Chapter 36: Moonlit Island Mission

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Moonlit Island Mission

Jeremy threw off the blanket and left the bed.

His firm, bare feet stepped on the cold stone floor as he poured himself a glass of filtered water and drained it to soothe his dry throat. Steadying his breathing, his long, slender fingers reached out to touch the magic ID card placed on the table.

The virtual screen flashed, and streams of information immediately poured in.

The number of messages was not considered too many. Aside from a few continuous inquiring messages from Raphael’s account, the vast majority of the remaining notifications were all related to the freshman tournament.

The jellyfish-headed instructor Griffin had personally submitted an application to withdraw from the individual tournament for him. Scrolling down was a string of competition situation update reports sent into the [Class 659] general chat group by his four teammates.

Phoenix failed right in the second round against an overwhelming opponent.

Jeremy himself, because of being in a deep coma and unable to be present at the arena area, was automatically judged by the matrix system as forfeiting in the fourth round, officially stripped of the qualification to advance.

Leon carried his usual arrogant attitude but also only held out until the fourth round before falling.

As for Lucius and Evelyn, they were more outstanding, both stopping at the sixth round.

A team composition gathering entirely bottom-ranking Spirit Covenants, yet someone managed to slip through all the way to the sixth round. If this achievement board was thrown out into the academy’s public opinion, it would absolutely be enough to make countless self-proclaimed geniuses shut their mouths. At least, it far exceeded initial survival expectations.

Jeremy rubbed his temples, calculating the time. The individual tournament still had exactly two days left before officially closing. After that, all freshmen would enjoy five days of rest to recover physical stamina, mentally preparing to step into the more brutal team tournament.

Speaking pragmatically, he still had a full seven days of leisure to laze around in bed recovering from his injuries.

Jeremy had originally firmly believed in such a perfect rest plan. However, life is not a dream. He had just stepped out of the Anima faculty’s infirmary door to return to the dormitory when the magic device on his hand violently vibrated.

In the general chat group, Griffin’s message prominently appeared with a commanding tone not allowing refusal:

[Tomorrow morning, Evelyn and Jeremy, you two immediately move to Moonlit Island - the academy’s second floating island to gather these materials.]

(Attachment: 6 item lists).

[The remaining three, drag your bodies to Wraith Island - the third floating island.]

(Attachment: 9 item lists).

[Required to submit sufficient goods within six days. Excuses prohibited.]

The corner of Jeremy’s lips twitched slightly. This perverted guy had definitely installed a heartbeat tracking system; the moment he knew he woke up, he immediately dumped work on his head. It was truly exploiting labor to the bone.

Knowing his lot as a mercenary with no right to protest, Jeremy had to reluctantly click open the image file to skim through the list. The vast majority of the requested items were rare spiritual plants, mixed with a few skulls and fur of specific magic beasts, along with a massive amount of elemental crystal ores.

Typing a curt [Understood] and sending it to the group, Jeremy immediately switched over to the commission mission hall interface. Based on the memory he had previously looked up, he quickly scrolled down to the very bottom of the notice board.

Sure enough, the material gathering missions at Moonlit Island were still hanging there waiting for someone to accept. Most of the requested items from the commission hall perfectly matched the list Griffin had just forced down. Compared to high-tier hunting and killing missions, the accumulated point remuneration for these types of odd jobs was significantly less, but with his currently empty wallet, it was better than nothing.

Since he had to take the trouble to wade all the way there, he naturally had to combine "hitting two birds with one stone" to optimize profits.

Jeremy typed a private message, tossing this idea over to ask for Evelyn’s opinion.

In less than five seconds, that stoic-faced girl replied incredibly decisively: [The Captain’s decision goes.]

Seeing his partner had no objections, Jeremy immediately operated the system to register to accept the mission.

Smoothly resolving the messy work trouble, Jeremy only now slowly reopened the private chat frame with Raphael.

The five great faculties of St. Aetherwing Academy were separated by extremely strict spatial barriers. People not on the faculty’s roster absolutely did not have the qualification to step through the teleportation portals.

Therefore, although the series of messages Raphael sent overflowed with anxiety and worry, the other party could only stand on the periphery of the Anima faculty and could not directly barge into the infirmary to visit him.

Jeremy lowered his eyes, his brain automatically extracting the distant, forced attitude the original owner had toward this childhood friend. His fingers steadily tapped on the virtual keyboard, dropping a concise reply, cutting off all superfluous worry:

[I am fine. Everything is fine, do not worry.]

The message had just been sent, and the other party was almost already standing by in front of the screen, replying instantaneously.

Raphael: [It is good that you are safe.]

Raphael: [I rewatched the recording tape of the third-round match. You did extremely well, a very wonderful turnaround.]

Jeremy: [Thank you.]

The interface on Raphael’s side displayed the "typing..." status for a very long time. It seemed the person on the other end had to carefully weigh every word, before finally timidly sending a sentence: [For the upcoming two-day holiday, do you have any special schedule?]

In his memory archives, Raphael, although born into a Duke family, possessed a rare calm and gentle nature. Through the way the other party painstakingly prolonged the conversation, Jeremy could more than clearly see he was mustering all his courage to proactively seek an opportunity to reconnect their broken friendship.

But the Jeremy of the present was a ruthlessly pragmatic soul. He did not want to get tangled up in any emotional troubles or remnants of the past. He decisively borrowed Griffin’s damn schedule to act as a shield to refuse mercilessly:

[For this holiday, the guiding instructor has already dumped a pile of missions. Let’s talk next time when there is free time.]

Perhaps realizing the impenetrable icy wall from Jeremy’s side, the other party sank into silence for a long period of time. A very long time later, the screen finally popped up a [Alright] full of compromise.

Jeremy straightforwardly turned off the magic screen. He leaned back in his chair, reaching out to massage the space between his eyebrows, organizing his train of thought.

Hopefully, Raphael was smart enough to recognize this rejection, and truly follow the original owner’s evasive wish: to gradually fade away the childhood memories, and from now on treat each other as two invisible people on the same path.

---

The dawn of the second day.

While the sky outside was still sunk in a pale gray fog, the five of them were jolted out of bed by the shrieking magic alarm bell remotely controlled by Griffin.

Donning the pitch-black combat uniforms, all five silently met up at the ground floor lobby of the dormitory. Aside from a few nods and perfunctory greetings, the team quickly split into two paths, stepping into teleportation portals heading straight to their pre-drawn mission areas.

Moonlit Island — exactly as its name suggested — possessed a dreamy beauty to the point of leaving one breathless.

Wrapping around the island’s outer ring was a sparkling coastline and a stretch of smooth, silver-gleaming sand. The deeper one advanced into the central area, the more the scenery was swallowed by an endless, vast moonlit forest, where the canopy naturally emitted a gentle, pale blue light.

Jeremy and Evelyn stood on the sandy beach, carefully reviewing the route displayed on the magic ID card. After a few minutes of brief exchange, both unanimously decided to enter Moonlit Island’s sea region first. The initial goal was to search for Moonlit Stones and Illusionary Moon Fruits — two types of resources that only existed in the deepest coral reefs — while simultaneously hunting the Nightmare Beast pack.

Just as Jeremy raised his hand, intending to circulate magic power to condense a basic water-resistant magic barrier, Evelyn standing beside him suddenly spoke up.

She pulled out two perfectly round, transparent pills that sparkled brightly exactly like pure pearls from her storage bag. Evelyn casually swallowed one pill, then held the remaining one out in front of Jeremy, her flat voice briefly explaining:

"Water Repellent Pill. Swallow this, and magic power will automatically form an invisible barrier wrapping around your body. It not only thoroughly neutralizes the sea water pressure at depths, but also allows the respiratory system to function normally as if on land. The medicinal property lasts continuously for forty-eight hours. Captain, you should take one too."

"Thank you." This time, Jeremy did not show any reservation or refusal. He decisively accepted the pill.

This expensive treasure originally originated from alchemy families in the eastern region of the continent. In the original owner’s memory archives, its structure had been recorded in detail, but this was indeed the first time he had touched the actual item with his own hands.

Evelyn’s expression still maintained its constant emotionlessness: "You’re welcome. Let’s go."

Saying that, she turned around, decisively throwing herself into the deep blue sea water.

Jeremy tossed the pill into his mouth, feeling a wave of cold air spread throughout his internal organs, and then immediately took a long stride to dive in closely behind her.

The underwater space of Moonlit Island absolutely did not fall short of the dreamy scenery on land.

Through the crystal-clear seawater, all sorts of fish schools bearing bizarre shapes crisscrossed swimming everywhere. Giant coral reefs, under the impact of the elemental magic power concentration, continuously radiated brilliant light, exactly like natural neon lights. The deeper they dove, a submerged forest with giant intertwining roots gradually appeared. Looking from afar it was magnificently grand; approaching closer it looked bewitching and dreamy.

Of course, any beauty in this world conceals lethal traps.

When Jeremy’s sharp magic radar detected a Phantom Shark possessing an unidentified realm fluctuation darting swiftly toward this direction, his eyes immediately darkened.

Without hesitating half a second, Jeremy reached out his sleeve, accurately tightly grabbing Evelyn’s wrist, using force to jerk hard, pulling her straight back behind a massive Moon Shadow tree trunk to hide. His movement was violent, quick, and decisive to the point of not giving the other party a chance to resist.

Evelyn, overwhelmed by the masculine pulling force, frowned slightly. Her emerald eyes swept over the large hand with distinct joints tightly gripping her wrist; her muscles tensed slightly, carrying an imperceptible rejection: "..."

But all of Jeremy’s focus right now was entirely concentrated on locking down his breathing and observing the monster’s movements outside. He completely did not care about the unnatural reaction of the person beside him.

It took a long while for the Phantom Shark’s giant shadow to glide past and disappear into the dark sea.

Confirming the threat had left, Jeremy then slowly let go of Evelyn’s hand. He raised a finger to point at the map on the magic screen, his deep voice discussing tactics: "According to the displayed coordinates, Nightmare Beasts usually live in large packs at the staghorn coral reef ahead. We prioritize moving there to clear them out first."

Evelyn lightly rubbed her wrist, her voice recovering its flatness: "...Alright."

After finalizing the movement direction, Jeremy swam up to lead the way, parting the water heading straight toward the marked target address.

The rank of Nightmare Beasts on the system’s scale was not considered too high. The vast majority of them only fluctuated between Novice tier one and tier two; the highest breakthrough limit ever recorded also only stopped at the tier three threshold. However, the core value of this magic beast species lay in the fact that: their blood and endocrine glands were extremely expensive pharmaceutical ingredients on the market.

Furthermore, the pack behavior of this Nightmare Beast species had a habit very similar to crows: extremely fanatical about collecting shiny things.

In other words, during this sweep of their lair, the probability of them finding Moonlit Stones hoarded inside was a highly optimistic number...

In this sea region, the boundary between spirit beasts and magic beasts was delineated extremely clearly. The biggest difference lay in their nature. Spirit beasts possessed relatively mild characteristics; as long as humans did not proactively provoke them or blatantly encroach on their core territories, both sides could completely mind their own business. Aside from specific frenzied cycles, spirit beasts very rarely proactively attacked others.

In contrast, magic beasts carried in their blood brutality, bloodthirstiness, and extreme territoriality. Once they detected the scent of humans or any foreign creature not of the same species entering their sights, they would frantically lunge to slaughter until the prey was torn to pieces.

The Nightmare Beast was obviously classified straight into the dangerous magic beast group.

When Jeremy and Evelyn carefully swam close to the boundary of the staghorn coral reef, what hit their eyes were several dozen Nightmare Beasts bearing a deformed shape resembling giant seahorses, hovering and patrolling strictly around the nest.

The glowing mark on the top of their heads was the rank identification measure. One mark represented tier one.

Jeremy hid behind a thorny coral reef, condensing magic power into his eyes to scan the radar and scout the entire area.

His phoenix eyes narrowed, silently assessing: The outer patrol formation is roughly around fifty Nightmare Beasts. A number not too overwhelming, but enough to create a scuffle consuming quite a bit of physical stamina.

The distance from their hiding spot to the lair area was still a bit far. Based on the patrol formation, this was probably only the first defensive barrier of the Nightmare Beast pack.

Although the realm of these creatures mostly only stopped at tier one, the pack size was excessively crowded. If they were allowed to swarm up simultaneously in melee combat, with the underwater pressure environment, handling it cleanly would definitely face no small amount of difficulty.

Worse yet, if during the engagement they sent out signals to call for tier-two reinforcements from deep within the lair, the situation would become even more troublesome.