Michael decided that it might be better to isolate himself from the rest of the alliance members for a few hours. He had several reasons to do so.
First of all, there were still more than 20 hours left before the Flag War would officially end, and they would be expelled from the isolated dimension. Michael wanted to finish extracting the Memory Orbs, SoulStar Fragments, and Soultrait Symbols from the corpses in his possession. He could wait and do it later as well, but Michael felt that everyone needed some time to digest the shocking fact that some Descendants turned out to be traitors.
Other than that, many were also confused about the power Michael had unleashed. He hoped that some troublesome encounters and awkward questions could be prevented by isolating himself for a few hours.
Some of the corpses in his possession had already been extracted. Despite that, there were more than enough Tekur, and even traitorous Descendant corpses that Michael had yet to extract. There were three Elite Soldiers, 91 Soldiers, and nine Descendants who had yet to be drained of their SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols.
Michael resolved that issue over the next few hours. He extracted roughly 1,000 SoulStar Fragments from each Elite Soldier and an average of 450 SoulStar Fragments from each of the 91 Tekur Soldiers. Meanwhile, the human Descendants provided less than 200 SoulStar Fragments.
‘45,750 SoulStar Fragments were added to the 3,150 I’d extracted mid-battle and still left from continuously fueling my Soul Techniques. That seems pretty neat.’
48,900 SoulStar Fragments was not something Michael could procure easily outside the Flag War. The Tekur and traitorous Descendants dropped far more than the enemies Michael usually encountered in the Origin Expanse. Ordinary Tier-3 Awakened would possess roughly 100 SoulStar Fragments. Maybe a few dozen more if they were Lords, or in possession of a high-ranked Soultrait.
‘I am not in a rush. I could upgrade another Soultrait to 6-Star, but let’s move slowly. No matter how I look at it, I’m satisfied with the current situation of my Soultraits. All I have to do is to create Soul Techniques for them and to study my Soultraits more in-depth. That will be enough to increase my combat prowess by a large margin.’
Other than SoulStar Fragments, Michael obtained 13 Soultrait Symbols as well. He extracted four Elite-Class Soul Techniques and dozens of Common Soul Techniques from the War Rune storages of the Tekur and human Descendants. Michael didn’t hesitate to extract the Wisps of Knowledge from the Soul Technique tomes and devour them at once. The information and intent that had been written in the techniques entered his mind. It was imprinted deep inside him, allowing Michael to understand every single process of the Soul Techniques’ creation.
His knowledge of Soul Techniques was far more advanced than before. Simultaneously, his understanding skyrocketed as well. After all, he got to consume the Memory Orbs of the remaining 94 Tekur and the four human Descendants.
The memories of the traitors were a bit confusing, but Michael learned a lot from them. Not everything was great though. Some of the memories he procured were something Michael had to share with the authorities soon. Michael digested all information and memories over the course of 10 hours. Once he was done, Michael was ready to study more Soul Techniques and to create a wide variety of Soul Techniques for himself to use. This was something he looked forward to doing in the next few weeks – if no one from High Society would bother him too much.
But now it was time to return from his self-isolation.
Michael felt like he could advance to Tier-3 pretty soon. Basically, he was certain that all he had to do was to spend a week focusing on his War Rune’s refinement and he could advance to the next Tier. However, Michael was not in a rush. He had something else that had to be done beforehand.
Michael thought a while about what to do now that so many Descendants and other alliance members had discovered Extraction. The answer was pretty simple. He didn’t have to do much. Since so many would soon be able to tell that Michael could procure more Soultraits and that his Soultraits could be strengthened permanently, it was not like someone could kidnap.
Of course, he could still be kidnapped and imprisoned in a tower to act as the family’s golden goose, but the other families would notice that Michael was missing and they would do their own research.
Michael doubted that many families would be pleased hearing if other families would kidnap Michael to keep the monopoly of his Soultraits and SoulStar Fragments. Therefore, even if Michael was not strong enough on his own, he wouldn’t have to worry too much about his safety – probably.
The bigger problem was that Quinn Karta and the others witnessed Extraction’s power as well. The human traitors could find out about Extraction and its great potential as well. It would be a little bit more troublesome if they decided to kidnap him.
Michael doubted that they would kill him because he was too valuable for their mission to conquer the universe, but that didn’t mean they would hold back from torturing Michael. And if Michael was unwilling to help them grow more and stronger Soultraits, he would be disposed. After all, an uncooperative prodigy was a useless prodigy. It was better to get rid of him than to keep him alive, leaving open the small chance that he could flee and take revenge in the future.
Michael shuddered at the thought of the Supreme Human Alliance kidnapping him. He really didn’t like the thought.
Thus, he thought about other things and gathered Lincoln, Zeke, and Kaleb to talk to them privately.
“Where are you guys going?” Maria asked when she noticed the group of four guys walking away from the small camp. Her eyes glimmered faintly as she stared straight at Michael.
Michael pressed his lips together as he returned her gaze. Maria’s puppy eyes drilled deep into his soul. Michael sighed deeply and gestured for her to follow as well.
“You can come as well. It’s not like you or Killian haven’t figured out what I can do, either way,” He mumbled, realizing too late that Killian Zeus was near enough to hear his name being called up.
Killian walked through the small camp and smiled at the mixed-up group of friends.
“I’ll join as well.” He said, leaving no choice for anyone to refute.
Michael felt like thrashing Killian for a moment, but he gave it a shrug in the end. It didn’t really matter. Killian was smart and he had already figured out what Extraction could do. All Killian missed was some details.
He ignored Killian and led everyone far away from the rest of the other alliance members where he could talk freely about whatever he wanted.
“So what are you going to tell us now? Is it about your weird-ass power?” Killian asked bluntly, causing Kaleb and Lincoln to roll their eyes.
“His power is not weird. We survived because of him! Killian, be a bit nicer, will you?” Maria frowned at Killian.
Killian felt like responding, but he kept his mouth shut. Attacking Michael verbally was still fine, but he had to control himself a little in front of Maria. 𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝑜𝑚
“But I’m curious as well. I thought about it for a while and I figured that Killian’s guess was correct. You’ve grown a lot stronger within the last 14 days. Your physical strength and speed are easily on par with Mid-rank Awakened at Tier-3. Once you reach Tier-3, you’re probably faster than most Awakened at Tier-3, especially after you use this technique that changes your presence into that of a Mythical Beast,” Maria pointed out with a vivid smile on her face.
Since Michael was her Primal Amplifier, Maria could sense the changes within Michael’s body more easily than others. She had noticed a few changes within and around Michael when they last met, but the biggest changes had occurred over the last few days when they traveled around together. However, the most apparent evidence was that the Soul Power within Michael increased by more than 30% since their encounter with Raven. Using the Mark of Fate of her Primal Amplifier to unleash Heaven’s Descent allowed her to feel much more than others could tell about Michael.
That was also why she knew that Killian’s first presumption had been correct.
“To put it in simple terms, Killian is correct. My Soultrait allows me to obtain more Soultraits and strengthen them,” Michael revealed at last, glancing over to Kaleb and the others to see their reaction.
Interestingly enough, there was hardly any change in their expressions.
Lincoln just laughed, “I don’t think you realize how powerful you’ve grown over the last few months. I was strong enough to overwhelm you easily in our first spar. The second time we fought it was a lot harder already. Then we started to duel more often, and I realized that it was getting more and more difficult to overwhelm you. At first, I thought that Alice’s individual teachings resulted in a sudden increase in power, but that was not it. It was not the entire reason, at least. You’ve grown a lot stronger, but your Soultraits are certainly your strongest asset.”
Killian nodded, “My uncle researched your past and all of your fights. I told you about that already but yeah. He noticed a trend whenever you’ve grown stronger. So, it was pretty easy for me to put two and two together.”
This time Kaleb had to agree with Killian Zeus.
“I noticed the pattern as well, but I wasn’t certain what was going on. Now that you revealed your power, I think I understand. You drain the Soultraits of your enemies. If I’m not mistaken, you must also be obtaining some kind of ability that allows you to strengthen your Soultraits permanently.”
Usually, Kaleb was not a quick thinker. However, that didn’t mean he was stupid. It was just that he didn’t bother paying too much attention to most things. He was a simple man.
“I guess, I made it too obvious,” Michael forced a smile on his lips, but Kaleb shook his head.
“You might have been obvious, but that only means you trusted everyone around you enough to use your ability without holding back too much. Maybe it was also your competitive spirit or the fact that you hate holding back, but I think you would have held back a lot more if you were overly worried about the future. You tend to overthink a lot, only for your body to do whatever it wants.”
Killian ignored Kaleb’s attempt at consolation and pushed the young Zenovia to the side to gain Michael’s full attention.
“With that in mind, how many Soultraits do you have, and what is the stellar grade of your most potent Soultrait?!”
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