Finding it far more enjoyable to just sit on the edge of the small floating island looking towards the floating continent no more than a few hundred meters away from her, Scaly felt somewhat reluctant to get back up again after finishing off the final of the dream floaters that hadn’t turned into dream fragments upon their death.
But... No matter how much part of her wanted to just laze around after the deadly battle she had just gone through to learn how to move through the sky of the dreamscape, she also understood that there was no way for her to reach level 40 and get through her next evolution by just lazing around.
Not to mention, she had already recovered a fair bit of her strength after close to an hour of slowly enjoying herself and filling her stomach. Even if not at full strength, she was at the very least more than strong enough to face off against the dreamscape monsters she had spotted so far on the floating island.
Whoosh~
And so, after reluctantly teetering on the edge of the small floating island, she finally leaped off and began gliding through the sky of the dreamscape in the direction of the floating continent. Making sure to go slow, as moving quickly through the sky of the dreamscape wouldn’t just put an enormous strain on her mana, as the difficulty of the coat of dream magic became far more difficult to keep up the faster she went, but also because she didn’t want to accidentally get caught by the tentacles of one of the dream jellyfish floating by above her. Understanding full well that it was impossible to spot all the tentacles of a dream jellyfish and the best way to avoid getting caught in them was to keep a certain distance.
In a way, because a rather large number of dream jellyfish happened to be passing by above her when she began her journey towards the floating continent, Scaly ended up finding herself stationary for a few minutes waiting for the dream jellyfish to pass by.
However, different from last time she had been mostly stationary in the sky of the dreamscape, this time around, no dreamscape monster like the dream floaters attempted to attack her. Almost certainly having witnessed the earlier bloodbath along with the simple fact that she wasn’t someone unable to move through the sky of the dreamscape.
To some extent, the dreamscape monsters around her were more so under the belief that this was an attempt on her side to bait some unlucky dreamscape monster into attacking her, causing them to scatter in a panic with none daring to get within a dozen meters of her.
Surprised as Scaly was about this sudden fear from the surrounding dreamscape monsters, it was understandable after she thought about the reason for this behavior, as most of the dreamscape monsters living around the small floating island she had jumped off were no stronger than the dream floaters that had attacked her earlier. Posing no real threat to her with her current strength.
The only real dreamscape monsters she had seen so far that could threaten her in this part of the dreamscape were the dream jellyfish and a few of the dreamscape monsters she had seen wandering around the edge of the floating continent... And of those, only the dream jellyfish could traverse the sky of the dreamscape.
Because of this, though Scaly had expected someone to attack her while she waited for the group of dream jellyfish whose tentacles were blocking her path to the floating continent moved out of the way, she ultimately found that no dreamscape monster was brave enough to attack her. Leaving her a bit disappointed as she soon enough resumed gliding towards the floating continent.
Freedom~!
And only a few seconds later, she crossed the threshold of the sky that had been influenced by the floating continent and forced back the almost omnipresent pressure that existed when travelling through the sky of the dreamscape. The feeling so liberating that she flapped her wings happily in response-
Swish~
Causing her to shoot forward far faster than she had originally anticipated, as she had adjusted the strength used to when she had still been within the sky of the dreamscape.
BANG!
Something that ultimately ended up with her crashing headfirst into the side of the floating continent with such force that part of the floating continent cracked and fell off towards the depths below.
Ouuch... Hurts...
Even with her pain resistance having recently increased in level thanks to the deadly battle she had gone through, Scaly couldn’t help silently voicing out her painful thoughts in subtle roaring sound that sounded pitiful to any nearby dreamscape monster who heard it.
Of course, though it was a rather unexpected and painful situation, Scaly quickly stabilized herself by gripping the edge of the floating continent like her life depended on it. Knowing that it wouldn’t be good for her to end up slipping beneath the floating continent, as her earlier view of it from afar back before she had got up to the same level of the dreamscape as the floating continent gave her a feeling of danger she hadn’t felt even when faced with the dream cloud whales.
Although she had no idea where the danger beneath the floating continent came from, she knew deep inside that it might not be the best idea for her to explore where this dangerous feeling came from before she completed her next evolution and became better at traversing the dreamscape.
In a sense, it was not much different from what she felt from the depth of the Thousand Spire Mountain Range she had been moving towards before she had returned to the dreamscape to avoid the adventurers chasing after her. Making her think that it might be the same monster causing the feeling of danger she had felt from the depths of the Thousand Spire Mountain Range.
In other words, the origin of this dangerous feeling could very well be a monster that, like her, could travel between the material plane and the dreamscape. Only, this other monster was clearly far more skilled than her who had only just barely begun exploring the dreamscape.
For this reason alone, she was feeling even more reluctant to face off against this potentially deadly dreamscape monster. Knowing that even escaping to the material plane or the other way around wouldn’t be enough to avoid it.
Of course, though reluctant to face it for now, it didn’t mean she gave up on facing off against this potentially powerful dreamscape monster, she just planned to delay the confrontation until after her sixth evolution.
Nothing wrong with delaying the encounter, it wasn’t because she was scared or anything, she just wanted to make the most of her future clash with this powerful dreamscape monster, as it would be a pity to kill it and end up wasting all the experience, she gained from killing it.
Nodding her head as she held onto the edge of the floating continent, Scaly could not help feeling like this was great explanation for why she avoided this powerful dreamscape monster potentially lurking at the core of this floating continent.
In any way, she wasn’t lacking powerful dreamscape monsters to hunt down now that she had reached the floating continent, as just looking up over the edge she was clinging to, she spotted one such dreamscape monster already curiously making its way over towards her. Having clearly been attracted by the rather loud commotion she had ended up causing with her arrival.
[Dream Bear, lvl 67]
[Description: A bear more than five meters tall when standing on both back legs. It is known to be one of the most common monsters found across the floating continents across the dreamscape. Hunted for their pristine pelts useful for creating strong defensive equipment and comfortable and warm clothes. Nothing special compared to other bear monsters outside of it living in the dreamscape.]
Reading the rather boring description of the dreamscape monster who happened to be heading towards her, Scaly could not help feeling a bit sad on the side of this large dream bear moving towards her.
Not because of the clearly biased description it had been given. Reducing it to a mere normal bear monster that happened to exist in the dreamscape.
Instead, she felt sad because the description had clearly mentioned how useful its pelts were but failed to mention anything about how delicious it was. Making it clear to Scaly that this large dream bear that would normally be enough to fill up her stomach might not be edible... A truly sad fate...
As for the strength of this dream bear? Scaly wasn’t the slightest bit worried, as even though it was strong, it was nowhere near capable of posing any substantial threat to her even in her current slightly weaker than normal state.
Rustle~
[Dream Bear, lvl 57]
[Elder Dream Bear, lvl 92]
[Dream Bear Cub, lvl 24]
[Dream Bear Cub, lvl 29]
[Dream Bear...]
A thought she soon enough came to regret, as the entire family line soon emerged behind it, one of which happened to be far stronger than the rest...