Having chosen the second stage of the dreamscale dragon evolution as her sixth evolution, Scaly didn’t have much time to find a comfortable place in the small hidden space beneath the floating island that she had decided to hide away inside for her evolution this time around before she felt the familiar painful sensation followed by her consciousness fading to black.
The only difference this time around was that she didn’t feel the slightest bit worried about having to look for food after her evolution like she had in the past. Knowing that this worry would forever be behind her in the future, as her new evolution included a way for her to survive or rather sustain her existence through mana.
Although she had no idea how any of it ultimately worked, she figured it wouldn’t be much different from eating. Only this time around, she would be eating mana instead of actual food.
The entire thing sounded quite novel to her and part of her was already looking forward to figuring out what eating mana was like and how it tasted. If it was as delicious as she hoped, she might never have any interest in eating anything other than mana again, though... Part of her had a feeling that things were unlikely to be that wonderful.
...
At the same time Scaly entered a deep sleep to go through her sixth evolution, at the edge of a large road, a group of five individuals clad in pristine white armor and robes packed their tents and sleeping equipment before continuing forward with a solemn sense of determination surrounding them.
Not a single word was uttered between the five for the next three hours since getting up before a small mountain with what could barely be made out to be a temple ruin at the top appeared in the distance. Beneath which, a large city could be seen alongside several smaller settlements close to the city at the base of the mountain.
"Temple Guard City, finally here..."
Seeing this city, one of the five finally opened his mouth as he spoke the name of the city in the distance with a sense of relief on his face. Knowing that they wouldn’t have to spend any more time wandering around outside and finally had the chance to get a proper bed to rest in.
"Don’t relax too fast, we are not here to sightsee, but to use the dream gate to enter the dreamscape. After which our situation will likely be far worse than what we had to go through over the past few days..."
"That... I know, but who in the world was it that decided to take off immediately without even getting supplies for the journey?! If not for that merchant caravan we encountered along the way, we might have ended up starving to death!"
"Ehm! How could I know the distance between the Thousand Spire Mountain Range and Temple Guard City was that great? Not to mention the lack of both settlements and monsters in between?"
"Oh... I don’t know, maybe if you took some time in picking the shorter route instead of having us wander through some wasteland that had recently been picked clean by a horde of monsters a few weeks earlier?"
"You, I swear I-"
"Stop you two, we don’t have time to argue about this. First, let’s get to Temple Guard City and find the local guild branch and inform them about our situation. Knowing the relationship between our two sides, it should be easy to gain access to the dreamscape through their dream gate, but still, we must prepare in case something unexpected happens on their side."
Stepping in before the two started an argument that had already played out a few times during their relatively short journey after the group had realized that they had ended up taking a wrong turn at some point and turned a journey that would originally only have been over a day into three times that, a tall woman in an ornately decorated robe stopped the two troublemakers before taking the lead.
""...""
Knowing that it was best not to offend this senior sister, the two glanced briefly at each other for a second before following behind her alongside the other two who had already set off. None of them have any intention of joining their childish battle.
Of course, another reason was because these two had already shown what would happen if anyone else wanted to join their little verbal spar, as whoever ended up being unlucky enough to step in would inevitably get dragged in and blamed for the mistake of taking the wrong path.
After all, even if they weren’t the ones who had ended up picking the path, they had still been sitting behind and allowed the path to get chosen and thus, they could also be blamed for what had ended up happening.
Yes... The entire situation was rather troublesome and it was clear that these two were just using the opportunity to vent their emotions, as they were trying their best not to think about the fact that they would soon have to enter a deadly place like the dreamscape, a place feared even by someone like themselves who had strength comparable to that of S Rank Adventurers.
The other three also understood the reason behind the behavior of the two and weren’t too angry with them and allowed them to continue their small verbal spars during the journey, but... Now that they were about to reach Temple Guard City and enter the dreamscape, this kind of childish venting would have to cease.
A fact that the two troublemakers also understood as they both followed behind obediently while mentally preparing themselves for what they might encounter inside the dreamscape.
After all, they wouldn’t just be lingering around one of the relatively safe locations inside the dreamscape under the complete control of the Explorer Union but would almost certainly have to wander into an unknown location outside the areas explored by the Explorer Union.
The reason for this was not just how far away the divine beast was within the dreamscape compared to the location of the Explorer Union base, but also because the five of them heavily doubted that the divine beast would decide to undergo its evolution somewhere close to the Explorer Union base that swarmed with eager adventurers willing to risk their lives exploring the dreamscape and the different monsters lurking within.
Like this, the group of five became quiet once more as they approached the city at the base of the small mountain. Passing through a few smaller settlements along the way that mainly consisted of different farming villages that provided Temple Guard City with food, as there was no way such a large city could survive solely through the monster meat that was obtained through the famous dungeon that the city was centered around.
Although there might also be other kinds of food that could be obtained through a dungeon, hardly any adventurer would bother carrying that kind of stuff out given how little value it carried compared to a monster carcass.
Speaking of the dungeon that Temple Guard City was centered around, it was rather famous and well known even to the five from the Holy Light Church.
Not because the dungeon itself was filled with powerful monsters, but instead because the location of the dungeon and the history behind it was unique even for a dungeon. Having emerged at the very top of the mountain in the past. The mountain top that just so happened to have housed a temple of the Holy Light Church.
Unsurprisingly, the temple had been completely unprepared for a dungeon and worse, a dungeon break had taken place at the second of its appearance, causing the temple that had been a local stronghold for the Church of Light to fall and the guarding cardinal along with it.
In the end, such an unlikely scenario where even a cardinal standing far above the level of S Rank Adventurers had ended up perishing garnered the direct attention of the Holy See and later resulted in information about it being a plot by the Holy Flower Sect being revealed, something that had ended up fully enraging the Holy Light Church into mobilizing a holy crusade towards the Holy Flower Sect that had been close to turning the small mountain into a forbidden ground.
Ultimately, the Holy Flower Sect had failed, and the dungeon stabilized with the swift response from the Holy See, but the temple couldn’t be recovered, and the cardinal was still dead, thus the management of the dungeon was handed over to the Adventurer Guild.
The only thing the church had asked from the guild in the past was to establish a proper memorial in return, something the guild was more than happy to do, as they took the opportunity to establish a free city in the location that already severed as the intersection between over a dozen different kingdoms and smaller local powers.