Following the recovery of the injured A Rank Adventurer and the rapid action from the local branch of the Adventurers Guild that wanted to do everything in their power to prevent a dungeon breach from taking place, countless small groups of adventurers set off to guide anyone still wandering around the first floor of the dungeon back before it was too late, while those remaining inside the city at the mouth of the dungeon began making preparations for the inevitable battle.
Only a very small number of adventurers not originally from the region decided to take the chance before the monster stampede arrived to escape from the Howling Caverns Dungeon. The reason why it was only a small number- outside of the simple fact that most of the adventurers present were locals whose families would be affected in case a dungeon breach took place, was because most adventurers felt confident in being able to fend off the monster stampede.
The confidence stemming from the presence of the adventurers from the main headquarters, as everyone understood, that those currently present at the Howling Caverns Dungeon were only a portion of those who had come to deal with the situation in the Great Sky Kingdom. In total, only around four of the S Rank Adventurers had entered the Howling Caverns Dungeon, while the rest were either in the capital city or busy trying to contain the monsters from Hollow Rat's Nest Dungeon.
Given that they could hold on for a bit against the monster stampede, reinforcements would be showing up to ensure that another dungeon breach didn't occur.
In a way, there were also a fair number of adventurers who saw the current situation as an opportunity to not just rapidly increase their own strength, but also a chance to stand out in front of the seniors from the main headquarters.
Even if they already had the opportunity to do so back on the third floor of the dungeon, there was a worlds difference between holding a town or city at the third floor and drawing a bit of attention in the process and standing out during the attack of a monster stampede.
This excitement only grew as more of the younger and more ambitious adventurers returned to the first floor from the third floor of the dungeon, while the return of these adventurers also helped reassure some of the guild staff helping handle the logistics of the preparation for meeting the monster stampede. Understanding from the words of those returning adventurers that outside of Fish Stone City, that seemed to have turned into the main target of the monster stampede, close to none of the other towns and cities on the third floor of the dungeon had been destroyed.
Meaning that the overall infrastructure of the dungeon remained intact… And, if the monster stampede could be dealt with and people could be sent back down to the third floor of the dungeon fast enough, the guild would be able to avoid having to essentially rebuild their dungeon infrastructure.
…
Unaware of the situation playing out up at the first floor of the dungeon, back on the third floor of the dungeon, Scaly slowly got up. Shaking her body and flapping her wings to ensure that they had recovered before turning her attention to the spiral staircase in the distance where Fish Stone City had once stood. The old city having been completely trampled into the ground by the endless number of monsters that had barreled through it a few hours earlier.
I should be fine now, the little mana left to recover should have fully recovered by the time I catch up with the escaping adventurers and the monster horde.
Thinking this to herself as she felt her own internal state, Scaly couldn't help silently feeling astonished at just how fast her mana had recovered compared to the past where she would need a rather long nap in the past. Not to mention the injury her wing had sustained, her recovery speed, both when it came to her mana and her health had increased significantly following her fifth evolution.
Whoosh~!
Feeling the strength coursing through her body, Scaly didn't linger around any longer than necessary. Taking off back into the sky as she flew in the direction of the spiral staircase leading back up to the second floor of the dungeon that she hadn't been to in a long time.
Though the underground world of the fourth floor of the dungeon did somewhat resemble the second floor of the dungeon. Especially the spider nest she had encountered. It wasn't the same and left her feeling somewhat nostalgic as she ascended to the very top of the spiral staircase still littered with the dead bodies of the monsters that had been too weak to keep up with the rest or simply ended up tripping while rushing up the stairs.
In fact, inspecting the dead bodies of the different monsters on the staircase, she realized that most of them seemed to be some she recognized from the fourth and fifth floor of the dungeon, while there was a suspiciously low number of monsters from the third floor of the dungeon. The weakest among the monsters that made up the monster horde back when it ascended the staircase to the second floor of the dungeon.
Looking even closer out of sheer curiosity after realizing this, she discovered that most of the monster had ended up dying after falling over with their feet suspiciously close to the different steps of the spiral staircase.
A clear indication that these monsters hadn't been overwhelmed by stronger monsters pushing them from behind but did indeed seem to have fallen over by sheer accident as they failed to ascend the stair leading to the second floor of the dungeon.
Considering that these monsters mainly came from the fourth and fifth floor of the dungeon and should have some experience when it came to ascending stairs by now, it was deeply confusing how they had seemingly gotten worse at climbing stairs instead of getting better.
Swish~
But after this quick discovery that left her deeply confused afterwards, she quickly continued up the stairs and soon enough found herself inside an expansive tunnel that far surpassed any tunnel she remembered seeing when she had been moving through the tunnels of the second floor of the dungeon herself in the past. Instead of the second floor of the dungeon, it reminded her of the more open underground world of the fourth floor. Not to the same extent, but still far larger than she remembered.
Doubtful as she was that this was natural to the second floor of the dungeon, she continued moving forward after a brief pause and sensing no monsters lurking nearby outside of those who had already died during what she could only imagine having been a deadly struggle between them and the adventurers.
Looking at the countless dead bodies close to the stairs leading down to the third floor of the dungeon made it clear just how massive the clash had been.
Just imagining how much experience and how many levels she could have gained if she had been the one to kill off all these monsters made her feel somewhat jealous of those adventurers.
However, everything was not lost, as she still had time to catch up with them. Even if the losses of monsters seemed massive, it was nothing more than a drop in the ocean compared to the seemingly endless sea of monsters she had seen back then. There was still experience and levels for her to gain and there was no time to waste, as she rapidly made her way through the massive tunnel that made it rather simple for her to guess what direction the monster horde had been moving in.
Soon enough, reaching the stairs leading up from the second floor to the first floor of the dungeon where she had originally found herself born as a weak little dungeon lizard.
Huh…? That is… Do they get worse at climbing stairs the more they climb…?
However, before she could ascend the stairs leading to the first floor of the dungeon, she found herself freezing on spot upon noticing the large number of dead monsters centered on those stairs.
Not only were there a lot of monsters from the fifth and fourth floor of the dungeon like before, but now there were also a lot of dead monsters from the third floor of the dungeon, with there being close to no monsters from the second floor of the dungeon. Making her suspect for real that these monsters were indeed getting worse at climbing stairs the more stairs they encountered.
Odd as this was, she couldn't argue in the face of the truth, as she silently vowed to herself that she wouldn't follow in the footsteps of her fellow monsters-
Thump~
A promise that lasted a grand total of three seconds, as she tripped over one of the dead monsters and found herself joining them on the stairs…