Bang!
As Scaly was contemplating on what to do after realizing that she might be in a dangerous situation, two humans rushed through the door at the end of the monster filled space, one of them being the familiar axe wielding human, while the other was a scholarly looking young man.
[Human, Great Axe Warrior, lvl 23]
[Human, Fire Mage, lvl 27]
Looking at the information that popped up regarding the two people, Scaly was shocked to discover that the scholarly human that seemed rather harmless on the surface was the more dangerous one among the two.
"Wha-What is this!? When did such a large hole appear in the ship!? Did a monster destroy part of the ship!?" Not giving Scaly the chance to figure out more about the scholarly human, the axe wielding human screamed out loudly as he rushed into the knee-high water and began to secure some of the cages with monster that couldn’t survive under water for an extended period of time like sun crabs could.
"No need to panic, it isn’t the first time something like this happened, I will go up and inform the rest and have them head to the closest island for repairs. Meanwhile, you should try and save as much of our cargo before it meets an untimely end. Although most of it can still be sold at the frontier city, it won’t fetch the same price as living ones."
Not panicking like the axe wielding man did, the scholarly human calmly said this before he turned around and made his way back up to the deck before the axe wielding human had a chance to respond.
"Heeeey! Why are you leaving me to deal with the hard work again! Heeey! Answer! I expect to take a larger share of the profit after we sell these monsters!" In the end, the axe wielding human could only helplessly yell after the scholarly human that had already disappeared before he returned to doing his best at saving the different monsters about to drown in the water.
During this entire process, Scaly just silently observed the axe wielding human franticly running around in the knee-high water carrying all sorts of cages filled with different monsters and placing them at higher places where they wouldn’t drown.
The large number of sun crabs already below water were pretty much ignored as they could survive under water-
Swish-!
[Gained 5 Exp]
Chomp~!
Giving Scaly the perfect chance to catch a snack while she watched the axe wielding human running back and forth.
Creaaaak~!
In the end, the water managed to reach the waist of the axe wielding human before the ship crashed into what she could only guess was another island, as some of the water inside the ship began to slowly drain out through cracks that had formed in the hull of the ship over the last few minutes before the ship had come to a stop.
"FINALLY! It’s over..."
And as if to confirm her thoughts, the axe wielding human stopped what he had been doing as he rushed up towards the deck of the ship.
I should leave before the humans come to repair the damage...
Watching the axe wilding human disappearing out the door leading up to the deck of the ship, Scaly cautiously emerged from her hiding spot before starting to dig through the wood with her sharp claws to leave the ship. Making sure that her location was a bit higher up compared to when she entered the ship to avoid the water that covered the floor beneath her.
Creaaack~!
Resulting in a hole just big enough for her to fit through appearing in front of her-
Thump~!
And without wasting any time observing the island outside through the small hole, she squeezed through the hole and soon found herself landing in what could only be described as a muddy swamp. Partially covering her body in mud. Vastly different from the pristine beach filled to the brim with delicious sun crabs that she had experienced so far.
"Huh? What was that...?"
However, before she had a chance to complain over the fact that she was now covered in mud from head to toe, the sound of a human echoed out from the top of the ship. Forcing her to rapidly dig into the mud and make use of her current unsightly experience to hide herself.
"Hm... Looks like it wasn’t anything. Haaa... I must be too nervous because of what just happened, as long as the ship is repaired, we should be able to leave this place before any of the more powerful monsters here discover us..."
Standing on top of the ship’s deck and gazing down towards the muddy swamp that they had ended up crashing into to avoid sinking in the sea, the human who had been put in charge of keeping a lookout for any approaching monsters soon turned his attention away and walked to somewhere different after not seeing anything.
Splash~
Hearing the human disappearing, Scaly emerged from the mud now fully covered in mud from head to claw.
These damnable humans!
Silently cursing at the humans who had forced her to dirty her beautiful scales and hide in the mud, Scaly turned back towards the ship before poking a dozen or so small and hard to spot holes into it before she began silently leaving the ship.
Intending to find a way to leave the swamp that she had ended up inside of and find a quiet place where she could clean herself up with her water magic or a body of clean water without any monsters nearby.
At least before she safely managed to make it out of the swamp, she now found herself inside of, she wouldn’t bother using her water magic to clean herself up.
Not because she wanted her beautiful scales to continue being covered in mud, but because she had no idea if doing so might attract the monsters living inside the swamp. Monsters that might be far stronger than any of the monsters she had encountered so far...