After his ‘failure’ of summoning 375 Silverfangs instead of proper Legendary Summons, Michael paid more attention to the Named Summoning Scrolls. At least he could tell what he would summon with these scrolls. That made everything a little bit more simplistic.
He created 2400x 3-Star Named Summoning Scrolls and 15 4-Star Named Scrolls with the remaining Ordinary Summoning Scrolls. Michael had to experiment a little with Insert and Extract to use the remaining Ordinary Summoning Scrolls efficiently until he gave up. Multiple highly efficient ways existed, yet finding the perfect one was too difficult because some factors were luck-based. Michael couldn’t logically pinpoint luck-based factors. To be precise, he didn’t think it would be worth the effort.
He obtained 100,000,000 Ordinary Summoning Scrolls every few months either way. It was the Valyr’s payment for acquiring the Savannah Region from him. Therefore, Michael obtained them for free – basically.
Michael felt it would be the best decision to create combat Summoning Scrolls first. Still, he changed his mind and created a mix of Artisans, Architects, and a wide variety of Sorcerers – mostly Aqueous, Gaia, and Botanica Sorcerers – which could help with the construction of places such as water reservoirs, wells, and much more.
The 4-Star Sorcerers were also quite useful for combat, other than the Botanica Sorcerers, which was a great combi. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to wage war with anyone anytime soon, but Michael could tell that his hopes would be crushed relatively quickly. He had already been too lucky with his territories. It was only obvious, but Michael would have to fight valiantly fairly soon. He was bound to be pushed to the edge of existence soon. That was also how he focused on creating the Path Fortresses in Paradise Valley. He destroyed the Teleportation Chambers near the Blazing Sand Mountain Range, installed his short-distance teleportation arrays inside Paradise Valley, and created several paths leading out of Paradise Valley.
The paths lead through the Blazing Sand Mountain Range, just like he and his people had prepared beforehand, but Michael’s workers had installed a few more traps that would trigger if strangers dared to enter the paths without permission.
The traps were something Michael bought in the Cosmic Shops of other races. They were somewhat expensive, but Michael was far from poor. He’d sold two 3-Star Soultrait Symbols in his shop, earning him a small fortune to splurge.
After months of preparations for a – still unknown – war ended, Michael started sending scouts outside Paradise Valley. He had to find out how many Lords were left in the Sacred Desert, how strong they were, and if they were willing to surrender the Sacred Desert to Michael. Since Paradise Valley had an Energy Vein, the Sacred Desert would also develop and expand in the following years. It would change into an Intermediate Region at some point. Once that happened, Michael wanted the Sacred Desert to himself. He wouldn’t share the assets generated in an Intermediate Region with anyone else, let alone reveal to anyone that there was an Energy Vein.
Thinking back to the Energy Vein, Michael was both in fury and amused. Michael found out about the person – or peoples – leaking the news about the Energy Vein to the Valyr. At first, Michael felt like someone managed to bypass the restrictions of the Link of Loyalty and betrayed him, but that wasn’t the case. It would have been so much easier if that had been the problem.
Unfortunately, the situation was a lot more confusing than that. It was different than Michael had expected. A bunch of Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs was known for entering the Savannah Region to hunt monsters. The Valyr commissioned their hunting services lawfully. They loved running through the Savannah Region and hunting monsters. That was the kind of freedom they loved. Michael didn’t want to hold them back, and it wasn’t like the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs caused trouble. If anything, they befriended the Valyrs and occasionally hunted with them.
By hunting together, the Warlock Centaurs and Berserkers could showcase their superior combat prowess, which would plant seeds of fear and respect into the hearts of the Valyr. They would face the bitter truth – that they were weaker than the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs.
Michael liked that idea, especially with the Valyr being annoying. However, he heard not too long ago that the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs went to drink at one of the Valyr’s settlements after a successful hunt. They were happy and drank alcoholic beverages – lots of them. Apparently, they were dead drunk and talked about the Energy Vein in excitement and joy, glad to share the most recent news about their Lord’s find. That was how the Valyr learned about the existence of Energy Vein.
It was stupid, yet it wasn’t something Michael could punish quickly. A traitor in his rows would have been easier to handle than this. Nonetheless, Michael had to punish the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs for their mistake. He banned them from the Jungle Shop for a year and told them they would also have a more challenging time earning Jungle Points that year. It was the first warning, but Michael had to make an example out of them. Blocking access to their Jungle Shop wouldn’t be too troublesome initially, but a year was long. That was equivalent to two years in the Origin Expanse, given that Michael used the time outside the Origin Expanse for the punishment. In two years, lots of things could change. The Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs’ friends could collect thousands of Jungle Points, purchase another Soultrait, and upgrade their existing Soultriats. They would have no problem purchasing various resources and advancing rapidly. Their combat prowess would skyrocket, whereas the dead-drunk idiots would have to work ten times harder to keep up with their colleagues, only to realize the aftermath of their actions.
Of course, Michael gave them a way to escape the punishment. If they showed their Lord that they were redeemed by working harder than everyone else and by achieving things their peers weren’t capable of, Michael would decrease the penalty period or remove it at once.
That was nice, but the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs weren’t too concentrated on getting rid of their punishment. It wasn’t worth the effort, in their opinion. Not yet, at least.
They had already bought a Soultrait, which was upgraded to 3-Star as well. It would take a while for their mastery to reach a high level in the first place. Therefore, they weren’t too bothered about losing access to the Jungle Shop.
At least, that’s what they said until the information of the leftover Lords in the Sacred Desert reached Michael and his subordinates.
The scouts shared news of a few fighting Lords and that the Human Lords in the Sacred Desert defeated their enemies one after another until only a few territories – territories connected, yet not adequately combined – were left. Michael listened intently to the reports and listened when he listened the description of the Lords and Awakened leading the battles.
Michael’s expression distorted into a hideous grimace.
The Blaze household was in the Sacred Desert.
They were the last leftover Lords in the Sacred Desert.𝚏𝚛ee𝐰n𝐨𝘃l.𝐜𝐨m
