Soon, the beast repellent effect ran out (since he had to divide it among the five of them), and they had to start fighting monsters again.

"Well, it was nice while it lasted."

"That was really good repellent," Durgan said. "It's hard to find one that worked so well."

Finn felt a bit shy. "It only works that nicely with awakened monsters."

"The majority of monsters here are awakened. It's pretty useful."

Fortunately, the monster mobs weren't too large in size, indicating they were really entering the so-called 'midpoint'.

They started feeling very worried because, at this point, some of their stats reached the 10s. Someone's mana (Marcus) even went down to 1-digit due to skill overuse.

When they saw Finn's seemingly uncertain steps and movements, their concerns grew deeper. They would see him head one way, then pause, face another, and continue, and so on.

Was he lost? When they were literally close to dying?

To be fair, Finn wasn't exactly lost. At least not exactly. As the Innkeeper, Finn could feel the direction of the Inn and whether it was getting nearer or farther.

It was just that he didn't know the exact direction immediately, and he had to get a 'feel' for it, which was the current situation.

At the same time, the monsters would keep coming, and the four would have to protect him while he literally felt his way home.

The bright side was that the monsters were all limited to awakened monsters; otherwise, at least one of them would've lost all stamina by now.

At some point, Finn flinched, feeling something sharp pass by his head, and to the brindlejaw that suddenly popped up in front of him. He felt a bit of a sting on his face and touched his face, realizing it was grazed.

"Thank you…" He said, telling Leiah, who was the one who shot the arrow.

"Whoa…you really hit him," Marcus exclaimed, though the wound was small, so no one thought much. After all, their job was literally putting their lives in danger, so they really didn't think much about a graze.

Finn didn't either. However, oddly, the half-elf looked satisfied that she had made his cheek bleed. He blinked. He didn't know why he had this idea, but he ended up blurting it out.

"Miss Leiah, do you by some chance… dislike handsome men?"

Silence

"PFFF—" This made the other three cover their mouths.

Durgan gave an awkward smile. "She, in fact, does."

"HAHAHA! Man, you got the bullseye, HAHA!" Marcus laughed, but his cackling died when a sharp arrow passed by, grazing his ears. "EEK!"

Nona rubbed her temple. She mocked Marcus, though she readily had a napkin on her hand to help him with his wound (by throwing it smack on his face). "Stop teasing women who are stronger than you."

At this, Leiah took a deep breath and walked to Finn, who kind of wanted to step back, but that'd be too awkward. Thankfully, she stopped at an arm's length away, just beyond his private space.

"If you're lost, just say it," she said. "So that we'd know to find a place to rest so we can recover."

"I'm not lost," he said. But how could he describe that he was acting like a honing device to people who didn't know what that was? "Should be about less than half an hour, at most."

They were now in the mountains, and the slope was increasing a little, so he could be sure of this.

By this time, their mana and spirit were already dangerously low. When things were like this, they would physically feel extremely exhausted already.

Minutes later, Finn and the adventurers started dragging their feet. "Just ten minutes more…"

"You said that ten minutes ago!"

By this time, Finn's face was beet red from embarrassment. He wasn't lost, not really! But damn, he needed to calibrate better to be more accurate regarding distances.

At least now he knew that a strong inkling was still several minutes away, rather than very close by.

ROARRR!!

They heard the sound of a small mob nearby, and they were approaching.

"Darnit!" Marcus cursed, and Durgan lifted his shield. Leiah jumped to a tree again, and she'd probably move from branch to branch for a better view as she shot, as well.

ROARRR!

Whoosh!

A magic arrow passed and hit a brindlejaw straight in the eye.

Her shots were not as fast or numerous as before, though, so everyone knew she was maintaining her remaining mana as much as possible. This meant that she wouldn't take a shot unless the target was completely clear.

It was here that Finn felt a stronger pull, and he knew they were really (it's true this time) close by.

"Come with me," Finn said, ignoring the small mob coming at them, and continued to walk forward. "No need to engage with them, just push them back."

By this time, even if they didn't agree with him, they'd still do it because they lacked the excess energy to actually fight. Marcus and Durgan, positioned at the side-rear of the group, swiped the monsters away while they hurriedly followed Finn.

It was a tense couple of minutes where they had plenty of close calls, wherein a beast would appear to take a bite while they were focused on avoiding the mobs.

Toughened level wouldn't be amputated by awakened monsters, at least not after several bites, but it'd be painful, especially since they no longer had defensive equipment left. It would feel very much like being shredded alive, except only the skin and muscles were being affected.

At some point though, the monsters that had been pushing towards them—

Bang!

—were hit smack in the face.

ROAAARR!

BANG!

BANG!

Marcus and the others gaped, stopping after they saw the monsters try desperately to go to them, and failing miserably. The monsters seemed like they hit an invisible wall!

"What?"

Finn heaved a deep breath and he raised his arm with a confident smile on his face, as if showing off. He'd have looked cool if he weren't sweating profusely and panting like heck.

"We're here."

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