"Haaa... God damn strengthening mixture... This is the last time I will take that cursed thing. Even with premium ingredients, I still ended up nearly blowing out my backside just now...!" A short time before Scaly found Verdell unconscious on the ground with the strange monster about to devourer him, Verdell was silently cursing to himself as he finished cleaning up the aftermath of the side effects of the strengthening mixture, he had swallowed to increase his strength while moving through the tall grass.
Not to mention feeling grateful for the strength the mixture had ended up providing him with, he felt more like cursing the senior who had taught him how to make this strange mixture in the past. After all, that senior had clearly told him the side effects would lessen with higher quality ingredients, but what happened in the end? He ended up nearly exploding his backside in the process just now when those damnable side effects kicked in. Clearly far worse than any other time he had consumed a strengthening mixture.
Instead of decreasing the side effect when he used higher quality materials, it had instead caused them to become worse, as outside of the incident his poor buttocks ended up facing, he also ended up throwing up in the process. The two incidents, not happening separately, but simultaneously.
Even as someone who considered himself tough thanks to his years as a solo adventurer, who could endure that kind of torture? The pain alone was unbearable to the point where he began harboring thoughts of seeking out the old adventurer that had taught him how to brew the strengthening mixture in the past.
So what if that person was a senior from his hometown who was already close to three hundred and had retired? He would make sure that old fellow understood the pain he had just gone through!
If things had just stopped at that, then everything would have been fine, but as he finished using a simple earth magic spell he had learnt for convenience in the past to push everything that had ended up leaving his body into a small hole, he had created to bury it, the bloody thing start squirming like it was alive. Giving him a heart attack thinking he had eaten something strange and ended up with worms of some other parasite.
And foolishly, to ensure he hadn’t ended up contracting some kind of strange parasite during the past rather hectic days he had gone through within the swirling sands dungeon, he approached the swirling and squirming liquid to inspect it up close. Only for a stench far too foul to have ever come from something that had come out of his body hit him in the face as a small tentacle emerged from the foul mixture, he had been about to burrow.
"W-what in the world is that...?" Only able to mutter these few words to himself as he felt his vision starting to swim as he almost fell headfirst into the strange squirming liquid, it didn’t take him long to realize he had been poisoned by whatever the strange creature within the foul liquid was.
Vision already blurry and unable to mobilize the mana within his body to mount any form of resistance against the strange creature that slowly absorbed the foul liquid and began crawling out of the small hole he had dug using earth magic, Verdell couldn’t do anything but use the last bit of his strength to get as far away from the strange creature as possible before his legs gave in and he collapsed onto a nearby rock. Looking every bit like a damsel in distress as the last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the strange creature slowly crawling towards him.
Or rather, he could swear he saw his dinner from a few days ago swirling around within the strange creature as it made its way towards him. Making his last thoughts not about the danger approaching him but instead if the creature didn’t what he had for dinner given how it hadn’t absorbed it yet.
"Mmm~ Ugh... I... Where am- Huh?" For this reason, it was an understatement to say he was surprised upon opening his eyes to see Scaly instead of the strange foul being that had been about to reach him when he had been knocked out. " You- You saved me!?" Still, it wasn’t difficult for him to understand Scaly had ended up saving him once again.
And in response to the somewhat confused mutterings of the dwarf who had just woken up, Scaly silently nodded her head in agreement, though her eyes remained focused on him with a clear look that Verdell understood as her wanting him to explain what had happened.
"Want to know what happened? Sure..." Ignoring the fact that the cave had essentially been transformed into an ice cavern while he had been knocked out, Verdell was more than happy to explain what he had gone through. Not bothering to hide anything as he didn’t feel that embarrassed explaining what had happened to a dragon, something Scaly found herself silently lamenting about as the little dwarf decided to go into great detail about how he believed the strange creature had ended up forming thanks to the combination of the... The things that had ended up leaving his body.
At the same time also informing her of his own suspicions that it might have been a combination of that along with the strengthening mixture that had caused that strange creature to take shape.
That and the fact that they were currently within a developing dungeon floor that might have served as another condition for that strange creature to take shape. Meaning it wouldn’t be easy to replicate the creation of such a creature in the future, as the side effects of the strengthening mixture likely had to be the two, he had ended experiencing, while the most difficult part of the creation of such a strange creature should be related to it happening within a still developing dungeon floor.
After all, without one of the conditions being related to it happening within a still developing dungeon floor, Verdell made it clear many such creatures or monsters would have emerged throughout the world and he would have long since known about their existence. Not like now where he was completely unaware of the creature or monster, he had unknowingly ended up creating.
Hearing this, Scaly did feel a bit disappointed. Having originally thought it might have been possible for her to make use of Verdell to mass produce these monsters to rapidly increase her own level.
Unfortunately, there was no such thing as free experience.
Not to mention... She doubted Verdell would agree with her, turning him into a functional experience farm. Forcing him to undergo that horrifying experience over and over again.
Even if he agreed to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the world, she doubted his body would be able to endure much in the first place given how his current state was even worse than hers and looked like it wouldn’t recover anytime soon.
In fact, the two of them were currently in a weakened state and had little to no strength left to fight. So, when Verdell suggested that they stay here and rest for a bit, she was more than happy to agree with him as he decided to go out to observe the dungeon core close up to see if he could learn anything from it and improve his mana manipulation abilities after he regained the ability to move.
Still, watching how he was hobbling along, she decided to lend him a hand and allowed him to lean on her body as the two of them moved towards the entrance of the cave they found themselves in. Scaly deciding that it would be better than nothing to follow Verdell in watching the dungeon core up close. Curious if she too would be able to improve her mana manipulation like he had talked about and maybe increase her mana recovery in the process. Making her recovery speed faster.
To be honest, she didn’t hold that much hope when it came to improving her mana manipulation abilities as she didn’t really have much patience when it came to closely sitting down and carefully sensing the flow of mana that Verdell had described when it came to improving her mana manipulation from observing the dungeon core up close.
But at the end of the day, it would at the very least be better than her just laying around doing nothing while she waited for her mana to recover and she regained the ability to hunt the powerful monsters lurking within the underground world below.
And so, as Verdell settled down in a mediative position to sense the flow of mana next to the cave entrance, she quickly joined him.
Of course, she didn’t enter some profound mediative state but just plopped down on the ground next to him and curiously gazed towards the dungeon core in the distance.