Even though there was something at the bottom of the cave neither Michael nor the Elemental Empress wanted to leave the cave. For one, the cave was in his territory, so he had to deal with potential issues sooner or later, either way. Other than that, Michael had already constructed the Underground Forging Hall in the cavern.
The Temple of the Forgotten was also in the cave. Even his miners could mine day in and day out in the cave since the humongous cavern system had various ore deposits. Meanwhile, the Elemental Empress’ decision was mostly based on her gut feeling. She felt that it was dangerous to move deeper into the cave through the large cavern tunnel, but she could also tell that nothing bad would happen. If anything, the pressure spreading through the entire cavern system was something that could aid her society to grow stronger and more resilient.
Therefore, the Elemental Empress decided to create her base in the cavern hall on the second sub-level after clearing all the potential threats from the other tunnels with the help of Tiara and the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys.
Michael, on the other hand, returned to the surface. He had a lot to do.
First of all, Michael strode through the settlement to absorb the changes all around him with his senses. The settlement was bustling. People were busy working wherever Michael looked, some were distressed, while others smiled brightly. As Michael passed by the training ground, he noticed that more Summons than usual had decided to join the daily training session of the military. Upon seeing a familiar old man, the Immortal Knight, Michael finally understood why.
Everyone was hoping to be picked as the first students of the Immortal Knight. They hoped that their fate would change and that their power and status would elevate to a new height.
Theoretically, that was not a bad thing. However, Michael figured that the Immortal Knight wouldn’t pick anyone as his student if all Summons were too obsessed with power and status. Siegfried Dracoon was rather strict, put great importance on loyalty and determination, and he relied on his senses and gut feeling to determine which Summons would be good seedlings and who would never be able to become a Blessed Squire.
Michael greeted the Immortal Knight with a thin smile, to which the Immortal Knight responded by gesturing to him to come closer.
‘I wanted to go to the Bilrox ranch… Well, I can do that later as well,’ Michael thought. He shrugged and approached the Immortal Knight.
“Good morning, My Lord! How about joining my first training sequence held on this humble training ground?” Siegfried asked in a pleasant voice.
Having expected as much, Michael gave Siegfried a simple nod, “Of course. But I hope you don’t expect a miracle. I have never been trained professionally in a martial arts technique, and my knowledge about weapons is not exceptional either.”
Michael couldn’t consider his brother’s training proper tutelage. If anything, his brother only provided him with some basics about the sword and how to not cut off his fingers. Daniel Fang’s teaching was incomparably different from the proper teachings provided by the Instructors who trained the Descendants.
The Instructors inside the Saphirelake Military Academy were also much better than Danny because they spent lots of time fixing their students’ flaws. That was also what Alice had been trying to do. The only issue with Alice Zenovia had been that she’d never expected Michael’s mastery of weapons to be that low. She had no idea how to fix someone’s flaws if he couldn’t even execute a simple technique properly.
But that was only obvious. Michael never learned a specific technique to begin with. All he did to survive was to rely on Cleave Fenrir’s memories and his experience with the spear and the bow to make it seem as if he knew what he was doing. Practically, Michael knew what he was doing thanks to the memories that had been etched deep into his mind. But theoretically…Michael’s fighting technique relied heavily on his instincts. He had no proper technique to rely on. Therefore, he would usually enter a state in which his instincts took over his mind to fight his enemies.
This worked very well since the memories of various combat styles, tactics and tricks had been deeply imprinted into his subconscious. Having devoured close to a hundred Memory Orbs up until now, Michael had a lot more practical combat experience than anyone his age. But, once again, that was practical, not theoretical.
Michael witnessed the memories of the Awakened whose Memory Orbs he had consumed as if he was the one who fought, and trained.
“You have never been trained by a professional? Then you must be a natural. Your people have been praising your god-like combat prowess for the last ten minutes. And we gathered on the training ground maybe 11 minutes ago,” Siegfried Dracoon said, sounding a lot more serious than before.
“It’s difficult to explain. I mostly rel—…” Michael was about to explain his circumstances when the Immortal Knight shot forward. His humongous broadsword had been replaced by a dulled longsword that swung out to meet Michael head-on.
After the Immortal Knight removed his heavy armor set and the heavy broadsword, his reaction speed, movement speed, and tremendous physical strength came to full display.
Michael narrowed his eyes, twisted his body to evade the sudden attack by a hair’s breadth and coated his left hand in a layer of Reinforced Sword Qi. The silver coat of Qi shrouding his hand turned into a razor-sharp blade that cut through the flat side of the Immortal Knight’s longsword.
‘Who the hell said that he cannot fight?!’ Michael cursed in his mind. Siegfried was slightly surprised after seeing how easily Michael evaded his attack. His Lord was not just able to disarm him but even destroyed him while evading the surprise attack.
“Never been trained properly, huh?” He mumbled, kicking the ground to push himself ahead.
The Immortal Knight hurled the remains of the broken longsword toward Michael’s head while his right leg moved forward. He was just about to pull Michael’s left leg away when he noticed that a glacier-blue icicle had formed right in front of Michael’s left foot. Siegfried’s leg collided with the Glacicle, blocking his second attack easily.
In the next moment, Michael pushed forward, his eyes glowing golden. Michael blocked the sword hilt that had been thrown at him and he arrived in front of the Immortal Knight, his left hand stopping mere centimeters away from Siegfried’s exposed neck.
Siegfried looked at Michael, a thin smile blossoming on his face.
“I think I understand what you mean. You have more Soultraits than most people I know, and you know how to use them instinctively. But that is also why you rely a lot on your Soultraits and the advantage you gain from them. That’s not bad, per se, but it turned into a habit for you to rely on your Soultraits. I wonder what would happen if you ever encounter someone with a Soultrait that blocks your energy circulation or seals your Soultraits temporarily. You know, there are even devices that can block Soultraits for a short period. They might be rare, but it wouldn’t surprise me if you were to encounter an enemy with such a device in the future,” The Immortal Knight explained, ignoring the Qi blade’s tip that was hovering less than five centimeters away from his neck.
“Would you still be able to overpower your enemies, or would you lose against them in a fight without Soultraits?” The Immortal Knight concluded easily after a quick spar that didn’t even last half a minute.
“Given your habit, you would end up distressed, unsure what to do after your Soultraits have been sealed. You yourself said that you don’t have a technique and that you have no great expertise with weapons. So…why the hell are you still relying on your Soultraits instead of fixing your flaws, my Lord? Because it is easy? That is just foolish!”
‘Because it is easy…That certainly is foolish,’ Michael forced a smile on his lips. His time in the Origin Expanse had never been ‘easy’, and he had always given his utmost to grow stronger, protect his territory, and strengthen everyone around him. Expanding and fortifying his territory, ensuring that he had enough funds to pay for everything that had to be taken care of, and finding business partners to earn even more money was far from easy.
It was also far from easy to be thrust into battles against enemies far stronger than yourself. Using Soultraits to close the humongous gap that existed between the Tiers might be considered ‘taking it easy’, but Michael didn’t have the time to spend decades until his weapon mastery reached a level where he, a Tier-2 Lord, could kill a Peak Tier-3 Awakened as easily as he did with his Soultraits and little to no training.
Michael could say all of this aloud and give the Immortal Knight an earful, and that he shouldn’t speak so lightly about taking it ‘easy’. But Michael was not that much of an idiot. He had his episodes of stupidity, but Michael could also tell that the Immortal Knight wanted to teach him. He wanted to guide Michael to make sure that the young Lord could pinpoint the flaws in his strength on his own and work on them. Siegfried Dracoon was trying to show him a path to grow far stronger than he could fathom.
Michael had yet to experience the potential of powerful techniques and the true essence of weapon mastery, after all!