The next forest was pretty much the same as the deep forest near the castle. The monster here were generally between levels 10 and 15, with some monsters being lower or higher leveled, mainly cannon fodder or boss-type enemies. The enemies were the same as well, kobolds, hobgoblins, giant slimes, and the like infested the forest. They of course were no danger for Reign and the others, only wandering bosses and elites like the ogres could pose a slight challenge to them, while the field boss was the only enemy that could threaten them as it was a lvl 20 opponent.
They only fought a bit at the beginning of the forest, any enemy groups they encountered after that would simply flee once they channeled their mana outwards, creating suffocating pressure for weaker opponents. It was a neat trick that could save them a lot of time that they would otherwise waste while fighting low-level monsters.
They didn't run through the forest though, it was kind of relaxing for them to casually pass through the area after 2 days of traveling and fighting in high-level forests that made them incredibly tense. Walking through this forest and seeing the monsters run away from them was kind of exciting, it made them feel just how much stronger they have become.
They all looked back at the beginning of the game where they had to give it their all to quickly kill some low-level goblins, then struggling bitterly against the elite cockatrice and the kobolds. They were once formidable opponents for them, but now, they were simply weakling they could take out in a mere second.
Passing through the forest they finally arrived at the final area before the town, the beginner's forest, where the monsters were pitifully weak compared to them. They again took it slow, taking in the sight of the exotic trees and plants all around them. It wasn't long though before their sightseeing trip was interrupted by the sounds of fighting in front of them. Instead of being irritated or angry, everyone was actually overjoyed, they were perhaps finally going to meet some other players.
Running as swiftly as they could they soon came across a battle between four men and three kobolds. The kobolds were outnumbered, but their experience and superior strength made them the ones that had the advantage. The strongest kobold was fighting evenly against 2 guys while the other two were fighting one on one against the other two, they were overwhelming the poor guys and were clearly just playing around with them. One of the kobolds suddenly turned around and whipped his opponent with his tail, the long and heavy tail managed to hit the poor guy's head and knock him down on the ground.
The kobold laughs as he slowly walks towards the man with his sword raised, ready to finish him off.
"Adam noo!!" One of the men shouts and tries to help his friend out, only to be blocked by the kobold in front of him. The beast uses his spear to keep him at a distance while smiling, obviously overjoyed with the situation.
The man called Adam looked up at the beast that was about to kill him, he had no strength left and couldn't defend himself, his eyes were full of hatred as he wasn't content with dying like this, alas he knew there was nothing he could do.
"Hihihi." The kobold laughs as he slashes down, eager to take his opponent's life.
"So this is all incredibly funny to you lizard fucks huh?" The kobold's laughter stops as a brown-haired man covered in lighting stands in front of him, his hand grabbing the sword firmly and not letting it budge an inch. The kobold's eyes widen as if he had seen a monster, the man in front of him was not something they could fight against, in fear it lets go of the sword and tries to run away.
"Tch, little bitch." Reign clicks his tongue as he sees through the kobold's actions, with a swift step he gets in front of the kobold again and kicks it heavily on the side, launching it a couple of meters away. The kobold tries getting up but fails to do so as a couple of his ribs were broken, and his organs were in a mess. Reign looks at him and flicks his finger, shooting off a lighting bullet that hits him straight in the head, frying his brain and killing him.
Everything happened incredibly fast, the other two kobolds were shocked when they saw their friend dying without being able to defend himself. They decide to run but before they could do anything one of them gets hit in the head with an arrow while the other was impaled on a wooden branch that exploded inside of him, making dozens of smaller branches leave the insides of his body, killing him instantly.
The four men were stunned as they looked at the five newcomers, they had never seen them before, that should be impossible as they were one of the rare groups that dared leave the town to get here and level up. Their strength was considered to be in the top 3, but compared to these guys, they were nothing.
"Umm, are you guys from the town nearby?" Beast scratches the back of his head as he asks them nervously, even though he was much stronger than them his temperament was like that and he was always nervous when meeting new people.
"Y-yes, yes sir." The four all answered simultaneously, they were scared out of their wits in front of the group that consisted of incredibly strong people.
"Finally we meet some people from around here, listen up, we came here because we were given a quest by our castle captain to link up your town with our safe zone, so please take us to your safe zone's guardian ok?" Shadow excitedly says to the four stunned men. Captain, castle, safe zone guardian, those were all words they had never heard before, they had absolutely no idea what Shadow was talking about.
"Calm down Shadow, can't you see that they don't understand anything you're saying?" Wolf pats Shadow on the shoulder as he looks over at the four in front of him.
"To cut a long story short, we're here to establish communications and a possible teleporter with your town, we don't mean you harm, and if we did, well you saw our strength, so you should know that we wouldn't be wasting so much time talking." Wolf smiles eerily at them, the four get scared again as Wolf looked like a demon in their eyes, that of course only happened for a moment, they were saved by them after all, to think of them as such would be incredibly rude.
"Umm, well I still don't know exactly what all of this is about but we can take you to the town, we can take you to our zone as well, it's considered to be one of the biggest in the town, after all, just be sure to follow us once we get in the town, even if you guys are crazy strong you aren't strong enough to fight all of those monsters there." One of the four tells them, the man was above average in height and his body looked strong, it was evident that he used to work out regularly before the game started, he was about 179cm with short black hair. His eyes were brown, his chin a bit pointy while his nose was small, except for his height and muscles he was pretty much a living example of looking average.
They were all wearing normal clothing, it was ripped at a lot of places and had lots of holes, but it wasn't old, the clothes in fact looked brand new, they probably got them in the town before they got here. They were holding metal pipes and bats in their hands, it seemed none of them had any items on them, something that confused Reign and the other by a lot.
"So you guys came here from a different place, if I may ask where?" The man asks, they found out previously that his name was Jackie, and he was the current leader of the group, their leader had to stay in the town to finish something, and he was the only one that had any equipment on him, as he was, of course, the strongest of them. Reign and the others explain their journey and how they started it 2 days ago.
The more they talked the more shocked Jackie and the other guys from the group became, the fact that this was merely the weakest forest they could enter didn't shock them that much, the monsters in the town were much stronger than the ones here, so they had expected that the surroundings would be dangerous as well.
What surprised them was mostly how Reign and the others had managed to travel for 2 days to get here, to go through so many dangerous areas and encounters were incredibly difficult, and they knew that even though they were much stronger than them, they still had problems with their journey.
The talk about the ogres, cultists, vampires, and more made their skin crawl, after all those monsters were something only heard in fairy tales, and they were incredibly strong. That actually made Jackie a bit more relaxed, if Reign and the others managed to go through all of that to come here, the town might not pose any significant danger towards them. He steels himself and decides to tell them everything about the town, everything since the game started.