Chapter 277 The Park Barrier

Reign and the others arrived in front of the government office at around noon. The entrance to the park was right beside the building and the party slowly made their way toward it. There were multiple apes that could be seen at the entrance of the park and around the government office but the party simply used their powerful mana pressure to scare them off, at least that's what they tried to do.

Even when faced against Reign and the others and bore the full pressure of their powerful auras the apes still followed them, they didn't dare attack them as they knew they would lose but as more and more apes arrived the more confident they seemed to become.

The apes were strong, even the weakest of them was above level 35. Reign and the others didn't know if something had happened to the apes lately to make their levels so high or if they were always so powerful. Upon reaching the entrance of the park the apes all suddenly went into a frenzy, without caring for their own safety they attacked Reign and the others who slaughtered all of them in a matter of seconds.

Over 30 dead apes surrounded the party who was currently staring at a barrier that was circling the whole park. The barrier was similar to the one that surrounded the castle and the elven territory but compared to the translucent ones there, this one had a dim red color. Suddenly Reign constricted his eyes a bit before Tank positioned himself in front of him, multiple crude wooden spears and rocks exited through the barrier and hit his shield.

The weirdest thing was that just by looking at the park from the outside, it looked normal and there was no trace of any enemies, Reign and the others were barely able to feel the threat that the spears and rocks posed but they were unable to see them before they left the barrier. It was thanks to that feeling that Tank had managed to position himself and block the attacks.

"Hmm, you think we can break it?" Wolf knocks on the barrier a couple of times before asking.

"I'm not sure, if it's as powerful as the one the castle and the elves have then although it's possible, it would drain most of our mana before breaking, there has to be a better way to get in," Reign says before sitting down behind Tank and focusing. He was currently using his powerful mana-sensing ability to try and locate any spots in the barrier that could potentially be weaker compared to the rest.

He didn't know if that was even possible but he remembered that a lot of characters from many novels would do similar stuff. Finding a weak point in a barrier, array, or skill of their opponent was something a lot of main characters or powerful individuals could do, unfortunately, he wasn't able to locate any weak points in the barrier.

What he did manage to find however was faint mana waves coming from the government building. The mana was seemingly connected to the barrier but it was incredibly faint and if not for his powerful mana organ and mana sensitivity he might have completely missed it.

"The building."

"Huh?"

"There's something in the building that's forming the barrier, I'm certain of it," Reign says while getting up, the rest all look at the government office before making their way toward it. The tall office building was a nest for the weaker apes and there were probably over a hundred of them inside. Of course, seeing as how those were the absolute weakest apes they were not an issue for Reign and the others.

Entering the government office was easy, there were no apes that tried to stop them from entering it. The problem however began after they had entered, Reign wasn't able to sense exactly where the mana waves were coming from and they started searching for it.

Ape after ape suddenly appeared and started attacking them. The government office had high ceilings and fighting inside of it was easy. The 5m tall ceilings provided not only the party but even the apes a lot of space to fight and unlike most government buildings this one was designed in a way that each of the floors was quite open and spacious. Tens of apes attacked them on each floor and it was obvious that they underestimated the sheer number that could be found there.

Some plants had already started growing from the walls of the large building and it was quite green inside. The apes continued their suicidal attacks and even after killing over a hundred of them they didn't stop, each one was charging at Reign and the others with bloodshot eyes and only death was able to make them stop.

After moving through the building and searching for whatever it was that was creating the weird mana waves the party had managed to get all the way up to the roof. There was absolutely nothing on it, even after working so hard and searching the whole place there was nothing that looked remotely suspicious and could be the thing they were looking for.

"So, what now?" Shadow suddenly asked.

"It's still here, I can still feel the mana but, I just can't pinpoint where exactly it is." Reign sat down on the ground before thinking of better ways to search. Whatever it was it had to be in the building, he was 100% certain of it, the whole place was just filled with mana.

"Alright, but I don't know man, something just feels off with this building." Tank said as he leaned against the door leading to the roof, everyone nodded at his words as they could all feel that something was not right with the whole place.

"There it is again." Beast suddenly said before crouching down and looking at something on the floor.

"Beast?" Shadow suddenly asked.

"It's just that I've been noticing these runes inside the building, most of them were faint and couldn't be seen that well but I was just wondering if there were any outside, well, since there are some on the roof then there should be more on the walls as well."

"Wait, runes you say?" Reign suddenly opened his eyes wide before looking at Beast who simply nodded his head.

"Beast, get your eagle out and check if there really are more of them on the walls."

"Huh, a-alright," Beast said before summoning his eagle and getting on top of it. After some 5 minutes, he returned.

"Yes, there are more on the walls."

"Could it be?" Reign suddenly whispered to himself as he started thinking about an idea that popped up in his head.

"What is it Reign?" Wolf suddenly asked him with a serious expression on his face.

"Well, I can feel the mana waves everywhere inside the building and we swept it whole and found nothing, so, what if there really is nothing inside of it that's creating the mana waves?"

"Aaalright, and that would mean?" Tank asked from the side with a confused expression on his face.

"Well, I did find it weird that the apes would go to such lengths to try and stop us, I mean it was clear that they didn't want us to find what we were looking for, but didn't you notice that they would go even crazier each time we would damage a wall or the floor of the building?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, I do remember that," Shadow said.

"So, if there is no specific thing inside the building that was creating the mana waves and holding the barrier, not to mention that the whole building is just filled with mana then there's only one answer."

"Wait a second, you mean-" Wolf started talking but was interrupted by Beast's shout, "The building, it's the building itself!"

"Correct, well to be more specific I think it's the runes that are doing it." Reign says while looking at Beast with a smile on his face.

"So, we just need to get rid of the runes?"

"Well, that could take a while, I mean we don't know exactly where they are, some could also be hidden as well, so, I have another idea that could work." Reign suddenly smiled at the others.

…

Boom!

The huge government building was collapsing, pieces of cement and steel were flying off everywhere and a huge dust cloud was formed on top of the ruins of what was once a big building. Reign simply thought that destroying the whole building was going to be a lot more simple and easier than potentially spending hours looking for runes.

The party had focused their attacks on multiple places on the ground floor of the building and it didn't take them long to destroy it. The whole building started crashing down and after the dust had settled they were able to see the red barrier slowly receding before completely disappearing.