At the same time Scaly found herself approaching the staircase leading down to the second floor of the dungeon, outside of the dungeon, a certain dwarf found himself stumbling out of a large temple. Frowning visibly as he padded his now empty pouch. "Those bloodsuckers... Took everything from me even though I wasn’t the one to hit that damnable pillar." A quiet complaint while giving the pristine temple behind him a sideways glance identifying said dwarf as none other than Verdell. The dwarf that had the opportunity to be the first living being to ride Scaly.
Although this did end up resulting in him having to pay for the damage, she had ended up causing to the temple, as even after it was clear that she wasn’t his tamed monster, the old priest wouldn’t let go until he paid up for the damage that had been done to the temple.
Painful as it was to pay for the damage caused by Scaly, he didn’t have much of a choice given how the old priest wasn’t someone to be messed with. Looking at it positively, he could at least convince himself that it was him repaying Scaly for saving his life... Or not... The bloodsucking old priest clearly understood what had happened but had still insisted on fleecing him for everything he had.
Even worse, as he finally left the temple, he found out that a certain dragon had ended up causing quite a commotion after she had left the temple. Resulting in countless adventurers rushing to the dungeon on top of the mountain that she had been seen escaping into.
Under normal circumstances, this would have had little to do with him but given how he had been seen riding the dragon, it didn’t take long before a swarm of eager adventurers descended upon him. Wanting to learn more about a dragon that he himself barely understood.
Bad as this was. Especially in his rather foul mood after having his money pouch emptied out by a certain old priest. He also understood that those showing up to press him for information would soon be far stronger adventurers than the ones he was currently facing... And if he couldn’t give them the information they wanted, he feared that he would end up in a bad situation.
I’m almost an S Rank Adventurer... How come I’ve been feeling like I’m back to my early days without any strength to fight back...?
Thinking this to himself as he felt a sense of disbelief over the situation, he had ended up finding himself in, Verdell decided to escape from the growing crowd of adventurers before the situation became troublesome.
Originally planning to escape into the dreamscape to avoid getting cornered by a group of overeager S Rank Adventurers who wanted to earn the revered title of a dragon hunter. Only to find out that the dream gate had once again been closed due to the troublesome situation on the other side making it unstable.
As for what that troublesome situation was, he had a feeling that it should be related to the thousands of nightmare hawks that had been about to peck him to death not too long ago.
Because of this, his options on where to go next narrowed down significantly, as he was left with the simple choice of escaping into the dungeon on top the mountain in a manner not much different from what Scaly had done or just leave the city.
Of the two, one was clearly far safer and easier than the other, as Verdell didn’t hesitate for a second before starting to make his way towards one of the gates leading out of the city. Planning to leave before he ended up drawing too much attention to himself, as his appearance wasn’t exactly hard to recognize given that dwarves were relatively rare within Temple Guard City and the surrounding area.
Huh? That is...
But as he got close to the gate leading out of the city, he found himself freezing on the spot as he spotted a familiar group of adventures lingering around the gate composed entirely of S Rank Adventurers...
"So... That little one, Verdell, has information on the dragon that appeared?"
"Yes, heard some saw him riding it. Appeared out of nowhere and crashed into the central temple."
"Wow... Those priests are definitely going to kill him..."
"True, heard that a senior priest was present and dragged him away shortly after he got up from the ground. Definitely drained him of everything he had to pay for the damage."
"Haha, that is what he gets, all we need to do now is wait for him to try and leave the city after learning how everyone is looking for him to get information on that dragon. After all, compared to those juniors, I know that troublemaker inside out and where he will try and go after learning that the dream gate is closed."
And listing to their banter from afar, he couldn’t help feeling the corner of his lips twitching with irritation.
Okay, his plans for escaping weren’t that meticulous, but to have someone directly see through him like this was enough to get on anyone’s nerves.
Luckily, they haven’t spotted me yet...
Still, though he was annoyed that his escape plans had been seen through by this group of S Rank Adventurers, whom he clearly recognized as one of the groups that could normally be found inside the dreamscape, he also understood that now wasn’t the time to confront them. His main goal was still to escape before he ended up getting cornered by overeager adventurers wanting to learn about the dragon, he had the misfortune of being seen riding.
Others would revel at the prospect of riding a dragon, but him? It only seemed to bring him endless trouble. The only thing keeping him from shifting this annoyance at the current troublesome situation he had found himself in being the fact that she had ended up saving his life. Making him unable to shift the blame towards her.
In the end, though he felt a bit reluctant to enter the swirling sand dungeon on top of the mountain, he knew that this was the only way for him to get out of his current situation.
If anything, he could use the opportunity to push the final bit towards level 100 so he could become an S Rank Adventurer himself.
Of course, before reaching level 100, he also had to complete the special class quest that would come upon reaching level 99. A class quest that part of him already dreaded, as the class quest was also what kept most A Rank Adventurers from advancing from the A Rank to the S Rank.
From what he knew and had already prepared himself to face, a class quest going from the A Rank to the S Rank was never simple nor easy to accomplish. Different from past ranks where one might be lucky and encounter a simple class quest that could be completed with ease.
Speaking of class quests, he had never ended up with easy ones, as the last one he had gone through to become an A Rank Adventurer and reach level 70 had him journey into an ancient mage tower left behind by a powerful mage specializing in creating mechanical puppets.
Not only were the mechanical puppets all comparable to A Rank Adventurers in strength, but they also had terrifying magic resistance. Rendering his spells useless against them. Even worse, a class quest was something that had to be completed alone. Any outside help would immediately cause the class quest to change and increase in difficulty according to the strength and number of people assisting, something that had resulted in countless noble young masters to remain stuck at the C Rank or B Rank in terms of strength over the years.
Back then, the only reason why he completed his seemingly impossible class quest was thanks to him tripping over a broken puppet just as the magic resistant mechanical puppets were about to kill him, causing the mechanical puppets to fly over him and outside a nearby window. Falling to their death, as the floor he found himself on within the tower wasn’t just over a hundred meters up, but also right next to an active volcano that the mechanical puppets ended up falling into.
Maybe because of his unique fire related way of completing the class quest that required him to obtain a magic tome at the top floor and defeat the guardian mechanical puppets, his class changed to Flame Bringer, a unique fire mage class that made him stronger than most other A Rank Mages...
"Huh? Isn’t that Verdell? The dwarf who was seen riding the dragon?"
"Hm? Oh! It really is him!"
"Fast! Before he escapes, we need to get information about that dragon!"
Finding himself reminiscing about the past as he made his way up the mountain towards the dungeon entrance, Verdell was suddenly brought back to reality as he heard several people loudly yelling behind him-
Swish~
Spinning around without the slightest bit of hesitation as he used all his strength to rush towards the dungeon entrance only a few hundred meters away. Not daring to linger for even a second. Knowing that if he didn’t take the opportunity to escape now, his fate would be sealed, and he would never be able to escape into the dungeon.
Swoosh~
Luckily, he had acted fast and the surrounding adventurers also about to enter the dungeon only managed to show a look of confusion following the loud yelling and a look of understanding before he slipped inside the dungeon. Not giving them any time to act on the understanding that had dawned at the last second before he reached the dungeon entrance.