Escaping from the outpost without the slightest bit of hesitation after sensing the terrifying mana fluctuations from the walls, Scaly didn’t even dare linger nearby and wait for adventurers to show up as she almost instantly ended up deciding to focus her attention on hunting down dreamscape monsters instead of adventurers. Feeling that hunting adventurers would be far too risky with her current strength.
Of course, if she ended up running into another group of weak adventurers like the three, she had followed back to the outpost, she wouldn’t mind finishing them off. The problem was, she doubted that it would be easy for her to encounter adventurers that are that weak again in the future.
At the very least, with the night cloud swallowing up the floating continent, dreamscape monsters that had originally been difficult for her to find would become more active according to the bits of information she had managed to learn from the three adventurers as they had made their way back towards the dreamscape adventurer outpost.
Not just weak dreamscape monsters, as it was clear from how they had rushed back that there would also be some stronger dreamscape monsters appearing after the massive night cloud swallowed up everything.
The only question she had left might be how long this night cloud would be around to boost the appearance of dreamscape monsters, as she herself had already managed to benefit from the appearance of the night cloud after she had just emerged from her recovery nap.
If it stayed around for the long term, that would be for the best, as it would make it significantly easier for her to hunt down dreamscape monsters, who knew, if she was lucky, she might even encounter a large gathering of monsters similar to the bloody battlefield that had been created by underground dreamscape monsters surging up from below the surface.
Although... She had a feeling that encountering that kind of wide battlefield filled with rampaging dreamscape monsters wasn’t easy. If it was, that would be for the best, as she might be able to reach level 50 in a week or two and prepare for her seventh evolution. Beating the time she had taken to go from her fifth evolution to her sixth evolution.
Unrealistic as this might be, she could at least dream as she glided through the air a few dozen meters above the surface of the floating continent, her attention partly focused on her surroundings and any dreamscape monsters that might have emerged now that night had fallen on the floating continent.
[Eri Dread Wood, lvl 7]
[Eri Dread Wood, lvl 3]
[Eri Dread Wood, lvl 1]
[Eri Dread Wood, lvl 4]
[Eri Dread Wood, lvl 2]
[Eri Dread Wood...]
But among the different dreamscape monsters that had appeared after night had fallen, the one that appeared the most often was one called Eri Dread Wood, a unique looking tree with crocked branches and little to no living leaves left on it. Making it look like a dead tree at first glance.
Along with the low level that offered her close to no experience at all, Scaly ultimately decided against wasting her time dealing with these unique spiritual trees that had suddenly emerged from seemingly nowhere following the appearance of the night cloud.
Still, their terrifying numbers caused her to inspect one of them in more detail to see if she could figure out where all of them had suddenly popped up from...
[Eri Dread Wood, lvl 5]
[Description: Simple dreamscape spiritual tree that gained sentience. Capable of simple dream magic following the nightmare branch of dream magic. Eri Dread Wood is among the most common kinds of magic wood used in the construction of dream aligned magical artifacts. Enhanced effectiveness for magical artifacts of the nightmare branch. Can only grow in the presence of a night cloud or similar unique clouds drifting through the dreamscape.]
However, the description didn’t provide her with much of an explanation regarding where these unique dreamscape trees had appeared from. Only giving her some hint that it might be related to the night cloud that had swallowed up the floating continent and caused night to descend.
But going along that line of thinking, there might be other more impressive unique dreamscape monsters aligned with this nightmare branch of dream magic emerging alongside these unique dreamscape trees.
At the same time, Scaly also found her interest in this nightmare branch of dream magic growing, as it sounded far more usable for battle compared to normal dream magic-
Whoosh~! Bang!
And almost at the same time as the thought of learning the nightmare branch of dream magic had started to emerge and her thoughts was either on this new branch of dream magic or the ground below, Scaly suddenly found herself being knocked to the side by a tremendous force followed by what felt like a pair of sharp talons attempting to pierce through her scale.
Wha-!? I’m being attacked!?
Not at all having expected an attack from above out of seemingly nowhere, Scaly found herself with no time to react to the sudden attack as one of the claws pushing against her scales managed to successfully pierce through-
Ptsh-!
Sinking into the far softer flesh hidden beneath, while at the same time also alerting her to the seriousness of the current situation, as an opponent capable of piercing her scales was by no means another weak enemy she could take on with a simple swipe of her claws.
Squawwk-!
And along with the loud non-hawk squawking sound that came from the dreamscape monster that had managed to ambush her, she finally had the chance to see her opponent for the first time...
[Nightmare Hawk, lvl 35]
[Description: The dread nightmare hawk, a dreamscape monsters that are rarely seen and dreaded even by S Rank Adventurers due to its terrifying speed and sharp claws alongside its massive body surpassing even that of some smaller dragons. Known to roam the dreamscape moving alongside night clouds and other similar nightmare aligned clouds. Cation is recommended whenever one encounters a dread nightmare hawk, as they rarely move alone.]
To say its size was larger than a smaller dragon wasn’t inaccurate, as it had a wingspan more than double that of hers, but this also ended up confirming the fact that she was considered a smaller dragon, something she really didn’t want to admit just after she had more than doubled her size. Especially given that there was still a long time before she could go through her seventh evolution and get a chance to grow into a dragon not considered small.
Squawwk-!
That aside, she had to first deal with this nightmare hawk already clinging to her attempting to pierce her scales with more of its claws, something she absolutely couldn’t allow!
Ching~
Ptsh-!
However, as she attempted to forcibly cut off the leg that had grabbed hold of her, she discovered that her claws weren’t sharp enough to cut through the legs, as the nightmare hawk directly used the opportunity to have another talon penetrate her scales. Making it even more difficult for her to free herself from the grip of the nightmare hawk.
[Nightmare Hawk, lvl 35]
[Nightmare Hawk, lvl 35]
[Nightmare Hawk, lvl 35]
[Nightmare Hawk...]
Even worse, as she looked off into the distance by sheer coincidence, she discovered more than a dozen of those massive birds descending towards her filled with anticipation.
If even one was difficult to deal with for an S Rank Adventurer, dealing with over a dozen at the same time was impossible... And Scaly herself understood that she wouldn’t be much different from an S Rank Adventurer in that kind of situation. Meaning she had to free herself and get away before those nightmare hawks from above had the chance to join their friend in attacking her.
Swish~
With that thought in mind, she quickly gathered her mana and conjured a powerful water blade that flew towards the claw that had already managed to sink two of its talons into her-
Chiiiing- Ptsh!
The water blade struggling against the tough exterior armor that seemed to cover the feet of the nightmare hawk for a short time before managing to cleanly break through the defense and through the leg that had been keeping her in place.
Squawwk-!
Unsurprisingly, losing a leg was painful, as a painfilled squawking soon echoed out through the surroundings-
Swish-!
But Scaly couldn’t really care much about the painfilled scream of the nightmare hawk, as she took full advantage of the opportunity to conjure another water blade that flew towards the unprotected neck of the nightmare hawk.
PTSH-!
[Gained 14.652 Exp]
Cutting through it cleanly without any effort. Killing the nightmare hawk that had momentarily been caught off guard by the sudden pain of having one of its legs cut off, But... This was far from the end, as the remaining nightmare hawks were about to reach her. Leaving Scaly with only one choice for escape. Rapidly descend towards the forest that was mostly made up of eri dread wood below her. Taking advantage of gravity to increase her own speed alongside wind magic.