Six middle-aged men and women were standing around a small bed, their sweat trickling down onto the ground where a small puddle formed.
"How can someone's condition be so bad?" One of the middle-aged women murmured quietly as she stepped back to take a good look at the situation unfolding in front of her.
A young freshman was lying on the bed, fighting for his survival.
While that was nothing unique in the medical hall of the Saphirelake Military Academy, the young man's condition was far from a common occurrence. It was grave, even when compared to bad cases.
"Why did he have to arrive during my shift…" A middle-aged man complained quietly, and others agreed with a faint nod.
Alice Zenovia glared coldly at the complaining medics, her gaze causing shivers to run down their spines.
"I…just panicked a little. Please ignore what I said, Miss Zenovia…" The middle-aged man added hurriedly, feeling like his life depended on it.
Alice didn't say anything but she averted her attention from the medic to look at Michael once again.
Michael's complexion was much better than before. After the medics spent more than four hours tending to Michael's wounds and issues his condition was finally a little bit better.
That was a given considering that the medics used their high-ranked Soultraits, various concoctions, and medical devices to stabilize Michael's heartbeat before they tended to the issues one by one.
But even after all of that, Michael had yet to regain his consciousness.
"His condition is severe. I am actually not sure how he was still alive when you brought him in," The oldest medic said bluntly.
He had been in the Saphirelake Military Academy since it opened and spent decades in other academies within the solar system, yet he had never encountered a case like Michael. Michael's condition was intriguing from the point of view of a medical researcher, but it was terrifying as his attending medic.
The old medic forwarded Michael's medical report to Alice to show her how severe the situation was.
"He had been infested by Chaos Essence? What did he do?" Alice blurted out loudly upon reading the first sentence of the medical report from the holographic screen in front of her.
However, she was not yet done. Michael's medical report was several pages long, full of lethal issues that could have killed him easily.
"His origin energy storage was overloaded and damaged repetitively. Something like this happens usually if you use too many energy potions to quickly refill your energy storage. However, in the patient's case he used not only too many energy potions, but he used thrice or quadruple the amount his energy storage could bear, multiple times at that," The medic explained while Alice was focused on the holographic screen in front of her.
"It seems like his mental power has been drained to an extent in which his brain was burdened, forcefully shutting his body off to prevent permanent brain damage," He added.
"There is still a lot more I could say but the report says it all. If I continue telling you about his issues and what we had to tend to in order to fix him, I would be standing here for another hour or two. Unfortunately, I have other patients to tend to."
After the old man said everything that had to be said, he excused himself and left.
The other medics finished tending to Michael's injuries before they left as well.
Meanwhile, Kaleb stared blankly at the holographic screen in front of Alice. The holographic screen displayed all pages of Michael's medical report, where Michael's issues were written in great detail.
Even though Kaleb couldn't understand every point or the medical terminologies mentioned in the report, he could understand most of it – and that was bothersome enough for him.
"He will be fine, right?" Kaleb asked his sister in worry.
However, Alice didn't turn over to her younger brother. She merely shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess."
Her voice was emotionless but a deep frown appeared on her beautiful face not long after.
"How did he even end up with all those problems? Collecting them shouldn't be his hobby… If any of these issues had worsened just a little, he would either be dead or crippled," She mumbled.
Kaleb's eyes widened at that. He had yet to face great dangers within the Origin Expanse, so he couldn't fully comprehend what Michael must have encountered to end up in such a bad state. Yet, upon seeing his sister's grim expression and how serious she acted, Kaleb could tell that Michael must have escaped death by a hair's breadth.
"Good thing that he's alive…" He mumbled, looking over to his unconscious friend.
**[Several days later]**
After spending several days in the medical hall of the Saphirelake Military Academy, Michael was finally allowed to leave.
The last traces of chaos essence had been removed from his body, and his other issues had been tended to as well – fortunately.
Michael didn't even realize the horrifying state of his body until it was already days after he regained consciousness. Only now did he understand that he had been extremely lucky. If he hadn't instinctively returned to the Saphirelake Military Academy, he would be dead by now.
'A healing-type Soultrait would be quite useful,' Michael mused as he left the medical hall.
He was happy that the healing hall in the Saphirelake Military Academy had exceptional facilities and was completely funded by the government. The students didn't have to pay a dime for the service they received. That was great since Michael would have been robbed of his entire fortune otherwise.
Michael felt much better than before, but he was still weak. His body required lots of nutrition and naturally absorbed energy to bring him back to his peak state. The medics gave him a prescription to abide by, followed by several instructions he would have to obey if he didn't want to end up as a cripple.
There were a lot more orders, but Michael could summarize them rather simply.
'Don't drain your origin energy for a few weeks. Don't exert your Soultraits over a long period in the next few weeks. Don't fight straining battles for the time being. Don't strain your brain too much. Take it slow.'
Michael didn't intend to disobey the medics' orders. He wanted to focus on his training in the next few weeks while observing the relocation, and expansion of his territory in the middle zone.
The only time he would have to use his Soultrait was in the Untamed Jungle's outer ring. He had to fix the outer ring by extracting the chaos essence that had taken root in the corrupted land. Fortunately, there was no deadline to complete the task given by the mythical serpent. He could fix the Untamed Jungle's outer ring slowly by exerting Extraction for a short period daily.
Since that wouldn't be enough to tend to the wounds he had inflicted upon the Untamed Jungle, Michael visited one of the shops that were affiliated with the Bartholomew Corporation.
"I want to purchase half a million Tier-1 corpses. The fresher the better!" Michael ordered shortly after he entered the shop. He handed the attending staff his golden bartholomew membership card and waited patiently.
"500,000 Tier-1 corpses? Is that order…correct?" The attending staff asked in a slightly hesitant manner, unable to understand what someone wanted to do with half a million carcasses.
"It's correct, yes. Please proceed with the order. My bank account details are connected to the membership card. Money shouldn't be an issue."
Michael was able to earn a vast fortune in the last few weeks. Every agriculture-related blueprint rewarded him with a profit of several hundred thousand dollars. His expenses rose a lot as well, yet Michael had a hard time using his entire fortune.
Since he had been rather poor before, Michael found himself saving money more often than he spent it, even though he knew that it was not the most efficient way to use his fortune.
"I would like to sell a few thousand Tier-1 Artifacts, and a little bit more than 500 Tier-2 Artifacts as well," Michael said calmly, dropping another bomb right in front of the attending staff.
The young woman stared at him with her mouth slightly open, her brain trying to process what was going on. Was that young man in front of her a tycoon or something like that?
"For purchase orders, and transactions with thousands of Artifacts…I will have to call my superior…" She mumbled quietly, hoping that the customer was not in a hurry.
Michael smiled in response. The young woman's troubled expression amused him.
"Do that then," He said before adding, "And calm down a little."
Despite telling her to calm down, the young woman couldn't. She hurriedly called her superior, telling him everything that had just happened.
In less than ten minutes a middle-aged man arrived in the shop, panting heavily. His forehead was glistening with sweat that he wiped off hastily with a handkerchief as he strode toward Michael and greeted him politely.
"Good morning, sir. I am terribly sorry for taking so long. Your order has already been placed and is currently being processed. We'll pay attention to the freshness of the 500,000 Tier-1 monster carcasses. Please don't worry about that!" The middle-aged man said before gesturing to a door at the side of the shop.
"Please follow me for the appraisal of the goods you wish to sell. I am curious what our esteemed guest wants to sell to our honorable and just shop!"
Michael didn't like the shop manager's overly formal way of speaking, but he gave it a shrug. Earning money was more important.
He followed the shop manager to the appraisal room where he retrieved batches of dozens of Artifacts.
Initially, Michael wanted to keep a few Artifacts, but he, Tiara and the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team quickly noticed that the Tier-2 Adventurers had been quite poor. Their Tier-2 Artifacts were either 1-Star, or 2-Star Artifacts with common enchantments. While that may be exceptional for some Awakened, Michael and Tiara didn't find any Artifacts that suited their combat style. There weren't many natural Tier-2 Artifacts either.
Michael and Tiara were not willing to change their combat style for a mere 2-Star Tier-2 Artifact. That wasn't worth it.
Thus, rather than keeping the Artifacts, Michael would rather earn a fortune from selling them. That way, he could invest his money into his territory and still purchase 500,000 Tier-1 monster carcasses.
The shop manager's expression changed drastically upon seeing the sheer mass of Artifacts that appeared in front of him. The young man retrieved a huge pile of Artifacts from his War Rune like it was nothing.
Michael's expression remained calm and composed as he observed the shop manager's reaction.
"It should be a total of 4752 Tier-1 Artifacts, and 521 Tier-2 Artifacts. Please appraise them carefully, and offer a satisfactory price!" Michael said with a faint smile on his lips.
However, to the shop manager, Michael's words sounded like an order, and his faint smile looked like the incarnation of the devil's smile.
Goosebumps spread all over his body and he began to shudder involuntarily.
'Who the hell is that guy?!'
