"You are most welcome!" Gurrhuyre happily says, a comfortable atmosphere blankets over the small room.
"Would you like me to explain more items to you?" It asks curiously, not minding both answers. Tedior mulls over the question, his mind dwelling on the information he received before deciding that, yeah, his brain can take more abuse.
As Tedior goes about to replies its question, more knocks are made known, signifying the approach of visiting guests. He hums as he ponders on his decision to ignore whatever that is, in favor of gaining more information from Gurrhuyre's kindness.
But the insistent knocking wins and he wishes the dragon pixie a good morning rest and that they shall continue this when it is feeling well rested, then pardons himself.
"Yes. We shall continue tomorrow. There is much to explore and plenty to elaborate on. Have a lovely day, Tedior. It is wonderful meeting you. An HONOR actually!" It repeated itself, giving him a courtesy bow of recognition.
He gives it an exasperated thumbs up, which ended up being a wave instead as he, sadly, does not have any fingers.
'Oh the woes of a caterpillar without fingers!' He theatrically thoughts, mock grasping his phantom heart as he makes his way down.
The impatient thudding sounds itself again interrupting his digestion on the information vomit that he received just now.
Once again, he finds himself with the dilemma of the simpler option of just eating whoever that knocking on the door or just pleasantly receiving them.
The violent wrenching of the door this time is met with a group of four peculiar creatures, each have frowns and defensiveness etched on the faces from the rude non-greeting.
Peering at them curiously, he studies them critically, trying to identify their species. He is not really sure what they are, but he is in a fantasy world after all, so creatures like this must be normal.
They look like mushrooms of various shapes, size and colors. All four are equipped with travelling gears and attires; backpack, cloak, hats and a carved stick. There are even glistening trinkets that he has never seen before hanging everywhere on them. Its a wonder neither he nor Gurrhuyre heard them when they traverse hitherto.
One of the smaller mushroom approaches him with much cautious. It points at the corpse outside before persenting him three insect cores while gesturing the universal number 1 with its other free hand.
He connects the dots and laments on the fact that he is now an unwilling innkeeper. Reluctantly, he proceeds on guiding them in, leading them to adjacent rooms, each for themselves. It is of no matter, he has plenty room to spare.
The toilet is pointed out to them as they pass by it. He does randomly picks a room as the toilet but he makes sure that it is a corner room for easy room removal. Maybe he should really build a toilet system. Can't be that hard.
They crowd him before retreating to their room. Each of them present their trade items to him, not giving him the choice to choose like Gurrhuyre did. This makes him appreciate it more for its easy going and friendliness.
Obtained 9 insect core
12 of 100 000 000 insect core collected
The last one however presents him with three leaves, the venules of it is translucent whereas the midrib and veins are riddled with pulsing orange hues. Its a peculiar leaves. He accepts them, thinking of asking Gurrhuyre of this later.
When the transactions all done and made, the mushroom gang hastily scurries back to their respective room, leaving Tedior standing alone in the hallway. He wonders then what exactly does an innkeeper do.
Does he have to protect the fort? Can he head back out for the long awaited adventure of his? Is responsibility real and not a delusion?
He then comes to the conclusion that in no way is he cut out to be an innkeeper. Not when there is a whole new adventure out there waiting for him. Whole new world for him to explore! Why would he want to be stagnant in this boring area? He could pick a fight or a dozen with his guests but that would ruin his non existing reputation instead.
Resigning his current occupation it is.
First things first, he needs to remove the shell that everyone has been mentioning. It seems to be an indication of some sort or sign for available inns.
Just as he makes his way to do so, there are more thudding noises coming from the main door. He briefly wonders if he should pretends that no one is home but decides against it. Since he has already accepts guests, he might as well see this through.
Maybe he will receives more interesting items. Collecting more cores are a bonus.
This time when he violently wrenches the door, it tears right off the make-shift hinge, leaving a larger gaping hole with a more unsteady and unreliable door. He plays around with the mangled door, opening and closing it a few times before shrugging and pays his attention to the load of diverse crowds. The background noises made from the soft mutterings comes to an abrupt halt.
A fantasy world indeed.
The crowds consist with creatures ranging from woodland mouse to curious fireflies fluttering nearby to tiny humans-like creatures and something that looks to be forest spirits.
Gazing at the diversity of species that have their eyes on him, he rummages his brain for all those gaming he has done for any type of speeches that is relevant to this situation. There is none, so he decides to just go for it.