At the same time that several younger adventurers found themselves too broke to even use the special passage connecting the first and second floor of the dungeon because of the inflated price, Scaly soared through the sky at a terrifying speed close to the ceiling of the second floor of the dungeon. Avoiding most adventurers below who might have normally spotted her, as the only ones who kept chasing after her on the second floor of the dungeon remained the group of bearkin adventurers. Adventurers who by far exceeded any adventurers she had seen so far when it came to their sheer dedication in keeping up with her.
Compared to ordinary adventurers who were merely trying to catch up to her because they wanted to cut her down and claim the title of dragon slayer, the bearkin adventurers seemed to not care about this in the slightest. Instead treating the chase as some form of training that had made all of them, except the lamia on the sand boat, excited to give it their all during the chase. Even if this would ultimately mean they had no strength to fight in case they managed to catch up with her.
Strange as these bearkin adventurers were, Scaly had quickly noted them down as a non-threat because of this and decided to ignore them even if they might be able to keep up with her and catch up with her in the future. After all, outside of not seeing these bearkin adventurers as much of a threat, they did serve as a distraction for any of the adventurers she flew over along the way, as any adventurer would inevitably find their attention drawn to the strange group instead of her flying by high above.
In fact, as she flew through the air towards the special passage to the first floor of the dungeon that she had learnt was located in a city referred to as South Gate City by the adventurers chasing her down below, it became clear that the bearkin adventurers saved her from any potential trouble other adventurer groups might have caused along the journey.
After all, she came to discover that there was no lack of large powerful group searching for her even on the second floor of the dungeon.
The main difference compared to those on the fourth floor of the dungeon being the fact that they had no clue she was now on the same floor as them, as they were busy trying to use another special passage to get to the fourth floor of the dungeon.
That along with the bearkin adventurers ultimately allowed her three-hour long journey to South Gate City to go smoothly without encountering any problems along the way outside one time when one of the bearkin adventurers chasing her had attempted to launch himself into the air to catch her. Barely scratching her feet before plummeting back down into the sea of sand below. Shocking her quite a bit in the process.
Apart from that, nothing interesting happened during the journey, something that did annoy her a bit, as she had been used to hunting monsters while moving normally and found it odd to focus all her energy on flying without hunting any monsters in the process.
Time to wake up the dwarf…
Rustle~
Knowing that the situation was about to get hectic as entering a city filled with adventurers would be far from simple, Scaly gently shook herself back and forth to wake up the dwarf that had seemingly fallen asleep on her back during the long journey.
"Huh? Wha-what is happening?" Causing the dwarf in question to slowly open his now somewhat groggy looking eyes to look around. Soon enough spotting the city in the distance.
"So… We are finally here… South Gate City. Normally one of the most desolate locations on the second floor of the dungeon, but with the recent change it looks like the city have turned into the most populated place on the second floor." Silently muttering this to himself as he adjusted his position to see the city in the distance, Verdell couldn't help lamenting the sheer number of adventurers currently present within the city in the distance.
In the past, he had once visited the city out of curiosity as it was one of the rare few cities located next to the edge of a dungeon floor that didn't just end with some towering impenetrable wall of rock but instead led to what was generally described as the empty void. An empty space of nothing but darkness that the dungeon itself floated around in.
But after seeing this empty void in person, he quickly lost his earlier excitement about seeing it and instead found himself becoming scared of staying inside a dungeon any longer. After all, knowing the dungeon was just floating aimlessly in some empty void was one thing, seeing it was another, as the mere sight of that endless expanse of darkness left him afraid of stepping into a dungeon again for a good few months.
Not because he overcame the inherent fear he felt thinking about how he might fare in case the passage back to the world outside the dungeon closed and he was forced to float around aimlessly in that empty void a dungeon existed inside of, but because there had never been a case of a dungeon losing its connection to the outside world like that.
Instead of suddenly losing its connection even when dying after the dungeon core was taken out or destroyed, there was a relatively long time for those within the dungeon to get out, as the death of a dungeon generally started from the lower floors crumbling and dispersing into the empty void before moving upwards one floor at a time. The crumbling in question playing out over a period of several months for a single floor. Leaving those inside the dungeon with more than enough time to get out even in the case that normal passages upwards end up closing.
Not to mention, the swirling sands dungeon wasn't even in the process of crumbling, so there was no reason for him to fear something like this in the first place, it had only started panicking because someone seemed to have entered the lowest floor of the dungeon.
Still… Even with this, Verdell couldn't help feeling a bit uneasy while sitting on top Scaly's back. If not for the class quest and the fact that this might be the only chance, he would ever get to complete this class quest in his life, he would have long since jumped off her back and rushed out of the dungeon before anything more could take place inside the dungeon.
But to complete this class quest, he could only force down the inherent fear he felt towards the empty void now visible in the distance, something that Scaly had also discovered by now, but chose to ignore completely.
After all, to Scaly, there wasn't anything to fear about the empty void nor was there anything to get excited about. All she cared about was whether the empty void might have any powerful monsters lurking within it for her to hunt down… And unfortunately for her and luckily for Verdell, the empty void was called empty for a reason, as no monsters appeared to be floating around the place.
If not for that, Verdell might have found himself entering a place he and most adventurers who laid their eyes on it, dreaded.
At least for now, the only thing Verdell had to worry was how to get through South Gate City alive, as he doubted the large number of adventurers within the city was just going to watch as he and Scaly waltzed through the city and made their way to the special passage before passing through it ahead of the large number of adventurers who could already be seen from above waiting in line to use said special passage to the first floor.
As for the sacrifice required to use the passage? Verdell had long since known about it and planned to just throw in some of the monster material he carried on him. In the worst-case scenario where it wouldn't be enough, he could always get the dragon beneath him to sacrifice one of her scales for the greater good. After with a dragon of this level, even a single scale would be more than enough for them to get through this special passage several times over.
Problem was, even though they had managed to remain undetected so far because of how high up in the sky they were, it was given that someone below would spot them now that they were approaching the city.
After all, different from those outside the city who were mostly focused on going somewhere, there was no lack of people relaxing inside the city waiting for their turn to go through the special passage staring up at the sky. Spotting them was only a matter of time and before that, Verdell wanted to at least ensure that they would be able to get through the barrier and enter the city, as once that barrier was raised, it would be impossible for the two of them to get anywhere near the special passage leading to the first floor of the dungeon.
Not just that, but they would end up having to deal with the hundreds of adventurers inside who were all eager to jump forward to fight for the chance of earning the title of dragon slayer.
A title that most adventurers would want to get their hands on if possible…