Anyway, one of the more exciting parts of a move? Choosing your own room and customizing it, of course!

He naturally chose one of the Luxury bedrooms~

He added a lot of decorations, including some paintings, improved beddings, carpets, and so on. Not only would it increase the ambiance and comfort stats of the inn, but it could also enhance the regeneration rate of the room.

Considering how many essence cores he surrounded himself with every day, increasing his regeneration rate was to increase his productivity by folds!

He also blocked the one right next to him. This would be Syl's. Regardless of their ambiguous relationship, it was a fact that Syl helped him many times.

She invested in the inn, she gave him his first true weapon, she was the first to teach him about this world, and she also helped save his sister.

She deserved a permanent place in his home.

That said, he wondered where she was…

…

With a bit of a melancholic mood, Finn finally headed down to build the rest of the buildings he was interested in buying. The other staff members saw him and immediately followed him.

This was except for Ranran, who (after some game of rock, parchment, knife) was still in the [Staff Training Room].

The other shops and workshops he got from the upgrade were standalone buildings. First, he went to the other side of the square, the left side facing the inn.

He added a narrow road about 1.2 meters parallel to the side of the plaza, and then added a little buffer.

Before, he had a buffer made of grass, flowers, and shrubs between the plaza and the inn to make sure the inn wouldn't be too boisterous even if the plaza was.

To balance it, he added a buffer (though thinner) parallel to the other three sides of the plaza, including the one between the workshop street and the main square.

He did not keep shrubs and so on. They were literally just narrow 2-meter patches of grass between the paved plaza and the paved side roads that would serve other buildings.

It would be like a small, elongated park and sitting area, and also to keep the activity of the workshops (and future buildings) slightly separate from the plaza to control traffic and activity, while still keeping them clearly visible from the plaza.

The first one he built was naturally the blacksmith shop. This was something he had been waiting for since he got the expensive spoiler from Pang when he asked him to hire Durgan.

[Purchased! Blacksmith Worksop! -1000 Gold, -5000 Hearth Points]

After he chose it, light surrounded the lot area that it would appear in, and a hole the shape of the foundations appeared. After this, he and the staff watched as it appeared from the foundation, building up.

Finn knew he would never get tired of watching this.

"It is so magical…" Durgan said, while the two little green ones nodded enthusiastically next to him.

"I didn't know there was such magic…" Micc mumbled, eyes sparkling. "To build something out of nothing, and in such detail…How fascinating."

This was more meaningful coming from him, a mage and even an earth user. His earth would always lose its form after a while, though his probably lasted a bit longer than others. If he could build something detailed quickly and let it sit there permanently, how convenient would that be? Especially when they were traveling.

The rest were just watching miracles without much thought, except happiness and pride that they not only could witness it, but were part of the Inn that made it happen.

A couple of minutes later, the last roofing shingle was placed.

[Successfully Built: Blacksmith Workshop]

[System detected that Staff #3 Durgan Vols can be given a Staff Occupation.]

[Would you like to grant Advanced Blacksmithing for 1000 Hearth Points?]

[System detected that Staff #5 Haorus Leshon can be given a Staff Occupation.]

[Would you like to grant Beginner Blacksmithing for 500 Hearth Points?]

Finn's lips twitched. Although Haurus' talent was in alchemy, his years as an apprentice under a blacksmith seemed to have given him some knowledge of the trade, at the most.

Anyway, it was just a few hearth points. Might as well give the lad some things. After working patiently for years under the tradesman, he deserved to inherit a few skills, regardless of actual talent.

The moment he purchased the skillsets, the two people flinched, eyes widening, and then whipping their heads to look at him.

"Wha—"

"This—"

He grinned. "Congratulations on your new jobs."

The two's eyes glimmered. They had seen how it worked with the goblins and had always admired it. Their hearts swelled when the opportunity also came to them.

"THANK YOU!"

…

The Blacksmith Workshop had a 5 meters frontage and was 10 meters deep. As for its interior, he could tell that it also felt a bit bigger. Even if it wasn't, this dimension was better because it'd free up the plaza and the road access to more buildings.

In terms of aesthetics, it matched the inn a lot, except it had a lot more stones, a bit simpler in design, and had the signage of a sword and a hammer crossed together on top of the first floor.

Most of the ground floor was public access. There were shelves and cabinets, though everything was empty for now. Since there was no counter, he reckoned the shop here worked a lot like the Inn Store. This occupied more than two-thirds of the ground floor.

The rest seemed to be the storage area. The store must be linked here, too, and would automatically fill up the shelves according to the contents of this storehouse.

They imagined it filled with products and were filled with excitement. The group headed to the upper floor and saw rather intricate workshops for blacksmiths. Seeing this, they might be able to offer weapon repair services as well.

Durgan nodded. "This is designed well," he said. "The sequence is to heat, to hammer, to shape, and to assemble. It is arranged compactly but practically.

Finn was not sure if he was basing on his own knowledge or what the system gave him. Maybe it was both. He started describing the place in layman's terms so the rest of the non-blacksmiths could appreciate the space.

The central forges were here, and there were two. The forge and anvil zones occupied the entire room. There was the central forge with a chimney that led to the roof. "This is where I heat the metal."

"I'm not sure how it keeps firing…"

Pang bounced. "Just feed it with essence cores~ an awakened core can last many days~"

"Oh, that's amazing!"

"He-he."

Pang was quite proud, though his large tummy just made him adorable.

Durgan shook his head with a smile and continued with the mini tour.

There were two large anvils and another small stake anvil at the side. There was the quench tank at the side of the forge. "This is where we will heat the metal to shape it," Durgan explained, and Haurus nodded.

The walls were also complete with the necessary tools, and there were also work benches. Both blacksmiths looked with satisfaction.

"I can't ask for more…" Durgan said, eyes sparkling. With the new wealth of knowledge injected into his head, he was looking forward to putting it to use.

"Well, you can work here from now on," Finn said. "I will require about 10 hours of required work, and will give you a percentage of commission in the profits. After this time, you can continue working and taking jobs if you want, but after deducting the costs of the materials and giving the inn a part of the earnings in turn."

"This is applicable to every tradesman." This included Haurus, and the future experts they might find.

This was indeed very fair. The experts can work outside working hours, and without cost to the inn since the cost of materials would be paid for by Durgan, on top of a fraction of the earnings.

This excited the two, though there were still some concerns. "But the butchering…."

"Well, it's not like we fight monsters the whole day. You also butcher very quickly. You can do that task in your free time."

Before heading down, Finn continued to look at the workshop. It seemed weird to have such a massive and heavy kiln on the second floor, but it seemed to work well. "Will this be alright?" he couldn't help but ask.

"How dare you question the cosmos, la!" Pang said, fur bristling in annoyance. "This is all very sturdy! They'd only give way if Rank 5 monsters and enemies barraged them with attacks! And even then, we'd just have to buy the building again."

"Okay, fine."

"As for the raw materials, list them down and we'll get our runners to buy them."

He bought rim after rim of paper back in town. It was time to use more of them.

He patted the two's shoulders, smiling. "I'm looking forward to what you guys make!"

…

___

A/N: The Oasis story is happening! This one had heavy focus on cooking and monsters, especially at the start, while the other would have more focus on the Oasis-building, system missions, and so on. It is also an apocalypse story set in a parallel world similar to Earth.

It should be posted this March (or April) after I outline/plan the rest of Gourmet Innkeeper (I already have rough drafts to 300 chaps done so far), though Innkeeper's actual end would probably take several more months from now.

Initial Title: Built an Oasis in a Dying World.

See you there (I hope)!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.