Now what to do about a sky that got obscured by the swarms of monster insects. I have no area attacks, so I guess it’s one by one then. Their stats are low, so one swing per fly should be enough. I got onto the back of the one I caught before and strapped its head to one of my limbs. A spider mounting a fly, now that would be a terrifying sight… or hilarious.

The steering of this thing is a bit wonky, but it’s still better than wasting my stamina hopping through air with a skill. Thankfully flies are quite dumb, so I don’t think the one I’m on is going to mind me riding it that much. Or maybe it is, but it doesn’t really know what to do about the fact.

I pulled the pseudo reins I made and directed the fly right into the swarm. Aerial combat normally would look pretty cool if it was a knight in a shining armor with a huge sword riding a griphon while cutting through dragons, but a spider on a fly cutting through dragonflies, flies, otherflies… Let’s not think about it, I’m going to eat them later anyway.

Crap, I didn’t take the unusual abilities of the monsters into considerations, my side just got hit by something. It was kind of wet and did no damage, but it was only at first second. Searing pain shot though me, making me realize the identity of a liquid, which was most likely an acid. Why would a fly spit acid though, was a mystery.

It’s color was a bit different than the rest, and to get it I would need to tear through quite a lot of monsters, so unless I did something reckless, I would be at risk of being constantly sniped with these painful bullets. Oh my god it hurts so much.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Acid resistance lvl. 1] ]

That’s helpful, but not really helping, the damage got mitigated a bit, but not the pain. Screw it, I’m going to be reckless. I jumped from the fly I just tamed, killing it in the process, and then kept using other monsters at a footholds while slashing the surrounding ones simultaneously getting closer to the dangerous specimen.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [3D Maneuver lvl. 2] ]

Everything that tried getting in my way, was soon slashed in half by my sickles. I occasionally got hit by something, probably the wings of dragonflies or some weak attacks, but it only scratched me. Come to think of it, my [Natural armor lvl. 1] should be permanently active, since I have chitin instead of skin, but normally it’s not really a passive skill. Still, unless I level it up more, even the scratches I’m receiving will soon pile up and maybe even kill me.

But that’s the problem of future me, not I need to kill this acid fly. I successfully reached it, losing only about six percent of my health in the process, and managed to cut it in half. The result?

IT HURTS!!!

Even the blood of that thing was acidic, I effectively lost one of my sword-limbs in the process of cutting it. What’s worse, a part of my torso also got melted by the splashing blood, and my hp ended up emptied halfway. It’s not really looking optimistic since I didn’t kill even a percent of my enemies.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Pain resistance lvl. 1] ]

It’s a wonder I only got this skill that far into the dungeon, I guess I was pretty lucky not to suffer a lot of pain since I was born. Maybe it’s because of me being unused to it, there was something else I felt after getting hit and melted like that. It was anger, a mere fly was inflicting a pain upon me, its natural predator.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Anger lvl. 1] ]

Somehow after getting this skill, the pain eased more than after getting the resistance, but it wasn’t for me to complain. I just wanted to killed all these annoying flies. I no longer cared about my resources, I jumped into the air, using the skill footholds and monsters alike, slashing left and right without a care in the world.

It turned out to be a valid strategy, monsters were dropping out of the sky at a terrifying pace, and not many of them managed to get a hit on me, so all this time I was practically unscathed. It was valid, the emphasis being on “was”, I somehow managed to miss another acidic fly, and lost my second sickle after cutting it.

The searing pain returned, and I was again left defenseless. I retreated from fight by going up faster than my enemies could follow me, and after a considerable distance opened, I faceplanted into an invisible wall. Normally, I would be irritated by that, but now I was a bit grateful, since I could use it as another foothold. [3d Maneuver] Wouldn’t let me stay in place, so I would have to devise something on the run.

It was weird, sticking to a surface that was like an invisible wall, but also most likely was a “sky” of this floor. I had to think quick, I had to find a way to restore myself or create another weapon. I could use another two of my remaining six limbs, but I would lose them too if there was another acid fly, and they are quite unwieldy when it comes to things other than walking or some simple tasks.

What to do?