Chapter 35: Control

In the next 20 minutes, Michael and Tiara killed 18 Gogis.

The remaining Gogis retreated unwillingly after a loud honk resounded through the rainforest. If not for the honk, the Gogis would have continued to throw themselves at Tiara and their paralyzed comrades to rescue them.

However, whenever they got near their paralyzed comrades, the Gogis ended up under fire. They were either killed at once or paralyzed by a series of arrows that impacted in quick succession.

Leaving behind their paralyzed brethren was even worse than death to the Gogis. Their anguished roars of helplessness could be heard for a long time, but neither Tiara nor Michael let that fool them.

There had to be a leader in the group of Gogis, commanding them with certain sounds, such as the honking of a horn that forced them to retreat. If not for that, the Gogis would have sacrificed themselves one after another. That was how loyal they were to their comrades!

'Either the leader is as dense as the other Gogis in the group, or he arrived just now... It could have been a scout as well instead of a leader...' Michael thought, unsure about the Gogi race's military hierarchy and structure. He knew some things about Gogis, but he was not an expert.

Their denseness, stubbornness, and camaraderie were apparent, but other than that, Michael couldn't really tell much.

Now that the Gogis retreated, there was no need to keep the hostages around anymore. Michael retrieved a few more arrows from his War Rune's storage and nocked the first on the bowstring. He pulled the bowstring back, lifted the bow, and readied his aim for two seconds. Then he shot.

The arrow dug deep into the head of the paralyzed target, killing it. Michael fought against the disgust that spread through his entire being and nocked the second arrow on the bowstring.

Seven arrows later, the paralyzed Gogis were dead, and a massive energy influx flooded Michael's War Rune. The pace of refinement of his War Rune shot up to a high degree and Michael could immediately tell that the space of his War Rune's storage expanded.

As a Tier-0 Lord with a low refinement degree, the energy influx he received from killing a single Tier-1 prey was already quite high. Dealing the finishing blow to a dozen Tier-1 Gogis was equivalent to killing a few hundred Tierless Monsters.

One or two of the Gogis he killed had been 1-Star Warriors, which provided an even higher energy influx due to their elevated potential.

Despite that, Michael's refinement degree didn't reach the Mid-level. It was not that easy to increase the refinement degree of the War Rune, forget about advancing Tiers. Michael would have to work a lot harder to advance Tiers and become an even stronger Lord!

Michael climbed down the tree once he was done. He safely put everything back in his War Rune and walked over to the corpses of the Gogi. Tiara was already waiting for him over there.

"Master, are you fine?" She asked while breathing heavily. She was sweating profusely and could barely speak, but a bright smile had blossomed on her face, nonetheless.

After she witnessed her master's impeccable archery skills, Tiara couldn't help but look at him with a newfound reverence. She had never expected her master to be that powerful and versatile. He was already a good swordsman, and now he was an even better archer. Was there something her master was bad at, in the first place?

"I was not the bait, who ran around for several minutes while evading all kinds of projectiles. I was safe high up in the tree," Michael joked lightly before wholeheartedly commending Tiara, "You did an outstanding job. Thanks to you, we were able to decrease their numbers by a lot!"

Michael was still unsure how many subjects the Gogi Lord had, but the loss of 28 Gogis was certainly not easy to compensate. The Gogi Lord would have to think twice before ordering his subjects to attack Michael again.

Michael felt a little nauseous looking at the corpses of the Gogis he had killed but he could still hold the contents of his stomach inside. He didn't vomit. It was still not easy for him to kill, however, it had been much harder to kill Fenrir than attacking the Gogis.

Michael figured that he would get better with time. However, until then, he would have to suffer a lot. But that was fine because it was something everyone had to go through in order to grow.

Now that he thought about Fenrir, and how he had killed him, memories of Cleave Fenrir flashed through Michael's mind once again. The memories were mostly related to archery, and combat training rather than the first ancestor's evil deeds, and Michael had to secretly acknowledge their utility.

'It's good that I am getting more experienced through his memories. They were pretty useful in the fight...'

"There is no need to praise me so much, Master," Tiara said in all seriousness while her tail continued to wiggle excitedly.

It took him quite some effort not to burst out laughing as he looked at Tiara, but he somehow managed to keep a straight face. Michael collected his arrows and stored them inside his War Rune alongside three Gogis.

"Master, let me store the remaining corpses!" Tiara exclaimed, rushing to his aid promptly. She had a Tier-1 War Rune and could thus fit a lot more in her spatial storage than Michael.

Her storage space was only filled when the ten Gogi corpses lying around on the ground inside the protection barrier had been squeezed into it.

"Let's go back," Michael suggested once they were done.

He was a little bit disappointed because he had missed the chance of pursuing the remaining Gogis but he knew that it was for the better. He had no idea about the total number of Gogis around their territory, forget about their territory's structure. Blaire Tracer was also temporarily incapable of helping him for the next few days - if she survived that is.

Back in the clearing they retrieved the Gogis and laid them down in three lines. After that, Michael stared at the corpses for a while, wondering where to start from. There were a total of 28 corpses.

'They don't have a Monster Core, and I don't think there is much I can extract from them either.'

"The drops of the Origin Expanse, their hair...and maybe their blood?" Michael mumbled to himself, confused and unsure what else he should extract.

He figured that the Gogis' hair could be used as bedding, to make clothes, or to sell it to pharmaceutical companies. Some would certainly purchase it, though Michael was not certain how much money he could make.

One way or another, they required more resources. It was not as if they had excessive resources in his territory. They couldn't afford to throw away precious corpses and had to extract as much as possible to make the most out of them.

While Michael started extracting the Gogi corpses, Tiara was told to install the low-quality preservation enchantment array.

Michael gave it to her while also telling the Architect Apprentice to make use of the array and the warehouse blueprint to build a storage for all kinds of goods, including meat and other things that could go bad easily.

The War Rune's storage was great, but the space was severely restricted. Furthermore, only he and Tiara had spatial storages, and only they could access them. This had its own advantages and disadvantages. But all-in-all, It was much easier to use the preservation enchantment array together with the warehouse that would be built soon. That way, everyone could add and remove resources as they deemed necessary.

It was necessary to fuel the enchantment array with Monster Cores and though he did not have them right now, it was not that expensive to get them either. The resources he procured daily were bound to increase eventually, and it was necessary to prepare suitable storage with preservation enchantment beforehand.

It was already lunchtime when Michael finished extracting the last corpse. The warehouse's construction was not yet completed, but that was okay. They still had some time left.

Michael was very satisfied with the gains, which everyone could clearly see while he hogged one slab of meat after another just like the glutton he was.

'The food is good, and the gains I made are even better. What a great day to be alive!'