As the branch guild leader in charge of the Howling Caverns Dungeon continued to anxiously monitor the state of the dungeon. Keeping an eye out for any news regarding the S Rank Monster that had been spotted by his old friend at the fourth floor of the dungeon. Time began to slowly tick by without anything significant happening inside the dungeon that warranted special attention.
Although the state of the dungeon and the towns inside it was growing worse with each passing day, this was to be expected with the increasing number of monsters slowly taking over the third floor of the dungeon. Pushing back against the established towns and outposts that were located on the third floor of the dungeon. The overall state of the dungeon was better than originally expected, as not a single A Rank Monster had managed to make their way up to the third floor of the dungeon to cause chaos. All of them being stopped at the town on the fourth floor or directly hunted down by the crimson flame knight.
Great as all this was, it didn’t mean that things were entirely in the clear, as after a week had passed in this kind of situation, it would still be another week until the reinforcements from the headquarters showed up to help stabilize the situation.
If even a single S Rank Monster appeared during this time, it wouldn’t take more than two or three days for it to force its way through all the barriers laid out by the Adventures Guild and officially breakthrough the final barrier at the dungeon entrance. After all, though the barriers guarding the town on the fourth floor of the dungeon proved far more powerful than the one located at the entrance of the dungeon, the number and strength of the monsters that had attacked the town and in turn barriers guarding the town... Proved to be far more numerous than originally expected. Resulting in the overall stockpile of resources to power the barrier running out far faster than originally expected.
Even if it would still be enough to last until reinforcements appeared if things continued like they were now, an S Rank Monster joining the mix could quickly change the situation. Breaking this bastion that ensured that the situation on the third floor remained stable. Triggering a cascade of events that would force the guild to temporarily abandon the dungeon and the infrastructure it had built up over countless years, something that the branch guild leader hoped to avoid, as even if he didn’t get punished, he would undoubtedly find himself tasked with reconstruction efforts.
And... For a dungeon the size of the Howling Caverns, this kind of reconstruction effort could take decades, essentially ensuring that he would be swamped with work and left with no time to rest for decades.
To ensure that this kind of nightmare scenario wouldn’t end up playing out, the branch guild leader had even decided to directly inform his old friend about a rather bold plan of his in case the S Rank Monster appeared and decided to target the town on the fourth floor of the dungeon.
The bold plan in question revolving around said friend taunting an S Rank Monster before doing everything in his power to draw said S Rank Monster away from the town and avoid the last remaining resources left to power the barriers guarding the town being used up to defend against the S Rank Monster.
Of course, if it was a normal A Rank Adventurer, the branch guild leader would have never dared propose this kind of plan, but... It just so happened that this old friend of his was a special case. Having managed to learn a unique skill called Earth Fire’s Dance that allowed him to move at a speed comparable to that of an S Rank Adventurer or in this case, an S Rank Monster.
This was his old friend’s trump card and the skill that had allowed him to advance all the way up to the upper echelons of A Rank, while he himself had remained stuck at the B Rank.
All this aside, the branch guild leader had done his best to prepare for any situation that might occur during the last week before the reinforcement from the headquarters appeared and the only thing left for him to do was wait and hope that nothing ended up going wrong.
Although... Having already accounted for the potential of an S Rank Monster attacking the town on the fourth floor, the only thing that could truly catch him off guard by now would be for a second S Rank Monster to appear.
But the chances of something like that happening over the next week, even with the current turmoil taking place inside the dungeon and the fact that stronger monsters were being pushed towards higher floors, S Rank Monsters were notoriously slow to move upwards unless prompted to do so like what had happened with the Hollow Rat’s Nest Dungeon.
The only natural thing that could move these powerful monsters upwards was if a true dungeon stampede began, at which point all the S Rank Monster in the lower floors would be prompted to move upwards.
Luckily... The number of S Rank Monsters who did end up reaching the surface in these kinds of situations were minimal, if not, there would have been no way for the Great Sky Kingdom and the Adventures Guild Capital Branch to stop the advance of the monsters that had broken out of Hollow Rat’s Nest.
ON the other hand, the cleanup would still be painful, as there would be S Rank Monsters lurking around the higher floors of the dungeon that would normally be free from such powerful monsters, needing a skilled team of adventures in the S Rank and several A Rank teams working together to sweep through the first few floors and ensure that any S Rank Monster was taken care of.
But... With the size of each floor of a dungeon easily spanning the territory of a small kingdom if not more, this kind of cleanup process would normally take years depending on the number of adventurers available for the task.
However, outside of this kind of dungeon break that was normally known amongst adventures, there was another kind of dungeon break, known as a true dungeon break, where all the monster inside the dungeon would rush up from the very depths of the dungeon. Enacting a catastrophic event that rarely happened and often spelled the end of whatever kingdom of empire it happened in.
The reason for this was simple, there were far too many powerful monsters lurking in the depths of some dungeons whose depths hadn’t yet been fully explored by the Adventurers Guild, some containing monsters even said to surpass the S Rank.
In fact, most of the forbidden zones that could be found throughout the world had come about because of a dungeon that went far deeper than the Adventurers Guild could explore, experiencing a true dungeon break.
Information regarding this kind of dungeon break was not common knowledge and was generally only known by A Rank Adventurers and above, along with guild staff and different high-ranking people throughout the world.
Not because it was being hidden so to speak, but more so because these kinds of events rarely happened once every few hundred or even thousands of years.
Overall, the different events that happened when it came to dungeons could be described as...
A Dungeon stampede, an event where a large number of monsters gather to form a massive horde that sweeps through the dungeon, heading towards the entrance to breakthrough the barrier blocking it.
If the monster horde succeeds in this, a dungeon break or dungeon breach, occurs, where the dungeon barrier is broken and the monster horde swarms out of the dungeon and into the world- or more often than not, the city that has been built around the dungeon. A catastrophic event in itself, but far from worst case scenario.
That title belongs to the realm of a true dungeon break... A scenario where all the monsters inside the dungeon rush up from the lowest floor to the highest floor, a true catastrophe that can bring about the destruction of an entire kingdom or empire and create a brand-new forbidden zone in the world if the dungeon contained monsters beyond the S Rank.
There are also other minor events, but they are hardly worth mentioning in comparison to these three events that any branch guild leader in charge of managing a dungeon fears.
As for the current state of the Howling Caverns Dungeon? It had not yet reached the point of forming a dungeon stampede but was inching closer to the point where it would occur, what the branch guild leader had been doing so far was essentially attempting to delay the formation of a dungeon stampede for as long as possible. Knowing that if one formed, there wouldn’t be much he could do to stop it, as the monster that now mostly roamed around aimlessly on the third floor of the dungeon would gather into a horde that would work together under some unseen force to sweep through the dungeon and try to breach whatever barrier or enemy that stood in their way on their path to leaving the dungeon...