Returning back to Scaly who was eagerly waiting for him not too far away, Verdell silently motioned her over before informing her of the situation and the fact that they couldn’t just recklessly rush down the spiral staircase and instead had to rely on her ability to fly to bypass the guards stationed on the spiral staircase, something that should be simple enough given the little he had seen of the final floor indicated that it was a dungeon floor stuck in a kind of eternal night with large grey clouds blocking the view of the ground form where he had been standing. Meaning it should be simple enough for the two of them to slip past the guard using those grey clouds to avoid detection.
Of course, though he had managed to successfully convince Scaly to avoid those skeleton guards, she still wanted to take a quick peek at these skeletons created by the necromancer from the Eternal Life Sanctum. Curious about how strong the monsters created by a necromancer were, as this was her first time encountering this kind of enemy and learning more before truly facing off against this necromancer would be a good thing, who knew, the description of those skeletons might even give her some insight into the necromancer behind them.
This in mind, Scaly and Verdell both proceeded towards the passage together, Scaly doing her best to follow Verdell’s silent steps. Making as little sound as possible to avoid drawing the attention of the skeletons guarding the spiral staircase. After all, though they weren’t standing close to the passage between the two floors, they were close enough that a loud enough sound would be picked up. Potentially drawing them upwards to investigate.
However, maybe because she was following Verdell and he was using some kind of special skill to also soften her steps and make it easier for her to follow along silently, the two of them managed to make it to the spiral staircase without drawing any attention from the group of guarding skeletons below. Giving Scaly the opportunity she wanted to lean over the edge of the spiral staircase as Verdell slowly got up on her back in preparation for her jumping off the spiral staircase and silently gliding into the grey clouds where the two would be able to avoid being noticed by the group of skeletons.
[Common Skeleton Guard (Summon), lvl 75 (35)]
[Common Skeleton Guard (Summon), lvl 71 (31)]
[Common Skeleton Archer (Summon), lvl 78 (38)]
[Common Skeleton Guard (Summon), lvl 70 (30)]
[Common Skeleton Mage (Summon), lvl 72 (32)]
[Common Skeleton Archer (Summon), lvl 74 (34)]
[Common Skeleton Guard (Summon)...]
A quick at the skeletons below immediately made it clear that while there were around two dozen of them, they were anything but threatening to her and if not because killing or destroying them would alert the necromancer behind them, she would have been more than happy to rush down and start a massacre.
[Common Skeleton Guard (Summon), lvl 77 (37)]
[Description: A common skeleton guard created from the lowest quality of bones. Stronger than normal skeleton guards because it’s under the direct control of a powerful necromancer. Allowing its strength to far surpass what it normally should be. This powerful increase in strength will disappear the second the powerful necromancer switches their attention elsewhere. Original level, 37. Enhancement from direct control of a powerful necromancer increase level by 40.]
Something she confirmed would indeed happen as she focused her attention on observing one of the common skeleton guards a bit more closely. Allowing her to read through its description made the fact that these skeletons were truly being directly observed by the necromancer who had created and controlled them.
At the same time, she was also made aware of just how powerful the enhancement of a necromancer’s direct control and attention brought to these originally weak skeletons. More than doubling their level.
If this kind of boost wasn’t on some weak skeleton like the ones guarding the spiral staircase but instead a powerful skeleton comparable to a monster like the mist bound behemoth, it would essentially boost its strength beyond level 200 if the increase in level remained the same for those more powerful creations of a necromancer.
A fact that caused Scaly to second guess her idea of targeting this powerful necromancer. Instead, feeling like it might be better for her to just sit on the side of the massive battlefield that Verdell had told her should have already formed down on the ground below. Taking advantage of weakened monsters and skeletons on either side. Using these weakened skeletons and monsters to rapidly increase her own strength, something she had grown used to doing.
Then again, if the opportunity to take down the powerful necromancer presented itself, she would be more than happy to jump on the opportunity. Knowing just how valuable such an enemy would be. At the very least comparable to the mist bound behemoth that had been able to directly increase her level by one on its own. Maybe even better if the death of this powerful necromancer caused the countless skeletons and undead abominations under control to perish.
"Let’s get going before we get discovered by those skeletons, we don’t want to get hunted down by that powerful necromancer..." Unaware of the thoughts forming inside Scaly’s head and her growing desire to take down the powerful necromancer targeting the dungeon core, Verdell finally got himself comfortable on her back as he quietly called out for her to get going before the two of them were discovered.
Rustle~
Whoosh~
Understanding this as well, Scaly quickly focused back on the situation at hand and quietly leapt off the spiral staircase with her wings outstretched. Not doing anything else, as it might alert the skeletons on the spiral staircase. Relying entirely on her natural gliding ability to slowly glide into a nearby grey cloud that completely swallowed the two of them. Allowing them to bypass the skeleton guards and officially begin moving through the final floor of the dungeon without worrying about being immediately targeted by the necromancer waging war against the dungeon core.
Still, they weren’t out of danger yet, as they still had to assess the state of the final floor before figuring out what to do next.
After all, the bits of information Verdell had regarding the current state of the final floor was just his own speculations based on his past knowledge of others attempting to seize a dungeon core from the Eternal Life Sanctum. For what little they knew, the situation could be entirely different once they got through the grey clouds and laid eyes on the scene below.
Although... Passing through the grey clouds wasn’t exactly without its own risks, as they couldn’t see the situation below ahead of time and diving down to early might end up with them finding themselves in the middle of a large camp belonging to the Eternal Life Sanctum, a worst-case scenario.
To avoid this, the two of them had already decided ahead of time to continue through the grey clouds for a bit and see if they could find a mountain piercing up through the clouds and from there on using the mountain to slowly make their way down through the clouds without the risk of accidentally placing themselves at the center of some large camp or battle.
...
At the same time Scaly and Verdell officially stepped onto the final floor of the dungeon and began their journey through the sea of grey clouds in search of a mountain where they could safely approach the ground, the group of adventurers sent by the guild arrived at the seventh floor they had just left.
"So... This is the seventh floor of the swirling sands dungeon that you were all complaining about? Seems rather ordinary from what I can see outside of the fact that everything is grey because of that grey sun above..."
"That is only because we are still nowhere near any of the dangerous parts of this floor, those more dangerous areas have no lack of SS Rank Monsters roaming around normally, though, with the dungeon core being threatened, I doubt we will encounter anything more than S Rank Monsters on our way to the closest passage down to the final floor.
By the way... What was the closest path downwards from here?"
"The sea of mist, but we have to be careful, that place is normally home to mist bound behemoths, a special kind of SS Rank Monster that has the ability to draw strength from the mist and utilize a unique and powerful kind of mist magic." Hearing the question, the man in the lead slowly answered the question before giving everyone present a stern look while describing the mist bound behemoth that they might run into within the sea of mist.
Even as a powerful adventurer himself, he understood full well just how terrifying this monster was and following another of the group giving a more in-depth description of the abilities of the mist bound behemoth, everyone quickly understood that their journey through the sea of mist would be anything but simple...