Michael used the SoulStar Fragments in his possession to upgrade Spirit Gaze. He would need several thousand more SoulStar Fragments to finish Spirit Gaze's upgrade to 6-Star, but Michael was slowly getting closer to his goal and making progress. That was good.
Michael shifted his attention back to the research he made before. He was still not 100% certain why so many SoulStar Fragments dropped from the Healer and Supporter but he had a rough idea. The Tekurs' memories showed quite clearly that both the Healer and Supporter had low-ranked Soultraits and that they required more subjects than the others. They had been in need of 1.5 million more subjects than the other Soldiers since their Soultraits required more Links of Loyalty to accumulate Soul Power!
They possessed as much Soul Power as everyone else but their Links of Loyalty numbered far more – roughly 50%. This percentage was about the same as the disparity in SoulStar Fragments Michael obtained from the Supporter and Healer-duo versus the other Tekur. The former dropped about 700 each and the latter 450 on average.
It was not a perfectly accurate calculation but something Michael could take into consideration to make up a theory.
'So the star rating of a Soultrait, the number of their Links of Loyalty, and the total Soul Power they've accumulated play important roles in calculating how many SoulStar Fragments I can extract with Extraction? Those could be three major factors out of…who knows how many…' Michael tried to come up with some numbers and he felt like he was going somewhere.
Lords usually dropped more SoulStar Fragments than Awakened. Meanwhile Awakened with Soultraits of a high star rating usually dropped more than Awakened with lousy Soultraits. And last but not least, the disparity in drops from using Extraction on the Tekur was also an additional factor to consider.
Each of those situations could be researched more in-depth, but Michael did not think that it was necessary. He was quite certain that his theory was correct.
With all corpses stored securely inside his War Rune's storage, Michael continued his journey. He traveled through the empty plains for a good hour until he found a group of humans far to his left.
Michael weaved a little bit of energy into his body with Leviathan Diffusion and charged ahead. Roc Eyes was activated, allowing him to accurately assess the strength and condition of the human group. None of them was injured and they seemed strong enough to deal with a few Tekur on their own. As long as they weren't overwhelmed by the Tekur's Soul Techniques that is.
Even 1-Star Soultraits acquired the power of 5-Star Soultraits in the hands of the Tekur – without the use of Soul Techniques. The mass of millions of Links of Loyalty was enough to achieve that as long as the Awakened were still Lesser Lifeforms.
Once they used their Soul Techniques, the 1-Star Soultrait with the power of a 5-Star Soultrait used up their accumulated Soul Power to put the Soultrait on an equal footing with an Apex Tier-6 Soultrait used by a Peak Tier-3 Lord.
Michael knew a bunch of Awakened with 6-Star Soultraits but none of them could unleash the same power as the Tekur. Even Kaleb had to use the Legendary Ice Staff and every bit of Frozen Nova's proficiency to battle the Tekur head-on. That was mostly because he was not yet a Tier-3 Lord, but his lack of control of Frozen Nova played a major role as well. After all, low-ranked Soultraits were much easier to control than Soultraits with a higher star rating.
Therefore, the advantage of the Tekur race was even greater.
Michael shook his head to dispel the thoughts that tormented his mind. He reprimanded himself for thinking too much about the Tekur's power. If anything, Michael should be thinking about ways to counter them with more ease than relying on Insert, Extraction, Enhancement, and Roc Eyes.
"Hello, Michael. I didn't expect to see you so soon," A somewhat familiar voice that he couldn't quite recall the owner of, rang out from within the group of humans.
Michael had already seen everyone in the group and recognized Fernando Jochez's voice a second later. He looked at the somewhat familiar young man and nodded his head.
"Hello Fernando," Michael greeted, resulting in a smile in return from Fernando.
'What is with that guy? Didn't he think of me as a filthy peasant before?' He wondered, noticing the drastic difference in Fernando's attitude.
"We have yet to encounter any Tekur. It looks like they're either gathering somewhere, or everyone was spread out further than usual. Given the longer period of this year's Flag War, I presume that the dimension's space must have expanded quite a bit. It will be harder to gather the Alliance members, and to find a Dimensional Pillar," Fernando stated in a gentle tone.
Michael raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on Fernando's attitude. The attitude felt wrong, somewhat forced. But that didn't matter correct now. Michael decided to forward the information he had.
"200 Alliance Members spawned together in front of a Dimensional Pillar, alongside a dozen Tekur. We killed them but lost roughly 15 members on our side. The Dimensional Pillar was destroyed as well. There are only a total of four Pillars departed by now."
"You guys destroyed a pillar already?" Another Descendant asked. He was a Mid Tier-3 Awakened – a perfect example to explain the high mortality rate in the Interdimensional Flag War.
Not only was the Descendant not a Lord anymore, but he was not even at the Peak of the 3rd Tier. In fact, more than 70% of the Alliance Members participating in the Flag War were not at the Peak of Tier-3. They were still stronger than the vast majority of prodigies in the Tritan Alliance but that didn't mean they held an advantage against the Tekur, 90% of whose participants were at the Peak of the 3rd Tier.
'Our strongest prodigies can barely handle a single Soldier of the Tekur race if they're at the Peak of Tier-3 and have a decent mastery of their Inheritance Technique. That's everything but fun.' Michael thought, looking at the Descendant before he answered.
"Yup. Are you guys heading somewhere special? If not, how about teaming up with the other Alliance Members? They're in that direction," He pointed behind himself, his attention pulled to Fernando.
Fernando was staring at Michael for quite a while now. The color change in Michael's eyes surprised Fernando quite a bit, but it was even more surprising that Michael's presence was completely different compared to before. He felt like…a threat, a force to reckon with.
It was not that Fernando believed Michael would pounce on him and rip him apart at any moment. No. It was merely the fact that Fernando could instinctively tell that he had no chance to win against Michael. A single glance in Michael's eyes was all he needed to understand that clearly.
Michael was on his guard. It was evident that he was ready to jump into battle at any point in their conversation. He wouldn't allow a Tekur to take them by surprise.
At that moment, Fernando felt relieved that Michael was on their side. Even if he was a filthy peasant, Michael was everything but weak.
"We will follow your advice," Fernando said, "If you want to find more groups you should go departed from here. We encountered Killian earlier…but that guy is just crazy. I really don't like to say this out loud since Killian is from the Zeus family, but it might be better if you don't get too close to him. His Soultrait is weird, and his personality is…well let's just leave it at that."
"You don't have to worry about him either. His combat prowess is terrifying. Killian has at least two Legendary Artifacts and his mastery of the Zeus family's Inheritance Technique reached the Enlightenment realm. He is a decade ahead of everyone else to reach that realm in the Zeus family!"
Michael never planned to fight Killian in the first place. He didn't really desire to get too close to that idiot either. His impression of Killian was not really great, after all.
"Alright. I'll leave then. Killian can do whatever he wants. If he can kill some Tekur everyone would benefit from that. That's good, isn't it?" Michael said, weaving energy into his body before kicking the ground. He departed Fernando and his group behind with fast steps.
"Is it just me, or is this guy oddly strong despite being merely at the Peak of the 2nd Tier? The energy within him is even purer than my brother's and he might as well have more energy than me…" The Mid Tier-3 Descendant from earlier murmured to himself, but everyone around him could hear the young man clearly.
"Well, he has more Soultraits than most people can dream of. I don't understand how he did that but some say that he procured two Soultraits from a Lord Rift. He is a quintuple Awakened with five Soultraits or more in total. Of course, he has more origin energy than others," A female Descendant with short brown hair and thick glasses revealed as she pushed the glasses back up her nose.
Michael was one of the few people she'd researched with all her might, eventually using her Soultrait and even Inheritance Technique to analyze Michael's combat prowess and every single probability related to his Soultraits powers, star rating, and how they might influence Michael's physique, mind, and soul.
"Rebecca. You're usually nuts and one of the few high nobles I loathe, but I kinda began liking you now," Fernando Jochez joked, only to hear the young woman retch and act like she was going to die from vomiting.
"Are you trying to kill me with your lame attempts at flirting, you disgusting pig? Stay away from me!"
