The Innkeeper

Gerard, Luthor and Velma were used to meeting the Innkeeper, and while they remained respectful, they were not nervous. Hera, on the other hand, was incredibly nervous though she was trying not to show it.

She was no longer nearly as ignorant as she once was, and now understood exactly what kind of entity the Innkeeper was. The Midnight Inn was much more powerful than the Jotun empire, at least as far as she knew. The Inn used to be filled with countless soldiers from the empire when it was still operating normally, and even they remained completely respectful of the Inn's workers.

Moreover, as she spent time with more of the workers, she got to hear more and more of their gossip, though the poor fellows did not even realize they were gossiping. The Emperor of the Jotun Empire had come to the Inn with his wife, and spent a very long time here.

The devils, who seemed to have surpassed the Jotun empire as well, also filled the Inn, and remained respectful as well. In fact, she was sometimes unnerved by how respectful these overwhelmingly strong fellows were to her. She did not even know the names of the realms they were in, that is how weak she was comparatively.

That was because the respect was not earned by her, but came due to the ever grand prestige of the Innkeeper!

"Welcome all of you," said the Innkeeper, his voice calm and confident, his figure tall and magnificent. "We have important matters to discuss, so please have a seat."

The Innkeeper waved his hand, and a cup of tea appeared in front of all of them. The tea was nothing too special. It only had the effect of calming the emotions of whoever drank it. Hera's nervousness was apparent at a glance, but instead of singling her out or telling her to relax, he just offered everyone tea.

"The Inn is about to undergo some extremely major renovations, and we need to make a few preparations. There are many things that need to be taken care of, so let's just jump in. First things first, I expect that during the renovation, the Inn will undergo a change similar to the one it experienced in the star upgrade. This means that all workers will likely be incapacitated, as well as any guests. We should also subsequently prepare for multiple breakthroughs. Instead of deciding for myself, I would first like you all to plan the necessary precautionary steps to take at that time.

"At the same time, there will be many more events taking place but I do not expect any of the staff to be able to respond. So we need to make preparations beforehand. Many items and objects in the Inn are expected to gain sentience during the shift. I have already discussed how to handle the plants with the turtle, but you all will handle the remaining potential targets.

"Among those that I suspect will gain sentience, you have to prepare a plan to facilitate the process for some, and inhibit the process for others. To start with, I expect the flying ship up in the air to gain sentience. I am fine with that, but I hope it follows the path of A.I. rather than a treasure spirit. I want you to draw up a plan to ensure that is the path it follows.

"Next up is the Midnight Mountain. I am once again fine with it gaining sentience, but it should follow the path of a nature spirit, and not something similar to the Mountain-man."

Lex had actually procured some spirit stone seeds, which were basically the core for spirit stone mines. After being nurtured they had the potential to give birth to new veins of spirit stone. He had buried all of those underneath the Midnight mountain, so he was expecting it to give birth to numerous valuable ores and spirit stones after the evolution.

For almost another hour, Lex briefed them on what he expected could gain sentience. Candidates included lakes, rivers, buildings, monuments, sky lanterns, the Orient, the flying city, the soul hearth, and more. Lex had not made up this list on his own, but made deductions based on what he read from the book he recently found.

The book even provided guidance on how to facilitate the kind of growth Lex wanted these landmarks, monuments and items to exhibit, but he wanted his workers to try and handle the situation before he gave suggestions of his own.

But items that could gain sentience were only the beginning of the meeting. There was so much more planning that was needed.

"Among others, we have two Rhinocentaurs as prisoners. Suffice to say, there is no point in letting them experience the benefits of the upgrade. Think of a way to block them as best as you can."

"What are we planning on doing with those two prisoners?" Luthor asked hesitantly. Leo, or rather Lex, was supposed to interrogate them, but he never got around to it.

"They're from a powerful organization. They're being used as bait to see how the organization behind them reacts. Will they negotiate their freedom, or find a way to retaliate? Just keep them as prisoners for now. More importantly, how many golf carts should we allow to gain sentience? This is something you will need to think of carefully Gerard, for they will be under you in the security department.

"Velma, I want you to carefully document this entire process and place all the records you make in the Library. This will be a part of the Midnight inn's chronicles, so be sure to be thorough."

The meeting continued for hours more, and Lex was eventually forced to end it early so that they would not become completely overwhelmed by this entire process. He would just handle the tasks he hadn't been able to assign them himself.

Lex teleported back to the dragon, and began reading the book once more. He wanted to learn as much from it as possible, for the book was giving him insight he never would have achieved on his own.