Is this really a Game?!

The base atop the mountain was deathly silent as all the demons that had been present fled the area. Reign and the others didn't bother chasing them down, not only would they not get any good exp from the demons, but they were also exhausted after fighting against the Tier III demons who were without a shred of doubt the most powerful enemies they had faced so far.

Still, the demons were not the most powerful creatures that Reign and the others had seen.

Let alone Zeus and the others gods that Reign and the others had met, the giant that walked through the mountain range, and the flood dragon that could be found in the lake in the middle of the IronBark Woods were both stronger.

Previously they thought that perhaps they might have a chance to fight and kill or force the dragon to submit to Beast, but it was only now after they had gone up against powerful Tier III creatures that they realized that the dragon was still above their capabilities.

Why such a powerful monster was placed inside the forest where no Tier I creatures existed, nobody knew.

It might simply be a cruel way of the system playing with them and other humans, it might even be a mistake, or a so-called bug in the system just like at the beginning where a level 25 Field Boss was placed near the castle, back when a wyvern appeared to kill the tiger and an even more powerful Wolf had shown up right in front of the gates of the castle.

Reign and the others had no way of knowing exactly why or how all those things happened, and they were not even close to being powerful enough to learn the truth about them.

The Earth was supposed to be a normal planet that the alliance would integrate into itself if they managed to pass, but suddenly they changed their mind, the value of the planet had skyrocketed and Gods had even shown interest and had chosen champions that would bear their marks.

Eldar had told them the reason why Earth was considered to be special was unknown to him, it was something way above his paygrade and perhaps only gods knew of the reason. After Reign and the others had evolved and reached Tier III, something had changed with Eldar, Jack, and the Queen, only Drayce was seemingly unaffected.

They had all suddenly become Tier II.

The Transcendents, whose main purpose was to guide the players and explain the rules of the system to them, were always under great restriction.

Not only could they not use their true powers, but they were restricted by a huge amount as the system disallowed them to fight. Only in special circumstances, like back when the Alpha Direwolf had appeared or when Reign had taken over the warehouse in the town.

Both times were special and Jack and Eldar were allowed to fight for a short period of time.

The Alpha Direwolf had appeared because of the bug in the system, which unknown to them, was the appearance of Raizel whose mere presence had sent ripples through the system and Earth itself. Because the Alpha Direwolf was not supposed to be near the castle at all, the system had allowed Jack to kill it, which was the first time that Reign and the others had witnessed the power of the [ Severing, Sword One ].

The second time a Transcendent was allowed to fight freely with his current power was when Reign took over the warehouse. As he was the first to start conquering new territory, the system had made some leeway for him.

It had made it much easier to defend the warehouse as Eldar was allowed to fight. If Eldar was not allowed to fight, then Reign and the others would not only have to abandon the warehouse, but they would have very likely died since the Ape had appeared back then.

Eldar and the others, even though they were Transcendents, were weaker than Reign and the team as their powers would reach the middle of Tier II back then. Now, however, they were as powerful as peak Tier III combatants.

Reign and the others still didn't understand why exactly the Transcendents were so powerful even with all the restrictions the system had placed on them. For a Tier II combatant to possess the power of a peak Tier III being was simply too much.

They were all incredibly excited, however, as Eldar had told them that if they were successful at defeating the demons and destroying the base, he would tell them the reason. It seemed that he was unable to tell them why thanks to the system restricting him, but if they were able to fight against and win against enemies that were more powerful than them, they would show more value to the system and it would unlock more functions, which would, in this case, be information.

The battle was not easy, all of them were injured, but the injuries were not nearly as grave as they were back when they fought against the Tier III monster in order to complete their evolution challenge.

They quickly ran away from the base, however, as the other Tier III demons had come back. It seemed that they had somehow found out about their reappearance, which Reign and the others attributed to the fleeing demons who might have reached them and given them the info.

Of course, they didn't remove the possibility of some demons possessing communication crystals which they used to get in touch with the Tier III demons.

How they found out, however, was not important. What was, was getting the hell away from the mountain.

Reign and the others spent the next 2 hours fleeing.

The enemy was hot in pursuit of them and they had to even exchange blows from long-range a couple of times. The enemy was fully rested and healthy while Reign and the others were injured and exhausted, the mere fact that they managed to escape spoke volumes of their power.

After managing to escape, Reign and the others spent the next couple of hours finding their way back. Even with Beast using his eagle to look around, it was hard to recognize all the mountains as they didn't really look where they were going during their escape.

After finally reaching the first mountain and entering the safe zone, they all exhaled deeply in relief before going back to the territory.

They couldn't wait to talk with Eldar, but they were in dire need of getting some rest. They dragged their weary bodies back to their building before they all showered and went to bed. After what they had managed to do, they deserved the next couple of hours of sleep they got.

After waking up and having breakfast, they all made their way to the castle before going through the teleport station inside and arriving at the door of Eldar's office.

Before they could even knock on the door, Eldar's voice could be heard from behind it.

"Just enter, you know that I know you're there, why bother?"

Reign and the others smiled at his words, Eldar had always been quirky and usually spoke casually to them, a far cry from the serious behavior he had shown during the monster siege he had single-handedly defeated back in the town.

The team all entered and sat down, Eldar seemingly knew that they were there because their battle yesterday had been a success.

"You know, it's not that I am underestimating you guys, but did you really manage to win against higher-leveled Tier III demons, that's not an easy task at all, you know?"

"Yeah, we were lucky that only 5 of them were there, and we managed to kill the weakest one immediately with a sneak attack, while Laura and Beast took care of their array, the rest was easy, well, as easy as fighting mid-ranked Tier III opponents could be." Reign said with a smile as Eldar shook his head, even Jack, who was sitting opposite them, had a small smile on his face.

"You know, we should be pretty much immune to the surprises you guys give us at this point, but it seems like they won't be stopping for a while now, what's next, you guys planning on killing a peak Tier IV enemy immediately after reaching Tier IV or something?" Jack asked them with an uncharacteristic smile on his face.

"Yeah right, maybe in our next lives," Shadow said as Jack chuckled a bit.

"Alright, well, I guess you are here to hear what I promised that I would tell you, right?" Eldar asked them as they all nodded their heads.

They didn't doubt that one day, they would reach the Transcendent realm, if they could learn more information about the realm and just what one would go through after reaching it, they would have an easier time becoming stronger faster than other Transcendents.

"Well, I guess I did promise you, and you did deliver on your end, so alright, where should I start?"