Another minute of high-iy bat passed. Thousands of cuts covered the Kraken’s body, and finally, it stopped moving, succumbing to its injuries. Mikael let out a sigh of relief. This battle had pushed him to his absolute limits, far more thahe deadly enter with the two D+ assassins. ‘But I syed a Kraken. Who else say that?’ he joked to himself.

  Wasting no time, he approached one of the Kraken’s colossal tentacles. With his aura-coated swords, still hoo incredible sharpness, he began cutting pieces from the massive limb. He stored each k in his Iory, reasoning that they should be valuable as they were from one of the Kraken’s twest tentacles. Though he suspected the creature might have a core or another, more valuable an, he had no idea where to search. Instead, he focused on filling his Iory with tentacle pieces until it was nearly full.

  Oisfied, Mikael created an explosioh him to propel himself upward. The fshes of light from his explosive movements illumihe dark depths, drawing the attention of a creature nearby. Fortunately, the new arrival seemed more ied in the Kraken’s corpse than in Mikael.

  As he asded, Mikael gnced back at the Kraken’s body, only for his eyes to widen in shock. A giant shark, parable in size to the Kraken, had begun dev its corpse, staining the surrounding water red.

  ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ he cursed inwardly. Fighting another colossal sea beast in his current dition would be extremely dangerous if not suicidal. His aura reserves were down to 40%, his mana at 60%, and his body was riddled with injuries.

  Not wasting a sed, Mikael accelerated his ast, desperate to avoid drawing the Megalodon’s attention. Breaking through the surface, he sed the area and spotted the damaged ship drifting some distance away. The anchor had not been dropped, causing the vessel to drift while the crew worked on repairs. Thankfully, it wasn’t far. Using his Explosive Style, Mikael propelled himself through the air, nding on the ship’s main deck.

  The sailors were startled by his sudden arrival. Some gasped at the sight of his battered body, with bloody holes in his left shoulder and right side, and his arms showing signs of severe overuse. Though the sea had washed away most of the blood, fresh wounds had begun to bleed again.

  Ign his injuries, Mikael turo a nearby sailor. “Where is the captain or vice-captain?”

  The sailor, stunned by the question from someone who looked on the verge of colpse, stammered, “They’re in the lower deck, coordinating the repairs!”

  “Thanks,” Mikael said before disappearing in a blur.

  The sailor, still processing what he’d seen, sighed auro work, suppressing his ay about the fight’s oute.

  Mikael reached the lower deck, where seawater rose to his calves. He frowned but pushed forward, moving rapidly until he found the captain and vice-captain giving orders. The vice-captain looked as Mikael remembered, but the captain had a bleeding head wound, suggesting a ret injury. Ign it, Mikael interrupted with a serious tone, “We o move. Now.”

  The two men turned, armed by Mikael’s dition. Their expressions darkened, fearing the worst. Ruimis, the vice-captain, asked, “What happened?”

  “I killed the Kraken,” Mikael replied. “But aniant sea beast showed up and is eating its body. We o leave before it decides we’d make a good snack!”

  The two paled at his words, momentarily stunned.

  “NOW!” Mikael shouted, snapping them out of their stupor.

  Realizing the urgency, they quickly issued orders for the crew to prepare for departure. The ship soon picked up speed as the sailors worked frantically. The captain approached Mikael, atg the otion. “Lord, do you have a way to deal with the water on the lower deck?” he asked, gesturing to the flooded area.

  Mikael sidered the request briefly. “Is it urgent, or you ha yourselves? I help, but I o serve my energy in case there’s anht.”

  The captaiated before replying, “N-no, it’s nent. We’ll manage. Please rest!”

  Mikael nodded before disappearing from the captain's sight with an impossibly fast movement. A few seds ter, he nded on a crow’s —not the same one as before, as the mat he previously stood on had beeroyed during the Kraken’s attack.

  He wao meditate and heal himself, but knowing that an attack from a gigantic sea beast resembling a Megalodon ossible, he remaianding, vigintly surveying the surrounding waters for any signs of movement.

  Still, not wanting his severe injuries to worsen, he began casting the Minor Heal spell on himself. After a short t, a soft light enveloped the wound on his right side, the most critical of his injuries.

  He kept casting the spell repeatedly while maintaining his watch. Minutes passed, and his injuries gradually improved, thanks to his high vitality stats and the repeated, albeit minor, healing spells.

  When his dition became more manageable, he stopped. His mana reserves had dropped to 40%, and he couldn’t afford to exhaust them further if he wao remain bat-ready.

  Time crept by as Mikael tinued his tense vigil, cautiously sing the waters. Meanwhile, he cast Minor Heal on his injuries whenever his mana regeed slightly.

  An hour dragged on before Mikael let out a relieved sigh. ‘It doesn’t seem like the Megalodon-looking sea beast is pursuing us.’ By now, his dition had signifitly improved. His aura was at 90%, his mana at 60%, and while his injuries still hurt, they were far less debilitating. If the Megalodon attacked now, he would be ready to fight.

  Feeliively safe, Mikael turned his thoughts inward. ‘What could I have doo make that fight go better? Hmm, first of all, I realized I haven’t mastered my Explosive Style as much as I thought. I ie it into all my movements, so that’s good, but when using Bde Tempest, most of the time, I couldn’t bi with the Explosive Style. I o work on that.’

  ‘The sed issue, which is even more important, is that my attack damage was too low—not in the sehat my swords weren’t sharp enough; they were fine. But pared to the Kraken’s immense size, my swords were just too small, so the damage I inflicted wasn’t suffit. I definitely o find a way to increase the range and scale of my attacks.’

  ‘Third, my mage versatility is g. I would have needed a dete spell to locate sea beasts. A repair spell for the ship would’ve been invaluable, and preferably a spell to remove water. The only solution I had was a modified version of the Explosive Style to create fmes that evaporated the water…’

  ‘Another spell that would’ve been useful is a proper healing spell. The Minor Heal spell is highly iive si’s designed for minor injuries. The only reason it’s even helping me right now is because of my high vitality stats and the fact that I’m spamming it.’

  He pondered for a few seds. ‘Yeah, I think that’s everything. These three areas—better mastery of my Explosive Style, bigger attacks, and greater magical versatility—are what I’ll focus on once I’m back at the Academy. For now, I o trate on this military mission.’

  As he finished his thoughts and gnced down at the bustling sailors on the deck, a realization struck him. ‘Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen a single one of the other people assigo protect this ship…’

  He scoffed. “When it’s time to front me about ‘h’ the sea beasts, they’re all there, but when it’s time to face a real threat and protect the ship, they’re o be found. They just hide in their rooms with their heads buried in the sand, hoping the problem will go away on its own. Truly pathetic,” he thought, shaking his head in disdain.

  Deg not to waste any more energy on their cowardice, he refocused on his current goal—proteg the ship and tending to his injuries.

  Time tio slip away as Mikael maintained his position. He had ged his tattered clothes and used the opportunity to train his trol while keeping watch.

  Below him, the crew worked diligently. With nearly 80% of the crew still alive, they mao navigate the ship and carry out various repairs. Soon, the captain passed the word that they were out of the danger zone.

  Hearing this, the entire crew erupted in cheers. Mikael allowed himself a small smile, relieved that he wouldn’t have to farueling battle.

  Time flowed ufully after that. There were occasional sea beast attacks, but they involved only smaller creatures that Mikael easily dispatched.

  Finally, a little over three days ter, a navigator’s voice broke the monotony. “Land in sight!”

  The ship approached the shore swiftly after the annou. When it docked at the port, Mikael, now fully healed, leapt onto the main deck amidst a crowd of grateful sailors. They khat without his efforts, surviving the enter with the gigantic sea beast would have been nearly impossible.

  Ruimis, the vice-captain, and the captain spotted Mikael and approached him quickly. After a brief exge of thanks for his proteikael jumped down onto the port.

  At that moment, he was enveloped in a light and vanished.

  “Ahhh, a ghost!” screamed a nearby woman who witnessed his sudden disappearance.

  Mikael didn’t hear her, as he had already reappeared in the same white room where the military mission had begun.

  [Military Mission pleted!]

  [Military Mission: Goods Proteission Difficulty: High-Peak Tier 1Details: This missioails safeguarding goods being transported by ship from potential attacks. The attackers are estimated to possess a power level of up to Peak Tier 1. Additional details will be provided upoering the mission world.pletion Score: S-Mission pletion Rewards: 80 Military Points]

  [ge to the missioed! Reviewing the mission and its details.]

  [Military Mission: Goods Proteission Difficulty: Mid-High Tier 2Details: This missioails safeguarding goods being transported by ship from potential attacks. The attackers were sea beasts with power levels up to Peak Tier 1, but the ship traversed a danger zone inhabited by gigantic sea beasts, powerful even in Tier 2.pletion Score: BMission pletion Rewards: 150 Military Points]

  [Detected that your current Military Rank is Rank 0 Recruit 150/10. You have enough MP. Do you want to be promoted to the military rank? Yes/No?]

  Mikael took a moment to process the notifications. He hat it seemed a low pletion score in a high-difficulty mission provided more Military Points than a high pletion score in a low-difficulty mission.

  After some thought, Mikael decided to accept the military promotion, curious about what it would entail, even if it meant 'losing' 1K LP, sidering that 1 MP could be exged for 100 LP. Needless to say, he was in dire need of LP but he could accept this small expense.

  [Transp to the room where the military promotion will happen in 5...]

  Just as the teleportation was about to begin, Mikael saw Tristan, one of the group members from this military mission, appear in the white room.

  Tristan froze upon seeing Mikael, but moments ter, Mikael disappeared, havieleported. Trista out a relieved breath.

  Not long after the teleportation ended, Mikael found himself in a white room simir to the one he had seen before. This time, however, there was a giant, high-tech ser before him—rge enough for him to walk through fortably.

  Uanding what was expected of him, he stepped forward. As he moved into the ser, a green light illumihe area, sing him from head to toe for several seds before notifications appeared before his eyes.

  [Mikael Angelini…analyzing.]

  [firming Identity…firmed.]

  [Your current Military Rank is: Rank 0 Recruit.]

  [ditioo promote your military rank. Do you wish to promote? Yes/No?]

  Mikael selected "Yes." After a brief moment of waiting, more notifications appeared.