Bang! Crack~
[Gained 12.098 Exp]
Crushing the last of the monsters that had been bold enough to try and attack using one of her claws while a water blade silently cut through its heart at the same time, Scaly found herself observing the foliage around herself. Knowing that these few monsters were far from the only ones around.
But... Unsurprisingly, after her powerful display of strength, those lurking monsters had either escaped of retreat far enough away that she wouldn’t be able to catch up to them in case they decided to run. Not because she was slower than them by any means, but instead because the monsters within this underground forest seemed especially fond of burrowing into the ground.
In other words, the seconds they realized she was coming for them, they would jump back into a preprepared hole in the ground behind them and disappear before she could ever get close enough to successfully hit them with her water magic or other magic. Maybe lighting could work, but there were still all kinds of obstacles in the way of these monsters. Making it difficult to get a clear view of the monsters and their exact location.
She had thought about chasing after them after they escaped through their tunnels underground, but... With her current size it wasn’t exactly possible for her to squeeze through those small tunnels that generally ranged somewhere between half a meter wide or less. Forcing her to give up any plans of hunting down these monsters that simply wasn’t worth the effort required for her to catch them.
For the first time, Scaly encountered a kind of monster she was fully capable of hunting down and killing, but couldn’t be bothered to deal
Although, one of the main reasons why she didn’t bother with them was also because she had already killed a few of them during the earlier ambush...
[Gained 782]
And the experience she ended up receiving was far from anything worth the effort required to catch and kill those observing monsters. Having clearly been decreased because of the massive difference in strength between her and this monster that only dared to sneakily watch her from afar.
Shaking aside the somewhat annoyed sensation of being under constant observation by those weaker monsters that seemingly didn’t have anything better to do, Scaly decided to make her way deeper into the underground forest. Having noticed from above that the forest itself didn’t reach the ground beneath the dungeon core that had decided to roleplay as an underground sun, while at the same time also being home to powerful monsters she could hunt down.
Of course, the most important part was that the dungeon core shouldn’t notice anything wrong if she avoided showing herself and kept her battles limited to the forest where it would be understandable for monsters to start fighting each other, something she felt should only be possible for her given how she was completely different from those two-legged adventurers who were recognizable at a glance.
Be their appearance of presence, it was completely different from someone like her and thus far easier to distinguish from the monsters that inhabited the dungeon. In fact, given how she herself had originally been born as a little dungeon lizard, she blended in far better compared to monsters born outside a dungeon.
How did she know all this? Simple, she had noticed how different her own presence was compared to those two-legged adventurers like Verdell and put two and two together on her own- or in simple terms, she used her superior intelligence that undoubtedly came along with her high magic stat to figure out this on her own.
Was it a way to convince herself that it was okay for her to hunt powerful monsters close to the dungeon core that had intimately merged into one with the ceiling above and had started blushing so hard that the entire underground world was bathed in light?
Maybe...
But she wouldn’t admit to something like that and soon enough found herself happily wandering through the forest hunting down the different monsters she encountered along the way.
[*Ding* Reached level 48]
By the time she reached the edge of the underground forest close to the place where the dungeon core was located, she had already reached level 48 and found several towering pillars that had originally looked like strangely shaped mountains from afar, supporting the ceiling around where the dungeon core was located.
Not just that, but as she got closer and got a proper glimpse of what the space beneath the dungeon core looked like, she spotted the all too familiar dungeon guardian construct that had protected the golem from the mist serpent in the past before said mist serpent decided to set its on her and forced her to rely on the kind assistance of the leading necromancer to tank it for her while she and Verdell safely retreated.
Speaking of which, she wondered what had ended up happening to that large serpent and the leading necromancer who had ended up being amongst the first to fall into the black dungeon floor.
From what he had heard about this kind of developing dungeon floor from Verdell and the now dead necromancers who had still been clinging onto life at the ceiling of the eighth floor, there was a good chance both had been turned into premium material for the dungeon core. Used to construct certain special and unique environments or powerful monsters within the still developing ninth floor of the dungeon.
Thinking about it, the appearance of the undead kingdom that Verdell had already stressed to her was abnormal for a dungeon that only had nine floors might have been due to that leading necromancer along with the powerful bone construct under her command providing the premium quality materials the dungeon core needed to construct this kind of powerful undead kingdom.
As for the mist serpent... It should have returned to its homeland and given birth to a brand-new sea of mist at the sacrifice of its life somewhere on the ninth floor she hadn’t been. Ensuring that at least two floors of the dungeon had the ability to give birth to new small mist serpents in the future.
What a selfless sacrifice~
All that aside, Scaly found herself climbing up the side of one of the mountain shaped pillars holding up the ceiling of the underground world to get a better look of the empty center below the dungeon core. Finding that the space wasn’t empty like she had originally thought. Instead, a pristine temple had already formed below the large dungeon core floating up above. Presumably the new home of the dungeon core once it finished constructing the ninth floor of the dungeon. Giving it a perfect place to hide away somewhere safe after the ninth floor of the dungeon was completed.
After all, it wouldn’t exactly be easy to find the dungeon core hidden underground surrounded by powerful monsters. Especially when the light that illuminated this underground space vanished and made the already deadly space even deadlier than it already was.
[Stone Claw Dungeon Guardian Construct, lvl 229]
Not just that, but she also found the familiar dungeon guardian construct from earlier silently guarding the pristine temple at the center... And most importantly, the strength of this dungeon guardian construct had undergone a period of explosive growth while she hadn’t been looking. Increasing its level by twenty-seven in what was essentially less than a single day.
27 levels in less than a day...
Even Scaly, who prided herself at being able to increase her level fast, felt a sense of profound envy faced with this kind of ridiculous cheating.
27 levels was already a terrifying increase under normal circumstances, but this was a monster or rather golem that had already reached the SS Rank in terms of strength. For it to increase its own level by 27 was not the same as an oversized rat increasing its level by 27.
In the face of someone who was so obviously cheating, Scaly decided to look the other way and pretend she didn’t see anything, she wasn’t complaining, she definitely wasn’t complaining over the unfair leveling speed of a certain golem or construct as it called itself. The tears in her eyes were because of unique mountain sand blowing into her eyes and definitely didn’t have anything to do with the overwhelming sense of defeat she felt in the face of the dungeon guardian constructs terrifying leveling speed...
Rustle~
Shaking off the sense of defeat she felt deep inside upon spotting the dungeon guardian construct after a good few minutes, Scaly didn’t linger around on the mountain shaped pillar for long and began making her way up towards the top of the mountain shaped pillar where it connected with the ceiling of the underground world formed around the dungeon core.
Not for any particular reason other than there being a large number of monsters gathered around the top of the mountain shaped pillar along with what looked like a passage that might lead into the home of these monsters where even more of them could be found waiting for her to clean up.