by Prana, as long as they were in range.
Since they were part of his immune system, through the influence of his Primary Nature, their bodies could shrink or revert to their original size. As Empyrean Zingers were Silver Grade Pranic Beasts, their intelligence was on par with humans.
When they were in his range, Inala could control their bodies like Spirit Weapons. It wasn’t just this. But his Tertiary and Secondary Natures combined to influence his Primary Nature, allowing him to control the size of his Prana Bomb and Life Bomb.
Through Prana Bombs, Inala could accumulate food and Prana resources and store them. And though he couldn’t increase his maximum lifespan, but by drinking the fluid in an unhatched Life Bomb—one meant to birth a queen—and absorbing its lifeforce, Inala could rapidly regenerate his body.
It perfectly assisted in recovery, whether for him or others.
Survival, scouting, individual battle prowess, recovery, assisting, etc. his abilities checked all the boxes necessary to survive in Sumatra Continent.
Sumatra Chronicles repeatedly stressed upon a fact—it wasn’t the strongest that survived on Sumatra, but the fittest.
Inala rushed in the direction where he judged the human Kingdom existed. By reducing his weight to the limit, he leaped, allowing his leg muscles to spring him forward the most. Immediately after his feet left the ground, he raised his density, shooting forth like a cannonball.
This way, the effects of wind resistance against him were the least. Right as he was about to land, he reduced his density to the limit, gently landing on the ground like a feather, barely making a sound.
This way, he was like a ninja, making his way through the forest, covering ten metres with every jump. He wasn’t always accurate, but the more he moved in this way, the more he became attuned to the process, accumulating experience.
He sprinted for three hours nonstop before gasping in exhaustion, arriving at a stop. He had expended most of his Prana to maintain such an explosive speed. He took out a Prana Bomb from his Storage Lantern and ate it, resting a little to catch a breather.
Once his digestion started and his cultivation technique began to replenish his Prana, Inala sprinted again. His two Empyrean Zinger Scouts kept watch of everything. Hence, he could blindly rush forth without any problems.
Thankfully in the past two days, he had accumulated a lot of Prana Bombs. Even after leaving most of them with Asaeya to help feed the baby Gannala, he still had enough to fill his Storage Lantern to the brim.
The problem with Storage Lanterns was the fact that each floor only housed a cubic metre in space. This aspect could never be improved. Otherwise, the space within would destabilise and it would require constant input of Prana.
That made them uneconomical. Hence, a cubic metre was the limit per floor. A Four-Storey Storage Lantern was pretty expensive in that regard. But that was it. There was limited space in it. ‘In the future, when I have enough money, I’ll purchase more of them.’ 𝑂𝒱𝑙xt.𝗇𝓔t
He was getting thirsty, but he dared not drink the river water upon knowing what the Carcass Snail was doing to it. Hence, he limited himself to the filtered water stored in his Storage Lantern.
By pouring water into a bone container, all a Mammoth Clansman had to do was activate the Mystic Bone Art, and all substances harmful to a Mammoth Clansman would be absorbed by the bone container.
But as the process took time, he couldn’t do that for now, focusing on running instead. It took him eight hours of nonstop running before a walled city came into view. ‘I’m finally here!’
The walls reached a height of forty metres, appearing robust. There were signs of wear and tear on it, not to mention damage sustained from Pranic Beasts. But they had all been expertly patched up.
Inala climbed to the top of a tree and made an Empyrean Zinger Scout hover sixty metres above him, taking advantage of the vantage point to scour beyond the city walls, observing that it was a lively city.
At a simple glance, there seemed to be at least sixty to eighty thousand people living here, a lot of people for a single city. The buildings were made of stone, cylindrical in shape with fan-like roofs of wood that dangled down, resembling birch trees.
Judging by the sheer scale of activity and the decorations installed in the buildings and streets, not to mention the clothes adorned by the people, it was a rather prosperous city.
Upon seeing it, Inala felt mildly relieved, ‘If the frontier city is this developed, then the Kingdom isn’t weak or anything. Rather, it should be a major human civilization. The only one of such a scale in this region ought to be the Rumtara Kingdom.’
Strong-looking guards were posted at the entrance. And upon seeing the well-paved road, it was apparent that there was a lot of traffic in the form of visitors.
Inala didn’t have the patience to go through the front entrance and deal with all the formalities that ensued. He only wished to confirm one detail for the time being. Everything else could wait until then.
At an altitude of sixty metres, the Empyrean Zinger Scout surveyed the top of the wall, noticing a location where the line of sight of the soldiers didn’t reach.
An Empyrean Zinger Scout glided to a height of ten metres from the ground while the second was at a height of twenty metres.
Inala made a beeline towards the wall and leaped, landing on the first scout that he used like a foothold. By making his body weightless, he lightly made a second leap, landing on the second scout.
Making the first scout assume its miniature form, he controlled it like a Spirit Weapon and quickly moved it to an altitude of thirty metres when it enlarged. Upon landing on it, he made one more jump and arrived at the top of the wall. It only took him four seconds to do this.
In a similar fashion, he descended on the other side, using his Empyrean Zinger Scouts as gliding footholds in the air. Since he could control them like Spirit Weapons, he could micromanage his landing positions, able to correct any human errors he made.
In ten seconds, Inala had crossed the wall and had now officially entered a human city.