"Enter the dreamscape...? Are... Are you sure?"
Having just been informed that they were to seek out one of the dream gates belonging to the Adventurer Guild and enter the dreamscape to try and find the divine beast that had left before they could reach it, one of the five kneeling figures could not help lifting his head in surprise as he looked up at the injured cardinal.
The dreamscape was a deadly place that shouldn’t be entered under normal circumstances and even though it was to try and find a divine beast, it was hardly worth the risk for them to enter the dreamscape without someone like the cardinal around. After all, to find the divine beast, they would undoubtedly have to leave the safety zones that had been established by the Adventurer Guild inside the dreamscape and wander into unexplored places that hadn’t been cleared by the Adventurer Guild.
Important as a divine beast was, it was hardly worth it to send the five of them into the dreamscape to chase after it. Especially with how unlikely it was for them to even find the divine beast in the first place and the simple fact that the divine beast would be able to leave in a similar way as it had when it had entered the dreamscape back when they had been about to reach it.
Not just the one who had stood up and directly questioned the order from the cardinal, but the remaining four who were still kneeling had a similar look of disbelief in their eyes after hearing the order to enter the dreamscape. Knowing just how dangerous it was to enter an inner realm like the dreamscape that only some crazy adventurers dared to explore.
Looks like these five are overthinking the situation. Thinking I’m sending them to their death or something...
Seeing the doubtful and even somewhat fearful look on the face of the one who had decided to raise his head and question him along with feeling the fear of the remaining four upon his mention of the dreamscape, the cardinal could not help rolling his eyes as he sighed to himself before voicing his internal thoughts. "Look at you all–I’m not sending you to the dreamscape to search the endless sky of that place and die along the way, I’m giving you an artifact I set up that can track the mana signature of the divine beast. Follow it and you should find the divine beast with ease inside the dreamscape."
"That... I understand." Hearing the words from the cardinal, the one facing the cardinal felt a clear sense of relief, "But what if the divine beast leaves the dreamscape again and returns to the material plane? We can’t exactly chase after it..." Though it didn’t last for long as he posed another question.
"Hah... You don’t have to worry about that, from what I could tell, the divine beast should be about to go through an evolution. In other words, it won’t move for weeks. Giving you more than enough time to approach it and bring it out of the dreamscape." Letting out an audible sigh this time around, the cardinal had clearly started losing his patience as he spelled everything out for the questioning man, who in turn blushed in embarrassment at the fact that he ended up having everything explained to him instead of trusting the cardinal’s words.
Still, even with everything explained, everyone still felt uneasy knowing that they were going to enter the dreamscape. After all, that place was truly out of anyone’s control and was more reminiscent of an undeveloped dungeon than anything else, a dungeon that stretched on endlessly with monsters strong enough to even leave a cardinal shivering in fear lurking somewhere inside.
The only thing they felt grateful for was the fact that the current location of the divine beast was one of the floating continents within the endless sky of the dreamscape that the Adventurer Guild had established a base on... And not just any base but a rather sizable one, as certain special resources that were difficult to find elsewhere in the dreamscape happened to be far easier to find on that specific floating continent.
But... Maybe the most important factor was that the floating continent itself wasn’t considered too dangerous, as the strength of the dreamscape monsters on it rarely exceeded the level of an S Rank Adventurer.
Even if this could still be considered dangerous beyond even that of most forbidden zones in the world, it was safe by the standards of the dreamscape that had all kinds of strange and deadly monsters living within it.
"I really hope the divine beast is somewhere within a designated safe zone by the Adventurer Guild..." Knowing that there was no more fighting against the order from the cardinal to find the divine beast, the leading man who had stood up to question the order to enter the dreamscape from the cardinal, quietly muttered a few words to himself as he began his journey towards a nearby free city that existed under the complete control of the Adventurer Guild.
The importance of a dream gate was of utmost importance to the Adventurer Guild and the creation of one required immense investment and time from the guild.
So, dream gates would never appear within a branch of the guild inside a kingdom or empire, but would almost always appear within a free city, a special kind of city that was under the complete control of the Adventurer Guild and generally served as a core branch for the branches that existed within a dozen or so kingdoms and empires. Existing only below the headquarters in terms of importance, while also having an adventurer above the S Rank guarding it.
As for the few instances dream gates appeared outside these free cities that served as one of the most important pieces of infrastructure for the guild’s expansion throughout the world, it mostly had to do with other major powers acquiring these dream gates from the Adventurer Guild... And unsurprisingly, the major power with the most dream gates under its control outside of the Adventurer Guild itself was none other than the Church of Light.
Unfortunately, most of those dream gates under the control of the Church of Light are nowhere near the Thousand Spire Mountain Range. Meaning that, the only way for them to reach the dreamscape in the short term was to borrow the one from the Adventurer Guild.
Troublesome as it might have been for most to do something like this, the relationship between the Church of Light and the Adventurer Guild made this kind of worry unnecessary, as the two often worked together when it came to dealing with the Holy Flower Sect and other similar troublemakers.
Because of this, though unwilling to head out, the five ultimately ended up leaving the Thousand Spire Mountain and headed in the direction of the nearest free city under the Adventurer Guild. Hoping with all their faith that the divine beast they were seeking was somewhere within a safe part of the floating continent that had already been explored by the adventurers in the past.
If not, they didn’t just plan on rushing forth on their own but had instead already planned to take the opportunity to bring along a group of adventurers to increase their own numbers and make travel safer.
Although it might have been difficult to recruit S Rank Adventurers outside the dreamscape, when it came to those inside the dreamscape exploring, it would be rather simple to recruit them by just stating they were heading to an unexplored part of the floating continent.
Saying those adventurers who resided inside the dreamscape were crazy wasn’t an understatement, as they would jump at any such opportunity knowing that there was someone willing to explore new areas of the dreamscape with them. Especially considering that they were from the Church of Light and could be considered trustworthy companion in the eyes of most adventures.
Not that trustworthiness mattered much to those within the dreamscape, as they would likely be happy to explore unknown sections of the floating continent with anyone willing to go with them, as those crazy adventurers no longer cared much about the precious materials and other things they could obtain from dreamscape monsters killed along the way, but were more so focused on exploring the mystical a beautiful dreamscape.
The reason behind this kind of outright obsession wasn’t understood by many, but most, including the group of five, regarded it as those strong adventures retiring within the beautiful dreamscape. Not willing to simply waste away somewhere and instead pouring their final strength into what could be considered the final frontier among adventurers who had long since explored large portions of the material plane.
An exploration that normally didn’t end with them ever returning from the dreamscape, as they would use whatever strength they had left to carve out what was considered safe zones within the dreamscape. Areas that had either been fully explored and determined to be safe by past adventurers or had been painfully cleared out to the point that no dangerous dreamscape monsters remained.