Monster Integration



"We have reached it," said Ragas, looking ahead with the shining eyes.

I looked too and saw nothing special other than a large area enveloped in thick grey mist. It is so dense that one couldn't see through it.

"You know, it would make me quite happy. If you provide some locations, in advance, seeing all the troubles I had suffered," I said, and he just looked at me, before turning to a thick grey mist.

"This place is not dangerous, but danger is always there," he said, in an unusually somber voice.

I looked at him for an explanation but didn't get any. Instead, a rope of mist was formed and wrapped across my arm.

"It will keep us together in the mist maze," he said. I nodded.

The rope is strong, but I have the confidence to break it, if I need to. Though, I don't think it would come to that.

We begin to move toward the dense grey mist, and within a few minutes has reached its boundary. I could feel the mist wouldn't be easy to deal with; it didn't give me a feeling of danger, but one doesn't need to be dangerous to create trouble.

We took a step inside the dense mist and unlike the time when I took the step into the mist valley and a whole new world opened.

Something like that didn't happen. Instead, I had found myself in a world of grey mist, which seemed to be everywhere, and it was dense. It is not dense, but very suppressive to the senses.

The range of my soul sense, which has grown bigger with the breakthrough, had shrieked again.

I could now only see twenty-five meters around me, which is quite a little. Not enough to get alerted, before Grimms and other dangers appeared in front of us.

"Are there monsters in this place?" I asked, to which he shook his head. "There will be other dangers. We will not be the only people coming here; some might already be here," he said, and I couldn't help but glare at him.

"It would have been nice. If you had told me that before," I said to him. "I told you, there will be dangers," he said, looking levelly.

He said and I quote, 'This place is not dangerous, but danger is always there.' He could have simply said, this place is going to be dangerous.

There is one more thing I noticed about this mist. The space is here, expanded. It will be much bigger than I had realized.

"You know, this is the place where that treasure had appeared, or rather; the treasures," he said, and I couldn't help but become surprised.

I knew mist valley had been the battlefield, but there was no mention of the treasures they had fought for and where they had appeared.

"Those treasures must have been harvested in the battle," I said, and he smile. "They had, but they had left something from it, which is very beneficial to us," he said.

A little more than an hour passed and there was nothing but a mist around us. The mist also seemed to have a bleak element in it. It is completely barren. I didn't see even a single stalk of grass.

Hun!

Suddenly, he stopped and with him, I. "What is it?" I asked. He didn't answer and instead slowly took me ahead, before stopping.

"Fuck!"

I cursed; there is a burning fire not far away from it. I don't know how much area it covered because of my restricted sense, but I could feel the intense danger from it.

A danger that could vaporize me in an instant. If I got too close to it. Forget me, even Earth Sovereigns wouldn't stand a chance.

It is not the first time I had seen this fire. I had seen it tens of times in wonders made from it, but here, it felt most dangerous, despite not looking grand as those wonders.

I watched for a couple of seconds before we retreated and begin to move toward the left.

"Don't you have a map?" I asked. "I have, but they are pretty much useless," he said, and over ten maps appeared. Each map would have five shining points, and their destination would always be a different place.

"These places tend to move every time. So, we will have to find them by exploring this place."

"If our luck is good, we will find it within a day or it might take even a week," he said. I wanted to kick this bastard, but I controlled myself and turned to maps.

"Which is the healing place you had mentioned?" I asked, and he smoothly pointed toward the blue-green point. 

Which are present in all the maps.

"I guess one of the treasures was the healing type?" I asked. "Yes, it is also the one that could mess you up terribly. If you are not careful with it," he said with some hesitation, and I arched my brow in question.

"You will understand when you see it," he said, and I didn't ask further.

I don't care. If it had some side effects; they wouldn't be worse than the injuries I have right now. I will be more than willing to bear them, as long as they heal my injuries.

I am liking these injuries. They are limiting me. 

I have a huge power, but I could use only a quarter of it and even that came with the risks. I don't want to live within such limits.

A little over ten minutes passed before we moved at our regular pace. It seemed like we have kept behind that wonder.

Though, it was for a short time. As we have come across another wonder, half an hour later, just as powerful as the fiery one; this one had the opposite power. 

It could freeze one's soul in an instant.

An hour passed, and we were still moving in the mist. There was no disappointment on my face. With the information he shared, I know it could take us a long time to find what we need.

Still, I hope we will find it within a day; the first would be the healing place.

"You know, one of my predecessors who had come here. Had found a place in less than an hour," said Ragas.

"He was quite lucky then," I commented, but that brought a smile to his face. "I doubt he would agree with your assessment."

"He was lucky to find the place within an hour, but after that, he had suffered so much bad luck that he nearly died hundreds of times."

"It only left him when he returned home," he said and smiled.

I had opened my mouth to ask further about this anecdote, but stopped, seeing Ragas stiffening.

'Find a way to escape,' he said telepathically. As his aura reinforced and a thick white mist appeared around him.

I first didn't understand what he meant, but soon, I sensed silhouettes at the edge of my soul sense. 

"Well. If it isn't the little misty rat that got away from us," said the booming voice, before its silhouette revealed itself.