Chapter 42: Encounter! Swamp Puppy!

Slowly making her way through the swamp covered in mud, Scaly was surprised to discover that there weren’t any monsters around outside of a few weak birds no stronger than the sun crabs she had encountered back at the mountainous crab island...Snap-!

Or that was what she thought until she witnessed one of the birds landing on a brittle branch that broke under its weight, causing it to plumet down towards the murky water where a large monster with a mouth filled to the brim with rows of sharp teeth suddenly emerged in response to the falling bird-

Crunch~!

Jumping up to bite into the bird and dragging it back down into the murky water before it had a chance to stabilize itself and fly away. Making Scaly who saw this scene distance herself a bit more from the murky water located right next to her while she used the short instance that the monster was out of the water to inspect it.

[Swamp Alligator, lvl 17]

[Description: The swamp alligator is an evolved form of a normal alligator that is commonly known to live in swamps. Other than being slightly larger and stronger than a normal alligator, the swamp alligator doesn’t have any special traits. The only unique thing about it is the fact that some unique individuals are especially fond of them. Referring to them as swamp puppies and trying their best to tame them.]

Other than the last bit of the description being a bit weird, there didn’t seem to be anything special about the monster. On the contrary, the monster didn’t seem to be any stronger than her. Making a perfect target for her to hunt down and increase her strength.

The only problem was the fact that the swamp alligator was hiding in the murky water. Making it difficult for her to find it and fight it.

On second thought, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to hunt the swamp alligator. At the very least not before she learnt how to fight in water and properly detect them so she could avoid a situation like the unfortunate bird that had ended up as the swamp alligator’s early dinner.

Splash~

Momentarily lost in her own thoughts as she made her way through the swamp, Scaly soon found herself with one foot into the murky water. The ground that had been in front of her moments ago was no longer there.

Huh? ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ N0veI.Fiɾe.net

By the time she realized that she had accidentally stepped into the murky water, Scaly was shocked to discover dozens of eyes emerging from the murky water a dozen or so meters away from her before rapidly approaching her.

[Swamp Alligator, lvl 13]

[Swamp Alligator, lvl 19]

[Swamp Alligator, lvl 10]

[Swamp Alliga...]

Swish-!

Not even thinking twice after unconsciously inspecting the monsters rapidly approaching her, Scaly jumped back towards safety just as a several large swamp alligators emerged from the murky water with partly open mouths ready to bite into her and drag her into the water.

Splash~!

Seeing her jump back out of reach, the swamp alligators closed their mouth before they submerged back into the water like they had never been there in the first place. Leaving a rather shocked Scaly behind.

Even though she had expected there to be more of the swamp alligators hiding in the murky water, she had never thought that just accidentally stepping into the water would attract a dozen or so of them.

Although she felt confident in fighting one or two of them, she understood full well that she wouldn’t be able to fight against a dozen of them-

No! I-It’s not that I can’t fight them... It’s... Just that I don’t want to use my time fighting them at the moment and instead think it’s better to leave the swamp so I can clean my beautiful scales!

Nodding to herself as she thought this, the shocked expression on Scaly’s face changed it one of confidence as she looked out over the murky waters with proud expression on her face, similar to the expression of a proud ruler standing above the masses showing her graciousness by sparing a few meaningless peasants that happened to offend her.

There was no way a few swamp puppies had scared her!

Rustle~!

Back to a normal state again, Scaly didn’t waste any time looking out at the murky water and instead began to make her way through the swamp.

The main difference compared to before being that she unconsciously made sure to keep a safe distance from the murky water and never once accidentally stepped into the water after her last experience.

As a result, Scaly managed to safely reach the edge of the swamp without fighting a single monster in the process. Only occasionally snacking on some of the weak bird monsters that resided in the swamp, while also doing her best to ignore the countless annoying insects that seemed to be everywhere after she made it far enough into the swamp.

However, the thing that greeted her after reaching the edge of the swamp was not a forest or grassy plain like she had thought it would be...

Mountains...?

Instead, it was a large mountainous area similar to the crab island-

[Human, Inferno Mage, lvl 37]

[Human, Swordmaster, lvl 32]

[Human, Guardian Knight, lvl 35]

[Human, Great War...]

However, instead of the weak sun crabs and other crabs that could be easily killed by her, the entire place seemed to be filled to the brim with humans far more powerful than any of the ones that she had seen before!

Not only that, but she also saw a small settlement of sorts had been constructed inside a valley between two mountains in the distance where a spiral staircase connecting to the previous floor of the dungeon was located.

Inside the settlement, she could barely see what looked like a similar staircase leading down towards the next floor of the dungeon. Making her guess that the powerful humans had only gathered here temporarily before they decided to go down to the next floor of the dungeon...