Escaping from the terrifying battlefield that was now playing out behind her, Scaly could not stop herself from shivering whenever she turned around to look at the overwhelming display of power behind her. Knowing that only by getting away from the city and dungeon entrance would she be safe from the terrifying entity behind her. Escaping back into the dungeon didn’t even appear in the back of her mind as she instinctively understood that the goal of this terrifying entity was to suppress the chaos that the monsters from the dungeon had caused.
If she really did escape into the dungeon again. Not to mention the human Archmage who might be there to catch her the second she rushed back inside, there was also a very real possibility that she would get caught by the sea of thunder cascading down into the city. Strong as her scales might be, she didn’t think they were anywhere strong enough to withstand the terrifying sea of lightning from that terrifying entity. Even if she successfully went through another evolution, she doubted she would be able to face that kind of terrifying entity. Maybe only after going through another two evolutions would she stand a chance against someone that powerful.
Of course, it could also just be her overestimating the strength of this adventurer because of the powerful first impression he had just left her with. For all she knew, she might become far stronger after going through her next evolution. Reaching a level where she would be able to deal with the terrifying adventurer.
No matter what it was. The most important thing for her was to get as far away from the city and in turn also dungeon before she ended up drawing any unwanted attention from the terrifying adventurer.
Luckily, even though she was still nowhere near her most optimal state when it came to mana, she still had more than enough to ensure that she would be able to fly for a few minutes at full speed. More than enough time for her to put a significant distance between herself and the city.
The problem she found herself facing was the simple fact that she had no idea where she was nor where to go now that she had left the dungeon. Even less so, where to find monsters to hunt down in the future to continue increasing her strength.
But for now, this problem was thrown to the back of her mind as getting away was far more important. After getting to safety, she would have the time to think about what to do I the future. Be it finding somewhere outside a dungeon with abundant monsters that she could hunt down to continue increasing her strength or finding another dungeon that she would be able to enter.
Dangerous as it might be for her to enter a dungeon again considering that it might be guarded by adventurers similar to the one she had spent her life inside so far, it was still true that a dungeon was by far the best place for her to increase her strength, as it had never been difficult for her to find monsters to hunt down inside the Howling Caverns Dungeon.
...
Having stabilized the situation in the city and dealt with the monster that had been rushing out from the dungeon entrance, the terrifying adventurer that had left even Scaly shivering in fear in the face of his terrifying display of power, casually glanced off in the direction that Scaly had escaped in. "Was that the divine beast mentioned by Mari?" Muttering this to himself, indicating that her little escape hadn’t been missed by him. Instead, she had been allowed to escape solely because of her being a suspected divine beast.
In a way, Scaly owed her life to Mari, as without her having informed this terrifying adventurer ahead of time, he would have undoubtedly launched another spear towards her and prevented her from escaping.
The reason why he didn’t try to catch up to her was rather simple, while his spear could catch up to her, he himself wouldn’t be able to do so, as he still had to remain focused on dealing with the monsters streaming out of the Howling Caverns Dungeon. Especially so considering that the monsters had already managed to spread beyond the city limits before he had shown up. Allowing the dungeon itself to spread its influence beyond its normal boundaries.
In a sense, the current Howling Cave City could be considered to have already become part of the Howling Cavern Dungeon, with monsters now able to appear within the boundaries of the city.
Although the monsters had been cleared up for now, the influence of the dungeon lingered and wasn’t something that could be dealt with in a short time. If anything, the influence of the dungeon would continue to spread outwards without any direct interference and constant clean up from the Adventurers Guild... And while it was still early and the influence of the dungeon could be pushed back to some extent, it wouldn’t be easy to force it back to its former state before the dungeon breach had taken place.
Even with the situation having now stabilized, attempting to return the dungeon to its former state would likely take anywhere from a few months to a few years. Time that the Holy Flower Sect would be able to take advantage of to cause another dungeon breach.
The appearance of a divine beast was the only real reason why the powerful dwarf adventurer could remain somewhat calm even with a dungeon breach already having taken place. Understanding that he and the guild would be able to leverage the appearance of this divine beast to get the assistance of the Holy Light Church, who would undoubtedly be more than happy to send over a few people to search for the divine beast and at the same time deal with the heretics of the Holy Flower Sect, something that would allow him and the rest of the adventurers from the main headquarters to focus entirely on the dungeons in the Great Sky Kingdom.
In a way, outside of just allowing Scaly to escape, he had also used the chance to confirm what Mari had told him about her beforehand... And from her appearance alone, he could already partially confirm the authenticity of what Mari had told him.
Even if Scaly didn’t turn out to be a divine beast, he didn’t think the Holy Light Church would be able to find any problems with the Adventurers Guild’s claim regarding her being a divine beast. Not just because her appearance looked exactly like one would expect a divine beast to look like, but also because of the now documented instances of Scaly saving adventurers during the chaotic battle.
These instances of her savin adventurers along with her appearance would be more than enough for the Adventurers Guild to lean on in case Scaly turned out to not be a divine beast like she seemed to be from what they had gathered so far.
The only one who might lose out would be the Holy Light Church, as the Adventurers Guild didn’t exactly value divine beasts to the same degree as the Holy Light Church that actively sought out divine beasts.
Instead, the guild’s overall policies regarding divine beast were to either leave them alone, try to recruit them into the guild if possible or just sell information on their whereabouts to the Holy Light Church.
It was also because of these policies that the Adventurers Guild had been able to remain in a relatively positive relationship with the Holy Light Church, as the Adventurers Guild was the main contributor to helping the Holy Light Church finding divine beasts in the first place.
After all, while the Holy Light Church had spread their influence throughout the continent, the Adventurers Guild were operating in far more precarious locations far from the different empires and kingdoms. Allowing them to have a much easier time encountering not just powerful monsters, but also divine beasts.
Because of this, though some hard liners in the Holy Light Church didn’t particularly like the Adventurers Guild, they continued to exist peacefully with each other.
Another reason for this peaceful existence also had to do with the existence of the Holy Flower Sect, who was the main enemy of the Holy Light Church.
Compared to a rival religion like the Holy Flower Sect, the importance of the Adventurers Guild that wasn’t even a religious organization didn’t really matter much, as it didn’t threaten the core interests of the church like the Holy Flower Sect did.
For this reason, there was a high likelihood that the Holy Light Church would be more than happy to help the Adventurers Guild deal with the Holy Flower Sect without the appearance of a divine beast, but... With a divine beast on top of it, it was almost guaranteed that the Holy Light Church would make a move.