Taking in her surroundings while doing her absolute best to ignore the sound of adventurers rushing down the staircase to catch her, Scaly found her gaze travelling towards the closet mountain range to the spiral staircase she found herself on. Not because the mountain range itself was special in any way, but instead because it seemed like a great first location for her to explore and get used to the monsters on the fourth floor before she had to start worrying about the adventurers chasing after her.
After all, though the adventurers weren’t exactly far behind her, they couldn’t do the same as her and jump off the spiral staircase and glide down towards the mountain range- or even if some of them could do so, it was unlikely that they would leave behind their companions to chase after her on their own. Especially considering that most of the ones who would have the ability to do so would be the mages who didn’t exactly do that well on their own compared to most other adventures.
Not to mention, they didn’t just have to worry about her, but also the native monsters of the fourth floor, of which, Scaly had already spotted several capable of flying who had started paying attention to the spiral staircase following her emergence and the loud sounds made by the adventurers chasing after her.
The reason for their inaction so far being due to the simple fact that she wasn’t exactly weak looking any longer and any monster who spotted her would first have to evaluate their own strength against hers before they decided to attack her... And for the flying monsters near the spiral staircase, it was clear that they made the choice not to attack her.
Whoosh~
Because of this, she didn’t encounter any attack as she leapt off the edge of the spiral staircase and began gliding downwards towards the nearby mountain range, she had set eyes on. Ignoring the adventurers who emerged behind her just after she jumped off and leaving them for the flying monsters, whose attention shifted away from her after determining she wasn’t attacking them and instead focused on the newly emerging adventurers filled with interest that soon turned into hunger, as the first few monsters began swooping down towards the newly emerging adventurers-
"Huh? What is- Aaah!?"
"What is happening- Jim!"
"Flying monsters! Careful!"
Soon enough throwing the overeager adventurers into a state of panic, as they found themselves unprepared to deal with a flock of flying monsters, the second they got to the fourth floor of the dungeon, something that cost the first few amongst them dearly, as they found themselves dragged over the edge of the spiral staircase to their deaths.
"Aaah! My leg, it got my leg! Don’t let it drag me off the edge!"
"What in the world is this... Everyone, push those monsters back before they get the chance to grab any more of you people and drag you all over the edge! And get moving so you don’t end up blocking the path for others."
"G-Got it!"
"Yes!"
Only with the emergence of an S Rank Adventurer, who hadn’t been among the first to arrive due to closest ones to the passage and the first ones to chase after Scaly had been a group of C Rank and B Rank Adventurers, did the chaotic situation start to get under control.
Unfortunately, even with an S Rank Adventurer taking charge of the situation and steering things in the correct direction, it wasn’t exactly simple to calm the already chaotic situation in an instant with monsters still swooping down every now and then to drag a few unlucky souls over the edge and to their deaths.
Not to mention, there was a fair number of bright minds amongst the weaker adventurers who had rushed on ahead first, who got cold feet and tried to escape back the way they came, causing the passage to become crowded and difficult to move through. Making it hard for the stronger adventurers who had entered the passage a bit slower to reach the frontlines.
In the, the chaos ended up lasting for over ten minutes before one of the S Rank Adventurers finally lost his patience and forced his way through. Injuring several adventurers along the way in the process.
But in the end, it was for the greater good, as the arrival of a second S Rank Adventurer followed by several others who had chosen to follow behind him as he carved a path through the crowded passage, helped scare off the flying monsters and ensure the safety of those who remained.
Still... The flying monster attack had traumatized a fair number of adventurers and killed seven C Rank Adventurers, five B Rank Adventurers and even one A Rank Adventurer who had found himself in the unlucky position of being grabbed by one of the C Rank Adventurers as he was pulled off the spiral staircase by one of the flying monsters. Getting dragged off the edge alongside the unlucky fellow and falling to his death alongside him.
Because of this, a fair number of C Rank and B Rank Adventurers who had originally felt uneasy about stepping onto the fourth floor got cold feet and decided to leave before they ended up dead as well.
This turn of event caused the original four groups of adventurers, numbering almost four hundred, to shrink down to no more than a hundred, as most of the weaker adventurers escaped back up to the third floor of the dungeon. Even taking along a few A Rank Adventurers who had been scared off by the flying monster attack like they had.
Of course, with so many people leaving, the four groups couldn’t exactly stay intact, as all of them, except the smaller group Scaly had first encountered, collapsed. Leaving only the smaller more elite group behind, who in turn ended up absorbing everyone still left into a single group with more than twenty S Rank Adventurers and close to eighty A Rank Adventurers. A terrifying group to say the least and surprisingly also one where the rarest kind of Adventurer wasn’t someone at the S Rank, but instead a few at the B Rank who had ended up staying behind.
Problem was, the reorganization of these groups into a single large group of those still left ended up taking even longer than scaring off the flying monsters, as close to half an hour had passed since the first adventurer was attacked by a flying monster to the formation of this new stronger group of adventurers.
In the end, the original goal of hunting down the dragon had thus unknowingly become far more difficult with how much of a headstart they had ended up giving Scaly because of the chaotic situation they had found themselves in.
Even then, these adventurers weren’t too worried about her escaping to the fifth floor, as the unique passages between the fourth and fifth floor of the dungeon made it difficult to reach even for an adventurer knowledgeable about the fourth floor and where such passages were likely to emerge, let alone a dragon with no knowledge on the unique passages connecting the fourth floor to the fifth floor.
If anything, it wouldn’t be surprising to them if she never found a passage to the fifth floor of the dungeon and ended up settling down on the fourth floor of the dungeon thinking that this was the lowest floor of the dungeon.
For this reason alone, the newly formed group of adventurers took things slowly and decided to first establish a proper plan before setting out, a mistake that might ultimately end up costing them the chance to ever see Scaly again...
Ptsh-!
[Gained 4642 Exp]
Oooo! So much experience just from a single baby monster! And there are so many of them! Hehe~ lucky me~
As while they were starting to settle in on the fourth floor and share what they knew about the place with each other to prepare for the future, Scaly had already landed inside a small hidden valley within the mountain range only a short distance from the spiral staircase connected to the third floor of the dungeon. Hunting down a small unique looking rabbit monster that seemed to live within this hidden valley, as she had discovered that while they were weak, these unique rabbit monsters gave a lot of experience...
[Mountain Desert Blood Rabbit Baby, lvl 45]
The only somewhat worrying part of their name being the addition of baby towards the end, indicating there likely existed a large and stronger version out there.
But...
This worry didn’t mean much in the face of the large amount of experience she gained from killing these smaller weaker rabbits that essentially had no way to fight back against her, so after a second of worry, she happily began carving a bloody path through the small helpless rabbits. Hoping that they would never run out, as she already began dreaming about reaching the limits of her current evolution through these easy to kill, high experience, monsters.