Pondering over what to do about the food problem she would end up facing after going through her evolution, Scaly found herself somewhat stuck on what to do, as she truly didn’t have any idea how to solve the food problem without potentially introducing a certain level of danger to herself. After all, the only way she could think of when it came to making sure she had enough food available when she woke up was to go somewhere where a lot of lower-level monsters gathered, something that would place her in danger while she was going through her evolution.
Going back up to the fourth floor of the dungeon again where she at least knew some locations where she should be able to safely hide away while still being close to a food source was an option.
But... She unfortunately didn’t have any way to get back to the fourth floor of the dungeon again for now, as she had yet to spot a heavenly staircase spiraling up into the sky leading back up the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Compared to previous floors, it was clear that it was far more difficult to find a staircase to move between floors on the fifth floor, as she had so far only found the single path at the core of the human city ruins that led down towards the sixth floor of the dungeon.
In a way, it should have been far simpler for her to find a staircase leading back up to the fifth floor of the dungeon as a staircase piecing through the sky was easy to spot from a distance, but she had ended up finding the far harder to find passage leading down the sixth floor of the dungeon first.
Although she was grateful for this as it would prove beneficial to her when she ended up becoming stronger and needed to venture down into the sixth floor of the dungeon in the future, it wasn’t exactly helpful now that she needed to find somewhere to safely go through her next evolution.
For that, the fourth floor- or even the third floor of the dungeon, would be far safer locations.
The presence of humans on the third floor might make it more dangerous if she was spotted, but if she just hid away somewhere remote with weak monsters with little value, the third floor of the dungeon would be the safest option for her when it came to going through her fifth evolution.
However, if she couldn’t even find a staircase leading back up to the fourth floor of the dungeon, it would be impossible for her to ever make use of the third floor to safely go through her evolution. Instead, she would have to work with what she had and find somewhere safe to go through her evolution on the fifth floor of the dungeon.
Dangerous as this was, she already had some ideas on where she could hide away safely during her evolution. Among them, the first was the human city ruins, as it was clear that the place was deserted and no one would be able to disturb her during her evolution if she chose somewhere to hide away inside the ruins.
The problem was, she had no source of easy food on hand after finishing her evolution, as the human city ruins were deserted and didn’t have any monsters roaming around it.
To get her hands on food, she would either have to get lucky and encounter a monster in the area around the human city ruins after waking up or make her way all the way back to the forest.
From past evolutions, she understood that this would take far too long, and she wouldn’t be able to control her hunger. Mindlessly, starting to search for food all around her, attacking anything that moved to satiate the hunger.
Already dangerous under normal circumstances, it was far more dangerous now that she found herself on the fifth floor of the dungeon. After all, who knew if she would end up attacking something as strong as the harmless snake that had passed her earlier in her mindless hunger fueled rampage.
If something like that happened, she would have nowhere to cry, as she would most likely end up being swallowed whole without even knowing what had happened.
Even if she became stronger after her evolution, she doubted it would make much difference in the face of something like the harmless snake she had seen earlier. Especially considering how her state of mind would be far from normal when overwhelmed by the hunger that took hold after each evolution.
With that in mind, her attention shifted away from the thought of hiding inside the human city ruins and instead turned towards her second potential hiding location, the hillside she had landed on when she had first fallen into the fifth floor.
Although she guessed that the place should be guarded by some kind of powerful monster, it was also precisely because of this that the place would be safe for her to hide inside of while going through her next evolution. Warding off the weaker monsters, while at the same time being located inside the forest allowing her easy access to food when she woke up following her fifth evolution.
As for not ending up on the dinnerplate of the monster that should be living on the quiet hillside or inside the hill itself as she had guessed back when she had made her way off the hillside in the past? That wasn’t too difficult, as she had already survived spending at least half a day or longer on the hillside while she had been resting on top of one of the spares trees that covered the hillside, she had found herself at.
If she just went through her evolution inside the dense crown of one of these trees, she should be able to avoid detection and be able to borrow the might of the monster lord lurking in the depths of the hill itself.
After all, the sensing ability of that monster should be limited to feeling movement on the earth itself and shouldn’t be able to notice her if she went through her evolution inside the tree crown of one of the trees. After all, despite being on a barren hillside, the trees themselves were all covered in a thick blanket of green and were impossible to see through for just a quick from outside.
Close to weaker monsters for her to eat when she woke up, and a personal powerful monster acting as a guardian for her. Warding off any troublesome monsters that approached her during her evolution.
All things considered, the more she thought about it, the more perfect this location seemed to be for her upcoming evolution.
The main problem she had with the place was the fact that she had no idea if her body could stay hidden during her evolution.
After all, judging from past evolutions, she was almost certain that she would grow even bigger after this fifth evolution... And having seen the massive harmless snake that stretched for more than a hundred meters in length, she feared that her growth during her evolution might end up making her grow equally big. Making it impossible for her to fully hide herself during her evolution.
The fear wasn’t entirely unwarranted, as she understood from some of the memories she still retained regarding dragons, that dragons were far from small beings. Instead, they could be said to be towering beings that could easily dwarf the harmless snake depending of the direction she went in with her evolution.
Of course, even though larger would make her far more intimidating, Scaly didn’t personally want to become too large, as it would be inconvenient to move around if one became too big. Not to mention, her favorite attack method of ambushing her opponent would be rendered useless if she ended up becoming too large in the future.
But... Being large and intimidating was synonymous with dragons. Making her feel rather troubled about her direction in the future.
Hopefully, the evolutions presented this time around would give her a solution to this problem.
One good solution she could think of being some kind of magic that would allow her to grow larger or shrink at will, while another was her having two different transformations, one for being large and intimidating and one that would be perfect for sneaking up on her opponents. Allowing her to get the best of both worlds at the same time.
But... What would that evolution be called? Hm... Shadow Growth Dragon? No... Assassin Transformation Dragon?
Feeling her thoughts starting to wander, Scaly soon shook her head as she decided not to think too much about this problem. Instead, deciding to deal with it, when it was time for her to go through her fifth evolution. Feeling that her naming sense wasn’t the best when it came to evolutions.
For now, she first had to get back to the hillside and find a tree to hide away inside of before going through her fifth evolution...