Chapter 515: Closing In

The farmlands could be expanded and developed into a precious source of rare resources. A wide variety of elemental seeds had already been planted and it was only a matter of time before he'd accumulated enough resources to mass-produce a bunch of potions that required 'rare' resources - resources Michael had in surplus thanks to the Untamed Jungle, the Elementals, the Nature Spirit, the Forest Pixies and so on.

Michael learned a lot about the plants, their products, their by-products, and how they could be utilized. It was a topic that intrigued Michael. Unfortunately, he didn't have several days to listen to the Farmers and Botanica Magicians as they talked to him about their finds, the mutation of a few plants and much more. They were in their own little world, and Michael was fine leaving them there as long as they continued to work hard.

There was only one thing Michael couldn't leave them alone with. It was the appearance of a plant evolving and gaining sentience. It was rare for plants to gain sentience because it required a tremendous amount of energy and unique resources to initiate an evolution. But possessing the necessary resources and enough energy was not enough for plants to gain sentience and evolve. They had to meet various requirements.

At least, that was what Michael had read in a few books and the Botanica Magician who'd been researching the Plant Monster. The Plant Monster couldn't be left alone on the farmlands. Therefore, Michael told the Botanica Magician to work with a Monster Tamer and create a Monster Ranch for the plant monster. It might be quite difficult, but it was not impossible to tame and reproduce the Plant Monster.

Maybe, they could gain something unique from turning a plant monster into livestock - or maybe into a means of defense that blended perfectly with the flora of the Untamed Jungle. Plant Monsters might not be all that powerful under normal circumstances, but if they were raised properly and stimulated to mutate in specific ways, it shouldn't be impossible to turn them into his territory's weapon to fend off enemies within the Untamed Jungle.

It was a very interesting topic and something his Monster Tamers and the Botanic Magician should research thoroughly.

One way or another, Michael was very pleased with the changes in his territory.

Everyone was working extremely hard. Michael might not have been around for a few weeks but the majority remained highly productive. That was nice to see, even more so when Michael found out that the carpenters and construction workers expanded the housing district in the settlement. His subjects built enough treehouse complexes for more than 20,000 new subjects and it looked like they had yet to stop expanding. The architects came up with a few new inventions and their contagious enthusiasm reached the starless workers, construction workers, and carpenters, resulting in a few new constructions.

One of those constructions was a treehouse tower, a tower that was constructed around the largest rainforest trees in the proximity. The trees were used as a foundation and support pillars to hold the treehouse tower, which shrouded the entire trunk without harming it. The Architects made sure that the tree could continue to grow while similarly ensuring that as many families as possible could live in the treehouse towers.

At first, Michael was confused about the treehouse towers and how they came into existence but when he visited the Architects' offices he found numerous blueprints that had been discarded and thrown aside. There were hundreds of blueprints with most of them being quite interesting. Michael could hardly find any differences in some of the blueprints, but when he asked the Architects about it, they grumbled something about stability, scarcity of flexible material, and various other things.

Through that, Michael acquired a lot about the thinking process of the Architects in his territory. It was an interesting learning process, though he was more often cursed indirectly than he liked. The Architects seemed to love and hate him at the same time. He allowed them to experiment as they pleased but they didn't have enough resources to go all out with their experiments. The scarcity of resources seemed to hold them back tremendously.

That was something Michael would have to solve in the near future. After all, he wanted to support the invention of new structures and such.

Thinking about ways to support his people, Michael's thoughts were drawn to the resources he could procure with the knowledge about Soul Techniques, his possession of more than 60 Soultrait Symbols, Inferior Energy Stones, Mythic Scrolls, and more.

He had yet to come up with a plan to handle High Society. His power had been exposed and it was only a matter of time before more trouble would greet him. It was necessary to grow mightier quickly, otherwise, he might get kidnapped. The chance was slim since he was still in the Tritan Alliance and under the protection of the people around him, but it was not difficult to kidnap him in the Saphirelake Military Academy, or somewhere else.

"I should advance to Tier-3 before I return home. At least, I will be able to deal with some problems by being a tad stronger," Michael muttered to himself on his way to the warehouse where he would Extract the bodies of the monsters that had been stored there for the last few weeks.

He tried to think less about High Society, the fact that he was Maria's Primal Amplifier and the high possibility that Quinn Karta and others forwarded the news about his power to the Supreme Human Alliance, but that was quite difficult. He was not sure what the greed of the human race would cause to him, and how it would influence his future progress.

On the other hand, Michael was not too worried about the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs because they were honorable people. They focused more on taking care of each other, adhering to their traditions and being respectful to everyone. The only people they condoned were cowards. After all, cowards wouldn't be allowed to enter the Realm of the True Warriors upon dying. They were not accepted and their souls would wander through the realm of the living until the end of time.

'I could sell a few Soul Techniques and a Soultrait Symbol or two to the Warlock Centaurs and Berserkers to bait them. If they take the bait, I can tell them that as long as High Society doesn't bother me, I can continue trading without any issues. Of course, I won't be able to trade easily with them but if the War Priestess and the Chieftain pressure the High Society a bit, I should be able to figure it out without too many issues.'

A few plans formed in Michael's mind. He focused subconsciously on the thousands of monsters he had to dissect and loot, but his primary goal was to maximize the efficiency of his plans.

Once he was done extraction, it came as a great surprise that he'd harvested a total of 11,000 Summoning Scrolls. Michael didn't combine the Summoning Scroll Fragments into more Mythic Scrolls. Instead, he focused on amassing more Starless and 1-Star Summons. The reasons he had in mind were pretty simple. He gained more Soul Power from the masses of Summons, and his Starless Summons could turn into 1-Star Blessed Squires, Warriors, Archers, Blacksmiths, Alchemists, or other 1-Star occupations as long as they toiled hard. Last but not least, he could also obtain 2-Star Holy Knights.

Summons with a higher star-rating generated more Soul Power. That meant Michael could gain a lot even if only a dozen out of 11,000 Summons turned into Holy Knights. Last but not least, Michael was still in possession of 42 Mythic Scrolls. They were still unused. If he'd really wanted to, Michael could have used them to summon a bunch of 2-Star Summons with three or four 3-Star Summons.

But it was not worth it. Michael tore the Ordinary Summoning Scrolls apart and summoned 11,000 Summons without hesitation.

'In the last 28 days, I should have gotten approximately 308 1-Star or 2-Star Summons from the daily Summons as well. I almost forgot about them!'

At this point, it was growing increasingly more difficult to keep track of his subjects. The number of his subjects persisted to increase every single day and it wouldn't be long before his settlement crossed the threshold of 100,000 citizens. He already had 80,000ish subjects!

Compared to the enormous number of citizens in his settlement, Michael's army seemed to be rather small. The overall strength of his army was far better than it had been in the past, but it was still not extraordinary. He needed more to protect his territory and defend against potential invaders from the Savannah Region, or the aftermath in the Zentika Empire.

There was a lot Michael had to do. But for now, he had to focus on his own strength. He had to advance to Tier-3 quickly to return to the ancient city where he could play businessman to buy numerous things for his beloved citizens.

Michael moved to a rather secluded area in his territory, and he retrieved a portion of the Inferior Energy Stones he'd extracted from the dozens of Tekur he killed in the Interdimensional Flag War. Two small hills of Inferior Energy Stones formed around him. There were thousands of these stones, each worth millions.

If he had been the same as in the past, Michael would have never used such a fortune merely to increase his strength a little bit faster. However, Michael was not the same as before. He had changed. Michael knew what it takes to make the most out of the opportunities that appeared in front of him, and he understood that he had to advance to Tier-3 as swiftly as possible to resolve the problems in front of him quickly.

He closed his eyes and unleashed the Dome of Extraction. Thousands of Extraction tendrils shot out of the ground, each connecting to an Inferior Energy Stone to suck it dry.

Leviathan Diffusion was unleashed in its strongest form and the full power of Superior Constitution was unraveled.

Energy flooded his body which was annexed immediately and forwarded to his War Rune.

It was time to reach the next Tier!"