While Scaly herself was feeling immensely disappointed with how the different monsters who should have come swarming towards her the second she entered the dark underground forest, Verdell was silently letting out a sigh of relief seeing how he finally had a chance to catch his breath. Feeling the exhaustion of what he had been forced to go through, starting to set in, as he was ultimately not an adventurer specialized in strengthening his body. On the contrary, he was a mage, the class widely known to be amongst the weakest adventurers when it came to physical strength. Especially so because his second highest stat wasn’t vitality like many other mages, but instead agility.
Sure, the increased agility helped increase his flexibility, movement, accuracy, and spell casting speed, but it came with the obvious drawback that his physical body was truly amongst the weakest when it came to mages his level.
A true glass cannon. Specializing entirely in his offensive capabilities while disregarding his stamina and physical strength.
Even if this specialization had been unintentional and mainly ended up taking shape because of how his earliest classes before he ended up as a mage happened to be fully specialized for agility with little care for other stats.
Normally, this wasn’t an issue for him, but the cardio he had been forced into participating in had once again reminded him of his poor physical condition.
But then again, any mage would end up exhausted having to balance on a dragon rolling down a mountain while also having to jump on to other rolling monsters he had to similarly balance on top of. Jumping back and forth for close to ten minutes. Not forgetting the countless monsters, he had to dodge and fight off during the unwanted cardio session.
Ugh... I might need a short break. Flying like this, even on her back is making me feel like throwing up again...
"Stop for a bit, it looks like there is something up ahead." Still a bit queasy from clinging to her claw earlier, Verdell came up with a quick excuse for a break by motion randomly in the distance like he had seen something. Feeling a bit uncomfortable getting her to stop just so he could rest for a bit and recover.
Still, though he told himself it was just an excuse, he had seen something a bit strange through the dark forest that could be of some interest.
Hm!? He found something even I didn’t notice!? What a powerful night vision, as expected from an experienced adventurer!
Scaly herself didn’t doubt his words in the slightest as she instantly picked up on what, to him, looked like a strange outline in the darkness. Instead, only feeling a sense of profound admiration for his powerful night vision that seemed to be even stronger than what she had managed to develop on her own.
Whoosh~ Thud!
Flying over before landing before what to Verdell was only a strange outline in the darkness but turned out to be some kind of ancient structure that had been hidden by the dense foliage. Making it difficult to spot even if there had been light around.
Of course, the structure itself wasn’t ancient and was less than a day old, but that was how things went inside a dungeon sometime, as the theme the dungeon core had gone with when creating this structure had been ancient and thus an ancient structure that looked like it had been standing all on its own within the underground forest for hundreds of years as nature slowly weaved through it and reclaimed the ancient structure, emerged.
As for what this ancient structure was... Scaly had no idea and Verdell wasn’t any better as he couldn’t understand much beyond the fact that it was a somewhat large communal building of sorts.
What it had been used for in the past according to the lore that the dungeon core had undoubtedly come up with when designing this ancient structure was not something he could guess without investigating the ancient structure more closely.
However, given the fact that they were currently searching for an exit leading out of the dungeon and the simple fact that what little he knew about these exits that formed on their own stated that they generally formed inside ancient looking structures or in the shape of a giant pair of doors standing on their own, it was without question that they had to enter this ancient looking structure that fit the requirement for potentially being the home to the exit they were searching for.
In fact, the appearance of this ancient structure gave Verdell hope that they wouldn’t have to search through deadly underground world any longer than necessary and would be able to find the way out of the Swirling Sand Dungeon immediately.
Rustle~
Of course, while he was busy thinking about how they might soon be able to leave the dungeon, Scaly had already gone ahead of him and made her way inside through the rather large opening that had been blocked by a few hanging vines that were easily pushed aside by her large body. Allowing Verdell to quickly catch up to her upon realizing he was being left behind.
Whoosh~
Whoosh~
Whoosh~
But just as the two of them stepped inside the large ancient structure that looked like it had been overrun by nature, the interior of the building lit up and was soon illuminated by a soft blue light that revealed the undamaged interior of the building itself "Huh!? Magical lamps? And these blue colored lights... Is this the newest ambient blue light edition magical lights?" Although Verdell was far more shocked by the magical lamps providing the light. Recognizing them as a rather expensive magical lamp brand he himself had encountered in the past. Leaving him wondering just how in the world the dungeon core had been able to get its hands on these kinds of magical lamps.
Having a new question to ask his dungeon researcher friend when he ran into him again...
Rustle~
Not worried about the light that had now revealed the luxurious interior that revealed the purpose of the ancient structure, a large public bathhouse, Scaly was instead focused on the monster that had emerged from a corner of the entry area gently floating through the air.
[Bath Spirit, lvl 3]
[Description: A harmless spirit born in only the cleanest of bathhouses. Adored by bathhouse owners, their presence is a clear sign of the quality of their bathhouse. Capable of using water magic, though not anything beyond creating a few harmless splashes of water.]
The little glowing blue ball that seemed to shift between a cute looking small animal and other cute shapes that had made Scaly feel excited at the sight of potential prey, caused her to lower her head in disappointment upon seeing the downright abysmal description and level of this little bath spirit.
Even if she killed it, she had a feeling she wouldn’t even gain a single experience because of the vast difference in strength between the two of them.
"A bath spirit!? So, this is a bathhouse. How... Surprising... The last thing I expected to encounter in an underground forest was something like a public bathhouse...
But such a unique building also means there is a good chance that the exit we are looking for is somewhere in here." Also surprised by the existence of a bath spirit, Verdell didn’t show the same disappointment Scaly did.
Instead, he became excited knowing that there was a very high chance that the exit they were looking for was hidden somewhere inside this bathhouse, a place that wouldn’t be that difficult to search through and had no danger waiting around for them as the monsters or rather spirits found inside a place like this was essentially harmless.
Hearing this, Scaly who was originally feeling a bit disappointed not finding a powerful monster to kill lifted her head a bit. Knowing that it would indeed be good if they could find the way out of the dungeon.
Even if she personally wanted to reach level 50 first before leaving the dungeon so she could immediately start focusing on finding somewhere safe to go through her next evolution, she didn’t worry about not being able to find any monsters once she left the swirling sands dungeon. At most feeling a bit disappointed she wouldn’t get the chance to take advantage of the powerful monsters around her to increase her strength a bit more before she had to leave.
In any case, if possible, it was best to leave the dungeon before the stronger adventurers Verdell had mentioned started to show up. No harm done outside of the fact that it might take her a bit longer to reach level 50.
And with this in mind, Scaly and Verdell both began making their way deeper into the bathhouse in the direction of the baths that the bath spirit had emerged from. Brushing past the small bath spirit in the process that was directly ignored by the two of them even as it used its water magic to splash water on Verdell who happened to be the closest to it.