Happily cutting down the undead and skeletons they encountered along the path of destruction that had been carved through the otherwise serene forest, Scaly found the level of these undead who had been left behind increasing alongside the injured monsters they found themselves facing off against. From originally only being a few lowly skeletons that had barely reached level 30 facing off against equally weak monsters, it soon enough became stronger skeleton knights between level 50 and 60 facing off against equally powerful C and B Rank Monsters.
Not just that, but the path of destruction carved straight through the forest split up into several smaller paths branching off from the slowly widening main path that the undead legion should have been travelling through. Almost like the undead legion was growing as it continued forward instead of shrinking like the large number of corpses and bones scattered along the path of destruction might have suggested.
From originally being a few dozen meters wide, the main path had grown to be over a hundred meters wide. Showing just how massive the undead legion that had passed through the forest truly was even without counting those branching paths that were anywhere between a few meters to a dozen meters wide.
The one thing she did find a bit unfortunate about this path of destruction was the fact that none of the powerful monsters that should have fallen when the undead legion had swept through the forest were left behind.
A complaint Verdell might have sensed as he directly explained how the Eternal Life Sanctum made use of everything from the monsters they killed. Only leaving behind the monsters and undead too weak for the necromancers of the undead legion to care about in their current push towards the dungeon core. The increase in strength of the monsters and undead left behind most likely having to do with the battle between the undead legion of the Eternal Life Sanctum and the monsters under the dungeon core becoming increasingly difficult the closer they got to the dungeon core.
Learning about this, Scaly did feel a bit annoyed that she had essentially been left to clean up the undead and monsters deemed too weak for the other party to care about them...
Thwack!
Roooar!
Ptsh-!
[Gained 6666 Exp]
[*Ding* Reached level 30]
But faced with the very real benefits from killing off these weaker monsters and undead who were already in an injured state, she couldn’t really find the strength to complain about the situation as she continued pushing forward.
...
As Scaly and Verdell were both following in the footsteps of the undead legion, killing off the monsters and undead that had been left behind along the way. "Just how far away from the heavenly staircase are those undead? From how those necromancers normally act, shouldn’t we have been ambushed several times by now?" In another part of the eighth and final floor of the swirling sands dungeon, one of the adventurers who had rushed down to stop the Eternal Life Sanctum from seizing the dungeon core couldn’t help grumbling about the current situation he and the other adventurers found themselves in.
"Indeed... Normally, those ghouls of the Eternal Life Sanctum should have long since ambushed us. After all, it isn’t like they don’t know we are coming and I doubt there aren’t any smaller undead lizards or other small undead secretly keeping an eye on us from afar." In response to this grumbling, another of the adventurers nodded his head in agreement. Also finding it strange how they hadn’t been attacked by any undead yet.
After all, the current members of the Eternal Life Sanctum should be in the process of taking on the dungeon core, and, to ensure their success, should have normally dedicated a few undead to try and slow them down to prevent them from catching up in time to interfere with their battle against the monsters gathered together by the dungeon core when it felt threatened.
The fact that they had been able to move through the desolate dead land filled with nothing but poisonous miasma without anything blocking their path was odd to say the least and even if the leader of the group didn’t join in on the conversation, he also clearly knew that something was wrong with the movements of those necromancers.
Problem was, even if he knew something was wrong, there wasn’t anything he could do about it outside of keeping an eye on his surroundings in preparation for a sudden ambush.
In the end, they could only continue moving through the desolate landscape. Ignoring the poisonous miasma shrouding the land, as though deadly, it was hardly potent enough to pose a serious threat to someone at their level. If anything, it was no different from breathing normal air with their strength.
"Undead! Thirteen hundred meters ahead of us, should be visible through the poisonous miasma in another three hundred meters." And just as the group were moving rapidly across the desolate landscape, the one keeping an eye on the situation in front of them called out and alerted everyone to the presence of undead up ahead. The first undead since they had crushed the group of skeletons on the spiral staircase leading down to the final floor of the dungeon.
"Everyone, follow my lead and prepare for the worst!"
To say everyone was tense would be an understatement, as with only a single sentence. Everyone silently nodded their heads before preparing for battle. Understanding that there was a very real chance that the reason why they hadn’t been ambushed so far had to do with the necromancers from the Eternal Life Sanctum, funneling all their efforts into a single deadly ambush gathering all the strength that had been left behind to block their path.
After all, the Eternal Life Sanctum would have known ahead of time that targeting the dungeon core of an important dungeon like the swirling sands dungeon, would result in a far greater response compared to them targeting a significantly less important dungeon.
In fact, this was also one of the troublesome parts about these kinds of missions, as one didn’t just have to rapidly descend through a dungeon in time to stop someone from seizing a dungeon core, but one also had to watch out for the potential traps the other party had left behind along the way to hinder any progress towards them reaching the dungeon core in time to stop them from seizing it.
At the end of the day, seizing a dungeon core was difficult on its own and normally the adventurers showing up to stop this didn’t have to do much when it came to fighting, as their presence alone would signal the end of any such attempt.
"Huh? It isn’t an ambush...?"
For this reason, the group of adventurers were left in a state of disbelief when the undead or rather skeleton, they had sensed from afar, wasn’t part of some intricate ambush designed to delay them, but was instead just a lone skeleton that had been left behind to wander on its own alongside a few other skeletons.
All of them being barely comparable to a D Rank Monster in terms of strength, hardly enough to pose any real threat to any of them and at the same time also the main reason for their confusion, as it was clear that there wasn’t any ambush waiting for them after one of the adventurers finished off the weak skeleton.
In this confusion, the group didn’t just realize that there wasn’t any ambush waiting for them, but also realized that several equally weak skeletons and other undead monsters were scattered around the desolate landscape leading into the distance, something that one of the adventurers more familiar with the Eternal Life Sanctum picked up on and understood to be a result of a large undead legion having swept through the place while locked in battle.
Who this undead legion was in battle with was obvious even if no other corpse could be found along this path of destruction, but the problem to them wasn’t so much the fact that an undead legion had passed through the desolate landscape, but more so the fact that the undead legion hadn’t bothered concealing its movement in the slightest. Making it incredibly simple for them to follow its path to find it.
"What in the world are these necromancers planning- Ah!" And amidst these sudden developments, the expression on the face of the leader of the group suddenly underwent a drastic change. "This isn’t good! These necromancers might be far closer to seizing the dungeon core than we originally thought!" exclaiming loudly before he rushed off following the path of destruction that had been left by the undead legion.
Whoosh~
Whoosh~
Whoosh~
Unsurprisingly, as they heard the words of the leader who had already shot forth with great speed, the rest similarly became panicked as they rushed after the leader who had already rushed ahead of them. Understanding that they didn’t have any time to waste cautiously approaching if the necromancers truly were close to seizing the dungeon core.