In the web novel this was pretty much just the prologue, I remember it being only a few chapters into the story. The manga slowed the pacing by a lot.
The author abandoned it after the first arc though, in which he went to the capital and fought a demon lord again. This is a better ending point than what the wn had.
Ah it now feels this is just like a 'whim' of the source's author.
Probably did not have that much inspiration to continue building upon but it's still kinda fortunate the manga adap was able to tie it all up in such a neutral tone of "the adventure continues" way.