Michael quickly realized that it hadn't been necessary to threaten Lilica and the four members of her team.
Lilica's words from before weren't wrong either.
The Elders of the Forest Elven tribe didn't want anyone else to know about Michael's Soultrait. Instead, they wanted to get closer to him and find out more about his Soultrait's limit.
Because they had only clues and didn't know everything about Michael's capabilities, they could only be nice to him. After all, the only connection they had with him was the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team – and they had become his subordinates.
The Elders couldn't order them to kidnap Michael, which left cooperation as the only option for the time being.
But what Michael didn't expect to receive was a gift from the Elders.
Lilica and her team disappeared for a total of three days. They left the Origin Expanse and returned just as Michael wanted to leave after finishing the last preparations to land on Kelta.
The 30 days required to travel through the Dekalos-Class spaceship and spent in the Origin Expanse were about to conclude, and a new chapter in everyone's life was about to get started for real.
However, Lilica arrived with a request when she returned from home.
"Please install the Forest Elf Summoning Core in your Summoning Gate!" She requested sincerely, stretching out her hand that held a whitish Summoning Core with faint green hues in several spots.
The Summoning Core looked beautiful, but Michael was a little bit baffled.
'Even if they want to give me something, isn't a Summoning Core too expensive? And why is she requesting the installation rather than saying it's a gift?' Michael wondered.
The most important difference between a gift and a request was that the former came with no strings attached.
Meanwhile, a request meant that the Forest Elves needed help, which is why they were willing to use a treasure such as a Forest Elf Summoning Core in exchange.
However, Michael quickly realized that the situation was not that simple.
The Forest Elf Summoning Core summoned only Forest Elves. That meant the Untamed Jungle would also turn into a part of the Forest Elves' spawn region – even if it was far in the future.
The probability of spawning in the Untamed Jungle as Forest Elves was minuscule, but it would increase ever so slightly as the number of Forest Elf Summons increased.
It would require more than a hundred thousand, possibly more Forest Elf Summons before one would take note of the increased probability, but it existed nonetheless.
That was also why many Lords didn't like special Summoning Cores of foreign races. In the first place, many didn't like foreign races, due to various reasons such as conflicts, wars, and discrimination.
But the Elders and Lilica thought that Michael was different. He treated everyone equally. Furthermore, more powerful subjects were always welcome in his territory.
Thus, there was no reason for him to reject the Forest Elf Summoning Core.
Michael would still be the Lord of his territory, but he wouldn't be an ordinary human Lord. The probability of him summoning Forest Elves would increase drastically, and it was possible that more Elven Lords would appear in or near the Untamed Jungle in the future.
"I don't think your Elders were willing to give up a Summoning Core merely to please me, or to increase the probability to spawn in the Untamed Jungle in the future. Were you instructed to ask for something in return, or did they just tell you to make the request, and nothing else?" Michael asked sharply, not falling victim to the boundless greed that dwelled inside him.
Lilica didn't expect Michael to be overjoyed. By now, Lilica learned more than enough about Michael to tell that he was rather vigilant when it came to situations such as this one.
However, she could only say what she had been told.
"Our Elders didn't say a lot. They mentioned that Extraction seems more powerful than the eye can fathom and that the tribe wants to further strengthen our relationship. The Summoning Core should show that their trust is worth more than just empty words of reassurance."
Michael knew that the Forest Elves loved his Nature Spirits. It made them feel like they were home. Other than the Summoning Core, the five Forest Elves brought many seeds and crystals from home to hand them over to the Nature Spirit. The seedling-type 4-Star Nature Spirit was something worth being nourished with great care. After all, its development path had yet to be chosen.
One way or another, Michael could tell that Lilica and the others must have told their Elders a lot about his territory, Soultrait, and personality. Otherwise, they would have never even considered giving him a Forest Elf Summoning Core.
And secretly, Michael was quite happy even though he looked sharp at Lilica and the others.
How could he not be happy? The Summoning Core reaffirmed that the Forest Elven Elders would stay quiet about his Soultrait. After all, no race would ever want to see the fate of their ancestors in the hands of another race's Lord.
If the Forest Elven Elders were not certain that they would never sever their ties with Michael, they wouldn't have given him the Forest Elf Summoning Core. It was a sign of great trust, which was something Michael regarded highly.
After all, they were willing to take a big risk by giving him the benefit of the doubt and trusting him much more than Michael gave them.
'Is that what they're trying to do? Gain my trust? Or is there more?'
Michael was not sure, but he could tell that the Elders trusted Lilica and her team members a lot. The Elders believed that their youngsters wouldn't make a mess and that they could maintain and improve the connection between Michael and the Forest Elves.
"I'm honored to hear that your Elders trust me enough to resurrect the deceased of your tribe in my territory. I will take great care of them!" Michael spoke sincerely as he retrieved the Forest Elf Summoning Core.
He walked over to the hatch of the Summoning Gate, used Extraction to extract some of the impurities within the Summoning Core, and installed it.
The Summoning Gate released a strong pulling force, dragging Michael closer to the hatch, where he installed the Forest Elf Summoning Core in no time.
The Summoning Gate began to hum loudly. Its energy pool began to ripple and the pressure around the large structure increased drastically.
Two brightly shining stars lit up in the Summoning Gate's metal frame, and the outlines of a skinny, tall man condensed.
A beautiful man, with large green eyes, long eyelashes, long pointed ears and a vivid smile on his face stepped out of the energy pool of the Summoning Gate. He held a longbow in his hand and winked in Michael's direction when he realized where he was.
Michael was surrounded by the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team, but everyone was a little bit stupefied.
"Looks like we're quite lucky today," Michael mumbled, looking at the Forest Elf Summon, who was a 2-Star Sharpshooter Summon.
Other than just once when Michael's daily summons brought him a 2-Star Berserker Michael had never summoned a 2-Star Summon without using a Mythic Summoning Scroll, or a Fortune Summoning Scroll.
In the last 30 days, Michael had been unable to collect Mythic Summoning Scrolls either. Even his ordinary summons had been rather unlucky these days, with only a few combat units joining his army.
Lilica and the others didn't understand what Michael meant, but they knew that it was not an ordinary event to add 2-Star Summons to the territory. Thus, they were quite happy. A Forest Elf Summon would become an important member in Michael's territory!
Michael was also quite satisfied. He knew that many Forest Elves had unique talents, which could be quite useful when summoned to his territory. He was curious about the progress of his territory and awaited it eagerly.
But at the same time, Michael fell deep in thought at the sight of the 2-Star Sharpshooter Forest Elf.
Seeing a new Forest Elf appear in his territory, Michael was reminded about the little information he had found about them in mankind's database.
'Elves are said to have had access to the Origin Expanse for more than ten thousand years. In that case, the Forest Elven tribe should be a 'little' bit older than mankind as well, right?'
Michael began to wonder if the Forest Elves could help him decipher the old tongue used by the Temple of the Forgotten.
'Maybe…'
