Different from the three ambitious C Rank Adventurers who wanted to use the chaotic state of the Hollowing Caverns Dungeon to reach B Rank, the weaker adventurers below the C Rank that didn’t have much confidence in escaping in case the situation ended up becoming any worse, chose to retreat into the different towns spread throughout the third floor of the dungeon. Only roaming around the edges of the towns themselves, as this way, they could retreat into the town in case the situation became dangerous.
Because of this, the normally active third floor of the Hollowing Caverns Dungeon that would have adventures of all ranks roaming around it freely every day, became a shell of its former self, as the activity outside the different towns that had been set up by the Adventurers Guild to ensure control of the third floor of the dungeon was limited to C Rank Adventurers and rare few weaker adventures risking their lives trying to rapidly increase their level.
Outside the third floor of the dungeon that had already entered a state of emergency. Reducing the guild’s overall operation and entering a state that solely focused on preserving the guild’s resources and assets inside the dungeon, the second and first floor were in a remarkably better state, as most of the chaos had been limited to the third floor of the dungeon and below.
Although still affected to some extent, the overall damage was limited, and these few floors could still operate normally without any issues. Allowing the guild to mostly keep any panic from spreading, as the bastion against any large-scale monster breach taking place, the third floor remained intact for now. Only when the towns on the third floor began falling and more passages leading up into the second floor of the dungeon emerged would those living in the city above start panicking and essentially force the guild to give up any assets and towns they still had inside the dungeon and focus entirely on preventing the first floor of the dungeon from being breached.
In a way, this was the worst-case scenario, but one that the branch guild master in charge of the Howling Caverns Dungeon had to think about with the increasingly powerful monsters emerging throughout the third floor of the dungeon. For now, it was manageable, but when the number of monsters reached a certain point, it would be impossible to stop them with the few adventures inside the dungeon.
The only thing he could do with the resources and people available to him was delay and cut down as many monsters as possible to delay the monsters at the third floor reaching a critical state that would trigger a dungeon breach.
At the very least, in this regard, he did have something positive that most other dungeons didn’t have... And that was the fact that the Howling Caverns Dungeon had an outpost located on the fourth floor of the dungeon, a depth that was incredibly difficult to establish a base of operations due to the powerful monsters that could be found on the fourth floor of a dungeon and below. The reason being that from the fourth floor and below, S Rank Monsters would begin to appear and establishing a base of operations or town in such a location could draw multiple S Rank Monsters over. Meaning that to establish such a town so deep inside a dungeon, a team of S Rank Adventures was required to guard it and establish strong enough barriers to resist S Rank Monsters.
The town on the fourth floor of the Howling Caverns was one such powerful town that had been established long before he had taken over the branch by a group consisting of three S Rank Adventurers and more than a dozen A Rank Adventurers, a terrifying lineup to say the least, but... In this situation, the town itself proved crucial in delaying the inevitable dungeon breach and monster stampede, as the monsters at the fourth floor of the dungeon had been drawn towards this powerful town that had countless powerful barriers capable of even resisting S Rank Monsters in place. Meaning, the monsters that arrived on the third floor of the dungeon were far fewer than what it would normally have been and relying on the powerful barriers that had been put in place by S Rank Magic Users in the past, they could even kill off a large number of the monsters on the fourth floor of the dungeon that approached without having to rely on powerful adventures to take care of the countless monsters.
But... This wasn’t without cost, as the resources required to run S Rank Barriers for such a long time without break were terrifying and even though a lot of resources had been saved up inside the town on the fourth floor, it would at most hold out for a few weeks.
If the reinforcements didn’t arrive before then, the town would fall and in turn, the powerful monsters that had been blocked by it would make their way up the third floor of the dungeon... And with the strength of these monsters, there was little chance that the towns and adventurers on the third floor of the dungeon would be able to hold out.
At most, the remaining barriers inside the dungeon placed by the Adventures guild would be able to hold on for another few days before the monsters reached the entrance on the first floor of the dungeon. In which case, the dungeon barrier, a standard S Rank barrier that was put at the entrance of every dungeon that the guild managed, would be the last line of defense against the monsters trying to break out of the dungeon.
Strong as this last line of defense was, it wasn’t exactly anywhere near the level of the barriers used to protect the town on the fourth floor of the dungeon and could only barely qualify as an S Rank Barrier, able to block an S Rank Monster for long enough that the Adventurers Guild would be able to respond and send reinforcements over.
After all, for monsters to reach this final line of defense, they would have had to go through countless other defensive lines beforehand. Giving the branch in charge of the dungeon more than enough time to request immediate assistance.
The problem this time around was, the branch that should have been sending over reinforcements, didn’t do so because of another more pressing situation regarding a dungeon that had already been breached and threatened to affect the entire Great Sky Kingdom.
Under normal circumstances, this would still be fine, as this branch could always request direct assistance from the headquarters, but... They had decided against doing that, as it would negatively reflect on them and cause an immediate investigation of every branch inside the Great Sky Kingdom to figure out what had gone wrong. Something that the capital branch did not want to see, causing them to try and solve everything on their own...
"Those greedy bastards..." Quietly muttering this to himself as he looked over a document detailing the current state of the third and fourth floor of the dungeon, the branch guild leader of Howling Cavern Branch, could not help narrowing his eyes slightly as he focused on a line at the very end of the document left by his old friend, the Crimson Flame Knight, who had been placed in charge of holding the line at the fourth floor because he was the strongest adventurer currently present inside the Howling Caverns Dungeon.
"... Traces of S Rank Monsters have been discovered... Haaa... Holding out a few weeks would buy us more than enough time to last until reinforcements from the headquarters show up, but S Rank Monsters appearing could cut that time down to a few days..." Sighing to himself as he muttered this while his fingers brushed past the few lines at the end that detailed how an S Rank Monster had been seen flying past the town, the branch guild leader couldn’t help feeling worried. Especially so because it had been noted by his old friend that this S Rank Monster was a Drake, a monster carrying the legendary dragon bloodline and had the potential to become a true dragon in the future.
Monsters with a dragon bloodline were well known to be stronger than others at their level. Meaning that this S Rank Monster wasn’t an ordinary S Rank Monster, but one that was stronger than normal.
The only reassuring thing was that this Drake had seemingly ignored the town and didn’t attack it. Instead, disappearing shortly after it had appeared. Not giving his old friend enough time to properly inspect it, but... Given that it was a Drake, there wasn’t much of a need to inspect it in the first place, as it was almost certainly an S Rank Monster.
All he could hope for was that this powerful monster would continue to ignore the town and wouldn’t join in on attacking the barriers guarding the town before reinforcements from the headquarters could show up...