Xuan Li opened the rusty door to the inn and a creak sounded. On the other side, a small sized reception area with a few run-down wooden tables and chairs was revealed.
The room was completely empty, void of customers, and there was no one by the counter. Though the room looked poor, it was actually relatively clean. Their tables and chairs weren't very dirty and it clearly looked like it was regularly cleaned.
This run down yet clean place made Xuan Li uncomfortable; he wanted to turn back immediately but judging from the place, renting a night might be cheap. The coin he found was silver, but he wasn't sure how much it was worth in this world. For all he knew, it would be worth a single yen!
But he soon cast his thoughts aside;the panther would have told him if he couldn't afford it. Of course, the panther might also be keeping silent to get revenge for being called Dumdum multiple times.
"Okay." With a deep sigh, he proceeded towards the counter and tapped on the silver bell.
*Ding*
Sound resonated from the bell, alerting the receptionist who jumped up from the ground!
'Was he asleep on the other side of the counter?' Xuan Li thought to himself, with his arms in a karate gesture, slightly startled from the man's appearance.
The man looked to be in his mid forties, but it was quite hard to tell due to his overgrown messy hair covering his entire face. He wore simple brown clothing that was slightly ripped in various areas and a dark blue coat.
"Welcome… How many nights?" A low, emotionless but raspy voice came out of his mouth
"Um, one night please," Xuan Li replied, fighting his urge to back away.
"That's 20 coppers." The man held his shaking hand out.
Xuan Li gave him the silver coin he found and the man placed it inside one of his pockets. The man rummaged through his pockets, the sounds of jingles and wrappers could be heard from them.
"Here, 80 coppers change."After a few seconds, the man passed Xuan Li 80 copper coins which he took with bright eyes.
'So this world uses this type of currency. Since the inn cost was 20 copper and handing him that silver looking coin gave me 80 copper change. Hmm, so 100 copper is worth one silver coin. Whoever dropped that coin must feel so sad right now! He just lost five nights at an inn, haha!' Xuan Li amused himself with his own little thoughts.
"Your meal will be prepared shortly. I'll deliver it to your room." The raspy voice man explained to Xuan Li while grabbing a wooden walking stick.
*Thud*
*Thud*
*Thud*
The man walked out of the counter, using his walking stick as support, and gestured Xuan Li to follow him upstairs. The baby panther followed behind them, observing his surroundings, the limping man and back at Xuan Li.
'He always encounters the weirdest people. I should tell him he should start being more careful, that rouse of being some grandmaster cultivator may work on these bumpkins but he will sooner or later be exposed. Ha..he'll probably be fine anyway, he has that stupid tough body anyways.' The panther shook its head mentally.
"Not everyday….. you would get to see someone with a panther." The hair covered man spoke with a low voice while slowly making his way up stairs.
Xuan Li snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the man who was putting a lot of effort to climb the stairs. "Is it that rare? I just found and tamed him. It's no big deal," He replied, looking back at the baby panther.
'I can't wait till my strength is restored.' The panther glared at Xuan Li but with his baby form, it looked more like a pout making its face extremely adorable.
"My name is Lucifer…. I'm the owner of Angel inn." Lucifer continued to talk with his raspy voice.
Xuan Li flashed a smile while holding back his laughter.
'Lucifer? Angel inn? You're joking right!?'
"The name's Xuan Li. This is Dumdum." He gestured towards the panther.
"I'm not called that!" The panther shouted with its adorable voice.
"Ahah, we are still working on his name" Xuan Li rubbed the back of his head with an embarrassed smile.
Lucifer finally got to the top of his staircase and looked down at the two. "Hmm...a panther that can talk…" After saying those words, he began to mumble to himself and continued down the corridor with Xuan Li and panther in tow.
Through the creaking corridor and cracking ceiling supports, Lucifer led them to the end of the corridor and showed them a dark wood door. "This....is your room." He handed him a silver key and walked off with his walking stick.
*Thud*
*Thud*
*Thud*
The sound from his cane lessened the further he got downstairs.
Xuan Li used the key to open the door.
*creaaaak* The door opened with some force on Xuan Li's side.
Inside the room, there was a simple clean bed and a square window that overlooks the streets that he came from. The room as a whole was a rectangle and the right side had a dark wooden desk with some drawers.
This room looked quite nice, if only it didn't make a creak every time Xuan Li and the panther walked. The room also looked quite old with the ceiling supports having small tearing through them. It was clear this inn as a whole wasn't repaired in years yet still looked oddly clean.
"Finally, a bed!" Xuan Li nearly cried tears of joy. Until they reached this place, they had to walk a long way. Although they got here at a fast pace because of Xuan Li's insane stamina, they still had to sleep on the cold ground for the past few nights. Luckily, Xuan Li didn't seem to have the need to eat or drink but he didn't know how long this weird immunity to starvation and dehydration would last.
Xuan Li immediately jumped onto his bed, making a loud squeak. Though the bed was not as comfortable as the one back home, his mental exhaustion made him feel that this was very comfortable. He honestly did not care about the quality as any bed would be better than the ground.
"Right human. Now that we found a place to rest, we need to talk about-" The baby panther began to talk to Xuan Li but stopped when he noticed that Xuan Li began to silently snore! He fell asleep!