Flying in the direction of the rapidly ascending heavenly staircase leading back up to the fourth floor of the dungeon, Scaly became increasingly nervous as she watched the speed at which the staircase ascended continued to increase with each passing second. The only positive to the current situation was the fact that she could now fly freely and was also far faster than before. If not, it would have been impossible to even think about chasing after the rapidly ascending heavenly staircase. For now, she still had a chance to catch up with it by pouring all her mana into wind magic and flapping her wings with all her might.
The speed she reached surpassing any monster she had encountered in the past. Even making the drake she had encountered back at the fourth floor of the dungeon seem slow in comparison to her current speed.
And... It was with this speed that she shot across the sky. Ignoring the situation below her completely, as her attention was entirely focused on the heavenly staircase disappearing up ahead.
Just as she felt like she might not make it even in this kind of situation where she used all the strength she could muster, her speed increased by another notch.
Not from her wind magic reaching a new level due to extensive usage, but instead because her dragon flight had managed to successfully level up from level 5 to level 6. Giving her just the little boost she needed to reach the heavenly staircase before it disappeared into the sky above and merged with the ceiling of the fifth floor of the dungeon-
BANG!
Crashing headfirst into the central pillar of the staircase in the process before falling on top of the staircase that helped carry her the rest of the way up out of the fifth floor of the dungeon and into the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Ouch! That huuuurt!!!
To say it was painful would be an understatement, as Scaly felt herself almost losing consciousness from crashing headfirst into the central pillar that the heavenly staircase was connected to. Even worse, the pillar itself showed no sign of being damaged as she slid off it at landed flat on the staircase, she was the only one who ended up taking damage from the impact. Once again making it clear to her just how difficult it was to do any real damage to something created by a dungeon, while at the same time also making her feel a sense of relief that she had managed to get out of the fifth floor of the dungeon before that dungeon floor clearing protocol began.
After all, though she wasn’t entirely convinced that the dungeon floor clearing protocol would be able to kill her, the sense of threat she had felt made it certain that it would undoubtedly be far more dangerous than facing off against something like the baby kraken before undergoing her fifth evolution.
Although she might have a chance of winning a battle, that chance would be abysmally low. Better not to take the risk in the first place and instead just go back up to the fourth floor of the dungeon.
In any case, the fourth floor of the dungeon held quite a few monsters that she planned to take revenge on now that she had successfully managed to undergo her fifth evolution and had become a dreamscale dragon.
One of them being the baby kraken that had left her running for her life during her brief encounter with it, while the other was the drake that... Well, the drake hadn’t really done anything to attack her, but she really wanted to hunt it down to hopefully increase the purity of her dragon blood even further...
Outside of those two, there weren’t really any other monsters that she could remember on the fourth floor of the dungeon that required her special attention. Maybe the spiders whose nest she had ended up destroying before she had ended up falling into the fifth floor of the dungeon?
But when it came to them, she doubted they would be easy to locate considering they might have moved after she brought their nest down with her when she fell into the fifth floor of the dungeon. Not to mention, with their numbers, she would have to learn some kind of spell for dealing with a large number of monsters at the same time.
In the past, it had been a bit difficult to do because of her mana limitations, but now that her mana had increased by a lot following her becoming a dreamscale dragon, she felt like it should be possible for her to develop a new spell for dealing with a large number of monsters at the same time. The only question left in her mind was what magic to use for this new spell.
Her water magic- or dragon water magic as it was now called, was the most powerful, but it was difficult for her to imagine a large-scale spell using her water magic that wouldn’t end up draining all her mana in an instant.
In a sense, things like fire magic and lightning magic were far more effective, as fire and lightning were inherently more deadly than water that needed to be enhanced by magic to become deadly without her trying to drown her enemies.
The problem was, outside of her water magic and wind magic that faced similar problems, she didn’t have any other magic at a high level.
Her ice magic was still stuck at level 1, while her lightning magic was level 2.
As for dream magic... She had no idea how to use it yet, let alone any idea of how to use it for a large-scale attack.
Looks like I might have to do some training before I go face off against the spider swarm again or at least figure out ways to make use of water and wind magic for large scale spells without draining all my mana in the process...
Thinking this to herself as she stared up at the staircase above her while recovering from the headfirst collision with the pillar that only had a small indent following her earlier headfirst collision, Scaly slowly rolled over before beginning to make her way up the staircase that had come to a stop in what could only be described as a black void of nothingness that existed between dungeon floors.
She had seen this kind of space before, but it was the first time that she realized that she could actually see something other than just nothingness inside this space, as what looked like another retracted heavenly staircase appeared far off in the distance. Only visible amidst the endless darkness due to the presence of some kind of monster that gave off light on top of it.
Curious as she was, Scaly began wondering about what else might be hidden inside this empty void of nothingness that existed between the different dungeon floors and part of her even wanted to try and explore the empty space now that she could fly without relying on her wind magic.
But... Getting lost in this kind of space was far too terrifying and after the thought of exploring the space appeared, it quickly disappeared, as she pushed it aside for now.
At the very least, she wouldn’t dare to explore this kind of place before she got some kind of ability or skill that would allow her to see what was hidden in the darkness. After all, only that way would she be able to ensure that she would be able to get back out again without getting lost.
Not to mention, she had no idea what kind of dangers lurked outside the boundaries of the staircase itself nor if she could even leave the staircase in the first place-
Whoosh~ Whoosh~ Whoosh~
Nope! After a quick test, it was made certain that she could indeed leave the boundaries of the staircase without any issues. The only question left in her mind about the space that she wanted to figure out was why the transition between dungeon floors was different for the first and second floor, as this space had not been around back then.
Perhaps... Because the space truly was dangerous as she expected?
Shaking her head as all these thoughts continued running through her mind, Scaly slowly began ascending the last few steps of the heavenly staircase that she needed to reach the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Of course, in the process, she kept an eye on the surrounding empty void that the heavenly staircase was located in. Trying to see if she could spot anything outside of the shiny monster in the distance that was too far away for her to inspect.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard she narrowed her eyes and tried to focus on the surrounding darkness, she couldn’t see anything outside the shiny monster in the distance that soon enough disappeared. Plunging the little bit she could see back into darkness. Making the heavenly staircase that the shiny monster had been standing on disappear completely.