Is this really a Game?!

After Reign's triumph over the corrupted field bosses, the Verdant Jungle of Corruption seemed to settle into an uneasy calm. The echoes of the intense battle faded away, leaving behind an eerie silence. Reign took a moment to catch his breath, his senses still on high alert in case there were any lingering threats.

The system's notifications appeared, signaling the rewards for defeating the two powerful field bosses. The corrupted cores of the tiger and snake glowed with dark energy, and Reign felt a surge of power coursing through him as he absorbed the essence of his fallen adversaries.

As the adrenaline from the battle began to subside, Reign took a closer look at his surroundings. The barren area created by the clash of the two field bosses showed the destructive force that had unfolded. Trees were uprooted, the ground was scarred with deep cracks, and the very essence of corruption lingered in the air.

Reign knew he had to make the most of his time in the Verdant Jungle. The solo dungeon had proven to be a challenging yet rewarding experience, and he was determined to explore further and uncover its secrets. The system's advice about bonuses for defeating powerful entities echoed in his mind, motivating him to seek out more formidable foes.

The system's notifications blinked before him, revealing the rewards he had earned for successfully taking down the corrupted tiger and snake.

Corrupted Tiger's Essence:

The corrupted core of the tiger pulsated with dark energy. As Reign absorbed its essence, he felt a surge of strength and agility coursing through his veins. The corrupted tiger's essence granted him a permanent boost to his physical attributes, enhancing his combat abilities. His reflexes became sharper, and his movements more agile, as if he had absorbed the predatory prowess of the fallen beast.

Venomous Serpent's Spirit:

The snake's corrupted core emitted a toxic aura, but Reign harnessed it to his advantage. As he absorbed the Venomous Serpent's Core, a new helper suddenly appeared in front of him. It was the same snake that he had killed, but it was much smaller and it was ethereal, a ghost of sorts. The snake coiled around his neck and turned into a scarf, but he got no bonuses from it as it was a spirit.

The spirit would help him out during battle. It could coil around a limb of an enemy and break it, it could break their entire body, it could use its acidic poison and spit it at the enemy or bite them to distribute the poison throughout their body. 

The spirit was also able to suddenly become as large as the snake was before Reign killed it for a short period of time and attacked the enemy in that form as well.

The only negative thing about the spirit is that after the dungeon was finished, it would be gone and Reign would get a different reward from it, probably similar to what he got from the tiger, a boost in stats that was permanent.

These rewards not only reflected the unique characteristics of the defeated bosses but also added a layer of complexity to Reign's skill set. The combination of enhanced physical prowess from the tiger and venomous abilities from the snake that could fight by itself provided him with a versatile array of tools for future challenges in the Verdant Jungle.

Days passed, and Reign delved deeper into the corrupted jungle. The encounters became increasingly challenging as he faced mini-bosses and powerful monsters, each presenting unique abilities and tactics. The Verdant Jungle seemed to adapt to his presence, testing his adaptability and combat skills.

After slightly over 10 days had passed, Reign was standing atop a tree and overlooking the jungle. His face was calm as he stared at a small monster that was taking a nap atop another tree some 140 meters away from him.

Although small, the monster present was quite powerful, and Reign, fully aware of the rules of the jungle, wanted to try his luck in getting a boost in his speed after absorbing the essence of the monster.

His snake left him and started slithering toward the small monster, which looked somewhat like a black panther, only that its jaw was elongated and larger compared to a panther, and it had bones sticking out of its back that slightly flickered with lightning from time to time.

The tail was metallic and looked more akin to a curved sword than a tail and it barely had any fur on its body, instead, the skin was much thicker and durable than usual.

As the snake got close to the panther, the monster opened its eyes and stared at it with hostility. The bones that stuck out on its back slightly shook as lightning started dancing around them while the panther got in a position to pounce on the snake.

Just as the panther was about to do so, the snake spat acid at it, prompting the panther to fire a bolt of lightning at the acid to stop it before lunging forward. Well, it tried to lunge, only for a giant fist to suddenly appear above it and crash down at it.

The fist disappeared in an instant, and what was left below it was a destroyed tree, a dent in the ground, and the monster that was trying to get up even though many of its bones were crushed.

Before it was able to get up, a flicker of lightning passed next to it as its head dropped on the ground. 

Reign stood next to the corpse of the body before exhaling. Without the new skill he had gotten from another mini-boss he had killed, he wouldn't have been able to defeat the monster so easily.

About two days ago, Reign faced a colossal corrupted titan, a creature that seemed to embody the essence of the jungle itself. The battle was fierce, with the guardian wielding both the corruptive powers of the jungle and formidable physical strength. Reign's determination and newfound abilities that he had gotten up to that point proved crucial in overcoming this powerful adversary.

The rewards for defeating the corrupted titan were substantial. The titan's corrupted core pulsated with immense energy, and Reign could feel the surge of power as he absorbed it, but the most important thing was the fact he could summon a part of the titan anywhere in an area 200 meters around him.

The body part would immediately materialize and attack an enemy, and he could choose how it would attack as well. Just like with the snake, this reward was temporary and after he left the jungle, it would be gone, replaced by a rise in stats.

'Hey, so what do you think, do a couple of more weeks seem fine, or perhaps now you believe I can complete the dungeon?' Reign asked Aethion who scoffed at him and turned his head.

Three days ago, Jared had unfortunately not been able to stop himself from talking too much and had mistakenly told Reign about the bet he and Aethion had. 

Reign was a bit happy that Jared thought he could last longer than Aethion did, but the fact neither believed he could complete the dungeon hurt him a bit as his ego took a hit. Proving them wrong had become another motivation for him to complete the dungeon and he was constantly talking to Aethion about what was going on.

"You have still not fought against even one Tier VI monster, leave the talk for when you manage to take down one of those."

"Hunting down Tier V monsters is the correct thing right now, but don't forget that this dungeon is one that usually takes a mid-grade Tier VI to complete," Aethion said in a calm voice as Reign clicked his tongue before absorbing the essence of the panther.

"Hell yes!" Reign shouted in happiness as he felt his agility increase and a passive skill was added to his status screen.

[ Lightning Boots ]

Description: Thanks to the player's incredible control over lightning, the lightning itself will help the player move. Lightning will constantly flicker around the player's feet, forming what looks like boots made out of lightning that will increase the speed of the player by about 15%.

'My lightning manipulation has also increased slightly, that's good.'

'I wonder what my status screen will look like after I finish this dungeon.'

"You probably won't finish it though, master," Jared said without teasing Reign, and the latter knew that as the AI was sometimes brutally honest and wasn't afraid of giving you his honest thoughts and opinions at times.

'Hey, at least act like you are confident in my abilities!'

"Ah, alright master," Jared said as a smile appeared on his face.

"Master can do it, master is the strongest, even if a Tier VII monster appears, Master will kill it in an instant!"

"Master you can finish this dungeon, it's nothing special to you, you can finish it whenever you want!"

'You know what, just … just stop, go back to being honest.' Reign said with a defeated sigh as he continued moving through the forest.