Chapter 126: Last Week
After their spar, the brothers decided to spend more time together until Michael's departure.
Danny grew increasingly interested in Michael's Soultraits, and the fact that his younger brother possessed multiple Soultraits. Meanwhile, Michael was more interested in Danny's stories about the Primedival Pyramid, and everything related to it.
Michael wanted to use Danny's combat prowess as a threshold to roughly determine how strong he had to be to conquer an ancient ruin on the same level as the Primedival Pyramid -without turning the conquest into a suicidal attack. He presumed that the Temple of the Forgotten was, at least, as dangerous as the Primedival Pyramid, if not more dangerous.
The problem was just that the Temple of the Forgotten was much older than the Primedival Pyramid, yet it was still intact and emitting terrifying pressure.
Learning more about the Primedival Pyramid and its dangers was very important to Michael. Thus, Danny began to tell him more about his most recent experiences, and the death of thousands of powerful and loyal subjects.
Compared to last time Danny revealed something about the Primedival Pyramid's outer perimeters, this time it was far more terrifying. Danny had lost more than half of his military might, and he had to rebuild his army now.
Michael was forcefully dragged out of his dreams to conquer the Temple of the Forgotten in the next few weeks as he heard Danny's experience. It was simply not feasible to conquer the Temple of the Forgotten without more thorough preparations!
The two brothers met up daily over the next few days. They met and spent half the day together talking about all kinds of things, including their Soultraits, Michael's future in the Saphirelake Military Academy, and Danny's expedition.
The two sparred together daily, and they conducted research together as well. Their research was about the old tongue, and who could know more about the time before the Third Epoch.
Their research result was nothing surprising. The most astonishing find was that the Bersekers and Warlock Centaurs were much older than expected. The Awakened in their oldest generation might know something about the period before the Third Epoch, and the language used in that era.
Danny was not satisfied with the result of their research, but Michael didn't mind. He was just glad that he could spend some more time with his brother.
Ever since Danny became a Lord four years ago, they hardly found time to spend together. Michael understood that because he learned early on that Lords had a busy life filled with dangers.
Danny didn't think that it was important to meet up every day of the week since they could always make a video call, but Michael forced his brother to make sure that they spend as much time as possible together. Video calls were not the same as meeting in person.
Others may not agree with that, but Michael didn't really care about the opinion of others. They should mind their own business.
Thankfully Danny wasn't able to resist Michael's puppy eyes. They separated their schedule into two 12-hour periods and spent one of them together, while they used the other period to take care of all business within the Origin Expanse. Half a day outside the Origin Expanse was worth a full day inside.
24 hours were more than enough to sleep, manage the territory, spend some time with his subjects, workout a little, and train the Starless Summons that were willing to grasp a weapon and fight for their Lord and territory.
Michael was certain that the final week before his departure was one of a kind in his life. At least, it was the best week he could remember.
In this short span of seven days, he had grown much closer with Danny, who, in turn, had grown more comfortable with revealing more information about his territory, the way he reigned his subjects, and that he was known as the Lone Wolf of the Sacred Desert.
Michael learned about Danny's lord title, and the name of his region for the first time. Feeling curious, he researched his brother's region and his title in secret.
The research was quite fruitful. Michael got to know more about the Sacred Desert, and his brother, the Lone Wolf.
The Sacred Desert was a humongous region with various tribes, nomads, and unique Desert races. Various monsters lived in the Sacred Desert, the weakest being Mid Tier-0 Monsters living in large groups.
Most lone Monsters were Tier-1, and there were many stronger Monsters closer to the center of the Sacred Desert.
Apparently, the Lone Wolf of the Sacred Desert conquered the southern outskirts of the Sacred Desert, turning everything into his territory. Many stories revolving around the Lone Wolf existed, and they were both terrifying and extremely interesting.
The stories showed Michael clearly how powerful his brother had grown in merely four years, and how terrifying his reign was to the Lords and tribes living near his territory.
He obliterated all of his opponents without mercy and punished those who were brazen enough to offend him.
Danny was still only a Tier-2 Lord, but that was mostly due to the foundation of his territory. The Lone Wolf spent most of his time inside the Origin Expanse to create an indomitable foundation for his territory. This foundation was what allowed him to wage war against an alliance of Tier-3 Lords and emerge as the sole winner.
The Alliance of Tier-3 Lords died miserably, and so did their army. Their territories were bulldozed and conquered by the Lone Wolf and the survivors of his Desert Corps.
That was crazy.
Michael and his subjects would have to suffer a lot upon encountering an unscathed Tier-2 Monster, even after the mass summoning. That was how strong Tier-2 Monsters were, and how important it was to make sure that your Summons were given enough time to increase their refinement degree, and Tier.
Yet, Danny fought alone against an Alliance of Tier-3 Lords, and he emerged victorious!
That was simply mind-boggling as well as exciting.
Michael saw his brother in a different light from that point onward. It was like Danny's aura changed suddenly.
Unfortunately, the week was way too short. The last day of the month arrived much faster than expected, and even Danny was at a loss.
He didn't expect time to pass this quickly. It felt like their sparring session had just started, and it was already over.
The week felt like a blur; now, the brothers would be separated. Danny was glad that he listened to Michael's proposal. He felt like he would have regretted it if they hadn't met up that often before his younger brother's departure. It was truly worth it to postpone a few meetings in the Origin Expanse to spend more time with Michael.
Who knew when they would meet again?
"Why didn't you join the Saphirelake Military Academy as well?" Michael complained quietly to his brother when it was about time for him to depart.
He had to reach the spaceship harbor and meet up with the other soon-to-be freshmen.
"I'm almost at the 3rd Tier, and I have to put my entire focus on the Primedival Pyramid. Plundering the Sarkophag of the Forgotten Pharaoh will take up most of my time. I might have to spend years to reach the core region, and splitting the little bit of time I have to study in the Saphirelake Military Academy will be a waste of time for me!" Danny explained resolutely.
Their situations were different.
Danny always took care of himself. He spent years studying, procuring knowledge, and learning various martial arts from all over Elyra. Danny even paid Adventurers from other races inside the Origin Expanse to teach him their martial arts. He spent a fortune and much more time than necessary traveling and learning from people, who were not even Instructors.
They shared their experiences while practicing their Martial Arts, rather than the most efficient ways to master them. Danny found this approach to be far more interesting than things taught by instructors.
That was why he was not too keen to enroll himself in the Saphirelake Military Academy. The Instructors were mankind's cream of the crop, and the network system possessed the vast majority of books and tomes collected by mankind.
Michael was in dire need of more knowledge. He didn't want to spend years traveling around - possibly without any results and it wouldn't harm to reap more benefits from the Saphirelake Military Academy either.
Thus, he told himself to broaden his horizon by joining the Saphirelake Military Academy.
It was the path that was the most efficient, and offered most opportunities!