The party left the depths immediately after the fight. They had gained nothing from the depths other than exp as no monster dropped any items. When one reached a higher realm, it became increasingly more difficult for them to gain items as every single one was of a high rank and would bring them a lot of benefits.

The way that people would get more powerful items at higher ranks was by gathering the remains of the monsters and rare ores in the world and having an item made. It wasn't a problem for the right now as they had Adrian who was a master smith, but if he was to leave, then it would become very difficult for them to gain access to higher-ranked items as there was only so much one smith could do.

The elven smith wasn't as good as Adrian and people wouldn't be able to get items at the same rate as right now as two smiths were working together to create them. The players themselves would have to start learning how to smith and raise their proficiency in order to create higher-ranked items.

Luckily, they had no shortage of such players as there were many that started learning how to craft different types of items early on. It happened pretty much right after Reign and the others had taken control over the underground city and they had a plethora of players that were capable of creating Rank A items right now, while Rank S items were a different story thanks to how large of a difference was between the power contained in them.

There were only a handful of players that could create Rank S items, and they were unable to create them on a constant basis as luck played a big factor when it came to that. Out of ten tries, they might be able to make 1 Rank S items, which was not good as they would be wasting a ton of resources in order to do so.

Gaining more proficiency wasn't easy either as they needed to constantly work hard and create items in order to get better, but luckily for them, there was no shortage of that.

Many players simply couldn't wait for Adrian to create the items, so they would make sure to stock up on the resources that were needed before handing them over to the player who was tasked to make them.

Many players were friendly with the elven smiths and they would often work together, which made it a bit easier for them to create the items, but failure was still present and there were even times when they would use up all the resources before managing to succeed in creating a Rank S item.

That only made the players respect Adrian more as the old man had never once failed when it came to creating an item, no matter what rank it was.

historical

It was only now that they realized just how difficult it was for one to rise to the position of a master blacksmith and just how far above them Adrian was. If they knew that he was also a Transcendent, they would probably lose their minds.

Adrian made it a secret that he was a Transcendent and never showed his power to any player, even Reign and the others had only learned of the fact much later. Most of the people present inside the castle walls were high leveled individuals that were incredibly powerful, with even the weakest amongst them being Tier V.

Reign and the others had taken parts of the monsters they had slain while allowing M'azgara's monsters to take a portion as well so that they could bring the nutrients back to M'azgara.

The large humanoid monster that Reign had fought against would be especially good for her since she could create a similar monster like him in the future. As for the other parts, they would use them to create items.

The mid-grade Tier IV monsters were powerful and the items would definitely not be of low quality. Reign and the others needed more powerful items as they didn't possess many Rank SS items right now, and it was starting to show.

Even though they were still much more powerful compared to a normal monster of the same realm as them, they weren't able to plow through tens of them with ease as they once could. The higher the realm, the more difficult it was for one to be significantly stronger than the rest, something that was true everywhere in the universe.

If Reign and the others wanted to continue being as powerful as they were in the future, they would need powerful items to help them out next to their own strength being higher compared to others. After all, even if their base strength was above other people, if the enemy had higher-ranked items, they would be able to tighten the gap between them.

"What do you think, can we get something useful from this?" Reign asked Adrian as the latter was sitting down in front of his smithy and smoking a cigar.

"Yeah, I can make something good, you only need to wait about 20 days and it will be done."

"20 days, what the hell man, that's way too long!" Shadow said from the side as Adrian smirked at him.

"I have numerous weapons and armor ordered from your people, I can't just ignore them and make you guys items first, even if you are the leaders and nobody would mind it."

"I have done so in the past, but I'm afraid that will no longer be the case, it weighs heavily on my conscience after all."

"We'll pay in order to get preferential treatment," Wolf said, which prompted Adrian to smile widely.

"Well why didn't you say so right away, I can definitely make an exception for my oldest customers in that case, my conscience will not be weighed down since you guys are paying in order to skip the queue."

'This old bastard, he just wanted more money.' Shadow thought as he stared at Adrian who was suddenly all smiles.

"Let's see, from these things I can make some good armor, hmmm, with the elf helping me, even some accessories wouldn't be an issue, but only 2, no more."

"What about a weapon, is that possible?" Reign asked Adrian who shook his head.

"Not with these, I can use my own materials, but that will be quite expensive, even for you guys."

"Alright, make two accessories, that will be the most effective for us right now." Reign said as the others all nodded before leaving the smithy.

"I will be done by tomorrow evening, come to collect it then," Adrian said as he went inside the smithy, humming along the way.

Reign and the others had to fork out about 120 000 S Coins only to skip the queue, as for how much the items would end up costing, they had no idea.

"That old bastard is becoming greedier by the day, what the hell happened to him?" Shadow asked as Wolf simply shook his head.

"Nothing happened, it's just that the money we previously had was not high enough to move him, now that we do have a high enough number of S Coins, his true nature revealed itself, he was always a money-grubbing bastard it seems."

"Oh, I see, so he was just not showing it before because we barely had any S Coins compared to him."

"Yup."

"Smart old bastard," Greenie said, prompting them all to laugh before going to their building.

Nothing had been happening in the territory recently. The barriers between the areas were thinning out even more and they speculated that they would completely disappear in the next 2 – 3 days, but even then, they would be safe.

The many powerful monsters that M'azgara had would be able to repel or at the very least slow down any attacks, which meant that the territory would be safe. Reign had not stopped searching for more trees that could be devoured by the golden tree that shielded the territory, and it was only growing larger and larger while the dome it could create was already powerful enough to withstand multiple attacks from Tier IV combatants, which meant that the territory had 2 things that were keeping them safe.

With all of that present, Reign and the rest were able to go to the depths and level up without worrying too much, and they were only becoming stronger and stronger.

Some of the players had reached the very peak of Tier III and were doing the challenges that the system had given them, and there were even two that were doing nothing upon reaching the peak as it seemed that they needed to first use mana to reinforce their body and make themselves stronger before attempting to evolve.

Reign and the others had known for quite some time that there was a limit to what realm a person could reach, but this was the first time they had seen anyone reach it. The two had used up all their talent and now needed to slow down before leveling up further, especially when it came to evolving.

If they were to try and hurry the process up, they would end up dying. This marked the beginning of how people started stagnating, not only here, but everywhere in the world.