Is this really a Game?!

Reign and the other slowly made their way back to the university safe zone. Unfortunately what they thought was going to be an easy way back became difficult as they had to go around multiple groups of goblins, big cockatrice, gnolls, slimes, and a party of goblins led by a hobgoblin.

The gnolls looked like werewolves, standing at about 170cm tall with a wolf's head, and fur all over their bodies, the party saw 7 of them sitting down and feasting on 2 big cockatrices they hunted. They didn't have any armor or weapons and used their long sharp nails to cut big pieces of flesh from the cockatrices that they devoured with their sharp fangs.

The group of cockatrices looked harmless from a distance, only 5 of them slowly walking, but the group decided against attacking them when they saw one peck a tree and leave a big hole in it while another struck its claws against a rock, cutting deep into it and looking like it was sharpening them.

The slimes were the most disgusting, there were about 14 of them and they were everywhere, on the ground and trees, the slime that they leave after moving was dripping down from the branches, slowly corroding them. At one point they saw 5 slimes grouping together and enveloping 3 goblins that were screaming while being dissolved in their acid.

The hobgoblin was the most dreadful, patrolling with a group of 15 goblins of which 3 were level 7, with the hobgoblin being level 10, reign and the other felt incredible dangers just by looking at it as it was wearing crude leather armor and a rusty sword.

"Shouldn't monsters such as these be incredibly weak, like in games, why in the world are all of them so hard to deal with, not to mention they are always in groups!

Said Shadow while crouching down in the bushes with the rest.

"I mean in every novel and game these guys are supposed to be killable by normal people if they gave it their best but here even the damn slimes and freaking chicken are so damn strong!!"

"Y-Yes, I don't think anyone could survive a peck of those guys, y-you guys saw what they did to the tree, the hole looked like a machine did it."

Said Beast while stuttering and looking a bit pale.

"I agree, we should try our best to get back to the school and finish our quest and ask the blacksmith if he could make us some normal weapons, these knives won't be useful against most of these monsters."

Calmly said Wolf while looking at the group of wild boars they stumbled upon while getting back.

Each boar was much larger than normal, their height while on all fours being over 1m and their tusks glinting with an ominous light every time the sun shines on them through the trees.

"Yeah, I'm not sure if we could cut through the fur of these guys with them, but will the blacksmith need anything for the weapons, should we collect some wood or anything on the way?"

Said Reign while clicking his tongue and looking over his knives.

"I don't know, maybe it's like in games, we only need to pay with the coins, and get materials and such for the much stronger weapons?" (Shadow)

"I think it's better for us to not carry anything for now, if we get attacked that might be the reason why we die, for now, let's just play it safe, go around the big groups and only attack the smaller ones if we are sure of victory, even if we don't need anything from them the exp and coins will be good to have."

Said Wolf while looking around and trying to spot any monsters that might be coming their way.

"I agree with Wolf, we shouldn't be taking any more risks till we figure out more about the monsters and this forest, that tiger alone was strong enough to kill us all without any effort, who knows if more monsters like him exist here."

Said Beast with a pale face, still not fully recovered from their previous meeting with the field boss.

"Yeah, not to mention what the system said earlier, for fucks sake, was it not enough that they screwed the whole world but they had to make this area the hardest didn't they."

Reign said with his veins bulging on his forehead.

3 hours earlier, right after the death of the field boss "Harui".

"Why is something like this here, wasn't this supposed to be an easy area, and out of a sudden there's a huge tiger and a goddamn wyvern?!"

Shadow grunted angrily while kicking a tree on his way.

[As the area here was amongst those with the most potential the monsters here are stronger than other beginner areas players, the harder the circumstances that you face the faster and bigger growth you will experience, please try to act more safely next time.]

"What, why didn't you tell us that sooner dammit, we almost fucking died!" Shouted Reign.

[You, nor the other players asked anything about the forest therefore I didn't say anything.]

"You damn asshole!

Present time.

Slash. Reign slashed the hand of a goblin while moving a step backward. With a cry, the goblin drops his rusted knife and holds his hand. Reign moves quickly, with his opponent disarmed the battle was practically over, swinging his hips he delivers a sharp low kick at the goblin's leg making it lose balance, with the creature down on his back Reign jumps on top of it and plunges his knife deep into its chest. With a twist of the knife, the goblin breathes out its last breath.

[Battle has been concluded, distributing experience...]

-Lvl1 Goblin killed, 10exp points gained-

-Lvl1 Goblin killed, 10exp points gained-

-Lvl2 Goblin killed, 20exp points gained-

[The party has earned 40exp points, distributing evenly to all]

This was the 3rd group the party has encountered and decided to fight, before it they encountered a group of 3 slimes that were digesting 2 goblin corpses on the ground, with the element of surprise they managed to destroy 2 them easily with wooden branches they picked up along the way, they left the last one alive to see how long it would take them to kill it with a knife and arrows, the results were very poor.

The other fight was against a single cockatrice they found, even though it was alone it proved to be a challenge as the cockatrice managed to discover them before they ambushed it, its speed and agility proved to be a hard challenge for everyone, not to mention the razor-sharp beak and claws it had.

Reign and Shadow both had some cuts on their body at the end of the fight, Wolf was mostly unharmed except for a shallow hole on his forearm that the beak made, luckily for him he managed to evade just in time and therefore didn't have significant damage done to it. Beast was the one with no injuries as he acted as long-range support, but his effectiveness dropped sharply with moving enemies, even more so against an enemy such as the cockatrice whose speed was something he just couldn't deal with properly.

"Alright with this we all have 240exp and 26 fangs, I think we should go back now, It's already getting quite late." Reign said while panting a bit.

"Yeah, being here during nighttime will be much more dangerous than now, not to mention that we don't know if any other monsters or animals will show up."

Wolf said while wiping his knife with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. The others pulled out the goblin's fangs while grimacing and nodded. They cautiously continued their way back to the safe zone.

"So should we try to take this thing out, after all, it does look a bit bigger than the others." Said Shadow to everyone while they were crouching in the bushes and looking at a lone red cockatrice that looked bigger than the others.

<Lvl6 Elite Cockatrice>

"I think we should give it a try, this time we know not to approach it too much, but the battle will be a lot easier if Beast can manage to hit it with an arrow first, what do you think Beastie, can you manage from further away?" (Reign)

"I'm not sure, if it stops moving for a bit I think I can hit it but it's just like a normal chicken, it moves without any pattern or rhythm, if it moves right when I release the arrow it's possible that I will miss it completely."

Beast watched the cockatrice and nervously said.

"If it's the same as in games, this one might give us something good, after all, elite enemies in RPGs are the ones that always give out more loot than others if we charge from 3 directions right when Beast releases his arrow I think there's a good chance of us killing it right away." (Wolf)

"I agree, the benefits so far seem to outweigh the risk, so let's go, I'll go right, Beastie, try to hit one of its wings from the side, If you can impale it to the body his speed and agility should drop and make it a lot easier." Reign said while slowly moving to the right side.

"I'll stay here, I'll throw one of my knives as soon as Beast releases his arrow, if we're lucky and it hits maybe it will focus on me and Beast, making it a bit easier for you two to get close to it." (Wolf)

"Got it, I'll go left then, and Beast, good luck man." (Shadow)

"T-Thanks, I'll try my best."

Beast said and started to climb the tree, without much difficulty he managed to get on one of the bigger branches and slowly aimed at the cockatrice.

"Okay, slow and steady, don't forget to breathe and aim at the wing, the target is 1.8m tall and large, it shouldn't be an issue to hit it from this far, remember your training Beast, forget about anything except the target in front of you."

Beast was muttering under his breath, his shaking fingers again calming down and his breathing turning even as he aimed at the cockatrice's right side which was turned to him, the monster was bent, as if it was looking for something on the ground. Right then the cockatrice sharply stood straight and looked in front of him, right where Reign was.

Schreeeeeee

It screeched while looking in his direction and started running, well, it tried to

Swish, Thud

The arrow from Beast found its way to the beast and impaled its right wing and body.

The cockatrice screeched again but this time it was a screech of pain. Reign and Shadow jumped out from the bushes and charge at it while from its right side a knife was thrown.

The battle has started.