Unaware of the fate of the humans she had left behind in the ravine to keep the attention of the ancient dire wolf away from herself, Scaly continued moving in the opposite direction of the ravine as she continued deeper inside the forest.
To make sure that she didn’t end up running into the ancient dire wolf again, she even made sure to not waste any time hunting down the different monsters that she ended up encountering along the way.
[Forest Rabbit, lvl 7]
Even when faced with a delicious looking forest rabbit, she still kept moving without stopping. Using all of her strength to stop herself from turning around to enjoy the delicious looking forest rabbit that she had grown to love as one of her most preferred monsters for eating.
Only after close to an hour running like this, did she come to a stop to catch her breath in front of a small waterfall. Feeling that she had finally managed to get far enough away from the ravine for her to not worry about accidentally running into the ancient dire wolf again.
The only problem was... She had absolutely no idea where she was in terms of the island she had seen from the top of the ancient dire wolf mountain.
Although she did see the forest beside the human town that she was currently inside of, she also knew that this forest stretched across much of the island. Meaning she could be anywhere on the island. Possible even having somehow found herself running in a half circle with the human town now being in front of her.
Of course, she felt more certain that she had run in the opposite direction of the human town when escaping from the ravine earlier. Even then, there was only one way to confirm... And that was for her to continue onwards.
If she really had been running in the opposite direction of the human town, she would leave the forest soon and reach what had looked like a large sea of sand from afar.
Rustle~
More importantly than all of that, she first had to deal with the little intruder who had somehow managed to wander inside the small opening in the forest where the waterfall was located...
Squeak~?
Ptsh-!
[Gained 52 Exp]
Chomp!
Not wasting any time, Scaly happily bid down on the forest rabbit that barely had a chance to react before it was killed by one of her water spears.
Having avoided attacking any forest rabbits or other delicious looking monsters she encountered during her hour-long escape from the ravine, Scaly did feel rather famished and felt it was only logical for her to first hunt down a few monsters for eating before continuing further towards what would hopefully be the sea of sand she had seen from the top of the ancient dire wolf mountain.
During this process, Scaly also decided to check out her status of hunting down a few delicious monsters to eat.
Name: Scaly
Race: Ancient Water Dragon Lizard
Level: 24/30, 58%
STR: 96 |VIT: 205| DEX: 81 | M: 216
Skills: [Dragon Bloodline lvl 3], [Flight lvl 2], [Water Magic lvl 7], [Poison Resistance lvl 2], [Claw Strike lvl 4], [Swimming lvl 1]
Because of this, she noticed that outside of just being two levels away from her strength stat reaching a hundred, her flight skill had somehow managed to level up to two, something rather confusing considering that she didn’t have the ability to fly nor any way to train this skill.
Filled with curiosity over this strange occurrence, Scaly wasted no time in inspecting her flight skill.
[Flight lvl 2]: Makes flying easier. You need wings or magic to fly, but some find unique ways to improvise by jumping off high places for momentary uncontrolled flight. You can now somewhat control this uncontrollable flight to some extent.
However, what she ended up seeing was not what she had expected... Uncontrollable flight... She had indeed done a bit of that when jumping off the wall of the human town or into the human underground river network... Or directly into the face of one of the humans she had been escaping from inside the ravine.
I never expected to be able to level up my flight skill like this before becoming a dragon and gaining the ability to fly...
Not knowing what else to think as she finished reading through the description and deducing how she had managed to level up her flight skill, Scaly could only take it as a positive outcome.
At the very least, if she managed to increase the level of her flight skill, she wouldn’t have any problems with flying in the future when she became a dragon.
Chomp~!
Deciding not to think too much about this, Scaly happily chomped down on a second forest rabbit before she began making her way forward. The main difference compared to when she had been escaping earlier being the fact that she now killed and hunted down any monster she encountered along the way.
[*Ding* Reached level 25]
By the time that she finally made her way out of the forest and found herself in front of the sea of sand she had seen from the ancient dire wolf mountain when surveying her new surroundings, she had managed to reach level 25.
Only a single level away from her strength stat reaching a hundred and only 5 away from her third evolution.
Even though she had no clue what she might evolve into this time around. Given how long it had taken her compared to the past two evolutions and her dragon bloodline skill reaching an even higher level, she felt hopeful that she would finally evolve away from being a lizard.
At the very least, if she couldn’t evolve into a dragon directly, she wanted to at least be able to evolve into a lesser dragon only a step below a true dragon. Getting one step closer to her goal of becoming a dragon!
Whoosh~ Bang!
Momentarily lost in her own thoughts on the chances of her becoming a dragon after her next evolution, Scaly was forced back to reality by a loud sound, as the sand a few hundred meters in front of her burst open-
[Juvenile Sandworm, lvl 42]
Revealing a massive worm more than a dozen meters long bursting out from below as it opened its giant mouth to swallow an unfortunate big forest rabbit that had managed to wander out into the sea of sand.
This... How is this monster only level 42?!
Rushing back to the safety of the forest as she saw the giant sandworm swallowing the big forest rabbit, Scaly could not help showing a surprised expression on her face. Not understanding how such a large and terrifying sand worm was only level 42.
In the end, she could only conclude that it was a far stronger evolution than any of the monsters she had seen so far. Possibly even rivaling the ancient dire wolves who were the strongest monsters she had encountered so far.
Rumble~
As the sandworm began submerging back into the sand again, Scaly quickly recovered from her shock as she inspected the monster before it had time to disappear back beneath the sand.
[Juvenile Sandworm, lvl 42]
[Description: A juvenile sandworm that has only recently been born. The juvenile sandworm is the adolescent form of the terrifying adult sandworms. The juvenile sandworm can be found inside large deserts and dungeons with deserts or large areas filled with sand inside of them. Can grow to an average size of 15 meters and are notoriously hard to kill if they decide to escape. Also well known for being delicious among the various tribes of monsters and humans living in the desert.]
Reading the rather extensive description attached to the large sandworm, Scaly could not help narrowing her eyes upon reaching the last part of the description as a desire to catch this massive sandworm welled up inside of her.
However, it was quickly snuffed out upon further reflection, as she had absolutely no confidence in being able to kill the large sandworm. Not to mention a way to prevent it from burrowing back into the sand like it had done after swallowing up the unfortunate big forest rabbit.
Not to mention, there was also the fact that the massive sandworm she had just seen was just a juvenile sandworm, a child sandworm so to speak... And she didn’t feel like she wanted to find out how large the adult version could become.
At the very least, she felt some confidence in there not being any such sandworms present in the sea of sand in front of her, as a feeling at the back of her mind told her that it was far too small to house such a monster, let alone provide enough food for it to survive.
Now, the only thing left on Scaly’s mind, was whether or not to enter the sea of sand in front of her.