Is this really a Game?!

As the barrier receded the party slowly made their way inside the park. Compared to the normal-looking park that they had seen while the barrier was functioning, the sight in front of them right now had changed dramatically. Gone were the normal-looking oaks and maples, the park in front of them looked more like a jungle than anything right now.

The trees were well over 40 meters tall, their lush leaves covering the sky completely and barely letting any sunlight pass. The thick roots could be seen above the soil at a couple of locations while lush greenery was on the ground. Thick bushes and some berries were everywhere and the grass was well over half a meter tall.

At the periphery of the park, the party could see about 20 apes that were staring at them. Judging from the crude wooden spears they had and the stones in their hands it was easy to conclude that these were the ones that had attacked them previously. Compared to the apes Reign and the others had fought against inside the government office, these apes were larger and their fur was darker and thicker. Most of them were at level 40 and above and they were definitely not to be trifled with.

The second the party had seen the apes they sprung to action, all of them immediately ran toward them while Beast and Laura immediately launched attacks toward the enemies. The apes didn’t wait either as wooden spears and stones were thrown toward them. With the added stats that Reign and the others had simple wooden spears or stones wouldn’t really damage them but these were not normal wooden spears and stones.

The moment the wooden spears landed on the street they easily penetrated through it and more than half of the 2m long spears were embedded in the street while the stones were able to create small potholes in it.

It was clear that not only had the park changed when it came to size but the toughness of the trees and everything else inside of it had increased. Reign and the others did their best to dodge the attacks before starting close-quarters combat with the apes. The powerful apes weren’t pushovers and they were definitely stronger than the previous apes, not only was their physical prowess higher but the defense their fur provided was also stronger compared to the other apes.

The difference between them and Reign and the others was however still large, the apes were able to fight for a couple of seconds before being overwhelmed by the party’s strength. Reign, Shadow, and Wolf cut the apes apart, Tank chopped them up with the axe and bashed them with his shield while Greenie completely smashed them apart with his new hammer. Of course, Beast’s and Laura’s attacks also did a fair amount of damage to the apes and they also managed to kill a couple of them.

Not only was the party stronger than the apes when it came to base stats, but their fighting experience was also higher and they were able to easily deal with the apes who simply didn’t know what to do when faced with such an overwhelming difference in power and the variety of attacks being sent their way.

It had to be noted that the apes were the most powerful creatures in the town, even when some of them decided to wander off and explore the town a bit they would almost never meet any danger. The only ones that could pose a threat to them were the orcs and that was simply because they would usually go out in groups and could deal with a lone ape, albeit with difficulty. Thanks to that the apes had mostly spent their time in Doncaster either fighting weaker creatures that they could destroy with their overwhelming power or by fighting amongst themselves.

The apes had never really had a challenging fight before Reign and the others had arrived and as such, they were simply unable to pose a threat to them in low numbers. The only monsters that could match the apes were the powerful creatures that could be found in the IronBark Woods or the Grassland. Since there were a couple of areas that divided them the apes never interacted or fought against them and they were simply lacking experience when it came to fighting against beings that were the same level as them or higher.

After making short work of the apes the party continued forward, the dense jungle was a bit tough to go through and they had to resort to using their weapons in order to move deeper inside it. Their suspicion of the jungle being different when it came to the rest of the town also came true when they finished their battle against the apes.

[ Entering the Jungle of Apes ]

It seemed that the jungle was considered to be a special area inside the town as the system wouldn’t usually give such a notification. Even when the party had entered the orc base there was no response for the system as it was a base made inside the town, it wasn’t a dungeon or a different area at all.

Not only was the jungle hard to navigate through but it was also a perfect place for the apes to fight. All of them had been staying in the jungle for a long time now and they were completely used to it, well, perhaps they didn’t even need to get used to the jungle as it may be similar to the place they were in before getting teleported to Earth. 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍．𝒆𝒕

Reign and the others could feel gazes on them as soon as they finished their battle against the apes, what was weird however was the fact that it was hard for even them to locate exactly where the gazes were coming from. The many branches of the trees above them intersected and formed a web that almost spanned across the whole jungle. The apes were able to easily move through the forest using the branches and many vines that could be found in the jungle and it was a hard task to follow after them if they decided to escape.

Thanks to that the party simply decided to ignore the gazes, if any of the apes watching them tried to attack after thinking that they were hidden and that they could take out some of them quickly then they would be surprised after realizing that their cover had been blown from the very beginning.

That was exactly what had happened after some time had passed. After following the party for some time the apes became more and more arrogant and confident. Seeing that the humans below them were simply continuing on their merry way the powerful monsters were certain that they were completely hidden from them and that they could easily swoop in and kill some of them quickly before retreating. Of course, all of that was proved wrong after the first couple of apes attacked, not only were the apes unable to even wound a single person but they were attacked immediately after coming in close proximity with the party.

After seeing what had happened to their comrades the other apes hurriedly retreated and continued following the party from a distance. Since Reign and the others simply continued moving through the jungle after dealing with their attackers the rest of the apes believed that they were safe and that the party had only managed to notice the apes after they had come too close.

There was of course a bit of a problem, Reign and the others had no idea where they were supposed to go, for now, they were going straight as the giant ape should probably be in the middle of the jungle, but since there was nothing they could use to orient themselves they weren’t even sure that they were going at the right direction.

Using Beast’s eagle right now was not possible as the latter wouldn’t be able to simply go up and give them a bird’s eye view of the forest thanks to the many apes and tree branches. Even if the eagle was able to get up there was the issue of the party simply not knowing where they were right now, even with the eagle’s eyesight it would be incredibly hard to find them after the latter had flown further off.

Perhaps Beast could instruct the eagle to simply stay right above them but there was no promise that it could do that since the apes could attack it with their wooden spears and stones. Right now their plan was to simply continue forward, if they were unable to find their way to the giant ape after some time then they would get on the branches in order to move a bit better, if that didn’t work then they would release the eagle and try to find exactly where the giant ape was.