Michael was full of vigor when he returned to the Origin Expanse.
Not even 20 minutes had passed inside the Origin Expanse, but Michael was a changed man.
He entered the deepest part of his consciousness where the white pillar of his War Rune was located. The 2757 SoulStar Fragments were already resting around the white pillar, waiting to be used.
And that was what Michael did without a sign of hesitation.
First, he used 19 SoulStar Fragments to upgrade Taming to a 3-Star Soultrait. Then, he used 185 SoulStar Fragments to create the 4th Star on the Symbol of Taming, followed by 2314 SoulStar Fragments that were required to upgrade Taming to a 5th Star Soultrait.
A vast amount of detailed pieces of information flooded Michael's mind for the next ten minutes. He calmly digested the information, which allowed him to learn more about the limits of Taming, and what he had to pay attention to.
Once he was done, Michael had 239 SoulStar Fragments left. He used them on Spirit Whip after some consideration.
Lesser Enhancement or Eagle Eyes might be a better pick than Spirit Whip, but Spirit Whip allowed him to execute mental attacks. As long as his opponent was unguarded, he or she would falter after a single Spirit Whip struck them. Afterward, he could finish off the opponent rather easily.
Furthermore, even if his opponent was guarding his mind, Spirit Whip would still restrict his opponents' usage of their Soultraits and Artifacts' special enchantments. That was very important against the fire-wielding Lionhearts and more than ten thousand Adventurers.
Spirit Whip's range and lethality increased considerably after the 4th Star formed on the Symbol of Spirit Whip. It provided the means to create various new tactics that had seemed impossible before.
Nonetheless, the most important was the upgrade of Taming.
Michael had never used Taming before, but he knew that it was about time he changed this.
If not for Alice's words, Michael would have forgotten about Taming. But that was not all. Without Alice, Michael might not have thought of a particular Monster to tame.
Feeling determined, he walked over to the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team, where Blaire, Tiara, and a few other people were already standing.
"I found a way to deal with the Jungle Expedition," Michael announced with a great deal of confidence.
Everyone turned around to him, not expecting him to return to the Origin Expanse this quickly.
"You're back, Master!" Tiara exclaimed before she bowed deeply.
The other subjects followed suit and bowed deeply as well, but Michael merely waved his hand dismissively. They didn't have enough time for formalities.
"Has anyone explored the densely grown part of Fiend Trees a dozen kilometers behind the lizard cave yet?" Michael asked, just to add the most important part a moment later, "In detail, I mean."
The fiend trees were trees that had been ordinary giant trees but were corrupted over the course of decades. The monsters inhabiting the area released origin energy that had been altered after coursing through their bodies. The altered origin energy then affected the surrounding area, which included the flora and fauna.
"The fiend trees in the middle zone? Mika should have been there a few times to research the alteration of the giant trees. However, he encountered a bunch of nasty Blood Oath Demon Monkeys, forcing him to retreat after a while," Liopham said, his head turning slowly to the youngest Forest Elf of the EmeraldLead Adventurer team.
"Do you know where the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys live?" Michael asked before Mika could say anything.
"I…do know that, but why are you asking?" Mika asked slowly, feeling that something bad was about to happen.
"We're going to hunt them, and tame their king, the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King!" Michael announced, dropping the bomb as if he was discussing the current weather.
"You want to tame the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King?" Lilica asked, feeling certain that her ears were failing her.
Unfortunately, Michael nodded his head in agreement.
"That's right."
"But you know that the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King is a Tier-2 Monster, a Superior Existence with exceptionally high combat prowess at that, right?" Liopham asked, hoping to convince Michael to change his plan.
"The whole EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team is too weak to fight the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King. He can control the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys, which turns him into an existence equal to a Lord. The only thing he is missing is a Soultrait, otherwise, I would consider him a Lord," Mika said, his voice shrill and filled with the desire to run away from Michael.
To him, it looked like Michael had lost his sanity. The thought of the Jungle Expedition infiltrating the Untamed Jungle must have driven him to insanity!
However, Michael merely nodded his head again.
"That's why I need to tame the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King. The ordinary Blood Oath Demon Monkeys are only at the Peak of Tier-1 once fully matured. However, their combat prowess rivals a Tier-2 Monster. Their king can control their whole kind, which means that we can gain a small army of hundreds of Monsters with high combat prowess by taming the king."
Liopham and Mika were not yet convinced, but Tiara and Lilica looked at each other with a trace of understanding.
They were convinced the more Michael spoke about his idea.
Under normal circumstances, nourishing hundreds of subjects with a combat prowess rivaling Tier-2 mercenaries would take months. And Michael had found a risky but a sure-shot way to achieve that within the next few hours as long as he tamed the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King.
It was definitely worth a try.
"I will use Lesser Enhancement on Liopham's Spirit Totem, which will focus solely on the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King. Then, we'll lure him into the lizard cave and pin him down. I'll need half a minute to tame a Tier-2 Superior Existence. That's all I could achieve by upgrading Taming. If I had enough time, I might be able to reduce the time required to create the taming circle, but we don't have that much time unfortunately," Michael laid out the basic steps of his plan, which Tiara approved with a nod.
She thought that taming the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King was the best chance they got.
"I would have to use Rage of the Primal several times to lure the Monkey King and drag him more than a dozen kilometers through the Untamed Jungle…." Liopham mumbled, shaking his head, "That's impossible. I will be dead long before I reach the lizard cave."
"That's why the rest of the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team will attack the Monkey King with two poison-coated Pieckers each. The Blood Oath Demon Monkey King's body can heal flesh wounds quickly, but poison is different. The Demon Monkey King won't be able to heal fast as long as we use the Blood Parthen poison from back home," Lilica added, her expression lighting up slowly.
She regained her former vigor and a tinge of excitement spread through her body as the cogs in her mind began to work.
Even though Lilica had no idea what Michael meant by talking about 'upgrading Taming', she could tell that Michael was not lying to them. At least, that was what she believed firmly.
"The Blood Parthen poison…" Mika mumbled, tilting his head as if he was thinking hard, "...that might actually work…"
The Blood Oath Demon Monkeys had two special traits; Demon Blood, and Flesh Regeneration.
Flesh wounds healed several times faster than they would under normal circumstances, and their blood had been altered by Demon blood, providing them demonic instincts, strength, and viciousness.
But at the same time, the Demon Blood trait was something that could be used against them. As long as their blood was poisoned, it would be increasingly difficult for them to stay in control of their bodies.
Michael gave Lilica a thumbs up. He didn't expect her to approve of his plan, and to improve it by giving a helpful suggestion.
In fact, he thought that Lilica would curse him for the plan he came up with. It wouldn't be the first time, after all.
Fortunately, that didn't happen. She approved his plan, and they spent the next hour creating a few strategies to hunt down and tame the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King without having to slaughter his underlings.
Lilica and the others returned home to get hold of the Blood Parthen poison, which was a rare poison that required a Grandmaster Alchemist and expensive ingredients to be brewed.
Fortunately, Michael received the Forest Elven Tribe Elders' approval to use the Blood Parthen poison. That made things much easier on his side.
They prepared everything and headed in the direction of the lizard cave.
In the next two hours, they tried to lure the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King out of the densely grown patch of fiend trees. It took a while to locate their lair and to find the king. But once they did, Plan A was quickly executed.
The Forest Elves approached the lair of the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King stealthily. They passed by hundreds of Blood Oath Demon Monkeys without being found out.
Once they were close enough, they retrieved their Woodwoven Bows, and the Pieckers coated in Blood Parthen poison.
The four Forest Elves took their time nocking the Pieckers on the bowstring and drew back. They aimed precisely and waited patiently until Liopham made his move.
Once Liopham's Soultrait was fully unleashed, and the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King targeted, everything happened quickly.
The Blood Oath Demon Monkey King roared out loudly.
Simultaneously, a barrage of four Pieckers whizzed through the air with terrific velocity.
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