"We need to move a little more west... then there should be a path to the north..." - Garami

We walked through the jungle with Iron as the vanguard. He's both the most durable one and the one with Pathfinder after all. I'm the one with the map.

"This is quite the picturesque jungle. Just as I had hoped," said the fairy-turned-shipwrecked companion, Ciara.

"As you hoped?" - Garami

That note caught my attention. I sneakily Identified this girl before, and I saw she had some, okay, a lot of abilities related to the Water attribute and the Ocean attribute. The latter is a composition attribute of Water and Order, similar to how my Poison is one of Water and Death. The Ocean one has skills that improve your abilities by the sea, plus moves that are larger variants of the ones from the Water attribute. Obviously, I'm suspecting she may have something to do with that pillar of seawater from before...

"Matata Island is famous for its nature after all. The ship is supposed to stay at the harbor for a few days, so I planned to make some drafts before the ship set sail again." - Ciara

......I'll believe you for now. As we had similar plans.

There are three things about this island: it's the perfect "rest stop" that allows safe travels between Luxuria and Invidia, it has such a gorgeous expanse of nature that both continents decided to leave the island in the care of the locals, who also watch over the harbor that the ships docks. And finally, it also has... a Dungeon. It's a weird kinda thing that consists of only traps. No monsters, no obvious treasure chests, only traps, and a few Safe Areas. 

The Union has decided to let that Dungeon be and lets adventurers train their trap-detection and trap-disarming skills. That is also one of the reasons we wanna have a go at it while waiting for the sea currents to align... but nothing is preventing us from taking over the place either, is there? Just have to keep the trap-hell on the first floor, and nobody will care if its name suddenly changes. There's even a name-concealing thing I can add to the different Territories, so no worries there.

Just then, Iron stopped in front of us... now I see. The rich flora made it a little difficult, but now I'm able to sense them as well. 

Monsters... is taking it a little too far. This island's wildlife is made mostly outta animals, and the few monsters around here are the normal animals that evolved into monsters. The classification of "monsters" is after all those that have gone too far away from their original species. 

Seeing that we had noticed them, the creatures in hiding decided to launch their ambush. Iron struck one of the assailants with his shield. He then lifted his shield with the attacker and slammed them to the ground. And he's worried he's got no firepower...

The second assailant launched himself at... me. Bad choice, pal. I greeted him with a [Storm Compression] kick that sent him flying into a tree where he lay unconscious. It was then I finally noticed what they were. 

Tigers. Just regular old tigers that you could find on Earth even. Your everyday kings of the jungle. On Terra Sol though, they're "simple" animals of the E-rank. 

The remaining tigers stopped in their tracks halfway out of the bushes. Their faces dead-pale from seeing two of their friends easily taken down. Shh, shh, away with you. I'm a cat person, so I don't like taking out feline... oh?

One bigger tiger came outta the bushes when it noticed the others are unmoving... is it alright to call it a tiger? It's walking on two legs, and its fangs and claws are so thin and long that they look more like a barbaric take on rapiers. 

Let's see, it's called a Frenzy Tiger, a D-rank monster that forces other feline monsters into its pride through intimidation-skills and the like. After the forced underlings have done the dirty work, the Frenzy Tiger will steal the kill from them. Sometimes, it even preys on the members of its pride…

Just the description was enough to tick me off, so I threw a dagger at that guy... which turned out to be that prototype of the dragon-daggers that Flint gave me so I could make a trial test with it. As the dagger struck the Frenzy Tiger's throat, the "Dragon Soul" ability of the weapon suddenly kicked in, increasing the damage of the wound as if it was the dragon himself that had struck the Tiger.

Needless to say, but the Tiger was down for the count with that. Having a dragon slash up your throat will do that to practically anyone alive. 

Everyone paused at the sight of the Frenzy Tiger going down without a fight. H-hey, what did you expect from a weapon made from dragon materials? And the probability for that effect to happen is 0.5% you know? Even that "Darkness Erosion" effect, which temporarily reduces the target's stats a little, has twice the probability of happening, but even then, I've never had any luck with either of them until today. 

The tigers kept staring at the corpse of the Frenzy Tiger and then at us. Not sure of what to do...

Damn, I'm such a sucker for kitties... 

I used Dark Rejuvenation on the two wounded tigers. Seeing that, and my gesture of shooing them away, the tigers went back into the jungle without problems. 

"Eh? Boss, aren't we taking them down?" asked Lily after the tigers left.

"No need. The only reason they attacked us was that they were forced to by that big guy. No need to end them because of that." - Garami

Besides, I noticed the tiger cubs that were hiding deeper in the jungle. That Frenzy-bastard must have used them as hostages to get the adult tigers to comply with his demands. And more importantly, I wanna fluff those fluffballs, so I need to have a good rep with the felines here! Aww, don't go, fluffballs!

---

The track through the jungle path wasn't that hard after the sudden tiger encounter, so we reached the port with time to spare. I asked the head of the port, who doubled as the village chief in this case, and found out that the boat we were on is delayed due to a strange storm, but only for one day. They'll arrive by tomorrow evening.

Meanwhile, we also got to learn that several more "Frenzy" monsters have popped up all over the island. Worst of all... that grey sludge is back. The same thing that forcefully evolved that Kodokumo Spider Emperor we once defeated in Velantas. After seeing those familiar bottles and crates, there's no doubt in my mind that the sludge is the cause of this "Frenzy-outbreak". 

Eh, no problems. All those guys are D-ranks, so I sent Iron and Lily to hunt down as many of those guys as they can find before the ship returns.

I ordered Lily not to "taste-test" those monsters. Can't risk her getting some strange disease due to that sludge. The materials of those monsters are on the level of the trash, so we decided to simply burn them all. Even the idea of converting them to Materials for Necromancy is giving me a bad feeling.

The next day, after seeing off the duo, I walked up a certain hill to reach the destination of my own mission. A mission I wanted to do alone, if possible...

"Just how long are you gonna follow me?" - Garami

"Until you agree on letting me join your Guild!!" - Ciara

The fairy painter has been following me ever since the small banquette that the town's people had prepared after hearing that we had accepted in rooting out the Frenzy monsters. That in itself isn't the problem, but Lily starting to brag about all the other members still on the boat, plus the various adventures we've been through, something must have pushed the wrong button in this fairy.

"Come on, let me join! Aren't all Guilds looking for people?" - Ciara

"Not sure where that idea came from, but no. Some idiots may want to increase their ranks as much as possible, but others like us know that quality beats quantity. No matter how many riff-raffs you gather, in front of a dragon, they are just a waste of space and materials." - Garami

The fairy shut up, but you could see that she wasn't happy about it.

"Then if I prove I'm not a 'waste of space', you will letting me join?" - Ciara

"Why the heck would I do that? And why are you so gung-ho about joining? I tell you, we encounter one problem after the other." - Garami

"You do?" - Ciara

"...Hey, did your ears work yesterday night? When Lily talked about us all the times we almost ended up dead? Like the dragon-encounter?" - Garami

"Dragon!?" - Ciara

"Seriously, were you even listening?" - Garami

"........." - Ciara

The fairy went quiet for a while until she looked at my face with determination in her eyes. W-what? You wanna go?

"I will be straight with you; is it true that your Guild has access to items from the other worlds?" -  Ciara

Other worlds... is she talking about the items that can be produced from Damavand? But no one knows about those items. No invaders have left the Dungeons with any of them. Not to mention that I've never told anyone about me being a Dungeon Master... was it the Fire Dragon?

"The owner of this told me that I could obtain items from Earth if I joined you guys, so, please!!" shouted the fairy while showing something she took out of her bag.....

"Aw, crap. The Owner..." - Garami

"S-so she was serious about that!? All that talk about 'Grand Owner' or something?" - Ciara

"Big-time... isn't that thing damaged?" - Garami

It seems like the seawater must have damaged the "proof" that the fairy was showing me. 

"It is... it is?! Oh man, oh man, what should I do..." - Ciara

"Pray. Write a will. Give up." - Garami

My suggestions made the fairy turn pale. With a good reason. The Grand Owner of the Adventurers' Union, a secret for the public, is one fellow you don't wanna make angry. 

...might as well test her. She got the "recommendations" I can't ignore if I treasure my own skin. Better to get a reason why I refused her the next time I meet the "Owner".

"Then let me get this straight; you miss Earth so much that you wanna join the first and best Guild that could be related to it?" - Garami

"Ehm... sure! That's it!" - Ciara

"...You're a sucker in keeping secrets." - Garami

"W-w-wait, that's not it! I am serious about that part! Do you know how difficult it is to get decent painting tools in this world... no, you wouldn't. Sorry about that..." - Ciara

Ah, is the part about me being a Migrant not so well spread? 

"And it's been three years since I could taste some decent snacks… I'm a city girl to the bone! Why is the civilization of this world so down in the dumps!!" - Ciara

...Guess not every single Migrant out there could adapt to the new world like me and Marc who's still in Velantas.

"Okay, calm down already," I said while handing her something to drink.

"Thanks...!?" - Ciara

The fairy turned wide-eyed after seeing the container I had given her. Hm-hm-hm. That's right, here are your precious Earth-goods.

"Honestly, knowing that the 'Owner' is the one who sent you makes you somewhat trustable, but I'm not gonna let you in without some trials first. Even if you fail, you can go to the Dungeon where I found all that stuff so you can try to obtain it on your own, okay? ...Are you listening!?" - Garami

"*Phwah*, sure, leave it to me! I didn't survive in this world for three whole years for nothing!" - Ciara

Someone's confident. Well, even if she fails, I can use her as a middleman to promote Damavand. I've got nothing to lose as long as this ain't a trap after all. I gotta stay on my toes.

While waiting for the fairy to drink up her soda, I heard some spine-chilling sounds like "Hehehehe... in the same Guild as Lily-chan..." coming from the fairy...

"...You have something for other girls?" - Garami

"Not really... but a bunny girl who's always hungry... so moe..." - Ciara

Aw crap, am I close to recruit another weirdo? 

*KA-BOOOOM!*

Suddenly, a series of explosions from the jungle below gave us a jump, but I calmed down after realizing the origin of the blasts.

"They are going at it." - Garami

"Wait, who? Do you mean that knight and Lily-chan? Didn't you guys say that the knight was depressed about lacking firepower? How's that anything close to 'lacking'!?" - Ciara

"That's not Iron. It's your 'moe-bunny'." - Garami

"...What?" - Ciara

"She's like a walking bomb. Now, feeling a little let-down... hello?" - Garami

"Exploding bunny... the rumors were true... th-then, the rumors about a spirit-swordswoman and the cute little dragon-witch. *mumble, mumble*..." - Ciara

Aaaaand she's gone. Gone to a world I don't know and don't wanna know. 

After leaving the pink-minded fairy behind, she woke up from her "trance" and hurried after me. Soon we reached the place I was aiming for: Matata Island's famous trap-Dungeon.