Feeling a bit embarrassed over how she had ended up scaring away the monsters that she had originally been planning to hunt down to further her own strength, Scaly decided to act like nothing had happened. Sweeping the remains of the sheep aside before officially starting her exploration of the third floor of the dungeon while at the same time making sure to keep an eye out for a passage leading to the third floor of the dungeon.
After all, though she had been busy enjoying herself not too long ago with a brand-new delicacy in the shape of a sheep, she hadn’t forgotten the fact that she was still being chased down by a large number of adventurers who seemed rather eager to earn the title of dragon slayer...
Diving into the sandstorm headfirst, Scaly soon enough came to realize that the third floor of the dungeon was far harder to traverse than she had originally anticipated.
Not because the sandstorm was especially powerful, but instead because flying through the sandstorm was next to impossible, as the few attempts she had ended up making had either resulted in her colliding with some stone formation that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere or her attempting in vain to fly above the sandstorm only to collide with the ceiling of the third floor.
In simple words, she had been forced to traverse through the desert on foot, something that was far from easy given that outside of the sandstorm that made her vision far worse, she also soon came to realize that the monsters on the third floor were especially fond of sneak attacks.
Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem given how weak the monsters on the third floor of the dungeon were compared to her, but she soon enough realized that the original home of the death touch scorpions and their envoy of death valley evolution was the third floor of the dungeon. Meaning that lowering her guard wasn’t an option, as the venom of those scorpions posed a threat to her life if she was successfully hit by more than one of them.
From originally having looked forward to her time on the third floor of the dungeon where stronger monsters were present, she ended up having to be cautious about every single step she took. Worried about accidentally stepping in a scorpion nest.
Even worse, the delicious sheep she had eaten at the start turned out to be some kind of incredibly rare monster that she hadn’t managed to even catch a single glimpse of ever since she had killed off the first of them.
And as she thought the situation couldn’t get any worse than it already was, she soon enough began spotting what looked like a large number of footprints in the sand belonging to what she guessed to be a large army of adventurers scouring through the third floor in search of her.
Meaning that she didn’t just have to watch out for venomous scorpions but also had to keep an eye out for any adventurers who might find her.
If not for the fact that her level did seem to be increasing faster compared to her time in the ocean of sand, she would have wished that she was still on the second floor of the dungeon instead of the third.
Still, there was one positive thing for her to look forward to, and that was finding the passage to the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Problem was... How was she supposed to find a passage in a sandstorm that barely allowed her to see more than a few dozen meters around herself?
The answer to this question wasn’t to search through the desert on her own, but instead to follow in the footsteps of the adventurers out searching for her. Not because she planned on fighting with those adventurers, but instead because she understood that they were the only ones capable of navigating the desert without getting lost like she was, while at the same time also knowing about the way to the fourth floor of the dungeon.
She guessed that if she continued following behind the adventurers without being noticed, there was a good chance that it would lead to them believing that she had already reached the fourth floor of the dungeon, thus causing them to chase her into the fourth floor of the dungeon.
In this way, they would leave behind a path for her to follow that led directly to the fourth floor of the dungeon.
Of course, there were countless flaws with this method. One of the more obvious ones being that she had to remain close to the adventurers without them noticing her, as the footprints they left behind didn’t exactly stay intact for long with the sandstorm around.
But she didn’t have any better idea when it came to finding the path leading to the fourth floor of the dungeon, so after a bit of hesitation, she chose a recently left behind set of footprints that she passed by to follow.
Not taking more than a few minutes before, she caught up to what turned out to be a group of what looked like around fifty or so adventures.
Although far smaller in numbers compared to what she had seen before, it was clear from a simple glance that all these adventurers were powerful, with the weakest among them being close to level 80, while most of them were close to level 100 and the strongest among them even having reached level 131.
By far, this group of adventurers was powerful and not something she could mess with on her own, as the strongest among them would be a challenge to take down alone, let alone supported by a group of strong adventurers from the side.
Even then, the strength of these adventurers did make her feel a bit relieved, as their strength alone was more than enough to reassure her that these adventurers weren’t here to hunt on the third floor of the dungeon, but were instead trying to find her or passing through.
In either case, they would inevitably end up making their way to the fourth floor of the dungeon. Ensuring that she in turn would also be able to reach the fourth floor by following behind them.