Starting to train her wind magic in earnest on top of one of the many immortal snails roaming around the island, Scaly ended up using the immortal snails in question as target practice for her wind magic. Not just because they made perfect target dummies to train her magic, but also because she realized that her wind magic seemed to grow faster when she used it in combat against a monster... And the immortal snails, even if they didn’t seem to fight back, seemed to be categorized as monsters. Allowing her wind magic to grow far faster than if she just practiced on her own.
Outside of training her wind magic, Scaly also decided to spend a little time every day dipping her feet into the water to practice her swimming skills close to the edge of the island. Fighting some of the yellow fatty cave fish to train herself in combat against monsters in the water.
Although the overall result was not that good and she had to adjust all of her magic in different ways that ended up consuming far more mana for them to be usable underwater, she still managed to enhance her combat abilities in the water to the degree where she had more than enough confidence to fight any number of fatty yellow cave fish that came at her.
In the end, with no real time limit on when she had to leave and no sign of any danger above that of the endless stream of fatty yellow cave fish that came to the waters around the island she now lived on, Scaly ended up spending an entire week honing her wind magic. Living off water made with her water magic and the endless supply of food provided by the fatty yellow cave fish.
All things considered, she could continue her training like this for another week or maybe even an entire month without any problems regarding food or water, but... She really couldn’t take eating the same thing all the time!
Even though the fatty yellow cave fish were delicious in their own right, and she had enjoyed eating them, it became a little too much after eating it for an entire week without anything else in between...
But... This should be enough for me to reach that landmass in the distance and start searching for the heavenly lake serpents...
Narrowing both her eyes as she thought this to herself while looking down at a half-eaten fatty yellow cave fish, Scaly soon turned to look over her status to see her progress over the past week of training.
Name: Scaly
Race: Young Tempest Dragon
Dragon blood: 19% (Common)
Level: 24/30, 16%
Mana Heart: First Circle
STR: 547 |VIT: 877 | DEX: 519 | M: 1182
Magic: [Dragon Water Magic, lvl 6], [Ice Magic lvl 1], [Wind Magic, lvl 5], [Lightning Magic, lvl 2],
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline, lvl 4], [Dragon Flight, lvl 4], [Poison Resistance, lvl 3], [Dragon Claw Strike, lvl 7], [Dragon Breath (Water), lvl 3], [Corrosion Resistance, lvl 2], [Pain Resistance, lvl 4], [Swimming, lvl 3]
Overall, her level had not changed much over the past week, though that was mostly because she had spent most of her time training her wind magic. The only level she had managed to gain was due to how many fatty yellow cave fish had ended up in her stomach over the past week.
On the other hand, her wind magic had increased by quite a bit compared to a week ago. Having gone from level 3 all the way up to level 5. Increasing its strength by a lot compared to before, while at the same time making it far easier to use due to her repeated practice.
At the same time, outside of her wind magic that had increased by quite a bit, her swimming had also increased to level 3.
Although the improvement there wasn’t as good as her wind magic, it was still good enough for her to fight some weaker monsters in the water without any problems.
Not to mention, as her swimming level increased, her speed in the water similarly increased.
Even if she couldn’t make it all the way to the landmass in the distance and ended up in the dark waters that contained dangers that she was not yet aware of, she felt fully confident in being able to swim the rest of the way to the landmass in her current state.
Filled with confidence as she thought about just how much she had improved over the past week even though her level hadn’t changed that much, Scaly began to confidently climb up one of the pillars on the islands after finishing off the last bit of the fatty yellow cave fish in front of her. Fully confident that she would be able to reach the landmass in the distance with her current mastery of wind magic.
Even if she couldn’t reach the landmass, everything was still fine, as she had prepared herself to fight in the water and have to swim some of the way there.
Whoosh~!
With all of that in mind, Scaly confidently leaped off the pillar after reaching the ceiling before starting to glide towards the landmass in the distance. Making sure to use her wind magic whenever she deemed necessary to keep herself gliding for as long as possible.
Luckily, her increased strength in wind magic came to use soon enough, as she was pretty much able to stay close to the ceiling almost half the way to the landmass in the distance before she was forced to slowly start descending to preserve her mana and ensure that she could make it the rest of the way to the landmass without having to end up in the dark waters in the process.
Splash~!
However, just as she had made it around sixty percent of the way to the landmass in the distance and essentially had no way to turn back around, a loud sound of water splashing and being displaced sounded out from the dark waters only a few hundred meters below her at this point in time-
SPPPLAAAASH-!
And not a second later a monstrous creature emerged from the dark waters, causing Scaly’s heart to start beating nervously, as she watched the creature below her use several massive tentacles to try and reach up towards her in an attempt to grab hold of her
WHOOOSH-!
Not even hesitating for a second upon seeing the countless tentacles over a hundred meters long reaching up towards her, Scaly directly used her wind magic to accelerate her speed, while at the same time also pushing herself as far upwards as possible to avoid the tenacles.
Even if this did end up draining most of the mana she had left, she couldn’t care less, as she understood she would be dead the moment those tentacles grabbed hold of her.
The reason for this was simple, as outside of the sheer size of the monster below her, she had also managed to inspect it during the short time that it had emerged from the water.
[Baby Kraken, lvl 79]
[Description: A newborn kraken, one of the most fearful monsters found in deep waters. Little is known about them outside of the fact that even S Rank Adventures fear encountering a grown-up kraken. Even the legendary dragons are no match for the kraken in the water.]
Even from that brief description, it was clear that this was not just any monster, but one comparable to dragons. Even surpassing dragons when it came to fighting in the water!
Not just that, but the terrifying level alone was more than enough for her to steer clear of this terrifying monster.
Luckily, she just barely managed to act fast enough, as the tentacles couldn’t reach her in time. Resulting in the baby kraken below staring towards her for a brief moment before sinking back into the dark waters like nothing had happened.
Of course, even with the baby kraken disappearing, Scaly didn’t feel the slightest bit better, as she was still in a stunned state from the earlier encounter. Only now did she realize that this underground ocean was far more dangerous than she first expected.
Not just that, but the things lurking below the surface were far more deadly than the heavenly lake serpents, as even the heavenly lake serpents would just turn into a small snack in the face of that baby kraken.
At the very least, this did make her more confident that she would be able to find the heavenly lake serpents somewhere on land, as there was no way they would dare to reside in the water with that kind of thing around.
However, there was now another more pressing issue... She had used up most of her mana to escape just now and didn’t have enough to keep herself gliding above the water for the rest of the way to the landmass. Meaning, she would end up in the water with the baby kraken lurking inside of it in the near future...