Having no reason to remain on the staircase staring into the dark nothingness, Scaly soon enough found herself back on the fourth floor of the dungeon once again.
However, at first glance, it was clear that the fourth floor of the dungeon had undergone significant changes compared to when she had been there in the past, the most obvious change being the complete disappearance of the monsters that should have been visible the second she made it up to the fourth floor of the dungeon and found herself out in the open again.
This was not just because she found herself in some small, isolated corner of the fourth floor of the dungeon, as she had already flown into the sky to inspect her surroundings shortly after inspecting the deserted area around the passage that had led down to the fifth floor of the dungeon in the past.
The only thing she could find related to other monsters was the familiar tracks that had carved out a straight path through the surrounding environment. Making it clear to her that the large group of monsters that she had already been following to some extent earlier on when searching for a path up from the fifth floor of the dungeon had remained together in one group even after having reached the fourth floor of the dungeon where no danger like the dungeon floor cleaning protocol existed.
Not just that, but the monsters that were native to the fourth floor of the dungeon had also ended up joining those from the fifth floor of the dungeon. Growing the horde of monsters even further.
By this point in time, Scaly was curious about just how large this horde of monsters had become and even more so for what reason these monsters had come together. After all, it wasn’t just one species of monsters involved, but likely hundreds- if not thousands of different monsters.
For them to remain united and not attack each other was nothing short of a miracle and made Scaly want nothing more than to figure out what could have made so many monsters unite.
Unfortunately, as she continued following the traces that had been left behind, she found no sign of the monster horde in sight, as the only sign of the horde that she saw was a few already dead monsters that had seemingly been left behind by the rest.
That was, until she saw a large city appear in the distance surrounded by a bright barrier that shone brightly in the face of several large monsters that were no weaker than the magic earth cow lord, she had faced off against not too long ago. Even more surprising, as she watched the battle playing out from above, it soon became clear that these monsters were no match for the bright barrier, as they began dying one by one without doing any real damage to the bright barrier.
On the contrary, the bright barrier seemed to grow stronger with each passing second and even reached a point where she felt a deadly threat from it by the time the last of the large monsters was cut down, causing her to keep a distance and not join the now dead monsters in attempting to break through the bright barrier that she had by now realized was defending a human city.
Not just because of the threat she felt from the bright barrier, but also because she clearly sensed several powerful humans inside the town that shouldn’t be any weaker than herself and potentially even stronger than her.
The only reason why these humans hadn’t attacked her like they had done with the other strong monsters being because she was high in the sky and difficult to reach, while at the same time relying on her scales to blend in with the surrounding sky. Making it close to impossible for the humans below to even spot her in the first place as she observed everything from above.
Because of this, the humans below had no idea about her presence as they slowly began leaving the protective sphere of the city to pick up the dead bodies of the monsters that had been killed off by the bright barrier earlier.
If she wanted to, she could take this opportunity to attack the humans below. Catching them off guard and potentially killing a few of the strong ones in the process, but... With the countless powerful humans lurking inside the city, she decided against this and instead focused her attention on finding the large horde of monsters that should have passed through this city not long ago.
From the large number of dead monsters and the path of destruction that had been left behind, it became clear that the horde of monsters she had been chasing from behind had attempted to break through the bright barrier guarding the human city in front of her and potentially make use of the heavenly staircase they had been guarding at the very core of the city.
But... They had failed and ultimately gave up on trying to break through the barrier and instead decided to go in another direction. Leaving behind a few strong monsters to hold back the humans in the process, those monsters in question being the ones that she had witnessed being killed off no more than a few seconds ago.
With that in mind, Scaly realized that she wasn’t that far behind the large horde of monsters and should be able to catch up with them soon enough.
At first, she had only wanted to reach these monsters because she was curious about what so many monsters were up to, but now that she witnessed them clashing with humans, she realized that the monsters might have united to fend off the humans... And if that was the case, this might be a perfect opportunity for her to make use of the chaos that would spread wherever the monsters went to rapidly increase her strength by hunting down both humans and monsters alike...
Rumble~!
And soon enough, she caught the tail of the monster horde, spotting a few of the slower monsters making their way up another heavenly staircase leading back up to the third floor of the dungeon. In fact, the heavenly staircase they were using was one that she was quite familiar with and at the same time also the one that had emerged when the powerful crimson flame knight human had been causing chaos throughout the fourth floor of the dungeon.
This second way up to the third floor of the dungeon had clearly been overrun by the monsters, as though there had clearly been a few humans attempting to block the passage up to the third floor of the dungeon, they were all dead on ground and what little walls and other things they had attempted to block the advance of the monsters had been destroyed alongside them. Leaving a clear passage for the monster horde, while at the same time also making it simple and easy for someone like Scaly to ascend back up to the third floor of the dungeon without encountering any problems along the way.
Although, she was starting to feel increasingly interested in how this war between the monsters of the dungeon and the humans was doing up on the third floor of the dungeon.
After all, compared to the fourth floor of the dungeon where the presence of humans was relatively limited, their influence and presence on the third floor of the dungeon was everywhere.
It was easy to imagine that the battle that should have broken out at the third floor of the dungeon was nowhere near the same level as the battle that had played out at the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Not only would it be far larger in scale, but it would undoubtedly also be far more chaotic, something Scaly was hoping for, as the more chaotic the environment, the better it would be for her, as she would be able to easily take advantage of the situation to rapidly increase her own strength while at the same time remaining out of danger by retreating whenever a situation looked dangerous.
Any thought she might have had earlier on about settling down for a bit to try and learn new spells and figure out how to use her dream magic was thrown completely to the back of her mind in the face of the benefits that would come her way by secretly joining in on the chaos that should have just erupted throughout the third floor of the dungeon.
At the same time, she also saw this as a perfect chance for her to get a better understanding of humans and just how strong they were. After all, while they had seemed strong to her in the past... Now that she had become a dreamscale dragon, they no longer seemed to be that scary.
Even the crimson flame knight that had left her with a feeling of profound fear in the past was now someone she felt confident fighting!