Michael left the Origin Expanse a few days later with his physique fully restored.
After returning to the Saphirelake Military Academy, Michael first walked over to the Bartholomew Shop where he handed his shopping list to the staff. He then entered the appraisal room with another attendant while the staff began to get the goods written in the list.
‘I hope they find everything,’ He thought while retrieving all Artifacts that had been starting to collect dust in his War Rune’s storage space.
Following the Artifacts, Michael also retrieved the blueprints he didn’t need since they were duplicates.
“I hope you can give me a good price for everything,” Michael said to the attendant, whose eyes widened in surprise.
The attendant took a while to regain his senses. He then called the shop manager to proceed with the purchase of the Artifacts and blueprints since he was not authorized to make such a big deal on his own.
Meanwhile, Michael sat down on a chair and opened starnet messenger. Unfortunately, his good mood was ruined by a particular chat on starnet messenger. It was his parents’ chat where a few new messages were waiting to be read.
But Michael didn’t even think of opening his parents’ chat. He snorted and closed starnet messenger. Now that Danny died they wanted to be back in his life? Sorry, but the train of redemption departed a long time ago!
His mood worsened the more he thought about their parents. That was something the shop manager noticed the moment he arrived in the appraisal room. Swallowing his saliva when he perceived the ripples in the air Michael’s presence caused, the shop owner hurried to his attendant.
For the next ten minutes, nobody uttered a word. The shop owner and the attendant appraised the goods as fast as they could before they calculated the price for every Artifact and blueprint using the Diamond Membership’s quota. Michael was satisfied with the money he was about to receive.
Unfortunately, most of it would be used up to pay for the items he was about to purchase. This robbed him of the joy of earning a fortune near instantaneously.
In less than half an hour, Michael earned more than a billion dollars, only to use up everything the next moment. Michael had entered the Bartholomew Shop without any money and he left the shop with empty pockets as well.
‘In the past, I would have considered one billion a huge sum. Now…it’s still a lot, but I have huge expenses to fortify my territory.’ Michael mused to himself, a faint smile on his lips.
He felt much better after leaving his parents’ chat unread. His focus switched to the dozens of memory crystals he had purchased to store his memories about the Laxarta Library inside. The memory crystals, followed by more than a dozen body refinement techniques that had been specialized for Summons of particular Classes such as Archers, Assassins, Berserkers, Knights, and so on, required most of his money.
However, Michael was not too bothered about the money he had to pay. If he didn’t use the money he had earned through hard work, why would he even try so hard to earn money, in the first place? He knew that combining the specialized body refinement techniques with Pandemonium’s Requiem, and the newly procured pills would provide great results. His territory and people would surely benefit from his purchase!
Michael entered the Origin Expanse for five minutes to hand the specialized body refinement techniques to the Librarians and Scholars to duplicate them for his Summons before he left the Origin Expanse once again. He then moved to the Ranking Arena, which was also known as the Colosseum.
It was a huge amphiteather made of stone. The Colosseum was oval with rows of arches and seats surrounding the arena. Michael strode slowly through the entrance, only to freeze in his tracks when he realized just how big the colosseum truly was.
There were a total of ten arenas surrounded by tens of rows of seats that could house more than 200,000 spectators. But that was not all.
Michael was also stupefied by the massive enchantements that created an intricate design all over the Colosseum’s surface. The overlapping enchantments were complex, and they seemed to change into different shapes, depicting various images that told stories of the Colosseum’s history.
‘Is that a Relic of the Origin Expanse?’ Michael couldn’t help but think.
The Colosseum felt extremely old. The interior of the Colosseum felt ancient and reminded him of some forgotten era, similar to the presence of the Temple of the Forgotten.
Michael spent a few seconds gathering his thoughts and observing his surroundings before his attention moved to the two billboards that levitated high up in the air. The billboards were at a height of approximately 20 meters above the Colosseum’s center and were rotating slowly, showing everyone the rankings up to top 100.
Michael focused on the freshman ranking, where he found Kaleb Zenovia, Lincoln Piedra, and Zeke Lavita amongst the 12 Stars.
‘None of them is the freshman’s Sun? Interesting.’
His attention lingered on the freshman ranking for quite a while. Only after the noises of a commotion reached him did Michael finally divert his attention.
“William Black challenged Quinn Karta!!” Someone squealed near Michael.
“The Sun has been challenged at last,” Another voice reached his ears.
Michael’s eyes moved back to the ranking board where he saw Quinn Karta’s name framed in golden letters and the Symbol of the Sun etched right next to his name. Quinn Karta was the sun of the freshman year!
On the other hand, William Black was ranked the 10th Star on the ranking board.
The Black household belonged to the nobility. They were only minor nobles, but that didn’t mean William Black could be underestimated. His Soultrait was much stronger than the Soultraits his family awakened in the last few centuries. He was the hope and future of the Black household and received the vast majority of the Black household’s income in the form of investments.
Michael could faintly recall Kaleb speaking about William Black. Kaleb had been challenging the ranking board for quite a while now, and he said that William Black was one of the toughest enemies he had fought. Even his 7-Star Frozen Nova hadn’t been strong enough to penetrate William’s defenses.
Of course, that was mostly because Kaleb could not yet unleash Frozen Nova’s full power, but it was surprising that someone could completely block Kaleb’s attack nonetheless. That was also why Michael could remember William Black’s name.
‘He is only ranked the 10th Star despite such strength? In that case, how strong is Quinn Karta?’ Michael thought, subconsciously turning to the first arena where more than a hundred students had already gathered.
All of them wanted to watch the battle between the Sun and the 10th Star, and Michael decided to join them.
He was not really in a rush. Furthermore, it would be better to know how strong the Stars were since he had to defeat one of them until tomorrow. Analyzing their combat prowess and preparing strategies against the Freshman Stars would most definitely help him to be ready when it was time for him to challenge them.
“Michael?” A familiar voice from behind attracted Michael’s attention. He turned around and saw Lincoln with Zeke.
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Lincoln said before he appraised Michael’s physique. He smiled lightly at what he said and patted his shoulder with some force, “It’s good to see that you’re back.”
Michael saw that Zeke nodded his head faintly in agreement. If not for the passive enhancement from Eagle Eyes, Michael wouldn’t even have seen Zeke’s nod. He had to suppress a chuckle and pat Lincoln back in return.
“Are you guys here for a challenge, or to watch the Sun fighting the 10th Star?” He asked the two childhood friends, who turned to the first arena in anticipation.
“I would say both. We have a challenge scheduled in an hour or so, but we came earlier after we heard that William challenged Quinn. Their rivalry is really…interesting,” Lincoln answered, pushing Michael lightly in the direction of the first arena.
“Come, let’s watch the battle together.”
Michael wanted to watch the battle either way. He joined Lincoln and Zeke, who sat down in the first row to take in every little detail of the battle.
“By the way, who is Quinn Karta? I don’t think I’ve heard of his name before. Is he like me?” Michael asked lightly when he saw the two young men standing opposite each other in the arena.
Michael wasn’t mocking Quinn with his question, but it was commonly known that the descendants of big families were born with stronger Soultraits.
Awakened with a high Tier, and powerful high-ranked Soultraits were more likely to produce talented offspring because of their DNA’s high potency. However, the highly potent DNA resulted in a low fertility rate due to various reasons.
Awakened extend their lifespan by growing stronger, yet female Awakened possess only a certain number of egg cells with which they were born. By growing stronger and increasing their lifespan, the body will make adjustments and release their egg cells over a longer period of time. On the other hand, men’s seed increases in potency as they grow stronger. They require the egg cell of a strong Awakened to ensure the survival of their child.
There were exceptions to both cases, but they were rare to find., which was even more reason why most descendants of big families were treated like treasures.
But even then there were exceptions – just like Michael. Extraction was extremely powerful. It helped him grow much stronger and rival noble descendants even though he didn’t have his entire family nurturing him into a future powerhouse.
The training these descendants received changed them. It took away their childishness, replacing it with forced maturity and discipline. At least, that was the case for some descendants of Supreme Families and High Nobles. They were taught about their responsibilities from a young age, and that they had to be the best to bring their family honor and glory.
That was also something Kaleb, Lincoln, and Zeke had been taught. They had numerous responsibilities and were often not allowed to live the life of an ordinary teenager.
But that was exactly why Michael was so confused when he stared at the Sun of the freshmen.
Quinn Karta was jumping lightly up and down with a vibrant smile on his face.𝓝𝒪𝗏𝖊𝗅𝐍𝐄xt.𝗇𝓔t
He didn’t seem nervous about fighting William Black. On the contrary, he was smiling a bit foolishly.
“I get what you mean. Quinn is…different,” Zeke said, speaking for the first time since they met in the Colosseum.
Michael glanced at Zeke, hoping that he would say more. However, Zeke merely pointed toward the arena and added,
“Just watch the battle.”