Glacicle was reverted to a 1-Star Soultrait. The pain Michael felt when he extracted SoulStar Fragments from Glacicle had been horrifying, but he overcame it somehow.
'I spend a lot more than 2,000 Fragments to get you to 5-Star...What a nuisance.' He complained silently in his aching heart.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to upgrade his Soultraits and Extract the SoulStar Fragments whenever he wanted to without any losses. That was not how it worked. But it was a good thing that Michael didn't want to lower his Soultraits' star rating often. Doing so once was already enough.
Glacicle's freezing property was retained, though it was much weaker than ever. It would grow stronger as the Soultrait's star rating increased.
Glacicle couldn't be removed from the Sphere of Light without damaging his Soul and the Sphere. However, that didn't mean Michael couldn't integrate other Soultraits into Glacicle.
Michael had been putting aside certain Soultraits because he liked their powers and special properties. It was no wonder, but he liked using Elements. The more the merrier.
Fusing with the Elemental Empress opened a door to a much bigger world, which was why Michael considered integrating a bunch of Soultraits into Glacicle, in the first place.
Zeroa's Elemental Affinities weren't too bad, but the Mythical Fire Affinity was her only truly powerful affinity. That was not enough for Michael. He wanted more.
Michael understood that he greedy, but it was a fact that he had the means to satisfy his greed.
He spent the rest of the day sorting Soultrait Symbols, tapping into the memories of the Soultraits' former owners to learn more about their uses, special perks, and weak points and used Insert to combine a bunch of Soultraits. Michael was trying to integrate two compatible Soultraits before combining the results of the integration with one another.
The process of combining two Soultraits was neither fast nor slow. Some integrations required half an hour, others required Michael's attention and two hours to complete.
Michael was still tired from going all-out against the Heart of the Blazing Lion army, but integrating various Soultraits was very interesting. It was very helpful for future ordeals and the experience he gained from combining Soultraits was not to be taken lightly either.
He learned a lot about the processes during the day and digested the information and everything he was able to see through Spirit Eyes at night.
The next morning wasn't special in any way. Michael continued to combine Soultraits and experiments. He raked his mind and used Insert to its limit to create the most suitable Soultrait, but something was missing no matter how often Michael combined the Soultrait Symbols.
At some point, Michael realized that the Soultrait Symbol's name changed into something he didn't want. The Soultrait Symbols turned for the worse after he integrated too many Soultrait Symbols. It was a good thing that Michael had Extraction. He could fix his mistakes by reverting to the last step.
Extracting a Soultrait Symbol from another Soultrait Symbol was far from easy. Michael had to spend the rest of the morning and the whole afternoon until late evening finishing the job. It was exhausting and Michael hated himself a little bit for impatiently using Insert to combine the SoulStar Fragments.
However, he learned from his mistakes and decided that the Soultrait was strong enough as a 1-Star Soultrait. He used 4 SoulStar Fragments to upgrade the Soultrait that had formed out of 13 Soultrait Symbols only to freeze in place.
"Four Fragments is not enough? Usually, that's more than enough to upgrade a 1-Star Soultrait to 2-Star. Is it more expensive because the Soultrait is a high-quality Soultrait with great power?"
Some Soultraits, just like Extraction, required more SoulStar Fragments to be upgraded. Michael didn't think too much and continued to channel more SoulStar Fragments into the fused 1-Star Soultrait.
10 SoulStar Fragments.
20 SoulStar Fragments.
50 SoulStar Fragments.
80 SoulStar Fragments.
100 SoulStar Fragments.
Only after the newly fused 1-Star Soultrait had been nourished by 100 SoulStar Fragments did the second star form.
'Is that for real now?' Michael swallowed hard, but he continued upgrading the Soultrait to 3-Star.
400 SoulStar Fragments later, the fused Soultrait Symbol reached 3-Star.
"Oh…fuck me…"
Upgrading the newly fused Soultrait from 1-Star to 2-Star costs 25 times to 30 times more than it should have. Even upgrading the Soultrait from 2-Star to 3-Star was 20 times more expensive than it ought to be.
It was a matter of fact that the newly fused Soultrait replaced Glacicle in the Middle Area of the Sphere of Light since he integrated the Soultrait Symbols with Glacicle rightaway. The middle area forced Michael to spend 1.75x as many SoulStar Fragments to upgrade a Soultrait. Even though that was a lot…
it wasn't comparable to the exorbitant price to upgrade his newly fused Soultrait.
"It is because I fused Soultrait Symbols?" Michael wondered, sighing heavily.
It did make sense even, unfortunately.
He had noticed that upgrading Spirit Eyes was going to be a lot more expensive than upgrading Superior Constitution but didn't think too much about it first. It made sense that Spirit Eyes was more expensive because it was a Soultrait that had been fused from two Soultraits. It was a 2-in-1 set and thus more expensive to upgrade.
But a 20x multiplier – including the Sphere of Light's multiplier – for a single Soultrait…was a little bit over the top.
'I created a near-perfect Soultrait. It's far more useful than most Soultraits, in the first place. If only-...'
Michael halted in his tracks and decided to continue experimenting. He had been upgrading the newly fused Soultrait to 3-Star because he wanted to integrate more Soultraits into it. Michael did not plan to change the Soultrait's essence anymore, but instead fuse some properties of 1-Star Soultraits into it.
The only issue he had, now that he found out that the upgrade cost of the fused Soultraits was exorbitant, was that Michael couldn't be certain whether upgrading the Soultrait to 4-Star would be a feasible task. Michael had prepared 50 Soultrait Symbols with useful properties to consolidate into the newly fused 3-Star Soultrait. Would the upgrade cost increase to a 70x multiplier, or would it remain the same because he didn't change the essence of the Soultrait anymore?
There was only one way to find out.
Michael spend two more days inserting 1-Star Soultraits into the fused 3-Star Soultrait.
The 1-Star Soultraits integrated into the 3-Star Soultrait and improved it, subtly changing the Soultraits' properties, and enhancing them considerably.
The changes were very nice and pleasant to the eyes.
That left only one question: Could he upgrade the Soultrait to 4-Star by investing less than 5,000 SoulStar Fragments?
An ordinary 3-Star Soultrait required between 200-250 SoulStar Fragments to be enhanced to 4-Star. If his multiplier remained at 20x, the newly fused Soultrait shouldn't require more than 5,000 SoulStar Fragments to reach 4-Star.
'At least the multiplier includes the cost increase from the Sphere of Light's Middle Area. I don't think I could happily invest close to 9,000 SoulStar Fragments to upgrade a 3-Star Soultrait.' Michael half-complained.
The price was still exorbitant but if the result was remotely as amazing as Michael imagined, it would be worth it!
Michael closed his eyes and began channeling SoulStar Fragments into his newly fused Soultrait. The SoulStar Fragments were consumed like crazy. 1,000 Fragments disappeared just like that.
Michael nibbled on his lower lip once they reached the threshold of 5,000 SoulStar Fragments. They surpassed the threshold and Michael broke into cold sweat. He was about to curse when the 4th Star formed on the Soultrait Symbol.
He succeeded in upgrading the newly merged Soultrait to 4-
Star using 5,500 SoulStar Fragments.
"Yes!!" Michael exclaimed, clenching his fists. He roared and broke into a bright smile. The newly merged Soultrait did not only advance to 4-Star but it attained a proper upgrade as well.
His newly merged Soultrait evolved and grew stronger…much stronger than Michael had been hoping for. Something within Michael transformed and a vast influx of information bombarded his mind. He consumed the information right away, resulting in his smile widening even further.
Small changes occurred inside his body, within the Pillar of Light, to be precise. His energy storage was being altered, tiny spheres of all colors forming within them.
The Spheres of Elements were given birth to.
