It seemed like he had already spent a lot of gold and hearth points. The rating was only a matter of time, but gathering those stat points meant he’d have to buy a lot of things from the market.
And most importantly: Rank 2 essence cores? He needed a hundred toughened- level cores?!
Suddenly, the one core he gave to get the spoilers in the first place felt a bit wasteful.
"That said, even if you upgrade, the costs of each building might be too high for you, la. You’re too poor. Gather gold first."
He bit his lips. He already had hundreds of gold now. Not counting his debt, which would start gathering interest in a couple of months, he had thought his rate of earning gold was enough. He had a steady flow of customers, and he could sell a lot of dishes every day.
But what Pang was saying was definitely a hint . Even if he upgraded now, he might not be able to buy the buildings.
He earned pretty decently from food alone. However, there was also a cap on how many he could sell of the same kind.
Not to mention, there was the fact that he did NOT have unlimited ingredients, nor did he have unlimited time to spend so many hours each day cooking. Earning a lot of money from food alone might not be enough to build and distant a good town, er, Inn.
What was the fastest way to get money passively in this world?
He thought, his eyes inevitably fixing on the kitchen and then at the sauces and the powders next to them.
He had already done plenty of market studies. Any of these things, if he sold them, would definitely be a hit. Rich adventurers, mercenaries, and nobles would also be willing to pay a large price for a bottle.
But then he looked at his farm. He didn’t have enough materials to mass-produce. For now, all he would be able to sell would probably be a couple of bottles per batch.
He’d definitely sell a lot, but if he could imagine the amount he’d need would be massive, and what he had now wouldn’t be enough, unless he was willing to wait several months to years.
His brain ran and studied several ideas. He owned his own restaurant that theoretically would’ve done well if he had stayed on Earth, and he also invested in quite a few food-related businesses back when he was a rising star. He’d come up with something good in time, but for now, he should focus on his present.
The injured ones were stabilized soon, but Reese recommended not to move them for the next few days, which was just fine for the rest of them because staying in the inn had been quite the lucrative business so far.
It was expensive as heck, sure, but it was also 200% worth it.
For the next few days, Reesa and the others stayed as agreed, and so did the halfkins. They also used a lot of the ’extra’ services like the food, the drinks, and so on.
If one looked at how much money they spent, the old them would’ve fainted. However, they just had to look at the number of cores they managed to gain in that same span of time, and suddenly they felt like there was a windfall.
There were also those who joined Finn in the thornvine mission, and they got a lot of freebies, becoming the target of envy of several adventurer groups.
Because they needed to keep some money on them, Finn found himself drowning in cores...
Especially from the halfkins, including Katnia, who seemed to be determined to clear out the nearby beasts. Their location really was very good training grounds (unless it was that so-called Aphelion Month, in which case he could get screwed).
For now, they were far enough from the dungeon proper to encounter excessively strong monsters, but close enough to get a lot of decent ones with cores.
Well, in theory. He had a hard time believing that, fully considering what they had just been through...
When they asked the first victims what happened, it became clear that the fortified-level monsters had ventured far out of their usual territory. No one knew why, but it was definitely something they had to look into.
This was why, while most were resting and recovering in the Inn, Victor and his team also went around to check if they could get clues as to what had happened.
Anyway, each team found a lot of growth and had already earned way more than they spent within the past few days, thinking this was an unbelievably productive and comfortable way to what was usually a dangerous mission.
Even those who were injured had adjusted and were starting to think of the future and when they’d visit next. This was especially true for the long-ranged fighters like archers and mages, who had it best. Shoot and shoot and kill!
The amount of kills they could get with just using skills, spending mana (and then buying mana-related essence food) was no joke. It was so lucrative that they could afford to hire a teammate to drag the carcass they won and then gather the cores in their stead.
Other than cores, Finn also accepted payment via plants. He showed them his farm and taught them some things about how to uproot them properly or how to get seeds.
His exchange rate varied per plant, depending on his need and its rarity, as well as the state of the plant. Properly uprooted plants could be equivalent to a core, which was too worth it for them.
Interestingly, Leiah knew many of the herbs, and it was she who contributed the most to the garden.
There were no new species of plants, but he gained a lot of nettleflames, stonebulbs, and the like thanks to her!
Like so, the next few days, not only was he drowning in cores, but also in plants and seeds. Very productive indeed.