Now that the Gogi Lord was dead, Michael wanted to focus on calmly expanding his territory.
He had many things to pay attention to and work on, but none of them had to be finished in a rush. The only task that had to be completed in the next few days was putting up the spiked wall.
Michael asked his subjects to construct a spiked wall and an ordinary wall around his territory to hinder the monsters that would attack the territory after the protection barrier was lifted.
He was not too worried, but it was always better to be careful. The Untamed Jungle was not a region that could be taken lightly, after all!
'I should use the lizard cave to harvest Gloa Crystals and other minerals soon. The resources in the lizard cave are quite exceptional and will help my territory advance!' Michael thought while breaking the seals of the Summoning Scrolls he was left with.
At first, 10 Starless Summons emerged from the Summoning Gates, followed by two 1-Star Aero Crossbowmen, and a 3-Star robed woman.
The Aero Crossbowmen looked quite imposing. They wore a full set of leather armor and held a silver crossbow in their hands. Two small quivers were attached to their belts that were accessible and easy to reach in times of danger. However, the most impressive were those wind currents swirled around them, making their hair flutter. It was quite an intriguing sight.
On the other hand, the robed woman radiated a feeling of utter calmness and tranquility. She seemed to be in her 50s and wielded a wooden wand. An azure crystal was embedded at the top of the wand. Streaks of water conjured around the azure crystal, drawing Michael's attention.
"A Water Elemental Mage? That's great!" He exclaimed in excitement. The 3-Star Elemental Mage emerged from the Mythic Summoning Scroll.
The chance to summon a 3-Star Summon had been quite low but Michael seemed to have hit the jackpot. Not only would it be much easier to procure water with the mage, but a Water Elemental Mage was also useful in combat. She could attack and defend by shooting water jets.
Michael introduced himself to his subjects and welcomed them into his territory. The summons introduced themselves as well before they looked at the territory.
Tiara showed them around and tried to familiarize them with the Untamed Jungle. She didn't hesitate to mention the dangers of the Untamed Jungle, but her words made it look like she was talking about the weather rather than something life-threatening.
Because it was already late afternoon, there was not much for everyone to do. It would be too dark once the sun disappeared behind the horizon and venturing out at that time would be risky. That was also another reason Michael wanted to make the lizard cave his. Harvesting a few Gloa Crystals would change the dynamic inside his territory completely and not restrict them to only daytime activities.
They wouldn't have to rely on the sunlight with Gloa Crystal torches placed everywhere.
However, Michael didn't think that it would be easy to conquer the lizard cave. The Lizard mother might have been the only inhabitant of the lizard cave he came across, but Michael believed that there were a lot more lizards as strong as the lizard mother, if not stronger.
The ominous feeling that spread through his entire being when he entered the lizard cave was still apparent in his mind. He clearly recalled the sensation, which had intensified as he made his way deeper into the cave.
It was highly likely that there were stronger monsters in the deeper parts of the cave, and Michael didn't want to bother them just yet. Despite that, Michael knew that time was ticking, and fighting the monsters in the lizard cave in the future was an obvious course of action because the cave was a treasure trove.
The crystals and ores he had procured by using Extraction at the cavern entrance were already quite shocking. If he could manage to find the crystal and ore deposits Michael would be able to make enough money to stir envy in the hearts of most Lords. After all, even Tier-2 Lords might not have had the chance to procure a source of income of similar value.
The lizard cave was not yet in Michael's possession but that would change in the future. His territory would progress rapidly from now on just by looking at the number of combat units, and their terrific combat prowess.
He had Tiara, four 1-Star Warriors, two Aero Crossbowmen who could be considered Elite 1-Star Summons as they possessed the ability to control the surrounding winds to a certain degree, two 1-Star Knights in training with the prospect of attaining enlightenment and becoming 2-Star Knights, and a 3-Star Water Elemental Mage.
With such a group, hunting was bound to become easier, and progress would inevitably follow suit not long after.
In fact, Tiara and the Warriors had gone out to hunt a few monsters while Michael was busy in the Gogi Lord's territory. The number of monsters that dared to get close to the protection barrier decreased drastically over the last few days, but they were fortunate enough to hunt 18 Low Tier-1 Monsters during the day.
Fully Extracting the bodies of 18 Monsters was no problem for Michael anymore. He knew the anatomy of the monsters he had dissected dozens of times since he had entered the Origin Expanse, and Extraction had been upgraded to a 3-Star Soultrait as well. The efficiency of Extraction increased a notch while the energy consumption decreased.
Michael spent less than half an hour fully dissecting the monster corpses, whose body parts were quickly moved to the warehouse.
Afterward, Michael was left alone with the loot created by the Will.
'181 Summoning Scroll Fragments, 4 Summoning Scrolls, and 2 Blueprints. No Artifact.'
It was not easy to procure Artifacts even with Extraction's bonus. Michael had expected that, which was why he didn't fret much and switched his focus on the other drops.
He combined 175 Summoning Scroll Fragments into 7 Summoning Scrolls and put the remaining six aside. A total of 18 monsters turned into 11 Summoning Scrolls and 2 blueprints. Others would never be able to procure Summoning Scrolls and blueprints that easily. Thus, Michael began to wonder what he should do with the opportunities his Soultrait revealed.
'Selling the Summoning Scrolls may sound like a good opportunity, but I need them. The more subjects I have, the stronger my Soultraits grow. Furthermore, I need more people to work on the territory… But what about the blueprints? I should have a few blueprints doubled, or even tripled by now. They should be worth something, right?'
Michael knew that he had many things stored in the warehouse, but he had yet to take a look at everything. They had too many monster corpses without use for them. It was time to return home and sell the excessive body parts and the lizard mother's body.
The warehouse was quite small, which was also why they had to expand it soon. However, it was also true that he had several barrels filled with the blood of Tier-1 Monsters, and chests overflowing with Monster Cores, Gemstones, Antlers, and much more.
However, they were also lacking various resources. The most important were sources of light to see when it was dark. Other than that, it was also important to purchase paper, quills and tint to copy the Sun Soldier technique for everyone in his territory to read and train.
Many showed interest in the Sun Soldier techniques and Michael wanted to provide his subjects the opportunity to grow stronger and attain enlightenment. Copying the techniques was allowed but sharing them with people outside his territory wasn't.
Even sharing the techniques with Adventures who made an oath of being a loyal subordinate to a Lord was frowned upon.
If Michael was found guilty of selling copied techniques, he would be tried by a jury and fined. That was too troublesome, especially since they lived in the era of technology and the internet. It was easy to find out that he purchased the Sun Soldier Breathing and Weaponry technique from Bartholomew's House of Witchery.
There were many tricks that could be applied to fool the system, but that was also illegal.
Michael was not that desperate yet either. He had more than enough items to sell, in the first place.
He was interested in visiting Xiltra to find out more about the market in the Zentika Empire, but the border city was too far away, and not easy to travel to and from in a single day. This was even more true with the Untamed Jungle in his way. Once the Bilrox hatched and matured it would be easier to travel to Xiltra, but that would take a while.
That meant Michael had to leave the Origin Expanse again to sell the goods he gathered during the last few days.
His War Rune has already recharged, so he could use the Runic Gate to return home.
But before he would return home, Michael slept for a few hours.
He felt that he would need the rest right now because something told him that his second trip back home would be more turbulent than the first.
