Michael spent a while reading through the documents left behind by the Senator's direct subordinate.
There was not much content, but it revealed certain clues about the Lionheart's mission, and what he should avoid doing for the time being.
The documents were a part of the official exchange between the Senator and the five Lionhearts he had chosen as trustworthy enough to complete the secret mission.
'Seems like you never expected someone to be capable of plundering a War Rune's sacred storage space. That's your misfortune, bastard!' Michael cursed the Senator in his mind as he re-read the documents a few more times.
He didn't want to miss a single detail and stored the documents inside his War Rune only after he was certain that he had imprinted everything in his mind.
The Lionheart Leader of the Adventurer team and the aggressive Lionheart from the day before were only two out of five Lionhearts, who had been given the secret mission. Michael wasn't able to find out more about the remaining three Lionhearts, but that didn't disappoint him a lot.
Michael had to prepare for the worst, either way.
'Selling the Minotaur in Xiltra would only attract suspicion. The five Lionhearts should have been connected to each other. If even one of them knows about the connection between the tamer and the Lionheart, they can find out what happened,' Michael concluded after he thought about selling the Blood-eyed Minotaur corpse to the Guild.
He could have completed a guild mission and earned a fortune selling the corpse. Unfortunately, he had to let go of the small fortune for the time being.
The daily report was waiting for Michael. He read through it thoroughly and gave his subjects a few orders that had to be completed on priority before he walked over to Icarus.
"Are you ready for a short trip to Xiltra, or do you want to rest a little longer?" Michael asked Icarus, whose twisted talon had been mended and realigned correctly.
The Greater Eagle was still exhausted, but seeing the glint of determination in Michael's eyes, Icarus could only screech out in agreement.
Michael smiled lightly, got on the Greater Eagle's back and they ascended back into the air.
Icarus didn't dare to fly too high through the air. Their altitude was not even two meters above the canopy of trees beneath them. The fear of the serpent in the Greater Eagle's heart was too strong, and Icarus was not yet ready to fight him head-on.
Michael didn't say anything to Icarus. He understood why the Greater Eagle was so worried. After all, he was also present when the Thunder Pteranodon King had appeared above them, just to be burned to a crisp without the slightest chance of retaliation.
It was far weirder that Michael wasn't concerned about their well-being as they flew across the Untamed Jungle. His confidence was groundless, and merely based on his gut feeling. Michael was certain that no aerial monster would attack them for the time being. The reason- his gut feeling told him that the mythical serpent didn't want any troublemakers in the sky above the Untamed Jungle.
Michael was not sure why he felt like that, but the day they encountered the mythical serpent made him believe that his thoughts were right.
As expected, they didn't encounter a mighty monster in the air. They reached Xiltra, paid the entrance fee and Michael put Icarus in the mount stall, just like he did the last time he arrived in Xiltra.
In the next two hours, Michael sold a few blueprints and the Artifacts that were collecting dust in his War Rune's storage space. The Artifacts were also the batch of items he had extracted from the Adventurers, but that was not important.
Michael earned a small fortune, and he used that money, in addition to the fortune he had plundered from the Adventurers in order to purchase a wide variety of cheap blueprints.
Once he was done purchasing everything he needed, Michael visited the guild house. He wanted to talk to Lilica, but the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team was out on a mission.
Michael didn't want to waste anymore time, so he picked up Icarus and they returned to the Untamed Jungle.
When he was back in the territory, Michael organized his thoughts and watched his subjects work tirelessly before he left the Origin Expanse with a hundred blueprints that were considered rare and hard to procure for most human Lords.
When Michael stepped out of the Runic Gate, he reappeared in his small cabin within the Dekalos-class spaceship.
He opened his messenger to take note if he had missed out on something very important, only to see that Frederik had hurled dozens of messages at him in an attempt to provoke him.
'This kid never learns, does he?' Michael could only ask in his mind before he closed the messenger.
Nothing noteworthy seemed to have happened in the past few days.
Relieved, Michael stepped out of the cabin and made his way to the spaceship's shops. However, he noticed something on his way.
First, inertia grew stronger during the time he spend in the Origin Expanse. It didn't affect Michael too much, but it was important to note that his headache grew worse with the increased gravitational force weighing down on him.
'Maybe, I should go to the infirmary first.'
There was no shame in visiting the medical team on board. Sustaining injuries during training was not an uncommon occurrence. The same applied to getting injured in the Origin Expanse. It happened quite often.
That was why the Saphirelake Military Academy was prepared for everything. Of course, they had an infirmary of the highest level. Even the spaceship was equipped with the best medical devices and means to ensure your survival even if you're on the verge of death.
However, the cherry on the cake was that all of it was free of charge. It was normal to be injured in the Military Academy, and it was only obvious that the Academy would spend a considerable amount of money to ensure the well-being of its students.
With that in mind, Michael changed his course. He went to the infirmary where he was treated by a middle-aged woman. She was an Adventurer with a powerful healing Soultrait. As the nutrition and origin energy in Michael's body was enough, she didn't even have to use much of her own energy to heal the crack in Michael's skin/skull, the swelling where the Minotaur had headbutted him, and the cracked bones all over his body.
Michael didn't even realize how injured he had been until the medical staff started to question him about how the hell he was able to walk around with such injuries.
They gave up questioning him when they saw the confusion in his eyes. It was obvious that Michael was clueless about how lucky he had been, and how resilient his body was.
"You should eat a lot. Healing you used up most of the nutrition in your body. Take this special meal quota coupon, and use it. The dishes are highly nutritious and they have great medicinal value. Don't waste them and eat everything to recuperate faster," The middle-aged woman advised, transferring a special food coupon to his crystal watch.
He received it with a bright smile, and his happiness was further amplified by his grumbling stomach.
The medical staff chuckled lightly and sent him off with a smile.
Distracted by the thought of more free meals, Michael even forgot about his mission for the time being.
He hadn't eaten for a while now, and that was one of the greatest sins he could commit.
Feeling reenergized, Michael headed to the cafeteria.
It was time to feast.
