Having finished going through her status and spent a good half hour flat on her stomach lazily watching the tall grass swaying gently a few meters away from where she had plopped herself down, Scaly found her wandering towards the mist that had already thickened into an impenetrable fog a few hundred meters away from where she was.
Having kept an eye on this familiar fog for the past half hour from time to time as she was lazing around after a large meal, Scaly had long since realized that this fog was far from motionless, as it had begun to slowly creep closer with each passing minute. Having covered no less than twenty to thirty meters during the half hour she had kept an eye on it. Meaning she herself would be swallowed up by the fog in another two or three hours.
Interesting as this was, it wasn’t exactly something she feared or worried about. Having already gone through this thick fog once before to reach the current misty grass plains she found herself lazing around in. She did feel some hint of curiosity about this moving fog and where it came from.
If it was just some special dungeon environment, that would be one thing, but... If the fog came from some kind of monster, it would undoubtedly have to be a powerful one.
The problem was, she had no idea how to locate this monster in the first place, as she still remembered how it had been impossible to move around inside the fog and how she was still unable to fly upwards and out of the mist.
For a monster to be capable of all this, it was easy to see how powerful it would be and even with her going through her fifth evolution, she doubted she would stand a chance against the monster behind the mist and fog- if there really was some kind of monster behind it. After all, she couldn’t even force her way through the barriers that had been created by the fog and mist.
Continuing to gaze off in the direction of the slowly approaching fog as she thought this to herself, Scaly realized that her stomach had already stopped being bloated from overeating earlier-
Roll~ Roll~ Roll~
Causing her to carelessly roll her now far larger body from side to side for fun before getting back on to her feet again. Knowing that her little break was coming to an end.
But... What to do next? Stay in the mist covered grass plain or attempt to leave and search for a better place to hunt monsters?
Back on her feet, Scaly’s gaze shifted away from the slow approaching fog and instead turned to observe her surroundings as these thoughts emerged a few seconds later following the clear realization that there truly were no monsters in sight around her.
Given how fearful the monsters had become of her, it was more than clear to her that all the monsters had been scared away by her earlier display of power and while this might have been great for ensuring she could quietly enjoy the magic earth cows in peace while also lazing around without any monster coming to cause trouble, it also meant that it would be far harder for her to hunt monsters. After all, with how fearful the monsters on the mist covered grass plain had become, they would undoubtedly run the second they spotted her.
Thinking about the situation she found herself in, Scaly realized that she didn’t have much of a choice when it came to finding a new place to hunt monsters, as it would simply be far too exhausting having to run after monsters who attempted to escape or hide away the second they noticed her.
Outside of that was also the general feeling that she was being suppressed to some extent inside the mist. Unable to truly unleash her abilities or in other words, unable to make use of her now rather sizeable wings to soar into the sky.
For someone who had wanted to make full use of her flight ability in combat to now only have a slightly higher jumping height than her opponents due to the flight restrictions in place by the mist and fog, it was unbearable to stay in this kind of environment.
Although this kind of feeling had existed before, it wasn’t anywhere near the same level, as she hadn’t truly had the ability to fly back then and had mainly been relying on her wind magic when it came to flying. Not true flight like she could do now after her fifth evolution.
In a way, this feeling did make her feel some sense of pity for the other flying monsters who had ended up in a similar situation to herself and found themselves unable to make use of their greatest strength.
Of course, different from those flying monsters who were almost entirely reliant on their flying abilities to remain dominant, Scaly was far more powerful than her peers even without the ability to fly, something she had proven not long ago by taking down the magic earth cow lord.
Even then, because of these feelings and the simple fact that the mist covered grass plains weren’t a suitable hunting ground any longer, Scaly decided to try and find a way out of the mist.
Simple as this task might seem on the surface, she had a feeling that it would be far more difficult than she originally anticipated.
But even then, there wasn’t much she could do but move in the opposite direction of the expanding fog if she wanted to leave, something that ended up with her traveling forward for a good ten minutes before she found herself face to face with another wall of fog slowly drawing closer.
Odd as this was, Scaly decided not to think too much about it and moved in another direction, but five minutes later, she found another wall of fog blocking her path. Leaving her with one unexplored path and a growing sense of unease.
If the last path is also blocked... Won’t that mean I’m boxed in...?
As these thoughts began emerging after encountering two blocked paths, Scaly soon shook her head and calmed herself down from the growing sense of unease that was building and set off again towards what would hopefully be the path out of this mist covered grass plain...
More fog...
However, as she reached the end of the final unexplored direction, she realized that all four of the directions had been blocked by the slowly expanding fog. Leaving her with no other choice but to plunge back into the fog again like she had done before arriving at the mist covered grass plain.
Although the fog itself didn’t contain any danger from what she had experienced so far, and the monsters hidden inside it were no different from the ones she had encountered so far from the grass plain. Albeit far harder to spot compared to the misty environment of the grass plain. The growing sense of unease that hadn’t been around the last time around made her pause in her steps before the mystical fog.
Thump~!
Of course, that hesitation only lasted for a few short seconds before she decisively took a step forward and entered the fog in front of her. Soon enough, feeling the familiar restriction that prevented her from moving backwards and forced her to continue moving forward.
Having felt this once already, it wasn’t too surprising, though now that she had gone through her fifth evolution, she clearly sensed that she might be able to forcibly rip free of this restriction by relying on her terrifying mana capacity.
Using her mana to flood the environment around her and disrupt the flow of the magical fog that restricted her movements.
But... Having the ability to free herself from the restriction was one thing and doing it was another.
Once she flooded the surroundings with her mana, she would essentially leave herself in a defenseless state, as flooding the area around herself with mana unsurprisingly required a lot of mana.
By a rough estimate, it would require anywhere between 75% to 80% of her total mana, though not everything she had, it would leave her in an incredibly vulnerable state considering her main strength was her magic.
Not to mention, she had no idea if doing something like that would attract unwanted attention from the potential powerful monster behind the fog.
So... Even though she had the ability to escape the restriction she decided against it.
Not just to avoid danger, but also because she had no real reason to escape the restriction outside of it, making her feel uncomfortable, as she was already planning to go in the direction the fog was forcing her to move in.
After all, from past experience, following the forced direction should lead her somewhere similar to the grass plains or out of the fog entirely if she was lucky.