Chapter 104: Mountain Monsters

Continuing to move in the direction of the mountain range that the drake had been flying towards, Scaly didn’t encounter any other monster along the way, as she managed to reach the base of the mountain range without any problems.
However, this didn’t make her feel relieved, as the lack of monsters only meant that it would be more difficult for her to hunt in the future. After all, without any monsters around, she would have no way to increase her level after her third evolution.

On the positive side, she should be able to practice her dragon breath skill without anyone interfering and try to level up her dragon bloodline, then again, that was only if the dragon breath skill did affect the growth of her dragon bloodline. If it didn’t, she would still have to try and seek out monsters to fight so she could try and level it up through combat.

After all, even though she wasn’t certain that combat was the thing that helped the dragon bloodline increase in strength, it was the only thing she had been doing before she awakened her dragon breath skill...

First of all, I should find somewhere to sleep and recover my mana before I end up encountering a powerful monster.

Shaking her head as she thought about this, Scaly threw the thought of increasing her strength to the back of her mind for now as she instead focused her attention on the first goal, she had for coming to the mountain range. Finding a place where she could rest and recover her strength without having to worry about being attacked while sleeping.

And so, without wasting much time at the base of the mountain that she found herself in front of, Scaly began climbing up the steep mountain while keeping an eye out for any crevices or cracks in the mountain side that she could hide inside of and sleep.

Squeak?

However, it was just as she felt like she had found a perfect place to rest and recover in, that a familiar squeaking sound could be heard a few meters above her, causing Scaly to turn her head up towards the sound.

[Mountain Rabbit, lvl 17]

Rabbit?

Indeed, standing on top of a large rock a few meters above her, a familiar looking rabbit that looked no different from the forest rabbits that she had encountered, outside of its brown and greyish fur, stared down at her with curiosity.

Although not the kind of monster she had expected to encounter, Scaly still felt happy when she saw this mountain rabbit, as she felt like she had confirmed that the drake from earlier shouldn’t be the average level of strength of the monsters on the fourth floor of the dungeon.

If that really ended up being the case, she wouldn’t have known what to do when it came to hunting for food in the future, but now the mountain rabbit had completely erased her earlier worries of possibly not being able to find food in the future.

At the same time, she also began feeling curious about how good a mountain rabbit would taste compared to their forest counterpart...

[Mountain Rabbit, lvl 17]

[Description: Mountain Rabbits, a common evolution of the normal forest rabbits that ended up wandering into the mountains. Although slightly stronger than the average forest rabbit, they aren’t that strong and are generally hunted down for their delicious and unique taste that can even be said to slightly surpass that of the forest rabbits.]

And so, Scaly decided to inspect the mountain rabbit. Soon causing her to salivate as she finished reading through the description of the mountain rabbit.

Even more delicious than the forest rabbit!? How was that even possible!?

Whoosh-!

Not caring about the fact that she was still in a rather exhausted and weakened state, Scaly used all of her strength to leap forward towards the delicious mountain rabbit. Wanting nothing more than to gobble down the mountain rabbit that had been described as being even more delicious than the forest rabbits that had grown to be one of her favorite monsters.

Squeak!?

Seeing this along with the saliva around her mouth and hungry expression on her face, the mountain rabbit didn’t have to be smart to understand that the lizard charging towards it was fully intent on eating it.

Not just that, but it could also clearly feel that the lizard in question was far stronger than itself, causing it to instantly turn around and escape before Scaly had a chance to reach it. Skillfully using the rocky terrain to its advantage as it quickly managed to escape before Scaly had a chance to catch it.

In the end, Scaly could only come to a stop after the mountain rabbit disappeared with a surprised look plastered all over her small face.

This... It’s far better at escaping compared to the forest rabbits...

Not to mention it being far better at escaping, Scaly had also tried to use what little mana she had managed to recover to throw out a few water balls to kill it, but the tough fur of the mountain rabbit had managed to absorb most of the damage from the water balls. Rendering them rather useless and nothing more than a waste of mana, as it seemed like the mountain rabbit had an especially strong resistance against water magic.

Thump~

Slumping down on the ground in defeat as a result of being outsmarted by a mountain rabbit, Scaly didn’t move for a few seconds as she took the opportunity to observe her surroundings for any other monsters that might have been attracted by the commotion caused by her trying to chase down the mountain rabbit earlier.

[Mountain Rabbit, lvl 13]

[Mountain Rabbit, lvl 10]

[Mountain Lizard, lvl 11]

[Rock Slime, lvl 3]

[Rock Slime...]

In the end, she discovered more than a dozen different monsters that had emerged from their hiding spots and were looking at her from a safe distance. Confirming that there were quite a few monsters present on the mountain, with most of them being around the same level as the mountain rabbit that escaped from her or weaker.

Although this was rather relieving to discover as she wouldn’t be lacking any food or monsters to hunt in the future, it made her rather confused as to why she hadn’t encountered any monsters while making her way through the tall grass.

Could it be that she had just been lucky to not run into any monsters, or could it be that something happened to the monsters that had normally been living inside the tall grass?

Not knowing the answer to this question, Scaly decided to threateningly stare at the surrounding monsters, causing them to retreat before she began looking around for a place where she could safely sleep and fully recover all of the mana she had used during her battle with the sorcerer snake.

Of course, given the fact that the surrounding monsters on the mountain were all paying close attention to her after her earlier failed chase, Scaly was forced to move to another part of the mountain to avoid her sleeping location being found.

In the end, she spent close to an hour wandering around and making sure she wasn’t being secretly followed before she ended up finding a perfect place to sleep that she could somewhat seal up with a few loose rocks.

Even if the loose rocks wouldn’t block or stop any monsters from entering the place where she was sleeping, they would at least provide her with a bit of an early warning in case someone tried to attack her while she was sleeping.

As for going through her third evolution, Scaly decided to postpone it until she managed to level up her dragon bloodline to level 4.

After all, her biggest worry when it came to postponing her evolution was that there weren’t any monsters on the fourth floor of the dungeon that she would be able to deal with at her current strength level... And now that this worry had been relived following the encounter with the different monsters at the base of the mountain, Scaly was fully set on trying to level up her dragon bloodline to level 4.

Not just to increase her chances of her third evolution allowing her to become a dragon, but also because she understood just how great the dragon bloodline was for her growth.

After all, at the current level, her dragon bloodline increased both her vitality and magic every time she increased her level. Making her far stronger compared to other monsters that had gone through a second evolution like her.

Thump~

Hehe, after recovering my mana, I will make sure to hunt down one of those mountain rabbits and find out just how delicious they are!

Laying down inside her new temporary home, Scaly closed both her eyes as she thought this to herself. Already feeling excited about hunting down the mountain rabbits after recovering her mana.