Thirty minutes had passed since Verso began his aerial recon of the Lost Island realm.

From the back of his Reinforced Gargoyle, he had visited several of the rocky, tooth like islands. These were the same islands he had previously visited in the real world to hunt the Lost Sirens, just in a different shape.

And during his travels he had found a jarring discrepancy between the islands of the system world and the realm world.

None of realm world islands had a pathway leading underground.

In this version of the world, the caverns he had fought through during the exam simply did not exist.

’There is no way those islands were not natural...’ Verso felt a chill as the realization settled.

If the system realm was the most original, primal form of a dungeon, then it meant the islands and caverns he had visited in the real world were man made modifications.

The system had basically stripped away those artificial changes, and recreated the teeth shaped rocky islands in their actual form.

’What about the natural ones, then?’

He thought back to the first cove on the main island, that was the first place where he and his team had encountered a Lost Siren.

That cavern had felt comparatively older, more naturally formed, almost as if it was part of the main island and if his theory held true then that location might still exist in the realm world.

’Only one way to find out.’

Verso sighed and commanded the gargoyle to head back toward the beach of the main island.

With the elite summon’s speed, the journey that would have taken minutes on a normal Mutant Gargoyle was over in mere seconds.

The gargoyle descended sharply and landed towards the massive cove that was right by the beach.

"So it is still here," Verso mumbled, hopping off the gargoyle’s back.

"It’ll be pretty annoying if this is the only place I can find a Siren in this whole realm."

If it was the only place that held the elite monster then it meant that he had to reset the realm every time he killed it, making it a very inefficient monster to hunt.

He pulled the Reinforced Gargoyle back into his summoning space.

And with a flick of his wrist, he summoned the Nameless Skeleton. This was the first time he had called forth the creature since synthesizing it to its hundred percent max.

"Hey..."

Verso stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening as he looked at his oldest summon.

The skeleton had grown to a towering seven feet. The tattered cloak it used to wear had transformed into a heavy shroud of darkness that seemed to swallow the light around it. Its bones were no longer thin like sticks, instead now they were thick and textured like the ancient roots of a tree.

’Damn, it really looks a little scary now.’ Verso looked up at the skeleton’s face.

The fire burning in its sockets was now a piercing emerald green. For a heartbeat, master and summon stared at each other in silence.

Then, slowly, Little Bone raised a massive, heavy hand and placed it squarely on top of Verso’s head.

The skeleton’s jaw unhinged, its frame shaking in a silent taunting laugh at Verso’s shorter stature.

Instantly, a vein popped in Verso’s forehead. Remembering how despite its new, terrifying appearance, Little Bone was deathly afraid of the ocean, he decided to clap back.

"You really have a death wish, huh?" Verso growled.

"I wonder what you’d look like if I used the fusion function to combine you with a fucking fish."

The effect was instantaneous.

Little Bone flinched, snapping its hand back and frantically wrapping itself in its dark shroud as if trying to hide from the very mention of water.

"Stop with the overacting. Come with me, we need to check this place out." Verso scolded, turning toward the mouth of the cove.

Little Bone stood frozen for a second, looking down at the ground in a display of visible sadness before dragging its heavy bones behind its master.

As they moved deeper into the cavern Verso took a few turns before the air around him completely changed.

A thick, salty scent filled Verso’s nostrils, and a soft, ethereal hum began to vibrate through the stone walls.

It was a melody more beautiful than anything he had ever heard, a sound that felt like it was pulling directly at his soul.

He froze, his mind hovering over his summoning space.

’I will not make the same mistake again.’

He was prepared to summon the Sea Serpent the moment he caught sight of the horrifying, fish creature that he expected.

But as he turned the final corner, the sight that greeted him in the cavern floor was completely unexpected.

There was no monster.

Instead, a tall, beautiful woman sat near the clean transparent water’s edge.

She had long black silky hair, her chest was completely bare, her skin fair and supple, it was almost like she was glowing faintly in the dim light of the cove.

As his eyes trailed down he noticed that from the waist down, she possessed the shimmering, elegant tail of a fish.

She was literally a picture of perfection, like a classic mermaid that made it impossible for Verso to look away.

But there was something very odd about her, he could not place his finger on what it really was but for some reason he felt like the creature felt familiar.

’Is that... Lua?’ Verso instantly realized what the familiarity was about, the mermaid looked the exactly the teammate he had met during the exam.

He could not understand what was going on in this place as he felt his mind turn hazy looking at the beautiful creature.

Just then a slap hit the back of Verso’s head making him stumble forward as he snapped back into reality, turning to look back in anger.

"What the fuck was that about!" He shouted at the Nameless Skeleton standing behind him, who just stood there shaking its head in disappointment.

Then it slowly pointed forward.

Verso instantly realized what had just happened, he instantly turned back to look at the cavern just for his vision to be filled with rows of teeth.