Marcus snored loudly, Like, really loudly, at least when he was relaxed enough. When they were camping, no one could enter deep sleep at all, which was why he had no idea.

Because the rooms had extra regeneration effects, the guests really slept in well in their rooms.

Zzzzggnnnhhh….shhuhhuhhh…ggggrrnnkkgnnnkk

[-1 Defense Point]

Knowing that he couldn't bother his guests to help him out, he just put on his armor and headed out the door to face the enemies. He knew there'd be a big mob considering how quickly the defense points were going down.

Sure enough, when he peeked out, he saw a few dozen monsters.

[Used! Heated Arc! -5 Mana]

The monsters were the familiar sets of brindlejaws and brootrats, so he knew their movements and their weaknesses.

He could tell there were more coming in, and even the relatively safe side with a lot of sap trees was filling up as well. The entire perimeter of the inn, except perhaps the rocks behind, had monsters.

This number of monsters was rare, but it seemed like the chaos they caused in other areas affected this place too. They had probably been attracted by their blood when they were heading here.

"This will be a long night," he said, lunging towards the barrier and waving his heated spear.

Slash, stab, slash, stab.

[Killed! Brindlejaw (Awakened)]

[Killed! Brindlejaw (Awakened)]

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

[...]

Eyes on the terrifying monster, Finn stepped further forward. He twisted the halberd's shaft and stepped to one side, the spike driving clean through its eyes.

ROARRR!!

More and more tried to throw themselves at the barrier. He adjusted the grip of his hand, the halberd's shaft scraping across his palm. His stance widened as he used his strength to create a large arc, which sliced a lot of enemies and made them bleed.

He also used his skill as soon as the cooldown was over. Anyway, he was in the barrier, so there was no need for him to hold back too much. If he ran out of mana, he'd just rest back in his room for an hour or two, and he'd get enough mana for another round of fighting.

[Killed! Brindlejaw (Awakened)]

Interestingly, there were a few brindlejaws more difficult to beat than the others. This meant that they were probably tier 3, and likely had a core in them.

He used [Sticky Soil], stabbing on a spot in front of him but outside the barrier. This created a small area of soil that softened upon contact, liquifying as if temporarily turning to liquid. It captured one brootrat and one brindlejaw leg, imbalancing it.

Then he used the [Feather Step] to step out of the barrier to stab down with his halberd, using his entire weight to finish the enemy off before it could gain its bearings.

[Killed! Brindlejaw (Awakened)]

He didn't have time to harvest the core for now and focused on killing the enemies.

He didn't forget to hook them in though. The brindlejaw was not light, but he could at least drag it into the barrier with a bit of effort. This was in contrast to how it was before, when it felt like he'd lose a portion of his entire stamina just for attempting to move it by a few inches.

Another small monster tried leaping over and following after him, but it wouldn't have been able to enter. Instead, Finn stabbed up, skewering its stomach, and then he smacked it to the ground with the axe—right to another monster of similar species, which also perished under the same blade.

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

Next, he used the hook of his weapon to capture another rat, swinging it into the bigger monster's mouth.

He had seen them fight and eat each other. These were brainless, bloodthirsty creatures after all, and this was something he could take advantage of.

Chomp

[Killed! Brootrat (Awakened)]

While the weapon was still inside the monster's mouth, Finn then used the same hook to stab the monster's upper palate.

Stab!

ROAARR!

He slammed the forearm down like a guiltonnine, and blood splattered over the barrier.

This went on for a while, with more than a handful of monsters succumbing under his blade.

After about an hour of fighting, he felt himself getting a bit sore. However, the progress was steady, and he'd just have to hook in the monsters he killed for meat and for cores.

A few more hours later, he decided to let the rest bang their heads to the barrier while he took a nap and got a bite to eat.

However, before he could leave, he heard a very low growl that made his back shiver.

He paused and turned, watching as another monster emerged from the bushes. It was as big as a polar bear and 1000x more terrifying. It was a long, limbless creature with a blood-covered mouth.

This was the gutcrawler, and he recognized it as one of the monsters that followed Syl all the way here.

The different types of monsters had a certain growth cap on them. For example, brindlejaws, brootrats, hissmals, and so on could only be awakened their whole lives, no matter how many cores they consumed, and how many humans they ate.

The only variances between them were in tiers, but the gap between a tier 1 and tier 3 awakened was only a slope at most, not a massive gorge.

It was simply part of their physiques and how it developed. Even if they consumed a lot of energy, it'd just dissipate and merge with the atmosphere instead of their bodies and their cores.

Perhaps this was the reason why the beasts would always prefer eating intelligent creatures over each other. Perhaps they had an instinct to consume the body types of those capable of growth.

That said, the difference in strength of monsters between ranks was also massive, even more so than any other species, because they were so dependent on their physique.

A Tier 3 awakened monster would not be able to compare against a Tier 1 toughened monster at all.

[-1 Defense Point!]

[-1 Defense Point!]

Like the one in front of him. This was definitely a toughened-level monster!

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