As the disturbance caused by the loud explosion of fire magic spread outwards and sent waves through the sea of mist. Blasting back the thick mist where the fire magic exploded before the mist came surging back to fill up the empty space that had formed within the sea of mist, it soon became clear that fire magic was by far the worst kind of magic one could use if one wanted to avoid drawing attention to oneself within the sea of mist.
Something that became clear almost immediately as countless currents began surging forth with in the sea of mist towards the direction of the explosion that luckily wasn’t right next to Verdell and Scaly who ended up taking advantage of the situation by gliding in the exact opposite direction of the mist monster that the fire magic had landed on. Resulting in no more monsters attacking them for now as they were all focused on the place where the explosion had occurred.
Great as this seemed on the surface, it was far from what Verdell wanted to happen. Understanding that this disturbance would undoubtedly draw far more monsters up from the depths to the area he and Scaly were moving through, something he wanted to avoid but knew was impossible to avoid with how his other magic wasn’t anywhere strong enough to deal with the local monsters hidden within the sea of mist.
If anything, he might end up in a drawn-out struggle that would draw far more attention to himself and make the monsters within the mist directly target him instead of surging forth to investigate the disturbance-
RUUUUMBLE-!
Problem was that while the weaker monsters surging forth towards the disturbance wouldn’t be able to catch up with the two of them, the terrifying monster that had swallowed the SS Rank toad not long ago would undoubtedly pose a threat, as the disturbance caused by the explosion of his fire magic had indeed ended up drawing out this terrifying monster, a fact that couldn’t be hidden by the surging currents of mist all around.
The only positive when it came to the emergence of this terrifying monster was the fact that he could clearly sense that it had travelled in the opposite direction that he and Scaly had been gliding in. Meaning it would need at least a few minutes to catch.
As for what would happen when those few minutes passed, and it reached the location where the fire magic had exploded and pushed back against the thick mist... He had a feeling that it would lock onto him and Scaly immediately and come looking for them.
To escape this deadly situation, the only thing he could think of was the dragon below him slowly stirring awake after having been knocked out for a good twenty minutes by this point in time, as he himself didn’t have any way to fly up and out of the mist sea on his own. Not to mention, even if he could fly, he doubted that his flight speed would be anywhere near enough to get out of the mist sea before getting caught by the terrifying monster rapidly approaching from afar.
After all, this terrifying monster undoubtedly had the ability to jump out of the mist sea and chase after him if he attempted to fly up as high as possible to avoid it.
This was one piece of information he had learnt about the terrifying monsters that exceeded the SS Rank during his initial time as a trainee adventurer within a dwarven guild before he had officially set out to carve his own path as an adventurer.
Monster at the S Rank or even SS Rank might not have any flight abilities, but any monster exceeding that who broke through beyond level 200 had the ability to fly through the air freely.
Although he had yet to confirm that he was truly dealing with one of those mythical monster above the SS Rank, the simple fact that this monster had been able to easily swallow the SS Rank toad without any real battle breaking out in the process was more than enough proof in his eyes that this monster was truly one above the SS Rank.
At the same time, it also made him reconsider the strength of the necromancer attacking the swirling sands dungeon, as a dungeon capable of nurturing this kind of terrifying monster undoubtedly couldn’t be taken down by a mere SS Rank Necromancer.
To deal with this kind of terrifying dungeon capable of producing monsters above the SS Rank, the true rulers of the Eternal Life Sanctum would have to step forward and in turn, this was an action that would be difficult to hide from the guild. Meaning that the guild members sent down to foil the plans of the Life Sanctum might very well be the guild’s own top tier forces. Not just SS Rank Adventurers.
In that turn of event, given the fact that Temple Guard City was also partially under the Holy Light Church, there was a very real chance that even the dreaded lead inquisitors from the church were drawn into the mix, the people within the church with the highest combat power.
Just thinking about what kind of terrifying battle he might end up walking into with his own strength just barely having reached the S Rank, Verdell didn’t know whether to cry or not.
This kind of battlefield was far beyond anything a small adventurer like himself had ever been thrown into and if possible, he wanted nothing more than to avoid getting dragged into this kind of terrifying battle.
But along with this, he also realized that he would have to seriously reconsider the swirling sands dungeon. Having originally believed that it was a dungeon with six or maybe seven floors, he now realized that for it to give birth to monsters above the SS Rank, it had to be one of those terrifying dungeons with ten or more floors. Only dungeons that went that deep could produce this kind of terrifying monster and now he found himself at the very bottom of such a terrifying dungeon.
Even if he managed to convince Scaly to leave, the difficulty involved in leaving such a dungeon was terrifying and might very well take them months if they were exploring on their own.
The best case scenario in his eyes was no longer to find a member of the Eternal Life Sanctum to find out about the different passages leading upwards towards the higher floors of the dungeon that he found himself far more familiar with, but instead finding the group of adventurers who had entered the dungeon to confront the one from the Eternal Life Sanctum attempting to seize the dungeon core.
As for how to explain Scaly... He could just say she was a tamed monster, and those seniors wouldn’t care much. After all, while dragons might be seen as rare and precious to most adventurers, to seniors who had surpassed the SS Rank, they were not anywhere near as valuable. After all, if they wanted dragon materials, they could always go to one of the dungeons where dragons appeared and easily gather materials there without having to worry about being killed within those terrifying dungeons that would normally leave even a seasoned SS Rank adventurer shivering in fear.
Problem was, he had no clue how to find these powerful seniors and much less of a clue how to get out of the current predicament he and Scaly found themselves in.
Just the short time where his mind had wandered due to the realization of just how deadly the swirling sands dungeon was, the terrifying monster had already made it more than halfway to their current location and would be able to swallow the two of them within the next minute or two.
Rustle~
Luckily, as Verdell was about to try and slap Scaly awake as a last-ditch desperate measure, the dragon that had been knocked out for the past twenty minutes finally woke up at last.
Huh? Where is this? Why is there mist everywhere?
Looking around herself, filled with confusion. Unable to understand how her surroundings had changed so much in such a short time. At the same time also marveling at the fact that she was effortlessly gliding through the air without even flapping her two wings.
"Awake!? Haha! We are saved! Hurry, we need to get out of this mist sea as fast as possible before that monster chasing us from behind catches up!" And seeing her wake up, Verdell smiled with joy as he hurried her to get up and fly the two of them out of the sea of mist as fast as possible. Leaving Scaly, who had just woken up and still felt her head thumbing in pain from earlier in a bit of a daze.
Whoosh~
Still, feeling the urgency in his voice, she followed his words and wasted no time flapping both her wings to rapidly ascend upwards through the thick mist.