Whoosh~
Unaware of the difficulty her passenger currently found himself facing, Scaly had all her attention focused on the passage that supposedly led from the second floor of the dungeon to the first floor. Not just because the entrance to this unique passage was smaller than expected and was only barely large enough for her to fit through at her current size, but also because of the countless adventurers all around the passage in question.
[Human, Aspiring Knight, lvl 37]
[Half Human/Half Catkin, Deep Forest Hunter, lvl 69]
[Catkin, Spell Dancer, lvl 59]
[Human, Apprentice Elemental Mage, lvl 21]
[Human, Junior Sword Polisher...]
The one lucky turn of events being the fact that the adventurers around the passage to the first floor of the dungeon weren’t particularly strong and were far too weak to pose any real threat to her. If anything, she would have loved to sweep through all these adventurers, but doing so came with the very real consequence of giving other stronger adventurers time to catch up and stop her from getting through the unique passage leading to the first floor of the dungeon.
So, even though she felt a bit reluctant looking between the different weaker adventurers gathered around the passage, she could only look away and focus entirely on the relatively small passage.
After all, the passage itself wouldn’t exactly be easy to get through fast at her current size, as it was essentially nothing more than a hole in the ground one had to jump into before ascending a short time later in a blood red bubble that seemingly allowed one to float up through the ceiling of the second floor of the dungeon and reach the first floor.
As for the strength of those blood red bubbles... She could confirm while diving towards the hole in the ground that created these bubbles and allowed people to get to the first floor of the dungeon, that these bubbles were indestructible- or at the very least, she didn’t have the strength to even scratch these seemingly fragile looking bubbles with adventurers inside of them... And as she officially entered within one hundred meters of the unique passage between the second and first floor of the dungeon, a few of the adventurers whose attention had been captured by the group of bearkin adventurers that had come flying towards them suddenly spotted her.
"Wha-!? D-d-dragon!"
"Huh!? Dragon!? Where!?"
"Inside the city!"
"What?!"
Yelling out in panic, as not everyone around was near strong enough to face something like a dragon head on, causing the few about to enter the unique hole in the ground to fall back to avoid being attacked by the descending dragon. Allowing Scaly, who had originally been about to use her water magic to cut down the few adventurers blocking her path to stop and instead focus on properly aligning herself so she would be able to enter the hole below-
Thud~ Bang!
Barely pushing herself through the hole alongside a somewhat dazed Verdell, who quickly pulled out what looked like monster bones and other materials towards the now empty grey surface they had landed on top of, something Scaly watched with great curiosity even as she felt a bit pain from the rough landing.
Watching as the monster materials and bones seemingly dissolved, the second they touched the grey surface before a red bubble formed around the two of them and began slowly ascending upwards. Shocking Scaly quite a bit even though she had already seen the red bubbles earlier and had come to understand how they were going to reach the first floor of the dungeon.
The main reason being that she found herself completely parlayed inside the blood red bubble. Only able to look around as she and Verdell began ascending towards the sky above alongside a few other similar red bubbles that had ascended ahead of the two of them.
The entire situation was odd to say the least and a brand-new experience, one she really didn’t want to go through, as the feeling of being completely paralyzed unable to move wasn’t something she wanted to experience again if possible.
Although...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Looking at the large number of adventurers attempting to forcibly destroy the red bubble she and Verdell found themselves inside after they floated out of the hole in the ground was a rather entertaining turn of events. Especially the frustrated looks on the faces of the adventurers who screamed all kinds of obscenities claiming they were going to cut her down and become dragon slayers.
Unfortunately, the entertainment came to an end shortly after, as it wasn’t exactly easy for the adventurers to keep attacking the blood red bubble, she found herself inside of alongside Verdell after the two of them ascended a few meters off the ground.
Still, these adventures were clearly not going to give up just because of this, as she soon enough watched several new bubbles emerging below her, as the overeager adventurers had already thrown themselves into the unique hole in the ground that served as the start of the unique passage to the first floor of the dungeon. Not showing the slightest bit of hesitation as they chased after her.
Not that she had much time to care about these overeager adventurers, as she was certain that there was no way they would be able to catch up to her after she got to the first floor of the dungeon. After all, she wouldn’t be waiting around for them after she got to the other side and only really had to worry about the adventurers she might have to face off against once she got to the other side.
However, as she found herself motionless within the blood red bubble looking towards the shrinking ground below, she realized that the floating upwards part of this journey was taking far longer than she had originally anticipated. Taking close to ten minutes just to get to a height of around a hundred meters.
"Looks like it will take at least three or four hours before we get to the first floor..." And seemingly having also realized how long it would take for them before they got to the first floor of the dungeon, Verdell silently whispered a few words barely loud enough for her to hear. Words that made her lose interest in observing her surroundings any longer than what she already had, as adventurers and sand could only stay interesting for so long. Deciding to take the opportunity that had now presented itself to close her eyes and drift off into dreamland.
Falling asleep for the first time in a long time within the blood red bubble that had rendered her motionless. Taking the opportunity while she had nothing else to do to recover her strength as much as possible before getting to the first floor of the dungeon.
"Hm? S-sleeping?!" Caught somewhat off guard by this turn of events, Verdell felt a bit shocked at how Scaly had just decided to sleep in such a precarious situation, but after the shock wore down, he decided to follow her example and used the opportunity to recover his strength. Aware that it might be best for him to get ready for the chaos that would follow upon their arrival on the first floor of the dungeon.
After all, though there wasn’t a dedicated city present on the other side, the first few adventurers that had seen the two of the ascending would undoubtedly inform others and cause a large number of adventurers to gather in preparation for their arrival.
If he wasn’t wrong, there was a good chance that a few hundred adventurers would launch a combined attack towards the two of them the second they appeared.
As for his identity as an adventurer? He doubted that would provide him with much help in the face of the adventurers set on hunting down the dragon. If anything, there was a good chance that his death in the upcoming ambush would be attributed to him dying during the struggle to take down the dragon.
This might not be enough to fully explain his death to the guild, but he didn’t exactly have anyone who would step forward and press the issue on his behalf after he died.
On the contrary, he had a feeling that there would be far more people showing up claiming to be his close friends or even family after learning about his death to try and claim the money and other things he had stored within the guild.
Oh well... If completing a class quest this difficult was simple, it wouldn’t have stopped so many people from reaching the S Rank...
Shaking his head as he silently thought this to himself, Verdell closed his eyes and focused his full attention on meditating.
At the very least, though the blood red bubble restricted movement, it still allowed him to focus his mind and meditate to recover his mana in preparation for what was to come.