The rest of the land was either maintained as forests or converted into open spaces to become camping sites. He made sure to spread them out well while also maintaining the fruits and shrubs that would be useful for him.
He also cleared out a larger easement area, allowing about ten to fifteen meters of it, except for the garden and farm areas. This way, people would be more comfortable using the barrier, and there would be fewer instances of people bumping into each other. (Unless it was on purpose, in which case there really wasn’t anything he could do about that).
"It seems like the inn area expanded and our building is no longer at the edge," the current elder-in-charge mumbled in thought, a bit sad.
His assistant nodded, looking at the new configuration. To be honest, at first, it was an odd configuration to be right at the edge, but he did see the advantages.
He himself, as a toughened tier 1 person, had really enjoyed the fight while taking advantage of the barrier. Best of all, he didn’t have to worry about his back because he knew they’d be protected. He didn’t even have to worry about those damned mercenaries making things difficult because they had their own areas, either.
Speaking of the damned mercenaries, there had even been some sort of unspoken competition between the two groups as well, seeing who could gather more carcasses right outside their area.
The ear configuration allowed three or even four sides of their lot to have a fightable area. They were surrounded by monster mobs, but felt safe at the same time, and it was exhilarating.
They were adventurers who had their own experiences in the danger zone, how many had this ?
Now that they were in the central area, which was developing into a proper cluster of buildings, it didn’t look odd anymore, but at the same time, it was a bit of a pity.
The past month they spent with the guild building placed at the corner was the most fun (and productive) hunting sessions many of them had.
However, that sadness did not last too long. When the Innkeeper arrived to check out the new areas, the Elder beside him disappeared and made another offer!
In retrospect, the assistant realized that the elders—all of them—seemed to have some sort of esteem for the innkeeper. They were keeping it low-key, and it wasn’t the type of pandering that made people feel uncomfortable, but the assistant had worked with the Elders for years.
He knew there was genuine fondness there and even hints of admiration and reverence. Was it because he had the inn, or was it because of something else? Who knew...
The assistant shook his head and just followed after the elder, whose eyes were sparkling with intelligence.
"Finn! Let us lease more land!"
...
Interestingly, although the guild buildings themselves became more inland, the elders—who had seen the advantages of the ’ear’ configuration—also offered to buy a few more extensions to rent as exclusive training areas for adventurers.
Ears had more surface area with the barrier, after all, and this meant they could handle a lot more monsters with it. Without a building blocking the way, the entire area was open to use as well.
It had to be said: They might be old, but they really did have insight.
In retrospect, that was probably why they still hadn’t forced him too much despite his high potential, allowing him to do whatever he wanted. Otherwise, Gideon would’ve been whispering a lot more things related to training rather than just guarding him quietly.
Finn happily accepted their offers, gaining thousands of gold once more! Further, the mercenaries got wind of this, doing the same, though quietly, with an additional two modules just to one-up the other side.
In fact, because the initial extensions were ’eaten up’ by the official expansion given by the level up, he actually had retrieved the slots, so this was basically double payment.
However, the first payment was technically for the lot their guilds would be situated on, so he did not think he was cheating them by accepting the second batch of payment. After all, they were now using at least twice the area they used to have in the inn.
Plus, since there was no longer a structure in the area, the open space could allow more flexible use of it, and that would all be in the control of the leasing guild.
This area could also serve as camping sites, specifically for the team members. After all, the better known the inn was, the more difficult it would be to secure a space, let alone a room. Having a guaranteed place was too worth it.
Finn created the extensions as they requested. He did not honor the mercenary team’s extra requests though. It wasn’t because he was biased. He just didn’t like the asymmetry.
Before he knew it, the fighters of each group went to their respective areas, many no longer fighting on the easements for the most part, allowing them to kill as many as they could to gather more and more cores.
There were dedicated teams from both sides purposely luring in monsters, and there were even cases of people stealing other people’s mobs.
Soon, people started flying in and out of the barrier, and so did various projectiles. Whether they were bows and arrows, whips, darts, or magic attacks, it was pretty much raining nonstop.
Another silent contest happened between the two, and soon the open areas of the ’ears’ had more and more carcasses piled up.
Finn wondered what the reward for winning in this competition was, but he decided he didn’t want to know.
Later, he found out there was no prize at all. It was purely a competition between adventurers and mercenaries. A battle of wieners, so to speak.
Anyway, there was no loss there, and people earned an unprecedented amount of cores during this time. Farming cores had never been so lucrative!