Unaware of the epic battle that was about to unfold behind her with the arrival of the second ancient dire wolf, Scaly made her way through the thick foliage of the forest. Not daring to stop before she had travelled for an hour straight. Making absolutely sure that she wouldn't end up getting accidentally involved in the fight between the ancient dire wolves and the humans.

Now… Where to rest…

As she came to a stop, Scaly didn't waste any time as she searched the area around herself for any potential spot that she could hide in and recover her strength, while also examining her status without having to worry about being attacked by any monsters or humans who might be roaming around inside the forest.

After all, she had seen quite a few monsters and humans inside the forest during her escape and although none of them were strong enough to threaten her, she still felt worried when it came to potentially encountering a powerful human in her current state. Not to mention, humans were more than smart enough to set up an ambush if they happened to discover her before she discovered them.

Rustle~

Squeak?

[Forest Rabbit, lvl 7]

However, as she was busy looking around herself for a potential place to hide, the sound of the bushes in front of her suddenly began moving, as a confused looking forest rabbit appeared in front of her.

Food? Foooood!

Swish!

Ptsh-!

[Gained 45 Exp]

Not wasting a single second after seeing this forest rabbit, Scaly felt the hunger that had been slowly building up during the past few hours exploding as she rushed over and cut down the still confused forest rabbit who didn't have any time to comprehend what was happening before it died.

Chomp! Chomp~ Chomp~

Not a second later, Scaly was happily enjoying the forest rabbit. Eating it without a single thought in mind, as her hunger had overwhelmed her earlier worries of finding somewhere to hide and recover her strength.

Considering how long she had spent inside the human town without anything to eat, it was understandable that she was in such a state after finally getting something to eat. Especially considering how much she ate under normal circumstances.

On the other hand, a single forest rabbit was far from enough to satiate the starving Scaly and in the end, she momentarily pushed finding a safe place to recover to the back of her mind, as her stomach sent out a solemn decree for her to fill it up before having any thoughts about finding somewhere safe to recover her strength.

Whoosh~!

And being a loyal follower, Scaly promptly carried out the decree by hunting down any small and delicious looking monsters nearby. Rapidly filling up her empty stomach with all the delicacies that the forest had to offer, be it the small and cute looking forest rabbits or the more brutish looking boars. In the end, everything ultimately ended up in her stomach without any refusal being accepted.

By the time that her stomach was satiated, she found herself inside the hidden home of an unfortunate squirrel that had ended up as the last one to enter her stomach… And considering that the place was well hidden and was big enough for her, she decided to make it her temporary home as she recovered from the hectic escape from the human town.

After all, even though she still had some strength left to fight in her, it was mostly due to the fact that her level had increased a lot during the escape.

If not for the fact that she had managed to increase her level by 6 entire levels during the escape, she feared that she would have run out of strength before she could reach the forest.

No… She might have died back during the combined attack from the humans that she had only barely avoided if her strength hadn't slightly increased following her killing of the old mage human.

I wonder just how much my strength increased…

With this in mind, Scaly curiously laid down in what had once been the home of a very delicious squirrel and pulled up her status to examine her current strength.

Name: Scaly

Race: Ancient Water Dragon Lizard

Level: 23/30, 8%

STR: 94 |VIT: 200| DEX: 79 | M: 210

Skills: [Dragon Bloodline lvl 3], [Flight lvl 1], [Water Magic lvl 7], [Poison Resistance lvl 2], [Claw Strike lvl 4], [Swimming lvl 1]

Looking through her status, Scaly was surprised to discover that both her vitality and magic had broken through the two hundred points, but neither of them had given her any massive improvement in strength like they had when she broke through the one hundred points.

Maybe there is a different requirement for the next transformation? Is it three hundred? Five hundred? Or… a thousand?

Already feeling certain that another such transformation would take place in the future as she continued to improve, Scaly could not help wondering what the limit was. If it was three hundred, she should be able to reach it after her next evolution, while if it was a thousand, it would probably take her a long time before the next magical transformation took place.

As these thoughts coursed through her head, Scaly could not help turning her attention towards her strength status.

Given her current growth speed, she should be able to break through the one hundred points before her next evolution. Making her somewhat excited to rush out to hunt down more monsters to rapidly increase her strength.

But… The injuries and general weakness from her earlier escape from the human town prevented her from doing so before she got a proper rest and properly recovered her strength.

Hm… But, outside of my increase in strength, it doesn't seem like any of my skills made any progress… Is it perhaps because I didn't fight a lot and instead used most of my time escaping?

Shaking her head as she thought this to herself while glancing over her status one last time, Scaly slowly closed both her eyes as she laid down to recover her strength. Using the best method in her arsenal for recovery, sleeping!

ZZZzzzzz~

Soon resulting in the relaxing sound of a small lizard's rhythmic and peaceful breathing being the only sound in the tree home of the squirrel she had eaten not too long ago.

…

BANG!

ROOOOOOAR-!

"DAMNIT IT ALL! HOW COME THE SECOND ONE IS MORE POWERFUL THAN THE FIRST?"

At the same time that Scaly peacefully drifted off into dreamland, the grand explorer who was the leading person confronting the ancient dire wolf, screamed loudly as he was stuck fighting the new and more powerful ancient dire wolf all by himself.

"Branch leader, hold on for a bit longer and we should be able to finish off the first one and come over to help you!"

Not too far away from the grand explorer who turned out to be the branch leader of the adventure's guild in the human town, one of the other two humans above level 60, called out to him in a reassuring tone as he was working together with the rest of the humans to kill off the weakened ancient dire wolf as fast as possible.

"I KNOW! Doesn't help though!" Screaming back in a somewhat frustrated tone, the branch guild leader continued to fight the larger and stronger ancient dire wolf all by himself.

Although his level was higher and he should in a sense be stronger, the ancient dire wolf was seemingly playing around with him.

If not for the fact that he had the assistance of a powerful mage above level 60 who had just happened to pass by the town when the second ancient dire wolf emerged, he would long since have been dead.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Even then, his current fate wasn't that much better, as he found himself being tossed around by the ancient dire wolf. Not to mention, he wasn't able to do anything to stop it from rescuing the weaker ancient dire wolf cubs and get them into the forest. Resulting in the people who had gone to kill them dying.

This damnable ancient dire wolf! Do I really need to request the help of an A Rank Adventurer…?

Thinking this as he continued barely holding back the stronger ancient dire wolf, the branch guild leader seriously began contemplating requesting a powerful adventurer to come down and help out. Even if it ended up with him potentially losing his position as the manager of the town.

Ahh! Who cares! As long as these damnable wolves die, I don't mind losing my position. Not to mention, two of them appearing at the same time is far from something a branch guild leader like me is capable of handling!

"Everyone! Retreat!"

Coming to a silent decision in his mind, the branch guild leader called out for the people still alive to retreat back to the town. Not intending to continue risking his own life trying to kill off one of the two ancient dire wolves.

Using others was fine, but his own life was far too precious to risk like this!

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