Is this really a Game?!

That was what the system had said when the game just started, and from what they were seeing, it seemed that the serpent was doing the second task it had, which was to award someone that had done an incredible feat after the system had not been generous enough.

"A power of a Tier V being."

"Tens of Tier IV beings near it."

"A fog that makes it hard for even the system to glance inside."

"A ship from an unknown hostile civilization."

"You have managed to get rid of all of that, to destroy the fog and the ship, without any traces of them being left, and still, the system did nothing to reward you for your efforts." The snake told Reign, its voice reverberating through his head.

It was to be expected that the serpent wouldn't talk normally, after all, it was so large that its voice would probably be heard miles away. As Reign stood in front of the giant serpent, black smoke appeared in front of its face before a man showed up.

"Ah, sorry, I got used to being in my true body so I sometimes forget how daunting it can be for people." The man, who looked to be in his late twenties, said with a smile.

"Of course, you seem unfazed, well, I guess that is to be expected from a Nephilim, if little old me could get you scared, I would be a bit disappointed." The man, who was an avatar of the world serpent, said with laughter.

'That's … not what I was expecting.' Reign thought as he looked at the man in front of him. Compared to the image of the world serpent he had in his head, the carefree, chatty young man was definitely not it.

"Anyway, let's see, you've actually contributed greatly to the safety of this world, after all, the fog would have kept expanding and expanding until it swallowed the entire world."

'With the present strength of the world, I doubt that they would have managed to eliminate it in the future thanks to the great distance the other seeds of hope are from you, not to mention that I doubt any of you would have been able to match the speed of which the fog would strengthen itself."

"The spaceship is gone as well, which is good since the system hates those things, but I am a bit surprised it didn't give you any rewards, after all, it's usually quite generous with the rewards when a person manages to destroy such a thing." The serpent said as he placed his hand on his chin.

"Alright, speak, do you have anything you wish, anything I can give you?"

"I'm in the Saint realm, and even though I'm not the wealthiest Saint, the things I have are much more valuable than anything you can find on this planet."

"Alright." Reign nodded at him.

"So, can I get a Rank Z weapon, a Rank Z suit of armor, and some other Rank Z items?"

"That much shouldn't be any problem for you, right?" Reign asked with a wide smile as the serpent's avatar stared coldly at him.

"No way, you're not getting a rank Z item, something of that rank will make you broken compared to the rest."

"Hmmm, how about this?" The serpent suddenly snapped his fingers, and two items appeared.

"This one should serve you well, it's quite compatible with your powers, and this can allow you to improve that sword even more." The serpent said as it showed Reign a sword, as well as a piece of rock that was floating in front of him.

"You're going to reach Tier V soon so that sword will be almost useless, it will barely give you any benefits, as for that one, the boost will be limited quite severely, so by improving it, and using this one with it, you should have an easier time fighting Tier V monsters." The serpent said as the items floated over to Reign before they were sent to the inventory.

"Alright, I have to resume my duties now, so off you go." The avatar merely touched Reign, and he was sent crashing down to the ground. He arrived in front of Wolf and the others in almost an instant, and just as he was about to hit the ground, he stopped.

He then fell from about an inch away from the ground.

"Hey, you alright bro?" Shadow asked Reign with concern as the latter nodded his head.I think you should take a look at

"So, you got anything from it?"

"Yeah, I did get something." Reign suddenly took out his sword, which was a bit hard for him to control as it was a Rank SSS weapon, as well as the weird rock.

[ Mysterious material: Give it to a blacksmith in order to identify it. ]

[ Rank SSS: Lightning Blade ]

Wolf and the others stared at the sword.

This was the second Rank SSS weapon they had seen so far, and the stats were incredible. It wasn't as powerful as Wolf's sword, which was to be expected as it was a one-handed sword, and the bonus wasn't as large as Wolf's sword, but it was just one sword, and Reign could use two.

The skill inside of the sword was something that made them widen their eyes as well.

[ Upon using mana and activating the skill in the sword, all attacks will become lightning-based attacks, and if the user already has a lightning ability, all lightning-based skills will gain a 150% attack bonus. Lightning skill will be much easier to be activated with this sword, and upon activating the second skill, the player can summon lightning bolts from the sky to attack his enemies for a short period of time. ]

It can summon lightning from the sky. The speed at which a bolt of lightning fell down from the sky was many times faster than even the speed of sound. The power of a lightning bolt alone is astonishing, and it is definitely above the destructive power that Reign and the others could utilize right now.

Reign smiled at the weapon before taking it back to the inventory with the rock.

"So, what's the rock for?"

"He said that it will allow Adrian to upgrade my sword."

"That one?" Shadow asked as he pointed at the Sword of Dominance that was on Reign's waist, to which Reign nodded his head.

"After we reach Tier V, rank SS items will no longer give us the same bonuses they once did, so we should be on the lookout for rank SSS items, but thanks to the desert, we should be able to kill some Tier V monsters and use their bodies to create rank SSS items, even though they will probably be some low-grade SSS items." Reign said as Wolf nodded at him.

"Even if they're low-grade, they will still be better than the items we have right now."

"So what are you planning now, you going to Adrian to upgrade your weapon?" Shadow asked Reign who shook his head.

"We have no idea how long it will take him to do that, not to mention that I won't be able to utilize a rank SSS weapon well before reaching Tier V, the reason why Wolf can is because I used my powers to bind the soul to him, and even then, he is still unable to utilize its full power."

"I don't know if the sword will recognize me as its owner again after upgrading it, and the other one is already showing resistance when I touch it, so I won't do that until finishing the challenge and evolving, otherwise I might end up without both sword for now." Reign said as they all made their way back to Doncaster.

Upon arriving and telling the people who were still up that the monsters from the desert are not trying to go to other areas, they all went to rest. The system still hadn't given them the challenges, and perhaps they would finally get them in the morning. 

The players that had heard the news were ecstatic as they had also feared the desert and the powerful monsters there. Reign and the others had immediately told them all about the desert and just how powerful the monsters there were back when they first explored it so that none of them would go there and die.

Since the barriers had disappeared, the players had been afraid that the powerful monsters would go to the mountain range, but luckily, that wasn't happening.

In the morning, after Reign and the others had woken up.

They were in the middle of having their breakfast and were talking when a notification appeared.

The system had finally given them their challenge missions.