I scraped at the Great Tree's trunk with〖Wind Slash〗and built a hollow for our temporary base.
The blades of wind graze through the thick trunk. I take breaks while waiting for〖Automatic MP Recovery〗to recover my MP.
After a whole day of manual labor, I finally finished constructing a hollow big enough for me to fit and still have enough space to move around.
Although, it's slightly smaller than the Dragon God's shrine.

Alright, at this height, no Adams gonna reach here.
After we level up some more, we're gonna raid the temple ruins where those Adams are lying in wait.
I want to lure one Adam out and test our fighting skills first, but beggars can't be choosers......

Meanwhile, Nightmare had made her own spider web nest outside of my hollow nest and is now lying in wait too.
I don't know if it's because she doesn't feel comfortable in my hollow nest, or if she just felt like building a nest of her own, in hopes of a prey getting caught in its trap.

...... If Alo wanted to sleep outside, I'd stop her, but if it's Nightmare, I'm cool with it.
She's smart enough to know to retreat when imminent danger comes, and with her new skills, she's the perfect lookout.

As for Treant, I assumed he would need sunlight, meaning he'll stay outside too, but then I noticed him lying at the deepest part of the nest, opening and closing his mouth-like hole, snoring.
At least pretend to be a normal tree. Is that really safe? You'll fail in survival training for sure.

Working all day made me hungry, so I let Alo and the others get their rest while I go hunt for food.
I used〖Presence Sense〗to make sure there weren't any dangerous monsters near the den, but I picked up nothing.
I still chose not to stray too far, just in case.
I plan to return in 15 minutes.

After taking off, I flew around the Great Tree.
It took me a while, but when I flew a little farther, I found a large white bird flying in the sky.
It's around 4 meters in length.
Its beak is long, sharp, and pointy. The beak also extends back and covers its head like a mask.

【〖Masked Bird〗: Rank Ｃ+ monster】
【A large bird monster that dwells in remote regions.】
【Its entire beak protects the head like a mask.】
【Not only does it have excellent flight performance, it is also proficient in magic as well.】
【Their beak is sharp enough to pierce through and pluck away at armor.】

Ooh, finally, a decent-looking monster with no weird description.
I fly further away from the Great Tree and chase after the Masked Bird.
As soon as it notices me approaching it, the Masked Bird swiftly attempts to escape.
I speed up my chase, fly past it, and block its path.

The Masked Bird gets surprised as I appear before it all of a sudden, and it slows down to fly in the opposite direction.
Too bad. It may have superior flight maneuverability, but it can't overcome the gap in our status difference.

As I continue to give chase, the Masked Bird turns around at me and opens its beak.

"Aawk!"

It then swings both its wings and fires two twisters at me.
It looks the same as Alo's〖Gale〗, but it's actually another variation of the same skill,〖Twin Gale〗.
A skill that releases two twisters at once.

I can easily fly through it if I want to, but...... instead, I slow down and hover in place.
I then fire〖Wind Slash〗at the approaching twisters. The wind blade cuts through both tornadoes and continues to shoot forward, hitting the Masked Bird's back who couldn't get away in time.

"Ga~a~awk!"

The Masked Bird's body gets bent from the slash and its feathers flutter in the air.
Its eyes close, and as if lifeless, it plummets down to earth.

The tornadoes that were cut by my〖Wind Slash〗lose shape and disperse.
I go after the falling Masked Bird and was about to grab it with my open claw.
But then, its eyes suddenly open and extends its neck, attempting to thrust its beak in my throat.

Instead of grabbing it, I immediately slap it away with my claw.
My claw hit its face, causing the beak mask to slightly get pulled out of its skin.

So it was playing dead. But now that I've seen it firsthand, it won't work again.
Besides, its skills were already revealed to me with〖Status Inspection〗.
I then did the finishing blow at the Masked Bird with a claw to the head.

【Obtained 246 Experience Points.】
【〖The Walking Egg: Lv-〗skill gives you additional 246 Experience Points.】

I grab hold of the Masked Bird's corpse with my other claw and carry it while it dangles in the air.
Time to go back and drain all of this guy's blood. I'm glad I caught a big one.

…… Still, I've gotten pretty far, haven't I.
I'm on my way back right now, but I worry that I'll find them already being attacked by some kind of Rank B monster.

I arrive at the Great Tree with both of my front claws carrying the Masked Bird's corpse.
When I landed in front of our nest, I place the Masked Bird down.

Turning over to Nightmare's trap near the entrance…… I notice something's caught in the webs.
It's wriggling and flailing around, trying to shake the webs off.
When the restraints loosen up, it jumps up to a branch above us and rolls its body around to remove the remaining web stuck on it, then it licks itself.
It's around the same size as Nightmare, but Nightmare herself is cautious of it and is keeping her distance.

It has a long snake-like body and small feet.
On its head are two horns and extending from its head down to the back are spiny fins.
It looks cute, but with how it easily broke free of Nightmare's webs, it's definitely Rank B or higher.
It bares its fangs angrily at Nightmare for trapping it with her webs, but when it noticed me, its eyes widen and a high-pitched squeal comes out of its mouth.

“Ku~uon! Ku~ooon!”

With a mind even pinker than the body, the lewd dragon Giver turns to me.
Did it seriously climb all the way up here when it doesn't even have functional wings?!
How persistent is it looking for a mate!

Giver, like last time, exposes her body underbelly and opens her mouth, drooling hungrily while looking at every inch of my body.
What is it even trying to appeal to?!

“Ku~o……”

“〖Gale〗!”

A fierce blast of wind strikes Giver, scraping off the skin of the Great Tree's branch.
Nightmare avoided the wind blast by sticking a web at a higher branch and pulling herself up.
Giver, who was saying her body left and right, not taking her eyes off of me for even a second, gets blown away.

“Ku~u~ooooooo?!”

But, of course. It was obviously gonna get blast away since it wasn't holding onto anything.

Giver swings her body in mid-air, changing her center of gravity, extends her neck and reaches out to the edge of another branch with her mouth.
I just now noticed that there's a strand of Nightmare's web still stuck on her web.

“Ku~o?”

Giver pulls her body up with the spider web, little by little.
But then, the branch edge with Giver's mouth on suddenly snaps. Plus, another tornado blast strikes Giver.
Giver gets blown away again, falls farther down the Great Tree.

“Ku~uoooooooooooooooo?!”

Giver crashes onto stacks of smaller branches before disappearing behind a bunch of foliage.
It…… it's not dead, is it? It is a Rank B monster.
If it had fallen straight down, then maybe, but it landed on lots of branches first so that must've slowed down her fall.
Well either way, I don't think it's gonna climb back up here again anytime soon.

As I hold onto the branch edge and look down below, Alo comes in leans beside me.
When I looked at her, she's just staring at the Giver's fall with a contented face.
Noticing my gaze at her, Alo turns to me and gives me a sunny smile.

…… Even with no malicious intent, let's all keep our guard up.
Since we're both dragons, I don't want to commit cannibalism.