Juniper Evergreen was excited to have a new dungeon in their city. Bluecove had been slowly dying over the years, but it was hard to abandon the only life she had ever known. Her father had run their workshop with pride, working hard every day to deliver the best quality. When she had turned sixty years old, he had gifted her the local carpenter's workshop while he and her brothers had moved elsewhere to open up a new branch. Some of her siblings weren't willing to participate in the family business, but her father was determined to help all of his children succeed however he could.

Juniper didn't mind staying in Bluecove, even after adventurers stopped showing up, there were still plenty of orders to fill. They often got special orders from all around thanks to being a central trading hub and port town. Besides which, there were still plenty of people living in the city since nowhere was made up of merchants and adventurers alone. If anything, many of the locals were relieved by the lack of a dungeon since it had meant they had a low aether area to live without the concern caused by contracted [Monsters] running amuck.

You would think that the new dungeon, oddly named 'Veronica's Rest' would have caused a disturbance to their peaceful lives, but they had gotten lucky. After a week filled with chaos as earthquakes and a tsunami wreaked havoc on their city, the new dungeon had appeared a good distance away from the city on an island. It would be stupid of the Dungeon Master to send their [Monsters] out to forage in those circumstances, so their peaceful way of life would be able to continue.

"Are you ready, boss? I've got the cart ready with all the supplies we need and the adventurers who volunteered to escort us are already here."

Juniper looked up at the man and nodded her head. She had put out a resource quest at the local guild requesting bodyguards to protect her workers while they chopped down trees in the dungeon and hauled them back to the workshop. One of the big issues with living in a coastal city is there wasn't a lot of land for natural resources to grow. Besides, as an elven woman, Juniper understood well just how bad it would be for her to cut down healthy trees in the forests surrounding their city. It was one thing to remove diseased and dying trees as that would allow the forest to grow back stronger, but that really limited the resources she could obtain.

The last couple of years, they had mostly been ordering supplies in bulk from nearby towns and cities that had dungeons with forests to utilize. However, those weren't exactly common. Their kingdom had a variety of different dungeons and there were even a few with dryads and other nature guardians who had been chosen as the Dungeon Masters. However, dungeons were still fairly spread out and it wasn't like every dungeon was the same. They all had their own unique characteristics that made them unique and interesting.

"Yeah, let's not keep everyone waiting."

Juniper walked out and greeted the three adventurers who had volunteered to help them that day.

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"Good day, I'm Juniper Evergreen, the one in charge here. Could you quickly introduce yourselves?"

A young woman stepped forward to speak on behalf of their group, pointing to the others as she replied

"I'm Amelia, an earth elementalist. This is Elwin, a scout class, and Coryas, our team leader with the warrior class."

Juniper nodded, waving her hand as she said

"Very well, this is my team. We're just taking a few people, but we'll be coming and going from the dungeon for most of the day. We plan to work until sundown and collect as much wood as possible. I'm sure you already know this, but you'll be paid one silver each per hour with a bonus, assuming none of my team members are injured at the end of the day."

She was required to pay them unless every person in her team died or their entire group died. However, Juniper had found it was always a good idea to offer something extra as motivation for a job well done. The cost to hire bodyguards was steep and the price she was offering was hardly going to attract anything but beginner adventurers, but it was still well worth it. The cost to buy wood from elsewhere and have it transported here was still far more expensive. Assuming they had a productive day here, their workshop would be set for a few months and their profit for the season would be higher than it had been in years.

As there wasn't a tribute room in sight, they decided to put their token tributes in the first room they entered. Elwin got to work setting up [Traps] and pointing out potential threats right away while Coryas smashed the gargoyles to bits and Amelia stood to the side, ready to erect a protective stone barrier at a moment's notice. The gargoyles would have to be cleared out every ten minutes, so it was important to prepare things ahead of time.

"Looks like the wood in this dungeon is high quality. The trees are tall and thick while the wood is just right for most construction projects. We might still have to source some softer and harder wood types for special projects, but this should work well."

Juniper's assistant noted. She nodded in response, overseeing the logistics of everything. She'd step in when necessary, but it was important she ensure any crises were dealt with right away and that all of her workers get breaks when needed. Usually, she'd have them take turns chopping wood versus bringing things back to the workshop where they were expected to take a short break before returning. Since the timing wasn't quite right, the ones on site also had to be given breaks, on occasion.

The adventurers helping them were all rather young, but they worked well together. Juniper was looking forward to watching them grow stronger over the years. Eventually, they'd likely outgrow jobs like the one she was offering, but that just meant they'd likely turn into valued customers instead. The [Traps] the scout used or a sturdy handle for the warrior's hammers would easily be handled by her workshop. Hammers made purely from metal were a possibility and there were a lot of metal-based [Traps] as well, but those tended to be heavier and weren't always convenient to carry with them into the dungeon. Even if they got magic bags, there was still a limit to how much weight they could carry and other equipment might be better to use that space for.

After a hard day's work, Juniper was satisfied to see no one harmed and happily paid them a few extra silver for their efforts. The kids seemed excited about their pay and she could only smile. Things wouldn't always be like this for them, but she hoped they could continue to enjoy themselves.