Rustle~!
Lost in her own thoughts about whether or not to proceed forward into the sea of sand after seeing the terrifying sandworm that had emerged from the sand just a few seconds earlier, Scaly suddenly heard the sound of rustling leaves from another part of the forest, as yet another big forest rabbit emerged before wandering out into the sand.
Hm? No sandworm?
However, different from how she had expected the sandworm to reemerge from the sand and swallow up the second big forest rabbit like it had done with the first, the second big forest rabbit managed to wander into the sea of sand without being attacked.
Not just that, but as she kept watching it, Scaly soon saw the big forest rabbit encounter another desert monster. Soon resulting in a fierce fight that ultimately ended with the death of the big forest rabbit.
[Desert Scorpion, lvl 23]
[Description: A large scorpion not much smaller than a big forest rabbit, the desert scorpion is among the most common monsters found inside deserts or dungeons with large expanses of sand present inside of them. Outside of its taste resembling that of chicken and being a delicious snack for any desert dweller, it is well known for its poisonous stinger that poses a deadly threat even to those with poison resistance.]
Inspecting the desert monster that had ended up killing the big forest rabbit, Scaly could not help slightly narrowing her eyes upon reaching the part describing its taste.
Although she had never seen the chicken mentioned in the description, she had a feeling deep in her soul that it was bound to be something delicious.
At the same time, the fact that the sandworm hadn’t emerged, and other monsters were also present inside the sea of sand meant that the sandworm wouldn’t be actively trying to kill any monster that happened to enter the sea of sand.
In a sense, the big forest rabbit that had ended up being devoured by the sandworm could be considered to have been unlucky enough to encounter it just when it was hungry and looking for something to eat.
It should be fine to enter the sea of sand, as long as I keep an eye out for the sandworm...
With this in mind, Scaly didn’t hesitate any longer as she took her first step into the sand and officially left the forest that she had grown used to hunting inside.
The reason why she decided to do this was not just because she wanted to seek out stronger monsters to hunt, but also because she never felt truly safe inside the forest knowing that the ancient dire wolf, she had encountered back in the ravine also lived inside of the forest.
Outside of the ancient dire wolf, there was also the fact that the forest seemed to be a place for the stronger humans to hunt in... And although the ancient dire wolf was a far larger threat than the humans for now, she had a feeling that this wouldn’t be the case for long.
Even if the humans were defeated by the ancient dire wolves, she understood that the humans in the town shouldn’t be the strongest humans out there.
Her confidence in this guess came from the simple reason that she had happened to overhear some of the humans talking about how the town was just a small place that had been established as a branch by a much stronger entity known as the adventurer’s guild.
Whoosh~
Running across the sand as she thought about this, Scaly soon arrived at the place where the desert scorpion had killed the big forest rabbit and was currently in the process of devouring the big forest rabbit-
Ptsh-!
[Gained 375 Exp]
And not giving the desert scorpion any time to fight back, Scaly took advantage of the fact that it was busy eating to kill it in one fell swoop. Soon enough finding herself chomping down on the dead desert scorpion to try it out and see if it was really as delicious as she suspected.
Mmmhmm!?
In the end, she was not let down by the desert scorpion, as it lived up to the description of being a delicious snack.
The only complaint Scaly had was that there was far too little meat on the desert scorpion. Far from enough to satisfy her. Truly, a light snack like the description had said. Far from enough for it to be considered a meal...
Focusing her attention back to her surroundings, Scaly noticed that outside of the endless sea of sand that spread out in all directions around her, she could now also see the shoreline of the island that she was on from where she stood.
Wait... If I go to the water, can I perhaps swim to other islands now that I have the swimming skill?
Remembering the swimming skill she had managed to acquire after suddenly finding herself on top of the ancient dire wolf mountain, Scaly felt eager to try it out and see if she could really swim to other islands. Even if the description told her to avoid larger bodies of water, she still felt that it was at least worth a try.
Not to mention, with the sea next to her, she would at least be able to escape somewhere in case she ended up encountering the sandworm again.
After all, walking straight through the sea of sand with sand all around her would be a death sentence in case she ended up running into the sandworm with nowhere to hide or escape to.
Swish~!
Not wasting any time after coming to this decision, Scaly began making her way towards the shoreline of the island. Making sure to stay close to the forest along the way so she had an escape path in case she ended up encountering the sandworm along the way.
At the same time, she made sure to kill any of the desert scorpions and big forest rabbits that she encountered along the way.
During this journey, she realized that the big forest rabbits making their way into the sea of sand was a rather common occurrence, as she often encountered them fighting with the desert scorpions, either ending up victorious as they continued deeper inside the sea of sand or dead and devoured by the desert scorpions.
No matter how odd she found this behavior, she had no way of finding out what these big forest rabbits were up to unless she decided to wander deeper into the sea of sand to find out where these big forest rabbits were going.
By the time that she reached the shoreline, she was just left more confused, as she realized that outside of the big forest rabbits moving deeper into the desert, some crabs and other monsters from the sea that could walk on land were also making the journey into the desert.
Even then, she didn’t allow her curiosity to win this time around, as she ignored the odd behavior of the monsters and instead decided to take advantage of the fact that they were being drawn towards the desert to improve her own strength.
[*Ding* Reached level 26]
Soon enough resulting in her levelling up to 26, causing her strength to undergo a fundamental change like how her magic and vitality had changed after they broke through the hundred stat points.
As for her original goal of trying to swim to the other island with her new swimming skill, Scaly had tried it out, but quickly gave up after realizing that her current skill level only allowed her to flail around in the water while barely moving forward and keeping her head out of the water.
If she really did try to cross the distance between the island she was on and another island with this level of swimming skill, she had a feeling that she would end up running out of energy before she even made it one percent of the way there.
Not to mention, there was no small number of fish monsters and other water-based monsters in the sea and with her inability to move around properly in the water. Only able to fight back with the help of her water magic, she had a feeling that her strength would make her one of the weakest in the water.
Considering that she was an ancient water dragon lizard, this was quite an embarrassing thing, as she had a feeling that she should be far stronger in the water with a title like that than she was. Making her feel like something had gone wrong during her evolution, causing her to be more of a land lizard than a water one.
Then again, it could also just be because she had spent most of her time on land so far and hadn’t really had any experience in water outside of the near-death experience in the swamp.
In the end, because of this, Scaly continued moving alongside the shore while hunting down the different monsters emerging from the water to try and enter the sea of sand.
Not that she was that sad about this outcome, as her strength was increasing fast with the constant stream of monsters coming out of the water far exceeding the big forest rabbits making their way out of the forest and into sea of sand.