Durgan looked at Finn’s eyes and saw someone who sincerely wanted to work with him.
At the same time, it was respectful. It was more of an impression that he’d be working with him, rather than for him.
Don’t look at Finn purposely leaving out the lunch box. He had actually gone into the bathroom while Finn was cooking and saw 4 sets. If he refused, he had a feeling he’d whip something up from one of those cabinets.
The half-dwarf couldn’t help but remember his childhood decades prior.
He and his family lived in a border town West of here. However, his father died early due to a beast mob, and his mother was forced to work jobs that no one wanted, like cleaning feces, washing clothes all day, sewing clothes all night, and eventually landing a job at the butcher’s thanks to her meticulous work.
Life was difficult for a single mother with a half-breed son.
Crossbreeding between races might’ve been encouraged, but that was only if the three big races were involved. Their small and rare races of dwarves, including the goblins, were not. Goblins were just physically weaker and had a cap at awakened rank, while dwarves had a cap at fortified level, even in the time when Titans existed.
Because of this discrepancy, Durgan was bullied a lot as a child, and that was his norm as he grew older. When he was a child, kids would [ush him for no reason, pull his hair, or they would take his things and put them in places he could not reach.
As an adult, that hadn’t changed, except that things could get a bit sinister, with him almost dying quite a few times.
They would particularly mock him for the absence of his father, and would mock him, a dwarf, for having no knowledge of the supposed only thing dwarves were good at.
Dwarven blacksmithing methods were very special and were not like how the normal practice was done. It could only be passed from dwarf to dwarf, and possibly halflings, if they showed talent.
His father promised to teach him back then, but he died before they had the chance to do such a thing.
As such, there was a sentence he heard too many times. "A dwarf who cannot even make a knife. What good is he for? "
In retrospect, that must’ve been why he ended up as a tank. He simply wanted to be able to guard himself from any attacks—he wanted to be able to handle whatever came his way.
His days as an adventurer, especially with his team, had been the happiest and most meaningful time of his life. Here, people liked him for who he was, and they didn’t ask him if he knew how to make swords.
It was just that the decades of torment had caught up, and he was just tired. The event with Frago made him realize that living that way would still subject him to others.
He was old, and his talent in fighting was limited, and he had already reached his peak at Toughened Tier 3. Unlike the other three, whose potential could not be compared to the pitiful him, he would probably remain at this level for the rest of his life.
He looked at Finn and his bright amber eyes. Somehow...regardless of what he could do, he knew he’d have a place here regardless.
He smiled.
...
Somehow, Marcus turned the staff induction into an event. Finn was convinced to do an outdoor barbecue thing (since they didn’t want to touch their lunchboxes) to celebrate.
It was simply a barbecue that didn’t take long to prepare, but it was still fun and celebratory.
It was in these cases that he wished he had wine. He had already gotten the goblins to collect a lot of fruits before, and he had also started fermenting vinegar. They were all placed in wooden vats in the cellar, but it would take a long time to actually ferment well.
He really wished he could upgrade it already. Those new cellar functions would be so helpful to satisfying his palette.
Anyway, as a ceremony, they also came to witness the official hiring!
There was no physical contract, but rather a system one. It wasn’t like there’d be magic circles all around. Still, the adventurers somehow managed to make it exciting.
He didn’t know when Marcus prepared it, but they ended up having leaf confetti from the (non-poisonous) colorful plants outside.
"Here we go," Finn said, amused, before clicking on the specific icons in his panel.
Durgan’s eyes widened a bit when he saw the screen in front of him, one that the others didn’t seem to see.
[You have received a job offer from the Innkeeper!]
[Job Title: Butcher (Flexible), Hunter (Flexible)
Future Development: Undisclosed, Potential Detected
Job Type: Semi-Permanent. The contract is valid for 1 year, renewable.
Job Description:
1. Assist the innkeeper in clearing the monsters that attack the territory
2. Assist the innkeeper in handling the meat of beasts into proper, readily-cooked cuts
3. Assist the Innkeeper and the other staff members in extracting other raw materials.
4. Assist the innkeeper in once-a-week excursions to areas at least 1 kilometer away from the territory
Salary: 2 Gold per month, inclusive of accommodation and food.
[Would you accept the offer? Yes | No?]
Finn smiled as he looked. His salary was a few times higher than the goblins. But, still, two gold a month for an adventurer was actually quite small in comparison, considering he was already at toughened level.
However, that was considering how much they put their lives on the line. Most adventurers might earn big, but how much could they actually keep in the end?
They needed to buy potions, equipment, and so on, every single excursion. If they got injured, there were also hospital bills, and they also needed to save money in case of accidents.
In his Inn, that was not the case at all. They were mostly protected by the barrier, had a good place to live, and he even had free food!