575 Council's Trouble
Michael didn't waste much time after he dealt with the last Awakened. He collected their corpses and traveled to the Zynur Lord's border settlement. The Guards were shocked and changed into a defensive stance the moment they saw Michael. But who could hold them accountable for that? Michael's body was covered in blood and his clothes were half-burned.
His appearance was fearsome enough to shake the bored Guards. Fortunately, one of the Guards on the walls recalled Michael and what their Lord had said about their friend from the Untamed Jungle.
"He is an ally. Let him inside!" The Guard's voice boomed through the vicinity and it didn't take long before the large steel gate to the Untamed Jungle was opened.
Now that the Guards knew that Michael was an ally, they saluted and greeted him formally. Michael, however, merely waved his hand.
"Someone bring me a Communication Crystal that connects me with the Zynur Lord." His voice wasn't loud, but it commanded obedience.
Two Guards left at once, and it took them no more than ten minutes before they returned with an Awakened at the Peak of Tier-3.
"I didn't expect the Lord of the Untamed Jungle to come visit us. Especially not looking like…this," The Zynur Awakened managing the border settlement cleared his throat and added, "It's an honor to meet you. Why do you have to speak with our Lord?"
Despite sounding calm and kind, the sharpness within the Zynur Awakened's voice was notable. However, Michael merely shrugged the Zynur's attitude off. He retrieved some corpses from his War Rune's storage instead of answering. The corpses landed on the cobbled main street of the border settlement with loud thuds.
"I found almost 300 Tier-3 Adventurers near the border settlement. You should understand what they would have done if they'd reached the settlement."
The Zynur Awakened swallowed hard. His eyes were wide open and his jaw dropped to the ground.
"The Council of Xylon," He realized, recalling some of the races that were part of the council.
"All of them were decently powerful. Probably Elite at the lower scale."
It took the Zynur Awakened a while to regain his composure. However, once he regained his senses, he retrieved a communication crystal and handed it over to Michael.
"It's connected to the Trilance's Lords. You might want to talk to all of them."
Michael smiled, "Thanks."
In the following half an hour, Michael called the Trilance's Lords to report what happened in the Untamed Jungle. He didn't leave out too many details. Michael revealed everything that had to be said.
It was no surprise yet the Trilance's Lords seemed surprised by the sudden attack from the Untamed Jungle. The Trilance had been certain that they wouldn't have to worry about the dangers of the Untamed Jungle. Evidently, that was a mistake. A grave mistake that would have cost them the border settlement if not for Michael's timely intervention.
Michael proposed some changes in the Trilance's plans and strategy and they assured him that they would think about it. The Trilance's attitude toward the incident left a sour aftertaste, but Michael decided to ignore that for the time being. The Trilance was already under pressure from fighting continuously for the last few months. Pressing them to change their tactics just because he deemed them useless would harm their relationship.
That was not something Michael wanted for the time being. He didn't want to make another enemy with the Trilance, not with the Zentika Empire stirring trouble, the increasing strength of monsters in his proximity, and the Council of Xylon overwhelming the Savannah Region.
If anything, Michael would continue to use the Trilance as meat shields to eliminate more Awakened from the Council of Xylon without pulling their attention to the Untamed Jungle and his territory. Until the Council of Xylon was taken care of, Michael could somehow bear with the Trilance's attitude. Afterward…
Michael was not sure.
Maybe, the dynamic between the Untamed Jungle and the Trilance would change once the Council was dissolved. But that was a question the future would answer. It was not necessary to break his head over that just yet.
"Please keep the Communication Crystal, my lord! The Zynur Lord informed through his private channel that he would send me another one shortly," The Zynur Awakened's attitude toward Michael changed completely. He was overly formal and spoke to Michael with deep respect.
Michael chuckled to himself but nodded. He kept the Communication Crystal and departed the border settlement not long after. His trip back to his territory was short. He was about to head for a short bath but stopped when his gaze fell on one of the warehouses.
"I might as well…"
Michael turned to the warehouse and went inside. He tapped into his Lord power and tugged on some Links of Loyalty ever so slightly. A minute later, a dozen Starless Summons appeared in the warehouse. They'd sensed the slight pull and immediately went to their Lord.
"Once I'm done extracting the Will's loot, I want you guys to bring the corpses to the laboratory. Maybe, they can find some valuable organs, or find something that the Mythic Alchemists can use," Michael ordered before retrieving the corpses of the 297 Tier-3 Adventurers.
He manifested the Soul Grimoire and retrieved a Soul Tear to use it on Extraction before he unleashed Extraction to work on the bodies of the Adventurers.
Extracting 297 bodies did not take long. However, Michael didn't rush anything to extract as many Memory Orbs, SoulStar Fragments, and Soultraits as possible.
The gains were quite decent. He procured 309 Memory Orbs, 31,035 SoulStar Fragments, and 41 Soultrait Symbols.
Michael stored the loot away and gestured the Starless Summons to get to work. He returned to the Greater Nature Spirit's side and sat down next to its massive trunk. Sitting next to the Greater Nature Spirit cross-legged would have been quite annoying under normal circumstances, but the Forest Pixies didn't bother him right now. Instead, he found himself surrounded by tranquility where the Greater Nature Spirit's domain and presence were the strongest.
He initiated consuming the Memory Orbs once he found calm and peace deep inside him.
Consuming 309 Memory Orbs took a while. However, since Michael had focused on Extraction to extract the Awakened's memories about their combat experiences, their techniques' masteries, their Soultraits, and the missions they'd been given, he managed to procure the information he was looking for easily.
"It's exactly what I initially suspected," He murmured to himself.
The Council of Xylon had been receiving support just like the Trilance. It gazed like the Lords of the council were preparing to destroy the Trilance in the following months before using their established settlements and the Untamed Jungle in the back as a protective wall to create indomitable fortresses in the final fight of supremacy against their allies.
From what Michael could tell, almost all Lords of the council were thinking about betraying each other once the Trilance ceased to exist. Several alliances within the Council of Xylon had already been formed, including factions of Lords who'd signed Soul Pacts to rule the Savannah Region together once everything was over.
Three bigger factions attracted Michael's attention. More than 20 Lords were members of these factions, splitting the Patchwork Kingdom into three large pieces of land once the Trilance perished.
The politics and scheming of the 100ish Lords working together to kill the three Lords of the Trilance were disgusting, but they were also the reason why the Trilance was still thriving. All Lords had been given reinforcement from their Clans and the Higher-ups of their races, yet none of them was willing to send out all of their forces.
The majority was hiding their strongest forces, merely sending out the least experienced members of the Elite forces that had been sent to them as reinforcement.
It was a mess, but the massive influx of information he'd procured through the Memory Orbs was also something Michael could use. He could take advantage of the distrust within the Council of Xylon to break them from within.
Michael licked his lips, the excitement within his heart exploding. The Savannah Region could be a Lesser Region that was rather uninteresting for Michael as a Lord from the Untamed Jungle. However, the Savannah Region could develop into a higher-ranked region under the Untamed Jungle's influence.
The land bordering the Untamed Jungle was already more developed due to the influx of the Untamed Jungle's high energy density. It was only a matter of time before more energy would spread into the Savannah Region, thus transforming the flora and fauna of the Savannah Region.
Even if the Savannah Region was only a Lesser Region, it possessed some unique ore deposits and other unique materials. Once they developed to a higher quality, the Lords of the Savannah Region would turn into wealthy tycoons overnight.
Michael desired a piece of that fortune as well. But that meant he would have to work even harder. The Trilance was on the losing side, after all.
Since he learned quite a bit about the Council of Xylon's plans against the Trilance, Michael retrieved a Communication Crystal. However, instead of calling the Lords of the Trilance, he called the Immortal Knight.
Michael shared crucial information about their tactics, strengths, weaknesses, and the military could stationed within every settlement. But most importantly, Michael managed to retrieve a particular piece of information.
He got to know that the Council of Xylon planned a surprise attack, their target being the Laprix Lord's main settlement.
The attack had to be stopped, otherwise, the Trilance would lose a third of their could in the following 24 hours.
