The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 396

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 396
Chapter 396
After I informed Ena of the current situation.
Ena was the first to begin stabilizing our position.
“Just as you said, Mir, the contract contains penalty clauses. Those who fled will be expelled under those clauses, and we’ll collect the penalty fees.”
First, there were the escort troops who had fled.
Honestly, I couldn’t entirely blame them for running when they saw my tamed creatures.
But still, they had lazed about in my absence, and now that the crisis had arrived, they needed to face the consequences of their desertion, didn’t they?
“As it happens, there’s an uninhabited island of suitable size just outside the Star Coral Reef. I’m thinking of making it a dwelling place for the tamed creatures.”
Next came the matter of housing for my tamed creatures.
In truth, I wondered if creatures living in the sea truly needed separate quarters.
But since it was a welfare measure for them, I nodded in agreement.
The escort troops ended up becoming management personnel overseeing my tamed creatures and the surrounding facilities, rather than simply guarding the Star Coral Reef.
Managing the creatures’ dwellings, maintaining the nets, feeding the tamed creatures, and so forth.
That sort of thing.
Well, they might find it difficult at first, but they’d soon be satisfied.
It was far safer work than dealing with monsters.
But then.
“And, if what you say is true, Mir, then even ordinary monsters wouldn’t dare attack a place guarded by the tamed creatures, would they?”
“That should be the case. Even monsters wouldn’t recklessly charge at a place protected by three boss monsters and a wyvern.”
“Then the tamed creatures would have spare capacity.”
“But why are you asking that?”
“It would be a waste to leave such powerful creatures idle, wouldn’t it?”
Ena presented a proposal I hadn’t even considered.
I had only thought of my tamed creatures as escort troops guarding the Star Coral Reef.
But Ena was thinking about whether they could be utilized in other ways.
Truly, Ena.
A born entrepreneur.
In fact, with the Heukryeom Guild and Kalbera Territory, I’m more like a company representative while Ena is the actual president.
“So, could you tell me about the tamed creatures’ abilities? Their size and appearance too?”
“Of course.”
For her sake, I shared my list of tamed creatures.
After hearing this, she pondered briefly before.
“Hmm, what about this idea?”
She presented an idea I could never have imagined.
* * *
“It’s truly peaceful here.”
“Indeed. Being here makes all worldly worries simply vanish.”
The representative tourist destination of Kalbera Territory.
Star Coral Beach, rumored to be the most beautiful coastline on the Continent.
Many people had gathered here today as well.
As the sun set, the water surface sparkled with a soft, silvery glow under the moonlight—a sight of perfect tranquility.
However.
“The Star Coral Reef truly is most beautiful during the day.”
“Because the corals beneath the blue waters glisten as they catch the sunlight.”
“The sandy beach is the same.”
“That’s right. The coral fragments embedded like stars in the sand sparkle so beautifully. And since they’re not sharp, your feet don’t hurt when you walk on them.”
Star Coral Beach was indeed most beautiful during daylight hours.
While the night sea held its own beauty, the magnificent Star Coral Reef remained shrouded in darkness, unable to fully reveal its splendor.
“That’s why I’m even more excited.”
“About the ‘event’ that Kalbera Territory announced?”
“Yes. I’m so curious to see what kind of event they’ll showcase.”
“That must be why so many people have gathered even at night, right?”
Perhaps that was the reason.
Recently, mysterious news had spread from Kalbera Territory.
Tonight.
An event would be held at Star Coral Beach.
In response, many people came with great anticipation, drawing a larger crowd than ever before.
And shortly after.
“Huh?”
“Whoa! Look there! Look!”
“What the—wooow!”
In the distance.
Something extraordinary began to unfold at the Star Coral Reef.
Hummmmm—.
The area around the Star Coral Reef began to glow.
As the coral reef illuminated, the Star Corals that had been shimmering faintly through the crystal-clear seawater became vividly visible.
A glowing Star Coral Reef beneath the night sky.
Mesmerized by that ethereal beauty, the crowd gasped in wonder.
“Is this the event?”
“It’s so beautiful.”
“It’s magical.”
But the event was far from over.
While people marveled at the glowing Star Coral Reef.
Large shadows gathered unnoticed at the edge of the Star Coral Reef where the light did not reach.
Splash—!
Seawater erupted across the surface.
Water fountaining upward like a geyser.
Naturally, the surging seawater also carried that soft, ethereal glow.
More than that, the water that rose was not a single stream.
Splash!
Splash!
Splash!!
“Wooow!”
Around the three thickest jets of water, dozens of smaller streams erupted skyward.
The sight of water surging upward was beautiful enough, but watching it climb toward the heavens and shimmer like starlight breaking apart as it cascaded down was nothing short of breathtaking.
And that wasn’t all.
The rising water wasn’t static.
The smaller streams danced around the thick jets, creating a performance like a theatrical play.
How long did that dreamlike spectacle continue?
Lost in watching the water jets, I didn’t notice time passing until the performance neared its finale.
Splash!
Dozens of water streams began merging into one in midair.
A phenomenon that defied physics.
The resulting jet stretched upward like a plant stem, rising higher and higher until it seemed to touch the sky.
Boom!
It exploded like fireworks.
But this explosion was far from ordinary.
The bursting droplets shimmered and spread with intricate precision.
“Is that… a rose?”
“Unbelievable.”
“Such a beautiful sight…”
A glowing rose formed from water jets rising from the sea.
The crowd erupted in awe at this fantastical spectacle unseen anywhere else.
Those who witnessed the luminous rose laughed with joy and shed tears of emotion.
“Alisha, will you marry me?”
“Oh my…!”
Some even confessed their love.
Thus, the Star Coral Reef event was crowned the most beautiful and fantastical spectacle on the Continent.
It became the sacred ground for honeymoons and countless marriage proposals from lovers everywhere.
* * *
Training tamers to perform such an event.
This was no easy task for me either.
“You can’t stop the water jets, I told you? You need to keep spraying continuously.”
“Hisss—.”
“Hmm… then let’s adjust the middle movements slightly. Instead of maintaining a constant stream, spray in crisscross patterns. That way you’ll have rest periods, so it should work, right?”
“Hisss!”
“Good. Blackie, you need to maintain the light continuously.”
“Yes, Master!”
“Especially at the end—you’re the key. You’ll weave together the water jets the others spray to form a rose shape. The light must stay constant.”
“Well, I… um…”
“What is it?”
“Could you explain what a rose flower is?”
“Ah. Just wait a moment. I’ll show you what it is.”
Except for Blackie, the intelligence level of my monsters wasn’t particularly high.
I had to personally educate such creatures and assign them roles.
It was naturally difficult.
If there was one thing I felt proud of from preparing for this task,
[ Your skill ‘Taming’ has increased in level. ]
it was this.
The Taming skill didn’t accumulate experience points merely by taming new monsters or having tamed monsters grow.
The more I educated monsters and formed deep bonds with them, the more my proficiency increased significantly.
In that sense, through this preparation, I was able to raise my Taming skill level substantially.
Once the event was successfully held,
“It’s a huge success! Not just the Empire, but people everywhere on the Continent are talking about our Star Coral Beach!”
“Is that so?”
“Of course! The fact that we filmed the event and released it on NewTube and throughout the Empire was a big factor. Of course, it was all thanks to you organizing the event so well, Mir!”
“But you arranged all the planning and the flow of the event, didn’t you, Ena?”
“Still, impressive is impressive. I should greatly expand the commercial facilities around the beach. And renovate the roads too.”
Ena was incredibly excited.
She was someone who rarely showed much emotion over ordinary matters and focused on her work,
so seeing her this happy felt like it had been quite a while.
In any case, the matter regarding Star Coral Beach was now settled.
However, there was still more work to be done.
“There’s still more work to be done, isn’t there?”
“Ah, yes. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you, Mir.”
Something Ena had mentioned to me before.
It was about new ‘escort forces’.
“I mentioned it before, didn’t I? The tourism courses in our Kalbera Territory.”
“I remember.”
“Sea fishing, sea hunting, cruise tours, and so on. Various tourism courses utilizing ships can be considered the main tourism attractions of Kalbera Territory.”
It was content I had already heard from her.
And the problem came next.
“As you might expect, these tourism courses also require escort forces.”
“Haven’t there been no problems so far?”
“Actually, it hasn’t been problem-free. Since escort forces are limited, we can’t expand the courses even when people flock to us. And we have spare capacity on the ships.”
“If it’s popular, couldn’t you just increase the hiring fees…?”
“That alone won’t work. Since we’re going out on ships, we need to gather people skilled in underwater combat, but skilled mercenaries experienced in underwater warfare are extremely rare.”
Hearing this, I found myself nodding naturally.
Underwater combat was completely different from land combat, after all.
No matter how skilled a swordsman is on land, there’s little they can accomplish once they venture into the sea.
In the water, one can’t swim properly, gets torn apart by monsters, and staying aboard a ship means being unable to stop monsters that attack the vessel.
“Then how have you managed until now?”
“The Magic Tower hired mages capable of underwater combat—water, ice, and lightning mages—or we employed native warriors from the Southern Region. But we’ve hit a wall with that approach.”
The sea is dangerous.
Without considerable combat power, it’s difficult to face monsters.
Especially venturing into deeper waters—the seas of Second were teeming with threatening monsters like krakens.
The number of escort troops capable of handling such monsters could only be limited.
That’s why she was asking.
“Could we tame more monsters and have them protect the ships like they do at Star Coral Reef?”
She was looking to my Taming skill for the answer.
If we could just fill the escort positions, we could operate far more ships.
“Wouldn’t magical weapons mounted on the ships suffice?”
“There are limits to what those can do.”
Even with well-installed magical weapons, it’s difficult to perfectly counter monsters.
But I had no choice but to shake my head at her words.
“I’ve nearly maxed out my Taming skill level. At this point, I can only tame one or two more monsters here.”
My Taming skill is already fully committed to protecting Star Coral Reef.
In fact, if another tamer saw this, their eyes would pop out of their head.
An ordinary tamer couldn’t possibly tame so many powerful monsters.
This was only possible because I, as an All Master, had access to all manner of high-grade equipment.
“I see….”
Ena’s disappointment was evident.
Still, there was nothing to be done about it.
It would be difficult to increase my tamed creatures further through Taming alone.
That’s right—through ‘Taming’ alone.
“However, I believe there may be another way.”
“Really? Truly?”
That method was.
“Just as I tame monsters with my Taming skill, I can summon summoned creatures through summoning skills to serve as escort forces.”
Summoning skills.
With this, I could summon large numbers of summoned creatures capable of protecting ships.
I wasn’t limited to using just one type of summoning skill—I could use all varieties: phantom beasts, demonic beasts, holy beasts, and more.
However.
“Hmm, don’t those summoned creatures require continuous mana infusion? And I’ve heard that mana consumption increases the farther the master is from them, haven’t I?”
“That’s correct.”
“Wouldn’t that be difficult then? You won’t be staying in Kalbera Territory forever, will you?”
There was one problem I’d mentioned before.
That’s why I’d been thinking of a solution beforehand.
“Could you perhaps procure a large quantity of supreme-grade mana stones?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————