—x minutes later—

“Hey, can’t you run any faster than that?” The guy said while running full speed ahead in front of me.

I wanted to retort, but it would mess with my running rhythm so I didn’t respond. To be completely honest, this guy’s speed was no joke. I could tell that he wasn’t going at his fastest as he did not gasp for air like I was. But the biggest question on my mind was why he was waiting for me to catch up to him. If he just ran alone, he could easily outrun the slug, and since we were strangers, he didn’t need to care about us.

If he wasn’t here, I could fly with my wings freely. I only did it last time with Rachel since I knew I could trust her to keep it a secret.

The tentacle slime—I mean tentacle slug was still a couple metre behind me despite its superior speed. Thanks to the thick trees, we were able to run through the forest with ease while the giant slug had to avoid crashing into them.

“Sh*t it’s a dead end.” The guy paused in front of me blocking the view.

I looked over and saw the giant stream we were at previously.

The middle parts of the stream were far too steep for anyone to walk through, so he was right in calling it a dead end.

“Human fly... Dead.” Hearing that disturbingly deep voice, we did not hesitate to run to the stream bank.

Looks like a direct confrontation with the slug could not be avoided. If we ran along the stream banks, the slug would easily catch up without any trees impeding its path.

I put Rachel down and she was finally able to move on her own. It looks like she was no longer affected by the slug’s mental corruption or whatever it was.

Looks like we would actually have to fight this monster. The guy also unsheathed his sword, but I doubt he could help much considering how his group fared.

“Rachel, focus on casting magic.” I ordered while taking out a much better spear from the storage ring that was of Mythical quality. Since the Molten Spear of Mutilation’s burning effect did not prove to be effective, I settled on using a plain old spear that was sharper and sturdier.

The slug, seeing that we no longer ran, started spreading its tentacles toward us.

‘Pierce.’

Remembering how my sweeping no longer worked, I tried piercing instead. A grey needle formed and blasted from the tip of my spear, drilling into a tentacle. At some point, it stopped and did not pierce through. So both air manipulation techniques did not work.

This was going to be hard, but it had to be done.

As I got myself prepared, a chunk of white mist came from my left, striking the slug. As the white mist dispersed, large blocks of sharp ice were in its place, edged into the slug. A level 4 spell like Ice Blast seemed to be effective.

Taking advantage of Rachel’s initiation, the guy and I went in to attack.

Slashing the spear at the slug, it went straight through but was still met with resistance. Despite how easy it was to cut, it only took microseconds for the slug to regenerate back to its original form. It didn’t seem to do any damage at all.

While I was focused on figuring out a way to damage the slug, it darted one of its tentacles directly at Rachel.

As it was about to hit her, she soundly disappeared and reappeared to the side as if she could teleport. She pointed at me and waved her arm as if signaling for me to move.

By the time I figured out what she meant, it whipped me from behind with a slimy tentacle.

‘F*ck.’ It was fast and felt like a light tap at first but after a second, my body registered the pain and only then was I blasted away at supersonic speeds. Crashing headfirst into a large rock that was there, the rock shattered as well as my forehead...hopefully not.

[Life Force: 1/110]

My head hurt like crazy after being smashed into a rock that was as sturdy as a grindstone.

Just as I was about to cross the river to meet my great grandparents, I subconsciously thought of a healing potion.

A thick liquid soon gathered into my mouth. I resisted the urge to vomit and swallowed the blood in my mouth that had started to combine with the fluid.

[Healing: Life Force: +100]

[Life Force: 101/110]

My head started to clear up, losing the tired feeling that made me want to sleep for an eternity. The pain stayed, but it turned from a ‘kill me already’ pain into a ‘F******ccckkk’ pain.

Getting up, I placed my hand on my forehead. There was blood, but it looks like it stopped bleeding after I drank the miraculous potion.

There was no way we could contend with that slug.

‘Appraise.’

[Life Force: 49325/50000]

All that and the f*cker barely took a scratch.

If I were the protagonist of a movie, then some sort of deus ex machina event should be occurring right about now.

[Ding!]

[Mystery Box(0 days) unlocked]

‘What? When did I have a mystery box?’

[Recalling...]

[System Achievement: Full-Fledged Dragon]

[Congratulations to host for mastering all of this system’s techniques!]

[Received: 1 Mystery Box(240 days)]

Ah, so it was from that time when I maxed all of those techniques. Had it already been 240 days?

‘Open it.’

[Searching for valuables...]

[Searching for random things...]

[Found]

[Opening...]

[Received: 30 Gold coins]

[Beep!]

[Cannot be stored in inventory]

Gold coins appeared in front of my feet.

‘Good game, well played.’

As I was about to sink into despair, I heard a loud voice zooming in from the distance.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

It was like the scream of a girl. Something about it was charismatic... Yet, why did it sound so nostalgic?

In the air above us was an odd duo. A blond-haired boy was grabbing onto the leg of a man dressed in black as he flew toward us.