Shaking her head as she decided to ignore the new pain resistance skill and the strange description that followed it, Scaly turned her attention towards her dragon blood to see how much it had progressed since she had finished devouring the body of the mountain dwelling troll.
[Dragon blood: 6% (Inferior)]
In the end, although it had managed to help her breakthrough the 500-point mark and reach her primary goal before undergoing her next evolution, it was still classified as inferior by the system at 6%. Making her guess that she would probably need it to reach 10% or more to get rid of her current inferior status.
Unfortunately, even if the dragon blood still left in her stomach was fully consumed, she doubted that it would allow her to reach 10%. At most, it would help her reach 8%.
Although this was unfortunate, Scaly didn’t intend to delay her evolution to try and find a way to increase the purity of her dragon blood or level up her dragon bloodline skill.
After all, the first was dependent on her luck of encountering a monster similar to the mountain dwelling troll that had dragon blood inside it and was weak enough for her to kill, while the second would take a long time to accomplish, as she would only be able to slowly raise the level of her dragon bloodline skill by leveling up her other dragon related skills without any dragon blood around.
Creaaak~
As Scaly was lost in her own thoughts inside the tree trunk while waiting for the mountain gnolls to leave the place, a creaking sound suddenly echoed out from above her, causing her to use all of her strength to silently turn her head to look up at where the creaking sound had come from.
This... This is bad! The tree trunk is too weak to hold up the mountain gnoll!
Almost instantly spotting the large cracks that had begun to spread in the wood above her. Signaling that the mountain gnoll sitting on top of the tree trunk was far too heavy for the already weakened wood that had already begun the process of rotting away.
If the mountain gnoll didn’t get up in the next few minutes, she would soon find herself getting squished by the gnoll above her!
Growl! Growl, growl, growl...
Unfortunately, as she looked through the small hole in the tree trunk, she discovered that the commanding mountain gnoll was still busy explaining something to the rest of the mountain gnolls and showed no signs of leaving any time soon-
On the other hand, more of the mountain gnolls made their way over to the tree trunk that she was hiding inside of before similarly sitting down to relax while listening to their commander. Not a single one of them noticing that the tree trunk was slowly giving in under their weight.
Growl-!
[Mountain Gnoll, Brute, lvl 47]
However, just as she thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, mountain gnoll twice the size of the other mountain gnolls present suddenly appeared within view making his way towards the tree trunk she was hiding inside of-
Creaaaak~
And soon enough, he sat down on the tree trunk together with the rest of the mountain gnolls, causing a loud creaking sound to spread through the interior of the tree trunk.
Oh no...! It’s going to break!
Listening to the wood above her and seeing the cracks rapidly multiplying under the increased stress, Scaly instantly understood that the already rotting wooden trunk couldn’t hold on any longer-
Crack!
And so, before Scaly had the time to forcibly break free from the wooden trunk and escape, the tree trunk broke and she was crushed beneath the mountain gnolls above, as they landed directly on top of her.
Growl!?
Groooool!?
Following the tree trunk breaking, all of the mountain gnolls focused their attention on the tree trunk that had just broken and the mountain gnolls who had been sitting on top of it. Ready for a possible ambush that never seemed to happen. Soon causing the mountain gnolls to realize what had happened as they saw the broken tree trunk that had been crushed beneath the mostly unharmed mountain gnolls.
Growl?
However, it didn’t take long for the mountain gnolls to notice something odd about the broken remnants of the tree trunk, or, more specifically, the blue object that seemed to be buried under the broke tree trunk.
GROOOWL-!
Seeing this blue object, the commanding mountain gnoll almost instantly realized what it was, as he screamed out for the rest of the mountain gnolls to get it-
Whoosh-!
In spite of the swift order from the commanding mountain gnoll, by the time that the mountain gnolls were about to act, the blue object buried beneath the broken pieces of the tree trunk had already jumped out before rushing up the mountain at a speed only slightly worse than their wolf mounts. Giving the mountain gnolls little chance to catch it.
But it did also allow the rest of the mountain gnolls to finally realize what the blue object was, as all of them saw the small dragon that had been behind the death of the mountain dwelling troll according to their commander.
Rumble~
So, before long, all of the mountain gnolls were once again back on top of their mounts as they continued to chase after Scaly who kept moving further up the mountain. Rapidly closing the already close distance between them.
Growl...
Even then, none of the mountain gnolls seemed to be overjoyed about this, as they instead seemed to become more and more afraid the further up the mountain they moved. Constantly looking around at the desolate mountain side that only had a few lone trees on it so far.
Boing~
Soon enough, the reason for their fear presented itself in the shape of a rather harmless looking grey colored slime that bounced across the empty landscape.
Is this little thing what terrified the mountain gnolls...?
Seeing this and also noticing that the mountain gnolls had slowed down significantly, Scaly could not help tilting her head in confusion. Not understanding how such a small slime had managed to scare off the mountain gnolls that seemed to dominate most of the mountain range.
[Mountain Bouncing Slime, lvl 41]
[Description: A unique evolution of the mountain slime, the mountain bouncing slime spends all of its time bouncing around on the mountain they are born in. Generally, they are not dangerous and easy to avoid, but once encounter, its recommended to flee as fast as possible, as they devour anything they encounter and normally move together in groups that range anywhere from a few hundreds to thousands depending on the size of the mountain with a single older slime charting the way for the rest.]
Reading through the description of what she had presumed to be a harmless slime, Scaly could not help feeling a shiver run down her spine, as she soon noticed something appearing in the distance behind the mountain bouncing slime.
Rumble-!
Boing~ Boing~ Boing~ Boing~ Boing~
And not a second later, the ground around her began trembling, as the sound of countless slimes jumping around could be heard. Following which what could only be described as a wave of slime stretching for several hundred meters appeared in the distance.
G-G-Growl!
Groowl!
Seeing this, not only Scaly, but the mountain gnolls behind her also began panicking as they directly turned around and gave up chasing after her without any hesitation. Clearly understanding that if they didn’t do so, they would end up getting caught by the mountain slimes and get devoured without any chance to fight back.
After all, the number of bouncing mountain slimes that compromised the wave was more than ten thousand. Possibly even reaching a hundred thousand!
No matter how strong the mountain gnolls were, they stood no chance against such a large number of mountain bouncing slimes and could only hope to escape in time to avoid them.
I-I have to get away!
Also wanting to escape like the mountain gnolls, Scaly directly turned around to escape back down into the forest further down the mountain-
GROWL!
However, before she had a chance to do this, the commanding mountain gnoll stepped forward to stop her together with the mountain gnolls. Forcing her to turn around to avoid a battle that was impossible for her to win in her current state and with her current strength.
Boing~ Boing~ Boing~ Boing~ Boing~
In the end, she found that the mountain bouncing slimes had only gotten closer than before and was forced to escape further up the mountain to try and outrun the wave before it could reach her. Hoping that they wouldn’t directly target her and would instead go after the much larger mountain gnolls.
At least when it came to that, she was far smaller and less appetizing compared to the mountain gnolls... And given that some of them had blocked her, they wouldn’t all be able to make it back to the safety of the forest before the mountain bouncing slimes could reach them...!