Chapter 2538: Main Questline: Setting Foundations

Lex looked at step 1 and felt like he was being personally attacked. Just because there was a notorious Dao Lord inside his Inn didn’t mean he invited her. Besides, this was an Inn. Wasn’t the point of it that people should come in?

Before he could complain, however, the pamphlet changed and showed Lex a small scene where he was talking to Liz. He was teasing her, and mentioned that he got a wedding proposal from someone with the same name as her, and he said the name out loud.

Lex furrowed his brow. He remembered the scene, and back then he hadn’t thought much of it – and that’s exactly what the problem was. He doubted that merely mentioning the name of a Dao Lord was enough to summon her. Then again, who knew what a particularly powerful Dao Lord could do?

This was a very basic mistake, and not one that he would ordinarily make. Something must have influenced him to make him overlook such a basic thing. But he hadn’t felt anything at all. Moreover, there was no indication that his mentioning the name was what summoned her here, because she hadn’t paid specific attention to him at all. Or maybe she did, and he just didn’t know.

This was a question without an answer, at least for now. It was best not to waste time on it. He silently accepted that the arrival of said person may have been his fault.

As soon as he reached that conclusion, the projection ended, and Lex could finally see the subsequent steps.

Step 2: Now that you know you haven’t brought home someone who will murder you in your sleep, actively try to avoid using the name of the Inn while invading and destroying other realms.

Oh, Lex understood how it was going to be. He wondered how much of the pamphlet was actual information, and how much of it was just going to be dissing him. In all fairness, he didn’t start the realm invasion – he merely ended it. Even that was because they kidnapped Z in the first place.

Step 3: Now that your guests are no longer concerned about being invaded in their homes, try to avoid intimidating incoming guests with a display of the burning souls of your enemies. That is the kind of stuff you should put in an exhibit.

Step 4: Now that guests have successfully made it to your inn without fear for life and limb, it is time to focus on their experience. As a rule, a guest should always leave better off than when they came.

Step 5: An ordinary inn is a place where guests can come, eat food, rest and move on. The Midnight Inn is a place where guests always receive more than they pay for. Whether in terms of health, mental well being, information or knowledge, personal experiences, spiritual enlightenment or more, all should be within reach when a guest stays inside the Midnight Inn.

New Main Quest line triggered: Setting Foundations

Setting Foundations Quest 1: A foundation is built from the ground up. Similarly, the philosophy for hosting guests needs to begin from the very bottom. Designate a test area wherein to perfect the guest experience for all mortal level (non-cultivator) guests.

Quest hint: For the sake of this specific quest, you can assume that the term’guest’ encompasses any and all non-cultivators who retain a basic level of self awareness, the world around them, and the basic concepts of commerce. The designated area should suit and cater to the guests appropriately.

Quest Line Reward: Enlightenment Pagoda

Quest 1 Reward: Strawberry flavored hard candy

Remarks: It is perfectly normal for a 26* to require step by step guidance in completing every single task. You should not feel ashamed.

*: To view actual age, click here.

Lex resisted the urge to twitch his lips as he stared at his system. Why had it latched onto this age thing? Did it have nothing better to do? Fine, just to get this over with, Lex clicked the asterisk. In truth, even he wasn’t sure what his actual should be.

Age: Very old.

Lex took in a deep breath, and then caught himself, keeping himself from sighing at his system. No, he couldn’t let it feel the satisfaction of irritating him.

He, instead, glanced towards the pamphlet and saw that there were still more steps written, but they had become blurry. It seemed like they wouldn’t reveal themselves until he completed the quest.

He put away the pamphlet and instead pulled up a map of the entire Inn. He was kind of used to Mary appearing in different costumes to give him advice so now that she didn’t automatically appear, it felt strange.

He pushed away that thought and, instead, focused on the Midnight realm. The perfect spot for mortals was not so easy to find naturally because the spiritual energy in this entire realm was too high for most normal mortals. Some mortals from powerful races might be able to adapt, but generally speaking, if the race was powerful they wouldn’t be born as mortals to begin with.

But this was not a problem for him. If a naturally occurring region with reduced spiritual energy couldn’t be found, then he could create it artificially. But first, he needed to pick a spot.

Lex also kept in mind the advice from the system, which is that he had to account for the various aspects of a mortal’s life, and design an experience that offered the opportunity to enrich any one of them, if not all of them.

After searching for a bit, Lex decided that instead of marking a specific spot, it would be better if the mortals had their own region. In that case, a Minor realm might suit them, and the Inn was filled with countless Minor realms.

But Lex did not want to rely on an existing Minor realm. Instead, he wanted to create his own. After all, if he was going to ace this quest from the very start, he had to go out. After some consideration, he decided that the size of the Minor realm would equal that of Turkey – the country, not the bird. That was more than enough area to fit in various environments and biomes, and design rich, unique and amazing landscapes to meet all the needs a mortal could have.

In a distant area within the Inn, Lex picked his plot of land and allowed his power to fall upon it – and for once, he wasn’t using the powers granted to him by the system to terraform and build. No, the system had not yet granted him the ability to create Minor realms. Instead, he used his own power.

Something like this was no longer an obstacle for him.