Michael didn't leave the Origin Expanse even once in the five weeks that passed in Piloq. Only a few days were left before the Interdimensional Flag War started and they would have to depart soon to reach the dimensional portal, yet a bunch of Awakened were still inside the Origin Expanse – Michael included.
Ten weeks had passed in the Origin Expanse since Michael disappeared and Alice was getting worried. She didn't expect Michael to ignore her advice and stay in the Origin Expanse without asking her for any pointers. Did he think that he could reach a high mastery of Leviathan Diffusion just like that?
'What if something went wrong?' She wondered, a seed of worry taking root in her heart.
She poked at her dinner with a fork, having lost her appetite suddenly and ignored the people around her.
"Michael returned!" Kaleb exclaimed all of a sudden. He jumped up from his chair, his eyes trained on the holographic screen in front of him.
"He is back? Is he fine? Why did he not return earlier?" Alice bombarded her little brother with questions, but all she received was a scowl.
"How…am I supposed to know all that? All he messaged was that he's back…" Kaleb frowned at his sister, who pressed her lips together and sat back on the chair.
'As long as he's fine.'
"I will meet up with Michael. See you later," Kaleb said right before disappearing, leaving Alice alone.
Meanwhile, Michael was lying in his king-sized bed, calmly reading through the new notifications he'd received over the last few weeks.
Many things happened in the last few weeks. The Basic Sacred Knight Temple had been completed – a little bit later than expected due to certain complications – and the first batch of Blessed Squires was promoted to Holy Knights. A total of 10 Blessed Squires were promoted to Holy Knights, while two Starless Summons received enlightenment after training tirelessly in the Basic Sacred Knight Temple for several days. They were promoted straightaway to 2-Star Holy Knights without the need to become Blessed Squires first.
That was very intriguing as the news motivated hundreds of Starless Summons to train with the Immortal Knight in the Sacred Knight Temple. The small army of Blessed Squires expanded as well. By now Michael had 550 Blessed Squires and 12 Holy Knights under his command, and their numbers would increase even faster in the future. Once the Immortal Knight adapted to his newly acquired powers, and the Starless Summons were more comfortable with the Sacred Knight Temple, Michael would have a surplus of Blessed Squires and Holy Knights.
That was great, thought it posed one big disadvantage. More than half of Michael's army consisted of Blessed Squires and Holy Knights, resulting in a lack of versatility. Only having Blessed Squires and Holy Knights in his army was certainly not the best. Holy Knights were trained in different Swordstyles and Spearmanship, and they could move nimbly through the surroundings while wearing hardened leather armor sets, but they had various disadvantages.
Holy Knights weren't Archers, Healers, or Mages. They were not Assassins either. Even though the Holy Knights could use their Holy Power to create an aura that blocked pain and healed wounds to a certain degree, there were several limitations.
Fortunately, the Summoning Gate provided an influx of 11 Summons every single day. Since two and a half month passed in the Origin Expanse, Michael summoned 770 daily summons with the lowest ranked being 1-Star Farmers, and the highest ranked being two 2-Star Elemental Mages.
Michael couldn't grumble about the development of his territory either. His subjects went out to hunt every single day and they brought back a wide variety of monster corpses. They were dissected near-perfectly with Michael's Extraction and their loot was collected. Instead of using the Summoning Scrolls and Summoning Scroll Fragments immediately, the young Lord opted to store them for the time being. He hoped to procure another Legendary Scroll soon.
The Elemental Empress' cave slowly transformed into a proper home for Elementals. She created close to a hundred Lesser Elemental Cores and was about to create her first Noble Elemental in Michael's territory. That attracted Michael's interest. Unfortunately, he had no time to spend several weeks watching Zeroa creating Elemental Cores.
Michael did not have that much time to spend with anyone since the vast majority of his days were dedicated to refining his body, mind, and War Rune. That was a little bit sad for Michael and his subjects, but the results were amazing. Sacred Rectification and Caesurium Menta reached perfection in the 2nd Stage. He even reached the Enlightened mastery of Leviathan Diffusion, leaving only perfect mastery to topple it.
In merely two and a half months, Michael achieved something others could only dream about achieving within a few years. That was how valuable the knowledge and understanding Michael obtained from the Wisp of Knowledge truly was. His energy circulation speed was on an entirely different level than before and Michael could now naturally infuse energy into his movements. This further increased his strength, nimbleness, and reaction speed.
The energy circulation speed and energy weaving expertise would certainly help him a lot in the future.
However, the most intriguing aspect was that Michael's War Rune reached the Late rank. In fact, his War Rune was about to reach the Peak of the 2nd Tier. He was really close to reaching peak refinement, but there was only one downside. He had used up all of his resources …resources worth close to 10 trillion dollars.
Michael didn't really like thinking about the fortune he'd burned through within two and a half months because the energy consumption was way too shocking, but he had to acknowledge that refining his mind, body, and especially War Rune would consume a lot more resources in the future.
It was possible to rely on the surrounding energy, energy shares, and energy influx to increase his strength slowly, but if he wanted to grow stronger rapidly, Energy Stones, Nutrition Serums, and a wide variety of other highly valuable resources would be the only feasible way – other than massacring hundreds of thousands of enemies in the Origin Expanse.
"I should be fine for the Flag War. Killing a bunch of them should reward me with some merits. It should be possible to convert them into funds, or resources. Ah…I still have the Mythic Scrolls as well… And the Tier-4 and Tier-5 Artifacts of those war criminals…" Michael mumbled to himself.
He got up from the bed and sent a message to Kraft Viton and Alice Zenovia without a second thought. Over the last few weeks, Michael had to pay attention to the complaints of his people way too often. They were displeased by the favoritism he displayed for the military section and a few even told him that he shouldn't neglect them for too long.
It was good to hear his people complain because that meant they weren't afraid of being reprimanded by him. They didn't fear approaching him directly. Instead, they thought of him as a sensible enough person who would listen to their requests and demands. Michael was not certain if he was walking down the perfect path to manage and lead his territory, but he was quite satisfied with how things were going right now.
Listening to his subjects' nagging motivated Michael to get moving. It was odd.
[Michael Fang: Hello Kraft Viton. First of all, I want to thank you for increasing my share of the Agriculture Project's profits. I observed a large transaction on my Bartholomew Account. It made me very happy. I'm glad that the Agriculture Project is prospering. With that in mind, I procured a handful of Agriculture-type Blueprints(several thousand) to hand over to you. Other than that, there also are a bunch of expensive Artifacts I want to sell to the Bartholomew Corporation. I hope we can meet up before the departure to the dimensional portal because I have a huge list of items and materials I need for my territory. If possible, I would appreciate to send the materials and items to the Origin Expanse before I have to enter the dimensional portal. Otherwise, I will get beheaded by my own people for not keeping my promise.]
Michael joked a little bit at the end of the message he sent Kraft Viton. However, there was also a trace of truth in his comment. He needed the materials and items soon, otherwise, his people would start rebelling, calling him a liar. It wouldn't end with his head rolling over the ground, but Michael didn't want to lose his subjects' trust.
Hoping things wouldn't turn that bad, he opened Alice's chat to send her a message.
[Michael Fang: Hello Alice. Nice meeting you again. To give you a little report, I reached the bottleneck of my body and mind refinement techniques. I've also advanced to the Later ank of the 2nd Tier. I'm very close to the Peak though. Unfortunately, I used up all of the resources before I could reach the Peak. I will probably advance to the Peak rank in the dimensional portal. But that's fine as well.
– Either way, I want to trade a bunch of Mythic Scrolls with you before I have to depart to the dimensional portal. If that's possible, and you're still engrossed in the Mythic Scrolls, that is.]
Michael didn't waste any time talking about his progress in detail. He shared enough information with Alice and Kraft Viton to inform them about the most important things and keep them updated. Thereafter, Michael came back to the Origin Expanse to empty the warehouses where all unused monster parts and the blueprint duplicates were stored. He returned and met up with Kaleb.
"How about you tell me about the happenings of the last few weeks while we walk around for errands?" Michael asked, causing Kaleb to frown a little. Then he recalled how hard he worked in the last few weeks and nodded his head.
"Hmm, okay. It's about time that I rest a little bit. Some gossiping won't hurt," Kaleb chuckled,
"But let me warn you. A lot happened in the last few weeks. Loads of interesting things!"
