Michael was now standing in front of the Summoning Gate with 33 Mythic Summoning Scrolls and 27,040 Ordinary Summoning Scrolls surrounding him. He released his energy outside his body and broke the seals of all Scrolls simultaneously.
The Ordinary Scrolls and Mythic Scrolls began to unfurl and ascend into the air before they shot straight into the energy pool of the Summoning Gate.
What followed was rows of Summons stepping out from the Summoning Gate. There were thousands of them and most of them were confused, unsure what was going on.
Fortunately, Michael had already notified his people to move to the Summoning Gate and act as tour guides through the settlement. His subjects would show the newcomers around and tell them all about the settlement to make sure that the new Summons could settle down quickly into their new home.
It was a good thing that Michael didn't have a lot to do to integrate his new subjects into the territory. 27,073 new Links of Loyalty were formed near-simultaneously, which affected Michael for a while. It didn't hurt to create many Links of Loyalty simultaneously, but the information about his new subjects, and the bits of Soul Power every new Link of Loyalty provided weren't something one could digest that quickly.
Michael had 39,000ish Links of Loyalty until now, but the number increased to more than 66,000 within minutes. It was only obvious, but Michael had to spend a minute or two to digest the influx of information.
'Is that some sort of joke?' Michael nearly blurted aloud when he foraged through the new Links of Loyalty to learn more about his new subjects' occupations.
"Since when is my luck so twisted?" He wondered when he noticed that 25,952 out of 27,040 Summons resurrected through Ordinary Scrolls turned out to be 0-Star Summons. Among the remaining 1,088 Summons not even 100 turned out to be Warriors, Archers, Assassins, or any other type of Combat Summon. Most 1-Star Summons in today's Summoning session were carpenters, engineers, Alchemy Apprentices, Locksmith Apprentices, and a lot more other non-combat occupations.
Even among the 33 Summons that entered his territory through the Mythic Summoning Scrolls, only two of them were Combat Summons; Berserkers at that. The remaining 31 Summons were either Alchemists, Blacksmiths, Architects, or Master Engineers. He was lucky enough to summon four 3-Star Summons with 33 Mythic Scrolls, but they weren't Combat Summons either. One was a Master Locksmith, another one was a Grand Thief, while the remaining two were Supreme Bakers.
Michael was happy about the Bakers. Their arrival was more than welcome for a glutton like him.
But despite the happiness, Michael felt a little weird as well. Until now he never summoned such a low number of Combat Summons. He didn't summon any monsters, or Demi-Humans either.
'Did I mess up the summoning probability by inserting the Kitsun Lord's Summoning Cores in the Summoning Gate? No…that shouldn't be it. Was I just unlucky? No. I cannot really call myself unlucky either. I have the Sacred Knight Temple and Warrior Enlightenment Potions to create more combatants…'
At first, Michael was a little displeased about the lack of Combat Summons in today's summoning session. Given the number of combatants he lost in the recent war against the Kitsun Lord, he had been hopeful to fill up the numbers to some extent. However, he quickly found himself accepting the situation. Even without the Sacred Knight Temple, Michael didn't really have a reason to complain. He had a total of 11 purified Summoning Cores that would summon 11 Summons with either one or two stars every day. There was no need to worry too much about the lack of military power in his territory.
If anything, Michael should worry about the lack of funds for the Sacred Knight Temple. Once Michael's assistants finished taking notes about the new Summons, Michael read through their reports. He found out that many Starless Summons were willing to fight as long as they could gain the benefits provided to the military.
These benefits included special techniques, Energy Nourishing Pills, and Body Strengthening Pills. While it was likely that the military force would have to fight life-and-death battles in the future, the Energy Nourishing Pills and Body Strengthening Pills allowed the Summons to change their fate, receive better perks, and improve their status amongst peers.
They had been no names in the past, but now they gained the opportunity to change this. Their new lives as the subordinates of a generous Lord were an opportunity to make up for the regrets of their past. If they died at the hands of monsters in the past, they would now give their utmost to grow strong enough to be the ones hunting monsters. In the future, they would get to know the other people in the settlement, and they might even find the love of their life. By then, they would need the strength to protect their loved ones and earn enough to make sure that their loved ones would live in luxury.
Michael had yet to learn how to motivate his subjects actively to ensure that his military force would expand quickly, but that didn't seem to be much of a problem now that he had the opportunity to construct the Sacred Knight Temple. The Sacred Knight Temple's existence would be more than enough to motivate thousands of Starless Summons to try and change their destiny. If they had the means to fulfill the requirements, the Starless Summons might as well become 3-Star Sacred Knights in the future. Becoming 3-Star Summons would elevate their status significantly, and they would be given far more resources than most, therefore resulting in their Tier increasing faster.
In turn, that would increase their lifespan , allowing them to live a much longer life than the average. Their fate would change and they would enter an unknown future full of possibilities.
After understanding what he lacked the most, Michael wanted to construct the Sacred Knight Temple as soon as possible. Since he was not good at holding speeches, and manipulation, he wanted to use other means to make up for everything he lacked.
Thus, Michael retrieved the Memory Orb of the Kitsun Lord once he received Tiara's thorough report about the materials and manpower required to construct the Sacred Knight Temple.
"I looked through the materials and noticed that the Forest Elven Tribe might have everything you need. Do you want me to ask if I can bring the materials later?" Lilica asked not long before Michael wanted to digest the Memory Orb, "The goods for the Basic Level of the temple may be expensive, but I am pretty sure that I can negotiate with the Elders."
Michael tilted his head and considered the possibilities for a moment. Instead of leaving the Origin Expanse and asking the Berserkers, Warlock Centaurs and Kraft Viton how much they would offer for his Artifacts, he might as well stay in the Origin Expanse and make use of the time dilation effect inside the expanse to have more time to spend elsewhere.
Lilica and the other Forest Elves of the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team had to leave for a while to speak to the Elders either way. They had to talk to them about the changes of the Links of Loyalty and the Soul Pact that Michael had proposed in exchange for providing the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team with SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols.
Since they had to leave the Origin Expanse for some time either way, Lilica might as well make use of that time to sell all Artifacts, or trade them for the materials to construct the first level of the Sacred Knight temple. The Artifacts should be valuable enough to purchase the required materials. Even if they weren't, Michael could provide more goods soon enough.
"Do you need Artifacts ranging from Tier-1 to Tier-3?" Michael asked Lilica, who nodded almost instantaneously.
"Of course, we need Artifacts. Which race doesn't need Artifacts?" She responded with a light chuckle. Michael just smiled and retrieved all Artifacts he had extracted from the Kitsun not too long ago.
"In that case, please trade them with the materials required to construct the Sacred Knight Temple's basic level. If it's not enough, tell the Elders that I will pay the rest in a few days," Michael told Lilica, who flashed a bright smile at him.
Somehow, her smile looked scheming, which worsened even more as Lilica added, "Don't worry. I will get everything you need even if I have to sell my kidneys!"
'You don't have to go that far.' Michael thought but he just smiled back at her.
"Can you provide one of our best rooms to Siegfried Dracoon if he wants to rest now? If not, please give him a tour of the settlement. He must be curious about his new home," Michael ordered Tiara, while knowing that the Immortal Knight was actively listening to their discussion.
Michael had also noticed that the Immortal Knight inspected his surroundings with great interest and vigilance. Even if Michael hadn't ordered Tiara to give him a tour, the Immortal Knight would have found his way through the territory sooner or later.
"I will excuse myself now. I have a date with a sadistic bastard," Michael said, joking lightly before he turned away.
The Immortal Knight didn't know what Michael was talking about but Tiara and the Forest Elves frowned when they heard what he said. They saw the Memory Orb in his hands and knew exactly what would happen.
Michael didn't really want to witness the Kitsun Lord's memories, especially not the memories of him committing all those disgusting acts, but the potential gains were more than enough reason to give it a go – even more so now that he needed to find out where the Kitsun Lord hid his wealth. He had a Sacred Knight Temple to build, after all!
"No risk no fun…or so they say…" Michael muttered as he reached his room in the wooden manor.
He consumed the Kitsun Lord's Memory Orb and witnessed the memories of Haro Ki as if they were his own.
