Monster Integration

“The second one,” it had not been half an hour since I had found the wall with the seal when I found the second one.

This one did not just appear but had already been present, and looking at the number on the seal, it is one which I had pasted on the wall in the first hour of arriving.

The mural immediately appeared beside the first mural of the seal I found earlier.

There are over five thousand murals in my core, each unconnected to the other. I have tried different formations and methods, but they are too different that even now, I feel it will be difficult for me to get out of the maze within a week.

Unless, of course, I could randomly find the exit but seeing the way this maze is designed, that would unlikely happen.

Someone had put a great mind into designing this maze; the creator was intelligent as well as powerful. I could feel the restrictions around me for the methods that I didn’t have. With the power of those entered, the only way this method could be solved is by the rules of the creator.

Currently, I have five thousand eight hundred and fifty-two pieces of the mural in my core, and each minute they increase.

Their number would be six thousand by the time the day was over, and the chances of two connecting did not seem much better than before. Though now I have hope, which is different than the chances, which are mathematical in nature, hope is not.

Till now, I have not found a concrete way to solve this maze, but there is hope, and this is only the first day; I don’t think even Grand Lords here would be able to solve this maze in a day.

Despite having all these pieces, not a single one connects to the other, which frustrated me, but also made me feel awe.

This is not something anybody could do; as creating a story is easy, even those with a shred of creative talent could do it with enough time but creating a story that is so vast that one could not connect two pieces, even after collecting the thousands, is something else.

Finally, a day passed, and I had expected I have collected over six thousand pieces of murals and found four walls with the seals.

There was no change aside from the disappearance of the walls, which happened every hour. It had brought a single human, who nodded at me and went on her own away.

I did not tarry either; I was moving fast through the maze, collecting more and more pieces of murals, especially those on the wall where my seals were present.

A few hours passed, and I collected a few more thousand pieces of murals and fought some more Grimms. Two were interesting enough that I had spent more than ten minutes fighting before killing them.

They gave quite a lot of nutrition to my core, too, maturing another group of stainless lotuses to the High-Grandmaster class. It is one of the resources that I hadn’t taken out or stopped the supply of growth energy, nor I ever would.

This is a resource that is always going to be in use, just like the fruits of the metal essence tree and a mysterious tree that produces growth energy.

Currently, I am at my core with an excited smile on my face. I rarely come inside my core, especially with this amount of concentration.

As enemies are everywhere and they have a different methods in their arsenals, the stealthy ones are the most dangerous, they just need to attack me with one powerful attack, and it would be game over for me.

Still, this moment is worth taking a risk; I think I have finally come across the mural that will connect with the other.

“This one,” I said with a smile and connected the new piece of the mural with the one I found a few hours ago.

The moment I connected the pieces, they became one; they did not become one magically, but one could see the continuation of the story through them.

Hun!

As I read the story through the mural, I saw another piece connected could be connected to it and brought it, and as I had expected, it connected, and the story became even bigger.

I looked around but found no other piece that could be connected, but it did not disappoint me. It is already surprising that I was able to connect the three pieces, and all three murals are from the glass walls that had my seals.

Seeing the murals connecting, my heart is now filled with even greater hope.

Till now, I have been only collecting the murals, but now I have connected them; I am sure, if I collect and connect enough, I will be able to find a way to get out of this place.

With that thought, I opened my eyes and began moving again, and in just two hours, I had connected two groups of murals, with one group having four murals in them; like the first, all of them are from the glittering glass walls that had my seals.

Hun!

A few minutes passed, and I collected a few murals when I suddenly stopped; it was a mural that had stopped me.

It was not a mural that had my seal, nor was it the connecting, but still, it had stopped me. The scene painted is something else; it instantly captured my attention and forced me to stop.

There are less than ten murals to have done that here, and this is the most intense among them all and gruesome.

The mural depicts the scene of murder; the painter had painted it with such skills that I felt like it was happening in front of me. I could feel what they were feeling, and before I realized it, I found myself clutching my chest.

It took me a while to clear my emotions, but even after that, I did not move; I kept staring at the mural for nearly ten minutes, a time I had only given to Grimm before I had forced my legs to move.

All the murals are painted to the greatest artistic standards, but some, like that mural of murder, have even surpassed those standards. I very much wished I could take that mural, but unfortunately, it is not possible; not even Grand Lord could do anything to the glittering glass.

A minute after that, I stopped again as I found another connecting piece. I immediately connected it to the first connecting piece, making it a four-piece long mural, like the second mural.

Time passed, and with the passing of time, I found more and more pieces that connected, and I am not the only one; both Grimms and the humans have begun to find them.

I have already seen marks of others on the glittering walls; nearly every wall had marks, and some had hundreds of them.

I have discovered that the walls do not need elaborate seals; one could even paste their aura on it, and it will remain.