From the entrance of the manor, Simon laughed as he waved his hands majestically.

Heeding his call, several dozen ice shards quickly formed above his head and rapidly were sent flying forwards.

Woosh! Woosh!

Shards of ice that seemed to be as fast as lightning and as lethal as bullets suddenly shot towards the pirates in quick succession, traversing the distance between them in an instant; they were too fast to be blocked by blades, and too dangerous to be taken lightly!

Swish! Swish!

The pirates who failed to react in time were mowed down like grass. In an instant, holes had already formed in many of their heads, causing them to fall down lifelessly, while shards that had missed continuously impaled the wooden ship belligerently.

Thump. Thump...

Corpses began covering the deck of the airship, and harrowing screams were heard with every passing moment. The seemingly unstoppable, ruthless barrage of ice continued on, like an unfathomable force of nature, reaping lives swiftly and indifferently.

But suddenly, an illusory barrier made of darkness appeared in front of the ship, separating the barrage of ice from the airship.

“F*ck, no one told me that he’s an advanced mage! Quick, pull back! I can’t hold on for long!” the mage on the ship exclaimed with a fierce expression, as he held his arms out to maintain the now rippling dark barrier.

By now, more than half of the 30 or so pirates had already died! Without a doubt, such destructive power was the equivalent of an advanced mage’s magical prowess, which was a horrifying thought to these pirates.

The pirates who were still alive hastily got up to follow the mage’s instructions. In any case, he had greater authority than the now dead lieutenant, who was only the acting leader of this operation.

These soldiers had all experienced their fair share of battles. Those who had survived Simon’s ice barrage reacted quickly and appropriately, after all.

Though they were undoubtedly shaken by his strength, they were still quick on their feet.

Seeing the barrier, the edges of Simon’s mouth curled into a ridiculing smile.

‘I suppose it's time to end this farce. Did they really expect to raid my island and get away with it? What a joke.’

Suddenly, Simon waved his arms, prompting the barrage of ice shards to end. Then, his entire figure began emitting a golden light as he leapt forwards, quickly becoming a blur.

Tier one spell, Aura of Light!

BOOOM!

Despite the mage’s best efforts, the illusory barrier in front of the ship suddenly exploded with a blinding flash of light only a few seconds after it was conjured, stunning everyone onboard!

While everyone was stunned, a blurry figure landed on the ship and immediately shot out a dozen stones in all directions from his sleeves.

Swish!

A dozen stones, a dozen dead. A resounding thump could suddenly be heard as the bodies of the remaining men fell to the floor, lifeless.

It was abruptly eerily quiet on the airship... holes had already formed in the skulls of everyone onboard, save for the two mages.

The wizened man who had erected yet another rudimentary barrier in front of himself was the only survivor of the onslaught.

Thump!

Immediately, the wizened man got on his knees and bowed beneath Simon. After all, he knew that in a fight, he had no chance in the slightest! From what he had just seen, Simon could very well be a Master mage, which was an existence that was practically immortal within the lowest zone.

“Esteemed Advanced mage! No, Master mage! Please accept my apology for intruding onto your island. I really am just a dog to the organizations, I can ser-”

Woosh!

The man suddenly tried moving his arms. However his head was lopped off before he could finish doing so.

“Scum.” Simon indifferently glanced at the man’s corpse, who still had an expression of disbelief written on his face.

From afar, Simon could already detect that the wizened mage had an extremely powerful sinister and baleful aura... Such an aura could only come from practicing evil arts, which required the torturing of souls and massacring of innocents to advance in. These figures were definitely cunning and sinister when compared to other mages.

As a result, he had been on guard from the start. The only reason why he had not killed him in an instant was because he wished to hear what the man had to say, but he quickly realized that the man must have had a considerably powerful oath binding him as a mage. Thus, it would be pointless interrogating him.

Naturally, such figures did not deserve to exist in this world. Combined with the fact that he dared to raid his island, Simon obviously showed him no mercy.

‘I’m a bit rusty, but it worked well enough’ he thought with a nod as he inspected his handiwork.

By now, the airship was a desolate and bloody graveyard.

Simon sighed and began piling the corpses into a corner of the airship while looting their bodies.

And soon enough, the deceased pirates were all in one, bloody pile.

‘Though they are scum, they were forced by their circumstances. At the very least, they deserve to be cremated.’ he thought to himself as he glanced at the pile of dead bodies.

He had long since passed the point of feeling remorse for killing another living being. After all, in his forty or so years of life, he had undergone countless bloody trials, from being the target of assassinations to carrying them out himself. Causing death? That was an everyday occurence for him!

Still, it was not pleasant to take another’s life.

‘In any case, these guys were not a problem at all to deal with. Even if the organization sends forces ten times deadlier than this, I shall be able to persevere. To think that they planned to capture me with just that amount of power? Preposterous!’ he thought with a ridiculing grin.

This particular ploy had only become possible after gaining his first dark and light elemental star. With both of these elemental stars, he gained the ability to create a mirage.

Indeed, the “Simon” that had boarded the ship was in fact, not Simon at all, but merely an illusion that had his appearance!

As for the airship that was sent out, Simon had implemented a forceful takeover for the arrays in the airship which controlled it’s movements. As a result, he simply turned the ship back to the island as soon as he beat the pirates.

...

Meanwhile, on the civilian airships hovering not far from the island.

“What?!”

“Our mayor is here?!”

Watching from afar, the residents of the island had their mouths ajar. They were shocked at the absolute brutality and might of Simon. Never did they expect their island owner to be so formidable!

The residents of the island all stared at Simon who was now organizing his spoils, in absolute awe and joy. The atmosphere was practically boiling as everyone recalled what just occurred.

In the first place, they certainly did not expect Simon to pop out of nowhere!

But that in and of itself was not enough to elicit such a level of awe.

What really made their mouths open wide was his overbearing level of strength!

After all, that was a bonafide Basic Mage that he was fighting, not some random thug that one could find anywhere. To kill such a being was not out of the question, but… doing so along with a few dozen warriors on top of that in the span of 5 seconds? That was simply ludicrous!

Indeed, though it may have taken long to describe, from the death of the lieutenant to the death of the mage… it had only been 5 seconds!

Such a short length of time was not even enough to recover from the shock of seeing Simon appear, let alone everything that he had just pulled off.

Eventually, the civilians recovered and collectively let out a relieved, yet rueful sigh.

“It seems that under him, we won’t have to worry for our survival...” a particular voice said among the crowd.

The other residents murmured in agreement.

It was not clear who said it, but it stuck with everyone who heard these words.

-----

Back on the airship with a pile of corpses…

Simon had finally finished organizing his spoils of war, and victoriously docked the airship onto the island.

‘Wow, these guys were quite rich! This was not a bad decision at all.’ He thought, grinning inwardly as he took note of all of his gains. He was quite happy with his harvest this time around.

His spoils of war amounted to:

28 magically enhanced crossbows, with a market price of roughly 10 silvers each, 1600 regular arrows, with a market price of roughly 3 coppers each, 200 magically enhanced arrows, with a market price of roughly 50 coppers each, a poor quality, but nonetheless military grade airship 50 meter destroyer, worth roughly 15 golds, and various miscellaneous pieces of gear, worth maybe 6.5 gold in total.

Most importantly, there were even 22 golden tickets worth 50 silvers each, and 132 low quality mana crystals, worth 10 silvers each!

In total, that was about 50 gold worth of spoils, which was undoubtedly astronomical to Simon. After all, that was about how much profit the entire island generated in three entire days.

Not to mention, all of his gains were things that the island was in desperate need for.

‘Good. Now that my island has been directly targeted and that I’ve gotten weapons, I will have Joe start training a militia. Only then will I truly be at peace when I am out adventuring!’ He thought as he stepped back onto the island, the spoils of the battle in tow.

By defending against the raid and obtaining military equipment, he had essentially killed two birds with one stone.

This was in fact, because the system had yet another rule when it came to raids: Upon getting directly raided, one would have to be randomly raided at least once before getting directly raided again. Not to mention, upon getting raided, one’s island had a twenty-four hour invulnerability period.

This was obviously to prevent large forces from camping outside of an island and constantly raiding it until the island fell. And in this case, Simon could definitely utilize this rule to protect his island.

Soon, the residents and Simon met up. But after a brief bout of relieved celebrations, he then turned to a particular mother and son pair standing within the crowd with a solemn expression.

Suddenly, Simon’s aura intensified, and the atmosphere quickly grew tense. Everyone abruptly held their breaths as they looked at Simon, who now suddenly seemed like a beast in human skin rather than a human.

After all, everyone had seen just how powerful he was, and now he was suddenly emanating killing intent for some reason!

“Do you take me for a fool? Do you think you can hide under my nose that easily? Give me one reason for why I should not kill you on the spot.” he said in a strict tone, staring at the pair with unwavering eyes.

Though he was averse to mindlessly killing or torturing innocent people, he was not averse to killing his enemies in the slightest.

After all, these two were spies from the Flamelight Organization, who had provided inside information to instigate this raid on his island! Therefore, his threat was very real.

Feeling the weight of Simon’s presence and hearing his words, the two immediately paled.

Eventually the mother took a deep breath and stepped up.

“Sir I… Can’t disclose anything, I have an oath binding me to the Flamelight Organization.” she explained helplessly.

Simon expressionlessly snapped his fingers and suddenly, the pair found that they could now talk and act freely without restrictions.

“Talk.” Simon said, continuing to stare at them coldy.

Immediately, she got on her knees before bowing deeply and the son followed suit. Though on a deep level, she was moved and shocked.

To rid them of such an oath that easily? That was beyond impressive...

“Thank you benevolent, lord! Allow me to explain our circumstances.” she quickly began explaining.

“As reconnaissance agents, we were forced against our will to work under the Flamelight Organization, along with many like us. I can most certainly tell you everything I know and follow you faithfully.” She then paused, gritting her teeth, before continuing.

“However, that is only if you give us your assurance that you can protect us from the organization. I can say the same for my son as well. After all, the Flamelight Organization will definitely come after us for vengeance.” She finished with her heart racing.

She had seen how fast the other mage died, after all; Simon was truly intimidating! But she also wanted to take this opportunity to secure her and her son’s safety. If they were to be spared momentarily, only to be killed off later, it would truly be pointless. Thus, she had asked for a guarantee.

Simon quietly pondered for a tense moment, before finally nodding.

“Alright! I can sense the truth in your words and the sincerity of your intentions. Indeed, it was against your will. As for the flamelight organization?” Simon laughed heartily.

“You can rest assured. They are no problem at all.”

-----

In the blink of an eye, another few hours had passed, and the matters regarding the raid were long since wrapped up.

In these few hours, Simon finally took the proper precautions to strengthen his island, such as distributing the spoils of war to the newly formed militia, and setting up defensive arrays.

His preparations included a set of basic communication talismans that allowed signals to be passed from long distances, similar to the multicolored stones which the Flamelight organization used for long distance communication.

This precaution was to allow Simon to know if the island was facing a crisis in which they needed his help from any distance. After all, he had long since prepared a final line of defence which he could activate remotely...

Not to mention, during this time, the deceased were cremated and their ashes released into the endless void.

In this world, returning one to the void was not seen as an insult; it was merely seen as the norm - cremated or not. Though generally, cremating bodies was seen as more courteous than the alternative, which was simply dumping the whole bodies into the void.

Simon had also taken this time to make an upgraded version of the arrays in his newly acquired military grade airship, strengthening it greatly in the process.

After all, since he had the opportunity to, why wouldn’t he upgrade airships? The military grade airship was more sturdy and could therefore handle more stress than his original airship. As a result, he could use more powerful arrays on the new airship, which would in turn enhance it’s speed greatly.

After fitting the new arrays into the airship, the preparations were finally complete, and he was truly ready to head to the ruins.

For real this time!