Finding herself once again facing off against the weaker giant ants, Scaly could not help looking towards the cave entrance where the giant ant royal guards were trying to dig themselves out and through their far larger companion with a hint of amusement in her eyes.
Fast and powerful as these giant ant royal guards were, it was clear that it would take them at least a minute or two to get past the roadblock she had accidentally ended up placing in front of them. Time that she intended to make full use of to kill these weaker giant ants that now posed even less of a threat to her out in the open where she would be able to make full use of her ability to fly to avoid any potential danger. Giving her a chance to become a bit more reckless in the manner she fought against these weaker giant ants...
[Gained 1324 Exp]
[Gained 324 Exp]
[Gained 1364 Exp]
[Gained 2346 Exp]
[Gained 754 Exp]
[Gained...]
[*Ding* Reached level 27]
Something that soon enough resulted in her carving a path straight through the giant ants that had rushed forward to try and stop her from escaping. Allowing her level to directly jump all the way to 27 in a few seconds, as more than two dozen giant ants ended up perishing during the reckless charge.
Although... In the eyes of the giant ants, they had been successful, as they had managed to keep her in the same place to face off the continuous swarm of ants as the stronger royal guards pushed their way through the blocked entrance while she was being kept in place. Obvious to anyone watching, it was clear that these giant ants hadn’t yet realized that their opponent could fly. Having merely taken her earlier escape as her being able to use the wings on her back to glide or jump higher than normal.
After all, in the eyes of these giant ants, if she could fly, she should have already escaped. No reason for her to remain and continue fighting them.
Unfortunately for these giant ants who were sacrificing themselves to try and stop her "escape", Scaly didn’t have any intention of escaping in the first place. Only wanting to make the most use of her current situation to improve herself as much as possible before the stronger giant ants managed to reach her and push her into a corner.
The goal of improving her strength at this exact moment aside, Scaly was also silently wondering if it was possible for her to turn this giant ant nest into a reusable hunting location in the future. The sheer number of giant ants alone was clearly far from something she would be able to handle in just one or two visits.
Not to mention, with her now having left the Howling Caverns Dungeons, it would be far harder for her to find monsters suitable for her to grow stronger in the future.
Turning this place into a reusable hunting ground is the best option, but... I still don’t know anything about the giant ant queen or how dangerous it might be...
Silently thinking this to herself as her gaze wandered over the royal guard ants that had just managed to wiggle out through the cave entrance that had been dug out alongside the already dead royal guard giant ant that had been blocking the path, Scaly tried to see if she could catch a glimpse of the giant ant queen that these giant ant royal guards were supposed to be guarding.
Unfortunately, even as she strained her neck amidst the bloody battle she partook in, she didn’t even catch a glimpse of the giant ant queen. The only thing out of the ordinary she saw was a large ball of giant ant royal guards deep inside the nest. The giant ant royal guards were seemingly crawling around something massive to form this ball- or maybe just more giant ant royal guards, Scaly couldn’t tell, but from the sheer number of giant ant royal guards present, she understood that the giant ant queen shouldn’t be too far away.
The presence of the giant ant queen aside, the sheer number of giant ant royal guard had already grown to the hundreds and wasn’t something she would be able to deal with.
Even worse, it wasn’t just giant ant royal guards, but also several other specialized giant ants no weaker than them that had begun to show up. One giant ant even wearing some kind of cone shaped hat made of bones throwing magic at her from a distance.
Holding out for as long as she could when all these unique and deadly giant ants began working together to attack her from all sides, Scaly was soon forced to retreat to the sky after killing a little over a dozen of the powerful giant ants. Increasing her level to 29, but at the same time also making her understand that it wouldn’t be as easy as she had expected to hunt down these giant ants in the future, as there were far more of the powerful giant ants present than she had originally anticipated.
However, after she successfully retreated and found somewhere to recover her strength, she realized that this was for the better, as the more powerful the giant ants were, the easier it would be for her to use them to increase her own strength.
Even if she wouldn’t be able to face their colony head on, she was more than capable of doing exactly what she had just done. Go in, cause chaos, kill a large number of the giant ants and retreat before the situation became deadly.
The only real thing she had to worry about was the still unknown giant ant queen and potentially being stuck inside their nest. Outside of that, she didn’t really have to worry about the danger posed by these giant ants, as none of them got anywhere close to her in strength individually.
Because of this, Scaly entered a state of rapid growth over the next few days. Fully dedicating herself to becoming an absolute nightmare for the poor giant ant colony. Not wasting any time on anything other than battling the giant ants outside of sleeping or recovering her strength from previous battles.
But all good things must come to an end at some point and after close to a week of this back and forth, the giant ants gave up trying to catch her and retreated completely underground. Not daring to stick their heads out of the ground no matter how much chaos she caused.
Not just that, but even sticking her head inside their nest, they wouldn’t bite and would remain tightly guarded against her. Essentially forcing her to venture deeper into their nest if she wanted to continue fighting with them, something she didn’t dare to do, as she understood full well that the only reason she could face off against the giant ant colony on her own was because she could always fly away whenever she needed to, something that would be impossible deep inside the giant ant nest.
Not to mention, to this day, she still hadn’t seen any sign of the mysterious giant ant queen.
Shaking her head as she thought about this while looking down at the now desolate mountain from above hoping to spot a potential hungry giant ant that had wandered out of the nest, Scaly shifted her attention towards her status.
Name: Scaly
Race: Dreamscale Dragon
Dragon blood: 31% (Uncommon)
Level: 35/40, 44%
Mana Heart: Second Circle
STR: 1007 |VIT: 2337 | DEX: 1309 | M: 4022
Magic: [Dragon Water Magic, lvl 8], [Ice Magic lvl 3], [Wind Magic, lvl 7], [Lightning Magic, lvl 4], [Dream Magic lvl 2]
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline, lvl 4], [Dragon Flight, lvl 8], [Poison/Venom Resistance, lvl 5], [Dragon Claw Strike, lvl 9], [Dragon Breath (Water), lvl 6], [Corrosion Resistance, lvl 4], [Pain Resistance, lvl 5], [Swimming, lvl 4], [Dragon Heart, lvl 1], [Endless Vitality, lvl 1], [Agility, lvl 1], [Brute Force, lvl 1]
Over the past week she had spent hunting down giant ants, it hadn’t changed much, the only notable change being her increase in level and the addition of the new skill, Brute Force, that had appeared after her strength reached 1000.
Outside of that, there had been little change to the rest of her stats, as her magic and skills had already reached a level where it would be difficult to improve them any further.
In a way, because of this, she had decided to finally start trying to use her ice magic over the past week, though the magic proved to be far more difficult than she had originally expected. Only reaching level three, while her lightning magic, that she had used far less, managed to reach level 4 during this time.
Outside of the magic and the new skill, the rest of her improvements had come entirely from her Poison Resistance that had evolved into Poison/Venom Resistance and her corrosion resistance that had similarly improved.
All thanks to an increasing number of giant ants capable of injecting corrosive venom with their mandibles...