Is this really a Game?!

Morning came quickly, the bright rays of sunshine entered the room from the small gaps of the curtains, Reign was already up, sitting on his bed and thinking about everything that happened so far.

The crazy game that all of humanity was forced to play, the monsters, the skills and abilities, and the numerous near-fatal fights him and his party had to face so far. Being level 16 he felt powerful, but he knew full well that his power was nothing in comparison to what lies ahead, the bosses scattered in the world was something he didn't even want to think of, just the huge lizard is enough to kill all of them right now, anything stronger would just need a slap to send them to their deaths.

Getting up he puts on his clothes and gets ready to meet the others before they go to Eldar's office, the day of the journey has finally come. Nobody knows how dangerous it will be or how long the journey will take.

Meeting the others they all exchange pleasantries and good mornings, slowly they walk towards the stairs and get ready to meet the captain for the briefing.

Knock.

As they knock on the door their hearts beat wildly, they were finally going to learn more about the area surrounding them, and about the town they are supposed to go to, after so many days they are finally going to meet other people.

"Enter." Eldar's calm voice acts as a wake-up call for them. Taking in a deep breath Reign puts his hand on the door handle and opens the door.

Click.

Entering the room they can see Eldar and Jack waiting for them, Jack was sitting on a nearby sofa, laying on it lazily. Eldar on the other hand was standing in front of a huge holographic map, his face was serious, a rare sight for everyone, it was usually the other way around for those two.

"You arrived, come on, sit." Eldar smiles at them and gestures at the sofas with his hand, walking to them everyone sits down and stares at him.

"So, first of all, you guys leveled up faster than I thought you would, good job on that." Eldar smiles at them, his expression getting a bit softer as his eyes land on them. "Now, well now comes the hard part."

Going back to his serious mode he tells them while walking around the table situated in the middle of the room. "As you can see, this is the map of the nearby topography, the forests, the hills, and mountains, we even got a river and a lake nearby, you guys, of course, don't know of it as you have only ventured on the south and east of the castle.

Pointing with his fingers he slowly explains the surroundings with a calm and steady voice.

"The town we located is to the west of us, going to it will take you about a day and you'll be traveling through this area." With his finger, he shows the west part of the map. "As you see a part of the river flows in the middle of it, that might be a good place to get some water, if the river is safe and clean, do take care when you get there, there are many aquatic beasts that could attack you if you get in it."

The talk suddenly shifts towards him explaining how the aquatic beasts have evolved and that they are much more formidable than the ones on the land, as they have a huge advantage over them underwater.

"The lake is quite close to the river, I would recommend you take a detour around it, as it is a water source many monsters will go there to rest and drink water, the calm waters of the lake are much better than the river for them as they can see the ripples if anything tries attacking them, so take care when you get close to it and do your best to go around."

Putting a serious expression once again he mentions the dangers around the lake multiple times, making sure they wouldn't forget his words. As he continues he talks about the different forests and what level of enemies they should expect to find in them, the most dangerous area was as expected the one around the lake, by his estimates the monsters should be around level 20 to level 25 there, monsters of such level are not what the party could hunt as it would be too time-consuming and draining, not to mention the danger they would face.

"So you have two choices, either go through that area with extreme caution or simply play it safe and go all the way around, it will be much safer that way but it might take an extra day to do that, you're free to choose what to do of course as I have no power over you when you leave, just make sure you don't die, my promotion depends on it."

Eldar stares at all of them, the pressure brought by someone of his strength made it hard to breathe, their bodies start shaking unintentionally and their breaths turn short and rapid as sweat goes down from their foreheads.

"All right cap, I think that's enough, you're gonna break the poor lads if you keep it up." Jack suddenly shows up next to Eldar and pats his shoulder, the pressure on Reign and the others immediately disappears as they can finally breathe normally.

"Right, sorry for that guys, I've been on the edge the last couple of days, some safe zones have already managed to establish contact with their nearby areas, so we need to hurry up a bit otherwise we'll get left behind by them," Eldar explains with an apologetic face, as they hear the explanation Reign and the others get surprised, they thought they would be the leading force right now as the people they talked with on the forums were nowhere near the level of strength as them.

"The reason it's so important to establish contact with the town is that once you do that you can link the place with us, enabling us to use the teleporter to move between us, that will make traveling much more convenient, not to mention that that way we will be safer from attacks as we can call for backup and vice versa."

Now Reign and the party were even more surprised, teleporting from such long distances is something they thought of before but didn't know if it was possible, with Eldar confirming their thoughts they were sure that the journey they're about to take is one of immense importance.

"Don't worry captain, we'll make sure to complete the mission." Reign gets up and nods to Eldar.

Ding!

[ Special quest "Journey to the West" received.]

Description: The captain of safe zone 01 Eldar has issued a quest for your party, go on a journey to the west of the safe zone and make contact with a settlement located there, failing to finish the quest will drop your favorability with the residents of the safe zone while succeeding will grant incredible rewards.

Looking at the quest that showed up in front of them everyone widened their eyes, they hadn't gotten a quest since the first day of the game, the only thing close to it was the dungeon, but that was a bit different compared to a normal quest.

Leaving the room everyone goes outside, it was time to stock on supplies, the journey will be long and arduous, the last thing they want is to not have enough rations when they're out there.

"Do you think they're ready?" Jack asks Eldar as they gaze from the window of his office. Eldar looks at them and shakes his head

"I'm not certain, they are definitely stronger compared to others that are the same level, but the enemies they might face will be quite above them, we can only hope they take my advice and be as careful as possible, losing such promising players would be nothing short of a tragedy."

Jack nods his head as he listens to him, looking down he stares at Reign, the young man had brought him surprise after surprise, the last thing he wanted to see now was him dead.

"That boy, he got Arry's sword."

"What?!" Eldar jumps up as he shouts, looking at Jack with wide-open eyes he asks. "Arry's sword, are you sure, it could be-"

"I'm certain!" Jack answers resolutely, his face as calm as a lake, showing no emotion whatsoever.

"Haaaaa, it must be fate, huh, we searched for him and that damn weapon of his for so long and it suddenly appears here, you didn't take it?" Eldar sighs deeply and flashes a smile afterward.

"No, the boy deserves it, his talent for the sword is, it's something I have rarely ever seen, Arry himself would be proud that his sword is used by someone like him." Smiling bitterly Jack shakes his head and looks directly at Eldar.

"I just hope that will be enough for them to survive the journey."

"Me too old friend, me too."

Both of them look away and stare at the sky, their faces calm but serious.