For the next few days, there were no customers, just beasts.

It wasn't entirely a bad thing. No customers meant they could relax, chill, and so on, and Finn could focus on strengthening himself at his own pace.

No customers, no surprise missions with unrealistic time constraints, just chilling. He was able to make a lot of food to sell in the [Hearth Market], so his gold was actually relatively abundant now.

His Hearth Points though…were pitiful.

Ah, customers…when will you come?!

Durgan felt guilty for getting a salary despite this, so he was passionate about clearing the beasts that came their way. Finn didn't really mind either and just trained along.

Rather, Durgan actively hunted and lured them in so he could gather essence cores for the boss. Anyway, Awakened cores could barely give him anything anymore and would be much more useful to Finn.

Finn didn't reject his kindness, and every night, he would absorb the tens of cores they managed to collect every day.

By this time, after so many weeks, a single core needed only about ten to twenty minutes each—which was extremely fast. Pang was already used to this by now.

Bit by bit, Finn absorbed the cores, slowly feeling his own core forming. It felt odd, like something was congealing in his body. It was causing discomfort and a bit of pain, even when he hadn't upgraded yet.

Cores weren't found in all monsters because they formed when the monsters were about to level up, except they never would rank up, so having a core signified the monster had reached the peak of its strength.

For humans, though, because they could upgrade, it was different. The body changed in a way as if it received a new and improved shell. In this process, the core from the previous tier would dissipate and combine with their bodies. This was similar to other intelligent bipeds.

Finn had no idea how fast he was going, but there was no wastage whenever he absorbed a crystal, with it dissipating into ashes in his hands after he was done with it.

They also started experimenting with the new features, too. Dwarves were apparently known for their alcohol, and they had already made barrels to fill up.

That said, the alcohol he was making wasn't too strong. Rather, he refused to. This could be manipulated by diluting the fruit with water. The more sugar there was in a fruit, the more alcohol there would be.

For one, it was too dangerous to be drunk in the middle of nowhere! The barrier wouldn't stop people from going out. What if an inebriated customer ended up peeing somewhere outside? He'd be lucky if his manhood was intact!

Fortunately, Durgan assured him that after awakening, people's tolerance tended to be a bit stronger, until they would be immune to it post fortified level. Durgan did mumble that sometimes the fun was to get drunk, and it was one of the few advantages of being stuck in the toughened stage.

Finn shook his head in amusement.

At the back of his mind, his money-grubbing head was thinking: Since it was hard to get the inebriated feel as one got stronger, and there were definitely people actively looking for that feeling, then alcohol that could get strongmen drunk would be really expensive, wouldn't it?

Since it was something with a lot of alcohol, he should figure out an interesting taste as well, to add extra premium, or at least a more expensive variety.

"Also, I have noticed something the past few days. The plants here grow faster, boss. Especially in the areas you assigned as Gardens, but the other areas, even the manual farms, are also quite a bit faster."

"Oh?" he had an inkling, but he didn't really have a point of reference before. "You mean in your previous home in the safe zone?"

Durgan nodded. "We used to have these at home," he said, pointing at the thornroots as well as the veilroots. "It grew like this only after a couple of weeks there. Here, the same progress was reached in a couple of days. It's amazing…"

Finn smiled. He hadn't really told them a lot of functions yet, primarily because it was difficult, and sometimes there was no need to.

"Boss, to be honest, I don't think the magic here is of these times," Durgan said, and Finn vaguely realized he was referring to the dense magic days before the portals. "I feel special just witnessing all of these, hoho!"

…

That said, Finn ended up buying 3 more gardens. One he added below the Pear tree, the other was near another sunberry shrub. The last one was open for planting.

[INNKEEPER DASHBOARD]

Inn Name: The Wanderer's Refuge

Inn Level: 1

Inn Status: 32 Cleanliness, 29 Ambiance, 30 Comfort

Reputation: 87

Current Guests: 0

Number of Staff: 3

Rooms: Basic Bedroom x 4, Toilet x 2, Kitchen x 1, Living Room x 1, Dining Room x 1, Front Desk x 1, Barrier x1, Utility Room x 1,Graden x 7, Cellar x 1

Barrier Type: Basic

Barrier Health: 9980/10000

Active Functions: [Poison Blocker] [Basic Rule Maker] [Anti-Magic Limitation] [Auto Swipe]

Ambiance and comfort, as well as reputation, had increased since the last time he checked it a few days back. It probably had to do with the gardens as well as the furniture they kept adding here and there.

Anyway, they happily planted more and more sunberry shrubs. Finn was determined to explore and observe more. He was also a farmer by profession now, after all!

...

While Finn and Durgal were staring at seedlings, a group of travellers from the West had been traveling for days, and were now getting closer to where they were. Specifically, their first sign in the area.

They were a group of 20 people on foot in various states, and they had quite a variety of demographics. However, most of them were in fitted leather uniforms with logos embedded on them.

Mercenaries.

They were currently escorting three merchants, most of whom were wearing comfortable and relatively rare fabrics and arrogant expressions on their faces.

And, near the rear of the line was a strange woman with an animalistic tail and ears.

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