Blaire Tracer had recuperated from her severe injury a long time ago.
It had been a while since she started to leave the territory to explore the surroundings of the Untamed Jungle. Her task was to note down every single detail about the unknown territory so that Michael received a detailed report of the jungle.
However, today was different from usual.
Blaire returned to the territory panting heavily. Her long hair was dripping with sweat and clung to her face. She was beyond exhausted and scratches all over her arms and face showed that she had hastily rushed back to the territory with all her might.
“I found a large clearing southward…. A huge Frenzy Deer, much stronger and bigger than the Frenzy Deers we encounter every now and then is lying there…. It is injured and more than a dozen corpses of Frenzy Deers are spread across the clearing as well. I don’t know who or what it fought but I also saw a few patches of black hair. The Frenzy Deer probably drove away the enemy…” Blaire reported hastily while trying to catch her breath.
“Weren’t you searching for easy prey? The Deer is probably Tier-2, or at least at the Peak of the 1st Tier, and it is severely injured! It’s also a leader of a horde with more than a hundred Frenzy Deers!”
Blaire seemed excited to Michael as she reported the situation to him. Since she made a big blunder in the past, Blaire reported the situation immediately in the hopes of redeeming herself in her Lord’s eyes. She didn’t dare to act on her own like she did when she encountered the Gogi Lord’s territory for the first time.
Fortunately, nobody died because of her blunder, but Michael had been in several life-and-death situations to rectify her mistake. Since she had made him suffer a lot, she wanted to help her Lord become stronger quickly. Hunting an injured Tier-2 Monster was the perfect way to achieve that!
Michael’s interest was piqued when he heard her. He immediately told Blaire to take a seat and tell him more about the situation.
Blaire, the Tracker, seemed a little bit impatient to rush over and kill the huge Frenzy Deer while it was still injured, but Michael didn’t just run towards the deer blindly. The huge Frenzy Deer would still stay injured for a few hours.
Furthermore, Michael’s military might was not strong enough to deal with a horde of more than a hundred Tier-1 Frenzy Deers easily.
The population of his territory was slowly inching closer to 350, but that didn’t mean he was fortunate enough to summon many combat units.
In total, he had summoned two 1-Star Warriors and two 1-Star Archers during the last four days. It was nothing great, but it was more than the gains most other Lords made.
“A one-hour walking distance southward. That’s closer than expected,” Michael mumbled.
If the huge Frenzy Deer was truly a Tier-2 Monster, the situation would be more problematic than he first expected. After all, the death of a dozen Low TIer-1 Frenzy Deers and the severe injury of a Tier-2 Frenzy Deer suggested that there was something stronger nearby.
A one-hour walking distance was insignificant. That meant the moment the huge Frenzy Deer and its horde were hunted down by him, Michael and his territory would probably turn into the next prey of the stronger monster.
Despite the risks, Michael was interested in finding out more.
If the huge Frenzy Deer was able to drive away the other monster, it was probably injured as well, or not much stronger than the huge Frenzy Deer.
‘Maybe, I can deal with both? Killing two Tier-2 Monsters should be more than enough to refine my War Rune to the peak and beyond…’ Michael figured, suddenly feeling hopeful.
During the last few days, Michael’s War Rune had reached the late stage. At first, he thought that everyone was joking whenever Adventurers and Lords said that the refinement degree slowed down drastically upon reaching the late stage, but it was true. The energy he had required to progress from the Mid-stage to the Late stage was not even a tenth of the energy required to refine his War Rune to the Peak stage.
That was something Michael found out during the last few days.
It was quite shocking, but it made sense.
Every Lord and Adventurer complained about the tremendous amount of energy required to improve their Tier and refinement degree. Most Lords spent half a year, or a full year to advance to the 1st Tier. Meanwhile, Michael wanted to make a speedrun to the 1st Tier to be ready for the aptitude assessment of the Saphirelake Military Academy.
Unfortunately, it was not that easy.
He would have to take a few risks to make that happen.
Thus, Michael prepared to wage war with the huge Frenzy Deer and the unknown monster.
‘Preparing to fight the huge Frenzy Deer is one thing, but how many Warriors should I leave behind for the protection of the territory?’ He contemplated.
In the first place, it would be better if he could bring his entire military to the clearing. The huge Frenzy Deer might be injured, but it was quite powerful if it led a horde of more than 100 Tier-1 Frenzy Deers.
He had nine Warriors, two Archers, two Knights in training, two Aero Crossbowmen, a Water Elemental Mage, Tiara, and himself. That was a total of 18 people who could fight, and only one of them was in the 1st Tier…
Michael and the Water Elemental Mage were strong despite being Tierless, but the others had to make use of their teamwork to fight larger groups of Tier-1 Monsters, forget about Tier-2 Monsters.
“If you’re worried about the protection of the territory, there is no need,” Tiara said when she arrived at the open pavilion.
She had overheard bits of Blaire’s report and could clearly tell what Michael was worried about.
“More than 150 people have learned how to throw spears. We also collected enough spears from the Gogis to train the Starless Summons. Additionally, they also studied the Sun Soldier’s Weaponry technique to learn spear-throwing. It was one of the easiest techniques to learn given the circumstances,” She explained shortly.
‘They learned how to throw spears? So many of them?’
Michael was confused. He had expected just a few summons to be dissatisfied with their Star rating and give their utmost to train in order to attain enlightenment and be promoted to 1-Star Warriors.
However, he didn’t expect so many to start training in spear-throwing. Was there a special reason?
Michael had no idea.
“Everyone is thankful for what you’re doing. They can tell that you care about all of us, even those without a star rating. You are not biased and treat everyone fairly despite a difference in their rating. That means a lot to them, and they wanted to express their gratitude,” Blaire said suddenly.
It had been a while since the first Starless Summons began to study the Sun Soldier’s Breathing technique and the Sun Soldier’s Weaponry technique.
However, a majority of them had begun to focus on their training only a few days ago when Michael returned with countless recipes, and blueprints that were mostly focused on the improvement of the territory’s living conditions.
Everyone got to know that Tiara was given several Tier-1 Artifacts and that her survivability and combat prowess increased drastically.
As if that was not enough, Michael left no stone unturned to ensure that the Bilrox hatchlings would receive the best possible nourishment.
Rather than a Lord, he acted like the head of a big family, who was doting and genuinely cared about every single individual.
This warmed his subjects’ hearts, and it strengthened their Link of Loyalty drastically.
They wanted to assist their Lord!
Tiara smiled brightly and added, “They trained hard, hoping that their hard work would help you in the future.”
**
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