Is this really a Game?!

Chapter 805 The Jungle's Ancient Secrets: Unearthing a Mystery

As the days passed, Reign and his team delved deeper into the jungle, their newfound caution guiding their every step. They carefully marked the boundaries of the corrupted area they had encountered earlier and established a network of safe zones where they could regroup and rest. The information they gathered about the jungle's peculiarities and anomalies was shared with other teams in the territory, ensuring that they would also be safe once they became Tier V combatants and started exploring the jungle as well.

During their explorations, they discovered that the corrupted area in the jungle wasn't an isolated phenomenon. Similar corrupted areas dotted the landscape, each with its unique challenges and mysterious malevolent entities. They began to realize that these anomalies were not random but were part of the larger transformation that had taken place in the jungle for some reason.

In their efforts to combat these anomalies, Reign's team had brought with them M'azgara's elites. The elites were strong fighters and their presence allowed Reign and the others to have some breathing room. Their combined strength allowed them to confront the corrupted jungles and the sinister forces lurking within.

Even though Reign and the others wished to ignore the corrupted areas, the problem was that they were not static, the beings below could move, and that made the jungle much more dangerous.

Creating a safe zone inside the jungle was an immensely difficult thing to do because of them, and for now, Reign and the others had scrapped that plan.

Over time, the team uncovered more about the origins of the corrupted areas. They learned that certain types of mana, coupled with unique environmental conditions, were giving rise to these sentient, malevolent entities, just like Aethion had said. It was as if the mana itself was taking on a dark consciousness, corrupting the once-thriving ecosystems of the jungle.

Compared to the tree that Reign had destroyed in the black forest, these things were different. The tree coexisted with the Wood Folk, the two would help each other out and live peacefully, but these things simply attacked everything that came in their area of control.

Reign's team started working on solutions to counter these anomalies. Together with the elves, the alchemists and mages of the territory started researching a counter to them. It didn't take them long to learn how to weaken the control the corrupted entities had over the jungle, allowing Reign and the others to face them more easily. Slowly, they began to destroy some of the corrupted beings that were on the outskirts of the jungle, making it safer for those that would come after.

They didn't do it only because of that, as each time they managed to destroy one, which was quite difficult as they had to kill them under the ground, they would get quite a lot of exp, as well as items. Unfortunately, the items would mostly be Rank S or SS, there were rarely Rank SSS items, which showed just how rare those kinds of items were.

Their efforts were not without danger. The corrupted entities fought back, and the battles were intense. Each victory over these malevolent forces came at a high cost, but Reign and his team remained resolute. They believed that defeating these entities was crucial to making the jungle a good hunting spot.

Of course, they didn't dare go too deep inside the jungle. The areas they had visited were already quite dangerous and difficult for them, if they went deeper, there was no saying what they would come across and face.

As they continued to map out the jungle and confront the corrupted areas, they also came across ancient ruins of a seemingly forgotten civilization. These remnants of the past hinted at the civilization's power, and the team felt a growing sense of purpose in uncovering the truth behind the ruins. Perhaps understanding the past could provide them with some help.

Reign had known for quite some time now that Earth was not as simple as it seemed. The ancient civilizations of Earth indeed had used mana before, and there was also the fact that he saw Raziel on Earth, an untold number of years ago.

Previously, they had come across some old temples and ruins, but they were clearly old temples and ruins from Earth, there were also some they believed to be from other worlds.

After all, the system could put anything it wanted on the planet, including entire cities from other planets. As the world had expanded, and Reign had learned that Earth used to be even bigger, he believed that it was simply returning to its original size, and the ruins and civilizations that were present long before they were showing up once more.

One day, a bit deeper into the jungle, they stumbled upon an immense, overgrown temple. Its architecture was unlike anything they had ever seen, and its aura radiated an ancient power. The team cautiously ventured inside, expecting the unexpected.

The temple was made out of rock, and from how it was created, it seemed to be from a singular piece of rock, similar to how an ancient temple in India was made thousands of years ago. The main difference here was the fact that the temple they found was too large.

The temple was about 50 meters tall and occupied a piece of land that was over a thousand square meters. The size of the temple made it difficult to believe that it would have been made from one piece of rock, it would simply take too long, tens if not hundreds of years.

The murals, the inscriptions, the statues, they were made with such attention to detail, such immense precision that Reign and the others doubted that anyone could have done something like this before the game started.

Inside the temple, they discovered a chamber filled with inscriptions and murals. The walls seemed to depict events leading to a change in the world. It appeared that a grand war had taken place in the world that the temple came from. They could see that the immense world was divided in three.

One large force occupied a third of the world, a second force another third, and an alliance of smaller kingdoms occupied the final third.

That changed in the next mural as one force seemingly won, taking over most of the area that the other force, a large empire, had once controlled. Then there was another change as a new kingdom was built, and it continued growing until it clashed against the empire that controlled more than half of the world.

As they continued to look at the murals, Reign was able to feel a sense of familiarity. Some of the murals of cities and the landscape seemed familiar to him, but they were obviously not from Earth.

Suddenly, as they made it to the end where the final mural and two statues were present, Reign stopped and stared at it. He recognized them.

The statues.

The two men whose weapons had clashed against one another, he knew them.

One was a person he had talked to multiple times in the past, the ancestor of all Nephilims, Raziel.

As for the second person, it was a man he had seen and talked to once before. The manifestation of the Will of the World, Cyrus.

The person that led the largest empire on the planet, the one that left a trail of destruction behind them, was none other than Cyrus. He was depicted as a tall and handsome man who hid his wickedness and evil deep inside himself.

As for Raziel, his features were not clear, one could look at the statue and see his face constantly shifting, as it did in the murals.

"Reign, hey, what's up man?" Shadow asked Reign who shook his head before looking at the two again.

"I know them, both of them."

"What?"

"I told you how I met the –" Before Reign could continue talking, everybody present, including him, was able to feel immense danger in the air. For some reason, Reign felt that if he continued speaking, something bad, something very very bad would happen.

"Do not mention gods without permission boy, that is something quite well-known in the universe," Aethion said as Reign nodded inwardly before glancing at the others.

"Sorry, it seems I won't be able to tell you anything, at least not now."

Shadow and the others nodded as they nervously looked around them before they decided to leave. Just as they were about to leave, however, Reign saw something from the corner of his eyes, another mural, one that suddenly made him freeze.

The others glanced at him before looking at where he was staring, but found nothing there, just a wall, an empty wall.

Before they were about to say something, Reign suddenly disappeared from the spot. There was no mana they felt, there was nothing, no indication of something being activated or done, before he disappeared.

Before they were able to comprehend what had happened, Reign suddenly appeared again, in the same spot he was previously standing at, only this time, he wasn't shocked, but calm.