The Innkeeper

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.