The boost in his physical strength was refreshing.
It was not a major augment in power, but Michael felt that it would be a lot easier to refine his physique using the Consirat of War body refinement technique. The technique seemed near perfect for him now that his physique had been altered slightly.
"Is it possible for others to initiate the Rife of the War Goddess, or are there some restrictions?" Michael asked Mekhaz.
"We've tried it with Berserker Summons and foreign Awakened, but it doesn't work like that," Mekhaz shook his head.
Michael fell deep in thought.
'So, the Oath of Loyalty can only be used by Awakened and Berserkers or Warlock Centaurs. Is that because of their Essence? Maybe, the Rite of the War Goddess is based on their beliefs, but that shouldn't be how the Oath of Loyalty came into existence. There has to be some sort of technique that stimulates the Link of Loyalty's evolution. There has to be a logical explanation!'
There was a lot to research if he wanted to use the Oath of Loyalty more often in the future. For now, Michael could only shrug and accept the situation.
"Alright," Michael nodded, "I won't ask for your reasons to initiate the Rite of the War Goddess out of nowhere. It's your decision and I'm pretty sure that most of you carefully considered the pros and cons before the final decision."
Some Berserkers looked at each other with a wry smile. They didn't think about what they were doing as thoroughly as Michael was hoping for. However, that was fine. Now that they made a decision, the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs wouldn't back off – not that they could, either way.
"How about we focus on Soultraits and Soultrait Upgrades for now?" Michael intercepted the deep thoughts of the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs. They nodded subtly and moved on.
Michael retrieved the sealed container that contained all Soultrait Symbols. He unsealed the container's lock and handed it to Rebecca Zauber. She used her Soultrait, Greater Analyzation, alongside the Inheritance Technique, Perfect Appraisal, to appraise the Soultrait Symbols, old and new, and determined their value and growth potential.
She created a price list with her friend in less than 20 minutes. Michael and the Untamed Awakened spent those 20 minutes talking about the Council of Xylon and their future actions.
"Is it possible to decline any benefits from conquering the Savannah Region in exchange for a Soultrait Upgrade to 5-Star?" Lilica asked, only to see some Untamed Awakened tilt their head at her question, "What I mean is that I don't need anymore Jungle Points for killing Awakened and Combat Summons in the Regional War. Instead, I would like to upgrade one of my Soultraits to 5-Star before we return to fight these bastards again."
Michael nodded his head slowly, "You want an advance, which you'll pay back with the gains made in the Savannah."
"Seems fair to me."
Everyone liked Lilica's suggestion. 'Advance pay' in this case was like a loan because the Untamed Awakened wouldn't receive any Jungle Points until the benefits procured from the advance pay had been repaid. However, it didn't feel the same. The feeling about asking for advance pay and taking a loan was completely different. It was not that burdensome.
Taking that into consideration, everyone asked for their Soultraits to be upgraded to 4-Star before they inspected the list of Soultraits, which Rebecca handed out. The majority of Untamed Awakened inspected the list to search for suitable Soultraits. Only some, like Lilica, asked for a Soultrait Upgrade to 5-Star right away.
Michael upgraded her 4-Star Soultrait, Precise Aim, to 5-Star using 2600 SoulStar Fragments. Enhancing her Soultrait resulted in a change. Precise Aim evolved to Bullseye.
He offered to upgrade one more Soultrait to 5-Star but Lilica told him to use the upgrades on others.
That was what Michael did.
He upgraded Opars' Herculean Arms Soultrait to 5-Star, evolving it to Herculean Strength. Only Mika's Arrow Duplication didn't evolve into a stronger version upon upgrading it to 5-Star
Frederik's Enhanced Wind and Wind Mastery were upgraded to 4-Star. He was certain that he did not deserve another Soultrait or a Soultrait Upgrade to 5-Star. Therefore, he rejected Michael's proposal to take a bigger advance pay.
Frederik's look was filled with guilt and frustration. He owed Michael too much at this point, and the gap seemed to widen. It felt like it was impossible to repay Michael for everything he had done for him. All he could do was stay living and combat for Michael with his life on the line.
Thaor's Red Giant Soultrait and Mekhaz Living Armor were upgraded to 5-Star. Simultaneously, Lokai's Recuperation and Life Conversion were upgraded to 4-Star. Once Recuperation reached 4-Star, Lokai had it upgraded to 5-Star. It evolved into Rapid Recovery
The others asked for alike benefits. Only Hiraku dismissed the advance pay or any other benefits. He said that he had already received enough benefits from Michael. After all, he would still be stuck on a petite island in the middle of nowhere if it had not been for Michael.
Michael didn't think that he did much, but he wasn't going to force Hiraku into doing, or accepting anything. There was no need for that.
Tiara inquired Michael to upgrade Spirit Whip to 5-Star. Michael didn't think twice about upgrading her Soultrait. He saw her eying a specific name on the Soultrait Symbol list and collected an orb.
"I saw you eying this," Michael said, pointing at the Soultrait Symbol 'Thrust'.
The Soultrait's name wasn't special, but Michael could tell that Tiara was very interested in that Soultrait. Silvarean Tiger transformed her body partially, augmenting her physical strength, speed, and flexibility tremendously. Inner Force allowed her to execute surprise attacks and execute a wide variety of attacks in an unpredictable manner, whereas Spirit Whip slowed her enemies by weakening their minds.
Tiara didn't have an offensive Soultrait that augmented her attack power drastically for a moment. She was having a hard time defeating enemies of a higher rank. Thrust could solve that issue.
Tiara eyed the Soultrait Symbol for a while. She hesitated and didn't move. Michael's lips curled into a smile and he upgraded the Soultrait Symbol to 4-Star before planting it into her hand.
"Take it. Survive, grow stronger, and ensure you accumulate enough achievements to rescue your Clan."
Tiara looked up and stared deep into Michael's eyes. A stream of emotions flooded Michael through Tiara's True Link of Loyalty, filling him with warmth. He continued smiling and ruffled lightly through her hair when she said nothing.
"Everything is fine as long as you don't die. Don't make me regret giving you Spirit Whip and Thrust."
Michael was sincerely hoping that his Soultrait Symbols and Soultrait Upgrades wouldn't transform the Untamed Awakened into arrogant brats, who are full of themselves. He needed confident Awakened, but they shouldn't cross the line. Arrogance would kill them a lot faster than fear. After all, fear would make them combat defensively and against weaker or equally powerful enemies rather than enemies above their weight class.
'It should be fine.' Michael told himself in a whisper.
'In the worst case, I will beat everyone into a pulp until they don't know how arrogance is spelled.'
