Watching as the group of adventurers essentially steamrolled the endless horde of undead that descended upon them without even breaking a sweat in the process, Scaly found herself awed by the display of power as she silently wondered what the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum were going to do to stop this group of adventurers that clearly had no trouble dealing with the countless weaker undead that were thrown at them and continued closing the distance between themselves and the main battlefield where the true might of the undead armies under the Eternal Life Sanctum were located.
Of course, even if the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum could use the far stronger undead from the main battlefield to buy more time for themselves and potentially even hold back the approaching group of adventurers. Doing so would inevitably mean they had to weaken their frontline. Giving the monsters under the dungeon core a chance to fight back and potentially even push back the frontline that was close to reaching the dungeon core.
For this reason, the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum had to find some other way to stop- or at the very least slow down the group of adventurers before they got to the main battlefield and began causing serious damage that the monsters under the dungeon core could take advantage of.
In fact, as she observed the group of adventurers pushing forward through the endless horde of undead, she spotted several powerful flying monsters between the A and S Rank breaking off from the main battlefield. Flying over the undead armies below before raining down from above to clear out large swaths of undead in the path of the group of adventurers. Showing that the dungeon core in control of these monsters at the very least understood, these adventurers were trying to lend a hand and had even managed to help clear the path for them.
This kind of movement from the monsters under the dungeon core not only caught the adventurers somewhat off guard, but even shocked the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum, one side jumping at the opportunity to advance while the other was forced to pull a few stronger undead away from the main battlefield to plug the hole that had opened up for the adventurers to rush through.
"This... The dungeon core of the swirling sands dungeon developed intelligence beyond the instinctual level." And it wasn’t just the necromancers and adventurers below that were shocked by the movement of the monsters, as the most shocked one was none other than the dwarf on her back. Almost yelling his thoughts out loud before stopping himself to avoid accidentally alerting the undead, skeletons and necromancers below.
Still, the shocked exclamation from Verdell was big enough for her to curiously move her head around to look back towards him questioningly. Showing her very clear intent of having him explain the reason behind his sudden exclamation, as she didn’t understand why this kind of action by the dungeon core was shocking. After all, she had already seen the dungeon core dictate an ambush on an army of undead far from the main battlefield not long ago.
In her eyes, the ambush was hardly much different from what the dungeon core was doing now. Lending a hand to the adventurers to try and use them to weaken the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum and their undead armies.
"You don’t understand... The ambush from earlier wasn’t that special and is something all dungeon cores engage in if you enter the final floor of a dungeon with a large enough number of people.
But for a dungeon core to not view every being daring enough to enter the final floor of a dungeon as enemies and instead perceive them as potential allies in taking down a strong enemy is rare. Normally, this isn’t something that happens in dungeons below ten floors. For a dungeon that is eight floors deep to do something like this means that the dungeon is still in the process of growing and its final depth is over ten floors!"
"..."
Listening to the words coming out of Verdell’s mouth, Scaly could only tilt her head in confusion, still not fully understanding what he was saying outside of the fact that the dungeon they found themselves in was still growing. In her eyes, there wasn’t anything weird about this, as it only made sense for a dungeon to continue growing.
If anything, she would have found it odder if he told her that the dungeon wasn’t becoming stronger and bigger over time.
"You..." Seeing the look of confusion only deepening in her eyes, Verdell couldn’t help shaking his head somewhat before once again opening his mouth to try and explain something that to him was basic knowledge that every adventurer learnt upon becoming a trainee adventurer. "Dungeons never stop growing, but most go through a sort of growth spurt when they come into existence in the strange space outside the material world that they generally exist in. After connecting to the material world, their growth speed slows down significantly and its rare for a dungeon to ever grow downwards one floor over thousands of years."
Narrowing his eyes somewhat as he reached this part, Verdell gazed off towards the core of the main battlefield where the dungeon core should be located. "For the swirling sands dungeon to have developed this level of intelligence means that it is in a state of rapid growth that is not seen outside dungeons that haven’t connected to the material word, something that shouldn’t be possible, as it isn’t exactly a newly discovered dungeon that only recently surfaced, but one that has existed for a long time already and clearly has already been mapped out down to the final floor by the guild given how fast that group of adventurers managed to get here."
Reaching this point, Verdell could not help showing a similar level of confusion as the dragon beneath him, his gaze wavering slightly. "But... How this is possible, I don’t understand. Not only was this not something I foresaw, but both the adventurers and the necromancers of the Eternal Life Sanctum didn’t predict this either..."
Finishing his explanation, Scaly just felt more confused than before.
The little explanation provided to her by Verdell didn’t help her understand anything and only ended up making her more confused than she had been earlier.
So... Nobody understands what is happening and everyone is confused...
In the end, this was the only conclusion she could draw from the words of Verdell as her gaze shifted back towards the group of adventurers below.
Watching as they overcame their initial confusion before pushing forward with the help of the monsters providing air support from above.
Watching how the necromancers in charge of delaying these adventurers clearly hadn’t expected this sudden turn of events and found themselves completely caught off guard unable to plug the holes in their formations that had been torn open by the monsters attacking from above.
Even with the support of stronger undead and skeletons from the frontlines, it didn’t do much to prevent the growing problem that was the group of adventurers from getting closer to the main battlefield and instead only weakened the undead army at the frontlines.
In the end, Scaly watched from above as the group of adventurers soon enough reached the final barrier blocking their access to the main battlefield. Feeling a sense of growing anticipation as she knew her opportunity to strike would come once these adventurers got to the main battlefield and began clashing with the main army of the necromancers.
Problem was...
[Human, Necromancer (Crypt Lord), lvl 167]
The necromancer blocking their path was far from weak, as it turned out to be a necromancer surpassing the soul weaver rank, a necromancer of the crypt lord rank.
Having originally only expected a single necromancer of this level to be present on this battlefield. Not only was the group of adventurers below shocked, but even Verdell on her back fell into a state of shock, as he clearly understood that there was no way an inexperienced crypt lord rank necromancer could command another crypt lord rank necromancer.
If anything, it made him realize that the necromancer they were dealing with might be far more powerful than he had originally thought.
Not only was there a good chance that it wasn’t some inexperienced necromancer who had just recently reached the crypt lord rank, but there was also a very real chance that this was a senior figure amongst crypt lords who by all accounts had a very real chance of becoming a lich in the future.
This kind of figure, even faced with the combined attack of a group of SS Rank Adventurers and an intelligent dungeon core would have countless secret cards stashed away for dealing with whatever trouble he might end up encounter and no lack of powerful undead and skeletons under his or her command.