Is this really a Game?!

Reign started his training with Jack while the others were busy doing their own things, since the elves had arrived there was a need to buy some materials and furniture for them via the system. The elves had a system as well, but the things they could buy were quite limited compared to Reign and the others who had successfully conquered a territory, if one day they were able to take all of the anchor points then the whole town would be under their control.

Shadow was busy training with Eldar as the latter decided to kick their training up a notch after seeing Reign and Jack. Beast and Laura were currently taking the elves on a tour and explaining the different parts of the city and what use they will have in the future. The elves looked at the buildings with an interested gaze, all of their houses were made out of branches or they were inside trees, to see these metal structures was a first for some of the elves.

Of course, there were those in the group that had seen similar sights before. Elves that were born outside of their forests had lived together with humans. Even though the architecture was different, the buildings still had a familiarity to them that made them feel a bit nostalgic, even though not all of the time they had spent with humans was nice, it was still a part of their lives and some of them treasured those memories greatly.

Reign’s training took almost all day, he only stopped after Wolf came to call him and Shadow back as there was a situation that needed to be addressed in the city. After seeing Wolf’s face they immediately knew that something serious had happened, Reign and Shadow took a quick shower in the castle before going back to the city and meeting with the others.

They were surprised after seeing a bunch of people outside of the city, upon closer inspection Reign and the others were able to see ant carcasses laying on the ground while one squad was breaking apart one ant that powerlessly tried to move its legs.

“Ants?” Reign asks Wolf with a confused gaze as he inspects the battlefield.

“It happened this morning after we left, some people were able to hear noises coming from the tunnel where the ants were previously found, the one where we found the anchor point.” Wolf starts narrating the story before the three of them stop and dash in a direction.

One player was looking at an ant corpse and suddenly he was able to see three blurry figures coming at him before he could do anything the figures arrived and he was pushed strongly before the soil beneath his legs exploded. The player was luckily already a couple of meters away and nothing happened to him, after looking ahead of him and seeing a big ant that came out of the ground the player went pale as he knew what would have happened had he not been pushed out of the way.

Reign, Wolf, and Shadow quickly attack the ant, compared to the ones they had fought before the ant here was stronger compared to the ones Reign and the others had faced off, even though it was still a worker ant, it was a higher leveled ones and its size was also larger.

[ Lvl 25 Worker Ant ] .

The ant was 1.5 meters long and its strong mandibles clicked audibly after it saw Reign and the others, of course before the ant could do anything its body was zapped, burned, and slashed to pieces. An enemy of this level was nothing to Reign and the others and they could defeat tens of them with ease.

Still, for the other players that were not the case, most of the players were below level 20 and only the four strongest squads had enough power to fight against these monsters. The players inside Reign’s building were talented, but their strength was still too low to deal with these guys, perhaps they would be able to wound or even kill one if all of them fought with everything they got.

The guys managed to level up since the last time they fought in the forest with Reign and the others, even though only a bit longer than 2 days had passed since then, the two squads really gave it their all to become stronger in hopes of one day fighting side by side with Reign and the others.

“Anyway, as I said, people started hearing noises from the tunnel and they informed Neil who was luckily in the city with his squad, they went inside the tunnel to check things out as they knew that there were ants there.” Wolf continues his story after the player whose life they saved finally finished thanking them and went back inside the city.

“Well the result of their quick trip was not good, the end of the tunnel was filled with ants, the place where the anchor point is had become their nest, Neil and his team barely escaped with their lives and now some of the ants are attacking us, of course, they can’t enter the city, but since our portals are situated outside of the city then that means that people that are not strong enough can’t use them, in fear of an ant suddenly burrowing out of the soil and killing them.”

“So, I guess we’re going to clear the ants that are in the tunnel?” Reign says as he cracks his neck.

“Yeah, luckily for us the ants only started attacking some half an hour ago so there are no casualties yet, some people were wounded but that’s about it, Beast and Laura just went with the elves real quick, they’ll be back soon, we’ll move after they arrive.” As soon as Wolf finished his sentence they were able to see Beast and Laura coming out of the city, Tank and Greenie were already at the entrance of the tunnel and they were blocking the ants from exiting it with larger numbers, of course, some of them managed to get through the two and that was why other squads were also present as it was their job to take care of those ants.

Reign and the others quickly go towards the tunnel. Tank and Greenie had their hands full with the ants that were charging at them. Tank had used his mana shield to block off most of the tunnel but there were still gaps and that’s what the ants used to attack them, some of them would simply burrow in the ground before trying to either attack them from behind or sneaking away. Greenie was using his hammer to smash the ants away, there were ants ranging from level 20 to level 30 attacking him and Tank, but to them, that was not a huge problem.

Suddenly Tank hears a shout behind him and de-activates his mana shield before he and Greenie duck. A huge spear of flames and a lightning spear pass above their heads as two loud explosions take place immediately after, the spears immediately scatter as lightning and fire were present everywhere in the tunnel for a short period of time. Right after that a couple of arrows were launched in the tunnel after which numerous explosions took place, Laura used her demonic powers to launch a couple of attacks as well while Shadow used his [Shadow Spikes] skill to impale the ants.

After the attacks were finished numerous ant carcasses could be seen in the tunnel, of course soon more ants flocked towards the tunnel as the loud sounds and vibrations made them grow interested in what was happening. More and more ants arrived and Reign and the others charged at them whilst using their abilities and skills. The number of ants that were present in the tunnel was astonishing as Reign and the others had killed over a hundred so far, and they were still near the entrance.

Based on what Neil had previously said there wasn’t such a large number of the monsters when he and his squad entered, it was only after they managed to get to the end that they realized hundreds of ants were present inside. They immediately ran away but a couple of ants noticed them and chased them, even though they were known as the 3rd strongest squad in the territory, Neil and his team had almost died.

The ants were not only ferocious but also fast, their bodies were strong and normal attacks won’t have a good effect. It was only after exiting the tunnel that Neil and the others got any help. Since the tunnel was still relatively close to the city more squads had arrived, the people were still worried about the tunnel and about Neil while the players believed that this was their chance to fight higher-level monsters.

Upon seeing the state Neil and his team were in, however, and the power of the things that followed them the players soon realized that they were too weak to even think about going inside the tunnel.

As Tank, Wolf and Greenie were staying in the building people were immediately sent to notify them about what was happening. After arriving, Wolf decided to get Shadow and Reign while sending someone to notify Beat and Laura.

Now the party had assembled, the ants were screeching furiously as they attacked Reign and the others, but it was to no avail as most of them would die before ever getting close to the party. At the end of the tunnel, however, a cocoon was present as it hung from the ceiling, a pulse could be heard every couple of seconds as a figure could be seen inside of it, the figure suddenly opened its blood-red eyes as it looked at the tunnel with a hateful gaze.

Soon after another pulse most of the ants screeched before charging toward Reign and the others with fury.