Beginning her search for monsters to hunt down anew, Scaly didn’t take more than a few minutes before she ended up finding a few stray gnolls roaming around the forest on their own.
However, given the terrifying gnoll chieftain that she had encountered not too long ago, Scaly decided to not directly attack them and instead observed them to make sure that another gnoll chieftain wouldn’t suddenly pop up when she attacked the stray gnolls wandering around the place on their own.
Hm? Is this... A gnoll tribe...?
As a result of her decision to silent observe the gnolls and ensure she didn’t end up having to make another tactical retreat, Scaly ended up following what she had assumed to be a group of stray gnolls back to a small tribe not that different from the destroyed encampment she had encountered earlier.
[Forest Gnoll, Warrior, lvl 13]
[Forest Gnoll, Scout, lvl 9]
[Forest Gnoll, Hunter, lvl 15]
[Forest Gnoll, Wari...
Inspecting the close to thirty gnolls inside the tribe from afar, Scaly could not help feeling an unknown sense of relief after discovering that the strength of the gnolls present inside the tribe was weaker than the destroyed encampment. Even if she ended up fighting with them, she felt like she would stand a chance. At least that was if she didn’t count the gnoll shaman that seemed to act as the leader of the small tribe...
[Forest Gnoll Tribal Shaman, lvl 31]
Even though the strength of the shaman was still within a level that she could fight with her current strength, she wasn’t confident in being able to also deal with the around thirty other gnolls in the tribe at the same time.
But... Even if I can’t deal with them all at once, I can always hunt them down one by one. After all, they have to leave the tribe to get food every now and then...
Narrowing both her eyes as a plan on how to take down the small gnoll tribe and have them help her in growing stronger, Scaly focused her attention back on the stray gnolls she had secretly followed back to the small tribe.
Looking at it closer, it seemed like what she had assumed to be stray gnolls randomly wandering around the forest were guards patrolling around the tribe to ensure that no one ended up sneaking up on the tribe.
Although... Considering that she had managed to do just that without any problems, it seemed like these gnolls weren’t paying that much attention to their surroundings while patrolling the area.
Then again, she had made sure to keep her distance from the gnolls due to her last experience with them easily noticing her presence with their strong sense of smell. If she tried to get any closer to the tribe, she would undoubtedly be noticed.
Growl~!
Unaware of the fact that they were being targeted, the stray gnolls that Scaly had followed conversed with another pair of gnolls before making their way inside the tribe, while the pair that they had conversed with began to make their way out of the tribe. Obviously replacing the other gnolls in patrolling the area around the tribe.
Let’s start with them...
Seeing this, Scaly silently began to retreat further away so as to not alert them of her presence. Having already decided that this pair of gnolls were going to be her first target among the gnolls of the tribe.
Growl?
Not too long after this, the two gnolls arrived around the spot where Scaly had been observing the tribe from not too long ago. Obviously noticing that she had been there but given that her smell wasn’t much different from a normal lizard, they didn’t pay too much attention to it and continued on their patrol.
Different from the gnolls that she had encountered in the destroyed encampment, who had managed to notice the minute difference in her smell compared to a normal lizard due to the dangerous situation they found themselves in not allowing them to be the slightest bit careless.
Hehe, this is perfect! As long as they go a bit farther away from the tribe...
Keeping an eye on the gnolls and seeing how they seemingly ignored her smell after a short growl, Scaly could not help silently chuckling to herself as she waited for the gnolls to get father away from the tribe. Far enough away that they wouldn’t be able to notice the death of the pair of gnolls out on patrol!
Growl?!
Grr!
By the time that the two gnolls noticed something was wrong, it was already too late, as they were directly confronted with Scaly’s powerful water magic and sharp claws.
Swish-!
PTSH!
[Gained 230 Exp]
[Gained 215 Exp]
Standing no chance as they barely put up a chance before being killed with no way to alert the rest of their tribe about what had happened, thus resulting in the gnoll tribe unknowingly sending out another group of gnolls out to search for them after they didn’t return at the scheduled time-
[Gained 260 Exp]
[Gained 195 Exp]
[Gained 205 Exp]
[Gained...]
However, even though this group of gnolls were far more cautious than the last as they went out to search for the missing gnolls, they didn’t stand a chance against Scaly, as all of them ended up falling to Scaly.
None of them having been the slightest bit prepared to be ambushed the moment they found the two dead gnolls. Especially considering that Scaly had made use of the strong smell caused by the two dead gnolls to hide herself from the terrifying sense of smell of the gnolls. Providing her a rare chance to ambush the gnolls without them having the chance to smell her beforehand.
Name: Scaly
Race: Ancient Water Dragon Lizard
Level: 2/30, 98%
STR: 52 |VIT: 95 | DEX: 37 | M: 86
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline lvl 3], [Flight lvl 1], [Water Magic lvl 7], [Poison Resistance lvl 2], [Claw Strike lvl 2]
In the end, this group of gnolls ended up pushing her extremely close to leveling up. Only needing to hunt down a single gnoll to increase her strength for the first time in days.