Monster Integration

"You were tough, I will give you that," I said as the light disappeared from the red cat monster's eyes and it had disappeared into my storage.

I sighed and lay against the tree with my eyes closed while my injuries healed.

This was the sixth monster I had killed in the four hours and the most dangerous one. That seriously injured me, and if I had got it within a few seconds, I would have been really forced to burn my essence.

I remained against the tree for a little over a minute before resuming for my journey to find a safe spot.

My injuries have not been healed, but I have recovered enough to defend against anything that comes at me.

Though, I would not move against any monster till I am fully healed. The monsters here are dangerous; each one I had fought nearly forced me to burn my blood to fight many times.

The ruin is far more dangerous than I had thought, and now, I am having doubts about whether I would even be able to survive the two hours here with such dangerous monsters.

Hun!

I was thinking of monsters when I had suddenly stopped.

In front of me was a spot a few hundred meters wide; the spot was different and dangerous; before, a small stream of energy came from the cloud, which had made this small spot even more, denser with energy.

The energy is already powerful and dense that I am feeling pain with every breath, and if I breathe in there, it will be even more painful and dangerous.

I appeared there in an instant, took a breath, and immediately, my body turned red.

I got out as soon as I could, but my body was still turning red, and my teeth gritted in pain. I stayed as such for more than three minutes before the redness began to disappear; it still took more than a minute for my skin to turn normal.

"Fuck!" I cursed.

The moment I had breathed that energy, I felt like I had been cut by thousands of blades. It had been a very painful experience, and if I did not have enough willpower to bear it, I would have screamed.

The current is my limit; if I go into an area where the energy is as dense as that spot, I will die, and it won't take more than an hour for that to happen, and it will be very painful.

It is a good thing I went there and got to know my limit; still, I will need to be prepared to deal with energies.

They remained stable in different areas but sometimes changed, like climate. The density of energy surges, and if I remained unprotected in such surges, then I would have a very painful death.

It is not like I had not prepared for this; I had, after reading the data left behind by Rhaek, but my preparations have been inadequate.

My clone had already started working on it while I turned back to the spots and strings released from my hands. It took me a little more than a moment before I finished harvesting all the resources there.

It is not just the plants I had harvested, and also some rocks and crystals which the monster used to live there had collected.

There used to be a monster here before Ashlyn had killed it earlier; such areas are always occupied by powerful monsters.

Time passed as I searched for a safe space, but I did not find any.

I did find the monsters and fought against two of them, which had made me tired, despite all the fights ending within ten minutes.

The monsters are no weaklings; each one of them is making me use every bit of my strength to fight.

I stopped again, and this time, there was a small smile on my face. I did not find a safe spot but found something which I could not get through the growth energy.

Wheat!

A wild wheat; I had needed good wheat for the bread, and while I had seeds of hundreds of varieties. I could not plant them, as the important resources took precedence, and the wheat was not important enough.

I did not waste any time, and hundreds of strings flew out of my hands, and I began to harvest this mature wheat.

It will be the highest grade of wheat I will have, and what made me even happier was that this wheat seemed to be perfect for making the bread.

This wheat might be a frivolous thing to be happy about, considering the important things I have to do, but it is not.

These small joys are important, especially now, when I will be alone for two years, with no one to talk to other than Ashlyn and Nero. It will take a huge psychological toll to deal with that; I need to do something that makes me happy.

And good bread will make me happy.

Within a minute, I had harvested the wild wheat spread over a few hundred meters of area. The amount I got is large and will last more than three months, even if we ate daily two times a day.

Hun!

After I collected the wheat, I moved again, and, in a few minutes, I seemed to enter a different area.

The energy there got slightly denser and had at least three times more space spatial cracks than the area I had been to, but those cracks were frozen.

The active spatial cracks, which are the most dangerous, are much lesser here, which means, it is much safer.

Feeling the energy and knowing I could bear it, with the newly modified formation and my refinement toward could process it, albeit slowly, I walked into it.

Though not before Ashlyn and Nero went inside and investigated for a minute.

They have sensed much fewer monsters here, which is not surprising considering this might be an area which had a high density and is safe, but the huge spatial cracks are everywhere.

Even with their strength, these spatial cracks would tear them apart if they crashed against it.

I entered inside and found out; there were a lot more resources here than I found in the area I had passed by. I did not hesitate to harvest them while Nero finished off the monster, which sensed my presence and came at me.

Half an hour passed, and my mood became a lot better, not because of the resources but because I might truly find a safe area here.

I had already found a couple of them, but they were inadequate, and I didn't want to be lax with my safety; thus, I kept searching.

Hun!

Another twenty minutes passed when Nero suddenly came toward me at a very fast speed and stopped in front of me.

"Father, I have found a good spot," said Nero excitedly, and before I could ask him about it, he moved toward me, leaving me no choice but to follow it.

I had needed to follow him for more than ten minutes before he stopped and looked at me.

"What do you think, father?" He asked with his eyes shining in happiness. "Good job, Nero," I said and petted him lovingly.

He really found a very nice spot.