In a relatively remote corner of the Inn, far away from any of the main attractions, Lex built a cabin. The cabin itself wasn’t too large, with 3 individual bedrooms and one living room that also had a kitchen in it. If anything, the unique part of this cabin was the secret basement. The entrance to the basement was completely hidden and could not be detected, as arranged by Lex, by using his powers, so that if Remy ever needed to bring someone else into the cabin, they would never detect the opening.
A vertical ladder from the opening led into the first room of the basement was just one that led to four other rooms. This is where the real magic of the Inn shone, as building the specifications of those rooms would require extensive engineering and labor, along with expensive and rare materials. Yet Lex was easily able to isolate the unique environments in each room.
The first room was completely empty except for a small pool of lava right in the middle. The second room was completely empty, except that it was -100 degrees celsius and perfectly insulated. The third room had dirt instead of concrete as the floor, with perfect artificial lighting and humidity to act as a greenhouse. The fourth room was completely normal and completely empty.
Lex could not even begin to imagine what he needed such unusual rooms for, especially so close together, but he did not ask. At most, he would just spy on them whenever they actually used the room, which Remy was quite upfront about in saying that he did not expect to be able to keep secrets from Lex. He did add, though, that they themselves weren’t completely certain about what kind of requirements they needed, but would make the corresponding changes themselves after some experimentation.
The only thing Lex said was that Remy wasn’t allowed to hold people against their will, or harm them in any way, in the Inn, to which Remy agreed. Oddly enough the quest wasn’t completed yet, but Lex didn’t know what more he could do so he just ignored it for now.
Due to the uniqueness of the cabin, Lex charged Remmy 400MP per night for it, and Remy booked it directly for 300 days, the maximum amount he was allowed to rent out a place at a time, as Lex learnt. Well, earning 120,000 MP so easily wasn’t something Lex would fret over.
Once he was done inspecting the cabin, Remy was extremely satisfied, and finally left the Inn to continue his job – the details of which he very openly shared with Lex. On a side note, Lex did not think Remy was a good person to hire to conduct secretive jobs, as Remy was actually sent by the Jotun empire to compile an independent report on the Inn.
Apparently, according to Ragnar’s report, they suspected Lex to be at the Dao Lord realm or above, and it was Remy’s job to evaluate the legitimacy of such a claim. Remy even offered to show Lex the report, which he politely declined.
Once this eccentric guest finally left, Lex finally had some free time. There were, of course, many things he needed to do, but none so urgent that they required his immediate attention, which is why he could take his time and choose what he wanted.
Teleporting away from the cabin, he reappeared at the Manor where Velma was currently passing out orders to some of the other AIs.
As soon as she was done, she quickly came to him and asked, “Is there anything you need, Innkeeper?”
“I just came to check up on you. How are you doing? Is there anything that you need?”
“I’m doing well,” Velma replied, suddenly getting flustered. She felt incredibly flattered that the Innkeeper was checking up on her. “It is a little difficult to manage all the guests at the Manor as well as at Avalon at the same time. Maybe you should put someone else in charge of the Avalon.”
“That makes sense. Take some time to evaluate everyone working there and give me a suggestion about who would be good for that position. Any other suggestions? Is there anything you want?”
“No, I am extremely satisfied with the way things are.”
“How’s your cultivation going? I see you’ve already entered the Qi training stage.”
“Oh, it’s excellent,” she said as she suddenly jumped with excitement. “Cultivating was really easy, and I broke through the Qi training stage even before Gerard! I even unlocked a bloodline ability, look.”
As she said that, a silver light shone in her eyes, before more silver light appeared in her hand, taking the shape of a washcloth.
“Using this, I can wipe the whole manor in minutes,” she said, as she displayed her prowess by having the washcloth fly around at astonishing speeds, wiping down each and every surface.
“That’s amazing,” Lex said genuinely, not realizing his AIs could even exhibit bloodline powers. He scanned Velma to learn more about her.
Name: Velma
Age: 0
Sex: Female
Cultivation Details: Qi training
Species: Human (artificially created)
Midnight Inn Designation: Midnight Manor supervisor
Bloodline: Regalia Bloom
Remarks: Just so you know, this qualifies as child labor
“Hey Mary,” Lex asked, with a hint of hesitation in his voice. “Does Velma have a soul?”
“Yes,” she answered immediately. “As a living being, of course, she has a soul.”
Suddenly, Lex was filled with guilt. He had literally been treating them like AI, because of his assumption that they were artificial beings but… although different in the way they were born, they were still human.
Lex suppressed his guilt and immediately made a decision. Instead of AI, Velma and the rest would be referred to as his employees or workers – he would not demean them like that now that he was in the know.
“Velma, I plan to start paying all the workers a salary. Since I’m already taking care of your housing and food, how about 100MP a week sound?”
“Oh no!” she said in a panic, her silver washcloth disappearing. “We do not need salaries. You have already given us enough!”
“Nonsense, since you are working, of course you must be paid. At the Inn, everyone is like family. And not only salaries, we need to work out everyone’s schedules so we can figure out how we plan on giving holidays and vacations. We can’t have everyone working every day.”
This conversation ended up taking much longer than Lex anticipated, but eventually Velma reluctantly agreed and told him she would help him plan out the schedules. Lex also wanted to have a casual, non-work related conversation with her… but he felt like he should take it slow. This little girl… or baby? This loyal employee of his was way too excitable.