A/N: Thank you for your consistent support, everyone! Sorry for the delayed replies to your comments and reviews! I’m rushing through preparation for the next story, so that this one won’t get affected.
The Oasis story will be published probably on 1W March. It’s a story set in a dried-up apocalypse (not really desert, but there are desert areas) where nothing can grow anymore. The ML will transmigrate 7 years into the apocalypse, so the others already had a pretty decent level and system going on among them.
How shaken would the status quo be when our MC enters the fray?
...
___
"Will it be alright?" Durgan asked beside him, a worried expression on his face.
Finn looked at him. "Well, we’ll just have to make sure the adventurer guild is more powerful, yeah?"
Though they had plenty of mercenary friends, they were from different groups. He had no qualms in making another group an enemy if they were so insistent on being hostile to him.
Besides, would they be willing to lose connection to the Inn for a single person? It wasn’t like the Inn did anything wrong.
Who knows? Maybe the people that woman was associated with had better eyesight.
Durgan sighed and felt bad. He had been bullied a lot there and a lot of them were mercenaries. Although he knew that he was not necessarily weaker than them, the trauma of youth could be everlasting.
Instead of being too afraid, though, Durgan simply decided to grow stronger. He fought off monsters when he could, made weapons and took repair commissions during working hours, and then continued to absorb cores before sleeping. This had been his habit for a while now.
Still, a part of him feared he was wasting good and rare toughened-level cores. His race itself had a cap, so he worried that he wasting cores. However, his salary was always in cores since he had no use for gold now, and Finn did request that he keep trying.
Who’d have thought it would actually bear fruit?
A few days later, during one of his absorptions, Durgan suddenly screamed in pain and lost consciousness. At the time, he really thought he was going to die.
His roommates rushed to take him to the clinic, only to realize...that he had upgraded!
And thus, Durgan became the first Dwarf—halfling or not—to have reached this step in a very long time!
...
Inspired by Durgan’s growth, the rest of the staff members worked hard in their training and in their absorption.
For the goblins, although it was impossible for them to upgrade anymore, their physique still improved! Not to mention they learned some techniques from the [Staff Training Room] as well!
As for Finn, while he had an abundance of hearth points and had been wanting to buy skills, it hadn’t been that straightforward because in most days, there was nothing to fit him.
However, the past month or so, he did manage to get a few skills.
[Venom Slash]
[Information: Coats weapon with a toxic aura, dealing damage over time.]
With this, each hit with the skill could slowly weaken the enemies, especially if they were troublesome.
[Gravity Spike]
[Information: Slams the ground with the force of your weapon, pulling nearby enemies to the center.]
He could use this to control the direction of the enemies, too, making them easier to predict where to hit next. Since his style was based on dexterity and accuracy, this was an especially useful skill to him.
[Sky Cleave]
[Information: Using a spear, pole, or halberds, user can leap into the air and crash down with the weapon, dealing AoE damage and stunning enemies of the same level for 1 second.]
The Cooldown for this one was good, too, though the problem was stamina. If he worked with a team, this one-second delay could also lead to easy kills. Too worth it!
[Unbreakable Will]
[Information: Become immune to crowd control effects for 3 seconds.]
According to Gideon, many monsters entering the Fortified Stage would have special skills, a lot of them had to do with Crowd Control. Since he was bound to encounter such monsters, he should be ready for them.
He patted himself on the shoulders. With these, his journey to Fortified-level had become much easier!
...
The news of a dwarven blood reaching fortified-level resounded across the inn and then further outwards. With the [Communication Center] working at all times of the day, news spread out even faster.
Durgan became a bit of a celebrity, and the inn found a record-breaking number of dwarven and dwarven-blood guests.
Most of them were blacksmiths in the safe zone. Going deep into the danger zone was not an activity most of their kind did.
But now, that had changed—and it was all thanks to Durgan!
They studied Durgan’s habits and wanted to camp and live there, especially when they saw the workshop. Apparently, there was a special effect in the building, increasing the success rate as well! What kind of professional would be comfortable missing this?
The dwarves begged Finn to hire them. It so happened that several of them were proper blacksmiths and he hired three on the spot!
There might be only two furnaces, but they could do shifts. This would make sure that there were always blacksmiths available to create more weapons and to repair equipment! At the same time, everyone would have the time to rest and train!
Finn had been wondering when to start recruiting for a while now. With the number of fighters going through, the demand for new weapons and repairwork also increased. He was really impressed with how Durgan managed to balance his training and his job back then.
He definitely deserved more flexible working hours.
Durgan wanted to try out his new strength and consolidate his foundation. The new staff members would give him an opportunity to finally do so! Marcus jumped at the chance to get him to tank for them again in the extension.
Not to mention the blacksmith shop’s popularity, the other workshop was also popular, though the production could be improved. Fortunately, Haurus had started to get more and more fond of the trade, especially when the necessary ingredients were sent by Leez and Arthur.
There was also Athie, who had found his little niche in this. He was too fond of the honesty potion, though, which was concerning because how many times would they even need this?
At the same time, they understood the obsession. The boy had lived through so many betrayals from a young age. They can only hope that he can get over it in time.
Speaking of medicine-suppliers Ravin and Arthur, quite a few interesting gossips happened the past week or so.
One day, Leez accompanied a delivery that coincided with Arthur and Ravin’s delivery. Finn was at the extension with Syl back then, and the staff managed the deliveries. He did hear (mostly from Tumble and Ranran, who gave him enthusiastic accounts of the event) about what happened back then.
It seemed like the two parties (Leez and Arthur’s) saw each others’ deliveries and somehow found each others’ relationship with Finn.
Arthur found out Leez was handling the increasingly popular sauces, while Leez found out Arthur’s territory was handling a large variety of herbs and was open to selling them in bulk, so they ended up partnering with each other as well.
A week or so later, they found out through the origami messenger (Marcus sent the gossipy full 500-word message), that Leez and Arthur were found kissing passionately at some back alley near Leez’ store.
Leez was several years older than Arthur (around a six-year difference), but for awakened people, that age gap was actually not considered big at all. They had a long lifespan afterall.
Interestingly, Leiah and Ravin had also started bonding because of their ’siblings’, and it seemed that good feelings were being exchanged. It was just that both were rather reticent individuals, so Marcus was asking for advice on what to do to expedite the happiness.
Finn laughed out loud at the message, telling them to get the two drunk and gave an idea about a ’truth or dare’ game, targeting them. He even offered honesty potions for a discounted price! Athie would definitely appreciate customers for his creations!
Unexpectedly, while he was happily expediting someone else’s love life, he received a very interesting notification!
[Rune Workshop Now Available!]
!!!!