Feeling like she would be able to cross the distance between herself and the floating continent that now seemingly only existed a little over a hundred meters away from her current location, Scaly found herself facing a problem she hadn’t exactly accounted for upon first entering the dreamscape. Hunger.
Although she could easily supply herself with water through her magic, food was something entirely different, as she had no way to summon food up with her magic in a similar way. At least for now, she still had to rely on hunting down monsters to fill up her stomach and prevent herself from starving to death.
Normally, this wasn’t a problem, as she never found herself anywhere with a lack of monsters to hunt down, but inside the dreamscape, although there was an abundance of dreamscape monsters all around her, none of them could be eaten.
At least from the dreamscape monsters she had attempted so far like the dream grazer, they all turned into dream fragments that quickly dispersed. Leaving nothing behind for her to eat.
For now, this wasn’t a problem, but after determining that she would at least need to spend some time trying to learn how to move smoothly through the sky of the dreamscape–or at least smoothly enough to reach the floating continent, it became clear that food would soon enough turn into a problem.
Even worse, from the floating island she found herself on, she could clearly see countless edible dreamscape monsters on the floating continent, several of which carried the description of being delicious. Leaving her wondering if there was some kind of curse placed on the smaller floating island that only allowed dreamscape monsters who turned into dream fragments upon their death to appear on them.
Having originally felt that she would be able to find something to eat if she looked hard enough, she had spent the first hour since she had climbed up the floating island after jumping off the dream jellyfish that she could still see slowly ascending in the distance, exploring the small floating island looking for something to eat.
However, although there were over a dozen unique dreamscape monsters on the floating island, all of them turned into dream fragments upon their death without exception. Trying to turn herbivore didn’t work either, as the plants growing on the floating island were inedible, with not even one of them growing any fruit for her to eat. Leaving her in a state where she had to figure out a way to reach the floating island fast or risk starving.
Of course, she could always leave the dreamscape and search for food outside but considering how far she had travelled through the dreamscape, she had a feeling that she might end up somewhere extremely dangerous after returning to the material plane. So, for now, she decided to just dedicate her full effort towards finding a way to more easily move through the sky of the dreamscape.
At the very least, she wasn’t entirely without any clues, as she had already noticed how her swimming skill had seemingly increased in level after her having moved through the sky of the dreamscape. Meaning she might have to view the sky of the dreamscape as some kind vast ocean that she had to swim through. In which case, the difficulty of swimming through this vast ocean came from the pressure of being far below the surface.
Thinking about it in this way, Scaly realized that the difficulty she felt when having moved briefly through the sky of the dreamscape to the dream jellyfish that had taken her closer to the floating continent had been a bit weaker compared to the first time she had jumped into the sky of the dreamscape. Only the difference was so miniscule that she only really noticed it upon a second examination of what had happened. Not having sensed any difference back then.
Still, this did give her some idea on how to proceed, as she guessed that she might be able to adapt a method similar to the dream jellyfish and use her dream magic to coat herself in a thin layer of mana that protected her against this pressure and allowed her to move through the sky of the dreamscape with more ease.
The problem with this idea was the simple fact that she had absolutely no idea how to coat herself in a layer of dream magic enhanced mana capable of resisting the outwards pressure that came from the sky of the dreamscape.
Even though she had more than enough opportunities to observe the dream jellyfish slowly floating past her while sitting on the edge of the floating island, she wasn’t some genius that could instantly grasp the method used by these dream jellyfish and copy them.
In fact, she had a feeling that she might not exactly be the smartest little dragon out there, as her mind went completely blank upon trying to figure out how the dream jellyfish were capable of using dream magic to coat themselves and protect their bodies against the pressure that came from travelling through the sky of the dreamscape.
Of course, these thoughts were quickly banished to the deepest of her mind as there was no way Scaly would ever willingly admit that she wasn’t the smartest dragon around.
Still... Though she banished these heretical thoughts, it didn’t prove helpful in solving the problem she found herself facing.
Understandably, as every attempt trying to learn how to properly use dream magic to move safely through the sky of the dreamscape ended up in failure, Scaly finally had enough and threw herself off the small floating island. Not because she had seemingly given up and decided to end things, but instead because she felt that it might be more useful to learn by forcing herself into the sky of the dreamscape.
In any case, if she ended up running into a dangerous situation, she would be close enough to the small floating island that she always had the opportunity to turn around and retreat to safety again.
And indeed, after only a few minutes of being almost frozen motionlessly in the sky of the dreamscape, she sensed a dreamscape monster starting to approach her with a clear look of interest and hunger in its eyes.
[Dream Floater, lvl 9]
[Description: A small almost harmless dreamscape monster floating through the dreamscape. Possess little to no danger and only ever targets already dead prey, weaker dreamscape monsters finding themselves trapped in the sky of the dreamscape or unfortunate adventurers who overestimate themselves and think they can travel through the sky of the dreamscape without a dream jellyfish. Often hunts in large groups.]
Reading the description of the dreamscape monster that had seemingly targeted her along with seeing how it was only level 9, Scaly could not help feeling a sense of profound anger at being targeted by such a seemingly weak dreamscape monster. Especially with how it had seemingly determined she was just a weak dreamscape monster that had ended up trapped in the sky of the dreamscape.
Although she did indeed find it incredibly difficult to move around, she wasn’t unable to move around and was still more than capable of using her magic-
Swish-!
PTSH!
[Gained 17 Exp]
And so, without a hint of hesitation, she decided to teach this insolent little dream floater a lesson, as she killed it with a single weakened water blade. No wanting to waste too much mana on the little fellow, as training to move around in the sky of the dreamscape also required a significant amount of mana. The main cost coming from her attempts to copy the dream jellyfish and covering herself in a layer of mana enhanced by dream magic to resist against the pressure that came from the sky of the dreamscape.
Whoosh~
Whoosh~
Whoosh~
Huh? Wha...
However, as she killed the dream floater and was about to go back to her training again, the sound of movement coming from the direction of the dream floater she had just killed...
[Dream Floater, lvl 8]
[Dream Floater, lvl 4]
[Dream Floater, lvl 17]
[Dream Floater, lvl 7]
[Dream Floater, lvl 12]
[Dream Floater...]
And upon turning around to see where the sound had come from, she suddenly found herself facing off against hundreds of dream floats that were all staring towards her with a similar hungry look in their eyes, as it was only now, she remembered the last bit of the description of these dreamscape monsters.
They hunt in groups...
Indeed, they do hunt in groups, but she had originally thought these groups meant a dozen or so, not hundreds of them.
Although a few might be easy enough to deal with, with numbers close to thousands, these small eel-like dreamscape monsters suddenly became far more difficult to deal with. Especially considering how her current movement was severely limited by her being within the sky of the dreamscape.
Only back at the floating island would she be able to confidently face this many dreamscape monsters...