Monster Integration

Dip!

I took a step inside the pool and immediately felt a refreshing feeling, but I also felt the heaviness, which would increase with every step.

One has a week to finish this challenge; after that, they are out; if they do not get out, no it sends one to another challenge which is not only more difficult but also dangerous, and if they fail in that too, they will be sent to even more dangerous mission.

It will be continued for four weeks before they are thrown out of this place, but most wouldn’t survive, as those with the ability to survive would clear the challenges easily.

There is a debate among humans about who killed the humans most here, the challenges or the Grimms. Usually, the answer is Grimm, with them being mortal enemies and all, but here it is different.

A few seconds later, I dipped another foot in the lake and began to take the steps, which increased the cleansing effect and weight at the same time.

The effect of the lake is different for everyone; it works proportionally to the strength of the body and soul; the purer the person’s soul and body are, the more pressure they would feel because it is the purer body and soul that require the greatest efforts purify them even further.

Within a minute, my body got nearly submerged in the lake; the body below my neck was completely underwater, even half of my neck, just like the humans and Grimms in front of me.

It does not matter what size you are; it will submerge you to the neck.

It took a few minutes, but two humans finally noticed me, and a few seconds later, the Grimms, all of whom had a comical horror appearing on their faces.

In the past few years, quite a few rumors have appeared about me in the Grimms, but the one that spread the most that me eating the Grimms. It is said that I love to eat the Grimms alive, which is why I have captured them with my strings and caged them somewhere that even powerful Grimms could not find them.

I don’t know who spread the rumors; it is not the coven because they tried to tamp it down as it increased my notoriety among the Grimms.

Well, I am happy as long as the rumor is not about me eating my fellow humans.

Two hours passed when another Grimm behind me, a familiar Grimm; though the information had said it was a Grandmaster, it had turned out to be a High-Grandmaster. Seeing me, a clear flash of fear couldn’t help but appear in its eyes.

It controlled its emotions quickly but did not step into the lake for nearly half an hour before dipping its toes inside.

I did not care for it, especially when it did not even have a bloodline; I focused on crossing the lake, whose pressure was increasing with every step. Currently, the pressure is fine, and I could much faster, but I decided to maintain a steady pace.

Things going to get very hard for me; I don’t know whether I will be able to cross the lake in time; unlike these people ahead of me, my soul and body are much purer than theirs. Despite being a Master, my soul and body are nearly as pure as the Grand Lords, who have the purest souls and bodies.

Now, this lake is going to grind them like they have never been before, but if I pass the test, I will receive great benefits, which would be extremly beneficial to me when I level up to the Grandmaster class.

So, no matter how difficult it is, I will have to pass this test.

A day had passed, and I continued moving at a similar pace while the water continued to seep the energies inside me, performing the gentle cleansing with every step that continued to become heavier and heavier, but still, my pace remained unchanged.

In a single day, I had already crossed more than a third of the lake, and if I continued moving at such speed, it wouldn’t take me more than two and half days to cross the whole lake.

I wish that would come true, but it would not as the pressure has continued to increase, and it will till I will be forced to slow down my pace. I wonder when that time is; I hope it will be after I have crossed 90% of the lake.

It is not the first time I have been in this type of test; I remembered a few years ago, I had passed through the lake such as this, and that challenge was much easier than this; I have crossed through it in a record time, a feat which will be quite hard to replicate in this challenge.

Another day passed, and I had nearly crossed 75% of the lake with my unchanging pace, but now doing that would be quite difficult.

The pressure has become so great that in a few hours, I wouldn’t be able to maintain this unchanging pace. I will need to make changes.

It took me around five hours before I was forced to slow down the pace, I could continue with the previous pace, but it would be detrimental in the long run. So, it would be better if I slowed down on my own to save energy that I would use later.

Another day passed, and five Grimms reached the door, while the two humans slowed down their faces a lot; the five Grimms were waiting by the door to attack the humans.

One could be attacked in the lake, but the power of the attack is reduced a lot, which is why they are waiting by the door to finish the job they could not do earlier. The humans are looking at me with hope, but all I can give them is a smile as I try my everything to take one step after another.

It had become difficult for me to take the steps under this intense pressure which was making me feel like there was a mountain on my face, but I had to do it.

Another day passed, and my pace had slowed down even further with the sweat pouring out of every part of my body which I could spend any effort to stop as every bit of my effort was done to take the step ahead and save the pitiful humans who have come beside me and now walking an ant pace.

They have no choice; the five Grimms are above what they could handle with their power. They might have some chance to escape if they had been outside, but here, it is very hard when the Grimms are standing right in front of the door.

So, to save them, I began to put more and more effort into every step of mine, and finally, at the end of the sixth day, I reached the end of the lake that now only ten some meters have remained for me to cross.

Click!

“We will see you ahead, humans!” shouted the five Grimms at two Masters before opening the door and walking through it one after another before not a single one of them left.