Is this really a Game?!

Chapter 296 The Kingdom Of Riplas

"Welcome to the kingdom of Riplas, otherworlder" The king sat back on his throne and spoke, the hall was still dead silent as the short exchange between Reign and the king left them nervous. This wasn't the first time they had used the system in order to bring reinforcements, they had done it multiple times in the past and that was the reason why they were still able to fight somewhat on even grounds against the coalition of 4 kingdoms around them. Of course, this was the first time the kingdom had used so many resources to summon someone, seeing Reign appear left some of them disappointed, they hoped that they could gain another powerful individual that had gone through the first evolution.

The kingdom currently had 3 such individuals, the king, the right-hand of the king who was standing behind him, and the commander of the army who was currently in the field commanding the army during battle. The four kingdoms each had one person that had gone through the first evolution and even though the king was stronger than any of them he wasn't able to win against 2 people at the same time.

The kingdom desperately needed more high-end people, after seeing Reign and how young he was everybody thought that they had failed this time, of course after seeing the short exchange between him and the king their thoughts changed a bit, even though there was no mana used during the exchange everyone could see the reflexes and speed of the young man, even if he was below the first evolution he would still be able to help them and fight against the top combatants of the other kingdoms.

The king started explaining the reason they summoned Reign and the overall situation of the entire world. After hearing about the world Reign was surprised, compared to Earth the many kingdoms and empires had managed to quickly suppress the monsters, their joint efforts, however, were short as they quickly turned on each other and started numerous wars. Reign wasn't all that surprised about the wars, the history of Earth was filled with wars and betrayals, even in the year 2060 wars had never truly stopped, and that was still the most peaceful era in the history of the planet.

Reign was brought up to speed about their current situation, just by looking at the giant map that the king had brought up made him scratch his head, the kingdom was situated at the edge of the continent, contrary to how it is in most novels this area wasn't a barren area with barely any resources and weak kingdoms, well, the kingdoms were relatively weak but still.

The area was rich with resources and the only reason why the other bigger kingdoms and empires hadn't attacked them was because of the monsters, there was a so-called death area nearby, and millions of powerful monsters came out and attacked the nearby empires and kingdoms, many perished and even though they had managed to win in the end they were weakened, just shells of their former self. After the game had started the area was once again filled with monsters, the kingdoms, and empires that had finally returned to their past glory after decades of hard work and needed fight once again.

There was never a good time for them to invade the area where the kingdom of Riplas was and thanks to that the kingdoms there were able to slowly improve and gain power. With the huge war covering the whole planet there was even less chance of taking the area as the empires and bigger kingdoms couldn't attack them while fighting on different fronts, they had signed a peace treaty in order to make sure that Riplas and the other kingdoms don't use the chaos and attack them from behind.

Hearing the whole story made Reign stop for a moment and think, that the situation he had found himself in was not a pretty one, but it couldn't also be called a truly bad one. He was a sort of mercenary that the system sent in order to help the kingdom of Riplas, of course, his goal was different as he needed to complete a series of tasks for the system before he would go through the first evolution. The system still hadn't told him the tasks and Reign could only wait until it did.

"So young man, what do you think of our current situation?" The king suddenly asked Reign, it was a question that drew gazes from the crowd as the king had never asked any other person they had summoned their opinion about the war and their current situation.

"So-so."

"Hm?"

"I mean it could be worse, but it could be better, I mean I'm not really a strategist or anyone that has experience with leading wars but from what I see you have done a good job so far, even though there are four kingdoms attacking you, there are only 3 fronts thanks to the hills and mountains that surround the kingdom, you can still trade with others thanks to the sea behind you and well it doesn't look like there are any major problems so far."

"Hahahaha, I guess it is so, that's correct, even though we are currently outnumbered it means little thanks to the geographical advantage that we possess, those bastards can only attack us from those three places and we simply need to keep our army there, they can't overrun us because there is simply not enough space for all of their troops, we also built fortifications at those three spots a long time ago and we can defend it for as long as we like!" The king suddenly lets out a laugh before getting serious.

"But there's also a problem, although numbers mean almost nothing right now, those bastards have more top tier individuals compared to us, we also believe that one of the two other bigger kingdoms is helping them out."

"We have already lost 10 powerful individuals while they had only lost 5, if things continue like this then we will definitely lose, even though our fortifications are great, one person that went through the first evolution could still destroy it with an army, I and the other two have been fighting them off for now but the more people we lose the more they will be able to bring with them and surround us, even we of the first evolution can't fight against ten powerful individuals at the same time after all."

"So you summoned me to help you out with their top-tier combatants?"

"Well yes, but not truly, we had hoped to get another person of the first evolution, even though I can sense that you are powerful you are still not quite there. Our plan was to surprise the enemy the next time we battle, with another individual of the first evolution helping us out I'm certain that we would be able to kill at least one of those bastards, but of course, we didn't bet on that completely, the system knows to be, well, fickle, sometimes it will give more than you need but sometimes it will give less and although you are powerful, especially considering how young you are, you're still not powerful enough to fight against those in the first evolution."

"Well, I'm not arrogant and I know that there are many people stronger than me, but I am quite curious at how powerful you guys really are." Reign smiles at the now-surprised king, he should have been able to tell that he was weaker thanks to the little spar they had, but even with that, it seemed that the boy in front of him was a bit too certain of himself.

A terrifying aura suddenly envelops the hall as the king releases his mana, the powerful mana was concentrated on Reign and even though it was only about 30% of the king's true power it was still enough to make many from the crowd tremble and kneel down. Reign, on the other hand, was still fine, the powerful mana was concentrated on him but even though he felt some pressure it was still not enough to make him move.

In an instant another powerful aura was released, Reign had gone all out and released his full power, and the people in the crowd were further pressured as his mana was even above the king's currently. Of course, once the king released a bit more of his mana he was able to easily suppress Reign, but he was still shocked, even amongst the top-tier combatants he had, there were only 2 that could stand on even grounds with Reign.

The young man's mana was incredible and the king sensed that this was still not everything the boy had.

"Sure enough, you're powerful." Reign releases a small smile as his back slowly started hunching, the intense pressure was impossible for even Reign to resist in his normal state. The pressure was suddenly released as the king and everybody else looked at him with varying looks.

The king was calm and even had a slight smile on his face while the queen looked at Reign with slight hostility. Most of the guards and the nobles in the hall had the same look, to release his full mana and compete with the king was an incredibly disrespectful thing to do, and even though most of them knew that the king didn't care for such matters they were still displeased with how Reign behaved.

The man behind the king didn't show any change in his expression, the warm smile was still plastered on his face as he warmly looked at Reign. In Reign's opinion, this person was even more dangerous than the king, someone who could control his emotions to such an extent was never a simple person.

Reign was escorted by guards to the quarters given to him, he was allowed to rest a bit and adapt before needing to join the king and the top combatants at a banquet that was being held. The king would introduce him to everybody there.