Chapter 296: Expansion I
Supreme Lord: I can extract everything!
Unleashing the origin energy inside him with a single thought, Michael engulfed the Ordinary Summoning Scrolls and broke their seals with a snap.
In the following moment, thousands of Summoning Scrolls shot into the air of their own accord. They unfolded and revolved around Michael as if he was the center of the storm before they shot toward the Summoning Gate. The Summoning Scrolls disappeared in the energy pool of the Summoning Gate, creating subtle ripples that grew stronger with every additional Summoning Scroll entering the Summoning Gate's energy pool.
Michael's heartbeat accelerated and a tinge of excitement spread through him as he awaited the arrival of his new subjects. All this while, his expression remained calm and composed – a huge contrast to his inner feelings.
Several minutes passed before the first outlines of his summons formed in the Summoning Gate. Starless Summons began to emerge from the energy pool. Michael's smile widened as he saw dozens of new summons appear at a time back-to-back for several minutes until the streams of newly summoned Starless Summons ceased.
More than ten thousand Starless Summons had emerged from the energy pool, looking around in confusion in Michael's territory. They could instinctively tell who their Lord and Master was, and that they had been reincarnated as Summons after dying inside the Origin Expanse, but that was already it.
"Greet our new friends, and explain everything to them," Michael instructed his older subjects who were standing next to him. They began to move immediately and welcomed the new Summons.
After the first Summons moved to greet their new friends, others joined as well to help their new members settle in and share the amount of work evenly.
Meanwhile, Michael waited patiently. The first star on the Summoning Gate's ring began to illuminate brightly, indicating that 1-Star Summons would now emerge from the energy pool.
Time passed slowly until the first batches of 1-Star Summons stepped onto the metal platform of the Summoning Gate. They emerged one after another until there were hundreds of them. Michael could instantly tell what most of their occupations were as subtle information about their occupation name and age appeared in his mind.
Links of Loyalty formed – thousands of them near-simultaneously. Under normal circumstances, this would have given Michael a bad headache because too many pieces of information flooded his mind. However, after reaching the second stage in the Ceasurium Menta technique, and undergoing the horror of extracting, processing, and storing the Laxarta Library's knowledge in his mind, Michael's mind had become much more efficient at digesting information, and a lot tougher.
Michael's mind quickly absorbed the incoming streams of information about his new Summons to be stored and digested properly.
'700ish 1-Star Summons and close to 12,000 Starless Summons. The ratio is pretty bad, but with the Warrior Enlightenment Potion that shouldn't be much of an issue,' Michael thought, not really minding whether the vast majority of his territory was flooded with Starless Summons or 1-Star Summons. They were all of exceptional value to Michael!
Michael glanced at the 28 Mythic Summoning Scrolls and released his origin energy once again. Most Lords would never be able to collect as many Mythic Summoning Scrolls as Michael, but Michael couldn't be happy at this moment.
Mythic Summoning Scrolls were exceptional, but that was obvious. However, Michael also clearly recalled that last time he summoned Masked Saber, his brother, from one of those.
Even if he knew that he couldn't summon his brother anymore, what would he do if he was to summon someone he knows? What if he summoned his sister?
Summoning a deceased acquaintance was unheard of. The probability was so low that it could be neglected. And for Michael, who had a high probability of summoning Forest Elves, the chance of summoning his sister ought to be really low.
But that ignored the unpredictability of the Fang bloodline's curse.
Michael was not yet 19 years old, meaning that an entire year hadn't passed since he became a Lord. However, he had already summoned the 1st Ancestor of the Fang family, Cleave Fenrir, and his brother. Was it really that unlikely to summon another member of his family?
Michael was actually not sure about that…and that scared him much more than he thought it would.
It took him two minutes to calm his racing heart, surround the Mythic Summoning Scrolls with his origin energy, and break their golden seals.
The black scrolls unfolded slowly, revealing the intricate golden letters within. The letters inside were incomprehensible, written in a language only the Will understood. They began to glow brightly before the pulling force of the Summoning Gate's energy pool sucked them inside.
While Michael waited for the Mythic Summoning Scrolls to reward him with great Summons that possessed exceptional potential he focused on the creation of the Links of Loyalty, and how they increased the Soul Power of his Soultraits.
Summons with weak Links of Loyalty didn't increase his Soul Power by a lot, but the difference was still apparent if thousands of Links of Loyalty were formed instantaneously. Furthermore, most Summons' Links of Loyalty would strengthen quickly. Once they realized that they were treated well and that their Lord paid attention to their well-being, education, and their progress, their Links of Loyalty would quickly grow stronger, resulting in a higher reinforcement of his Soul Power.
Michael tried to look calm and cool as he waited, but the heels of his right foot gave him away as it tapped nervously on the ground. This kind of behavior was humane, and it eased the hearts of the new Summons, who had been scared due to the powerful personality and presence exuded by their Lord. They quickly realized that he was just trying to look cool and nonchalant in front of them.
A second star formed on the surface of the Summoning Gate's metal ring and the first 2-Star Summons of the second mass summoning stepped out of the energy pool.
New 2-Star Summons stepped out of the Summoning Gate one after another, each of them causing Michael's right eyebrow to continue rising a little higher.
"Half of them are Demi-Humans," Michael mumbled in surprise, "I never summoned that many Demi-Humans before."
Out of 23 2-Star Summons that stepped out of the energy pool one after another, a dozen were Demi-Humans. Out of the remaining 2-Star Summons, five were Forest Elves and only six were Human Summons. The ratio was a little messed up, but Michael quickly calmed his heart.
Most Demi-Humans had more or less useful racial traits. As long as he could make use of them, the 2-Star Demi-Humans would become valuable assets to his territory. That didn't explain why so many Demi-Humans appeared in his territory all of a sudden even though he was a human Lord with a Forest Elven Summoning Core, but it was not as if he could complain. His first subject was an Awakened from the Tigerfolk, after all.
Nothing really made sense in his territory, in the first place.
The 2-Star Summons at today's mass summoning were also quite confusing. The human Summons were a Priest, two Doctors, and three Master Chefs. Meanwhile, the Forest Elves consisted of two Enchanters and three Forest Whisperers.
A Forest Whisperer was the Forest Elven's version of a human Scout – just several times better. Michael was quite satisfied with that. Nonetheless, it was quite confusing that none of the 2-Star Human-Summons and Forest Elven Summons was a combatant. On the other hand, all dozen 2-Star Demi-Humans were fighters.
Two Demi-Humans were Wolf Berserkers, five were Frenzy Rabbit Archers and five more were Shadow Panther Assassins. The names of their occupation suggested what kind of Demi-Humans they were, and the little information he obtained from their Links of Loyalty gave him some insights about their powers and potential.
At first, Michael was a little stupefied, but a subtle smile formed on his lips soon enough. The Demi-Humans were quite powerful and talented as well!
As Michael focused on the new Summons in front of him a third star formed on the Summoning Gate's metal ring.
Michael's attention moved to the Summoning Gate when he realized that five 3-Star Summons had stepped out of the energy pool.
His eyes widened slightly as he heard a familiar screech and his head flicked to the Summoning Gate, in confusion and anticipation.
It looked like he was quite lucky today!