Supreme Lord: I can extract everything!
chapter-1003

As suspected, the High Lords' resistance decreased drastically once the first border settlements fell victim to the Untamed Armies. The forces on the Untamed Jungle were too strong for the average High Lords to deal with.

They tried rallying their forces and attacked the Untamed Armies in an all-out attack as a last ditch effort, but messed up big time. Some Super Awakened like Frederik Kolbenheim or powerful Awakened like Jacqueline Kolbenheim – formerly known as Jacqueline Orlando – had a powerful area of effect techniques, which obliterated bigger numbers of enemies swiftly. But not only Awakened were given enough power to deal with the gathered forces of the Fae Union.

The Elementals, Red Dragon, and Minor Typhoon Rocs also had the means to do so. They didn't hesitate to demonstrate their powers and wreak havoc outside the Untamed Jungle where they didn't have to restrain their powers due to the surrounding environment. Outside the Untamed Jungle, neither was afraid to damage anything. They could go crazy. And they did.

The destruction was shocking, to say the least, but the Fae Union's forces crumbled quickly. They resisted with great effort, but it came to no surprise when the last resisting Lords died no more than one month after the troops of the Untamed Jungle started retaliating against the Fae Union.

The Untamed Jungle didn't need Michael to take care of the leeches harming it. All it needed was a good gardener, and the Untamed Armies were perfect for that job.

Once the Fae Union was shattered, only remnants of the terror and destruction Michael's forces had inflicted upon the surrounding regions remained, but nobody paid attention to them. Once the Untamed Jungle expanded into these regions, flourishing nature would replace the destruction. Life would return and transform the destroyed lands into brilliant places full of life and happiness.

With the destruction of the Fae Union the Untamed Jungle wasn't restrained anymore. It could focus on expanding again. In fact, the Untamed Jungle could transfer more energy and nutrients than usually into the expansion with the corpses of all those who had resisted the Untamed Armies. Contrary to the norm, more than half of the Fae Union's civilians decided against joining Michael's forces. Since they were only given two options; to either die or follow Michael, the majority decided to follow their Lords into death.

That showed how well the Fae Union's Lords had treated their summons. They would much instead follow their Lord into death than serve the men and women who had killed them.

That was a little unfortunate as too many good Summons died from that decision, but their corpses were full of goods to plunder and nutrients to give to the Untamed Jungle.

Michael visited the Origin Expanse after the Fae Union was shattered. He used True Extraction Domain to plunder all corpses and started combining Summoning Scroll Fragments, Summoning Scrolls, Artifacts, and so forth while the plundered corpses were given to the Untamed Jungle to devour and turn into nutrients.

In the following months, the Untamed Jungle expanded rapidly. But the flora was not all that expanded. The jungle monsters spread further, claimed bigger lands to habituate and started with territorial fights to decide who would be the Overlord of the newly claimed lands.

More Pentagon Fortresses were built and the existing Pentagon Fortresses in the center of the Untamed Jungle were expanded. The settlements in the jungle center quickly transformed from fortresses, which were ready for war and to block the charge of massive armies, into large city-states. The city-states were still merged with the surrounding flora and fauna, but the number of citizens living in each city-state exceeded the population of the existing Pentagon Forts easily.

As the number of Summons continued increasing, so did the number of valuable workers, combatants, and rare prodigies. The researchers found a way to upgrade the Intermediate Summoning Gate and how to upgrade the Sacred Knight Temple. The Hunter Academies spread across Michael's territories had already been improved, which was accepted as an official upgrade by the Will, and it was only a matter of time before more such upgrades would be discovered and implemented.

But that would take time, effort, and enough resources.

"How long do you think the Untamed Jungle will remain a Grand Region?" Michael was asked by Hiraku when they inspected the rapidly expanding Untamed Jungle from an elevated position. Michael didn't bother using Slipstream to teleport to the various locations he'd intended to visit. Instead, he traveled on Icarus with Hiraku, who joined him to report the events with the Fae Union, the Desert Rebels, their recent gains of natural resources, and the progress of various construction sites all across the Untamed Jungle and the Sacred Desert. The Sacred Desert didn't have much more to offer now that it had advanced to an Intermediate Region. Of course, it could regain its former glory as an Advanced Region as it had been during the Second Epoch, but the effort wasn't worth it. Not yet, at least.

Michael already owned a full-fledged Grand Region, which expanded naturally as long as the surrounding forces didn't restrain it. As long as nobody worked against the Untamed Jungle, it would grow. That was much more efficient than being forced to work on the Sacred Desert to help it advance actively.

"I'm not sure, but given that the Primal Root is a Primordial grade Energy Vein…I don't think we will have any issues. The Grand Region was once a Primal Region as well. It didn't lose the conditions to regain its former glory either. I don't know about the upgrade conditions to form a Primal Region, but given that the Untamed Jungle has a Divinity, Sentience, and a Primordial grade Energy Vein, I think we should be fine," Michael said but tilted his head when he looked down to inspect the undergrowth stretching outside the Untamed Jungle.

"As for your question. The conditions for upgrading the Untamed Jungle to an Ancient Region are mostly met. We're only missing the size threshold and probably the number of residents within the Untamed Jungle. Though, I'm not sure about the latter. The jungle monsters and Summons might already be more than enough to fill that criteria. That being said…I think the Untamed Jungle will be upgraded to an Ancient Region in a year if it continues growing like this, two years if the expansion speed returns to the norm."

That was faster than Hiraku expected, but he smiled. It would be fantastic if the Untamed Jungle would regain a part of its former glory in the next one or two years. "That's great. Your strength will increase even further once the Untamed Jungle regains its power as an Ancient Region. The Links of Loyalty will grant you more Soul Power as a base, and if I remember correctly from Old Scripts, you will also gain a minuscule boost in terms of physique, soul, and mind from every Link residing within the Ancient Region." He said with glimmering eyes.

"That is what I'm working for. The Ancient Region would help me fight some Gods and maybe even survive against the Primal." Michael responded in all honesty. A trace of wary entered his voice, "But I'm not sure if I have that much time before the Gods and Primal act."