Is this really a Game?!



Several days after Paul's evolution.

"This place gives me the creeps," Shadow said as he and the others walked through a large tunnel that was located below Pripyat.

"Yeah, well, you're not the only one."

Reign and the others had decided to explore the underground of the city after they hunted monsters in the depths for a couple of days. It seems that what Aethion had told them was true, the fog didn't like it when people constantly went inside and started slaughtering the monsters. 

The monsters had started walking in groups, and every time they attacked a group, it wouldn't be long before another one arrived, and then another.

Even though they were getting more exp rather quickly, it just wasn't worth it as they would have to flee every time in the end. The groups were getting larger as well and some high-grade monsters started appearing from time to time.

Constantly fighting against such powerful opponents did make their skills shine, forcing them to improve and get better, but it was becoming far too dangerous to continue doing that. After a nightmarish encounter where six high-grade and over 20 mid-grade Tier IV monsters started chasing after them, Reign and the others decided that it would be best to switch locations.

They had gained a lot from Paul whose map showed a lot of locations that had powerful monsters, unfortunately, they were all far away from them, and getting there would potentially take days.

Getting there and constructing a portal was tempting, but upon learning that after a certain point, the portals would become more expensive depending on the distance from each other, Reign and the others decided against it.

Not only would they have to waste days getting to the areas, but they would have to pay a hefty sum, which they didn't want to do since they could find areas with strong monsters nearby as well. 

Paul had joined them during their hunts, as did Aelrinder and some other Tier IV combatants, but most of them stayed back and fought against the weaker Tier IVs as those deeper inside were too dangerous for them.

That led them back to Pripyat. Even though there was no certainty that the enemies below the ground were Tier IV beings, it didn't hurt to check it out. At most, they would lose a couple of hours or even a day, which was still better than traveling for multiple days.

Since this was the main hunting ground for M'azgara's monsters, the players didn't come here, the number of monsters present was high, but so did the number of M'azgara's monsters as well.

Reign and the others had just recently gotten below the ground. The large tunnels seemed a bit off, but they didn't know why exactly. The tunnels were large, far too large to actually exist here.

Each of them was large enough for 30 people to stand side by side and walk through it, and there were many of them. Reign and the others had come across multiple pathways and so far, they had always taken the right one.

The tunnels stretched out for miles and miles, making them a bit tired from constantly walking through them. They had come across some enemies, but they were all Tier III beings, nothing that would ever threaten them.

Reign and the others were keeping their auras hidden as they had no idea just what they might find here. If there were only Tier III beings, then the auras would do nothing but scare them away, but if there were powerful Tier IV beings, then their auras would be like beacons that were calling out to them.

"How long has it been since we entered this place?" Laura asked as Beast stared down at his watch.

"About 2 hours."

The watch was something he had bought in one of the shops inside the castle walls. It functioned the same as a normal watch, but it would automatically adjust itself to show the time on other planets if one went there. There were only a few things that could cause the watch to malfunction, which meant that just buying one would allow a person to know the time anywhere they went.

"Two hours, and we are yet to find anything, just tunnels, old storages, and a couple of monsters that attacked us, this is getting a bit annoying, but also troublesome," Wolf said from the side as he looked around the area.

"The number of enemies above is much larger, but the number of those weird creatures that had come out from here was also not low, so we should have been able to come across more by now, they move in groups, have some basic intelligence, and can utilize tools, so why haven't they done anything here?"

That was the one thing that kept bothering them all. It was clear that there were a lot of monsters underground, but they barely came across any of them, not to mention that those they came across were horrific monsters that were like animals, nothing like those that had come to the surface.

The underground was dark, a bit wet, and just depressing. There was barely anything that one could find there, but Reign and the others still persisted, making their way around, sometimes even going back and choosing a different path, never losing their way thanks to Beast who was drawing a map of the area and where they had gone to, making them know what way they had taken.

After 3 more hours of exploring, which placed the total time at about 5 hours, they sat down near the entrance that they had taken to get down. After 5 hours, they found absolutely nothing.

"How is that even possible, there are monsters here, that much is certain, they are coming out, more of them finding their way up every single day, and yet we can't find anything down here!" Shadow said as he kicked a small rock in front of him before sitting down and panting in anger.

"Yeah, I would usually think that it was abandoned, but the constant influx of monsters coming out from below makes it clear that it isn't, not to mention that the 5 we allowed to live and go down simply disappeared after we made our way below as well."

Reign and the others didn't just go down blindly, they slaughtered a small base the monsters had made and allowed 5 of them to go down, making it seem like they didn't see them as they were too busy massacring their comrades. 

They followed after them quickly but made sure to wait enough so that the monsters wouldn't notice them. After going down, however, they couldn't sense their mana anymore. It actually happened before they made it down, right when they were climbing down the ladder that led to the underground.

At first, they thought that maybe they had been killed by some powerful monsters, but after exploring so much, they were certain that that wasn't the case. There were no powerful monsters here, only some Tier III monsters, and even they were just mid-grade Tier IIIs.

Shadow was still angry, none of them knew what to do.

Just how did the monsters disappear, and where did they come from?

Were there some hidden pathways present here?

That was the most likely scenario, but none of them knew where to look for something like that. Hidden paths were hidden for a reason, if they could simply stumble upon one, it wouldn't be a hidden path.

Reign had tried using his mana sensing to try and get any information, but he was out of luck, he couldn't sense a thing.

Beast was looking around, trying his best to find anything out of the ordinary, he even tried sensing some beasts with his ability, but there was nothing. The monsters they came across, the grotesque animals that were changed by the radiation were completely different from any other monster they had come across, and Beast was unable to sense a thing from them.

He was touching the walls of the tunnel, wanting to try his luck and perhaps press something that would open a hidden path, but his luck didn't work this time.

"We should go up, there is no reason for us to continue looking around here, the best thing we can do is attack another base, and then have Shadow follow some of the monsters, maybe he will be able to find out just where they went," Wolf said as the others nodded. Beast nodded as well and came to the party before leaning against the wall.

Suddenly, he felt his shoulder press against something, and upon touching the wall, it was like a small, seemingly invisible button was pressed, which led to a rumbling noise echoing through the tunnel.

"What the hell, what did you do?!" Reign asked Beast who shook his head, not knowing what happened.

Suddenly, a part of the tunnel started moving, and the wall shifted, showing a large opening.

'He's gotta be a main character too, no way that someone is so lucky.' Reign commented as he and the others stared at Beast who was scratching the back of his head.