Around the same time that the group of five from the Holy Light Church successfully escaped from Temple Guard City and was on their way to meet with the cardinal with the clear intent of never stepping inside the dreamscape again, Scaly slowly opened her eyes inside the small cave that she had managed to seal off before falling asleep. Her body already recovered with only a few superficial wounds left for her to try and practice learning healing magic through.
But... Maybe not so surprisingly, after a little over half an hour of continued practice trying to learn healing magic by pouring her mana into those superficial wounds without any results outside of boosting her recovery speed at a steep mana cost, she decided to give up before she ended up burning through all her mana. Not planning to linger around inside the small cave any longer than she already had.
Excited as she might have been about potentially learning healing magic to boost her own survival abilities and make herself stronger and more durable during combat, it wasn’t enough for her to start sacrificing the time she would normally spend hunting down monsters to level up and increase her strength. If anything, the fact that she had even used half an hour practicing was a miracle in its own way.
No matter...
Rustle~ Bang~
After she stopped trying to learn healing magic, she quickly pushed aside the rocks that had been used to partially block the cave entrance before stepping back out into the light, or that was what she would have liked to think, as she wasn’t met with the familiar sky of the dreamscape nor the permanent day that she had grown used to inside the dreamscape. Instead, she was met with a dark sky and equally dark surroundings that made everything around her look like it had suddenly changed.
The only thing that reassured her that she was still inside the dreamscape and hadn’t suddenly ended up being transported somewhere different while she had been asleep being the dream jellyfish floating far above her, their presence alone bringing a great sense of security to the somewhat confused Scaly who had originally believed she had been transported somewhere unknown and far more dangerous during her sleep.
Still, with night having seemingly fallen on the dreamscape during her sleep, Scaly decided to postpone her original plans for hunting down dreamscape monsters for now and wait until after she made sure that the floating continent hadn’t suddenly ended up becoming far deadlier after things turned dark.
That and the fact that the dreamscape monsters that she had originally been planning to hunt down might have decided to hide away and sleep through the night, something that would undoubtedly disrupt any plans she might have originally had when it came to hunting down dreamscape monsters to continue raising her own strength.
If anything, she feared that kind of scenario more than the other one, as a deadlier dreamscape would also inevitably mean that any dreamscape monsters, she ended up killing would provide her with more experience compared to the somewhat weaker dreamscape monsters she had found herself hunting down so far during her time on the floating continent.
After all, except for the bloody battlefield where she had encountered countless unique underground dreamscape monsters that she wouldn’t normally run into on the floating continent, the one dreamscape monster she found herself running into all the time was none other than dream bears, a kind of dreamscape monster that seemed to be dominant throughout the forests of the floating continent.
For her to judge the situation of the dreamscape monsters on the floating continent and whether they had ended up hiding away now that night had fallen on the dreamscape, the best way would be for her to find a dream bear.
If dream bears were still around like normal. Nothing drastic should have taken place.
Only if the dream bears that could normally be found with little to no effort were missing did she need to start worrying...
[Dream Bear, lvl 33]
Luckily, it didn’t end up taking her more than a few seconds to find a somewhat weaker dream bear moving around the blue colored grass field. Hunting what looked like a snake dreamscape monster that from a single glance should be far weaker than even the already weak dream bear.
[Blue Grass Snake, lvl 13]
[Description: A unique dreamscape snake that is fond of blue dream grass. Considered amongst the weaker dreamscape creatures found throughout the different floating continents and islands of the dreamscape. The only unique aspect about the blue grass snake outside of its inherent liking of blue dream grass is its ability to attack the soul of sleeping dreamscape monsters and adventurers alike through dream magic. Allowing it to kill far stronger enemies who are unprepared. Only downside being the target needs to be asleep for the dream magic to work.]
And indeed, after inspecting the small snake, she was proven correct, as the overall description of this small blue colored snake called a blue grass snake made it clear that it was far from a powerful dreamscape monster.
The only thing that caught her a bit off guard was the special dream magic that this little blue snake possessed. Allowing it to attack the soul of its enemies if they are asleep.
Although this kind of dream magic was rather useless in a direct fight, it was extremely useful for ambushing sleeping enemies... And along with it being dream magic, Scaly found herself wanting to learn this sleep attack dream magic that the blue grass snake possessed.
Problem was... She needed to see the blue grass snake use its magic firsthand before she could even try to copy and learn it in the same way she had ended up learning how to move through the sky of the dreamscape in the past.
But doing that would not only end up taking an undetermined number of hours if not days to accomplish but would also mean she had to silently wait while the blue grass worm snuck up and attacked other dreamscape monsters or adventurers without getting the chance to get any experience herself.
Just thinking about it was unbearable, as she understood full well that there was no way she would be patient enough to silently follow behind the blue grass snake and slowly learn dream magic by observing it hunting.
Not to mention, the blue grass snake she had been looking towards had already been cut down by the now happy dream bear, who had managed to reach level 34 after killing the blue grass snake.
Ptsh~!
[Gained 1632 Exp]
Of course, this wasn’t something Scaly could allow, as she cut down the happy little dream bear before flapping her wings to search for more dreamscape monsters to hunt down.
After all, her original goal had already been completed the second she spotted the dream bear, as she had essentially been able to confirm that not much seemed to have changed on the floating continent after night fell upon the dreamscape.
If anything, the appearance of the blue grass snake, a dreamscape monster even weaker than the dream bear meant that the night might be a time where the weaker dreamscape monsters were more active...
[Blue Grass Snake, lvl 11]
[Blue Grass Snake, lvl 5]
[Dream Bear, lvl 26]
[Blue Grass Snake, lvl 9]
[Blue Grass Snake, lvl 12]
[Dream Bear, lvl 32]
[Blue Grass Snake, lvl 6]
[Blue Grass Snake, lvl 7]
[Dream Bear...]
A fact that was soon enough confirmed, as the blue grass field that had seemingly been devoid of life when she had originally flown over it before sealing herself off to recover her strength was now brimming with life, as hundreds of blue grass sneaks that had hidden away in the past could now be seen moving around below her alongside a few weaker dream bears hunting them down.
Altogether, she didn’t spot a single dreamscape monster above level 40, though with the sheer number of dreamscape monsters around, she didn’t feel too disappointed as she dived down into the sea of blue grass below and began sweeping through the countless blue grass snakes alongside their hunters, the dream bears.
[Gained 340 Exp]
[Gained 94 Exp]
[Gained 1008 Exp]
[Gained 682 Exp]
[Gained...]
Soon enough being met with a long list of experience notifications, as the weaker dreamscape monsters posed no danger to her. Allowing her to easily kill them with a simple sweep of her claws. Not even needing to utilize the slightest bit of her magic in the process.
Although... She did take the opportunity to train some of her less used magic like her ice and lightning magic. Wanting to at least bring them up to a similar level as her wind magic before she ended up going through her next evolution, something that would hopefully end up helping her obtain a better evolution as she doubted her next evolution would be a higher state of her current dreamscale dragon evolution.