Is this really a Game?!

Boom!

A spear made of flames zoomed past Reign as the latter dodged it before it hit the wall of the underground arena and exploded. Fierce flames appeared as the temperature inside the arena rose by a couple of degrees. Ever since Wolf had managed to evolve, his connection with his ability had risen to a higher degree. Not only was he able to use his flames in a more efficient manner, but their power had risen as well.

That however was not the most important, Wolf had managed to get lucky and find a powerful item with flame attributes. To be more specific it wasn't an item, but a type of lotus that was growing inside an incredibly hot area they had passed by. Upon seeing how Wolf's eyes were glued to it, the leader of the party, who had gone through the second evolution at that point, decided to get it for him.

Not only was the plant beneficial to Wolf for his evolution mission, but it also unlocked one of the three requirements to evolving his ability to rank S. As Wolf and the others grew more powerful, their abilities were slowly nearing the limit for their ranks. In Wolf's case, his rank A ability could level up all the way to level 150 before it would stop.

Of course, an ability wasn't everything and the more powerful Wolf became, the more powerful his ability would be. But ranking up and continuing to increase the level of his ability was incredibly important for not only him, but everybody. Laura for example had a rank B ability and she had hit the ceiling when it came to the ability's level before starting the challenge.

Unfortunately, there was nothing any of them could do in order to help her since improving the rank of one's ability was something that was entirely up to them. It was thanks to that that all of them were in a bit of a hurry. Even though they knew that a rank A ability was very rare to have in the world right now, they didn't want to be left behind by Reign whose starting point was higher compared to anyone else. Only 13 people in the whole world had a rank S ability like Reign, perhaps right now there were more, but Wolf and the others highly doubted that, not only was it incredibly hard to improve the rank of ability from A to S, but the person had to be powerful and have a good understanding of the ability as well.

All of them were given marks by different gods, even Wolf whose mark was given by Miriam who was incredibly powerful was still unable to rank it up, even though he was probably the closest to having a rank S ability, together with Shadow of course.

Both of them knew that it was only a matter of time before their abilities became rank S, but they would of course prefer it to be sooner than later. Beast and Tank as well had marks that complimented their abilities and they would of course also improve them, but they had just recently improved their abilities from rank B to rank A so it would take longer.

It was Laura who had the biggest problem, even though her starting point as a possessed allowed her to inherit some of the demon's powers and even improved her ability, she couldn't get a mark and could only use the demon's powers as a reference in order to improve.

Of course, there was always the possibility of a powerful god that was at the tier of Ancient or Supreme giving her a mark, but those beings were very rare in the universe and most of the time they wouldn't meddle with mortals.

"Well, you certainly have become much stronger, man." Reign said as he wiped off the sweat from his face. The intense heat from Wolf's flames was hard for even him to resist, of course, the same could be told for Wolf who had a lot of trouble with Reign's lightning.

The basement had a healing array installed and as long as the people fighting were below Tier II, the array would make sure that death was impossible. It was only thanks to that that they were able to go all out during the sparring session, something that was impossible before.

"The new upgrades to the building sure are incredible." Said Wolf as he sat down on the floor next to Reign who nodded his head.

"Greenie said there were even more buildings that he had created in order to make the territory better, we should check them out later."

"We should also upgrade some of the important ones, the training facility, monster fighting facility, stables and auction house all need to be further improved, well, the auction house is probably the one that can be left alone for some time, but more and more players are getting close to the first evolution, we can't allow them to stagnate after that," Wolf said with a serious expression as he stared at Reign.

"I agree, but that will have to wait until the others arrive, well, depending on how long they take we might do it without them, but there's also the problem with my sword, I need a lot of stuff and S Coins in order for Adrian and the elf smith to fix and improve it, I just hope we'll have more than enough money when we all get together."

"Yeah, I guess it's time for all of us to start looking for some rank S items, our old weapons will no longer be enough to help us during tough fights, unfortunately."

As the two were talking, they suddenly got up from the ground and jumped sideways as multiple shadow vines came at them. Reign and Wolf quickly took care of them before staring at the entrance of the basement where Shadow was looking at them with a wide grin on his face.

"Great reflexes guys, that was really good."

"You little bastard!" Both Reign and Wolf shouted as they sprinted towards Shadow and attacked him. Thanks to the healing array there was no reason to hold back, of course, Shadow had no idea that the basement had a healing array so he was alarmed by them.

The next couple of minutes were spent in battle, Shadow did his best to dodge and defend against their attacks while being in great panic, only after getting stabbed by Reign did he realize that his wound was immediately healed, upon which both Reign and Wolf stopped and started laughing.

"Hey, that, that was just mean guys, I thought you were really trying to kill me!" Shadow pouted as the two men laughed even harder before hugging the guy. As the three talked they made their way up to the fourth floor. All of them went to their respective rooms in order to take a shower and refresh a bit before meeting in the living room.

The first thing that Shadow noticed after arriving in the living room was the weird atmosphere. Upon sitting down, Reign and Wolf started speaking, they told him everything, the fact that mana existed in the world before the game, the fact that there were thousands of groups that were called orders who could use mana and become more powerful.

Reign of course told him that their fathers were co-leaders of one large-scale order and that Wolf's father was also a member of that order. The new information made Shadow widen his eyes in shock as he slowly processed it. After a couple of minutes, Shadow suddenly lifted his head and stared at Reign.

"Reign, if our dads were truly that strong, then, then how did uncle-"

"He was most likely killed." Reign said before telling him what Marco said. After he finished speaking, Shadow was left speechless, his mana was suddenly released as all the shadows inside the living room came to him before shrouding him and the others. The shadows danced in the air as if they were alive as Shadow's mana started going out of control, similar to how Reign acted when he found out.

"Calm down Shadow." Reign patted his friend on the shoulder as the latter woke up from his stupor. The shadow's stopped moving frantically and slowly returned to where they belonged as Shadow stared at Reign.

"Reign, we'll-"

"We'll find him, and after we do, we'll make him wish that he was never born." Reign answered his friend with a serious expression. Shadow simply nodded at him before turning his head and looking at Wolf.

"Hey, have you even tried contacting your family?"

"Yes, my mother and older sister are fine, they were at home when everything happened, as for my younger brother, he was in Europe, luckily he also survived but is currently in a safe zone while the outside is a bit dangerous, unfortunately, I tried contacting my father but there's no response for now, from what Reign has found out, however, I'm sure he's alive, just unable to respond right now, perhaps he hasn't found a large safe zone yet as well."

The three all talked some more before Reign told them about strengthening the tree and the new powers he had in the territory. He had previously used the power and inspected five more people, but he found nothing. He was going to use his skill again tonight and check if there is anyone acting suspiciously.

Before he could do that however Greenie arrived and told him that Marco was back with his boss.