Island Preparations #31

Throwing myself to the side, I narrowly dodged the diving claws of the feathery beast. The ground shook as the creature landed where I had stood moments before.

Steadying myself, I swiftly aimed my newly built crossbow and sent a bolt flying at its exposed flank. The beast let out a screech, its wings beating furiously as it unleashed a compressed ball of air that knocked my bolt out of the sky.

Opening its mouth again, a ball of flames began to coalesce in its maw, the heat distorting the air around it. Before it could release the fire, Elena lunged at it from the side, smacking it with a baseball bat.

The beast staggered, disoriented by the unexpected blow. Seizing the opportunity, I retrieved a Mega Sphere from my pouch and threw it at the beast. The creature promptly turned into light that was confined into the sphere upon impact. Several beeps later, the sphere emitted a satisfying click before flying back into my hand.

Elena grinned, dusting herself off. "You're getting the hang of it. I'll make a survivor out of you yet."

I rolled my eyes, trying to catch my breath. "It's all thanks to the teachings of my mostly humble mentor."

She shrugged, a smirk playing at her lips. "Humility was never one of my strongest suits." She glanced at the sphere in my hand. "The Vanwyrm will make a decent mount once you make the saddle for it."

I nodded, feeling a sense of accomplishment. "We only need to capture another one, and we can head out to Wildlife Sanctuary Number One."

It had been over a week since my meeting with Professor Xavier.

Following his advice to avoid stress and being alone, I had immediately traveled to Palbagos Island after informing Dugan that I would be away for a while. The island, with its lush jungles and diverse wildlife, was the perfect place to lose myself and find some semblance of peace.

Although I came here to relax, that didn't I sat on my rear doing nothing all this time.

My first order of business upon arriving was to find and mine copper ore. As luck would have it, there was a small vein of copper right around my base, nestled among the roots of a towering tree.

With the ore gathered, I set about building a primitive furnace. It was a crude construction, a simple structure lined with clay and fed with wood, but it did the job.

Using the furnace, I was able to smelt the copper ore into ingots and fashion nails, granting me access to the advanced workbench. The process was mysterious, and I couldn't fully explain how it all worked—Palbagos Island and the wristwatch I wore operated in ways that defied conventional understanding.

Soon, I realized that the small vein of ore I'd mined wouldn't be enough for my needs. I had to venture out and gather more resources. After another day of exploring the island and scouring its rocky outcrops, I had amassed a decent supply of materials.

With these, I upgraded all my gear, replacing my stone pickaxe, axe, and spear with sharp, durable metal versions. I also traded my trusty old bow for a crossbow—though it was a bit slower to reload, it packed a much stronger punch.

In addition to my new weapons, I crafted a set of pelt armor. It wasn't much, offering protection mainly to my vital points, but it was better than nothing.

With my gear upgraded and Elena by my side, I felt ready to take on the world. And so, we did. We traveled west, beyond the Rayne Syndicate Tower, to an area that looked quite strange.

The landscape, jagged and rocky hills, not unlike the rest of the island was dotted with trees that had yellow leaves, their bright color standing out against the surrounding greenery. Even the grass underfoot was a vibrant shade of yellow, creating an otherworldly scene.

As I navigated through this surreal landscape, I came upon a ruined church, its crumbling walls and shattered stained glass windows standing as a testament to a long-forgotten era.

Scattered around the church were several ore-rich boulders, each the size of a car, glistening with promise. It was a pleasant surprise, as I knew I'd be needing a lot of ore for future projects. Conveniently, the church also had a fast travel point nearby, making it an ideal spot for resource gathering.

But that wasn't my primary purpose for this journey. I was here to defeat and capture a particular creature to complete the system's task: the Penking. It lived up to its name, resembling an oversized penguin with a regal air.

Its head was adorned with a gaudy hat that looked like something a ship captain would wear, giving it an almost comically authoritative appearance. However, there was nothing funny about the hardship it put us through.

Many smaller penguin-like creatures, Pengulletes, surrounded the Penking, acting like its subordinates. The ruins where we found them echoed with their squawks and the rhythmic crunch of ice underfoot.

The fight was incredibly difficult, even more so than any of my previous battles. The Pengulletes darted around, shooting water balls and ice javelins at us, making it hard to focus on the Penking itself.

The Penking wasn't a pushover either. It wielded a mix of ice and water powers that kept us on our toes. One moment, it would summon a flurry of ice shards, and the next, it would blast us with a powerful jet of water. Elena and I had to constantly move, dodge, and counterattack, and whatever pal we summoned would be beaten to an inch of its life within seconds.

Only the Chillet and the Tombat put up a decent fight, but in the end, they barely managed to keep up under the barrage of so many pals. Eventually, I just snapped and took out the Tocotco, then proceeded to carpet-bomb the entire ruins with its eggs, which finally snuffed the nuisances of the Pengulletes.

Despite the chaos, we managed to pull through in the end. I had to use more than five Mega Spheres to capture the Penking, stubborn as the creature was. Each of the wasted spheres caused no small amount of heartache.

Though I had already unlocked the blueprint to craft as many Mega Spheres as needed, they were quite expensive to make, costing not only palladium fragments but also ingots, which I was short on, and will be in the near future.

Triumphant, we headed back to our base. The sun was setting, casting a golden glow over the island as we walked, the Penking now safely secured. To celebrate, I decided to open a bottle of expensive wine I'd brought along from the Marvel World.

Carried away, we attempted to cook a grand feast for ourselves. However, neither Elena nor I were exactly what you'd call certified chefs. Our first few attempts ended in burnt offerings that filled the air with smoke and made us point fingers at each other, throwing the blame around for ruining the only piece of Rushoar we had.

Eventually, after several mishaps and a lot of trial and error, we managed to put together something edible.

After eating, I began looking through the wristwatch, trying to find the next task. The device hummed softly, displaying a new objective: travel to the NO.1 Wildlife Sanctuary and capture a creature called Eikthyrdeer Terra.

Naturally, I had no idea what any of that meant, but I did remember Elena mentioning something about Wildlife Sanctuaries. When I asked her about it, she pointed out that the NO.1 Wildlife Sanctuary was a small islet to the southwest of our base.

As for the Eikthyrdeer Terra, it was a variant, a cousin of sorts to the regular Eikthyrdeer we'd caught a while back, but it leaned more toward the earth element.

To get there, we needed to cross a wide patch of water, which required good mounts. Thus, here we are, having captured one Vanwyrm and searching for another in an area to the far west of the base, called the Sealed Realm of the Swordmaster.

...

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