Chapter 293: Expansion Announcements

The Adventurers saw a few toughened ranks and even fortified and blessed individuals together and froze. The person called boss was also strong, even if he seemed like he only was in the toughened stage.

“Follow the rules if you don’t want to get kicked out. Trust me, we won’t lack anything without you.

“Pang, as soon as anyone makes trouble, just kick them out. I can listen to their appeals outside the barrier.”

“…”

Like this, the rest of them behaved a bit better, and some were unable to meet Finn’s eyes.

That said, Micc and the others were smiling as they greeted the group, but frowned when they realised everyone had solemn expressions on their faces.

They were afraid someone got injured or worse, but saw all of them were there, so they heaved a deep breath and then expressed concern.

Finn looked at the others, and he did want to tell, but…where? There were people everywhere now.

Finn wondered if they’d have to build some sort of meeting room or something. He didn’t think one was available through the hearth system, so it’d be a manual construction. Well, that’d be for later.

In the end, they settled for the empty pharmacy.

“Well, in our travels, we found out quite a few things,” he said as they closed the door, blocking anyone else from entering.

“It looks like things have been stirring in the dungeons,” Finn began, tone solemn. “And as people who live in the danger zone, we’d definitely be in the midst of it.”

…

The discussion couldn’t be detailed enough simply because they didn’t have much information yet. This would be forwarded to the guild, which would coordinate with others to investigate and figure things out.

Leiah and the others did promise to update them. Although investigations were mostly classified, Finn and the inn definitely deserved to be privy to the updates. Besides, Finn himself was a special member, so there was no need to hide much from him specifically.

The adventurers headed out with varying moods. Their feet stopped a bit when someone screamed at the side.

“YAS! FINALLY!”

They (and the others who were outside) turned and saw it was Haurus, drenched in sweat and covered in soot. The sweat and soot mixed to make some sort of muddish cover all over him.

“Did you bury yourself under soil?” Someone couldn’t help but ask but Haurus ignored the inquiry, excitedly standing in front of the Innkeeper and his brother.

He then took out several weapons. Most were knives, but there were also a few swords, axes, and spears.

Finn and the others hadn’t had the time to catch up with others, and it seemed like Haurus had been practicing his blacksmithing. They didn’t even stop to wonder why the smithy chimney was working before this.

Interested, many people checked the weapons and saw they were all E-Class. One had to remember that even E-class weapons were not easy to make!

More than 90% of all weapons ever created and used in battle were [Unranked], though that was sufficient in the safe zones, so it was fine.

Hence, even if Class E was the lowest among the ranked weapons, Haurus was deservedly very proud. “My success rate is 60%!”

“Wow, impressive!” the audience exclaimed, sincerely complimenting him. “Are you selling?”

Haurus nodded. “I’ll display it in the shop tomorrow!”

“Good, good! The durability of my weapons has gone! I was barrier-hunting too wildly the past day.”

“Same.”

The adventurers and mercenaries were quite excited to see that the Smithy was finally selling weapons! Until now, its function was more for repairs only, and even that had to slow down when Durgan increased his time outside the territory.

One had to know that even if they wanted to stay in the Inn long-term—especially since accommodation and food weren’t a problem as long as one had funds, sourced from the monsters they hunted—they really couldn’t stay for as long as they wanted because their weapons lose durability!

Now, they could stay even longer!

On the other hand, the staff was impressed by other things. For example, fellow Blacksmith Durgan.

“E-Class Already?” Durgan asked, startled.

Making weapons was one thing, but successfully making a ranked weapon wasn’t as easy. It usually took at least a decade of experience, and the failure rates were also there.

Haurus had only inherited the Basic Blacksmithing skills, but he was already like this after a couple of days of practice. It was making Durgan excited, too.

Now that raw materials weren’t a problem, he could start practicing as well.

He made a mental note to ask Finn to allow him a few days of seclusion time.

Haurus saw this and grinned. He looked at Durgan in understanding. He patted the dwarf’s shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s amazing,” he said. “I’m looking forward to what you could make.”

…

Leiah and the others rested for another night before leaving the next day. Although the report was urgent, getting injured due to tiredness was also not worth it.

Finn woke up early and prepared breakfast just for them (along with his girlfriend and nephew, of course).

He made them a comforting and filling shawarma-inspired meal where they’d add the insides themselves as well as the sauces.

More than saving time from wrapping things up himself, it was a fun activity where people could eat as much as they wanted and change up each wrap and the ratio of the fillings inside.

The discussion the previous night definitely unnerved a lot of people. Finn thought it’d be a nice change to have something light-hearted to temporarily lighten up their moods.

As they ate, the group chatted, purposely avoiding darker topics.

“When will you publicize the extension?”

Finn thought for a few moments. People could scan the code with a status gem with the map extension to get maps to the Inn, and to the extension too.

“Today, I guess? Should I post the scan in the living room or something—”

“WHAT?!”

“???” Finn was a bit confused by the passionate reaction.

“For free?” Someone voiced out, eyebrows high. “You’re just posting it for free?”

Marcus patted his shoulder. “Finn, my innocent friend, think about it,” he said. He had a serious expression on his face that would’ve been cool if he didn’t have marks of sauces on his face.

“How much time would people save with a clear map? How much resources would they be able to keep, how many uncessary fights would they be able to avoid?

“More importantly, people who could handle level 2 are unlikely to be poor.”

Finn blinked, a dawn of realization hitting him.

Damn.

He felt ashamed not thinking about it! It was like he wasn’t raised in a capitalist society!

…

The next day, a new announcement resounded across the territory. It was already after dawn when this happened, and most people were already preparing for a day of fighting. Others were even doing a morning hunt along the barrier even before breakfast.

Clap, Clap, Clap.

Finn clapped his hand to get people’s attentions. He also asked others to call their companions and within 10 minutes, about a hundred people had arrived, standing curiously in the plaza in front of the inn.

“I have a very important announcement to make, and this would be most useful to our brave fighters toughened level and above.”

This caused a few people of this level to flinch, staring at him in intrigue.

Speaking of which, Finn chose this time (the time when most people who would head out were still having their breakfast) to make an announcement.

This was to make sure more people of the relevant levels were still in the territory. Even if they weren’t, companions and friends should be able to pass news to them.

“We…have created an extension! And it also has a barrier! The twist is: It’s in level 2!”

“What?”

“How?”

“Are you serious? Innkeeper, please tell us you’re not joking!”

“Please show us where it is!”

The burst of energy and questions was expected and Finn raised his hand to quiet people down. “We have created a rune that would automatically sync the map to the place through your superior-level status gems.”

“The cost is 10 toughened cores.”

They did not even hear the cost, just what could be bought with it.

The toughened ranks and above were naturally particularly invested in this. They had seen the amazingness of barrier hunting. It was just that as strongmen, the awakened stage monsters couldn’t do much for them.

If they could do this too, how much would they grow?

“There are plenty of toughened and fortified-level monsters in the area,” Finn said with a smile, showing the code. Fortunately, by this time, most fortified-level and a few toughened-level people had the upgraded versions of the status gem.

In the end, he decided to charge the ’scanning’ of the code with 10 toughened cores per scan. Anyway, each team could just assign a member to get one if they lacked funds, which wasn’t very likely for a big team of that level.

Not to mention, in most cases, more than one person from the same team actually ended up buying a copy.

Going out there was so unpredictable. Teammates could be separated from each other, or the map holder could even die. Would anyone be comfortable with not having it on their personal maps?

Like this, he (and Syl, who owned rights to 60% of profits for this rune), gained a lot of cores!

Finn’s smile was so wide it looked comical. He always wanted to have a small mountain collection of toughened cores! That dream was now very close by!

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