Chapter 24: Exploring the Island

Right then, the Exploration Medal pinned to her chest suddenly glowed. Glancing in the direction it pointed, Lily Rhodes’s eyes lit up. There was an island ahead.

Despite her excitement, she quickly calmed down. Everything about the island remained a complete mystery, and she had no idea what dangers might lurk ashore. She was likely the first player to discover an island. Without any prior examples to reference, she could only rely on herself to explore it.

As Lily pondered her next move, Shelly abruptly halted. A System notification popped up immediately after.

[An island has appeared ahead. Do you wish to explore?]

After a moment of hesitation, she selected yes. "Fortune favors the bold." If she truly encountered danger, she could simply run away. She was no longer completely defenseless, after all.

She inspected her equipment and remaining materials. Once she confirmed everything was in order, she filled several empty mineral water bottles with Healing Water and stored them in her wrist dimension for emergencies. With her preparations complete, she mentally confirmed her choice.

However, Shelly remained motionless in place.

"What’s wrong, Shelly?" Lily asked.

Shelly turned to look at her, sounding rather aggrieved. "I can’t get across."

Lily patted Shelly’s head, letting it know it wasn’t its fault. "I remember getting a blueprint for a simple raft earlier," she muttered, stroking her chin in thought. She had kept the blueprint just in case, never expecting to use it so soon.

With a mere thought, a simple raft materialized before her. It was as basic as could be—just a few logs lashed together, barely large enough for one person to stand on. She tossed the raft into the ocean and hopped aboard.

"Shelly, go wait in the dimension for a bit." She waved at Shelly. A second later, the turtle dissolved into specks of green light and flowed into her wrist. She glanced at her wrist. Though the pattern there hadn’t changed much, she could clearly feel Shelly’s presence.

Moving the raft required a paddle, but she didn’t have one—nor did she need one. She took a deep breath. The previously calm sea began to ripple, propelling her raft toward the island.

Not long ago, she had obtained a glass workshop blueprint. Glass was a basic material that could be found in Treasure Chests, though the drop rate was low and only yielded ordinary glass. The workshop, on the other hand, could produce tempered glass, reinforced glass, and various other specialized glass products. But all of this required one essential raw material: sand.

Although she had previously obtained a desert Environment Card, creating a desert on Shelly’s back just to fire glass felt like a massive waste. Shelly was huge, yes, but not large enough for her to squander space like that. Besides, they were in the ocean. If she could just find an island, she would have an endless supply of sand. As it turned out, her gamble had paid off.

After drifting on the sea for ten minutes or so, the island came into clear view. The first things that caught her eye were a stretch of golden beach and dense clusters of coconut trees. Lily took out the binoculars she had previously traded her Fish Spear for.

"That’s a lot of coconuts." Not only were the trees laden with fruit, but the ground was also littered with ripe coconuts that no one had bothered to collect. This was excellent news.

Coconuts were highly versatile and a favored food source for many creatures. The fact that the fallen ones remained untouched strongly suggested the island was entirely devoid of other wildlife. If that were true, her upcoming exploration would be significantly safer.

Upon stepping ashore, she didn’t immediately rush to collect sand. Instead, she cautiously scanned her surroundings. There was no animal dung, no footprints, and no marine debris on the beach. The entire island was pristine, as if no one had ever set foot there before.

After confirming the area was truly safe, she pressed the Exploration Medal on her chest. A transparent holographic screen instantly projected in front of her. The medal had the ability to scan for potential resources in the vicinity, and the screen now displayed an inventory of the island’s resources.

The largest portion, naturally, consisted of coconuts. There were far more coconuts here than she had imagined, followed closely by coconut crabs. Beyond the coconut trees, there was a diverse array of other flora, including fruits like mangoes and jackfruit.

There were also a few plants with medicinal properties. This was perfect, as the Pharmacist workbench she had obtained earlier had been sitting idle. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to use it; she simply hadn’t possessed any medicinal herbs. This time, in addition to harvesting the medicinal plants, she planned to collect seeds to plant back at her base. While Healing Water was incredibly effective, she couldn’t rely on it forever. Furthermore, potions had many other uses beyond mere healing.

With this in mind, she immediately sprang into action. Starting with the outermost coconut trees, she picked up the fallen coconuts one by one and stored them in her Bronze Treasure Chest. These were fully ripe and had fallen naturally, making them perfect to use as seeds later. She planned to plant a massive coconut grove on Shelly’s back so she would have an endless supply to eat.

As for the coconuts still in the trees, Iris Yates used Wind Blade to knock them down one by one.

Gathering the coconuts alone took nearly two hours. She occasionally spotted coconut crabs during the process and conveniently scooped them up as well. Perhaps because there was no shortage of food and water on the island, these crabs had grown exceptionally plump and sturdy.

Creatures living in this world were inherently larger than those on Azurea. Combined with the abundant food supply, the coconut crabs here were so massive she could barely wrap her arms around them. Fortunately, despite their intimidating size, they were still just coconut crabs. As long as she avoided their giant pincers, there was no real danger. Plus, coconut crab meat was supposedly delicious.

Back on Azurea, she had never been able to afford to eat it, but now she could feast to her heart’s content. She caught a total of twenty-three enormous coconut crabs, leaving the smaller ones alone.

After packing away the coconuts and crabs, she took out a new Bronze Treasure Chest and continued deeper into the island. Her progress was incredibly slow, however, as she stopped every few steps.

"This wild fruit looks good. It has a high sugar content when ripe. I can transplant it back."