Feeling her formerly strong confidence in the group of adventurers wavering at the sight of one of them being knocked out of combat from a single hit, Scaly turned her attention towards the tunnel she had just blocked not long ago to force this battle to take place in the first place. Beginning to wonder if she should sneak over and try to dig her way out while the giant ants and their queen were busy dealing with the group of adventurers.
After all, even if she had more than enough mana to use her dragon breath on the gluttonous giant ant queen, she would essentially leave herself in a defenseless position against the remaining giant ants and adventurers, as there was no real escape path for her to take once she used up most of her mana dealing with the gluttonous giant ant queen.
Her mana pool might have grown over the past week alongside her increase in strength, but it was far from enough for her to fight off the seemingly endless tide of giant ants and the group of powerful adventurers after she used her dragon breath to kill the gluttonous giant ant queen.
The only potential escape path she could think of was through her dream magic, but to this day, she had yet to understand anything about how to use her dream magic. Still left with no clue about how she was supposed to enter the dreamscape that had seemingly been mentioned as a place she was supposed to be able to access as a Dreamscale Dragon.
But then again, it might also have something to do with the fact that she was progressing far faster than normal Dreamscale Dragons, who might have months- if not years to slowly figure out their abilities step by step.
Compared to Dreamscale Dragons like that, her current failure to understand her dream magic might be understandable, but... Understandable as it might be, if it was useless to her, it was useless. Nothing to do about that other than hope she would figure out how to use her dream magic before her next evolution, as it would be quite awkward to not even know how to use the inherent and strongest aspect of her current evolution before going through her next evolution.
In a way, she might end up becoming the first Dreamscale Dragon to not even know how to use her dream magic...
Embarrassing as all of this was to think about, the main reason why she thought about it now of all times was because she understood that her only way to fully secure her own safety under the current circumstances was for her to learn how to enter the dreamscape. Especially so as the battle between the group of skilled adventurers looked increasingly dire as she observed the formerly unshakable armored giants standing at the front blocking every attack with their towering shield covered in shimmering magic runes, get knocked aside one by one by the gluttonous giant ant queen, like an adult entering a physical brawl with a group of toddlers. Unless something surprising happened, there was no way for this group of toddlers to overcome the far stronger adult.
No... Maybe if they could swarm the gluttonous giant ant queen like the giant ants are swarming them it might be possible, but... There are far too few of them to do that.
Shaking her head as an image of a group consisting of several hundred toddlers swarmed an adult human man before completely overwhelming the other through sheer numbers alone, Scaly focused her attention on herself or more specifically her dream magic.
Digging a way out while the other side was busy fighting was an option, but it wasn’t exactly realistic for her to dig her way out in time, as that group of adventurers were being torn apart faster than she had originally anticipated.
So, with no other option that she could think of, she turned her attention towards trying to figure out how to use her dream magic. Not exactly the best timing to do something that important, but she didn’t really see any other solution to ensuring her own safety. Not to mention she had been dedicating a few hours every day over the past week to figure out how her dream magic worked.
Her progress... Had been limited, but at least she wasn’t just doing this blindly and had a general path to follow, as during this past week, she had realized whenever she daydreamed about becoming a powerful dragon large enough to blot out the sun and awe everyone who laid eyes upon her majestic form, she had discovered that some of her mana was being used. Leading her to conclude that daydreaming seemed to be one way to trigger her dream magic.
The problem was, she didn’t really have any clue what it did outside of the fact that it consumed some of her mana. Even continuing to allow the dream magic to drain close to half of her mana one day, there had been no change, like her mana had just disappeared into thin air.
"Aaaaah! My arm!"
Lost in her own little thoughts dreaming about using dream magic, Scaly was suddenly brought back to reality by a loud painful scream. Turning to see one of the less protected adventurers who had been guarding the side of the formation had his arm directly bitten off by the gluttonous giant ant queen, who wasted no time swallowing down the arm like a delicious treat. Making even Scaly somewhat curious about how the other hand of the now one-handed swordsman tasted like, though, she quickly stopped this train of thought, as she didn’t want to eat humans. Her past life should have been a human after all, killing was one thing, but eating them was a no-go for her.
As for why she could still eat dragon related monsters... Well... Those monsters did prove to be reeeeaaally useful for increasing her strength, while humans and other humanoid races wouldn’t be able to bring such benefits just from eating them. At least from what she knew so far.
Maybe there were humans or other humanoid races with dragon blood in them that would be beneficial for her to consume, but she would tackle that problem when the time came. For now, at least, no consuming the humanoid creatures- outside of a few delicious ones she might have snacked on in the dungeon like gnolls or trolls.
But those were exceptions! She wouldn’t-
Swish~ BANG-!
Feeling several large chunks of dirt suddenly flying at her from behind as one of the one-handed swordsman came flying right past her and into the mostly dirt wall behind her, Scaly froze as she stopped her inner monologue that had somehow ended up resuming even as she realized the situation of the adventurers reaching a breaking point in their struggle against the gluttonous giant ant queen.
She understood that now wasn’t the time to doing something that silly, but at the same time, this kind of distraction was the only way for her to make her mind wander away from the deadly situation that she would soon find herself in when the gluttonous giant ant queen finished up the group of adventurers and turned its attention towards her. Not to distract herself because she didn’t want to face the reality of her deadly situation, but instead to better help her mind wander into daydreaming so she could use her dream magic.
Obvious to say, as one of the adventurers came flying next to her, it was a little difficult for her to concentrate on something other than the battle playing out almost right next to her, but... At the same time, the sudden interruption caused her mind to go blank for a split second and during that instant, Scaly felt her mana starting to rapidly drain before a feeling of weightlessness suddenly flooded her senses-
Splash~!
And the next second, she found herself underwater before emerging from a pristine blue lake in the middle of a forest. The underground space, the gluttonous giant ant queen and the adventurers struggling to hold on against it were nowhere to be seen, as she now floated on the surface of the clear blue lake water. Slowly drifting along the faint current created by a nearby river that fed into the lake.
From a chaotic and deadly situation to a peaceful one, it was obvious that this wasn’t normal, but as she looked around the forest, she found herself in and looked into the sky above, it became clear to her that she should have entered the dreamscape.
Why? Because there were countless swirling clouds in all kinds of colors she had never seen before in the sky above and not just a single sun like before, but countless suns or stars that shone in all kinds of different colors... And maybe most importantly, the forest she was in wasn’t a forest so to speak, but more accurately a lake with a few trees surrounding it, with nothing beyond that, as lake itself was located on a small floating island of sorts.
The river feeding into the lake was even more mysterious, as it turned out to be one of the colorful clouds above that had curled and snaked its way down from above before turning into a floating river in the sea of colorful clouds beyond her small island that then connected to the lake. Exploring around a bit, she also discovered that the small island had a waterfall at one side, where excess water ran off the side of the island and ended up turning into new colorful clouds below her. Making it impossible for her to see the bottom or the top, as everything was obscured by the colorful clouds that seemed to be floating everywhere.