ROOOAR!

Filled with anger as it tried to force its way up the spiral staircase to no avail for the next few hours. Only to be met with countless different magical traps that were sure to have cost a fortune to make, the large monster inevitably ended up becoming exhausted and forced to retreat against its will after clearing around half of the spiral staircase from any magical traps.

It was not that the powerful monster couldn't continue forward up the spiral staircase, but more so that doing so would weaken it to a point that it would have to start worrying about being ambushed by other monsters.

After all, the mountain range didn't lack powerful monsters lurking around ready to strike the moment a weakness presented itself.

This was true for the powerful A Rank monsters at the pinnacle of the mountain range to the weaker mountain rabbits. Nobody was safe when they showed signs of weakness and exhaustion. Only death awaited them if they couldn't find somewhere safe and isolated to recover their strength before once again wandering out into the mountainous terrain that covered most of the mountain range.

The only exception to this rule were the gnolls who could do so in their own territory, as they had long since established themselves as the dominant force in the mountain range, someone that even the strongest monsters didn't dare to recklessly attack…

Roll~ Roll~

Back inside the small mountain valley, Scaly slowly rolled from side to side as she opened her eyes after spending a little over half a day sleeping to recover her mana and strength. Unaware of the struggle that had taken place on the spiral staircase not too long ago.

I'm hungry~

Instead, she was far more focused on the fact that her stomach was rather empty now that she hadn't had a chance to eat in close to a day.

Swish-!

Ptsh!

[Gained 37 Exp]

For this reason, the first thing she did after getting up was to hunt down a few freshwater fish swimming through the stream next to the place that she had slept-

Chomp~ Chomp~ Chomp!

Wasting no time as she happily began eating the fish with a happy smile on her face at the unique, yet delicious taste of the fish.

The only real problem she had with them being the fact that they were far too small to satisfy her hunger. Forcing her to eat close to two dozen of them before she finally felt full enough to move on and get back to hunting monsters to continue increasing her strength.

Part of her was already looking forward to what kind of evolution she would be getting the next time around, as it seemed like it wouldn't take too long for her to get her next evolution.

At the very least, it didn't seem like it was going to take anywhere as long as her third evolution had taken to get.

But then again… Most of her time back then had been spent escaping from different humans.

In a way, humans could be considered the main reason why it had taken her so long to increase her level enough to go through her third evolution since she made it to the third floor of the dungeon.

Compared to human infested dungeon floors like the first and third floor of the dungeon, she preferred the second and fourth floor of the dungeon far more, even though they were dangerous in their own right. At least they allowed her strength to grow rapidly as well.

With that in mind, Scaly made her way out of the small mountain valley that was only filled with weaker monsters like the forest rabbits she had long since grown accustomed to seeing no matter where she was inside the dungeon.

Instead of those weaker monsters, she would prefer to go for the stronger monsters around level 30 or above, as monsters weaker than that didn't really provide her much experience.

For example, if she decided on only hunting down mountain rabbits, it might end up taking her killing thousands of them to reach level 10, while she would only need to kill a few dozen monsters around level 40 to reach level 10.

Though more difficult to kill, the time require for hunting weaker monsters was simply not something she had and would only ever happen if she ended up running out of monsters to hunt down, something she couldn't imagine happening, as she had never run into such a situation before.

Whenever she did become too strong for the place she was hunting, she would always just move down in the dungeon towards the next floor where stronger monsters were waiting for her to show up. Allowing her to grow without any limit in place so to speak, outside of her finite energy for hunting down monsters.

…

Hm? What is that?

Having wandered outside the small mountain valley with the simple goal of finding monsters to hunt down and increase her own strength, Scaly could not help coming to a stop as she spotted a rather strange looking monster standing on top of a large boulder not too far away from her.

[Great Mountain Hog, lvl 41]

[Description: A hog that was normally native to the wild forests that wandered up the mountains and eventually adapted to its new environment, the great mountain hog is among the strongest of pigs in the world and even makes B Rank Adventurers hesitate when confronted with one by themselves.

Known across the world for their tender and succulent meat that brings a tear to the eye of every carnivore, be it human or monster.]

"…"

Reading the description of the monster on top of the boulder, Scaly could not help unconsciously swallowing her saliva, as she was starting to feel hungry after reading the description of the strange monster on top of the boulder.

Given how delicious the meat of the great mountain hog was described in the description, Scaly already decided that it was going to be her next meal.

Oink~ Oink~

Unaware of the apex predator that had set its sight on it, the hog carelessly laid down on top of the boulder, as it seemed fully preoccupied with basking under the sun like a cat. Making one wonder just where this trait had come from, as some human researchers might suggest it was related to the mountain lion that lived in the same environment as the great mountain hog.

As for how they ended up sharing these traits, that was a question that still left countless scholars bewildered and uncertain to this very day.

Of course, none of this mattered to Scaly, as she was slowly sneaking closer to the great mountain hog. Intending to use her dragon water magic to launch a surprise attack on the other party. Hoping that she would be able to end things with a simple water spear before the fight became big enough to draw the attention of other monsters that lived in the mountains.

Swish-!

And so, with a terrifying speed, Scaly gathered her mana into a smaller water spear- or just a water arrow and sent it flying towards the great mountain hog.

The main reason she didn't do a full-size water spear being because she feared that it would take too long to conjure up and would in turn give the great mountain hog time to either defend itself or run away, either of which were things she wanted to avoid. Resulting in her coming with the small yet deadly water arrow that now flew towards the great mountain hog at a terrifying speed.

Oink?

Ptsh!

By the time the great mountain hog discovered the water arrow flying towards it, it was already too late, as the water arrow pierced into it-

OIIINK!

However, instead of it dying like Scaly had expected when she saw the water arrow successfully piercing through an area close to the head of the great mountain hog, the hog only let out a loud and painful sound before it turned in her direction filled with killing intent. Seemingly unaffected by her earlier attack, outside a thin line of blood from where the water arrow had pierced its skin.

From a glance, it was obvious that the great mountain hog had far thicker skin than she had expected… And if she wanted to try and pierce through it, she needed more than just a single water arrow to do so…

Whoosh-!

Of course, the great mountain hog didn't intend to give her a chance to do this, as it jumped off the boulder that it had just been sunbathing on top a moment ago, before it charged directly towards her with a terrifying momentum.

Even though she had been faced with more terrifying situations, there was still something about the large frame of the great mountain hog that made her feel a bit uneasy, as she decided to get ready to face it head on.

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