Chapter 109: Poison Valley

"Thank you. The monster that attacked the town is..." Showing a kind smile in response to the guild leader, the branch guild leader began to give a detailed explanation of what had happened and how they were suddenly attacked by the powerful ancient dire wolf.Not just that, but he also made sure to include that he did find out about it before the attack and sent out a large group of adventurers to subdue it.

Of course, he included a few lies in the explanation of what had actually happened to the large number of adventurers that had set out to kill the ancient dire wolf. Taking the opportunity to bring up the second and more powerful ancient dire wolf as the reason why the adventures that had gone to subdue the ancient dire wolf had ended up failing.

"Two ancient dire wolves... And one of them close to becoming an A Rank Monster..." Hearing what the branch guild leader said, the guild leader didn’t doubt him in the slightest as he would have no reason to lie to him about the monsters that had attacked the town, as he would inevitably find out about them when he set out to hunt them down with the rest of the B Rank Adventurers that had come along with him.

At the same time, the fact that there were two ancient dire wolves to deal with made him feel that it was understandable that so many people had ended up dying outside the town without being able to get to safety in time.

After all, the branch guild leader would have only been able to stall one of the monsters, while the second would be left for the remaining adventurers to try and fend off against by themselves, something close to impossible considering the difference in strength.

In the end, the guild leader didn’t find anything wrong with the story so far, but... Even if he didn’t find anything wrong and had no reason to suspect the branch guild leader of doing anything wrong, he still intended to have the people with him carry out a proper investigation of what had happened.

Not just to make sure that he was being told the truth by the branch guild leader in front of him, but also so he could answer to his higher ups in the guild when they came asking why so many resources would be shifted towards constructing a new guardian barrier around the dungeon town. After all, the resources involved in constructing a guardian barrier were astronomical and needed approval from the guild located in the capital Great Sky Kingdom that the Howling Caverns and his guild branch was located inside of.

"Leader, the apprentice mages are here."

Just as the guild leader was lost in his own thoughts thinking about how to relay the information of what had happened to his superiors, the voice of one of the B Rank Adventures that had followed him into the dungeon echoed out behind him.

"Good, instruct them to assist the senior mage in creating a passage through the guardian barrier so we can go inside and...Hm? Never mind, let’s focus on opening a passage first..." Nodding his without turning around as he said this, the guild leader was about to ask the branch guild leader about more information regarding the ancient dire wolves.

However, he stopped himself from doing so as he suddenly noticed a slight change in the expression of the branch guild leader the moment, he ordered a passage to be opened so they could enter the town.

The change in expression wasn’t that odd in itself, but the fact that it was one of nervousness and fear was.

Would you look at that, looks like there is more to the story...

Seeing this, the guild leader could not help chuckling to himself on the inside as his outward expression remained unchanged.

After learning about the fact that a guardian barrier had been activated, he had been rather annoyed and angry, as he would take part of the blame because he was the person in charge of the smooth operation of the Howling Caverns and anything going wrong with it would also be tied to him.

However, if there is something wrong with the branch guild leader in charge of the dungeon town that resulted in the activation of the guardian barrier...

Not able to stop a small smile from forming, the guild leader began to look differently at the branch guild leader who had already recovered his former expression while sitting in the wooden wheelchair observing the apprentice mages and the senior mages starting to work on creating a passage in the guardian barrier for them to pass through.

...

As the humans were busy preparing for a proper investigation of the human town and hunting down the ancient dire wolves, Scaly had already made her way inside the small valley. Fighting her way through the small plants that almost seemed to stick to her.

Even after spending a few minutes inside the small valley and using all of her strength to force herself through the countless small plants covering the ground of the small valley, Scaly had only barely managed to move halfway through the valley that was no more than a few hundred meters wide.

Given her normal speed, she should have already reached the other side, but her speed had been more than halved by the sticky plants that seemed unwilling to let her pass through the valley without a fight.

Worse yet, she didn’t get anything from cutting up the different plants blocking her path. Only using up the strength that she had just recovered.

Hm?

However, as she continued moving forward with a somewhat annoyed expression on her face due to having to deal with the weirdly sticky plants, Scaly suddenly discovered something barely visible on the ground a few meters in front of her.

[Mountain Rabbit, lvl 13 (dead)]

A familiar looking mountain rabbit. Dead on the ground without any sign of a battle having taken place.

But more importantly than that, the color of the mountain rabbit seemed to have taken on a strange purple color as part of it had even begun to break down. Making it impossible for her to eat the dead mountain rabbit.

After all, it was clear even to the simple Scaly, that the rabbit on the ground in front of her had been poisoned by something.

The only problem was, what poisoned it?

No matter how she looked around herself, she couldn’t find any monster that might have behind the poisoning of the mountain rabbit-

Wait... The weird sticky plants? Is it them?

In the end, she could only turn her attention towards the weird sticky plants that were all around her.

Outside of those weird sticky plants, she couldn’t really think of anything else that might be poisonous.

[Poison Resistance lvl 3]

Pulling up her status and looking through it, she didn’t take long to find the poison resistance skill that she had managed to acquire when she had eaten the rat possum... And like she had suspected; it had managed to level up from level 2 to level 3. Proving that there was indeed poison on the weird sticky plants.

Not just that, but for her poison resistance to level up, it was obvious that the poison wasn’t weak by any means...

Rustle~

Just as she was lost in her own thoughts thinking about the poison that surrounded her on all sides, the distinct sound of leaves being pushed aside by something moving echoed out a few meters behind her. Instantly causing Scaly to spin around prepared for a battle-

Squeak...?

[Mountain Rabbit, lvl 16]

However, what appeared wasn’t a dangerous monster that had been lurking in the shadows and preparing to attack her like she had expected upon hearing the movement behind her, but instead a mountain rabbit that had managed to wander its way inside the small valley after her.

Not only was it far too weak to be any real threat to her, but it was clearly also being affected by the poison as it could barely stand upright at this point in time.

If not for the fact that she didn’t want to eat poisoned food. Knowing very well that it had a terrible taste from tasting the poisonous rat possum in the past, she would have been more than happy to jump out and eat the mountain rabbit.

Ptsh-!

[Gained 276 Exp]

Unfortunately, for now, she could only end its suffering and be satisfied with the experience it provided before continuing on in the direction of the rest of the mountain range located on the other side of the small valley.

Even though she did feel a bit curious about the small valley and what might be hidden inside of it, she had no intention of staying around to find out, as she very much wanted to get something to eat that wasn’t poisoned...