Michael traveled to the former territory of the Kitsun Lord alone while Sun Demos and his subordinates worked together with the Elemental Empress to kill the remaining Kitsun.
He didn't encounter many Kitsun until he reached his destination. As for the few Kitsun he encountered, Zark was more than enough to deal with all of them.
He traveled through the Untamed Jungle for three hours with great speed until he reached the main settlement of the former Kitsun Lord. Contrary to earlier, the main settlement was in a big mess now that the Kitsun Lord had been killed. Michael could sense Tiara somewhere inside the settlement. She paced through the demolished alleys, avoiding rubble of the collapsed buildings while hunting the last survivors of the Kitsun race.
Michael ignored her and moved to the wooden manor. He found a Tier-2 Awakened rummage through the wooden manor's rooms in the hopes of finding something of value. However, all the Kitsun Awakened found was Michael. As the Awakened noticed Michael, he panicked and conjured the Runic Gate that ought to lead him out of the Origin Expanse. But even before the Awakened could rush into the Runic Gate to escape Michael's grasp, Michael had already made his move.
He used Spirit Disturbance to slow down the Awakened, and conjured a Glacicle Sword which Michael released with a burst of energy. Only half a meter separated the Awakened from the Runic Gate, but the Kitsun never reached his goal. The Glacicle Sword pierced through his chest, pushing him further back. Groaning in pain, the Kitsun crashed on the ground, and stayed there, unable to get up.
Warm blood pooled onto the wooden floor. It drenched the Kitsun, who writhed for a few seconds before he stopped moving forever.
Michael didn't pay much attention to the Kitsun. He merely released his energy to engulf the corpse and store it inside his War Rune's storage. Afterward, he walked through the wooden manor to collect a total of 10 keys. The keys had been hidden in the weirdest places all over the wooden manor. Some were easy to find while others were near-impossible to find if one didn't know where to look for them.
After he collected the 10 keys, Michael retrieved an 11th key from his War Rune's storage space. The 11th key was one of the gains Michael made when he extracted the Kitsun Lord. Without the 11th key, nobody would be able to open the secret vault of the Kitsun Lord. As for breaking the secret vault open…that was easier said than done. The Kitsun Lord's memories stated quite clearly that not even Tier-4 Higher Existences with Superior combat power could open the secret vault with force.
Of course, Michael was likely to be able to open the secret vault once he reached the 4th Tier, but he could not afford to wait that long.
Therefore, the 11th key was crucial to him.
Michael left the wooden manor and he traveled to one of the most conspicuous spots where one could hide a huge 'secret' vault. He approached the Summoning Gate's platform and began searching for six holes. Other than the keys, Michael would have to open the locks in a specific order. But that was not all. The order was only one of the requirements to open the secret vault properly. He had to use the right keys to open the right lock at a specific time.
One had two tries to use the right combination before the secret vault would be sealed. It was possible to open the seal but that would require some conditions to be met. If one failed to remove the seal of the secret vault within 24 hours and open the secret vault properly the vault would incinerate everything stored within.
All in all, the mechanisms the Kitsun Lord had used to store his most valuable goods were much more complex and meticulous than his means to defend his territory. It showed quite clearly that he valued his wealth a lot more than his people and land when he was still alive.
But that might have been a good thing for Michael, so he wouldn't complain. Of course, he wouldn't. He was happy that the Kitsun Lord favored his treasures and neglected everything else. That was one of the main reasons why Michael could defeat the Kitsun Lord, in the first place!
"Don't worry. I will take care of your treasures. Just burn in hell, or some other shitty place!" Michael mumbled, a smile blossoming on his face as he finally found the fifth and sixth keyhole.
He searched his memories to find out which keys were used for what keyhole. Then Michael began his first attempt without showing a shred of hesitation. He moved swiftly, Eagle Eyes fully unleashed.
Four seconds after the first key was used the second one had to be opened. After that Michael was given six seconds to open the third lock on the other side of the Summoning Gate. 10 seconds later the fourth and fifth lock were supposed to be opened simultaneously.
Then Michael had to wait half a minute before he used the sixth and last key to open the path to the secret vault. Counting to thirty slowly, Michael hoped that he wasn't too fast or too slow. Fortunately, that was not an issue. He succeeded at his first attempt, opening a staircase that led under the ground – right beneath the Summoning Gate.
Michael stepped away from the platform. He approached the staircase and climbed down the stairs. The staircase was dimly lit by crystal torches, but it was not bright enough to see a lot. Only with Eagle Eyes was Michael able to tell what awaited him at the bottom of the staircase.
It was a humongous gate that spanned ten meters in width and twenty meters in height.
"Did you want to compensate for something with an entrance that big?" Michael asked, looking for four keyholes. He found them quickly and opened them in a specific order to open the humongous black metal gate.
The Gate opened, only to reveal a second Gate right behind the first one. But this time Michael didn't have to use numerous keys. He had only one key left that he used to open the final gate.
As he pushed the gate open, Michael's heart was filled with anticipation. His eyes scanned through the inside of the vault and his expression lit up.
The inside of the vault was more than 30 meters wide, 30 meters long, and roughly 20 meters high…and most of the space was filled with treasures.
There was not even ordinary stuff like elemental crystals or element seeds. No, the treasures were far more interesting and crucial. For once, Michael picked up a few tattered books that described experiments about elemental seeds, which fruits they produce, and what kind of seeds the Elemental Empress was the most proficient at producing. The experiments stated how many seeds the Elemental Empress could produce without problems and how much force the Kitsun Lord had to use to force the Elemental Empress to go beyond her limit.
The experiments were interesting if one ignored the part about the Kitsun Lord torturing the Elemental Empress. Hatred surfaced within Michael, but he had to suppress it. The Kitsun Lord was already dead. It didn't help being angry at the dead. Some of them were not worth thinking about. The Kitsun Lord definitely wasn't!
Other than the element seed experiments, Michael quickly found various potion recipes that used the fruits produced by the element seeds. Michael merely skimmed through the recipes but they seemed quite interesting. Michael would definitely use some of them in the future.
Other than the potion recipes and experiment logs, Michael found a wide variety of books. These books included instructions for Summons and how they could stimulate their latent talent to become Archers. That was quite intriguing. It was definitely a lot better than the books about torture methods and similar stuff he found right after.
'If I used Extraction on these books, I can get the Wisps of Knowledge from everything of value and store the knowledge in Memory Crystals. That should be the best way to train a bunch of Archers.' Michael thought right before his eyes landed on crates filled with tools.
He searched through the crates and found various forging tools, alchemy tools, and enchanting tools of extraordinary quality. Storing them in the secret vault was a huge waste. Michael stored the tools alongside the books, potions recipes, and experiment logs.
The secret vault was not really well organized. However, Michael quickly found some sort of logic in the chaos. He collected the rare ores that had been thrown in the corner of the secret vault. Then he found a few maps that showed the Savannah region and the regions that lay around the savannah.
The Untamed Jungle was also outlined. Most of it, at least. That was when Michael found out for the first time that the Savannah region and the Zentika Empire's plains bordered a rather small part of the Untamed Jungle. Apparently, the Untamed Jungle was much bigger higher up in the north.
"Seems like I have loads of work to do if I ever want to control the entire Untamed Jungle," Michael joked lightheartedly after he finished studying the maps.
What Michael and others had considered the outer ring, and middle area of the Untamed Jungle so far couldn't even be considered the outer area of the entire Untamed Jungle. In fact, Michael's territory and everywhere he had been in the Untamed Jungle was just a small, somewhat isolated area, a negligible chunk of the vast and real Untamed Jungle.
It was just a small dot on the map of the Untamed Jungle.
