Is this really a Game?!

"Cameron!" Neil suddenly shouts out as he blocks an attack from a hobgoblin in front of him, with great speed he suddenly moves his shield to the side as the hobgoblin's sword slides down before stabbing the monster through his throat.

Cameron was currently fighting against 4 hobgoblins that were starting to slowly overwhelm him. He used a sword and a giant shield in his left hand, after going through multiple ordeals he and his team had found out that fighting against powerful enemies without a tank was going to be hard as they couldn't block any attacks and had to rely on their speed and reflexes in order to dodge them. If a boss or powerful elite uses an AOE attack they wouldn't have an answer and would need to rely on the defense their equipment gave them together with coating themselves with mana in order to minimize the damage.

They remembered back when they followed after Reign and the others, even though they sometimes needed to rely on Tank and his humongous shield in order to block some attacks. Taking them as an inspiration Cameron decided to take a huge shield and act as a tank class, thankfully they realized that before level 20 and he was able to change his class to one that better suited their needs.

The level 20 point was from which the players would once again get a bonus to their stats and the following level-ups would give more, but it functioned more like a checkpoint, a final chance for the players to either increase their class rank or change one in case it didn't work out. It was only during this time that players would be able to either rank up their class with ease or change them without any repercussions. It was still possible later on, but it would be much harder to do it.

Neil charges toward the four hobgoblins and tackles one of them with his shield, the tackle proves to be incredibly efficient as not only was the hobgoblin blasted away, but he also hit another one and both of them fell on the floor. Cameron could deal with two hobgoblins and Neil wasn't about to let such an opportunity let go, immediately he runs towards the two and stabs his sword down on one of them.

In order to survive, the unlucky hobgoblin who was hit by the other pushes the latter up, not only did the poor hobgoblin lose a chance in dodging or blocking the blow but he was also shocked after realizing that one of his own used him as a shield in order to survive. Of course, he would have done the same in such a situation, but he still cursed the hobgoblin before the sword plunged deep into his chest, piercing through his heart and killing him.

The hobgoblin below him quickly shoves the body to the side which surprises Neil and makes him let go of the sword. With only his shield left Neil looks down at the hobgoblin with surprise as the latter smiles ferociously.

"Kekekeke!"

As the hobgoblin tries to stand up he was shocked to find a strong wooden shield in front of his face.

Bam!

Neil quickly hits the hobgoblin with his shield which stuns the creature, his eyes roll back as he loses consciousness for a moment. Quickly Neil straddles him and starts pummeling the creature with his wooden shield.

Crack!

The skull of the hobgoblin cracks open as blood and brain matter squirt on the shield, without even realizing that his enemy was already dead, Neil continues pummeling him, stopping only after hitting the concrete floor below him. The hobgoblin's head was gone, transformed into mush by the fierce attacks of Neil, quickly he gets up and takes his sword back before turning around.

The battle was almost over as his teammates were finishing off the last couple of hobgoblins together with Cameron and his team. The two teams formed an alliance in order to take down a hobgoblin leader that was near their territory, unfortunately, the cowardly creature managed to escape with some of his hobgoblins while Neil and the others were busy dealing with the other monsters. They had killed about a hundred goblins and hobgoblins altogether, but without eliminating the boss they were certain it wouldn't take long for a force of similar numbers to appear again.

"Goddammit!" Cameron hits the wall in rage as it cracks and some cement and bricks fall down.

"Those fucking bastards are so quick to escape, of the 4 bosses we have attacked we only managed to kill 2, this marks the 3rd one that escaped!"

"I know Cameron, it's pretty much the same for us, 2 escaped and we only managed to kill 1 before this," Leah says as she puts her bow on her back. She and Lea were the only two long-range combatants in the two groups. Since they both used the same weapon, both were women and had almost identical names, they were often teased by the groups, of course, temperament wise they were complete opposites.

Lea used to be a leader of a safe zone before Reign and the others arrived, she was usually gentle and would always try to resolve things amicably between others. Leah on the other hand was some 5 years younger compared to Lea and was a hothead, which could also be seen in the way she fights.

She pursued speed above all, drawing and firing off an arrow as soon as possible was more important to her than accuracy, only during important battles or special situations where accuracy was key would she slow down. Her skills were also flamboyant, most of them carried the fire attribute and explosions would happen at all times.

Fighting against large groups of enemies was her forte, against powerful elites or variants she would usually struggle with, but she would still come out victorious.

Lea on the other hand fought calmly, being effective and accurate with each arrow was the number one thing for her. Each of her arrows would hit an opponent without fail, most of the time in a vital area. Her skills were also similar to her fighting style, most of them were either powerful shots that would deal a huge amount of damage to the target, or crippling hits that would slow the target down or maim them.

She excelled in fighting elites and bosses as she was able to deal a large amount of damage to them while simultaneously managing to support her team with her numerous control-type skills. When fighting against a large group of enemies however she would usually struggle a bit, even though her powerful skills could pierce through multiple enemies and kill them, they were not the same as Leah's fiery explosions that would not only blow the monsters away but would also light them on fire.

Her weakness was apparent some time ago when she and her team got attacked by the army of undead while Leah's was back when they were running away from the berserk orc.

It wasn't all bleak however as they did manage to kill a large number of monsters together with some elites and variants, not only did they manage to get exp, but they also acquired some items as well, unfortunately, most of the items they had received were useless to them, they would simply sell it in the territory later and divide the profits equally.

Two weeks had passed since Reign and the others had arrived, during this time they rarely went out to hunt and left all of the monsters for the other parties to handle. Monsters of such level were not even worth mentioning for Reign and the others, but for the other teams, the exp and the items they could get were tremendous. Of course, there were always fools that would overestimate themselves and try to fight against monsters that were above their punching weight.

Reign and the others didn't want unnecessary deaths but it was impossible even for them to help and save everyone, each team and solo player was given a small badge that had the letters H.H inscribed on them, those were, of course, the initials of the team Heaven's Hooligans.

If they were ever in danger of dying they could use mana to send a signal using the badge, the badge would not only send out the signal but also the approximate strength of the monsters surrounding the player and a short sentence that would describe the situation.

Reign and the others had created a special team whose sole purpose was to receive the signal and to get in touch with teams that could save the person or team in question. Only if the situation was dire or the monsters were too powerful would Reign and the others are asked to help. Of course, it didn't come without any cost, Reign didn't mind giving the badges for free, but not only would he allow the players to use it for other purposes that way, but they would get too used to being saved.

As such the badge would need S coins in order to be activated, the more powerful the team or solo player was, the more it would cost. The lowest amount currently was 80 S coins, while the highest was 500. This also eliminated the players that tried to prey on the weaker teams or solo players as they would immediately be found out if a player was to send out a signal.

Thanks to the town being safer the territory had now ushered into somewhat of a golden age.