Is this really a Game?!

Reign and the others looked at the map in front of them. The map was made with the joined effort of themselves and Eldar, they managed to find some maps in various stores around the town, as the surroundings of the town had changed tremendously they only gave them knowledge about the town and the many streets in it.

The surroundings were made after Reign and the others went to the surrounding areas with devices given to them by Eldar. The devices were able to scan the whole areas after which they were given back to Eldar as he could fuse that data with the one he already had. Bit by bit they managed to make a functioning map that spanned all the way from the castle and its surrounding areas all the way to the town and its own areas.

The weird thing with the town was the danger level of the areas. Usually, the areas around would be low-level and available to everyone, but the town was different as only the direction towards the castle was a low-level area. The other directions all had stronger monsters. Two areas were filled with monsters ranging from level 10 to 20 while another had monsters from level 20 to 30. After Reign and the others finished scanning that area they decided to go deeper inside and check what kind of place was next to it.

A huge grassland was located right next to the woodlands they were in previously. The previous area was weird as well as the dry trees gave more than enough sunlight compared to the other forests they had previously visited. A myriad of weird creatures could be found there, werewolves, weird vine monsters, and bears that had antlers growing on their heads.

There were also familiar monsters such as orcs, hobgoblins, and such, but compared to the ones in the town they were different and they even came across a group of orcs fighting each other. One group was from the town while the other was from the forest, the biggest difference between the two was the color of their skin. The orcs in the town had gray skin while the ones found in the forest had light-green skin and their faces were more animal-like compared to the others.

They all came to a conclusion that the reason these orcs never entered the town even after being in such close proximity to it was the other orcs, these were probably either lower in numbers or lacked high-level fighters to fight against them.

The grassland however was different. Lions, hyenas, jackals, eagles, and weird tribal warriors could be found easily there. There were big monsters that looked similar to dinosaurs that could be seen occasionally walking through the grassland while the other monsters would run away in fear. Giant elks that had bloody antlers and giant vultures patrolling the sky could also be seen.

The grassland had a very sparse number of trees growing so it was easier to spot enemies and to be spotted. The tall grass growing on it was the only cover they could take while exploring and even then it was hard to evade detection from larger monsters. Even the weakest monster was strong enough to pose a tough challenge to the group if they fought it one on one. The problem was that there were rarely any lone monsters wandering through the grassland as most of them moved in packs of 4 or more.

Reign and the others decided to go back as the area was still too dangerous to them right now, they were going to focus on hunting in the forest and town for now and only come back here after hitting level 30 at the minimum.

As they were returning Reign decided to check his status.

Name: Reign

Level: 28 ( 23 540 / 38 000 )

Class: Magic Swordsman (more info in the class menu)

Race: N? (more info in the race menu)

Attribute points: 6 ( Reign used 10 points to increase his stats )

Strength: 42 (67) (+10 from ability, +15 from item)

Agility: 46 (71) (+11 from ability, +14 from item)

Endurance: 30 (44) (+7 from ability +7 from item)

Vitality: 33 (46) (+ 6 from ability, +7 from item)

Willpower: 30 (50) (+ 6 from ability, + 12 ??? + 2 from item )

Spirit: 40 (64) (+8 from ability, +16 from item)

Proficiencies:

Knife Proficiency D +

Hand to hand combat A +

Sword Proficiency A +

Dual-Wielding Proficiency B -

Skills:

[Inspect ] – Rank B

[Lightning charge] Rank A

[ Lesser Lightning Body ] – Rank B

[ Lighting movement ] – Rank C

[ Lightning Stab ] – Rank B

[ Compact Punch ] – Rank C

[ Lightning Bullet ] – Rank C

[Lighting Arc] – no rank

[ Lightning Discharge ] – no rank

[ Swordsman] – no rank

[ Downward slash ] – no rank

[ Magic Swordsman Heart ] – no rank

[Lightning Spear ] – Rank B

[ Magic Missiles ]

[ Mana Coating ]

[ Mana Slash ]

[ Etherial Truth ]

[ Severing, Sword One ]

Ability:

Lightning manipulation S ( lvl 75 exp: 46%)

Unknown rank ??? ( lvl ? exp ???)

Reign had become stronger, much stronger compared to before. His items were all of good quality, with the worst being some accessory-type items of rank C that gave special bonuses. His body was covered in armor parts all of rank B and his stats had gone up by a big amount. He was close to leveling up, so was Greenie who was now level 25, the Vajra Ogre was strong as well and he had managed to improve by a lot. He told them before that he was feeling some weird sensation in his body previously and wanted to go meditate and try to understand what it was.

They learned from Eldar previously that monsters with such a rich history like Greenie were able to unlock memories from their ancestors and gain power that way, they all were in an agreement that Greenie should focus more on that now and not go out fighting with them. For the past 3 days Greenie would only go out to eat before quickly going back to his room to meditate, he was still unsuccessful with inheriting anything, but he felt that he was incredibly close to it.

On their way back Reign and the others had come across a small hunting party of the green-skinned orcs. The orcs immediately got ready to fight them before a roar interrupted the two groups. A large bear suddenly jumps out from nearby and charges towards the orcs who were right in front of him. The orcs tried fighting back but the bear was too strong, it was a level 30 mini-boss, an enemy that was simply far above their capabilities.

Reign and the others jump in the fray as they release their skills, it wasn't only Reign that had become stronger, each one of them was miles ahead of their power level at the time of the trials. Wolf's ghostly green fire landed on the thick fur of the bear and started burning it immediately, the bear however didn't care and simply continued with his onslaught of the orcs while ripping apart their flesh and eating it.

It was clear that the monster was hungry, there was no other reason why it would jump out and attack a group of enemies so ferociously while simply ignoring another group that was attacking it. Reign and the others of course didn't mind it as it simply made it easier for them to kill it. Reign uses his mana coating as a clear layer of sky blue mana covers his swords before lightning starts dancing on top of them. The mana coating was something all of them were capable of doing before, but his skill was special because it allowed him to fully coat his weapons in mana with much higher efficiency and durability.

They all attack the bear with the orcs. All kinds of skills were thrown its way as the bear's dark, brown fur gets wet from the blood it was losing. It seemed it finally came back to its senses as it started growling in pain while attacking all of them with fury. It was too late however as the myriad of attacks had already done a lot of damage towards it.

Reign had his sword raised high in the air as it trembled. Small sparks could be seen from time to time that would immediately disappear because of the intense vibrations coming from the sword. He jumps towards the bear and slashes down at it. The ground beneath the bear was cut deeply while its head had been severed from the body.

"Severing, Sword One." Reign had managed to learn the skill Jack had used against the huge wolf some time ago. It took him a lot of practice to get the simplest version of it, it was miles away from being as strong as Jack's. The Severing style of swordplay had a total of 21 Swords, Reign was shocked when he heard it, especially after Jack told him that he had only managed to learn 15 so far. It was to be noted that Jack was strong even when put against other Transcendents, but even he was only able to learn 15 so far.

The person that had made the Severing sword was rumored to be a God, nobody had confirmed it though as the skill had been around for a long time. Even after reaching Sainthood, one could use the skill effectively with great results. It only showed that someone that could make such a powerful set of moves was at least at the very peak of Sainthood and that the rumors could easily be true.

After killing the bear Reign and the others immediately pounced on the orcs who were now simply lambs waiting to be slaughtered.