As the group of adventurers began rushing forth to try and catch up with the undead legion that in their eyes was already close to seizing the dungeon core, back within the serene forest whose serenity was only broken by the destruction left behind by the undead legion that had forced its way through the forest, Scaly and Verdell were both taking advantage of the skeletons and undead that were left scattered along the path to increase their own strength while continuing forward.
In the process, outside of Scaly reaching level 30, Verdell also managed to jump from level 100 to level 102. The most important part of this improvement in strength not so much being the fact that his strength had increased, but instead that these short and relatively simple battles with the undead and skeletons left behind allowed him to get used to his new strength as an S Rank Adventurer.
Of course, though Scaly wanted to claim every single one of the unfortunate undead creations that had been left behind for herself, the number of undead they ran into along the way didn’t really give her much time to care about Verdell helping her kill off some of these undead, as her attention instead focused on cutting down the stronger undead that began appearing along the path... And though it didn’t take her above level 30, it did bring her incredibly close to reaching level 31 over a period of only a little over ten minutes of travel through the path of destruction that had been carved out by the undead legion.
Best of all, the undead left behind showed no sign of running out anytime soon, as more just continued appearing in front of the two as they continued their path forward through the forest.
One of the main reasons why she didn’t care much about Verdell joining her in cutting down the undead while they moved through the forest, as there was no lack of enemies for her to cut down no matter how many of them Verdell reduced to dust with his fire magic. In a way, it could even be said that he helped her in keeping an eye out for any enemies that might normally have attacked her from behind. Allowing her to sweep through the undead without having to worry about a potential ambush from behind.
Crack~
[Gained 1892 Exp]
And as she thought about this, she happily crushed the skull of a weaker skeleton who had been blocking her path before engaging in a chaotic melee with a larger skeleton knight that tried its best to hold her back with its towering shield and tough armor providing enough cover for it to avoid an instant death.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Although, just barely holding on with the help of tough armor and a large shield wouldn’t be enough for the skeleton knight to hold on for long, as the shield blocking most of her attacks already began cracking under the mounting pressure. Given another few seconds and it would join the weaker skeleton that had already fallen.
Fwoosh~! BANG!
Screeech-!
"Getting more careless with each passing second..." Standing a few meters behind Scaly already fully absorbed in her battle with the skeleton knight, Verdell threw out a fireball that landed in the space beside her and directly reduced a ghoul that had been about to ambush her before silently shaking his head.
After she learnt that he was watching her back and took care of the monsters and undead that attempted to ambush her in the middle of battle, it could only be said that Verdell had found himself with not a single second to rest and recover. Finding himself running after Scaly as she continuously rushed forth to clash with the closest powerful undead or monster in the vicinity while leaving the weaker undead and monsters stirred by this kind of reckless attack for him to deal with.
He could only say that while this was indeed rewarding and had already allowed his level to shoot up from 100 to 102, it was by far the most exhausting kind of monster hunting he had ever engaged in, as Scaly showed no sign of slowing down in the slightest.
Even if this kind of high intensity battle had only lasted a little over ten minutes, he had already burned through close to half of his mana in the process and was already starting to consider if he should try and attempt concocting some kind of mana potion using some of the mana rich herbs along the path through the forest to try and keep up with her. After all, while he was inexperienced in alchemy and had little to no knowledge on how it worked, he could at least make a rough mana potion that just required herbs with a high mana concentration.
Still... That kind of mana potion was essentially wasting 90% of those mana rich herbs original value, as it simply involved him roughly crushing the herbs and extracting the liquid stored in them before drinking said liquid with a high mana concentration.
Even calling this kind of thing a potion in the first place was already something that most alchemists would frown upon for understandable reasons, as it was essentially just squeezing liquid out of a mana rich herb and drinking said liquid to restore one’s mana. Not to mention, one had to be careful when consuming the liquid of mana rich herbs, as picking the wrong one might end up with accidentally drinking concentrated poison.
Of course, the reason why Verdell considered doing something like this was because he recognized a few of the mana rich herbs along the path and knew they wouldn’t end up killing him on the spot.
The thing that had ultimately stopped him from doing it and instead made him silently place them into a small bag for storing precious herbs attached to his belt, was because he noticed that the path of destruction carved out by the undead legion through the forest was coming to an end up ahead and they would soon enough get to a new environment that hopefully wouldn’t be one shrouded in a layer of mist, as he was honestly growing a bit annoyed at having to traverse misty terrain after what the two of them had gone through on this floor and the floor above.
As for why he couldn’t see what kind of new environment waited for the two of them in the distance even when knowing the forest was about to come to an end? That was because a mountain appeared to block the path forward and to follow the path of destruction that had been carved out by the undead legion, they would have to go straight through a massive cave that seemed to carve a path straight through the mountain in question, with hints of light that should come from the other side of the mountain barely visible from where he was standing.
What awaited them on the other side of this mountain was a mystery, but from the increasing strength of the undead and monsters they had run into so far, he had a feeling that they should be able to spot the terrifying undead legion they were following in the footsteps of once they crossed the mountain- if there wasn’t some annoying mist blocking their view once again that is.
At the very least in this regard, he didn’t see any signs of thick mist gathering on the other side of the mountain, though that could also just be because he was still too far away to clearly see the situation on the other side of the mountain.
CRAAACK-! Bang~
[Gained 7824 Exp]
And as he found his attention focusing on the mountain that had emerged at the end of the path they were following, Scaly successfully broke through the tower shield of the undead knight and directly slammed it into the ground before her claws stepped onto its bony head and crushed it. Destroying the poor undead knight that had already been in a fragile state instantly without giving it any time to fight back after losing its shield as the soul flames died out the second its skull was crushed and fragmented into countless small bone shards.
Huh? A mountain?
Only with the defeat of the undead knight did Scaly raise her head for a second and notice the mountain that had appeared at the very end of the path through the forest after she had unknowingly pushed the now broken skeleton knight around a turn on the path carved through the forest.
Whoosh~ Bang!
[Gained 2162 Exp]
But interesting as the mountain might have been to Verdell, Scaly showed little to no interest in the mountain and only really confirmed that the path filled with undead continued through the mountain. Meaning she wouldn’t run out of enemies to hunt down. Before she jumped onto the next skeleton unlucky enough to find itself in her path.