“That’ll be twenty Parute,” Grehha smiled as he handed out a fist-sized egg to a student. He was selling Mud Viper eggs. That was his exhibit.
Mud Vipers were only Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beasts, the lowest of the low. But, it was still decently useful. And for the students that were either orphans or had no resources, they wouldn’t be able to obtain a Pranic Beast egg to fuse their Spirit Container with once they enter the Body Stage.
It had to be noted that the Empyrean Tusk herd would continue to travel nonstop. Most of the time, they would be targeted by Pranic Beasts that had matured. The only way to get some eggs would be to venture deep into the wilderness and grab some.
A raid team would have to be set up for that and there might be lots of deaths involved. Once a year, a raid team would be sent into the wilderness.
But until then, the students that had graduated would be unable to cultivate. A useless adult was scorned the most in the Mammoth Clan. So, every student wished to cultivate in the Body Stage as soon as possible. 𝒪𝗏𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t
These Mud Viper eggs made that possible. Moreover, even the eggs brought by the raid team wouldn’t be anything special. The majority of the eggs would be from Beginner or Intermediate Iron Grade Pranic Beasts.
The few eggs from Advanced and Expert Iron Grade Pranic Beasts would be hoarded by the affluent families, those with a Master backing them. If the raid team proved to be lucky, they would obtain one Silver Grade Pranic Beast’s egg.
It had to be noted that the strongest of masters in the Mammoth Clan fused with Silver Grade Pranic Beasts.
While thinking of all that, even obtaining a Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beast egg was great. If the student didn’t have anything else to fuse with when they entered the Body Stage, they could at least become a Mud Viper.
Besides, it just cost 20 Parute. That was pretty cheap for an investment.
‘It’s going well.’ Grehha thought as he stared at his remaining Mud Viper eggs. It wasn’t as if the Mammoth Clan had thought of raising eggs before. But the problem was that the Empyrean Tusks were constantly on the move.
Therefore, the climatic conditions constantly changed every few months, causing all the raised eggs to end up dead. When countless such attempts failed, the Mammoth Clan gave up on raising eggs.
But Grehha was different. The Mammoth Clan traversed a century-long route through Sumatra. Meaning, if a cultivator lived for a century, they would pass through the same region they had tread through hundred years ago.
In Sumatra Chronicles, when Resha was 115 years old, the Mammoth Clan passed through the plains where the Mud Vipers lived. This time, having become a powerhouse, Resha hunted Mud Vipers and experimented upon them extensively.
The Mud Viper Tonic was perfected during that time. It was also then that he figured out a way to raise Mud Viper eggs. Grehha was following just that.
Moreover, in his previous life, Grehha had nurtured countless reptile eggs, most of which hailed from endangered species. He ensured these endangered reptiles mated properly and laid down as many eggs as possible.
He was also responsible for hatching them. It was something he was an expert about. That was why, just based on the description present in Sumatra Chronicles, using his experience, Grehha figured out a method.
Mud Viper eggs hatched in a day. The hatchlings reached maturity in a month and laid eggs. Therefore, the batch of eggs he was selling at present was from the second generation.
Safely tucked in his room were dozens of Mud Vipers. The batch of eggs he sold was laid just yesterday. And it was from just three Mud Vipers.
A Mud Viper laid at least a couple dozen eggs. It was why the population of Mud Vipers in every nest reached a million.
Grehha had brought 60 Mud Viper eggs to sell and one for display. Once they were sold out, he smiled brightly. But he didn’t immediately pack up and leave. Instead, he waited, his subtle grin widening when an Instructor approached him.
“How many eggs can you sell?” The Instructor asked.
“In my current capacity, I can only sell one or two. But,” He masked his expression and spoke calmly, “If I was provided enough food and water and a large enough space, I can stably sell at least a dozen eggs daily.”
“A dozen…?” The Instructor was stunned. He quickly gathered his bearings, grabbed the egg on display, and leaped over the wall, entering the middle ring, “Wait here.”
“Yes,” Grehha nodded calmly. But internally, he was excited. He had been observing Yennda’s stall all along. And hence, he was aware of what it meant when an Instructor went to the middle ring.
As expected, an hour later, the Instructor returned, all smiles as he said to Grehha, “The higher-ups have approved your exhibit. Instructor Mandu will bring you to some vacant residences. You can select one that’s perfect for raising more Mud Viper eggs.”
“I’m grateful,” Grehha bowed in response. He then packed up his stall and returned, calmly observing the Ennoudu Plains while walking over the trunk.
The winds were still fierce, but he was able to reach the top safely. Upon reaching the settlement, Grehha didn’t return to his dorm. Instead, he made his way toward the tail end of the settlement.
There was a groove there, with the entrances to houses built within the inner walls of the groove. Only a small percent of the people in the settlement lived on the Empyrean Tusk’s back.
The majority of them lived along the grooves on its stomach walls, legs, and even in the interior. There was a network of hollow bones that traversed throughout the Empyrean Tusk’s interior, allowing the Mammoth Clansmen to travel through it.
It was in the liver that Parute Trees grew. And in the stomach grew Maetalla trees, meat-bearing trees in short. The fruits—Maeta—they produced were known as meat fruits and provided all the nutrition requirements for the bodies of the Mammoth Clansmen.
The large intestine was their water supply. Due to the Empyrean Tusk’s Primary Nature of Internal Inertial Gravity, the volume within each organ was hundreds to thousands of times their size indicated. Each organ acted like a small biome, generating its respective resources.
Grehha needed one such resource from an organ that none of the Mammoth Clansmen knew existed or had probably forgotten over centuries of neglect. He arrived at the end of a groove and looked around, not noticing any Clansmen around. With that, he took out a certain substance from his trolley and poured it on the floor in the groove, watching the bone there turn soft.
“It’s here.”