He also saw two more bodies, in worse situations than the first one. As for the one cut in half, it was like an unfinished meal.
It was like the monsters didn’t finish eating because it sensed him , a toughened level, who still had some smell of blood from the earlier upgrades.
Finn’s fists clenched. Suddenly, the joy of upgrading was doused with depression.
This area didn’t originally have so many toughened beasts. To some degree, this death felt a lot like his fault.
It was as... if his accomplishments were at the cost of someone else.
Fortunately, Finn was no longer the dramatic teenager. He felt the guilt and remorse hit him, and he immediately faced it, took it for what it was, but did not dwell on it further.
The fact of the matter was that the Inn had done much more good than harm. There would’ve been more deaths without it. At least the toughened-level monsters were concentrated nearby, where the inn was, so people could run towards it if they encountered something they could not handle.
This was better than them being spread out, but with people nowhere to run to, right?
Even when the Refuge had only existed for around two months, it had directly saved a number of people. By saving and helping strongmen grow stronger and wipe out more monsters, it would also help save more people indirectly.
There was nothing to regret, and this was not his fault. He didn’t even choose to own an inn in the first place!
He shook his head and took out a beast-repelling potion on himself, his eyes on the three corpses.
They all seemed a bit young, only in their twenties, and their faces fixed to the final expression they had on their faces before their deaths—terror and pain.
He took a deep breath and lifted them up, finding a good enough spot far away from the stream. He laid the three young people—two men and a woman—side by side.
Using [Sticky Soil], he mimicked earth magic and let the three’s bodies be buried in the soil. He did not bury them to the bottom of his ability. Rather, he just allowed about a foot of soil above them.
Burying six feet deep was actually not a good practice. Anaerobic bacteria were there and the bodies would create methane.
On the contrary, on the shallower side was the ’live’ layer of the earth. There was oxygen, more microbial activity, and so on. They would join the earth faster this way, rather than be converted to disgusting poison.
He took a loose but sturdy-looking branch and stabbed it down at the end, to mark their graves.
He stood there for a while, and he only moved when the beast repellent stopped working, almost 3 hours later.
...
The next morning, the next batch of returnee adventurers arrived.
It was Marcus’ team, along with a few new people. Finn was in the bedroom at this time, and it was the staff who greeted them.
"DURGANNN!!!"
"MARRCCUUUSSSS!!"
SLAM !
The two hugged like manly men, with their hugs making a thud sound to show off their manliness.
"You’re making a great attacker-tank!" Durgan said, patting Marcus’ shoulder. "We’d still love to fight along with you."
"Of course. I’ll go on your next trip to Level 2."
"Let me join this time," another voice sounded, and they turned to see a handsome man leaning over the door jamb with crossed arms and that characteristic grin of his.
"FINN!" They yelled, with Marcus also lunging forward for a hug. This bloke was very happy. It was obvious he got really rich from the previous round.
Finn just let it be and allowed the bulky guy to twirl him around, making other people laugh. But then the man suddenly froze and dropped him. Thankfully, his instincts were good, so he didn’t flop to the ground.
Finn wanted to berate him, but the blonde was gaping stupidly at him. "Wait...waitwaitwait. You’re a toughened rank now!?"
This made everyone else flinch as well. Determining other people’s level required a bit of concentration and observation, so they did not notice it at first sight.
Leiah and the others surrounded him, and Finn could only awkwardly look up as everyone ’studied’ his body. He even heard someone gasp.
"...it’s true!"
"How are you so fast?!"
Finn shrugged. "It’s called the Inn effect."
The people sparkled, inspired. They knew that the Inn had so many advantages, especially in gathering strength, but this was too much! At the same time, it was the best explanation!
"Eh, still, it’s not that fast, right?" Leez—who appeared next to them—narrowed his eyes at him.
"I guess the rumors are true. You really are an S-class Talent."
Finn looked at her. "How’d you know?"
"My dad is friends with a few elders."
Marcus and the others gaped. "What?"
"S-Class!?"
"That exists?!"
"I didn’t even know there is such a thing."
"Doesn’t that mean he could grow to Titan level in his lifetime?! Gasp. TITAN!!"
They whipped their heads to Finn, eyes sparkling. "You’re a stuff of legend! Literally!"
"I mean, you are kind of legendary even before, but this cemented it!"
Finn rubbed his nose. "The Inn effect is still real though," he said. He would never let go of a chance to advertise.
"And is it alright for you to mention that casually?" Leiah couldn’t help but ask. "After all, we didn’t even know about it."
"It’s fine, it’s only us in here," Leez smiled, looking at the Traniel team as well as Milo. There were a few parties closely behind them, but they brought carts of items (mostly Leez and Milo’s delivery, though they paid for them), so they entered the territory later than others.
Soon, the rest arrived and he saw there were about eight or so in this party. There were also plenty of carts, all owned by his logistics employee, Milo.
"Wow, you brought a lot," Finn said, patting Milo who smiled proudly.
"Miss Leez helped a lot."
Finn smiled and nodded, studying the new inventory. There were several bolts of cloth, seeds, and other things that could not be produced in the inn.
There were other things he needed, though, but was unable to procure just yet.
"Speaking of this, I’d need a lot of iron ore next."