[*Ding* Reached level 42]
Back at the undead army that had been completely ignored by the young necromancer in charge after sensing a potential opportunity to shed his humble status as an acolyte and become a bone carver, Scaly felt somewhat despondent looking at the final level up notification that had appeared a short time before she cleared out the last few undead alongside Verdell.
Given how there had originally still been thousands of undead and skeletons left after she had tested out her circular wave spell, she had been under the belief that she might be able to directly reach the limit of her current evolution before the undead army was cleared out.
However, reality was cruel and as she soon realized the experience she received from the weaker undead and skeletons visibly decreased after she reached level 40. Forcing her to target the S Rank undead and skeletons that at the very least still provided her with a meaningful increase in experience.
Still, even after monopolizing the S Rank undead and skeletons, she only managed to increase her level by another two by the time the battle came to an end.
Although her overall progress was terrifying compared to what she had experienced before, the fact that the experience she received had visibly decreased had still left her in a somewhat depressed state after the battle came to end.
But...
Maybe the main reason for her current depressed state didn’t have much to do with her own increase in strength over this battle with the undead army. Instead, it had to do with the terrifying progress a certain dwarf had experienced. Seemingly skyrocketing in strength thanks to most of his magic covering a large area capable of blowing up dozens of skeletons and undead with a single casually conjured up spell.
[Dwarf, Dragon Flame Mage, lvl 122]
Just looking at his level that had almost increased by twenty during this battle, was more than enough to fill her with an increasing sense of resentment as she herself wished nothing more than to replace him and have her own level increase by as much as he had over this battle. After all, if she did manage to increase her level as much as he had, her own level would have already reached the limit of her current evolution.
As for killing him to claim his experience for herself... She didn’t even think about it. Knowing that even if she did kill him, at her current level, it would at most provide her with an increase of 5% to maybe 7% towards her next level.
In her eyes, Verdell had at least proven himself to be a useful ally so far and she also understood that there would have been no way for her to take on the undead army on her own, be it dealing with the two necromancers early on or fighting the remaining S Rank undead and skeletons, she wouldn’t have been able to do any of that without the help of Verdell. Especially dealing with those S Rank undead and skeletons, as without him holding back the vast army of undead and allowing her to fight without interruptions, there would have been no way for her to take down those powerful undead and skeletons with her mana already close to exhausted after her use of the circular wave spell.
Thinking about it, she would also need his help in the future when the two of them got to the main battlefield where the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum were facing off against the dungeon core. Knowing that any help would be valuable on that kind of battlefield, as she herself understood that she wouldn’t be the strongest one around like she had been this time around facing off against the undead army.
If anything, she also felt a bit worried that the terrifying mist monster the two of them had fled from when crossing the sea of mist would emerge and join the battle.
Not just worried about herself, but also the undead army under the control of the Eternal Life Sanctum, as with a monster that powerful jumping in to join the field, she doubted those necromancers would be able to do much to the dungeon core.
Of course, she wasn’t worried about the safety of those necromancers and the countless skeletons and undead under them. Instead, she was worried that they would lose the ability to fight against the monsters under the control of the dungeon core and thus put an end to the chaotic battle she intended to take advantage of to increase her own strength.
Just the thought of the free experience waiting for her disappearing before she even had the chance to join the battle made her feel a sense of growing unease. Making her eyes jump all over the chaotic mess of bones and flesh left behind on the battlefield before locking onto Verdell standing a few hundred meters from her current location-
Whoosh~
"Huh? We are going already!?"
And without the slightest bit of hesitation, she directly jumped over before picking him up with her mouth before swinging him onto her back. Taking off the next second to the bewildered voice of Verdell who didn’t fully understand why they were in such a hurry to leave the battlefield just after they finished off the last of the undead.
Then again, he didn’t think too much about it and just guessed Scaly didn’t want to linger around in a place without any monsters around and wanted to get to the main battlefield immediately to continue increasing her own strength.
In a way, part of him had already expected this outcome, so before the last undead or skeleton fell, he had already looted the two necromancers that had been killed by the two of them at the start of the battle.
The first and weaker one he had killed was simple enough to loot, as he had controlled his fire to not destroy anything of value on the necromancer when he had descended from above and killed the other party, though disappointingly, this weaker necromancer was even worse off than a random beggar. Having nothing of value outside of a few magical artifacts saturated with death energy that could only be sold off the holy light church and a few scrolls on necromancy and similar dark magic.
As for the stronger necromancer that had died beneath Scaly’s claws... That one was truly difficult to find, as his corpse had been swept away by the earlier circular wave spell. Forcing him to search for it while fighting off skeletons and undead before finally finding it just before Scaly had dragged him away for the main battlefield.
Different from the poor bone carver necromancer, this senior necromancer at the soul weaver rank was wealthy to the point where Verdell thought this might be an even more senior necromancer that had ended up dying to Scaly.
However, the personal notebook amongst the belongings of this necromancer that he took the opportunity to read through while they flew towards the main battlefield ensured him that this was indeed just a soul weaver necromancer.
But... The personal notebook also made it clear that this wasn’t a normal soul weaver necromancer, but an ancient soul weaver necromancer that had been around for over four hundred years. Extending his life through all sorts of despicable means and accumulating a vast amount of wealth in the process.
What was on his body was only a small part of it, as most of it was stored in a secret treasury, that sadly wasn’t noted down in the personal notebook.
Still, outside of wealth obtained from this now dead soul weaver necromancer in the form of gold, spell scrolls and magical artifacts, Verdell also learnt a bit more about this final floor of the swirling sands dungeon. Learning that it was in fact the eighth floor of the dungeon and that they were currently still a few hours away from reaching the main battlefield at their current speed. Giving him and the dragon beneath him some time to recover their mana before they joined the battlefield.
Problem was... The information he obtained also made it clear that it wasn’t some powerful lich in charge of the Eternal Life Sanctum’s forces inside the dungeon and at the same time also made it clear that the swirling sands dungeon wasn’t an extremely deep dungeon with monsters exceeding the SS Rank.
Thinking back to his original thoughts on the state of the final floor after their encounter with the terrifying mist monster inhabiting the sea of mist, he realized that his original worry had been for nothing. If anything, the current situation was far from as desperate as he had originally thought it to be after they had escaped from that terrifying mist monster within the sea of mist.
Still... The fact that they had encountered a monster beyond the SS Rank was true. Making him feel like something was off about the current situation. After all, if the dungeon core was truly in a desperate situation, it should have called for this powerful monster to protect itself...