A short time earlier when Scaly had pried open the metal hatch to escape from the branch eater worms, she found herself barely squeezing past the metal hatch before the branch eater worms realized what had happened. Soon enough, falling through the hole on the other side of the metal hatch without anything to stop her sudden descend-

Thump~

And as she landed on the rough ground below, she found the air knocked out of her lungs, as her already injured state became even worse than before.

However, knowing that staying in place would only end up with her being consumed by the branch eater worms now above her, she fought through the pain the coursed through her body and got back up. Soon spotting the passage that was located at the bottom of the hole hidden away below the metal hatch.

Although she had no idea where this path would lead her, she didn't really have much of a choice considering her current situation… And so, she wasted no time getting back up on her feet again before using all her strength to rush down the underground passage.

Hm? The passage is shrinking…?

But as she found herself moving down this passage to escape from the branch eater worms, who would soon come chasing after her when they figured out how to open the metal hatch, she realized that the size of the passage was slowly starting to shrink in size. From being more than three meters wide and two meters high, the passage had shrunk down to a little under two meters wide and barely a meter high.

Though she could still easily fit through the passage for now, it was a rather worrisome development considering the passage didn't show any sign of stopping this shrinking. Meaning that she would inevitably end up reaching a point where she would never be able to squeeze through at her current size.

Even if this also meant only a few of the worms would be able to fit through the passage at the same time, it didn't really matter much, as she wouldn't be able to fight for long in her current state and would at most be able to hold back the branch eater worms for a minute or two before being overwhelmed.

With that in mind, her only choice was to continue moving forward while silently praying that she would find a way out of this increasingly small passage before it reached a point where she wouldn't be able to continue moving forward any longer.

Bad as this might sound, all things considered, it was better than her being stuck sandwiched between two groups of branch eater worms. At least she had some hope to escape now…

Rumble~ Bang!

Ah… Looks like they finally figured out how to get through the metal hatch...

Hearing a loud sound echoing out from behind her, Scaly didn't even have to look for her to understand that it was the branch eater worm successfully getting through the metal hatch that had blocked their path and prevented them from chasing after her so far.

But… It had taken them far longer to break through the metal hatch than she had expected and from the violent tremor and sound just now, it was clear that they hadn't just gently lifted the metal hatch and placed it on the side. Instead, they had almost certainly forcefully torn through the poor metal hatch.

Normally, she should have started panicking at the realization that the branch eater worms would soon be able to reach her, but from observing the state of the shrinking passage, she was certain that those worms wouldn't be able to reach her before she made it to the point where the passage had shrunk so much that she wouldn't be able to continue forward any longer.

She would either be able to find a way out in time, or she would end up fighting to the death against the branch eater worms. No in between…

Like this, Scaly continued moving forward through the underground passage with the constant sound of movement behind her growing louder with each passing second. Reminding her about the branch eater worms rapidly closing in on her, but before they could reach her, she reached the dreaded point in the passage where she could no longer continue forward due to her size.

Even worse, she could now see the way out, a small staircase that led up into what she assumed was another underground tunnel or room.

I just have to… Squeeze through…

Unwilling to give up when a way out was in front of her, Scaly continued moving forward. Contorting her body to make it as small as possible. Ultimately managing to squeeze herself another few meters forward.

But…

In the end, she still fell short, as only her head managed to poke through to the small open space that the staircase was located in. The rest of her body, now stuck in place.

Rustle~

"…"

This…

Trying to wiggle her way forward to no avail, Scaly could not help falling silent a few seconds later. Realizing that she was truly stuck in place without any ability to move forward.

Worse yet, she could clearly hear that the first branch eater worm should be about to reach her from behind.

Now, the only thing she could do was remain completely silent and hope that the branch eater worm behind her would think that her backside was just a dead end, something that was possible considering the bad lighting conditions of the tight underground tunnel, as there was nothing to light up the way and one had to rely on their own eyes to see through the dark.

Considering that the branch eater worms lived above ground and hunted during the day from what she had seen from them so far, she hoped that their night vision would be bad enough for them to not realize that her backside wasn't a dead end.

Bang-!

Thump~

Huh…?

However, instead of that happening, she soon felt something crashing into her at a high speed from behind. Pushing her forward through the tight squeeze she had been stuck in and into the space where the staircase was located. Freeing her from the narrow opening that she had been unable to get through earlier…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

But this was far from the end, as she soon heard a loud crashing sound behind her, as what she assumed to be branch eater worms kept crashing into each other at high speed without realizing someone was blocking their path in front of them… And soon enough, the chaos behind her caused a cascade of events to take place, as some of the now trapped branch eater worms began fighting hard to free themselves without success. Instead, just smashing into the walls and ceiling of the narrow passage-

RUUUUUMBLE-!

In turn, the passage itself was put under tremendous pressure and soon buckled under the strain of the squirming group of branch eater worms, causing the small passage to start collapsing on top of the branch eater worms…

[Gained 568 Exp]

[Gained 1352 Exp]

[Gained 236 Exp]

[Gained 692 Exp]

[Gained…]

[*Ding* Reached level 29]

The entire situation causing a long stream of messages to appear in front of Scaly, as she soon found her level increasing to 29.

From the looks of things, it was clear that she had been credited with the collapse of the underground passage and the deaths of the branch eater worms who had found themselves stuck inside the passage unable to get out in time safely.

Even better, with the passage collapsing, there was essentially no way for the branch eater worms to continue chasing after her unless they found the location that the staircase in front of her led up to.

So, to check if she might have ended up finding a perfect place to recover and sleep by accident, she decided to slowly make her way up the staircase to check the situation above. Hoping she would be able to ensure that the place was safe, as she could already feel her body starting to give in to the exhaustion of everything she had gone through since encountering the first little group of branch eater worms.

In the end, as she reached the top of the staircase, she was overjoyed to discover that a large door was blocking her path or more accurately, she was overjoyed at the sight beyond the door, as it turned out to be some kind of special door that looked like a normal bookshelf on the other side.

In other words, a hidden door inside one of the buildings above ground. Meaning, it had not been discovered by the branch eater worms and was unlikely to be discovered unless the branch eater worms tore through the entirety of the human city ruins and leveled every building in sight, something that would not only be difficult to accomplish, but might also attract the attention of stronger monsters that posed a threat to the branch eater worm swarm that had remained dominant in everything they did so far…

With that in mind, Scaly felt that her current location was more than safe enough for her to sleep in for now.

And…

Even if she didn't feel the space was safe enough, she didn't really have much of a choice at this point in time, as her body had already started to give up on her. The exhaustion that had been building up slowly overwhelming her, as she made her way back down the staircase and found a place to lay down before finally giving in to the exhaustion by closing her eyes. Allowing the exhaustion to wash over her.

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