The Innkeeper

In the greenhouse, the Galactic Sovereign turtle turned its head towards the mountain, and then once again shook its head. These were not the kind of trees perfect for such an environment. He’d better go take a look. Little Blue happily followed the turtle, treating it like its father. The gardener, who was still plowing the land, was completely oblivious to changes since his sight was focused on the ground.

Crowds started to gather as they stared up into the skies. Children stopped playing. The gamblers who were wincing at their losses or laughing at their winnings paused to admire the magnificent beauty. But because the mountain was so large and evident, they missed the other changes taking place around the Inn.

Once Lex was satisfied with the mountain, for now, he turned his attention to the next big change he was planning. He turned to the small lake in front of the Recovery room and plucked it from the ground, like a piece of lego. He brought it to the edge of the Inn behind the recovery room, and placed it against the wall. Then, as if he were zooming into a picture, he stretched the projection of the lake. But the projection did not zoom in, instead, the lake became bigger. He pushed the lake in to make it much, much deeper, and then dipped the boundary wall into the lake._.

Now it seemed like the boundary wall was running through a much larger lake, splitting off a portion of it for the Inn to enjoy. In its deepest part, the lake could easily accommodate beasts even several times the size of a blue whale. At first he considered covering the lake side with sand – like a beach – but decided against it. Lex didn’t like sand. It was coarse and rough and irritating — and it got everywhere.

Instead, he left the grass. In a corner of a lake, he built a small pier with a dozen or so rowing boats, and nearby created a refreshment stand. He bought a couple more A.I.s to take care of the boats and refreshment, then turned his attention back to the lake.

The lake was made of freshwater, and looked so clear that one could barely tell there was water even there. In a certain corner of the lake he added some corals, then dropped in various small fish. He knew nothing about fish other than how to eat them, so he took the ones that were the smallest sizes and dropped a bunch of them in. They would develop their own ecosystem – probably. He didn’t want to add plants underwater, because when he imagined himself swimming in a lake, he hated the plants that would get stuck on his feet.

Then he turned to the forest surrounding the greenhouse. He moved that all the way back to the edge once again, but built a buffer forest in front of it that guests would have to cross to reach the array. He built a few regular rooms near the front of the woods, but changed their appearance to small wooden cabins that looked like they were made of wood from the nearby trees. Of course, then he added a few courtyards and converted them into larger, more sophisticated wooden cabins.

It then occurred to him he could do the same on the mountain. He shaved out one small corner of the mountain and flattened the land, just enough to fit in two small cabins and one big once. Between the three houses, he built a bonfire pit, a dry wood shed, and another shed with supplies for homemade hot chocolate.

Then he did something similar by the lakeside. He did not add too many rooms because he did not like crowding, but just a few were not an issue.

These few changes just covered the edges of the Inn, there was a lot of land in the middle to fill as well. But he did not feel like randomly dropping houses or decorations. He needed to think about what he would do to use the area, without making a mess of it. There was, however, one thing he did have an idea for.

He increased the distance between Midnight Manor and Main street, then built a modest 40 story high rise on the street. With five rooms on each floor, other than the first floor and top floor, that made 190 rooms. He turned the entire top floor into a penthouse and the ground floor there was a marquee, a few restaurants and the lobby.

Such a large building obviously warranted a lot more staff, so he hired 50 more A.I. and after consulting with her, made Velma incharge of all staff.

Lex breathed out an exhausted sigh. He’d suddenly made so many changes in one day, and while he had more ideas, he decided to slow down first. He would see how guests responded to these changes, take care of and fix any issues that may rise up, and then continue his expansion.

He eyed the high rise, and it occurred to him that this would likely be hosting more guests than his manor, and that he would need to name it. Resisting the urge to slap the name Midnight tower onto it, Lex actually spent a little time thinking about it. It was his first high rise, and represented his first changes to the Inn that he did himself without the prompting of the system. It kind of went against what he had been wanting, which was to avoid the vibe of New York, but with literally thousands of people in his grounds, he needed a solution.

It meant a lot to him, and so the name should be special. At the same time, Lex felt that if he named it completely randomly, that would be hilarious. Unable to decide, he looked to Mary and said, “Give the building a name.”

“Me?” she asked, surprised. “You want me to name the building?”

“Yeah, why not? You’ve helped me so much, you should get some credit. Or do you think I should just name it Mary tower?” he asked with a modest smirk.

Unexpectedly, the tiny, floating woman did not react to his joke. She was silent for a few minutes before she finally said, “Name the tower, Avallon. It sounds nice.”

“Good name,” Lex simply commented, before the name Avallon was spelled out on the front of the tower. The letters that spelled it out were magical, in that anyone who saw them would see them in their native tongue. This was not directed towards making them understand, the Inns translation system would handle that. It was focused on evoking feelings of nostalgia and closeness. Anyone who would see it would be reminded of home.

“It looks nice,” she said, her gaze falling softly on the name.

Lex did not notice any peculiarity, his focus was on other things. This little show of power should be enough to build him some more prestige, it was time to meet Miranda again, but as Leo. Yet when he scanned the Inn with his mind to look for her, she wasn’t there. He was completely unaware that she had left right after her meeting with him, and missed out on his magnificent performance.

Lex grunted, and instead decided to go meditate and regulate his mood. He also asked Mary to let him know the moment Miranda or any of her two followers returned as Lex wanted to meet with them, but did not notice that the floating woman did not respond.

Soon, he had lost himself trying to meditate, while Mary remained hovering in the air, looking at Avallon.

“It is a good name,” she finally uttered, agreeing with Lex, then disappeared.

With both Lex and Mary preoccupied, they missed the scene when Z excitedly dragged Gerard into the Gamers’ den and started up an anime called Initial B – an anime filled with mountain racing. Nobody saw the dangerous gleam in Z’s eyes, and they missed the burning passion in Gerards as well. Behind Gerard stood his fleet of golf cart drivers, no longer dressed in the formal attire of the Inn. No, these A.I.s were wearing leather jackets and jeans, with hair styles that defied physics. Z was the one who recommended the styles, and Harry was the one who brought the boy’s vision to life.

“The trail is not built for vehicles, we’ll never be able to do it,” one of Gerards followers said to the old man.

“Do not doubt my skills,” the old man said, a silver light flashing in his eyes. It had been a long time since Lex checked up on his workers, but if he had paid even a little attention to them, he would have noticed that Gerard was already in the Qi training realm, and had awoken special powers.