Having fallen asleep underground inside her small temporary home, Scaly was completely unaware of the fact that the adventurers that had been chasing after her had been scared away by something moving through the large tunnel that her small sleeping spot happened to be connected to.
Although... Even if she knew about it, she wouldn’t be able to do much about it given that she had already travelled through the underground tunnel for a good fifteen minutes and would need at least ten minutes to get back out again. Meaning it was unlikely for her to avoid whatever it was that happened to be travelling through the large underground tunnel and had scared off the adventurers.
If anything, the best course of action was exactly what she was doing right now. Remain quiet without causing any disturbance that might end up getting the attention of the being that had scared off the adventurers.
In a sense, her current sleeping state was far better for her, as it did slow down her heartbeat and the overall noise, she might have caused by being awake. The only thing that might give away her current location being the blood that had dripped from her while she travelled through the underground tunnel, with the only positive in that regard being that she had made sure that there wasn’t any blood around the place where she had ultimately settled down to recover her strength.
Still... The presence of her blood alone might cause the being in question to investigate the tunnel more closely than it might originally have, something that could lead to the blocked off cave that Scaly now slept inside of being discovered...
Ruuumble~
And only a few minutes after the panicked escape of the adventurers, the entire cave Scaly slept inside of began trembling violently as something massive approached through the tunnel it was connected to.
Wha—what is happening!?
The shaking so violent that Scaly woke up immediately after barely a few minutes asleep. Looking around herself with a clear look of panic on her face, as she feared that the cave ceiling would collapse on top of her at any second due to the shaking.
As for what caused this violent shaking, she didn’t have the time to look at what it was and could only brace herself as some loose rocks broke free and fell on top of her. Cutting open a wound that had just begun to close.
RUUUUMBBBLLEEEE-!
But as the rumbling became more violent and staying inside the small cave became unbearable for even a second longer, Scaly found herself starting to dig out the passage she had blocked up earlier when she had chosen this small cave as the place to rest and recover her strength.
Huh? What is that...?
But as she managed to pull aside a few of the rocks and other debris blocking the path connecting the small cave to the larger tunnel, she found herself freezing on the spot as she noticed something rapidly approaching off in the distance. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she seemed to see what looked like a pair of eyes, but she couldn’t be certain. All she knew was that whatever it was, it was barreling directly towards her and her small temporary home.
But as the large being got closer, she finally had the chance to examine this unique being...
[Dream Worm, lvl 167]
[Description: The dream worm, or more commonly referred to as the ever-growing worm by adventurers, is among one of the most common dreamscape monsters found throughout the dreamscape and can be found underground on almost every floating island and continent. The name given by adventurers refers to the fact that a dream worm never ceases to grow and can grow indefinitely if it is left alone and has space to grow.
Meaning that dream worms found on floating continents can sometimes grow thousands of meters long, becoming powerful to the point where even S Rank Adventurers dread them, while also becoming one of the main reasons why adventurers avoid going anywhere near the underground world of a floating continent if possible. Fearful that they might just run into one such dream worm.]
And what she ended up seeing left her terrified, as this might very well be the strongest being she had ever encountered excluding the devourer of dreams.
Even worse, as she saw the status of this dreamscape monster known as a dream worm, the dream worm also spotted her peeking her head out into the larger tunnel—causing the worm in question to increase its speed as it had now clearly targeted her in a manner not much different from the adventurers who had targeted her only a short time earlier.
The main difference between the two parties being that this dream worm was clearly far stronger and larger than those adventurers and posed a far greater threat given that she couldn’t just flap her wings and fly away while being underground. Not to mention, her current state was far from optimal.
The only positive to the entire situation as she slithered out of the small opening she had created and out into the large tunnel, was the fact that the dream worm was clearly far larger than the tunnel itself and had to enlarge the already large tunnel as it moved towards her.
Magically, even in that kind of disadvantageous situation, the dream worm’s speed was still far from slow, as it became clear on closer inspection that it was using some kind of earth magic to assist in widening the tunnel to fit it.
Meaning that the advantage she had from the large tunnel being too small to fit the entire dream worm inside of it wasn’t as great as she had originally hoped and all she could do to ensure that the dream worm didn’t end up catching up with her was to flap her wings and fly in the opposite direction. Understanding very well that this was the only way for her to avoid ending up in the stomach of the dream worm.
As for where the tunnel ultimately ended up leading... She had no clue nor did she have the time to care. All she could do was hope that it would lead to an opening leading to the surface like the hole that she had originally used to enter the large tunnel. Allowing her to escape from the dream worm.
After all, though it wasn’t a dreamscape monster she believed she could face even at her full strength, she was confident that she would be able to escape if she managed to get to surface and could make full use of her ability to fly.
Of course, outside of this escape path, there was always the option of leaving the dreamscape and returning the material plane, but... unless she was out of options, she didn’t want to do that, as she had no idea where she might end up by escaping to the material plane.
For all she knew, she might end up in a worse position, something that was very possible given her current bad state.
Not to mention a group of S Rank Adventurers, she was certain that a single S Rank Adventurer or monster for that matter would be able to finish her off in her current state.
Because of this, she felt a sense of excitement building inside her upon seeing a flickering light in the distance that slowly became brighter the closer she got to it.
A path to the surface!
And along with these excited thoughts, she eagerly flapped her wings with all her strength and increased her speed by a tiny margin. Hoping to reach that light just a little bit faster so she could return to the surface and escape from the deadly dream worm that had already managed to get dangerously close to her.
Rustle~ Rustle~ Rustle~
[Dream Worm, lvl 108]
[Dream Worm, lvl 24]
[Dream Worm, lvl 121]
[Dream Worm, lvl 62]
[Dream Worm...]
But as she stepped into through the bright opening that marked the end of the large tunnel, what met her wasn’t a path to the surface, but instead a massive underground space filled to the brim with dream worms slithering around on top of each other, some small barely a few dozen meters in length, while others stretched on for thousands of meters.
What she had ended up finding wasn’t a path to the surface, but instead the main gathering point of the dream worms, as outside of the dream worms themselves, she also saw countless tunnels of varying sizes everywhere around the massive dream worm nest.
Talking about deadly locations across the floating continent, she might have ended up accidentally stumbling into the deadliest one by sheer accident thanks to a certain dream worm still rapidly closing in on her from behind.
At least they haven’t noticed me...
Thinking about the one positive about her current situation, Scaly suddenly felt countless eyes turning towards her, as the number of positive things she could think about regarding her current circumstances was reduced to zero in an instant...