"Th... that island ahead is the cursed one!"
On the ship, a man walked up to Kenichi and reported, trembling with fear.
Hearing this, Kenichi stood up and walked to the side of the ship.
Looking out, he saw a solitary island standing in the sea.
"Good, head over there!"
As soon as Kenichi said this, the faces of the several men on the ship instantly turned pale with terror.
"Please, have mercy on us! That's the cursed island! Any human who approaches will surely die!"
Looking at the utterly terrified expressions on the sailors' faces, Kenichi sighed inwardly.
'Rumors sure are deadly!'
From what Kenichi knew, Galuna Island had no curse at all… it was just a rumor.
But Kenichi didn't plan to explain much to these sailors. He immediately activated the [Spatial Magic] attribute, and his figure instantly vanished from the spot.
"He disappeared!"
"This island really is cursed!"
"Retreat, quickly!"
When the sailors saw Kenichi vanish into thin air, they were as if they had seen a ghost. They immediately steered the ship away from Galuna Island.
While the sailors were speaking, Kenichi's figure had already appeared on Galuna Island.
After surveying the surrounding terrain, Kenichi chose a path and headed directly towards the center of the island.
However, when Kenichi reached the mountainside, a black shadow, like a rolling stone, came tumbling down from the mountaintop towards him.
'Hmm?'
Seeing the rolling stone, Kenichi's expression shifted.
Just as Kenichi was about to avoid the rolling stone, he heard a shout.
"Whoa whoa... I can't stop! You bastard Gray, just you wait!"
'Gray?'
Hearing this familiar name, Kenichi's mind stirred.
Looking closely, the thing rolling down wasn't a stone at all, but a person.
A person whose body was frozen in ice, with only his head and feet exposed.
This person was none other than Natsu.
Kenichi had come to Galuna Island specifically to find Natsu.
Seeing Natsu right before him, Kenichi's eyebrows raised.
As Natsu rolled to a stop in front of Kenichi, Kenichi lifted his foot and directly blocked Natsu.
"I stopped?!"
Natsu, encased in ice, was stunned when he found himself stabilized.
Soon, he saw a man, roughly eighteen or nineteen years old, standing in front of him.
"Did you stop me?"
"Thanks!"
Natsu looked at Kenichi and grinned.
As he spoke, Natsu stood up.
"Next, I'm going to the mountaintop to settle a score with a guy. See you next time!"
After saying this to Kenichi, the frozen Natsu, moving like a weight, began trudging slowly and awkwardly towards the mountaintop.
"Let me help you a bit more."
Seeing Natsu's comical appearance, Kenichi pointed his finger towards Natsu from a distance.
In the next second, a piercing cold air emanated from Kenichi's finger.
At that moment, the hard ice on Natsu's body instantly vanished without a trace.
"The ice is gone?"
Once free from the ice's restraints, Natsu was overjoyed.
Then, he instantly rushed in front of Kenichi, saying with a grateful look, "So awesome! Even fire couldn't melt that ice. How did you do it?"
'How did I do it?'
'Naturally, I used Invel's Ice Magic to dispel it.'
Invel, one of the Spriggan 12, known as the Winter General.
His Ice Magic was even stronger than the Ice Devil Slayer Magic.
The ice on Natsu just now was from Lyon's magic, so using Invel's Ice Magic to dispel Lyon's ice was a piece of cake.
"I can use Ice Magic."
"Eh? I know a guy who can use Ice Magic too!"
…
As they talked, Kenichi and Natsu headed directly for the mountaintop.
"Gray, you bastard! How could you do that to me just now!"
Once Natsu reached a dilapidated palace on the mountaintop, he shouted loudly.
Inside the palace, two people were fighting using ice-based magic.
These two were none other than Gray and Lyon.
"Natsu? How did you get back?"
Earlier, Natsu had been frozen by Lyon's ice magic.
To protect Natsu from being harmed by Lyon, Gray had kicked him away.
Now, seeing Natsu had returned, he felt like his good intentions had been wasted.
Soon, under Gray's watchful eye, Natsu charged into the hall.
But then Gray found that Natsu came with another unfamiliar man.
"Gray, you have the nerve to worry about others while fighting me!"
Just as Gray was looking at Kenichi, Lyon swung his hand violently.
[Ice-Make: Sword]
Whoosh whoosh whoosh-
Instantly, a large number of ice swords descended like arrows, directly assaulting Gray.
Sensing the danger, Gray moved his feet, and his body instantly shot backward.
Although Gray avoided most of the ice swords, one of them still struck Gray, cutting his arm.
"Gray!"
Seeing Gray injured, Natsu flew into a rage.
"You bastard, you sneak-attacked!"
With an angry roar, a cluster of flames appeared at Natsu's feet.
Then, propelled by the flames, his body shot towards Lyon like a cannonball.
Once close to Lyon, Natsu clenched his fist, and a cluster of violent crimson flames instantly erupted on his fist.
At this moment, the temperature of the air in the entire hall seemed to rise slightly because of those flames.
At the same time, because Lyon and Natsu used magic, the system's mechanical prompt sounded in Kenichi's mind.
[Ding, congratulations Host, obtained Magic Power attribute +3]
[Ding, congratulations Host, obtained Magic Power attribute +5]
[Ding, congratulations Host, obtained Fire Dragon Slayer Magic attribute!]
Hearing the last system prompt, Kenichi was overjoyed.