The taming process was far from easy. It took a great deal of effort, focus, and origin energy to create and maintain the taming array.
However, that was not all. The taming process took the willingness of the target and its willpower into consideration as well.
If it submitted without much resistance, the monster would be much easier to tame. Of course, such a case was pretty rare. Most monsters were unwilling to submit to others.
That was also why Michael spent almost 15 minutes taming the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King.
The monster’s mental resistance was quite powerful. This made the entire taming process much harder for Michael. In the last few minutes, it looked like he would fail due to mental exhaustion.
Only a trace of origin energy was left inside him as well. It was a close shave but luckily the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King collapsed right at that moment, sealing his fate.
The monster was about to suffocate to death.
While battling death, he couldn’t resist Michael’s consistent attempts to tame it anymore. A crack formed in the formidable mental resistance of the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King just before it collapsed.
Michael tore down the remaining resistance, achieving his goal at last.
“I’m done. Remove the rubble quickly!” Michael ordered hurriedly.
He swallowed a few more energy pills to replenish his origin energy rapidly and began to work.
Everyone gave their utmost effort to create a cage that the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King couldn’t escape under any circumstances.
Close to 100 tons of wet soil and a bunch of big rocks had crashed down on the monster. Even if he wanted to move he couldn’t, especially not under the influence of the Blood Parthen poison.
Removing the wet soil and big rocks wasn’t an easy feat. It required the help of the two Elemental Mages, Michael’s Extraction, and the combined workforce of hundreds of warriors.
The Priestess had to tend to the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King for half an hour after they retrieved him from the collapsed cavern tunnel before they could be certain that the monster would survive.
Michael used extraction on the monster to extract the Blood Parthen Poison until every last trace had been removed from his body.
Once he was done, Michael felt like sleeping for days. Unfortunately, sleep was a luxury he couldn’t enjoy right now.
The Jungle Expedition wouldn’t wait for him.
On the contrary, Michael was certain that the Jungle Expedition would start earlier than announced beforehand. He had killed too many Adventurers and Mercenaries in the last three days to leave his actions unnoticed.
The authorities were bound to make a move sooner than planned beforehand.
Knowing that Michael forced a few potions down his throat to stay awake and keep his mind running before he took a deep breath.
“Capturing the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King wasn’t as hard as I expected,” Mika murmured quietly. He seemed satisfied with the result of his work.
“We did a good job, but it was also a great deal of luck that played straight into our hands.
The plan could have gone wrong with a tiny mishap. A single wrong step and all of us could have died!” Liopham declared loud enough for Mika to hear, and Michael nodded his head.
“That’s right. Good thing that nothing went wrong,” He said in all honesty.
As he finished the sentence, Michael felt a tingling sensation in his mind.
The Blood Oath Demon Monkey King was about to wake up.
Michael walked over to the first monster he tamed using Taming, and a sense of accomplishment and pride spread through his body.
Despite being a 5-Star Soultrait, Taming’s taming capacity was filled to the brim already. Taming should have been powerful enough to allow Michael to bind two Monsters, but the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King seemed to be too powerful, taking up more space and energy than expected.
That was fine with Michael. He didn’t have enough time and energy to look for another monster like the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King. Instead of wasting his precious time, he might as well move to the next step.
With that thought lingering in his mind, the Memory Exchange between the tamed Monster and his Master was initiated.
The Monkey King had just regained consciousness when a flood of memories impacted him heavily.
The memory exchange was an ability the Taming Soultrait gained after it had been upgraded to 4-Star.
It allowed the Master and tamed Monster to gain a better understanding of each other and to enhance the firmness of their True Link.
The memory exchange felt like it took an eternity to finish, but the two didn’t spend more than five seconds being blanked out.
“It’s time to visit your underlings, lil guy,” Michael said while looking over to the Monkey King who was getting up from the ground.
Most Warriors moved instinctively. They grasped the handles of their weapons and prepared for battle as the monster rose.
But Michael lifted his hand to signal them to stay put.
His War Rune gleamed faintly as Michael retrieved a bunch of potions. He threw them toward the Monkey King, who swallowed the content without hesitation.
The monster looked at Michael with a trace of confusion, but it didn’t show any hostility toward him. It was weird. The hatred that was engraved deep into his bones earlier seemed to have vanished as he looked at Michael.
It was truly miraculous.
The Monkey King issued a few incomprehensible noises while pointing in a particular direction.
“Yep, a huge group of Adventurers and Mercenaries will invade the Untamed Jungle soon. That’s why we need your help, and the help of your underlings,” Michael said, fully understanding what the incompressible noises of the Monkey King meant.
Afterward, Michael gestured to the others to follow him.
Less than half an hour later, their group had returned to the lair of the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys.
The Blood Oath Demon Monkeys instinctively initiated an attack on the invaders, but their king intervened. His long arms lunged forward like a python striking its prey as he grasped his underlings’ heads tightly.
The two monkeys struggling in their King’s grasp screeched loudly. They were desperate to survive, but they couldn’t escape their king’s grasp.
The king roared loudly before hurling his underlings straight at the rest of his bunch.
After that, a stunned silence enveloped the Blood Oath Demon Monkey Lair.
As the Monkey King ordered around his underlings, Michael took a closer look at the surroundings. The thickly grown crown of the fiend trees restricted sunlight from shining through. Most parts of the lair were dark and details were hard to make out.
However, Michael could use Lesser Enhancement and Eagle Eyes to improve his eyesight. It was not possible to see clearly in the dark, but he didn’t require a source of light to see.
Hundreds of pairs of eyes were glued to the group of new arrivals. Their hostility was clear to perceive and tension was high in the air.
They merely didn’t attack the new arrivals because of their King. Their King was protecting the newcomers!
“Several hundred…maybe there are 1000 in total? If they can deal with a dozen Tier-1 Adventurers and Mercenaries without sustaining heavy injuries…maybe…” Michael mumbled, trying to visualize several plans in which the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys and Michael’s army could be enough to deal with the Jungle Expedition army.
Most of the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys were Peak Tier-1 Monsters with high combat prowess.
In an advantageous environment, even ordinary Tier-2 monsters and Mercenaries wouldn’t be able to put up a fight against the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys.
The Forest Elves praised them to the moon and beyond. Not many of their Lords and Adventurers had faced Blood Oath Demon Monkeys in the past, but they were known to cause chaos and a massacre when they clashed head-on.
However, this time, the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys were on their side!
‘Should I prepare weapons for them? No, they need to maintain their nimbleness while moving through the Untamed Jungle.’
Michael clearly recalled the Monkey King’s nimble movements. He didn’t want to sacrifice this nimbleness in exchange for higher attack power.
On the contrary, Michael felt that the nimbleness of the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys could turn into the most lethal weapon inside the Untamed Jungle.
“Let’s take a look at how we can turn the tables with you guys!”