A faint halo manifested above Michael's head as he used the Soultrait Shard of Archangel's Grace for the first time to heal someone – himself. He used up some of the power that had accumulated within the Soultrait Shard to heal the two gashes on his left arm and the deep wounds in his thighs. He had to make sure that his condition would be at the peak if he wanted to be ready to fight at all times.
"Marie's Soultrait is really overpowered. Even the weakened version is much stronger than the Tekur Healer's healing. It required much less energy as well," Michael mumbled, starting to wonder if the Healer's Soultrait was actually a mere 1-Star Soultrait, whose power was amplified with the use of the simple customized technique. Given how helpless the Healer had been once the Supporter's constant supply of energy deteriorated, that would make sense.
Michael's gaze roamed over to the battlefield, only to end up staring at his weapon. Aethyr was extremely powerful. If not for Aethyr, Michael was not sure if he would have won against the Tekur. Being able to switch between a wide variety of attack movements and means of defense had been crucial in the fight against the five Tekur.
Even though Aethyr was only a replica of Aether with a tiny, negligible trace of Aether , Aethyr was extremely versatile and powerful. It was definitely one of the best things he could have obtained from the Tritan Alliance as a gift of gratitude for the support he provided.
Michael released a few strands of Extraction in the surrounding area. The strands anchored themselves to the bodies of the fallen Tekur around him and began to extract their Soultrait Symbols and SoulStar Fragments.
He didn't rush the extraction process. Instead, Michael used Roc Eyes to keep an eye on the surroundings to ensure that nobody could approach him without his knowledge. Additionally, it also assured him that nobody observed him sneakily while he was busy extracting his enemies' Soultraits and SoulStar Fragments.
One SoulStar Fragment after another was extracted. They piled up in front of Michael and turned into a big stash. In less than half an hour, Michael completed the extraction process. He had been patient and double checked to make sure that he wrung the corpses dry until there was nothing left. He wanted to obtain as many SoulStar Fragments as possible, after all.
"A Memory Orb from each of them, four Artifacts in total, two Soultrait Symbols, and…2750 SoulStar Fragments. That's a lot more than I expected…" Michael murmured to himself as he finished calculating everything he procured.
He looked at the two Soultrait Symbols and realized that they originated from the Healer and Supporter. One thing attracted his attention as he looked at the two fragile Soultrait Symbols.
"These Symbols are more fragile than usual. They don't have a single star either. Usually that only happens when I extract Soultraits with low star ratings. But then why did I obtain so many SoulStar Fragments from the Healer and the Supporter? If I'm not mistaken both generated roughly 700 SoulStar Fragments while the others generated 450 respectively."
Michael had a rough idea about the SoulStar Fragment scenario. The theory that formed in his mind would also explain why the Berserk Minotaur and the Big Black Bear of the Tamer he'd killed a long time ago dropped SoulStar Fragments.
'What if extracting Soul Power generates SoulStar Fragments? Lords drop more SoulStar Fragments. That's something I already know. Or is it related to the number of Links of Loyalty and how much Soul Power the individual Links of Loyalty create?' Michael wondered.
He decided to find an answer to all of his questions by consuming the Memory Orbs dropped by the Tekur. Digesting each Memory Orb required roughly half an hour. Michael then spent another half an hour organizing the new memories properly, discarding the useless pieces of information, and making up his theories.
His focus was on two things when he digested the Memory Orbs: Find out how Individuals with weaker Soultraits can drop more SoulStar Fragments and the origin of their special customized techniques.
Michael found a lot about both. First of all the special techniques utilized Soul Power, something Michael possessed a lot. He tried to focus on the common points between the special customized techniques the Tekur were using and compared them with what he had seen using Roc Eyes. Roc Eyes allowed him to create various comparisons with the techniques' explanations and the Tekur's execution of the respective technique.
Only after spending close to an hour comparing everything did Michael understand something intriguing, "The techniques are not exactly customized. Well, they're altered but it's not a major alteration to be tailor fit 'perfectly' to each of the Tekur. It is merely tweaked a little according to the effects and requirements of each Soultrait."
'So if someone had an Elemental Soultrait such as Wind Manipulation, the Tekur would be given an Elemental Technique, altered to fit the wind element. If the Wind Manipulation Soultrait would use energy to manifest something simple such as wind blades, it wouldn't be altered a lot. But if origin energy was merely utilized to conjure winds and mental power was required to shape them, the technique would have to acquire more alterations…'
The customized techniques overclocked Soultraits several times by using up the Soul Power accumulated by the Soultrait. That way the Tekur could exhibit power up to fivefold their usual strength. That was what a Common Class technique – used by the Soldiers of the Tekur race – could achieve.
The Soul Power utilized to overclock a Soultrait would be 'used up' in the process of using the technique, but that was not permanent. The Soul Power would be emptied like a battery and could be charged again. As the Soul Power was drained, the Soultraits' power would weaken until the Soul Power was recharged. That was also why the Tekur's Soultraits seemed weaker after they utilized their Common Class technique. Their Soul Power was used up, thus their Soultraits' ordinary attack reverted to its original weaker prowess.
Given that the Soul Techniques churned through Soul Power, most Tekur didn't use their Common Class Soul Techniques often. They merely utilized them when they desired to overwhelm their enemy and finish him/her instantaneously.
"As long as I find something like an Elemental Soul Technique I can alter it to fit Glacicle. Hopefully, I can then use the same Soul Techniques that enable the Tekur to be so powerful. Well…that also means I would have to possess as much Soul Power as these mass-breeding insects."
Michael's words were certainly true, but one of the major reasons the Tekur were so overpowered and feared was their innate ability to recharge their used-up Soul Power rapidly. When they were still a fairly young race, they didn't know about this innate ability. They struggled to fight against powerful enemies and only got to know about Soul Techniques after being pushed closer to extinction than most races had ever been. The Tekur learned to use Soul Techniques, they found out about their Innate ability and began to rely on the Soul Techniques to overpower their enemies.
It took a long time before they collected other techniques and began to alter Soul Techniques, but once they commenced manufacturing their own techniques it was only a matter of decades before they possessed powerful Body, Mind, and Soul refinement techniques that were perfectly adjusted to their Soultraits. They learned how to nourish their Souls in the best possible way to execute the strongest force with their Soul Techniques whereas their body and mind refinement techniques reached new heights, allowing them to grow stronger than other races.
The biggest advantage of the Tekur race was quite obvious. They possessed the number to create full use of Soul Techniques. Even their Soldiers could use Soul Techniques that allowed their Soultraits to generate five times more power than usual.
Most Tekur participating in the Flag War were already Tier-3 Lords. Their body and mind refinement was extremely high as well, forcing Michael to use up to six layers of Enhancement to keep up with them. His refinement degree of the mind and body were already at the Peak of the peak…of the 2nd Tier. That posed a slight problem since using six layers of Enhancement at all times in combat taxed his body. The energy consumption was also quite high but Michael had various means to handle that.
His biggest problem was the toll exerted on his body and mind as he utilized Enhancement and several other Soultraits to a much higher degree than usual to keep up with the Soldiers of the Tekur race.
A huge hurdle in finishing them off sooner had been the Soldiers' Soul Techniques. They slowed down almost all Alliance Members and various other races that struggled to keep up with their movement speed. Soul Techniques were actually quite rare. They had been unique and limited for the Tekur as well – not anymore though.
Michael learned a lot about Soul Techniques. He understood that a tremendous amount of Soul Power was required and that not everyone could use every Soul Technique. That was also why he was certain that he could replicate most of them now that he had seen the Tekur using their Common Class Soul Techniques against him in battle. Roc Eyes showed him everything.
Unfortunately, he didn't have a Summon Soultrait to use the Summoning Soul Technique, nor an Armament Soultrait like the Feathered Helmet. Michael couldn't use the Supporter's Soul Technique either because he didn't possess Opars' Energy Imprint. Even then Michael would have to alter the technique to drain stamina instead of weakening mental fortitude.
Then there was the healing Soultrait, but Archangel's Grace was not his Soultrait. He only had a small shard of Archangel's Grace within his War Rune thanks to being Maria's Primal Amplifier. Michael could merely use bits of Archangel's Grace. It was powerful but it was not even like he could use the Soultraits' full power, let alone Soul Technique which required a terrific amount of Soul Power.
None of the Soul Techniques he'd acquired fit him.
But that was something Michael could change.
He could go out and hunt more Tekur, procure more Soul Techniques, and create his own Soul Techniques using the knowledge and information he deprived from the Tekur he'd killed.
Michael was certain that he could create a Soul Technique for each of his Soultraits, increasing his strength manyfold in the process.
All he required was a decent number of Soul Techniques, more time to study them, more guinea pigs to watch using Soul Techniques with Roc Eyes, and more Soul Power to use the Soul Techniques' full potential.
A new goal formed in his mind.
'The Hunt for techniques and SoulStar Fragments shall begin!'
