Two days later the Forest Elves regained their combat prowess, and the few injured Warriors had fully recuperated.
The feast was over, and the members of the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team had grown closer to the territory’s citizens.
Lilica and the others taught some tips and tricks to the archers in the territory. They noticed that the archers were heavily relying on theoretical knowledge – procured from a bunch of books – to improve their technique, and accuracy. But not everything can be taught through books. Some essential tips and tricks could only be learned by experiencing them.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Forest Elves, the territory’s archers’ proficiency improved rapidly. This helped improve the Forest Elves’ image significantly in the eyes of the territory’s citizens, and their respect for Michael increased as well.
The Forest Elves were glad to be in Michael’s good books. He gave Lilica a bunch of Tier-1 Artifacts to initiate the trading business between the Forest Elven tribe and his territory.
Michael sold the other Tier-1 Artifacts at the Bartholomew shop in the Dekalos-Class spaceship. He bought close to 4000 Summoning Scrolls from the money earned through the Tier-1 Artifacts. However, Michael didn’t use the Summoning Scrolls.
Instead, he traveled to Xiltra on Icarus and sold them for a much higher price than he paid to buy them. In return, he purchased various goods for blacksmithing. This included materials required to construct several Intermediate-rank smithies, forging blueprints, various ores, forging tools, and close to 100 books related to forging.
Under normal circumstances, Michael would have never done something like this. He would have used his fortune to strengthen his subjects with energy pills and other resources. After all, his territory had more than enough citizens thanks to Extraction.
Despite that, Michael chose to focus on blacksmithing for the time being because Lilica and the other Forest Elves told him that their tribe’s biggest problem – or one of their biggest problems – was the inability to claim mines and big ore deposits.
It felt like a cliché to Michael, but in general, the Forest Elves had very little affinity to the underground environment, forget about forging. They rarely spawned in the mountain regions in the Origin Expanse as well. Their major and minor spawn regions were mostly big forests. Thus, they lacked weapons and metal armaments the most to dig through the underground– especially their low-ranked Lords.
Lilica and her team had been one of the Forest Elves tribe’s biggest suppliers for low-level armaments, and ores until now. They were one of the few groups that spawned outside a forest – though the Untamed Jungle was pretty near.
Now that Lilica could hardly supply low-level armaments without help, Michael would turn into her supplier. Lilica and the others would merely be the errand boys and girls – tasked with carrying the goods from the territory to the Forest Elven tribe.
Michael would receive certain plants, herbs, and other ingredients required to concoct energy pills and various potions in addition to blueprints related to agriculture. The blueprints were even easier to procure for the Forest Elves. They didn’t need them and would usually dump them in a place where they collected dust until one of their business partners asked for them.
These blueprints were worthless to them, but they could be sold for a decent price if the customer was desperate enough to reach deep into his pockets.
Because of Lilica’s recommendation, and the fact that Michael produced a fair price list for his goods, the blueprints were rather cheap for Michael to purchase. As long as he kept using Xiltra to purchase cheap ores, and created the low-level armaments in his territory, he would earn good profit.
But that was not enough for Michael.
Once he claimed the lizard cave, it wouldn’t even be necessary to spend money in Xiltra. The lizard cave, and the smithies in his territory would be enough to create low-level armaments. The costs would be more than halved and his profit would increase by a lot.
That sounded quite nice.
“Let’s go hunt monsters together first. We need to understand your combat prowess to put the five of you in our groups accordingly. Please show me what you’re capable of!” Michael said as everyone finished their preparations for the cavern conquest.
Michael and the others had already seen the Forest Elves use their bows and daggers in the last two days, but they never fought seriously in a life-and-death battle in front of them.
Thus, the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team ended up demonstrating how they usually fought against monsters in the Untamed Jungle.
The tracker of the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer group released his Soultrait in front of the lizard cave. He manifested an object in the air above him.
It was a sixty-centimeter-high totem pole, shrouded in bloody-red miasma.
The totem pole was hovering in the air as it continued to release more bloody-red miasma.
It consisted of a central upright post, which had unique intricate carvings depicting various animals, spirits, and even supernatural beings. The carvings were bright in color with a large eagle carved at the top of the pole.
To Michael, the totem pole exuded beauty and mystery, but he quickly noticed that the Demi-Humans and Icarus felt vastly different.
The Demi-Humans were on the brink of losing their rationality, and Icarus screeched out wildly. The totem pole was affecting the monsters and half-monsters in its range though neither Icarus nor the Demi-Humans had been targeted by the totem pole.
The totem pole’s target was inside the cavern system, a single monster that would lose its reasoning and grow increasingly angrier as time passed. It would reach a point where even the strongest monsters wouldn’t be able to resist the urge anymore.
The monsters would charge at the totem pole and attack blindly – running straight into the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer Team.
That was the power of the [Rage of the Primal] Soultrait.
It may not be the strongest Soultrait for combat, but it was certainly a Soultrait with exceptional potential. All it required was proper usage and timing to unfold impeccable results.
After Rage of the Primal had been activated, the five Forest Elves got into action. The four other Forest Elves activated their Soultraits as well.
Everyone retrieved their weapons, which were Tier-2 Bow Artifacts seemingly carved from the same tree. The Woodwoven Bow Artifacts looked eerily similar, and so did the arrows. A quiver filled with green arrows appeared on the Forest Elves’ backs, and they retrieved an arrow simultaneously.
They unleashed a tremendous amount of energy and channeled everything into their arrows and bow before they nocked the arrow on the bowstring. Afterward, they closed their eyes while resting their empty hands lightly against the bowstring, ready to shoot the arrow at a moment’s notice.
Several seconds later, their long, pointed ears twitched. The Forest Elves opened their eyes at once, pulled the bowstring back, and aimed at the entrance of the lizard cavern.
The next moment, a shuttle-sized lizard emerged from the entrance. It let out a terrifying roar and was just about to spit out a fountain of acid when its voice was silenced. The acid spit that had accumulated in its throat dispersed, and the Forest Elves began their assault.
A moment after the lizard’s massive body was clearly visible to everyone, the Forest Elves released their arrows.
A sound, just like an explosion, rang through the vicinity five times in rapid succession.
Five arrows shot through the air like missiles in the next instance, and they impacted hard on the durable lizard scales.
The next moment five deep holes had formed on the lizard’s body and blood was oozing out of them.