The parchment for the letter seemed to be made of leather. Things such as letters were largely unnecessary in Sumatra, for a convenient mode of information exchange existed, termed an Information Slip.
Information Slips varied from race to race. And among the Human Race, the material used as an Information Slip depended on the practiced cultivation technique.
The Cooter Clansmen who practiced Mystic Mist Arts could treat fluids as an Information Slip. Traditionally, they used water for the task.
A Cooter Clansmen would take a vial, fill it with water, and infuse it with Prana. And while doing so, would record information. It was a series of pulses carrying their influence, like a morse code. Anyone outside the Clan wouldn't even realise the contents in this vial was an Information Slip.
To them, it appeared no different from plain water.
But a Cooter Clansman would instinctively recognise it as an Information Slip.
To obtain the information recorded in this Information Slip, a Cooter Clansman would have to consume the water. When the water flows into their stomach, the pulses of presence would behave like fingers typing upon a typewriter.
The typewriter here was their cultivation technique. It would record the pulses while treating itself as a dictionary. And once the pulses were compiled, the recorded information is revealed, which could be in the form of text, image, video, etc. sensory inputs regarding all five senses could be recorded in an Information Slip.
Its secrecy and the sheer magnitude and convenience of information recording made an Information Slip the most convenient form of information transfer. After a Cooter Clansman ingests an Information Slip, they could just copy the contents into another vial of water. It took them mere seconds to record hours worth of information.
Runthral writing a letter indicated the target of communication wasn't part of the Cooter Clan. Seated on a chair, all he did was stare at the letter, and the content inscribed on it automatically. He was inscribing using psychokinesis.
The reason Empyrean Snappers were worshipped as Deities was the overpowered ability they were born with, one that allowed them to manipulate the terrain around them as they saw fit.
Primary Nature–Subtle Terrain Domination!
On Sumatra, most of the regions were extremely dangerous to live in, except for the natives that had spent millions of years evolving and adapting to the place. The Empyrean Snappers were the only race that never concerned themselves with the dangers in a region.
No, the more dangerous the region, the more dangerous an Empyrean Snapper became, for it could casually wield the terrain's quirks to its advantage. 'And at their pinnacle, they can control the most dangerous substance that covers our universe.'
'However,' All Torq did was let out a pitiful sigh, as through the eyes of the Melcarp, he observed Runthral making a shoddy drawing on the paper, 'He's absolutely disappointing in that regard.'
Runthral was attempting to sketch the silver humanoid condensed by Torq earlier. However, the result wasn't even in the slightest close to the end product, 'I never fully brought it out. But despite that,'
'What the heck is with that quality?' A faint level of revulsion churned through his throat, 'Most of all! My Melcarp is positioned a couple metres away from him, right on his windowsil! Any other Empyrean Snapper, even at the moment of birth, could have sensed and destroyed it in an instant!'
Somehow, more than the act of his secret getting revealed, Torq was getting ragebaited by his brother's incompetence.
While Torq griped about Runthral's incompetence, the other party had finished his drawing, no matter how shoddy it was.
Then, Runthral pricked his index finger, dripping his blood on the letter. A drop later, the wound had already healed. He pricked it once again and dripped a second droplet. His presence wafted out of the droplet clearly, spreading into the surroundings.
By the time the fourth droplet had dripped on the latter, there was a visitor at the window.
Tch!
Torq clicked his tongue upon noticing his Melcarp had been killed. Pondering in consideration for a moment, he paced towards Runthral's room. 'To think that creature could be turned into a subordinate.'
'I never knew it was possible.'
Rolling into place on the windowsill of Runthral's room was a curled ball around a metre in diameter. It elongated into a semi-serpentine semi-arthropod creature, revealing a tiny head resembling a pangolin.
Followed by a sniff, it moved its tiny nose to the letter and promptly licked the four droplets of blood on it. Then, it tilted its head to face Runthral after eyeing the image drawn on the letter.
[What the heck is this?]
"I don't know," Runthral shook his head, "And that's what I want you to find out."
The creature in question blinked its marble-like eyes in confusion. Then, it rattled the scales on its body, expressing its frustration.
[My heart will explode in rage one of these days.]
The creature wasn't native to the region. Its predecessor was in fact a neighbour to one of the Cooter Clan's past branches.
Mutated Advanced Silver Grade Pranic Beast–Manic Bludder!
Its predecessor was an Iron Grade Pranic Beast, native to a region called the Guna Caves. The one in Runthral's room had mutated to become a Silver Grade Pranic Beast.
Iron Grade Pranic Beasts didn't have sentience. However, from the Silver Grade onwards, their intelligence was on par with humans. Gold Grade Pranic Beasts surpassed humans in terms of intelligence.
"Will you refuse?" Runthral asked as he got up from his seat and unleashed his presence. The room trembled while the air visibly danced as streams of varied pressures rampaged around.
He focused his presence onto the Manic Bludder, whose body trembled in response. However, it didn't budge from its spot in the slightest. But the moment the presence on the tips of one of its four arms spiked, Runthral retracted his presence and raised his guard to the limit.
[I don't dare make the Cooter Clan my enemy, since your leader is my benefactor. However, if you wish to use my services, explain things properly.]
There was silence, as Runthral's presence kept climbing in preparation for a fight. Seeing his riled up state, the Manic Bludder retracted its presence and raised its arms, expressing its intention to not escalate the situation.
[Look, just tell me who I should beat up to extract whatever information you want. Or at least tell me where I should search. If you just tell me to search blindly, you won't get anything even if I spend the rest of my life on the task.]
"Ask my Father about it," Runthral said without hesitation. "If it's you, I can expect an answer in a few days, right?"
[With your letter as proof, I won't be impeded by your Clansmen. Give me four days, and you'll have your answer.]
"I'm fine with that," Runthral waved his hand, dismissing the Manic Bludder. 'I can't risk another confrontation with Boiboi without understanding what that entity was. That entire experience was…terrifying.'
He shuddered for a moment.
[By the way, I noticed a Melcarp perched on your windowsill. It looked suspicious, so I killed it.]
"A Melcarp?" Runthral frowned as he focused on the place and noticed the severed corpse in question. "What is it doing here?"
[Want me to figure out where it came from?]
"No need, focus on the task at hand." Runthral dismissed the Manic Bludder after it grabbed his letter, focusing on the Melcarp corpse once the other party had jumped out through the window. He inspected the corpse for a few seconds and then scratched his head, 'There's nothing suspicious about it.'
Knock! Knock!
"Who's there?" Runthral asked in response to the knocks. He placed the Melcarp corpse on the table nearby and approached the door, opening it after a couple seconds had passed.
"Surprise!" Torq exclaimed cheerfully and embraced Runthral before the latter could react. Then, as if absolutely natural, his palms reached for the other party's face.