Ptsh-!
[Gained 818 Exp]
Chomp~!
Finishing up what she considered to be her breakfast after waking up from a long nap with little to nothing in her stomach, Scaly smiled happily to herself as she patted herself on the stomach while chomping down on what had become the fifth cave spider to enter her stomach since she had emerged from her temporary home to start searching for a path leading down to the fifth floor of the dungeon or up to the surface of the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Name: Scaly
Race: Young Tempest Dragon
Dragon blood: 21% (Common)
Level: 24/30, 43%
Mana Heart: First Circle
STR: 557 |VIT: 987 | DEX: 529 | M: 1192
Looking through the most simplistic format of her status without all her skills, it was clear that even just hunting a few weaker monsters had provided her with almost a fifth of a level. If things continued like this, she should be able to level up to level 25 by hunting down another 15 cave spiders.
The only problem was that there weren’t any more cave spiders around for her to hunt down, as they had clearly sensed her presence and escaped after the first four had been killed by her. The fifth she was currently busy chomping down on was a rather unlucky cave spider that had been in the process of moving away, but unfortunately found itself running directly into her after she had finished eating the fourth cave spider... And her stomach was still not full, thus sealing the fate of the fifth cave spider that now joined its comrades inside her stomach...
Now that I think about it, I do wonder where the cave spiders migrated to. If I could find out where they are hiding, I might be able to increase my level by a lot...
Narrowing both her eyes as she thought about this, Scaly wasted no time chomping down the remaining bits of the unlucky cave spider before her attention turned towards the direction that the cave spider had been travelling in before she had killed it.
Although her current goal was to find a path to the fifth floor of the dungeon, the primary goal had always been to increase her own strength. If she had the opportunity to rapidly increase her own strength, there was no way she would just give up on it!
Rustle~
For this reason, after concluding her meal and making sure of the direction, Scaly began traveling across the rough terrain as she did her best to blend in with her surroundings.
Normally, this would have been difficult, but she was rather lucky that the direction she was moving had a small gentle stream next to it. Allowing her to jump into the water and blend in with the rushing water of the small stream as she travelled. Avoiding detection from any monsters along the way that might alert the fleeing cave spiders to the fact that she was coming after them.
Even if it did hurt her soul to ignore the monsters she spotted along the way, she told herself it was for the better and it would all be worth it when she found the lair of the cave spiders.
Like this, Scaly found herself slowly drifting along with the current of the small stream. Poking her head up to take in her surroundings every now and then to ensure that she was still on the right track... And after drifting along for what felt like hours, she finally reached the location she had been searching for- A large opening dug into the side of the massive underground cave she found herself in, one that was covered in large spider webs and had countless spider monsters wandering around it.
[Cave Spider, lvl 31]
[Venom Cave Spider, lvl 21]
[Cave Web Spinner, lvl 41]
[Cave Spider...]
From the normal cave spiders to the rarer venom cave spiders to a brand-new variant of cave spiders called cave web spinners, Scaly saw countless cave spiders crawling around. Making her feel that everything had been worth it.
The only problem was that there were now far too many spiders around for her to directly charge forward like she had originally intended.
Just from a quick glance, she could count over a hundred different kinds of cave spiders crawling around the place. If she really went forward with her original plan of charging forth and taking them on head-on, she was almost certain that they would all swarm her.
No matter how confident she was in her own strength, taking on over a hundred cave spiders wasn’t something she felt confident in doing. Especially considering that there were even more hidden inside the lair and the high likelihood of a ruler type monster like the venom spider queen, forest gnoll chieftain or the forest rabbit lord being present.
Faced with all this, she could only remain hidden in the water for now, as she found herself gently being carried in the direction of the cave spider lair. The reason for this was rather simple, as the small stream she hid inside of moved directly into the spider lair. Allowing her to infiltrate the place undetected.
Part of her did want to just get out of the water before she got in range of the countless cave spiders and do what she had done in the past by secretly picking them off one by one, but another part of her also wanted to enter the lair and see what was hidden in there before she made any reckless moves that could potentially provoke thousands of cave spiders to chase after her.
How did the number of cave spiders grow from over a hundred to thousands in such a short time? That was because she had already drifted past the entrance to the lair and saw the true appearance of the cave spider lair.
Hundreds upon hundreds of cave spiders were crawling on top of each other as they travelled along a main central tunnel that branched out into countless smaller tunnels. Leaving no place untouched except for a certain small stream where a young dragon was shivering all over as she did her best to hold her breath below the water to not attract any unwanted attention.
Even though she had already been prepared, the interior of the cave spider lair was far more terrifying than she had first expected. Making her happy that she hadn’t recklessly attacked the place, while at the same time feeling nervous about how she would get out of this place without being discovered by the countless spiders that crawled all over the ground, walls and ceiling of the tunnel she was travelling through.
At the same time, part of her could not help feeling even more curious about what she might find if she continued deeper into the cave spider lair. Would she perhaps find some kind of powerful cave spider ruler no weaker that the baby kraken?
No, I will need to turn around soon if I want to get out before I run out of air. After all, I still need to swim upstream to get out of this place!
Shaking her head as she stopped her train of thought before she ended up doing something dangerous, Scaly carefully moved her body around in the narrow stream before beginning to slowly swim upstream in the direction she had come from. Remaining completely invisible to the spiders all around her in the process as she made sure to move slower to create as little of a disturbance as possible-
Splash!
Wha-What was that...?
However, just as she felt everything was going well and she would soon be back outside the cave spider lair, a loud splashing sound echoed out in front of her. Not that she heard much underwater, but she felt the clear disturbance of something entering the water in front of her, causing a sense of unease to well up inside her...
That-!? Why is something like this happening in the water!!!
And soon enough she discovered the origin of the budding sense of unease that now turned into full blown panic, as she saw through the water two large spider bodies entwined with each other as they floated down the stream. Blocking her escape path as they for some reason decided to mate in the water.
Whoosh~
Knowing that there would be no getting out the way she came in, she ultimately had to turn around before colliding with the two spiders before she resumed her journey deeper inside the cave spider lair.
Although part of her felt excited at this, the rational part of her brain was still filled with a building sense of bread thinking about what she might encounter when she reached the end of the small stream and found out what kind of monster lurked in the depths of the cave spider lair.
The only thing she could hope for was that it wasn’t a monster sensitive to those with a dragon bloodline like the baby kraken...