While the Quip Tribe was sorting through their situation, assisted by the Empyrean Zinger King who revealed its existence to them, Inala made rounds to the other Tribes.
His first stop was the Guardian Tribe, arriving before a mountain positioned adjacent to the Angan River. There was a waterfall from its peak. Situated behind the waterfall was a large cave, the Boutique Lizard’s dwelling.
Within the cave was a pond, the source of the waterfall. There was an underground geyser feeding water into the pond, as a result maintaining the waterfall.
From time to time, the Boutique Lizard would lay a group of Slump Lizard eggs and throw them in the pond. The water currents would then bring these eggs into the Angan River.
Hearing the sounds of his footsteps, the Boutique Lizard perked up in excitement and came to the cave’s entrance to receive him. It even served him tea, mimicking humans. It had observed enough humans to even learn the method to brew tea.
And honestly, it was one of the best as Inala’s eyes lit up after a sip, “Damn, this is good.”
He took his time to enjoy the tea and got down to business, “Have you prepared the egg?”
[It is here!]
The Boutique Lizard carefully brought out an unhatched egg. This wasn’t an egg that would birth a Slump Lizard, but a Boutique Lizard, its offspring.
Inala didn’t know about this before, but all five Silver Grade Pranic Beasts in the Sanrey Plains were females. Their trait in regards to giving birth was similar to an ant queen, i.e., after a single mating session, the ant queen receives all genetic material necessary to lay eggs for the rest of her life.
The Rockatrice, Mudropper, Boutique Lizard, Carcass Snail, and Rooted Clam; all were the same. They possessed the genetic material to lay eggs whenever they wanted. They just hadn’t done so yet because the conditions weren’t favourable.
They only intended to birth offspring after some years had passed, for in their estimation, that was the best time. One of the biggest reasons for that was the development of their respective Ravaged Tribes. Even now, that hasn’t changed.
But after Inala came into the picture and the four Silver Grade Pranic Beasts accepted him as part of their team, they made preparations to lay an egg each, not to birth a progeny, but to assist Inala.
He told them that as long as he received an egg from each and used the egg as a sacrifice for a mysterious technique, he would be able to create a powerful cultivation technique for them.
[I only have one, so use it well.]
There was a hint of exhaustion in the Boutique Lizard’s voice, as its accumulations weren’t robust enough to birth its offspring so soon.
Prime Skill—Empyrean Extraction!
Inala watched the egg shrink into a tiny sphere and harden in response. It now held all the data of a Boutique Lizard. Using the Mind Slip Prime Skill, he absorbed all the data and asked, “What do you wish for your Ravaged Tribe to do?”
“What’s their intended purpose?”
“Do you have any desires towards their abilities?”
“What power factor do you want their Primary Nature to be geared towards?”
The two discussed for the next couple of days, at the end of which Inala finished creating a cultivation technique. Well, it wasn’t as if he was researching and butting his head to make it.
The past two days were spent only for him to get a clear idea of the Boutique Lizard’s goals. And upon referencing it to the data, he relayed his thoughts. During the process, when the data failed to support its goals, he asked for alternate goals it would be content pursuing.
Once they arrived at a goal that the data in him supported, Inala simply activated Mystic Skill Creator and watched the magic happen. And the result?
Silver Support Art!
A cultivation technique created with the sole intention of assisting and supporting the Boutique Lizard in its daily life. When a Guardian Tribesman reaches the Body Stage, they can take on their Ravaged Tribe form.
Primary Nature—Boutique Lizard Protector!
When active, it connects the Prana of the Guardian Tribesman to the Prana of the Boutique Lizard they serve. When the Boutique Lizard gets attacked, the damage is transferred to a Guardian Tribseman’s Prana. 𝑜𝒱𝐞𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t
The Guardian Tribesman’s Prana consumption would be equivalent to the power behind the attack. It was a powerful ability, but for it to work, the Guardian Tribesman ought to be in physical contact with the Boutique Lizard. Secondly, the Primary Nature must be activated.
Overall, despite its limitation, this was a powerful Primary Nature, at the Silver Grade even. And since the Guardian Tribe would only be able to transform at the Body Stage, the side effects disappeared, preventing their premature deaths.
At their peak, a Guardian Tribesman possessed 390 Prana and could live up to seventy years. It wasn’t just that. Inala created an ability similar to his Quip Tribesman Prime Skill for the Boutique Lizard to convert the Free Humans into part of its Ravaged Tribe.
The end result of that was the creation of the Guardian Tribe which became a fully functional Ravaged Tribe. Unlike the Quip Tribe, the Guardian Tribe’s cultivation technique ended at granting them a Primary Nature.
Inala didn’t stint on the techniques, making them as powerful as possible with the data in his possession. The only reason he did that was to ensure the Quip Tribe didn’t grow too strong and overturn the Sanrey Plains.
The safe zone in Sumatra Continent, called the Sanrey Plains was only maintained thanks to the careful cooperation of the Five Tribes. Hence, to the best of his abilities, Inala wanted to maintain that balance.
If the balance collapses, the Sanrey Plains will fall apart and merge into the rest of the Sumatra Continent.
Watching the Boutique Lizard excitedly transform the two thousand Free Humans in its settlement into the fully evolved Guardian Tribe, Inala concluded their cooperation and exited the cave.
By accessing a small data cluster of the Boutique Lizard, he understood how they maintained this region. ‘The Boutique Lizard has the capability of transferring all its accumulations to its progeny, similar to an Empyrean Tusk, but vastly inferior. Thanks to this inheritance, its child also possesses all genetic material necessary to create its progeny and continue the tradition from one generation to the next.’
This was how, from one generation to another, the Silver Grade Pranic Beasts created the Sanrey Plains. All five of them had this power, which was the reason they came together to cooperate in the first place.
As Inala surfed through the memories further, he understood that the formulae in place would be disrupted if more of their progeny were to appear before all preparations were completed. Hence, there was just one of their kind every generation. “Splendid!”
“This level of cooperation is exemplary.” He praised and made his way towards the Mollusc Tribe next.