New knowledge successfully acquired from the undead below, she continued her journey forward along with Verdell. Staying high enough in the sky to avoid detection from the undead below while at the same time also being close enough that the situation below became impossible to gauge through the black miasma shrouded wheat field, something that hadn’t originally been a problem but became one over time as the black miasma became denser over time and harder to see through.
Upon first discovering this, she had believed the miasma growing thicker had to do with the two of them getting closer to the capital of the undead kingdom, but Verdell had convinced her otherwise.
According to him, the miasma becoming denser didn’t have anything to do with them moving deeper into the undead kingdom. Instead, it had to do with the black miasma settling into place. Reminding her that the ninth floor of the dungeon was still a dungeon floor under development and some environmental additions like the black miasma that engulfed the two of them needed time to settle into place after being created.
In his opinion, it would be best for the two of them to get out of the undead kingdom’s borders before the black miasma settled into place fully. Letting her know about his suspicions regarding the black miasma being the key to the strength of the local undead they had encountered so far. Suspecting that the thin miasma might be the reason why the undead and skeletons they had seen so far had at most reached the S rank with not even one beyond that level appearing so far during their journey. Not to mention, even the few S Rank undead or skeletons they had seen were a rarity.
Not planning on questioning Verdell in the first place as he was far more knowledgeable than her when it came to how they were going to make it through their current difficult situation of still having to survive the danger that was the dungeon core still in the process of developing the ninth floor of the dungeon. Knowing it could cast its gaze on their location at any second and turn them into material for the future growth and development of the ninth floor of the dungeon.
To be honest, Scaly was still a bit taken aback by how the dungeon core had suddenly turned itself into some kind of unbeatable enemy by simply opening a new dungeon floor, but she had smartly decided not to think too much about it.
Still, though she didn’t think too much about it, she was still feeling increasingly curious about what the dungeon core looked like now that it had transformed according to everything she had heard so far. Making her look forward to reaching the core of the ninth floor, as it would not just represent safety according to Verdell, but would also give her an opportunity to see this dungeon core in person for the first time.
An opportunity she was planning to take full advantage of. All to see if she could potentially take down the dungeon core while it was busy developing the ninth floor of the dungeon. Already fantasizing about the massive quantity of experience she might get from destroying a dungeon core.
Something that for now remained nothing more than a faint hope for the future as the two of them crossed over the first undead city without any issues. The spikey theme and material used of the city itself standing out quite a bit as it was the first time Scaly and even Verdell saw a city constructed entirely out of bones and flesh, flesh that still seemed to be alive as it squirmed erratically when an undead or skeleton got too close.
Luckily for the two of them, they didn’t end up running into any more cities after this one encounter and instead found the black miasma that had engulfed them slowly vanishing alongside the wheat field that had covered the ground below during all their time on the ninth floor of the dungeon so far.
The concern from Verdell that they might end up having to pass close by the capital of the undead kingdom on their way to the dungeon core was proven to be nothing more than that, a worry that didn’t end up bearing fruit. Bringing them real trouble.
From start to finish, though their journey through the territory of the undead kingdom had made both of them nervous about encountering the ruler of this newly formed monster kingdom, they didn’t end up encountering any real problems along the way because of how Scaly was flying high above and no undead or skeleton below were bothered to look up, let alone guard their airspace.
Of course, it could also simply have to do with the fact that they hadn’t truly entered the core of this monster kingdom and had thus avoided the arial patrols they might have run into under normal circumstances or the black miasma being too thin for them to bother moving out to patrol these areas located at the edges of the kingdom.
This luck seemed to carry on even after they left the borders of the undead kingdom, as along their journey towards the dungeon core, they didn’t encounter a single flying monster jumping out to intercept them with even the monsters below being either unable to spot the up above or unable to fly up into the sky to attack them. Allowing them to essentially get to the core of the ninth floor without a single battle along the way.
The entire situation was strange to the point where Verdell began seriously voicing his worries about the dungeon core having overdrawn its resources and strength to forcibly expand a floor to ensure its own survival in the difficult situation it had been placed in by the pressure from the mist serpent and the necromancers from the Eternal Life Sanctum. After all, the safe journey they had was simply not normal even if the dungeon core was still in the process of developing the dungeon floor...
"Cursed undead! Why do we keep running into them!?"
"Because this is a monster kingdom- or more specifically an undead kingdom..."
"Damnit! I know that but can’t they at least give us a break?!"
And while Scaly and Verdell were having a peaceful journey without the slightest bit of combat along the way. Leaving a certain someone rather disappointed that no free experience packs came flying at her. The group of adventurers following behind the two of them had found themselves embroiled in constant battle with the local undead population.
Complaining audibly as they cut down one undead after the other while moving forwards rapidly to get out of the troublesome situation, they had ended up finding themselves in.
Of course, they understood the danger of clashing with the monsters from a monster kingdom and wanted nothing more than to leave these overeager undead and skeletons attacking them behind.
Unfortunately, the constant swarming made it impossible for them to do so, as the best they could do was clear a path forward through the increasingly large number of enemies that seemingly appeared out of nowhere from time to time amidst the golden wheat fields. Hopeful that they would be able to get through the wheat field that had been turned into the territory of this monster kingdom inhabited by undead and skeletons.
Hoping with sincerity that the older and stronger skeletons and undead within this kingdom wouldn’t notice them before they had long since left the undead kingdom’s borders and escaped.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
But as the battle continued dragging on and a certain undead patrol captain emerged, wielding a battle formation to rapidly grow his strength to the point where he could clash head on with one of the adventurers-
"Battle formations!? Undead wielding battle formations have already arrived!?"
Shocking the adventurer in question quite a bit, as he hadn’t at all been prepared for these undead to be capable of utilizing a battle formation, causing him to be pushed back before one of his companions jumped in to help lend a hand while he himself calmed down from the shock of suddenly clashing head on against a battle formation he had only ever witnessed being used by armies during a large scale war between two smaller kingdoms int the past.
Weak as this battle formation was compared to one he had seen back then being fueled by tens of thousands of people, it was still a battle formation and not something most adventurers would be able to deal with. Forcing him to take the battle far more seriously like he was facing off against a powerful peer.
Bad as the emergence of a battle formation was, the one positive to the increasingly grim situation was the fact that the battle formation itself didn’t slow them down as the group continued moving forward despite the constant streams of attacks launched towards them from the undead and skeletons.
Continuing forward until the faint outline of a city emerged in the distance...