The moment the Tekur acquired the knowledge to maximize the profits of Soul Power, learn how to create portals to random habitable locations all over the universe, and create customized techniques that suited their Soultraits best, the Tekur race's power and desire to expand would increase exponentially.
Michael procured various memories from the Tekur's Memory Orb, and he got to know that the Tekur had hundreds of dimensional portals like the portal in the ancient capital of the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs. They led to various stellar systems which they wanted to conquer and colonize to spread their humongous population throughout the entire universe.
The Tekur's population has grown too big too fast. They're like Goblins – their population rapidly expands and their individuals are hard to kill once they reach a certain threshold. Goblins typically evolve into Goblin Warriors, Goblin Champions, or even higher forms of life. Meanwhile, the Tekur grew into terrific lifeforms as their territory expanded. Their Tier increased and the power of their Soultraits seemed to evolve. But that was not exactly it.
The Tekur didn't care about the life and death of their Soldiers. If anything, it would be a good thing if the Soldiers died because it gave the rest of the Tekur race a little bit more space to live.
One of the reasons why the Tekur were so powerful was the number of their Links of Loyalty. Almost all Tekur manifested War Runes from a young age, but most of them died at a young age. They were not even teenagers when the War Rune manifested and were pushed into the Origin Expanse where they had to fight fully grown monsters and Lords with years of experience.
Those who died miserably turned into Starless Summons within the Origin Expanse. They turned into the subjects of those Tekur, who'd survived a little longer than the rest, allowing the strong to grow even stronger while the weak became their Lord's slaves.
Millions of subjects from the Tekur race resided in the territory of each Tier-3 Lord, granting them an enormous amount of Soul Power. The Soul Power could be amassed and utilized in the customized techniques the Tekur Lords executed to fight against their enemies, resulting in the misunderstanding that the Tekur race had tremendously powerful Soultraits.
'The Tekur participating in the Interdimensional Flag War are only…Soldiers… They survived longer than most members of the ordinary folk, who decided to grab the opportunity to enter the Origin Expanse after their War Rune manifested. Their desire to procure strength and be more than slaves tempered them, allowing them to become powerhouses in the eyes of other races…yet they're only ordinary Soldiers…'
The Tekur race pursued a simple caste system. Since every Tekur manifested a War Rune they were considered the norm; citizens. However, it was also possible to reject the gift of the Origin Expanse. If the Tekur who'd manifested a War Rune didn't enter the Origin Expanse within the first 24 hours after their War Rune appeared, it would disperse. The War Rune was unstable at first and one had to enter the Origin Expanse since the War Rune required ambient origin energy from the Origin Expanse to stabilize.
Therefore, the Tekur who'd been unwilling to join the Origin Expanse were considered trash: The Cowards.
Tekur who survived for 2-3 years in the Origin Expanse were considered Elite citizens, whereas soldiers were those who've been trained using a simple customized technique. The most important aspect of being a Lord was that they were still in control of their territory. They were still Lords!
Customized techniques required a specific amount of Soul Power. Even a simple customized technique required far more than most Awakened of the Tritan Alliance could acquire as Lesser Lifeforms. The Soul Power would empower the customized techniques and allow the user to overclock their Soultrait's power to defeat opponents with stronger Soultraits easily.
That was also how a dozen Tekur – mere soldiers – were able to fight off and hold back 200 Alliance members simultaneously. They couldn't kill all and died at the end of the day but their strength allowed them to dampen their enemies' spirits and deliver the alliance a harsh blow.
"Not only Soldiers are participating in this year's Flag War…there are also three Elite Soldiers with multiple simple methods and an Elite Class Technique," Michael mumbled once he was done digesting and organizing all memories.
He learned a lot, including that the Tekur were much younger than Michael expected. The Soldiers were merely 11 years old, whereas the Elite Soldiers might only be 14 or 15 years old…at most…
That felt wrong, but it gave Michael more insight into the tactic used by the Tekur – precisely, the lack of tactics. It confused him at first, but the Tekur roamed through the isolated realm together, yet their combat style was not really adjusted to suit one another. They didn't fight as a team even though they fought together.
They were just too young to have been taught everything. Their desire to defeat the enemies in front of them made them lose all rationality.
'That is good. As long as I can make use of their childish tendencies, I might be able to survive until the end of the–...' Michael was deep in thought when his body froze all of a sudden as he opened his eyes.
He observed the Alliance members work together to take down the Dimensional Pillar. However, there was something he saw that bothered him. He saw the countdown displayed on the Dimensional Pillar – the countdown that revealed how long the dimension would be active and when they would be thrown out once again.
"14 days?! The Flag War has never been that long. 10 days was the highest two years ago!" Michael cried out in a voice loud enough for one of Kaleb's comrades to notice. He smiled lightly at Michael.
"You just noticed? I hoped that the dimension would close after three days now that we're about to destroy a Dimensional Pillar so soon after everything just started. Unfortunately…it looks like we will have to deal with a few more groups of Tekur until the dimension throws us out," Kaleb's team member said.
Michael was not willing to chit-chat with the Descendant. But he didn't want to be rude either. He talked to Joseph, Kaleb's team member, for a few minutes before excusing himself. Michael had to continue replenishing his energy. Well. That was not true, but there was something else he had to do.
'In 14 days I will definitely encounter a bunch of Tekur. Maybe even the Elite Tekur if I'm unlucky. That means I need more power to deal with some of them on my own.' Michael thought, slightly worried about the possibility of encountering an Elite Soldier who'd used Elite Class methods to obliterate him and his friends.
Elite Class methods required five times more Soul Power than simple customized techniques. That meant the Elite Soldiers had several times more Soul Power than the ordinary Soldiers – meaning his Soultrait was either extremely powerful from the get-go, or he had tens of millions of subjects.
The latter was a possibility, but it was more likely that the Elite Soldiers had decent Soultraits. After all, Soultraits with high star ratings had an easier time accumulating Soul Power. Michael knew that best as someone who'd used various Soultraits at different stages. Upgrading his Soultraits not only increase their power and potency but also the amount of Soul Power residing within them – thereby increasing their efficiency drastically.
Michael was already on the verge of advancing to the Peak of Tier-2. One of the two energy influxes from killing the Tekur would be enough to break the barrier and reach the Peak of the 2nd Tier. That was fine and actually not too difficult to achieve. In the worst case, Michael could also ask Kaleb for a handful of Energy Stones and stay near the Dimensional Pillar for the next few hours to break through.
But advancing to the Peak of the 2nd Tier was not enough to deal with multiple Tekur and their Elite. That meant he had to strengthen his Soultraits.
Why?
Using Extraction on the Tekur meant that he could procure a portion of their wealth and treasures stored inside their War Runes' spatial storages – that included the possibility of extracting their customized methods as well as their mind, body and special techniques. Michael could research and alter them and possibly make use of them at last.
Then he could extract their Artifacts, and most importantly both their Soultrait Symbols and SoulStar Fragments. The latter was the most important because Michael never gained as many SoulStar Fragments from an Awakened at Tier-3 as each Tekur had dropped. It was highly likely that each Tekur would reward Michael with more than 500 SoulStar Fragments, probably more. If he could extract them while they were still alive it would be even more than that.
So what was the best way to hunt down the Tekur and make the biggest gains? A total of 1000 Tekur entered the dimension, at least 12 were already dead, and there were a total of 3 Elite Soldiers. The rest were roughly as strong as the ordinary Soldiers Michael and the rest had faced.
HOW could Michael make as much use of the SoulStar Fragments in his possession to gain as much profit as possible?
The Interdimensional Flag War was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for someone like Michael, and he had to grab it.
'It would be best to upgrade Extraction…but that will cost way too much. I don't have enough SoulStar Fragments. It's not enough to complete one-fourth of the 7th Star…So what else can I do?'
