Having already partly decided on making the ancient stone watchtower, her temporary home while she underwent her fifth evolution, Scaly began approaching the stone structure with an eager skip in her steps. Excitement about her coming evolution causing her to increase her speed ever so slightly to reach the watchtower just a bit faster.
The only reason she didn’t directly rush forward was the presence of the monsters in the tall grass all around the hill that the ancient stone tower was situated on top of.
Although these monsters wouldn’t be impossible for her to deal with given her current strength, she didn’t really want to waste any time fighting them and just wanted to get to find somewhere inside the ancient stone watchtower where she could go through her fifth evolution.
Because of this, even though a few of the lone monsters noticed her presence, none of them dared to step forward to face her. Allowing her to reach the base of the hill without having to fight a single monster along the way. Leaving her standing in front of the crumbling path made from carved stones leading up to the ancient stone watchtower at the very top of the hill.
The carved stone path was far from what it had once been, as countless cracks covered the crumbling steps leading up the hill. Allowing some of the tall grass growing on the hill to peek out through the gaps.
If that was it, it wouldn’t really be much of a problem, as it wouldn’t really be that difficult for her to scale such a small hill without any path. On the other it might even be easier for her to avoid the crumbling stone path.
Unfortunately, it was only now that she stood at the base of the hill that she realized that the grass growing hill was different from the rest of the grass that grew on the grass plains around it, carrying a slight purplish tint that had ultimately made her feel something was off and cause her to inspect it before starting to make her journey up the hill.
[Purple Worm Grass]
[Description: Tall grass with a slight purplish tint, the purple worm grass is amongst the deadliest poisons known, capable of even killing a fully grown dragon from a slight touch. Earning its name from the fact that a light purplish poisonous liquid coats the unique poisons grass, giving the grass a unique purplish tint that makes it stand out compared to normal grass.
The latter part of the name comes from the fact that upon contact, the purplish poisonous liquid secreted by the purple worm grass to cover every inch of its body, will act like countless small worms to dig into the skin and spread the deadly poison throughout the body. Making scholars consider the purple worm grass poison a rare kind of living poison that has a mind of its own, being close to impossible to get rid of. Only level 10 Poison Resistance or certain special existences and unique skills are known to be capable of resisting the purple worm wood poison. Making it one of the most sought-after poisons in the world.]
Just reading that kind of terrifying description from the seemingly ordinary tall grass she was about to walk through was more than enough to make her freeze on the spot without daring to take a single step forward out of fear of accidentally touching the terrifying purple worm grass that apparently had the power to kill a fully grown dragon.
Strong as her poison resistance might be, she understood full well that she was still far off from getting anywhere near level 10 in her poison resistance... And if even a fully grown dragon would end up dead in the face of this kind of terrifying poison, it made sense that she, as a not yet fully grown dragon, would stand even less of a chance.
In a way, she also finally understood why the hill seemed completely devoid of monsters, it wasn’t that some powerful monster had claimed the crumbling stone watchtower as its territory like she had originally been expecting. Instead, it was because the entire hill was covered in a poisonous grass that would kill anyone who even lightly touched it.
Monsters might have attempted to go up the hill in the past, but after seeing the fate of all those who attempted to reach the top of the hill, it was clear that they had been scared off and stopped trying to scale the hill. In fact, it might have made them even more scared, as Scaly realized that the monsters around her weren’t just avoiding the hill itself but had turned the area a hundred meters around the hill into a complete dead zone devoid of any monsters other than herself.
Even the monsters that had been discreetly following her so far didn’t dare cross this invisible boundary, as they were now just watching her from afar with curiosity. Clearly wondering if she would end up being another victim to the purple worm grass hill.
But... This might be a good thing! With this kind of natural barrier in place, I won’t have to worry about being attacked during my evolution.
Of course, different from the monsters all around her, who were fearful of the small hill covered in purple worm grass, Scaly wasn’t the slightest bit afraid and was instead overjoyed, as this purple worm grass would be a great defensive barrier serving to protect her while she was undergoing her fifth evolution.
As for reaching the top of the hill where the crumbling ancient stone watchtower was located? She could just fly up there and thereby bypass all the purple worm grass. After all, even though flying out of the mist was restricted, she had already realized that she could still glide through the air like before by keeping her height limited to below 10 meters.
Although this wouldn’t be enough for her to reach the top of the hill, that was only assuming the flight limit remained at 10 meters after she began using her wind magic to lift herself up the small hill.
Whoosh~
In the end, there was only one way to find out, as she soon flapped her small wings and used her wind magic to lift herself into the air at a relative slow pace as she began moving up the side of the hill with the crumbling stone path directly below her in case something unexpected happened and she needed to land on the ground again.
Her main worry was repeating what she had done in the past and colliding with an invisible wall. For that reason, she had already prepared herself for that kind of scenario. Ensuring that she wouldn’t just end up being knocked directly into the ground where the purple worm grass was located.
After all, even though there was a path below her, there was no lack of cracks in the stone path that in turn allowed for purple worm grass to grow inside and sprout into magnificent wonders of nature that would kill her if she as much as brushed against it.
Luckily, her slow journey up the hill went smoothly and she soon enough found herself at the very top of the hill in front of the wide-open entrance leading into the crumbling ancient stone watchtower.
However, it didn’t take long for it to become clear that the first floor of the ancient stone watchtower was off limits, as the stone floor inside had long since cracked apart. Allowing for purple worm grass to grow all over the place without any restraints. Making it no less deadly than climbing up the crumbling stone path on foot.
For this reason, without much hesitation, Scaly carefully glided over the close to one-meter-tall grass and landed on the still relatively intact staircase spiraling upwards along the edge of the tower’s interior.
During her now far more relaxed walk up the tower, Scaly found herself observing the different floors of the ancient stone watchtower.
The first floor that was covered in purple worm grass should be an area that was heavily defended in the past as the first line of defense for any hostile monsters or other beings attempting to force their way inside the ancient stone watchtower.
The second floor was a kitchen area and gathering space from the large number of tables and chairs along with cooking equipment left scattered all over the place, while the third floor was the living quarters where the people in charge of the ancient stone watchtower should have slept in the past.
From the fourth to the sixth floor there were a lot of tall shelves and crumbling books, documents, scrolls and so on. Making Scaly guess that these floors were either some kind of library or a place for storing gathered information... Or something she couldn’t guess with her current lack of understanding of the world.
Above that was the final seventh floor that was entirely enclosed with what she recognized as fading magic sigils covering the walls and several large objects that she guessed were related to the functions of this watchtower.
All things considered, there were no monsters present inside the ancient stone watchtower and with the closed off state of the seventh floor of the tower, she decided that this would indeed be the place for her to go through her fifth evolution.
The only thing she needed to do was block the entrance leading up to the seventh floor and ensure nothing unexpected happened while she was undergoing her evolution, something that was far simpler than she had expected it to be, as all she needed to do was tip over an already precariously positioned bookshelf right next to the spiraling staircase to fully block off the entrance.
Meaning, she was now fully prepared for her fifth evolution...