Still, even as the mountain goat lord was blown away by the dragon breath attack, it didn’t die like Scaly had expected it to after being hit directly by her dragon breath attack. The reason for this wasn’t because the defensive might of the mountain goat lord had somehow exceeded that of S Rank Monster but instead had to do with the fact that her dragon breath attack carried nowhere near the same level of power as it had when used with all her mana.
Even then, the damage that the mountain goat lord suffered was severe and made it unable to stand back up again after it came to a stop after crashing into a small boulder on the side of the mountain around the halfway point between the base and the mountain peak that it had been standing on top of previously.
Originally, Scaly wanted nothing more than to dive down and kill this severely weakened mountain goat lord, but remembering what had happened when the mountain dwelling ogre had been in this exact same position in the past, she decided to first scan the area around the heavily injured mountain goat lord for any potential thieves who might be thinking about stealing the kill from her...
[Mountain Digging Snake, lvl 47]
And indeed, after a quick scan of the area, she spotted a familiar looking snake emerging from the ground a few meters away from the heavily injured mountain goat lord. Looking awfully interested in the heavily injured mountain goat lord that was only a single attack away from passing away-
Whoosh~ BANG!
And without the slightest bit of hesitation, Scaly dived down directly towards the mountain digging snake. Slamming directly into it before it had time to reach the heavily injured mountain goat lord.
Thump~!
[Gained 2682 Exp]
Hitting it with such force that the mountain digging snake was launched hundreds of meters into the air before falling to the ground. Landing directly on a few sharp rocks that instantly killed it. Giving it no chance to steal her prey.
Feeling satisfied having avoided having her prey stolen from her again after investing all the mana she had managed to gather so far, Scaly turned her attention towards the heavily injured mountain goat lord who was slowly starting to regain consciousness after having been knocked out by the powerful attack and later collision with the boulder.
PTSH-!
[Gained 14.568 Exp]
Giving it no chance to get back up to defend itself, as she easily cut through its already bleeding neck with a simple claw strike. Killing it before any other monsters that might be lurking nearby had the chance to steal the kill from her.
But... Even though she managed to kill this powerful monster without anyone stealing her prey this time around along with killing several mountain goats and the mountain digging snake, her level remained stuck on 38. Making it clear to her just how difficult it had become for her to increase her level now that she was starting to reach the limit of her current evolution.
At the very least, she felt that the only kind of monster that would be able to directly provide her with a level up after killing it was one on the same level as the gluttonous giant ant queen.
However, killing a monster that powerful was difficult with her mana having essentially run dry after this ambush of the mountain goat lord. Especially considering how the gluttonous giant ant queen wasn’t a particularly powerful S Rank Monster but was more so focused on creating a large swarm to overwhelm her opponents. Faced with an actual S Rank Monster, Scaly still felt a certain degree of doubt regarding her chances to overcome it.
Still, though she hadn’t increased in level after killing the mountain goat lord, she felt that she should at least be close to reaching level 39 by now...
Name: Scaly
Race: Dreamscale Dragon
Dragon blood: 31% (Uncommon)
Level: 38/40, 56%
A thought that soon enough disappeared as she brought up a simplified version of her status and realized that she was only barely a bit over halfway to level 39 and that was including all the monsters she had ended up killing since the last time she had checked her status. Meaning that she was still a rather long distance away from reaching level 39 if she didn’t end up running into a heavily injured S Rank Monster, that she would be able to finish off without putting in any effort or having to save up mana for a fully powered dragon breath attack.
Unfortunately, a situation like that was extremely unlikely, as any heavily injured monsters would undoubtedly do their best to hide themselves away somewhere difficult to find to recover or end up being swarmed and killed by nearby monsters who had ended up spotting them.
For her to run into an injured S Rank Monster, the best chance would be for her to accidentally find their hiding space while they were in the process of recovering but doing that from the sky was even more difficult than finding an injured S Rank Monster walking around out in the open. So, after thinking about how much she wanted to see that kind of situation play out as it would be immensely beneficial to her, Scaly returned to reality and took off to the sky again. Heading deeper into the Thousand Spire Mountain Range after taking a quick break chomping down half of the mountain goat lord.
Her reason for only eating half being that the mountain goat lord was simply far too large for her to eat even with her increased size, while she was also starting to worry about the group of adventurers following her from behind starting to get dangerously close to her. Forcing her to resume her journey towards the depths of the Thousand Spire Mountain Range if she wanted to avoid a potential encounter with those dangerous adventurers.
As for why she now directly considers them dangerous? That had to do with them getting close enough for her to directly inspect their levels. Allowing her to realize that although there wasn’t anyone as powerful as the one adventurer who had chased her into the dreamscape, there were at least five that had surpassed level 100. Meaning that she had at least five adventurers comparable to S Rank Monsters chasing after her.
No matter how confident she was in her own strength, Scaly had no plans of engaging with that kind of powerful force. Understanding full well that the only outcome would be death in the face of such a powerful force, thus causing her to directly ignore several powerful monsters along the way just to increase the distance between herself and the group of powerful adventurers.
No part of her was willing to risk them getting too close to her when she was busy engaging in a battle with a powerful monster that she had found along the way. Not to mention, the powerful monsters she ignored along the way would also serve as a barrier that helped slow down the advance of the group of powerful adventurers.
Aside from that, she also clearly sensed that the source of danger she had felt upon first thinking about dwelling into the depth of the Thousand Spire Mountain Range was getting closer–or more accurately, she was getting closer to the source of the danger her instincts had warned her about.
Although she wanted to ignore it, she knew that there was no way she could, as her instincts were almost screaming at her to turn around whenever she moved deeper into the Thousand Spire Mountain Range.
Luckily for her now rather annoying instincts constantly bugging her by screaming danger all the time, she wasn’t planning on remaining in the Thousand Spire Mountain Range for much longer, as it had already been several hours since she had left the dreamscape and returned to the material plane.
By now, the dream cloud whales that should have been swarming the section of the dreamscape she had been in before should have left. Meaning it should be safe for her to return to the dreamscape again.
Not to mention, she had been moving in the direction of the large floating continent she had barely glimpsed from afar back in the dreamscape and had a feeling that she should be getting close to it by now–if she hadn’t already managed to land directly on top of it.
Of course, to confirm her thoughts, there was only one way and that was for her to return to the dreamscape that should be safe by now. Not to mention, she shouldn’t be in the lower part of the dreamscape any longer either. Meaning that if the description of the dream cloud whales was correct, they shouldn’t be attacking her even if they were still around.
In a way, she could have long since returned to the dreamscape, but part of her didn’t entirely trust the description of the dream cloud whales being peaceful after what she had seen...