The first thing I noticed about the griffin was that it had the trait Whitney had told me about.

<[Eagle Vision]

Increases eyesight by 80% per trait level.

In addition, your vision will be protected while moving at high speeds.>

I wasted no time purchasing it, immediately trying it out and getting a sort of binocular effect and greater clarity at a distance. I could see why Whitney had coveted the trait and couldn't wait to show it to her.

The other traits were as expected, enhancing its claws or hide. It had a few weird ones to help it survive at high altitudes or protect it from the cold. None of that applied to me as a slime, so I skipped over it. Then, I spotted a single skill and eagerly read its description.

<[Aerial Finesse]

Adds systematic corrections to maneuvering while airborne, scaling with skill level.

Including but not limited to personal flight, mounted, or acrobatic.>

'This sounds a little insane, doesn't it? It makes it sound like it kicks in as soon as I'm no longer touching the ground. Maybe even potentially improving my maneuvering with my slime grapple.'

I was about to immediately purchase it but hesitated for a brief moment. A pessimistic thought bubbled up inside.

'I swear, Gramps, if it tells me I need Air affinity for this, we're no longer friends.'

I felt immediate relief when the error didn't pop up. Once the information was finished being written to my core, I felt I had a good introductory understanding of how I'd attempt to fly. I wasted no more time and shifted into a copy of the griffin, deciding to start with a working form before I started creating some chimeric form.

'Could I just slap big giant bird wings on the back of my elf form and fly? Although I get the feeling that if I get enough levels in [Aerial Finesse], even if I can't now, I will eventually be able to do so.'

I started off slow, but eventually, I was mildly airborne, and immediately, I could feel the skill kicking in. Even at level one, I was surprised at the amount of aid it offered. I started off low before gaining some confidence and increasing my ascent. When I heard some screaming below me from a group of travelers.

'Oh shit... I'm showing up as a high-level griffin, aren't I?' I thought in dread and started to fly away from the road.

I landed briefly, ensuring I was alone, adjusted my profile to level ten, and then took flight again. However, I would avoid the road this time, even with my precautions.

I enjoyed exploring the skies, slowly building up my confidence, and learning the ropes while slowly approaching the floating island. Even from below, it was a beautiful sight, with clouds clinging to the underside of the landmass like bubbles. I wondered what caused it to stay afloat while practicing hovering in place when I heard a familiar screech and saw another form rapidly divebombing towards me.

'Oh... Evan did mention they are territorial.'

I was preparing for it to crash into me, but surprisingly, it stopped a short distance away and began squawking at me threateningly.

'Oh? Do you think you're big stuff since you're four levels higher than my disguise?' I retorted to myself because, obviously, the bird couldn't hear me.

I rapidly cast an empowered [Flammable] on it and giggled with delight when I saw the debuff. The griffin clearly didn't expect a spell from a fellow birdbrain, and [Subtle Afflictions] took advantage of the opportunity.

<[Flammable] 100%: 9min remaining.>

It kept squawking at me like an overgrown parrot, and I decided to answer it in a Dewi-like fashion. Grabbing all my [Sub-Cores] to aid in rapid spell construction and throwing in some empowerment, I internally smirked when I mentally shouted, '[Fireball]!'

The ball of flame, tinged with blue, rapidly formed before flying forward, crashing into the griffin and erupting into a fiery inferno. I saw the griffin plummet rapidly out of the cloud of smoke, and gravity took the final hit.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

'Wait. Shit, I said I was going to practice my other spells; I really let my inner Dewi takeover.' I mentally scolded myself as I started to descend rapidly.

'Actually... If I had fought it in aerial combat, I bet I would have gotten a good chunk of experience towards [Aerial Finesse]... Ugh.'

When I examined the corpse of the griffin, I felt [Dissection] unleash its fury as I had burnt away every single precious feather with that display. Ignoring the complaints, however, it smelt pretty good, and partway through devouring it, I turned on [Olfactory Sense] and enjoyed a surprisingly decent meal from the bird half of the griffin.

With a full belly and a completed quest, I felt confident in approaching the floating island. Despite having decided to finally embark, it was still a good distance away, only aided by now that I had a superior form of travel. Although I was hardly bored and took delight in the thrill of the skies, I tried a few aerial maneuvers like a barrel roll or flying in a loop, hoping for some juicy extra experience. I wanted to explore the underside of the island at some point, but my first priority was the top, so I started to ascend.

Bursting through the clouds was a surreal experience, and I was overcome with a sense of freedom and exhilaration. The sunlight inside the clouds gave the fluffy white masses a warm glow while the moisture clung to my body. I kept climbing and climbing; eventually, I could see the surface of the landmass, and I could've landed, but I kept going.

The higher I climbed, the more I could see the island. It really was like a self-contained ecosystem; it had a forest of strangely colored leaves and what I could only describe as a miniature mountain with a stream flowing down into a lake. On the lakeside, I could see ruined ancient stonework structures completely overtaken by nature. Nearby, the ruined stonework looked like what used to be a cleared plot of land that perhaps once had fields but was now completely overrun with wild vegetation.

Perhaps most strange of all were a few scattered bits of land floating above the primary mass. Most were tiny in size, barely large enough to stand upon. I quickly spotted one that was different and held a singular, massive tree, its roots deep enough to penetrate entirely through and dangling far down enough to nearly reach the primary island below it.

I found myself flapping in place in a hover, staring at the scenery. It was spectacular. Should I go to the big tree first? What about those ruins? They might have treasure! The mountain could hold its own secrets; I could spot a cave or two. And who knows what monsters could be hiding inside the forest of rainbow leaves? My daydreaming was rudely interrupted by two identifications pinging in my mind

I looked around frantically, worried that they had snuck up upon me, but I realized they were still at a safe distance and not apparently hostile. The two elemental forms floated amongst each other, twisting, twirling, and intertwining like some strange mating dance. The cloud elemental was relatively easy to spot, but the air elemental would have been nearly impossible to see without [Mana Conception]; both housed a glowing vortex of what I assumed was Air mana in the center of their being. That vortex was their true form, like how the rock elementals had a crystal core.

'I get the unfortunate feeling that I won't be able to eat these two for a profile... This is like those ghosts all over again.' I grumbled.

Judging by the amount of mana contained in their vortexes, I predicted that the cloud elemental was the evolution of the air elemental. I had the feeling I'd probably need to kill them with magic, but I decided to approach in a vain attempt that I might be able to devour them. When I approached the two elementals, they immediately became hostile, much like the rock elementals.

The air elemental sent out a buffet of wind against me that ruffled my feathers and threatened to send me in a tumble. Meanwhile, the cloud elemental rapidly approached me, and as I was recovering from my nearly failed flight, it started to surround my head with a dense cloud. I formed a [Pseudopod] and lashed out at it, but as I predicted, it just soared through the cloudy substance.

Despite its hostile action, the cloud elemental didn't appear to be doing anything. I was very confused until I realized it was probably trying to suffocate me. I chuckled as I ordered my cores to fire a basic spell of each affinity at the elemental to see what would harm it, but not before casting all my debuffs first, as I needed all the magic experience I could get.

[Water Orb] displaced the cloud, [Acid Dart] soared right through it, [Icicle] didn't appear to do anything that I could see, and finally, [Fire Arrow] seemed to remove any cloud it flew through, briefly flaring up a little brighter than normal. The elemental made a visible effort to dodge and get as far away from it as possible.

'Looks like they don't like Fire... Now that I think about it, Dewi did mention that Air feeds Fire, which was why he picked it.'

I quickly cast [Nova] and managed to burn away a large portion of the cloud elemental. It was now rapidly retreating away from me, and I ordered my [Sub-Cores] to aim for its glowing vortex with [Fire Arrows]. Meanwhile, I was buffeted by a burst of wind again by a very angry little Air elemental. I managed to recover from a tailspin and decided to focus on trying to dodge in the air.

I glanced briefly at where the cloud elemental was and noticed the vortex of air mana had completely exploded; not a single bit remained of the elemental.

'I hate fighting enemies I can't eat... Since the air elemental is smaller, let me see if I can't engulf it.'

I started flying towards the air elemental, which decided to change tactics of attacking me directly rather than attempting to drop me out of the sky. I saw mana gathering into a disc of rotating wind, and it fired it at me. Despite the forewarning and adequate [Evasion] skill, I still didn't completely dodge the fast-moving disc that tore through my wing. I felt myself plummeting out of control as I regenerated the wing rapidly.

'It's too bad I don't have dragon wings. These bird wings are very fragile...'

I recovered from my failing flight just in time to dodge another incoming disc. It was oddly humiliating that I had defeated the evolved monster easily, but now the little air elemental was causing me such grief. I gave up on my plans to swallow it and ordered my [Sub-Cores] to barrage it with [Fire Arrows]. It was aggressively chasing after me now, so I retreated backward while dodging another incoming disc; it was a lot easier to dodge while retreating rather than approaching, and the pesky elemental soon learned that the hard way when a [Fire Arrow] connected with its vortex and it popped in a flash of flame.