Taken aback by the loud rumbling sound that they had both though disappeared alongside the door they had passed through to reach the grey-colored dungeon floor, Scaly and Verdell found themselves jumping up in surprise before both turned towards the direction that the rumbling sound had come from.
"Nothing...?"
But contrary to what the two of them had expected, they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary upon turning towards the direction that the loud rumbling sound had come from. Leaving both more confused than before. Especially since the rumbling sound continued to echo out for another half minute before seemingly vanishing into thin air without either of them seeing where the rumbling sound came.
From originally having thought the rumbling sound might have been some kind of powerful monster that had waited for them on the other side of the door, they were now left in a state of confusion not knowing what they might be dealing and at the same time also not knowing what to do, as they looked at each other for a few seconds trying to see if the other had managed to spot something from the rumbling sound earlier.
Unfortunately, neither gained anything and they instead found themselves almost jumping in surprise again a few seconds later as the rumbling sound returned.
Though...
This time around, Verdell did manage to take the opportunity to observe the monsters in the distance. Seeing a few of them react to the loud rumbling sound before returning to normal like nothing had happened. Making it clear to him that this rumbling sound wasn’t something new, as the local monsters already seemed used to the loud sound that seemingly echoed through the dungeon floor once every minute.
Outside of that, the only other thing of note was the fact that the rumbling sound seemed to come from a specific direction and that direction had a mountain blocking the view a few thousand meters from where they were standing. Making it difficult for the two of them to see what might be hidden behind the rather large mountain.
Although a part of Verdell wanted nothing more than to find a spiral staircase leading out of this deadly unknown floor of the dungeon he had found himself on alongside Scaly after escaping from the strange cube within the space between dungeon floors, he also understood that it might be impossible to travel between floors like normal because something had happened within the depths of the swirling sands dungeon. Something that had caused the dungeon to react in a manner it normally only ever would when its existence was threatened.
With all that in mind, he felt genuinely curious about the thing causing the rumbling sound to echo throughout an entire dungeon floor and at the same time also felt this kind of abnormal thing within a dungeon floor might have something to do with the sudden drastic reaction from the swirling sands dungeon.
If they could solve this problem and have the dungeon return to normal, he wouldn’t have to search for some hidden passage to get out of the dungeon, something that caused Verdell to turn towards Scaly before informing her about his suspicions.
Of course... To convince her to move in that direction, he had to change his words a bit. Not just informing her of the fact that the source of the rumbling sound might be on the other side of the mountain but also adding that there was a good chance that the source of the rumbling sound was some kind of powerful monster. Having grasped through his few interactions with Scaly that she seemed to be incredibly interested in fighting strong monsters, a kind of battle intent he guessed might be related to her being a dragon.
After all, from what little information he had learnt about dragons during his time as an adventurer, it was clear that some of them enjoyed fighting beyond just doing so to increase their own strength or for food, something that had in the past resulted in dragons appearing to challenge and fight powerful adventurers before leaving without killing the other party. Returning in the future to continue fighting with said adventurer just for the fun of it.
Although not certain Scaly was that extreme, he guessed she was one that enjoyed fighting with stronger monsters or adventurers, something that was proven correct to some extent, as she happily agreed to his suggestion of trying to find the monster behind the loud rumbling sound.
During her excitement and because she wanted to save time, Scaly even allowed Verdell onto her back to avoid wasting time walking, as Verdell’s speed was far too slow in her eyes. Forgetting the fact that she could have just carried him with her claws like she had done in the past.
The reason for this lack of attention from her side mainly being related to the fact that her mind was almost completely occupied with thoughts of just how strong a monster capable of making such a loud sound was.
At the very least, she believed that the monster behind the loud sound had to have reached level 150, comparable to the strongest adventurers she had encountered so far.
Even if this meant a battle with this kind of monster wouldn’t exactly be simple or easy, the thought of just how much her level would increase after killing such a powerful monster pushed her forward. Not to mention, she hadn’t forgotten she also had Verdell to help her... And though Verdell wasn’t exactly powerful, the strength of his magic wasn’t weak by any means.
If she could set up an ambush together with him, she might really stand a chance at killing such a powerful monster before it could properly respond and launch an attack.
Because of this, her main worry wasn’t so much the powerful monster behind the rumbling sound, but more so the other monsters throughout the grey world she found herself in. Knowing that an ambush powerful enough to kill such a powerful monster would undoubtedly leave both her and Verdell in a weakened state and open to an attack from these monsters.