Chapter 19: Salamander, Snake and Spider

Swish~Sneakily moving across the floor of the underground cave, Scaly soon came to a stop beside a rock just barely large enough to hide her body from a small snake monster in the process of swallowing the dead body of recently deceased cave salamander.

[Yellow-Red Salamander Snake, lvl 5]

[Description: A yellowish snake with dark red marks on its belly, the yellow-red salamander snake is a non-venomous snake that, as its name suggests, hunts almost exclusively for salamanders. For this reason, the yellow-red salamander snake can be found in almost all the places where salamanders exist. The snake is well known across the world for its skin, as it can be used to treat certain skin diseases.]

Reading through the description of the snake as the small snake swallowed the rest of the salamander, Scaly felt that the yellow-red salamander snake was a perfect target for hunting.

The reason for this was that it didn’t have any unique ability like poison or magic. The only thing it was good at, was hunting salamanders... A perfect target for her to increase her strength!

Whoosh~

Not having to think too much about it after having come to the decision, Scaly decided to use her water magic on the unsuspecting snake. Not using her strongest move at the start and instead using the weaker water ball to test out the strength of the level 5 yellow-red salamander snake.

If she decided to focus on hunting down the yellow-red salamander snakes inside the underground cave, she needed to at least know how strong they were and how they fought... Just in case she ended up encountering a powerful yellow-red salamander snake in the future.

Ptsh!

[Gained 25 Exp]

However, the snake was way weaker than she had expected, as the water ball directly passed through the head of the unsuspecting yellow-red salamander snake. Instantly killing it without any resistance.

Not knowing what to do in such a situation, as the snake was far weaker than she had expected, Scaly was speechless for a short moment before a wave of excitement washed over her.

The reason for this excitement was that she had seen a lot of yellow-red salamander snakes inside the cave during her short journey to her current temporary home.

Back then, her mana had been completely drained after barely entering the underground cave alive and she did not dare to fight any of the monsters she encountered. The only objective on her mind back then was to find a safe place to recover her mana and rest after following behind the massive cave alligator for such a long time.

Are most of the other monsters inside the underground cave also as weak as the yellow-red salamander snake...?

Thinking about how she had not really had any time to inspect the other monsters in the cave back then, Scaly could not help growing even more excited. Not wasting any time, as she inspected a spider with a small body and extremely long legs not too far away from her current location.

[Large Cave Harvestman, lvl 12]


[Description: The large cave harvestman is a large spider with long legs, evolved from its smaller counterpart, the cave harvestman. The large cave harvestman is extremely dangerous, as it’s known for its ability to sneak up on its prey without them noticing. Killing them before they even have a chance to react. Even skilled adventures do not dare be the slightest bit careless when confronting a large cave harvestman!]

On the other hand, it’s better to be careful when hunting for monsters... Sticking to yellow-red salamander snakes is a good idea!

Nodding silently to herself as she thought about this just after she had finished reading the description of the large cave harvestman.

From the looks of it, it seemed like not all the monsters inside the underground cave were as weak as the yellow-red salamander snake she had just encountered... Of course, that was not counting the salamanders roaming across the underground cave. In a way, the salamanders were the lowest on the food chain inside the underground cave.

At least, at this point in time, Scaly had yet to find any weaker monsters inside the underground cave...

Swish~

Feeling that the large cave harvestman was moving in her direction, Scaly quickly moved away from the corpse of the yellow-red salamander snake before the other party had a chance to spot her.

Given her current strength, Scaly understood that she had no way to deal with such a scary spider. So, without wasting any time, Scaly began to hunt down any salamander and yellow-red salamander snake she saw to increase her strength. Not forgetting to dodge any other strong monster she met along the way.

[Gained 20 Exp]

[Gained 15 Exp]

[*Ding* Reached level 4]

[Gained 2...]

Like this, Scaly spent the next two hours hunting without any interruption, smoothly managing to go all the way from level 3 to level 5!

Swish~

Wanting to inspect her progress and also wanting to recover the mana she had used, Scaly decided to make her way back to her temporary home again. Making sure to keep an eye out for any potential ambush.

...

Swoosh~

Haa... I’m finally back in safety!

Entering the small the small crack that she now called home, Scaly felt her entire body relax as she felt the mana she had used while hunting slowly starting to recover.

Hm... I wonder how much my status improved...

Still keeping an eye on the entrance while laying down inside the crack, Scaly decided to check out how much stronger she had gotten after having reached level 5.

Name: Scaly

Race: Ancient Water Lizard

Level: 5/15, 55%

STR: 15 |VIT: 35 | DEX: 15 | M: 35

Skills: [Dragon Bloodline lvl 2], [Flight lvl 1], [Water Magic lvl 6], [Poison Resistance lvl 2]

Looking over her status showing that she was already halfway to level 6 along with the improvement to her strength, Scaly could not help feeling proud of just how much stronger she had managed to grow in such a short period of time.

Given her current speed of growth, it would not take more than a few days until she reached level 15 and could undergo her second evolution!