Having been caught completely off guard by the senior from the Adventurer Guild that had ended up throwing them through the dream gate into the dreamscape without any warning after hearing that they had been assigned to a mission that required them to enter the dreamscape by a cardinal, the group of five from the Holy Light Church found themselves flying out of the dream gate without any time to stop themselves-
"Whaaa-!"
"Why are we flying!?"
"That’s a wallll-"
Bang!
And along with their loud panicked screams, the group of five crashed headfirst into a wall only a few meters away from the dream gate located inside the dreamscape. Catching the person in charge of watching the dream gate within the dreamscape completely off guard in the process.
"Ouch! Get off me!"
"I’m trying! Stop flailing around!"
"Don’t step on my- Ah!"
"That... Sorry... If I broke your family jewels..."
"Pain..."
"Ahm! Excuse me..." As the group had momentarily lost the bearing befitting of senior members of the Holy Light Church, the member of the Adventurer Guild watching the scene couldn’t help calling out to the chaotic bunch. Catching all five by surprise, as they didn’t realize someone was watching them, causing all five to freeze before quickly getting their act together and back on their feet.
All except one, who was still writhing on the ground in silent pain after the devastating blow his family jewels suffered during the chaotic scramble. Only after a stern glance from the senior sister did he barely force himself up with the assistance of a nearby wooden pillar.
"Ah, excuse the earlier unsightly behavior, we were thrown through the dream gate earlier and didn’t exactly land in the best possible way..." Seeing everyone standing, the senior sister who had managed to mostly escape unscratched from the earlier situation calmly explained herself to the staff member staring at them somewhat oddly.
"No worries, it isn’t the first time something like this happens, it is rather normal for the senior to throw someone through the dream gate in case it needs to be forcibly closed because of interference from the dreamscape. The only surprise is that it was someone from the Holy Light Church, you fellows don’t enter the dreamscape that often and tend to do so through dream gates under your church’s control."
"I see... But interference from the dreamscape? Do you mean the battle that the senior who threw us through the dream gate mentioned? And closed dream gate... Does that mean we can’t leave the dreamscape?" Not that knowledge when it came to the dreamscape, the senior sister could not help curiously asking after hearing what the staff member said. Especially the latter where he had mentioned the dream gate being closed.
"Yes, powerful dreamscape monsters fighting close to the dream gate makes it impossible... And in the case of the battle this time around, the dreamscape monsters fighting is so powerful that they don’t need to be that close to cause interference with the dream gate.
As for the dream gate being closed... Yes, it is impossible to leave the dreamscape for now with it closed unless you want to take the risk of travelling to another outpost inside the dreamscape, but I would personally not recommend doing something that dangerous. Normally, it should reopen again in another two or three weeks. Maybe a bit longer depending on how long those powerful dreamscape monsters fight."
"Two or three weeks... Got it!"
"No problem, you should have some specific purpose for entering the dreamscape compared to the others coming to the dreamscape for the first time, so I will leave you to it. Though this outpost is on the smaller side, you don’t have to worry about finding somewhere to sleep.
The inns here are all owned by the guild and don’t cost anything. After all, those entering the dreamscape are normally at least A Rank Adventurers and the value of having someone in the dreamscape makes it more than worthwhile for the guild to encourage more adventurers to enter."
"Understood..." Nodding her head upon hearing what the staff member said, the senior sister could not help quietly rolling her eyes at the mention of the inn being free and not needing to worry about finding anywhere to sleep.
Indeed, the inns might be free, and food might also follow the same trend of being free, but the dreamscape itself was not exactly somewhere anyone could enter. The requirement being for one to at least be a B Rank or a staff member in charge of keeping the dreamscape outpost running.
Along with these thoughts, the five soon enough made their way out of the small building that had been dedicated to the dream gate. Finding themselves at the center of a large city designed like a fortress filled with people. Farl large than they had original anticipated from an outpost inside the dreamscape.
Just from a glance, there were at least a few hundred people around and with most of them being adventurers who had come to explore the dreamscape, it meant at least a few hundred A Rank Adventurers along with dozens of S Rank Adventurers.
After all, though one might be able to enter the dreamscape upon reaching B Rank, adventurers would rarely do so given just how deadly the dreamscape was.
Free inns and food might be tempting to lower rank adventurers, but B Rank Adventurers were already considered towards the higher end among adventurers and hardly ever worried about having money to stay at an inn or to fill themselves.
Though staying in the dreamscape might save them a bit money, the problem of finding jobs to take on would inevitably come up and the only jobs found within the dreamscape were outside the outpost, as most menial things inside were directly handled by the Adventurers Guild’s staff.
Shaking off the surprise from the sheer size of the outpost compared to their original expectations of a small space with maybe a hundred or so people in total, the five wasted no time as they made their way towards the nearby branch of the Adventurer Guild located right next to the dream gate.
Not only to find out about what lurked in the direction that the artifact given to them by the cardinal pointed in, but also to see if they could pick up a few powerful adventurers to tag along with them to make the overall journey safer.
This had always been the original plan and the fact that there were more adventurers inside the dreamscape than they had originally considered could only be seen as something positive. The problem the group of five ended up finding themselves facing was the fact that the direction that the divine beast was in happened to be the same as that of the terrifying battle that had disrupted the dream gate from afar and forced the Adventurer Guild to close it down temporarily.
Because of this, even though they still decided to head out and do their best to avoid the terrifying battle between these demigods of the dreamscape, the number of S Rank Adventurers willing to join them were far smaller than originally anticipated.
After all, though most adventurers entering the dreamscape were brave and fearless when it came to exploring the deadly dreamscape, it didn’t mean that they would recklessly charge into a clearly dangerous situation like they were doing. Especially considering that the direction of the divine beast they had come to the dreamscape for happened to be an unexplored region that had not even received a cursory exploration from the adventurers.
The reason behind this had nothing to do with the adventurers themselves not attempting to explore the area, but more so had to do with the region being deadly even to S Rank Adventurers. Along with there still being safer regions that had yet to be explored around the outpost, the adventurers had generally avoided exploring the region, with only a few attempts every now and then that ended in failure.
In a sense, the few adventures that the five ultimately managed to recruit to join them were among such reckless adventures who had wanted to take advantage of the battle playing out to potentially explore the region by leveraging the intimidation those two powerful monsters had on the normal dreamscape monsters in the region.
Still... Having a few adventurers join them on the journey at least made it safer for them to continue their search for the divine beast. The thought of giving up on the task that had personally been delegated to them by the cardinal had never appeared, as they had already prepared themselves to potentially lose their lives to complete the mission.
And so, after a single day of rest after entering the dreamscape, the group of five alongside a few eager S Rank Adventurers began their journey towards the battlefield of the two demigods of the dreamscape locked in battle with each other. Filled with both Anticipation and fear knowing that they would be getting close to a battle of such magnitude, as they might never have an opportunity to witness such a battle again–and not just because they might lose their lives in the process.