Heading to…

Early morning.

The newborn dawn had not yet fully illuminated the earth.

In the dim forest, An Ye was already awake.

As a modern person accustomed to a convenient and comfortable life, she couldn’t say she had rested well last night.

An Ye woke up almost every hour throughout the night.

On one hand, she needed to be constantly vigilant of her surroundings.

On the other, the tree stump at her back and the dirt ground beneath her were not comfortable sleeping places.

An occasional gust of wind would still make her feel a bit cold despite the campfire, forcing her to tighten her thin cape and curl up as much as possible.

So, when the sky just began to show a hint of dawn, An Ye decided not to sleep anymore.

She got up, stretched her body a bit, and went to the small river she found yesterday to fetch some water.

The container for the water was a wooden bucket she had made from wood.

Without an iron container, she could only heat the water by dropping hot stones into the bucket.

For cleaning, without toothpaste or a toothbrush, she chewed on some charcoal, rubbed her teeth with her fingers, and then rinsed her mouth several times.

Washing her face was a simple matter of scooping up some water and wiping it on.

After washing up, she used the remaining water to extinguish the campfire.

Once everything was packed, An Ye headed towards the small river again as planned, all while chewing on the rock-hard bread from her inventory.

Actually, An Ye had thought about erasing her tracks when she left, but the destruction caused yesterday was too great, and there were still deep dragon claw prints on the ground.

After thinking about it, An Ye decided to just leave it.

After all, who would connect this cute girl with a terrifying dragon?

Even the most world-shaking wisdom should have its limits, right?

“Gulp… finally here.”

She washed down the last piece of bread in her hand with some water.

Following the trail left by the slimes, An Ye reached the riverside again.

The sun had now fully risen, and just like yesterday, the water here was still that clear.

Traveling by water was still the best choice.

Compared to blundering around in the dense forest, following the river would most likely lead to some discovery.

And now, slimes and such were no longer a threat.

An Ye walked to the water’s edge, ‘equipped’ the raft she had made on the way, and then placed it.

A simple three-square-meter raft appeared on the water.

[Simple Raft: A simple raft made of wood and vines. It’s sturdy, but only to a limited extent; it’s not a proper boat, after all. On a side note, since the only reference for its construction was a certain wilderness survival show, this raft might have inherited the ‘Bear-ly Afloat’ curse. Please pilot with care.]

That last sentence was totally unnecessary!

An Ye averted her gaze from the description, annoyed.

She understood that crafting items required referencing her own knowledge, but she still couldn’t figure out these item descriptions.

If they also referenced her knowledge, what was with the description of the Oak Staff?

More importantly, was she really that snarky?

Whatever, just ignore it.

Pushing the matter aside, An Ye carefully sat on the raft floating on the water.

After steadying herself, she even tried lightly stomping on the planks twice, as if really testing whether this little raft would sink.

Good, good.

That ‘Bear-ly Afloat’ stuff is just superstition; one must believe in science.

The unmoving structure beneath her feet spoke of its solidity.

How could this possibly sink?

“Alright, let’s go.”

She equipped the wooden paddle… ahem… she had first made two spares using wood and the remaining vines, and also made four more wooden buckets and filled them with water.

Only then did An Ye push the raft into the river.

[Wooden Paddle: Low EQ: Wooden Paddle. High EQ: A concentration of ancient wisdom, a standard case of bionics. Not only can you use it to row a boat, you can even use it to slap people. Phys Atk (1)]

[Bucket Full of Water*5: Stop looking. You can’t turn them into an infinite water bucket.]

The river’s flow was relatively calm.

Without needing to paddle deliberately, the raft itself could maintain a relatively constant speed.

All An Ye had to do was occasionally adjust the direction.

She had no idea where this small river led or how long it was.

Based on her feeling, An Ye felt she had been drifting on the water for almost an hour.

By now, the sun had fully risen.

A light breeze blew, making her platinum-blonde hair sway gently in the air.

Perhaps because the process of drifting on the raft was too boring, with nothing to do but look at the basically identical forest surroundings, An Ye’s attention was unknowingly captured by her own reflection on the water’s surface.

It was exactly the same as the image on her character panel.

Platinum-blonde, waist-length hair with a few white highlights, sky-blue pupils as clear as water, a small and cute nose, and below it, alluring, jelly-like pink lips.

The conical golden earrings hanging by her chubby cheeks swayed slightly with her hair, making their owner look even cuter.

Although she had expected it, An Ye truly hadn’t thought her current appearance would be far more beautiful than the model and the image on the character panel.

She stared for a good while before slowly withdrawing her gaze, feeling a little despondent.

No matter how beautiful, this was her current self.

She couldn’t possibly… do herself, right?

In the end, she could only look.

It would just benefit some other… no, benefit my ass.

An Ye quickly shook her head, throwing the increasingly strange thoughts out of her mind.

‘If I’m going to find someone in the future, it has to be a beautiful girl just like me.’

She firmed this resolution in her heart.

“But then again.”

An Ye pinched a lock of white highlights within her hair and leaned over to look at the water’s surface.

“It would have been better if it were silver hair. If I’d known I was going to transmigrate, I wouldn’t have chosen this blonde hair.”

In fact, An Ye herself was one of the many white-hair enthusiasts.

It was just that too many people liked white-haired beautiful girls, leading to a flood of such characters.

Seeing too many of them inevitably led to some aesthetic fatigue, so when she was choosing her character model, she decided to change things up, which resulted in her current appearance.

And those barely noticeable highlights in her hair were the last bastion of stubbornness in An Ye’s heart when she chose blonde.

“…Whatever. It’s too late for regrets. There are pros and cons, I guess.”

She picked up the paddle again, and this little bit of annoyance in her heart quickly disappeared as she rowed.

If this world was a Western fantasy world like in the game, then with this blonde hair and this starter outfit that looked expensive even in her previous world, An Ye felt that people would probably believe her if she claimed to be a noble from somewhere.

“Pfft… how is that possible? What kind of noble floats down a river on a raft…”

Successfully amused by her own thoughts, An Ye shook her head speechlessly and continued her drifting.

She didn’t know how much time had passed.

An hour?

Two hours?

Maybe more.

The sunlight outside gradually became scorching, and beads of sweat had long since formed on An Ye’s forehead as she sat on the raft.

Just as An Ye couldn’t take it anymore and stood up, preparing to head to shore to hide from the sun, she suddenly noticed that the water current around her seemed to have become a bit more turbulent, and it was gradually speeding up.

This was bad.

An Ye suddenly had a bad premonition.

She remembered from a certain survival expert’s tutorial that this situation, if she wasn’t mistaken, usually meant…

“f*ck! I have to get to shore, quickly!”

An Ye immediately grabbed the paddle and rowed frantically towards the riverbank.

By now, she could almost hear the sound of a waterfall not far away.

Fortunately, she hadn’t noticed it too late.

The raft hadn’t been completely swallowed by the current yet.

By adjusting her direction to get the raft as close to the bank as possible, she then made a desperate leap.

Although she rolled pathetically on the ground a couple of times, she had at least made it back to dry land.

As for the raft, she watched as its speed increased, until finally, with a ‘splash’, it followed the current and fell over the waterfall.

“Thank goodness I reacted quickly.”

Following the river to the edge of the waterfall and looking at the wreckage of the raft floating below, An Ye felt a wave of lingering fear at the thought that she had almost performed a free fall just like the raft.

“Just how high is this? And how am I supposed to get down later?”

The sides of the waterfall were near-ninety-degree cliffs.

Due to their proximity to the water, they were very moist and covered in moss and plants An Ye couldn’t name.

“It would be great to have a hang glider at a time like this. From this high up, I could definitely fly far.”

As she spoke, An Ye looked at her inventory, then glanced back in the direction she came from.

She couldn’t make anything for gliding with the materials on hand, and going back would not only be against the current, but she had no idea how long it would take.

Ahead, it wasn’t very clear from here, but she could vaguely make out what looked like a plain.

‘It seems I can only fly down.’

Although she still didn’t know what the [Dragonification] skill’s description of ‘a dragon that exists distinctly in the caster’s cognition’ meant, since it worked yesterday, it should work today too.

Having made up her mind, An Ye moved back from the waterfall, ensuring the ground beneath her was large enough to accommodate her dragon form.

Then, she raised her right hand and tapped the second icon on her hotbar.

After tapping the icon, the sensation of mana being drained from her body instantly washed over her.

An Ye was prepared this time, paying close attention to her body’s changes.

She couldn’t afford to waste a single moment of the less-than-a-minute transformation time.

The moment the transformation was complete, she felt that abundant power filling her body once again.

Even though she didn’t know how to fly, under her strong will, her body instinctively unfurled the sky-blotting dragon wings on her back.

Then, she flapped her wings.

The river’s current was blown away, revealing the rocky riverbed below.

The surrounding trees were swept up by the fierce wind and thrown into the distance.

The ground, as if it had been bombed, had its top layer sheared clean off.

But An Ye couldn’t notice any of this, nor did she have the time.

With the flying ability of a dragon, she reached the distant plain she had seen earlier in just the blink of an eye.

The place where she had just been standing was already a distant sight behind her.

Flying in the air, An Ye used the enhanced vision from [Dragonification] to try and find anything like a town or a main road.

And to prevent losing all combat ability after the transformation ended, she also had to constantly monitor her mana consumption, ensuring she kept at least fifty points in reserve.

While multitasking, she really had no mind to spare for the situation back at the waterfall.

She had only caught a fleeting glimpse of her dragon form’s reflection on the water’s surface.

“I hope I can find a road before my mana runs out…”

In the sky, An Ye flapped her wings again to accelerate, speeding past the fleeing creatures below as she flew towards the horizon.