It had been five days since they defeated the Black Bear and the huge Frenzy Deer.
Michael was at the Peak of Tier-0, and he felt much stronger than ever before.
By working out every day, using the energy influx in his body and the nutrition provided by the meat of Tier-2 monsters, Michael could improve his physical strength. This allowed him to utilize the War Rune's provided power more efficiently.
It was his 25th day inside the Origin Expanse, and Michael had finally found an efficient routine to complete his daily tasks as a Lord and make sure that his subjects were happy and working hard.
Every morning, Michael used Extraction on the monster corpses hunted by Tiara and her combat unit the day before. He dissected the carcasses near-perfectly and used the special drops to summon more subjects.
Soon the warehouse was filled with dissected carcasses and duplicated blueprints. Hence, Michael squeezed them inside his War Rune's spatial space. He left the Origin Expanse to hail a shuttle that would take him to the Central Trading Hall where the House of Witchery was located.
Michael sold the remaining parts of the near-perfectly dissected Tier-2 monster corpses in the House of Witchery, only leaving their meat for himself and his subjects. Simultaneously, Michael sold more than 100 Tier-1 Monster Cores, Antlers, and other body parts of the Frenzy Deer Horde.
Over the course of two days, Michael left the Origin twice because his spatial space was too cramped to squeeze all goods in one War Rune. That made him wonder how other Lords sold or stored their goods after they created multiple sources of income such as mining ores, gardening, and horticulture. The spatial space would expand significantly after the War Rune advanced a Tier, but there were limits, nonetheless.
Either way, Michael earned more than one million dollars from his two trips to the House of Witchery. The Tier-2 monsters were very valuable, but the price for Tier-1 carcasses and duplicated blueprints couldn't be taken lightly either. They were still worth a lot.
Michael was happy with his income, but it was more of a necessity than a nice side hustle. After all, he paid a million dollars to equip himself with all kinds of goods for the treasure-hunting adventure.
Since his adventurer spirit had been awoken, and his mind was going wild while thinking about adventures, Michael did not hold himself back while spending on the necessary equipment. He was prepared for everything!
However, before he rushed into anything, Michael walked over to the librarians and various volunteers with a stash of paper, ink, and pens. He handed the librarians the Berserker Physique technique and requested them to duplicate the technique. He instructed them to share it with everyone who wanted to use it to train their physique.
Even if Starless Sumons wanted to use these techniques, he was perfectly fine with it. The technique he had purchased allowed Starless Summons to turn into Warriors and attain enough power to defend themselves. Maybe the Will of the Origin Expanse wouldn't consider them Warriors according to their star rating, but their physique can turn into that of a warrior.
With enough hard work, they can learn how to wield weapons and become true warriors…just not in the star rating without attaining enlightenment.
But did it really matter whether the Will considered you worthy enough to be promoted? Michael didn't care.
He would rather prefer to have Starless self-proclaimed Warriors to protect his territory after training them harshly for months than Starless Summons, who would allow enemies to bulldoze them if they were to invade the territory.
With such thoughts flashing through his mind, Michael chose to support the Starless Summons, who were willing to train hard after they completed their daily tasks. He rewarded them and hoped that they would become stronger in no time.
Simultaneously, their ambition further fueled his desire to find out more about the place the GPS treasure map led to.
He waited for Blaire, Tiara, and Tiara's combat unit to gather before they set off together.
It was not difficult to follow the arrow on the map. It leads them straightaway to their destination.
Thanks to Blaire, they avoided some hotspots for monster packs to gather. This saved them lots of time, and they arrived at the location pinpointed by the treasure map only two hours later.
However, when they reached their destination, Michael was stupefied.
"The lizard cave…for real now?!"
Michael knew that the lizard cave was a treasure trove, but he didn't expect the treasure map to point at it. The arrow pointed at the entrance of the lizard cave as he circled around it multiple times. However, after they stepped inside the cavern entrance, the treasure map began to glow and change.
Instead of showing the detailed topography of the Untamed Jungle's outer area, it showed various underground tunnels in great detail. Meanwhile, the back of the map shone brightly, illuminating the ground.
He looked intently at the map and realized that the cavern system of the lizard cave was much grander than he could have anticipated. That was great, but it also meant that danger could appear from every corner.
"Before we proceed, make three copies of the map," Michael ordered Blaire, who had been standing to his left, observing the map after it had transformed.
She nodded her head, retrieved a large parchment, and began to redraw the map. She spent half an hour copying the map, so the details of the first copy were not that great. However, that was not important since Michael merely wanted to make sure that everyone studied the map for a while as she drew it.
This was to make sure that everyone could find a way out of the cavern system if they were to lose the rest of the group and get lost.
'If the lizard cave has a treasure created by the Will and those valuable natural resources, I shouldn't postpone conquering the lizard cave any further!'
Michael and the others could feel the eeriness oozing out of the depths of the lizard cave, but everyone understood that the natural resources of the lizard cave had to be harvested eventually. Otherwise, their territory's progress would slow down – if not stagnate – in the near future.
They were already lacking various resources that could be provided by the lizard cave, but Michael always postponed the conquest of the lizard cave, saying that it was too dangerous.
However, they had to take that risk now that things had changed. Finding and collecting a treasure created by the Will of the Origin Expanse could change the development path of the Origin Expanse altogether. The subjects could tell this instinctively when Michael showed them the treasure map, and they were all ready to support their Lord's conquest to the fullest – even if their death was the outcome.
Michael saw the trust and determination in his subjects' eyes, and he smiled faintly.
"Study the map for an hour," He instructed. Then, he turned to Blaire, who had been studying the map for almost two hours now, "Move into the deeper parts of the cavern system without attracting the attention of the monsters there. If you cannot proceed without getting found out return to me immediately. I don't want you to sacrifice yourself needlessly."
Michael handed her the treasure map after giving his order and bent down to touch the ground.
His hands began to glow golden as he exerted Extraction to extract some Gloa Crystals and the frail white stones, which had properties similar to magnesite. Michael was not sure what it was called, but that was not important since he knew what he was supposed to do now that he was already inside the lizard cave.
While the others studied the map, and Blaire ventured deeper into the cavern system, Michael retrieved a few empty glass vials from his War Rune.
A few more ingredients appeared on the ground in front of him as Michael sat down.
"Let's see if I observed him enough to replicate the flashbangs…"
**
