As the squirming mass of branch eaters below continued to persistently follow her from below, Scaly could not help feeling herself starting to panic slightly at the sight of the endless mass of worms below.
Strong as she was compared to these worms, she understood full well there was no way for her to deal with all of them with her current strength. Not just because there were too many of them, but more importantly because she still didn’t really have any attacks that affected a large area. Meaning it was hard for her to deal with a large group of enemies even if she was far stronger than them, as they could simply exhaust her with sheer numbers like the squirming mass below her seemed intent on doing.
Of course, she still believed that she would be able to escape them by ascending high into the sky. Disappearing amidst the clouds above but doing that ran the risk of attracting the flying monsters above. No matter what she did, she would end up in a bad situation.
However, as she continued gliding through the sky just a few meters above the tree line, she became increasingly aware of how terrifying the branch eaters were, as their numbers didn’t decrease but instead increased with time. Worse yet, any other monsters that might have been able to buy her some time by holding the branch eaters back for her, had all escaped ahead of time.
From a simple glance, it was obvious that the rest of the monsters living in the forest had already adapted to the existence of the branch eaters and understood when they would have to hide away or escape from them. Leaving her to deal with the branch eaters on her own.
In the end, the situation below had grown far too out of control, and she couldn’t realistically see any way for her to escape from the branch eaters chasing her... And so, she decided to ascend high into the sky above before her mana started to become a problem. Even if she drew the attention of a powerful flying monster, she at least had some mana left to use to escape.
Having come to a decision, Scaly soon used her wind magic to create a powerful updraft beneath her wings. Lifting her high into the air-
Whoosh~!
Huh!? This- To powerfuuuuul!
But completely unexpectedly, the updraft she created to lift herself up into the air was far more powerful than she had expected. Sending her far higher than intended-
BANG!
Causing her to slam into the invisible ceiling of the fifth floor a few seconds later, as she found herself unable to stop herself in time. The sheer force of the impact sending what looked like crystal-like rocks blending in to create a perfect sky tumbling down towards the forest below.
Noooo! I’m not falling!
Feeling that both of her wings had been severely injured by the impact, Scaly realized that she was about to follow those shiny rocks down into the open maws of those branch eaters below. So, just before she ended up plummeting to her death, she scrambled with all her might to grab onto the small crevice in the ceiling of the fifth floor that had been created by her impact. Barely managing to keep hold and prevent herself from falling.
From the outside, it now looked like she was clinging to the empty air. Holding on to a seemingly invisible ledge.
Awkward as this looked, it allowed her to stop herself from falling and relax her now injured wings. The main problem was that it was a rather exhausted experience to keep herself hanging in the air, but she didn’t have much of a choice, as she needed her wings to recover at least enough for her to glide for a bit to not plummet to her death.
Luckily, her current position was relatively hidden by a large cloud passing by just beneath her. Making sure no flying monsters would be able to easily spot her from below.
In a sense, her current height was at the very top of the fifth floor of the dungeon and thousands of meters in the air. Allowing her to have a great view of her surroundings.
Not only could she see the familiar barren hill in the distance that seemed to be somewhat obscured by a strange mist, but she could also see the end of the forest in the distance where what looked like a road could be seen.
Given that she knew that humans shouldn’t be on this floor of the dungeon, she guessed that the road was either something left behind by a past human city that had been destroyed in the past or belonged to an intelligent race like the gnolls that inhabited the dungeon... And she had inclining that the latter was far more likely.
That aside, she also finally found out what the reason for the sudden powerful updraft was that her wind magic had leveled up at some point while she had been gliding above the forest below trying to escape from the branch eaters. Reaching level 6.
This level up had not been noticeable when creating a few smaller updrafts just to keep herself afloat, but when using a powerful one to take herself high into the sky, the strength increase had been noticeable and ended up slamming her into the ceiling of the fifth floor.
Happy as she was that the strength of her wind magic had managed to increase through extended practice during her time so far on the fifth floor of the dungeon, she couldn’t feel entirely happy about it given her current precarious situation.
For the first time, part of her wished that her wind magic hadn’t become stronger, but... As soon as this thought appeared, she quickly erased it. No matter what, getting stronger wasn’t something bad, it was her own miscalculation and lack of attention that had caused her current situation. Not to mention, it wasn’t entirely bad, as her wings could recover strength while she was dangling in the air.
Outside of that, she also managed to get a proper view of the forest and saw the end point of the forest.
Not just that, but the squirming mass of branch eaters below her had also started becoming impatient after she disappeared, her strong vision allowing her to peer through the cloud below and onto the ground where some parts of the squirming mass had already started to dissolve and disperse into the surroundings.
If she kept hanging in for another few minutes, the branch eaters below might disperse completely. Allowing her to potentially descend and find a tree to rest in before thinking about her next plan of action.
Whoosh~
But fate had other plans for her, as a powerful wind soon hit her from the side, causing her to sway violently. Barely keeping her hold on the small ledge that had been created for her to hold on to after she crashed into the ceiling of the fifth floor.
If that was just it, things would have been fine, but during the swaying, she spotted a familiar monster approaching her from a distance...
[Dungeon Construction and Repair Snail, lvl 59]
The monster in question being a Dungeon Construction and Repair Snail tasked with fixing the dungeon up when it was damaged... And the speed of this normally small snail was clearly far faster than she remembered.
Maybe because it isn’t in the process of fixing the dungeon, but heading towards the area that needs to be fixed?
Thinking this to herself as she watched the snail approaching her by seemingly moving upside down in the air, it didn’t take a genius to realize that snail was there to fix the damage she had caused to the dungeon.
Worse yet, her wings would not be able to recover before the snail reached her and she had no plan to wait and find out what happened to someone blocking the path of one of these immortal snails.
With that in mind, her only real hope of continuing to stay alive was to find some way to potentially swing herself forward and grab hold of the snail before it rolled over her...
Narrowing her eyes as she realized this, Scaly began swaying back and forth, before the snail finally got close enough-
Now or never...!
Swish-!
And with a leap of faith, she swung her body forward while letting go, her front claws reaching forward to grab hold of the impenetrable shell of the immortal snail-
Thump~
I... I GOT IT!
Barely grabbing hold of it before plummeting downwards, causing her to let out a sigh of relief, as she now moved along with the snail as it began repairing the damage she had done to the ceiling of the fifth floor, something that ultimately didn’t even take a minute to fix before the snail began heading back in the direction it had come from...