Is this really a Game?!



'Controlling an artifact that was made by a Saint…' Reign had to admit, such a thing was incredibly tempting.

After all, one had to know that not all Saints had Saint-ranked artifacts with them, only those who were already established and possessed enough power or backing. 

Creating such an artifact took not only a lot of time but also a lot of materials that one needed to gather. The materials themselves would take years to collect for a normal Saint, and that was if they were lucky.

Reign briefly thought of how incredibly powerful he might be upon taking control of the artifact before he discovered something. If he was to take control of the artifact, would he become over-reliant on it?

Would he stop honing his skills and would deal with any problem that arose with the artifact?

That might make him weaker than others at the same level, but thanks to the artifact, nobody would know until he became a Saint and it would be too late for him to regret the decision as others who had artifacts of similar power would be able to wipe the floor with him.

'If I do get it, I need to use it only when there is no other choice, otherwise, I might become lazy and weak.' Reign thought as he pierced a monster through the neck with his sword before flicking his wrist and decapitating it.

Aethion nodded with a satisfied smile inside Reign's consciousness. He thought the same as Reign, and if the latter didn't identify the possible problem soon, he would have told him himself.

"Reign, what do you think we should do when we get to the bottom and reach the artifact?" Liara suddenly asked Reign from behind, causing him to sigh.

"That's what I've been thinking for a while now."

"The artifact is dangerous, even before it lost control, there was no saying whether or not it would peacefully allow you to take it, but now, it is quite obvious that the artifact doesn't want to be controlled." Reign sat down on the monster he killed, ignoring the blood that was continuously spewing out of the wound he had created next to him.

"I've already told you before that I have fragments of the soul as well, even though they're not fused with me, I might be able to use them in order to tame the artifact, of course, that is merely a guess."

"It's obvious that the artifact is not too powerful for us to tame, its power is probably at the Tier V realm, which although very dangerous, was not impossible."

"Can we tame it together?" Liara asked Reign who nodded his head.

"That's one option that I've been thinking of, if both of us can simultaneously get to the artifact and attempt to tame it, there is a possibility of both of us managing to take control, allowing us to more easily go against the spirit, of course, that is simply a theory of mine, a possibility that might or might not exist." Reign said before he sighed.

"Honestly, this is just getting more and more complicated, I'd rather the challenge told us to simply go to the demon stronghold and destroy it, that would have been much simpler." Reign said before he stood up and walked toward the exit of the current layer.

"I guess we will only know what to do once we get to the bottom and fight against the artifact, we'll probably have to face off against the guardians as well, or maybe not, who knows?" Reign asked as he chuckled before moving.

They spent the next couple of hours moving deeper and deeper while fighting the monsters and making sure none of the people with them died.

With Liara and Reign being able to use more mana, as well as Reign's soul power, which he rarely used since he wanted to save as much as possible for the final battle with the artifact, nobody died even when they went against Tier IV monsters, but of course, there were plenty who got injured, some were no longer able to fight properly either.

The dungeon seemed endless and people started asking themselves if it was even possible to get to the bottom. They were now going up against high-grade Tier IV monsters, and even though there were not many of them that they were fighting against each time, they were incredibly dangerous.

The mere thought of going up against Tier V monsters made their skin crawl as they knew that it would be almost impossible for them to fight them without suffering any casualties.

Reign was using his swords to their fullest as he continued fighting the monsters without stopping for even a moment. Basred and Siggurd did the same as they used their abilities in short bursts, which allowed them to deal high damage to the monsters before finishing them off.

More and more people got injured, especially when they got to a layer that had only peak Tier IV monsters in it. All of them were incredibly powerful and large, their bodies allowed them to tank massive damage before dying, and their size only helped with dealing against larger groups of enemies in such a battle.

Even Reign's swords had trouble cutting and penetrating through the thick fur and scales of the monsters they faced. He was now able to use a lot more mana compared to before, which helped him out immensely, but he was still not nearly at his peak, which meant that he wasn't able to deal with more than one Tier IV monster by himself.

Many of his teammates had to group up and fight against the monsters, and Siggurd and Basred were the ones who were doing the most together with Liara and Reign.

As the first battle against the peak Tier IVs finished, the entire group was sitting on the ground, most of them heavily panting. Those that could heal were healing the ones that got injured, and Basred, together with Siggurd, Alistair, Liara, and Reign were looking at them from the side with troubled expressions.

"This can't go on, most of them will certainly die if we go up against Tier V monsters," Basred said as he glanced at the people he had brought here with them.

"I agree, but we also can't simply let them stay here, otherwise many will certainly die." Reign stated from the side as he sighed.

"We continue forward, as for the monsters, leave them to me, I have something that will help us deal with them, I have been keeping it for the Tier Vs, but if the situation calls for it, I'll go all out against these guys too." Reign said as he got ready to use his soul manipulation in order to deal damage to the Tier IVs.

He had used it previously, but mostly to just annoy the monsters and make them a bit sluggish in order to help the others. Now, however, he was ready to use it to destroy their souls if he needed to.

'None of these monsters have a normal soul either, just what the hell is the artifact's power?' Reign asked himself as he glanced at Laura who was healing the injured together with the other healers.

After about 20 minutes of resting, they all moved again and it only took 2 minutes for them to get attacked by Tier IV monsters again.

Reign suddenly walked forward as five monsters were charging straight at him. He extended his hand before using his soul manipulation to send multiple soul blades at them. With the monster's souls being nothing more but a fusion of multiple souls, they were unable to defend their souls, and compared to other beings of the same realm, their souls were many times weaker.

One large soul blade proved to be enough to actually kill a monster. In an instant, the five large Tier IV monsters who were charging at Reign collapsed, making the rest of the group stare at him in shock and wonder.

"To think they were this fragile, I actually didn't even need to use this much power to deal with them."

'This is good, with this, I can deal with all the monsters myself and still have more than half of my soul power left when we get to the artifact.' Reign told himself as he clenched his hand and smiled dangerously.

"Let's go, I'll take care of the monsters." Reign said before Basred suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

"There's no need for you to kill them all, the group can deal with a couple without suffering casualties, just make sure not too many attack us and we will be fine, you need to conserve as much power for later." 

Reign thought for a moment before nodding his head at Basred and moving forward. And just like that, the next hour was spent by them passing through 2 layers which all had peak Tier IV monsters. 

There were no casualties at all as Reign's power was enough to eliminate the danger and allowed them to get rid of the monsters easily.

But now, as they stood at the exit of the current layer, they all had grave expressions plastered on their faces as they all felt danger coming from the exit. The next layer had Tier V monsters, they were all certain of it.