[*Ding* Reached level 10]
Hehe, I did it!
Standing above the body of the now dead mountain dwelling troll, Scaly could not help smiling happily to herself.
Although she was confident in her water magic being able to cause the collapse of the walls encasing the mountain path, she had not expected that she would cause the entire path to collapse when she did so. In the end, she had almost ended up falling along with the rocky walls she had collapsed back then. Luckily, she had managed to react in time to jump back and avoid that.
It was after this, that she had seen the mountain dwelling troll trying to desperately escape from the mountain path while rocks kept falling on top of it. Injuring it even further than it had been before, thus resulting in her getting the idea of trying to chase after the mountain dwelling troll to try and take advantage of its severely weakened state to finish it off.
And... Standing above the now dead body of the mountain dwelling troll, she had succeeded in her goal. Not just getting rid of a possible future problem, but also securing herself a source of dragon blood that might help her improve the current inferior status of her dragon blood.
Rustle~!
Unfortunately, as she tried moving the mountain dwelling troll towards a nearby opening in the ground where she would be able to safely consume it in peace, she was saddened to discover that she had no way to even push it along slowly with her current strength.
As for trying to cut it up-
Chiiing~!
Her claws were far from strong enough to cut through it. Possibly requiring her to at least use her mana enhanced claws to do so, something that was impossible at the moment due to her clear lack of mana. Having used what little mana she had managed to recover so far to destroy the mountain path earlier.
Chomp~!
[Detected Inferior Grade Dragon Blood inside consumed flesh.]
So... With that in mind, she could only chomp down on the body of the mountain dwelling troll out in the open. Hoping that there wouldn’t be any powerful monsters passing by as she did so, something that was unlikely due to the presence of the mountain gnolls in the area scaring off most of the stronger monsters.
In a sense, the only thing she would have to worry about was the mountain gnoll finding their way out of the valley and over to her current location before she managed to fully consume the body of the mountain dwelling troll.
After all, even if she felt confident in her strength after she recovered her mana, she understood that she was far from strong enough to face an army of mountain gnolls at her current level. Especially considering that she hadn’t managed to learn any large-scale magic outside of the large water ball that was mostly harmless if not close to something like a ledge that the monster could be dragged out over by the water.
I really need to try and learn some kind of magic for dealing with large groups of monsters after I finish up this mountain dwelling troll...
Shaking her head as she thought about this to herself, Scaly postponed trying to figure out a new magic for dealing with large groups of monsters for now as she fully concentrated her attention on eating the mountain dwelling troll as fast as possible.
As time passed by quietly like this without anyone interrupting her, Scaly clearly felt the strength of her dragon blood increasing, as the dragon blood slowly being refined inside her stomach seemed to reach a limit, causing the new dragon blood that had yet to be refined to be forcibly stuffed into the dragon blood that had not yet been refined. Increasing the speed at which the dragon blood was being refined.
Ahhh!? Wha-What is this!? It feels like I’m being burnt alive!?
However, this was not without any consequences, as Scaly suddenly found herself rolling on the ground as it felt like she was being burnt alive by the large quantity of dragon blood flowing into her body and merging together with her own dragon blood.
What is worse, the pain didn’t come to a stop before the dragon blood inside her stomach had returned to its normal capacity and the refinement speed of the dragon blood slowed down again.
The pain is gone...?
Feeling her vision was still slightly blurry, Scaly slowly got up from the ground as she felt the situation inside her body returning to normal.
I can’t absorb more dragon blood before the dragon blood already in my body is finished being refined and merges with my dragon blood... Or I will feel a similar pain again?
Analyzing the current condition and understanding that it would take hours before she could consume any more dragon blood, Scaly could not help feeling a bit reluctant as she gazed down on the body of the mountain dwelling troll.
At this point in time, she had only finished off half of the mountain dwelling troll... And given that it would take hours before she could start eating it again, she understood that there was a high likelihood that the mountain gnolls or other monsters would start to show up and prevent her from eating the rest of the mountain dwelling troll.
No... Not even a few hours, she could already sense several weaker monsters eagerly observing her from afar. Only waiting for an opportunity to jump in and steal her prey.
But... If, she continued trying to eat the mountain dwelling troll, she would be met with the terrifying feeling of being burnt alive from the inside as she forcibly increased the speed at which the dragon blood inside her stomach was absorb and merged together with her own dragon blood.
Although it might not have been harmful to her as far as she could see, she also understood that entering such a state with several monsters watching her from afar was a dangerous endeavor.
After all, seeing her in such a state, the monsters might think she was weak and decide to launch an attack to kill her an seize the body of the mountain dwelling troll from her.
Though Scaly wasn’t worried about the monsters currently around her, as they were far too weak to pose any real threat, fighting them would still require time and possibly attract even stronger monsters.
No! I can’t just give up on the mountain dwelling troll and the dragon blood!
Steeling herself as she came to a decision, Scaly resolutely gazed down on what was left of the mountain dwelling troll before biting down-
Chomp!
Ahhh!
And not a second later, the limit of dragon blood that could be present in her stomach was once again exceeded, as the terrifying feeling of being burnt alive from the inside spread throughout her entire body, causing her to let out a scream on the inside while her body outwardly started to sway like it was about to fall over-
Chomp-!
However, before this could happen, Scaly managed to regain control of her body, as she forcibly continued to bite down on the mountain dwelling troll while doing her best to ignore the terrifying pain running through her body.
Not just to ensure that she could continue consuming the body of the mountain dwelling troll, but also to ensure that she didn’t look like a weak and easy target to the monsters who were watching her from afar.
After all, the moment she slipped up, these monsters would undoubtedly come charging out to try and kill her.
Chomp! Chomp~!
So, with the monsters hidden not too far away from the body of the mountain dwelling troll, Scaly began to slowly continue consuming the body of the troll. Absorbing the dragon blood contained inside of it at a much faster speed than normal, causing her to soon feel the distinct feeling of her strength increasing even though her level had remained the same since she had started eating the troll. Signifying that the strength of her dragon blood had increased.
Only after two hours of slowly devouring what was left of the mountain dwelling troll while doing her best to endure the terrifying pain that came along with doing so, did Scaly finally lift he head with a sense of relief upon seeing only bones left on the ground in front of her.
She had managed to fully devour the mountain dwelling troll. Absorbing all of its dragon blood in the process. Increasing the strength of her dragon bloodline by quite a bit.
GROOOOWL-!
However, just as she started to relax after having accomplished her goal, a loud and familiar sounding growling sound echoed out from afar, as Scaly instinctively turned to look in the direction of the sound. Only to see a large number of mountain gnolls charging towards her current location riding on top of some kind of large wolf monster.