Whoosh~

Finding herself dangling in the air while holding on to the shell of the immortal snail with all her might, Scaly could not help finding herself becoming a bit curious as she observed the direction that the snail was moving in.

Although she had seen these immortal snails in the past, she had no idea where they came from nor where they normally resided when not busy repairing the damage that had been done to the dungeon… And now, she had an opportunity to find out!

Not that she had any other choice but to follow along with the immortal snail, as her wings were still not fully recovered from the earlier impact and letting go of the snail now meant plummeting to her death.

A dragon dying from fall damage…

She really didn't want to end up with that kind of ridiculous achievement. Especially considering she had perfectly fine wings on her back that should normally have made such an achievement impossible!

Rumble~

Just as her mind began wandering aimlessly as she had nothing much to do while clinging on to the shell of the immortal snail, Scaly suddenly heard a small rumbling sound echoing out up ahead, causing her to look over in the direction of the sound.

Huh? What is that…?

Not taking long to pinpoint the origin of the sound, as it stood out amidst the empty sky as a small opening in the sky itself with a faint red light covering the opening itself.

Ah! I see! It's the immortal snail's home!

Realizing what this opening was a few seconds later, Scaly could not help growing curious about what the home of these immortal snails looked like, though… As she grew closer to the opening, she couldn't help getting a bad feeling whenever she looked at that faint red light barrier that covered the opening.

And feeling that it would be best for her to ensure that it wasn't something dangerous, she decided to inspect it before she and the snail reached the opening…

[Dungeon Construction and Repair Snail Special Storage Building]

[Description: Special building for recruiting and storing the special unit Dungeon Construction and Repair Snail. Barrier prevents anything other than the Dungeon Construction and Repair Snail from entering the Dungeon Construction and Repair Snail Special Storage Building. Can link with other storage buildings on other dungeon floors. Can only be built by a dungeon master.]

[Cost: 250 DP]

[Dungeon Construction and Repair Snail Training Cost: 10 DP]

"…"

Not knowing what to say at the far more detailed than expected description that popped up in front of her that she could hardly understand, Scaly decided to instead focus her attention on the one thing she could understand from the strange and hard to understand description.

Nothing other than a Dungeon Construction and Repair Snail could enter that strange opening and she wasn't one of those immortal snails. Meaning she wouldn't be able to enter that opening and would instead likely find herself being forced to let go of the immortal snail as it returned to its home.

Even though her wings had recovered enough to glide for a bit, she doubted it would last for long… And those branch eaters were still gathered beneath her. Although they had started dispersing by now, a lot were still left and if she appeared again, the ones that had left would undoubtedly soon reappear and join the squirming mass in chasing her down.

The only hope she saw was leaving the forest and entering the region beyond the forest where a way to get rid of the branch eaters might exist. The problem was, her wings would undoubtedly not last long enough for her to get out of the forest, let alone long enough to find a way to get rid of the branch eaters chasing after her with such dedication…

Crackle~

Unfortunately, she didn't have much of a choice, as the immortal snail slipped inside the opening with ease, while she herself was shocked mildly by the thin red barrier the second she touched it. Forcing her to let go of the immortal snail's shell and unfurl her injured wings.

It huuurts!!!

Feeling a sudden rush of pain running all the way from the tip of her wings to her spine, Scaly wanted nothing more than to fold her wings back into their previous curled up position.

However, doing so would mean plummeting straight to the ground below, an experience that would undoubtedly be far more painful… So… She could only try to endure the pain as she began awkwardly gliding through the air.

Given that she was already at the highest point of the fifth floor and had a cloud beneath her assisting in staying out of sight, she didn't plan to descend the slightest bit and remained high in the air as she began making her way in the direction where she could barely see the forest ending abruptly.

Whoosh~!

Ahh!?

Continuing to glide relatively peacefully like this while slowly getting used to the constant pain from her wings, Scaly suddenly found herself being caught off guard by a sudden rush of new pain coursing through her body after she used her wind magic to help keep her height above the clouds and out of view of flying monsters and the branch eaters below.

The pressure that the updraft created by her wind magic being far too much for her injured wings to endure, as a brand-new level of pain had suddenly been unlocked.

If her pain resistance had not reached level 4 already, she doubted she would have been able to keep herself stable after such a surprising wave of pain.

But… Looking at her current painful experience from a positive lens, this was a perfect opportunity for her to increase the level of her pain resistance. Not that she felt the slightest bit happy about training her pain resistance, as she would much rather prefer to not be in any kind of pain like she was now.

In the end, the pain brought by using her wind magic to create a small updraft was simply far too painful and she had to stop herself from using it, causing her height to slowly start decreasing with time.

Before long, Scaly found herself inside the cloud that had been just below her… And to say it was positive development, it would be an understatement, as Scaly suddenly found herself turning into an ice dragon under the freezing environment inside the cloud.

Caught off guard by this sudden development, Scaly wasted no time inspecting the cloud…

[Ice Vortex Cloud]

[Description: A small, see through cloud that contains a hidden nexus of ice and water mana. Creating a freezing environment that is far colder than the environment around it.]

And as it turned out, even a cloud was special, as it worked overtime trying to turn her into a splendid ice dragon at a speed visible to the naked eye, something she had not realized before, as she had been pushed straight up through the cloud far too fast to notice.

That or she had just ended up being unlucky and the clouds she had passed through on her way to smash into the ceiling of the fifth floor of the dungeon had just been normal clouds-

Whoosh~!

No matter what, she couldn't afford to remain inside the ice vortex cloud. Wasting no time as she forced herself to use her wind magic to create an updraft strong enough to lift her up and out of the cloud before she truly ended up becoming an ice dragon.

The painful experience didn't just cause a few tears to appear at the corner of her eyes-

[Pain Resistance, lvl 5]: Pain is familiar companion, and you have taken your first steps on the path of a true maso-

It had even caused her pain resistance to reach level 5. Although, she decided to not waste her time reading through the description after seeing that it was still moving in a strange direction.

Instead of that, she focused on the benefits that were brought by her pain resistance reaching level 5.

The most obvious change being that she no longer felt it was difficult for her to endure the pain brought by using her wings in their current injured state.

Using wind magic to create an updraft to keep herself afloat was still painful, but she could endure it now.

The edge of the forest that seemed like it would be difficult for her to reach in her current state now didn't seem to be impossible to reach any longer… And for once, even though the skill itself was rather weird with its description, she felt thankful for her pain resistance skill.

The main problem was that although she could endure the pain now, her wings might not actually hold up. After all, pain resistance was just that, pain resistance, it didn't magically heal her injured wings and only helped her endure the pain from using them in their injured state.

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