Having decisively decided against venturing down to the Sixth Floor of the dungeon for now due to how dangerous it might be for her to do so with her current strength, Scaly focused all her attention back on improving her strength again. Having found nothing else of interest on the first floor of the half-collapsed tower.
Disappointing as this was given how she had been hoping to find something that would be able to help her increase her strength in a similar way to eating the smoldering branch eater worms had increased her strength, she did at least gain something from spending a bit more time exploring the interior of the half-collapsed tower.
Though not useful for now, the passage leading down to the sixth floor of the dungeon would undoubtedly prove useful in the future when she became stronger and needed to find somewhere with stronger monsters to continue increasing her strength.
Because of this, Scaly soon found herself back outside the entrance of the half-collapsed tower, from which she began making her way in the direction of the gate that had a path leading back in the direction of the forest she had fled from when she had first entered the human city ruins in the past.
Returning to the forest might come with its own risk of her running into the branch eater worms again, but she felt that this would be worth it if she could reach level 30.
Not to mention, with how many branch eater worms had ended up dead to her and the mysterious monster that had forced them back during her sleep, she doubted the branch eater worms had the time to continue hunting her down like they had done in the past.
Luckily, this proved to be correct, as Scaly didn’t find herself encountering a single branch eater worm on her way back to the forest. Even when she stepped back inside forest and began hunting some weaker monsters on the outskirts of the forest, she couldn’t spot a single branch eater worm roaming on the ground like she had seen during her first encounter with them in the past. Almost like every single one of them had collectively decided to go into hibernation at the same time...
[Gained 868 Exp]
Well... Not like she cared that much about what had ended up happening to them, as all she cared about was being able to freely hunt monsters without encountering any danger. Steadily growing closer to level 30 with each passing monster she cut down.
The main problem she found herself encountering was the fact that the experience required to reach level 30 far surpassed that of reaching level 29, being almost ten times what she had needed to reach level 29 in the past. Making it clear to her that level 30 was some kind of milestone, though she had no idea what kind of milestone, as every one of her evolutions was a special kind of milestone that allowed her strength to massively increase.
The only thing she could guess about this situation was that her evolution this time around would make her far stronger than evolutions had done in the past, though she had no idea about the specifics of what was so special, outside of the experience requirement to level up increasing tremendously.
...
At the same time Scaly began hunting down monsters inside the forest on the fifth floor of the dungeon to reach level 30 and go through her next evolution as fast as possible, inside a large office located in the bustling city centered around the Howling Caverns Dungeon, the branch guild leader who had recently made his way outside the dungeon to get a better grasp of the trouble that had been caused by the Holy Flower Sect, found himself frowning visibly while looking down at a document that had just sent over by the main branch of the Adventures Guild in the Great Sky Kingdom.
"To think the situation in the kingdom would be so bad that they couldn’t spare any reinforcements for the Howling Caverns... Don’t they know that they will have a far more troublesome situation at hand if this dungeon ends up being breached?"
Quietly muttering curses under his breath as he threw the document aside, his gaze soon traveled towards another document on the side. Detailing the recent state of the Howling Caverns.
Although he had his old friend, the Knight of the Crimson Flame, a famed A Rank Adventurer, helping him out, it was far from enough to quell the growing unrest and chaos spreading throughout the guilds forward operating bases or towns inside the dungeon.
Not only had another three towns ended up being breached due to an increasing number of powerful monsters surging up to the third floor from the lower floors of the dungeon and powerful monsters normally contained to the ocean becoming more aggressive, but the increasing danger of the Howling Caverns had caused a clear decline in the adventures willing to enter the dungeon.
In turn, lower number of adventures entering the dungeon meant more monsters and worsening conditions. Creating a self-fulfilling cycle that continuously worsened the situation inside the dungeon.
At this moment, he had been holding out. Hoping that the main branch would either send a powerful team of A Rank Adventures to help stabilize the situation or an S Rank Adventurer who would be more than powerful enough to single handedly boost the morale and clear out any troublesome monsters that might appear, but... The main branch in the Great Sky Kingdom had refused his request for reinforcements. Stating that the current situation with the holy Flower Sect was more important. Urging him to do his best while granting him full control to utilize all the guild’s resources in the region around the Howling Caverns Dungeon to ensure a worst-case scenario didn’t end up happening.
But... There was little he could do, as the best he had was a few dozen B Rank Adventures and a single A Rank Adventurer. Far from enough to stabilize a dungeon that was already in the process of forming a stampede ready to sweep through the dungeon all the way to first floor where the exit of the dungeon was located.
The one positive about the entire situation was that the influence of the Holy Flower Sect on the monster stampede currently forming inside the Howling Caverns had been eliminated from what he could tell. Meaning he was dealing with a naturally forming monster stampede.
Problem was, even a naturally formed stampede was far from what he could handle, as the only difference between a naturally formed stampede inside a dungeon and one controlled by a force like the Holy Flower Sect, was that the naturally forming one took longer to fully form, there was no way for him to stop it.
The only ones capable of doing something like that was a group of highly skilled A Rank Adventurers or an S Rank Adventurer...
"Hm... But maybe, if the main branch can’t render any help, I could send a request directly to the headquarters in the Free States..." Narrowing his eyes slightly at the prospect of directly contacting the main headquarters, he soon enough ended up shaking his head.
Although he was likely to get a positive response and the headquarters would have more than enough manpower to spare, doing so would mean bypassing the local main branch, something that would undoubtedly get him in trouble with said main branch in the future.
After all, for him to go directly to the headquarters requesting aid after being refused by them would, to put it mildly, paint them as incompetent in the eyes of the headquarters and potentially invite direct inspection from the headquarters, something that even someone like himself with nothing to hide, feared.
As for the local main branch of the Great Sky Kingdom... Well... From his knowledge, there were quite a few engaged in some shady dealings that they wouldn’t want the headquarters learning about...
But then again, did he have much of a choice? If the situation continued like now, the situation inside the Howling Caverns would only worsen and with no reinforcements from the main branch, it was only a matter of time before the defenses of the guild was overwhelmed and the worst scenario ended up happening with the final barrier being breached and the monsters of the dungeon flooding into the Howling Cave City.
With that in mind, even if he felt unwilling to do something that would end up making him a lot of enemies in the local main branch in the kingdom’s capital, he didn’t really have much of a choice as they were unwilling to send him any reinforcement.
As for what the main branch in the capital was thinking not sending him reinforcement when his situation clearly required? He could only guess that they were calculating that he wouldn’t be willing to risk directly informing the headquarters and would instead just try to stay in place and hold on for as long as possible while they figured out their own situation.
Informing the headquarters was also an option for them, but... Like with him doing it, it would also end up resulting in a follow up inspection by the headquarters after everything was solved and the situation stabilized...