Monster Integration

“It seemed like today won’t be easy,” said Racheal as she took out the stamina potion from the reward box and put it in her pocket before we continued with our journey under the blazing sun.

“We have already expected it, given what we have experienced since the beginning of this test,” I said, taking the sand look at the dead sandworm, which we did not take even a minute to kill.

This is the tenth sandworm of today, and nearly every hour, we are facing one; thankfully, with the artifacts we have, we are killing them fast, getting more things in return, like the seals and potions. The seals we have collected have upgraded our artifacts even further.

“I will like this insistent attack of sand worms is not random, especially when the count in the rewards we are getting after killing them,” she said, and her expression was very serious when she said it.

“You are saying there might be something powerful at the end?” I asked to which she nodded.

The next few minutes were quiet as she was not the only one feeling it; I, too, sensed that there might be something big at the end and the constant attacks and rewards are for it.

The damnest thing is we could not do anything against it; we have to play the game this place is playing and survive. If it were not for that, we wouldn’t have taken the risk of venturing out every single day; we might have just stayed in the safe zone like many humans and Grimms are doing by the day.

A half-hour passed by as we walked under the baking sun; today, we are not feeling anything baking from it; these cloaks are saving us from the harshest sun we have ever experienced in our life.

Though things are not as comfortable as one might expect, there is still some heat we are feeling, which is making us uncomfortable and sweaty.

Hun!

Suddenly, I stopped and, a few seconds later, brought down the binoculars from my eyes. “The Grimm is coming toward us,” I informed.

“Is it alone?” she asked, to which I nodded. ”I will handle it then; you just protect my backpack,” she said and set down her backpack before running toward a huge boulder. When she reached it, she jumped on it, landing on a comfortably twelve meters tall rock.

It would not have been possible a few days ago, but five seals with different abilities could do wonder. At full power, those shoes could take her even higher, which is not the only thing they could do.

She stayed on the rock for a little more than a minute before she jumped down from it and ran toward the Grimm, to its great surprise.

It should have run away, seeing the sheer number of artifacts and seals we have on them; an intelligent Grandmaster Grimm like it would have understood it, but instead, it had made it greedy, and this greed will take its life.

The Snakeman is powerful, to begin with, and it also has a number of artifacts around its body, but they are still nothing compared to what Racheal has, and because of it and her undeniable skills, it is going to lose its life, and it won’t take her a long time for her to kill it.

Still, it is quite surprising to see lone Grimms; in the past six days, humans or Grimms got to know each other very well and formed a group, but there is always a rarity like this one.

It is good with yesterday’s battles; Racheal had gained quite a confidence in her abilities. Yesterday, things became so dangerous that she had to fight against two Grimms alone, and both of them had shields.

She was still able to kill them without taking the slightest help from me.

Soon, both of them got close enough that Snakeman began to shower Rachel with powerful throws of stones, which were being powered by the move it was wearing. I was wondering what it does, and now I know it will be very useful to Rachel, with the new seal she had added to her bow two hours ago.

The stones were fast, but she avoided them as she got closer and closer without firing a shot, which confused it, but it kept throwing the rocks at her.

It didn’t take long for the Snakeman to empty the supply of the stone before it finally took out its sword from its back and ran toward Racheal, who was too running toward it.

Rachel finally acted when there was only a hundred-meter distance between them; she suddenly stopped and fired two arrows one after another. The Grimms had been prepared for it and moved its sword quite fast but found out the speed of the arrows was much faster than its sword.

Still, the Snakeman was quite skilled and able to defend against one arrow, but the other one pierced inside its right eye, which killed a moment later.

“Five seals,” I said with a sigh; the five seals have transformed her power, as the five seals she had attacked worked well together, surpassing the power they are supposed to give by simple addition.

I hate to admit it, but the five seals of her bow are far more synchronized than the seals I have on my sword. If I had such synchronization, my sword would have become even more terrifying.

Seeing her kill a Grimm, I wanted to fight one too, but currently, I am not seeing any Grimm around. Though I have no doubt, I will see them soon, and I will fight them, especially if I see some High-Grandmasters.

This place makes it much easier to kill those bastards than the outside, where they run away feeling the slightest danger.

A few minutes later, Rachal had returned, and she was already wearing the Snakeman’s glove. There is something more; her smile is proof of that.

“What do you get from the box?” I asked, “Something very good,” she said before revealing what she had got.