The Extraction tendrils completed their work swiftly and thoroughly. Not even half an hour passed before Michael told his subjects to take the bodies and distribute them throughout the Untamed Jungle's outer ring. The Untamed Jungle would consume the corpses and turn them into fertilizer.
The outer ring would recuperate from the damage caused by the Heart of the Blazing Lion army soon if Michael provided enough 'fertilizer' in the next few weeks.
He didn't pay much attention to the subjects storing the corpses in small spatial satchels and focused on the piles of treasures instead.
One of the piles contained a bunch of Artifacts, which belonged to the Lords and Awakened from the Savannah. Some of them were High Artifacts being at the 4th Tier, thus increasing their value tremendously. It was a little unfortunate that their star rating was not that high, but Michael didn't expect to earn a shocking fortune from the Awakened's Artifacts, in the first place.
It was a decent side income.
Since he focused on plundering the corpses of Awakened, Michael didn't receive many Summoning Fragments, Scrolls, or the like. The Will decreased the drop rate for those goods drastically since Michael could extract a portion of Awakened's War Rune storages, their Artifacts, Memories, and both SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols.
Micheal didn't mind that. He was more focused on the 1000ish Memory Orbs, the piles of goods he'd extracted from the War Runes of the 11 Lords and 1245 Awakened, their Soultrait Symbols, and the huge pile of SoulStar Fragments.
'First the goods. This mess is tormenting to look at,' Michael thought, prioritizing cleaning up the mess created by the portion of War Rune storages he'd extracted.
It was a good thing that Michael had various spatial rings, bracelets, necklaces, and spatial satchels to store various things. He ordered some subjects to focus on storing specific items while he organized everything. That way, Michael could mark the spatial rings and other devices to know what's inside without accessing them once they were stored in the warehouse.
Once the warehouse was a little bit more organized, Michael could finally pay more attention to the stash of Soultrait Symbols and SoulStar Fragments.
He had yet to research the name, powers, and special attributes of all newly acquired Soultrait Symbols, but he was not in a rush. It would take some time to research the pile containing 99 Soultrait Symbols.
Michael stored the Soultrait Symbols in the sealed container where the remaining Soultrait Symbols were stored securely and eyed the pile of SoulStar Fragments with greed in his vibrant golden eyes.
He allowed the War Rune to consume the humongous pile of SoulStar Fragments. The War Rune didn't hesitate and burst forth with dozens of white tendrils emerging from the back of his hand. The tendrils shot out of his War Rune and devoured the SoulStar Fragments faster than most Tierless subjects could watch.
The huge pile of 126,934 SoulStar Fragments was there one moment and vanished into thin air only one second later.
"That's a lot," Michael whistled.
He expected to procure a large batch of SoulStar Fragments given that he defeated 21 Higher Lifeforms, but it was still a bit surprising. Defeating 11 more-or-less weak Lords from the Savannah Region granted him enough SoulStar Fragments to upgrade multiple Soultraits to 6-Star!
Some of his Soultraits were more expensive than the norm, but that hardly mattered given the gains he made within a few days.
'I shouldn't rush anything.' Michael reminded himself, 'I should think carefully about my next moves. The Untamed Awakened should receive some Soultrait Upgrades and new Soultraits as well. They worked hard, but some situations were too dangerous. If we continue like this, some of them will die before they can tap into the true potential of their Soultraits!'
Michael considered upgrading Soul Grimoire instantaneously, but he held back. Right now, it was better to refine his War Rune, using the energy influxes and energy shares he obtained in the last few days.
He killed the excitement bubbling inside him and focused on the consolidation of his War Rune. The techniques Leviathan Diffusion and Pantheon's Dawn aided the process, accelerating the War Rune's refinement considerably.
A few days passed in the blink of an eye. Michael digested the last energy influxes and met up with his subordinates. He was still a Low Tier-3 Lord, but he was now certain that the Regional War would push him to the Mid rank as long as he didn't boost too many Soultraits to 6-Star.
An attendant rushed toward Michael the moment he reached the large roundtable in the wooden manor. A clipboard with the Scouts' reports, Arx's development, and some high-
priority requests landed in his hands.
Tiara, Hiraku, Frederik, and the others greeted Michael, who nodded back without lifting his head. His eyes were glued to the reports.
He sat down on his designated chair, his attention drifting to the high-priority requests.
"Since the juvenile Awakened and monster cubs have already been examined, there is no need to be vigilant. They're not marked and don't have any devices that share their location installed either. It shouldn't be a problem to give the juvenile Awakened a place in the orphanage and raise the monster cubs in one of the ranches. Tajana can find out additional about the monster cubs, whereas Hannah from the Silverfangs Tigerfolk can treat the juvenile Awakened. The kids seem to be more comfortable around her," Michael stated after he gave it some thought, "Don't hesitate to point out any flaws."
Despite saying so, nobody raised a hand to say anything. Tiara knew that Hannah was a good girl and that she would take care of the juvenile Awakened as if they were her cubs.
Tatjana was gentle as well. Her personality was a bit brusque, but it wasn't bad enough to scare some monster cubs.
"As for the requests made by the Untamed Awakened… Most accumulated enough Jungle Points to repay your loans. Given that I offered additional Jungle Points for participating in the large-scale attack against the Council of Xylon, I give everyone permission to pick another Soultrait."
"If you do not wish to expand your repertoire of Soultraits, you can also come to me for a Soultrait Upgrade. An upgrade to 5-Star is expensive but since we're at war with the Council of Xylon I can give everyone a discount."
Michael sensed generous with the large stash of SoulStar Fragments in his possession. Upgrading the Soultraits of the Untamed Awakened might be better than continuously upgrading his own Soultraits. He was already strong enough to deal with the strongest Higher Lifeforms in the Savannah Region. Therefore, it was about time for his subordinates to grow just as powerful.
Tiara and the others were slightly surprised. They had been granted various benefits in the battle against the Heart of the Blazing Lion army and didn't expect that Michael would give them even more benefits. It was almost as if he was throwing gifts their way.
Was he trying to suffocate them with presents?
"I swear in the name of the War Goddess…" Zeron Polik's voice thundered through the large office all of a sudden, "...that I will never betray Michael Fang. I will fight by his side and heed his commands until my mortal shell breaks apart!"
Michael had no idea about what was going on, but the other Warlock Centaurs and Berserkers seemed to understand Zeron Polik's words better than anyone. They were baffled, but their astonishment lasted only for a moment. They understood why Zeron Polik made an oath in the name of the War Goddess and broke into vibrant - hideous - smiles.
A moment later, the remaining Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs made an oath as well.
Michael was still unsure what the hell was going on, but it didn't take long before he sensed that something was changing. His War Rune heated up until it sensed like the War Rune had been set on fire.
However, there was no fire around his palm. It was chilly in the office, to be precise.
Michael raised an eyebrow and decided to close his eyes to seek the source of heat inside him. It didn't take long to discover it.
The Links of Loyalty with the Warlock Centaurs and Berserkers were changing. The Soul Pacts disintegrated. The Pacts' fragments merged into the Links of Loyalty and altered their essence.
The Links of Loyalty evolved. They became more
