Monster Integration

“Leaving this early would be dangerous,” said Rachel looking up in the night’s sky, “Do we have any choice,” I asked with a sigh, to which she shook her head.

Yesterday had been hell, and it was due to our own mistake; we showed off too many of our artifacts; we should have learned the lesson from the day before and kept our artifacts hidden.

It was a record for us; yesterday was a record for us; we have killed nine Grimms in total. If it were not for the all healing and stamina potions and upgraded artifacts, we would never have been to deal with so many Grimms and some humans who wanted to take a chance but ran away.

It is the last day of this test, and we are leaving right at midnight, the earliest we have ever left. Thankfully, after all the trouble of yesterday, we were able to reach the safe before the sun went down.

Still, we did not want to suffer the same fate as we had yesterday and thus left earlier, even capping the sleep by half an hour, which we wouldn’t have done if this was not being the last day.

“Nobody seemed to be following us,” said Rachel as she looked around with the night vision binoculars; with how dangerous things have become, even Grimms wouldn’t dare to leave early.

The sand worms have become a menace, especially for the Grimms; half of the Grimms who had followed us yesterday had trouble with the sand worms.

While they are not following us now, with their long legs, they will easily be able to cross the distance in a short time. So, we need to put up as much distance between us and the Grimms as possible.

The journey would not be easy, given how cold it is and there is even a wind, and we are still in the safe zone, where things remain mild. The real challenge would begin when we stepped out of the boundary; thankfully, we got something yesterday that might help us with some things.

Fifteen minutes passed when we stopped and hit behind the dune before taking out the seals from our pockets and beginning to paste them around artifacts upgrading them by seconds.

Today had been a good day; we were able to exchange some of the seals we don’t need with the ones we need, and now each of our artifacts has at least two seals pasted on it; our weapons had three each.

After pasting the seals on the energy artifacts, we finally took out the things we got yesterday in our last battle against the Grimms, which we have fought very close to the safe zone.

We did not even wear them for more than a minute, considering they are kind of flashy, and we had not wanted to attract more attention to ourselves than we already did.

We took out the energy cloaks from the backpacks and wore them; they covered nearly all our body as we wore them; we felt barely any cold, that was until both of us passed the seals on them, and the very minutes, cold we were feeling, had also disappeared.

“This get-up suits you well,” she said, looking at me from up to down. I am only wearing a cloak but also the mask, which I have got from trading earlier; with it, I could forget the uncomfortable cloth I used to wrap around my face; unlike it is an artifact that not only hides my face but give me much greater clarity, including the night vision.

“Let’s go,” I said as I wore my backpack. “I wish we had something for our load as well; it would have made things far easier,” Racheal complained as she lifted her backpack on her back.

“We are already in much better condition than the first day,” I said and took the lead; I still remember the first day and the days after that; they were hell.

It is not the heat or sand that made me feel powerless, but my power or lack thereof; I have gotten used to being a feel like a god, having immense power and the adoration that came with it. This place had razed it all down and made me and every human equal.

It is quite an experience, and I feel like I understand the meaning of this challenge and how its benefits might be much greater than the simple boost of strength.

With our gear, we moved forward at a good speed, we wanted to cover as much distance as possible, and it would be great if we were able to reach the final point of the test without any conflict, but that is just wishful thinking on my part.

There will be conflict; the only thing I can do about it is be prepared, and currently, I am more prepared than I had ever been in the past six days.

“Out of the safe zone,” said Racheal, and welcoming us out was a gust of wind that nearly threw us out of our spot and made us feel chill from head to two.

“What?” I asked Racheal loudly as she said something which drowned by the wind.

“I said it would have frozen us like popsicles if we were wearing our normal insulated clothes,” she shouted, but all I could hear was barely a whisper in this wind.

So, I replied to her in sign language before taking out my spear to be used as a walking stick; she did the same as I took out the pike.

The icy winds are the most powerful we have ever experienced, and with a spear as a walking stick, it is quite difficult to walk in such high wind, and it is a good thing we have these cloaks covering our whole bodies; otherwise, we could forget walking in a such cold wind, which seemed to be getting colder.

Still, we are not complaining because it will keep our enemies out, and even sandworms come out less in such an environment, which is a great plus point.

Last night, we had to face the three sand worms; today, I hope we will be spared by it as right now, even with the aid of these artifacts, we are in no condition to fight.

Even the sandworm will have trouble operating in such a cold temperature.

Half an hour passed, and the winds have remained the same; they were powerful and blisteringly cold. Thankfully, we could still walk without losing our way, with the cool new binoculars and my old clone, who is still extremely useful despite the new artifacts.

Another hour had passed, and finally, I felt the wind slowing down, and this time, it felt real; it was not like one of those times when it slowed down only to become intense. Around ten minutes ago, it lifted Racheal up and threw her down the dune; she was still quite mad about it.

Half an hour passed when the winds have finally slowed down, and it brought a bright, beautiful smile to her face.

“Finally, there is no more crazy wind,” she said happily, and I smiled too when suddenly, that smile on my face froze up. She noticed it immediately, and without me saying anything, she jumped.

The sandworm had come, and from what my clone is telling me, there is more than one.