Kneeling on the cloud platform that slowly descended down the hull at the rear of Battleship Trailing Waves, Torq kept adding thin layers of Gentle Coral plasters to rip apart the growing moss.
Piltru Moss!
It was a type of moss that was a result from the degradation of a Pranic Beast’s fecal matter. Piltru Moss will latch onto any surface it cos across, absorb any nutrients its roots could seek, and grow without limits.
If left unchecked, a single patch a tre in size could expand to cover the Battleship’s surface area in a matter of days. In humid regions, their growth was unstoppable.
Piltru Moss released a foul sll that caused nausea to those in proximity. It released harmful byproducts when burnt or acted upon by stomach acids. Worst of all, a patch a few tres in size contained about a unit worth of Prana in a dispersed state through psychokinesis.
This psychokinesis served to make the Piltru Moss register as a dead prey in a Prana detection ans. A dead prey was characterized by traces of its presence leaking out as a result of its Spirit Container shattering and dissipating over ti.
Piltru Moss resulted in the sa feedback through a Prana detection ans.
When unleashed, Prana detection ans resulted in feedback through skin prickles. Depending on the intensity of the prickle and the location across the body it happens, the user could generally figure out an answer.
Piltru Moss falsified that feedback response, making them extrely dangerous. Predators and prey alike took advantage of it in the Tsloch Sea, creating a dangerous environnt.
Since they had a branch at the Tsloch Sea for thousands of years, the Cooter Clan long had the ans to refine Piltru Moss to make dicines. There were three prominent dicines the Clan refined using Piltru Moss.
Satiety dicine, which could be ingested to gain all nutrients necessary for a body’s functioning, thereby reducing the strain on the body’s use of Prana to supplent the deficiencies during travel.
Allure dicine, which when poured over the poop secreted by Cooter Clansn, creates a lure to gather many Pranic Beasts from the imdiate vicinity. It works only on weak Iron Grade Pranic Beasts, but was useful in stocking up on resources and the useful disposal of their body wastes.
Over ti, the Allure dicine breaks down the poop into edible byproducts for so of the native Pranic Beasts.
The last was Piltru Recovery dicine, which was just a concentrated dicinal extract, a vial’s worth of which recovered eight units of Prana. It wasn’t as efficient as a lot of dicines the Cooter Clan could refine, but its abundance made it preferred while on a journey.
As Torq continued to extract patches of Piltru Moss, he heard Inin talk about the various benefits the Cooter Clan extracted out of said moss. ’All of this is pretty useful.’
The reason Cooter Clan even bothered to create the Gentle Coral Spirit Pool was thanks to all these ’hidden’ benefits they could gather from it. They wouldn’t have placed such a weak Spirit Pool as an option otherwise.
’Generations of trial and error brought about by many unfortunate geniuses developed such Spirit Pools.’ Torq paused, and once an explanation was completed, he asked Inin, "Did you ever wish you could have gotten a better Spirit Pool?"
"Hmm?" Inin eyed Torq with a trace of pity, ’If he wasn’t who he is, his talent could have netted him a Silver Grade Spirit Pool easily.’
’Maybe he’s regretting his fate.’ A mont’s thought later, Inin spoke, "I had a decent amount of talent when it ca to sculptures. However, in every other field, my performance was below average."
"But my overall performance at the Academy still provided with five Spirit Pools to choose from." He huffed in pride, "The best Spirit Pool out of that option would have given a Prana capacity of 510."
"That is relatively high." Torq comnted.
"Indeed, but I knew my fate best." Inin comnted, "I am ant to be one of the weak. Having slightly better strength doesn’t matter when you’re at the bottommost rung of society."
"Hence, I made my choice." He patted Torq, "You know, the beauty of the weak lies in their versatility of survival."
"Gentle Coral is shit weak, but it desperately strives to survive. That’s what makes it versatile enough."
"That was poetic, Team Leader." One of the Maintenance Crew chuckled. He was a middle-aged man with barely any accomplishnts to his na, "You could have written a book."
"This is my book." Inin patted the hull, "Every scratch, every healed trace, contains a story."
The Maintenance Crew whistled at his words, followed by so jabs and cheers. The atmosphere turned lively as the crew finished their tasks and returned to their dwelling.
There was a level in the hull, which had to be operated by the combined might of four people to open. When pulled, it opened a hole barely wide enough for a lean human to slide through.
"Get in," Inin said once the hole appeared, "Train yourself to get inside as quickly as possible. Take less than three seconds and try to get as close to a second as possible by the end of their journey."
As the Maintenance Crew slid inside one after another, it was Torq’s turn soon. He grunted when his shoulder hit the rim, but forced himself to slide through. The slide spanned a little over four tres, at the end of which he fell upon a cushion of cloud situated within the crew room ant for his team.
"Roll to the side." At the words of a crewman, Torq rolled off the cloud cushion and fell upon the hard floor, watching Clansn fall on the cushion one after another. Unlike him, the motions of most were pretty fluid.
"You’re new," Inin said as he patted Torq on his injured shoulder, "So, this is normal. However, keep practicing until you can slide inside without clogging up the path."
"Yes, I will." Torq nodded.
"Then, let’s begin." Inin said and jumped on the cloud cushion, which acted as a spring and launched him perfectly through the slide and out on the other side. His words resounded through the tunnel a second later, "What are you dawdling about for?"
"Follow out."
"Phew," Torq exhaled and followed suit, tracing Inin’s actions as he jumped from the cloud platform, this ti shrinking his fra as much as possible to avoid wounding his shoulders. However, even though his launch was perfect, once he moved up the sliding tunnel, he chuckled nervously, for he wasn’t slowing down.
"Careful," Right as Torq prepared to use so mist to control his motion, Inin grabbed him by the hand, spun once, and propped him gracefully on the cloud platform. "Don’t use your abilities for sothing this silly. Conserve your Prana."
Inin pointed at the slide, "Move in and out as many tis as you need until you get used to it. Since we have so ti now, use it for practice."
"Alright," Torq followed without complains, for he intended to learn the most minute of the Cooter Clan’s functioning, for they all ford insights into an Empyrean Snapper’s physique.
Everything the Cooter Clan created was based upon their observation of an Empyrean Snapper. So, such details would indeed expand upon converting his theoretical knowledge into practical experience.
’At present, I already have enough raw power. What I require the most is finesse.’ He thought, ’And even though I don’t want to admit it, heeding mother’s words would indeed benefit in the long run.’
’And, as he said,’ Torq eyed Inin in a new light after an hour passed in practice, at which point he felt his expertise in controlling his body to behave like a fluid had improved his control over a Spirit Weapon, ’The beauty of the weak indeed lies in the versatility of their survival.’
’I had forgotten it at so point in my journey.’
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