At the same time Verdell and the group of senior adventurers he had teamed up with to protect the group of younger adventurers during their upcoming journey through the fifth floor of the dungeon, Scaly continued her swimming through the sea of sand on the second floor of the dungeon. Becoming increasingly aware of the adventurers that were slowly starting to gather above her. Knowing that the second she popped her head out of the sand ocean, she would undoubtedly get attacked by those adventurers.
The one positive about her current situation was the simple fact that none of the adventurers watching her from above felt confident when it came to confronting her within the sand ocean, as it was clear to anyone who had observed her for more than a few seconds that she moved through the sand ocean like a fish in water. Not the slightest bit slowed like these adventurers were whenever they entered the ocean of sand.
One of the reasons for this was the fact that her swimming skill seemed to have taken effect, while another reason had to do with her vision being far clearer than the adventurers who entered the ocean of sand, as outside of being forced to wear special protective gear to prevent sand from getting into their mouth, nose and eyes, they also used far less sand vision powder or other similar products than Scaly.
After all, different from her, who didn’t worry about the cost of these special items, the adventurers still had to worry about the price of the products that they were using. Feeling unwilling to us more than necessary.
However, the situation wasn’t entirely on her side, as she couldn’t hold her breath forever within the sand ocean and would have to go up for air at some point. Although absorbing mana through her newly developed mana consumption skill did help alleviate the need for air to some extent, it didn’t entirely replace it and just allowed her to go for longer without going back up to the surface.
Originally, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but with the large number of adventurers above waiting for just that kind of situation, she understood that to get out of the current troublesome situation that she had found herself in, she needed to find a path leading to the third floor of the dungeon before she was forced back up to the surface. Especially considering that the strength of the adventurers waiting for her above had been slowly increasing with time.
Starting out with only a few B and A Rank Adventurers that hardly posed a threat to her, before a large number of S Rank Adventurers suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Clearly targeting her.
Originally, she had been confused about where all these powerful adventurers had suddenly come from, but as she took a glance at these new adventurers, she realized that she recognized some of them as the adventurers who had teamed up to attack her within the dreamscape.
This realization alone had made her feel a creeping sense of dread, as she understood that with the arrival of these S Rank Adventurers from the dreamscape, there was a chance that the more powerful adventurers like the one she had used to deal with the nightmare hawks in the past would show up.
And although she was confident in her own strength, faced with an adventurer above level 150, she still felt a certain degree of threat. Even more so considering that the other would also have the support of a large number of adventurers from behind.
As for the ocean of sand that kept the adventurers above from attacking her? She doubted it would be enough to hold back that kind of powerful adventurer. Meaning that it was even more crucial for her to find the passage leading to the third floor of the dungeon, as only by continuing deeper into the dungeon would she be able to shake off these persistent adventurers.
After all, though they would undoubtedly continue to chase her even after she got to the third floor of the dungeon, she realized that if she continued moving deeper into the dungeon and stronger monsters comparable to these S Rank Adventurers began appearing frequently, it would be difficult for these adventurers to continue chasing after her.
One positive thing about all of this would be the fact that she would be able to reach a floor filled with powerful monsters fast thanks to the encouragement of these adventurers insisting on chasing after her. Meaning that she would be able to once again rapidly increase her strength by hunting down the more powerful monsters.
At the same time, outside of the powerful monsters, she might also get a chance to hunt down some of the stronger adventurers when they got isolated and weren’t grouped up into large parties that could potentially pose a threat to her by using the combined magic that she had faced in the past from some of the adventurers who were now present on the surface of the ocean of sand.
Rumble~!
And just as she was lost in her own thoughts swimming through the ocean of sand, a loud rumbling sound suddenly caught her attention, causing her to shift her gaze away from the adventurer gathering above towards the direction of the rumbling sound. Soon enough, spotting the origin behind the loud rumbling sound.
Hm? A whirlpool? Is it perhaps the passage to the third floor of the dungeon?
Seeing what turned out to be an enormous whirlpool that covered an area over a thousand meters, Scaly could not help somewhat curiously tilting her head wondering if this whirlpool potentially served as some kind of passage leading to the third floor of the dungeon. After all, she had already encountered that kind of unique passage once in the past when she had been living inside the Howling Caverns Dungeon.
If anything, it didn’t seem that strange to her that the whirlpool might be some kind of unique passage leading down to the next floor of the dungeon and she instead expected it to be some kind of unique passage, causing her to shift her original direction slightly and move towards the whirlpool to investigate it more closely.
After all, though part of her wanted to just rush into the whirlpool, she also understood that doing that was reckless and might end up with her being swallowed by some kind of massive monster on the other side of the whirlpool.
Of course, encountering a monster capable of creating that kind of whirlpool on the second floor of the dungeon where the strongest monster she had encountered so far were a few sandworms that were barely around level 50, but still, she didn’t want to unnecessarily risk her life with all those adventurers up above eagerly watching her.
Not to mention, outside of the risk posed by the adventurers, she also noticed that none of the monsters or adventurers were going anywhere near the whirlpool.
Understandable as this was for the monsters who wouldn’t be able to traverse between different floors under normal circumstances, it wasn’t normal for adventurers to so completely ignore the whirlpool, as they should have been making use of it to go to the third floor of the dungeon if it truly served as a passage to the third floor of the dungeon.
In a way, this was the main reason why she felt a hint of apprehension towards the whirlpool and didn’t dare to immediately charge into it without any regard for her own safety, as there had to be a reason why the adventurers so adamantly avoided the whirlpool.
Unfortunately, as she closed the distance and reached the edge of the whirlpool, she couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary and even seemed to notice a very clear hole at the very bottom of the whirlpool that seemed to swallow up the vast quantities of sand moving down through the whirlpool and towards what she now felt increasingly certain about being a passage to the third floor of the dungeon.
At least I can confirm that there isn’t some powerful monster behind the whirlpool...
Narrowing her eyes somewhat as she thought this to herself while looking towards the hole at the very bottom of the whirlpool, Scaly hesitated for only a short second before entering the whirlpool. Diving straight towards the hole at the bottom of it. Resisting the powerful pull that wanted to spin her around alongside the whirlpool to force her way downwards rapidly.
The reason for her actions was not just because she wanted to reach the third floor of the dungeon as fast as possible and try to shake off the growing number of adventurers, but also because she sensed that she didn’t have more than a few minutes left before she would be forced to surface. Leaving her little time to look for another potential passage leading to the third floor of the dungeon before running out of air.