Monster Integration

I waited for Runic Door to appear; it will appear within a minute.

The past six days had been a blur, most of my time spent on training and working on my Inheritance which would have been finished by now if not for the new changes I am making.

It will take a few more days for an upgrade to complete; I am doing it while in a dangerous place like this is quite risky, but it is a risk I am willing to take.

Buzz!

Finally, the runic gate had materialized, and I walked inside it without hesitation.

The moment later, I found myself in front of a huge crystal blue lake. The lake is huge and also very beautiful, and it had gigantic crystal lotuses floating on it adds another charm to it.

There is also unnaturally powerful suppression; this suppression had not only fully suppressed my soul power but also my energy; I could not project any form of energy outside my body, there are also several restrictions on using it internally.

Even my physical strength had been suppressed to the huge degree that I could barely project the strength of Knight, and that is making me feel powerless.

People are appearing around me by seconds, not only humans but also Grimm Monsters, but not a single one dared to raise their weapons to attack; all of them are looking at the lake, as everybody is quite sure that this challenge is not about fighting and that is worrying.

It means this challenge is going to be harder than the previous two challenges, and that is not a good thing for the people who had planned to rely solely on their strength to conquer this treasure palace.

"Third Challenge: The Lake Of Will, Cross The Lake To Reach The Beacons In A One Weeks Time." The Mechanical voice said, it did not explain anything else, but just as it finished speaking, bright beacons lighted up from the other side of the lake.

The challenge may seem simple, just to cross the lake, but I don't think it is; there must be something sneaky about the challenge.

"As expected," I said without surprise. 

While I was thinking hard about this challenge, some people acted and entered the lake, and as they step inside it, they immediately stopped with shock and surprise on their faces.

It seems like the water of the lake is something special; people are having a problem moving through it, their expressions are clearly saying it.

Dip!

I watched them for few seconds before I took a step inside the lake, and I have to say the pool is really something.

As my knee completely dipped inside the water, tiredness has spread all my body and soul. The water of this lake seemed to be able to suck the life out of me as I felt tired as if I had fought an hour-long battle.

Dip!

My vitals are stable, and my heart rate is normal, but somehow I am feeling quite tired, and this feeling of tiredness had increased when I dipped another foot into the lake.

I stayed still before I take a step ahead, and as I did, I felt an increase in tiredness and seeing that my expression couldn't help but change. 

If the tiredness has remained stationary, it would not have been a problem to cross this lake within a day with some efforts, but with it increasing at every step, the challenge has become even more difficult.

I begin to take one step after another through this shallow, clear lake, and the more steps I took, the more tired I became, and when I increased my speed of walking, I found I became tired at a faster speed.

Like run, here one has to maintain one's speed; if one goes too fast, one will get tired quickly. 

Still, walking while maintaining the pace is difficult; one would get tired eventually, and seeing the length of the lake, it might take days to reach the shining beacons.

Also, one could not stop and expect the tiredness would go away; the tiredness would still increase, only at a much slower pace. Though the lake seemed to have some things that help one get rid of them instantly.

The huge crystalline lotuses that are floating around the lake have seemed to ward against this feeling of tiredness that lake water projecting on everyone, as long as one sat or laid on it, their expression eased instantly, and looking at the expression of people, it seemed to be doing more than easing the tiredness.

It seemed to give one comforting feeling as people sitting on seemed to smile too much; even Grimm Monsters, who only smile cruelly, seemed to be smiling in content too.

Seeing their content expression, I also wanted to experience these crystal lotuses, but I had stopped myself. 

The things could not be such simple; I don't believe these lotuses are so good and helpful, there must be some game here, and I was right; I was able to see it when people begin to get off the lotuses.

As they got off the lotuses, their expression changed drastically. It is like one moment they were in heaven and hell in another.

As they step into the water, the tiredness seemed to hit them into full force, and this force seemed to really something as I saw the knees of few people shaking as they step back into the water.

Though they got control over themselves after some time, still the effect is quite shocking, and most importantly, these people are still at the edge of the lake; the deeper they go, the more forcefully the tiredness going to hit them.

Now the question is whether I should use the lotus or not. If I do not use it, the tiredness will continue to increase as long as one is in the water, but if they used it, the tiredness is going to hit them at full force, which might make things very difficult for some people.