Chapter 17: Storage Lantern

“Ugh…shit…fuck!” Inala grumbled as he was unable to crawl. Virala’s kick shattered his right leg. The pain levels had reached such an intensity that his brain cut off all sensory signals.

Now, he lay on the floor numbly. His eyes darted to the door, irritated, “That bastard broke the door.”

It was at this time did he notice the false mud doors that separated his room into two. In the larger section was where everything he was preparing lay. The smaller section was empty and it was only meant to be a space to meet with Grehha and refine Mud Viper Tonic for him.

He currently lay on the floor in the smaller section. Inala intended to investigate what had happened during the end of his visit to Granny Oyo. But first, he needed to recover from his injuries. ‘I have stored some Mud Viper Tonic inside.’

By consuming it, he would at least be able to focus on recovery. With 20 Prana assisting him, he would recover from this damage within a couple of weeks, as long as he doesn’t exert himself and further exuberate his condition.

Inala seeped his Prana into the bone piece embedded in the false mud doors, intending to open them. The doors slid open like usual, causing him to comment in mockery, “Virala, that weak bastard. He didn’t even have the strength to open…”

His words came to a halt as using a bone sphere, he slammed the room’s entrance shut. Using the same, he bonked the Mud Viper and made it shoot a mud ball at the entrance, sealing the door.

“What is the meaning of this…Oyo?” He muttered, flabbergasted. There ought to have been hardened mud splattered all over the walls in the larger section of the room. It happened while he was practising his craft and hence became messy.

But now, it was sparkling clean. The entire room was barren, save for the bound Mud Viper.

Everything he had created and stored in the place no longer existed. The large packages of hardened mud he had accumulated, the various forms of clay he had created, the 400 Parute Fruits he had been paid, and most of all, his Inala Comedy Troupe; all were missing.

Just as he despaired, Inala noticed a faint glint from behind the Mud Viper. When coiled on the ground, it occupied a fair amount of space at the corner. In its delirious state, after its weakness had been hit, it thrashed about faintly.

Every time it did so, something came into view behind it. “No way…”

He couldn’t control his excitement as Inala used a bone sphere to push the Mud Viper away and gaze at the object it had been hiding.

Sporting an appearance that of a lantern, with its body built like a four-storey pagoda was the object in question, its entrance being a circular hole wide enough for the human hand to pass through. At the sight of it, Inala muttered in excitement, “A Storage Lantern!”

Storage Lanterns were the spatial rings of Sumatra. It was an item exclusively refined by the Mammoth Clan. And it was by selling Storage Lanterns that the Mammoth Clan was able to trade with the various human kingdoms and empires it passed through.

The Mammoth Clan was a trading Clan at its core, with Store Lanterns being their core product.

The power of a Pranic Beast was called its Primary Nature. For the Mud Vipers, their Primary Nature was Mud Ball. It was why they shot mud balls at their targets. All their actions revolved around targeting their prey better with the mud balls.

Similarly, the Empyrean Tusk’s Primary Nature was Internal Inertial Gravity. Gravitational fields existed throughout its body, with each acting in different areas and at different intensities. It was this that propped up the Empyrean Tusk’s otherwise impossible frame.

After all, the mass of a moving being more than a kilometre tall was so much that it would collapse on itself. The square cubed law ensured such a creature couldn’t survive. The Empyrean Tusk’s Primary Nature made its existence a reality.

It’s stated that the bones of an Empyrean Tusk are quite fragile.

Its gravity acts as a bond and reinforces its strength to the extent necessary to withstand its mountainous weight. And the strongest of this force of gravity exists within its tusks, for they were the Empyrean Tusk’s weapons against its foes.

When the Empyrean Tusk’s tusk grows too much and its tip becomes blunt, the Mammoth Clansmen would cut off the excess to maintain the sharpness.

The cut-off parts of the tusk are then refined using the Mystic Bone Art into the shape of a lantern while amplifying the gravity within. Eventually, the tipping point is reached when gravity becomes strong enough to bend space.

As a result, a large space is created within the Storage Lantern. To insert or take out an item, Prana has to be infused into it and deactivate the Primary Nature active in it. And when done so, the Storage Lantern grows in size, becoming as big as necessary for the volume of space inside.

Items could then be placed inside through the entrance. Once it’s activated, the Primary Nature kicks in as the Storage Lantern shrinks in size and could be carried on hand.

Moreover, thanks to the property of internal inertial gravity in it, no matter how much weight is placed within the Storage Lantern, the person carrying it wouldn’t feel it. Of course, when its Primary Nature is deactivated and the Storage Lantern reverts to its original size, all its weight would be felt.

So, when one usually activated it, they would set it on the ground.

Inala used a Spirit Weapon to grab the Storage Lantern and activated it. ‘If its appearance shows four floors, it means there are four cubic metres of space within it.’

“Thankfully, there’s enough height here.” Inala sighed in relief as he stared at the ceiling. The floor-to-ceiling height here was six metres, for they weren’t short of vertical space. Using the Spirit Weapon, he brought it next to him and inched his index finger to touch it.

“What the…why is it my Spirit Weapon already?” The Spirit Lantern had already been refined to carry his imprint. It was his Spirit Weapon and hence could only be accessed by him. ‘Did she do it on my behalf?’

Since Granny Oyo controlled his body, she could do something like that. His heart palpitated, for a Storage Lantern was ridiculously expensive, especially for a four-storey one.

7600 Parute!

That was its current market price and he was given something like that, ‘If I had been given its value in terms of Parute fruits, I would have reached my goal already.’

He sighed for a moment but became excited immediately after. There should be a reason if he was gifted such an expensive item. With bated breath, Inala infused Prana into it and deactivated the Storage Lantern, watching it grow in size and reach a height of four metres. 𝓞𝗏𝗅xt.𝒸𝗈𝕞

Using a Spirit Weapon, he opened the first floor, shocked by the contents.