The Innkeeper

Chapter 1936 Unreliable boss

The Crystal-Volcanic forge wasn’t ready yet. It would take many years for that to finish its setting process. That didn’t mean that Orin was taking it easy.

From all the feedback and insight he had gained from creating the Karmic Bead, Orin’s power had exploded, and the only thing holding him back from rising his cultivation level was the limit of the Midnight Realm, which was currently the Earth Immortal realm. Even so, the insight he had gained had increased his forging level, making him a better blacksmith and forger.

Such improvements would be wasted if he had nothing good to forge. Fortunately, Lex always found him impressive and challenging tasks. They needed to create multiple unique and powerful taverns, all within six months! Orin would have cursed at Lex for giving him such a short working schedule if he wasn’t too busy forging. Fortunately, Lex at least had the good sense to have the Inn provide him with incredible materials.

In fact, the Guild room was filled with countless requests for valuable materials, not to mention that the Inn had also issued various Trials to procure specific valuable items and ores that Orin would need. Unknown to most, even Obsidian was working towards procuring the materials needed to make all these new taverns.

Combined with all the amazing resources available inside the Inn itself, Orin had a shortage of nothing except time. To help him, Lex had assigned the former drake, now Earth Immortal dragon and weapons manufacturer, Xeon, to be Orin’s assistant. That helped, but not nearly enough, so Orin asked a lot of the staff at the Inn if they could lend a hand. Many had shown up, but still, time was too short.

Orin would need a miracle to finish all the taverns in time. No sooner had Orin had this thought that Lex appeared in front of him with twelve Celestial Immortal Angels behind him.

“Shireen El’Harkin, meet Orin I of the Veevatil mines, Deity of Hammers, and personal blacksmith of the Innkeeper. Orin, meet Shireen, former Valkyrie and latest member of the Midnight Inn.”

Shireen merely nodded at Orin, acknowledging his titles and achievements, while Orin merely grunted, not taking a second’s break to stop hammering away.

“You came just in time,” Orin said, his focus still mostly reserved for his task. “With our previous experience in working together, this will speed up production by a lot. Combined with the help of these Angels you’ve brought, we might just make the deadline.”

“Oh no, I’m not here to work,” Lex said, waving his hand. “I’m only here to bring Shireen. I have my own tasks set out for me. I’m on my way to Heaven. Like, the main Heaven – the one that encompasses the universe. I really need to come up with a different name to differentiate it from the more mundane Heavens, such as Eden and Valhalla.”

The reason Lex said that out loud was mostly just to let Shireen know that while he had brought her here to contribute, he would not be slacking either. He had real, equally difficult tasks that he needed to handle.

His attempt seemed to work, for Shireen suddenly looked at Lex with a solemn expression, quite aware of just how difficult and dangerous a task was probably before him. Then again, she expected nothing less from someone whose previous task had him meeting the Primordial Queen.

For a split second, she wondered what the Innkeeper even had Lex doing, going to all of these random places. Then she thought better of it, and tried not to pry into matters beyond her.

“How about Arch-Heaven,” Z offered from the side, holding a molten metal bar with a pair of tongs.

“Arch-Heaven?” Lex repeatedly, looking at Z oddly. “Do you even know what Heaven I’m talking about? Or what’s special about it?”

“Not really,” Z said with a shrug. “But since you called it main, it must be important, right? So arch fits in well. It’s just like Arch-Angels are like cooler angels, archnemesis are more serious enemies, Archdukes are like, more important dukes. You get what I mean.”

Shireen looked at Z with a slightly irritated look, since she did not really qualify as an Arch-Angel, but said nothing. The argument itself was ridiculous, but the premise, to her dismay, was not incorrect.

Lex paused for a second. Normal Heavens, like the one they were trying to build at the Inn, existed all across this level of the universe. Smaller Heavens existed inside many realms, and bigger Heavens encompassed entire Major realms.

But from Licanderoth, a Seraphim, Lex had learned about another Heaven – one that overshadowed this entire level of existence that had Voids and realms. It was a place where even Dao Lords could die easily – or so he had been told.

The strange voice that had invited him to be an Augur was from there – the very same voice that had increased the difficulty of his tribulation – even though, at least according to Licanderoth, no sentient beings were supposed to be born there.

That was the place Lex needed to go to so that he could find a Heavens puppet. Calling that place Arch-Heaven sounded silly, but then again, it got the job done.

“Alright, well Arch-Heaven it is. Anyway, I have to go there to invite a very special guest to the Inn, so I won’t be able to help out here. Shireen, you can let Orin know exactly how you can help him with his deadline – if I get done with my task in time, I’ll come back to help. Oh, and remember, impossible doesn’t exist, so every time Orin tells you that he can’t meet the deadline, you just need to take that as a personal challenge. After all, you’re also trying to achieve the impossible. If you get overwhelmed, you can let Z help – he knows the ropes.” With that said, Lex teleported away, leaving the twelve angels standing there in the awkwardness.

Z, on the other hand, simply sighed. He knew it. His unreliable boss had found him more work to do.