Goosebumps erupted all over his body when the screech echoed through his entire territory. The pressure that accompanied the screech was more terrifying than the fear one felt by staring at the humongous Heavy Armored Elephant.
This shocked Michael and Tiara, who stopped in her tracks. She subconsciously summoned her Artifacts and prepared for a life-and-death battle when the screech reached her ears.
Her hair stood up on its end, and worry gleamed in her eyes. What kind of monstrous existence was about to attack them?
What neither of the two realized was that the screech had actually originated from the inside of the Summoning Gate and that another fierce Monster was about to step out of the Summoning Gate's energy pool.
A black-feathered Eagle the size of a big battle horse emerged in front of the Summoning Gate. It screeched out loudly and spread its marvelous ten-meter-long wings for everyone to see before it shot in the air.
It was fortunate that the clearing was void of tree branches, otherwise, the huge eagle would have crashed into the tree branches and destroyed everything around.
"A Greater Eagle with black plumage? And this pressure… is that something I can summon with a Mythic Summoning Scroll?" Michael murmured to himself.
He noticed that the Heavy Armored Elephant retreated a few steps and sought protection behind him, but that amused him a little. It must look funny for others to see a 12-ton-heavy Monster hiding behind a bald man, whose weight didn't cross 80 kilograms, but nobody could laugh just now.
The appearance of the black-feathered Greater Eagle was enough to frighten a humongous monster such as the Heavy Armored Elephant. This had to be taken seriously!
"Please come down without destroying anything," Michael requested loud enough for the Greater Eagle to hear. The Greater Eagle steered itself towards the ground again after circling the clearing and dived down.
It elegantly reached the ground and flapped its wings right in front of Michael where it screeched much quieter than before.
"Thank you," Michael said sincerely while trying to ignore the goosebumps all over his body.
While looking at the majestic monster in front of him, and feeling its pressure weighing solely on him, Michael could barely move.
"The Black Bear's pressure is not as intense as yours is, big guy. It's just that you are a Tierless Monster because you've been resurrected recently. Your pressure and body are the only remains from your past life!" Michael said, forcing himself to withstand and overcome the Greater Eagle's pressure.
It weighed hard on him and nearly made him succumb, but Michael didn't surrender. Who would ever want to follow him, if he couldn't even endure the pressure his subjects exuded naturally?
He grit his teeth and lifted his right hand despite the pressure. Michael used Lesser Enhancement on his right arm as he raised it high in the air.
His hand slowly approached the Greater Eagle that was just staring blankly at Michael. The Greater Eagle tilted its head as it stared deep into Michael's dark abyss-like eyes. Their depth seemed endless and so was the determination shining vibrantly in his eyes.
The Greater Eagle lowered its head, giving Michael permission to touch it.
Michael's fingers slowly caressed the Greater Eagle's soft plumage, and a faint smile blossomed on his face. The pressure weighing down on him decreased drastically as the Link of Loyalty formed between Michael and the Greater Eagle.
He took a deep breath to calm his wildly palpitating heart.
Michael's biggest worry had been that the Greater Eagle would simply deny his authority and wreak havoc in his territory before the Link of Loyalty had formed properly.
That had also been his worry when he summoned Fenrir first. After all, controlling Summons with higher star ratings was a tough task and even a single mistake could lead the new summon to raze everything to the ground.
If the high-ranked Summons were violent, or their compatibility with the Lord was abysmally low, the Link of Loyalty would be frail and could be broken easily.
Strengthening the frail Link of Loyalty was possible, but it would take a while. In Fenrir's case, the Link of Loyalty had been as thin as a thread, and it wasn't strengthened even after they spent two full days together.
It was common knowledge that firm Links of Loyalty were rare to form between a weak Lord and Summons with a high star rating since Summons with a high star rating had rich past life experiences where they had to fight beings as strong as them or even a bit stronger than themselves.
Only by overcoming various ordeals and becoming stronger through painstaking efforts were they able to amass achievements and reach the thresholds to be resurrected and summoned with a high star rating after they died.
Michael was not too worried about his Links of Loyalty with most of his subjects. They formed properly and weren't as fragile as his Link of Loyalty with Fenrir had been.
Michael was much stronger now than he had been when he first entered the Origin Expanse. He was a Tier-1 Lord and had grown after experiencing life in the Origin Expanse for more than a month.
The incidents he had encountered inside and outside the Origin Expanse since his War Rune manifested were abundant, and taught him much more about life and leadership than school ever did, allowing him to mature and become a better version of himself!
"I will take good care of you. You and everyone else will grow much stronger than ever as long as you follow me closely. Let me show you the path toward a bright future!" Michael mumbled as he continued to caress the head of the Greater Eagle.
It screeched softly as if it agreed readily and trusted its Lord wholeheartedly.
Michael forgot about the Mass Summoning temporarily. He was focused on the Greater Eagle and tried to communicate with his new summon using their Link of Loyalty.
This worked more or less as the Link of Loyalty made it much easier for both parties to communicate with each other even if they had never learned each other's language.
Time passed swiftly, and Tiara reappeared next to him after a while.
Her arrival made Michael recall what he had been doing before the Greater Eagle arrived.
"I finished the task. There are two reports for you. One is a summarized list of all subjects that joined our territory today. The other list is more detailed," Tiara explained swiftly before handing him a report that had only four paragraphs and a second report with several pages of detailed information about his newly summoned subjects.
Michael merely nodded his head and smiled faintly before he sent the Greater Eagle away.
"Thank you. Please help me tend to the new subjects to make sure that they will quickly settle down and feel at home in our territory!"
Michael gave Tiara a new task before he took a glance at the summarized report. The appearance of the Heavy Armored Elephant was shocking enough to make him forget inspecting the other 2-Star Summons as they stepped out of the Summoning Gate. Weirdly enough, the appearance of the Greater Eagle was exactly the same.
Because of the Greater Eagle's show, he didn't even pay proper attention to the other 2-Star Summons.
[Mass Summoning Report]
–Starless Summons: 206 Summons – (95M:111W)
–1-Star Summons: 59 Summons– 1 Carpenter, 1 Potter, 1 Artist, 1 Tailor, 1 Pub Owner, 1 Financial Manager, 1 Cook, 1 Librarian, 2 Masons, 2 Weavers, 2 Surveyors, 2 Craftsmen, 2 Gardeners, 4 Assassins, 5 Vanguards, 5 Cavalry Riders(Battle Horse included), 8 Archers, 8 Spearmen, 11 Warriors
–2-Star Summons: 16 Summons – 1 Summoner, 1 Earth Mage, 1 Priest(Minor Healing and Poison Purification), 1 Weaponsmith, 1 Doctor, 1 Architect, 1 Heavy Armored Elephant(tamed), 1 Demi-Human(Typhoon Eaglefolk), 1 Demi-Human(Speedster Rabbitfolk), 2 Berserker, 2 Knights, 3 Merchants.
–3-Star Summons: 3 Summons – 1 Greater Eagle(tamed), 1 Master Alchemist, 1 Botanical Magician(No Combat Power. Spells related to Botanics only!)
–4-Star Summon: Nature Spirit]
Michael's expression was full of gleam and joy as he read through the summarized report of today's mass summoning.
He had been way too lucky today.
But there was one thing that confused him a lot.
"I…I summoned a 4-Star Summon?!"
"When? Where? Who? What? How?"
