Feeling a bit annoyed over how difficult the monsters below her were to spot, Scaly was forced to waste a few minutes lingering around the edge of the hole leading down into the massive underground space getting used to the darkness below. At the very least, compared to most others, her abilities as a dragon did allow her to adapt to the darkness relatively quickly. Reaching a level where she gained the ability to see the monsters moving around down below. The only one that managed to still avoid her vision from time to time being the snake that seemingly blended in completely with its surroundings and had become impossible to spot even after getting used to the darkness.
The only real reason why she had even started to notice it in the first place without using her inspection ability to find it, was because it was too dark compared to some place it moved through. Making it stand out for a few seconds that gave her the chance to spot.
Then again... Though she said she had spotted it, that wasn’t entirely accurate, as she still had no clue what the snake looked like. All she saw was the blob of darkness that was the snake. Still, it had at least allowed her to estimate the length of the snake to be somewhere between two or three meters long. Not exactly large enough to pose any real threat to her using its body to fight her. Meaning it likely relied on something different to ambush its prey, something that the description had divulged when she had inspected it earlier. Leaving her to try and guess from its appearance or wait to see how it ambushed another monster within the darkness.
But... She didn’t exactly have the patience to linger around any longer than necessary now that she had gotten used to the darkness. At most she would keep an eye out for these little ambush prone snakes and avoid them until she got a proper read on their abilities. After all, as one of the foremost ambush monsters in the eyes of adventurers, she guessed it was bound to be a difficult opponent to deal with and had its fair share of unique and difficult to deal with abilities.
Whoosh~
Keeping in mind the potential danger of the little snake, Scaly descended into the darkness below.
Sensing as countless eyes locked onto her the second she entered the underground space because of how the little light from above reflected on her scales and made her shine brightly within the darkness. Making sure that even if these local underground monsters had no idea, she was an outsider not from their world, they would at the very least know she was different from how she descended all shiny without the slightest care that she became the center of attention.
Well... She did care, but there wasn’t really anything she could do to make her scales less shiny than they were, as using water magic to encase herself in a water bubble wouldn’t do much to draw less attention. If anything, it would draw far more attention than she currently was.
Even with this, none of the monsters dared to recklessly attack her, her appearance alone having become far more intimidating after her last evolution, as she did at least look like a proper dragon now. Albeit on the smaller side, though it was still more than enough to intimidate these monsters hiding underground- or at least most of them, as the sneaky snakes didn’t seem to care in the slightest and instead took advantage of the distraction, she had provided to ambush a few careless monsters.
Something that ultimately ended up being to her benefit, as she got a chance to see how these snakes ambushed their prey. Finding out that they were not just capable of using some kind of shadow magic but also carried a potent poison within their fangs.
However, the most surprising part wasn’t the poison or the shadow magic, but instead the speed of these snakes, as even she found it difficult to trace them properly when they launched an ambush. Showing that even she might not be able to react in time in case she ended up being ambushed by one of these snakes in the future.
Although even a successful ambush wasn’t likely to do much damage to her considering most of the snakes were either around the A Rank or the lower levels for S Rank Monsters, she also understood that the strength of the monsters she encountered was bound to increase if she decided to move deeper into this underground space that just so happened to be moving in what she presumed to be the direction of the dungeon core.
And if she already had a difficult time tracking the movement of the black shadow snakes that had reached the S Rank, she doubted she would stand much of a chance following the movements of the even stronger black shadow snakes that lurked deeper within the darkness.
That is, if they hadn’t evolved into some far stronger monster. After all, she had no idea where the limit of the black shadow snake evolution lay and only understood that it wasn’t the final evolution of this snake species. In fact, she hadn’t really encountered many monsters that had reached their final evolution. Showing just how much potential even the weakest of monsters had, as it seemed possible for any monster to reach the SS Rank with enough time and evolutions no matter what path they ended up choosing. Beyond that, she couldn’t tell because of how few monsters at level 200 and above she had encountered.
Rustle~
Shaking her head as she thought about this while observing the monsters that were curiously observing her from the darkness, Scaly knew that it was best to strike while the iron was hot before these monsters realized how strong she was and began trying to run away.
Intimidating as the black shadow snake might look, she didn’t really place much importance on it after realizing it wouldn’t be able to do much damage to her even if it managed to successfully ambush her.
After all, its main source of damage wasn’t the shadow magic, but instead the venom within its fangs...
[Poison/Venom Resistance, lvl 8]
And with her current resistance, she doubted it would be able to do much harm to her, if anything, it might even help her poison and venom resistance skill reach level 9.
Thinking about it this way, she might have to focus on these little snakes and ensure they had a chance to bite her before they ran away. Ensuring that she would be able to not only increase her experience by killing them but also boost her venom and poison resistance in the process. Killing two birds with one stone.
Ssss~
SSSSsss~?
Sssss...
Ssssss...?
Maybe sensing her ominous thoughts from afar, the different black shadow snakes that had taken advantage of Scaly’s arrival felt a shiver run through their bodies as they turning towards what they had perceived to be a large, winged lizard jumping down into their world from above-
Ptsh-!
Ssss!?
SSSSSSSssss-!?
SSSSsss... SSSsss!
Ssss...
But what they saw left them shocked to the core, as Scaly had already sprung into action. Killing one of the black shadow snakes while being bitten by its large venomous fangs in the process.
This alone wouldn’t have been enough to shock all the black shadow snakes. Instead, it was the fact that the venom they were so proud of seemed to have no effect as Scaly seemingly just shrugged it off before charging out towards the next black shadow snake that had already started to desperately retreat after seeing the bloody scene-
Bang! Crack~
Something that ultimately ended up unsuccessful, as Scaly quickly caught up to it crushed it beneath her claws. Not even giving it the chance to sink its venomous claws into her body, or rather, it did attempt to do so but failed to pierce through her scales. Ending up breaking off one of its fangs before perishing beneath Scaly’s claws.
The entire thing happened so fast that the rest of the monsters didn’t even have time to react to what had just happened. Only able to stare in wonder as what they considered the top predator of their little world was torn apart by Scaly with an ease that left every single one of them shivering in fear. Knowing that a new top predator had emerged within their small part of the underground world.
The only thing they could do was pray that this terrifying winged lizard didn’t end up targeting them as well after it finished dealing with the black shadow snakes that seemed to be its primary target from how it was seemingly entirely focused on hunting down every single black shadow snake within their little world.
Something that unfortunately for them wouldn’t be the case for much longer, as Scaly was fully intent on clearing up all these little free experience bags before continuing forward.