The Innkeeper-Chapter 1534 Hidden features

To avail the services of the Inn that could totally transform the power and ability of a mortal, the price was way more than something a mortal could typically actually afford. There were a few different reasons for this.

Lex was not merely copying the strategy used by the resort, though they had probably mastered the art of demand and supply. The price was determined by the resource used. The other services offered by the Inn were run by the system, so Lex did not need to worry about how to manage them. These services, however, which required him to provide the materials himself, had to be priced based on the resources used.

Naturally, everything within the Inn was invaluable based solely on the fact that it was a newborn realm, if nothing else. Another reason was that such services simply couldn't be made available en masse. By appropriately pricing them, they could ensure that the drain on the resources would be reduced drastically.

Lastly, he could encourage his guests to take the Trials if they couldn't afford the price of the service. Trials were a feature of the Inn Lex unlocked long ago, but hardly made use of.

Back in the day, he used a Trial to get Marlo to procure a bunch of zombie cores for him, and in exchange he healed Marlo.

Since then, Lex hardly ever needed to use Trials because honestly offering MP through the Guild room was usually enough to motivate them to get whatever he wanted from them. Ever since he got over his initial hurdle of MP shortage, he'd never encountered a situation where MP itself couldn't resolve things.

Now, however, he'd decided to make use of the massive labor force that Trials gave him access to. Sure he could send them off to various battlefields across the Origin realm and come back with valuable fertilizer, but Lex was a peaceful fellow, not a warmonger. Why would he do something like that?

Instead, for now, he'd decided to use free labor he could acquire from Trials, and have his guests map out the hundreds of thousands of Minor realms that the Inn was connected to. Each one of those Minor realms, influenced by the birth of the Midnight Realm, had been nourished by the energies of the newborn realm and acted as a reserve of resources.

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For now, understanding what they contained was more than enough. In the future, they could make use of them.

As for replenishing the resources of the Midnight Realm itself, Lex's idea was to use high quality fertilizer to nourish the realm time and time again. This was, obviously, not a perfect solution. But it would work for now.

"In that case, on such short notice, if we need to launch three new services, we will need to make use of the resources we already know of, in increasing order or rarity. First and most common service we can offer is to have a bloodline stimulation or strengthening service using the dirt from the Inn.

"The second, rarer service we can offer mortals is body strengthening using the powder from a crushed boulder. That should provide them with a sufficiently strengthened body, regardless of what race they hail from.

"Lastly, and the most expensive service we can offer is to improve their affinity or talent for spiritual energy using the silt that gathers on the Spirit Stone Mountains. A single speck of that should be able to turn even the densest, least talented mortal into a once in a generation genius."

"Excellent. Set it up, but don't make the service too readily available," said the Innkeeper. "Set only one or two locations within the Inn where these services can be offered, and add a number of preparatory steps before and after the actual service. For example, cleaning the body and mind, meditating to achieve the right state of mind, and priming the body for change. The more details you add, and the more seriously you take this, the more the guests who avail this service will feel like they're receiving something special."

With that, the first steps to establishing the three new services were set, though Ash had to now deal with something those at the Midnight Inn had rarely done before - she had to deal with logistics!

Fortunately, she was more than up to the task.

But that was just one of the three new changes that the Innkeeper had proposed. The turtle and the gardener needed to work on making their gardens aura sufficient to affect mortals, even if it was nowhere near becoming a true Heaven.

Discussing that took longer than it would normally need, mostly because the turtle was still morose over the fruit it could not prepare the environment for. The Gardener, too, was not helpful though for an entirely different reason.

Lately, two guests had been hounding the Gardeners, begging him incessantly to take them as his disciples. It was the two werewolf kids who had come to the Inn so long ago.

By now they had grown up, and were more than eligible to return to their families and participate in the ongoing wars. In fact, they had done that for a while. But war could not satiate them the way farming did, and so they had returned to the Inn, begging the Gardener to teach them his ways.

But the Gardener was not interested in taking on disciples. As a result, he was stuck with them constantly badgering him.

Of course, none of that had anything to do with their meeting right now, but it had caused the Gardener to be distracted. He was just grateful that lately none of his art had been destroyed or demolished. Life could be worse.

Ultimately, though, the meeting concluded. While Ash seemed more than ready to take on the challenges he had given out, the Gardener and the turtle did not inspire a great deal of confidence in Lex.

Fortunately, he had just the tool needed to break the turtle out of its little mental slump. Lex took out the Brimming Dream Lotus, and told the turtle to ensure it does not wilt!

The Word Seed Lotus grew pretty easily on Lex's back, but the Brimming Dream Lotus needed to absorb strands of divine energy to support it and its ability, so it couldn't be planted just anywhere.

In return, it offered a spectacular ability that even the resort made use of. It allowed someone to enter a trancelike state, or something akin to a vivid dream. Such a state could be used for various purposes, from enlightenments, to leaving behind legacies and inheritances, to many other opportunities.

The challenge was just the kind of distraction the turtle needed, for to nurture the lotus, he would need to especially focus on the environment in the Heaven he wanted to create. Considering that Lex wanted to use the Brimming Dream Lotus for services in the future as well, this also counted as preparation for the future.

More importantly, he had a feeling that there was some kind of connection between the various lotuses in the Primordial Origin Lotus series. He wouldn't know for certain, but he got the feeling that they could mutually promote each other's growth.

If that were true, then his own lotus which was bonded to him would speed up its fusion with the realm with the help of the Brimming Dream Lotus. If that happened, then he could use his lotus' help to replenish the resources of the realm!

Lex sat in his office chair for a moment, contemplating the meeting he had just had, and anything else left he might need to do. Once he was certain he'd taken care of everything, he finally turned his attention towards the notifications.

He had a fairly strong idea about what they would entail. Since the premise that the system operated on was entertainment, and that usually came at the cost of his sanity, then it would be something along the lines of somehow connecting the Inn to the Primordial Garden.

He was right. He was also wrong.

New Notification: Primordial energy detected! Primordial Energy Scale unlocked!

Primordial Energy Scale

A scale to determine how much Primordial energy the system has absorbed. When the scale reaches 100, hidden features of the system will be unlocked.

New Notification: New quest category unlocked - Joint quests!

Joint quests

Some quests are too great for a single system user, and some quests are too important to fail. Joint quests are quests given to multiple system users at the same time. Joint quests are mandatory, except where a Veto token is used, and failure will lead to system devolution!

New Quest: Complete the Primordial Energy scale to 100!

Quest Reward: Hidden features of system unlocked!

Remarks: … dO nOT aTte998^^^^ *88&*&0(&%%7

New Quest: A new realm of possibilities has been detected! Connect the Midnight Inn to the Primordial Garden!

Quest Reward: Innkeeper's Reading glasses!

Remarks: It's called the Midnight Inn, not 'Hide-in-your-closet-forever Inn'! Expand the Inns reach and accept new guests!