627: Price for not upgrading the system

Price for not upgrading the system

Michael returned to the dark forest with Gaya and Nightmare.  1

"What happened to you?" Looking at his dirt-covered torn armor of Michael, Gaya creased her brows. With the molten plague, Gaya knew it would be impossible for the thusians to even harm a single hair on his head. 

"Do you remember Edith?" Michael asked Gaya. Azazel and Nightmare stood beside, staring at countless feeds running through the mirrors around the room. 

"Yeah I do," Gaya said as she came to his side. She helped Michael remove his cape as well as the chest piece of his armor. Thanks to the APD, there weren't any cuts or bruises on his body. However, Gaya noticed the blood stains.  Upon seeing the blood on his perfectly chiseled chest, she clenched her fist so tight her palm began to hurt.

"Her full name is Edith Alden," Gaya stopped removing Mark 3 grappling hook attached to his wrist. Just a mere mention of the name Alden caused dark lines to form on Gaya's forehead. 

"Alden?" Gaya slightly tilted her head.

Seeing the exhaustion on Michael's face, Azazel waved his hand as Michael's throne materialized behind him. Michael nodded at Azazel.

"She is Lailah's sister," Michael sat on his throne. Hearing Michael, everyone stood there dumbfounded. 

"Edith accompanied the thusians,"

"So when you went to torture them, you got ambushed by Lailah and Edith? Is that right?" Gaya asked as though she had seen everything with her own eyes.

Azazel almost let his anger explode. He wanted to fly down to the tavern and rip Lailah and Edith to pieces. Despite Michael's relationship with Lailah, he couldn't stop his heart from having murderous thoughts about Lailah. He clenched his fist.  On the other hand, Nightmare remained calm. He remembered the kind and caring woman they had met. If it wasn't for Lailah's impulse, he knew Ghost and Lailah would have been good friends.  Still, Nightmare refused to believe Lailah would ever try to kill Michael. A woman of her kind heart and composure would not succumb to hatred. With given time, the possibility of Lailah returning to Ghost was high.

"Hmm," Michael nodded. He retrieved a healing potion from the system storage and emptied the potion into his mouth. 

"That complicates things human," Gaya took several steps forward before sitting on the throne's arm. She caringly wrapped her hand around Michael.

"I know. But nothing can stop me from wiping Thusia off the map, no Edith, no Lailah, not even the Skyhall," Nightmare noticed Michael's eyes flickering like rubies in sunlight. Due to Nightmare's acute senses, he heard a noise of otherworldly vibration in the air.

"How powerful is she now?" Gaya asked. There was a hint of jealousy in her voice. Unlike Lailah, Gaya wasn't fortunate to absorb the First energy. Given Gaya's heaven-defying cultivation speed and the forty percent boost provided by the system, she could break through to the Fusion stage once Gaya had absorbed the first energy.

Simply put, Michael's major reason for venturing into the treacherous ocean was Gaya. He wanted his beloved, most loyal fiance to be the strongest among his subordinates. Currently, Azazel had the crown of being the strongest. That would soon change when they departed to the treacherous ocean. Furthermore, Michael did not forget about Gaya's metamorphosis. She needed the heart and blood of a five-headed serpent in the Fire Realm to evolve. Without evolving, achieving her true power would be nothing but a daydream.

"Fusion stage level 10. I was disappointed. I thought she would have reached the Half Immortal stage,"

Gaya's gaze stopped at Michael's face. For a few moments, she couldn't get her mind wrapped around the idea of how easy Michael was thinking to reach the Half Immortal Stage. Finally, after pondering for some time, Gaya broke the silence. 

"With or without first energy, it's not easy to break through to the Half Immortal Stage. Why do you think there are only a handful of Fusion Stage cultivators in the world? Did you know when the last person joined the council of immortals? Three hundred years ago," 

"Really?" Michael glared at Gaya.

Michael had been trying to gather information about the Council of Immortals. But even Lord Information seemed to possess little to nothing about them. Part of the reason was the Council of Immortals lived in a pocket dimension separated from this world. Only when someone broke through to the Half Immortal stage did a representative of the council come outside to recruit them.

Michael dared not to take reaching the Half Immortal stage recklessly. Even the system informed him he would get a fixed amount of experience points from killing cultivators regardless of their levels. Additionally, the system had stopped awarding Michael with experience points every time one of his subordinates killed one. Hence, the reason why Michael didn't receive any experience points when Gaya killed a few of the Rottgards. 

The system had been using the experience points to change Michael's body and soul from the molecular level. But that wasn't the only reason why the system didn't award him with experience points. It held the experience points and badass points hostage to punish Michael for not prioritizing the system upgrade. It had been seven months since Michael had upgraded the system. 

"She must have come to the auction searching for something. Something that could help her breakthrough to the Half Immortal stage,"

Her words made Michael wonder whether Lailah knew about the Cosmic Stream or not. If Edith knew about it, the odds of Lailah knowing were high. However, if she did, Lailah could use the Cosmic stream to break through. Knowing Maxim Barnes and the lengths he would go to protect the Cosmic stream, Michael doubted Edith knew anything about it. 

[Heed her words, host. You cannot reach the Half Immortal stage without upgrading the system to level 7] 

Michael's body froze when he heard the system. His mind repeated the system's words. 

"Level 7?" Michael questioned the system.

[The host didn't think you could just reach the Half Immortal stage with a level 6 system, did you?] The system almost sounded amused by Michael's bewilderment. Unable to endure the system's haughtiness anymore, Michael growled. However, he knew no matter how much he bickered with the system, there was no way for him to reach the Half Immortal stage without the system.

"How many badass points?" Michael sighed.

[You need 600,000 badass points for the next upgrade. Then, the level 7 upgrade requires one million badass points] Obviously, it would hinder Michael's growth. But at least he had already reached the top of the food chain. Thanks to the Immortal Council, anyone above the Fusion stage did not meddle with mortal affairs. Although the rogues who chose not to join the council remained outside the Immortal dimension, they did their best not to raise the council's attention towards them. These rogues either remained in the Cold mountain or in the other realms, such as the Akilan realm. They only made public appearances wherever their descendants or families faced a calamity.

"Tell me, what did you do? Did she do this to you?" Gaya pointed at the blood stains on his body. With a long heave of sigh, Michael began to narrate everything that happened in the tavern. A few minutes later, Gaya's eyes sparkled. She was delighted to hear Michael fought Lailah instead of sparing her or, worse, revealing his identity.

"Is there any chance she fought you because the Dark Lord attacked Ghost?" Nightmare asked.

"I think so," nodded Michael.

"Don't forget she tried to kill you and blamed you for her mistake," Gaya rolled her eyes.

Azazel agreed with Gaya. Whatever the reason might be, Azazel hated Lailah for trying to kill his master. 

"Whatever her reason might be, I won't spare Thusia. If Edith stayed in my way,, which I know she will, I wouldn't hesitate to kill her. Thusia will be destroyed along with Maxim and his entire family," Michael's words were murderous. They could feel the temperature had fallen a couple of degrees. 

"What are we going to do about those who escaped?" asked Gaya. 

Her question put Michael in a momentary trance. He pondered what must be done about them. Now that he had attacked them once, it was risky to let them live. But, at the same time, stepping into Thusia was extremely dangerous since MAxim had bolstered the kingdom with powerful runes and arrays as defensive mechanisms. Besides, people like General Booth might recognize Michael, and disguising himself wouldn't work with the arrays and runes in Thusia.

At least, that was the case until he could upgrade the system. Once he had upgraded, he could buy new spells and skills to further strengthen himself. 

"The Spyders I attached to them got destroyed as soon as they reached Thusia. So killing them with the Spyders is out of the question," Michael rubbed his chin. His instinct told Michael that visiting Thusia was a bad idea. If someone had recognized him, everything Michael had built will be threatened. Knowing MAxim Barnes, Michael wouldn't be surprised if that crazy old man waged war against Bradford.

For now, Michael decided to leave Reidar and Freddy alone. After all, they would spread his legend across Thusia, which might work to Michael's advantage in the long term. The fear of the Dark Lord targeting the Thusians would put fear in many nobles' hearts. Without a doubt, this fear would hinder Thusia's growth. After all, fear was a great tool that could be used in many other ways.

"When the right time comes, let's give thusian soldiers a taste of this," Michael flicked his wrist as a silver vial appeared in his hand. It was the weaponized molten plague. 

Suppose Michael had infected the thusian army with the molten plague, there was no doubt in Michael's mind it would tilt the tide of the war. So even if Michael couldn't directly kill the Thusians with his own hands, he was content with killing them with the plague. 

In Gaya's heart, she was excited to destroy Thusia with him. 

Putting the hatred towards Thusia to the back of his mind, Michael turned his gaze towards Gaya.

"Now tell me what happened to Tanulia?" Michael asked. Due to the battle and his hatred for the Thusians, Michael almost forgot to ask Gaya about Tanulia. After Michael asked the question, a grin emerged on Gaya's face.

"Tanulia Valren is no more,"

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