Not knowing about the fact that the training she had engaged in to increase the level of her dragon breath before going to sleep had ended up causing some of the monsters to escape from the mountain during her sleep, Scaly opened both her eyes after her mana finished recovering before making her way out of her temporary home in search of something to eat.
More specifically, she was looking for a mountain rabbit, as they were by far the most delicious monster she had found on the mountain so far. Even the rock slimes that tasted somewhat like grape flavored jelly when eaten weren’t anywhere close to the deliciousness of the mountain rabbits.
Huh? Where are the mountain rabbits?
However, after looking around for over half an hour for the mountain rabbits, Scaly was shocked to discover that there wasn’t a single mountain rabbit around.
Although she had eaten quite a few of them during her last training session, it shouldn’t have been to the point of driving them extinct.
Not to mention, she had clearly remembered seeing a few of them shivering in the distance when she had gone to sleep. So, there should still have been some around for her to eat after she came out this time around.
Unless... They went somewhere different while I was sleeping!? But where would they go...?
Frowning to herself as she thought about where the mountain rabbits could have gone while she had been sleeping, Scaly tried her best to think about where the mountain rabbits might have gone. After all, they were important to her now that she knew how delicious they were, and she had no intention of giving up on eating them.
In the end, after wandering around the mountain without spotting a single mountain rabbit and only having a few rock slimes to snack on along the way, Scaly reached the base of the mountain that was facing the rest of the mountain range. Only separated by a small valley overgrown with tall trees and thick foliage that made it difficult to see more than a few meters inside the small valley.
Ah! A mountain rabbit!
Just as she was looking in the direction of the rest of the mountain range, Scaly spotted a small figure emerging from the thick undergrowth of the small valley on the other side before it began making its way into the mountain range.
Without having to think about it for too long, it was obvious that the rest of the mountain rabbits should have also gone through the small valley and made their way into the larger mountain range on the other side while she had been sleeping.
The only question that remained was why they had done this when they had been peacefully living on the small mountain before-
Ah... Is this perhaps because of me...?
Suddenly freezing on the spot as she seemed to realize why the mountain rabbits had decided to leave and make the journey towards the deeper parts of the mountain range that would undoubtedly be far more dangerous compared to the small mountain that stood somewhat isolated from the rest of the mountain range, Scaly could not help feeling a bit guilty.
If she had just controlled herself and didn’t eat so many of them the moment she appeared, she might have been able to continue living peacefully on the small mountain with the mountain rabbits while training her dragon breath skill. Only occasionally snacking on a few of them every now and then.
Now that the mountain rabbits had run off and made the journey to the deeper parts of the mountain range, she would be forced to also leave the small mountain.
After all, there was no way she planned to live off the jelly slimes.
At least it shouldn’t be too dangerous considering that the mountain rabbits decided to go deeper into the mountain range instead of staying on the small mountain with me...
Shaking her small head as she thought about this to herself, Scaly didn’t waste any time standing around as she began making her way down towards the small valley filled with tall trees and overgrown foliage.
Not showing a single sign of fear or hesitation as she stepped inside the valley the next second.
No matter how dangerous the small valley might be, she didn’t consider it any real threat to her, as the mountain rabbits had managed to safely pass through the valley without any problems. Meaning that she should also be able to make it through the valley without any problems.
...
At the same time Scaly made her way inside the valley of tall trees, the humans that had set out to reach the human town that she had accidentally visited in the past reached the third floor of the dungeon.
"So, this is the third floor of the Howling Caverns? Indeed, as impressive as the rumors say, I never thoughts that would be such a unique dungeon floor like this out there!"
"Indeed, not just that, but the monsters found in sea and on land are all precious and hard to come by outside, their parts sell really well among merchants and nobles alike."
"True, this is also the reason why the guild decided to set up so many towns on this floor in cooperation with the merchant’s guild. Processing most of the monster parts here before sending the finished products out of the dungeon to be sold off."
Almost at the moment they saw the countless islands and the sea that surrounded them, the different apprentice mages that cautiously followed behind the stronger adventurers in charge of protecting them from any monsters encountered along the way, could not help running to the edge of the large spiral staircase as they looked out at the majestic sight of the third floor of the dungeon.
"All of you, calm down, we are not here for sightseeing!"
Seeing this, the mage who was in charge of these apprentices quickly dragged them away from the edge and reminded them of the danger of the mission they were on. Instantly causing these apprentice mages to retreat back to the pillar that the spiral staircase was connected to as they finally noticed the large number of flying monsters that were flying close to the spiral staircase.
"Cloud nest birds... Well known for dragging unaware adventures off the side of the side of the spiral staircase and feasting on their dead bodies below..." Recognizing these flying monsters, one of the apprentice mages could not help shivering in fear as he realized how close to death, he had been just a few seconds earlier.
If not for the fact that they had been dragged away from the edge of the spiral staircase just now, there was a very real chance that the cloud nest birds would have taken the opportunity to drag him and the rest of the apprentice mages over the edge and have the plummet to the ground below. Turning them into human pancakes, a favorite meal for these cloud nest birds.
"No need to worry too much about them, they only target weaker adventurers, as long as we have those people protecting us, they won’t even dare approach us."
Noticing that a few of the apprentice mages had begun uncontrollably shivering in fear upon realizing how close to death they had been, the senior mage quickly stepped forward and calmed them down so they could continue their way down the spiral staircase.
"Hehe, indeed, those small birds won’t dare come anywhere close with us around!" Joining in, one of the B Rank Adventurers smiled confidently as he took the opportunity to show off in front of these juniors.
""...""
In the end, after seeing that the cloud nest birds did indeed keep their distance and didn’t dare to approach, the few apprentice mages that had been too scared to move finally felt confident enough to start moving again.
Out of everyone, only a single apprentice mage who was afraid of heights and couldn’t move a single muscle had to be carried by one of the senior adventures.
All things considered, the group of humans managed to safely reach the third floor of the dungeon without any problems outside of the slight delay caused by the apprentice mages, but then again, this was also expected.
The real danger that they would have to face was on the third floor of the dungeon.
Now that they had gotten through the safe part of the journey, the B Rank Adventurers and senior mage that had been relatively jovial so far, became far more serious as they began the journey in the direction of the human town that had its guardian barrier activated by the ancient dire wolves.
During the journey, the apprentice mages were confined to the core of their formation without getting any chance to move around, as they were far too weak to deal with even the weaker big forest rabbits that could be commonly found on the different islands inside the third floor of the dungeon.