Hanna stood near the giant hotrock in the canteen, watching the Meowster Chef take the Tobi-Kadachi apart and cook it up. Poor Hanna was unaware that she was drooling, her blossoming monster instincts causing her to act ever so honestly. Even if her face was an impassive mask, her tail flicks about and smacks the ground, impatience and eagerness in her draconic body language. 

Eating the roasted Tobi had yielded more bioenergy than if she'd eaten it raw, and when prompting the system about it, it had answered that, naturally,  cooking food is key to surviving and that it is a survival system, after all. 

'Smug prick.' She groused mentally.

Well, the five thousand years of bioenergy for a hot meal couldn't be beat.  And the Cathode Barbs, that was nice too. 

Cathode Barbs allows her to mutate paralyzing barbs on her body, and Hanna immediately spent the eighty years of bioenergy from her staggering fifty thousand year reserves to boost it to level four. 

She groaned as the tip of her tail grew these too-small to see barbs, a bolt of electricity moving through the tail. She smiled, whipping her tail out onto the ground. This will help nicely. 

She moved over to the cliff face and sat down, staring out over the ancient forest nearby before taking a deep breath, sighing wistfully. She can hear some hunters off in those woods of here, dealing with a small pack of Jagras, and the older gentleman that came with the fifth fleet fighting a Great Jagras without any armor on, using only a sword and shield. The grizzled veteran liked to challenge himself. Even without being able to see them, she could tell the battles were going their way. 

But her? She just didn't want to go out and hunt. There wasn't much use in it, nothing could challenge her.  Is that what she wanted? To be challenged? To fight something that could kill her? The Tobi-Kadachi was just for food, for a new mutation, but every other fight had been for her life. 

She frowned and stood. 

'No,' She thought, 'I am going to rule this place. I need to get stronger. So much more stronger that I can't ever be challenged!" 

Then, she shot off into the air, heading to the Wildspire Waste, her keen senses immediately attuned to the arid landscape, hovering in the air, she watched with fascination as yellow and blue toads went about their business, nestled within the unforgiving terrain.

Intriguingly, she observed these toads using their status-inflicting abilities against a larger monster in the vicinity. A Barroth, the system informed, a massive brute wyvern covered in mud, lumbered through the desert. The unsuspecting creature stepped on a yellow, which released a paralyzing cloud. The Barroth's movements slowed, and it roared in frustration as the toxins took hold.

Not far away, a blue nestled in the sand suddenly surged into action, releasing a potent gas. The Barroth, already weakened by the paralyzing effects, succumbed to the sleep-inducing mist. It crashed to the ground with a resounding thud, its massive form still and vulnerable.

Hanna watched this intricate dance of survival and predation with newfound appreciation. The toads had used their abilities to gain the upper hand, momentarily subduing a creature much larger and stronger than themselves.

Her evolution had always been driven by necessity, by the need to adapt and survive. But now, as she observed this natural interplay, she realized that there was more to learn from this world than just brute strength. 

Inspired, Hanna had asked the system if she could tie her Poison and Gunk sacs to her breath, like her fire sac was, and get rid of her Cathode Barbs and Poison Talons. It was indeed possible to do this and assimilating the old traits to make new, similar ones makes a one to one conversion, so she could also mutate the Stun Sac. 

Immediately paying the paltry one hundred years of bioenergy to move all these new organs and tie them to her respiratory system. 

The intense pain of having her organs shift, new organs forms and tracts dissappear. The pain was short lived, and the euphoria washed over her, a moan escaping her lips, followed by a gout of multiple status afflicting gasses and fire. 

She came to her senses and looked down to the escaping toads, giving them a smile. "Thank you, li'l froggo frens." 

And then she took off, flying from the waste to the Coral Highlands, again thanks to the system. Like with the Wastes, Hanna floated high above, observing the ecosystem at play for anything thar may be interesting. 

She didn't have to look for very long before spotting a blue raptor-like monster that stunned potential predators by flashing a blinding light from the fins around its head. 

Inspired once more, Hanna landed in the monster that cried out suspiciously like a chicken, killed, cooked and ate it, assimilating her Flash trait into the Blinding Photophore trait. Doing so brought it immediately to level four and Hanna spent a few decades worth of energy to tie the new trait to her wings, allowing her to blind her adversaries from her wings front and back. 

Without warning, something hit her hard in the back, pain shooting through her body as she felt something cut into her lower back and bite her shoulder.

Hanna's instincts kicked in, and she turned her powerful body as hard as she can, her scales and flesh tearing as she wrenched her body from her attackers grip, kicking, punching and tearing.  

Side over side she and her assailant went, tumbling through the air before they crashed onto the rocky outcropping below, causing her to grunt in pain. She heard a snap. Pain seared through her back and arms, causing her to growl in pain. Dust had been kicked up and she stood at the ready, claws bared. 

Dust swirled around them as they both staggered to their feet. Hanna's claws were bared, her senses heightened, and her body ached from the impact of their violent tumble. She stood at the ready, her eyes scanning the rocky outcropping for her unseen assailant.

The assailant, hidden within the dust and confusion, moved with surprising agility. A low growl echoed through the air as they circled each other, locked in a deadly dance of anticipation.

Suddenly, with a burst of movement, the attacker revealed itself—a Legiana, the system informer, its icy-blue scales gleaming even in the harsh light of the Coral Highlands. Its earlier assault had not been a chance encounter; it had targeted Hanna intentionally, determined to protect its territory from an intruder.

Hanna's own injuries and her encounter with the Legiana now pitted her against a formidable adversary. She knew that facing the majestic wyvern in her current state would be a perilous cchallenge. Yet, she could not be happier. 

The creature was a new, worthy enemy, capable of injuring her even in such a slight way. She grinned and roared her challenge to the ruler of these skies, and it responded in kind.