Finding herself frozen on the spot for a few seconds upon spotting the mist bound behemoth through the grey mist, Scaly found herself seriously doubting her earlier plans of ambushing this monster. After all, from what she could see, it was clear that this monster was nowhere near as exhausted as she had originally thought. If anything, it looked like it was trashing the group of adventurers attempting to kill it. Leaving her with no clear weakness to take advantage of given how one-sided the beating taking place was.
As for the adventurers currently taking a beating without much of an ability to resist...
[Human, Mist Stalker, lvl 134]
[Human, Shadow Bringer, lvl 128]
[Human, Elemental Archmage, lvl 147]
[Human, Guardian Shadow Walker, lvl 154]
[Wolfkin, Shadow Prowler, lvl 141]
Most of them were below level 150, with only one of them having reached the realm of an SS Rank Adventurer, something that was clear from a glance, as outside of the one person who was a guardian shadow walker, every single other person barely did anything to the mist bound behemoth before being knocked flying.
If anything, it seemed more like everyone served as a distraction for the guardian shadow walker and the elemental Archmage, as those two seemed to be the only ones doing any real damage to the mist bound behemoth.
Still... Though they were indeed doing damage, said damage did little to nothing against the towering mist bound behemoth, as most of the attacks were blocked by the massive fleshly lumps attached to its long arms.
Even in the situation where the mage blew off a large chunk of those fleshy chunks, they regrew almost immediately. Making it clear that the only way to do any real damage to the mist bound behemoth was to hit its body that it made sure to protect to the best of its ability.
But... Difficult as it would be for her to take advantage of the current situation to kill the mist bound behemoth and the group of adventurers, Scaly still found countless ways for her to take advantage of the current situation and push it in a beneficial direction.
After all, even if it turned out to be impossible for her to kill the mist bound behemoth, there was always the weaker adventurers that she would be able to kill off with relative ease. All she had to do was wait for them to get knocked away and take advantage of the situation to ambush and kill them before they could get up again. Ensuring that she would at least be able to gain something from the current battle.
The only thing that made her somewhat resistant to making a move on those somewhat weaker adventurers immediately was the existence of the guardian shadow walker and elemental Archmage, as neither of those two would be easy for her ambush along with the others and might even escape before she had the chance to kill them.
For this reason, she decided to wait for them to get weaker and potentially present her with an opportunity to ambush them alongside their companions. Part of her also feeling curious about whether they had some kind of secret weapon that had yet to be used. After all, without some kind of secret weapon, she saw no reason for why they would continue their seemingly useless attacks against the mist bound behemoth instead of escaping while they still had the strength to do so.
In fact, her worry about them having some kind of powerful secret weapon was also a reason why she didn’t immediately jump out of hiding and instead decided to watch the situation from the side for now. Knowing that jumping out immediately might end up with her becoming the target of whatever weapon these adventurers might be hiding.
"Looks like we might not be able to gain anything from watching this kind of battle..." Unaware of Scaly’s internal thoughts, Verdell silently muttered a few words to himself as he looked off towards the bloody battle barely visible through the mist in the distance. Knowing from what little he could see through the mist, that the situation was far from optimal for the group of people locked in battle with the terrifying mist bound behemoth.
But even though he understood this and wanted to inform Scaly that it might be a good idea for them to leave, he didn’t say anything. Understanding from the few interactions he had with her, that she wouldn’t bother with his warnings about leaving.
Although he also understood that there was a chance that these adventurers might be hiding some kind of secret weapon for use against the mist bound behemoth, he also knew what kind of secret weapon these adventurers might be in possession... And amongst the different magic potions and unique weapons he could think of, there wasn’t anything he could remember that would be capable of dealing with this kind of terrifying monster.
At the very least, he couldn’t think of anything that would allow this group of clearly weaker adventurers to deal with this kind of powerful monster that clearly exceeded the average SS Rank Adventurer.
Even if they did have an SS Rank Adventurer on their side, the difference between the two was clear, as even with the assistance of four S Rank Adventurers, one even being a mage close to the SS Rank, he was still losing out in a direct confrontation.
Still, though it might be useless for the two of them to continue watching the battle playing out in the distance and even put them at a significant risk of being drawn into the battle, he wasn’t entirely against it. The reason being the magic used by the elemental Archmage was mainly fire magic. Allowing him to deepen his own understanding of fire magic significantly just from watching alone.
And so, the dragon and dwarf found themselves entirely absorbed in the battle playing out within the dense grey mist, one focused on looking for an opportunity to strike while the other was wholeheartedly watching the brilliant display of fire magic from the senior mage participating in the battle...
"Two new people appeared?"
"Yes, from what I can tell, one monster and one dwarf. The dwarf is level 99, while the monster is level 21."
"A level 99 dwarf and a level 21 monster?"
"Yes, that is what the magic artifact is saying, though it can only read the levels of those nearby, if I’m not wrong, it might be a monster tamer who accidentally ended up on this floor by accident alongside his tamed monster that he was in the process of training."
"A monster tamer... Not even at the S Rank... Just ignore him, he won’t be able to do much even if he tries to ambush us. Continue focusing on dealing with the mist bound behemoth, it is almost time for us to make a final push."
Unknown to the two observing from what they thought to be hiding, they had already been noticed by the group of adventurers and in turn been deemed too weak for them to care about as they were entirely ignored by them
Something that was entirely understandable, as the magic artifact that had been used to identify them only read their level and didn’t give them any more information. If not for that, they would have instantly realized that Scaly wasn’t just some level 21 monster and wouldn’t have mistaken Verdell for a monster tamer.
However, it wasn’t entirely something they could be blamed for, as monsters like Scaly could be considered unnatural within a dungeon, as most monsters found inside a dungeon were relatively similar to adventurers when it came to strength compared to level.
Of course, there was still a chance that Scaly was a monster brought inside from outside the dungeon given the fact that they had mistaken Verdell for a monster tamer, but the absence of any other monster along with her generally low level made them mistake her for a recently tamed monster that Verdell had picked up inside the dungeon and was currently in the process of training.
The monster in question that they had mistaken her for being a weaker version of the envoy of death valley scorpion, as they could be considered popular for monster tamers who wanted to train one such deadly scorpion of their own.
The reason why the envoy of death valley scorpions or their lesser evolution wasn’t chosen being the fact that they were not only deadly and difficult to tame, but also impossible to find given their normal habitat being the third floor of the swirling sands dungeon. Making it far easier to just train up a lesser version of them and have them evolve into an envoy of death valley by rapidly leveling it up, something that was rather simple if one had the correct training materials prepared ahead of time, something that was relatively simple to get ones hands on given how the nurturing process and materials for the nurturing of these deadly scorpion had become one of the best-selling products found within the swirling sands dungeon.
At the same time, it had also made the swirling sands dungeon a popular place for monsters tamers to gather, though most of these monster tamers were generally below the S Rank or those at the limit facing their class quest looking for a chance to reach the S Rank. After all, one well known class quest monster tamers faced was for them to raise a certain number of unique monsters and the envoy of death valley scorpion happened to fit the requirements for a unique poisonous monster. Making it highly sought after for monster tamers faced with this kind of class quest.