Chapter 588: Avoiding Disaster (2)

"How is it?" Looking down at the stout adventurer with no strength left to stand on his own as he had been laid down in a bed to recover as the blizzard outside continued to rage without pause, a gentle looking middle-aged woman with a pair of furry ears on top her head slowly asked while gazing down towards a list of injuries the stout adventurer had ended up suffering from thanks to his earlier intimidation display.

"It worked just fine; I managed to scare it off without having to engage it- not that engaging it would have done much with my strength. Only that fellow has the strength to handle that mountain of ice." Rolling his eyes faced with the woman’s question, the stout adventurer confidently answered with a proud look on his face. Even as he quieted down a bit towards the latter half mentioning a certain someone who was still missing and had the strength to fend off the mountain of ice that was the glacial behemoth.

"I see, that is good. From the direction reported by others who went up to the walls to check after you collapsed, the glacial behemoth isn’t moving in the direction of any other cities within the northern region and should be moving towards the depths that haven’t yet been explored."

"Wait- why ask me if you know the- Ah!"

"Quiet, you need to recover after the little stunt you pulled earlier."

"Stunt?! What do you mean stunt!? That was a- Ah! I get it, I will stay quiet!" Feeling the suddenly devilish woman pressed down on a weak point that had been frostbitten thanks to exposure to the blizzard, the stout adventurer could only silently grumble to himself as he settled down with the furry eared woman watching over him as he quietly drifted off to sleep.

Knowing that it would be better for him to recover as fast as possible lest he end up getting on the bad side of the one currently sitting by his side. After all, this wasn’t the first time he had ended up in this kind of situation, and it always just so happened that she was the one that ended up next to him whenever he ended up having to recover from an injury. Always ready to torture him in her own unique way.

Of course, it wasn’t so much torture as it was her feeling rather frustrated with the stout adventurer always finding himself in a half dead state needing weeks in bed to fully recover.

Even if it wasn’t that bad this time around and he had a good reason for being injured, it didn’t frustrate her any less as she stared down at the now sleeping man before slowly looking away to focus on her own work while he slept next to her. After all, someone would have to keep an eye on him while he recovered in case something went wrong.

In fact, it was of utmost importance considering how the normal guardian of this city was currently missing- or rather out helping deal with a situation in a dungeon not too far away under the control of the guild. Leaving the person next to her now in a bad shape after scaring off the glacial behemoth, as the only adventurer whose strength surpassed the SS Rank.

While there might not be a lack of SS Rank adventurers given how this was one of the frontier cities under the guild with the aim of expanding the reach of the guild into a region that had been inhospitable in the past, an adventurer with strength above the SS Rank was needed to stabilize the situation.

After all, in this kind of frontier region, there was no lack of powerful monsters, and the glacial behemoth was only one of the many monsters whose strength surpassed the SS Rank that had been found within this deadly region so far.

And while the glacial behemoth was unlikely to pose any danger in the foreseeable future, the same couldn’t be said for those other powerful monsters that would rear their heads to cause trouble every now and then.

In fact, while these monsters were beyond the SS Rank, the stout adventurer was more than enough to handle them on his own. Not just him alone, but the main city could also handle those powerful monsters relying on the magical barrier guarding the city without any adventurer above the SS Rank around.

The problem was the smaller cities that had been established throughout the northern region, who not only had weaker magical defenses, but also a weaker quality of adventurers, with most only having a single SS Rank Adventurer overseeing them.

Far stronger than the average Adventurer Guild Branch for sure, but far from enough to fend off against a monster surpassing the SS Rank in strength.

For this reason, the stout adventurer had to recover as fast as possible so he would be able to set off and help those cities in case they ended up running into such a powerful monster.

Luckily for them, the mere presence of the glacial behemoth in the region had at least scared off these monsters and ensured that they wouldn’t show themselves in the short term.

Still, they had to be ready for when the time came and without a powerful adventurer like the one in bed beside her, the only way for them to prepare was to send out the SS Rank Adventurers that had originally been stationed within the main city and hope they would be enough to scare off any monster that might try something while the stout adventurer was in the process of recovering.

Sure, it would leave the main city weakened, but the stronger magical barriers and the general avoidance those monsters had for this city that even the glacial behemoth avoided should make up for the lack of adventurer.

After all, while the city would be in a weakened state, those monsters had no way of knowing this and would go off what they knew and hopefully also avoid the main city.

Of course, there was no guarantee this would happen, so as the SS Rank Adventurers within the city left over the next few hours, the inhabitants of the city understandably became a bit restless.

At the very least, with the stout adventurer still very much being present within the city, the unease everyone felt was eased considerably. Injured or not, an adventurer above the SS Rank was still someone who stood at the very pinnacle of strength and command an understandable level of awe and respect.

Even more so because the locals were aware of who this powerful adventurer was and had even personally seen him fighting a monster whose strength exceeded the SS Rank while heavily injured in the past.

The fact that he was injured was hardly something surprising nor worrying to most of the inhabitants of the city, as in their eyes, this man was still someone capable of fighting a powerful monster above the SS Rank in that kind of halfdead state.

Not just the inhabitants, but the adventurers leaving the city also thought along this line as they were sent off to guard the other cities under the guild within the northern region.

In fact, they thought that the reason they were being sent off more so had to do with his mobility being limited in his injured state than him having no ability to fight and defend those cities from powerful monsters.

As for the ones who had carried him off after he had collapsed... Although they knew he wasn’t in a state to fight, they didn’t say anything. Knowing it would be difficult to get those adventurers to leave if they knew that fellow couldn’t even stand up in his current state.

This was not them putting the city in danger, as different from other cities, the magical barrier at the main city had the ability to withstand those powerful monsters for days while those other cities could barely last a few hours. Giving them the time needed to call for immediate assistance in case the situation called for it while those smaller cities would also be able to call for help, they wouldn’t last long enough for it to arrive.

The only exception to this was the glacial behemoth, as its strength was on a completely different level. Not only wouldn’t the magical barrier last long in the face of such a powerful monster, but its strength also meant it would be difficult for the guild to pull together forces to force it back in the short term, let alone kill it.

Truly a monster who far exceeded anything the guild was used to dealing with and at the same time also one of the main reasons why it had been so difficult for the guild to expand into the northern region in the first place. Even now, they were having a difficult time properly establishing themselves in the region...