Fortunately, there was no strangling that happened. Instead, they all just relaxed and headed to the inn.
Finn had also been mindful of the shop’s refresh rate and, except for when he was asleep, especially after experiencing the dangers outside the barrier again.
Generally, he would buy a few stocks of the health and mana potions before they reached max whenever he remembered it. Whenever there were beast-repelling potions available, he’d buy them too, but they barely appeared among his options.
At the very least, healing potions weren’t too lacking, so he had enough stocks to sell to the group. It was such a small potion that one had to take a bottle, and for the halfkin and the fortified people, a potion was barely enough.
Of course, he only sold it to the damned halfkin and gave the rest of the bottles for free. After all, they were accompanying him on his mission, and that was why they got so tired and injured. This was why they had so much trouble with the toughened-level halfkins despite their numbers.
Leiah, after a bit of rest, also assisted in the treatments. She always had some healing balms in her bag. Although they were not as effective as alchemic healing potions, they could still protect the wounds from infection and slightly expedite their recovery.
Anyway, it was understandably awkward between the humans (and halfling) and the halfkins. After all, not long ago, they were genuinely trying to kill each other.
Katnia couldn’t help but feel bad at everyone’s state, looking at her brothers and friends with disagreement. "Why do you jump at people’s throats so fast? See what happened..."
The halfkins looked down, their ears drooping and their tails seeming to lack energy. Animal lover Finn and the women couldn’t help but soften at the sight, somewhat forgetting how fierce they were less than an hour prior.
The two also tried to explain themselves. When we saw those bastards, they said they lost you, and we killed many of them," he said, referring to the merchants and mercenaries from before. "They said you probably died! Those bastards, I wish I could rip their throats again—"
"Some escaped and we lost them... and it really irked us so much!" Katton yelled, gritting his sharp teeth. "But then we smelled you again while we were looking for your... corpse..."
This meant their mood was already very, very, low at the time, and they were at their most hostile states. It was not a surprise then that they were so aggressive from the get-go.
"They dare try to make us slaves..."
"The humans probably thought that because we didn’t live in the main territories, we are outcasts. We are not that many and we are popular slaves," Katton said. "However, the main race still runs in our blood and even for pride, we cannot be slaves."
The air around turned heavy. Although it was, on paper, encouraged to crossbreed, there was still an undercurrent of racism going around. The nearer the location to each race’s capital, the more obvious this was. The human territory was also the largest, so it was most obvious in these parts as well.
Fortunately, there had been nothing like the inquisitions or blatant hunting of other races anymore.
That said, Finn didn’t really like this dreary topic. Everyone was so tired from so many adventures. They could talk about this later (or never).
He cleared his throat and clapped his hands. "Let’s put aside the heavy topics when our tummies are full, ne?
"Who’s ready for another barbecue?!"
...
The group happily started another barbecue party. The difference was that they were tired and only handled monsters as they came, rather than going out of their way to lure monsters in.
Well, except for the halfkin who tasted such food for the first time. They would disappear after consuming kilograms of meat, bringing several kilograms more with them.
The halfkin had never eaten such delicious meat before, and they gobbled large chunks of meat every few minutes.
They had annoyed Finn, though, so the food wasn’t unlimited in their case. Each set meal would require a core from them! Ptooey!
And so, Finn got quite a bit of cores again. When he got the chance to absorb crystals, he’d be lying in a small mountain of cores now hehe.
The group rested like this, eating at their own pace, and getting slowly refreshed with the assistance of the Inn’s effects. It was mostly quiet though.
Except for the awakened-level people who were killing monsters at the barrier’s easements (who also took a few sticks of barbecue before heading back to battle), the rest were nowhere to be found.
"I wonder where the others went..." Marcus mumbled, chewing his food. He looked at the goblins. "Have they made stopovers?"
Tumble nodded, gulping his own food. "Yes, Sir," he said. "They rest for a few hours before you arrived, sirs. They also bought many, many lunchboxes. Stock is halved... They left again to resume their training though. Very strong. Very hardworking."
"I see..."
"They’re quite passionate."
"It’s getting late though," Micc mumbled, looking at the reddening skies. He was quite worried about the others. He was friends with a few of them.
"They’ll be fine. They won’t go beyond the level 2 areas," Victor said.
Level 2 areas were classified to have toughened-level majority monsters, with a lot of fortified level monsters. It was the location of nearly all Class C culling and hunting missions, and they were generally avoided any other time for a reason.
Although there was no one enforcing these things, it was kind of a rule if one wanted to keep their limbs.
They relaxed and ate, pushing their worries aside for a while.
Suddenly, they felt shivers down their spines. The relaxed atmosphere was immediately dissipated, and everyone entered a combat position.
Sure enough—
ROAAAR!!
"HELP US!!!" screams coming from the side, and they all ran to the scope of the barrier in that direction.
"PLEASE! HELP US!!!"
It was the teams! They were completely covered in blood and definitely fewer in numbers.
And following behind them was a monster mob. There were plenty of familiar monsters, but the most prominent were monsters at least 3 meters high!
"What..."
Three damned fortified-level monsters!!