The Gourmet Innkeeper: Cooking Monsters in a Fantasy World-Chapter 346: Staff in Battle
Finn and Syl, along with other teams, positioned themselves at the connection between the main inn and the narrow extensions. This was so they could use the barrier more effectively, especially since many of them had to head outside of the barrier every so often.
Finn's weapon changed, elongating more, creating a javelin-like weapon. He didn't use this form much because it didn't have much force, and using it to attack was energy-consuming.
Instead, he used it to reach as far as he could into the mob. It was sturdy enough, so he didn't have to worry about its thin form being broken by the force of the mob.
"Ready?" he asked his companions. Marcus and the other short-ranged fighters nodded, ready to head out.
[Sticky Soil]
After reaching his current level at peak Fortified, the skills also experienced fundamental changes in their scope and their quality.
He could now make quicksand several meters in diameter, and make it last for nearly a minute, which was truly a far cry from how the skill started.
The cooldown was also shorter. Basically, as long as he had mana, he could use it continuously, just as long as it had to be through a weapon. After all, he was not a mage, and a ranked weapon was still needed as a medium.
The monsters became destabilized, and the awakened level ones were directly 'eaten' by the quicksand. Each quicksand could wholly consume two or three monsters.
And because the monsters were so squeezed together, any changes at any point could ripple and affect scores of monsters around them. Even a single pause or minor imbalance was helpful.
Best case scenario could even reach a hundred or so.
The moment the monsters became imbalanced, Marcus, Durgan, and the others headed out, stabbing and taking down as many monsters as they could before running back in.
They would take them down by directly hitting the weakspots, prioritizing the toughened-level monsters and above.
Those with CC skills were maximized by partnering with short-range fighters. Whenever a teammate was out, the mages and other long-ranged fighters would not use aggressive skills to avoid hitting allies.
It was better to contain them even for a few seconds, and as long as they coordinated well with the people outside, they would be able to take down several monsters at a time.
For example, when Durgan and Marcus entered an area, taking down several imbalanced monsters in an instant. Then, once the effect wore off and they were still outside, a mage—in this case, Syl—would freeze the feet of monsters not far from them, and they could kill those on the way back to the barrier.
Even the kids were working well! They were small and were placed on one of the platforms, but contrary to what many adults believed (many of whom disapproved at first), they were thoroughly helpful!
They might only be young, but their lethality wasn't inferior to the adults of the same tier. Their accuracy was even better than many mages, and even their tiny ball of energy could cause more damage!
"Hit the eye, Athie! Hit the eye!"
The boy nodded, and a small ball entered a monster's eye, and its head exploded from the inside.
"Waaaaw!" Baby Lily admired, eyes sparkling, and Athie flushed a bit and then he blew off a few more heads while he did so.
"Are they really just at the Charged Stage?" People could not help but question. But then they saw that one was an elf, and the other had odd energy signatures (and was also the Innkeeper's sister), it suddenly felt less odd.
Pang helped out as well by dragging people who fainted within the barrier and couldn't move deeper into the inn.
As for the carcasses outside, they had to be handled well and swiftly. If the corpses piled up one after another, it would be difficult to kill them. While the barrier would receive less attack, the reason why they were here was to soften the burden on the safe zone. If they were just going to use the carcasses as shields, then wouldn't that defeat the purpose?
Some good meat (like that of the fortified stage) would be dragged for sustenance, while the rest were either burned by fire users or frozen by Syl, turning them to dust and snow.
These might seem energy-consuming for all of them, especially when they had to do it every hour or so (and it was), but thanks to the inn's passive regeneration effects, it never really threatened anyone.
If someone's stats became lower than a third, then they would just head to the inn; some rooms were turned into dorms with open doors, and they could recover there as needed.
Tumble and Ranran's tasks were mostly related to food assistance, potion delivery, and also helping butcher the meat. They could also battle awakened stage monsters, but they were just not that strong, and they were far more helpful as logistics officers.
At certain times of the day, they even carried little tables hanging on their necks, showing products to sell.
"Two cores for one healing/mana/stamina potion! Buy three and get one free!" they said, going around with their little stalls.
"Snacks! Snacks for sale!"
"30 minutes Half-body Massage for 1 awakened level core!"
And so on.
The Inn would sponsor people's stay within the barrier as well as some basic meals, but the rest had to be paid for. This was to ensure that the Inn would not be taken advantage of and that the inventory was accounted for.
It wasn't too painful, however, because they were fighting the source of cores, and bulks of them.
The cores gained from the beast mob were public funds, so they decided for each team to take on areas, so wherever Syl or the fire users cleared the carcasses, the cores left behind were funds for that group or that sector.
There were some little conflicts, claiming the monster was weakened on their sector but just died in theirs, but no one dared to make a mountain out of a mole hill with the black-and-white paws roaming around and keeping everyone in check.
Pang might not be able to go out and help fight against monsters directly, but he was certainly instrumental in keeping everyone in check!
