It’s rolling towards me!
Realizing that the massive mountain slime wasn’t just blocking her view, but also about to roll over her, Scaly didn’t waste any time as she used all of her strength to jump out of the way-
Plop~
Just barely managing to avoid the massive mountain slime as it plopped down at the spot where she had been standing just a few seconds earlier. Happily consuming a large tock that had been a few meters behind her and the likely target of the mountain slime.
This, I have to be more careful. Even if the mountain slimes don’t deliberately target me, they might just accidentally roll over me if I’m not paying attention to my surroundings...
Narrowing both her eyes as she thought about this while looking towards the mountain slime that had almost landed on top of her, Scaly decided to properly look around herself and make sure that there wasn’t any mountain slime close to her.
Only after doing this, did she once again turn her attention away from the mountain and looked in the direction of the grassland that she had first appeared inside after reaching the fourth floor of the dungeon. Feeling curious about whether or not she could spot any monsters hidden in the tall grass from above.
And...
There were monsters wandering around in the tall grass.
Not just that, but the number of monsters she could she in the tall grass from the mountain was close to a thousand. Making her rather surprised that she hadn’t managed to encounter a single monster during her journey to the mountain range.
Then again, the grassland itself stretched on as far as she could see into the distance. Only interrupted by a single spiral staircase that was barely visible in the distance. Reminding her of the fact that this was still inside a dungeon.
Although, compared to the third floor of the dungeon, it was clear that the number of spiral staircases leading up to the previous floor hade decreased.
So far, the spiral staircase she could see in the distance was the only one she had seen so far since entering the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Whoosh~
Of course, she didn’t let this discourage her as she began to make her way around the mountain to check out what was in the other directions.
However, she was soon disappointed, as all she could see was the endless grassland, while trying to look at what was on the other side of the mountain range was impossible because a few large mountains blocked her view.
In the end, she didn’t really gain that much from climbing the mountain outside of learning that there were indeed monsters hidden in the tall grass and spiral staircases leading to the previous floor were far rarer compared to past floors.
However, one thing that did worry her was the fact that she hadn’t managed to spot a single human.so far.
Considering her past experiences, she felt that it would almost be guaranteed for her to spot a few humans or possibly even a human town by climbing the mountain and looking around, but in the end, there was nothing. Not even a ruin of past human settlements could be found.
Perhaps the monsters on the fourth floor are too strong for the humans to deal with. Especially so if that drake from earlier happens to fly around the fourth floor every now and then...
Thinking this to herself as she looked towards the tallest mountains in the mountain range that she suspected the drake to be living inside of, Scaly could not help feeling a bit more cautious as she focused her attention down towards the part of the mountain range that she could see from the mountain she was standing on.
Outside of just the normal mountainous terrain that covered most of the mountain range, there were also a few large and small valleys in between some of the mountains where different monsters seemed to be living.
Of course, the valleys weren’t filled with poisonous plants like the one she had passed through earlier. Instead, they all had different and unique environments, from being covered by an ordinary forest where a few familiar looking forest rabbits could be seen running around, to a forest made up of tree sized mushrooms where monsters she had never seen before ran around.
However, among all of these valleys, there was one that stood out among them and that was the valley that seemed to be located between the massive mountains blocking her view to the other side of the mountain range.
The valley in question was the largest and stretched for several thousand meters in all directions.
However, the unique thing about this valley was not its large size, but the fact that there was a settlement set up inside the valley. Not by humans like she had first thought when she saw that there were buildings inside one of the valleys, but instead gnolls.
Not the gnolls she had seen back on the third floor of dungeon, but some kind of mountainous gnolls that seemed to be far more developed compared to the forest gnolls, as large farmlands used to grow food covered a large portion of the valley.
Compared to the forest gnolls that seemed to be slightly smarter monsters, these mountain gnolls were on a completely different level... And along with the fact that the drake hadn’t attacked the m and destroyed their settlement, she had a feeling that these gnolls were far stronger than the forest gnolls from the third floor of the dungeon.
At the very least, they had to have something that allowed them to intimidate the drake into leaving them alone instead of attacking them... And she feared that this something was a powerful gnoll far beyond the gnoll chieftain she had seen back at the third floor of the dungeon.
With that in mind, Scaly decided to keep a distance from the mountain gnolls before she went through her third evolution, something that shouldn’t be that hard to accomplish considering that their settlement was still rather far away from her current location and the gnolls didn’t seem to be hunting too far away from their settlement and kept to the surrounding few valleys that were abundant in smaller and weaker monsters like the forest rabbits.
So... For now, I should just try and increase the level of my dragon bloodline to level 4 as fast as possible...
Thinking this to herself as she stared off towards the gnoll settlement in the distance, Scaly began making her way back down the mountain in the direction of one of the valleys located close to the mountain she found herself at.
Having finished taking in her surroundings and getting a better idea about where to go and what places to avoid inside the mountain range, she intended to continue trying to increase the level of her dragon breath and try to reach level 4 with her dragon bloodline.
Given that she had already used an entire day so far and hadn’t managed to increase its level, Scaly intended to at most spend another day or two trying to increase the level of the dragon bloodline before going through her third evolution.
No matter how beneficial it might be for her to first reach level 4 with her dragon bloodline before going through her next evolution, she didn’t intend on wasting too much time. Delaying her own growth and endangering her life in the process.
Something that had only become clearer after she spotted the gnoll settlement deeper inside the mountain range.
Not being strong enough to go where she wanted and exploring what was on the other side of the mountain range was really not something she enjoyed. Especially so when she wouldn’t be able to grow any stronger no matter how many monsters she killed before she went through her next evolution...
Outside of that, there was also the-
Plop~
Ah!?
Lost in her own thoughts as she made her way down the mountain, Scaly missed a mountain slime on her left side, as she didn’t have time to react before she found herself being squished by the massive mountain slime.
Soon finding herself inside the jelly like body of the mountain slime that began the process of slowly digesting her, something that was rather painful, as this was done through slowly corroding her body in the jelly like substance that made up the body of the mountain slime.
Although she didn’t die immediately upon being swallowed up by the mountain slime, it wouldn’t be long considering that she could already feel the terrifying corrosive power of the jelly like slime starting to have an effect on her.
I... I have to get out of here!
Only able to think this to herself at the sudden life and death situation she found herself in, Scaly wasted no time as she used her magic and her claws to try and get out of the slime.
Unfortunately, it was all to no avail...