Laying down to rest after finishing the small snack in the form of the former owner of her new temporary home, Scaly soon fell asleep. Having gone through a rather exhausting escape, she simply didn’t have any energy left to go out and hunt for monsters for now.
Her mana might have recovered to a manageable level during the time she had spent looking through her status and eating a bit to fill her stomach, but fully recovering would take some time... And what better way to recover than her taking a quick nap?
...
At the same time Scaly drifted off to sleep in the underground section of the fourth floor of the dungeon, back on the third floor of the dungeon, information about the presence of the Holy Flower Sect had begun to spread even though guild master in charge of the Howling Caverns had done his best to prevent news from spreading, he had ultimately acted too slow.
Because of this, a clear sense of unease began to spread throughout the third floor of the dungeon before it soon spread to the second floor, first floor and finally the city outside the dungeon.
The reason was rather simple, as the Holy Flower Sect was well known throughout the world as bunch of fanatics who caused death wherever they appeared.
But... More importantly to the people living in the Howling Cave City centered around the Howling Caverns Dungeon, the Holy Flower Sect was also known to forcibly cause dungeon breaks. A type of disaster where the monsters inside the dungeon flooded out from the dungeon in waves. Destroying anything in their path.
For this reason alone, the presence of a person from the Holy Flower Sect inside the dungeon caused no small amount of panic among the opulence of the Howling Cave City.
Of course, the adventures inside the dungeon were also panicking, but their panic was limited, as they understood that even if a dungeon break did end up happening, they would be able to learn about it far ahead of time from the outpost that had been located at the fourth floor of the dungeon.
After all, it was designed not only to serve as an extension of the adventure guild into the fourth flood of the dungeon, but also as an early warning system in case a dungeon break happened. Giving the adventures present on the floor above more than enough time to react and escape from the dungeon.
The only slight problem with this warning system was that a new path had been established to the fourth floor of the dungeon, while news of this new path had not leaked or at least not gained any traction, it did present a very real threat in the form of a path for the monsters to bypass the early warning system.
And so, a temporary lookout had been put in place by the guild master of the Howling Caverns Dungeon branch at this location.
The lookout in question being a few adventurers who would be hanging around at the top of the towering spiral staircase leading down to the fourth floor. Peeking over the edge from time to time to see if there were any monsters rushing up.
Given the tall nature of the spiral staircase and how long it would take to scale, it did provide some time and could be blocked for a time, but it was still less effective than a direct outpost with a guardian barrier in place...
"Haaa... Why does everything seem to be getting worse lately? Can’t I just get one day of rest...?" Muttering this to himself as he examined the recently established outpost in front of the brand-new path to the fourth floor of the dungeon, the guild master who had been trying his best to contact the main headquarters of the adventure guild for help over the last few days couldn’t help quietly sighing to himself at the end.
"Don’t worry too much, the situation has mostly been dealt with now and the chances of a dungeon break happening is close to zero. Whatever that person from the Holy Flower Sect was planning, it should have ended up in failure." Standing a few meters away, the Knight of the Crimson Flame chuckled softly as he tried to ease the nerves of his old friend.
"Almost zero!? So, you admit that there is still a chance of a dungeon break happening!? How is that going to make me feel happy!?"
Unfortunately, the attempt to cheer up his old friend didn’t seem to work as it only made him more anxious about the current situation.
After all, he had already heard about what had happened on the fourth floor of the dungeon and to say that it was encouraging would be an understatement, as it was clear that the Holy Flower Sect had been secretly growing a powerful monster to induce an artificial dungeon break.
Who knew if there were any more monsters that had been secretly nurtured by the Holy Flower Sect? Who could say they were in the clear with information an upheaval taking place in the capital of the Great Sky Kingdom also reaching him a few days earlier.
Cut off from any reinforcements from either the kingdom or the guild, he had to do his best to find a way to ensure the safety of not just the guild’s infrastructure in the dungeon, but also the city above.
Taking on the role of a dungeon manager was supposed to have been a simple and relaxing job with at most a few minor problems popping up once every few years... How had it suddenly become so stressful that he barely had any time to sleep over the past few weeks?!
"..."
Seeing the stressed appearance of his old friend only becoming worse, the crimson flame knight decided that it would be for the best to not mention a piece of information related to the Holy Flower Sect appearing in another part of the Great Sky Kingdom that he had just gotten his hands on earlier in the day...