Michael had extracted the two manifested Soultraits from the two strongest Lionhearts. He also found out that a large number of SoulStar Fragments could form a new Soultrait. This had been confirmed by the phenomenon that had happened in front of him.
The white energy tentacle tore apart the newly forming Soultrait Symbol, disintegrating it back into a pile of SoulStar Fragments before it absorbed everything.
This included more than thirty Tier-1 Artifacts, two Soultrait Symbols, and a pile of more than 200 SoulStar Fragments. That was the loot Michael claimed from extracting 43 Lionheart Adventurers. The loot was great.
No, calling his loot great was a gross understatement. It was exceptional!
However, Michael couldn’t feel overly excited at this moment.
The brave citizens of his territory had sacrificed themselves to protect his territory and those exceptional gains had come at the cost of their lives.
Michael closed his eyes. He thanked his brave warriors and loyal subjects inwardly before he entered the deepest parts of his consciousness.
The white pillar of his War Rune appeared in front of him, surrounded by four Soultrait Symbols, several Artifact Wisps, and a pile of SoulStar Fragments that was waiting to be used.
The newest Soultrait Symbols were still fusing with the white pillar, which Michael watched calmly.
Under normal circumstances, Michael would have rested or returned to his people to spend some more time with them. However, he was currently driven by the desire to grow stronger. Michael didn’t want another situation like today to ever happen again!
The SoulStar Fragments were absorbed but he didn’t distribute them yet. Michael waited until his new Soultraits fused with him, and until the information stored in them reached him. He had to know more about his Soultraits to find out whether he should continue using his SoulStar Fragments on both Extraction and the Eagle Eyes, or if he had to find out another method to distribute his SoulStar Fragments properly.
Michael was not sure how much time passed but the first Soultrait Symbol was quickly bound to his War Rune. Information spread through his mind where it was deeply imprinted.
‘1-Star Soultrait is called a Lesser Enhancement. It can enhance everything, even the external amplification of Artifacts. That was the Soultrait of the second strongest Lionheart!’ Michael thought when he processed bits of the flood of information reached him.
He clearly recalled the white aura mantling the second strongest Lionheart and how much stronger his Artifacts had grown after the white aura had appeared.
Michael didn’t hesitate and manifested Tigerfang. He used Lesser Enhancement on Tigerfang, and a thin white aura manifested around the Artifact. The next moment, Michael’s Strength, Perception, and Agility increased a little bit. Simultaneously, the sharpness of Tigerfang’s blade and its durability increased as well.
“An overall increment of…10%? That’s the power of a 1-Star Soultrait? Strong…”
Michael was impressed. If he upgraded Lesser Enhancement to a 2-Star Soultrait or even a 3-Star Soultrait, how strong would the enhancement effect become? It was quite fascinating.
Just as Michael marveled about the great power of his 3rd Soultrait, the information of the fourth Soultrait flashed through his mind.
‘1-Star Soultrait Spirit Whip. Ignores the physical world and directly hits the spirit of its opponents…that’s the Soultrait of the Lionheart Leader!’
Michael clearly recalled the tremendous power of the Spirit Whip when it had lashed out at him. The effect was quite powerful, and Michael felt like using it immediately. However, upon activating Spirit Whip, Michael noticed several things.
“The range is short, and it cannot affect the physical world in any way. The energy I can use to condense a Spirit Whip is insignificant but so is the lethality of the Spirit Whip – negligible. Maybe…if I attack someone in close combat and catch them off-guard it will be possible to get the upper hand. But it is much weaker than the Lionheart Leader’s Spirit Whip!”
Michael figured that his newest Soultraits were quite interesting. Both Spirit Whip and Lesser Enhancement were rather useful if used at the right time. But since they were 1-Star Soultraits there was a lot to improve.
‘Now…how should I distribute my SoulStar Fragments?’ Michael wondered.
He was not sure how long it would take before he would accumulate more than 200 SoulStar Fragments again. It was only obvious, but the Untamed Jungle was not exactly a place known for Adventurers and Lords to gather.
‘219 SoulStar Fragments and I have four Soultraits. 3-Star Extraction, 2.2-Star Eagle Eyes, 1-Star Lesser Enhancement, and 1-Star Spirit Whip…’
At first, Michael felt like focusing on Eagle Eyes, possibly upgrading Eagle Eyes to 4-Star with all of his SoulStar Fragments. That way, he would be able to perform better in the aptitude assessment. But he quickly chose against doing this. It was not as if he would have any issues during the aptitude assessment with his current strength.
It would be a walk in the park to get admitted to the Saphirelake Military Academy. That was something Michael was certain about.
He changed his approach and chose to do a little experiment.
‘How many SoulStar Fragments do you need to upgrade to 4-Star?’ He asked himself in mind before he put one SoulStar Fragment after another into the Symbol of Extraction.
Extraction was already a 3-Star Soultrait, so he could find out how many SoulStar Fragments he required to upgrade a 3-Star Soultrait by a full rank.
Less than five minutes later, Michael found the answer.
He had only 19 SoulStar Fragments left, and three Soultraits that had yet to be upgraded. However, the most important Soultrait of his had been upgraded, so he was not dissatisfied.
His entire growth was based on Extraction. If he could increase his gains when looting monsters, Adventurers, and Lords by upgrading Extraction to a higher star rating, why wouldn’t he do it? It was thanks to Extraction that he could acquire new Soultraits, in the first place, and it was also because of Extraction that he could upgrade them.
Enhancing Extraction to a new star rating meant that he would gain more. It wasn’t a wasteful investment at all!
With that in mind, Michael spent 16 SoulStar Fragments to advance Eagle Eye to a 3-Star Soultrait. Combined with the SoulStar Fragments of the Black Bear that had been spent on Eagle Eyes, Michael spent a total of 19 SoulStar Fragments to enhance the 2-Star Eagle Eyes to a 3-Star Soultrait.
That number was within his expectations.
‘Advancing Eagle Eyes from 2-Star to 3-Star requires 19 SoulStar Fragments. On the other hand, Extraction requires 200 SoulStar Fragments from 3-Star to 4-Star. In that case…how much does it cost to enhance a 1-Star Soultrait?’
Michael was curious, and he was certain that he couldn’t waste his SoulStar Fragments since both Lesser Enhancement and Spirit Whip were pretty powerful.
Thus, he simply invested the remaining three SoulStar Fragments to Lesser Enhancement, upgrading the 1-Star Soultrait at once.
After Lesser Enhancement was upgraded to a 2-Star Soultrait, it enhanced Tigerfang overall by 20%. This kind of increase was enough to increase Michael’s combat prowess by a large margin.
He began to imagine using Lesser Enhancement on several Artifacts at the same time and his mind made up several plans and combat strategies on how to utilize Lesser Enhancement in the best possible ways.
“This is interesting!”