Gilding through the air with no way to change the flight trajectory of his newly acquired dragon shaped gliding plane, Verdell could only silently pray that the dragon beneath him would wake up before the two of them crashed into the thick mist below and alerted the terrifying monster hidden within the mist, a being that in his eyes undoubtedly surpassed the SS Rank from what little he had glimpsed of it when it had effortlessly swallowed up the SS Rank toad not long ago.
Unfortunately, as time continued to pass and the two continued getting closer to the thick mist below, Scaly showed no signs of waking up. Having been knocked out cold by the fall and subsequent roll down the mountain side. Leaving Verdell with nothing more to do outside of reapplying the feather falling spell to prevent the two of them from plunging straight downwards in a freefall.
Even though it was a well-known fact that mages who reached the S Rank almost always mastered some kind of flight ability, Verdell himself hadn’t exactly had much time to develop a flying spell that centered on fire magic and could thus not even fly out and escape from the falling dragon even if he wanted to. All he could do was delay the inevitable as the lower portion of Scaly’s body finally brushed against the surface of the thick mist. Leaving behind a very clear trail in the mist, the two slowly sank downwards until both were entirely swallowed up by the thick mist.
To say Verdell was feeling nervous as he sunk beneath the surface of the thick mist would be an understatement as he could already imagine the terrifying monster from earlier stirring the surrounding mist before a massive maw manifested and swallowed the two of them in a single bite before any resistance was possible.
However, as the two of them continued to sink downwards deeper into the thick mist, Verdell realized that the terrifying monster from earlier was nowhere to be seen even as the two continued to carve a path through the thick mist while slowly travelling downwards.
Although this did make Verdell feel a bit more at ease as he believed the disturbance they caused to the surrounding mist wasn’t big enough to alert that terrifying monster lurking within the thick mist, he also understood there was a very real chance that the two of them might accidentally run into this terrifying monster as they continued gliding through the thick mist thanks to his continuous usage of feather falling to keep the two of them afloat.
The reason why he didn’t stop using the feather falling and allowed the two of them to rapidly descend even knowing the inherent risk associated with the two of them continuing to glide forward through the thick mist in this manner, being the fact that he guessed drawing the attention of the terrifying monster lurking within the thick sea of mist might be related to the disturbance one caused within this sea of mist... And although the two did cause some small disturbance while cutting through the mist while slowly descending, the disturbance caused by a direct descend would undoubtedly be far greater than this slow descend aided by the feather falling spell.
Even if there was a chance that the disturbance wouldn’t be large enough to draw the attention of that terrifying monster, Verdell also had to think about what might be waiting for the two of them at the very bottom of this thick mist sea.
For all he knew, what awaited them down below might very well be far more terrifying than the monster lurking with the sea of mist... And because of this, he decided it was for the best to remain in the current state and hope for Scaly to wake again. Feeling confident that her flying abilities would be able to get the two of them out of the current deadly situation that the two of them had found themselves in thanks to the now dead toad that had decided to chase after the two of them.
The only thing he had to keep an eye out for was Scaly accidentally creating a large disturbance when she woke up. Ensuring that she would end up attracting the attention of the terrifying monster lurking within the thick mist sea by having her do a slow and gradual ascent out of the thick mist that avoided creating any unnecessary disturbance that might attract this terrifyingly powerful monster.
Whoosh~
However, as he was planning the future escape plan for when Scaly woke up from her slumber, a sudden sound of movement within the thick mist caused him to momentarily freeze on the spot as a shiver ran down his spine already imagining his own pitiful death.
"Huh? It isn’t that terrifying monster...?"
But as he turned around to face in the direction that the sound of movement had come from, he couldn’t help letting out a sigh of relief upon discovering that the sound didn’t come from the terrifying monster but instead seemed to originate from another monster that lived with the thick sea of mist.
Looking closer, he noticed that this monster was in the shape of a small fish made almost entirely out of mist with only a few organs not constructed from mist, a kind of monster he knew from reading the standard adventurer guide as the Juvenile Mist Sea Fish, a common harmless monster that could be found in any place where mist gathered into a mystical mist sea.
Overall, the monster itself was harmless and even if he let it attack him or the dragon beneath him, it wouldn’t be able to do any damage, as it was well known to be one of the weakest monsters that could be found within a sea of mist.
Turning it into a well-liked monster by beginner adventurers who were just starting out and started hunting down monsters for the first time, as it was easy to deal with even for someone without the slightest bit of combat experience.
The problem with seeing this mist fish now swimming beside him as he and Scaly silently cut through the thick mist wasn’t so much the strength of this mist fish, but instead what its existence signified...
"So... This is a mist sea..."
A very clear indication that the place he and Scaly currently found themselves wasn’t just some area filled with mist, but instead a mystical environment generally referred to as mist sea or sea of mist. An environment that on higher floors could be considered great for weaker adventurers, but on lower floors were one of the most dreadful things to encounter because of difficult they were to navigate, how large they were, and the terrifying strength of the monsters found within could be.
If originally, he had felt happy that the monster emerging from the mist wasn’t the terrifyingly powerful monster that had easily swallowed the SS Rank toad not long ago, he was now filled with a sense of growing despair after seeing through the identity of this weak monster.
After all, while what laid below had been a mystery before, now that he knew he had sunk into a mist sea, he also understood that the danger he and Scaly found themselves in was only going to increase the deeper they sunk into the mist sea, as the strength of monsters generally increased the deeper into the sea of mist one went.
The only bit of reassurance to the sense of despair he felt washing over him after seeing through the identity of the weak little mist fish now trying its hardest to nibble its way through the skin on his hand to no avail, was the fact that the dragon beneath him had slowly begun stirring. Showing signs of waking up.
At the very least allowing him to pin his hope on her waking up and taking the two of them out of this mist sea before they ran into stronger monsters lurking within the sea of mist.
After all, outside of the danger posed by the monsters lurking within the depths of the mist sea, he was far more cautious about creating a disturbance large enough to draw the attention of the terrifying monster that had swallowed up the toad not that long ago.
Unfortunately, even if he won his battles against some weaker monsters from the depth of the mist sea, his fire magic wasn’t exactly good for silently killing off enemies and even his weaker spells would create massive disturbances within the sea of mist. Disturbances that would undoubtedly spread outwards and attract more attention towards him and Scaly.
In other words, fighting would inevitably turn him and Scaly into beacons of light for those lurking within the sea of mist to easily spot and rush towards. Meaning that it was best avoided if possible-
Whoosh-!
However, fate wasn’t kind to dwarfs who practiced fire magic, as a far large disturbance soon emerged in the distance...