Sweeping through the weaker dreamscape monsters that seemed to never end no matter how many of them she killed, Scaly found her initial excitement about her current situation dimming significantly as she realized that even after killing hundreds of the weaker blue grass snakes along with a few dream bears, she wasn’t anywhere close to leveling up.
In fact...
[Level: 10/50, 53%]
Looking at the progress she had made so far, she had barely gone up 20% after killing so many dreamscape monsters. Making it clear to her that the number of dreamscape monsters she needed to kill just to go from level 10 to level 11 was likely in the thousands, something that would undoubtedly take far longer than her just hunting down a stronger monster that provided her with far more experience compared to the blue grass snakes and dream bears she had been hunting so far.
Because of this, though part of her wanted to continue sweeping through these weaker dreamscape monsters that had no real way to fight back against her, she decided to stop what she was doing and instead take to the air to search for stronger dreamscape monsters to hunt down.
Not just because of how much faster it would be for her to focus on stronger dreamscape monsters, but also because she had a feeling that even if she swept through the entire blue grass field, she would at most reach level 12 or maybe a bit above that if she was lucky, something that would undoubtedly end up taking her days to accomplish in the first place.
After all, though she had an easy time dealing with the blue grass snakes and the dream bears hunting them, her bloody massacre did draw some attention from the surrounding dreamscape monsters and made them hide away. Making it more difficult for her to find them and kill them.
Of course, another reason for her to shift her attention away from the blue grass snakes and dream bears was the simple fact that none of these two dreamscape monsters were edible... And though she didn’t have a need to eat any longer following her sixth evolution, the inherent desire to eat something delicious couldn’t be pushed down forever and needed to be satiated. Especially now that she had ended up going for days without eating, as the last time she had filled her stomach with something that wasn’t mana was before her sixth evolution.
Problem was... Dreamscape monsters were far from delicious from what little she had managed to taste so far, with most of them being inedible. Different from monsters she encountered outside the dreamscape, where most of them were delicious in their own way.
Although this did end up making her think about leaving the dreamscape for a bit to fill up her stomach, she ultimately decided against it because of how easy it was for her to find prey on the floating continent to hunt down and the simple fact that she didn’t have to worry about being hunted down by adventurers while inside the dreamscape.
The one group of adventurers she did end up running into could be considered a coincidence, as they hadn’t come for her specifically, but instead came for the countless weakened dreamscape monsters that could be found throughout the bloody battlefield. Not to mention, they had also ended up helping her later when they so graciously ensured that the dream worms didn’t chase after her as she escaped from their underground nest.
However, even though the adventurers she had encountered so far didn’t seem to be targeting her specifically, their presence alone made her a bit uneasy about the ones that had chased her in the material plane potentially showing up in the future.
But then again, this worry was for the future and not something she needed to concern herself with for now, as all she had to do was keep growing stronger until she reached the point where she wouldn’t have to worry about those adventurers who seemed intent on hunting her down.
At least after her sixth evolution, her strength had reached a point where only one figure among the ones chasing her caused her any real worry, that person being the one who had partially followed her into the dreamscape back when she had escaped into the dreamscape following the death of the gluttonous giant ant queen.
Speaking of that terrifying fellow, she wondered if she would be able to fight back against the other party now that she had gone through her sixth evolution. After all, though she wasn’t certain about winning in a direct confrontation, the same couldn’t be said if she had the opportunity to ambush the other party. Even more so if she managed to learn that dream magic capable of attacking the soul that the blue grass snakes could use.
Feeling her own thoughts wandering as she flew through the now dark sky of the dreamscape while ensuring that she didn’t end up flying too high and potentially ending up entangled in the even harder to see tentacles of the dream jellyfish floating by above, Scaly suddenly noticed something odd in the distance, a light that seemed to grow brighter and brighter the closer she got.
Huh? Is it still daytime over there...?
And as she got close enough, she realized that the light she was seeing belonged to a part of the floating continent that was still bright and lively looking no different from what she perceived the floating continent to have looked before night had fallen.
Even more surprising, as she found herself cautiously flying over and into the light, she realized that everything before her suddenly seemed to brighten, as the dreamscape that had originally been dark and shadowy turned bright and lively once again. The lively colorful clouds and smaller dreamscape monsters floating around outside the boundary formed by the floating continent once again becoming fully visible.
Shocking as this was, turning around still ended up becoming the highlight, as she finally realized the reason why everything had suddenly become so dark as if night had fallen on the dreamscape.
In fact, night had not suddenly fallen on the dreamscape. Instead, the floating continent had moved through a massive dark cloud that prevented light from reaching the parts of the floating continent that had already been engulfed by the seemingly endless dark cloud slowly swallowing up the floating continent.
The little light she had been able to spot, having merely come from a small hole in the dark cloud that had been created due to two relatively powerful dreamscape monsters fighting with each other using magic.
As for the fate of those two dreamscape monsters...
[Gained 6722 Exp]
[Gained 7524 Exp]
She had wasted no time turning them into experience to fuel her own growth. Doing so even before she turned around and saw the endless black cloud swallowing up the floating continent. After all, some things carried a clear priority and compared to increasing her strength. Finding out why things had gone dark could always wait a bit...
Not to mention, the dark cloud swallowing the floating continent didn’t seem to cause any damage or danger, as the dreamscape monsters living on the floating continent had little to no reaction to the sudden darkness. On the contrary, the darkness seemed to bring out more of the weaker dreamscape monsters that had originally remained hidden.
Adventurers!?
But just as she was about to resume her search for more dreamscape monsters after having finished off the two who had been busy fighting with each other and discovered the reason behind the sudden darkness she had woken up to, Scaly saw a group of adventures out of the corner of her eye.
[Human, Grand Warrior, lvl 67]
[Human, Trapping Expert, lvl 72]
[Human, Light Wizard, lvl 71]
But on first glance, it was not only clear that these adventurers hadn’t seen her, but also the fact that their strength was far weaker than any of the adventurers she had run into so far inside the dreamscape.
Still, though they were far weaker than the adventurers she had encountered, they would undoubtedly provide her with far more experience than the two dreamscape monsters she had just finished off-
"Let’s head back to the outpost before we get caught up in the dark."
"Yeah, good idea, don’t want to be making my way back in the dark. Especially considering how lively this place becomes the second a night cloud descends."
But as she was about to rush forth and finish off the three adventurers, their words made her pause. Not the information about the name of the dark cloud behind her, but the fact that they were moving back towards some kind of outpost that instantly made her think of the towns and cities created by adventurers inside the Howling Caverns Dungeon.
If she could follow them back to this outpost they mentioned, she might not just be able to learn where the adventurers inside the dreamscape were coming from and could avoid the place, but would also make it far easier for her to hunt down weaker adventurers like the group of three in front of her in the future, something that would make it far easier for her to increase her strength compared to her having to search for dreamscape monsters...