[*Ding* Reached level 2]
As she traveled through the mountains and killed off any of the monsters she encountered along the way, Scaly managed to reach level 2 before long. Giving her a chance to find out how much her different stats would increase with each level after her evolution.
Given that her dragon bloodline had reached level 4 and would be increasing her magic and vitality by 5 alone, she was curious about just how much stronger a single level would make her now as she pulled up her status filled with expectations.
Name: Scaly
Race: Water Dragon Hatchling
Dragon blood: 2% (Inferior)
Level: 2/10, 3%
STR: 158 |VIT: 275| DEX: 118 | M: 390
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline, lvl 4], [Dragon Flight, lvl 2], [Dragon Water Magic, lvl 1], [Poison Resistance, lvl 3], [Dragon Claw Strike, lvl 5], [Swimming, lvl 1], [Dragon Breath (Water), lvl 3], [Corrosion Resistance, lvl 1]
Hm? The dragon claw strike skill managed to reach level 5...?
Looking through her status and about to focus on her stats, Scaly suddenly discovered that her dragon claw strike had managed to level up during the short period since she had last checked her status.
But... Thinking about how the main way of fighting since her evolution had been with her claws, as she had still not fully managed to grasp how to use the dragon water magic without wasting most of her mana in the process, Scaly felt that it made sense for it to have leveled up.
Now... Back on the main focus, Scaly noticed that the stat that had increased by the most was clearly magic. Having increased by an entire 12 points after a single level up. Closely followed by her vitality that had increased by 10.
Lacking a bit behind compared to these two, her strength had increased by 5, while her dexterity had only increased by 4. Making her more certain than ever that she was indeed walking down a magic related path as a dragon instead of a physical one.
Considering that this had been her goal from the start, she was rather happy with the outcome. Even if she did feel a bit disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to reach 500 magic before her next evolution with her current increase in magic per level.
After all, if she could somehow have her magic to reach 500 before her next evolution, she was certain that she would be able to become a far stronger dragon. Possibly even getting rid of the annoying inferior title next to her dragon blood in the process.
RUMBLE-!
Just as Scaly was lost in her own thoughts looking through her status wondering how to get her magic to break past 500 before her next evolution, she was forced out of her thoughts by a loud rumbling sound coming directly from the sky above.
W-w-what is that!?
And as she looked up to see where the rumbling sound was coming from, she was shocked to discover a spiral staircase descending- Or more accurately, falling towards the ground below-
BOOOOOM-!
Forcibly smashing into one of the mountains not too far away from her, causing a violent explosion that directly blew the top half of the mountain apart as large stones and rocks soon rained down on the surroundings. Forcing the monsters living on the mountain close to the spiral staircase that had just descended to hide away before getting hit.
Even though she was relatively far away from the mountain that had been blown apart, Scaly was just barely out of the range of the flying rocks.
Huh? It’s not over?
However, before she had time to relax as the spiral staircase settled down in the place at the center of what was left of the once tall mountain, a bright light akin to a large flame appeared at the top of the spiral staircase where it should be connected to the third floor above. Making Scaly think that the spiral staircase was about to destroy what was left of the mountain it had landed on.
Boom!
"Ahhh-!"
Unexpectedly, instead of the spiral staircase destroying the rest of the mountain like she had expected to see, she instead heard a large explosion on top of spiral staircase. Followed by a loud scream that Scaly instantly recognized as belonging to a human.
Humans... I wonder if they have anything to do with the spiral staircase...
Narrowing both her eyes as she thought about this, Scaly unconsciously retreated to the cover of a nearby rock before she focused her attention on whatever was happening on top of the spiral staircase.
As a result, it didn’t take long for her to notice that someone had fallen off the spiral staircase and was currently plummeting towards the ground below, likely being knocked off by the earlier explosion that had taken place.
[Human, Grand Explorer, lvl 67]
Keeping her attention focused on the falling human, Scaly could not help freezing up on the spot as she recognized that status that appeared in front of her.
Wasn’t this the same human she had seen fighting off the ancient dire wolves back when she had escaped from the human town? What was this human doing on the fourth floor of the dungeon? Had he perhaps come chasing after her?
Feeling a bit panicked as all sorts of thoughts ran through her mind at this moment, Scaly noticed that the falling human had suddenly slowed down drastically, as he was holding on to some sort of device that allowed him to gently glide through the air.
More importantly than this human that had now managed to avoid turning into a human pancake, Scaly was far more focused on the top of the spiral staircase where a human covered in fire not much different from the fire knight, she had fought in the past appeared to look down towards the human that had been knocked off the spiral staircase. Probably worried about the state of his companion after the sudden explosion.
[Human, Crimson Flame Knight, lvl ??]
The reason for her focus being that she couldn’t see the level of the human covered in fire no matter how much she tried to concentrate on him.
[Human, lvl ??]
[Class: Crimson Flame Knight]
[Description: ???]
Even when she tried to get the more detailed description of the human by focusing all of her attention on him to try and inspect him, she was only left with more question marks than before, as she could not see anything from the human covered in fire no matter how hard she tried.
Huh...? D-d-did he notice me!?
It was just at this moment that Scaly noticed that the human on top of the spiral staircase had suddenly turned his attention away from the floating human gracefully gliding through the air to look in her direction.
Moore specifically, it felt like the human was directly looking at her, causing no small amount of panic, as she quickly stopped trying to inspect the human on the spiral staircase before hiding away behind the rock next to her.
Although her strength had significantly increased after her last evolution, her instincts were clearly telling her that she couldn’t fight the human on the spiral staircase.
I... I think I will just rest a bit before continuing to hunt... Yes, that is it, I’m just a bit tired from the last few hours of constant monster hunting without any breaks!
Convincing herself that she wasn’t afraid of the human covered in fire on the spiral staircase, Scaly silently moved somewhere hard to notice before settling down for a quick nap. Not wanting to get involved with the humans that had just appeared on the fourth floor of the dungeon.
...
"Hm? What was that just now? I clearly felt someone or something observing me from inside the mountain range..."
Standing on the edge of the spiral staircase as he gazed down at the mountain where Scaly was located, the crimson flame knight could not help frowning to himself.
Like Scaly had thought, he had indeed managed to sense her when she had used her inspect on him. However, he hadn’t managed to spot her in time before she had hidden away due to the large distance between the ground and the top of the spiral staircase.
Not to mention, Scaly had been rather lucky that the mountain she was staying at was covered in a thin layer of blue grass with a lake next to it. Making it difficult to notice her among the blue grass.
"I guess it should just be some kind of special monster observing what was happening after a spiral staircase crashed downright next to where they were living. Nothing to worry about for now, as the most important thing is still to catch that guy before he has a chance to hide away!"
Shaking his head as he said this to himself, the crimson flame knight didn’t waste anymore time on trying to figure out what kind of monster might have observed him just now, as he jumped off the side spiral staircase-
BANG!
Craaaaack-!
However, different from the branch guild leader, he didn’t use some kind of device to slow down his speed and glide through the air, but instead landed directly at the ground below. Creating a small crater next to the spiral staircase before getting up to chase after the branch guild leader who was gliding off into the distance. Not intending to give him a chance to run away.
Even more so, considering that one of the new passages that had recently been discovered and could be manually placed down somewhere on the fourth floor of the dungeon had been activated for nothing.
Essentially ruining a possible future outpost that could be constructed at the fourth floor of the dungeon with close to no effort on their part, as they could just have the spiral staircase drop down in a less dangerous area of the fourth floor.
After all, the mountain range that it had been dropped into was not really suitable for an outpost or town to be built, as there was no lack of powerful monsters inside of the mountain range, something that the crimson flame knight had personally felt the moment he descended the spiral staircase and felt something observing him from below.
Although the feeling had been brief and there wasn’t any attack that followed, he was very clear that the monster capable of doing something like that without being noticed by him should at least have reached the A Rank.
In the end, because of this, even while chasing after the branch guild leader as he continued to make his way deeper inside the mountain range, he was forced to go at slightly slower speed in case he had to respond to an ambush from an A Rank Monster...