Chapter 1177 — The Adventurers' Camp

Lora did not know how to respond, and could only give two awkward laughs, then waved her hand and turned toward the Management Hall.

So that the building originally prepared for dragons could accommodate human proportions, this "recycled" structure had undergone a thorough renovation. Lora and her companions first passed through a door installed later, then through a portico, before entering the extremely vast circular hall. Within the hall remained colossal columns—enormous by human standards—and the windows for posting tasks, registering rewards, collecting supplies, and auction trading were arranged around these giant columns, each hung with highly conspicuous signs, so that even adventurers and mercenaries who were not good at obeying discipline could accurately find where they needed to go.

Sunlight passed through the crystal dome atop the hall, and after multiple complex refractions and calibrations across the crack-riddled surface of the polymer shell, it spread precisely over the entire interior space. Even without any lighting, there was almost no dark area in the whole hall.

Before heading to the task-posting area, Lora instinctively glanced up at the crystalline dome built of some unknown substance, wondering how many gold pounds it would be worth if brought to the human world. Almost at the same moment, she heard a familiar voice from beside her, clearly addressed to her: "You noticed the complex optical design contained in this dome as well? Truly incredible, Lora... Just this one detail reminds us of how far the dragons' former civilization had developed... Yet regrettably, almost none of the people coming and going here can perceive the information contained within... Fortunately there are still young people like you, perceptive and fond of thinking, who can join me in paying attention to the treasures of knowledge buried in these ruins..."

Lora immediately shrank her neck. Following the voice, she saw the familiar figure: wearing a short black mage's robe and a black soft cap, hair and beard all white, aged and decrepit, standing like an old man who had walked through the wrong door in the bustling Adventurer Hall, sighing over things others could not understand while controlling a pen and paper floating in midair to keep writing and calculating.

Recalling that before entering she had been talking about this old gentleman behind his back with her companions, Lora suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. She smiled unnaturally, and while reining in her earlier thoughts about what the crystal was truly worth, she managed a response to his topic: "It is indeed as you say. These things... mm, impressive, all very impressive."

Mojin seemed to sense the embarrassment and nervousness in the young woman's manner. He merely smiled, kindly ended the current topic, and looked up at the column where the task-posting counter was located: "Shall we go together?"

Lora was startled for a moment, and her eyes widened in surprise: "You... have finally decided to take an outside mission?"

"I can't keep following the construction team around, calibrating shields and crystal towers forever—though that work is interesting enough too, I didn't come to this barren land to hide in camp and catch cold winds," Mojin laughed cheerfully. "These past days I've gathered a great deal of intelligence concerning the outside environment, both from what the dragons have told and from the accounts of adventurers and mercenaries who have returned from early exploration missions. I believe I'm ready to take part in external operations."

"...A cautious attitude and ample intelligence are the necessary conditions for survival and combat in an unfamiliar environment. You truly are an experienced advent...urer," Lora nodded with a smile. "Then let's go together."

From morning until just before noon each day, the area around the task-posting column was always the busiest place in the entire hall. Envoys from Thalrond would announce here the recent "advancement" situation around Agondor, as well as the council's recent plans for exploring and clearing the wasteland. A great number of tasks were issued to the counters, and the adventurers gathered here used them to plan their actions for the day or the next few days.

Usually there were no overly compulsory or urgent call-ups, because the adventurers from Loren played more the role of a supplementary force here. Given the true strength of this mixed bag of a force, the tasks assigned to them were usually limited to clearing scattered monsters around the city or gathering resources from the ruins—the truly dangerous areas were handled by genuine Thalrond warriors, and the adventurers themselves were well aware of this.

The role of adventurers here was to free Thalrond's overstretched dragon warriors from security chores so they could deal with the things that posed truly great threats. This was something everyone had understood clearly before setting out from Northport.

"The preliminary exploration and boundary survey of the entire southern region has been completed... The dragons' main efforts remain focused on expanding the safe zone under Agondor's control, and on searching the southern region for possible survivor camps..."

Beneath the giant column, Lora tilted her head back to look at the notice board lit by sunlight, softly summarizing its contents. Besides Mojin, many other adventurers around her were also reading the notices posted just that day—from those freshly dried words, clever people could roughly work out the direction of the dragons' exploration and expansion for the coming period, and make preparations in advance.

"The second direction of advance is westward," Mojin read faster than Lora; he had already reached the latter half of the public document, and its contents made him grow somewhat serious. "Clear out the wandering spirits and elemental creatures in the western hilly region, stabilize the security boundary, and assist the vanguard warriors in opening a route to the Crystal Rock Hills... This one is interesting. The mission area is the farthest of all the current areas, and even a first-rank license can participate... Is it because the vanguard's 'regulars' serve as the main force throughout, so there's little danger?"

Hearing Mojin's muttering, Lora also turned her gaze to the latter half of the notice. She frowned slightly: "But this is still the region with the greatest risk... The road leading to the Crystal Rock Hills has not yet been fully opened, and it's said there are even active elemental rifts along the way..."

"I'm interested in this," Mojin immediately took on an eager look. "An active elemental rift means fresh elemental creatures. I must find a way to catch a few and ask them about the elemental world... Would you like to come with me?"

(End of Chapter)