Following a rather lengthy explanation from Verdell about the dangers of a monster kingdom and how it would be best for them to avoid provoking this newly established monster kingdom that had taken shape over the last few hours if not minutes, Scaly was barely convinced to avoid running rampant inside the undead rich monster kingdom. Learning from Verdell that causing a large disturbance would draw out the so-called elite armies of this monster kingdom to hunt her down. An army that according to Verdell was far more terrifying to face off against compared to that of a normal army, something that didn’t mean much to her given how she didn’t have any experience with that. A fact Verdell seemed to realize as he compared facing off against one of these armies as having to face off against the mist serpent on her own, something she very much wanted to avoid with her current strength.
But even if she was now more than happy to follow along with Verdell’s arrangement and not target the undead from the undead kingdom unnecessarily, they still had to pass through their territory if they wanted to continue forward in the direction of the dungeon core that she only recently found out was their target. Also only now finding out that because this dungeon floor was still under development, the only place to avoid becoming material for the dungeon core to continue expanding this floor of the dungeon was to get close to the dungeon core itself where the details and other things should have already been perfected by now. Not needing any later modifications that might result in the dungeon core picking up where it left off and returning its attention to the place when it felt it was time to finish things up.
This desire to reach the dungeon core from Verdell only seemed to strengthen after the realization that some of the weeping oak trees were fake. A clear indication that the dungeon core was likely to return to this place to do some last-minute changes in the future when the rest of the dungeon floor was somewhat fully developed, something that in turn made the entire monster kingdom under the control of the local undead that had only recently come into existence a place far more dangerous than a normal monster kingdom.
Not only would one have to worry about the undead kingdom itself, but one would also have to worry about a dungeon core that could turn the entire region back into material useful in floor construction at any second. Reducing anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves in that region of the floor into building material for the dungeon core to make use of.
Still, even knowing about these different dangers, there was nothing they could do about it. For now, and until the dungeon core finished creating the ninth floor of the dungeon, there was no way out. Even the original hidden passages between dungeon floors were nonexistent. After all, the dungeon core had yet to even finish creating the floor itself. Where would it get the time to create different passages connecting to the floors above.
Not to mention, it had no reason to create passages to other floors in the first place and most such hidden passages weren’t even created by the dungeon core itself but formed naturally over time because of the different spatial environments interacting with the dungeon and other unusual factors that evolved the floors into creating these unique passages on their own over decades if not hundreds of years.
"I really hope this trip to the dungeon core goes well..." And fully aware of the danger that awaited the two of them, Verdell couldn’t help silently muttering a few words of encouragement for himself and the dragon below as Scaly gracefully spread out her wings before taking to the still forming sky of the ninth floor that manifested itself as an endless sky of darkness. Not at all functioning like the normal ceiling of a dungeon floor, as she couldn’t crash into it but instead found herself repelled and pushed back by the same unknown force that had dragged her down into the ninth floor of the dungeon not long ago.
It wasn’t that Scaly hadn’t thought about flying up and returning to the still devastated eighth floor of the dungeon, it was just that the force repelling her was far too great for her to withstand and push back against.
Like this, the two, dragon and dwarf, found themselves flying through the black miasma shrouded wheat fields. Seeing firsthand how what should be the civilians of the undead kingdom grew more numerous, and the cobblestone road became wider. No longer just seeing the weak undead merchants and farmers but also seeing the stronger undead guards patrolling the cobblestone road. Guarding it from unknown dangers that Verdell and Scaly could only guess were people and dragons like themselves- or more specifically, invaders like adventurers.
[Undead Road Patrol Guard Captain, lvl 132]
[Description: The captain of a patrolling guard unit under an undead kingdom. Capable of commanding the undead below with great efficiency and employing basic battle formations. Utilizing battle formations allows the guard unit it commands to withstand an SS Rank Adventurer.]
And finding herself unable to contain her curiosity upon seeing a group of stronger undead emerging below, Scaly took the opportunity to inspect the strongest amongst them. Finding out through the description of the guard captain that it could use something called a battle formation that she hadn’t encountered before to raise its own strength through teamwork with its companions to an entirely new level.
Learning about this, her first thought was of course to have Verdell explain it to her, as he was bound to know what this battle formation thing mentioned by the description was given how easily he had been able to answer her doubts in the past without her even saying anything.
But...
"W-what? Is there something wrong?"
This time around, Verdell had no way to guess what she wanted to ask about just with her staring intently at him. On the contrary, her sudden stare only caused him to think something was wrong. After all, he wasn’t a mind reader and couldn’t tell what was on her mind this time around with the undead capable of using the battle formation down below not attacking the two of them using this battle formation.
In the end, to avoid causing the little dwarf to panic even further, she shifted her attention back towards the ground below as she pondered over just attacking the guard captain below to figure out what this battle formation was before she ended up encountering a powerful enemy capable of using in the future. Feeling somewhat annoyed at the fact that she couldn’t adequately communicate with the dwarf on her back and instead had to go about things in such a... forceful manner.
However, before she could carry out this little test of hers to test the might of this so-called battle formation in person, her attention focused on the battle formation part of the description trying to see if could glimpse some knowledge from the word itself alone like she had managed to do in the past.
[Battle Formation: Magical formations capable of linking together two or more beings and combining their strength into a single or multiple units. Generally used for warfare between waring kingdoms and empires. Rarely seen amongst adventurers because of how they operate and even rare amongst necromancers because of the immense mental strain creating a battle formation using undead causes. Generally, only seen in the armies controlled by ancient Crypt Guardians or Liches.]
And in the end, she somehow managed to succeed, as a brief introduction to what a battle formation was popped up in front of her just before she could dive down towards the still unaware undead guard captain below who had just unknowingly escaped death.
Although the description itself was a bit lackluster and didn’t help her understand much about what a battle formation was, it did at least give her a general idea that it was some kind of magic used to link people- or in this case undead together into a single powerful unit. Making them more difficult to kill.
For her to not have encountered a battle formation so far was surprising, but at the same time understandable given how her main interactions with other beings had either been in the form of monsters or adventurers, two sides that weren’t exactly known for using battle formations.
Even if she had encountered some who had used battle formations in the past, like the people from the Holy Light Church, there was a good chance she might have just thought the usage of a battle formation was some kind of strengthening magic that enhanced the strength of the user or a defensive magic for defense.
All things considered, she gained a bit more understanding of the world and at the same time also seemed to have understood one of the reason Verdell didn’t want to clash with the undead kingdom if possible. Likely having already known these undead could utilize these battle formations to increase their strength and make themselves far more difficult to deal with.