The Innkeeper
chapter-979

Lex dotted these in the vast open areas around his three main settlements, allowing them to have privacy, but at the same time not be too far away from any main part of the Inn.

The Fire temple, he placed further east of the Bastion. It had never received a guest so far, and he was not expecting to find one any time soon.

There were a number of underwater settlements he placed in the lake as well, which was surprisingly fresh water despite its massive size. Lex found it hard to believe that such a large body of water somehow remained fresh without any external factors. Perhaps there were some kind of aquatic plants or animals which filtered out all the salts and heavy metals from the water. But if such things existed, they at least weren't within the Inns boundary as far as he could tell.

Speaking of the boundary, Lex spent 13 billion MP and created a massive boundary wall all along the edge of the 1 million acres of the Inns territory. He had made sure that the wall was made from extremely sturdy material, and rose 300 feet (90 meters) in the air.

Although he did not expect to actually keep any formidable enemies out using the wall alone, should they ever arrive, it at least served as a clear division between what was a part of the Inn and what wasn't.

He would have liked to place several formations along the wall as well, but the system was not currently providing him with any.

Something noteworthy was that the wall dipped into the cosmic sea to enclose the small area that was within the Inns territory did not last long. Lex was unsure if it corroded, or withered away or was just disintegrated directly, but it vanished completely, leaving no traces. So that, at least, answered his question about the dangers of the cosmic sea.

Next, he had to place the Greenhouse. This was an issue, for he wanted to expand it greatly, and wanted it to be away from the main settlements. But at the same time, he couldn't be too far.

After some consideration, he placed the Greenhouse 200 miles (321 km) south west of the Manor. The area, while not exactly flatlands, was good enough to accommodate the needs. The area was covered in small plateaus that eventually led to some hills before becoming a part of the spirit stone mountains. Suffice to say that the regions would be extremely fertile and rich in spirit energy, which could only help the plants.

He looked at everything he had accomplished so far and considered what else he might need over the course of the next year. If he was going to lose the Host Attire abilities, and since he had not fused with the system, he would not be able to make any additions at all.

At the moment, nothing immediate came to him. But if he did not regain access to the Minor realms, then he would need to designate a new spot for the Inn workers once again. He liked the idea of them working and making their own community - it would give them something else in their life to focus on besides just work.

Instead of spending more time thinking about how to develop the Inns territory, he started going over his previous notifications. Before he developed the Inn further, he would consult not only with the planning division, but others such as the turtle, Charles and even Cassandra. Of course, while discussing with Cassandra he would do it as Lex and not the Innkeeper.

Besides the need to adjust his prices, another thing he didn't need to immediately do, and the notification about the tavern, he hadn't received any other notifications. The clear lag that the system was suffering from was somewhat concerning. Fortunately, he already had some ideas about how to help the system progress further.

He intended to get his hands on John's system, regardless of how beat up or damaged it was, and would see if he could get his hands on the Mountain-man's system as well. Besides that, one of the primary reasons he selected this specific place as the territory for the Inn was because of how diverse the resources were.

The map did not outright specify what was valuable, but when he was selecting a location for a tavern so long ago, he was able to see locations which had valuable resources. He had done the same while finding a location for the Inn, in hopes that he would find something that could heal the system.

The only problem was that unless he got his hands on a specific The only problem was that unless he got his hands on a specific material or treasure, he would not get a notification informing him if it would work to heal the system. Doing that manually would be incredibly difficult, and would be worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.

So for the remaining 10 days, as soon as he gained the liberty to move around freely, besides developing the Inn, he intended to use the Host Attire to teleport all over the territory to every location which contained valuable resources and get his hands on them. It was a race against the clock, and these few days were going to be critical.

Depending on the level of his success, he would then decide on how desperate he needed to be during the remaining one year. Either way, it was not going to be easy. But he believed it was entirely possible. After all, if it wasn't, the system would have let him know somehow, or it would have used its energy to give him some kind of hope.

If things truly did not end well, he still had two hostages who were a part of the group hunting for systems. He would have to see how useful they could really be.

01:04

Just as Lex was planning his future actions, he finally heard the familiar sound of the system. But it was not a notification.

New Quest:...