Monster Integration

"Nine hours," I said as I looked at the clock on my bedside.

Yesterday, I slept early to take as much as rest I could. I didn't set up an alarm or ask my clones to wake up at a certain time.

I wanted to wake up naturally after taking as much as rest my body and soul needed.

I didn't immediately walk out of the bed; I stayed there thinking for nearly an hour, before finally walking out of it and stepping into the bathroom.

Forty-five minutes later, I am in the kitchen cooking the breakfast for myself. I didn't go overboard and decided to make a simple one; that will not only satiate the body, but also the mind.

Half an hour later, the breakfast was ready, and took it to a table by the window and ate it, while watching the scenery.

It is not an actual window, but it is projecting the real scenery of outside. I could see the curtain, which had yet to open. Many people are getting frustrated, but there is nothing they can do other than wait.

Even someone like shamans and hunters would wait, than enter the curtain in its current state.

I finished the breakfast without hurrying and washed the dishes, before walking out of the kitchen and entering the practice room.

I walked to its center and all the clothes on my body disappeared. The clothes didn't need to be disappeared, but I wanted to feel free, without any burden.

I sat on the ground, and for a second later, an iron ring appeared on my finger.

'They should be enough,' I said, looking at the resources inside. I have added a lot of resources, enough that even if I consumed far beyond my estimates; there will still be resources remaining.

I am being careful this time; a lot of things happened. That could mess with my already delicate breakthrough.

I hoped nothing would happen, but I have prepared for every problem I could.

"Let's begin," I said as I entered my core.

Buzz!

I appeared in front of the humanoid and tapped on it. A moment later, I was expelled from the core and saw the ring had started to spread the runes around my core.

I am working on the upgrade of the breakthrough formations.

It is a huge upgrade that I want to complete before my breakthrough into the Earth Sovereign. I am crafting it for that breakthrough; it will be extremely dangerous; a breakthrough formation plays a big role in reducing the risks.

In just a few seconds, the runes have covered my whole body; there is no single space. Including my irises, where the runes hadn't gone.

At that same time, my core had turned into a semi-liquid and began to spin.

As it did, the essences went toward it and as it moved faster, the amount of them increased. By the time, a minute is over; it is swallowing a massive amount of essence, and it is still increasing.

I watched it with my face turning serious as the resources my core was accepting were more than I thought.

In the last breakthrough, my estimation is near perfect. This time, it will not be. It worried me, but I didn't let that worry consume me. I did what I could and now everything is up to the fate.

An hours and thirteen minutes passed, and my core finally started to slow down. The amount of essence it had absorbed was massive; I fear, whether it would crack apart my core.

I pushed that thought and focused back on my core.

A few seconds later, the core stopped. It didn't remain as such for long as it started spinning again and this time, it began to absorb the energies.

I have created a powerful combination of the energies. Some of the energies I had brought from the market at an amazing rate. It is very hard to find them outside and the things people charge for them are huge.

Like the essence, the core absorbed a massive amount of energies for an hour and six minutes.

'The easiest part of the breakthrough is over,' I said to myself as the core stopped.

I had just that that when I felt the merging begin. Last time, there were seven seconds of break.

This time, it was only a second long.

It didn't take long for the pain to start, and it became intense very quickly, that I needed to grit my teeth hard to bear it. A few minutes later, a couple of veins popped up and blood started to come out of my nose, eyes, and ears.

I bore it because the pain might be intense, but I am not sensing any irregularity in it.

Which is what I want, I don't mind bearing the pain. It will bear it, even if it goes far beyond that.

Every second felt like an hour, that I wanted to open my mouth and scream thousands of times, but I controlled the urge. I tried to bear it; I would open my mouth and scream when it truly became unbearable.

It did pretty quickly, but I kept my mouth shut.

Finally, after god knows how long, the pain had stopped, and I looked at the flawless merging; it had gone better than the last time.

It seemed like, I needed to give the Talaras Constitution more credit.

I may not have meta-scan, but I could still spot a few things in merging, that had a signature of the method.

Without it; the breakthrough wouldn't have been this smooth.

I was thinking about the method when the last stage of the breakthrough begins. The consolidation.

A faint solid-layer begins to appear on the core and it spreads around it, before getting deeper every second. I watched everything with bated breath, looking for the abnormalities, but till now, I have not seen any appear yet.

The core had accepted a large number of energies and essences. If any problem occurs, it will occur at this stage.

Seconds turned to the minutes, but everything went smoothly.

I didn't celebrate too soon; I know how quickly things could go wrong. So, I watched, and every second that passed made me happier till it was the last second.

The consolidation is finished, and I looked at my core, which is now looking like, even more planet-like.

Buzz!

The core buzzed, and a moment later, runes came out and began to spread into every part of my body.

I could see many ancient rune formations flashing in front of me. Seeing them, a smile couldn't help, but appear on my face.

Soon, the runes spread into every part of my body.

Buzz!

The core buzzed again and released thick breakthrough energies. They are thicker than I had expected and so is their power.

My strength started to rise, faster than I could expect. It was really fast that I stopped thinking and let the energies do their jobs. It is more enjoyable to simply watch than to track the rising strength.

Minutes passed and finally, the last drop of breakthrough energy was absorbed by my hungry body.

Taking me formally to the Peak Level of the Sovereign Stage.