Is this really a Game?!

Thud

A body of a giant monster fell to the ground heavily and shook the surroundings as Reign and the others panted heavily. Multiple wounds could be seen on their bodies, but there were no broken bones or critical injuries.

There had been some previously, but Laura's powerful healing ability was enough to heal them up quickly so that they would be able to continue fighting.

Healing such wounds wasn't simple, however, and it was not just because of the mana and concentration the healer needed to have.

It was because the person being healed would have to go through great pain in order to be healed. Broken bones would get sat back to their position before healing, which was an incredibly painful ordeal one would have to go through.

Reign and the others had fought the giant lizard for over 30 minutes. The battle was intense and each of them had to go all out, except for using their boost skills which could only be used once in every couple of days.

They wanted to test their limits and see if they could defeat a Tier II monster without using such skills, and they were successful.

The downside of not using those skills was the fact that the battle took much longer than needed and they were put in a precarious situation more than once. Life and death became a fine line multiple times, but they managed to win the battle and defeat the giant lizard.

The lizard had dropped three rank S items and some rank A ones. Each of the rank S items was of good quality, but unfortunately, it was of no use for Reign and the others who would need to sell it to others.

The evening was coming and it was time for them to go back to their territory. Fighting such a powerful enemy had taken a great toll on them and rest was much needed at this moment.

They dragged their weary bodies back to the base, encountering three groups of enemies along the way. The groups were not large and there was no high-level Tier I enemies amongst them, allowing Reign and the others to easily deal with them before reaching the base.

They went through the portal before entering their building. Having a shower and then dinner was the only thing on their minds at that moment and after doing so, they all sat down in the living room before erupting in laughter.

They had done it.

They had defeated a Tier II monster without using their boost skills.

Such a feat was something that rarely anybody could do, hell, even a party of 20 Tier I beings would not necessarily be able to do something like this.

The body of the Tier II lizard would make for great materials for crafting armor or weapons. Its ability to raise the temperature of its body and the surroundings was a tricky one, but it was one that could probably be integrated into a piece of armor without much difficulty.

Such armor would be perfect for Wolf who could endure very high temperatures thanks to his ability.

They planned on visiting the old blacksmith the moment they woke up. Their plan for tomorrow was to deal with the wolf and the tortoise before heading back.

They had no idea how powerful the two monsters were nor how tricky it would be to deal with them.

But one thing was for certain, they could do it.

If they could defeat the powerful lizard without using their boosts, they could certainly deal with those two monsters if they used the boosts, that much they were certain of.

Reign and the others quickly fell asleep. The fatigue that had built up thanks to the fight made it very easy for them to enter the land of dreams before being woken up by the sunlight coming through the windows.

They had breakfast before heading to Adrian that was sitting outside the smithy and smoking a cigar, it was his usual routine that he never skipped.

The old blacksmith stared at them as they showed him the body parts of the giant lizard before sighing.

"When the hell will you let me rest for a couple of days, I swear, you darned brats are gonna work me to death," Adrian said before taking the body parts with him.

"Oh come on man, you know that we would never do something like that, it's just that you make such good stuff that we can't wait to see what new things you make for us!" Shadow said enthusiastically as he tried to placate the old man with compliments.

"Well, it's nice to hear that I am appreciated as well." Another voice was heard as the elven smith came out of the smithy.

"Well, of course, the items wouldn't be the same if it wasn't for you as well!" Shadow said as he quickly complimented the elven smith as well.

He continued showering the two with compliments for the next 5 minutes and the two finally went into the smithy to work, not being able to continue listening to Shadow, the two would rather spend the whole day working than have their asses kissed.

Still, there was a slight smile on their faces as they glanced at each other before taking off their clothes and – just joking.

The two smiled slightly as they shook their heads and started working. Just like Reign and the others had thought, the body parts of the Tier II lizard were quite good materials and would make for some solid rank S creations.

As for Reign and the others, they were back on the mountain. The team glanced at each other before nodding and leaving the base. The first target for the day?

The giant tortoise.

As Reign and the others reached the area where they had seen the monster yesterday, they were able to quickly spot it as it hadn't moved from its previous location at all.

They stared at the tortoise that was still surrounded by five smaller tortoises before attacking it.

They first concentrated all of their firepower on the giant tortoise, but the giant monster simply entered its shell and refused to go out. All of their attacks did no damage to it until Reign stopped and closed his eyes.

Wolf had told him that something weird was going on, and Reign was quickly able to feel exactly what it was. The tortoises were actually in a kind of array. The smaller five tortoises, together with the large one were sharing mana and probably sharing any damage that one would get as well.

Each time the tortoise got hit, Reign could feel the mana vibrating slightly as it went to all of them.

That meant that any attack they sent would get its power split in six, which would make them all much, much weaker.

Reign and the others soon started focusing their attacks on the smaller tortoises, which finally brought some results. The damage was still being shared, but compared to before, they were seeing the damage affecting the tortoise they were targeting.

They gathered that it was probably because the damage isn't really shared equally between all of them. The one to suffer the attack probably had to deal with about 40% of the power while the rest would get split.

It was still a very annoying thing to deal with, but now they knew they had a shot.

The battle became more difficult, however, as the tortoises now had stopped simply taking the attacks.

The tortoises were all high-level Tier I monsters, and since they were ones that focused on defense, breaking through their shell was an incredibly difficult thing to be done.

After they had come out of their shells and started attacking Reign and the others together with the Tier II tortoise, all hell broke loose.

Each of the tortoises was proficient in one element. The giant tortoise could control soil and rocks, making huge rocks appear from underneath and giant spikes coming at Reign and the others.

The others could control fire, water, air, lightning, and the last one metal. The last one was similar to Tank in that it could suddenly turn its body metallic which led to a huge increase in its defense.

The tortoises attacked while Reign and the others did the same. The tortoise they were focusing on was able to control water and it would shoot out jets of powerful compressed water at them.

The water could cut through a couple of trees with relative ease and was quite a bother to deal with. The others weren't any easier to be dealt with, but the Tier II was what gave them the most problems.

It didn't use its ability only to attack them, but also to change the shape of the surroundings. The ground cracked and moved as the powerful monster willed it, which made it almost impossible to have a normal battle since Reign and the others couldn't even stand normally. The battle lasted much, much longer than the one they had yesterday.