A few months passed in the blink of an eye.
At last, the Valyr Lordess established a stable foundation in the Savannah Region. In the last six months, they struggled a lot and suffered various defeats, but they overcame all ordeals and managed to transform the Savannah into the domain of the Valyr race.
But that was not without help. The territories adjacent to the Savannah Region heard a lot about the massacre of the 106 Savannah Lords and decided not to follow their desire to expand into the Savannah Region. The news about the destruction caused by Michael spread quickly into the surrounding regions. Those who escaped Michael's grasp by a hair's breadth fled and shared their information with the other Lords. In their stories, Michael was an invincible devil. He was not someone a mortal should enrage if they desired to keep their lives and territories intact.
Only a small batch of Lords didn't believe the refugees' stories. They invaded the Savannah and tried to establish a foothold in the Savannah Region. The Valyr finally defeated them, pushing them away, but their victory didn't come without any casualties. The Valyr lost a lot. However, it was all worth it. They claimed the Savannah Region.
The Valyrs were thankful that Michael's image instilled fear in the hearts of the enemies bordering the Savannah Region, drastically decreasing the difficulty of conquering.
Therefore, it was no wonder the higher-ups of the Valyr race were willing to send Michael many criminals. The criminals were all crippled Higher Lifeforms, but they were only at the 4th Tier because the Valyr Lordess was only a Tier-4 Lord. It would have been better if the crippled criminals were stronger, but Michael accepted the crippled criminals nonetheless.
Up until now, the Valyr shipped 100 criminals to the Untamed Jungle. Michael read their minds before he extracted their Soultraits and SoulStar Fragments while they were still alive.
He managed to procure 100 Soultraits in total and 1800 SoulStar Fragments per criminal. The gains were good enough to satisfy Michael. After all, the SoulStar Fragments and Soultraits were produced without a fight. Michael obtained them without any additional work. The criminals were a source of passive income.
However, Michael had heavy expenses to pay. The SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols extracted from the criminals were used up quickly.
Michael chose to upgrade the Soul Grimoire to 6-Star after inserting another Soultrait called 'Soul Container' into it. He first upgraded Soul Container to 4-Star before using Insert to merge Soul Container with Soul Grimoire. Thereafter, Michael utilized 100,000 SoulStar Fragments to upgrade the Soul Grimoire to 6-Star. The upgrade was expensive, but it was worth it, in Michael's opinion.
The Soul Grimoire's capacity increased drastically, and even the Soul Tear ability grew stronger. Although Michael wasn't focused on the Soul Tears, he figured they would be useful as well.
There was only one problem with Soul Grimoire. It was a tiny function that confused Michael a little.
"Purification. The souls stored within the Soul Grimoire will be purified," Michael mumbled, "That doesn't seem like a good thing for Cursed Living Souls. If the Curse is connected to the Living Soul's spark of life, purifying it will be...disastrous..."
Michael wondered if it was better to upgrade Soul Grimoire to 7-Star before attempting to rescue his brother, but he could tell that the Soul Grimoire was already large enough to contain Daniel's Living Soul. The only issue was that Michael couldn't be sure whether Danny's Curse would cause trouble or not.
Unfortunately, he had to research a little bit more before he could rescue Danny.
The only good thing was that the Miniature Coffin Keychain's preservation lasted longer in the Origin Expanse than outside. His mother told him that Danny had only a year. Ten months, to be precise. However, the Miniature Coffin Keychain could last almost two years in the Origin Expanse.
It looked like the time dilation between the outside world and the Origin Expanse also affected the Miniature Coffin Keychain.
Of course, that didn't mean Michael's patience would last this long. He was anxious and wanted to rescue his brother as soon as possible. His anxiety was big enough to convince Michael that he should talk to his mother as quickly as possible. There was only one problem with that.
He had to stay in the Origin Expanse until his Summoning Gate had been fixed.
Michael's territory didn't welcome a single new Summon in Arx for three months. That was not because Michael disliked Summons, but it was owed to the World Serpent's summoning. The World Serpent's emergence through the Summoning Gate damaged it.
The Summoning Gate was severely damaged. It was impossible to summon anything through it, but that was only a tiny issue compared to the real deal. Michael couldn't leave the Origin Expanse without threatening to annihilate the Summoning Gate.
His presence and constant maintenance were why the Summoning Gate didn't break. His presence stabilized the Summoning Gate. If he'd left Arx or the Origin Expanse, the Summoning Gate in Arx would be no more. Michael would have lost his Lord Power with the destruction of his Summoning Gate. That was certainly not something Michael wanted.
He needed his Lord Powers to rescue Danny. The Soul Power granted through the Links of Loyalty was necessary to strengthen Extraction. Extraction might be a 7-Star Soultrait, but the massive amount of Soul Power accumulated within the Soultrait Symbol was part of why it was so powerful. The Soul Power was needed to safely extract Danny's Living Soul and insert it into the Soul Grimoire.
Fortunately, Michael and his subjects managed to repair the Summoning Gate. It took them three months and a bunch of spare parts from the 106 Savannah Lords' Summoning Gates, but they repaired it. To be precise, the Summoning Gate was more prominent and sturdier than it used to be.
Michael and his subjects determined to initiate the Summoning Gate's upgrade to the Intermediate rank instead of wasting precious resources to repair the Basic Summoning Gate. The extra costs weren't too high. The only issue was that Michael missed a single part to complete the upgrade.
Fortunately, the last part wasn't required to activate the Summoning Gate. Michael could activate it once again, so he did right away. He didn't want to waste any more time—it was time to expand his territory, after all!
Even though the population in Arx didn't increase, that didn't mean Michael and his subjects were idle. Countless things have changed in the last few months. Everything in the territory expanded. A second settlement had already been established.
Michael and his people prepared the second settlement for the surge of Summons that would stream into the Untamed Jungle once the Summoning Gate was ready. Everything necessary to expand Michael's territory had been prepared.
The siege tower defense had been installed throughout the middle area of the Untamed Jungle. Not even Higher Lifeforms were resilient enough to survive the bombardment of the weapons Michael and the engineers created in the last few months.
The second settlement wasn't too deep inside the Untamed Jungle. Instead, it was in a different spot in the middle area, slightly closer to the inner circle. Its location was very advantageous because it connected perfectly to the Underground Forging Hall, Arx, and the Savannah Region—if necessary. The location was also well-hidden in a shroud of thickets and towering trees. It was easy to get lost in that area. Of course, that only applied to strangers.
Michael's subjects knew enough about the Untamed Jungle to find their destination blindfolded.
The second settlement was close to the inner circle. It was much easier to go out and hunt the monsters in the inner circle – though Michael stopped actively hunting monsters.
Michael had enough resources to decide that actively hunting monsters was not worth it unless it was to regulate their population.
He and his subjects altered into the forest rangers of the Untamed Jungle, at least for now.
The combat experience gained from hunting monsters was great, but it was not like they had to go out to hunt. Instead, more than enough monsters came their way to hunt.
The Greater Nature Spirit and the masses of summons gathered in the settlements attracted various monsters from the deeper parts of the Untamed Jungle. After all, the energies and essence congregating in Michael's territory—and the settlements—were ever-present and highly attractive to various monsters.
