NOVGO.NET Chapter 1086: Drenta Human Alliance
Chapter 1086: Drenta Human Alliance
71,000 kilometres tangentially from the Gaja Enclave, towards the direction of Sumatra’s interior, was a stretch of land where standard logic flew out the window.
The land here resembled vines, with each vine maxing at a width of fifty to eighty kilometres while stretching for a few thousand kilometres. They had their own gravity field, with a cylindrical column of air around the vines spanning a few kilometres thick.
Life thrived in this section, for these vines could be traversed upon only from their roots. Their extremity could be seen dangling at any randomly insane height over the rest of the landmass, so far off they weren’t even visible from the ground.
The base, somewhat cylindrical in shape, with a width between fifty to eighty kilometres, was the sole entry point. If this was guarded, then the rest of the respective vine was free real estate for peaceful development.
And over the course of history, especially after the Mudropper Invasion, many creatures fled to these vines.
Drenta Vines!
It was the name given to the vine structure that seemed to stretch endlessly around a point, effectively cutting off a section of Sumatra from the rest of the Continent.
The bases of many Drenta Vines were pretty cluttered against each other, essentially creating a wall that couldn’t be traversed by most natives. Mist swirled near the bases, and as the individual pockets of air between each vine interacted, they resulted in fierce storms that were dangerous to even Gold Grade Pranic Beasts.
These conflicting spots were called the Drenta Storms and historically prevented natives from migrating from one side to the other. After the Mudropper Invasion, some patches between the Drenta Vines were covered by the Sandy-Grey Void.
The Mudroppers didn’t invade the vines for some reason and only stuck to the landmass around the base, and only at spots where the Drenta Storms were weak. Essentially, their actions further cut off the small paths through the Drenta Storms that could be traversed by the natives.
A few kilometres from a Drenta Vine, two people arrived, a man and a woman. They had similar features, appearing like siblings.
The man frowned as he stared at the curtains of night in his line of sight, “There are pockets of Sandy Grey Void this deep into Sumatra? Shouldn’t they be suppressed by now?”
“From what my people gathered,” The woman explained, “Due to the importance of the region, Renduldu refrained from using Thought Condensation to treat it, fearing it would only weaken the region’s foundation.”
She then pointed at one of the pockets of Sandy Grey Void, from where a caravan of Free Humans exited, “Look there, that’s one of the reasons.”
“Though the Sandy Grey Void is dangerous, it also presents an opportunity.” She continued, “Parute Trees are littered across its interiors, which is a resource spot for the creatures living here.”
The Sandy Grey Void around the Drenta Vines wasn’t uniform. Patches within it had been reverted to regular landmass, where Parute Trees grew to effectively suppress the grey sand’s spread.
That wasn’t all, as the man observed a familiar patch bordering the Sandy Grey Void, “It’s the same as Sumatra’s border.”
“Right,” The woman nodded, “The existence of the Sandy Grey Void here allows this region to thrive, as Parute Trees don’t grow on the vines.”
“So,” The woman eyed the man, “Where should we go next?”
“Up there,” The man pointed at one of the Drenta Vines, “And from its extremity, we take a plunge.”
“Free fall?” The woman frowned.
“Obviously,” The man chuckled, “Why, are you afraid, sister?”
“If my body ever splatters from the fall…” The woman rolled her eyes, “This entire region is bound to collapse.”
“I’ll slow down our descent,” The man smiled wryly.
“You better,” The woman said and slowly walked towards the caravan, changing her appearance along the way to resemble a Free Human refugee who had been fleeing across the wilds for a while now.
Breaking into an irregular sprint, she closed in on the caravan, “Help! Please, help me!”
“Halt!” The guards protecting the caravan immediately raised weapons resembling fishing rods. Pointing at the woman, one of them bellowed, “State your identity! Otherwise, don’t expect mercy!”
“I…I am from the Rumtara Kingdom!” The woman gasped for breath and, with trembling hands, pointed at the man kneeling beside her, “This is my brother. We…we have been fleeing for so long that…that…”
She burst into tears, “We…we never expected to come across another Free Human for the rest of our lives!”
“Rumtara Kingdom?” One of the guards with knowledge of the place frowned, “That blasted place, again?”
“Seriously, I am curious!” He cursed, “How does such an incompetent Kingdom continue to survive while meticulously planned Kingdoms such as ours are constantly under the threat of destruction?”
“I know that place,” He grumbled and eyed a fellow guard, “We can give them asylum.”
He then communicated using their Information Slip.
[Both of them are only at the Body Stage, but they have Silver Grade strength.]
That satisfied all the guards who were silently in on the conversation. With smiles, they approached the sibling duo and patted them.
“There, there, it’s alright.”
“Your troubles are finally over.”
“You’ve come to the right place.”
“It’s rare, but our PariBota Kingdom does give asylum to refugees.”
After spending a few minutes to console the sobbing sibling duo, one of the guards asked, “By the way, what’s your name?”
“I’m Zhya,” The woman wiped her tears and expressed her gratitude, “I will eternally be thankful for your help.”
“Wally,” The man prostrated on the floor and continued to shed tears.
The duo was brought to the caravan, a row of skyscrapers on moving sledges. A gentle mist, freezing to the touch, emanated from the sledges, creating a layer of thick ice between the sledges and the ground.
This created a frictionless surface for the skyscraper to be dragged upon. As for the skyscraper’s driving force? Balconies were systematically constructed on each floor of the skyscraper. Standing on each was a Free Human with a fishing rod.
As Wally boarded one of the skyscrapers, he noticed the Free Human flicking the fishing rod at a spot on the ground 300 metres away. He was at the 2-Life Stage, with a maximum Spirit Weapon range of 360 metres.
The hook of the fishing rod stabbed into the ground and emanated an adhesive force, pulling a large mass of earth towards it, and in response, anchoring itself firmly at the spot.
Through the aid of psychokinesis, the pulley of the fishing rod spun and generated tension in the string. This tension pulled the skyscraper towards the spot on the ground where the hook was.
The skyscraper was shaped like an octagon, with eight balconies on each floor. At the same time, Free Humans from three adjacent balconies flicked their fishing rods.
The central balcony was to generate force while its adjacent balconies generated force primarily to stabilise the motion path of the skyscraper, ensuring it moved straight.
Depending on the direction of motion, the respective three balconies would take action. Usually, one floor was enough to move the skyscraper. However, during hunts, more floors would participate to increase the speed of motion, turns, etc.
’Their Human Avatars generate the power of tension and adhesiveness, which they harness through their fishing rods.’ Wally thought upon observing the Free Humans in action.
The caravan had over two hundred skyscrapers. Subtly, he used a Prana detection means to scout his skyscraper, ’There are harvested organs of Iron Grade Pranic Beasts on all floors. Oh, I also sense the lingering scent of Parute Fruits.’
Similar to oases that form in deserts, there were pockets of land in the Sandy-Grey Void situated around the base of the Drenta Vines. These biomes were filled with Parute Trees actively suppressing the region, and typically, filled with Iron Grade Pranic Beasts.
They would flee into these biomes, consume the Parute Fruits, and endlessly proliferate. Free Humans from Kingdoms established on the Drenta Vines would raid these biomes to harvest valuable organs and Parute Fruits.
Typically, they didn’t set up bases in the biomes, for living while surrounded by the curtain of night was stressful. The Free Humans who lived there went insane as soon as their Spirit Containers shattered from accumulated stress.
Hence, Raids were optimal. As long as a few Iron Grade Pranic Beasts were left alive, they would proliferate and raise their numbers in a short window.
“Curious?” One of the guards, who went by the name of RiRonda, asked upon noticing Wally’s pondering expression.
“Yes,” Wally nodded, “Can you explain a bit more about this place?”
“Sure,” RiRonda smiled and pointed at the base of the Drenta Vine they were approaching, a heavily militarised zone, “We come from the PariBota Kingdom, which dominates an entire Drenta Vine. Our ancestors supposedly fled here during the Brully Invasion.”
“The name of our Kingdom changed a few times, whenever the ruling family was replaced by a more powerful family.” He trailed off a little before getting back on track, “PariBota is part of the Drenta Human Alliance, a collection of fourteen Free Human Kingdoms.”
“Fourteen?” Wally expressed his surprise, “That’s insane!”
“Well, not really,” RiRonda smiled wryly, “When you consider the fact that there exist thousands of Vines. Most of them are ruled by Pranic Beasts.”
“Only fourteen…huh?” Wally muttered, “That number doesn’t seem all that big now.”
“There are many other Free Human Kingdoms too. The Drenta Human Alliance only consists of Free Human Kingdoms within travel range of each other.” RiRonda explained and then pointed through the window, “Anyway, you’ll know more later. But for now…”
As Wally stared out the window, he came across fort walls reaching as high as two hundred metres. It acted as a wall that stretched endlessly across both sides, protecting the only way to reach the Drenta Vine that seemed to stretch infinitely into the sky, like a ladder to the heavens.
Atop the fort walls stood Free Humans geared from head to toe. The majority of them released an Iron Grade presence, but had robust gazes, tempered from repeated wars.
As the caravan passed through the gates after a minimal checkup, Wally whispered to Zhya, “Why did you suggest we enter in such a way?”
“With my power, we could have slipped past unnoticed in a matter of minutes.”
“I wanted to see it…a little.” Zhya smiled and avoided Wally’s exasperated gaze, “It’s an amazing place, you know?”
“Has the Quip Clan infiltrated them?” Wally asked next, mentally sighing in relief a little upon seeing Zhya shake her head.
“We don’t infiltrate,” Of course, Zhya knew his thoughts and winked, “All we do is trade, you know?”
“…Of course,” Wally grumbled under his breath as the caravan entered the Drenta Vine.
“Don’t underestimate them just because they call themselves a Kingdom,” Zhya whispered a warning, “They are still capable of seriously injuring you. The Royalty of each Kingdom part of the Drenta Human Alliance has some serious, competent fighters.”
“They have monsters capable of killing multiple Gold Grade Pranic Beasts,” She said and winked at Wally, “The current you might still feel a decent challenge.”
“What do you say?” Zhya chuckled and nudged Wally, “Do you wish to fight them?”
“The current leader of the Drenta Human Alliance managed to fight against eight Gold Grade Pranic Beasts simultaneously and even killed them all.” She smiled, seeing Wally’s eyes light up in response to the news.