Chapter 26: Exploring Options

Seeing the snobby Panda eating so deliciously on the other side of the counter, Finn leaned slowly with a smile. “Can you butcher the meat for me? I can make delicious things out of anything—provided they are edible, of course.”

Maybe he could get him to butcher the beasts for him.

The panda paused and looked at him. “Us Great Spirits of the Inn exist for three things: To Guide, to Enforce, and to Protect,” he said. “Anything beyond that we can’t do.”

Finn grinned, trying to be convincing. “You’d be saving me from maggots and the rotting smell of expired meat.”

“…still no.”

Their task was to Guide the innkeeper, at least with the knowledge the Innkeeper had clearance to have, Enforce the established [Rules] of the Inn, and Protect the Innkeeper’s life, at least within the scope of the Inn.

“Hmnnn…” Finn mumbled, narrowing his eyes. “Even if I feed you delicious food?”

Pang chewed on his nth jam-wrap today, staring at him with a blank expression on his chubby face. “You call this food?” he asked, still chewing. “If you feed me Superior Essence Food I might consider it.”

He looked so arrogant, as if the wraps didn’t even enter his eyes, except that he was still eating a few.

“What is essence food, exactly?”

“They are sustenance that could give additional buffs or regenerative effects. It comes in many grades, but I’m not sure about the local naming, so I wouldn’t mention it.”

Finn thought about it and nodded. As a chef, it was good to have goals again.

Well, anyway, it wasn’t good to force other people, so it looked like—until he opened up the [Hearth Market] and got his weapons—he’d have to settle with other ways to find his meat.

He could also get the customers to butcher for him for discounts or something.

But…what ’customers’?

That said, after experiencing the effects of the room himself, he got a bit more confident in his services.

Imagine being in the danger zone, injured and hungry. Wouldn’t his inn be literally heaven-sent?

At this, he brought up [Rooms] and looked at the descriptions of the basic room. This time, he actually had the time to read it.

[Basic Bedroom]

[Information: Can effectively house one guest. Effects will only fully work on one guest at a time. Increases recovery of all stats and ailments by 10% on top of default inn effects. Adds Comfort Stat +3. Must be attached to a shell.

Size: 3 meters x 2 meters

Duplicates: 3/10 (slots may increase upon upgrade)

Costs: 20 Gold, 20 Hearth Points per room

Upgrades Available: None

It seemed like the Basic Room could add +10% in recovery at the default, while the Improved Room could add +20%. He also had 7 more slots he could build.

If only he had money…

Interestingly, according to the Panda, the rooms seemed to affect each other’s effects as well. For instance, there was an additional +2% recovery for having complete amenities, and so on.

There were plenty of things he could set in this window, too. For example, he could see how clean the room was (with warnings of overall cleanliness stat affected by this). He could also see if it was affecting the stats, how much he planned to charge a night for the room, and so on.

While he was already in the [ROOM] Window, he checked out the other rooms he had as well.

The barrier was also here. It seemed like 1 Hearth Point could repair 10 points of defense, so this meant that fully repairing the barrier would need 1000 Hearth Points. This was already painful for him to just imagine it.

Other than the [Build Mode], he also studied the rest of the icons under the [Hearth Panel]. First, among the icons seemed to be the current state of the Inn.

[INNKEEPER DASHBOARD]

Inn Name: Wanderer’s Refuge

Inn Level: 1

Inn Status: 20 Cleanliness, 12 Ambiance, 20 Comfort

Reputation: 0

Current Guests: 0

Number of Staff: 0

Rooms: Basic Bedroom x 3, Toilet x 1, Kitchen x 1, Living Room x 1, Dining Room x 1, Front Desk x 1, Barrier x1

Barrier Type: Basic

Barrier Health: 9989/10000

Active Functions: None]

While the rooms did indicate how much cleanliness, ambiance, or comfort they added, it seemed like there were also other factors affecting it. When he asked Pang, the spirit just said that there were unlisted ones, and there were also points added for certain combinations.

Finn thought it’d be too complicated to ask for the formula, so he did not. He’d just build things as he needed them. He wasn’t so rich to splurge on items, anyway.

Hmmm… what else could he buy?

For now, the mission rewards would recover his Hearth Points, but the future sources weren’t guaranteed. So, from this point onwards, he had to be more careful about what to choose.

[INNKEEPER DASHBOARD] checked

[GUEST LOGBOOK] no need

[ROOMS] checked

[BUILD MODE] checked

Now for the rest….

[INN FEATURES]

[STAFF ROSTER]

[RECIPE CODEX]

[RESOURCE INVENTORY]

[QUEST BOARD]

The [STAFF ROSTER], [RECIPE CODEX], and [RESOURCE INVENTORY] were all understandably empty for now.

As for the first panel, what he saw made him sit up straight.

[INN FEATURES]

At first, he thought it would be something like decoration and other customization options.

He was wrong. Very wrong. And he could only be thankful he still had a decent amount of Hearth Points to buy stuff!

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