Watching the large number of adventurers down below that were about to encircle her, Scaly couldn’t help frowning a bit even though she had already managed to get out safely. Not because there was any threat still left amongst the adventurers below, but instead because she clearly noticed that the number of adventurers chasing after her compared to the numbers she had seen on the second and first floor of the dungeon had almost doubled... And these were only the ones she could see. For all she knew, there might be even more of them throughout the fourth floor of the dungeon searching for her at this moment.
For a time, she truly felt the need to find the passage leading to the fifth floor of the dungeon. After all, if the number of adventurers chasing after her continued to increase, it would become close to impossible for her to land again and continue increasing her strength. Even searching for a path to the fifth floor of the dungeon would become more difficult.
Unfortunately, the path to the fifth floor of the dungeon was truly too difficult to find like the adventurers had said. Even flying, she didn’t seem to hold any advantage when it came to finding a passage to the fifth floor of the dungeon.
And, with nothing better to do for now as she increased the distance between herself and the adventurers below, Scaly decided to take the opportunity to check out the progress she had made. Curious to see if there would be any changes after her dexterity broke through the two-thousand-point mark...
Name: Scaly
Race: Dreamscale Dragon (2nd Stage)
Dragon blood: 41% (Rare)
Level: 19/50, 15%
Mana Heart: Third Circle
STR: 1737 |VIT: 3367| DEX: 2039| M: 6172
Magic: [Dragon Water Magic, lvl 9], [Ice Magic lvl 5], [Wind Magic, lvl 8], [Lightning Magic, lvl 4], [Dream Magic lvl 5]
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline, lvl 4], [Dragon Flight, lvl 8], [Poison/Venom Resistance, lvl 7], [Dragon Claw Strike, lvl 9], [Dragon Breath (Water), lvl 6], [Corrosion Resistance, lvl 4], [Pain Resistance, lvl 6], [Swimming, lvl 6], [Dragon Heart, lvl 1], [Endless Vitality, lvl 2], [Agility, lvl 1], [Brute Force, lvl 1], [Fear Resistance, lvl 1], [Mana Consumption, lvl 2]
Unfortunately, as she looked through her status, outside of the clear increase to her stats thanks to the increase in level she had experienced, there was no change in her skills, as they all remained the same without any changes.
Although this was expected to some extent, it was still a bit disappointing to see that her agility skill didn’t increase in level after her dexterity reached 2000. For it to increase, she would likely have to wait until it reached 2500 or even 3000. All of which were far beyond what was currently possible for her to reach before her next evolution unless she found some way to increase her dexterity with every level up or something else that would be able to increase her dexterity.
As for her strength that was by far the lowest of her stats... She didn’t have any hope that it could reach a level where her brute force skill reached level two even with the strength gained every level increasing.
But even if her agility skill hadn’t increased in level like she had hoped, it was also a bit disappointing that her ice magic was still at level 5. After all, she had begun mixing it in during her time on the fourth floor and had even made use of it not long ago against the weaker mountain crusher worms.
Then again... When it came to dealing with a powerful monster, she still ended up shifting back to her water magic.
At least she did have an excuse when it came to that battle. Knowing that even if it might have been a great opportunity for her to increase the level of her ice magic through a deadly battle, she didn’t exactly have the time to do so because of the adventurers closing in from all directions around her.
If she had really ended up using the opportunity to increase her proficiency with ice magic, there was a good chance she would currently be struggling in a life and death battle with the adventurers below.
Feeling her thoughts starting to wander as she thought about what could have happened as she continued flying without any clear direction in mind, Scaly suddenly found herself above yet another mountain range. Only, this mountain range was far larger than any of the other mountain range she had encountered so far. Even if the adventurers managed to get to this mountain range following her, without being able to fly, it would take them far longer to get through the mountainous terrain. Meaning, she would have more time on the ground compared to any of the other places she had gone to on the fourth floor so far.
At the same time, she also felt hopeful that this uniquely large mountain range might be hiding a path to the fifth floor of the dungeon, as she had a feeling finding a path just randomly flying around the fourth floor was impossible after having already spent several hours doing just that without any success.
Whoosh~
Already looking forward to potentially finding a path to the fifth floor of the dungeon within the large mountain range now directly below her, Scaly didn’t hesitate for long as she dove down with a hint of excitement in her eyes.
[Mountain Rabbit, lvl 23]
But the first monster she ended up running into wasn’t some powerful monster like part of her had been expecting, but instead just a normal mountain rabbit who offered little to no experience after taking down-
Ptsh~!
[Gained 456 Exp]
Still, she didn’t hesitate for a second upon seeing this rabbit before cutting it down. Not because she felt unwilling to give up any little bit of experience, but instead because she knew fully well from past experience how delicious the different rabbit monsters she had encountered in the past were...
Chomp~
And as her teeth sunk into the recently killed mountain rabbit, a look of bliss appeared on her face as it was indeed as delicious as she had expected. Not just that, but it also filled her stomach that had essentially been going entirely on mana for the past few hours, with real food.
Although she didn’t need to eat after she obtained the mana consumption skill, she couldn’t restrain her inherent desire for delicious food. Even more so when such delicious food in the shape of a mountain rabbit appeared directly in front of her.
Problem was, because of how much larger she had become, she didn’t have much time to enjoy the relatively small mountain rabbit before it disappeared. Once again, making her feel like she either needed to find some kind of magic that could shrink her down a bit or she needed to find an evolution that was smaller next time around.
Only after she experienced this kind of situation herself did she realize that there was a very clear cost that came along with a large size that didn’t just involve it being far harder for her to hide and move around in smaller underground tunnel.
Majestic as a large size made her, she didn’t want to become larger if it meant she had less time to enjoy the delicious monsters she ran into.
...
As Scaly found herself pondering over the existential problem that was becoming too large to enjoy the different kinds of delicious tasting monsters she encountered. On the fifth floor of the dungeon that she was very much trying to reach, Verdell and the group of adventurers behind him who were relaxing on the spiral staircase leading up towards the fourth floor of the dungeon, found themselves jumping to their feet in a panicked manner.
Not because a monster had appeared to attack them, but instead because a loud rumbling sound could be heard in the distance getting closer to their current location.
Although not fearful of encountering whatever was behind the rumbling sound because of how high up, they were from the ground, the rumbling sound was still somewhat unnerving to listen to and caused a few of the adventurers to move higher on the spiral staircase to see if they could catch a glimpse of what caused that loud rumbling sound...
"What is that...?"
"I don’t know... It looks like a horde of monsters, but why do I feel like they look a bit familiar?"
"That- Swamp monkeys! It’s a horde of swamp monkeys!"
"What!? Then... Them coming in this direction means..."
"We have been targeted! Hurry, inform everyone, we need to start moving immediately or we might get pinned down by those swamp monkeys!"
But as they managed to identify the origin of the rumbling sound in the distance, the group of adventurers who had gone up quickly rushed back down to inform everyone down below about the situation. Knowing they had little time to waste if they wanted to escape from the fifth floor of the dungeon before they were overwhelmed by the swamp monkey horde.