Monster Integration

I passed through the Runic Gate and found myself standing on a floating white tile which is very high in the air.

In front of me is the sea of tiles; there are thousands of them, hundreds of thousands,  maybe over a million, I can't say for sure as they spread far and wide. Some of the tiles are big, and some of them are small, but all of them are floating and moving in a certain fashion that seemed very chaotic.

As I looked around, I suddenly noticed a thing and that shocked me; the suppression and restrictions the treasured palace had put on me all but disappeared; there is barely any restriction present on me.

I could feel all my strength and know I could use them; there is no retraction on my body, soul, and energy.

To confirm, I do not just imagine the things; I spread my soul sense, and it spread far and wide, just like it used to in the Academy, there is no restriction on my strength, all of them have disappeared.

Though there are still restrictions binding me, I could feel them clearly, I just don't know what they are.

Hundreds of people appearing around me every second, humans Grimm Monsters, all of them have excitement and a look of expectation on their faces. There are also many faces that have a tired look on them and look slumpy.

These people seemed to have barely completed the last challenge and did not get enough rest. If they had rested for few hours, they would have had the freshness that many people have.

For the Emperor's, staying awake for a week is not a big thing; they could remain awake for much more time, but the last challenge was something else; it had tired out even the strongest person in few hours.

As the people appeared, I could feel many eyes on me; many people had seen me finished the last challenge, and I am sure they will keep an eye on me.

I wanted to change the persona I am wearing, but after much thinking, I continued with the fiery ribbony persona; it had its advantages, and I would really like it if some Grimm Monsters throw themselves at me.

With the enhancement, the second Diamond Seal had given me, and changes had brough my energy purity and quality by the sixth floor of Refinement Tower, my strength had increased immensely.

Even if I did not have the strength to beat the strongest here, I have the strength to run away from them, and its not like the strongest will attack me here; they might not even be able to see there are still some unknown restrictions.

"Forth Challenge: Challenge Of Ingenuity." "Collect The Hundred Pieces of Golden Puzzle That  Are Scattered Across The Sea Of Tiles." The Mechanical voice rang out.

Hearing that, I stumped for a moment before various thoughts begin to run through my mind.

'It is going to be a bloodbath!' I thought inside me, and just as I had throught, I saw a Grimm Monster not far from me jumping toward the young women closest to it; one did not need to be smart to see what the Grimm Monster will do to that young women.

It took a second for the Grimm Monster to appear next to the young woman, and it attacked her with a scythe. The scythe approached the young woman, but she did not respond.

Just when Scyth was about to touch her neck, she disappeared, and the next second, Grimm Monster found his head floating in the air, which too disappeared as young women put both parts of its body in her storage and looked ahead as if nothing had happened.

With barely any restrictions in place, there are going to be a lot of fights, and quite a lot of people will die; powerful people will die. Those who can reach this stage are the best of both sides and have to offer, and many of them will die in this challenge.

As for what one has to do in this challenge, it is clear that we have to find some pieces; as for where to find them and how they look, I have no freaking idea, but I will soon find out.

I looked around and saw thousands of people, both humans and Grimm Monsters are moving toward the sea of tiles, searching for a piece of puzzles, and a minute later, one Grimm Monster had even found it.

And before I could get a chance to go near it and see it clearly, one cloaked and masked Grimm Monster appeared next to it and cleaved it two before snatching a piece of the puzzle and its storage before disappearing.

The scenes of Grimm Monsters killing Grimm Monster are uncommon but not rare; I had seen it happen many times. Just like us humans, if one is greedy enough and the thing is worth it, one will not hesitate to kill people of their race.

It could be said, internal killing is much more common in the Grimm Monsters than that in the humans.

There are thousands of tribes in the Grimm Monsters, and most of them did not get along; and if not for strict higher authority governing them and strictly enforcing the rules, these tribes would have fought among themselves instead of fighting us.

Still, their internal fights had helped us humans a lot; if they had been united to the same degree as us humans, we would have wiped a long ago.

Like few others, I did not enter the sea of tiles immediately; instead, I continued watching, seeing how humans and Grimm Monsters behave and how often pieces of tiles are found.

From what I have observed the five minutes, it is not difficult to find the piece of tiles, but one just has to look carefully among the tiles, and eventually, one will find it.

The difficult thing is finding a hundred pieces of it and keeping it to ourselves as within few minutes, hundreds of people died under the blade of those who wanted the piece of a puzzle they had found.