Laying down together with her fellow monsters, Scaly didn't move immediately as she seriously contemplated the possibility of there being some kind of curse in place at the stairs of the dungeon. Making those who ascended more stairs trip easily the more stairs they move up. After all, only something like that would be able to explain how she had managed to trip on the stairs just now! It didn't have anything to do with her attention being elsewhere while she walked up the stairs- no, it had to be some kind of invisible curse that affected her and the rest of the monsters that had ended up being trampled to death after they tripped.
Nodding her head as she skillfully diverted responsibility for what had just happened towards some unknown curse that might or might not exist, Scaly slowly got back up again before continuing up the stairs leading to the first floor of the dungeon. The main difference compared to before being that she now paid extra attention whenever she took a step forward up the stairs.
If not for the fact that the ceiling of the tunnel that the stairs led up through was different from other passages between dungeon floors and made it impossible for her to fly, she would have flown up the stairs instead of walking. Not just because she was now constantly thinking about tripping, but also because it was far slower to ascend the stairs in this manner.
By the time that she finally managed to reach the top of the stairs and stepped onto the first floor of the dungeon for the first time since she had left the place to dive deeper into the dungeon where she could grow stronger, it had already been close to ten minutes since she began ascending the stairs. Although… The reason it took so long wasn't entirely because she was extremely slow walking but might also have had something to do with her spotting an especially delicious monster along the way and deciding to take a brief snack break along the way.
Thrilled as she was about the massive battle that should be taking place between the adventurers and the monsters somewhere on the first floor of the dungeon, her stomach ultimately reigned supreme and there was no denying it once it began protesting after spotting something delicious.
"Squeeeeak!"
However, just as she was about to set off, a familiar and somewhat nostalgic squeaking sound interrupted her before she could fly off.
[Oversized Rat, lvl 2]
Turning around, she saw an oversized rat that looked exactly like she remembered. Not just that, but the one that had somehow been brave enough to squeak at her threateningly was the exact same level as the first oversized rat she had encountered during her first ever hunt for other monsters.
Compared to back then, she was far stronger, and this little rat posed no real threat to her even if she allowed it to freely attack her. The only thing that remained unchanged was the fearless nature of this little fellow who could be considered the most dominant monster on the first floor of the dungeon, with no other monster even coming close to the sheer number of oversized rats found on the first floor of the dungeon.
Chomp~
But after briefly admiring the fearless nature of the oversized rat, Scaly opened her mouth and chomped down on the oversized rat. Killing it in a single bite before swallowing it.
[Gained 1 Exp]
Unsurprisingly, because of the massive difference in strength. Even after killing the oversized rat, she gained close to no experience and the only thing she got was the enjoyment of filling her stomach.
Whoosh~
But after that brief encounter with an old enemy, she took to the sky and quickly locked on to the path that the monster stampede had created when it emerged from the second floor of the dungeon.
In a manner that was not much different from the second floor of the dungeon where a massive tunnel had been created by the monster horde, a similar path had been created on the first floor of the dungeon in the form of the countless trees that had been leveled in the path of the monster horde.
The only clear difference compared to the other dungeon floors that the monster horde or now monster stampede had passed through, was the fact that the local monsters hadn't joined together with the monster stampede in storming towards the entrance of the dungeon. Instead, the oversized rats that populated the bright forests on the first floor of the dungeon had either been trampled to death and went about their day like nothing had happened.
Few of the luckier ones who found themselves close enough to where the monster stampede had passed through while not ending up being trampled to death in the process, found themselves happily enjoying the monsters that had been trampled to death from being too weak to continue rushing forward with the rest.
To Scaly, none of this mattered much, as all she cared about was catching up with the monster horde again and hopefully using the opportunity to continue rapidly increasing her strength like she had done before.
As for using the opportunity to potentially leave the dungeon? She hadn't thought about that, as there were still parts of the Howling Caverns Dungeon she hadn't yet explored, with the dungeon itself still being more than enough for her to continue growing by hunting down the increasingly powerful monsters in the depths of the dungeon.
Even if she managed to successfully undergo her sixth evolution, she felt that the dungeon still had more powerful monsters for her to hunt hidden on the sixth floor of the dungeon that she had not yet had the chance to explore.
Not to mention, though she didn't know much about the adventurers, she understood from experience that they seemed to be guarding the passages between the dungeon floors and didn't want to see any monsters moving between dungeon floors. Meaning that they had most likely blocked off the entrance of the dungeon.
The fact that she had even managed to descend to the third floor of the dungeon could be considered a miracle, as she had somehow found a passage that hadn't yet been discovered by the adventurers and thus remained entirely unguarded…
Ah! There they are!
Feeling her own thoughts wandering a bit as she flew through the cloudless sky of the first floor of the dungeon, Scaly suddenly spotted what she had been looking for barely visible in the distance.
The endless sea of monsters and the sounds of chaotic battle that could be heard even before she could see where it came from, she had finally managed to catch up with the monster horde.
Now, all she needed to do was assess the situation and see how well those adventurers were faring. If they were losing and their blockade at the entrance to the dungeon ended up breaking, she wouldn't mind taking a quick look outside the dungeon to see the world that lay outside the dungeon.
Confident and filled with strength after a few hours rest back at the third floor of the dungeon, Scaly flapped both of her translucent wings as her body soared higher into the sky. Making full use of her somewhat ethereal appearance to blend in with the sky in the process. Ensuring that it would be hard- if not impossible, for the monsters and adventurers below to spot her while they were busy fighting with each other.
Her stealthy approach aside, Scaly had no intention of just observing the battle from afar the entire time and was instead just making use of the gifts inherent to her current evolution to get closer to the center of the battle where the powerful monsters and adventurers were clashing with each other. Hoping to make use of the situation to find a powerful adventurer or monster that had been injured to take down.
Among her targets, the ones she wanted to kill the most out of everyone was none other than someone like the human Archmage above level 100 that she had seen on the third floor of the dungeon. Understanding that the experience she would gain from killing someone like that would be far greater than any monster or adventurer she had killed in the past.
Not to mention, while her presence was still unknown, she wanted to take down the most powerful target possible. Understanding that it would become difficult for her to ambush someone above level 100 again after her presence became known, as those powerful adventurers or monsters would undoubtedly pay attention to what was happening above them in case she decided to launch another ambush.
With that in mind, Scaly wasted no time upon spotting the towering city walls in the distance and began scanning the chaotic battlefield centered around those towering city walls for potential targets that fit her requirements for being both powerful and in a bad state that would allow her to ambush them.