After the meeting, Jake, Joe, and Jack quickly went off to fulfill their duties.

Jake was primarily responsible for the command over miscellaneous tasks, Joe over military tasks, and Jack over tasks regarding construction. Thus, they were all fairly busy men.

Kathryn on the other hand, was yet to be accepted into the crew. After all, he had delegated her tasks less than a day ago. They naturally weren’t so simple as to be completed within one night, and thus, her skills were yet to be proven.

Simon headed into his designated room in the island core, bringing his Celestial Sky Wolf with him.

Yip!

The little wolf playfully barked as it ran around his room curiously.

‘From what I heard, Celestial Sky Wolves prefer eating other rare beasts… But I can’t exactly feed him his parents, so I suppose regular beast meat will have to do for now.’ Simon mused while staring at the dog which was excitedly exploring his room.

Although Celestial Sky Wolves were not exactly known for their fighting prowess, they still were fairly strong in a fight. Even from the moment of birth, they possessed a fair amount of strength; they were mythical beasts, after all.

However, for them to truly become strong, they had to be fed nutritious meat, and tempered through deadly battles! Thus, he decided to allow the pup to often hunt wild beasts in the future.

On top of that, he also had to decide his name

‘Hmm…’

“Come over here!” Simon invitingly opened up his arms, while pondering over a name for him.

The pup happily ran into his arms and nuzzled its face against his chest.

Seeing the wolf happily laying in his arms, he was struck with a sudden bout of inspiration!

“Henceforth, you shall be named Burrito!” he exclaimed heavily with grandeur.

Indeed, the appearance of the wolf nuzzled between his two arms had a striking similarity with a burrito’s appearance!

Yip!

Burrito seemed to recognize his name, for he suddenly looked towards him upon hearing the word “Burrito”.

“Come outside with me, I’ll accompany you on your first hunt.” He laughed, and led the cute pup outside.

-----

Jake was currently standing on the edge of the jungle, overseeing the organization of teams to explore the jungle.

His expression was somewhat comical to look at, as he watched a certain golden wolf slaying beasts, accompanied by a certain man…

“Damn, master actually dotes on this Celestial Sky Wolf even more than me… Is that how little my master values me?” He clenched his teeth determinedly. “I must train harder to reach the first star core within the next week! Otherwise, I can forget about mattering to him any longer...” he muttered to himself.

Actually, Jake was mistaken; Simon valued Jake dearly, but he simply did not have much to teach him at this point of time.

After all, Jake had also gained the required enlightenments to pass straight through the first star core, but his rate of absorbing mana was simply too inferior when compared to Simon.

As a result, he was still half way to reaching his first star core... Naturally, it was not yet appropriate to guide him further just yet.

Without question, as a mage who hadn’t even formed his first star core, it was also too early to learn specialized magical techniques such as the twin dragons. Only when one gained their first star core, would one be able to even touch upon such profound techniques! After all, one had to experience using advanced magic before truly understanding such a thing; mere words or demonstrations would never suffice.

Moreover, Simon’s standards were relatively high; he had only delved deeply into strong magical techniques that were founded by fifth star core mages and above in his previous life. Even if he wished to, there were not many low level techniques that he could impart.

In fact, the Twin Dragon Quintessence spell that he had previously utilized was created from a magical technique founded by an eighth star core mage. Hence, its awe-inspiring strength!

For a mage without a single star core to learn of such techniques? It truly would be pointless… one would only lose themselves in such profound techniques if they did so, even if one were the most supreme of geniuses.

-----

Meanwhile, in the Blood Forest Biome.

Simon watched carefully as Burrito fought against a lion type beast outside of a pond. This beast was easily Simon’s height and double his girth, appearing extremely ferocious with its bulging muscles and sharp canines.

Roar!

At the moment, it was desperately trying to slash at a small golden blur that was rapidly shredding its fur up, whilst stumbling around the jungle wildly, forming plumes of dust and blowing vegetation asunder.

The wounds that appeared on its body were not deep by any means, and barely even managed to draw blood. Still, enough of these tiny wounds would be sufficient to cause its demise!

Not to mention, as time went by, the speed of the golden blur only increased.

Clearly, Burrito was improving at a monstrous rate.

Eventually…

Rooaaar...

The beast let out one last pitiful roar of defiance, before falling to the ground, never to arise again.

“Hahaha, good boy!” Simon chuckled lightly. Whenever Burrito improved, he was naturally happy as well.

This fight... was not an easy one at all.

At the beginning of the fight Burrito was even at a disadvantage and in quite some danger. After all, if he was struck by the beast even once, he would definitely be injured.

Thankfully, Burrito managed to persevere, and as time went on, the lion only got weaker from its injuries, while the pup got stronger with combat experience. Thus, it eventually got to the point where Burrito had an overwhelming advantage, and he inevitably took the lion’s life.

It has to be known that Burrito had already slain a couple other beasts, it was just that the lion beast was the strongest of those who he had fought.

After allowing the Celestial Sky Wolf to eat his fill of the beast, Simon carried him back to the island core and organized some personnel to bring back the deceased beasts and salvage what they could from it.

After ordering his stewards to take care of the doge, he then covertly headed off to the town of Oakengulch.

...

Within this town, one could see workshops and residences lining the cobblestone roads; there were currently well over a hundred buildings, and it was rather lively.

As Simon walked along the road, he could hear the conversations of his residents.

“How strong is our mayor? I heard that in order to obtain an island deed, one has to be a Master Mage at the very least. Aren’t those figures within higher zones by now?”

“No, you don’t understand! Some say that under the mayor’s young appearance, an old monster who has lived at least a hundred years is hidden. How else could our benefactor become so powerful so soon after coming to this world?”

“Wow! Sorry, I didn’t know, I am quite new here. So all of the rumors are true?”

“Of course, not even the Flamelight Organization wants to offend him!”

Simon chuckled inwardly at the discussions of his island residents. It seemed that his reputation was quickly spreading throughout this region, which served to attract more refugees. This was naturally good news.

Then, he went into a remote alley within the town.

A hooded figure was already waiting here, and upon seeing Simon, he quickly kneeled.

“You may rise.” Simon said with a nod. “Now tell me, in your investigations, what have you found?”

The hooded man quickly nodded and recounted what he had uncovered.

…

Recently, Simon had secretly selected a number of his refugees most suitable for combat and reconnaissance to form a sort of elite force of agents. After all, one could not succeed in the world of Island Ascension Online without eyes.

Whenever he selected someone, he made sure that they had an affinity with combat, and would offer them extensive benefits - so long as they swore an oath to work under him loyally.

Thus, by now, Simon already had selected almost a dozen of these elite agents. And though they weren’t incredibly skilled, he had given them spell infused talismans which could be used to help them on their operations. As a result, they were no less efficient than the experienced reconnaissance agents of other organizations.

These agents had a variety of uses, from spying on other islands, to keeping an eye out on his own residents. Naturally, he had sent a few of these agents out to gather information regarding the political situation within the surrounding area as well.

...

After the man finished, Simon nodded.

“You’ve done a good job. After a day of rest, you are authorized to investigate the island six kilometers to our south and two kilometers to our east. You may go now.” he promptly said, dismissing the man.

The man hurriedly nodded and slipped away from the alley.

While Simon walked back to the manor, he thought back to what the man had told him.

As the first of his agents to return, he naturally returned with plenty of information which was valuable to him.