Travelling through the cave cutting straight through the mountain, Scaly soon enough came to realize that the cave spiders that should have started to attack her had completely vanished from sight with not even one of them daring to stick its head out to face her.
Even if this was somewhat expected considering what had happened to the cave spiders that had rushed out of the cave to face off against them, she had expected a stronger cave spider to come out leading the weaker cave spiders into once again attacking her and Verdell. The fact that this didn’t end up happening made her understand that she had clearly overestimated the strength of the cave spiders. Having originally thought there were more than just a single cave spider champion lurking withing the corners of the cave.
Well... there might very well be a stronger spider hidden somewhere within the cave, but it was just too far away to notice her and Verdell. Not even having realized that a large battle had just come to an end with hundreds of cave spiders perishing during the battle.
However, to find this potentially stronger cave spider that might be lurking somewhere within the depths of the tunnels connected to the cave that led further underground, she would have to abandon her current goal of catching up with the undead legion, something she had no intention of doing considering just how much more valuable the undead legion was in her eyes.
No matter how many cave spiders might be hiding away underground, there wouldn’t be more of them than the undead and skeletons from the undead legion. Not to mention, those cave spiders would be far harder to kill off given how they wouldn’t be in an injured or weakened state like the undead legion that should be locked in battle with the monsters under the control of the dungeon core.
In other words, it would also be far more exhausting and challenging to take on the cave spiders instead of just continuing along the path that had been carved out by the undead legion and try to catch up with the undead legion.
Because of this, she didn’t hesitate in the slightest when the thought emerged while moving through the now rather desolate cave. Continuing forward towards the increasingly bright light from the other side of the cave. Already feeling a sense of growing anticipation thinking about the undead and skeletons that would be waiting for her once she got to the other side of the mountain...
Huh? Where are the undead...?
And maybe because of how she was filled to the brim with excitement, she couldn’t help freezing on the spot in surprise upon reaching the other side without seeing a single undead or skeleton around.
Even worse, though the path that the undead legion had carved out was still around, it was clear that the massive undead legion that had gathered into a single unit when passing through the cave had split up into over a dozen smaller legions with not one of them looking larger than the other. Making it difficult for her to determine what set of footprints to follow.
As for what kind of environment now stood before her? It was a simple valley surrounded by a mountain range with most of the valley itself being covered by a thick forest.
The dozen or so different paths carved out by the undead legion that had seemingly split up upon reaching this valley had all moved through the forest covered valley. Disappearing amidst the thick foliage that had seemingly grown back shortly after the undead legion had forced its way through it. Leaving only the footprints of the countless undead and skeleton behind for her to see which direction these different smaller undead legions had ultimately moved.
Whoosh~
Still, to get a better understanding of the situation and not really planning to step inside the thick forest that seemed to be alive, she decided to first take to the sky and get a better look of the situation from above. Not feeling too worried about being able to see anything given how the entire valley wasn’t filed to the brim with mist that made it impossible for her to see more than a few meters around herself.
The only real limitation was the thick clouds that were seemingly omnipresent throughout the final floor of the dungeon. Making it hard to fly around beyond a certain height.
Still, she managed to get as high up as she could. Stopping close to the middle section of the surrounding mountains where the layer of clouds was located. Soon enough getting a clear view of the barely visible paths that had been carved through the thick forest below. Seeing firsthand how the forest rapidly grew back together and closed the paths that the undead legions had carved through it.
Following the still visible paths that had not yet been healed by the forest, she noticed that while a majority of the paths veered off and moved towards the different mountain towards caves or tunnels similar to the one she had used to enter this valley, one distinct undead legion had gone straight through the forest and seemingly grown in size in the process, a clear sign that this undead legion should be the leading one among the undead legions.
Unfortunately, though it was clear that this undead legion was the leading one she had been following so far, it was also clear that the battle that had taken place throughout the valley had left no injured or weakened undead or skeletons behind for her to pick off.
As for what goal those other undead legions had? She wasn’t the slightest bit interested. Understanding that the number of undead and skeletons for her to kill off would be far lower and weaker than if she followed the clear main undead legion.
Speaking of following the main undead legion, thanks to the forest repair itself following the destruction caused by the undead legions that had passed through the valley not long ago, she was also able to determine just how far behind this undead legion she was. Determining from the self-healing speed of the forest that she was around twenty minutes behind the undead legion and might even be able to catch up to it within the next five or so minutes if she relied on her flying speed instead of walking behind the undead legion like she had done so far to take care of the weakened undead that had been left behind along the way.
Flap~ Whoosh~
With that in mind, she didn’t linger around for long after determining what path to follow. Flapping her wings once as she dove downwards following the slowly healing path that had been carved out by the main undead legion. Feeling her excitement growing, thinking about finally catching up to the undead legion she had been wanting to catch ever since she had descended the stairs to the final floor of the dungeon.
At the same time, she also began wondering if she would also get the opportunity to see the dungeon core that the necromancers commanding the undead legion wanted to get their hands on. Wondering if destroying this dungeon core like the necromancers wanted to do would give her a lot of experience and rapidly increase her strength. After all, in her eyes, this was the only reason she could think of as to why these necromancers would go through all the trouble of starting a war against the dungeon core.
...
"We are almost at the main battlefield, just need another five or so minutes to get there..." At the same time Scaly arrived at the valley surrounded by mountains, somewhere not too far away from the valley, an old man silently whispered to himself as he looked out across a vast army of skeletons and undead abominations riding atop a pristine bone horse.
"Indeed, everything has gone well so far, and all the preparations are in place. The only unexpected thing is the presence of the adventurers who delayed us significantly by taking out those two sent to get the death energy." Riding up beside the older man, a younger sickly-looking man responded to the quiet whisper with a sneer on his face upon the mention of the adventurers.
"Don’t worry too much about those adventurers, that person already has it under control and they shouldn’t be able to cause any problems later. All we need to do is ensure our legion joins up with the rest for the final battle." Narrowing his eyes somewhat as he said this, the older man didn’t even bother to glance at the younger man as he just silently motioned for the skeleton horse beneath him to move forward. Distancing himself for the younger man in the process as he moved towards the center of the legion guarded on all sides by towering skeleton guards more than three meters tall, causing the younger man’s lips to twitch slightly in response before quickly following the older man into the core of the formation.