Chapter 103 A Hidden Settlement of Strangeness
The middle-aged woman seemed human at first glance. Her hair was tied into a bun, slightly unkempt. Her hands were calloused from strenuous housework and judging by her walking posture, her skeletal structure faced a mild deformity due to carrying heavy luggage for extended durations over the years.
Overall, other than her slightly abnormal strength, she seemed no different from a normal human. As the middle-aged woman walked through the forest, hovering in the air four metres away and gliding overhead was the Empyrean Zinger Scout.
As it was merely nail-sized, its smooth gliding made no sounds, not even for the faintest of ears. Shadowing forty metres away were Inala and Asaeya.
Held in his left was the egg with his daughter while in his right was a Bone Slip. It was Asaeya's Bone Slip. Whenever she thought of something, she would insert her thoughts into it and he would access them just as a Mammoth Clansman normally accessed a Bone Slip.
Similarly, Asaeya held his Bone Slip. This way, even though no words were exchanged between the two, they were able to constantly communicate with one another.
Currently, the Prana levels of both were at their minimum most, hence why they were so cautious. Inala had four Prana while Asaeya had six. Everything else had been spent during their escape from the Boar King.
Asaeya didn't have a Storage Lantern. She had just become an elite and hadn't been granted one yet. As for Inala's Storage Lantern, it only had 200 Parute fruits. All the Prana Bombs he saved were consumed to make the giant Prana Bomb.
Unless they chanced upon a weak Pranic Beast, it would be hard for them to recover their Prana. Hence, it was prudent to remain cautious.
After an hour of travelling, the middle-aged woman entered a lush green valley surrounded by mountains on all sides like a bird's nest. The only entrance was a narrow creek wide enough for a human to walk through.
The location was a utopia as the sole entrance wasn't wide enough for typical Pranic Beasts to pass through. Two women were stationed guard at the entrance, carrying wooden spears. Their clothes were simplistic at best, a mix of cotton and leather.
It was apparent that they didn't have the tools or the resources to produce proper clothes like in a settlement.
There was a clearing of twenty metres between the forest and the creak as the duo of Inala and Asaeya stopped there, communicating with each other through their respective Bone Slips.
"Shall we pose as travellers and enter from the front?" Asaeya asked.
"No, that's foolish." Inala said, using his experience as an artist to glean into the details of the attire of the two guards, "At first glance, they seem to resemble refugees. Judging by the poor workmanship of their clothes, it has been a while since they ran away from a Kingdom. And for some reason, they either didn't bother to make new clothes or simply couldn't find any resources to do so."
"I don't feel the second case can be the reason." Asaeya expressed her doubts, "We've seen that mighty river nearby. The soil here is fertile enough for these trees to grow. So, growing some cotton plants shouldn't have been an issue."
"You're right," Inala nodded and motioned for her to follow him. The duo circled around the mountain for a couple of minutes before stopping.
The guards were only stationed at the entrance. Therefore, all other locations were fair game to scout.
Inala approached the mountain and stared at it. It was rocky and even though the walls didn't form a cliff, they were steep enough to be dangerous.
"We'll be wasting our remaining Prana if we use our Spirit Weapons to climb up," Asaeya commented.
"That's why we'll be doing this." Saying so, Inala snapped his finger as his two Prana Hands arrived before him. They expanded into a pair of gauntlets that slid over his hands. The fingertips of the gauntlets turned into claws, sharp enough to dig into the rocky mountain as Inala began to climb.
The two Life Hands merged into his legs to turn into shoes, similarly helping with keeping his legs gripped to the rocky surface. Pointing at his back, Inala stared at Asaeya, "Climb aboard."
"Are you sure you can handle my weight?" Asaeya would have happily jumped on his back had the situation been less dangerous. Carrying her means he'll be using up more Prana to keep up with the climbing until they reach the peak.
Since his abilities were what would allow them both to recover their Prana, she didn't wish for him to become exhausted beforehand.
But in the face of her consideration, Inala flexed his biceps, "See these babies. Without the Fragment Disease, I'm a whole other level of beast."
"Don't come crying later." Rolling her eyes in response to his boast, Asaeya positioned herself on his back and held the baby Gannala in one hand.
Primary Nature—Internal Inertial Gravity!
Inala raised his strength and sprinted over the walls, shocking Asaeya when he covered over 600 metres within ten minutes. "H-How?"
"I'm a Zinger," Inala stated as a matter of fact, "Climbing is kind of my thing, you see."
Upon reaching the peak of the mountain, the duo observed the valley within. The mountain range converged to form two rings, forming the symbol '8'. At the point of connection of the two rings was a massive mountain, sporting a crater at its peak. It seemed to have been an active volcano at one point in history.
But now, filled to the brim within the crater was water, forming a lake. Drawing water from the lake were people from either settlement.
Within a minute, Inala noticed an oddity. In each ring was a settlement, living disconnected lives.
In the ring to the left, the settlement was occupied by women and in the other ring's settlement were men, both shabbily dressed with a mixture of fabric and leather.
There were approximately four thousand women and around six hundred men. The women seemed to farm while the men mined in the caves.
Another difference was in their physique. While the women seemed overworked, they were healthy and brimming with vitality. Conversely, the men didn't have much to do in the sparsely mineral-rich caves, but their bodies were emancipated.
What was most puzzling was the fact that there was only one entrance here, situated in the women's ring. There seemed no way for the men to exit their ring as after some observation, Inala noticed that the men weren't even allowed on the side of the women.
"This place is strange, Inala." Asaeya asked, "What do we do? We need to find out where we are and also recover our Prana. There's nothing to eat out here. So it'll just add to our exhaustion if we camp out."
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