Monster Integration

"Five months and six days," I said as I got out of the healing pool. It took five months and six days for me to heal fully.

The last 1% took more than one month to heal, but now that it did, I could finally create my third clone, which I had been waiting for a long time.

I need it.

Seeing the Grimms dead, one might think, I do not have much need for the clones, but they would be dead wrong. There is more need for them now than it was before, as the challenge is far bigger.

My clones had been working on the Primary-II inheritance the week I had killed the Grimm.

The task is mountainous; there is immense material to study, which will take years, and creating the inheritance will take even more time.

Having three clones working on it will help me tremendously.

As I got out of the pool, I cleaned myself and sat down before upgrading the defenses of the practice room, that now aside from Marina, the professor, and Elina, nobody could come inside, not even members of the council, including old women.

I informed three of them of what I was doing before closing my eyes.

I appeared in my core, where two of my clones were sitting in of pool made of soul crystals, and inside the pool was a solution made of precious resources.

I had prepared everything a few hours ago when I knew today would be the day I would make my third clone.

I once again checked every preparation despite knowing everything was perfect. Still, I wasted a few minutes double-checking, and as I had expected, everything was perfect.

Seeing that, I felt relieved and sat down opposite my clones, and a moment later, the stainless lotus of Primary-II grade appeared in my hand.

I had created nine of these lotuses with the energy from the big Grimm; I have planted more, but there is no need for it to waste precious energy on it when I have already planted some in the runes.

They are going perfectly, and when I return to the ruin, I am going to plant a few more.

That corruption pool will continuously provide me with stainless lotuses and radiant peaches, and this time, even that bloody monster will not going to stop me from harvesting them.

I looked at the lotus and began immediately.

A second later, the runes begin to come out of my head; there are tiny, but thousands in number, and all of them begin to merge in the stainless lotus.

The last level of the first stage is quite hard to comprehend, but thankfully, I had my clones which made things quite easier. Though I had also played a part in comprehending, the help of clones in it was invaluable.

Ten minutes passed, and the stream of runes kept coming till it had finally stopped, and I couldn't help but take a sigh of relief.

'82%,' I thought.

There is no way I could have created the third clone if I had been in the High-Grandmaster class. The soul energy needed is immense. If not for advancing after consuming the big Grimm, the expenditure would have been over 90%.

Buzz!

The buzzed as the runes have covered every inch of it and floated out of my hand into the pool, where it had begun to absorb the energies.

I did not do anything other than watch as the lotus consumed a horrifying amount of energy, not from resources from the pool but from the pool itself.

It is consuming the soul crystal it is made of.

Time passed, and finally, the lotus stopped when it consumed nearly 95% of resources in the pool and pool itself and began to float up.

When it reached my chest height, it moved toward it before it began to seep inside, and soon, the lotus was completely inside me, making me feel cool all over.

Buzz!

I was feeling this cool feeling when the lotus inside me buzzed, and I felt unconscious for a moment; it was not a moment, but seventeen minutes and in these seventeen minutes, the process was finished.

I opened my eyes and saw the clones, which looked like they were carved out of the purest white marble.

"Hello, clones," I said to them, "Hello, Michael," they replied.

By creating these three clones, I have practiced the first level of clone art. It made me excited, not only because of the three clones but the thing they will be able to do now.

To the library, I said them, and immediately, we appeared at the gates of the library and walked inside.

Soon, we reached our study station, and I turned to three clones.

"Merge," I said to them, and immediately, all three of them glowed and began to come closer and closer to each other before beginning to merge, and a couple of seconds later, only one clone remained.

It had changed completely from pure white; it had turned to a glossy black color.

"Read it," I said and forwarded the tome toward the clone; this tome is really hard, some of the concepts there took days and weeks to understand, but once done, the benefits would be tremendous.

A few minutes passed, and a surprise couldn't help but appear on my face.

It is really understanding them quicker than the clones would be far, which made me quite happy, but also a little sad, as I am not going to use this too often.

I know the value of using my brain. Even if these clones are part of me, it is not wise to depend on them too much; I will need to continue using my brain so that it will always remain sharper.

Which will benefit the clones, but if I depend on them too much, the I will regress, and with me, they will regress.

So, the merge is only for emergencies.

"Separate," I said, and they did, and a moment later, they began working on their respective tasks while I got out of the core.