“You’re committing a grave mistake,” Ralral commented once she got up, relenting after resisting a little and failing to budge her body. “The Cooter Clan will avenge me.”
“Woah, hold that thought.” Inala waved in a flurry, “Why are you blaming me? I’m the victim here.”
He sported a pitiful expression, “I came here to trade legally. I offered a valuable mineral in exchange for your medicines. It was a good business opportunity. But what did you do in response?”
“You tried to kill me.” He inched towards her face and glared in disdain, “Is this how the Cooter Clan treats its guests? Pretty disgusting, don’t you think?”
“You…!” Ralral failed to come up with a retort, at a loss for words. Hence, she stuck to her default threat, “You’ll regret this.”
“Nope, I’ll be damn fine, thank you very much.” Inala stated relaxedly, “But I’m curious though.”
He stared at her in confusion, “Why did you try to kill us? Was it that much of a loss to trade a few medicine vials? Even if you’re gaining more in return?”
“Hmph!” Ralral snorted, “The Cooter Clan doesn’t lack anything. We’re the strongest and richest force on Sumatra. Our Clan is united to the extreme and will avenge the deaths of even our weakest.”
“You sure about that?” Inala tilted his head, “Hasn’t the Boar Killed two of your Deities? Have you avenged their deaths? Oh, let me guess…”
“You didn’t,” Inala snorted, “The Boar King is alive and kicking.”
“You…bastard!” Ralral glared daggers, “Don’t you dare mention it!”
“Oh, I will, with exceptional clarity,” Inala approached her ear and spoke unnecessarily loud, “The Boar King killed and devoured two Empyrean Snappers, the Cooter Clan’s Deity of worship. Forget killing him, I have never heard about your Clan even intending to face him.”
“Let me guess,” He said, covering his ears upon hearing Ralral scream like a maddened lunatic, “The Cooter Clan is afraid to fight the Boar King.”
“What a bunch of cowards.”
“I’ll kill you! Fucking bastard! Don’t you dare comment about my Clan like that!” Ralral roared, “Fucking slaves born on a damned Tusk…”
“You can shut up now,” Ralral was unable to speak as suddenly, the expressions of both Inala and Asaeya hardened, exuding bloodlust as they grabbed her head and applied pressure, preventing her from speaking anymore.
“Why are you wasting time talking to her, Inala.” Asaeya raged, “Just be done with her already.”
“I wanted to hear her thoughts,” Inala said and sighed, calming down as he stared at Ralral, “From her words, I can understand that even though the Cooter Clan wishes to kill the Boar King, they’re afraid of losing even more Empyrean Snappers if they were to face him.”
“I hoped to rope them in our fight against the Boar King. But it seems that would be harder than I had thought.” Inala shook his head and seeped Prana into Ralral, activating his Empyrean Extraction Prime Skill.
Unable to utter any words of struggle, Ralral breathed her last. A group of Empyrean Zinger Scouts ganged upon her and removed her skull, giving it to Inala after cleaning it neatly.
Prime Skill—Mind Slip!
Inala accessed Ralral’s data and focused on the information related to the Cooter Clan’s mining arrangements. Since the Empyrean Snappers required large volumes of mineral ores for consumption, as that was their food, the Cooter Clan had raided many Human Kingdoms in the past.
The captured Free Humans were brought and distributed across the islands on the Dralh Sea, forcing them to mine. Moreover, they brainwashed the Free Humans into worshipping the Empyrean Snappers, treating the Cooter Clansmen as immortals.
The Free Humans mined for mineral ores throughout their lives. Moreover, the Cooter Clan attached an Ewworm to each of them, making it easy to control them.
Medicines would be fed to the Free Humans at regular intervals, influencing the Ewworms acting as their tails. This influence made the Ewworms attached to the respective island they were upon, hence making them unwilling to leave its premises.
As a result, the Ewworms wouldn’t wish to leave the island, even if an opportunity persists. They would stubbornly resist to move out. Because of them, the Free Humans had no choice but to remain stuck on the island for the rest of their lives.
They no longer knew anything about the outside world, having been living on the same island for generations. And in the likelihood of them getting wiped out by Pranic Beasts, the Cooter Clan would bring in a new batch of Free Humans.
They were nurturing a massive Free Human population on a large island at a different sea. In this manner, the Cooter Clan received a large batch of mineral ores to feed their respective Empyrean Snappers.
And as the Empyrean Snappers consumed the mineral ores, Spirit Pools formed on their bodies accordingly, granting strength to the Cooter Clansmen at the Body Stage.
A ship arrived at an island every three months to collect the mined mineral ores. At that time, there would also be a personnel shift.
At Leh Island, there were eight Cooter Clansmen, with Ralral acting as their leader. Depending on the size of the island, the number of Cooter Clansmen dispatched there would vary.
After their tenure of three months, when the ship arrives to collect the mined ores, Ralral and her group would board the ship to return to the Cooter Clan. Another group would take their place to guard and manage Leh Island.
After returning to the Cooter Clan, Ralral and her group would focus on building their strength for the next three months. Following that, they would be dispatched to guard another island. The Cooter Clan operated in three-month intervals, moving resources and personnel at every interval.
It had only been four days since Ralral took charge of Leh Island. So, it would take a while before the ship arrives to collect the resources. That gave Inala a period of eighty-six days where he could control Leh Island and make preparations.
He surfed through the data and looked into the personnel that had been transported to various islands. Massive ships were moving across the Dralh Sea, with each ship in charge of moving personnel and resources for dozens of islands.
Since the Cooter Clan disliked using anything from the Mammoth Clan, they neither possessed a Storage Lantern nor advertised the use of one. Instead, they focused on their ship technology and were capable of building massive ships on the levels of Earth’s aircraft carriers.
Possessing Silver Grade strength meant Ralral was higher up the Cooter Clan’s ladder. Hence, she would have mingled among the talented elites of her clan while travelling through the ship. With high expectations, Inala looked through the data of the personnel that travelled alongside Ralral, becoming giddy with joy, ‘I was hoping for this ever since I decided to come to the Dralh Sea. As I expected, he’s here!’
His hands trembled in excitement, barely able to control himself as the expression of greed flashed on his face, staring at the image of a certain individual in Ralral’s data, “Haa! Hahaha!”
He hugged Gannala in excitement, “We’re getting closer and closer towards your goal.”
The individual he was aiming for was someone who made a short appearance in Sumatra Chronicles, almost like a cameo. In that short appearance, he fought against Resha to a tie. This was the sole individual depicted in Sumatra Chronicles as someone on par with the overpowered Resha.
Had the events with the Boar King not been impossibly far away from the Cooter Clan’s territory, he would have become Resha’s greatest rival and played a greater role in Sumatra Chronicles.
Cooter Clansman—Wittral!