As the gold-plated airship neared the fog-covered island, both Simon and Jake felt anticipation building within their hearts. After all, a D tier ruin was bound to be much more exciting than an F tier ruin.

From what Simon had heard, D tier ruins were incredibly monumental places. After all, the general quality of treasures within these ruins were rather spectacular, and in some cases... peerless!

Ever since the inception of the world of Island Ascension Online, many tales regarding unfathomable riches had undoubtedly circulated throughout all corners of the world. Thus, it was common knowledge by now that ruins of the D tier or above had a chance to contain treasures which could rival the legends! Only, the odds of such a thing happening were astronomically low.

But even so, it was still possible. That fact in and of itself was capable of making one’s heart pound in anticipation.

However, fortune and misfortune came in pairs within this world; as such, the dangers that accompanied these ruins were considerably more pronounced as well. It was not unheard of for even master or grandmaster mages to fall within D tier ruins, after all…

Soon enough, the airship finally docked on the vast island and a system notification sounded in Simon’s mind.

[Do you wish to consume this map to unlock the ruin?]

Woosh!

He agreed without hesitation, and the thick mist gradually cleared from around the island, revealing what lay within.

Simon couldn’t stop himself from being astonished at the sight.

This time around, the island was a scintillating desert - seemingly made of glass, with strange crystal-like structures spread throughout. Under the sun, it appeared like a celestial island of light, capable of enamoring any who lay their eyes on it.

As for its size, it was easily four times larger than the Blood Forest!

“Beautiful…” Jake, who stood next to Simon muttered, utterly engrossed in the sight. As someone who had lived in comparatively small islands for his entire life, his horizons were easy to broaden.

“Indeed.” Simon nodded in agreement, finding it hard to suppress his excitement.

Even in his old world, such a sight could be considered as impressive.

The two then stepped off the ship with large backs in tow; they had long since prepared for this moment!

Typically, ruins were only raided by a sole adventurer. However, it was possible to bring a companion in - so long as the companion was judged by the system to be much weaker than the sole adventurer.

As a result, Jake was accepted in without any troubles.

Clink. Clink.

As the two stepped onto the eerily silent island for the first time, the sound of their boots impacting the glass like ground could be heard.

‘This island... sure is interesting!’ Simon couldn’t help but think while looking around.

To his astonishment, the entire island was emitting a faint, mysterious aura which even he found hard to make sense of.

Suddenly, a system notification greeted their ears.

[Entered D- Tier Ruin. Objective: Solve the mystery of the Mirrored Paradise. Time remaining: 71:59:59]

Hearing this, both Jake and Simon acknowledged the quest and immediately began investigating their surroundings.

The strange, sparse trees within this ‘desert’ had dense crystal trunks and numerous scintillating leaves that blotted out the sky above them. The occasional flowers strewn about were also incomparably pretty, with thin, delicate looking petals made of multicolored crystals, filling the island with a myriad of colors.

Aside from the ‘vegetation’, there were also looming crystal structures in the distance that varied in size - from that of a boulder, to that of a mountain.

And despite the delicate appearance of this land, Simon quickly found that these crystals were all incomparably hard... If he weren’t careful, he could even scratch his own tough skin against these sharp edges!

‘Interesting…’

Simon faintly grinned, intrigued over the condition of this island. And after a while of contemplation, he bent down next to a particularly eye-catching crystalline flower the size of his palm, before studying it intently.

Mana suddenly began flowing through his palms, and a sheen of green light appeared in his eyes as he examined the flower.

...

Time quickly passed, and after nearly 20 minutes of tinkering with the intricate crystalline structure in his hands, Simon nodded.

‘Mm, most likely, this is the work of a mage. Though these crystalline plants are still alive, they are abnormal in effect; nature would definitely not bring such a thing into being,’ he concluded.

These plants... actually served to strengthen the island itself, which was artificial in nature. Without these flowers, he could tell that the island would actually crumble apart. At the same time, trying to break one with brute force would literally be as difficult as cracking the island in half!

It would not suffice to say that they were a match for the other - rather, the two were like parts of the same whole.

This premonition of his was extremely faint, and he had not believed such a fact at first. However, he could find nothing to disprove it, even after employing appraisal spells of the third tier.

Only, while immersed in his research, Simon happened to barely glimpse at the inner workings of this island.

And what he saw befuddled him. The structure of the island seemed… somewhat like an array.

“Jake, go investigate the eastern half of this island’s perimeter and I’ll investigate the western half. If you encounter any trouble that you aren’t confident of dealing with, don’t hesitate to activate the talisman.” Simon instructed Jake after a short moment of pondering.

After all, without first investigating the rest of the island, they would undoubtedly find it harder to solve the mystery.

Simon had previously given Jake a talisman that gave him the ability to roughly gauge its location. Moreover, upon activation, he could immediately tell, and make his way towards the signal.

Combined with the fact that Jake’s strength reached the minimum level required to clear a D- tier ruin - strength equal to a weak advanced mage - he was not too worried about Jake’s safety. After all, even if his disciple couldn’t deal with something, he should have no problem surviving.

“Yes master” Jake hurriedly heeded his words, quickly becoming a blur in the distance. Simon in turn also began heading westward.

…

As Simon made his way through the perimeter of the island, he was somewhat startled at the apparent lack of living creatures.

‘Where are the opponents?’

Despite having navigated over half of the perimeter, he had yet to locate a single creature. He only managed to locate a few behemoth-like crystalline structures, which were spread about sparsely. These were likely what needed to be raided.

‘Eh whatever, not that it matters,’ he thought indifferently, continuing navigating through the maze of crystal structures.

The environments within ruins varied greatly; it wasn’t unheard of for a ruin to be unorthodox in its clearance method. Some only required one to solve puzzles, while others were more like brutal battlefields where one was practically thrown into a sea of opponents. As a result, Simon was not too fazed by the apparent lack of enemies.

…

A short while later…

As Simon dashed upon the glassy surface, the entire island began lighting up, and within one of his pockets, something began emitting heat.

He abruptly stopped, ‘Eh?’

Boom!

The island itself suddenly erupted into a surreal show of violet light, the ground beneath him blinding, as a mysterious energy erupted from the depths of the ruin. Now, he could see a dense stream of light emerging from the crystalline structures surrounding him, converging to a single point far away...

This energy seemed to encompass the entire sky, and he almost felt like he was in a dream. A horrifying, dread-inducing dream.

Simon suddenly felt as if his life was extremely fragile while in the presence of this omnipotent energy, and his instincts immediately screamed at him to distance himself from such a thing - to run as far away as possible! But there was nowhere to run, so he could only grit his teeth and endure its presence.

After just a moment, the energy rapidly dissipated from the center outwards in a ring shape, rendering the sky clear and blue again - as if nothing had just happened...

As Simon stood on the island which was silent once again, he was slack-jawed, staring blankly at the sky above him.

‘Wha?’

But after just a moment, his expression abruptly tightened, as if he had made a sudden realization.

‘Crap!’

He hurriedly fished out a talisman from his pocket - or what was left of it - as it was now... nothing more than a pile of dust.

When he caught sight of the remains of the talisman, which steadily streamed through the gaps between his fingers, he fell silent, looking downwards.

The talisman being shattered could only mean one of few things…

Jake was either heavily injured, transported to a location unfathomably far away, or worse - killed, causing the talisman to break in the aftermath… Combined with the horrifying display of energy earlier, how could Simon not connect the dots?

He only found it hard to believe. But unfortunately, it seemed to be the reality, no matter how much he wished otherwise. Even after slapping his own face, he did not awaken from a dream.

After a moment of silence, he clenched his fist and his eyes seemingly ignited, blazing with vigor. He then began to make his way towards where the signal once was with a solemn expression.

After careful deliberation, Simon eventually decided to look for his disciple.

After all, by now, he knew enough of Island Ascension Online to know that the system was not needlessly unfair; it would not kill off any of its ‘participants’ for no reason.

Thus, if a situation seemed dangerous - at least in a ruin, where it was supposed to be somewhat like a trial - the system would most likely leave the player a chance.

And that chance… was one he was willing to take.

As he sprinted, the towering and complex crystalline towers in his way quickly increased in number. Soon enough, they began impeding his way which slowed him down considerably. However, just ten minutes later, he had nonetheless, finally reached the general vicinity of where he had last detected Jake.

...

‘Hmph.’ Simon looked around cautiously and sharply. Within this area of the ruin, there was nothing worthy of notice. Other than the ground and the dense vegetation, he could detect nothing else.

And so, he quickly began investigating this area with vigor.

First, he scoured every inch of this area... However, even after thirty minutes of investigation, he could not find anything promising for the life of him!

‘Damn! What the hell?’ Simon’s frown deepened. There wasn’t even a hint of a scuffle here, let alone something that could lead him to Jake.

Then, he tried kicking and punching everything in sight, inwardly hoping for something to happen. After all, something had to have instigated Jake’s disappearance - he was just hoping to find it.

Boom! Boom!

However, as Simon was busy frustratedly smacking the island, a lazy and ancient sounding voice suddenly resounded in his ears.

“Eh, I suppose this feisty little guy is not bad either.”

‘Wha-?’

Suddenly, the entire island began emitting a familiar glow, and before he knew it, a stream of energy in the shape of a dragon had already engulfed him whole and disappeared along with him.

Just a moment later, the skies above the ruin were clear and blue again, leaving not a trace.

-----

After getting swallowed whole, Simon suddenly found himself tumbling onto a large silvery platform surrounded entirely by an endless, pitch black void.

Thump.

As Simon landed rolling on the ground, he quickly stood up and looked around, incomparably startled.

‘What the hell?! Where am I?’

Just a moment ago, he was randomly striking the island… and now, he had been swallowed by some dragon made of energy, and was sent into this strange void!

As he gazed around at the inky blackness, he felt a tinge of unease. It was as if a sea of monsters were hidden around in the darkness, staring at him soundlessly.

Unlike the void in Island Ascension Online, this void felt more like a blanket that was capable of snuffing out anything and everything, as opposed to a void that was simply boundless.

Suddenly, a floating pathway made of illusory dark stones began materializing in front of the platform that he was standing on. And as this occured, a system notification greeted his mind.

[You have encountered a special zone. Logging out in this zone is forbidden and dying will result in your account being permanently banned from Island Ascension Online]