Looking at the thick fog that surrounded her on all sides, Scaly could not stop herself from starting to feel a bit uneasy after coming to the sudden realization that there was no way for her to go back the way she had come from. No... Not just going backwards, she couldn’t even fly up above the fog and leave that way either. She was completely stuck inside the thick fog.
The only positive was that she could at the very least continue moving forward along the cobblestone road like she had been doing so far. Only, now she no longer had a goal she was moving towards, as she felt that it was highly unlikely that she would end up in the human city ruins like she had originally expected after she stepped inside the thick fog.
Instead, she would now just be moving forward with the sole goal of getting out of the fog so she could get to fly again. After all, if she could get up into the sky again, she would be able to avoid the thick fog by going over it.
Problem was... She had no idea how large an area the thick fog covered. Meaning she had no clue how long it would take her to leave the thick fog. For all she knew, it might take hours, days or perhaps only a few minutes.
But... She didn’t have much of a choice but to move forward if she wanted to leave the fog. After all, it didn’t look like it was going to disperse on its own.
Rustle~
And so, with a new clear goal in mind, Scaly once again began dutifully following the cobblestone road like she had done when she first stepped inside the thick fog without knowing the fog would end up trapping her. The reason for still following the cobblestone road being rather simple, to ensure she didn’t end up walking in veering off the straight line she had been moving in so far.
As for why she even cared about moving in a straight line when moving backwards was already blocked? That was simply because she preferred knowing that she was moving forward, nothing more, nothing less.
Like this, time continued to fly by as she travelled through the thick fog that showed no sign of ending any time soon.
The first hour passed with nothing of importance happening around her, while the second became a bit more interesting as she began hearing the distant sounds of monsters inside the thick fog. Only after three entire hours of marching along the overgrown cobblestone road did she finally spot the sign of another demon beast that had ended up trapped inside the thick fog like she had.
[Grass Rabbit, lvl 31 (Dead)]
Unfortunately, the monster in question was already dead with its bones already having been picked clean by other monsters before she showed. Meaning she couldn’t get a quick snack on the road like she had been hoping after walking through the thick fog for such a long period of time without any snack breaks along the way.
If anything, she was at least better than other monsters who didn’t have the ability to simply conjure up clean and refreshing water to drink whenever they became thirsty on the road.
Water magic was by far her most convenient magic and possibly the main reason why she hadn’t ended up dying of thirst yet, but the lack of food would become a problem if she ended up trapped inside the fog for an extended period. At least, the presence of a dead monster on the road did give her some hope that she might end up running into another monster in future that she could happily chomp down on.
However, even if survival shouldn’t be that much of a concern in her current state, she still felt incredibly bad about her current situation, as her hope of finding somewhere to peacefully settle down before going through her fifth evolution seemed to be getting increasingly difficult to accomplish.
Yes, she could just go through her evolution here and now in the middle of the cobblestone road but doing so would not only be risky because of the presence of monsters inside the thick fog but would also turn horrible when she came out of her evolution and realized there was no food around for her to consume. In the worst-case scenario, she might even end up starving to death just after having gone through her fifth evolution.
No matter how much she wanted to go through her fifth evolution, there was no way she intended to risk potentially starving to death by going through her evolution in such a dangerous location.
Instead of that, continuing to push through the fog was a far better option, who knew, she might end up finding a far better location to go through her fifth evolution after reaching the other side of the fog.
This hope ended up carrying her forward for another two hours before she finally began to reach her limit...
Argh! I can’t take this anymore! I will just go through my evolution in the middle of the road and be done with it!
Walking straight for five hours without any breaks outside of inspecting the occasional monster trap was far from what a little dragon could endure, as she finally gave up on continuing to move forward to reach the other side of thick fog that now engulfed her.
However, just as she did this, she noticed two metal signs appearing out of the corner of her eye a few meters beyond what she could normally see, the slight glimmer from a few rays of sunlight passing through the thick fog bouncing off the metal surface just right for her to catch a glimpse of them.
S-Something different appeared!
Freezing for a short second out of shock in the face of something not a monster corpse or more grass splitting appear a section of the road she was using, Scaly soon erupted in joy as she rushed towards the two metal signs. Eager to find out what they were about. Hoping that one of the two metal signs led the way to the human city town she had first been expecting to enter.
[Metal Sign]
[Description: A sign made from a special magic conductive metal that allows it to stay in a pristine state far longer than normal metal.]
Special metal...?
Tilting her head slightly as she finally found herself standing in front of one of the two metal signs, Scaly could not help feeling a bit annoyed at the description provided by the system. Having originally hoped that the inspection of the metal sign would provide her with some clue as to where this sign was leading, as she had already realized that the path that had been moving straight so far had now split in two.
Looking towards the sign that was next to the second path splitting off the originally straight cobblestone road, she couldn’t help sighing to herself once again as the description of the sign was no different than the first sign. The only real difference being that the sign itself was a bit more damaged.
Two paths and only one choice, as she wouldn’t be able to turn back due to the presence of the thick fog if she ended up taking the wrong path.
But... What path to choose when both looked the same? Right path or left path? She had no idea and could only guess randomly by closing her eyes and rolling around on the ground for a few seconds before coming to a stop. Ultimately choosing the left path as she had ended up rolling closer to that one.
Not that inspiring, but it worked well enough for her when it came to solving this problem. Rolling was the perfect solution in her eyes.
And so, she began making her way down the slightly smaller left path. Unaware of where it would end up leading her.
Luckily and completely unexpectedly, this choice ended up proving to be the correct one, as she soon found the fog around her becoming thinner and thinner before dissolving into a fine mist that hardly blocked her view for more than a few kilometers. Essentially restoring her vision close to what it had been before she had ended up stepping into the thick fog...
[Great Grass Rabbit, lvl 67]
[Green Willow Snake, lvl 56]
[Bunny Wolf, lvl 31]
[Bunny Wolf, lvl 37]
[Bunny Wolf, lvl 29]
[Bunny Wolf...]
But, as her vision became clear and she saw the state of her surroundings, she quickly began wishing for the fog to return, as she realized that she was surrounded by monsters on all sides that were by no means weak. Especially the lower-level bunny wolves who were moving around in a single large group consisting of over a hundred individuals.
Everything would have been fine, and it might even have been a great place to go through her fifth evolution under normal circumstances, but... This was in the middle of a grass plain with nothing but tall grass around.
Hiding inside tall grass was an option in the short term, but for days or potentially weeks required to complete her fifth evolution, hiding inside tall grass with so many monsters around was far from optimal, she needed to find somewhere better to hide away if she wanted to go through her fifth evolution in this kind of location.
Problem was, finding a place to hide for the long term was easier said than done even if part of her already wanted to go through her fifth evolution in this kind of location rich in monsters for her to hunt down after she woke up.