With these two items, Michael was in a paradoxical situation where he wanted to test it out and not want to test it out.
He wanted to see its capability, but didn't want to be forced to use it.
And just at that moment, he felt movement in the ground as a friendly shadow came to visit him in his room.
Two figures emerged. Narito and Sasuki kneeled in front of him, showing him even more deference than before.
They were still grateful for the gift he bequeathed onto them the other day.
But Michael didn't really consider it a gift. They were fully fledged Rebornians, ones who have an extremely important job to keep the balance of the Reborn company during their expansion. It was only natural that he gave them GodForge pieces.
If they got stronger, then the entirety of the Nation of Reborn would benefit from it.
Case in point, he could already feel a difference in the two Orc Chieftains' entrances.
Before, their presence was subtle, but still emanated Dark mana wherever they went. That was how their Shadow Spells worked. With his Supreme Talent, this aberration in the surrounding mana would quickly alert him of their presence.
But now, that aberration was basically nonexistent. In layman's terms, he couldn't feel the ripple in the water as they submerged themselves under it.
Of course, with his Drone Vision and his vastly stronger cultivation, he could still feel their presence even from a mile away.
However, the fact that they were already so… nonexistent even when they were only in the first stage of the Body Formation realm bode well for their future.
"Lord Michael. BU TO TO! We come to you to report!" Narito banged on his own chest, the sound itself creating small spikes in Aubility Power.
"RAH TA TA! As you have instructed, we have made it our mission to track down the thieves who stole the Thunderfoot Key!" Sasuki said, the quills behind him rattling with excitement.
Michael was very glad to hear this. "Looks like you're making good use of your new powers. What did you find?"
Narito's shadow separated from his feet, before it began to morph and change into the surprisingly high-definition 3d image of a masked individual.
"We have verified the perpetrators to be coming from one organization bearing this attire."
Michael rubbed his chin. As expected, the Ersatz is in charge of this.
"We have made some rudimentary progress in tracking these individuals and we suspect that they are being led by a person who is a high-ranking Body Formation cultivator who goes by the name Platinum Leader."
This surprised Michael. "You were able to track a Platinum Leader?"
With the difference in cultivation, that seemed impossible.
"No, Lord Michael. We dare not get close to a person of that caliber. They have a lot of securities in place to make sure that they would not get tracked down," Narito said.
"But there is no security that is infallible. They are only as strong as their weakest link. We only needed to wait for one of them to make a mistake, to say something they weren't supposed to.
That is how we were able to find their hideout. Their Stronghold."
Sasuki's shadow morphed into a much larger structure. He created a wall. New Sparta's wall. And in one of the walkways in between the bastions, there was a crack in the structure that leaked a misty black gas.
"This is their Stronghold? A Pocket Dimension…"
It's different from the Stronghold that Fudge told me. It's a different one?
It made sense. According to Katarina, a man as powerful and as guarded as the Grand Master would have multiple Strongholds around his own hideout. That was what made infiltration so hard.
The ones the Shadow Orcs found must be one of those surrounding Strongholds, given that it was only guarded by a Platinum Leader, a 9th stage Body Formation Maugnetic.
"You did good," he praised them.
Now that they knew where it was, they could appropriately plan how they were going to infiltrate inside.
Since his opponent wasn't a Nascent Spirit cultivator, he had more confidence invading.
"What about the crack itself? What kind of defenses are installed inside?"
The two Orc Chieftains listed all of the mechanisms they found during their mission.
First of all, the crack was made by someone above the Nascent Spirit realm. So, it couldn't be broken through easily.
Next, there were Aubility Powers set inside to alert them of any unwanted intruders. This too, was made by someone in the Nascent Spirit realm.
Then, there were the guards stationed inside the crack, just waiting for someone to invade.
From what he remembered during their raid to rescue Lyra, there were hundreds upon hundreds of guards stationed just on the parapets alone. He had a feeling that this would be the same case here.
In short, it seemed the Stronghold was made to be impenetrable. It couldn't be infiltrated nor besieged, unless one wanted an all out war with a thousand Artifice Maugnetics.
"For now, we should gather more information and—"
"Ahem… Lord Michael. Forgive our impudence, but we have already found a way to infiltrate inside."
"HUH?!"
Then what about the impenetrable security measures that they just listed just a few seconds ago?
"Their structures may be infallible, but their people certainly aren't," Narito said triumphantly, almost scoffing.
"We simply found one of their weak members and inhabited their shadow," Sasuki added.
Michael was speechless.
"How…"
But then, he remembered. "You… you all went into that shadow?!"
The two Orc Chieftains nodded proudly.
"Yes, Lord Michael. All three hundred Orcs were contained inside that one shadow. They are now currently inside their Stronghold awaiting further instructions from you."
If only one of the Orcs inhabited the shadow, then his Aubility Power wouldn't be enough to 'trick' the crack's Nascent Spirit-level security system.
But if all three hundred newly awakened Orcs all pooled their power, then it could easily overcome that barrier.
The solution was that simple!