The Soultrait Symbols in Michael's palm began to crack. Small white cobweb-like cracks spread across the Soultraits moments before they burst apart, revealing hundreds of SoulStar Fragments.
Michael didn't hesitate to store all SoulStar Fragments inside his War Rune before he entered his consciousness.
He ended up in front of the pillar of light and the Sphere of Light, which he inspected for a while. While observing the link between Spirit Gaze and Eagle Eyes Michael felt that the link was oddly stretched out. Spirit Gaze was located in the middle area of the Sphere of Light, while Eagle Eyes was in the Inner area. They felt too far apart and distant from each other.
Feeling that the two Soultraits belonged next to each other, Michael began to use Extraction to remove a few Soultraits from their socket and relocate them to a different position. That was how Spirit Gaze ended up next to Eagle Eyes in the Inner area of the Sphere of Light, while Glacicle was relocated to the middle area.
Positioned right next to each other, Spirit Gaze and Eagle Eyes felt the most natural. It was like they were a part of a set that belonged to each other. It was truly miraculous.
Unfortunately, repositioning a few Soultraits in the Sphere of Light cost 1000 SoulStar Fragments. The cost was exorbitant, but Michael was certain that he would gain tremendously from this slight adjustment.
Now that Michael had the majority of SoulStar Fragments obtained from crushing a dozen Soultrait Symbols, he was only left with roughly 3,500 SoulStar Fragments. He first used 2500 SoulStar Fragments to form the fifth star on Spirit Gaze's Soultrait Symbol. It was upgraded to a 5-Star Soultrait, which resulted in a huge influx of information.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAs he digested the new information about his upgraded Soultrait, Michael used the remaining SoulStar Fragments in hopes of upgrading Eagle Eyes. Michael had been spending SoulStar Fragments to upgrade Eagle Eyes every now and then in the past. Therefore, he could only hope that 1109 SoulStar Fragments were enough to complete Eagle Eyes' fifth star as well.
Several minutes of silence passed until a flood of knowledge and information burst straight into his mind. It was an overwhelming amount of knowledge that caused Michael's head to buzz loudly, but Michael barely felt the pain as his entire being was filled with euphoria.
"Yes!" He exclaimed, clenching his fist with a vivid smile on his face.
At some point, Michael began to doubt whether Eagle Eyes could be upgraded today, but it looked like the link between Spirit Gaze and Eagle Eyes created strong stimulations to both Soultrait Symbols. The stimuli affected the creation of Eagle Eyes' fifth star. It allowed the creation to progress faster and even required fewer SoulStar Fragments than usually required to be upgraded. The small discount was a welcome present, something Michael actually needed to complete Eagle Eyes' upgrade to a 5-Star Soultrait.
He succeeded in upgrading two 4-Star Soultraits to 5-Star Soultraits in a single go. Michael didn't even remember when he did something like this the last time. In fact, he never did that. His biggest accomplishment until now was to upgrade Extraction to 6-Star. But now Michael was not only in possession of a 6-Star Soultrait but also five 5-Star Soultraits, two 4-Star Soultraits and one 1-Star Soultrait. That was quite amazing.
The most amazing thing was that the link between Eagle Eyes and Spirit Gaze was strengthened and both the Soultraits grew a lot stronger.
Eagle Eyes' name didn't change but he could see the movements of the Forest Elves and Tiara in his vision even before they actually moved. It was barely visible and caused some mind-splitting headache at first, but Michael quickly realized that he could predict others' movements with much more precision than before. His eyesight was also several times more precise and sharper than before, and origin energy was visible to him even without having to activate his Soultraits.
Both Spirit Gaze and Eagle Eyes used together allowed him to enhance his eyesight even further, and the precision in detail of objects several hundred meters away from his position was frighteningly accurate. The improvement of his powers surprised him quite a bit, and he couldn't help but test out how powerful his Spirit Disturbance was now that both Eagle Eyes and Spirit Gaze were 5-Star Soultraits and activated at once.
He tested it out at Mika and Lilica before he had to stop his experiments. Mika collapsed the moment Spirit Disturbance hit him, while Lilica barely remained conscious. She was visibly struggling and would pose no threat to Michael if he decided to attack her. Lilica would die facing him alone without being able to do anything against him. That realization was terrifying.
Of course, the energy consumption was extremely high, but Michael didn't think of that as a problem. It was quite obvious that such powerful attacks would consume a considerable amount of energy. He would be more confused if he fully unleashed Spirit Disturbance with two 5-Star Soultraits and it would still not consume lots of energy.
After upgrading his Soultraits, Michael was done gearing up. He was ready to attack, and so were the Elemental Empress, Tiara, and the Forest Elves.
The first thing Michael did was to give the Elemental Empress a lot more Energy Nourishing Pills to consume and strengthen herself. His entire storage of Energy Nourishing Pills was handed to the Elemental Empress so that she could recover. Elementals could absorb most energy from the surroundings naturally and digest origin energy rapidly after all.
The Elemental Empress would quickly regain her vigor and grow much more powerful. Her natural fire affinity and the fact that she could control most elements to a certain extent would help a lot. It might not be equivalent to a replacement of his army, but her powers were certainly helpful in their conquest. Furthermore, the Elemental Empress loathed the Kitsun as well. She would give her utmost to eradicate them.
"The Heavy Armored Elephant returned home, Sun Demos and his subordinates are still in the northern part of the Kitsun Lord's territory, and Icarus…is here," Tiara informed as a screech filled the surroundings. Icarus and his lovely mate, the green-feathered Greater Eagle shot through the treetop and landed in front of them.
Icarus screeched a few times. He rubbed his head against Michael's chest and bumped against him afterward before stepping back. The female Greater Eagle only screeched, observing how Icarus showered Michael with affection.
Michael caressed through Icarus' silky smooth plumage absentmindedly. Icarus didn't usually act like that. The Greater Eagle was prideful and wouldn't allow anyone to see him seeking affection from Michael. However, today was different. Today, Icarus could sense that Michael was in a bad mood. Therefore he tried to console Michael.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmMichael sighed lightly. His people were dead. Of course, that was shit, and he hated himself a little bit for his stupidity. But then again, Michael knew that he could only try his best to improve from now on. He could apologize to the people who trusted him when he returned to his territory after annihilating the Kitsun Lord. He could tell his people what happened and apologize for betraying their trust. That was the least he could do.
Slapping his cheeks with some force, Michael pulled himself out of the depressive thoughts that tortured his mind. Everything would be fine.
He was left with the Elemental Empress, Tiara, the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team, two Greater Eagles, the Golden Stinger Wasp, and Sun Demos' Monkey troupe. It was not a lot, but Michael felt that it was more than enough to wreak havoc.
A plan began to form in his mind, an idea to make use of their powers, abilities, and the advantages at their disposal together.
First, Michael sent Sun Demos and his troupe further north to travel to the western side near the borderline to the Kitsun Lord's territory. A mid-sized settlement was located in the Untamed Jungle's outer ring. It was located dozens of kilometers away from the main settlement and it was not that well known because it was more of a guard post that had been constructed to locate waves of monsters from up north.
Michael made use of the distance factor and the fact that Sun Demos and the Monkey troupe could travel quickly through the Untamed Jungle to initiate a surprise attack. The Kitsun and most other races had issues traveling quickly through the Untamed Jungle. Michael and his human Summons would have faced the same dilemma given that the Untamed Jungle was flourishing with thick plants, huge bushes and ginormous trees blocking the view and most paths. However, the canopy bridges created by the Forest Elves, the way they moved through forests and other factors allowed Forest Elves to move in straight lines where others would have to take a detour. It was the same with the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys.
Fortunately, Michael had an even easier method to travel; he flew over the Untamed Jungle and traveled on Icarus' back above the highest trees to cross dozens of kilometers within a few minutes.
Icarus and his lovely mate were large enough to transport Michael and the others to the settlement they targeted in no time. They prepared a few things while hiding far enough from the settlement until Sun Demos and his troupe arrived. By then the Golden Stinger Wasp had long since infiltrated the settlement. The monster released its golden energy stingers shooting the strongest Awakened within the settlement before returning to Michael and the rest.
Once the Golden Stinger Wasp was back, it switched places with one of the Kitsun it stung before; an Awakened who'd been having a hard time in the toilet.
The Golden Stinger Wasp disappeared, replaced by a golden light and a Kitsun with pants down – if he'd any pants, in the first place.
In the next moment, blazing flames engulfed the Kitsun, followed by several razor-sharp blades piercing through the ignorant Kitsun's body.