A few hours away from the inn, the group decided to use the repellent to lighten up the load. Like before, the monsters would still approach them, but would likely stop at some point, and they would attack them.
"This is so fun," Marcus said, swiping down another monster paused its movements. "I wish we had more repellents. It’s like I have a small shield around me that protects me while I can attack."
Finn smirked. If only you knew about the barrier... he said to himself. He didn’t say anything, though, because it would just make them more cynical.
Anyway, as they fought, Finn was naturally not left behind, especially against brootrats. He showed that, despite his low level, his combat prowess was not weak, and he took down rat after rat and a few other monsters.
He shook the blood on the blade, and it so happened that Durgan was nearby. "You have a really nice weapon," he said. "It seems Class D, but better."
Finn’s eyebrows rose. "You know your weapons."
"Well, I know a bit."
Finn’s movements paused for a second. Weren’t dwarves famous for their blacksmithing skills?
’I wonder... ’
Finn was still reeling from the costs of things in the system, unable to stop himself from asking more. "By some chance, how much would a Class D weapon cost in a market?"
"About 10 to 20 gold, depending on the supply and demand."
He nodded. The Class D weapons in the Hearth Market were around 50 gold. However, if the potion was any indication, the quality seems better, too.
"How is the quality?"
"Hmn...acceptable durability for a Class D weapon is around 500."
Finn nodded again. This confirmed that while system items were very expensive compared to the products of the outside world, the quality was superior.
Plus, he’d also consider the ’convenience’ fee. How many weapons could just appear in one’s hand after buying it ’online’?
Soon, it was finally time to go to the inn. It really was difficult to wrap their heads around the idea that there was a proper resting place nearby.
If Finn hadn’t saved their lives, they definitely would not trust him for a second, and Finn wouldn’t blame them either.
However, it wasn’t like they had much of an option. Resting outside while fighting early on couldn’t recover their stats. They were only fine now because of the repellents. They wouldn’t last until they reached their hometown.
Fortunately, Finn found that the Inn was also on the way to Lotus Town from here, so it wasn’t like they were going out of the way. So, it was okay to get them as his customers.
"How much do inn stays cost, anyway?"
They looked at him. "You really ask us a lot about prices...." they asked, a bit confused at first, but then they remembered how he lived, and their shoulders immediately slumped, their eyes looking at him in pity again.
"..."
"Er... my master found me and raised me here in his inn," he said, shoulders slumped and looking sad. It made most of them want to pat his shoulder to comfort him. "I have inherited it. Don’t feel sorry for me, I lived quite a relaxed life."
As they talked about inn prices, he inexplicably found out about other things. There was also information that confirmed what Syl said, indicating which was common knowledge and which was not.
First of all, after the so-called integration of the races, massive regions called safe zones were created. Each race had them in their original areas, which expanded through time.
There were nearly a thousand years of peace after the armistice, after all, and the dungeons weren’t a problem at the start, so there was a natural population boom and, eventually, cross-breeding as well. The safe zones between each race’s safe zones were also occupied.
The population boom and the silence of the dungeons made people forget, through generations, that they were even a threat. This caused many people to slowly expand more and more towards the previously dangerous areas, expanding the ’safe zone’.
After several generations, the dangers were forgotten until the barriers weakened again and more and more monsters escaped, terrorizing the nearby villages. Many villages and even towns fell, and things got worse during the first Aphelion Phase, which caught everyone off guard.
It was so shocking that the batch of monsters that went out during this time wasn’t handled until months later, if not a year in some areas.
Eventually, a new delineation was formed. It mostly comprised habitable areas, farm areas, and so on, leaving a certain large area of ’danger zone’ in the central areas and bordered by safe zones, guarded by fortified towns at the periphery.
These safe zones comprised thousands of territories, villages, towns, and cities. Basically, these areas were relatively safe, and the area between them was generally monster-free. For the most part, the threats in those areas were bandits and wild animals.
Anyway, that info dump was apparently important in the discussion of inn prices.
In the border towns, staying in an inn could range from 100 to 500 danas a night, with the former being the cheap, relatively unsanitary inns, while the latter were the cleaner ones with better furniture.
Cities, which had better facilities and were situated in the center of the safe zones, were naturally different. They had higher costs of living there and were a bit more expensive.
In Cities, cheap inns ranged from 500-1000 danas, better quality ones for 2000 through 3000 a night. On the other hand, there were also ’high-class’ hotels which could easily reach 5000 danas to 1 gold a night.
From this, also inputting the law of supply and demand, he thought that a few gold coins a night was not too much, and he dared say that— with the right amount of amenities and aesthetics—he could really charge even higher!
Finn nodded in satisfaction. Paying off that debt before it started garnering interest was very doable, after all!