Paradise Beach

" Claire ! Are we not going hunting ? " Zayne asked after they finished the planting. 

" Have you decided on a place ? " Claire asked. 

" There are three expeditions this week. There are abandoned temple, riverside village and Paradise beach. " 

" Who are the guilds involved ? " Claire wondered. 

" Abandoned Temple is being attacked by black bull. Riverside village by the white dragon. Paradise beach by the Polaris. " 

Claire knew which one to pick right away. 

It's Polaris. 

The only problem was that these guys were going hunting in the most inconvenient location. 

Polaris is a guild established for and by the son of base leader, Dunkin Wale. 

The guy is a petty trash. Unfortunately for them, he has got one hell of a father, who had no problem using public property for private tasks. 

Rankers in the military helped the guy hunt, by holding down and incapacitating the beasts. Fortunately, it's not a level up kind of world. You improve by either fighting, or using skills repeatedly. Your body and defence wont get tougher just because you did the final poke on a lot of monsters. 

Yet, luck is a tangible skill. It was proven about seven years later. This petty son of the base leader was considered such a talent. He bragged on the TV he used to throw out a lot of drops, because he had no space for most of them. 

They have no danger, and a pile of drops. It's very enticing to go to the paradise beach. 

The only problem is Paradise beach is a ridiculously open type of ground. There is no place to hide, period. 

If they disguise and mix into the troops, they would be found out almost immediately. 

Then, a light bulb went off in Claire's head. Hmm.. that's the perfect 'idea'. 

" We need to prepare. " Claire told Zayne. 

♣♧♣

' The final duty ' - that is the term the base guards have for taking Dinkin wale to the dungeons. 

The guy puts his finger in every spot that he shouldn't, pisses off every being that he shouldn't and then kills NPCs and rankers alike as he completes his quest. Despite the growing death count, the baselord keeps assigning rankers to take his son to the dungeons. 

Today, he is hunting on the paradise beach. 

' Thank the god ' The levy of bodyguards sighed in relief. 

Paradise beach is a sunny beach of ten kilometer stretch, where Shield Turtle appears. The shield turtle drops an oval shield, which is immune to rust proof, and has various other elemental resistances. It has an almost hundred percent drop rate, no matter who hunts it. 

Ideally, such a monster should have been a very popular target. The problem was that the shield turtle almost always runs away once it reaches half the amount of damage needed to kill it. The second problem was that it has a never ending list of small tricks, which it starts using extremely effectively once people keep it trapped after losing half its life. 

There's hot sand spit, then, salty sand spit, salt cones, sand-ice cones, black rain, acid spit, venom spit … the list is endless, and when it reaches almost the end of its life, it starts using them by combining them together in varying combinations. It's truly a menace. 

Claire and Zayne arrived at the beach, in the shallow end. The beach is wide here, it's full of little drops all over the place. 

There are thousands of paring knives, each the size of a finger. These are dropped from hermit crabs, which are a level 1 creature. 

Claire thought they would be seen immediately with the vigilance of knights, and the open area. However, the knights were too sure in their belief no one can enter the dungeon once a party of people enters it. 

So, they did not even turn back. 

' Float ' She tried casting at the little knives she saw. They floated in the air, immediately came to her. 

They are copper and bronze cutlery, with occasional ceramic cutlery, the largest of them size of a palm, smallest of them, size of a finger. 

All of them are a bit muddy and rusty. 

Claire was happy. 

This is just the right amount of prey for them to kill. The crabs came out slowly, one after another. Claire remembered, usually, in this dungeon, the crabs arrived like a river tide, fierce, one climbing over top of another, all of their pincers clacking at the same time. 

Fortunately, that wave was killed by the knights, leaving only these little things to her and Zayne. 

Zayne drove a fireball straight into the eye of the lobster, killing it without causing any damage to its shell. 

Claire floated the corpse to her immediately. She put it in the slime ring. Zayne killed the lobsters, she picked them up behind him. 

She did not forget to pick up little knives at the same time.

At that time, she noticed a fish in the waters. It's a good twenty pound fish. 

" Zayne ! Look." She pointed at the flounder. 

The look in Zayne's eye changed. 

It's been a long time since they had fish. 

That fish was the size of half a man. Claire had no idea what the fish type is, but she knows it's edible. 

She directed water, Zayne condensed a fireball in his hand. The moment the fireball left his hand it shot like a missile. 

Only a golfball size hole could be seen in the head of the fish. 

A light emerged from the fish, and entered Zayne. 

That was a light blue light of a passive. 

" What is it ? What is it ? " Claire asked excitedly, even as she pulled the fish's body to herself in the water. 

She put it in the slime ring immediately. 

It's only after putting it in the slime ring did she realize she caused a bit too much commission. The fireball was not all that silent either. 

Claire looked at the other side. Fortunately the knights had their hands full with the shield turtle. It's size is not small either, so the knights can't see Zayne and Claire. 

She became bold after the realization. 

Since they are here anyway, they may as well go all out. 

" Zayne ! Let's catch enough to sell. " Claire said eagerly, her face full of happiness. 

Zayne, who was under the impression that she was avoiding him because she was regretting the decision of combining their houses, suddenly felt lighter. Looks like she did not even think much about their relationship ! 

But.. on second thought, shouldn't he get upset ? 

Zayne nodded his head. 

Fish is good. 

Fish is nice. 

Fish is mine. 

Just for that smile, he could catch all the fish in the ocean, Zayne decided. 

Like that, they kept killing beasts continuously, there were no drops from the low level beasts, not even the smallest knife. She put them all in the slime ring. Surprisingly, this time around, the ring keeps accepting things, despite the number crossing twenty. After two hours of hunting, Claire and Zayne returned. 

The turtle dungeon usually resets every month, or when the boss shield turtle dies. 

Normally, a team of hunters will bulldoze through the dungeon in three to seven days. The first day, they will kill all the way to the tier change level, which comes at the seven kilometer point. 

The second day, they will kill the last two point five kilometers, which is made of C and D rank monsters. Given these monsters drop daggers instead of baby spoons, many hunters repeat these steps for days, extending their drop content. 

The last day, they will attack the shield turtle.

Most of the time, the time consuming part is spreading nets on the ocean to cut off the retreat of the turtle. This raid began just today. They have plenty of time, given how leisurely the polaris party is being. 

At the fifth kilometer mark, after seeing the tents, Claire left the portal with Zayne. 

The moment they entered the slime dungeon, Claire could feel her ring warming up. 

She arrived home and checked the ring. 

The twenty boxes were filled with different types of food. There are fish filets, and the lobster meat was extracted and put in a single bunch. Even so, there were seven types of fish filets and four types of lobster meat, even two types of crab meat. 

For today though, given they have fresh potatoes and fresher fish, Claire made fish and chips. 

She retrieved fresh cod filets from the ring, used eggs from the rooster's den to mix flour, and fried her freshly dug potatoes. 

The children beamed at her when they saw the fish and chips. It is said that fish and chips were food of regular citizens before the apocalypse. However, oil is too pricey for ordinary citizens. Thankfully, they were the farm town that produces oil, so it's comparatively easier to procure in this village. 

The breakfast next morning was seafood porridge. 

It's been a while since their meals were this good. It's just been two weeks, already the yellow skin of the children has changed to become a little fair.