?Michael teased his brother for a while before his attention returned to the rewards they’d obtained in the Primedival Pyramid.
He retrieved everything from the War Rune storage with a snap and began with the inspection.
His eyes landed on the Summoning Scrolls, the corner of his lips tugging upward.
“Five Legendary Summoning Scrolls, three Desert Warlords Summoning Scrolls, and a Sandmancer Scroll. The Desert Warlords should be 3-Star or 4-Star Named Scrolls, but what about the Sandmancer Scroll? In the first place, what kind of Named Scroll is that? It looks like it’s on the verge of tearing apart. How old is that scroll?”
The Sandmancer Summoning Scroll was falling apart. A single touch was enough to destroy bits and pieces of it. Michael tilted his head and stored the scrolls back in the War Rune. Even though he could use the nine scrolls, Michael didn’t want to endanger anyone. Paradise Valley was great, but the tent didn’t have enough sleeping places. He was more comfortable waiting until the Portal Attachments were installed before summoning any powerful Summons.
Fortunately, there was no rush. Michael had more than enough time to spare right now.
His eyes landed on the mountains of gold coins, his eyes glimmering brightly. Massive currents of energy surged through the gold coins. The energy was sealed inside and purified with every circulation they made through the complex tiny paths passing through the golden coins.
The purity level was extremely high–several levels higher than the purity of the energy stored within Superior Energy Stones. Michael didn’t even want to know how many centuries it took until the golden coins purified the origin energy they contained to such a high degree. It was terrifying.
Michael was also quite impressed by the amount of energy compressed into a single golden coin. The density of the origin energy was much higher than that found within naturally occurring Energy Stones.
Last but not least, the most impressive feat was that Michael didn’t procure only a handful of those golden coins. There were more than 100,000 of those golden coins. The Undead Pharaoh had hoarded mountains of those golden coins. He had yet to count them, but 100,000 was the lowest number he could imagine. There were probably a lot more golden coins.
“Who’s capable enough to manufacture such tiny yet magnificent treasures? These golden coins are almost too beautiful to use,” Michael murmured, only to shake his head, “Scrap the last part. Of course, I’ll use them.”
[Obviously, you will use them. You are not that far from ascending to a Higher Lifeform. These mountains of coins are exactly what you need for your ascension!] Danny declared.
Michael nodded in agreement, only for the World Serpent to resurface in his mind.
[Aged Imperial Coins. Not too bad. He’s probably plundered the secret vaults he’d left behind in the Second Epoch. There should be enough aged Imperial Coins to recuperate his wounds and push him back to Tier-7. All he needed was time. Good thing that you didn’t give him the time needed to get back to full power.]
‘Imperial Coins? They’re quite fierce if they contain enough energy to push the Undead Pharaoh back to Tier-7.’ Michael commented in his mind. The World Serpent hissed.
[Your situation is different. You have two interwoven Curses, the Soul Sphere, and way too many decently powerful Soultraits to think that the Imperial Coins will be enough to help you skip a few ranks. The Imperial Coins might barely be enough to aid your ascension, but that’s it. You seem to underestimate the resources required for your ascension, little monster.]
Michael frowned deeply at the World Serpent’s comment.
“That,” He pointed at the massive mountains of aged Imperial Coins, “Will barely be enough to aid my ascension?”
[Yesss. And you’re still missing the necessary nutrients. The Imperial Coins won’t be enough on their own.]
Michael’s brows furrowed even deeper. He remembered clearly what he’d calculated for his ascension and was sure that one-tenth of the Imperial Coin mountain would have been enough for his Ascension. Apparently, he was wrong. Terribly wrong.
‘If I need ten times more energy than I’d calculated, doesn’t that mean I need time times more nutrients as well? No, it might be more. The World Serpent said that the Imperial Coins might barely be enough to aid me. I’ll probably require more. Furthermore, I have several Soultraits that altered my physique. Spirit Eyes changed my eyes, and Sacred Constitution changed about…everything. I cannot rely on my earlier calculation. I need more resources.’
Michael shuddered. He knew that ascending to a Higher Lifeform was expensive. Of course, it was possible to ascend slowly without using many resources. However, that would require tremendous talent and even more time. Even ordinary Awakened would have to spend several years to advance from the Peak of Tier-3 to the lowest rank of Tier-4 if they didn’t prepare the needed resources. There were also various complications for those who didn’t ascend in one swoop.
Michael was certain that he would have to spend decades to ascend without any resources. He was not going to waste that much time.
‘What if I sell the Legendary Scrolls for High Nutrition Solutions? No, that shouldn’t be necessary,’ Michael glanced down at a small plague where the number 164,346+1 was displayed in faintly glowing lights.
The plague had been given to all Awakened who’d decided to aid the Sacred Desert. They counted the Undead they’d slain.
Michael was unsure how accurate the calculation was or how it worked, but it worked to a certain extent. The +1, which glowed dark red, was especially accurate. It stated that Michael defeated the Undead Ruler.
Initially, he didn’t want to show off that he defeated the Undead Ruler, but the merit points and other benefits Michael could obtain were worth revealing his own identity.
‘The points should be enough to purchase the nutrients needed for the ascension…right? Well, whatever. I’m not in a rush. I have yet to reach the Peak of Tier-3 in the first place. I have a few weeks to prepare everything.’
Michael stored the mountains of Imperial Coins again and inspected the other treasures. Most of them were antique and had lost most of their magical power. However, a bunch of treasures attracted his interest. Pouring some origin energy into them granted Michael enough insight into the antique treasures to find out what they could do and what they were usually used for.
“Jug of Energy.”
“Needle of the Lost Memory.”
“Scroll Creation…Scroll…”
…
…
Some antique treasures were actually quite interesting. The Needle of the Lost Memory allowed the user to remove the target’s memories. The stronger the target’s resistance, the lower the probability to succeed. Michael had few memories he would love, especially about the Kitsun race and their disgusting actions.
He would love to remove few of those memories, but he didn’t use the Needle of the Lost Memory right away. How was he supposed to know whether the antique treasures were traps or not? It didn’t look like the treasures were traps, given what he could see via Spirit Eyes, but he wasn’t about to prick himself when he had yet to test the other antique treasures.
The Jug of Energy dissolved Energy Stones into liquid energy. Consuming the liquid energy drastically accelerated energy absorption. This was beneficial for Awakened, who didn’t have monstrous talents.
Michael was talented enough that the Jug of Energy lost its value to him, especially with him owning Extraction. He could extract the purified energy from Energy Stones easily. Absorbing and digesting the energy was easily done for someone like Michael.
However, it would come in handy for his own Subordinates and subjects.
Meanwhile, the Scroll Creation Scroll was entirely useless to Michael. He could create specific Named Summoning Scrolls by sacrificing hundreds of Ordinary Summoning Scrolls to the Scroll Creation Scroll. Michael could do that much easier with Insert, combining a bunch of Ordinary Scrolls into precisely what he wanted. It was tens of times cheaper as well.
However, the Scroll Creation Scroll might be valuable to others. Maybe it was worth selling the antique treasure to others to buy additional resources for his own ascension.
The other treasures were also quite valuable, but Michael found that the Needle of the Lost Memory was the majority useful for him. After that, the Jug of Energy was probably the best for his own subjects. It drastically decreased the time everyone spent absorbing energy.
Michael was somewhat satisfied with the gains.
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