Looking out at the destruction that was still visible throughout the human city ruins, Scaly could not help feeling a bit uneasy that she might end up encountering the same monster that the branch eater swarm had ended up running into.
Rustle~
Because of this, she didn’t dare linger around at the top of the roof for long before she returned down the stairs and found herself standing at the now half open hidden door in the shape of a bookshelf on the outside. Part of her wanted to retreat underground again to avoid encountering whatever monster might be lurking in the ruins above, but she knew full well that there was no way for her to continue moving around underground, as the only path she could use had already been blocked before she had fallen asleep.
Even if she wanted to continue moving through the underground part of the city, she would still have to go outside and search for another path into the underground tunnels stretching below the surface of the city.
How troublesome... hopefully the monster behind the disappearance of the branch eater worm swarm has already left the place...
Silently thinking this to herself as she looked out towards the empty streets through a small hole in the wall of the building, Scaly soon built up enough courage to slowly make her way outside.
Soon enough, realizing that the place was far quieter than she had expected.
No powerful monster lurking outside waiting for her to appear nor any sign of such monsters even having been present in the first place. All she saw was several large craters with still burning corpses of branch eater worms that looked increasingly appetizing to her in her rather starved state...
Chomp~!
And... Unable to stop herself, she ultimately couldn’t stop herself from taking a bite out of a slightly charred branch eater worm after ensuring there wasn’t any monster around watching her.
Sinking her teeth into the slightly charred branch eater worm, Scaly’s eyes widened in surprise at the taste that soon filled her mouth. The subtle charred taste along with the slightly spicy flavor that seemed to originate from the strange flame that had burnt the branch eater worm along with the crispy texture and general taste of the meat that was no different from chicken was absolutely beyond anything she had ever tasted before.
Mmmmm! Delecious!
Chomp~! Chomp~! Chomp~!
And so, without the slightest hint of hesitation, Scaly wasted no time in wolfing down the entire branch eater worm in a few short seconds, a satisfactory smile grazing her lips as her attention soon turned towards another smoldering branch eater worm in the distance.
One was far from enough to satisfy her hunger. Especially with how long she had gone without eating.
Not to mention, the branch eater worms were simply far too delicious for her to simply ignore. Even more so because she instinctively knew that the second they cooled down and the flames went out, they wouldn’t be anywhere near as delicious as they were at the current moment.
With that in mind, she felt an urgency to eat as many of them as she could before they cooled down and became less delicious.
The earlier worry of encountering a powerful monster wandering around the human city ruins disappearing completely, as Scaly found herself entirely focused on consuming as many of the smoldering branch eater worms, she could before they ended up cooling down.
Unknown to her, this desire wasn’t entirely because of how delicious the branch eater worms were, but also because she had subconsciously felt a slight improvement in her magic capacity after eating one of the branch eater worms and that improvement seemed to be fading with the cooling down of the smoldering branch eater worms.
So... Like this, Scaly soon found herself scouring through the human city ruins in search of still hot branch eater worms.
First because of hunger and later because she also noticed that eating the still hot branch eater worms seemed to be beneficial to her. Improving her strength in a way that didn’t require her to level up like she had done in the past... And of course, faced with a way to improve her strength, Scaly didn’t hesitate for an instant as she put her full effort into consuming as many of the still hot branch eater worms scattered around the human city as possible.
By the time she reached her limit, she had already swallowed over 30 of them, her small stomach already bloated as she found it difficult to move around and was more so rolling around by now. Forcing her to stop attempting to swallow any more of the branch eater worms.
Although... This wasn’t entirely because she had long since reached her limit when it came to eating branch eater worms but was more so because she had already noticed that eating more wouldn’t bring anymore benefits.
Roll~
With that in mind, Scaly found a safe place beneath a partly crumbled overhang connected to a large building that stood mostly intact before pulling up her status to see just how much she had improved and what part of her had improved from her eating so many branch eater worms.
After all, even though she could feel herself improving while chomping down branch eater worms, she couldn’t entirely tell what part of her had been improving, though... This might have been because she had been far too absorbed in eating the branch eater worms and didn’t really bother to check what part of her improved whenever she swallowed down one of them.
In her eyes, it didn’t really matter what part of her improved, all that mattered to her was that she was becoming stronger...
Name: Scaly
Race: Young Tempest Dragon
Dragon blood: 21% (Common)
Level: 29/30, 37%
Mana Heart: First Circle
STR: 607 |VIT: 1087 | DEX: 879 | M: 1592
Magic: [Dragon Water Magic, lvl 6], [Ice Magic lvl 1], [Wind Magic, lvl 6], [Lightning Magic, lvl 2],
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline, lvl 4], [Dragon Flight, lvl 5], [Poison Resistance, lvl 4], [Dragon Claw Strike, lvl 7], [Dragon Breath (Water), lvl 3], [Corrosion Resistance, lvl 3], [Pain Resistance, lvl 5], [Swimming, lvl 4], [Dragon Heart, lvl 1], [Endless Vitality, lvl 1]
Looking through her status, Scaly honestly felt surprised at just how much stronger she had become from eating a few branch eater worms. Both her magic and dexterity had increased by 300 points each, a total increase of 600 points. Equal to her leveling up 10 times in terms of raw stats!
Even though she was prepared for her strength to have increased, she had never expected the increase to be that massive. Not to mention, her stats weren’t the only thing that had increased, the level of two of her skills had also increased.
Poison resistance and corrosion resistance.
Wait... Poison and corrosion resistance... Is it perhaps related to the spicy flavor of the branch eater worms?
Suddenly realizing that the branch eater worms might not have been that safe for her to consume, Scaly could not help silently thanking her poison and corrosion resistance, as they had clearly played a crucial role in her ability to consume the branch eater worms without any problems.
But... Even after knowing that the spicy flavor from the branch eater worms might have been something bad, she couldn’t help feeling a sense of longing remembering this unique flavor, as it had really helped increase the deliciousness of the branch eater worms to the next level.
If she had the opportunity, she would love to use this spiciness in the future to enhance the flavor of her food. The problem that it was poisonous, and corrosive, wasn’t a problem if she could resist it with her poison and corrosion resistance.
In a way, it could be considered a unique method to train her resistance and further increase her own strength while eating! Yes! That was it!
Convincing herself that it was fine to poison herself if it helped make her food more delicious, Scaly soon froze in place as she suddenly realized that she had essentially been walking all over the human city ruins in search of the branch eater worms over the past hour or so without encountering any powerful monster along the way.
Even if this was a rather interesting way for her to test if there was still some powerful monster lurking inside the human city ruins, she had at least made sure that it would be safe for her to wander around the human city ruins.
As for what would have happened if a powerful monster was still lurking inside the human city ruins... Well... She would only be able to blame her momentary lack of judgement in the face of delicious food.
Not to mention, it wasn’t entirely her fault that she had acted so recklessly, it was her stomach! It had rebelled against her and complained incessantly before taking control of her body!
Yes! That was it! It was all her stomach’s fault!
Fully convincing herself that it was her stomach’s fault for rebelling against her, Scaly threw any thoughts about her reckless behavior to the back of her mind before focusing on what she would be doing next.