Chapter 12 – Elementalist’s Island (1)

The business card only had a single phone number written on it. A number that seemed to be an international call. Sun-woo, who had been tilting his head, put it in his pocket for now.

At the same time, a window appeared before Sun-woo’s eyes. The reward window had finally appeared.

[Min Sun-woo: 2 Star. Achievement Rate 89%]

[Additional Inventory 500p]

[Additional Skill Slot 700p] – Points increased

[Additional Basic Recovery Potion 100p]

[Additional Basic Water 1p]

[Item Enhancement Stone 100p]

[100,000 won per point]

[Types increase as character level rises.]

[Current Points: 560p]

Certainly, the achievement rate had increased significantly. It seemed like he could advance to the next grade in the next mission.

However, the skill slot price had increased from 500 points to 700 points. It seemed there was nowhere he could go easily.

“Don’t tell me enhancement stones are getting more expensive too?”

Sun-woo first bought one enhancement stone and converted 60 points to money.

Fortunately, the enhancement stone price hadn’t changed. The remaining points were 400. Sun-woo invested 300 points of his points into skill enhancement.

With 200 points, he raised Three Talents Qigong to 5 stars, and raised Three Talents Sword Method and Spirit of the Earth to 3 stars and 3rd class respectively.

When he upgraded his abilities, various energies surged through his body.

“Then shall I go back?”

Sun-woo, who had checked his body’s sensations, briefly looked at the spot where the magician had disappeared and left the hall.

“Why are you so late? You said you were going to the restroom.”

Min-seok, who had been waiting in the car in the parking lot, grumbled at him.

“There were a lot of people.”

At Sun-woo’s answer, Min-seok shrugged his shoulders and began driving out.

“But why did you really come here?”

“There was someone I needed to meet.”

“Ah, so that’s why you were looking around so much inside. Did you find them?”

“Yeah.”

“Anyway, thanks to that, I got to see something nice. I should come to see the magic show next time.”

“I wonder about that.”

At Sun-woo’s casual remark, Min-seok tilted his head, and the two returned home in the car.

“Give me the item right away!”

After arriving in front of Sun-woo’s house, Min-seok shouted to Sun-woo who remained behind as he left.

After sending Min-seok away, Sun-woo entered his studio apartment, took out the business card, and thought for a moment.

In his current state of knowing almost nothing about missions and contamination sources, it was necessary to gather information.

However, calling and exposing himself to unknown opponents wasn’t a good idea either.

“Right, there was one more Earth-origin summoner I know.”

Sun-woo added the number to his phone’s address book and put it back in his pocket. It seemed he would have to pass this matter to someone else.

“Now, let me give Min-seok the item and try the ranking challenge I couldn’t do earlier.”

Shortly after, screams of opposing users began bursting out from the monitor again.

Unfortunately, Min-seok’s magic show viewing became impossible. As the magician’s seclusion lengthened, he was gradually forgotten among people, and although questions circulated on the internet several times, the rumors soon disappeared without a sound.

***

A few days later, the place where the group was summoned was a small island.

The island was surrounded by beautiful coral reefs and filled with lush tropical forests. And on one side of the island, an old dormant volcano rose high, further enhancing the primitive island atmosphere.

“This looks perfect for swimming.”

Michael licked his lips looking at the beach.

“It’s really beautiful. I’ve never seen such a wonderful sea before.”

Nan-seol looked at the blue sea with a curious expression. Fortunately, Nan-seol seemed to have fully healed from her internal injuries.

[A Level 2 contamination source has been discovered. However, due to rapid energy flow, the exact location of the contamination source cannot be determined. Please search the island, find the contamination source, and eliminate it.]

“The missions are getting harder and harder. Moving through tropical forests like this is quite annoying.”

Michael frowned looking at the forest, and Daniel, who had been surveying the surroundings, asked Hayden.

“Could you check the surroundings for us?”

Hayden frowned at Daniel’s request but began climbing the tallest palm tree among those around them.

Although he was still wearing his uniform in this heat, he seemed surprisingly comfortable as he climbed up the tree smoothly.

Using his ability, he quickly reached the treetop, surveyed the surroundings, and came down shortly.

“There are no places where the color has changed. It’s just forest.”

At Hayden’s words, the group’s expressions darkened. Even though it wasn’t a large island, searching the entire island like this would be a distant task.

“Oh, there were several small smoke trails rising up from inside the forest.”

“Smoke?”

At Hayden’s words, Daniel and Michael checked the sun and shadows respectively.

“It seems to be mealtime.”

“That means there are humans.”

At their conversation, Sun-woo nodded.

“Meeting those people would be the fastest way.”

At Sun-woo’s words, Nan-seol looked puzzled.

“Shouldn’t we avoid exposure to unrelated people?”

“Don’t tell me they want us to kill everyone before the mission ends? Killing civilians leaves a bad aftertaste.”

At his words, which seemed to indicate he had experience killing civilians, everyone’s faces soured.

That’s when Sun-woo spoke up.

“There are people who handle that separately.”

Sun-woo explained about the aftermath handling team he had seen.

“Ah, there was a separate team for cleanup.”

At Sun-woo’s words, Daniel and the other group members nodded, but Michael grumbled alone.

“So you’re saying you alone did more missions? You must have earned points nicely. We’re from the same Earth, so why didn’t missions come to me?”

“Ah, I also performed additional missions.”

“We two also did them.”

“What! I’m the only one who didn’t? Why exactly!”

At Nan-seol’s and the other two’s stories, Michael screamed toward the sky.

Watching this, Sun-woo showed Michael a business card as if he had just remembered.

“Oh, right. That aftermath handling team gave me a business card saying it was Earth-side contact information. But I wasn’t sure if I should contact them…”

“Huh? Didn’t you say it was a blonde beauty earlier? What are you worried about that you’re not contacting them? Give it here. I’ll contact them.”

Michael snatched the business card away.

“Well, then contact them and let me know during the next mission.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Michael was too busy looking at the business card to notice Sun-woo’s slightly raised corner of his mouth.

After that, the group set off toward the smoke Hayden had seen.

The dense tropical forest made the group uncomfortable, but it wasn’t enough to prevent them from moving forward. The group crossed the forest with Michael, who was an expert at finding tropical forest paths, leading the way.

The forest was quiet. Michael, who was in the lead, muttered lowly.

“This doesn’t seem to be our side’s world. Even though it’s tropical, it’s different from the tropical plants I know.”

“It’s our side’s world. It seems to be one of the southern sea tribe islands.”

At Michael’s words, Daniel answered. Although he had already removed his helmet, he was sweating like rain while wearing layers of armor.

“Don’t tell me tropical forests in your world look like this?”

“Look like what?”

“Look around. There’s nothing here.”

At Michael’s words, the group that looked around could soon understand his point. As he said, around the group there were no monsters, let alone beasts.

“It’s strange. I heard that the southern tribe islands are full of peculiar monsters. There’s no way it could be this quiet.”

“Seems like another damn situation.”

His sixth sense seemed to be at work.

“Let’s hurry.”

Sun-woo also felt uneasy through his sorcery. The earth spirits were trembling with anxiety.

The tense group began to increase their speed.

While crossing the forest, the group could occasionally see small animals. Beasts that didn’t resemble any animals seen on Earth ignored the group and ran somewhere at high speed.

Thanks to this, the group’s alertness grew even more, and it reached its peak when they arrived at the village.

The village was empty. It was a village made of cool-looking wooden houses, but contrary to the smoke rising from various places, no people could be seen at all.

“Everyone left in a hurry. They haven’t been gone long.”

Michael, who had been examining traces on the ground, frowned.

“All traces go south, toward the sea. Everyone fled.”

The group became serious. Not only was there no one to ask about the situation, but the fact that even the people had fled was no ordinary problem.

“This seems like a situation where we should run away. Would it be a problem if we ran?”

With all sorts of sanctions in place, it would obviously be a problem. But in this situation, there was simply no way around it.

That’s when Sun-woo felt a strange resonance in his sorcery. Sun-woo’s gaze turned toward a house standing alone to the north of the village.

When Sun-woo looked at the house, everyone’s gaze turned to that house, and then a person came out from inside.

It was a girl wearing a cool-looking dress with various decorations.

The brown-skinned girl with beautiful tattoos fluttered her silver hair behind her and looked at the group, no, at Sun-woo, with a puzzled expression.

“An elementalist? No, it’s a bit different.”

Her face was full of incomprehensible expressions. But she soon shouted to the group with a surprised expression.

“Who are you? I’ve never seen you on the island. Everyone is in danger. Please run away quickly. But you’re not an elementalist, so how can I feel resonance with you?”

The group was overwhelmed by her stream of words.

“Wait a moment. We are explorers. Our ship was wrecked on the island during our travels, and we were troubled because we couldn’t meet anyone.”

The group had decided to deceive people they met by saying they were explorers after learning this was Daniel’s world.

The others worried whether such words could fool people, but Daniel was confident.

“Ah, you were explorers. Nice to meet you. Welcome to our island. I’m Alda, the village elementalist.”

She bowed politely to the group.

“My goodness, this actually works.”

Hayden’s low whisper represented the feelings of the other group members.

“Ah, this isn’t the time for this. Everyone run away. You can’t stay here. All the villagers have also left for the beach.”

“What exactly is happening?”

At Daniel’s question, Alda pointed north.

“The fire spirits suddenly became angry. The earth is seething and the paths of fire have begun to move. Soon the island’s master will be angry.”

At Alda’s gesture, everyone looked north. There was a volcano rising high.

“Huh? Isn’t that a dormant volcano with no smoke coming out?”

It was the moment Hayden spoke with puzzlement.

Caw! Caw!

Countless birds began soaring toward the sky simultaneously. From small birds to giant strange birds they had never seen before, all flying creatures began soaring into the sky and flying toward the outside of the island.

Roaaaaar!

At the same time, cries of beasts and monsters burst from the forest, and trees began breaking and dust began rising.

Hayden’s voice asking again became very cautious.

“Wasn’t it a dormant volcano?”

The mountain answered Hayden’s question.

Rumble!

The volcano began spewing white smoke. The billowing smoke was announcing that the volcano would soon erupt.

“Hey, hey, didn’t we come to the wrong place?”

At Michael’s pale voice, the group all agreed.

[This is an emergency additional mission. Unexpected volcanic activity has begun. Please prevent the volcano from erupting. Many additional rewards will be provided.]

At that moment, an urgent-seeming mission appeared.