Lex tried to view the details for Glamor Sorcerer but unfortunately all he could see was that sorcery was a different school of power elevation (increasing one's strength) than cultivation. It would be too awkward if Lex, as the Innkeeper and his boss, had to ask Harry what it was, which is why he would have to investigate in some other way. He then looked at the Event manager panel, barber shop and employee residence.The newly unlocked panel allowed him to easily organize and manage events at the Inn, whether they were hosted by himself or his guests. After all, even common fast food restaurants hosted birthdays, why couldn't the Inn? The organizing included setting up temporary venues that were much cheaper than establishing permanent buildings, hiring temporary staff, arranging prizes and many more features. The most important feature – to Lex at least – was the autorun, which entailed that if Lex was too busy to personally oversee an event the system could manage the event based on a set template.
As for the shop and residence, well the name was pretty clear on what they were and what function they performed. Since he had decided earlier that all his next expansions would be near one another, he placed the barber shop opposite the Training room. It was a quaint little shop with a large window that let you see inside. A small red, white and blue barber shop pole was spinning next to the door which Lex found amusing. Inside on the left there were a few sofas for people to sit, on the right there were three barber chairs placed in front of full size mirrors and in the far end of the shop was the till. Originally that was all there was to it, but Lex had an idea and placed the employee residence right on top of the barber shop, with an entrance directly from the back of the shop.
Technically, the employee residence was in a separate space and no one would enter it other than the employee, or anyone the employee invited in. However, Lex thought linking it to the shop and having it physically manifest here might not be a bad idea. It was just visualization, and he suspected Harry would like it. Though at the moment the residence was empty except for a bed – Harry would have to populate it with furniture himself using MP. Speaking of which, since Harry worked with guests directly Lex did not need to pay him. Instead, 40% of whatever Harry charged his clients would go to Harry and the rest would go to Lex.
"Welcome to your barber shop, Harry. What do you think?"
The young man stood frozen at the entrance. A building appearing out of thin air surprised him, but it was being told that this shop was his that froze him. He had tears in his eyes and his mind had stopped working. Even though he was doing well on Earth, he couldn't even get a job as a barber until he got a barbers license and now he had an entire store of his own.
Before Lex could tease the young man he realized some guests were about to enter the Inn so he left Harry to enjoy this moment on his own.
Lex appeared in front of the Inn just in time to see a young girl picking herself off the ground, rubbing her rear as if she had just been hit. Behind the girl stood a tall, mature lady who looked absolutely outraged. Lex noticed the two were wearing glasses with the 'Clark Kent' effect, which would work on everyone else in the Inn except him.
He looked at their statuses before saying anything.
Name: Kristine Joel
Age: 99.
Sex: Female
Cultivation Details: Insufficient authority to view (cultivation sealed)
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Remarks: Hello mama *whistling noise*
Name: Vera Joel
Age: 16
Sex: Feale
Cultivation Details:
– Foundation Initial
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Remarks: She has the aura of a new oracle, stay away! They are all scammers!
Lex raised an eyebrow. There were multiple things in their status that caught his eye, yet it would be rude to keep his guests waiting. However before he could say anything, the older lady waved her right hand, summoning what looked like a bathroom slipper.
"I told you to behave!" she roared as she threw the slipper, yet the young girl dodged effortlessly.
"What's so good about behaving? I told you we should have run away with dad, then we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"DON'T BRING YOUR NO GOOD FATHER INTO THIS!" she roared once as she began sprinting after her running daughter.
Lex stood there frozen, unsure of how to respond. The mother and daughter pair were actually running in circles around, yelling at each other.
Lex coughed loudly and used a bit of the power of the Host Attire to attract their attention.
"Welcome guests to the Midnight Inn," he said, smiling warily.
"Midnight? Such an ominous name," said the mother, who finally stopped.
"It's not ominous, it's romantic," replied the daughter confidently. "Innkeeper, I would like to travel to a different planet. Any planet with a Star Class civilization would do."
Lex instantly froze when he heard what the mother and child were saying. They seemed to be familiar with the concept of the Inn, but did not know the details.
"If you want to travel to another world, you would need to increase your Midnight Inn Level to 3. Currently, you are at level 1," he told Vera. "You can increase your prestige by spending a total of 100,000MP at the Inn."
"Please ignore her nonsense, Innkeeper. Her father has spoiled her silly," said the mother with an apologetic smile.
"Haha it's alright. I've heard oracle's are mischievous, it must be tough on you." As soon as Lex said that, both the mother and daughter froze. Clearly that was supposed to be a secret. Lex was curious about what an oracle was, he could venture a guess based on the name but it would be nice to know the details. Yet he couldn't ask directly so he thought he'd stir the pot a little by mentioning it, but it seemed to have a different effect.
The mother coughed as she straightened herself up and looked at the man in front of her as her daughter quickly stood behind her. She could not determine his cultivation, especially since hers was sealed, but based on what her daughter had read in the book of prophecies he was not a simple man.
She opened her mouth to say something but before she could utter a word a bright light flashed, and a giant sleeping turtle appeared in the middle of the road. The three of them looked at the turtle, unsure of how to react. Lex recognized it from the horn on its head and checked its status.
Name: Not available
Age: 2017
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: Inner Core
Species: Galactic Sovereign turtle (infant)
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Remarks: It's a newborn baby, so get a babysitter!
Lex stared at its age for a bit, trying to digest what he was seeing. But then, this was the cultivation world. He should get used to it. He used his suit's powers to gently lift the turtle and place it in the shade of a tree.
"Please excuse the interruption, we receive all kinds of guests."
"Clearly," responded the mother, still looking at the turtle. "Please excuse our earlier display. It was quite rude of us."
"No no, not at all. Such a close family relationship is quite enviable. Would you like a tour of the Inn? You seem to be familiar with some of it already."
"Yes of course, that would be lovely."
Lex was about to take them on a tour himself when he felt more guests entering the Inn. This was quite a surprise, it was rare to have guests let alone so many at the same time.
"Gerard, why don't you show our guests around," he said, summoning the old man. Gerard quickly led the mother and daughter duo not to the manor that was right in front of them, but to the Golf cart nearby. It seemed he had discovered a passion.
Just as the two left, a bright light shone, after which Will appeared at the Inn along with Hugo – who still had a room rented – as well as seven other guests.
"Welcome to the Midnight Inn," the old man said excitedly to his guests, who were looking at their new surroundings in alarm.
"Will, you seem to have stolen my life," Lex said, approaching the crowd with a smile. Will was the first person who had brought so many guests to him at once, which drastically improved his impression of the old man.
"Haha my apologies Innkeeper, I was too excited," said the old man, grinning like a child with his favorite toy.
"In that case, would you also like to give the tour to your guests as well?"
"It would be my pleasure."
With that the man began leading his guests, as if he was extremely familiar with the place. Lex was amused at his expression and was about to return to the mother and daughter before he realized even more guests were on the way. What a busy day.
Lex stood patiently as he awaited the arriving guests. This was by far the busiest day his Inn had ever seen, and he had to be ready to face any kind of hurdle. He would create more rooms, rent more A.I. assistants or do whatever else was needed to make sure everything went smoothly.
A bright light flashed and Lex saw a few familiar faces. Brother Chen and Blane appeared, followed by a lady who bore a sharp resemblance to Chen.
"Innkeeper," the two soldiers acknowledged together as soon as they saw Lex. The girl looked at him with curiosity.
"Welcome back," said Lex with a smile. "I did not expect to see you so soon. Were you able to find your caravan?" Lex had heard enough of their conversations with Falak to know a bit about them and what they were going through.
"Yes, fortunately they were all safe and we were able to locate them. This is my sister, I brought her here because I wanted her to become familiar with the Inn."
"I hope you find it to your liking," he said, looking at the girl.
Name: Lily
Age: 24
Sex: Female.
Cultivation Details: Qi Training 7th realm
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
"Would you like me to show you around?"
Brother Chen and Blane looked each other in the eye and instantly knew what the other was thinking.
"Eh, no thank you. You must be busy, we can show her around."
"Very well. Give me a call if you need me."
The three walked towards the manor leaving Lex behind. When they had walked some distance Lily whispered, "I've never seen you behave like that. Is that guy so scary?"
"You have no idea," her brother replied gravely. "Last time we were here we met another guest who was so powerful that we cannot even guess his realm, and even that guy was polite to the Innkeeper. He can open portals all over the universe to retrieve his guests from whichever planet they're on. I dare not even think how powerful he is."
Lily gulped, as if understanding what her brother meant.
"But even so," said Blane, "he is running this Inn and takes care of all his guests very well. I cannot guess what is going on in the mind of someone that powerful, but as long as we don't get on his bad side we'll be fine."
Lex, who was completely not eavesdropping on their conversation, accidentally overheard what they were saying and chuckled to himself. 'Ah it's nice to be respected. Or is it feared?'
With all his guests taking care of themselves, Lex turned his attention to the napping turtle. A part of him wanted to let the turtle sleep, but God only knew how long a 2000 year old baby's nap would be.
"Wake up," Lex said gently, but with his voice infused with the power of his suit.
The turtle that had no name lazily opened its eyes, but as soon as it saw its new location it jolted awake. It looked around confused, and kept sniffing the air.
"Welcome to the Midnight Inn. I did not want to disturb your sleep, but I thought you might find it more restful in a room."
The turtle wore an alarmed look on its face, and hearing Lex its worry did not lessen but increased.
"Oh dear oh dear oh dear. You silly humans really give me a lot of trouble," the turtle said, before it started walking hurriedly towards the forest.
"Do you know all the animals here are hungry, and are forcefully feeding on spirit energy to survive," the turtle lectured Lex as it paced forward. How the turtle knew this was a mystery, but it was confident that it was right. "There are no insects around, no worms, no seeds. What are they supposed to feed on? Oh you silly humans, don't you know you're supposed to feed someone when they're hungry?"
Upon hearing the turtle Lex was embarrassed and alarmed. He had gotten the animals from the system so he naturally assumed the system would feed them as well. He never considered the lack of their natural food in the environment. Suddenly it occurred to him that the reason Helen might be so popular with the animals was because she was probably feeding them.
He purchased various kinds of animal food and mentally commanded Velma to feed the animals every day. No wait, Velma was usually busy with guests and other duties, maybe he should get another assistant to help with the animals and maybe even the environment…
As Lex was thinking of a solution, he did not realize he had followed the turtle into the forest, nor had he realized that wherever the turtle would step wild grass would grow. Mushrooms, small shrubs and different wild plants all started appearing in a trail behind the turtle, and before long small animals could be seen eating them.
Lex was woken from his thoughts, however, when he realized that the turtle had walked directly in a straight line RIGHT TO THE GREENHOUSE! The array seemed to have no effect on it. Before he could say anything though, he heard a worried voice.
"Oh dear oh dear oh dear, you silly silly human. You are drowning the plants, they don't need so much water, and the soil is all wrong. Too much fertilizer can be poisonous, not all plants need the same things," the turtle told the gardener, and started using its ability to rearrange the plants.
"Get away you fat lizard," the gardener said angrily, "you're ruining my arrangements! When the plants grow, their arrangement will form words that will form poetry! You're ruining my poetry!"
"No, no silly human, these plants cannot be so close together or their roots will harm each other."
The gardener and the turtle started arguing with each other, both trying to determine how the garden should be managed, leaving Lex standing there with his mouth hanging open.
"Close your mouth or a fly will go in," said Mary who appeared wearing an amused look.
"There are no flies in the Inn," Lex retorted, but he closed his mouth. This was the first time he was seeing an A.I. showing some personality, he did not know they could do that. He was under the impression they were like those A.I. assistants he saw in TV shows that only do the task they're told.
"You should hire the turtle to maintain the greenhouse. It has a strong affinity to nature, and could speed up the plants growth."
Lex's eye's lit up at the idea, but before he could make the offer he heard the turtle say, "Oh dear oh dear. Such a wonderful garden, I can't let a silly human ruin it. I better look after it."
System Notification:
The Galactic Sovereign turtle has hired itself as an employee! All permanent employees must have a residence. Automatically purchasing employee residence. -1500MP. Residence purchased, please allocate residence entrance!
Lex's mouth dropped open once again at the sudden events. What the hell was happening?
Mary burst out laughing at Lex's impression, but when she received his glare she stopped laughing to explain. Well, more like she eventually stopped laughing to explain.
"You're probably wondering why all the steps for hiring were skipped, like giving it the platinum key and going through the test."
"Exactly."
"The platinum key is for people you want to employ out in the various worlds. If whoever you want to employ is already at the Inn then you can make an offer to them for the job directly. Normally that would then proceed to the test, but a Galactic Sovereign turtle, even an infant one, is too overqualified for such a simple position. Since the turtle directly expressed its intention to work, and you expressed your interest in hiring it, the process was skipped."
Lex kept glaring at her. The explanation she gave made sense, kind of, but he had a strong feeling she was just making an excuse and the system acted on its own because it didn't trust him enough to hire the turtle.
He walked up to the turtle and said, "Since you are interested in joining my Inn I would like to welcome you. I have prepared a residence for you and connected the entrance to the greenhouse." He pointed in a corner where a giant double door had appeared connected to a massive tree. Lex had spent a little MP to make the entrance look like it was inside of a tree since he thought the turtle might like it. He was not sure exactly what kind of habitat turtles, especially galactic ones, liked.
The Galactic Sovereign turtle nodded in understanding. Of course the system hadn't forcefully hired it, and the turtle had received its contract directly in its mind. It didn't bother with the contract though and directly accepted. It didn't have complex desires or needs – all it saw was that this place had the potential for a good garden, and the turtle wanted to tend to it.
"Nooooooooooooooooo Innkeeper," the gardener let out a sorrowful roar, "you must not let it touch the greenhouse. It has no style, no sense of aesthetic. It will ruin everything."
The gardener looked like a child complaining to his parent. Well, he was only a few days old so technically both the gardener and the turtle were babies by their own standards.
While the various new guests were roaming around the Inn, Helen was exploring the place herself as well. At first she was hesitant to move around the Inn lest she run into someone who recognizes her, but now with her glasses she moved around without worry. She noticed every few days some changes would be made to the Inn's environment or new buildings would be added, and she liked exploring them. Everything was improving all the time, and the already pleasant environment was getting even better. Previously she felt that some places of the Inn would be too quiet which would make it eerie. However one day randomly more birds and small animals appeared, so if nothing else you would always hear the flapping or singing of birds. A few moments ago she had even seen a massive turtle hurrying across the grounds next to the Innkeeper. She supposed that was one of the animals from a different planet because she had never seen a turtle that big on Earth.
Currently she was heading towards a new building she saw appear opposite to the Training room. While on her way she noticed that today seemed to be relatively busy for the Inn. She saw William Bentham again, leading a group of followers towards the Recovery room. She saw two intimidating men walking besides a woman like her bodyguards. Most interestingly, she saw what appeared to be a mother chasing her daughter with a bedroom slipper in her hand, with Gerard following the pair in a golf cart. The daughter kept screaming "I'm going to date an Oolin! I'm going to date an Oolin, I've already seen it!". Every time she yelled she would antagonize her mother even more, which would cause the daughter to laugh. Although the daughter was the one laughing, Gerard who was driving behind the pair seemed to be the one enjoying the most.
Helen chuckled as she thought about it, and continued on her journey. She was quite noticeable as she was followed by an ostentation of Peacocks wherever she went. She received a few glances from the new guests, but the glasses gave her the confidence to ignore them. When she finally arrived near the training room, she was surprised to find that the new building was a barbershop. She didn't even need to guess, the spinning barbers pole outside was very distinctive and telling.
This surprised her, as she was expecting something more exciting. Everything at the Inn so far seemed targeted towards cultivation. The Meditation room, Training room, Recovery room and Mystery trial were all good examples of this. Compared to their utilitarian purposes, this seemed almost mundane. But she didn't underestimate it just because it seemed normal.
She went inside to see a young man, probably around her age, excitedly looking through all the cupboards. When she entered the shop a bell hung above the door rang, alerting the young man of her presence. He was startled at the noise, but quickly his excitement returned as he looked at Helen.
"Welcome!" he said jovially as he pulled her in. "Welcome to Harry's! Or wait, Harry's Barbershop! No wait…" he became distracted and started mumbling to himself about the name.
"Is this your shop?" Helen asked, analyzing the young man.
"Yes! Yes, of course it is! Have a seat, what would you like? Since you're my first customer, there's no charge!"
"No I don't want to have anything done," Helen clarified, "I was just curious about the new building and wanted to see what it was.".
"Oh," said Harry, his excitement dimming noticeably. "Are you sure you don't want to try anything? Trust me I'm very good. And I won't charge, promise!"
"Eh," Helen suddenly felt awkward. It was clear to her that Harry really wanted her to have something done, and was looking at her with longing eyes. She didn't want to offend anyone at the Inn so she reluctantly said, "Fine, why don't you give me a little trim. Not too much, mind you!"
Helen's hair was already short, barely reaching her shoulders, and she didn't want to cut it much shorter, but she thought there wouldn't be much harm in trying out the shop. Something at the Midnight Inn clearly couldn't be normal.
She took a seat and Harry stood behind her excitedly as stared at her face in the mirror. He was deciding what sort of look would suit her most, but he did not realize that his eyes started emitting a purple glow as he did. Under his glare Helen didn't feel uncomfortable, and instead seemed to enter a trance. She started hearing her own previous thoughts in her head, as if they were being replayed.
At some point Harry decided what he wanted to do and grabbed a spray bottle and sprayed her hair. No one noticed that the spray bottle seemed to just appear in Harry's hand, or that as the water touched her hair it seemed to wash away some of the thoughts full of self doubt that she was hearing in her head. A floating comb appeared and started brushing her hair. As if by magic or some sorcery, not only did the brush untangle all her hair in a single stroke without having to pull or tug, it rearranged her thoughts so that they became more organized. Lately her thoughts would bounce from Alexander to her family to the assassination attempt to her unkown future. Everything was full of uncertainty and she had trouble thinking straight, but now the randomness of her thoughts started disappearing.
Harry himself did not notice that as he worked he started mumbling incantations or that two pairs of scissors appeared in the air around him. Both the scissors started cutting rapidly, yet very little hair was actually being cut. If someone could peer into Helen's mind and visualize it as a garden, then they would notice that anxiety was growing in that garden like weed. Yet each time the scissors snipped some of that anxiety was cut away.
Slowly and steadily, Helens appearance started to change and if this were a video game instead of real life '+1 charm' would be seen floating above her head every few minutes. Yet the biggest change was in her mind. Mortals called it mental health and cultivators called it inner demons, but regardless of whatever one called it, Helen's state was improving. Slowly and steadily, she was receiving a makeover that would change her entire life. She was achieving both outer beauty and inner peace.
*****
Lex was chuckling to himself as he walked out of the forest. He had gotten the gardener and turtle to agree to working with each other, but even as he left the greenhouse he could hear them bickering. It reminded him of his youth, when he was a kid and used to fight with his elder sister, Belle. Despite her feminine name, she was a real tomboy and the two used to fight a lot.
He had also given the turtle a name, which the turtle completely ignored and did not acknowledge at all. No, he did not name the turtle Leonardo or Michelangelo. He was not about to follow that cliche. He was determined to follow in the footsteps of all the main characters of all the cultivation and system novels he had read before, and named the turtle 'Little Black'. The turtle was neither little nor black, but those main characters never seemed to care and neither would Lex. He was slightly annoyed when the system didn't reflect that name in the turtle's status, but he would call it by that name regardless.
Lex was in an unusually good mood, and suddenly he felt even better when he found out even more guests were about to enter the Inn. He teleported to the entrance just in time to see Alexander appearing with two men and a woman behind him. The entire group looked quite young, he guessed they were his friends or classfellows. At least until he read their statuses.
Name: Rorick Morrison
Age: 48
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details: Golden Core Mid
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Remarks: This fellow seems to have accidentally tucked his shirt into his undergarments
Name: Brandon Morrison
Age: 104
Sex: Male
Cultivation Details:
Spirit Cultivation: Insufficient Authority
Body Cultivation: Golden Core Peak
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Remarks: The real OG!
Name: Audrey Morrison
Age: 101
Sex: female
Cultivation Details:
Spirit Cultivation: Golden Core Peak
Body Cultivation: Golden Core Peak
Species: Human
Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1
Remarks: Extremely, extremely dangerous! Host must maintain distance at all times! The system will not associate with the host if he falls in love with someone four times his age!
Lex felt his lips about to twitch but he controlled himself. He could no longer let the system's remarks affect him! Yet as he was ruminating over the system's remarks and the difference between their looks and their actual age, the three Morrisons who had entered the Inn for barely a second froze. Then they looked at each other with disbelief and excitement in their eyes, as if to confirm what they were feeling wasn't just an illusion.
Alexander noticed his family's strange behavior and asked, "what is it?"
"I can break through to the Nascent realm here!" replied Rorick.