Falling asleep inside her temporary home, Scaly spent the next hours peacefully sleeping while the light from the sun outside shone through the cracks in the loose stone wall she had constructed at the entrance to her small temporary home.

Not so different from the third floor of the dungeon, the fourth floor of the dungeon was also plagued by an eternal day. Making it a rather difficult endeavor to sleep properly without finding somewhere underground or inside a cave to sleep where the sun couldn't reach.

In the end, because of the light, Scaly also ended up waking up after only six or so hours of sleep-

Roll~

Well… Not fully awake, as she took to rolling around a bit while slowly opening her eyes to look at the loose stone wall that had partly collapsed during the time she had been asleep without her even noticing.

Although far from collapsed to the point that any monster walking by outside would notice her, it was still surprising to her that she hadn't woken up due to it, but then again, it had been some time since she had last gotten some rest, thus resulting in her sleeping so deeply that she didn't notice.

Oh well… At least I managed to recover my mana and didn't end up being attack by any monsters…

Stopping herself from rolling from side to side as she thought this to herself, Scaly stretched her body eagerly before personally destroying the loose stone wall and making her way outside to try and hunt down a mountain rabbit like she had promised herself to do after she recovered her mana.

Not just to try and find out how delicious it was, but also because she had grown quite hungry after waking up and needed to eat something to satiate her hunger.

Squeak?

And it just so happened that the moment she poked her head out, she came face to face with a mountain rabbit who happened to walk past the place where she had been sleeping.

[Mountain Rabbit, lvl 17]

Not just that, but it also happened to be the exact same mountain rabbit that had escaped from her before she had gone to sleep.

SQUEAK!?

Realizing this around the same time as she did, the mountain rabbit let out a loud panicked squeak as it wasted no time in turning around to escape in the opposite direction of Scaly.

Whoosh-!

However, having already been outrun once, Scaly had no plans of allowing the mountain rabbit again, as she directly used her water magic to create more than four water spears that flew towards the escaping mountain rabbit-

Ptsh!

[Gained 354 Exp]

Soon piercing through the thick fur of the escaping mountain rabbit. Killing it before it had a chance to escape through the rocky terrain like it had done before.

Chomp~!

No more than a few seconds later, Scaly happily sank her sharp teeth into the dead mountain rabbit with a look of joy on her face, as the taste of the mountain rabbit did indeed live up to the description of it. Tasting even better than her favorite forest rabbit.

Squeak…

Roar…

Looking at this taking place a bit further away, the rest of the monsters on the mountain all shivered in fear. Understanding that a new top predator had appeared on the mountain.

Boing~

Well, almost everyone, as the rock slime just carelessly bounced around without a single ounce of fear. Just going about its day as if nothing was happening.

…

"Are you telling me that there isn't a single A Rank Adventurer close to the Howling Caverns outside of that crazy- Ha… Never mind, I will go there myself to check out the situation.

For now, contact the closest branch to ask them if they have any A Rank Adventurers available. If none of them can send anyone in the next two days… Contact that person for help, but only as a last resort!"

Standing inside the hallway used to monitor the status of the different towns inside the Howling Caverns, a tall man with a majestic beard frowned visibly as he said this to the mage shivering in front of him before he turned around and left the hallway in the direction of the Howling Caverns.

"Haaa… Finally, he left." Only after he completely disappeared did the shivering mage dare to lift his head as he let out a sigh of relief.

"Master… Should we prepare to enter the dungeon?" Only at this moment did the dozen or so apprentice mages who had been watching the situation from afar dare to step forward, with the oldest among them cautiously asking the mage that had been shivering in fear only seconds earlier.

"Yes, we will be heading into the dungeon as originally planned. Even if we don't have the protection of an A Rank Adventurer, that person is already among the strongest B Rank Adventurers out there and even has the ability to hold off some weaker A Rank Monsters.

The only downside is that all of you will have to be more careful when we reach the affected town, as we have no idea how strong the monsters that attacked the town are. All we can do is hope that isn't a powerful A Rank Monster, or we will be forced to fall back until A Rank Adventurers show up."

Shaking his head as he said, the mage looked solemnly in the direction that the human with the glorious beard had gone in before he similarly made his way out of the hallway in the same direction.

"This… Will we really have to go into the dungeon…?" Being left alone, the senior among the apprentice mages who had asked the mage that just left could not help muttering this to himself with a somewhat fearful expression.

""…""

Not answering this question as they already knew the answer, the rest of the apprentice mages could only silently lament over their bad luck, as they understood that there was no way for them to refuse given their current status as mages in charge of monitoring the guardian barriers of the different dungeon towns.

Even if there was a lack of an A Rank Adventurer that would normally be present for such situations, there was no way for them to refuse, as it would result in them losing their monthly salary and being punished by the adventurer's guild, something that could affect their future prospects.

"Looks like we will really have to enter that dungeon… Everyone, we should do our best to try and avoid any of the monsters and retreat the moment there is any sign of danger. Even though there isn't any A Rank Adventurer present, the B Rank Adventurers going with us should be able to deal with weaker A Rank Monsters by working together.

With that in mind, it might not be that dangerous for us to enter the dungeon unless there is more than one A Rank Monster present." Saying this, the senior apprentice mage didn't waste any more time as he similarly headed off in the direction that the two from earlier had gone in.

Soon enough, the rest of the apprentice mages made their way after him. All of them having determined looks on their faces as they all looked no different from a group of soldiers heading off for their final battlefield.

In the end, everyone among the apprentice mages in charge of watching over the guardian barriers decided to enter the dungeon without the protection of an A Rank Adventurer. None of them dared to go against their orders and try to avoid entering the dungeon.

No matter how weak they were and how dangerous it was, they didn't want to ruin their future prospects because of the danger involved. Especially considering that they would only be in charge of surveying the guardian barrier and helping find out what happened and didn't have to fight any monsters.

Thinking about it, the only real risk that they would have to go through was during the travel to the dungeon town that had its guardian barrier activated, as for finding the monster responsible for activating the guardian barrier and fighting with it, that was something that the Brank Adventurers would have to deal with.

The real danger that they would have to face was only in the rare case that the monster behind the activation of the guardian barrier decided to attack them during their journey to the dungeon town or when they reached the dungeon town itself.

Worst case scenario would be if the monster hadn't left the town and was still trying to break through the guardian barrier.

At the very least, it didn't seem like it was still attacking the guardian barrier from the fact that they hadn't managed to detect the barrier weakening, but they also understood that there was a chance that the monster could be waiting around just outside the barrier for it to run out of mana and dissipate on its own.

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