While the group of five from the Church of Light set off towards the closest free city with a working dream gate inside of it, Scaly found herself leisurely making her through the dense forest filled with colorful trees far more unique than any she had encountered in the past.
Ptsh!
[Gained 520 Exp]
And in the process, she didn’t forget to hunt down any dreamscape monster she encountered along the way, as she casually sliced through a colorful snake trying to ambush her from one of the colorful trees she had been under a second earlier before she had moved to kill it.
However, one thing had become clear to her during her exploration of the colorful forest she now found herself in and that was the simple fact that she wasn’t able to find any of the stronger dreamscape monsters that she had seen earlier when observing the floating continent from a distance.
Another thing she found odd was the fact that she hadn’t seen the colorful trees that were now all around her when she had observed the floating continent from afar, something that had caused her to be extremely cautious about her surroundings. Allowing her to easily pick up on any small snake trying to ambush her.
Maybe if I try to fly up, I will be able to get a better look at the surroundings and at the same time also get a chance to find out where those stronger monsters have gone.
Still... Faced with nothing but weak dreamscape monsters that provided her with little to no progress towards level 40 left her somewhat frustrated after a few minutes, as she decided to fly up and take a look at the surroundings, something she had originally felt a bit cautious about flying up because it might attract all the surrounding strong monsters she had seen on the floating continent from afar.
It wasn’t that she feared fighting those stronger monsters, but more so that attracting over a dozen monsters comparable to the elder dream bear wasn’t exactly something she could handle with her current strength.
Not to mention, there was still the fact that she understood close to nothing about the floating continent and had no idea if an extended battle with those monsters might end up attracting the attention of a far stronger monster comparable to the gluttonous giant ant queen she had faced in the past.
True, she did now feel confident in taking on an S Rank Monster after succeeding in killing the gluttonous giant ant queen, but she also understood that it was extremely unlikely for her to only face off against a single dreamscape monster if such a battle really did end up playing out.
Whoosh~
Worries aside, Scaly flapped both of her wings and began the process of ascending into the sky-
Bang!
But only a few meters above the canopy of the colorful trees, she found herself crashing headfirst into an invisible barrier that caused her to tumble back towards the ground below. Barely stopping herself before falling flat on her face. Only able to gaze up at the sky above with a confused look plastered all over her face.
Not because she didn’t understand what had just happened, but because she was incredibly familiar with the thing she had just collided with, as it was the exact same feeling as what she had experienced when crashing into the ceiling of the Howling Caverns Dungeon. The main difference this time around being that she was clearly not inside a dungeon and more so than that, the height of this ceiling she found herself facing was far lower than the ones she had encountered inside the Howling Caverns Dungeon. The only exception being the second floor of said dungeon that was located underground.
Did I perhaps end up entering a dungeon without even realizing it? Are there even dungeons inside the dreamscape in the first place? Is this perhaps the reason why I didn’t encounter any of those stronger monsters I saw earlier?
Realizing the oddness of the current situation she found herself in, Scaly couldn’t say that she had entered a dungeon given how she would have to pass through the strange portal thingy she had passed through to leave the Howling Caverns Dungeon in the past, but given the disappearance of the stronger dreamscape monsters that she should have encountered by now, it wasn’t correct to say that she hadn’t entered a dungeon.
Unless... The dungeons in the dreamscape worked differently and she could walk into one without even realizing it?
In fact, as she thought about this, she felt that it made sense for the dungeons inside the dreamscape to work differently.
The problem was... She didn’t want to remain inside this unique dreamscape dungeon that she happened to accidentally wander into, as the dreamscape monsters inside of it were far too weak to provide any useful growth to her. The one snake she had just killed while it attempted to ambush her having been the strongest dreamscape monster she had run into since killing off the dream bear rather large dream bear family.
For this reason alone, Scaly wasted no time as she once again flapped her wings before making a U-turn in the opposite direction of the one, she had been moving seconds earlier. Intending to leave this unique little dreamscape dungeon the same way she had entered it.
Although it would take some time to leave, Scaly felt that it would be entirely worth it considering that the strength of the dreamscape monsters she had encountered so far was nowhere near strong enough to provide her with any useful progress towards her next level.
...
The entire journey back to the edge of the floating continent ended up being rather anticlimactic, as part of her had honestly been expecting to encounter an ambush from some kind of powerful dreamscape monster while leaving, but then again, that was just her hoping for more challenging than the seemingly endless number of snakes that could be found within the colorful trees along the way.
Now standing on the edge of the floating continent with the dead dream bears from her earlier slaughter still present without any sign of being eaten by other dreamscape monsters during the short time she had been gone, Scaly decided to go with another approach to making her way beyond the edge of the floating continent and into the depths where the stronger monsters she had seen from afar resided.
Flying.
Dangerous as this would be considering how difficult it was to hide herself given that ascending too high would place her outside the protective sphere around the floating continent, it was still better than her accidentally entering what she guessed to be some kind of unique dreamscape dungeon again.
Whoosh~
And with her mind made up, Scaly flapped her wings and took to the sky. Soon enough finding herself over a dozen meters above the canopy of the forest that she had wandered through earlier. Not taking long before she spotted several strong dreamscape monsters in the distance, who in turn also noticed her when she began moving away from the edge of the floating continents towards a small mountain that one of these stronger dreamscape monsters resided on. Planning to take care of this single strong dreamscape monster that should be able to take her to level 40 before finding somewhere to undergo her sixth evolution.
However, contrary to her expectations of becoming a target the second she revealed herself so openly, none of the dreamscape monsters that spotted her decided to rush over and attack her. Instead, they all observed her from a distance with what she perceived to be a mix of curiosity and fear. Fear not towards her, but instead something different. After all, none of these monsters were familiar with her strength and wouldn’t fear her because of her size alone, as she could still be considered rather small when compared to a dreamscape monster like the elder dream bear from earlier.
But what it was these monsters feared was a question she couldn’t answer, as the elder dream bear was far from strong enough to cause fear in most of the dreamscape monsters that had noticed her.
In other words, there was something hidden close to her current location that caused these dreamscape monsters to be fearful and stopped them from approaching her.
Problem was, she couldn’t see anything or any dreamscape monster that might be behind this fear. The only thing she could think of being the strange dreamscape dungeon she had accidentally wandered into.
But... That strange dreamscape dungeon was far from dangerous enough to make these stronger dreamscape monsters fearful, as all she had ever run into inside that place were weak snakes that posed no challenge to her.
At least... That was what she thought before she suddenly sensed something appearing out of seemingly nowhere amidst the formerly normal forest devoid of the colorful trees from earlier...