"Setting aside the Artifacts and other loot...I extracted 32,359 SoulStar Fragments, and 43 Soultrait Symbols...amazing!" Michael exclaimed once he was done counting the SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols.

While staring at the pile of SoulStar Fragments and Soultraits, Michael broke into a bright smile. He was not sure how many SoulStar Fragments Extraction had required to be upgraded to 6- Star, but he was pretty sure that it had been roughly 30,000 SoulStar Fragments. That meant he should have enough SoulStar Fragments to upgrade another Soultrait to 6-Star - if not for the Sphere of Light had not increased the amount of SoulStar Fragments required to upgrade his Soultraits.

"I am fine with all combat Soultraits being at 5-Star already. Well, Glacicle will probably require 1,000 SoulStar Fragments to complete the upgrade to 5-Star, but after that my Soultraits should be powerful enough for the time being," Michael mused to himself, falling deep in thought.

He had a total of 9 Soultraits right now. Most of them were extremely powerful and that was something Michael was grateful for. However, the biggest downside was that his War Rune required a lot more energy to reach the next rank than others. Even with all the energy he had absorbed during the last few days, Michael's War Rune would barely reach Mid Tier-2 once everything had been digested.

Killing dozens of Tier-3 Awakened and the Kitsun Lord wouldn't be enough for him to break the barrier to reach the Late rank of the 2nd Tier. And that didn't even include the tens of thousands of Kitsun he and his people had killed in the last few days.

That was shocking but also understandable. High-ranked Soultraits were known for increasing the amount of energy required to refine the War Rune. That was also why Kaleb and the rest were so focused on gathering resources and utilizing the best energy absorption techniques - which they did either way by practicing their Inheritance technique.

The most suitable energy absorption techniques had been incorporated into the Inheritance techniques, allowing Kaleb and other Descendants to consume and digest far more resources than others. Therefore, they progressed faster than others even though they required far more energy to reach the next rank. The only downside was that they used up a tremendous amount of resources. Ordinary people wouldn't have enough money to afford the monthly expenses of the Descendants. Even if ordinary Awakened possessed the same techniques as the Descendants, they wouldn't be able to grow as rapidly as the Descendants. That was the reality most people didn't want to accept. It was simply too cruel for those born in an ordinary household.

Fortunately, Michael wasn't in a rush. He didn't have to progress as fast as the others. As long as he studied his Soultraits in-depth, he could grow much stronger even if his Tier didn't increase as fast. As long as his Soultraits and mastery of them grew proportionally, Michael would never be weaker than Kaleb, Lincoln, Zeke, and everyone else. That was something Michael believed firmly.

Michael studied the Soultrait Symbols for a while. Since he hadn't fused them into his War Rune, he didn't know the Soultraits' names nor their true power. All Michael could use as a means to determine their power was his memories. He recalled some Kitsun Awakened and what they could do with their Soultraits. Unfortunately, that was not too helpful.

"Master, may I suggest something?" Tiara asked, seeing how much Michael struggled to determine whether the Soultraits were worthy to be stored in the emerald box or if they would be totally useless for their purpose.

"Go on," Michael said without thinking twice. He glanced over to Tiara who pointed at the Soultraits first and then at herself.

"How about I fuse the Soultraits with my War Rune? Then I make notes about them using the information influx provided by fusing with the respective Soultrait. Once I've finished taking notes, you can Extract the Soultrait again," Tiara proposed lightheartedly.

At first, Michael's eyes lit up hearing what she proposed, but it didn't take long before he began to frown.

"What about the lasting damages? I am pretty sure that tearing a Soultrait out of your War Rune will result in a backlash," He pointed out his doubts, only for Tiara to shrug.

"We can test it out with one Soultrait Symbol and see how much it will affect me. If the Soultrait is not fused to me for too long, extracting it shouldn't result in too much damage. I might feel a little weird for a few days, but I should be fine. It should be worth the effort in exchange for finding out the name and additional information of the Soultrait Symbols you've extracted. You can create a proper rank for the Soultraits to determine whom you want to give certain Soultraits in the future. That should be quite helpful, don't you think so?"

"Tiara has a good point. I would offer my help as well, but you might not accept my help since we have yet to switch to the proper Link of Loyalty and establish a Soul Pact between us," Lilica said a little bit regretfully, but Michael waved his hand off.

"If the backlash of extracting recently fused Soultraits is not too high, I would gladly accept your help. That way, we can share the burden evenly among the two of you. Of course, that is only feasible if the backlash is not too painful and if it's temporary. If the War Rune is permanently damaged from the backlash we will have to think about something else," Michael informed honestly. He had no intentions of rejecting Lilica's help but he also wanted her to be aware of the possible risks.

She had already obtained a Soultrait from him that he upgraded to 4-Star, yet Lilica didn't flee. Even if he gave her another 1-Star Soultrait to test out its power and write down the information and name of the Soultrait, Michael genuinely doubted that Lilica would run away with it. In the first place, she would have to leave the Origin Expanse to escape his grasp because he would be right in front of her while she made notes.

Furthermore, Lilica wouldn't be able to return to the Origin Expanse without finding a way to spawn somewhere else than the Untamed Jungle. Michael would hunt her down if she betrayed him, after all. 3

Simply put, the effort to escape from Michael's grasp was not worth it. Not in exchange for betraying Michael...for a single 1-Star Soultrait at that. Only stupid fools would try to run away from Michael instead of tightly holding onto him like the golden goose he was. 2

"I can help as well," Mika said, raising his hand high into the air.

"Me too," Opars added, followed by Liopham and Pheli who joined as well.

"That's great. In that case, let's start right away," Michael said before he released a white tendril of energy from within his War Rune. The tendril devoured the 32,359 SoulStar Fragments, leaving only 43 Soultrait Symbols behind.

Contrary to Soultraits, SoulStar Fragments could always be taken out of his War Rune. As long as they hadn't been used for other purposes that is.

The initial test to find out the backlash caused by extracting a newly fused Soultrait was done by Tiara. The Soultrait she fused to her War Rune was bound to her in less than 20 minutes. Tiara wrote down the name of the Soultrait, what it could be used for, and how much it cost to use the Soultrait. After that, Michael used Extraction to remove the Soultrait.

Given that Tiara had accepted the tendrils of Extraction to invade the deepest part of her being where the Soultrait Symbols were anchored, it was not that difficult to extract the Soultrait. It would have been a little different if she rejected the tendrils of Extraction and if she was hanging at the Soultrait Symbol desperately to prevent Michael from extracting it. But since that was not the case the extraction was smooth. It hurt Tiara a little but the damage was barely like a prick of a needle, something she could deal with.

It was far less painful than the time Michael removed Spirit Whip from his Sphere of Light. Therefore, they could continue with their experiment. Everyone fused a Soultrait to their War Rune at a time. They made detailed sheets and wrote down everything that could be useful to know. Once they were done they would walk up to Michael and allow him to remove the Soultrait Symbol once again.

By the time Michael called it a day, he was satisfied with their first trial. In total they had spent four hours fusing with 43 Soultrait Symbols, writing down their names and information, and removing the Soultraits once again.

Tiara and the Forest Elves were a little exhausted, but they were glad to be of help. Michael studied the information sheets and began to rank the Soultrait Symbols. He even ordered the Soultraits to make sure that he would put the Soultraits aside, which he wanted to give to Tiara and the Forest Elves after the other tasks had been finished.

'Invisible Projectile should definitely go to Mika. He will become our Divine Archer. But what about Shadow Cage and Shadow Spikes? They seem like a great combination to give someone who has no good Soultrait. Or maybe someone who already uses a Soultrait related to shadows and darkness?'

Creating theories about who to give certain Soultraits and how the Soultraits would affect their attack power was something Michael loved to do. It was very interesting and most definitely something he could work on all day.

However, instead of doing it all day, Michael put the Soultraits in the emerald box once he was done.

Interestingly enough there was only one big disappointment among the 43 Soultraits he had extracted. Everything else could become somewhat useful once upgraded, probably at least.

But not the Kitsun Lord's Soultrait. Shockingly enough, the Kitsun Lord's Soultrait was useless to Michael and the other Awakened. It had a highly restrictive pre-requisite to be utilized properly. It required the Awakened to possess a cloud-like lower body such as the Kitsun race's Kitsun Cloud to unleash its full power.

Therefore, the Kitsun Lord had been lucky to manifest his Soultrait, but it was of no value to Michael.

That was a shame.

'Well, whatever. I got 42 useful Soultraits and a shitload of SoulStar Fragments. And there are thousands of Summoning Scrolls waiting for me to be used!

**

[A/N: The Author is back in the game. Finally we reached this point --> Michael defeated the Kitsun Lord and Extracted a massive pile of SoulStar Fragments and 43 Soultrait Symbols. Fortunately, he didn't use Extraction on the Soultrait Symbols immediately. Will he finally make use of the Soultrait Symbols? If so, how?

What will happen now? The Kitsun Lord has been defeated but there are still Kitsun roaming around! What about the situation outside the Origin Expanse? Will Michael be fine against the Berserkers, Warlock Centaurs and his own people in the Battle Exchange? Stay tuned and gimme a review hehe ;D]