22 The Rampage Of The Dragon's Nest

There are a few days left before I start the events, but looking at the difficulty slider, it doesn't seem like it has decreased at all, which makes me a bit confused since I felt like I made pretty big progress, getting a level up, strengthening some skills and even getting a new one, so why wouldn't the difficulty decrease?

Well, I have some theories for that. The first one is about the Event I'm calling the "Wolves War". Although the description tells about a war, it doesn't specifically say that I should fight in it, maybe I'm meant to just establish diplomatic relationships or something like that. If that were the case, then it would make sense for me not to see much difference in the difficulty by just getting stronger. The problem with this theory is that the second event, which suggests that its objective is to gather resources, is not having changes in its slider either. From the description of this one, I can figure out that I will absolutely need to fight since there are creatures defending the resources, so no way strength is not an important factor here. So for now this theory is not that strong.

The second possibility I thought of is that the sliders don't change. No matter how much change I go through, the slider is an overall indicator of the difficulty of events in relation to something else that's not me, maybe even in relation to each other. I don't have many points for or against this theory right now, but what bothers me the most about it is that a slider is meant to be able to represent the ability to change, if not, it could just be a numerical value or a straight up description like: "extremely hard", "medium" or "easy". So even though I don't have many points against this one, I still don't fully believe it.

The third theory is the grimmest... sadly it's also quite possible. To put it in simple terms, maybe I didn't get strong enough to even change the predicted difficulty. Which would mean I'd still have to get much stronger to see an effect. If that's the case... well, at least there's something I can do.

For now, the plan I set in motion after learning about the events is still reliable, so I'll stay in this path. There should be no drawbacks in simply getting stronger.

Of course, I keep these thoughts in mind while making breakfast, so I was somewhat absent-minded during this morning process. Normally one would think it's thanks to the new skill I got yesterday that I can be so carefree while cooking, but to be honest, since I'm used to it, I normally do it without paying too much attention anyway. And maybe it's thanks to me dividing my attention between the task at hand and the thoughts about [Events] that I fail to notice what's happening in the living room.

Licia: "Is that... a Dungeon Rampage?"

Claire: "Yep, quite a big one at that..."

The girls were talking about something, and I couldn't help to take a peek at their conversation, but when I saw that they were a bit shocked I decided to turn my full attention toward them.

Miwen: "Is everything alright?"

Licia: "W-well..."

Claire: "From what you said, this box shows what's happening in the city and country, right?"

Miwen: "Yes...?"

That was the simplest way I could explain it to them, so I've been just showing them news channels to them and explaining that it helps us keep up with what's happening around us.

Licia: " We might have to evacuate from this city then, if what the box is correct."

Upon hearing this strange comment from Licia, I turn to watch the television and see for myself what exactly is happening right now.

Miwen: "Ah, I see. I forgot about that. This is a pretty hard dungeon, it's been named the "Dragon's Nest" online. They said that a boss from the third floor descended all the way to the first one. There was no one confident enough to take it on, and even though the authorities tried recruiting and offering rewards it was no use."

I guess it was about time that this dungeon would rampage. Since it's a hard dungeon, mostly veterans frequent it anyway, and after the dungeon boss from a harder floor managed to make its way to the first floor... well, there weren't many people who believed they'd be capable of taking it down, even more so since the number of people that could take it on in normal conditions was already limited. So to do it on the first floor where your level gets capped would be a herculean task.

Claire: "Have you decided what to do about it? I won't blame you for moving out in this case."

Miwen: "Eh... I don't think I will do that..."

Both Licia and Claire seem pretty confused about my nonchalant statement.

Miwen: "There's no need to worry about it, it will be taken care of."

Claire: "How can you be so sure? It looks pretty bad."

Miwen: "Now that the boss is outside the dungeon, the level caps don't matter. The incentive for killing it will also be increased, so there will be a flock of higher leveled adventurers to kill it. If anything, that place will simply become a hunting ground."

Licia: "It is amazing that your people are so quick to mobilize, but given how many ways you have to access information, I guess that's to be expected...."

Claire: "Well... since you are the one telling us that it's alright, I'll believe in you since you know more about this world. But I'll at least advise you that in my world, that kind of dungeon getting a rampage would lead to at least a few villages being destroyed, if not worse until a Knight Order managed to subjugate it."

I guess dungeon rampages are a much bigger problem in their world than it is on Earth huh? Well, it makes sense for them to be like that when it's a calamity in their eyes, but for us, it's just a bit dangerous. Normally, the governments keep tabs on approximate dates for unconquered dungeons to rampage and usually issue an order to evacuate the people around it if needed. There are cases when dungeon rampages managed to cause deaths, but they are usually dealt with one way or another. The biggest problem is the dungeons underwater or sky-high, an entire fleet may need to be mobilized in order to deal with an underwater dungeon for example. And even after that, cargo ships will need extra vessels capable of fighting in order to escort them since remnant monsters may lurk around.

Overall, dungeon rampages are a lot of trouble, but we are usually able to deal with them, and we've become somewhat adapted enough to know when a dungeon rampage is problematic enough for us to really worry about.

Miwen: "If a dungeon rampage that we should worry about happens, I'll be sure to tell you guys about it in advance, so just relax, it probably won't affect us too much."

Normally the only thing one should worry about is a stray monster, but thanks to the surveillance systems and information access we have in the modern world, those are quickly dealt with.

At the very least, I believed this dungeon rampage should not impact our raid today in the slightest, and after confirming it with Roy and Sam, my prediction turned out correct.