Standing in the aftermath of the battle that wasn’t exactly a battle, the group of adventurers wore a sullen look on their faces as they were doing their best to clean themselves up after having dealt with the skeletons that had been behind this attack. Even the warriors and other members not proficient in magic were using what little water magic they knew for the cleaning, as every single one of them except a certain fast-moving mage ended up covered by the disgusting projectiles launched by the skeletons under the control of the necromancers.
Still, even if said mage had been spared from what had happened to her companions, she wasn’t spared from the overwhelming smell that now engulfed these companions of hers, as she made sure to keep a certain distance between them and herself while lending a hand in the cleaning from a safe distance.
Although some of them wanted to complain about it, none of them dared to do so, as she was one of the people within the group who was relatively skilled with water magic and thus couldn’t be offended given the current circumstances, they found themselves in.
In the end, the cleanup after having unknowingly walked into the trap set up by the younger necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum ended up taking a little over half an hour. Far longer than the group had anticipated originally, but there was nothing they could do about this unfortunate delay, as there was simply no way for them to fight covered in the disgusting stuff that had been launched at them.
Doing so might very well end up resulting in them being knocked out from the smell before they even got to the main battlefield where the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum and their undead armies were clashing with the monsters under the dungeon core, something that would not only be dangerous, but also extremely embarrassing should news of what happened end up leaking to their fellow adventurers in the future.
Because of this, the trap laid out by the younger necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum could be said to have been far more successful than these younger necromancers had originally anticipated, as they had managed to delay the group of powerful adventurers by more than half an hour without using any of the stronger undead in the process and relying entirely on the lack of attention this group of adventurers had been paying to the increasing number of weak skeletons around them.
If not for this lack of attention, it would have been impossible for this little trap of theirs to succeed in the first place, something that was proven over the next few minutes as the group of adventurers once again began their journey towards the main battlefield, as these younger necromancers tried again and again to enact the same trap to no avail against the now fully alert group of adventurers.
Still, even though they couldn’t find any success after their first ambush on this group of adventurers, the younger necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum weren’t the slightest bit unhappy with the situation. Feeling more than happy that they had even managed to succeed once in the first place.
If anything, with the adventurers now paying constant attention to their surroundings and the increasing number of both skeletons and undead along their path towards the main battlefield, their speed had slowed down significantly. Reduced by close to half of their previous speed before the successful ambush.
From originally only being an hour or two away from reaching the main battlefield, the group of adventurers were delayed by close to two hours. An achievement that the younger necromancers were praised for once the necromancer in charge of them learnt about the situation.
After all, the main difficulty in taking down the swirling sands dungeon wasn’t the dungeon core itself, but instead this group of adventurers who would rush forward to stop them from seizing the dungeon core.
But even then, the group of adventurers inevitably reached the battlefield.
Although... The scene that met them wasn’t what they had been expecting to see, as the necromancers and their undead armies, that should be winning and close to taking down the dungeon core, wasn’t.
On the other hand, it instead looked like the necromancers were on the losing side, something unimaginable to the adventurers, as they simply couldn’t imagine the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum making a move on the swirling sands dungeon’s dungeon core without ample preparations.
The sight alone even made the leader of the group of adventurers who had been tasked with a few similar tasks in the past quite confused, as he had never encountered a situation where the dungeon core was the one winning when he showed up. Leaving him somewhat confused about what to do, though this confusion only lasted for a brief instant before he commanded his companions to join the battle against the necromancers.
What he had gone through not long ago was still clear in his mind, as the flames of revenge ignited within his heart. Intend on kicking these necromancers while they were down, a goal that his companions could fully align with as they followed him to kick the necromancers while they were done and make sure they got their revenge as well.
As for how the situation had ended up being so disadvantageous for the necromancers, time would have to rewind to a short time before the arrival of the group of adventurers when Scaly and Verdell first found themselves reaching the battlefield a step before the group of adventurers thanks to the delay caused by the group of younger necromancers preventing these adventurers from rushing straight to the battlefield from the spiral staircase leading down from the seventh floor of the dungeon.
...
Continuing the relatively boring and unexciting journey through the frozen desert without encountering any monsters or undead along the way.
Not even a single stray skeleton.
Scaly kept a relatively fast speed as she glided seamlessly through the air with Verdell on her back. Covering the vast desert that would normally have taken the ten thousand strong undead army a day or longer to traverse after their delay from the monsters in little less than two hours.
During this rather boring journey, she decided to take the rare opportunity to check out her status before she found herself in another battle with the undead under the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum.
Name: Scaly
Race: Dreamscale Dragon (2nd Stage)
Dragon blood: 47% (Rare)
Level: 42/50, 5%
Mana Heart: Third Circle
STR: 1997 |VIT: 3972| DEX: 2299| M: 7352
Magic: [Dragon Water Magic, lvl 9], [Ice Magic lvl 5], [Wind Magic, lvl 8], [Lightning Magic, lvl 5], [Dream Magic lvl 5]
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline, lvl 4], [Dragon Flight, lvl 8], [Poison/Venom Resistance, lvl 8], [Dragon Claw Strike, lvl 9], [Dragon Breath (Water), lvl 6], [Corrosion Resistance, lvl 4], [Pain Resistance, lvl 6], [Swimming, lvl 6], [Dragon Heart, lvl 1], [Endless Vitality, lvl 2], [Agility, lvl 1], [Brute Force, lvl 1], [Fear Resistance, lvl 1], [Mana Consumption, lvl 2]
Looking through her status that remained relatively unchanged from the last time she had checked it outside of the expected growth of her strength following the large increase in level compared to the last time she had checked her own status, she did notice one clear change that stood out immediately, that being the increase to her dragon blood concentration that had increased by five compared to last time she had checked it.
Although, it didn’t take long for her to realize that this increase had come from the dragon seeker’s attention task or quest she had been given.
Still, she felt herself becoming a bit excited upon seeing how close she was to her dragon blood concentration reaching 50%, as she had a feeling something special was going to happen once, she crossed that threshold. A threshold she hoped to cross before her next evolution, as she felt it was going to unlock stronger evolutions for her compared to what might normally be available.
Outside of this increase in blood concentration thanks to the dwarf on her back, her magic and other skills hadn’t increased much compared to last time she had checked, with only her lightning magic having increased a single level. Something that was understandable with how much she had been using her water magic, though it did leave her wondering if level 9 was the highest level her magic and other skills could reach or if she lacked something to bring it to a higher level.
And it was while she found herself lost in her own thoughts pondering how to take her magic and skills beyond level 9, that the main battlefield she had been longing to reach finally appeared on the edge of the horizon.
Making her shift her attention away from whatever she was thinking about as her full attention was soon enough focused on the undead armies in the distance.