“So that means...”

Rio made a deeply displeased expression, but we couldn't be certain just yet.

“By the way... is this thing heading towards land?”

“It’s still too far away to tell. Also, its size…”

Yeah, I figured. Since we hadn’t seen it before, it must be moving closer, but we had no way of knowing whether it was heading toward the imperial capital. If we could ignore it, that’d be best, but even if it was just passing by, we’d still need to prepare for it.

“For now, let’s get close enough to appraise it.”

“Yeah. It would also help if we could figure out where its head is…”

That was a good point. Since it was coming in this direction, the head should be on this side… probably. Either way, we needed to be careful not to be perceived as a threat.

“Nir, stay quiet and suppress your presence for now.”

We masked our presence as much as possible and approached slowly, using appraisal as we moved forward.

The island-like creature loomed larger and larger—just how massive was it? It had to be at least several hundred meters in size.

—There!

As I kept appraising the island, recognizing it as a single entity, I finally got a response. I came to a halt.

“Did the appraisal work?”

Nodding in response to Rio’s question, I shared the appraisal results with her.

＝＝＝＝＝
Name: None
Species: Sea Emperor Turtle
Description: One of the largest known creatures inhabiting the sea.
              Generally docile, but once it starts moving, it cannot be stopped.
              Spends most of its time sleeping, sometimes for years at a time.
              Occasionally comes ashore, but any land it traverses is left flattened.
              The reason for its movement is unknown.
Status: Normal
Stats: HP: 136,546
       MP: 16,456
       Strength: 105,421
       Endurance: 216,509
       Agility: 743
       Dexterity: 578
       Willpower: 7,322
       Magic: 16,345
       Luck: 25
＝＝＝＝＝

“...A turtle?”

“Seems like it…”

“Still, this is insane.”

“Yeah. Insane.”

That was the only word that came to mind. What kind of endurance monster was this? I had thought Nir had a lot of durability, but this thing was on another level. Over two hundred thousand? And with skills, that number could probably multiply several times over.

“Should we try landing on its back?”

“Think it’s safe?”

“There are other monsters on its back, so it seems possible.”

“Oh, yeah… Also, with that agility stat, escaping should be easy.”

“True. Even if it has speed-boosting skills, running away shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

We cautiously approached the Sea Emperor Turtle and landed on its back. It didn’t seem to notice us.

Its shell was covered in a layer of soil, with plants growing in patches. There weren’t any large trees, but there were grasslands and rocky areas. If someone told me this was an actual island, I wouldn’t have doubted it.

“It’s so vast…”

“It’s huge… The distance from one end to the other must be around five hundred meters.”

“That sounds about right.”

From the turtle’s back, we could still barely see the cape in the distance.

“Its head should be in the direction it’s moving, right?”

“That’s what I assume, but we haven’t seen anything resembling a head.”

“Is it swimming with its head underwater?”

“Let’s circle around the perimeter and check.”

Since it was a turtle shell, it was rounded like a tortoise’s, meaning there wasn’t anything like a sandy beach. We flew along the edges to investigate, but we found neither the head nor the tail.

The water was clear, but we couldn’t see deep enough to spot its submerged parts.

“So everything is underwater…”

“Should we dive in to check?”

“Maybe, but for now, it’s better to return and report this quickly.”

“Oh, right, good point.”

“Still… how do you even stop this thing…?”

Destroying the head might kill it, but that seemed extremely difficult. Just looking at its endurance, it didn’t seem feasible.

“It’s slow, but it’s definitely heading toward the port town.”

“Yeah. It’s not going toward the capital, but the port town is in its direct path.”

“Even the magic I used to destroy that castle probably wouldn’t do much against its shell.”

“Maybe if we dropped a giant meteor on it?”

“That’d just cause a massive tsunami, wouldn’t it?”

I had used a Meteor Strike spell before, but it hadn’t summoned anything large enough to be effective against this thing. The spell also drained an absurd amount of mana.

“Ahaha…”

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a way to stop this turtle without causing massive collateral damage.

“Let’s just head back and report to the guild.”

“Good idea.”

When things get too complicated, just leave it to someone else.

And so, we returned to the guild.

As we stepped onto the second floor of the guild, we found it in an uproar. Reports of the mysterious island-like shadow had already started coming in from other adventurers.

“Oh, they’re back!”

“That was fast!”

It was the same adventurers we had passed at the cape.

“We came back to give a preliminary report. Should we head to a private room?”

“Y-yes! Please, right this way!”

A guild staff member rushed out from behind the counter, pushing aside other adventurers trying to get details, and led us up to the third floor.

Voices calling for us to stop echoed behind us, but this was the guild’s decision, so there was no helping it.

And thus, for the second time today, we found ourselves face-to-face with the guild master.