Faced with the unique situation of the dreamscape monsters she had originally been planning to hunt down hiding away following the sudden emergence of the devourer of dreams, Scaly found herself unable to decide on what to do next.
She could leave the floating continent for now and go elsewhere to seek dreamscape monsters that she could hunt down or she could go with the more dangerous option of using the opportunity while the devourer of dreams had essentially cleared the path and made any worries about attracting too many monsters flying above the floating continent meaningless, to head deeper inside the floating continent herself.
Of course, if she did end up going deeper inside the floating continent, she also ran the risk of potentially running into the devourer of dreams, something she really wanted to avoid if possible, but... Considering that the devourer of dreams hadn’t been too interested in searching for her and the fact that it should have something more important to do than hunt down someone like herself, Scaly felt that it should still be fine for her to continue moving deeper into the floating continent.
In a sense, this might be an opportunity for her, as there was a chance of her encountering powerful dreamscape monsters who had ended up injured while the devourer of dreams passed through. Allowing her to easily collect the last bit of experience required to reach level 40.
In the end, it was this thought of being able to progress without having to put in any work that ultimately ended up convincing her to follow behind the path of destruction that had been carved by the devourer of dreams where it had moved through, even when the risk in doing so was immense.
Although... Another reason that she didn’t outright admit was that she really wanted to see a dreamscape monster at the level of the devourer of dreams fighting. Not just because she was genuinely curious about a battle at that level, but also because she hoped that she could learn something from observing such a battle. After all, the devourer of dreams undoubtedly reached a terrifying level in dream magic and might help her develop some new dream magic spells on her through observation.
Whoosh~
As she set off, Scaly flew through the sky at a speed far slower than normal. Making sure to scan the destruction that had been left behind for any signs of powerful dreamscape monsters who happened to have been unlucky enough to have been in the path of the devourer of dreams when it passed.
However, unfortunately for her, it didn’t take her long to realize that although there were quite a few powerful dreamscape monsters who had ended up being in the path of the massive devourer of dreams, none of them survived the encounter.
Among them, the strongest one just so happened to be another dream bear. Only, far stronger than the elder dream bear that she had ended up feeding the dream cloud whales.
[Elder Dream Bear Lord, lvl 112 (Dead)]
At this kind of level along with carrying the lord title, she guessed that this dream bear should have been an S Rank monster when it had still been alive, yet the devourer of dreams, just passing through had killed it without even realizing it was around in the first place. Another testament to just how terrifying the devourer of dream was, as there was no distinction between S Rank Monsters and other dreamscape monsters for it. Every one of them died just as easily to the devourer of dreams.
The positive thing was that a monster like the elder dream bear lord at least seemed to have some ability to resist against the devourer of dreams for a split second. Allowing it to throw back its kin and allow them to avoid colliding with the devourer of dreams, something that had allowed every dream bear outside of the lord to survive the encounter.
[Dream Bear, lvl 42]
[Dream Bear, lvl 67]
[Dream Bear Cub, lvl 12]
[Dream Bear Cub, lvl 21]
[Dream Bear...]
Allowing Scaly to catch a glimpse of the surviving dream bears who could still be seen not too far away from the path of destruction, dragging their injured bodies towards the cave entrance to a small mountain that would undoubtedly serve as their place to hide and recover after the devastating encounter with the devourer of dreams.
Although this was far from the injured powerful dreamscape monster that she had wanted to run into, it was more than enough in her eyes considering that she had ended up slaughtering a similar group of dream bears not too long ago and had almost managed to successfully reach level 40 in the process.
The epic life and death battle she had imagined herself fighting to reach the limit of her current evolution didn’t happen, as she instead found herself silently following the dream bears towards the cave entrance at the side of the small mountain.
Part of her felt a bit bad about the entire situation considering how these dream bears were clearly far too injured to fight back against someone like herself, but this pity didn’t last for long, as she soon enough descended upon the weak and injured group of dreams bears in the process of retreating to the safety of the mountain cave.
ROOOAR!?
Roaaar-!
R... Roar...!
What followed was a one-sided slaughter, as the dream bears let out increasingly pitiful roars as they attempted to fight back against the terrifying menace that had suddenly descended upon them from above...
[Gained 3213 Exp]
[Gained 1062 Exp]
[Gained 232 Exp]
[Gained 5320 Exp]
[Gained 4008 Exp]
[Gained...]
And as the slaughter of the dream bears played out, Scaly smiled happily as blood splattered across her face. Feeling overjoyed as she watched her experience surge along with the deaths of the pitiful dream bears who had no way to fight back against her.
[*Ding* Reached level 40]
And finally, after the last dream bear perished to her sharp claws, her level that had been stuck at level 39 broke through at the very last second. Elevating her to level 40, the limit of her current evolution.
Now, the only thing left for her to do was find somewhere safe to undergo her sixth evolution, something that was far harder than she had originally thought now that she also had to start worrying about not being in the path of another terrifying dreamscape monster like the devourer of dreams.
Realistically, she could always return to the material plane and find somewhere there to undergo her sixth evolution, but the fact that those powerful adventurers might still be waiting for her made her pause. At least within the dreamscape, she didn’t have anyone chasing after her and should be able to undergo her sixth evolution in peace as long as she found somewhere safe to undergo her sixth evolution... And from the looks of the current state of the floating continent that had countless powerful dreamscape monsters that would undoubtedly soon resurface after the fear of the devourer of dreams passing through faded, it might be a good idea for her to look at one of the smaller floating islands floating close to the floating continent for her sixth evolution.
Not just because the dreamscape monsters on those floating islands were far weaker than those found on the floating continent, but also because she hadn’t been attacked by those weaker dreamscape monsters so far. Meaning that even if they ended up finding her while she was in the process of undergoing her sixth evolution, they might leave her alone.
The main worry with going to one of the smaller floating islands for her evolution was the lack of food when she woke up, as she would still have to maneuver her way back to the floating island where the dreamscape monsters could be eaten.
Although this might not be a problem for the floating islands closest to the floating continent, she had long since realized that these floating islands were constantly moving around. Even if it wasn’t noticeable over a few hours, it would undoubtedly change over weeks and months, as she still had no clue just how long her sixth evolution was going to take compared to her previous evolutions outside of the fact that it should take longer.
Pondering about her future evolution amidst the carnage of what had once been a large group of dream bears, Scaly ultimately decided to set aside the thought for now and planned to first take a look around and see if she missed any dreamscape monsters before taking a look at the evolution that were available to her this time around.
Already feeling immensely curious about what path she would take this time around, as she felt that it would undoubtedly be a unique evolution path once again, similar to when she had become a dreamscale dragon and ended up ultimately gaining the ability to enter the dreamscape.