"I don't want any rewards," Tiara pressed her hands against her hips and stared intently at Michael.
"You gave me more than enough by summoning my kin with the Legendary Summoning Scrolls. I cannot ask for more things. My uncontrollable greed was probably the reason so many people died yesterday…"
Tiara nibbled on her lower lip as she spoke to Michael, whose expression changed slowly.
"You used your Achievements to bring the Silverfangs to my territory, didn't you?" Michael concluded, "But how is that possible? I thought you could only access the Achievement Records and the Ancient Market upon ascending to a Higher Lifeform."
Tiara smiled sadly at her Master, "My situation is a little bit different, Master. I can acquire Achievements, but I cannot use them. My Achievements are naturally used up to resurrect my Clan. There is no 'decision' or 'choice' to take. It happens naturally."
"But you're not at fault for anything that happened if that's the case. If it happens naturally and you cannot influence the Will's decision, it's not your choice that I summoned the Silverfangs instead of Legendary Summons."
Michael didn't think too much about the Silverfangs and the six Legendary Summons he didn't manage to summon. It happened in the past and he couldn't change it. There was no need to think too much about them.
"But–..."
Tiara was interrupted by Michael right away.
"Are you sure that you don't want anything?"
"Maybe…that you don't hate me for burdening you with my Clan's resurrection…" Tiara uttered quietly.
Michael chuckled and ruffled through Tiara's hair, disheveling it.
"I don't hate you. Everything is okay."
Tiara sighed in relief, and one could visibly see the tension in her body easing up. Her composure and expression improved at once and the little Princess of the Silverfang Tigerfolk broke into a bright smile.
Michael and Tiara chatted a little bit longer. To be precise, it was mostly Tiara talking about the Silverfangs and how excited she was about summoning more of them. She said that she would give her best to grow stronger and acquire as many Achievements as the Will required to bring her entire Clan to the Untamed Jungle.
Michael wondered where her uncertainty had gone, but he smiled as well.
Tiara was excited and overflowing with ambition. She was determined to resurrect her Clan. That was great. Michael was happy for her.
He accepted her rejection for additional benefits even though she was one of the Awakened with the biggest impact in the battle against the Heart of the Blazing Lion army. She didn't fight them head-on. Instead, Tiara killed tens of thousands with the support of Chaos Pills and overcharged elemental crystals.
Michael decided to make a mental note about Tiara's help and to reward her later. He would have to strengthen her sooner or later to ensure that the little Silverfang Princess would be safe and sound wherever she went.
But to be fair, everyone did a great job on the battlefield the day before. Everyone deserved to be praised and rewarded. That was far from cheap, but Michael wasn't stingy. His territory required more strength to stand strong against their future enemies. The Council of Xylon wouldn't wait for them to get stronger, either.
That led Michael to think about ways to acquire as much strength as possible in the shortest possible period. The answers were simple.
"Soultraits, Legendary Scrolls, and Artifacts are among the easiest ways to grow stronger. Even Ordinary Scrolls can be considered a way to grow stronger, but only for me as the Lord with all Links of Loyalty." Michael murmured deep in thought.
Powerful Artifacts were rather difficult to come by. He had still some Vouchers for customized Epic Tier-3 Artifacts, but he didn't need them. The Untamed Awakened could purchase the Vouchers at a big discount. They were better off with some mighty customized Epic Tier-3 Artifacts.
Legendary Scrolls were powerful, but they might not be that useful right now, either. Michael didn't have anything against the Silverfangs, but it was a fact that four – maybe five – out of six Silverfangs weren't suited for combat. And combat power was what he needed the most at this point.
'Should I combine the Scroll Fragments into Mythic Scrolls in the hope of summoning a few dozen 2-Star and 3-Star Summons with combat occupations? Or is it possible to do something else with the Scroll Fragments?'
Michael thought about Kraft Viton's proposal to use Insert in more versatile ways.
'I could try inserting Ordinary Scrolls into each other or insert Summoning Scroll Fragments into Ordinary Scrolls. Or insert them straight into Mythic Scrolls. Hmmm…'
Another thing was that Michael had yet to use Insert on Soultrait Symbols and other things. He hadn't even tapped into Insert's true potential. His utility of Insert didn't even scratch the Soultrait's surface. It was about time to change that.
Michael had hundreds of Soultrait Symbols sealed away, and he was a little excited to retrieve them to start experimenting. He knew that he could start experimenting with other things first, but Michael's interest in Soultrait Symbols and how they would react to Insert was the highest.
Thus, he retrieved a bunch of Soultrait Symbols from the sealed contained that he'd retrieved from his War Rune and began to play–...experiment.
"Use Insert on 1-Star Improved Sight, and 1-Star Inferior Energy Vision," Michael mumbled as he pressed two Soultrait Symbols together while exerting Insert on both.
Tendrils of energy shot out of the two Soultrait Symbols. The tendrils collided with each other and repelled one another at first. However, the clashing tendrils began to interweave and merge a few seconds into their 'fierce' battle. Michael with Spirit Eyes could see the clash of energies and the adaptability of the Soultraits.
The integration process of the two Soultraits didn't last long, but with Spirit Eyes fully activated, Michael was able to see the particles clashing, interweaving, and fusing slowly. He managed to record every single step in his head and he reviewed the whole show several times.
"The fusion of Soultraits is not that simple. 1-Star Improved Sight and 1-Star Energy Vision turned into Energy Sight. Does that mean it's Inferior Energy Vision without the Inferior prefix, or that something about the 'Vision' modified to turn it into Sight? And what happened to the 'Improved' prefix from Improved Sight?" Michael took a few notes on a piece of paper that he had retrieved from his War Rune and continued to test a few more things.
He retrieved a few more Soultrait Symbols and began to utilize Insert on them. However, this time, Michael didn't try to search for Soultrait Symbols that should be highly compatible with each other. Improved Sight and Energy Vision were highly compatible, but Energy Vision and Minor Demonic Aura weren't.
Michael spent the next 10 minutes fusing ten 1-Star Soultraits into five 1-Star Soultraits. The results were both better than he had expected and…very confusing.
Energy Vision and Minor Demonic Aura fused into Minor Demonic Vision, Energy Bullet and Camouflage transformed into Improved Energy Camouflage, and so on.
The integration of Soultrait Symbols was very confusing, but as Michael continued to utilize Insert, he noticed a few things.
'The effect of Insert on Soultraits of the same rank is extremely high. The Soultraits do not consider one of them as the Main Soultrait, and the other one as the subsidiary. They fused and created something new with the aspects of each inserted Soultrait Symbol.'
That changed when Michael added another experiment. He upgraded one Soultrait Symbol to 2-Star and fused it with 1-
Star Soultraits.
"2-Star Conjure Arrow and 1-Star Improved Energy Camouflage fused into 2-Star Conjure Improved Arrow."
Michael did a few more tests like this with 2-Star and 1-Star Soultraits and quickly understood that the higher-ranked Soultrait was considered the Main Soultrait.
No major changes were applied to the Main Soultrait upon fusing. Instead, the lower-ranked Soultrait was employed as a supplement to add some of its power to the higher-ranked Soultrait.
That was very interesting, and it was something Michael could make utilize of.
By changing the star rating before combining Soultraits, it was easier to control the changes.
"That's good to know for Soul Grimoire," Michael noted, certain that he could utilize Insert on Soultraits that could aid Soul Grimoire to transform into something that was more suited toward the preservation of Living Souls and their nourishing.
But his new find was also great for something else, something that had been bothering him for quite a while. It was great to replace Glacicle.
Michael's compatibility with Glacicle was extremely high, which was also why he couldn't extract it without inflicting serious – permanent – harm on his soul. It was similar to his compatibility with Soul Grimoire, which had been anchored deep into his very existence.
However, now that he could combine Soultraits, Michael should be able to transform Glacicle into something more useful. It was too fragile and not very versatile. That could be changed!
'Glacicle's freezing property is crazy. Keeping that is a must. But other than that…Glacicle is rather weak. I'm pretty sure Glacicle won't be as powerful as Frozen Kingdom if I upgrade it to 6-Star, let alone Frozen Nova if I were to upgrade Glacicle to 7-Star. Glacicle is a rather weak Elementa Soultrait if not for the freezing property.'
Michael decided to do something risky. He employed Extraction on Glacicle and decreased its star rating to 1-Star. He gained more than 2,000 SoulStar Fragments in return…and a punishment.
Extracting SoulStar Fragments from his own Soultrait hurt like hell. Michael felt like he was about to lose his sanity.
For a moment, he pitied all those whose SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols he had extracted while they were still alive.
But his pity disappeared quickly. It was not like Michael kept innocent people alive to drain their SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols.
Only those who deserved to suffer received this kind of Soul-
torturing.
