Remaining silent on the ground as her vision stabilized and returned to normal again, Scaly slowly got back on her feet as her gaze shifted away from the hole above. Having already confirmed that the adventurers had left during her short recovery period, with none of them having jumped into the whirlpool to chase after her like part of her had expected to happen.
After all, though the whirlpool was far from easy to get through even for someone like her, there was a fair number of powerful adventurers amongst those eyeing her, some of which should be more than strong enough to force their way through like she had done.
Of course, one reason why these capable adventurers hadn’t attempted to chase after her in this manner might also be because they feared facing her in a dizzy state after they emerged from the hole at the bottom of the whirlpool. Knowing full well from what little they had seen from her that she wasn’t some weak dragon that could easily be taken down with minimal effort.
Feeling a sense of pride as she thought about this, Scaly didn’t look back up at the hole directly connected to the second floor of the dungeon and confidently began making her way towards the large opening located a dozen meters away from where she had landed.
Only to find out that the opening in question wasn’t exactly designed for someone her size, as she realized to her dismay that she was too large to fit through the opening.
Although the opening was by no means small, she herself had grown quite a bit following her last evolution and while she would have been able to fit through the opening in the past, that was no longer the case. Making her wish wholeheartedly that she would learn some kind of magic that could shrink down her body size a bit in the near future, as her larger size was starting to look more like a burden with each passing day.
Still, she wasn’t entirely helpless in getting out, as she just squeezed herself through with great effort. Using her strength to enlarge the opening in the process before she successfully freed herself and officially stepped onto the third floor of the dungeon.
More sand...
However, what she saw wasn’t some magical forest filled to the brim with monsters ready for her to hunt down. Instead, it was an endless expanse of sand- or in other words, another desert.
Even worse, compared to the desert on the first floor, this desert had a seemingly permanent sandstorm blowing through. Limiting her vision significantly, while at the same time also causing her to use her ice magic to protect her eyes from the sand. An action that made her feel increasingly happy that she had managed to learn ice magic, as she had no idea how she would have dealt with her current situation without the assistance of ice magic.
Ice magic that had already managed to reach level 5 in a relatively short period of time thanks to how much she had made use of it over the past few hours.
Ice magic aside, there was one positive thing about her current situation compared to before...
[Storm Desert Fox, lvl 49]
[Desert Storm Nesting Scorpion, lvl 58]
[Storm Desert Fox, lvl 44]
[Rough Sand Snake, lvl 56]
[Battered Desert Wind Sheep, lvl 61]
[Storm Desert Fox...]
And that was the fact that the monsters around her were far stronger than the monsters she had encountered swimming through the ocean of sand, with even the weakest of the monsters that entered her limited view being comparable in strength to the sand worm that was the top predator within the ocean of sand.
Of which, the storm desert fox seemed to be the most numerous of the bunch even if their individual strength was the weakest. The strongest of the monsters within her vision surprisingly enough being a sheep. Not what she had expected from a desert monster, but considering that it looked rather plump and delicious even from afar, she didn’t mind making it her first prey after reaching the third floor...
Whoosh~
A thought that soon enough caused Scaly to jump forward with great enthusiasm towards the unsuspecting sheep, that barely had time to react before the dreamscale dragon was upon it-
Ptsh-!
Baaaaaa!?
Only able to let out a shocked sound before perishing to what turned out to be Scaly’s sharp claws that had directly pierced its neck. Ending its life before it even had a chance to display its strength. The only thing Scaly noticed about it being the fact that it was a bit harder to pierce through than she had originally anticipated before her teeth sunk into the dead sheep. Showing an expression of pure bliss, as the sheep turned out to be far more delicious than she had originally anticipated.
Compared to the sandwhirl fish that had already been a rare delicacy, it was on a completely different level. Making her rapidly chomp down until the entire sheep disappeared.
Huh? Where did the sheep go...?
The entire thing happened so fast that she didn’t even comprehend how fast it was disappearing before the sheep was already gone. Leaving her wanting more and causing her gaze to sweep through her surroundings for another delicious sheep.
Gone? Where did all the monsters go?
But as her gaze swept through her surroundings, she quickly realized that outside of the missing sheep that she wanted to eat a few more of, the other monsters had also disappeared during her short snack break.
Confusing as this was to her, as her gaze inevitably surveyed the area around herself and noticed the blood alongside a few inedible remains from the sheep she had just consumed, she quickly realized that her earlier snack break out in the open might have ended up scaring away the monsters that had been around her not too long ago. Understandable considering the strength she had unknowingly ended up displaying by killing off the sheep in a single attack...