The basic beast repellant potions he had now were improved versions of what he used to have as an awakened person. That one was only effective against awakened level.

This one was still most effective against the awakened level monsters, but Finn had managed to increase the repelling effects to toughened-level monsters as well.

After weeks since he inherited the [Intermediate Alchemy] skills, he realized that wasn't very efficient in creating potions from scratch. Rather, he was too busy and had too many things to do to invest too much time on it.

However, he found that he had a bit of talent in enhancing what he had. The past couple of weeks, the beast repellent had become available in the [Hearth Market] a few times, so he could experiment a bit. Using some herbs grown in the gardens, the efficacy had indeed been improved.

For now, they could only hope that this was enough to make this cave a bit less attractive.

The group camped with half of them on watch and the remaining half to rest. Toughened only needed about two to three hours of sleep to recover full stats if they were in the inn, and about four to five hours outside. With Finn's food, this would more or less catch up to that of the inn's passive. Just that they had to eat it swiftly to avoid the aroma leaking out.

They rested with their comfortable gorethrak sleeping bags, made by Ranran, and were very soft.

Finn was part of the second batch, along with Gideon, Leiah, and Durgan. He was woken up some time in the middle of the night, and they also saw the marks of a few fights. The beast repellent had also expired sometime during the previous batch.

They had to take a look at their teammates' states and saw they were all fine, though exhausted, and they heaved a sigh of relief. At the very least, the repellants still had some effects. Otherwise, their situation would've been worse by now.

Still, seeing them so tired, he felt a bit guilty. Finn slept well because he trusted them, so he felt a bit guilty for making them do so much work when he was snoring.

Now, it was Finn's turn and he replenished the beast repelling potion. Just one, lasting a couple of hours, so it should be enough for the group to rest.

Just in case, Finn's group did not talk much, as they were afraid to bother those sleeping and also to attract monsters. Fortunately, not many monsters were active in the area when it was their turn, and Gideon took care of the fortified-level ones nearby before it could attract any more threats.

Soon, the sun started to rise and they watched the purplish light touch the surface of the sky, illuminating it.

He could see the dew forming and saw a few new plants. Before, he was in no mood to explore the vicinity but now, while it was relatively peaceful, his mind saw them almost automatically.

Biodiversity was better in the danger zones, it was perfectly natural to see unknown plants.

There were new berries and fruits, low growing trees, and so on.

He stepped out along with Durgan to see the nearest ones. One was a fruit that was a bit like avocado, except less sweet and was spherical, and another was a berry that tasted a lot like grapes.

What really caught his attention though was…the grass underneath them. The grass looked like yellow-green grass that didn't seem particularly noteworthy at first. However, when he used the [Ingredient Scan] it was a bit more colorful than others.

[Darkroot]

[Information: A tough, fibrous root with high sugar content and mild bitterness. Contains binderin and aromatic tannins. Becomes dark and fragrant when subjected to prolonged dry heat. Used traditionally as a hunger suppressant in lean seasons. Uncommonly used as a tea base among forest foragers.]

This…similar to chicory?!

Would he finally have some coffee!?

It was farfetched to find something like coffee and cocoa in this place, considering their growth conditions, but he could find alternatives.

And, based on the descriptions it could be similar in function as chicory, also known as the poor man's coffee.

Processing of chicory, er, darkroot (if it really was as he thought) might be similar to regular coffee with some differences. He just had to roast the darkroot, grind it, and then brew it like coffee.

It was just that it was caffeine-free which could be good or bad depending on what it needed to be. As something to keep a person awake, it was really lacking. However, if one wanted coffee for the warming earthly taste, then this was a great caffeine-free alternative! Personally, he actually liked chicory better than some 'real' coffee.

He really hoped this darkroot was really as he thought. Now that he imagined it, he felt like he'd be depressed if it ended up being a false alarm!

Since it didn't have an energy boost function, it'd be more for the earthy taste of coffee, which wasn't bad. People in this world had better physique and were more energetic, anyway.

It happened that there was a lot of the grass so he took some and uprooted even more, placing some in his space, while some in the basket. He also took a bit of the other plants and uprooted what he could.

Fortunately, he emptied out his two spaces except for some essentials like food and potions, as well as change of clothes, extra weapons, camping mats, and so on, so he did have space for quite a bit in his space.

Gideon and Durgan guarded him as he foraged, taking care of the few monsters that came their way. He looked back at the mountain that had been shielding them.

That said, now that it was morning again, he couldn't help but stare at the karst rock formations they were in. Karst meant there was limestone here, which could be used for concrete, and therefore manual construction.

He heard from a client once that iron was often found with limestone, too.

Heh.

What could he do with that information? This place was already in level 2, more than a day away from the Inn and was surrounded by strong monsters. It was too impractical to even think about mining from this area.

He felt like he was forgetting something, but he wasn't in the mind to think too deeply about it. He'll remember it later.

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