The Innkeeper

Lex studied the notification, reading its odd message with a strange look. He had been surprised, but at the same time, he felt like he should have expected something like this. The universe was a strange place.

New Notification: Improved system function has unlocked the ability to attract new forms of guests. Different guests have different needs. In exactly 1 minute, a non-biological, Disaster category guest will enter the Inn. Designate a specific Inn area for Disaster category guests.

New Quest: Using the Room Design feature, design and create 2 services specific a Disaster category guest

Quest time limit: 1 Hour

Quest Reward: Guest race glossary

Remark: The real disaster is your hairstyle

A Disaster category guest? Were his guests separated into various categories? He used his system to scan a random guest, but saw no such details. Was it possible he needed to wait for the guest to arrive before he could unlock the distinction?

It was a good question, but he only had a minute to plot out a new area for this new category of guests. The 'Disaster' descriptor didn't sound like it was great for highly populated areas, but he also didn't know what kind of specific requirements there would be.

Without knowing the details, he could only guess. Just to be safe, Lex picked out a chunk of the Inn at the exact opposite side of where all his guests were, right on the border of the Chaos Sea.

A minute was a short period of time, and just as promised, once it was up, a new guest arrived. One moment, there was nothing. The next, a massive hurricane, at least a mile (1.6 km) high. Its width was hundreds of feet across, with it being largest at the very top.

"Don't tell me…"

Lex scanned the hurricane, and the scan worked!

Name: Katarina

Age: 670

Cultivation Details: 7 (Earth Immortal)

Category: Non-biological/Disaster

Race: Hurricane

Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1

Condition: Severely weakened, on the verge of unraveling. Treatment can be carried out by hovering guest over hot, spiritual energy dense water while initiating a cold wind tunnel above it. Sacrificing 1000 Nascent level aquatic beasts within the winds will expedite recovery.

Remarks: There's passing gas, and then there's gases that'll help you pass away

Seeing the guest in terrible condition - apparently - Lex decided to approach the guest. However, he decided to use his own identity rather than the Innkeepers.

"Welcome, dear guest, to the Midnight Inn," Lex said as he teleported over, keeping a fair bit of distance between himself and the hurricane.

The raging winds of the hurricane were exceptionally loud, though once Lex spoke, the sound of the storm changed instead into a voice.

"Uh, hello," said Katrina in a surprisingly sweet, almost shy voice. "I am Katrine. Please excuse me for my untidy appearance. I had a run in with a rather disagreeable tsunami, and haven't had a chance to make my face yet."

'Making my face' was a common expression which, when used by humans, often referred to applying make-up. In the case of a hurricane, though, Lex was unsure if she wanted to look presentable, or genuinely wanted to affix a face on to herself.

"Please, there is no need to be concerned," said Lex. "I'm Lex, and I work here at the Midnight Inn. I see that you look a little weary, would you like me to take you to a service station where you can get refreshed?"

Even as he spoke, Lex was already creating what he could only call the 'Hurricane Service Lake' through his interface. He wasn't sure if calling it a Recovery lake or something would be accurate.

Basically, he found a natural lake nearby, and amalgamated the whole thing into becoming a part of a new 'room' he was designing. Once a guest, specifically a hurricane guest, entered the room, the lake water would start to warm up and be filled with spiritual energy, while up above a cold front was artificially created.

Apparently this was enough to treat Katrina's condition. The thing was, in room creation, he had a lot of options available to him but he needed to know what he was doing for that to be effective. There was no generic 'heal hurricane' option, although there were countless things he could do which, if he used, would heal the hurricane. It was just that he didn't know what they were.

Lex had learned a lot about medicine, so much so that with minor study he could heal even unfamiliar beasts. Most humanoid races were super easy to heal for him now, and he had even studied some unusual races like Cthulhus and spirits. But healing natural disasters? That was well outside his field of expertise.

"Um, if it's not too much trouble," Katrina said. Lex led her towards the lake, slightly hesitant about whether he should make it free for her or not. He wasn't too sure if hurricanes had any wealth, and using the Hurricane Service Lake cost just about 30,000 MP per second to use, which was a lot of MP over a long period of time.

He decided to wait and see before jumping the gun.

"I hope you like the service lake. If you need any adjustments or alterations, do let me know. I can have it arranged," Lex said. He sincerely hoped she made a request, because he was supposed to make her two services, and while he had the lake, he had no idea what to do about the second.

"Um, okay, I will," she said, not saying too much. Clearly, Katrina was quite shy. Or maybe she was just embarrassed about the trail of destruction she was leaving behind as Lex led her to the lake.

Lex did not try to pressure her - he, instead, was overlooking the purchase of 1000 aquatic beasts. Or, more specifically, he was just ordering more fish from their local fisheries. The Inn was entirely unable to maintain the requirement for meat that having so many guests brought along.

Crops were much easier to manage, but creating a sufficient supply of meat was genuinely a problem. They had outsourced much of their meat purchases previously, since the Inn didn't offer high level meat before for direct purchase.

Since the recent upgrade, though, it allowed restaurants and cafes to buy higher quality ingredients. But ingredients and untouched aquatic beasts were not the same thing, hence the slight issue.

"This is the service lake. Please enjoy. You'll be able to control the settings through your spirit sense once you enter, and can adjust everything to your preferences. I'll be here if you need anything."