Unaware of the chaos that had begun spreading throughout the Great Sky Kingdom outside of the Howling Caverns Dungeon, Scaly just remained silent on top of one of the immortal snails as it slowly moved along the surface of the island. Recovering her mana without anything coming to threaten her in the process.
Part of her didn’t really want to get up after she finished recovering her mana, as she knew she would have to start exploring the dark waters, while another part of her understood that she would have to get up unless she wanted to starve to death. After all, there was nothing on the island that she could eat.
As for the immortal snails? There was a reason why they were considered immortal, as even using all of her strength to try and break their though shell, she had not made a single hole in the shell.
Well... She did succeed in making a small hole, but it was quickly repaired by the same slime that came out from where the snail traveled. Closing up the hole she had made with all of her strength before she could even try to make it any bigger.
At the very least, the immortal snail she had attacked and was still lying on top of didn’t seem to mind this even in the slightest, as it had gone on like nothing ever happened during the entire process.
Although this did make her feel a bit depressed, she quickly recovered after her stomach started showing signs of protesting. Informing her that she would have to find something to eat soon.
Splash~!
And it was with this in mind that she cautiously moved to the edge of the island before sticking her head into the water to get a better idea about the situation down there after she had made certain that there was no monster fish in the water close to her.
After all, the last thing she wanted was to stick her head inside the mouth of a monster fish by accident...
[Fatty Yellow Cave Fish, lvl 13]
[Fatty Yellow Cave Fish, lvl 5]
[Fatty Yellow Cave Fish, lvl 9]
[Fatty Yellow Cave Fish...]
Now able to see the situation in the dark waters, Scaly was somewhat relieved to discover that there weren’t as many monsters present in the water as she had first expected. Especially the fact that the monster she could see at the moment were all the familiar fatty yellow cave fish that didn’t pose that much danger to her if they weren’t together in large numbers.
The few of them she did spot were also significantly weaker than the ones she had seen earlier upon her time in the underground river.
Whoosh-! Splash!
CHOMP-!
And when one of the weaker ones passed right by her without even noticing her, she didn’t hesitate for even a second as her head moved on its own and chomped down on the unsuspecting fish before it had a chance to react.
[Gained 134 Exp]
Killing it in one swift blow before she retreated back onto the island with her prey to enjoy it in peace and fill her empty stomach before thinking about how to explore the underground ocean without endangering herself too much.
After all, swimming through the dark waters was a possibility, but she didn’t think there were only fatty yellow cave fish around in the waters and there were bound to be more dangerous monsters present, it was just that she hadn’t noticed them yet.
For this reason, after hunting down a few more unsuspecting fatty yellow cave fish around the edges of the island, she decided to climb up one of the large pillars connected to the ceiling above.
Both to gain a vantage point from where she could look for any other small rocky islands like the one, she was on at the moment, while at the same time also giving her a great location to jump off and use to cover large distances by gliding. Avoiding the danger of having to swim through the dark waters entirely in the process.
There is really nothing but water everywhere, I really wonder where those heavenly lake serpents have gone- Could they really be hiding somewhere inside the dark waters...?
Thinking this to herself as she looked over the seemingly endless expanse of pitch-black water that stretched on as far as she could see after climbing all the way to the ceiling while holding on to one of the pillars, Scaly could not help feeling a bit discouraged regarding her original goal of finding and hunting down the heavenly lake serpents.
It would already be difficult to hunt them on land where she had to worry about them working together to fight her, while in the water, it was almost impossible for her to deal with the heavenly lake serpents who were far better adjusted to water combat than her.
Not to mention, finding them was already close to impossible unless they decided to poke their heads out of the water. For now, the only thing she could see from her high vantage point was a few more spike like rocks sticking up from the dark waters and the waterfall cascading down from the ceiling that should be her original entrance point into the underground ocean.
Although it was relieving knowing she could find her way out by going back through the waterfall, she had a feeling it would be impossible for her to do with her current strength. Not just fighting against the water, but also the fact that the start of the waterfall was the ceiling, somewhere she couldn’t reach without being able to actually fly instead of just gliding like she did at the moment.
No matter how good she was at climbing, she couldn’t climb upside down on the ceiling, as she would almost certainly soon end up finding herself plummeting towards the ground.
How did she know this? She had personally attempted climbing on the ceiling shortly after reaching it but had ended up finding herself just barely catching herself and gliding to safety seconds later, as she slipped and lost her grip.
Shaking her head as she stopped thinking any more about how to leave the underground ocean, Scaly focused her attention back on scanning the dark waters for any other island similar to the one she was currently on. Hoping to find something... And just as she was about to give up and climb back down to hunt for more fish to eat, she spotted it, a massive island far larger than the one she was currently on.
No... It wouldn’t be accurate to call it an island. Instead, it could be said to be the shoreline of the massive underground cave she was currently inside of.
Not just that, but from afar, she clearly noticed several monsters moving around on the landmass in the distance. Even if she couldn’t identify them from the current distance, as all she could make out was a bit of movement, it did make her ecstatic to know that it wasn’t just an endless ocean underground.
More than that, the landmass gave her hope of finding the heavenly lake serpents, as she had a feeling that they might have made their home somewhere on the landmass in the distance.
The main problem that stood before her at the moment was that the landmass was way too far away for her to reach even if she jumped off from the pillar right below the ceiling and tried gliding over there with the help of her wind magic.
Estimating how far she could travel from past experience; she guessed that she could only travel around halfway to that distant landmass before she plummeted into the dark waters and would be forced to face off whatever kind of monster might be lurking below.
However, it didn’t mean that she was completely without any options, as she could still train her wind magic and make it more effective. Allowing her to glide further while using less mana in the process.
Outside of that, she could also train her swimming skills in the relatively safe waters around the island and get more familiar with fighting in water.
Whoosh~
With a clear goal in mind, training her wind magic and her water movement and combat abilities, Scaly jumped off the side of the pillar before floating down towards the immortal snails below to start her training.
Given that she could create fresh water with her water magic and the fact that there were countless fatty yellow cave fish around for her to eat, she wasn’t worried about running out of either food or water, as she officially began a training arc focused mostly on increasing the strength and level of her wind magic.
The main reason why the focus was on her wind magic was because she wanted to avoid having to swim through the water and reach the large landmass in the distance if possible...