Chapter 76: Following the Trail

Keeping a close eye on her surroundings as she made her way into the forest, Scaly made sure that she didn’t get anywhere near the large groups of wild root flowers covering most of the forest floor. Understanding that she would be turned into skewered lizard the moment she did so.Although... Following the path that had been created by the ancient dire wolf wasn’t completely safe either, as she could already see several wild root flowers that hadn’t been completely killed blocking her path up ahead.

Even if most of the group that these wild root flower belonged to had been killed by the ancient dire wolf stepping on top of them, the few that had survived still presented a challenge to her, as she would have to deal with more than just four roots if she wanted to get through them.

Hm... Should I try to rush directly at them and stomp them to death before they can use their roots to attack me, or should I try and use my water magic to kill them from afar?

Narrowing both her eyes as she thought about this to herself while looking at the seven or so wild root flowers blocking her path, Scaly ultimately decided to go with the first option. Knowing from the many she had killed over the past few hours, that the wild root flowers skill in blocking her magic were terrifying.

Essentially, if she wanted to kill a single one, she would at least have to conjure up five magic balls at once, four to distract its four roots, while the last served to kill the wild root flower.

To kill the seven blocking her path, she would have to conjure up over 28 water balls and launch them at the same time, something she simply wasn’t capable of doing, thus resulting in her choosing the simplest method of charging towards the wild root flowers and try to reach them before their roots could catch her!


Whoosh-!

As her mind was made up, Scaly charged towards the seven wild root flowers using all of her strength-

Rumble~

Only to be taken aback, as the wild root flowers worked together to use their roots to form a wall in front of her. Blocking her path before she even had the chance to get close to them.

Chiiiing~

Worse than that, the moment her claws hit the roots in an attempt to slash through them and continue forward, she discovered that the roots seemed to have the ability to merge together into some kind of weird metal like root that she couldn’t cut through.

Wha- What is this!? They can merge their roots together as a single entity to block my attacks!?

Not having expected something like this from the wild root flowers, Scaly stumbled back a few steps in shock-

Whoosh-!

Bang!

Ptsh-!

Only for some of the roots to split off from the wall and attack her. Instantly causing a few bloody wounds to appear as some of her scales were forcibly torn off by the might of the roots crashing into them trying to pierce through her body.

Ahhh!!?

Even though her scales had served their purpose in defending her from being killed on the spot by the roots, it was still and extremely painful experience. Far more painful than when her leg had been pierced through by the first wild root flower she encountered.

R-Rooar~!

Feeling both humiliated and angered by this, Scaly let out one of patented cute sounding roars before strengthening her claws with mana. Not caring about how draining this move was, as she just wanted to kill the wild root flowers in front of her-

Swish-!

Soon cleaving straight through the strengthened root that had blocked her earlier before she rushed straight towards the seven wild root flowers that now seemed to be swaying from side to side in a panicked manner.

Stomp!

[Gained 234 Exp]

Stomp!

[Gained 145 Exp]

Stomp!

[Gained 367 Exp]

[*Ding* Reached level 17]

Stomp!

[Gained 2...]

And without giving them any time to attack again, Scaly stomped down on each of them in rapid succession. Not even noticing that she reached level 17 before she had finished off all 7 of the wild root flowers.

M-my scales!

Only after this did she turn to look at the side of her body where two of her beautiful scales had been violently torn off earlier. Leaving behind a rather large wound on her body and constant painful sensation of something missing.

Although her recovery ability was strong enough to close a wound that had essentially left a hole in her leg, she had no idea if it also had the ability to recover her scales. Especially given that she inherently felt that this was not possible due to the strange feeling of some part of her missing.

M-maybe I can put them back on again...? Yes! That should be possible!

Thinking this to herself as she tried to think of ways to help her scales recover, Scaly didn’t waste a single second as she rushed towards where the two scales had fallen after being torn off her body. Ignoring the groups of wild root flowers that were located close to the two of them, as she grabbed them before the wild root flower groups could attack her.

Soon finding herself back at the location where she had stomped the seven wild root flowers responsible for her having two of her beautiful scales forcefully torn off... And with no clue on how to attach the two scales back to her body again, as she had no way to reach the places where they should be, Scaly did the only thing she could think of.

Thump! Roll~

Place the scales on the ground before she herself gently rolled over them in a rather comical manner until they seemed to slide into place with the rest of her scales.

Although they didn’t attach to her body and were just loosely supported by the rest of her scales that pushed them into their original positions on her body, she could now feel that her body had begun the process of reattaching the scales.

Even more importantly than that, the feeling of something missing from earlier had completely disappeared along with the constant painful feeling she had felt after the scales had been torn off her body.

For now, she would just have to be a bit more careful with how she moved until the two scales were fully attached to her body again. Meaning that she intended to do her best to avoid any battle similar to the one she just had if possible. Even if it meant she would lose out on experience.

Whoosh~

With this in mind, Scaly continued following along the path that had been created by the ancient dire wolf. Not taking long before, she realized just how terrifying the forest was, as the number of wild root flowers around her continued to grow into the thousands.

Soon reaching a point where almost every single part of the forest floor except for the path she followed was covered in them. Making her painfully aware of just how lucky she was that the path created by the ancient dire wolf seemed just big enough that the roots of the wild root flowers on the edge of it couldn’t reach her if she stayed around the middle of it.

Even then, the fact that the path she could safely traverse had essentially turned into a single line didn’t make it easy for her to fight any still alive wild root flowers she encountered along the way. Essentially forcing her to use her water magic to deal with them.

Luckily, she didn’t have to deal with this kind of situation for that long, as the narrow path she could travel soon became larger, as the number of wild root flowers around her began to rapidly decrease before only a few small groups of a dozen or so wild root flowers were left.

In the end, the wild root flowers disappeared completely after another thirty or so minutes of travel through the forest.

Signaling that she had managed to successfully pass through the most dangerous part of the forest!

Rustle~

Not just that, but she also spotted her first edible monster for the first time since her arrival on the mountain. Excluding the ancient dire wolf, that she had no confidence in being able to eat with her current strength...

[Forest Rabbit, lvl 4]

Ah! Forest rabbit! It’s a forest rabbit! How lucky... I’m already feeling hungry...

Seeing that the monster in question was none other than a delicious forest rabbit, Scaly began drooling hungrily.

Squeak?

Earning a rather confused squeaking sound from the forest rabbit-

Ptsh-!

[Gained 57 Exp]

However, it didn’t have any time to figure out what was happening or what the strange look that the small lizard gave it was about, as it was instantly cut down and turned into a delicious meal by the small lizard in question...