Reincarnated as a Lizard

Eyes locked on the floating island made entirely of ice floating through the eerily quiet blue sky of the dreamscape where only the sound of the rushing currents of icy mana could be heard, Scaly found herself preemptively testing the waters by poking one of her feet outside the protective barrier formed around the ice block she was standing on. Feeling the ice-cold temperature outside that would have frozen her solid had she not managed to obtain any cold resistance before entering the dreamscape- and that was just the normal temperature of the dreamscape outside.

If she ended up touching one of those icy currents... She doubted her pitiful cold resistance would be able to do much against it and she herself would undoubtedly turn into a dragon popsicle floating through the icy dreamscape.

Reaching the floating ice island turned out to be far harder than she originally anticipated, a it was clear enduring those icy currents for even a few short seconds while flying through the dreamscape was out of the question.

If only I was as small as Verdell...

Silently thinking this to herself as she looked down at her massive frame that was increasingly becoming a problem for her, Scaly began feeling like becoming stronger might not require her to get any larger than she already was.

In fact, if she could scale back down to before she had become a dragon, she would have been able to easily cross the icy dreamscape and make her way to the floating island made of ice without hitting any of the icy currents.

After all, the main difficulty of traversing the icy dreamscape wasn’t so much that the icy currents were erratic and moved around a lot, but instead that they were too close together for someone her size to squeeze through without accidentally hitting them in the process.

Sure, the icy currents did change directions every now and then, but that process was slow and easy for her to move out of the way of if she had been smaller.

Now, with her current size posing the largest problem to reaching the sanctuary that would allow her to safely undergo her evolution in a deadly environment without any adventurers or monsters around to threaten her while she slept, she had to try and think of other ways to reach the floating island.

Whoosh~

And, after what felt like hours, she ultimately decided to make the leap into the icy dreamscape. Feeling the cold seeping into her body from all around her, as her cold resistance only barely allowed her to stay awake as she flew through the dreamscape.

Of course, with the path towards the floating island still firmly blocked by different icy currents intersecting along the path, she didn’t fly towards the island itself but instead flew towards another block of ice that had formed just before the block of ice beneath her had shattered.

Thud~

Landing safely atop the newly formed block of ice with a layer of ice already covering her body before turning to look in the direction of the floating island in the distance.

She knew that flying directly to the floating island was impossible, but she could jump from one ice block to the next before getting close enough that there weren’t any icy currents between her and the floating island.

The clear problem with this little plan of hers was the simple fact that she relied on luck, as she needed ice blocks to form between her and the floating island before she could start to carry out this plan of hers.

In fact, she had been close to giving up on this plan when the ice block she had originally arrived on had been about to shatter, but the newly formed ice block she now found herself on had made her give this plan a shot.

If anything, the most difficult part wasn’t so much the fact that she needs enough ice blocks to form in the correct locations to continue getting closer to the floating island, but instead the fact that the floating island was still moving through the icy dreamscape. If she wasn’t fast enough, it would fly past her. Leaving her with no choice but to leave the dreamscape before setting off to search for another potential floating island made entirely of ice from the side of the material plane, something that was difficult to say the least.

But...

Maybe because her situation was so bad to begin with, luck was on her side in this regard, as the floating island wasn’t just moving in her direction, but had also been slowed down by a massive icy current that had slammed into it from the front.

At least that was what she thought before she realized that the massive icy current was not slowing the floating island down but would inevitably start pushing it away from her when the floating island came to halt.

Worse yet, she calculated that the closest the floating island would get to her before it started getting pushed away was a little over fifty meters from her current location.

Not far away, but at the same time not close either, as the icy currents were seemingly converging together along that massive current pushing against the floating island. Meaning it was difficult to say the least to approach the floating island without relying on the protection of an ice block to block those deadly icy currents from reaching her.

Good news was that if she got close enough with an ice block, the floating island would pull her in on its own. Bad news was that this distance was within twenty meters of the floating island, an area that was filled with countless icy currents making travel within that zone difficult and the ice block formed within far short lived.

Still, with a clear goal in mind, Scaly began to slowly inch her way closer to the floating island by moving from one block of ice to the next. Soon enough, finding herself within thirty meters of the floating island.

The floating island itself had almost come to a complete stop by this point, as within another few short minutes, it would start moving away from her with increasing speed. Making any dream of her ever getting to the floating island made of ice impossible.

However, filled with motivation and a desire to get through her next evolution, Scaly decided to take a risk and dive towards one of the ice blocks that had already started drifting towards the floating island-

Whoosh-!

Aaaah?! It huuuuurts!

An action that didn’t go unpunished, as one of her wings was hit by one of the icy currents, causing what felt like a burning pain throughout the entire wing before she entirely lost any feeling in it.

Bang!

The loss of a wing made flight far more difficult through the icy dreamscape, as she only just barely managed to adjust herself properly in time before crashing into the ice block she had aimed for without being hit by another icy current in the process.

Still...

Crack~

Her rough landing had caused no small amount of damage to the ice block, as countless cracks had already started spreading throughout it... And given the already small size of the ice block, Scaly quickly realized she had at most another minute before it broke apart.

Not to mention the fact that one of her wings had been damaged to the point where she couldn’t even feel it any longer, it wasn’t enough time to safely leave the dreamscape nor get to the floating island safely.

To make a bad situation worse, the loss of a wing also meant she couldn’t fly that well.

This... Is bad...

Only able to think this to herself as she managed to take in her current situation, Scaly glanced at the frozen wing that had turned into what looked like an icy crystal wing covered entirely by a layer of beautiful yet deadly ice.

Looking towards the floating island in the distance, she realized that she only had one option left if she wanted to get out of the deadly situation, she found herself in alive... And that was make it to the floating island...

Looking at her frozen wing again, she realized that, while it was a painful experience, the wing had been able to block her from one icy current.

If she used her last remaining wing to shield herself, it might very well be possible for her to reach the floating island without becoming a dragon popsicle in the process.

As for the damage she ended up suffering in the process along with her wings being destroyed? She didn’t worry too much about it, as one of the benefits of evolving was the fact that she would fully recover after she completed her evolution.

All she needed to do was get to the floating island that could serve as a safe place for her to undergo her evolution...