Is this really a Game?!

"I mean, do we even know where exactly we're going?" Asked Shadow as the party traveled through the grasslands. Thanks to the map they had gotten from Eldar previously, they knew that there were no areas near the castle that was strong enough to have Tier I monsters inside of them. From what Eldar had mysteriously told them, something like that would change in the future, but exactly what he meant by that was a mystery.

"The areas around the IronBark woods are either the same or weaker compared to it, that only leaves the areas after the grasslands as those have not been mapped or explored," Wolf said as he glanced at Shadow before continuing forward.

No monster in the grasslands dared attack Reign and the others, even if they were traveling individually they would be safe from attacks since they were much more powerful compared to the monster here. Together, however, even if an area boss was to see them, it would need to run away as they were simply too powerful compared to it.

"Come on, we already know that one area next to the grasslands is lower in level thanks to Carlo, there are also some areas around it that are definitely not going to have powerful monsters in them, that only leaves one direction for us to travel, we have already eliminated a big portion of the area to explore thanks to that, just a bit more and we should be reaching the end of the grasslands." Reign said as he cracked his neck before staring in the distance.

"What does your eagle see, Beast?" Reign asked Beast who was walking together with them with his eyes closed. Tank and Laura were on each of his sides, protecting him and guiding him forward. Thanks to him reaching Tier I, he was now able to use his powers more efficiently and sharing sight or other senses with his monster no longer force him to stop.

"About 10 minutes forward and we will reach the next area, it, it's a bit weird, however." Beast said as he walked together with the others.

"Weird?"

"Yeah, it's, well, it's a huge mountain range, and from what my eagle is sensing, it seems the monster inside is quite formidable, probably Tier I."

"Score!" Shadow excitedly said as the others all stared at him.

"Sorry," Shadow said with an embarrassed expression as he scratched the back of his head.

Beast had taken a long time to finish the evolution missions, but what took him longer was also waiting for his tamed beasts to go through the evolution as well. They were all level 50 and at the very edge of evolution before he was teleported for the challenge, unfortunately, a tamed beast can't evolve if its master hasn't so they all needed to wait.

At the same time that Beast evolved, his beasts did as well. Their evolution however took much longer since they didn't need to go through any challenges or missions in order to achieve it. Beast didn't know if this was true for all monsters or not, but he was glad that all of them were becoming stronger together with him.

He could now actually tame 1 more monster and his ability was much easier to use. The biggest gain of the challenge however wasn't any of those things, but Blackie who had managed to reach Tier I and finally finish his evolution. Thanks to Blackie doing so, his powers were now much greater and it stood firmly at the top of all Beast's tamed beasts.

It has grown in size and now he was 4 meters long, his body was black with mysterious purple symbols on it. The mark Blackie had received was still present on its body and it had even changed a bit, from a simple round mark, it was now more elongated and mysterious.

The horns that had grown on its head were much larger than before and a bit of electricity could be seen from time to time on them. The fangs that Blackie had were also larger, but they were now completely black in color. The black fangs were now not only much sturdier, but they were also much sharper as well.

All of the other beasts had changed as well after reaching Tier I. Fluffy had actually shrunk a bit and his fur was thinner and shorter compared to before, but one should not underestimate the giant bear because of that. The horns on its head were smaller, but much sharper as well and it also had a new ability. The ability was one that allowed Fluffy to change its body size at will, it could become even smaller and gain a huge boost in speed, or abandon speed and become much larger and more powerful.

The golden lion barely changed, his fur was shinier and its muscles were a bit more pronounced, but that was it. It was however extremely powerful and could contend with the other beasts. The eagle had grown larger and now two people could even sit on its back while it could hold 2 people with its talons. The lightning powers it had were enhanced and so was its physical strength.

The dark lion was the same as the golden one as its body went through a small change. Its dark fur was darker and its muscles more pronounced, other than that it received a boost in both its physical strength and ability.

The small snake had simply changed its color and now its venom was even more potent than before. Other than that, it was completely the same as its body didn't grow at all.


Still, all of the beasts were stronger and now Beast could tame one more. Of course, he wasn't going to tame any beast that he came across, since he already had a formidable squad already, he wanted one that could fill in the best.

All in all, when all of the beasts were put together, they didn't truly have a weakness, they could fight a long-range battle and a short-range one. They had powers that were quite formidable and together they could defeat bosses without much trouble. What Beast lacked however was a stealth-focused beast since Blackie no longer had its stealth skills.

For some reason they were gone after the evolution, perhaps it was because its race simply didn't have any, or perhaps Blackie had decided on his own that it wasn't needed anymore. It still had darkness-type skills, but the lightning ones were slowly starting to come out as more dominant.

The little snake was quite good at stealth and thanks to its small size could fit almost everywhere, but a powerful monster or person could still sense it if they tried so it was a no-go.

The main reason why Beast wanted to tame such a monster was that he felt he was lacking in that regard during his evolution challenge. There were multiple instances where such a beast could have helped him tremendously and made things much easier for him, but he simply didn't have one that was that good.

Even Blackie, who had stealth skills before was not enough as it didn't focus on them, leading to his stealth skills lacking as he became more powerful.

As the party neared the area they were finally able to see the mountain range. The mountain range was enormous, even the eagle that was flying above them couldn't see the end of the mountain range. The high peaks of the mountains went all the way up to the clouds, like pillars that held the sky from crashing down.

Valleys, creaks, rivers, and lakes could all be found in the giant mountain range, and most importantly, powerful monsters. Not only were the monsters inside the mountain range Tier I, but Reign could feel that there were even Tier II monsters inside. How he could feel it he didn't know, but the sheer pressure the mountain range brought down upon all that looked at it made him know that.

Inside the mountain range, even he and the others could die if they weren't careful enough. A Tier II monster, even the weakest one could completely and utterly decimate them all. That was just how powerful each evolution was.

'Be careful in there boy, even if all of you are back together, that place is not something you wish to walk in unprepared.' Aethion suddenly said as Reign simply nodded. He knew that perhaps the best time to enter the mountain range was after his sword was finished, but nobody wanted to wait that long.

Everyone wanted to fight, they wanted to see just how powerful they had gotten as none of them were as lucky as Reign and Wolf who had multiple sparring partners and battles after the evolution. Shadow for example didn't fight at his full power even once after evolving, and it wasn't because he was trying not to fight.

But still, they all ventured forward to the mountain range, not only were they confident enough in their own strength, but there was also another reason why they knew they would be fine. The reason was Laura who had managed to rank up her ability.