Making her way deeper into the cave after she partly sealed off the entrance to the cave to make it more difficult to notice from the outside, Scaly soon found herself standing at the edge of a small river a little over five meters wide that seemed to be moving downwards in a slow turning circular tunnel that seemed to widen further down as the mountain itself became wider. Looking up the tunnel that the river was flowing through, the river seemed to be making smaller circles as the width of the mountain became smaller the further up one went.
Although she had no idea where such a large amount of water could come from on top of a mountain nor whether there were any dangerous monsters waiting for her further up or down the river, Scaly managed to confirm that there were not any monsters in the area close to the cave that she had chosen for her evolution.
On the other hand, she should be able to also close the entrance to the river in front of her with a little more time on hand.
Rustle~
About to go through her evolution now that she had made sure that there shouldn’t be any problems with monsters appearing to attack her as long as she closed the entrance of the river running through the interior of the mountain, Scaly was suddenly caught off guard by a slight rustling sound coming from further down the river-
RUSTLE-!
And as she tried to listen more closely to see where the sound had come from, Scaly discovered that the sound of rustling only grew louder, while it also became clear that the original rustling sound came from water.
Hm?! The water is rising!
It was at that moment Scaly suddenly saw the water further down the river seemed to be filling up tunnel that it ran through. Submerging everything along the way as the waterline slowly moved closer and closer to her-
Rumble-!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
However, before she had the time to rush back into the cave and try to escape the way she had come from, she suddenly found that the cave was affected by the rising water putting pressure on the mountain itself, causing the cave to suddenly collapse in front of her. Sealing her only path out of her current situation.
Although she now had the ability to swim and breath under water for an extended period of time, she doubted that she would be able to swim down the submerged part of the tunnel and find her way out in that way.
Not just because she had no idea how long it would take her to do something like that, but also because she had no idea about the different monsters that might be lurking in whatever place that diving down would lead her two. Be it an underground lake filled with powerful monsters or all the way to the fifth floor where even stronger monsters resided, Scaly didn’t plan to take the risk.
Instead of that, she decided to move further up the tunnel with the river running through it.
At the very least, there was a small path just large enough for her to walk on going along the river occupying most of the tunnel. Allowing her to ascend the mountain from the inside before the water below could reach her.
Then again, she wasn’t too worried about not being able to escape the rising water line, as it moved at a rather slow speed. Far too slow to catch up to her.
Thump~
With that in mind, Scaly moved a bit further before sitting down on the ground to observe the rising water. Curious about whether or not it would be powerful to push the fallen rocks blocking the cave entrance she had entered through out of the way. Clearing a path out of the place for her.
RUMBLE-!
Waiting around like this for a few minutes, as she watched the water line slowly rise above the cave entrance, Scaly suddenly heard a loud rumbling sound followed by the waterline that had risen above the collapsed cave entrance rapidly lowering. Revealing the cave entrance that had been cleared out by the power of the water, causing the water to violently rush through the cave entrance and out of the mountain.
Thump~ Thump~
Slowly descending down the path still wet from the water that had covered it only a few seconds earlier, Scaly curiously poked her head down as far as she could without getting in the way of the water to look out through the now cleared cave that had been turned into an outlet for the massive amount of water inside the mountain.
Huh?
Boing?
[Mountain Bouncing Slime, lvl 37]
However, what she saw when looking out the mountain was the familiar figure of a mountain bouncing slime that she had escaped from not too long ago-
Boing~! Boing~! Boing~! Boing~! Boing~!
[Mountain Bouncing Slime, lvl 26]
[Mountain Bouncing Slime, lvl 31]
[Mountain Bouncing Slime, lvl 29]
[Mountain Bounc...]
Not just a single mountain bouncing slime, but all of the mountain bouncing slimes had gathered at the entrance of the cave where the water was rushing out from and were currently busy doing what she could only presume to be drinking the water.
In the process of doing so, they had also blocked her way out the mountain through the way she had originally planned to leave, causing her to retreat back before she caught the attention of the mountain bouncing slimes who seemed too busy with the water to chase after her at the moment.
Guess I will have to wait for the water to lower again and the mountain bouncing slimes to leave before I can leave...
Thinking this to herself as she looked down at the water that kept rushing out through the cave entrance, she had entered the mountain through, Scaly plopped down on the ground and patiently waited.
One minute went by, no change.
Five minutes, no change.
Ten minutes, she grew curious about whether or not the mountain bouncing slimes had left and decided to take a look, no change, they were still there.
Fifteen minutes, she was growing bored of waiting, mountain bouncing slimes were still there along with the water that seemed inexhaustible with the constant flow of new water from further up the mountain.
Thirty minutes... Scaly had grown impatient of just waiting around doing nothing, so she decided to check on the mountain bouncing slimes one last time before she began making her way further up the mountain following the path that ran beside the river.
At least at the moment, she understood that she wouldn’t be able to leave the interior of the mountain before the water that seemed to flow down from above in an endless stream didn’t come to a stop.
So, as long as she kept an eye on the water next to her as she continued moving up the mountain through the tunnel, she would be able to tell when the mountain bouncing slimes busy drinking the water below left and it became safe for her to leave and go in search of another place where she could go through her next evolution.
After all, even though it might be possible for her to go through her evolution inside the tunnel with the river next to her, Scaly didn’t feel safe doing that, as she had no idea if she would end up being washed down if the flow of water increased and the river ended up covering the small path she was moving along at the moment.
With that in mind, she continued to climb further up the mountain through the tunnel. Avoiding any powerful monsters, she might have normally encountered if she had decided to climb up the mountain in the normal way.
Of course, her climb up the mountain through the tunnel didn’t come without problems, as the path she was following wasn’t always in perfect condition and had sometimes even been broken off. Forcing her to slowly climb or jump over certain areas.
As she got further up the mountain and the tunnel itself turned more and more with width of the mountain itself becoming smaller, the state of the path itself also got worse. Making it more and more difficult for her to climb her way up without being swept away by the powerful river.
In the end, after close to four hours of climbing up and falling into the river once, erasing over an hour’s worth of progress in the process, Scaly finally reached the end of the tunnel.
Climbing out of it, the exhausted Scaly was greeted with the shocking sight of a large lake inside what could be described as a large crater inside the mountain... And feeding into the lake filling up most of this crater, Scaly saw a large waterfall that seemed to come from the heavens. Falling directly into the crater of the mountain before feeding into the lake that then fed into the tunnel she had journeyed through.