[Received! Bonus +1 Agility and +1 Strength.]

Immediately, he felt his body become just a bit lighter.

He just added two new ingredients, and the ranking went up?

"Class D, eh?" he uttered, eyebrows rising. Pang had already sat properly, gaping at him.

"What? Class D?" the panda exclaimed, and Finn looked at him.

"You didn't tell me that making essence food is so easy?" He made it sound like it was super rare or something.

Pang was offended. This was abnormal, but still! "HEY! I admit I'm surprised, but don't forget you're in the Inn kitchen!"

"Oh, right," he smiled, patting the counter. Give credit to what is due. There was a special buff in the kitchen, allowing his success rate to be so high.

"Thank you," he said. "I'll make sure to maximize you."

…

After eating, Finn lounged in the living room and sighed, ending up on the Hearth Market to do window shopping. (At this time, the Panda was still eating his 3rd serving of the dish).

As he looked at the [Hearth Market], he was reminded of those times with his phone and an online shopping app, where he'd just 'add to cart' stuff without actually buying anything.

If only he had more money…

He turned and looked at the dishes on the table, covered with the dish cover (made of leaves). Pang had already eaten a lot of plates, and he just stopped the panda from consuming everything, so that there'd be extra food later on.

Speaking of the Panda, while (window) shopping around, he couldn't help but ask. "Are cores really the only item saleable in the store?"

"When did I say that?"

His amber eyes landed on the excess food on the table.

Wait a minute.

Finn recalled that the leisurely panda liked to answer things literally. In retrospect, he didn't say cores were the 'only' things that could be sold. His exact words were 'anything that contained the world's energy', wasn't it?

The energy of this world was Essence. What he made was essence food.

Finn shot out of the sofa and strode to the dining table. The single a la carte meal he made could be divided into a few plated dishes.

He took a smaller plate and placed about four pieces of the meat, and added a bit of embellishment.

Plating could add a lot of value to a dish, y'know, and he also wanted to see if a few pieces of meat could sell.

He then held on to one of the plates, and tried to sell it off. "Sell."

[Do you wish to sell Braised Brindlejaw with Purplestep Glaze and Sunberry Leaf Dust (D) for 1 gold? Yes | No?]

Finn sparkled. He can sell food!

[Sold 1 x Braised Brindlejaw with Purplestep Glaze and Sunberry Leaf Dust (D). +1 Gold]

He quickly mimicked what he did and tried to sell a few more.

[Sold 1 x Braised Brindlejaw with Purplestep Glaze and Sunberry Leaf Dust (D). +1 Gold]

[Sold 1 x Braised Brindlejaw with Purplestep Glaze and Sunberry Leaf Dust (D). +1 Gold]

[You have sold the maximum amount to sell for this item.]

"Awww…."

The Panda was already next to him by this time. At first, he approached with annoyance because these plates were promised to be his midnight snack. How could he just sit still when he saw them being sold?

Finn looked at Pang, who looked badly at him, definitely because he was selling off his meat. "The market is there to assist the inn—not so you can be merchants!" the bear said, looking quite miffed.

Finn wanted to argue that becoming a seller would, technically, help the inn, but didn't bother, particularly when an idea came to him.

He thought about it and took one of the plates, got a scoop of the mashed thornroot, added a few pieces of the braised meat (a few more pieces than before), and then embellished with his herbs.

[Do you wish to sell Braised Brindlejaw with Purplestep Glaze and Sunberry Leaf Dust (D) with mashed thornroot (E) and side salad for 2 gold? Yes | No?]

YES!

Like this, he sold three more combinations of the new meal, earning a few extra gold.

Finn experimented a bit more to see how far he could take advantage of this. Pang was just watching him, though he'd be calmer when Finn handed him another plate to sate his greed. Since Pang's previous Innkeepers didn't cook, he also had no idea about the limitations for this one either.

He tried to sell the same meat and just one side dish, but it didn't count. A major difference in the overall mass of the dish was needed for it to be counted as a unique dish. The dish with mashed thornroot and salad apparently counted in this, but varying them anymore did not.

He reckoned that the other types of meat and cooking styles would have similar results. By estimate, this meant he could make around 3 variations of each meat dish, and three copies of each one, which was already more than enough.

Only D-class and above were accepted as well; his jerkies and others weren't even looked at. Perhaps it was because they could be bought for less than 1 gold, which was not an acceptable currency in the system.

Well, it didn't matter. His heart was light, knowing there was a new way to earn money, which just added to his drive to cook even more!

[Status]

Name: Finnick Altheus Solthar

Race: Human

Class: Innkeeper, Chef

Level: Awakened Tier 1

Awakening Type: Physical

Affinity: Fire, Earth, Wind

…

VITALS

HP: 288/300

Mana: 259/300

Stamina: 272/300

Wallet: 93 Gold

Hearth Points: 450 Points

…

Skills:

Active: [Ingredient Scan] [Dish Analysis] [Heated Arc] [Foraging] [Farming]

Passive: [Blade Proficiency - Growth Type (Lv 2)] [Monster Instinct]

[Strong Stomach] [Improved Palate] [Fire Resistance]

Condition: Normal ]

He smiled. Satisfying.

Now, he didn't know how he, an innkeeper, would end up using part of his free time as an online food shop, but life could get unexpected sometimes.

Life was also very unexpected for a small group of young mercenaries a few kilometers away.

There were three of them, around twenty or twenty-one years old, rushing through the forests with green things on their backs, and a ton of different monsters on their tails.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" the blonde screamed, waving his spear to push back the monsters. However, unlike before, he struggled a lot. He had to put a lot more effort into his grip after all. He was tired as heck.

The other two also kicked, punched, and swiped as needed, but their focus was to escape the mob of rats that could easily bury them within a few seconds.

There were probably scores of these monsters now. They were relatively small for awakened-level beasts, but they came in large groups. Even if their stats were full, they'd have trouble with this, let alone now that they were tired, hungry, and dying.

They had been running aimlessly for a few hours now. They had no mind to determine where they were heading. All they knew was that the nearest Town in any direction was at least 2 days away!

Meanwhile, their stamina and their lives were draining fast.

What are they going to do, now!?

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