Flying towards the grey mountain in the distance that the seemed to be hiding the source of the loud rumbling sound, Scaly and Verdell managed to easily bypass the monsters below without any fighting, as the monsters in question weren’t able to fly and didn’t seem to show too much interest in attacking a flying dragon like Scaly. Of course, there was also the possibility that her current grey colored scales blended in with the grey sky above. Making it difficult for the monsters below to even realize that there was someone passing by above them.
All things considered, the result was that both her and Verdell managed to reach the grey colored mountain without encountering any monsters along the way. Landing close to the peak of the little more than two-thousand-meter-tall mountain before they climbed the rest of the way up the mountain on foot.
The reason behind this having nothing to do with Scaly having suddenly realized Verdell was on her back and wanted to get him off, but more so a reminder from Verdell who told her it might be for the best that they didn’t fly over the mountain and end up being spotted and forced to confront the powerful monster behind the rumbling sound immediately.
Given that she was already planning on ambushing the monster in question, Scaly wholeheartedly agreed with this suggestion from Verdell and was more than happy to land and climb the rest of the way up the mountain on foot before peeking over the top towards where the rumbling sound was originating from without drawing unwanted attention in the process. After all, in her eyes, the rumbling sound might not just come from a single powerful monster but might be the result of two powerful monsters locked in a deadly battle. A thought that made Scaly recall how she had taken advantage of such situations in the past and made her somewhat excited to see the two monsters she presumed to be locked in a deadly battle on the other side of the mountain.
Unfortunately, as the two of them scaled the last hundred meters to the very top of the mountain, they found their view blocked by a sea of grey clouds that obscured the land behind the mountain. Making it impossible for the two of them to see anything but faint colorful lights appearing within the grey clouds before disappearing a short time later, lights that both Scaly and Verdell identified as some sort of magic exploding before being forcibly extinguished.
But what drew their attention about the rolling grey clouds obscuring their view wasn’t the colorful lights generated by magic piercing through the thick grey clouds from below, but instead the faint yet massive figure that those lights illuminated.
Without a doubt, it was some kind of massive monster far exceeding the size of any monster both Verdell and Scaly had ever had the opportunity to encounter... Except a certain demigod from the dreamscape...
However, outside of just that, the two of them also ended up confirming that the rumbling sound that they could hear did indeed come from a powerful monster. More specifically, it came from the monster down below locked in some kind of intense battle with what should be a group of powerful adventurers or powerful monsters proficient in magic.
In either case, it was a best-case scenario in Scaly’s eyes, as there was indeed a deadly battle playing out down below and one that she could already see herself taking advantage of to cut down both sides in one fell swoop when they exhausted themselves fighting each other.
As for Verdell... He was taken aback by the fact that the loud rumbling sound did indeed come from a monster, but upon seeing that someone was fighting this terrifying monster, it didn’t take long for him to identify that the ones fighting the overwhelmingly powerful monster below weren’t other monsters but instead adventurers.
The reason why he came to this conclusion while Scaly wasn’t fully certain whether the other side was a group of monsters or adventurers, was because he was far more familiar with adventurers and could see that those below the sea of clouds were slowly moving in encircling the massive monster using a rather common adventurer technique he recognized at a glance.
Of course, there was a chance it was just a group of monsters who learned to copy adventurers, but he seriously doubted it.
Because of this, before Scaly began moving downwards to get a real look at what was happening below the sea of grey clouds briefly illuminated by the colorful light of the magic being fired off down below, he made sure to inform her about his suspicions and how they might end up running into a group of powerful adventurers. Not because he was afraid of her killing these adventurers, but more so because he was afraid, she might do something reckless and end up getting herself killed.
After all, adventurers capable of reaching a floor so far down the swirling sands dungeon that even he was unaware of it would undoubtedly be amongst the strongest adventurers at the S Rank and potentially even some at the SS Rank.
Adventurers at that level were generally over the age of a hundred and had decades if not centuries of experience under their belt. Ambushing someone like that was easier said than done, as they might have already laid down a counter ambush for you the second you made a move against them.
In a sense, it wasn’t wrong to say senior adventurers like this were amongst the deadliest people out there, as their vast experience alone made them a nightmare to deal with. After all, these adventurers weren’t like most S Rank Adventurers who gave up further improvement after reaching the S Rank and realizing just how difficult it was to reach the SS Rank that followed, they were very much ones who still strived towards reaching the SS Rank and taking things a step further beyond the S Rank.