Looking back in the direction of the adventurers that she had just escaped from, Scaly could not help silently breathing a sigh of relief after seeing that none of them had chased after her and had instead just focused on the nearby dreamscape monsters after she had taken the brief opportunity that had been given to her to widen the distance between them.
Not because she feared facing any one of those adventurer’s head on, but more so because she wouldn’t be facing them one on one, but would instead be facing them together... And even if she had grown significantly stronger from when she had just become a dreamscale dragon, she was nowhere near strong enough to face off against so many powerful adventurers at the same time. Especially considering that she still hadn’t had the time to develop a powerful magic for dealing with a large number of enemies at the same time.
Originally, she had wanted to set aside some time to do this after her sixth evolution, but the appearance of the bloody battlefield filled with dreamscape monsters easy to hunt down had made her throw this thought to the back of her mind yet again.
Now that she might have had some use for such a wider area spell when dealing with the large number of powerful adventurers, she didn’t have it and could only reluctantly retreat once again, something she had ended up doing far more than she wanted whenever she ended up encountering adventurers nowadays.
Of course, the main reason for this also had to do with how unlucky she had been when it came to the adventurers she had run into over the past few weeks, as every single one of them were powerful and in a large group that she simply didn’t have the strength to contend against no matter how much she wanted to fight instead of retreating.
Thump~
Landing on a small hill a short distance away from the bloody battlefield itself and out of sight from the adventurers who continued carving a bloody path through any dreamscape monster unlucky enough to stand in their path, Scaly found herself contemplating what to do next.
First, she could just cut it out now and leave before she ended up getting dragged into a potential battle with those powerful adventurers, but... Doing that would mean she would give up a lot of easy experience, as almost all the remaining dreamscape monsters still present on the bloody battlefield were injured to some extent and would be far easier to take down compared to having to face them normally.
Secondly, she could wait for the powerful adventurers to move past her and start hunting in the opposite direction of the one that the powerful group of adventurers were moving in, something that would undoubtedly be far safer than hunting down dreamscape monsters along the path that they were moving in.
However, doing that meant that most of the dreamscape monsters she encountered would either be weak or already dead. Overall meaning that there would be close to no benefit staying on the bloody battlefield in the first place, as hunting throughout the forest for dreamscape monsters would yield better rewards.
Finally, a choice that she hadn’t really thought much about earlier would be for her to follow the slowly retreating dreamscape monsters underground into the dark world beneath the surface that they had originally emerged from.
Although this would undoubtedly be the best option as there would be no lack of dreamscape monsters, she was also fully aware of how dangerous it would be for her to follow these injured dreamscape monsters into their own world underground, as she wouldn’t be able to make use of her main ability to keep herself alive. Flying.
After all, compared to the wide-open underground spaces she had traveled through during her time in Howling Caverns Dungeon, it was clear from a glance that most of the underground space beneath the surface of the floating continent consisted of small narrow tunnels that would make it difficult for a dragon like herself to properly move through. Especially after her size had doubled following her recent sixth evolution.
Maybe if she was still the same size as when she had been an ancient water lizard, she would feel confident in following the escaping dreamscape monsters underground, but at her current size, she didn’t–leaving the ultimate choice on what to do between the first and second choice.
And already knowing that the path that would benefit her most was the first, she didn’t exactly hesitate for long as she took to the air again and flew ahead to try and make some distance between herself and the group of powerful adventurers before once again diving down to join the bloody battlefield.
The only real difference compared to before being that she made sure to keep a better eye on those adventurers this time around. Making sure to move out of the way the second they got anywhere close to her.
[Gained 6734 Exp]
[Gained 7658 Exp]
[Gained 2345 Exp]
[Gained 4567 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 9]
All this worked just fine to her benefit, as she soon enough managed to reach level 9 without any interruptions from the group of powerful adventurers who seemed to be just behind her whenever she turned to look in their direction.
Unfortunately, good things didn’t last forever, as she discovered to her dismay, that the bloody battlefield that seeming stretched on forever was coming to an end without any new direction for her to turn to in search of new dreamscape monsters.
Even worse, as she took to the air to widen the distance between herself and the adventure behind her once again, she also noted that the number of dreamscape monsters had once again decreased. Reaching the point where the only dreamscape monsters still present on the bloody battlefield were a few weaker ones that hadn’t been able to find a way back underground in time and thus ended up wandering around aimlessly without any clear goal in mind.
Devastating as this was to her goal of furthering her own strength, it wasn’t entirely unexpected, as she could only helplessly flap her wings in the opposite direction of the adventurers behind her. Knowing that the rapid growth she had been able to enjoy over the past day had come to an end.
Still, she wasn’t too sad about the entire situation, as she had at least managed to bring her level all the way from level 1 to level 9 in a single day. Covering close to one fifth of the path to her next evolution.
Even if the higher levels would inevitably require far more experience and take far longer to go through, it didn’t diminish the sense of progress she felt after going over just how far she had managed to go in only a single day.
However, before she could take a proper look through her status and see just how much her strength had grown, she had to find somewhere safe to recover her strength from the bloody slaughter she had engaged in on the bloody battlefield. After all, she hadn’t ever waited around to fully recover her strength and mana as it would waste too much time when she could only hunt for a limited time.
So, now that the easy experience had come to an end, she decided to find somewhere suitable to fully recover the strength and mana that had been used. Planning to also take the opportunity to go through her status.
Problem was, as she flapped her wings about to leave the bloody battlefield, she noticed that the group of powerful adventurers that had been following her from behind with a goal not much different from hers, was essentially directly below her. Looking up with eyes that told her that she had almost certainly ended up becoming the main focus of this group of powerful adventurers.
Rumble~
Another problem, the group of mages that she didn’t under any circumstances want to turn their full attention towards her, seemed to have done so, as she already felt a terrifying quantity of mana gathering below her into what she could only guess to be some kind of terrifying spell made in cooperation between the group of mages below. Allowing the overall strength of this spell to far exceed what they would have been normally capable of on their own.
Eeeep!
And as a not so glorious, panicked voice echoed out inside her head, Scaly used all the mana she could gather to enhance her own speed through wind magic to get as far away as possible from whatever this group of mages were up. Knowing that whatever it was would be more than powerful enough to do some serious harm to her.
Whoosh-!
In the process, not forgetting to throw down a small barrage towards them to hopefully slow down or interrupt whatever powerful magic they were attempting to conjure up...