Michael still had 12 days left before the Battle Exchange would end. Alice and Kaleb urged him to start challenging Token Holders before the easiest picks were taken by others, but Michael didn’t even think about that, not even after Lincoln and Zeke met up with him to watch some official battles.
Both Lincoln and Zeke were surprised to see how far Michael’s War Rune had been refined because their own War Rune was at the same rank. Lincoln wanted to challenge him to a fight to find out how much Michael progressed since their last battle, but Michael didn’t take the bait. He didn’t have to since he was not in possession of a Flag War Token. Zeke, on the other hand, eyed Michael with great curiosity.
If Michael had been the same as before he would never reject a spar with Lincoln. On the contrary, Michael would have proposed the spar long before it was Lincoln’s turn to do so. That made Zeke believe that Michael had changed. No. He was in the midst of a change. Michael’s eyes were locked on the combatants in the Colosseum arena, moving left and right along with them. He followed the movements of the Tier-3 Lords with ease and analyzed their combat prowess, the power of their Soultraits, their strong points and their flaws.
Most Descendants didn’t have a lot of flaws. Their foundation was great as they had been taught the basics of fighting from a young age. However, everyone had some bad habits, whether it was a flick of their wrist, a subtle move with their legs, or their eyes subtly locking onto the area they wanted to target. Everything in Michael’s sight was devoured, consumed, organized and put to good use.
The pieces of information he gathered were not necessarily helpful for the Battle Exchange, but they would certainly allow Michael to grow stronger, learn more techniques and how to counter his opponents in the future. After all, Michael was bound to encounter a bunch of Descendants in the future, whether he wanted it or not.
Even if it was not the Descendants, Michael could learn a lot about the Inheritance methods used by their families. Close to a thousand – if not more – different Inheritance techniques were served on a golden plate right in front of him. How could Michael neglect this opportunity and not study the 1,500 human participants of the Battle Exchange?
Michael might be a little bit foolish, maybe even gullible and naive. But he didn’t fall on his head when he was an infant.
Michael might not be able to reproduce the Inheritance techniques, however, he was confident that using Eagle Eyes and Spirit Gaze together would allow him to find some similarities and common points. And that he did. Michael found several common points in the Inheritance methods used by everyone. He wouldn’t be able to use these common points just yet, but Michael noted them down to make sure that he had everything ready when it was time for him to create his own Inheritance technique – or a series of techniques that replicated existing Inheritance techniques.
Of course, now was not the time to do something like that. Michael’s weapon mastery was not that high, and his theoretical understanding was lacking. But that was even more reason to watch others fight. He analyzed them with his theoretical understanding, improving where he was lacking and traveled back to the Origin Expanse where he could use the time dilation to refine his body, mind, and absorb energy to deepen his War Rune’s refinement degree alongside training in martial arts using various weapons with the Immortal Knight and his subordinates.
Michael spent a whole week doing nothing but studying, and training. On the last day he was finally too tired to move and fell asleep on the training ground next to the construction site of the Sacred Knight Temple. Michael woke up half a day later in his bed. He took a nice, rejuvenating bath, put on the combat clothing Alice had prepared for him a few days ago and he left the Origin Expanse – after reminding everyone that he would soon purchase everything they needed for the Beast Ranches, more building inventions, and other expansions that would cost a fortune in every possible section of his territory.
Over the last few days, Michael had been wondering if he should invest some SoulStar Fragments into his Soultraits to increase their star-rating by a quarter or half a star. This would be enough to increase the power of his Soultraits considerably. But Michael decided against doing so because he began to understand that he relied too much on his Soultraits. His Soultraits made him strong, and they allowed him to become the person he was right now, but they shouldn’t be the major reason for his exceptional combat prowess. He shouldn’t be helpless without Soultraits.
Another reason was that Michael wanted to increase his subordinates’ combat prowess. However, they had a very good reason to reject his Soultraits even if he had yet to offer them anything. Lilica, Tiara and the others uttered that the energy they require to refine their War Rune increased drastically after they obtained their second 4-Star Soultrait. They didn’t want to rush into fusing more Soultraits to their War Rune since they were not Lords anymore. They were Awakened and would only acquire energy from absorbing it actively, or by killing monsters on their own. In fact, even if they killed monsters, a portion of their energy inflow would be split and transferred to Michael.
Michael understood their reasoning, he supported it, and to be entirely truthful, their reasoning was also enough to convince Michael that he shouldn’t rush upgrading his Soultraits. The further he upgraded his Soultraits the more energy he would require to refine his War Rune. If each of his Soultraits was to reach 6-Star, Michael might end up getting stuck as a Tier-2 Lord for decades. That was definitely not something Michael wanted to happen.
Therefore, refining his body, mind and War Rune was more important than upgrading his Soultraits.
If he should enhance anything it was the methods he used.
Michael was still using the basic technique, Sun Soldier’s Breathing, for his breathing, and his martial arts was an Inferior version of the Immortal Knight’s most basic Sacred Sword Style. The technique didn’t even suit Michael’s combat style with the Wyverntooth Spear. The weapon was not even the same!
Fortunately, Michael had already picked a Token Holder to challenge in the Colosseum. Whether it was a coincidence or fate, Michael had chosen one of Maria Seraph’s fanboys as his opponent. It was the young Descendant, who had insulted him several times, to be precise. But it was not Fernando Jochez.
The Descendant was called Jirah Loar, a second-year student of the Ascending Phoenix Academy, which was one of the Great Academies of the human race. Jirah Loar had the 23rd Token of the Duo competition. He procured it from a Berserker in one of the many unofficial battles Maria’s group had held in Piloq.
Michael was surprised how Jirah Loar was still able to hold such a high-ranked Flag War Token even though the Battle Exchange was about to end. Jirah Loar might already be a Tier-3 Lord with a decently powerful Soultrait, but his analysis pinpointed that there were a bunch of stronger Battle Exchange participants who had yet to procure a Flag War Token. Jirah Loar’s token was perfect for them.
Thus, Michael did some research to find out why nobody challenged Jirah Loar.
The answer was pretty simple even if it was a little bit hard for Michael to understand- Nobody wanted to get on Maria Seraph’s bad side.
Jirah Loar was Maria Seraph’s childhood friend. At least that was what he called himself. But since Maria Seraph never denied this claim, everyone believed Jirah Loar’s words. Michael would be just like them. However, there was only one difference; He didn’t care whether Maria Seraph liked him or not.
So what if she disliked him? Was he supposed to cry a river because the most prestigious family of healers didn’t like him? Michael needed the Seraph family as little as they needed him. In the worst case, he would actively seek enemies with healing Soultraits and become a better healer than them to show them who the boss was – that was if they started to stir trouble.
There was only one thing Michael had to avoid; challenging Maria Seraph. Michael actually thought about challenging her because she had the number one Flag War Token of the Support competition. It was a good thing that he didn’t do something as stupid as challenging her. He wouldn’t survive this foolishness.
Michael was certain that he would win against her, but he would die facing the wrath and hatred of her loyal fan club. He might actually die if he didn’t play it right.
One way or another, Michael picked the perfect target – someone with a high-ranked Flag War Token: an opponent whom he could go all-out against to make an example of him. That would not allow the majority of them to be daring enough to challenge him in the last few days of the Battle Exchange. Of course, there could still be someone who could challenge him, but Michael didn’t plan to fool around. The healers appointed by the Tritan Alliance, and Maria Seraph’s presence were more than enough to ensure that his opponents would survive.
Holding back was not an option.
With that in mind, Michael entered the Colosseum and walked up to Maria Seraph’s group. Everyone noticed his approach and got into position to avoid the repetition of a faux pas like before. They wouldn’t allow a random nobody to talk to their Saintess, not anymore!
However, Michael didn’t even glance once at Maria. He eyed Jirah Loar and smiled at him.
“I’m not here for the Saintess, don’t worry,” Michael said, a faint golden glow emerging in his eyes.
“Get ready to fight. I’m challenging you!”
