Monster Integration

We are now just an hour away from the redwater fountain, and I could feel the somberness enveloping the humans deeper every second.

This is a place from which one never returned; I could see the fear and trepidation rising in the hearts of human-like never before; it is starkly visible in their brain scans. Though, there are some people who are not scared or not as scared as the other people.

Like the young women.

Her mind is entirely focused on a different thing; she is making the last bit of preparation to self-destruct her constitution.

I have my eyes on her; her meta-physical scan is always floating in front of me; I will notice even the slightest change that would appear inside her.

She had been in constant contact with these seven people, especially that middle-aged man. He is one of few older people that are here; most of them are below twenty-five.

The age people activate their constitution the most is o to ten years; few awaken in their teens or like this middle-aged man and Leonard, who had awakened their constitution after they crossed thirty.

Suddenly, the Grandmaster Werewolf stopped; it surprised the humans, and some even took a step back, fearing the Grimms would just start eating them.

"Fucking humans; they would shit themselves if I appeared directly in front of them," said the Grimm close to me and wanted to scare some humans, but stopped by its friend, who shook its head, looking at Masters and Grandmaster.

"Fit the humans with the collars," said the Werewolf Grandmaster and threw the storage at the Masters.

The Master quickly caught and distributed the storage inside the storage. These storages did not have storages but alabaster-white neck collars, which they began to put on the necks of humans.

Under the eyes of the Grandmaster, these Grimms are very fast and efficient. They would freeze the humans through the slave seal, which nearly every Grimm could control; how many functions they could control depended on their access which depended on their level.

Within a few seconds, I also had a neck collar on my neck and was quite surprised when I found out that the collar is not the second level of restriction on humans. If the seal failed, but something the Grimms are giving for their protection or, I might say, the protection of their goods.

The collar is a simple energy protection device; it will protect them from the high density of energy that even Emperors are incapable of bearing.

It is not humans who were forced to wear the collars, but I also saw the Grimms begin to take out different artifacts from their storage and wear them.

Every Grimm wore energy protection devices, even Masters; the only one who didn't is a Werewolf Grandmaster.

For some time, I had noticed a constant increse in energy but did not think much about it, seeing we had passed through a couple of areas where the energy had been exceptionally dense. I should guess when Ashlyn said the energy in redwater found is a little dense.

She does not comment on things unless they are important.

After everyone had their energy protection artifacts, the journey resumed.

For the half-hour, the energy increased at the normal pace, but after that, it began to increse at a tremendous pace that the energy protection artifacts around the necks of humans began to activate on their own, and fifteen minutes after that, even Grimm elites and leaders begin to activate their artifacts.

It was ten minutes before I got a good look at the redwater fountain, which is the intersection of all the five regions of this ruin; and heard quite a lot about it, and I have to say, it does not disappoint.

It is the biggest natural fountain I have ever seen; the red shower it spews out is huge and reaches a mile above, and the most amazing thing about it is that it spews out pure water energy and not water; so pure that even Grandmaster couldn't approach it without any protection.

We are still a few miles away from the fountain when the energy has become so dense that even Werewolf Grandmaster took out the energy protection artifact and activated it.

The energy is 80% water elemental, but it had other elemental energies mixed as well, poison, heat, earth, and hundreds of other tiny percentages; these energies are also not so mellowed, so bearing them became twice as difficult.

Soon, we reached the redwater fountain, and I saw the four groups of humans belonging to the other four regions had already arrived. Each group has around a thousand numbers; only the poison river region has more numbers than them, around 30% more.

We had just arrived when I spotted a Grimm Monster and seeing it, I couldn't help but become alarmed. I was hoping this might be not it, but it is.

'So, it is truly alive,' I said in mind as I looked at the Black Sharkman Fasra. A truly powerful High Grandmaster.

It had fought against Lady Vivian about two decades ago, and she said in her remarks that she had left behind Fasra with grievous injuries and that there was a high chance that it might die, but unfortunately, it did not.

The thing is, Fasra is an incredibly powerful High Grandmaster, especially in the water or in the presence of water or water elemental energy. It had been two decades, and god knows if it had made the tiniest improvements, it might just chew me down with a single bite.

For the first time, I felt like I had chewed more than I was capable of, and I could not even run away.

It would have been fine if it had been a regular High Grandmaster, there would have been no need for me to fear it, especially after the advancement I had made, but what is in front of me is a very powerful High Grandmaster, as powerful as the councilmen.

It is above my grade; it wouldn't take long for it to break my shields and kill me with those long sharp teeth of its.

I want to run so badly, but it is already too late. It is too powerful; my tricks might fool Grandmasters or even some High Grandmasters, but they are useless in front of it. I now truly regret taking such a huge risk.

"Lord Fasra, I present you the tribute from the poison river region," said the Werewolf Grandmaster and bowed deeply.

The Sharkman looked at all the humans while its soul sense spread, connecting with each and every slave seal inside the human, and I felt its soul sense connecting with the seal inside me, too; for a moment, I thought it might discover me, but it did not.

It withdrew its soul sense a couple of seconds later, and I heaved a sigh of relief. It would have been a death sentence to be discovered by it.

"Tasd, the poison river region always brings out a higher number of goods with great quality, but this time you have done even better, surpassing the record of two hundred years," said Black Sharman Fasra as it patted the shoulder of Werewolf in joy.