Academy of Refinement, Dorm of the Abandoned!

It was a dorm for the orphan students to live in. Since they don't have a family, they wouldn't have a house in the Clan. As the Clan rules state, all houses belong to the Mammoth Clan. A cultivator only lives in the house fit for his strength and based on his contribution to the Clan.

Even the Settlement Leader was no exception. Therefore, the orphans were accommodated within the academy itself. But the Clan seriously called it the Dorm of the Abandoned. They had no chill in such matters.

In a room on the topmost floor of the dorm was Inala. He had been living here for the past month. The topmost floor was risky to be in, as if any attacks were to happen, this was the farthest away from a shelter. It was also situated in the least guarded region. But conversely, the room was also the largest.

It spanned an area of forty square metres, the biggest one could find in the academy. The rooms of the other students just consisted enough area to lay down the mattress and sleep. The risks were well worth the area, hence Inala daringly shifted to this room.

"Barely succeeded, phew!" He exhaled softly as he stared at a large rectangular board of hardened mud. The surface was smooth and even had a glossy sheen to it.

Sprawled on the floor next to it was an unconscious Mud Viper. It had spat out mud today too, forced to do so by Inala after its weakness had been taken advantage of.

After feeding it two balls of Maeta, meatballs produced exclusively by the Empyrean Tusk, Inala tied it up once again. Next to him was a bunch of pottery, all made from the mud released by the Mud Viper.

His control over Prana was severely lacking. Therefore, to raise his proficiency, he began to make pottery. By this point, he had adapted to the cultivation world and stabilised his knowledge with some experience.

There existed four Cultivation Stages in Sumatra: Spirit, Body, Life, and Transcendence.

The Stage of Transcendence was only briefly mentioned towards the end of the novel, so it wasn't something to think about. If not for the fucking author that killed the...

Spirit was the earliest stage on the road of cultivation. It focused on the refinement of the cultivator's mind and soul.

In Sumatra, every human was born a cultivator without exception. And at birth, they possessed one Prana. Those with talent were born with more Prana.

There were many cultivation techniques to train Prana, graded accordingly to their effectiveness. The cultivation technique of the Mammoth Clan belonged at the top of Sumatra.

Just accumulating Prana wasn't enough to cultivate. One's Spirit must be strong enough to create containers that can hold Prana stably in the body. As Prana's nature--composed of mind, soul, and body--of existence, it can only be contained in a vessel where the three elements converge. That was a Spirit Container.

For every unit of Prana, a Spirit Container needs to be created. Without a container, even if one gains Prana and stores it in the body, at the slightest mishap, the Prana would leak.

The mishap can even be something minor like being rattled emotionally. That was enough if the Spirit Container wasn't strong enough. The only way to strengthen it was through repeated, focused, and dedicated practice, especially on activities that could strain one's mind to the extreme. By training the mind, body, and Prana repeatedly, the Spirit Container is strengthened.

That was the essence of cultivation during the Spirit Stage. It was why Inala multitasked in his pottery sessions. It trained all fronts with spectacular efficiency. Moreover, pottery had other uses too, monetary ones.

In the Spirit Stage, a cultivator could refine and control an object as if it was an extension of their body. Cultivators in the Mammoth Clan refined and controlled bones.

The ability was similar to psychokinesis and decently lethal. By refining a piece of bone, Inala was imprinting his Spirit into it, thereby able to control it. The refined object would become the cultivator's exclusive Spirit Weapon.

Everyone only used one Spirit Weapon to fight, as the effectiveness of the ability dropped exponentially when more than one Spirit Weapon was controlled at the same time.

One would reach the peak of the Spirit Stage after accumulating 100 Prana. But the greater the Prana in your body, the greater the strain on your Spirit Containers. For, Spirit Containers were connected to the body. And the body's exertion actually affected them.

For Inala, even crossing 40 Prana would be dangerous. It would put too much pressure on his body. Coupled with his condition, his Spirit containers might collapse automatically, causing the stored Prana to be wasted. This was why he didn't consume the Elixir.

He wouldn't even be able to handle the pressure, and by the next day, his Prana values might drop to the single digits.

The only way to offset the risk was to understand the inner mechanics of Spirit Containers and the effect Fragment Disease had on them.

With a complete understanding, Inala would be able to focus the damage onto one Spirit Container alone. Thereby, even when it breaks, all he would lose is one Prana. That wasn't hard to recover.

When a Mammoth Clansmen accumulates 100 Prana and stabilises their Spirit Containers, they would reach the zenith of the Spirit Stage. Following that, once they fuse the 100 Spirit Containers into a single, stable Spirit Container, they would enter the Body Stage. This was where the fun started. Inala's greatest plan to surpass Resha lay here.

Once they reach the Body Stage, a Mammoth Clansmen would capture a Pranic Beast egg and begin refining it. The shell of the egg fell under the influence of the Mystic Bone Art, including the contents within. Hence, it could be refined.

Once the egg is fully refined, it will fuse with the Spirit Container, thereby becoming one with the Mammoth Clansmen, allowing them to transform into the said Pranic Beast. They gain all powers of the Pranic Beast, including its Prana Capacity.

Innately, a human's Spirit Container can only withstand 100 Prana. But after this fusion process, the cultivator's Spirit Container becomes the Pranic Beast itself, gaining its characteristics, thereby being able to store more Prana.

But there was a trick here. Pranic Beasts were divided into Grades of Iron, Silver, Gold, and Mystic. Each Grade was then subdivided into Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.

Mud Vipers were classified as Beginner Iron Grade Pranic Beasts, the lowest of the low. At maturity, they held a maximum of 300 Prana.

An Intermediate Iron Grade Pranic Beast held Prana between 300 and 600, and so on.

An Expert Gold Grade Pranic Beast like the Empyrean Tusk at maturity holds around 7200 to 8400 Prana. They weren't even in the same dimension of comparison. And in Sumatra Chronicles, Resha becomes an Empyrean Tusk, attaining unmatchable power.

But even he died to the Boar King. During the Fourth Major Disaster, the Mammoth Clan was annihilated. Therefore, to survive, sheer strength wouldn't be sufficient. Picking a Pranic Beast with a versatile surviving nature was necessary.

Inala already had his choice in mind. To prepare for that, he first needed to raise his value to the Clan. Only then would he be granted a house to live in after graduation. And to attain his desired Pranic Beast egg, he had to get a certain house no matter the cost.

The only way to do that was to take advantage of his previous life's skills.

"And...done!" Inala grinned as he stared at a lifelike mud sculpture.