Monster Integration

A star flew through the darkness before stuck on my wrist, merging with a star that was already there. As it did, the darkness began to disappear, and I gripped my sword hard to deal with any challenges that came across me.

Even those who attacked without warning made me mortally wounded not long ago.

It had been one and half months since I had come inside this thing, and constantly doing challenges after challenges; is tiring and also exhilarating.

I am also improving fast; the boost here is slowly pushing back my absolute limit. The strength I had got here in one and half months would have needed me years to gain.

It is extremely hard to push against the absolute limit of people, especially someone like me, who is already bending the rules of power. Even those of the greatest inheritance and bloodlines are not a match for me if we are on the same level.

I am more than happy to receive the boosts; they are increasing my power little by little, which is useful but would be far more useful when I break into the Grandmaster; that is when this boost will give me its greatest benefits.

I want to see how long the boost will push back my limit as my every cell of me begins to fight back against the boost.

The scene cleared in front of me, and I looked for danger, but I did not find the danger; instead found a huge scroll in front of me, which had a complex runic equation written on it; only half of the equation was visible, for the other half, I will have to unfurl it.

“Finally,” I said as I looked at the scroll, and beside it was two doors; one would take me out while the other took me to the next test.

I do not have interest in two doors as I am more interested in a scroll; it is what I have been waiting for and will take me to the thing for which I have entered this place.

This scroll is what is called an extra challenge; unlike most challenges that you have to do or fail, these ones you could ignore without any apparent consequences.

I looked around, and when I did not see any problem, I gripped the scroll and unfurled it fully; it took me a few minutes to understand the equation, and when I did, a smile couldn’t help but appear on my face.

“Interesting,” I said; the runic equation is quite interesting; it is a type I have never solved before but have confidence I could solve.

I sat down and closed my eyes, and immediately, I appeared in my core in front of my close, who is looking at the copy of the scroll in front of it. It had already begun solving it, tens of runes could be seen below the scroll, and I started too without wasting even a second.

You might be allowed to go lax on other challenges but not on the extra challenge.

One has to solve these extra challenges the quickest way possible; that way, they will not only get a higher score but will also get another extra challenge sooner; the more challenges you excel, the more you get before you gather enough pieces to go to the place you want.

The equation in the scroll is quite difficult, which couldn’t help but put a big bright smile on my face. I love these things; the harder they are, the more fun I will have.

Hour after hour passed, and before I knew it, it was six hours, but I was not done with the runic equation. Though I have come quite close to solving it, I don’t think I will need even half a day, which I had initially expected.

“Done,” I said as the solve equation produced the answer, it took me seven and half hours to solve it, which itself spoke of the complexity this equation had.

I did not immediately get out of my core and instead double-checked my answer, which had turned out to be right. I immediately got out and began to write down the answer on the scroll with the brush that had been attached to it.

Buzz!

A moment after I finished writing my answer, the scroll lit up immediately and transformed into a golden piece of tile in the shape of a piece; looking at it, it seemed like I would need to collect nine of these to create a complete circle.

‘I should be able to do it,’ I thought, looking at the golden tile piece, which is proof that I have passed this test exemplarily.

Now, I just need to ensure not to dilute the color as I collect more pieces and maintain this golden color with more golden tile.

The color of the tile piece becomes dense or diluted when other tiles get connected; the golden is highest, so I have to maintain; only through it will I have a 100% chance to get what I want.

Click!

I looked at the piece for a minute more before I opened the minutes more and stepped inside. This time, there was no star or darkness that was usually when I passed through the gate; instead, I got directly transported to the bright place.

“Cross the sky bridge,” I said as I read the floating board in, and in front of me was a bridge made of black rocks which are loosely connected to each other. This bridge is high in the sky, so high that I could barely see the ground below.

I also noticed that my powers got sealed, not tightly as it had happened during the desert challenge, but still tight enough that I could not even use 1% of my power.

I do not like my power to be sealed, but it is happening a lot that I got used to it. Thankfully, this challenge was going to be short; I could already see the gate on the other side.

Though, not for a single moment did I think this challenge would be easier; I had made that mistake before and nearly ended up failing in the simple-looking challenge.

This time, I will not repeat that mistake.

Hun!

So, after looking for a few seconds, I saw took a step on the first stone of the bridge, and immediately my expression changed.

The stone is loose; it is fixed in the air but not stable enough. Just now, when I took the step, the stone moved, wanting to flip me down. Thankfully, I moved my lead fast enough that I was able to balance the stone and stop myself from falling.

‘It is going to be tricky,’ I said in my mind; the first stone had nearly made me fall down; I am beyond sure the next stone would be even more difficult.

I was right; the second stone was more difficult, and the third stone was even more. By the time I reached the tenth stone, I had no confidence in whether I would be able to complete the challenge.

It is too damn difficult.