"I think I was greatly mistaken."
Michael muttered the words quietly as he stood before the pool, the pressure and allure of it washing over him in steady waves.
When Jester had spoken of an opportunity, Michael had assud it was the experience points and the level gains.
It was only now he realized he had been looking at the surface.
This pool was the real opportunity.
Thanks to his encounter with Shojo and everything that had followed, he was now only a step away from attempting a breakthrough to Rank 4. One level was the only thing standing between him and the qualifications to attempt the next advancent quest.
One should know that barely a week had passed since his Rank 3 advancent.
Less than a week from advancing to a new rank to standing at the threshold of the next one. Michael did not dare claim he was the sole unique case in the entire universe. But in the universe, there should not be many with a progression speed comparable to this at his particular stage.
The stronger one beca, the slower progress moved. That was not a personal limitation. It was simply how cultivation worked at a fundantal level. The gap between each stage grew wider. The resources required multiplied. The comprehension demanded deepened. What could be crossed in months at the early stages required years, then decades, then centuries as one climbed higher.
Perhaps the heavens granting longer lifespans to stronger beings was its way of compensating.
"What a jackpot. Now that I think about it, it was Jester's luck that he wasn't able to fully see my fate. If he could have divined this, a loss of
ten levels would have been a light cost."
Michael exhaled slowly.
The question now was not whether this was significant. The question was how to use it without wasting a single drop.
The answer was not complicated.
Use it on an undead.
Whether through rging or evolution, any undead in his legion would benefit from a pool of this quality, and as their master it was a boost to his collective strength.
The question was which undead qualified most.
Michael thought it through honestly. The pool's nature was specific, which ant the undead who could absorb it most efficiently were the ones with the closest affinity to what it contained.
That narrowed it to two.
Lucky. And the undead Drakeblood.
Both were dragon-adjacent creatures. Drakes, strictly speaking.
Lucky was Rank 3. The Drakeblood was Rank 4.
Michael considered it from both angles.
If he went by emotion, the answer was Lucky. Lucky had been with him from the beginning, had grown alongside him through everything, and the thought of what this pool could do to it was genuinely exciting to consider. There was a real possibility Lucky's race would advance to epic grade.
However a chance at advancing to epic grade was not particularly tempting enough for Michael to base his decision on.
If it had been anyone else, for long-term considerations they would have chosen Lucky to receive this rare opportunity. However all Michael needed to do was accumulate evolution points for about a
week to give Lucky an equivalent opportunity through his talent. He did not believe his talent would fail to boost Lucky's bloodline significantly.
The Drakeblood was a different calculation entirely.
It was already at Rank 4. Advancing to the peak of the rank was unlikely from the pool alone since foundation improvent and law advancent were separate problems, but going up several levels and potentially improving in race rank was realistic.
The Drakeblood had already demonstrated during the fight with Shojo that it could sowhat match a near-demigod level creature in direct combat thanks to its bloodline. If that bloodline was enriched further, the gap between the Drakeblood and Shojo would flip.
Instead of matching, it would surpass.
That was Michael's most direct path to an imdiate and aningful
boost in overall strength.
He looked at the pool for a mont longer, the layered colors shifting
slowly in the underground light.
"Sorry, Lucky," he said quietly. "Your turn will co."
Michael had made his decision.
Before making any further move toward the blood pool, Michael
turned to search through the rest of the space.
The bones and the pool were not the only things here. Shojo had not
been the kind of creature that discarded everything it took from
defeated opponents. It had kept trophies.
From Shojo's mories Michael understood how the organization worked. It was relatively straightforward. Based on the opponent's level was where Shojo stored the spoils.
The lower tier items had been thrown alongside the bones, scattered without particular care across the floor of the clearing. Michael ignored these temporarily as he moved through the space.
He was looking for the special section.
He found it without difficulty.
The items here were arranged with a deliberateness that nothing else
in the space aside from the pool shared.
Michael stopped in front of them and looked.
A familiar feeling moved through him. He had experienced it before,
twice. That particular quality that certain items carried at the higher
grades.
These were all epic grade treasures.
Michael stared at the collection in shock.
Though he had gotten a vague impression of this section from Shojo's mory, all he had gathered was that these things were valuable. He
had not known they were epic grade valuable.
Michael had two epic grade treasures himself, so he knew with
certainty he was not mistaken about what he was looking at.
"Is this fate? What a terrifying thing."
However Michael had no business wanting anything to do with fate as
a concept. It was certainly tempting to lean into, but he also understood the saying that ignorance was bliss. Sotis ignorance was actually a form of protection.
"Hm. Is this the treasure that man used?"
Michael's gaze settled on a particular item with interest. It was from the Legendary Stage human. Even its placent among the others made it stand out.
Michael reached out to it carefully. It was a golden scroll-like item covered in rune-like characters that Michael could not read, the symbols making him feel slightly dizzy just from looking at them too
long.
Without hesitation he cast the Detect skill on it.
[Item Na]: Emperor's Aegis Decree
[Grade]: Epic Grade ★★
"Wait."
"It can't be."
A suspicious thought rooted itself in Michael's mind as he retrieved a
certain item from his storage ring.
It was the treasure he had obtained from killing the Black Serpent
Empire's prince, Rui.
[Item Na]: Emperor's Aegis Shell [Grade]: Extraordinary Grade ★★★
User Comments
0 comments from readers