Immediately, the group started making suggestions now that they knew what type of advice he needed.
"Well, it’s difficult to find," Nona said, quite frankly. "Unless, perhaps, I climbed a tree nearby, only then will I see your roof."
"There are also monsters around, and people generally avoid where mobs are going if they want to find a place to rest."
"Yes, that..."
"Well, technically speaking, they’d head to where more people are. I noticed that this place isn’t too obvious until the monsters get near," Durgan said. "So...some teams might head towards where the monsters were headed, if they were looking for other people."
However, that’d probably be the minority and would only apply to teams specifically looking for other people. Otherwise, they might avoid the area instead.
"Still, monsters that appear here are mostly awakened-level anyway, so most groups should be able to handle them, right?"
Finn nodded. There were toughened-level monsters, but they were rare. Fortunately, the only times he encountered them were when Syl was there (they were probably attracted by her blood) and also a few now with this group.
If he encountered those types of monsters alone, he wondered if he would still be alive...
"To be honest, people would likely head straight to towns instead," Leiah said, frank as always. "No one would easily believe a place like this to exist, even if we told them." The inn was a ’see is to believe’ sort of thing.
Finn’s eyes twitched. "Err... comforting."
"At the same time, other than that, it really is a good location," Durgan added, looking at him. "You know that other than the Eastern Dungeon, there’s also another farther one on your West, right?"
Finn nodded. "Yes, my targets are those heading to the dungeons who pass by near here.
"I’d need to expand on my offerings, too. A few rooms are fine now because I had a few customers and you all always happened to know each other. If we get more people, that wouldn’t be enough."
Eventually, if he were to become better known, then strangers would appear as well and by then maximizing the double-deckers might not work. Who’d want to bunk with complete strangers?
Durgal nodded. "To be able to cook a lot of food, we also need more ingredients, and we have a limited amount at this time, not enough for big groups."
Finn smiled. "Already thinking of the logistics I see, future staff member."
This time, Marcus sniffled.
"Such a big man is such a crybaby," Nona said, and made Marcus pout and look away.
Finn stared at the two. Nona was obviously concerned but couldn’t seem to say anything gentle.
"Nona, I’d have believed you’d be annoyed if you weren’t ready to give him a handkerchief."
"Wha—"
Marcus blinked and looked over.
When he saw the blush on the girl’s face, his eyes diluted. His big hand grabbed the handkerchief, making the dark-haired girl glare at him.
Finn smiled. He was quite a good cupid, too!
...
"Anyway, what about weapons?" he couldn’t help but ask.
He was reminded of what Pang said before—that in the next upgrade, he could actually build his own smithy here.
"How much do ranked weapons that suit Awakened people cost in Town?"
"Hmn, E-class is around 1 to 5 gold," Durgan said. "While D-class costs around 10 to 20. C-Class weapons are easily more than ten times that."
"I noticed that even your equipment is not that high..."
"Hmn, although we are toughened-level, our weapons are D-Class at most," he said. "C-Class and above are too expensive. And if the durability is low, we can just replace them."
"How come though?"
"Materials for C-class and above would only be found in essence-rich areas like the danger zone," he said. "Sometimes, it’s just much more cost-efficient to have several copies of a low-level weapon."
"I see..." Finn mumbled, but his mind was whirling with several thoughts.
It was very similar to food ingredients. He knew that there was less variety in the safe zone area. The essence food was also quite rare and very expensive.
The group discussed these things a bit more, and Finn also found out about the usual costs of potions, equipment, and so on, particularly those that they hadn’t mentioned before.
After this, they finally went for a well-deserved rest. Finn went to his room and relaxed as well. He carried Pang with him, who relaxedly slept on the foot of the bed while he lay.
[Status]
Name: Finnick Altheus Solthar
Race: Human
Class: Innkeeper, Chef
Level: Awakened Tier 2
Awakening Type: Physical
Affinity: Fire, Earth, Wind
...
VITALS
HP: 23/400
Mana: 18/400
Stamina: 26/400
Wallet: 15 Gold
Hearth Points: 9520 Points
...
Skills:
Active: [Ingredient Scan] [Dish Analysis][Heated Arc] [Farming] [Assesment] [Feather Step] [Sticky Soil]
Passive: [Blade Proficiency - Growth Type (Lv 2)] [Monster Instinct] [Foraging] [Strong Stomach] [Improved Palate] [Fire Resistance]
Condition: Tired, -1 Stamina per hour]
He might not have had much gold, which increased a bit just from the room payments, but he at least had a lot of Hearth Points!
Now that he had an idea about the power levels needed to breeze through this area, he could now make more informed purchases in the market.
The first thing he did was to repair and strengthen the damned barrier, especially now that he had precious Hearth Points again.
In [Inn] Upgrades, as long as they didn’t require to be materialized, could be mostly purchased only with Hearth Points, which he fortunately did not lack.
[INNKEEPER DASHBOARD]
Inn Name: The Wanderer’s Refuge
Inn Level: 1
Inn Status: 32 Cleanliness, 20 Ambiance, 25 Comfort
Reputation: 23
Current Guests: 4
Number of Staff: 2
Rooms: Basic Bedroom x 4, Toilet x 2, Kitchen x 1, Living Room x 1, Dining Room x 1, Front Desk x 1, Barrier x1, Cellar x 1
Barrier Type: Basic
Barrier Health: 9492/10000
Active Functions: [Poison Blocker] [Basic Rule Maker] [Anti-Magic Limitation]
[Do you want to fully repair the Barrier? Cost: -51 Hearth Points. Yes | No]
Yes, duh.
[Defense Points Maximized! -51 Hearth Points]
Now, for the next heart point splurge~