Not only was the first expedition defeated soundly, but their equipment also helped the defenders gain the first god in the history of the world. It was an epic failure on all counts.
That failure is another reason why the Yggdrasil civilization doesn't rely on only machines, guns, and an army of robots to invade a world. It is not the first time their equipment has been turned against them.
It is good to have a technological advantage, but it is not good to rely on it too much. According to Wrath, this mistake was why the first galactic human civilization was destroyed.
The most important technology of the first human galactic civilization turned on them, which led to their downfall. It has happened to the Yggdrasil many times since then.
Even in the Lignum world, they have faced a situation where the power and usefulness of their equipment was nullified. So machines are just assistants and disposable tools to the Yggdrasil civilization, not their main source of power.
The lesson that was reinforced by the spectacular defeat at the hands of the Sparkions has taught him that if he wants to have a powerful weapon, he must have the ability of a Sparkion.
He also believes that he will be able to do better than Sparkions because he can fuse abilities.
He has very little hope for fusing abilities that can enhance Sparkions, but he believes that he can fuse two types of weapons. It is why he is considering acquiring a portable nuclear reactor.
He is looking forward to what kind of ability he will gain if he uses a nuclear reactor as his weapon, but he is sure that if he can fuse a nuclear reactor with the hammer of dawn, the demigod-killing weapon will be able to load faster and increase the rate at which he can fire it.
He has lofty goals. Unfortunately, they are also costly.
A single merit point is earned for each F-rank enemy that he kills. An X-rank enemy is 9 grades above an F-rank. So if he can kill an X-rank, he will be able to instantly afford the 1 billion merit points he needs to acquire the Hammer of Dawn.
This is not considered expensive. In fact, it is very cheap for him to be able to afford a weapon that can kill or maim a demigod with the life of a mortal.
But it will be up to him to afford the energy source to power the gun and set it up to work. Besides, from what he saw, he will need a demigod or something powerful enough to distract and keep the target demigod preoccupied so that the gun will be able to nail them to the ground.
These are the hidden costs that he will have to afford if he wants to use the hammer of dawn. But with a Sparkion's ability, he is sure that he can manage.
The things he wants to exchange are why he is reluctant to spend his merit points for game points. He wants to save his merit points for as long as he can, so he will be able to afford the powerful and shiny gun he has his eyes on.
But he is only reluctant to spend them. He won't refuse to spend them if a special opportunity arises where he needs game points. There are two such opportunities that he has his mind on.
The first one is when he comes across a nice ability on Lignum that he wishes to have. He won't save his merit points when he can improve his strength there and then.
The second opportunity is for after the invasion when he can exchange for slaves from the Yggdrasil civilization or when he returns home and can acquire the nice abilities he has his eyes on.
In terms of the Yggdrasil civilization's supply of slaves, he is sure that he will be able to find something useful in their possession. After all, they have slaves of different races across the galaxy.
Even if they don't have something interesting, he still has his eyes on Rewind, Havoc from the Justice League, and Gem the Omega in another city.
He is especially interested in Gem's ability to shift his body into whatever he touches. So he is sure that even if he doesn't exchange for game points on Lignum, he will definitely exchange after the invasion.
He thought to himself, "This is good. With the off chance of a higher evaluation, delaying the exchange might grant him a surprise in the form of a higher exchange rate."
He has decided to delay using his merit points for the moment. This way, a higher performance evaluation will make them more valuable when the invasion is over.
Of course, his evaluation can still fall to one star if he doesn't keep his performance consistent. But he is not too worried about that.
He is more worried about being killed in the invasion than having a poor performance evaluation. This is a real fear considering that the higher his performance in the invasion, the more eye-catching he will become and the higher his chances of attracting a powerful enemy and being killed.
He has a reason to be worried considering that making him eye-catching is how Command used to turn him into bait. If he becomes eye-catching on his own, Command won't need to scheme against him for him to attract a powerful enemy and meet his demise.
He thought about it seriously, "That's how that paragon that can teleport and produce spatial blades was killed. He became too eye-catching."
Now that he is thinking about it, he is not so sure that becoming stronger is a good thing.
He has grown stronger thanks to all the kills he made legitimately and those he stole shamelessly. He is not ashamed of stealing kills with the Life Core omega ability. In fact, he is proud of it. But he hopes that one day it won't lead him to being killed.