A strange dream...

Walking out of the room, Rio saw several sea monsters attacking the ship.

However, the main thing that caught his attention was the huge octopus that was right in front of the ship. It is so huge that it can be considered a small mountain.

'This is an S-rank monster, but why would it appear here?' 

Generally, S-rank monsters tend to stay within their territory, and given that a monster above B rank possesses a certain level of intelligence, they wouldn't attack anything like a feral beast.

High-ranking monsters only fight when necessary.

'There was nothing written about this in the novel; I should not lower my vigilance just because this octopus was not mentioned in the novel.'

This is not a novel; now it's a real world. Some things happen outside the plot too. Just as Rio was deciding on what to do next. The giant octopus attacked the ship with its huge tentacles.

But before it could even come close to the ship, a huge magic circle covered the ship. This magic circle was so big that any mage could faint from its magic consumption alone.

Yet now this magic circle is being formed like nothing.

After the magic circle was completed, a rain of fire started to bombard the octopus monster. Seeing that its attack did not succeed, the monster dove down into the water and left the place.

Then Ms. Anna appeared on the ship's deck, and a new magic circle was created. This time all the monsters attacking were counterattacked by her magic.

Unlike the giant octopus monster, these low-rank monsters all got burned alive on the spot. After doing all this, Ms. Anna walked away leisurely as if all that happened was of no importance.

All the students who witnessed this scene were totally dumbfounded. The mage students were shouting in excitement and admiring the huge magic fluctuation produced by the attack, used by Ms. Anna so easily.

'So, this is the strength of a true S rank—killing thousands in a mere flick of a finger—how terrifying.' 

...

A few days later.

Then the trip continued peacefully for a few days but then the giant octopus returned. This time it was accompanied by a huge army of sea monsters.

Several different types of sea monsters can be seen here in this huge army. Not to mention a few sharks can be seen among this army.

'What the heck is going on? Why is this guy so desperate to attack our ship? Don't tell me this guy is coming here because of me!' 

'but why?' 

Suddenly Rio felt his heart palpitating very fast. He immediately rolled away from his previous place. Looking back, he found that the place he was standing had been destroyed by a huge tentacle attack.

'It is targeting me! I will have to find out, Why is it targeting me!?' 

Rio walked towards the deck of the ship where most of the students were gathered; he brought his sword out too, just like the other students. Looking at Ms. Anna, it can be seen she has been irritated by this monster.

Ms. Anna cast a simple flying spell and announced before flying toward the octopus:

"I will handle that monster; you all deal with those small fries in the meantime." 

All the students also launched towards the sea monsters and attacked the monsters who tried to climb the ship.

Although these sea monsters are all low-ranked, their number is too high. When you kill one, or two more attacks you back. Rio also joined the fight and started to carry out a slaughter.

Even without using skills, he was already at C rank; these monsters of E rank were slaughtered like vegetables.

While fighting, he carefully avoided places where the giant monster could launch a sneak attack on him. For half an hour, the fight continued, and a stalemate was formed. But then the shark men joined the fight and started to overwhelm the students.

Injuries started to appear on the students. And some were already exhausted from the relentless attacks.

When Rio was fighting, he noticed 10 shark men directly coming toward him. These sharkmen are all at rank C; without using his skill, he will not be able to fight them.

So, to not get other students injured from his skills, he slowly left the deck pretending to be in a fight and came towards a rather deserted area, where other students were not present.

And as he expected, the sharkmen followed right behind him in an orderly manner, as if they were trained professionals.

[Body Strengthening]

Rio directly covered himself with mana and launched an ambush on the first Sharkmen. With a swift and precise attack, it died in an instant. All the other sharkmen following behind it became alert seeing this.

But due to the first attack advantage, Rio directly slashed the next one's neck easily. The sharkmen reacted now and launched a combined attack on Rio. But before their attack can land, Rio backed away.

The sharkmen were surprised by this sudden change and lost their concentration.

Taking advantage of their mistake, Rio directly attacked another two of them with two more precise attacks.

Then he backed away and waited for them to follow. But this time the sharkmen did not fall into his trap.

Just when they were about to follow up to attack him, a massive fireball came from the sky and fell on the sharkmen, injuring them all and even killed three of them.

It was fired by Anna towards the octopus, but it got deflected so Anna changed it's trajectory and sent it to help Rio, who was stuck in a difficult fight. (She's an S-ranker, her mana detection skills is very powerful after all...)

To avoid further attacks from above, they directly dove into the water and attacked from both sides, cornering Rio in the middle. Upon witnessing this, Rio lost all hesitation and immediately applied his skills:

[Lightening sword]

An extremely precise and fast sword slash landed on the Sharkmen, who attacked from behind, and all three of them got killed instantly.

Seeing an opening, the sharkmen on the other side stabbed with his spear and created a wound on Rio's shoulder.

Before it could do more damage, Rio hurriedly backed away but still got stabbed once more in his right leg. When the monster tried to land one more attack, Rio counter-attacked this time:

[Handling]

Rio used his sword to deflect the spear's trajectory in the wrong direction, which caused the sharkmen to lose their standing.

With another sword strike, Rio killed one more sharkmen. Now only one more was left in front of him.

'One more to go'

[Sword Aura!]

[Elemental Sword Art: Fire Type: Rising flames of Death!]

Suddenly, Rio's sword got covered in blue flames.

Rio clashed with the sharkmen and used the flame to cause a distraction for the sharkmen. The sharkmen, being a water creature, got a little distracted by these highly condensed flames.

This short distraction caused its head to fly away.

Thus, declaring Rio's victory. Rio hurriedly brought out a healing potion from his storage ring and drank it. His wounds started to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Haa….haa…huff…haa" 

'That was the most difficult fight I had until now.' 

It may have sounded easy, but to fight ten monsters of the same rank as you and defeat them in such an overwhelming manner is no small feat, thankfully Anna's flames had weakened them all.

...

After a few minutes of resting, Rio recovered from his fatigue. He hurriedly ran back to the deck to see the fight's result.

When he returned, he saw that Ms. Anna and the octopus monster's fight was already near its end. Although Ms. Anna was looking visibly tired, the monster was also seriously wounded.

Seeing that it had gotten too wounded, the monster escaped the place and swam away from the ship to recover.

It can be seen that the monster has not yet given up; it will eventually come back after it recovers. But Ms. Anna did not pursue it anymore and let it go. She was already too tired to give chase.

Not to mention it is very difficult for a fire mage to show its full strength on the sea. She has already used up her mana.

After confirming that the monster has left. Ms. Anna flew back to the ship and cast a spell to kill the rest of the monsters. After that, she walked into her room.

Seeing that the main fight has ended. The students started to evacuate all the injured students. Rio also helped in the process and carried the students to the Healer.

Looking around, he found that the other named characters, like Fade, Lia, Kira, and Link, all have not sustained such injuries.

'If they had encountered the sharkmen, then they would have been injured. But it looks like they did not encounter them. 

It's really strange why that S-rank monster targeted only me. Did I offend it somehow? That's not it; there must be something else, something that I am overlooking. What is it?

'Calm down, Rio, and think more thoroughly…. Now that I think about it, what were those palpitations I felt back then?' 

I am certain that those palpitations were not because of the monster's attack. It was as if my body was telling me a certain thing. But what it is, I can't figure it out yet.

'Maybe I will find it the next time I meet that monster.' 

After this monster attack, the calm returned to the ship, and after a few more days, the ship reached its destination safely. All the students that got injured have already been cured. And even Ms. Anna has recovered from her mental exhaustion.

Eventually, the ship reached the Roult islands, and finally, it was time to get off the ship.

...

When the ship docked, all the students got off the ship and followed Ms. Anna to the nearby hotel.

It was already evening when we reached the island. The setting sun and the vast ocean were creating extremely beautiful scenery here. Seeing this peaceful scene, the moods of the students calmed down a bit.

After all, they were all on constant alert during this time, in fear of an attack from the sea monsters again.

The island on which the ship docked is a small one. It is one of the several small islands around the main island of this place. The Roult islands are in a pattern; here, small islands surround the big islands.

Although such a presence of pattern seems strange, this is just one of the many strange things in this world. The main eye-catching thing here is the stable teleportation portals on every island, which connect each island with another like a spider web.

These portals were created at the request of the S-rank water mage Roult.

Generally, teleportation portals are very expensive to create; their operating costs are also very expensive, due to which they are used very few times.

Only when a large number of materials are needed to be transferred are the teleportation portals used. Normally only small boats are used to travel between these islands.

Several seafood-related companies are also located on these islands. The high number of low-rank dungeons provides a stable stream of awakeners visiting this place.

...

After reaching the hotel, all the students directly headed to their specific rooms.

Rio also left for his room, and after he got in his room, he directly took a refreshing bath and then laid down on his bed.

Instantly he felt exhaustion taking over him, and he directly fell asleep.

Suddenly, he felt someone calling for him. He got up and looked around, but no one was there. He walked to the window and looked outside. The sky was pitch black; there was no moon or star in the sky tonight.

'I have a strange feeling about this.' 

He was feeling as if something was calling him—something was urging him to go towards the beach. He directly jumped from the window and walked towards the beach.

The closer he got, the stronger that feeling in his heart started to increase. Just as he was only a few meters away from the ocean, a sudden hoarse and rigid voice interrupted him:

"SO, YOU ARE HERE!! YOU LITTLE RAT!!! TODAY I WILL KILL YOU!!!"

A huge octopus appeared in front of him; its tall body was right in front of Rio. Its huge eyes were directly looking at him as if looking at a lowly being.

'What!?' 

...

Suddenly Rio's dream ended, and he woke up from his dream while panting.

Rio got up from his bed hurriedly in shock.

He took a glass of water and gulped it down, then he walked towards the window and looked outside.

The sky was illuminated with two moons and many bright stars. He heaved a sigh of relief after confirming that it truly was a dream. This world has two moons.

"What a strange dream. Was it giving me some kind of message or something? It is getting complicated now."