Defense specialization and ice.

Sally moves through the narrow passage, careful of walls and floor. She reaches a T-junction.

Sally presses her face against the wall, peeks just slightly to the left and right.

“—!”

She spots something sparkling in the air at the far end of the left passage. Without thinking, she pulls back.

A gust rushes through the T-junction.

The wind and roar are disruptive, but Sally does not miss the pale, shimmering sphere flying with it.

“…Hail?”

Whether her guess is correct or not, it is solid.

If it strikes her, it will be instant death.

“Okay, then, let’s go from the right…”

She hesitates briefly, then moves forward with the wind’s direction.

“[Ice Spire]”

The ice spire reached well past the low ceiling, blocking the center of the passage.

A sudden gust blew, and hail shot past Sally’s side, hidden in the spire’s shadow.

“Is it over?”

With the wind quiet, Sally stepped away from the spire and hurried forward.

She focused on the sound behind, unsure if a second wave would come, and pressed ahead.

“Oh, so it was a miss after all.”

The white curve was hard to distinguish from a distance, so Sally moved closer to confirm, muttering.

It required no more effort than turning toward the opposite side.

She felt relieved the idea of something waiting there had been dismissed.

Sally walked with caution, waiting for the wind, but her worry proved unnecessary.

The trap activated only when the wind entered the passage.

Sally reached the far end without incident, then proceeded along a path that sloped slightly upward from there.

At the top, a large chamber opened, containing nothing unusual.

Three new passages extended from the chamber.

“This one we’ll skip… right, let’s go right.”

As Sally stepped toward the center of the room, pale blue clouds appeared one by one from the ceiling and floor.

Ten clouds in total, each wrapped in a white mist.

“【Fireball】!”

Having just encountered hail, Sally assumed the mist was cold—ice-based—and swiftly launched a fireball at one.

The HP bar displayed above the cloud struck by flame decreased, but still held about sixty percent.

“Magic is getting difficult, too.”

Sally, now possessing only modest MP, finds it difficult to rely on magic for offense.

As she moves, a gust of wind brushes her back. She shifts away in an instant.

"This monster too... hail..."

Recognizing the narrow beam attack as similar to the hail she endured in the passage, Sally begins her assault while maintaining awareness of the positioning relative to the ten clouds.

"Instant Shadow"

For a moment, she vanishes from her target. She draws her dagger, then closes in swiftly upon the cloud she had scorched with a fireball.

"Double Slash!"

Thanks to the Sword Dance effect, her attack power has risen.

The rapid strikes fall cleanly, severing the cloud. It dissolves into the air, vanishing.

"Unh, clouds are no problem!"

Sally dispatches them as if dancing in silence, or moving through a set sequence of steps—each cloud falling in turn.

She strips the cloud of its HP with no waste, taking the shortest path to its core.

In the end, the cloud wielding hail failed to harm Sally.

"Right then, as planned—on the right..."

Sally resumed her search. Minutes passed. She understood.

The inside of this cloud was like a complex ant nest.

Routes branched in every direction. Traps of hail and icicles blocked many paths, halting her advance.

In the vast chamber, not only small clouds appeared, but also monsters shaped like ice figures.

Sally lacked skill in flame attacks. The ice monsters had high defense and were difficult opponents. Yet if the monsters could not deal damage, they would simply be worn down, bit by bit.

Advantage is not the same as victory.

And so, having weathered another barrage of hail, Sally checked the surroundings and sat down where she was.

"Probably high up enough by now..."

She ran a hand along Oru's fur, eyes fixed on the path ahead.

The enemies within the clouds were not formidable in strength, but their structures and traps wore her down.

"Almost at the end?... Let's go, Oru."

The path Sally walked grew narrower, branching off less and less.

At last, she saw a color other than white at the end of the white corridor.

A blue rune was drawn on the wall ahead, glowing softly.

Something was there. That was certain.

"Yeah, let's go."

Sally reached out her right hand toward the rune.

A sharp snap echoed. Her form vanished.