Is this really a Game?!

"That's another one." Said Reign as he pulled his sword out of the chest of a monster. It was a monster that looked quite similar to a yak, with the largest difference being its huge mouth with razor-sharp teeth that could easily crush rocks.

The monster hasn't gone through the first evolution yet, but since it was above level 50 it was clear that it had missed its chance, just like the mountain lion and other monsters inside the entrance of the mountain range had. For now, Reign and the others spent about 30 minutes near the entrance, familiarizing themselves with the area and trying to be careful in case a powerful monster emerged.

Their caution however was not needed since they hadn't even come across a Tier I monster yet, not to mention anything more powerful. Well, that was entirely the case.

Thud

Thud

The whole entrance of the area shook as a large monster walked nearby. A giant walked in the valley, its height dwarfing any nearby trees. With a height of 30 meters, it was without a doubt the largest monster that Reign and the other had ever seen, just by its size alone they could tell that they were nowhere near powerful enough to fight something like that

[??? - Mountain Giant - ????? ] - ????

??????

?????

[ The player is not strong enough to get more information from the monster ]

Even after Reign had used his [ Inspect ] skill, he was still unable to get any information about the monster, only that it was a mountain giant, similar to the one they had fought during the jewel hunt challenge. Of course, compared to this one, that giant was nothing more than a baby, one swing from this monster would be enough to kill it.

The giant, however, seemed to be completely neutral, even though it passed next to many monsters it didn't attack any of them, simply walking by and caring not for what it had crushed underneath its feet. It was also quite a distance away from Reign and the others and from what they could gather, it was not an aggressive monster, similar to the behemoths that lived in the grassland.

They still didn't dare come too close to it, just in case it attacked. Reign and the others were fully confident that they could escape from the monster, but they didn't know what kind of ability or skills the monster had, which would make it very dangerous to get attacked by it.

They simply waited for the giant to disappear, looking in awe as the enormous monster started climbing one of the mountains before disappearing as it reached the top. The sheer pressure such a monster brought to not only Reign and the others, but to the monsters nearby was great, enough to make all the monsters stay still in fear as they watched the giant pass through the area.

Reign and the others however simply continued hunting the monsters that were nearby since the giant was too far away from them. Even if it did decide to attack them, they could easily escape from the area since the distance between them was great, about 1.5km ( 0.93 miles ).

After the giant had disappeared, Reign and the others continued their trip, They still hadn't managed to find a single safe zone inside the area, and they were starting to actually doubt if there were any safe zones here. The monsters in the mountain range were simply far too strong for any human to defeat, even if a safe zone existed, nobody would dare come out in order to fight monsters and level up.

Without doing that, the people inside the safe zone would starve since they had no food or water, even if there was a store, how could they afford anything without any S coins on them?

"I don't think there were any humans here at the beginning." Wolf suddenly said.

"Huh, what makes you say that?" Reign asked him as they walked next to a small spring.

"Well, from what we know so far, every single area where people lived, be it huge metropolises, cities, towns, and even villages were always put in areas where there was at least some level 1 to 10 monsters, just like Doncaster," Wolf said with a calm expression before continuing.

"For now, I haven't heard of one instance where people were suddenly thrust into an area where the monsters were much stronger than them, not having the chance to survive."

"That is true, even though there were incredibly powerful monsters in Doncaster, there were incredibly weak ones as well, making it possible for the people to survive and even hunt them." Beast said as he stopped for a minute to think.

"So, there won't be any safe zones here?" Shadow asked from the side with slight worry on his face. If there truly were no safe zones then there would be no way for them to establish a teleport gate and have a quick way to get here. They could always make a teleport gate and try to hide it somewhere, but there was no guarantee that no monsters would come and destroy it.

In the worst-case scenario, a powerful monster could be nearby when they teleported and attack them, which could lead to a disastrous outcome.

"Not necessarily." Suddenly said Beast as everybody looked at him.

"We have even come across some small safe zones in the grasslands, and it was obvious that there were no humans there since the area was too high-leveled for anyone to survive, so I don't think there should be any different."

"Hey, you're right, we didn't need to do anything with those safe zones since the area was quite close to us, but since there were safe zones there, there is no reason as to why there shouldn't be any here!" Shadow suddenly exclaimed with happiness as the other looked at him with a smile. He could truly act like a little child sometimes, but his positive attitude was certainly something that made everyone feel better at times.

"Yeah, so let's go, we should leave this place before evening, even if there were only weak monsters here so far, I don't want to find out if those during the night are much stronger or not," Wolf said as everyone nodded before continuing to walk.

The party searched everywhere, they searched at caves they found at the bottom of some mountains, they explored near the spring and a river, and they pretty much combed the whole valley that could be found at the entrance of the area.

"Well, seems like we got no other choice but to go up." Tank said with a serious expression on his face. They hadn't even tried moving up the mountain as they could feel that it was much more dangerous there compared to the relatively peaceful valley, the monsters were bound to be much stronger and they should definitely come across Tier I monsters there as well.

A safe zone here would have been perfect since they could get others to come here and fight as well, anyone that still hadn't finished their evolution quest or was close to hitting level 50 could hunt the monsters here in order to get more exp. The monsters themselves weren't particularly strong and it would be relatively safe to allow the stronger teams to do whatever they wanted to do.

But if they were to go up the mountain, then Reign and the others were afraid that would be impossible. If Tier I enemies were nearby, then it would be impossible for Cameron and the others to even try and fight against any enemies, even if they could match a Tier I monster in strength somehow, there was no guarantee that another one wouldn't show up and attack them, annihilating all of them.

"Well, I guess it was a bit far-fetched of an idea, after all, the system probably did this on purpose so that something like that couldn't happen." Reign said before they all started making their way up the mountain. Going up not only meant facing stronger enemies but creating more distance between them and the entrance of the area, making it much harder to escape from any danger that might befall them.

Of course, Reign and the others were used to going into dangerous areas and fighting powerful monsters, but what they didn't want to happen was for a much stronger monster to attack them, wiping them out without them being able to put up any resistance.

That risk was one they had to take however, they had no idea where another area that housed powerful monsters was, and even if they did, it was definitely going to take them much longer to get there since all the areas that were nearby had been explored.

This mountain range was without a doubt the nearest to them, not to mention the fact that it might contain even Tier II monsters, which made it ideal for them to set up a base here for long term.