Continuing to hunt down the monsters that kept emerging from the sea in an endless stream, Scaly soon ran into a rather unexpected problem after hunting the different sea monsters for the past few hours, she had nowhere to rest after exhausting her strength.
Normally, she would just find a large enough crack to hide and rest inside of, or somewhere normally hard to find inside or beneath a tree.
However, given that there was only sand and water around her without anywhere for her to hide and recover her strength from the continued hunting of monsters without much time to rest, she now ran into this problem of having nowhere to rest.
Outside of that, there was also the fact that she couldn’t really eat in peace either, as a new monster would emerge to fight her before she had a chance to do so.
I have to leave this sea of sand before I run out of strength...
With this in mind, Scaly came to the decision that she had to leave the sea of sand as fast as possible before she ended up using up her last remaining energy. Ending up as an easy target for the different monster that kept emerging from the sea and making their way deeper into the sea of sand.
Huh? This-!?
[Ancient Dire Wolf, lvl 65]
Unfortunately, as she came to this decision and was about to turn around and make her way back towards the forest to find somewhere to hide and recover her energy before going out to continue hunting down the easy to come by monster of the sea, Scaly saw a familiar looking ancient dire wolf standing at the edge of the forest picking up a large number of the monsters emerging from the sea.
When did the ancient dire wolf get here!?
Seeing this familiar ancient dire wolf appearing again, Scaly could not help feeling a shiver run down her spine.
Although the distance between her and the ancient dire wolf was at least a few thousand meters from where she was hunting down sea monsters, she had never expected that the ancient dire wolf would be able to show up without her even noticing it.
Not just that, she had a feeling that the only reason why it hadn’t decided to go over and kill her was simply because it hadn’t spotted her yet. If not for that, she doubted that it would have left her alone considering how she had escaped from it earlier.
Outside of that, the more important thing was that I was blocking her path back to the forest.
Going deeper into the sea of sand was still an option, as she could avoid the ancient dire wolf that way, but doing so would mean she ran the risk of encountering stronger monsters in her current exhausted state, or worse, the sandworm.
As for trying to continue along the shoreline in the direction of what had looked like a wide-open grass plain from the top of the ancient dire wolf mountain? Scaly didn’t dare try and make the long journey in her current state, as she would have to fight the sea monsters along the way.
Guess I will have to move deeper into the sea of sand...
In the end, Scaly came to the decision that it would be best to head deeper into the sea of sand and try to find a way to go around the ancient dire wolf without being noticed.
At the very least, given the large number of monsters that were similarly heading into the sea of sand like her, she should be able to avoid being targeted by the sandworm if it appeared.
Whoosh~!
Rapidly moving across the fine sand as she did her best to try and hide behind a few smaller sand dunes to avoid her colorful blue scales from being noticed by the ancient dire wolf, Scaly quickly moved past countless dead monsters who were either in the process of being devoured by other monsters or were half buried beneath the sand.
Even though the sea of sand seemed to be inhospitable to life on the surface, the sheer number of monsters present inside of it far exceeded anywhere else she had been to inside the dungeon. Possibly only the countless wild root flowers back at the ancient dire wolf mountain surpassed the density of monsters inside the sea of sand.
Roar!
[Desert Wolf, lvl 27]
And because of that, it didn’t take long before one of the monsters decided to launch forward to attack her-
Ptsh-!
[Gained 275 Exp]
Unfortunately for the monster that looked like a smaller than normal wolf with yellow colored fur was no match for her and was instantly cut down by her sharp claws. Intimidating some of the other monsters who had been observing her not too far away.
Even then, Scaly wasn’t the slightest bit happy about killing the desert wolf, as she used up some of her precious energy killing it. Making the rest of her journey around the ancient dire wolf that much more dangerous.
Whoosh~
To make things even worse, the sand beneath her feet began to sink as a foreboding feeling caused her to quickly jump away from the dead desert wolf-
Rumble~!
Barely allowing her to avoid the giant mouth that emerged from the ground where she had just been standing. Swallowing up the body of the desert wolf in a single go before landing heavily on the sand and a few unfortunate monsters. Crushing them beneath the enormous weight of the body of the one monster she didn’t want to encounter...
[Juvenile Sandworm, lvl 42]
The sandworm!
RUMMMBLE-!
[Juvenile Sandworm, lvl 37]
[Juvenile Sandworm, lvl 45]
[Juvenile Sandworm...]
No, it wasn’t just the sandworm she had seen swallowing up the big forest rabbit back then, but instead close to a dozen sandworms who all emerged from the ground shortly after the first. Swallowing and killing close to a hundred monsters with just their emergence from the sand.
Even worse, all of these sandworms seemed to form a wall blocking her path towards the forest. Making it impossible for her to reach unless she decided to charge through the blockade formed by the sandworms, something that was impossible to do with how some of them had already begun swallowing up any monster close to them-
Rumble~
Not to be left behind, as Scaly was thinking about how to get out of her current situation safely, the sandworm that had emerged where she had been standing seconds earlier, begun moving in her direction. Intent on swallowing her up in a similar fashion to what it had done with the desert wolf earlier.
Ah!? I’m not food!
Seeing this, Scaly was instantly brought back to reality as she rapidly jumped back to avoid the sandworm. Only just getting out of range of the massive mouth by grabbing hold of a desert wolf that had been about to attack her earlier together with the now dead desert wolf. Allowing it to carry her out of the way of the sandworm.
Rumble~
Not carrying about any of this as it missed its target, the sandworm just continued forward as it swallowed another monster that had been to escape.
Ptsh-!
[Gained 295 Exp]
Killing off the desert wolf after it carried her far enough away, Scaly once again looked back in the direction of the forest.
[Juvenile Sandworm, lvl 32]
[Juvenile Sandworm, lvl 47]
[Juvenile Sandworm...]
However, at this point in time, even more sandworms had emerged from beneath the sand, as there were now close to thirty of them blocking her path back to the forest.
Not to mention, in the distance, she could also see that the ancient dire wolf that she considered the strongest monster she had ever encountered, had decided to retreat in the fact of this large number of sandworms.
Even the feared ancient dire wolf standing at the peak of the food chain was scared away by these sandworms.
Honestly, it wasn’t that surprising considering that every single one of them was only a bit weaker than the ancient dire wolf...
But... Where am I supposed to go now?
Having climbed up a nearby sand dune to get a better view of the situation, Scaly could not help feeling confused as she looked out around herself. Wondering what she was supposed to do now that the sandworms had blocked her planned path to a safe place where she could recover her energy.
Should I go deeper into the sea of sand? Or perhaps try to find another way back to the forest?
Thinking this to herself as she looked out across the seemingly endless expanse of sand before looking back in the direction she had come from, Scaly already knew her answer even without saying anything, she had to continue deeper into the desert.
Only that way would she stand a chance at avoiding the sandworms that seemed to be in a feeding frenzy and the countless monsters emerging from the sea...