Michael's attention was pulled to the remaining traces of Extraction. They were still inside the Horned Werewolves, slowly draining the remnants of origin energy inside the corpses.
The extracted origin energy immediately entered Michael's body, replenishing his used-up energy.
'I can even extract their origin energy? That's pretty useful,' Michael mused, a vivid smile blossoming on his face.
If he could replenish his used-up energy by using Extraction on the corpses of the battlefield, he wouldn't have to worry about his high energy consumption.
Until now, his energy consumption had been his biggest restriction. Trying to use several Soultraits with their full power simultaneously was simply too draining to fight a long battle. Even while fighting the Horned Werewolves, Michael had to use more than half of his stored origin energy to win. Fortunately, that seemed to change now that Michael found a new use of Extraction – a function that seemed to have been unlocked after upgrading Extraction to a 6-Star Soultrait.
They didn't sustain any injuries thanks to his actions, but they wouldn't be able to tackle another group of Horned Werewolves that easily – if not for the Sun Soldier's Breathing technique and Extraction's newly unraveled function.
He drained the corpses of the Horned Werewolves to fill his origin energy storage to the brim. Afterward, the remaining remnants of origin energy were released into the air, allowing Masked Saber and Tiara to replenish their used-up energy faster as well.
"So I cannot use Extraction to actively accelerate the refinement of my War Rune. I see," Michael mumbled as he felt the density of origin energy around him increase slowly.
Once the corpses were drained of the last remnants of origin energy, Michael used Extraction to extract the loot created by the Will of the Origin Expanse.
He used Extraction on the four Horned Werewolf corpses while waiting in anticipation to see the drops he could obtain inside the Lord Rift.
But what appeared in front of him confused Michael quite a bit.
"17 Summoning Scrolls, 509 Summoning Scroll Fragments, one 1-Star Tier-2 Artifact, six rare blueprints, and 2 SoulStar Fragments from four Superior Species… isn't that way too much? And why are SoulStar Fragments dropping?" Michael blurted out, a deep frown forming on his face, "Is it because the loot in the Lord Rift is higher?"
Supreme Existences were known to drop better loot, but they shouldn't drop that much, let alone SoulStar Fragments.
"If the drop-rate for all drops is that high in the rift, we shouldn't avoid monsters while harvesting herbs, plants, and ores," Masked Saber pointed out, and Tiara agreed without hesitation.
"As long as we take bigger groups of Monsters by surprise, we won't have an issue dealing with seven or even eight Superior Species at the 2nd Tier," She said with confidence.
Michael just nodded while using Extraction to dissect the corpses of the four Horned Werewolves. As a Superior Existence, every single part of the Horned Werewolves' bodies was valuable. Michael was not foolish enough to leave behind the small treasure troves.
Once he stored the perfectly dissected corpses inside the War Rune's storage space, Michael began to utilize Eagle Eyes to figure out if there were more monsters in the surroundings for him to kill.
He soon spotted two large groups of monsters, and his eyes glimmered in excitement. Michael knew them from studying the Beastarium. They were all Superior Existences!
'Are all Monsters in the Lord Rift Superior Existences?'
"Let's move to the forest first, I want to extract the resin of the Purplebloom tree. We'll need it to brew the tincture for the teleportation array," Michael ordered.
They slowly moved through the small plain and approached the flourishing forest, which shone in various colors. A wide variety of trees grew in the forest, creating a vibrant scenery filled with bountiful colors.
Michael couldn't find many big groups of monsters roaming inside the forest, but he easily located a bunch of smaller monster groups scattered all around. In fact, the hordes in the small plains seemed to expand in size the longer he searched for smaller groups.
Interestingly enough, all monsters had one thing in common- They were Superior Existences and at the 2nd Tier.
No monster was at the 1st Tier, let alone an ordinary existence. Most of them could be considered unique in the Origin Expanse, yet they were ordinary in the Lord Rift.
This find was also why Michael was more curious to explore the vast and vivid forest. He and his team entered it with great vigilance. They immediately encountered a small group of monsters, which they attacked without hesitation.
Taking the group of three Diamond Deers by surprise, Michael, Tiara and Masked Saber were able to kill them in less than a minute. Michael used three four-layer enhanced Spirit Whips to lash at the Diamond Deers the moment he and his team appeared next to the monsters.
He used Enhancement several times on the Wyverntooth Spear as well, ensuring that he could pierce through the Diamond Deer's thick hide. And, immediately after piercing through the thick hide, Michael utilized Extraction to drain the Diamond Deer's blood, and origin energy.
Michael used five layers of Enhancement on Extraction so as to unleash the lethality of Extraction to its full extent.
Yet, instead of only extracting blood and origin energy, Michael felt like he was revitalized, and his body was refreshed. Usually, he would feel mentally exhausted using too many layers of Enhancement combined with two or more other Soultraits. But Michael was currently using Eagle Eyes, three four-layer enhanced Spirit Whips, and five-layer enhanced Extraction without feeling a severe headache.
Instead of feeling mentally exhausted, Michael felt fit and refreshed.
It was confusing, but the puzzle was not that hard to solve.
'The Diamond Deer's vitality. I'm extracting it as well!' Michael nearly blurted aloud as realization struck him.
His eyes began to gleam brightly, and his focus moved to the pulsating golden streams of Extraction. They infiltrated the Diamond Deer's body, and rapidly drained its lifeforce, origin energy, and blood.
Both lifeforce and origin energy entered his body while the extracted blood splattered on the ground.
The fight against his opponent ended shortly after it started. After being struck by a four-layer enhanced Spirit Whip and pierced by the Wyverntooth Spear that weakened the Diamond Deer's mental guard and injured it severely, Extraction dealt the finishing blow by draining it of Origin energy rapidly.
After the Diamond Deer was left too weak to counterattack, Michael struck it two more times with the enhanced Spirit Whip before moving away to support Tiara and Masked Saber.
Michael lowered his upper body when he emerged next to the Diamond Deer Tiara was fighting. He struck the Diamond Deer with two enhanced Spirit Whips and thrust out with the Wyverntooth Spear. Meanwhile, Tiara changed her trajectory suddenly, slashing the silver spear diagonally across the Diamond Deer's head.
Blood splattered, and the Diamond Deer bleated in pain before thigh-thick golden streams engulfed it, seemingly devouring the Diamond Deer.
Michael could clearly sense the Diamond Deer faltering after it had been struck with Spirit Whips. It was also possible to sense the amount of lifeforce and origin energy left inside the Diamond Deer after his golden streams of extraction spread through the monster.
The third Diamond Deer became his next victim. It died after suffering the combined attack from Michael, Tiara, and Masked Saber.
Under normal circumstances, Michael would have little to no origin energy left inside his body. He would be mentally drained as well after fighting not 1 but three Supreme Existences. But neither was the case right now.
Michael felt energetic and his origin energy storage was half filled. The used-up origin energy replenished quite fast, and it grew even faster after the last Diamond Deer died. Using Extraction actively on the Diamond Deers that had just been killed, Michael could drain the last remnants of origin energy residing within them.
'Extracting lifeforce is not that simple. I have to use five-layer enhanced Extraction and crush the mental defense of my opponent before I can even think about draining their life force. It's only obvious but there is no more lifeforce inside the bodies of the deceased. That means I have to leave some opponents alive to drain their lifeforce mid-battle while continuing fighting the remaining opponents without a splitting headache. That can be quite dangerous.'
Michael was quite satisfied with the gains he made since he entered the Lord Rift. He learned a lot more about Extraction, granting him more ways to fight against a large number of opponents.
Michael extracted the loot gained by killing the three Diamond Deers before he dissected them perfectly.
After that, he focused on harvesting the Purplebloom tree's resin using Extraction, collecting plants and herbs, and killing more monsters.
In the following two hours, they encountered three more small monster groups, which Michael fought using a few tactics he made up using his new insights about Extraction.
He first injured one monster severely before extracting the ground beneath it. The severely injured monster would fall into a pit before it was struck with a four-layer enhanced Spirit Whip. Once injured and its mental guard broken, five-layer enhanced Extraction would drain its origin energy and lifeforce rapidly.
Michael would then divert his attention and attack the other monsters, helping Masked Saber and Tiara. Whenever a monster was injured and struck with Spirit Whip, Michael would release a strand of Extraction to invade the injured monster to drain it slowly of its Origin energy.
Afterward, Michael only had to focus on continuously crushing the monster's mental guard while continuing to both exert Extraction and pressure his opponents in close-combat.
Michael was having some problems executing his new strategy properly. Instinctively fighting was much easier for him rather than following a complex tactic. But he was getting better as time passed.
After two hours, he had decently adapted to the drastic change in his tactic. He could fight with three Superior Existences at the 2nd Tier simultaneously, without feeling like his head would split apart.
Meanwhile, the loot inside his storage space had amassed rapidly.
Michael became a wealthy tycoon in less than two hours!
