Continuing to move further inland following the path that had been left by both the adventurers and the devourer of dreams that had passed through the region before her, Scaly found herself encountering close to no dreamscape monsters along the way.
One reason for this might be because of how much more intimidating she had become following her sixth evolution, but another seemed to have to do with the adventurers that had passed through the region ahead of her having cleared out the dreamscape monsters that she would have normally run into.
For her who wanted to test out her strength after her sixth evolution, this was a rather disappointing turn of events, as most of the dreamscape monsters she ended up encountering had barely reached the C Rank in terms of strength. Not even providing her with enough experience to reach level 2 after travelling for over a day.
However, this lack of dreamscape monsters due to the adventurers that had passed through earlier on didn’t last forever, as she soon enough spotted the end of the forest that she had made up every part of the floating continent that she had explored so far.
Not only were there no lack of powerful dreamscape monsters appearing at the start of what looked like a wide open plain covered in massive craters and holes that cut straight through the floating continent, but there were even a few powerful ones that gave her a distinct feeling no different from the terrifying adventurer that had forced her to escape Howling Cave City and the one that had somehow chased her into the dreamscape.
Against dreamscape monsters like that, she understood full well that she currently didn’t possess the strength to challenge them head on.
At the very least, she would need until she reached the later stages of her current evolution before she was anywhere strong enough to challenge adventurers or dreamscape monsters that powerful on her own.
Luckily, the open plain that had essentially turned into a bloody battlefield where countless dreamscape monsters clashed with each other didn’t exactly mean she would have to face those powerful dreamscape monsters on her own.
If possible, she could take advantage of the chaos to potential kill a weakened one of those powerful dreamscape monsters, as it was clear from a glance that even dreamscape monsters at their level weren’t entirely safe on that bloody battlefield.
As for her... She didn’t feel much fear given that she could always escape into the sky in case she ended up in a bad situation, as it was clear from what she could see that most of the dreamscape monsters taking part in the blood battle had no ability to fly.
Even if a large number of them had magic that could reach her in the air, they likely wouldn’t have the luxury to focus on her after she took to the sky, as even a single second of looking away could result in another dreamscape monster taking advantage of their lack of attention to kill them.
All in all, this was a perfect kind of environment for her to rapidly increase her strength and Scaly had no intention of wasting any time looking at the chaos from afar. Not lingering around for long after discovering the chaotic battlefield before she flew over and arrived at the edge of the forest.
Although she was interested in looking for the adventurers who seemed to have also reached this chaotic and bloody battlefield, she decided that searching for where those adventurers had gone could wait until after she partook in the bloody battle playing out in front of her.
Not because of a sudden lack of interest in where those adventurers had gone, but more so because she could already sense that the chaotic battlefield was calming down as dreamscape monsters had already begun to slowly retreat underground through the different large craters and holes that exposed the world that existed beneath the surface of the floating continent.
Huh...? Is that... Adventurers?!
But as she was about to dive headfirst into the battlefield and join the slaughter, she suddenly froze mid dive as she spotted a large group of adventurers at the very edge of the battlefield opposite of her current location carving a path straight through the bloody battlefield in a domineering manner that caused surrounding dreamscape monsters to retreat.
Even if these adventurers were clearly not comparable to the stronger dreamscape monsters present on the battlefield, their coordinated approach more than made up for it, as any powerful dreamscape monster barely had time to resist under the bombardment of a dozen powerful mages.
As for Scaly herself... Though she had just managed to experience an increase in strength, she had no intention of facing off against such a large group of powerful adventurers clearly experienced and working together to hunt down dreamscape monsters.
If there was anything positive, it was the fact that these adventurers were still rather far away from her and shouldn’t have noticed her amidst the large number of dreamscape monsters.
So, with that in mind, Scaly quickly resumed her descend and joined the bloody battlefield.
The main difference compared to how she had originally wanted to slaughter her way through the dreamscape monsters without any restraints and how she was acting after spotting the adventurers, was the fact that she moved in the opposite direction of the adventurers as she moved through the bloody battlefield. Making sure to keep an eye on those adventurers in the distance so she wouldn’t suddenly get caught off guard by them appearing behind her at some point in the future.
[Gained 3524 Exp]
[Gained 464 Exp]
[Gained 4792 Exp]
[Gained...]
Still, even with the threat of the powerful group of adventurers cutting through the battlefield, it didn’t end up affecting the speed at which she killed dreamscape monsters. Only ever making her second guess taking on the stronger dreamscape monsters who would require some time to defeat even with her current strength.
In the end, it caused her to just outright ignore the stronger dreamscape monsters, as they weren’t worth the risk considering she wouldn’t get that much more experience from taking them on and killing them compared to just easily carving through a large number of weaker dreamscape monsters that posed no threat to her and had no way to resist her sharp claws.
Any challenging dreamscape monster that ended up targeting her was just directly ignored, as she just flapped her wings and took into the sky before diving down into the bloody battlefield somewhere nearby. Avoiding the confrontation because the powerful dreamscape monsters couldn’t keep up with her and would always just turn on the nearby weaker dreamscape monsters instead of bothering to chase after her.
The only problem so to speak that she found herself running into was the fact that the bloody battlefield didn’t go on forever and after what felt like a day of enjoying herself without encountering any problems or dreamscape monsters capable of challenging her that couldn’t just be avoided, she found herself reaching the end of the battlefield and was forced to change her direction.
Although this didn’t directly cause any problems as the group of powerful adventurers were still nowhere near her, it did result in them getting closer.
But maybe the worst thing about having to change the direction she moved in, was the fact that it made her realize that the number of dreamscape monsters still part of the bloody battlefield had decreased by a lot compared to when she had first dived into the battlefield and happily slaughtered weaker dreamscape monsters without ever running out of targets.
Not only were the dreamscape monsters fewer in numbers, but the overall strength of the dreamscape monsters had increased as well. Meaning that she couldn’t just easily breeze through them like she had been doing so far.
Worse yet, the stronger dreamscape monsters that ended up targeting her didn’t give up as easily as they had done before. Forcing her to clash with them several times before they ultimately ended up giving up and decided to target another weaker dreamscape monster.
Great as this was for her, it did ultimately end up draining both her physical strength and mana over time. Forcing her to take a break every now and then to recover her strength. Further cutting down on the time she had to hunt down dreamscape monsters across the increasingly deadly battlefield.
Not to mention, whenever she took a break to rest, the group of powerful adventurers that now seemed to be following behind her got closer. Giving her the chance to see that these adventurers were different from the ones she had encountered in the past, as they were seemingly overjoyed in a similar way as she was whenever she killed dreamscape monsters or other monsters.
From a glance, it was clear to her that these adventurers were kindred souls who also did everything in their power to grow strong just like she did!