Chapter 162: Owing a Favor

In the end, the battle ended in less than ten minutes. It was total annihilation.

They killed every single member of the six Adventurer teams without suffering a single casualty.

Every member in Michael's army fought carefully. They executed the combat tactics perfectly and emerged victorious.

First, attacks poured down from the canopy bridges. The first barrage included an onslaught of earth spikes jutting out of the ground, and water whips emerging from all directions. After the first barrage, the lethality of the elemental attacks was vividly branded into the minds of the attacking Adventurers.

They grew increasingly more vigilant of attacks from the ground and surroundings. The second barrage of projectiles was ordinary, void of any elemental attacks. They believed that Michael and his team had exhausted their powerful attacks. Hence, the Adventurers didn't expect the appearance of tamed Monsters - forget about a Heavy Armored Elephant and a Greater Eagle. Neither were Monsters that could be found in the Untamed Jungle nor were they easy to tame.

And that is why the arrival of the tamed Monsters distracted the attacking Adventurers once again. They were shocked - even more so as the close combat units unveiled themselves all around them. The Adventurers had now been surrounded.

At last, the elemental attacks started again. The Mages focused on the strongest opponents to restrict them. By then the numerical advantage of the territory's army was displayed. Tiara, the Knights, and the Berserkers combined their terrific combat prowess to fight the strongest opponents. Meanwhile, Michael began to help the weaker forces to get rid of the Adventurers one by one.

Michael didn't expect Spirit Whip to be that powerful after upgrading it to a 3-Star Soultrait. However, it was powerful enough to open a small gap in the enemies' defense, restrict their utility of Soultraits for a moment, and to use both to strike once - killing them with a single attack.

It was important to take note that the six Adventurer teams had already been injured in the fight against the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team. None of the Tier-2 Adventurers had been unscathed, and most had even sustained one or two severe injuries, which affected their combat prowess greatly.

At the same time, they had been mentally and physically exhausted after pursuing the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team for hours, and by entering the Untamed Jungle, which was something they would never do under normal circumstances.

Nonetheless, Michael was overjoyed. It was an exceptional achievement to win the battle against the six Adventurer teams without a single casualty and merely a few minor injured Warriors.

It was the first big battle they had won without the need to hold a memorial for the deceased!

As Tiara and the rest collected the Adventurers' corpses, Michael turned calmly to the Forest Elves.

He smiled at them and extended a friendly invitation, "If the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team is free tonight, how about you join us for dinner?"

Michael seemed genuinely happy, but that was something the Forest Elves couldn't understand, at all. It was quite obvious that his achievement in today's battle was glorious, but was it not a problem for him to have killed their pursuers? Didn't he know how problematic that could be in the future?

Furthermore, the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team had led their pursuers to Michael's territory, forcing them into an unwanted fight. Shouldn't he be angry at them? Why would he invite them for dinner?

The Forest Elves couldn't understand Michael. But that was only obvious.

They didn't know that Michael was in possession of Extraction and that he made huge gains from killing the Adventurers. He was confident of being able to extract a large number of SoulStar Fragments, potentially more complete Soultraits, and items from the Adventurers' storage space which is why he offered them a helping hand.

Even some of their Artifacts would be extracted, further increasing his wealth once sold.

How were they supposed to know why he was happy?

Despite being oblivious, Lilica agreed to feast with Michael and his people. They didn't know what would happen once they returned to Xiltra.

Even if the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team never offended anyone, enough citizens of Xiltra - and the rest of the Zentika Empire, didn't like them. Usually, the Forest Elves were accepted in society, but they were clearly a minority even amongst minorities in the Zentika Empire.

Anything could happen to them once the authorities got to know that six Adventurer teams suddenly disappeared into thin air.

Meanwhile, Michael guided the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team back into his territory. He was not afraid that they would attack anyone because they had witnessed the combat prowess of his army. Furthermore, they were in a weakened state. Michael and Tiara would be enough to deal with them.

'Everyone probably thinks the Forest Elves are at fault for the mishaps revolving around the people involved in Senator Keltos' scheming.' Michael thought on their way back to the clearing. He listened to the quietly gossiping Forest Elves, who were wondering what crime they had done to offend someone with enough influence and wealth to hire six Adventurer teams to send after them.

There might be more reasons the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team was attacked, but it didn't really matter. And Michael couldn't care less either.

The EmeraldLeaf team owed him a big favor now, At least, that was what the Forest Elves believed.

And that was all that mattered.

On their way to the territory, the Forest Elves looked around in awe. They didn't expect to see treehouse complexes spread all over Michael's territory. They were well connected via canopy bridges and constructed with high-quality materials. Everything was sturdy, and well-functioning. In fact, even the trees were taken care of to ensure that they wouldn't die and that their growth was not restricted.

Michael had removed a few trees, but he paid attention to removing only those which stunted the growth of other trees.

The Forest Elves' image of Michael and his actions as a Lord improved considerably after witnessing his territory's state. They witnessed first-hand how Michael treated the environment around him, and his people. His subjects loved him, and he reciprocated their care and loyalty.

"You can wash up over here, and rest for a few hours in this treehouse," Michael said, pointing at a big bathhouse, which had been constructed not too long ago, and a nearby treehouse that was still empty.

He wanted to give the Forest Elves some time to think about what had happened, and what they wanted to do in the future.

At the same time, Michael didn't want to postpone the extraction of 43 Adventurers.

The corpses had already been brought to warehouse number three, where he could extract them without anyone bothering him.

"Thank you very much. We are indebted to you and will repay the favor soon," Lilica said gratefully. She forced a smile on her lips despite feeling as if the entire Origin Expanse was crashing down on her.

Michael simply nodded before he departed. He reached warehouse number three in no time, where his loyal subjects and a bunch of corpses were waiting for him.

Wasting no time, Michael exerted Extraction and got started.

Less than two hours later, Michael was done.

Not a single completed Soultrait Symbol manifested, but that was something Michael was actually grateful for.

He would rather use the extracted SoulStar Fragments to upgrade his Soultraits rather than amass more Soultraits. He already had too many Soultraits, and couldn't use more than three simultaneously in a battle, either way.

That was bound to change in the future with his increased proficiency in wielding his Soultraits, and the simultaneous usage of several Soultraits, but that was something for the future.

'But what will I do about Harry then?' Michael suddenly recalled Harry Baren.

The thought of upgrading his Soultraits immediately led his thoughts back to Harry, and the excitement the young researcher exuded whenever they talked about Soul Power and Soultraits.

Only recently, Harry had been overjoyed for days just because he finally found someone to talk to about his Soul Power theories, how it was directly related to the power output of Soultraits, and how Soultraits developed with the increase of Soul Power.

There was a lot to talk about, and Michael learned a lot from Harry, especially when it came to learning how to maintain focus mid-fight and keeping the Soultraits activated even if something unexpected happened, but he was not willing to expose his Soultrait's secret to him. That was too risky for the time being.

'Should I wait until after the second aptitude assessment to distribute the SoulStar Fragments?' Michael wondered, his gaze moving to the pile of SoulStar Fragments.

Upgrading Spirit Whip was fine and all, but Michael would rather upgrade Lesser Enhancement and Eagle Eyes. They allowed him to increase his combat prowess in a wide variety, whether it was close-combat or long-distance battles.

'Should I just lie and say that I had a fortunate encounter? No, that would be too suspicious if I keep upgrading my Soultraits. I cannot use the same excuse over and over again,' Michael shook his head and sighed deeply.

'Well...it's not like I'm in a rush right now. I can just wait until the second aptitude assessment ends before upgrading my Soultraits again. After the second aptitude assessment...I won't care anymore...I guess?'

It was certainly not easy to come up with plans to keep a secret hidden. Michael would rather expose Extraction, but he knew that he was not strong enough to protect himself and Extraction from the greed of humans - and other races.

With that in mind, Michael absorbed 121 SoulStar Fragments without using them. They rested next to the white pillar in his consciousness, waiting to be used.

Afterward, his attention returned to the Artifacts and other loot he had extracted from the Adventurers' corpses.

Interestingly enough, he was very lucky this time around. He extracted a few Memory Orbs from the Adventurers.

Contrary to his expectations when he first obtained Memory Orbs and SoulStar Fragments, the probability of extracting memories from others was much lower than SoulStar Fragments.

Furthermore, Michael had yet to extract a Memory Orb from a Monster.

It had been a while since he obtained his last Memory Orb, and Michael absorbed them immediately.

Streams of memories flooded Michael's mind. At first, it hurt a bit. Too many memories entered his mind at once, and he had a hard time sorting through the feelings that infiltrated his mind.

However, he slowly gained control of the memory stream, which he absorbed slowly.

Only an hour later, Michael was already done. All memories had been imprinted onto his mind.

"So that's who you guys are!"