Unaware of the fact that Verdell had ended up escaping into the dungeon to avoid getting captured by the overeager adventurers who wanted nothing more than to catch her and become dragon hunters, Scaly began her descent down the spiral staircase leading to the second floor of the dungeon. Not daring to linger around at the edge of the staircase, as that would only give the army of adventurers chasing her from behind time to catch up to her.
For this reason, she didn’t manage to take in her surroundings as she found herself high up in the sky at the connection point between the top of the second floor before she jumped off the side of the spiral staircase and took to the sky. Only starting to feel a sense of security after she had created a significant distance between herself and the spiral staircase. Ensuring that any adventurer army that appeared wouldn’t be close enough to attack her.
Huh? Another desert...?
Because of this, she was somewhat taken aback when she finally had the chance to look down below only to be met with nothing but sand and not a single monster in sight.
Different from the large number of monsters she had expected to encounter upon reaching the second floor of the dungeon, it was clear she had been expecting too much, as all she could see was a seemingly endless sea of sand. Only broken apart by a scarce few oases scattered around to form small islands amidst the sea of sand.
Looking back towards the towering spiral staircase she had originally entered the second floor of the dungeon through, she not only spotted a few adventurers starting to descend, but also saw a large oasis at the base of the towering spiral staircase. Around which a massive city had been built by the adventurers, a city that she had missed earlier because of how fast she had jumped off the spiral staircase to create some distance between her and the hostile adventurers chasing after her.
Not that seeing the city below ahead of time would have changed much, as she full well understood that she wasn’t strong enough to take on such a large city filled to the brim with adventures on her own. Especially with the army of adventurers chasing her from behind.
But... As her gaze continued lingering on the city and the adventurers moving around below, she realized that the desert below was truly a sea of sand in the truest sense, as the sand around the oasis city behaved almost like a liquid of sorts. Preventing the adventurers from travelling across it normally. Instead, forcing them to use some kind of unique sand boat to move around.
Even more surprising were the ones that directly jumped off these sand boats into the swirling sand below. Disappearing entirely from sight as the sand swallowed them up.
At first, she thought that these adventurers had decided to end things early, but as she continued to observe more adventurers doing the same, she quickly realized that this was not the case, some of them even starting to return to the surface again before quickly jumping back into the sea of sand. Disappearing once again.
The entire situation was bewildering to say the least and made her momentarily forget her original goal of finding monsters to hunt down as her gaze remained on the different adventurers jumping off their sand boats into the sea of sand.
Only after a little over five minutes passed did she finally get some clue as to what these adventurers were doing, as one of them returned to the surface dragging a large corpse behind him that Scaly didn’t hesitate to inspect to try and learn more about what was happening.
[Sandwhirl Fish, lvl 29 (Dead)]
[Description: A unique fish living within oceans made of sand. Hard to encounter outside unique deserts capable of holding sand oceans or unique dungeons. Famed for its unique flavor and highly sought after heart, that when dried and grinded into a fine powder turns into one of the most sought-after spices.]
But outside of tempting her into wanting to taste this unique fish herself, it didn’t help her understand how those adventurers were able to enter the sand and hunt monsters. After all, it wasn’t exactly easy to navigate through something like sand.
If anything, now that she had confirmed that the monsters on the second floor of the dungeon were hidden away inside the sand ocean below, she felt little to no interest in entering this ocean of sand.
Knowing that if she dove in, she would most likely end up in a helpless situation confronted with the unique monsters capable of living inside a sea made entirely of sand.
With that in mind, Scaly soon enough concluded that the second floor of the dungeon was a lost cause and began her search for the staircase to the third floor of the dungeon. Hoping with everything she had that the third floor would be more normal and wouldn’t require her to enter a sea of sand to hunt for monsters.
However, as she flew through the cloudless sky of the second floor in search of a path to the third floor of the dungeon, her curiosity towards the ocean of sand below inevitably grew. Not just because of the tempting description of the sandwhirl fish, but also because of how easy it seemed to be for those adventurers far weaker than her to hunt down those delicious monsters.
Thud~
And inevitably, her curiosity and confidence in her own strength got the better of her, as she found a relatively isolated oasis island without any adventurers around to land on before slowly making her way towards the edge of the small island. An edge that was simple enough to find, as the sand ocean was in a state of constant motion. Forming small and large sand dunes as it moved.
It should be fine...
Quietly whispering a few words of encouragement to herself inside her own head, Scaly leaned over the edge of the island before plopping her head directly into the sand ocean. Her curiosity winning over the more rational part of her brain.
This is... Saaaaaaand! Sand everywhere! I can’t see anything!
Unsurprisingly, what she ended up seeing wasn’t some unique magical world hidden beneath the sand. Instead, it was just sand. Sand everywhere getting into her eyes and making them water. Forcing her to pull her head back out of the sand. Blinking rapidly in a useless attempt to get the sand out of her eyes.
Ahhhhhh! Sand! I hate saaand!
Soon enough, developing into her rolling around on the ground in pain, as the sand was impossible to get rid of. Even as she began using her water magic to try and clear out the sand that got into her eyes.
Maybe she should have thought about this happening ahead of time but seeing how the adventurers had entered the sand ocean and ended up leaving just fine, she thought she would be the same when she stuck her head into the sand ocean, a mistake she wouldn’t repeat again in the future.
If not for the fact that there were still a large number of adventurers chasing her even after she had escaped to the second floor of the dungeon, she wouldn’t have minded hunting down adventurers instead of monsters, as they were abundant on the second floor of the dungeon...
Splash~!
Splash~!
Splash~!
Continuing to splash herself with water to try and clear out the sand still stubbornly resisting leaving her eyes like a friend who got a bit too comfortable staying over, Scaly resigned herself to her fate as she collapsed onto the ground covered in sand that had begun clinging to her body thanks to the large quantity of water she was using to try and get rid of the annoying sand in her eyes. Making her look like an entirely new kind of dragon made of sand.
Allowing her to blend in well with her surroundings, as a few sand boats passing by her after she had collapsed on the ground in exhaustion didn’t even notice her.
Not that no adventurer spotted her, just that she was harder to spot from afar as she laid motionlessly on the ground contemplating her earlier actions.
Playing dead on the sand for a good five minutes, the irritation from the few grains of sand still stuck in her eyes seemingly managed to crawl out on their own, as her vision returned and the irritation disappeared, causing her to spring back to life again as she swore to herself that she would never ever recklessly stick her head into sand again!
Rustle~
But as she was about to take off in search of the staircase connected to the third floor of the dungeon, a sound next to her suddenly caught her off guard as her gaze shifted towards a plump-looking fish that had suddenly emerged next to her.
[Sandwhirl Fish, lvl 27]
"..."
Maybe... She could stick her head in the sand one more time...