Monster Integration

"Ahhhhhh!"

It screamed the moment blood started to gush out of its neck; usually, such injuries are nothing to a powerhouse like it, but in this place, they are fatal, and this Lionman was barely holding on before.

Injury is a minute thing; what is important is that Ashlyn had torn through its protection, giving the dense curse energy to infiltrate its body. 

The Lionman is screaming as it tries to bridge the gap in its protections, but all its efforts are turning into nothing; things are becoming even worse for it.

A curse begins to spread into its body, its huge red body turning into faint orange, and the protection covering 99% of its body is also withering away fast.

It seemed to understand the severity of its predicament as it looked at the Opel thistles longingly before it started to get up; it is clear that it is planning to leave, and I have no intention of stopping it just like before.

No matter what, I will not risk my life against it to kill it, it would be another thing if Ashlyn had been in danger, but thankfully she seemed content after making a single move.

Thud!

It had just gotten up and about to shoot outside when suddenly its body began to glow orange, and it collapsed on the floor writhing.

It seemed to be in intense pain as it writhed on the ground, but no sound came out of its mouth. Its body also turning into a darker and darker shade of orange and dried up.

A few seconds passed, and it had stopped moving, and its body began to fall into a dried piece of dark orange before turning into the dust. Seeing that, I couldn't help but shudder; there was a lot of orange dirt around me.

What the curse had done is not unknown to me; there is detailed information on how it reacts with living but a huge difference between reading it and seeing it happen with my own eyes.

I was not able to reach for a couple of seconds from what I saw, and when I did, I walked toward the Grimm Monster and soon appeared besides its orange dust.

Chew Chew 

Ashlyn chirped at me and threw a Lionmans storage at me; I am sure she had taken the things she needed from the Grimm Monsters and now handling the leftovers.

"Don't do something like that again, or we will leave the ruin immediately; I do not want any unpredictable element, Ashlyn," I warned her, and it is truth. 

I do not want any unstable element; while some of her risks are acceptable, some are completely unacceptable, no matter how great its rewards are.

Chew Chew 

She chirped at me angrily and flew away; she will listen to my warning; she knows when I am serious. While my warning would not stop her entirely, she would take risks as this; attacking the Grimm Monster was too much.

The Grimm Monster itself was not a problem; the problem would have come after if it had not been killed within a time.

I shook my head of those thoughts and collected the artifacts on the Grimm Monsters' body before collecting the Opel thistle; I hope I will find the answer in its storage on why it was zealously collecting it.

I have no plan on checking the storage right now; I did not want anything to distract me from reaching my target as soon as possible.

Another hour had passed, I had collected few more resources on the way while avoiding four monsters and one Grimm Monster. While Ashlyn is not talking to me, she is doing her job as the scout as before.

The energy was getting denser and denser, and the monsters I had been encountering were getting stronger.

Currently, my methods are working fine, much better than I had expected; there is barely any strain on me despite curse energy becoming denser.

Still, I feared something might go wrong, and my protection would shatter, and once that happened, I would die.

I am like a sea explorer who is exploring the deep sea with his little sub. I am fine as long as nothing happens to my sub, but if something happens then, I will die.

Forget the oxygen; the pressure of the water would kill me within a second. I am in the same state, which is why I could not even fight if something happened to my formation; I die.

Time passed by, and I moved closer and closer to my destination while avoiding the Grimm Monsters and monsters that I found on the way while harvesting the plants I needed.

A Lady Luck seemed to shine on me as on the way; I have come across a space which was filled with precious plants. It was no garden, just a space where a couple of precious plants had grown.

It took me nearly half an hour to harvest it all before I continued with my journey, and a little more than an hour later, I reached my destination.

It is a building within a building; it is big and had red color originally before the orange glow had covered it.

This is building is known as 'Teoldo Hall,' and according to the information I have received to houses someone private treasures, likely 'teoldo' person.

The gate to the hall is covered in broken runic formation, and unlike Astral Garden Tower, it is perilous. 

If I made any mistake solving this incomplete formation, many dangerous formations would activate and wipe me out before I could even utter a breath.

Not only the door of the hall is dangerous, but the inside of the hall is also dangerous. If I am able to enter inside, I will have to be careful at every step.

Both humans and Grimm Monsters have entered this hall, and many came back with fortune while many have also lost their lives in it. A huge danger exists there, but I have to take the risk because what I need is inside the hall.