Michael's expression was sour when they returned to the clearing.
Several hours had passed and the sun was about to disappear behind the horizon.
At last, Michael and the others decided not to enter the lizard cave.
Despite not entering the lizard cave, they conquered it indirectly by telling Liopham to keep using his Soultrait, Rage of the Primal. He used his Soultrait to pull smaller groups of Monsters out of the cavern system where they would be ambushed with a great numerical advantage.
Michael was glad that one of the Forest Elves was in possession of Rage of the Primal, but overall, he was dissatisfied with the stubbornness of the Forest Elves. It felt like they were born to waste money– and to make his life much harder.
His dissatisfaction turned to mild annoyance as he had expected them to wholeheartedly cooperate with him and his team.
Their individual skills and combat prowess were great. In fact, even the teamwork between the five Forest Elves was exceptional, but it felt like they were born to make Michael's life harder.
'Did I expect too much from them?' Michael wondered.
'Was it the right decision to take them in?'
He clearly recalled that he had reasonable hopes. Michael merely wished that his army and the Forest Elves would learn to cooperate with each other and that they would have better coordination while conquering the lizard cave. That way, it would be much easier to hunt small groups of Tier-2 Monsters.
Everyone would benefit from that since Michael was willing to provide the Forest Elves with a few benefits. At least, that was the initial plan.
In fact, Michael and his people still had a hard time hunting a TIer-2 Monster on their own. However, it was possible – despite not having anyone at Tier-2 in their group. It was hard to pull off, but the chances were not zero. Furthermore, nobody sustained any injuries, which was the best means to demonstrate the efficiency of his army's tactics. Their strategies were detailed and precise, and their utility of abilities was greatly displayed and fully exploited.
Though the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team could also hunt Tier-2 Monsters and had a much easier time than Michael's army, their energy consumption and wastage of precious Artifacts was disastrous.
It felt like they didn't conserve their energy while fighting, nor did they care about doing so, at all.
All of their strategies had one thing in common-high energy consumption.
It was not a bad tactic if they were fighting small battles – which was normal for an Adventurer team of their size. They had to complete their mission and would return home afterward.
However, in an army with hundreds of members, consuming as much energy as the five Forest Elves would lead to a disaster.
If the front lines were to use too much energy, they wouldn't be able to protect themselves, forget about others. Meanwhile, those at the back wouldn't be able to support the frontlines anymore the moment their energy was drained.
Either way, the battle strategies would lose their worth if nobody was able to execute them. By then, even Peak Tier-1 Monsters would be enough to obliterate the territory's army.
A Tier-2 Monster would kill them all before moving forward and entering the territory where all of the citizens would be massacred mercilessly.
The responsibility and scale of the battle were just two out of the numerous differences between a Lord's battle and an Adventurers' battle.
That was why Michael had to change lots of things.
**
10 extremely tiring days later in the Origin Expanse, Michael was drenched in sweat, overflowing with annoyance and desperately hoping that the troublesome days had passed.
The last ten days felt like an eternity to Michael, and he found himself imagining bashing the heads of the Forest Elves more often than he was willing to acknowledge.
It was truly difficult to convince the stubborn Forest Elves that it was necessary to change their fighting style.
Michael tried to make them understand what he wanted to achieve with the changes he proposed, but it felt like talking to a wall.
They weren't really cooperative and easily came up with excuses.
–We're only temporarily in your territory, either way.
–What will you do once your Soldiers start relying on us? They will have trouble readjusting after we leave.
–Our fighting style fits us perfectly. We kill our opponents fast to ensure that there will be no future problems. If you cannot afford the expenses, that's fine. We have enough to pay for our own expenses. You don't have to trouble yourself with us for long either way, so just swallow your pride and accept our standpoint!
They always reminded him that they would leave soon. It made sense that they thought like this, but their excuses angered him often.
Only Lilica remained silent. In the first few days, she interfered every now and then, suggesting Michael accept them as they were, but her comments gradually became less, after noticing his reaction. She started keeping her opinions to herself and didn't say anything to Michael in the past three days.
Michael didn't know why Lilica turned silent, but it was a good thing for him. It was an opportunity to strike the Forest Elves and make sure that they would adapt to them.
Unfortunately, the results hadn't been as great as he hoped for.
Despite his frustration, Michael was also painfully aware of how powerful the Forest Elves were.
The conquest of the lizard cave progressed much faster than it would have without the Forest Elves. Furthermore, their teachings had great results for the Archers, and he saw a major improvement in their efficiency.
Everything progressed much faster than before. The training was great and quite successful, the cavern system was slowly being conquered, and more than 100 citizens in Michael's territory crossed the barrier to the next Tier, advancing to Tier-1.
All of that was great, but it was all accompanied by constant headaches.
He couldn't even say too much because if he went overboard, he would lose the Forest Elves as a business partner as well.
Over the past ten days, Michael created an improved system that allowed him to increase his profits. They claimed a few ore deposits and began mining them. That way, Michael didn't have to rely on Xiltra to purchase ores.
He visited the smithies every now and then to use Extraction on the molten metal ingots, successfully extracting a large amount of impurities. That way, he improved the quality of the ingots while simultaneously studying his Soultrait in-depth.
The metal ingots would be forged into low-level armaments which were given to Lilica and the others. They sold them to the Forest Elven tribe which would give him blueprints, herbs and other ingredients as per his request.
The Bartholomew Corporation was overjoyed at the number of blueprints Michael provided. At the same time, the Forest Elves were also happy about the quality of the low-level armaments.
However, Michael was the happiest about the trading system he had created. His territory made the most gains. His finances were much higher than ever before as well.
And fortunately enough, his time outside the Origin Expanse was as pleasant as his finances.
While ten days passed in the Origin Expanse, only five days had passed outside.
Michael enjoyed his time in the Dekalos-Class spaceship a lot. This was especially true now that Frederik's behavior improved greatly.
Frederik Kolbenheim didn't underestimate Michael anymore. He became much stronger by using more of his resources, and by entering the Origin Expanse more often to control his subjects and focusing on the development of his territory precisely. Frederik began to make use of the time difference between the Origin Expanse and outside to grow stronger.
He understood that if he could not even defeat Michael, he would never be able to compete against the rest of the freshmen, forget about their seniors. Frederik's initial plan had been to become the number one student of the freshmen batch and start fighting against their seniors.
But to achieve that he had to become a lot stronger.
"You are much stronger than I expected. I shouldn't have underestimated you…" Frederik admitted through his gritted teeth a few days ago.
It cost him a great deal of courage, and the sacrifice of some of his pride to say that straight to Michael's face, but he did it. Oddly enough, Frederik felt much better once he acknowledged that Michael was stronger than most others.
"You have the right to attend the Saphirelake Military Academy, even if you're not from a noble background," Frederik added, swallowing the provocations that flashed through his mind and simply left without another word.
Michael had been greatly surprised by Frederik's sudden change in behavior. He had never expected him to say something like that.
Meanwhile, Jacqueline was a little frightened of Michael.
Nobody had slapped her before, yet Michael did not only that. He even beat the shit out of her like there was no tomorrow.
It was only obvious that she couldn't help but feel different about Michael. She was scared.
But Michael didn't really care about Jacqueline, so he didn't bother. He gave his best during the Limit Breaker Course, that was all.
Her reaction was actually quite satisfying to look at. It was different compared to how his bullies had looked at him in the past. Maybe, he had the same expression as Jacqueline when he was in high school.
Fortunately, that was a thing of the past.
The Barbaric Couple's attitude toward him was quite interesting. Kaleb was no different either.
The young Zenovia grew a little closer to him, though it was still quite obvious that Kaleb was jealous of him being a Lord. Kaleb wanted to turn 18 as quickly as possible.
Over the past few weeks, Michael had been quite surprised about Kaleb's great talent multiple times. That young man was bound to become a promising Lord, no matter what his Soultrait would be.
Other than the time he spent with the Barbaric Couple and Kaleb Zenovia, Michael realized that the courses were about to conclude. There were only four days left before they would arrive in Kelta.
In these four days, Michael wanted to keep working hard. He enjoyed pushing himself and testing his limits since it made him feel as if he could accomplish anything.
Furthermore, competing with his peers felt great. He could see his progress and compare it to the progression of the people around him. It was incomparable to his high school days.
Here, nobody tried to restrict him. It was fun.
These days, Michael contemplated a lot about his situation.
He was certain that he had done a decent job until now. However, he began to wonder what he could have done better, and what he could do to improve his situation.
Killing the Twin Lions and the last unknown subordinate of Senator Keltos seemed like a good idea, but that would attract Senator Keltos' attention as well.
Furthermore, the lizard cave was still a big project that had to be completed, just like the Temple of the Forgotten.
But first things first, Michael had to figure out why the Forest Elves' behavior changed all of a sudden.
To be precise, Lilica was speaking to the other Forest Elves with a grim expression when he returned to the Origin Expanse.
The Forest Elves had turned pale, while LIlica's expression seemed a little bit off.
"What's going on?" Michael thus asked the obvious.
LIlica and the Forest Elves stared at him for a while. None of them wanted to say a word.
After five minutes of silence passed, Lilica revealed the reason behind their worried expressions.
"It looks like our Elders like both the quality and quantity of the low-level armaments you provide," She uttered quietly before she added heavily,
"They want us to stay a little longer…and to listen to you…"
**
