Chomp!
Successfully managing to drag the body of the great mountain hog back to the small mountain valley without encountering any strong monsters along the way, Scaly happily chomped down on the great mountain hog.
Beaming with joy a few seconds later. Confirming personally that the great mountain hog did indeed live up to its description of being known across the world for its deliciousness.
Even Scaly, who had already grown slightly addicted to the delicious mountain rabbits, had instantaneously declared the great mountain hog as her new favorite monster.
Although it did take her a good 20 or so minutes to drag it back, it was all worth it in her eyes and something she was more than willing to do again if she chanced up another great mountain hog during her time in the mountain range.
Unfortunately, the great mountain hogs shouldn’t be that easy to find, as this was the first time she had encountered one of them. Not even having known about their existence beforehand, as there wasn’t a single one among the level 40 and above monsters, she had slaughtered during the short period of time that they had been incapacitated by the crimson flame knight’s display of power.
Not to mention killing one beforehand, she hadn’t seen one when the surrounding demon beasts had ganged up on her not too long ago due to the earlier slaughter, she had committed for the purpose of increasing her strength.
Chomp~ Chomp~!
Deciding not to think too hard about the future problem of finding more delicious great mountain hogs to eat, Scaly finished up the rest of the great mountain hog in front of her over the next half hour.
After all, compared to most other monsters she had eaten so far, the great mountain hog was by far the largest and took a rather long time for her to devour.
As for where the great mountain hog, many times larger than her, ended up in her tiny body... Scaly could only guess that her stomach had some kind of special ability to rapidly break down what she ate, something that was reinforced by the fact that she still felt like there was space for another two great mountain hogs in her stomach after she had finished the first one.
Of course, it could also just be her inner desires speaking, as she wanted nothing more than to indulge herself in devouring another two great mountain hogs. Especially so given that killing them gave her quite a bit of experience. Far more than an ordinary level 40 monster.
Ah! That’s right! I reached level 8!
Suddenly remembering the fact that she had leveled up after her battle with the great mountain hog, Scaly’s attention shifted away from the bones that had already been picked clean by her and instead turned towards her status to see if anything had changed... But ultimately none of her skills had changed after her increased level and only her stats had gone up.
Although it wasn’t bad, especially given that she realized her strength would be able to reach 200 before her next evolution, Scaly still felt a bit disappointed as she looked towards her magic that was still slated to be just below the 500-point mark.
If she wanted to reach it, she really needed to find a way to increase the concentration of dragon blood in her body.
However, the only way she knew how to do so was through increasing the level of her dragon-related skills, something that took a long time from what she had managed to observe so far.
Even more so because it would become harder to increase the level of her skills as they grew stronger, while at same time does not guarantee that the purity of her dragon blood increased along with them. For example, to reach her current purity, she had to raise more than just one of her dragon related skills...
But how can I get dragon blood fast? It’s not like I can just... Ah...
Suddenly realizing something as she was wondering how to increase the purity of her dragon blood, Scaly unconsciously felt her gaze shifting towards the almost sparkling bones of the great mountain boar that had been eaten by her.
I... Can I eat dragon related monsters to increase the purity of my dragon bloodline...?
As this thought sprung forth, Scaly couldn’t stop herself from wanting to test out if it would really work, as she understood that this might be a way to solve her problem of her slow growth in terms of her bloodline.
Of course, along with the realization that she might be able to eat other dragon related monsters to increase the purity of her own dragon bloodline, she also realized that other dragon related monsters might try something similar.
After all, she wasn’t the only one with a dragon bloodline she had encountered so far, there was the terrifying drake and the-
AH! The sorcerer snake from back then! I could have eaten that to try and increase the purity of my bloodline and see if it worked!
Only now realizing how big of a mistake it had been for her to not eat the sorcerer snake that she had defeated back when she had first found herself on the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Although she had no clue about the fact that she might be able to increase the strength of her dragon bloodline by eating the sorcerer snake, Scaly felt like she should at least have tried to taste it and see if it was delicious.
If she had done that, she might have found out about whether or not she would be able to increase the purity of her bloodline by consuming other monsters with dragon related bloodlines flowing through them.
Of core, given the rarity of dragon related monsters, it wouldn’t really have helped her much when it came to monster hunting, as the only monster outside of the sorcerer snake that she had encountered so far was the drake she had seen flying over her back when she had been making her way in the direction of the mountain.
And... Although she felt rather confident in her own strength after her third evolution, she wasn’t delusional enough to think that she would be able to take on such a powerful drake.
No... She had to at least wait until her next evolution that should take place in a few days before she felt any confidence in trying to take on the flying drake.
The main reason for this was also the fact that the drake could fly, and she couldn’t, something that would bring about a great disadvantage if she decided to try and fight with the drake at some point in the future.
Even if her water dragon magic was strong, she wouldn’t be able to hit a target flying a few hundred meters above her. Ready to dodge any attack she threw at them.
No... Maybe she would be able to reach the drake in the air now that her water magic had changed into water dragon magic and-
Whoossh~Whoosh~
Shaking her head as she felt her thoughts starting to wander in dangerous direction, Scaly decided to throw the matter of trying to fight the drake that should be nesting something on the tallest mountains that the gnoll civilization was located around to the back of her mind.
Although she was fired up when it came to trying to kill the drake after knowing it might be able to enhance her dragon bloodline, she first had to find a way through the gnoll civilization that formed an almost protective wall around the largest mountains of the mountain range.
Or... Instead of that, she could also try and search the smaller mountains and see if there were any monsters related to dragons among them.
Though the possibility was slim, she still had a reasonable chance of running into another sorcerer snake.
But searching through the mountains will take foooorrreeeevveeer! I don’t want to waste so much time looking for something that might not even be there in the first place!
Frowning to herself as she almost instantly shot down the idea of searching through the mountains for any monsters related to dragons, Scaly could not help feeling a bit depressed at the state of monsters inside the mountain range.
Why weren’t there any dragon rabbits, dragon goats or other dragon related monsters around... And while on the matter, why were there not great mountain boars roaming around the place for her to get a meal whenever she felt like.
Sometimes, Scaly felt like the world was really out to get her with these kinds of horrible situations where her best option would be to seek out a far stronger opponent for a chance to increase the purity of her dragon blood...
Rustle~
Then again, Scaly didn’t intend to just stay around and grumble to herself over the lack of dragon related monsters, as she soon began to make her way in the direction of the tall mountain towering far above the rest.
For now, she decided to move in the direction of the gnoll civilization while also looking out for any dragon related monsters along the way.