All the winners looked like they were in cloud nine and they raised the bottles ’awarded’ to them as if they were trophies. Some could only envy, while others were formulating a way to get a sip or two, or a few.
To avoid the wistful eyes of the others, the buffet was set up outside, and the indoor would be where Marcus and Victor’s team (which got the most number of bottles) would eat.
The buffet had two main dishes, three side dishes, rice and mashed thornroot as the main calorie source, and a lovely variety of different flavored tarts for dessert (made cool in the cellar!).
"AHhhh~ I’ll miss this so much!" Quin mumbled as he practically buried his face in the food. He was a bit teary, already mourning for his stomach for the days after this.
Hudson nodded as he gobbled up his. "I’ve consumed a lifetime of essence food here! No, those essence foods back in town were still called essence food, and it’s not accurate to refer to them as the same thing.
He looked serious as he pondered something. Suddenly, he raised his plate. "Okay, those in the safe zone are still called Essence Food. Meanwhile, this is called... Titan’s food!" he yelled, referring to the legendary max rank among physically awakened.
The mages frowned, narrowing their eyes. "Eminent’s Food!" a magician said, referring to the peak rank among the magically awakened. "This is magic !"
The debate between physical and magical awakened people started again, and Finn could only shake his head.
Some were more sane than others, thankfully.
"Thank you for all of this, Finn," Zenno said as he patted his shoulder. "We must’ve grown a lot, perhaps equivalent to several months of training in just a week here."
Finn chuckled. "Thank the guild when you get back. They invested a lot in you guys."
At this, there was quiet, and a few people even sniffled. He smiled. This way, the unity would increase, and it would only be good for everyone.
Also, the Elders better feel thankful to him even if they paid for it. This way, they’d feel bad asking him to do stuff!
Later that night, Finn finally headed to his room for a long-awaited rest. Although he technically only needed a few hours to fully recover his stats from single digits, he still wanted to sleep a bit more than that to feel normal.
He looked at the egg placed in a cushion, which was also surrounded by warming rocks.
He patted its spherical surface and gave a melancholic sigh... "When are you going to wake up, little sister?"
...
The next day, the massive group finally left...after dealing with the new batch of monsters that arrived, of course.
It so happened that those who weren’t lucky enough to get the drink were particularly bitter, so it was the beasts who suffered their venting.
Speaking of those who had a drink, Finn realized that the strong ones— the ones he placed in the Quickcells and added a lot of fruit for alcohol content— seemed to work better than he expected.
The toughened and below folks were plastered, and it could apparently affect Victor a little, too! The dude’s eyes were sparkling when he looked at it, his cool persona suddenly cracking.
What Finn heard was not just their praise, but also the sound of money. Fortified-level people were not poor, and he definitely could make a lot from them!
To taste the feeling of inebriation by alcohol again—he could bet they’d be willing to pay a lot for it!
When they left, he also got quite a sizeable amount of hearth points.
However, he didn’t dare feel complacent at all. He had yet to build the stuff he earned from the level up, after all.
Anyway, after most left, Miya, Leiah, and the brothers were left behind. They paid for a few nights in advance with cores, which they now had a huge abundance of.
The two people who were on the verge of upgrading rented their own rooms to concentrate, and they also paid for meals in advance.
Their levels only needed to eat food for twice at most, but the essence food had long proven itself useful for them. Finn knew this was true, and perhaps they could push their bodies a bit more with it in their stomachs.
Meanwhile, while the two were busy with their upgrades, everyone else did their jobs. Finn, Durgan, Micc, and the two guests cleared out the monsters. Now that there were fewer of them, there were a lot more monsters for each to defeat.
Finn also added a [Stable] within the wocc’s fence because it really was really useful for it.
Stables were not limited to equines, but also for other beasts of burden. He wondered if it could even improve the quality of meat? Of course, the woccs and chens here were not for consumption, but as a sustainable source of milk and eggs, respectively.
Ranran focused on preparing refreshments and snacks for their four guests as well as the staff. The simple ones she could do well, and they were great to chew while resting from long hours of grinding.
When Leiah and the others took breaks, they would also chat more. Before, since there were so many people, it was difficult to talk with just them.
While training, small talk was exchanged, and he even heard a few news about an issue he already forgotten about. "Before leaving, we also received news about Frago," she said. "Unfortunately, we couldn’t handle him yet."
"What?"
Leiah and the others naturally reported this news to the guildmasters before. However, the position of the other party was sensitive, so until now they hadn’t made a move.
"Wouldn’t you be in danger, then?"
"Well, the guild made a public ceremony for the people we lost, emphasizing that we lost so much. Most people would assume there were no survivors." Anyway, for people’s safety, only the guild had a list of people taking missions. To get the info, one had to go through a lot of hoops.
"Still...we feel like there’s something more sinister happening, and that bastard is definitely part of it," she said. "Don’t tell this to anyone, of course."
Finn’s eyebrows rose, but he frowned solemnly afterwards.
Was there really a deeper conspiracy happening underneath the surface?
How much would that affect him and the inn?