At the same time Scaly was busy trying to find somewhere safe to recover after her intimate encounter with the mountain slimes, the guild leader in charge of the group investigating what had happened for the guardian barrier to activate inside the human town Scaly had visited, was visibly frowning as he looked at the senior mage standing in front of him.
"So, you are telling me that the guardian barrier was damaged, and you can’t establish a normal passage because of this?"
"Yes... From what I can see, it seems like parts of the barrier’s internal structure that allowed a passage to be established, has been destroyed, something that can only happen when the guardian barrier is put under tremendous stress from an outside attack or..." Nodding his head as he said this, the senior mage could not help hesitating towards the end.
"Hm? Something wrong?"
Something that the guild leader instantly picked up on as he encouraged him to continue with a subtle, yet threatening glance.
"No... Nothing at all! Another reason for the problem with establishing a passage could also be because someone deliberately destroyed part of the barrier formation’s internal structure from the inside..." Lowering his head as he finished stating his thoughts on the situation, the senior mage could not help growing nervous, as he understood the implications of his words.
For someone to have destroyed the internal structure of the guardian formation and for it to be just the part that allowed a passage to be created, the situation had changed from a normal investigation and monster subjugation top something far more dangerous!
"Hmph! Looks like this little branch guild leader is really hiding something. Not that there is much we can do about it for now. Undoing the guardian barrier is only something that can be done by someone skilled in the aspect of barrier magic." Narrowing both his eyes as a faint hint of killing intent surfaced, the guild leader glanced back in the direction of the town gate.
Even if he wanted to rush inside the town and grab the branch guild leader to get some answer from him, he understood that he wouldn’t be able to do something like that with the guardian barrier blocking him.
Asking the people already inside the guardian barrier for help wasn’t an option either, as the branch guild leader was the strongest existence inside the town and wouldn’t have much trouble dealing with anyone who might want to try and catch him. Especially if there were others working together with him inside the town.
"Guild leader... What should we do?" Feeling the clear killing intent from the guild leader, the senior mage could only step forward and ask before the killing intent became evident to the people inside the town.
"What to do? Now that we can’t enter the town and start an official investigation, we can only wait out here for the barrier to run out of mana and disperse. Hunting down the ancient dire wolves will have to wait, as we can’t give that little branch guild leader a chance to escape or hide whatever he has been up to.
Given how things have developed, inform one of the B Rank Adventurers to head back and inform the rest of the guild about what has happened so far. After all, even if I want to punish that little branch leader, I can’t do much outside of detaining him without prior approval from those old people in the capital."
Having already thought of the worst possible circumstances regarding the branch guild leader and his possible escape the moment the guardian barrier disappeared; the guild leader didn’t hesitate to prepare for such a situation.
Even though it was a bit overkill, as the branch guild leader wasn’t really trying to escape, but just hide the dealings he had regarding the sale of dungeon monsters, there was no way for the guild leader to know about this.
Unknown to the branch guild leader who had been trying his best to not seem suspicious, had already failed, as the guild leader that had come to investigate was already out for blood and couldn’t wait for the guardian barrier to lower so he could get some answers from him. Even going as far as sending someone back to request approval for.... Well... Beating him up legitimately...
"Hehe, even if that guild leader suspect something is wrong, sabotaging the barrier should at least buy us another four or five days of time to erase any traces of the sale of ancient dire wolf cubs."
Even at this moment, the branch guild leader was happily laughing to himself over how brilliant he had been to sabotage part of the barrier to buy himself and his people a few more days to clean up the situation before the investigation about what had happened could officially begin.
...
Unaware of any of the problems that were taking place back in the human town that she wanted to take revenge on when she became strong enough to do so in the future, Scaly dragged her exhausted and injured body inside a small cave located at the base of the mountain before using most of her remaining strength to block up the entrance with bits of dirt and rocks before closing her eyes to sleep after making sure there weren’t anyone else inside the small cave.
Although the entrance wasn’t entirely blocked as it was simply far too big, she didn’t have time to care about it as she slowly drifted off into dreamland.
Even if the cave entrance wasn’t entirely blocked and other monsters might have a chance to wander inside, she wasn’t too afraid of something like that happening considering that the number of monsters she had seen so far at the base of the mountain were no more than a few dozen.
Most of them being rock slimes that didn’t care about their surroundings as they aimlessly bounced around the base of the mountain.
Like this, Scaly began the slow process of recovering from the self-inflicted injuries caused by her dragon breath and the corrosion damage from being inside the mountain slime. The first being the most dangerous of the two.
In the end, by the time that Scaly opened her eyes again inside the small cave, close to 20 hours had already passed, as she felt the almost crippling hunger from not eating for over 20 hours starting to set in.
In a sense, it had been over a day since she had last eaten anything, as she had thrown up most of the mountain rabbit she had eaten before climbing the mountain when she had been trapped inside of the mountain slime.
Together with the fact that it had taken a tremendous amount of energy to recover from the injuries she had received from her own dragon breath skill, Scaly felt a sense of hunger she had only ever felt after going through an evolution.
Foooood!
Something that didn’t allow her to think straight, as the only thing on her mind became getting something to eat as quickly as possible before she ended up starving to death.
Rustle~
With that simple goal, Scaly didn’t bother checking out her current state or how much she had managed to recover, as she wandered out through an opening in the barrier around the cave entrance that she had created before going to sleep.
Squeak...?
Unfortunately for a mountain rabbit that had been looking for a new home to settle down in after fleeing from a certain small mountain and was currently about to poke its head through a hole in the barrier created by scaly to block any monsters from wandering into the small cave she was sleeping inside of, it just so happened to come face to face with a very hungry Scaly-
FOOOD!
CHOOOMP-!
SQUEEEEAAAK!
And before it even had time to escape, it felt Scaly’s sharp fangs sinking into it, as Scaly bit into it with a hungry look in her eyes.
Compared to how she would normally ensure that the monster was dead before starting to eat them, she had now been completely overcome by hunger, as there was nothing left in her mind but to eat the delicious mountain rabbit in front of her.
Crack~!
[Gained 275 Exp]
Luckily for the mountain rabbit, it didn’t have to experience the process of being eaten alive, as the force of Scaly’s chomp was more than strong enough to crack its neck. Killing it in a simple and swift manner before she began eating it.
Chomp~ Chomp~ Chomp!
Only after her stomach started to fill up, did Scaly start to regain her sanity, as she once again began to eat in a more sophisticated manner befitting a noble (future) dragon like herself.
Of course, a single mountain rabbit was far from enough to satisfy her after having gone over a day without anything to eat and most of her energy being used in recovering from the damage she had suffered. So, she soon turned to hunting any monster she encountered at the base of the mountain to fill up her stomach.