Chapter 7: Environmental Stability
As the wooden wheels of the logging cart rolled over the final stretch of gravel road, Lance successfully arrived at the stump camp located at the edge of the forest.
Though called a camp, it was actually more like a spontaneously formed temporary marketplace.
Several caravans from Graystone Town were parked by the roadside, and early-rising townsfolk were selling steaming hot meat soup and cheap black bread to passing adventurers.
The air was filled with the aroma of food.
Groups of three or five adventurers sat around massive tree stumps, exchanging gathered information or looking for temporary teammates.
Most of those mingling here were bottom-tier adventurers without professional ranks, just like Lance.
As for true class-ranked adventurers, unless they had accepted special commissions from the guild, the rest had long since headed straight for the underground dungeon, where the rewards were higher—and the danger greater.
Non-class adventurers could also go to the dungeon, but there was one strict rule.
All newcomers had to complete a sufficient number of basic commissions in Copper Creek Forest first, proving their ability to survive, before they were qualified to apply for entry into the dungeon.