Is this really a Game?!

The monsters acted the same way as before. None of them were seemingly even trying to go to another area as the carnage had started right after the sun disappeared. The monsters rose from the depths of the desert and started slaughtering each other, becoming more and more powerful until a different monster killed them.

Those that stood at the peak of power weren't safe in the slightest as the other monsters attacked them without caring for their own life. The only thing these monsters seemed to think about was slaughtering and eating the monsters they killed.

Blood spilled over the desert, but by the time the sun would come up again, all the blood would have already been gone, soaked deep inside the desert.

"Yeah, these guys won't be a problem, at least not for now," Wolf said as he sighed in relief.

The powerful desert monsters had been the one thing that Reign and the others feared right now. None of them were confident that they could defeat them, and even if all of them teamed up, they would only manage to defeat 2 of them, if they were to get all the Tier IV combatants from their territories, they might manage to defeat 10, but most of the Tier IVs would die from such a battle.

The power the monsters had was great, and if they decided to go to the mountain range or the other areas, there would be nothing that Reign and the others would be able to do at this moment. Each evolution almost doubled the strength of the being that evolved, and thanks to that, the higher the Tier, the larger the distance between a being that stood at the peak of one realm, and the being that was in the low-grade of the realm above.

In the beginning, Reign and the others were able to defeat a Tier I being without evolving, and even later, they could fight a monster that was a Tier above them, right now it was mostly thanks to Reign who could transform and gain immense power that they could do so, but as they reached a higher and higher realm, that would become harder to be done.

'To think there are some beings that can slay a Transcendent when they're still in the leveling realm, the difference between such beings is incredible, and yet they can manage to do it.' Reign thought as he stared at the powerful Tier V monsters with slight nervousness.

"Well of course they exist, like I have told you before, most Transcendents go from Tier V or Tier VI and transcend, so even if their power more than doubles, a Tier VII or VIII can match them, not to mention those that were even higher above."

'But didn't you say that the Power Realm is when most start getting in touch with world energy and then transcend?'

"That's only for those that can reach that realm, those talented enough to reach Tier VII will only be taught to sense world energy by the will upon reaching that realm, as for those that have no hopes of reaching higher than Tier V or VI, the Will of the world will start teaching them, well, it will allow them to sense world energy, and that's it, nothing else."

"It's only those more talented that the Will shall teach personally, just like what happened to you."

"Those that reach the Transcendent realm before they reach Tier VII are pretty much fated to stay at the Transcendent realm, so they're nothing special, they're just cannon fodder."

"I reached the realm when I was Tier VIII, which is quite decent by the standards of the universe and I had a chance to reach Sainthood and perhaps even higher, of course, that never happened."

"Anyway, when reach Tier VIII, you should already have enough power to go against the weakest of Transcendents, but you probably won't be able to kill them, as for Tier IX and X, both will allow you to kill the weakest Transcendents, the final realm will even allow you to contend against some decent Transcendents that are in the first Cleansing."

Aethion's words made Reign nod his head. He had heard how one can reach the Transcendent realm as soon as they reached Tier V, but he had always heard how that was a big mistake. 

The leveling realm served as a sort of foundation for a person. The higher they managed to reach, the better their future would be. Of course, it mostly referred to the Transcendent realm, not to mention that the universe was vast, seemingly endless, and many opportunities can be found in it.

Some Transcendents that had transcended from Tier V had managed to find incredible treasures that made their previously weak and shallow foundations strong, which allowed them to rise higher than others and reach Sainthood and above.

There was always hope of reaching higher, no matter how bleak the situation looked like.

Of course, even though Transcendents were considered 'rare', that was only true for planetary and star system standards as in the vast universe, there existed an unimaginably high number of Transcendents.

When it comes to the large and powerful organizations of the universe, Transcendents were nothing more than foot soldiers, mere cannon fodder that would be sent out to fight and die during a war or skirmish.I think you should take a look at

Saints were considered to be the heavy hitters of larger organizations, as for those at the very top, even Low and Mid Gods were considered nothing special.

For now, Reign and the others were nothing, they didn't even qualify to be considered ants in the universe, they were more akin to a spec of dust.

Reign nodded at the others as they made their way back to Doncaster. They had managed to take over the mountain range, which had been their main goal for quite some time now. For months, they had fought in the mountain range, exploring it and leveling up time and time again until finally being able to defeat every single monster in it and turning it into yet another hunting ground for the players under them.

They had forged three alliances with three different territories and they had managed to capture a city many times larger than Doncaster and gained even more people under their banner. From now on, other than the monsters in the desert, there was nothing that could threaten the survival of Doncaster in the nearby areas, nothing at all.

Reign and the others doubted that there were many places in their region that they wouldn't be able to go to as Tier V regions were relatively rare. Most of the people that were still alive in the world were still stuck fighting Tier III monsters, while Reign and the others were about to reach Tier V.

As for their evolution, they had actually reached the maximum level upon killing Nearsch and his monsters and were still waiting for the challenge to appear. 

As they were walking through the mountain range, something changed.

The moonlight had been lighting up their surroundings for quite some time as a full moon was up tonight, but suddenly, that light disappeared.

As Reign and the others stood on top of a mountain, they looked above them, expecting to find a flying monster above their heads that might have tried attacking them, but instead, all the blood in their bodies froze as they saw the sight above them.

A giant snakehead was staring down at them. An eye was larger than a building and even though the head was over a mile above them, they could still see it clearly.

"Hey, isn't that the world serpent, why is it looking at us like that?" Shadow said with a gulp as he looked at the giant serpent.

As they all questioned what was happening, something suddenly changed. Reign started floating.

"What, hey, what the hell, Reign?!" Shadow called out to his friend before jumping and grabbing his leg, only for his hand to be pushed back by an invisible force and his body to be sent crashing down.

"That hurt, dammit!" Shadow cursed as he got up, but before he or the others could do anything, a voice rang out in their heads.

"Your friend will be returned shortly, do not worry." The voice was gentle, it carried no hostility with it, nor did it seem overbearing.

"Was that … the snake's voice?" Shadow asked before suddenly being flung toward a tree.

"Don't call me a snake." The voice once again echoed in his head as Shadow rubbed his head.

"Come on, let's go, it seems like the world serpent has something to discuss with Reign," Wolf said as he sighed.

"How can you be so sure that it won't do anything to him?!" Shadow complained as Wolf sighed again.

"Even if it did, can we do anything about it, it's more powerful than Transcendents, let alone us."

"Not to mention that it isn't hostile, don't you remember what the system told us the first day the game started, what it said about the serpent?"