Other than the Underground Forging Hall, Michael focused on investing in his people – which included his army. After all the investments he made, some of his Starless Summons attained enlightenment! They became 1-Star Summons after putting great effort into their training and studies.
It was a rare occurrence for Starless Summons to attain enlightenment even among hard-working subjects, and it was an especially happy occasion since more than a dozen Starless Summons became Warriors.
Michael felt his spirits soaring high these days.
Even his smaller streams of income began to grow rapidly. The Bilrox Ranch expanded, the farmers created more cocoa farms, more Tiatcha trees were planted, and so on.
Every stream of income allowed him to earn more money, which would then be invested again.
Despite his vast income, Michael was not even close to purchasing the ingredients required for the short-distance teleportation array, and to upgrade his Basic Summoning Gate to the Intermediate rank.
Both projects required more funds. A lot more than his current income, in fact.
Michael was in need of more money, meaning that he had to continue expanding his business.
Thus, he visited Xiltra after a long time. He hadn't been in Xiltra for two months and he wanted to take a look at the market over there. Maybe, he could make a bargain.
Other than the possibility of making a bargain in Xiltra, Michael was also a little restless about the long stretch of peace. His territory had not been attacked and the Senator seemed to have gone silent. Something felt off, and the thought was always troubling him at the back of his mind. Thus, he had to find out what was going on or find solid proof that his gut feeling was telling him nonsense.
Unfortunately, the solid proof he found proved his gut feeling to be correct rather than doing the opposite.
Xiltra had changed a lot in two months.
The guards were more thorough in their inspection of the people entering the border city, and they stared long at Michael when he entered the city after a long time.
His identification record stated that Michael had visited Xiltra quite often already, but the guards were still wary of him. They were vigilant of everyone, to be precise!
Inside Xiltra, the atmosphere was just as heavy. The citizens were vigilant of everyone, and they hurried through the streets as if someone was pursuing them.
Everyone had grown more vigilant of the people around them, which confused Michael a lot.
He hoped to obtain answers in Xiltra's guildhall, but the guildhall looked like a warzone. It was flooded with adventurers ranging from Tier-1 to Tier-3. It was impressive, but also worrying to look at.
'The number of Mercenaries and Adventurers increased that much in two months? Did something happen?' Michael wondered.
He knew that Xiltra was the closest to the Untamed Jungle. Thus, Michael first thought that something must have happened in the Untamed Jungle to change the atmosphere in the entire Border City. The number of guards increased drastically, just like the number of Mercenaries and Adventurers roaming through the streets.
However, if something had happened in the Untamed Jungle, Michael would have noticed that by now.
'Something else is wrong…'
"It's so fucking boring here. Not even the women here are interesting!" A hoarse voice rang through the left half of the guildhall.
Nobody paid attention to the guy, who continued to bellow loudly.
"Just give us our fucking money, and we'll jump into action at once. Why do we have to wait? For what? This is so useless!!"
Michael's attention moved to the loud voice. He saw a Lionheart seated around a few Adventurers – evidently drunk.
"The Twins said that they're still waiting for someone. Just wait one more week," The Lionheart seated next to the drunk grumbler said in a reassuring way.
However, the drunk, grumbling Lionheart didn't want to calm down, not anymore.
"We've been waiting for weeks without any pay. They should just give us our fucking money instead of making us wait!! These Twins ought to receive a slap for telling us to rush to Xiltra for this shitty project, just to leave us hanging for weeks!!"
The calmer Lionheart sighed deeply and got up from his chair. He didn't want to stay with this idiot anymore.
"Just shut up before the Twins hear the nonsense you're spouting. Our mission is to clear the outer area of the Untamed Jungle once everyone is present. If you're bored or dirt-poor after wasting your entire fortune on women, you might as well complete some other missions like others. There are more than enough missions you can pick from!!"
'Clear the Untamed Jungle's outer area?' Michael almost blurted out loud. His eyes widened in surprise.
Was that why Xiltra changed so much?
'Are all of those mercenaries and Adventurers here because of the Twin Lions? To clear the outer area…'
Michael nibbled on his lower lip. He moved through the crowded guildhall and continued eavesdropping on the drunk Adventurers, trying to make sense of the situation.
Apparently, some of them had been in Xiltra for close to two months by now. They didn't dare to enter the Untamed Jungle on their own but were willing to enter the Untamed Jungle alongside a large group of powerful Adventurers and Mercenaries.
According to some drunk adventurers, the Jungle Expedition was also funded by the Empire's Council. To be precise, Senator Keltos was funding the Jungle Expedition. He advertised it as a first step to the Zentika Empire's expansion, and the removal of the big thorn in the Zentika Empire's flesh; the Untamed Jungle.
If they wanted to expand their Empire, they would have to remove the Untamed Jungle sooner or later. It was a humongous area that was presumed to be bigger than the Zentika Empire – and no one had claimed it yet.
Senator Keltos repeatedly said that this had to change. That it was time for the Zentika Empire to challenge the Monsters of the Untamed Jungle.
Thus, the Jungle Expedition had been funded, requesting the help of both Adventurers and Mercenaries ranging from Tier-1 to Tier-3.
'So he started to act? But he is still trying to cover up that he is actively searching for something in the Untamed Jungle, isn't he?' Michael concluded Senator Keltos' actions with a deep frown.
Michael figured that Senator Keltos connected the Lionheart Leader's distress signal with the disappearance of the aggressive Lionheart and the death of the six Adventurer teams…and it looked like he had had enough. That was pretty bad.
Michael got to know more about the Jungle Expedition, but the only good news was that the rewards weren't good enough to convince Tier-4 powerhouses to join the Jungle Expedition of the Untamed Jungle's outer area.
The benefits weren't high enough to convince many Awakened at Tier-3 either. But that wasn't necessary, in the first place. The outer area of the Untamed Jungle didn't have any Tier-3 Monster habitats to begin with. The border to the middle zone was where some of the more troublesome opponents created their habitat – but even these Monsters were not Tier-3.
'The rewards are too great for Tier-1 and Tier-2 Adventurers to miss out on…I think that means in a few weeks war will break out…'
War was close, and Michael knew that he would be dragged into it. His territory was still in the outer area of the Untamed Jungle. He may be close to the border of the middle zone, but that didn't change the fact that the Jungle Expedition affected him directly.
But the biggest problem was not the existence of the Jungle Expedition itself, but rather its sheer size.
'The Senator is definitely sick of hearing about his subordinates' failures…' Michael grumbled in his head when he heard how many Adventurers and Mercenaries found their way to Xiltra in the last two weeks.
At least, more than 10,000 Adventurers and close to 50,000 Mercenaries had gathered from the surrounding border cities and the areas around.
It was a mid-scale expedition into the Untamed Jungle; the first to be carried out in the last few decades.
"Fuck this shit," Michael cursed loud enough for others to hear him when he left Xiltra after he finished his research.
His final research stated that the Jungle Expedition consisted of 55,000 Tier-1 Participants, 11,000 Tier-2 participants, and a few dozen Tier-3 Awakened.
On the other hand, Michael's military power consisted of less than a thousand Tier-1 Combat Summons, five Tier-2 Forest Elves, a Peak Tier-1 Battle Maid, a powerful Peak Tier-1 Masked Saber, and himself.
It would be great if that was enough to handle the Jungle Expedition, but Michael didn't live in a flowery dream. No, he lived in a world where he had to work his ass off in order to make everything work out.
The numerical disadvantage and the fact that he would have to face Tier-3 Awakened were the biggest problems. As long as he worked really hard, Michael didn't think that 55,000 Tier-1 Mercenaries and Awakened would be enough to destroy his territory. He had literally spent his income like water to upgrade the defense of his territory so that anything below the 2nd Tier could not cause any serious damage.
Nonetheless, the terrific high number of the Jungle Expedition's participants was very worrisome.
On the bright side, he had only one advantage; he roughly knew when the Jungle Expedition would start.
After eavesdropping on drunk idiots the whole day, Michael got to know that the Jungle Expedition would start in roughly seven days. Unfortunately, that was the number of days inside the Origin Expanse, not outside.
It wasn't much, but it was not as if he could postpone the start of the Jungle Expedition.
So, what was he going to do about it?
He began preparing for war, obviously!
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