The Gourmet Innkeeper: Cooking Monsters in a Fantasy World

A/N: HAPPY 2026 EVERYONE! Hope y'all had a great new year celebration, and may our next year be more awesome!

Thank you for supporting this far, Adventurers! Special hugs to the awesome blokes who sent golden tickets, gifts, comments, reviews, and votes! Each one helps this story keep afloat! THANK YOUUU!

Mentioning last month's Top 3 Golden Gifters Chris_02, Kaderine, and Kalgarth! *High five*!

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"We should have passed two-thirds of the way now," Marcus said as he stabbed at another monster that came their way. At this point, they had encountered more and more monsters, which in itself was a sign that they were already in Level 1.

The others also swiped and stabbed. They had a two-line formation because the forests were relatively dense, and it was impractical for their rows to be thicker than they already were.

This also meant that most people, regardless of strength, encountered monsters and had to fight them directly. Fortunately, all of the people there, even the awakened ones, had a few years of experience in their belts, so no one was flustered.

Anyway, the Guild would not send people to a potentially extra dangerous mission if they didn't think that they'd make it.

Well, experienced except for Finn, who had just become an Adventurer literally 2 days prior and started cultivating a few months back...

Not that any of these people knew this.

Most of these people were unfamiliar with Finn. All they knew about him was that he had just passed the exam and was friends with Victor and Marcus' teams.

When they asked the latter why he was part of this team, they just smiled mysteriously, making people even more curious.

That said, what could a newbie do so deep in the danger zone? And, for several team leads, why did it feel like the Elders were specifically telling them to take care of the man?

They weren't direct about it. Just that 'See that redhead? He's new, why don't you be a good senior and watch his back?'

Not to mention, Gideon, one of their powerhouses, was obviously guarding him!

When asked, the redhead would act innocent, as if he had no idea why he was being guarded. "Him? He's just heroic. Protecting the weakest bloke."

He was even wearing a very large, puffy, and cheesy-looking backpack. When people asked why he had to carry so much when a few carriages were dedicated to his items, he just looked at them, telling them to "please do not touch his sister."

Anyway, there was a lot of doubt and confusion, but since the Elders liked him, no one dared to slight him, even if they did grumble a lot behind his back.

Finn didn't care, slashing away at another monster that came their way. By this time, he could deal with the typical awakened monster in one or two blows, sometimes without a skill. This was still using his old weapon, too.

This was on par with some newly upgraded toughened fighters.

"Must be the weapon."

"Must be a skill…"

People said these, though the more they saw him fight, the more they knew there was a lot more behind it. Still, when one started with dislike, it was difficult to admit the positives of a person. Some of them were in outright denial.

Anyway, traveling here, each one managed to get a few cores each. "Group work is quite productive."

"If you're the one getting the cores."

"Well, at least energy is saved up, right? We can fight more this way."

That said, one of the main fighters was Gideon. But for some reason, he gave the stones to Finn!

"...you should keep them," he said. "Awakened cores barely do anything for me."

"But…" These could at least be used as currency, right?

"It is in my best interest that you become strong," he said, and Finn felt a lot of pressure.

Finn's eyes were twitching, especially under everyone's stares.

Quite a few adventurers couldn't help but feel jealous. "Hey! Gideon! Don't you think you're so biased?!" they asked. "Don't you think it's unfair to give so much to a newbie?! Does it make sense?"

Gideon looked them up and down before bluntly answering the question. "Yes."

"..."

…

Marcus laughed at them and couldn't help but help out. "Guys, he's the owner of the inn we were talking about. Don't be mean to him or you'll regret it."

"An inn?"

They had mentioned an inn before, but it was too difficult to believe. Some of them thought he just said it so they'd stop looking at Finn weirdly.

Finn shook his head and continued with the trip. Soon, they reached the area, and he paused just when the building was in sight.

He turned to Gideon, who was staring at the building in the middle of nowhere. Don't look at his face being all grumpy and all that, Finn knew that he was definitely shocked.

For example, his eyebrows rose by a few millimeters more than usual. One had to know that those thick brows didn't move even after he dealt with dozens of awakened monsters.

The rest of the adventurers were the same. They gaped at the sight of a building not too far uphill. "There's really a building—"

"What is this?"

Finn, Marcus, and everyone in the know could only smile, leading the way to the building. Soon, they arrived at the delineation, and the rules triggered in front of everyone.

"Rules?"

"It's so long…"

"It's to make sure everyone's experience is decent," Finn explained. "It's interesting, isn't it? I recommend accepting the rules, of course. Removal from the blacklist has huge additional costs."

"..."

What could they say to that? They could only agree.

Anyway, the group entered the lot and was amazed. The house was well-kept, and the gardens were pretty. It was just that there were too many people at the party this time.

For efficiency, they decided to divide their group of 120+ into three. One team would remain and enjoy the perks, while the other two teams would head to East and West, respectively, to begin their missions.

Anyway, everyone was used to camping outside, so those who hadn't experienced the convenience of the inn didn't fight too much when they ended up being assigned to those doing rounds first.

Their scope wouldn't be too far from the inn, though, probably just a day or two away at most. Beyond that was the other town's responsibility!

This was also in consideration of the inn, which was a bit small for more than a hundred people lurking around at the same time. It wasn't that they didn't fit—they could, somehow—but it wouldn't be comfortable or conducive, especially since most of those who stayed would be fighting within its area.

This was something discussed little by little on the way here. After all, Finn owned this place, and he knew of its capacity. Still, seeing the crowdedness in person made his skin itch.

It was certainly against Finn's ideal atmosphere of chill.

He had to reach Level 2 if he wanted to develop more vertically and horizontally. One of the remaining requirements was to get more customers and spend more hearth points and gold in the inn!

Another requirement was to increase the inn stats, which could be bought with money—something that he did not lack anymore!

Time to splurge~