Two weeks had passed since Reign and the others killed the Butcher and took over the city. The golden tree had finished with absorbing the power of the previous tree in 3 days, and it was finally able to connect the town of Doncaster and the city by forming a giant portal with its roots.
Contrary to what they believed, the tree was not only present in the city of Wilkashere, it was in Doncaster as well. There were two trees, both identical to each other existing in both cities at once.
And how that was possible?
Well, it was because the tree had spatial powers, and with those powers, the tree had been able to create two anchor points, one in Doncaster, and the other in Wilkashere. With the two anchor points present, the tree then moved what was there in a separate dimension while at the same time creating an exact duplicate that could still be seen from the outside. The building where the Butcher had once been, and the warehouse below which the underground city was located, no longer actually existed as the two were mere copies that the tree had created.
With the copies put in place, the tree used its powers to overlap the two locations, making it visible in both. The tree was present in both Doncaster and Wilkashere at the same times, and yet it wasn't, at least not truly. The true body was actually in a separate layer, one that was outside the scope of what people could see, but it was thanks to that layer, one that Reign had never been to thanks to the fact it was one where spatial interference was high and it was nearly impossible for beings that hadn't comprehended a bit of the spatial element to even sense, let alone visit without dying.
The tree could be attacked at either one of the two locations, but it would suffer some superficial damage from it, nothing that could truly threaten it completely.
With Doncaster being allied with multiple territories, one being the underground city that was below Pripyat, and with Reign and the others controlling Wilkashere as well, the overall power of the territory had increased tremendously.
They had tens of thousands of players that were combat ready, and over ten thousand were Tier III and above, making for a powerful army that could threaten almost anyone, at least that is what Reign and the others believed as the situation in larger cities was much more chaotic, as they knew from Shadow's father who was in New York.
Multiple safe zones had been created in large cities, but incredibly powerful monsters had also spawned, making it near impossible for some of the safe zones to even be reached as monsters were right next to them.
One had to complain about how the system had gone about placing the safe zones as most people couldn't reach them on time, thus dying at the very start of the game. In total, billions of people had died, and even though Reign and the others didn't know the exact number of people that had survived, they doubted it would be above 40% of the population, hell, even that estimate was generous.
The hunting never stopped, however, as Reign and the others had spent the two weeks hunting, as well as dealing with multiple issues that occurred in Wilkashere. Reign and the others were their saviors, that was what many believed, but many were also disgruntled as they believed that the many neutral groups, as well as those hostile to the Butcher, would have defeated her in the end, but Reign and the others had swooped in and taken control.
Of course, none dared say it out loud or do anything about it, but humans were fickle creatures that couldn't be fully understood by anybody. Some had started acting out in the city, causing trouble and even attacking or looting before being captured by those who were put in charge of keeping the people safe.
Reign and the others had to personally take charge and start dealing with such troublemakers, and that took a lot of their time the first week after they took control.
As more time passed, the easier it became for them to leave it to those they had placed in charge of things in the city, and after two weeks, fewer and fewer problems arose, and Reign and the others had finally managed to not only reach the peak of Tier IV but also level up a couple of times and get near the limit before Tier V.
They didn't want to reach the max level as that would immediately trigger an evolution challenge, and if they were forced to go to another planet once again, the fog coming from the depths of the mountain range could potentially spread out by a lot, causing many people to die and for some things that they had constructed around the wall to be lost.
They weren't willing to take such losses, nor were they willing to take the risk of evolving and then exploring the depths as who knew just how long it would take them to finish their evolution challenge.
They had already ventured into the depths again after reaching the peak of the fourth tier, and even though the monsters were constantly attacking them, they were able to reach much deeper than before, unfortunately for them, the number of monsters deep inside was humongous, and even if they could defeat them all without somehow dying out of exhaustion, the sheer number of dead monsters would make them level up multiple times and potentially bring them to the max level and trigger the evolution challenge, thus, they had decided to gather up everybody before going inside again.
"Are you all ready?" Reign asked the Tier IVs who were gathered in front of the wall. With the help of their allies, Reign and the others had managed to gather over 200 Tier IV combatants for this one final mission they had in the mountain range.
They needed to get to the very center, where the fog was emanating from, no matter the cost. Some of the Tier IVs would probably die, but even with the large numbers and great powers the monsters inside the fog had, it shouldn't be overwhelming to them, so the casualties shouldn't be too large, at least that was what Reign and the others were hoping for.
The negative effect from the fog would definitely make everybody present weaker than they were, but they already knew that, and many were ready to use everything they had to fight the monsters and finally get rid of the annoying fog that lingered in the depths of the mountain range.
Right as Reign and the others were about to venture inside, one person suddenly came out of the portal with staggering steps. He was running as fast as he could and opened his mouth.
"The barriers are gone, the barriers between the areas are gone!"
At the exact same time, they had heard the man.
Ding!
[ The Third Phase of the game will now officially begin. ]
[ The barriers that barred the way for the stronger monsters to go in the weaker areas have been lifted, monsters will be now present everywhere, and their power will vary by a lot, still, the areas where powerful monsters are present will still have powerful monsters as many of them won't be eager to leave so easily. ]
[ The safe zones, even the ones in the most dangerous places of the world, have been completely lifted, those that managed to take over will now be able to create a protective dome, and those that had already done so will be able to reinforce it. ]
[ The Third Phase of the game is underway, complete mayhem will now occur in the world, may the gods bless you players, and may your hunts be as fruitful as always. ]
"Now, really, it had to be now?!" Reign yelled out in anger as many people started panicking.
He quickly calmed them down and sent the Tier IV players away as he knew that the territories they had come from might be attacked now. There were leaders of the territories amongst them, so he sent all of the Tier IVs away so that they could help out.
·?θm "We will have to venture inside tomorrow, the notification has truly come at a bad time." Reign said as the others nodded before they all stared at the fog with shock.
"What is happening?"
"It's … expanding, but it's so fast, unlike ever before."
"Dammit, this definitely has something to do with the notification, it seems like the fog was under some kind of restriction before!" Reign yelled out in anger before clenching his teeth.
"We can't wait, if we don't go now, it might be too late tomorrow."
"We have to make sure not to kill too many of the monsters before reaching the center of the depths," Wolf said as Reign nodded to him before looking at the wall that was slowly being taken over by the fog.
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