The journey was scheduled to span a total of 24 days as the battleship never intended to stop even once.
It moved at a consistent pace throughout the time, slowing down occasionally at places where it wasn’t advised to proceed ahead at full speed.
There were coral reefs peeking close to the surface, expansive in their development. Only a narrow gap was safe to move ahead amongst the reefs, which was why a slow speed of travel was necessary.
If the Cooter Clan so wanted, they could casually terraform the region and widen the movement paths. A single Empyrean Snapper could do that easily.
The entirety of Tsloch Sea had been terraformed and expanded by the Empyrean Snappers to become a region large enough to house the entirety of the Cooter Clan.
During the terraforming, the Empyrean Snappers purposefully ensured the development of such reefs, for a series of valuable Pranic Beast races lived here, which vitalised the region.
They had a slithering tongue, reaching a metre in length, capable of secreting a viscous substance. When applied to a structure when underwater, the viscous substance hardens to form a coral.
This coral absorbed sunlight during the day and radiated luminance during the night. Moreover, if even a single part of the coral was closer to the surface, enough for the sunlight to be incident on it, the absorbed sunlight gets transmitted across the coral network.
This would reach deep into the structure which grows at depths of five kilometres and even beyond. The property of this reef is to filter the minerals contained in the sea water and process it into a product that is livable to the respective Pranic Beast.
Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beast–Flusser!
Spherical in shape, spanning a radius of 18 centimetres, it had tiny, hair-like tendrils which it used to row underwater. Without much means of mobility, it travelled slowly, often as a school.
Majority of the time, these tendrils would serve as bridges by locking onto the tendrils of fellow Flussers and form a unified structure, mimicking the appearance of a larger predator. The tongue of a Flusser is able to extend to a metre in length.
With a Prana capacity of 118 and a short lifespan of eight years, a Flusser hatches from a batch of eggs reaching a few million in number, reaches maturity within 20 months, and lives for a total of eight years, during which its female can lay eggs for up to five times.
In each session, a single female releases about 10,000 eggs. These eggs would latch onto the corals and live there for years at a stretch, until they amass enough nutrients to hatch.
The eggs can live up to five centuries on the coral reef. And the reef absorbs the sunlight necessary for the eggs, through which they undergo a process similar to photosynthesis.
Primary Nature–Photo Reef!
The Flusser’s body behaves no different to a porous material, allowing the passage of sea water through it, using which it accumulates all the necessary nutrients from the water itself.
The Nature of Photo Reef turns it into a magnet for any and all beneficial nutrients found in the water, using which it amasses biomass. Thanks to it, the Flusser is able to secrete the viscous solution from its tongue to build a reef.
The reef, in combination with the Flusser eggs that latch to its surface, act as both a source of illumination in the sea’s depths and also steadily produce and release organic matter into the water.
This organic matter is absorbed by the Flusser through the aid of its Primary Nature. And steadily, over time, as their population increases and the coral reef expands, the sea’s vitality increases.
When food becomes abundant, so does the number of creatures living and interacting in the waters.
A mere two decades ago, the Flusser Race almost went extinct. Then, while the Cooter Clan sought to expand the Tsloch Sea, they discovered this Race and extensively propagated its population.
The Flusser Race primarily lived in the depths where they could increase their numbers without being worried about predators.
From time to time, they would send a school to death’s door, for the sole purpose of survival. This school of Flusser would rapidly expand a reef from the seabed and construct a coral branch towards the surface.
They’ll be hunted during this course by predators. And until the branch extends enough towards the surface until it comes into contact with enough sunlight, the Flusser Race would keep forming schools to complete the project.
And every time they attempted this, the predators living in shallower waters would have a feast. Since the Flusser Race, being Iron Grade Pranic Beasts, hardly had any intelligence or sentience, they instinctively performed this task.
Therefore, whenever predators felt a food shortage, they would destroy some coral sections and cut them off from sunlight. A school of Flussers would immediately appear to rebuild the section, which is where the predators would have their fill.
These broken coral sections were extremely valuable too, as there was another race that primarily consumed them.
Advanced Iron Grade Pranic Beast–Plinn!
Growing to lengths upwards of four metres, the Plinn was a Pranic Beast with an extremely toxic body. Its toxicity was so high, even it itself was subjected to the toxin’s effects, dying in the process.
Primary Nature–Trenched Furnace!
Toxins constantly accumulate throughout its body, whether it be in the flesh, skin, bone, and even the blood. The brain is its only organ shielded from the toxins, protected by a membranous filter.
However, when the degree of toxicity increases, the membrane gets breached, which affects the brain.
The Nature of Trenched Furnace treats the Plinn’s body as a chemical laboratory where all sorts of substances react with each other constantly. Substances that could act as a catalyst or prepare a certain substance into reacting are constantly produced in its body.
When the reaction happens, Trenched Furnace separates the biologically favourable products and sends it to the brain. The remainder accumulates in the body.
The Plinn is shaped like a squid with a fatter, sharper bulge in the centre of the head, making the head appear like a diamond. Tentacles extend from it, numbering in the dozens, sporting mouths at the end.
With a Prana capacity of 840 and a lifespan of 80 years, the longer a Plinn lives, the larger its head gets. Its brain has enough beneficial substances that in terms of value, it was on par with an Elixir.
Extremely rarely, a Plinn accumulates enough brain matter to develop sentience, at which point it condenses and crystallises its brain, which, upon success, mutates it into a Silver Grade Pranic Beast.
Of course, this is extremely rare, as a Plinn rarely lives past a decade. The toxicity accumulating in their body often destroys them from within.
The only way to neutralise the toxin is by consuming the coral. However, the Plinn doesn’t have the muscular strength necessary to damage the coral. Instead, they have to rely on other predators that destroy the reefs from time to time.
And when a Plinn chances upon tiny coral fragments, it quickly consumes them, which alleviates its toxicity and gives it room to grow further.
The Plinn Race generally lives scattered, with fewer numbers. Due to their toxicity, they had no natural predators. Even stronger Pranic Beasts avoid them, as even Silver Grade Pranic Beasts could succumb to the toxins contained in its body.
But despite having no predators, food is their limiting factor. And hence, it was an ill omen when their numbers exceed beyond the natural capacity.
"Does this make sense?" Runthral frowned as he eyed the fifty plus Plinn that blocked the battleship’s path, "How are so many of them located in one location?"
Subconsciously, he looked around and noticed Torq standing at one corner of the deck, quickly approaching to ask the latter, "Do you think it might be related to that Quill?"
Runthral asked with a nervous expression, "Is that what has caused such an oddity?"
Torq didn’t answer and instead kept looking into the sea, seemingly searching for something. A minute passed, and then two, Runthral felt restless.
He grabbed Torq by the shoulder and asked, "I’m asking you something. At least tell me you don’t know if you have no idea about what is happening here."
"You’re the Deity, not me." Torq clicked his tongue and glared at Runthral, "Look through your inheritance and see if there’s anything related to the current situation among them."
’Even though the toxicity of a Plinn is extremely high, it’s not at a level where it can affect an Empyrean Snapper.’ Torq frowned, ’Even when reinforced by a Quill, a Plinn’s toxicity still pales in comparison to the recovery capacity of the Empyrean Snappers.’
’Then, what might have been the cause?’ Since even himself didn’t know, Torq tried to analyse the situation first, ’Plenty of abnormal situations happened before my regression, but I don’t remember hearing or seeing anything about this.’
"What do you think?" He asked Runthral honestly, "Does anything about their actions ring a bell?"
"No," Runthral shook his head, "This is probably the first time something like this is happening."
"Man..." Torq scratched his head in irritation. A few seconds of hesitation later, he eyed Runthral, "How’s your Prana capacity now?"
"At full," Runthral nodded, immediately understanding Torq’s intention, "Are you...serious?"
"Of course!" Torq nodded, "We can’t figure out anything while blind. So, let’s investigate the situation firsthand."
"With you, we can head deeper without hesitation. Of course," Torq subtly pointed towards the Raid Captain, "It’s better to be accompanied by a group of powerful individuals."