Squelch—.The misshapen fishman set its slimy foot down on the sand and slowly approached.Rolling its eyes around as it scanned the surroundings, the thing curiously observed the palm trees along the shore and the sparse patches of grass.[krrrr?]Then it soon discovered us and tilted its head.The fishman blinked its huge eyes as it closely examined us.At the same time—Fwap fwap—.The thing suddenly rushed at us with incredible speed.The sight of the fishman charging us, its joints twisted at bizarre angles, was unspeakably grotesque.[krrr!]When it yawned its maw wide open, rows upon rows of disgusting teeth like a shark’s revealed themselves.If an ordinary person had seen that, they’d probably have fainted on the spot.But Elena did not panic. She cast a holy shield to block its path.Thump—.The fishman, which had been sprinting straight at us, smashed its head hard into the holy shield that had suddenly appeared.[krrr?]But since it didn’t seem particularly damaged, it just shook its head loosely and charged us again.Fwap—."……"Quietly watching the situation, Ciel drew a dagger and threw it, aiming for its head.Thud—.The dagger traced a beautiful arc and buried itself right between the fishman’s brows.Maybe because of Ciel’s monstrous strength, the fishman’s neck snapped backward and it collapsed onto the ground.Thick black blood oozed and bubbled out from its brow where the dagger was stuck.That was proof it was a monster and a servant of demons.Staring at the thing, whose head was bleeding profusely, Elena asked,"Did we finish it off?""Not yet."After a moment, the creature that had been lying on the sand as if dead suddenly sprang back to its feet.Shluk—.As if it were nothing, it pulled the dagger out of its head and blinked its huge eyes.[krrr……]Then the slime soaked over its skin gathered at its brows, and the pierced wound was instantly healed.Flick—.The fishman casually tossed the dagger from its brow onto the ground and rolled its neck, completely unfazed.Crack—.Watching that bizarre form move, it really did feel like a scene out of a horror movie.Like encountering some unknown life-form from outer space.Even I, who was used to seeing it plenty in the game screen, felt a chill down my spine when facing it in person.Elena, looking a bit tense, gulped and said to me,"It certainly…… doesn’t seem like a typical monster. Judging from its behavior and how it reacts when it encounters humans.""Exactly. Normal attacks don’t seem to work well, so we should take it down with holy magic.""Rue, grant cleansing light to Your lamb."Shaaah—.A flow of holy magic flared up from Elena.Feeling the creepy aura pouring out of her, I instinctively tensed and quietly stepped back a little.Flash—.Holy light then burst from Elena’s hand and hit the fishman head-on.[krrrr!]Up until now it had shown nothing but curiosity, but as its entire body burned under the holy light, the thing let out a scream of agony.Fwap—.Writhing in pain, it kicked off the ground and charged at us in a frenzy.[krrrr!!]With an ear-piercing, hideous shriek, it rushed straight at Elena.Ssszzzt—.But maybe the holy power had done significant damage; as its whole body burned under the holy beam, it collapsed on the ground right in front of Elena.The fishman’s entire skin melted as it lay sprawled out, twitching.Tremble—.Judging by the way it squirmed, it wasn’t dead yet.'It’s incredibly tough.'Looking at it struggle to get up with its melted body, Elena shuddered."To endure my holy magic to this extent. What is this bizarre life-form……"Instead of answering Elena, I recalled what it was in my head.'It’s [Deep Creature], the slave race of Kral, one of the Twelve Apostles.'According to the setting, Kral—master of these Deep Creatures—had once been a ruler with power rivaling the Demon God in the distant past.But after the boundaries of the world closed, it lost most of that power and fell to the level of an ordinary life-form.Because of that, it lost the near-divine, infinite mana it once had, and later was defeated by the Demon God and came under the Demon God’s command.Even though Kral had lost most of its mana, its biological scale was unchanged, and those traits had been passed down intact to its slave race.That was why this fishman was so absurdly durable.In the game, all attacks except holy damage were reduced, and its natural regeneration was extremely high.Even among monsters that appeared in the latter half of the game, it was quite a troublesome type.In any case, the fact that these things showed up meant Kral—one of the Twelve Apostles—had appeared on Full Moon Island.'That’s probably why contact with the airship was cut off, too.'Still, it should be fine since the Director had accompanied the training camp.With the Director’s strength, not only could she drive Kral away, she might even be able to temporarily repel it.Sorting out my thoughts, I spoke."It isn’t a normal monster. It looks like a subordinate race of a high-ranking being.""A high-ranking being, huh. The stronger its demonic nature, the more damage it should take from my holy power, though?""Which just means it’s sturdy enough to endure that. We should notify the other night-watch teams on patrol."We’d be fine, but if another night-watch team ran into this thing, we couldn’t guarantee they’d survive."Yes, but first we should finish it off properly."Elena let out a sigh and stretched her hand out into empty air."Ascalon."Swoong—.At her single word, the shape of a pure white sword was drawn in the air.It was the spitting image of the holy sword Ascalon, one of the few “myth” grade weapons in Mirellin Saga."Strike."Slice—.At Elena’s command, the holy sword woven from holy power cleaved the fishman’s neck.***The next day.Morning assembly, with the students gathered on the beach.We had debated whether we should hide the fishman’s corpse from last night, but given that safety was our top priority, we decided to reveal it.Thud—.We displayed the corpse of the monster we’d killed yesterday in front of the students.Revealed under bright light, the fishman’s body was covered in scales from head to toe.Its head, with its huge eyes, was closer to a deep-sea fish, while its body was human-shaped, the spine bent like a hunchback.However, sticky slime dripping from the scales and barnacles covering its whole body made it impossible to see it as anything human from any angle."W-what is that?""Sea people?""No, sea people might have webbed hands and gills, but they still look kind of human."That thing’s just a monster no matter how you look at it.""I’m getting a headache just looking at it……""Same."Some students began to complain of dizziness when they saw the corpse.Trying to calm the students murmuring in anxiety, Elena stepped forward."Everyone, focus please. While we were standing night watch at the beach yesterday, this monster attacked us. Unlike normal monsters, it has tremendous strength. Even with my holy magic, it was difficult to bring down.""Even Lady Elena’s holy magic?""That’s impossible……"The students chattered in shock."So for your safety, do not approach the shoreline as much as possible. These things could attack."Once the beach was declared off limits, one student asked,"Then does that mean escaping from the island just got harder?"It was a fair question.The Deep Creatures’ attacks were extremely dangerous. Now that they had appeared, we couldn’t just launch a ship whenever we wanted.Even before that, they lived in groups, so just holding them off would be a problem.If you see a single cockroach, it means hundreds are nesting nearby. This was a similar situation.Still, I decided to calm the students for now."We’ll need to reinforce the ship’s durability to withstand their attacks. It’ll take more time than expected. But the escape plan itself won’t be affected, so don’t worry."***We wrapped up the assembly and dismissed the students.The situation was too dangerous, so starting that day, we also banned exploration trips for food gathering.Students with no combat ability were excluded from night watch, and we grouped students with high Competition Battle rankings and strong fighting power, assigning them to night-watch teams.Additionally, I ordered every night-watch team to include at least one priest or paladin who could use holy magic so they could respond to monster attacks.We also merged all the lodging buildings that had been made from low-level Cubes and turned them into a massive fortress.Responding to surprise attacks took priority over comfortable beds.'We currently have a total of 7,500 Cubes.'The same as the number of students who had fallen onto the jungle island.We decided to use 2,000 of those to build two ships, and use the remaining Cubes to form several Level 10 fortresses to solidify our defenses.Since the Base Level couldn’t go past Level 10 anyway, there was no point in combining them further.So, the five imposing Level 10 fortresses formed from gathered Cubes took their places along the beach.At this level, they’d be able to hold out to some extent even if a swarm of fishmen attacked later.***Evening, as /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ the sun was dipping down.Through the thick fog, the red light of sunset faintly seeped in.The day was coming to an end, but there was still no word from the airship.'So the situation is worse than I thought, huh.'While I was sitting on the beach, focusing on Transmuting the ship as I waited for contact from the airship—Rustle, rustle—.I heard footsteps from afar, and Elena appeared.This time, she was alone, without Ciel.Without looking at her, I kept working on the Transmutation and opened my mouth."You’ve been coming by a lot lately.""You’ll get bored working on the ship all by yourself, won’t you? You need someone to talk to.""Well, that’s true."Elena gathered up her priest robes and came to sit down near me.Normally, this much proximity would have been a huge threat, but thanks to the Star of Tubal-cain, I didn’t have to worry about the durability of Derod’s Ring.Handing me some ice water, Elena said,"Here, we’re out of drinks, so all that’s left is water.""Ice water’s more than enough."I gulped down the ice water and listened to her next words."……It’s getting harder and harder to keep the students under control. They’re all anxious.""They have every reason to be."It was the second day of being stranded on the island.On top of that, there were creepy monsters lurking nearby, so of course they’d be anxious.And unlike when they’d been going out gathering food and burning through their stamina, they were now sitting around in the fortresses, getting restless and overthinking things.When you don’t have something to throw yourself into, you naturally start thinking about this and that."Still, if it’s you, you can keep them under control without a problem. I’m counting on you.""It’s too heavy a burden for me.""You’re the reason things have held together this well. If it were me, we’d already have riots. You’re doing more than enough.""That’s true."If I had been leading the students without Elena, we would’ve become unmanageable a long time ago.In that sense, Elena’s role was huge.At best, I could play the part of a capable leader by drawing on my knowledge, but I wasn’t a good enough leader to embrace everyone.After that, Elena and I talked about various things related to our future survival plans.Once all the businesslike talk was done, we quickly ran out of things to say."……"I silently focused on gathering mana and continued working on Transmuting the ship.Then, with her knees drawn up to her chest, Elena quietly opened her lips."Honestly, I kept doubting you even after that day."That day—she must have meant the time at the café when she suddenly blasted me with holy healing magic.It seemed that even after that, Elena had continued to watch me with suspicious eyes.In a slightly downcast voice, Elena said,"I’m sorry. For not being honest."Still immersed in my work, I replied,"……You’re free to suspect me. You don’t owe me an apology for that.""Even so. I kept smiling at you on the outside while constantly doubting you. My conscience was bothering me a bit.""Does telling me that mean you’re not going to doubt me anymore?""Well, you could say that. Let’s get along from now on, okay?"Elena offered me a handshake.After hesitating briefly, I took her hand and shook it."Haven’t we already been getting along? Let’s just keep it that way.""All right. And I’ll join the Student Council too. You said you’d make me Head of the Medical Division, right?""Yeah. I’d be grateful if you joined."If Elena joined, even our nominal Student Council would carry a bit more weight.Once the handshake was over, Elena stood up and said,"Then keep up the good work. I’ll bring you a late-night snack in a bit.""A late-night snack, sounds good."In an environment this harsh, we needed to at least eat well.And I had to replenish the stamina I was spending on the Transmutation work.However—"We’re not going to have time for that."Letting out a sigh, I drew the Azoth Sword from my waist.Then I turned my gaze toward the darkening night sky and the thick fog lying beneath it.As I looked out, Elena also turned to stare beyond the mist.Squelch—.With footsteps I was already getting used to, silhouettes faintly emerged through the fog.[krrr,]The same fishmen we’d seen yesterday.Only this time, they were gathered in a group.Elena brushed back her hair and closed her eyes."You said they’re a species that lives in colonies, right?""Yeah. First, I’ll move the ship I’m Transmuting inside. Then we’ll station any students who can fight on top of the fortresses and dig in. As for command…… I’ll take it.""All right. I’ll trust the leadership you showed during the Faction War."

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