A/N: One chap per day might increase in frequency, but I assure you that most one-chap days have pretty long word counts!
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The Delivery Room transfer was quite busy, with about a dozen people heading out, led by Finn, though their states were similarly ill and dizzy.
Fortunately, their levels allowed them to recover within a couple of seconds, though they’d attest that the trip wasn’t the smoothest they had been to.
Not to mention...it was teleportation ! There had been no magic like this in the records! What was getting a little dizzy? Wouldn’t they just get used to it eventually?!
The others still at the Inn side were also curious, but they opted to wait for people to return before trying it out themselves. The cost was not low, after all. Otherwise, dozens more would be there with them.
On the other hand, Pacco, Lenok, and the others already there stared in befuddlement.
Fortunately, they saw Finn and other people they knew and immediately approached them.
Sadly, his eloquence was left behind. "This...how..."
Finn smirked. "Teleportation Portal: Activated~"
...
The tense atmosphere was immediately doused with shock and excitement.
Some of Pacco’s members—led by the always excitable Quin—went over to check, and when they saw the screen and the text there, they took a breath of air. "It’s really a teleportation array!"
Quin was pretty much bouncing. "It’s so cool, so COOL!"
With their signal, people from the extension started pouring into the cave to see. If the room didn’t prohibit the entry of more than 10 people at a time, it was estimated that everyone would be squeezing in there like sardines.
The appearance of this node had also changed, but instead of another floor, the other array appeared underground. The original one was built inside a cave, after all, and they didn’t want excessively tall things in there.
Finn chuckled. "It’s not cheap though! So I don’t recommend trying unless it’s an emergency."
It was then that they noticed the price and immediately felt deflated. "Damn. 10 gold..."
They wanted to try...
"Really a only-for-emergencies thing."
Finn wondered if he really charged too high, but it was really a good thing. Should he implement a membership thing where the transfer would only cost 5 gold, or something?
Or maybe he could add this to the purchasable by points? Some people were racking up a lot of points lately, and there were times he was too busy to cook. Better find more ways for them to spend those points!
Well, he’ll think about that later.
This episode, while interesting, did not distract the hot-headed man enough, especially when he saw the beaskin about to leave. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" he yelled, and the beastkin looked annoyedly at him.
The man flinched. "SO YOU DARE STEAL AND THREATEN ME, HUH!?"
"..."
Finn sighed, realizing that there was no casual dismissal for this case. "What’s going on?" he asked. "And please remember I do not encourage violence within the walls."
Finn looked at the sprite and realized that he had arrived just before these two got kicked out by the sprite. Only he could see the sprite, but it was floating with its spirit arms crossed, as if ready to act the moment they raised their fists. It was amusing and cute.
"He stole my kill!"
"It was my kill," the lionkin said. "Did you not see the experience?"
For a halfkin, he was quite erudite. One would wonder why he got stuck in the slums of Lotus Town.
"I was handling it first! You just happened to cause more damage!"
And so on. Sigh, this was indeed a common argument. With the barriers, people were fighting monsters at close proximity, so conflicts like these were not uncommon.
"As a rule of thumb, we will follow the system. Whoever gained more EXP damaged it more and has the right to the loot," he said. "Anyone making trouble will be blacklisted."
He looked at the hotheaded man and then at the dozen monsters now outside of the barrier. "Do you want to get blacklisted?"
"..."
His eyes ended up on the bloodthirsty monsters a few meters away.
He dare not!
...
"Is it just me or are there more than usual?"
The newcomers looked outside and flinched. "Did you guys attract a lot of monsters?"
Lenok shook his head. "No, there are more than usual lately," he said. "The past day or two, we did not need to go out of our way to lure monsters."
The adventurer teams there nodded in agreement. "In fact, it’s getting difficult to head back after going here. We have to clear out these monsters every time before we can escape Level 2 after all."
Unexpectedly, he had not yet finished explaining when they felt the rumbling of the ground...and another wave of beasts appeared!
A third were fortified level and the rest were toughened, but this was nearly a hundred monsters on top of the ones they already had!!
"So...what’s going on?" Finn asked, looking at the mob and not seeing anyone who could’ve purposely lured them. Without further ado, they headed straight to where the people were!
BANG!
RAM!
BOOM!
Finn could see the defense points of the barrier reduce point by point every second, and he felt a little tumble in his stomach. He believed in his barrier, especially since it had already been upgraded, but it still felt uncomfortable! It was like he was losing a little bit of his own skin.
"FIGHT!" he yelled. "Isn’t this the best time to collect cores?!"
At this, the mercenaries and adventurers were immediately energized. The edges of the barrier were quickly lined up with people, and the long-ranged fighters climbed up the tree branches (or asked an earth mage for a platform) so they didn’t interfere with the rest of them.
It was great at first, with people fighting together to get rid of the monsters layer by layer. However, they soon realized that there were more coming in!
Someone climbed the mountain face within the barrier and looked out, realizing there were dozens more coming in, all coming from deeper into Level 2!
"THIS IS INSANE!"
"Did the Aphelion Month happen earlier?!"
"No, right?"
That was an exaggeration, of course, because the real Aphelion phase would be akin to seeing a sea of monsters moving towards the safe zones.
The mob they were facing was naturally smaller, like a small lake, but it was still overwhelming. As far as they could see, they were surrounded by monsters, at least half of which were fortified level! This ratio was also abnormal!
They tried to fight me for a few hours, but people were getting tired. Their HP might be fine, but the rest of their stats weren’t!
Finn watched this while he, himself, went to fight and stab. The area was not large, so he added a few more extensions. He used an arrangement similar to the guilds’ training ground, but it was more like a moon-shaped enclosure with barriers.
This way, they had more areas to safely fight in and more areas in contact with the beasts, while containing the beasts’ movements as well.
They fought bravely for a few hours like this, and they witnessed more and more injuries all over people’s bodies.
Finn looked at the injured being treated at the back. "Come with me," he said, "Let’s go to the clinic."
Before others could take advantage, he couldn’t help but add. "If one does not have gold, you can pay via core or points."
"For people fighting today, however, I can cover the costs."
He and the injured headed straight to the [Delivery Room], and they were greeted by a lot of curious faces on the other side.
However, their energy calmed when they saw the rare solemn expression on his face.
Then, he was followed by dozens of people who were injured, many of whom had to get carried off to the clinic!
People immediately got worried, wondering what happened to their friends who went through, and Finn didn’t give them time to make assumptions, directly giving an explanation and then the follow-up plan.
"LISTEN! I HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EVERYONE TOUGHENED LEVEL AND ABOVE! A large amount of monsters are attacking the extensions!"
"The barrier is very strong, but we need more fighters to keep the monsters at bay," he said. "It is also a good opportunity for more people to get stronger and get richer.
"For today, the two-way teleportation costs are covered by the inn," he said. "May we all get a lot of money!"