"Team leader, do you think that 'he' will be really here…?"

As two shadows dashed through a great forest full of brown leaves, one of them couldn't help but frown and ask in worry as he looked towards the figure running alongside him.

"How would I know? Since we received an order, we could only see through to it, we have to at least search through the Withering Forest before we come to a conclusion…"

The accompanying figure hurriedly shrugged as he even quickened his footsteps.

"But, if this goes on we will be caught soon, it doesn't seem like there is anything to be found, let alone something imaginary. Shouldn't we just head back?"

The frown on the other figure's face didn't change as he looked behind him a few times with alertness, it was obvious that he was quite concerned about something…

"That's why I keep telling you to focus on the road ahead instead of looking behind. Either way, with the current situation as it is, even if we don't get caught now, we will be caught a few days later, we need every ounce of hope left for the sake of our people… if running through the forest might grant us the help of an imaginary being, then I'm more than willing to go for a few rounds!"

The one who seemed to have the higher call showed a look of resolution on his face as if the indifferent words he said earlier were not his words. However...

Tsh. Tsh. Tsh...

"With that being said, we shouldn't risk our lives either so we could protect our people, just one round is enough, let's hurry up and finish!"

As soon as the sounds of the hurried footsteps behind them became stronger, his whole face broke into a sweat as his speed strangely almost doubled, causing the face of admiration that his follower was about to form to freeze.

`~~`~~`~~`

'Seems like I'm quite high up…'

Judging from the scenery and the distance that separated me from the land, the level of the fall I was experiencing wasn't one that could be compared to falling off a 10-floor building or even a skyscraper, it was more a very exaggerated form of parachuting, only that I didn't have a parachute on me.

Even though I had the ability to grow wings at the moment, the altitude I was currently at and the speeding fall caused by the gravity would definitely break those wings as soon as they appeared not to mention that they would be torn by the wind currents before long

One could expect dragon wings to be far more resilient, but sadly my wings were just an elementary form that was no different than a fake version, it only granted me free low altitude flight since my 'Dragonization' was still at the Intermediate stage.

'Still, the situation can be controlled…'

First of all, as soon as I fully grasped my situation, I already started employing Wind elements to lower the effect of gravity on speeding my fall and took out 'Lightning Cloud'!

Even as an Epic growth item that has been with me from the very start of the game, the material that 'Lightning Cloud' was made off remained a mystery to me, but I at least had total trust of its endurance unlike the new wings of mine.

While I would still be unable to completely stop my fall just by using the essence flying sword technique, I would at least be able to use its greatsword form in combination with Wind elements as 'brakes' to prevent me from becoming a mini-meteor by the time I reached the ground…

[Ehhh?]

Just as I was starting to stabilize my falling speed to a certain extent, Long who exited my spatial ring to find himself falling almost immediately rolled himself around my arm in shock.

[Did you finally run out of luck?]

"Maybe I'm just not as lucky as you believed me to be… Since there's nothing more than we can do while I'm falling, do you have an explanation for this current situation?"

Although I already had a series of hypotheses in mind regarding why I ended up in the air instead of the usual corruption gate, I decided to kill time by confirming which one was correct.

[Don't you seem simply too carefree for the situation… Nevermind. It should be that dragon ancestor guy that didn't confirm the location of your transfer and did it randomly. Normally, even if you didn't end up in a corruption gate, you would at least end up in a random spatial formation, but you 'miraculously' chanced upon a naturally activated space node…]

Not forgetting to sarcastically use air quotes to emphasize how great of a miracle a natural space node is, Long explained the details that confirmed my original suspicion.

This was indeed the result of the awkward transportation method, but it seemed like I half-set a flag by hoping for a good landing place…

[To most people, such a node is a rare treasure that could be used for the creation of a spatial formation since space element users are almost extinct, but your luck is great indeed, you ended up finding one in the sky, let me clap for your shining aura!]

Ignoring the mocking Long who seemed to be even more relaxed than me, I focused on my falling path to wait for the right moment.

If it was me who had just finished the tutorial, I would indeed have been worried about dying just as I started, but considering all factors now, I had the qualification to survive this fall, so there was no need for needless panicking that would only aggrevate the sitution.

Most importantly, I already had a way in mind to land as safely as possible!

Observing the 'Fall' forest that seemed to be the point of my landing, I quietly activated my new ability as I put 'Lightning Sword' back into my ring.

It was finally time to try out 'Full Dragonization'!