Is this really a Game?!

It wasn't as if the fog couldn't send out the monsters outside, it was just that it chose not to do so right now. Sending the monsters outside meant that the control it had over them would be lowered, and the power of the monsters would slowly start to degrade, until eventually fading away.

The fog was able to think, albeit very simply. It deduced that the best course of action was to slowly spread right now as there were no threats to it nearby. Reign and the others did change that slightly, as the demons rarely ventured into the fog, but even then, their power was not high enough to threaten the fog and its most powerful monsters, so it ignored them.

The more they hunted inside, however, the more the fog would start noticing them, until targeting them each time they went in. That meant that Reign and the others had to continue carefully inside the depths, but for now, they could set their worries aside and continue hunting the monsters down for exp.

Aethion had told them that it would be best to find a new place to hunt upon reaching the high grade of Tier IV as the fog would certainly start targeting them at that time, and luckily for them, they had the underground of Pripyat for that. Even if the place turned out to be full of weaker monsters, they still had the areas around Pripyat as well, and thanks to the fact that M'azgara's monsters that she sent out to scout had mostly died when entering the areas that were beyond Pripyat, they believed that there were Tier IV monsters present there.

Of course, not all died, some had managed to explore quite a bit and M'azgara had gained a lot of valuable data from that and it was only in two areas next to Pripyat that her monsters had perished in.

The other areas had Tier II and Tier III monsters in them, which meant that they were useless for Reign and the others, but not for M'azgara and the other players.

Reign and the others were thinking of making another portal close to Pripyat and allowing the players to have more areas where they could hunt. That would let the many demons and monsters in the mountain range recuperate from their losses a bit as more and more players were making their way into the massive mountain range, killing many monsters that were inside.

Even though the mountain range was massive and could easily fit millions of beings in it, that didn't mean that so many monsters and demons were found inside, not to mention the fact that the levels of the monsters ranged from Tier I, all the way to Tier IV. Of course, there were also monsters, as well as demons and players, whose levels were as high as those of Tier III beings, but were still just Tier II or even Tier I, making them much weaker than those of the same level.

After all, some of the challenges were simply too difficult for some, so they would choose to skip them before attempting to evolve twice in the future, which was usually even more difficult, but one could get lucky and get powerful items that would help them with their evolution.

One such case was a young man who was currently attempting to break through and become a Tier IV combatant. His evolution had even caught the eyes of Reign and the others, as well as the Transcendents who had gathered in the city to say farewell to Jack and greet the Transcendent that was to be his replacement.

The powerful aura of a person breaking through to Tier IV was felt just as the new Transcendent arrived, making them all stare in that direction. All of them, including the new Transcendent, a woman called Priscila, made their way over there immediately.

Right behind a ruined building, a young man who was about 17 years of age was sitting cross-legged and going through the evolution. His body was bloody, the skin cracking at multiple locations as the body tried its best to get used to the incredible power that was being drawn by the boy.

"That aura, he is just a Tier I!" Drayce exclaimed, making Reign and the others take in a sharp breath. For someone that had actually skipped two evolutions to actually clear a challenge for Tier IV was almost impossible, and yet this boy had managed to do so. 

On his right side, they were able to notice a weapon floating next to him, aiding him in his evolution. The weapon was a dagger, one that was slightly longer than a normal one, and was green and blue in color. 

Reign tried inspecting the dagger, only to gain nothing, but upon inspecting the boy, he took in another sharp breath of cold air.

"Drayce, you were wrong, he's not Tier I." Reign suddenly said as the others glanced at him.

"You can also use the [ Inspect ] skill, right?" Reign asked as all of them nodded before doing so, which prompted them to do the same thing Reign had previously done.

The boy had actually just reached Tier I, but previously, he had been unable to evolve to even that realm, which meant that he had skipped three evolutions, and was doing all of them at once now, first Tier I, then II, III, and lastly the fourth one.

"How the hell did someone that hadn't even reached Tier I manage to clear a challenge meant for Tier IV?!" Shadow asked as everyone shook their heads, except for Jack who was staring at the dagger.

"It was probably thanks to that weapon, it has a soul inside of it, as well as a lot of power, it was probably a personal weapon of a Transcendent, if not someone even more powerful." Jack's words made all of them stare at him for a moment before Reign called over a player who was looking at the boy with shock in his eyes.

"You know him?"

"Yes, boss, that is Paul, he … he is an explorer, one of the players that usually go outside and explores the areas nobody had gone to before mapping them out and bringing them back." The middle-aged man said as he glanced at Paul before gulping.

"He … he had become somewhat famous as he never managed to pass a challenge before, everybody knows that he is at the same level as the peak Tier III players, but had not reached even Tier I."

"Honestly, nobody has a clue as to how he was able to map out areas that had Tier II and even Tier III monsters, just a couple of days ago, he arrived back, bringing another map, one that even had two areas that were far away, and had Tier IV monsters in them, as well as information about a couple of bases where humans resided in."

"We all thought he was joking, for him to have gone there with his pitiful strength was simply impossible, but he was adamant that his words were true, and thanks to the fact that he had never brought fake information before, we took the map and were thinking of sending some people later to confirm it."

Explorers were an important part of the territory. Those players, who had all kinds of different abilities, classes, and strengths, were those that explored outside of the areas that Reign and the other players had explored. Wanting to find out more about the world and how it has changed, they would venture far beyond the areas they already had information about, exploring for weeks and even months before returning.

One such party had actually left Doncaster back when Reign and the others had just taken over the underground city and had only returned about 2 weeks ago. They had been shocked to find just how powerful everyone had become and had brought a lot of information back with them. Many new areas, as well as human settlements and bases, were now mapped out, and thanks to the fact they had the information of some players, they could establish contact with them, potentially creating portals that would connect their bases.

Paul, however, had always worked alone, and had always gone to more dangerous areas, but always came back, and he always brought information, correct information with him. The only reason why nobody was using the areas the explorers had mapped out was that they were far away, and they had everything they needed here, as well as the places where portals had been built.

Lying about the areas and how dangerous they were was punishable, and there were rarely any cases where someone had done so. What was weird about Paul, however, was the fact that nobody had ever seen him with the dagger that was now next to him, not even when he came back a couple of days ago.