One of the most interesting encounters after he returned to the Origin Expanse was to meet the Elemental Empress once again. The large underground hall had developed into a proper home for the Elementals and the first batches of elemental crystals could be harvested soon.
Zeroa jumped at Michael and she coated him in her mythical flames. It was great that her flames didn't burn him, otherwise, her excitement would have turned him into a pile of ash. Given his natural fire resistance, the mythical flames of his tamed monster kept him warm. That was it.
[You're back! Finally! I was already getting worried. You never stayed away from your territory this long!] Zeroa shouted in his mind, inflicting a mild headache.
Michael smiled lightly.
"Your society is expanding rapidly. Looks like you're working very hard. Good job, Zeroa!" Michael praised the Elemental Empress, patting her lightly.
Stalagmites of elemental crystals covered the ground whereas small crystallized stalactites could be found hanging down from the ceiling every now and then. Michael focused his attention on the changes of the Underground Hall, just to see that there were hundreds of Fire Elementals going on with their business.
[Of course, I'm working hard. We've already combined our forces with the Underground Forging Hall to accelerate their forging process. The elemental crystals are also very useful for them. They can create Ranked Armaments with unique traits. That should help the territory's military force to fight stronger enemies with more ease. There are Swords that can be coated in flames with bits of energy, or metal shields that can be coated in layers of water, or earth. In fact, there is much more, but I was so busy creating an Elemental Baron that I had barely any time to focus on something else!]
The Elemental Empress sounded excited. That was probably because she was exhilarated and overjoyed. Since she was not chained to any walls and could move around freely, the Elemental Empress enjoyed herself thoroughly. Zeroa did whatever she wanted to do, which was to create her own society, oddly enough.
The former lizard cave had turned into a highly productive underground structure where the Blacksmiths, Miners, and Elementals lived together in great harmony.
"So you're getting started with the Nobility already? That's pretty fast. Congratulations!" Michael was happy that Zeroa was comfortable in the underground hall.
Her taming bond was much firmer than ever and Michael could tell that it would grow much thicker in the next few months. That was a pleasant surprise, just like the appearance of the first Elemental Baron.
[It's going to take another week or two, but the Blazing Baron will be born soon enough. Stay patient!] Zeroa said, giggling childishly.
It was great that Zeroa could relive her childhood – something that the Kitsun Lord had taken from her. Michael talked to the Elemental Empress for quite a while until he decided that it was time for him to leave. He had yet to visit the Underground Forging Hall. However, instead of letting Michael leave, Zeroa decided to go with him.
She hadn't seen Michael for several weeks, and the time they spent together before his departure was also not that much. Michael had been busy training and growing stronger in the months before the Interdimensional Flag War.
Now that he was not that busy anymore, Zeroa wanted to make use of Michael's free time. Thus, she continued to stay attached to him like a little leech – a cute one though.
There were many other places Michael had to visit with each of them being quite arduous and time-consuming. First he went over to the Underground Forging Hall to observe the Blacksmith's work and note down how much everyone had improved. Once he was done, Michael traveled to the Alchemists' Lairs to have a lengthy discussion with his Alchemists, Mystic Alchemists, and the Researchers for quite a while.
Apparently, the Researchers and Mystic Alchemists created a bunch of new potions. Not all of them had been tested yet but it looked like they were existing potions that had been altered and mixed with other components, therefore creating better potions more-or-less with cheaper materials.
In fact, the materials were not exactly cheaper in the market. It was merely that Michael's territory possessed the materials in large quantities. This included the bones of specific monsters, monster blood, elemental crystals, the petals of certain elemental plants, and a variety of other plants that had been planted in the farm all over his territory weeks ago.
To put it in simple terms, the new potions were upgraded versions and mixtures of other potions that had been formed with materials Michael's territory had in surplus. That was amazing, especially for the Archers and Mage Novices in his territory. After all, two potions heightened one's focus for half a day. By sharpening their focus, Mage Novices could learn new spells faster, whereas Archers could train for a much longer duration, fully focused on their practice.
These two potions worked on others as well but the results were the most impactful for Archers and Mage Novices.
Thinking about the progress of his army, Michael chose to visit the Sacred Knight Temple as well. He'd seen the Immortal Knight before, but he didn't ask him about the progress of the Sacred Squires and Holy Knights that time. Michael wanted to wait until he reached the Sacred Knight Temple to take everything in and observe the changes within his territory.
Despite being able to sense the Links of Loyalty of his subjects and the changes they underwent as his subjects were promoted to a higher star-rating, Michael waited patiently until the Immortal Knight arrived in front of him.
"I was already waiting for you. You've grown much stronger in the last few weeks, though I presume that you still haven't learned a proper combat technique," The Immortal Knight said, already trying to lecture Michael, "It's great that you can rely on your Soultraits this much. It is also amazing how powerful you can grow by strengthening your Soultraits, but I hope that you can find some techniques that fit your combat style!"
Initially, Michael wanted to smile through the Immortal Knight's lectures, but he decided against it at some point.
He summoned Aethyr in the Tigerfang form and started to shape the Aethyr in his hands slowly.
"My Lord…is that…Aether?!?" The Immortal Knight asked, both frightened and exhilarated.
Aether was the reason the Immortal Knight died. Too many powerhouses took note of him in the Origin Expanse and it was only a matter of time before he died, struck to death by thousands of enemies. All of them desired to obtain his Aether, yet none was able to procure it.
"It is not exactly Aether. It has a trace of Aether inside but it's called Aethyr. It's a semi-sentient alloy that has some capabilities of Aether, including growing stronger, and transforming into dozens of Armaments. It is bound to me as well. The downside is that the Aethyr is a lot weaker in all aspects than Aether, but that is quite obvious. The content of Aether in Aethyr is like 0.000001 or something like that," Michael explained to the Immortal Knight, whose expression eased up quite a bit.
He was still excited but the fright and worry in his heart died down. If the Aether content in Aethyr was truly that low, Michael wouldn't have to be worried about the attacks of powerhouses. The amount of Aether was not enough to wake up the true powerhouses.
But then Michael chose to reveal some more information about Aethyr, which caused the Immortal Knight to stiffen once again.
"However, there is something odd about Aethyr. I can infuse SoulStar Fragments into it. Doing so strengthened my bond with Aethyr and it allows me to transform Aethyr into far more Armaments than I have been informed I could. I have yet to research the phenomenon but I believe that infusing SoulStar Fragments into Aethyr nourished the Aether inside."
"So…you're telling me that you can grow your own Aether using these SoulStar Fragments that you use to upgrade Soultraits?" Siegfried asked, his face as pale as a sheet of paper.
"Basically, yeah." Michael responded, "Of course, I could be wrong. I might be entirely wrong and I am merely strengthening the entire weapon because the alloy has a great synergy with Aether, transforming the entire alloy into a new object, which can coincidentally absorb SoulStar Fragments. But…I believe I can nurture and grow Aether with my SoulStar Fragments."
Michael was fully aware that the Immortal Knight's worries were not unfounded. He saw his subjects' eyes and could tell that the Immortal Knight was truly scared.
"Don't nourish your Aethyr too much for the time being. I know that it would be great to generate enough Aether to replace the Aethyr, but you do not want to turn into the center of attention for dozens of Divine Lifeforms, believe me. Dozens might be an understatement. I don't remember how many Awakened and Lords attacked me and my people. There were way too many to count."
Michael answered with a nod. It was not like he was in dire need of Aether merely yet. Aethyr was useful for him until he reached the Peak of Tier-3. By then, Michael could infuse some SoulStar Fragments to increase Aethyr's limitation just a little – just enough to increase it to Tier-4 and start integrating some Enchantments upon the weapon.
Michael had planned a lot with his Aethyr, as well as the SoulStar Fragments that rested inside his War Rune. He had various plans, all he was missing to execute them was enough time to prepare everything meticulously.
"Since you're revealing such shocking news to me, I guess you won't be too surprised when I tell you that the number of Sacred Squires exceeds 2,000 at this point. Yesterday we managed to welcome the 52th Holy Knight as well," Siegfried revealed with a smile before he turned around to look at the Sacred Knight Temple.
"Maybe, I should step up the game to make sure that the territory will be protected a bit better in the future. After all, it looks like we're going to welcome Divine Lifeforms once your Aether and ability are exposed to the ever-expanding Origin Expanse."
The Immortal Knight laughed, but Michael could tell that it was a forced laughter.
Meanwhile, Michael merely smiled. He was not yet worried. There was no need to worry just yet.
All he had to do was grow stronger and play his cards well. That was all it took.
