Unknown Creature

The next day at noon.

The sunlight on the Salt Sea was fearsome; "scorching" was a fitting description.

Reilo and his two companions' exposed skin had developed red spots to varying degrees. Luo Ji was doing slightly better, but Reilo was already feeling uncomfortable from the rash. Lulu, however, was the most miserable. The girl, who had grown up on a snow mountain, had large patches of peeling on her delicate, fair skin.

Reilo knew this was caused by sunburn and UV allergy. He mixed plant sap with some dirt and applied it to their skin. While it offered some relief, it was clear this place wasn't suitable for them to stay long.

After walking along the beach for a long time, Reilo, who was in the lead, spotted something.

"There's a rocky area ahead. It should be reefs formed by volcanic lava many years ago. Shall we go take a look?"

From a distance, a large expanse of black rock separated the beach, indeed looking quite abrupt.

"Okay."

Lulu replied. Luo Ji, wiping sweat from his forehead, glanced in the direction Reilo pointed before silently continuing forward.

Reilo didn't waste time even while traveling.

As he walked, Reilo took out a magnifying glass, focusing sunlight onto a coconut shell in his other hand, observing it closely.

The light focused by a mere ten-centimeter diameter convex lens was insignificant compared to the total amount of light the sun released into the cosmos. Yet, by borrowing even this minuscule power of the universe's laws, Reilo easily set the coconut shell ablaze.

Sweat dripped from Reilo's forehead down his nose.

"To see the great from the small!"

At this moment, Reilo felt as if, from this trivial natural phenomenon, he glimpsed a terrifying scene of himself magnifying the area of a convex lens hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times with Bubble Technique, focusing the sun's rays. He had glimpsed a trace of the universe's true power.

"The cosmos..."

Muttering in awe, Reilo's heart filled with longing and aspiration. He took a deep breath, put away the magnifying glass, and tossed the coconut shell aside.

Just as they reached the scorched rocks, Lulu let out a strange cry.

"Huh? What's this?"

A small, blue octopus with black stripes was hiding under a coconut shell by the sea. Reilo walked over and looked, his expression changing.

"Careful!"

Reilo almost shouted, startling Lulu who was about to approach.

Reilo, as if facing a great enemy, took out a glass beaker. Holding his breath, he swiftly and precisely "plinked" it down, covering the small blue octopus from the sea. Only after securing the specimen did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Carefully, Reilo sealed the beaker.

"This is a Ghost Corrosive Octopus. It can release a terrifying corrosive toxin. If infected by this toxin and not treated promptly, the body's bones will slowly melt into liquid, resulting in a most gruesome death!"

Lulu covered her mouth, her eyes wide. She was clearly terrified by Reilo's words, imagining her bones slowly melting within her body.

After observing the Ghost Corrosive Octopus for a while, Reilo showed a hint of joy.

While the Ghost Corrosive Octopus wasn't particularly rare and was only a spirit creature that couldn't be exchanged for elite points, it was an excellent specimen for studying poison experiments.

After this minor interlude, Reilo put away the specimen, and the three continued their journey.

The black reefs, constantly eroded by the sea, were as sharp as knife cuts. Some algae gathered in the rock crevices. Reilo would occasionally crouch down, collecting algae samples with cotton swabs and storing them in glass bottles. This scene made the accompanying Lulu and Luo Ji even more bewildered and confused about the mage profession.

After all, in the eyes of most mercenaries, mages were nobles who tinkered with strange specimens or alchemical materials in their laboratories. Who would ever see one like Reilo, bending over with their rear end sticking up, rummaging through rock crevices?

However, this was also because Reilo, as a first-year student on his first journey, was experiencing this.

He lacked the strength to obtain high-level biological specimens, and what Reilo lacked most now was basic knowledge of Evolution's Profound Meaning. Therefore, he needed a large number of basic biological specimens to provide him with a foundational understanding of biological evolution.

About two hourglasses later.

During this time, Reilo had collected some basic biological specimens. However, at this moment, the group was drawn by dull, thudding sounds from not far away, like an amplified version of a toad's croak.

"What is that thing!"

Lulu saw the strange creature from afar.

Reilo also spotted the creature with a large black shell, about a meter long. Oddly, the creature's head, which extended out, resembled a toad with antlers. As it croaked, its white chin bobbed.

Frowning, Star Core gave no warning, and Reilo had never seen such a creature in any books.

When the unknown creature noticed Reilo and the others approaching, it seemed to instinctively sense a threat and tried to crawl back into the sea, but its movements were incredibly slow.

Woof woof woof!

Qiu Hei, relying on its instincts, judged that the creature lacked the threatening aura of a magical beast. With its own beast bloodline instincts, it treated the creature as prey and pounced first.

"Careful!"

Reilo shouted, but as the slow-moving shelled creature turned its head, it suddenly opened its mouth and shot out a water bullet.

"Splat!"

Although Qiu Hei dodged the water bullet, the black reef beneath its feet was struck, creating a crater the size of a rice bowl!

"A magical beast!?"

Lulu exclaimed.

Qiu Hei was also startled, instinctively sensing a great threat and cautiously retreating to Lulu's side. Luo Ji and Reilo, seeing this, also instinctively took half a step back, their faces filled with surprise and caution.

To be able to blast such a large hole in the reef, its attack power must have exceeded ten degrees!

After spitting out a water bullet with astonishing power, the black shelled creature seemed even more terrified, struggling to crawl further into the sea.

"Wrong, there's no energy fluctuation!"

Reilo observed the creature closely. Many protrusions had grown on its black shell, and he could faintly discern numerous strange small holes at the tips of these protrusions. Suddenly, he thought of something...

"Bubble Technique!"

Transparent bubbles floated towards the shelled creature. They weren't met with the expected water bullet counterattack. The bubbles exploded above the creature's head. Due to the limited attack power, it only shook its head and continued to flee towards the shore.

With the appearance of Bubble Technique, Lulu finally saw the mysterious mage Reilo cast his legendary magic. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation, but seeing this outcome, she couldn't help but open her mouth wide, looking at Reilo in stunned confusion.

Reilo, being of commoner birth, didn't feel ashamed for "disappointing" Lulu's expectations. He even said with a straight face, "Catch it, it's lost its water bullet ability!"

With a hint of doubt, Luo Ji and Lulu slowly approached the creature.

Indeed, seeing the creature grow increasingly flustered and offer no effective counterattacks, the two of them grew bolder.

A moment later.

Just as the unknown creature was about to escape back into the sea, the three of them worked together to haul the large fellow back.

"Ah ha? So it can only use its magic once!"

Lulu tilted her head, looking at the large creature and giggling.

The shelled creature let out a frightened "gurgle." Uncle Luo Ji couldn't help but kick its shell. Lulu looked at Reilo and couldn't help but ask curiously, "How did you know this big guy could only cast magic once?"

Reilo leaned in to examine the mutated creature, as if he already saw it as an eternal exhibit in his specimen room under his dissection knife, his eyes shining as he explained, "The water bullet just now wasn't magic cast using an Energy Crystal. It was water drawn from the sea, compressed by its special internal physiological structure into a water bullet. This is fundamentally different from a monster's power!"

Simply put, if this creature were a monster with an Energy Crystal inside, it could have continued to unleash water bullets on Reilo and the others using the Energy Crystal's power. Instead, after spitting out one water bullet, it had to return to the sea to absorb water through its shell to compress another before it could spit it out again.

In other words.

If this big fellow were allowed to escape back into the sea and its shell had enough water to absorb, Reilo and the others would essentially be facing a monster without an Energy Crystal.

Chuckling, Reilo continued, "In the tropical rainforest of a small Duchy called Slodekland, there was a creature called a Pistol Fish. Its greatest characteristic was its ability to unleash a high-pressure water bullet, knocking creatures on branches of tropical rivers into the water to feed."

Reilo's hand stroked the creature's shell as he explained to Lulu and Luo Ji, all while observing the largest biological specimen he had ever acquired.

"The Pistol Fish is now completely extinct, existing only in specimen guides. When I saw this big guy spit out the water bullet, I almost thought it was a monster. But then I detected no energy fluctuations at all, meaning it had no Energy Crystal. That's when I thought of the Pistol Fish."

Seeing Reilo's hand tremble as he stroked the creature's shell, his eyes filled with extreme excitement, almost drooling. This wasn't like looking at a shell; it was like caressing the skin of a beautiful maiden!

This sight made Luo Ji and Lulu, who had just been admiring Reilo's erudition, feel a chill. They found it difficult to understand the eccentricities of mages. Even Qiu Hei, who had been lively moments before, now looked at Reilo with fear, tucking its tail and retreating behind Lulu, afraid that Reilo might stroke it like he was stroking this large shell.

It was no wonder Reilo was like this.

The moment he confirmed the creature wasn't a monster, Reilo thought of his Bubble Technique.

If he could incorporate its compressed water bullet ability into his Bubble Technique, wouldn't it instantly increase the attack power of Bubble Technique by several times?

Completely immersed in joy, Reilo ignored the creature's struggles and cries and began dragging it towards the shade of the distant Coconut trees.

In the eyes of Luo Ji and Lulu, they couldn't help but start pitying the innocent, large creature.

Perhaps driven by his thirst for knowledge, Reilo's not-so-strong physique was dragging the nearly hundred-pound creature alone, yet he didn't seem to feel tired at all.

"However, the power of the high-pressure water bullet condensed by this guy is far stronger than what's recorded for the Pistol Fish in the guide. For a level zero creature, to achieve this level is truly an unexpected discovery! I really want to see what physiological evolutionary mysteries it holds, hahaha!"