Is this really a Game?!

“So, what’s the plan?” Asked Shadow as the party all stood about 100 meters away from the crevice.

“I think you should get in and spy on them, with your ability I doubt that they will be able to sense you,” Wolf spoke out as he looked at Shadow.

“Fighting inside the cave, well, even though we can do so, we risk destroying more of it so I think we should wait and let them get out before ambushing them, none of the demons are above us in terms of power so we should be able to defeat them quite easily.”

“So you want me to listen in on them and find out more info, about what?”

“Well, thanks to Beast we already know what they were talking about, I’m mostly wondering if there’s another person that knows about the crevice and what they’re doing here,” Wolf said as he stared at the crevice.

“Best-case scenario is that there’s no one else that knows about it, we kill them and that’s it, worst-case scenario however would be someone else knowing about this place, telling the leader after these guys don’t come back, and the leader coming here, making it impossible for us to use this place.”

“We can of course find that information out after defeating them, I can interrogate them while Reign can take their souls and get the info from them that way, but why not learn more while we wait?” Wolf simply shrugged his shoulders as Shadow nodded his head before making his way to the crevice.

The most powerful of the demons was close to them in strength, and without being stronger, nobody could notice Shadow when he uses his ability in a dark place, a place like a cave for example.

Shadow didn’t just enter the crevice, he didn’t know whether any demon was on the lookout and so he used his daggers to climb up before moving in. With his daggers he slowly moved inside the cave while being about 3 meters above the ground, making it easy for him to pass any demon that might be looking at the entrance.

His thoughts turned out to be correct as there was a demon that was standing at the entrance of the cave, he was looking at the end of the crevice, making sure no monster could enter without him noticing it.

Shadow easily entered the cave and stuck to the walls while listening in to what the demons were talking about. Most of their talk was about the cave and how they could use it as a base, where they would put different facilities, and how they would make sure the cave was well-guarded and no enemies would be able to sneakily attack them.

“See, we can use this and nobody would find us, Lephal can use his earth manipulation to hide the entrance so that only we know how to enter it, making it many times harder for anyone to find this place.” The demon that suggested the other 6 to make this cave their base said as he looked around the cave.

The other demons were focusing on the marks that were left after the battle Reign and the others had with the centipede and had heavy looks on their faces.

“It seems you were right about a battle taking place here, but what if the monsters that fought here return, what would we do then, you know that we are weaker compared to the one that made this place its nest if whatever killed it returns, we’re dead!” A demon said as the other one smiled.

“Not necessarily.”

“Huh?”

“If we hurry, we can install traps and defenses here by evening, even if we get attacked, I’m certain that we can kill the monster.” The demon boasted before taking something out from his spatial ring, “You guys remember this baby?”

“That’s!”

“Yup, the trap was personally crafted by the leader, even top Tier I combatants will get heavily injured by it, it takes a long time to install it, but with this, we don’t need to fear any monster below Tier I attacking us here.” The demon boasted as the others all had their eyes wide open.

His words were true, the best part of the trip was the fact that it wasn’t a one-use item, but that it could be recharged after each use, making it incredibly useful for their situation.

“Alright, I will join you.” One demon said before the others all followed, they knew that this was the best chance they had at becoming truly powerful in this new world.

In their base, they were in the middle ranks and had small chances of improving and becoming stronger, even hitting Tier II before the next stage of the game would be incredibly hard. But if they were alone and had a safe base, then they were certain that their strength would skyrocket.

‘Interesting, that trap will make a fine addition to the base for sure.’ Shadow thought as he looked at the demons from above. Even though their defenses were enough to block even Tier II enemies from entering the base, if a powerful Tier I came, they could let the monster in and injure it with the trap before killing it.

“How do you even have that?” The demon that argued with the main demon outside of the cave asked.

“That’s a secret, I have my ways, all you need to know is that I can get even more things in the future, things similar to this.” The demon pointed at the trap before putting it back in the inventory.

“So, does anyone know you guys have left, do we need to go back to the base for anything?” The demon with the trap asked as the others all thought about his question.

“I need to get my stuff.”

“Me too, we should all go and then leave separately, each one telling people we are going to a different location.”

“Agreed.”

“Good, so nobody else other than us knows of this place, right?” The demon asked the others as they all nodded in agreement.

“Good, let’s go then, the faster we get back, the better.” The demon spoke as they all slowly made their way outside.

Shadow quickly followed them, making sure to go slowly and be above them. Since it was daytime, his stealth ability would drastically weaken and he wouldn’t be able to stay close to them. Luckily for him, there was no need to do so since he already got all the information he needed.

Not only did he find out that these demons were the only ones to know about the cave’s existence, but he also managed to find out about the trap, something that was useless to the demons right now, but would be beneficial to them and to Reign and the others later on.

‘I need to get rid of that guy as soon as the battle starts, I don’t know why, but I’m getting a bad vibe from him, he perhaps even has some more items that can cause a lot of damage to us.’ Shadow thought as he stared at the back of the leading demon.

From what Shadow could see, this demon was incredibly confident and certain that his plan would work from the beginning, but Shadow had one question in his mind, however.

‘Just how did he get that trap, if it truly was something their leader had crafted, then they were probably used to make their own base more secure, maybe he gave some to some more notable demons as rewards, but this guy, who wants to leave the base, somehow managed to get his hands on it, something isn’t right here.’ Shadow thought as he slowly got out of the crevice and followed after the demons.

Reign and the others were nearby and ready to attack at any moment. Shadow quickly stopped his thoughts as it didn’t matter how the demon got the trap or what else he had, he was going to die at the very beginning of the battle anyway. ．𝙘𝙤𝙢

As the demons started walking back to the base, they were talking about when they should scatter, it wouldn’t be good if people saw them together before they left the base.

During their conversation, however, none of them had managed to spot Shadow who was trailing about 10 meters behind them, neither did they spot Reign and the others who were currently standing on top of some trees while hiding themselves and waiting for a chance to attack.

Shadow briefly stopped hiding and signaled to Reign before using his ability again and blending in with the shadows.

Suddenly three powerful auras appeared around the demon group that quickly got their weapons out. The auras in question were Wolf, Tank, and Greenie who had shown themselves and were currently walking toward the group.

Upon sensing the strength of their enemies, the demons panicked while the leading one showed a calm look and stared at them. Even though their enemies were more powerful than them, he showed no panic or fear, making Shadow even more certain of his previous thoughts.

Suddenly an arrow zoomed through the trees, aimed straight at the leader’s head.

Clang

The demon managed to block the arrow with his sword, albeit with difficulty as his arm was flung away from the impact of the attack.

“Tch, get re-” The demon’s words were cut short as two daggers were suddenly thrust into his back, one hitting his heart while the other hit his spine and almost completely severed it.

“That makes one down.” Said Shadow as he looked down on the demon that had fallen to the ground, his eyes opened wide in shock as to how he died.