Monster Integration



Two and a half hours passed since I had stepped into this unknown ruin and already avoided seven monsters.

Three were in a group and had got quite close to me. I thought they will discover me, but thankfully they did not. 

It seemed like the minor changes I had made to my stealth method were working much better than I had imagined them to be. Still, most credit goes to Nero, as his warning gave me a chance to hide.

Currently, I am hiding behind a tree, while thirty-four of my strings harvest the blue-white flowers.

There is a large flowerbed, and these flowers are precious. The number is not something I could harvest within a second. So, I found myself a good hiding spot and harvesting the resources safely through it.

At my core, one of my clones is studying everything I am seeing; finding things where I could go, and, most importantly, an exit.

It might seem too early seeing not even a day had passed, but I like to find an exit as soon as possible. 

It is not a common ruin, where the exit is in a specific spot or region. Here we need to find it and I like to find one that did not lead to the organization. Even with all the things they have promised; I like to get far away from them as possible.

A few minutes later, I finished collecting the resources.

A smile couldn't help but appear on my face seeing that. These are basa ord flowers, a very expensive resource of the healing element.

They are very good at dealing with injuries of the earth element. One of my clones had already started to process a few of them. Who knew when I will come across an earth elemental that I would need to fight?

Seeing how dangerous the ruin is; I need to be ready to face, every kind of danger.

Hun!

A little more than an hour passed, when I suddenly stopped. As Nero had seen something, a person finally.

In a minute, he got close enough I could clearly see the Rhino Beastman. A Sovereign and he is fighting against a Fox monster; at first glance, the battle looked normal enough, before I started to notice things.

Or rather my clones. They are watching the battle through the reduced speed.

The fox monster, who is also an Initial Sovereign, had a strong defense. Many of the Beastman's attacks couldn't harm it; it might be right to say it is impervious to the energy attacks from Beastman.

It had even stopped dodging them and only dodge the attacks from his thick ax.

The energy here is extremely dangerous, and it is harmful to most sovereigns without their armors. So, it is not surprising that monsters here have developed a strong defense against energy attacks.

The defense is not the only quality the fox monster has; It was also quick and had extremely sharp claws.

Thankfully, the Rhinoman is a good fighter. He was able to defend against all the fox's attacks. Still seeing the way, he is fighting, he should retreat; the other monsters have started to gather.

He may be a good fighter, but truly an idiot person. I don't know how he had been able to reach this high.

If he had been wise, he would have retreated already. He should understand, in an environment like this, you should finish the monster quickly as possible. If you can't, then retreat.

Like a dumb idiot, he is continuing to fight the monster.

Another minute passed, and I am still cursing the dumb idiot when the inevitable happened. Not the exact way I had expected, but about the same.

Two more foxes jumped from behind. They appeared suddenly and attacked with the same intensity as the fox Beastman is fighting.

I thought one of the matching monsters would attack, but the foxes that were hidden had attacked. 

For the first time since I saw the dumb Sovereign; fear appeared on his face and he finally retreat, but it is already late. The foxes are dumb beasts, but they are still smart.

They have estimated his power and are now attacking him furiously.

One he could defend, two he could manage, but three are too much for him. He started getting injured from the first second and within ten seconds, his whole body become bloodied.

Now, he had burst out with everything he has and running madly, without care for the direction.

He was only able to run away for six seconds, before finally, the claws of the second fox pierced into his head. 

Killing him instantly and the thing that happened next was quite surprising but natural. I have seen it too many times.

The watching monster leaped toward the Beastman, while the three foxes begin to eat him. Their speed of eating is incredible, and their little mouths break the parts efficiently before swallowing it all.

They were not even spitting bones.

Though they were smart enough to avoid artifacts. They did not swallow, even a single one of them.

By the time the rest of the monsters approached them; they had eaten 80% of the beastman and ran away with 10% in their mouths, leaving only 10% to the other monsters, who fought with each other for that.

A minute later, everything cleared. Aside from the torn, bloodied clothes and the artifacts, there is not a single piece of flesh or bone remaining there.

I did not move from my spot. Though Nero moved, he went there and brought the things I want, including his artifact and two storages. Which I immediately sent to my core.

A few seconds later, disappointment couldn't help but flash on my face.

There are things there, a lot of it, but not much as I had expected him to have. The Sovereign had great power. He should have more things than present in his storage.

Not only he has fewer things, but the things he would have been also average.

A minute later, I understood the reason behind that. He had made a breakthrough into the Sovereign not a long time ago. 

Testing the blood on the artifacts, my clone was able to find out, it had only leveled up to Sovereign a year ago. Which is not a long time to gather the resources.

The organizations provide resources for the breakthroughs, but how much depends upon standing.

There are tiers in the organizations, the higher one is, the greater access to the resources one will have. There are also family connections, teachers, and other factors.

Still, despite that one still needs to fund some resources for their breakthrough.

This Rhinoman had used quite a lot during his breakthrough and likely come to the ruin to get more for future practice. As what he has wouldn't have been enough for him to move forward on his level.

Well, the resources might be below my expectations; it is a huge number, and I will graciously accept, especially when I got it without anything.

I also become a lot more cautious. I have seen what happened to him and if I am not careful, the same things will happen to me.

I do not want that. I cannot die until I find my family.