Sumatra's Greatest Fan

Chapter 114: Cultivation Progression

“Hufff…!” Torq breathed out slowly, feeling tired as he had just finished building his Spirit Container to a total of 6 units. It was still a paltry sum, but he was getting somewhere.

Condensing an ivory sphere of fluid before him, he watched it spin nonstop while barely using a trickle of his Prana. The sphere neither generated heat or sound, for it refused to interact with the atmosphere. It appeared a bit distorted, for light naturally curved around it and proceeded forward.

Even though it wasn’t an interaction, the lack of interaction resulted in a diffraction phenomenon across all points on the surface, which was why the sphere appeared distorted to the naked eye.

It could clearly be perceived through a Prana detection means, however. For even though it didn’t interact with the Prana scattered through a detection means, to the perceiver, they will be able to perceive everything in their surroundings except for an obvious void at a spot.

This void would clearly resemble the Inertial Wave sphere, making detection extremely easy.

“Its offensive power is pretty great,” He sent the sphere hurling towards the corner of the Gentle Coral tub and made a precision hole. At the moment of impact, a unit of his Prana was consumed for the sphere to maintain its inertia, ’So, the consumption is directly proportional to the force necessary to maintain inertia against an obstacle.’

He thought for a moment and hurled the Inertial Wave sphere at the hull and watched it splatter upon impact, for he had run out of Prana. The required cost dwarfed his capacity and hence, his sphere couldn’t pierce through.

“But,” With a smile, he watched the ivory splash on the wall of the hull gradually beginning to pull itself towards the impact location at the release of his presence. And almost a minute later, an ivory sphere had formed at the impact location. It wasn’t just hovering there at the moment.

’It doesn’t defy gravity or anything.’ Torq observed as he planted his eyes on the hull and stared at the point of impact, noticing a faint dent there, ’It’s pressing itself onto the surface. Maybe at the molecular level, the irregularities between the two surfaces have resulted in static friction, which is how it stays up in place.’

Had the sphere been any heavier, it would have fallen off. ’Still, the fact that I could stimulate its properties, even a little, through the release of my presence itself will prove valuable in the future.’

Once he retracted his presence, the ivory sphere just dropped down like how a sphere of liquid with the same mass, density, and surface tension would do. A few seconds later, he released his presence and watched the splash of ivory fluid struggle to gather itself.

“I think I understand it better now.” After some observation, he concluded, “The reason it could gather itself even after splashing on the wall is thanks to my Prana lingering within it. This got stimulated thanks to my presence.”

After the first time it had gathered, the remnant Prana had been mostly consumed. That’s why, once it plopped on the floor, it struggled to gather itself, for there wasn’t sufficient Prana within it to execute its state of inertia and independence from the surroundings.

He waited a couple minutes, and once his Prana had recovered, he infused Prana into a portion of the splash. Immediately, like a leech that had detected blood, the portion of Inertial Wave sought out the rest of its kind.

It merged into all droplets of Inertial Wave that it found and promptly moved towards the collision spot. And then, it maintained its state of inertia, which was to move forward, the same path it had taken before colliding into the hull.

Now, it was pressing upon the hull, absorbing more Prana than before to reach the same momentum as it originally had.

Rumble!

Faint vibrations coursed through the hull as Torq grew nervous, for it was a sign the Death Hour had started, ’Based on the furball’s opinion and what I observed here, I think the enemy will attack us right after.’

Even though the Death Hour was extremely dangerous, Cooter Clansmen, when they combine their strength, could actually take advantage of the environment to reach levels of power where they could face Gold Grade Pranic Beasts.

That’s why they dominated the Dralh Sea once with only their Chief possessing Gold Grade strength. Every Settlement Leader back then only had Silver Grade strength.

’If I were the Cooter Clan’s enemy, I would strike only after the Cold Shower ends.’ Thinking as such, he quickly vacated the place and shifted to a farther cabin, which belonged to a Maintenance Crew group of 20 that got wiped out.

They didn’t get annihilated by the Centinger attack. But they had been dispatched across the Dralh Sea, so there was a solid chance they weren’t coming back.

Torq simply chose the cabin room with the least probability of someone entering and had built his base there. He had done so the moment he could summon the Empyrean Snapper Pet.

With the Narlakk Pet providing pollen for the Empyrean Snapper Pet to digest and constantly regenerate its Prana, Torq could put it to good use.

Primary Nature–Subtle Terrain Domination!

A vessel resembling a submarine, shaped like a torpedo, spanning a metre in radius and stretching a length of four metres. It wasn’t anything fancy, but was just made using Gentle Coral that had been compressed to the limit using the Empyrean Snapper Pet’s power.

In terms of hardness, it almost reached the hull, which was pretty solid for an escape plan. Torq only wanted it to tank any attacks that by mistake brush past it. The goal was to focus on evasion, which was possible since he planned to leave that to the Narlakk Pet.

With a full-powered version of Subtle Terrain Domination, it could have an unrivalled contest of speed within the waters. Torq began to load stolen medicine supplies within the submarine, alongside his stash of Inertial Waves Spirit Pool, the Parute Fruits, and Spirit Moss.

He filled it with as much as he realistically could, uncaring if he was stealing the precious reserves of the Cooter Clansmen. ’Most of them are about to be damaged anyway. Since I can’t help much in that regard, the least I could do is save as much as I need to survive.’

Of the four metres in length, only a metre was meant for him. The remaining was filled with his goods. ’I have a lot of Influence Easing Elixirs among this stash too. Each one is worth a fortune, especially in Free Human Kingdoms.’

Having a storage lantern would have solved this need, but since he already used it, Torq could only make the best of the situation.

Thin grooves existed in the submarine’s hull, meant for the Narlakk Pet’s body to hide its tentacles within, and use it as a funnel for its Prana. This will use Mystic Mist Art and create waves in the water for propulsion.

There was one valve in the submarine for the Narlakk Pet’s body to extend out, barely a centimetre in diameter. The Narlakk Pet’s body was tough enough to withstand pressures and malleable enough to not cause any water leakage.

And as necessary, he had also installed a mechanism to open and close the valve. This gave him maximum control of the submarine while also keeping safety in mind.

“Now, as it keeps watch…” He gathered another pile of Parute Fruits and resumed his activities, “I’ll try to accumulate as much strength as I can before the enemy’s attack reaches here.”

Eight units of Prana!

Safe and secure within his submarine, Torq continued with a robust mentality. He knew for a fact that no matter where he were to hide, shit was bound to hit him. Hence, instead of worrying about a means for escape, he was better off focusing on improving his strength.

And whenever he rested between intervals of building his Spirit Container by a unit’s worth of Prana, he was charging up the needle, his trump card against an opponent significantly stronger than him.

The needle spanned four centimetres in length now and steadily growing thicker and thicker. In a day or two, he’d have increased its thickness to the extent where it could take out a full-powered Narlakk in one hit.

Boom!

The Battleship rocked slightly thanks to the chaos originating from the Death Hour. Torq wanted to witness it firsthand, but didn’t have the time and freedom to do so, ’In the future, once I have enough strength, I’ll stroll through the Death Hour.’

“But now, survival comes first.” And that wasn’t all. Torq was preparing for the worst-case scenario where Runthral gets captured by the enemy. He was preparing the needle primarily to kill his brother.

’Either I kill him with one hit, or I transform into an Empyrean Snapper and constantly siphon every drop of his power until he becomes no different from a bottomless, dry well.’ He thought, ’If I can’t benefit from him, I may as well get rid of him, since only by controlling him can the enemies destroy the Cooter Clan.’

’Even though the Cooter Clan’s strength is relatively weaker than other forces of a similar caliber, they are the richest in terms of medicines and Elixirs.’ Torq thought, ’Moreover, they’re extremely convenient to use and boost my strength.’

’Even if the Mystic Humans die here, I am confident in reaping full benefits from this fight.’ He thought, “This isn’t my war.”

“It’ll only be mine once I decide so.”