As the headquarters of the Adventures Guild officially received information about the current state of the Great Sky Kingdom and the failure of the local capital branch of the guild, back in the Howling Caverns Dungeon, the situation of the fourth floor of the dungeon had become far more relaxed compared to a week ago when a drake had been spotted flying near the town that essentially served as the final bastion that held back the stronger monsters from reaching the third floor of the dungeon.
The reason for this was that a few days earlier, the crimson flame knight had gone out to ensure that the monsters weren’t sneaky up another staircase leading up to the third floor of the dungeon and had in the process had another encounter with the drake that had been spotted a week ago. Only difference this time around being that the crimson flame knight had an opportunity to properly inspect and assess the strength of this drake and although it was powerful, it turned out to still only be A Rank.
Stronger than the crimson flame knight, yes, but not strong enough to pose a real threat to the S Rank Barriers guarding the town.
On the other hand, if those barriers could wound the drake, there was even a chance that the crimson flame knight might be able to take advantage of its injured state to kill it.
Although not a true dragon, a drake was still a monster incredibly close to becoming a true dragon and every part of it was of immense value. Especially the dragon heart that was all but guaranteed to exist inside a monster so close to becoming a true dragon.
Normally, a dragon heart might not be of much value, but if used to create a special dragon heart potion by alchemists, it could help boost one’s physical strength and if the quality of the dragon heart was high enough, it would even be able to increase someone’s lifespan.
In a way, if they could kill the drake and get their hands on the dragon heart without damaging it, the losses suffered by the Adventures Guild in the Howling Caverns Dungeon could be made up for. The problem was of course that a drake was notoriously difficult to kill due to its flying abilities. Making it hard for even an S Rank Adventurer to kill it.
For this reason, the crimson flame knight didn’t attempt to try and hunt down the drake on his own and only hoped that it would attack the barriers of the town and potentially give him an opportunity to strike it down in the process.
However, the most important outcome of all of this was that those holding the line at the fourth floor no longer felt as nervous as they had been in the past, as there was no longer any sign of S Rank Monsters appearing on the fourth floor of the dungeon. Even better, the short outing by the crimson flame knight had also made it clear that only a few monsters were moving up the other staircases leading up to the third floor of the dungeon.
Although this would still end up putting some pressure on the adventures on the third floor of the dungeon, it wouldn’t be enough to break the towns on the third floor and might even end up attracting more adventurers willing to risk their lives in a rare tumultuous time for the dungeon to increase their own strength.
Of course, outside of doing it for the hope of increasing their own strength and rank, there were also those who joined the chaos with the sole purpose of harvesting a lot of normally rare monster materials that they would then be able to sell for a high price after the situation calmed down again. In a way, this was the reason why most of the adventures on the third floor of the dungeon ended up deciding to leave the safety of the towns that had been established by the guild to risk their lives on the different overrun islands of the third floor of the dungeon.
After all, an opportunity like this was hard to come by and when it came, not only would they be able rapidly increase their strength through fighting a seemingly endless number of monsters and harvest a lot of normally rare monster materials, but the Adventures Guild would also reward those who decided to step up and help the guild in a time of turmoil.
In a way, the reward given by the guild was the main reason why most of the adventures on the third floor decided to leave safety and hunt down monsters, as the reward from the guild was always guaranteed to be good and would ensure that their reputation inside the guild grew. Allowing them to accept far more rewarding quests from the guild in the future and potentially also receiving some preferential treatment.
But by far, the most important reason why these adventures were willing to go outside and help clear up monsters was because the branch guild leader in charge of the Howling Caverns Dungeon had already informed everyone inside that the headquarters had been informed about the situation and would be sending over reinforcements to help clean up the situation.
In the process, the branch guild leader had of course not said anything about him being the one to inform the headquarters instead of the capital guild branch, but still... Knowing that the headquarters was now involved and would be sending people over had seemingly ignited the passion of all the adventures present inside the Howling Caverns Dungeon. Even those on the second and first floor had begun to work hard, as everyone wanted to ensure that they would leave a good impression on these seniors who would be showing up.
The reason for this being that everyone understood that anyone sent by the headquarters as reinforcement in this kind of situation would at least be at the A Rank with no lack of S Rank Adventures.
For the adventures of the Howling Caverns Dungeon where only a single crimson flame knight at the A Rank was present, this kind of terrifying force was far beyond what they were used to and there were plenty of young adventurers who wanted to do their best to possibly stand out and potentially be noticed by one of these senior figures. The most hopeful among them even starting to dream about being taken in and taught by one of these senior figures in the Adventures Guild.
Of course, it wasn’t just hopeful thinking on their part, as there were plenty of precedents of those senior figures dispatched by the headquarters using the opportunity while suppressing a dungeon stampede or unrest in a dungeon to assess the younger adventurers taking part in the suppression and taking a few talented younger adventures back with them to the headquarters.
In a way, this could be considered the main way that the headquarters continued to remain the strongest, as it was directly recruiting talented young people from across the world whenever they dispatched a group of senior adventurers to solve a problem that the local branch couldn’t deal with.
Because of this, the local branches of the guild also felt unwilling to call for help unless it was necessary, as the headquarters would essentially sweep up most of the young talented adventures wherever they passed through.
Then again, they were still part of the Adventurers Guild and there weren’t really too many complaints about it and it was more so an internal competition between the different capital branches of the guild, as there wasn’t really any way for them to get anywhere close to the main headquarters.
After all, compared to the capital branches that had at least a handful S Rank Adventures stationed in them, the number of S Rank Adventures in the headquarters numbered in the thousands... And that was without mentioning the presence of adventurers who had surpassed the S Rank.
Across the entire world, the number of locations outside the headquarters that had adventures above the S Rank stationed could be counted on two hands, and most of those locations weren’t capital branches, but instead extremely dangerous locations that the Adventures Guild needed someone that strong to keep eye on.
Because of this, there wasn’t really any way for the capital branches of the guild to get anywhere close to the headquarters and it was at most an internal competition between the different capital branches to see who was the strongest. After all, being the strongest capital branch did come with some benefits in the form of resources that would allow the branch in question to further develop the different dungeons and other dangerous locations under their management. Turning into a positive loop where more developed dungeons and resources rich regions would give birth to stronger adventures that would in turn increase the strength of the local branch. Giving them access to more resources that would then allow them to continue developing the dungeon infrastructure and so on...