Chapter 64: Devious Trap

Not hesitating in the slightest as she reached the edge of the murky swamp water, Scaly pushed a few loose rocks into the water while she continued her escape from the human knight. Intending to attract the attention of the swamp alligators who were lurking beneath the water."Hm? Trying to attract those alligators to scare me away? Hmph, good luck with that, they won’t dare to leave the water unless both of us can’t fight back against them! Although ferocious monsters in the water, they are terrified of leaving the water when someone else is around." Seeing what Scaly did, Galahad, who was once again starting to catch up with Scaly, showed a disdainful expression on his face as he said this.

Given that he was a seasoned adventurer who had spent a long time making a living inside the dungeon and was familiar with the behavior of monsters like the swamp alligators, Galahad didn’t even flinch upon seeing the dozens of swamp alligators that appeared along the side of the little ground they used to move through the swamp.

Instead, he thought that he had seen through Scaly’s little attempt to scare him away as he continued to close the distance between the two of them. Even starting to look out for any wooden trunks that she might try and use to avoid his attack again.

Swish~

"Huh?"

However, it was at this exact moment where his attention was focused elsewhere, that he ended up stepping on what seemed like solid ground, but was instead a layer of dead plants and branches with nothing but murky swamp water beneath it-

Splash!

Causing a massive splash that instantly put out the flames covering his body, while at the same time attracting the attention of the surrounding swamp alligators who all began rushing towards the source of the disturbance.

Not just that, but he also realized that a large part of the solid land that he had been running over just a few seconds earlier similarly collapsed into the water. Trapping him at least a dozen meters away from any patch of solid land.

Don’t tell me... That lizard planned this from the start!?

Panicking as he understood how dangerous his current situation was, Galahad could not help glancing over towards Scaly who had come to a stop not too far away with an expression that seemed to be looking down at him.

Splash~!

Hearing the sound of a swamp alligator launching itself towards him, Galahad quickly turned his attention away from the lizard and focused his attention back at his current situation as he fought back against the swamp alligator that was soon followed by two new swamp alligators who did their best to try and drag him beneath the water while he did his best to get back on land again.

In the end, a massive battle erupted in the swamp, as Galahad used all of his strength to fight against the much weaker swamp alligators who held the advantage of being in the water that rendered his fire-based skills useless.

Ehm... This was... Unexpected...

Observing all of this from afar, Scaly had no idea what to say as she just looked bewildered at the fight that was currently taking place.

Different from what Galahad thought to be a secret plan that had been created by her to lure him into jumping into the murky swamp water and trapping him far away from any solid land, Scaly had nothing to do with his current precarious situation.

Her plan for attracting the swamp alligators was a rather simple one, as she just wanted to continue having him chase after her until they got far enough away from the mountainous region where the powerful human was located... And then attack him by surprise and knock him into the water. Taking advantage of him struggling to get back on land and having to deal with the swamp alligators to try and kill him.

That was it.

Nothing as elaborate as running over a patch of branches and dead plant material that was strong enough for her to run over but wasn’t strong enough to for the human and ended up collapsing under his weight, causing a chain reaction that left him stranded a dozen meters from the closest solid ground in the swamp. Forcing him to fight for his life against the countless swamp alligators that had now started swarming him from all sides.

Well... I guess this works out as well...

Shaking her head as she thought this to herself while looking at the current bad situation of her opponent, Scaly decided to not complain about the situation as she began moving towards the patch of solid ground that the human was currently desperately swimming towards while fighting against the swamp alligators trying to kill him at any moment.

Given that she had been given such a great opportunity, Scaly intended to take full advantage of it. Allowing the swamp alligators to exhaust her opponent before she swooped in to land the killing blow and taking everything for herself.

If not for the fact that her mana had only barely recovered enough for her to conjure a single water ball at this point in time, she might have been tempted to try and finish off the human before he even had the chance to reach solid ground and fight back against her...

[Human, Fire Knight, lvl 32]

With nothing better to do while waiting for him to reach the solid ground, Scaly decided to inspect him and noticed that his level had managed to increase. Not too surprising considering just how many of the swamp alligators ended up dead in his hands as he inched closer to where she was waiting.

Hm? What is this?

However, as she inspected his status, she discovered that she could actually do a more in-depth inspection of him by concentrating more deeply for a short period of time, something she hadn’t been able to do with any of the monsters she had encountered so far.

[Human, lvl 32]

[Class: Fire Knight]

[Description: A human fire knight known as Galahad. Growing up inside an orphanage of the howling cave city where the notorious dungeon, the howling cavern, is located, he grew up seeing countless adventures and aspired to be one himself when growing older. Ultimately succeeding in taking on the knight class when he grew older and through countless trials and tribulations dwelling into the depths of the howling cavern, he managed to advance his class from an ordinary knight to a fire knight, being promoted to a D Rank adventurer as a result.]

Reading through the description of the human that seemed to be called Galahad, Scaly could not help feeling like she learnt a lot of new information.

From the fact that he was something called an adventurer and that the dungeon she was inside of should be the howling cavern that had been mentioned in the description.

If that is the case, does that mean that the outside of the dungeon is a human city filled with more of these adventurers? And is that powerful human from earlier also an adventurer? How many powerful humans will there be in the city surrounding the dungeon?

Filled with endless doubts as she was momentarily lost in her own thoughts about this brand-new information about the world outside the dungeon, Scaly could not help feeling relived that she didn’t decide to try and leave the dungeon when she had first woken up at the first floor of the dungeon.

If she had really done that, she might have ended up dead when she was discovered by some of these adventurers.

At the same time, she also understood deep down that leaving the dungeon with her current strength would also be impossible if there were more powerful humans like the one that had chased after the gnoll chieftain and the forest rabbit lord. Not to mention if there were even stronger humans!

For this reason alone, she would have to get stronger!

Not just to become a dragon, but also to have the ability to safely leave the dungeon in the future without having to worry about being surrounded and killed by a group of powerful humans.

Hm? A city filled with powerful humans... I wonder how much my strength would increase if I destroyed it...

Narrowing both her eyes as this thought emerged, Scaly could not help looking forward to the future when she became strong enough to such a thing-

"Haaa! Finally, out of the water!"

However, before her thoughts could continue to wander and dream of a bright future, the exhausted voice of Galahad, the human, sounded out a few meters away from her, as he dragged his exhausted body covered in bite wounds out of the water.

Even from a glance, it was obvious to anyone that he had been through a difficult battle and didn’t have much energy left to fight.

A perfect target...!