100: Raining Treasures Hotel

The first ever Raining Treasures Hotel. Not a strange concept in this fantasy world with all its incredible magical growth that already made a decent house with great living standards, but this one took the cake when it came to its innovative location.

By placing it within a dungeon floor. According to Nina, this wasn’t an original idea, but something that required plenty of resources and manpower to pull off. The resources in general would be the most difficult hurdle as one naturally needed all forms of security measures to ensure safety in the establishment where customers plan on resting even while going through the dungeon with their party.

After all, what was the point in staying in a hotel in a dungeon if it gets ransacked by the monsters inhabiting it? While it would be great short-term, in the long term where potential threats and unexpected challenges might arrive, it would only drain the resources and possible revenue of the ones who made the hotel in the first place.

But none of the rich entrepreneurs who had this idea had someone like Aidan. With his abilities, building a hotel would barely take any time and materials, and with his quick access to teleportation, it wouldn’t take long to send in people to manage the place, fixing the two main priorities one would need for making a hotel in the dungeon.

But in the end, safety was all that mattered, as that would be the prime concern for anyone wanting to take a rest here. That was why Nina insisted on scoping the place out, wishing for the greatest location one could ever find in a large floor like this.

Aidan could definitely imagine a bunch of weary souls wandering around the place, getting lost in this massive forest, and wishing to get away from the dreary greenery and potential threats that surrounded them. He could also imagine them paying out everything they had just to stay for a night, though not to the point of making their entire trip into the dungeon worthless.

So while they traversed the second floor, they planned out a bit more on the idea of their hotel, with the siblings asking fundamental questions that anyone who was sane and working properly in the head would ask.

“How much are you going to charge?” Haley said.

“A modest fee,” Nina answered simply. “Two silvers for a night, three including meals, and four to use the bath.”

“That doesn’t sound modest at all,” Haley said incredulously. “Two I can understand, but isn’t driving it up to four for the basic necessities kinda pushing it?”

“Anyone who’s an adventurer is expected to bring their own supplies when venturing into dungeons,” Nina answered as if it was obvious. “Unless they plan on eating the monsters here, it’s only natural that they would bring their own meals. And no adventurers worth their salt would bother bathing as that is more of a luxury than anything else.”

“I… guess that’s a good point,” Haley said.

“Haley, you gotta remember that this is in the middle of a dungeon,” Aidan added. “It’s only natural to have all those included when you enter a city, but it’s kinda asking for a lot in a place filled with monsters.”

Haley nodded, recognizing that little factoid, though Van thinned his eyes in thought.

“That all sounds like a decent idea, but I can’t imagine pulling that off without some major back up plans in place. I can already think about the worst things that could happen to the hotel.”

“That’s why we need to find a good place first,” Nina said, getting them all to stop in the middle of their trek. “Aidan, I want you to use that technique you pulled off with Haley before. With Haley’s talent, I want you to see if you can find any treasures we can spot from here.”

“What do you have in mind?” Aidan asked.

“According to some of the things I’ve read, in large places like this in a dungeon, there are some treasures that work for the environment rather than for the individual, which would make the perfect place for our hotel. Make sure it’s the sort of treasure that works well with inhabitation. If not, we’ll figure something else out.”

“Roger that,” Aidan said. “Come on, Haley, time to work.”

“Alrighty.”

Haley walked up to Aidan, looking a little giddy to be put to use. Though he knew she was mostly looking forward to the experience she would have. Aidan, however, wasn’t all that fond of it, but hoped that his recent class upgrade made it somewhat easier to manage.

He lifted two fingers and pressed them onto her forehead, her eyes closed and ready for the scan. With an added will, Aidan didn’t just use Sense Vibration, but also Area Field and a mild use of his boosting abilities to enhance it further.

His vision expanded and changed. He connected straight to Haley’s conscious vision, allowing him to see through her own eyes, with her mind using his own ability to increase the range. Thanks to Area Field, the expansion of his senses only increased further, spreading across the entire floor as far as he could imagine.

That was where the limits of his abilities hit him. Pain hit him in a way that reminded him of getting nailed straight into the core of his brain, the subtle hint of a migraine expanding throughout his head and around his neck.

There were dozens, if not hundreds of glowing lights that reacted to Haley’s talent, making them out to be treasures that could be found. Some glowed with different intensities, some as faint as a speck while others glowing like a shooting star. There were even some lights that changed in size, one as small as pebbles while others reaching boulder-like proportions.

As his search continued to widen, the pain slowly became more real and unbearable, surprising him heavily as the details came in more sharper and more refined than before. He could only blame the fact that he didn’t increase his Intelligence as he should have, being his most prominent stat to focus on, as he was sure having better Perception or Intellect could have alleviated some of the pain.

Finally, at the longest trek he could imagine spanning several days of travel, he found what looked like a large glowing surface that stretched for several miles. Large enough that, despite the many environmental obstacles, no monsters appeared there according to his Sense Vibrations. He felt his attention lingering there longer than he would normally have used, realizing that Haley was the one constantly staring at it as though she was boring a hole to it.

Noticing that both he and Haley decided on the matter, he cancelled the spell, returning their senses back to themselves. Aidan returned to reality and wobbled before falling on his ass, his eyes blurry and his head aching like crazy.

“Found it!” Haley shouted, looking more than pleased but instantly frowned when she saw Aidan. “Oh, crap, Aidan! What’s wrong?”

“Aidan, are you alright?” Nina knelt down to him, looking actually concerned for him. He shook his head, only to regret it as the pain became sharper, but answered in kind.

“Yeah, I’m fine… jesus, that took a lot out of me.”

He realized now that lending his sensing abilities strained him in ways that he didn’t quite understand yet. Perhaps he needed to have some sort of skill, or needed to increase his stats like he expected. After taking a couple of seconds to orientate himself, he stood up to face the group.

“I feel like I should apologize for my sister,” Van said, easing him in with a joke. “I don’t know why, but seeing her completely fine makes me think it’s her fault.”

“Hey!” Haley shouted back. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Maybe that’s the cause?” Van raised a brow at her, forcing her to clam up as she didn’t quite understand how it worked herself.

“More importantly,” Nina intervened, wishing to get back to work. “Anyone here willing to tell us what you found?”

“There’s a super large treasure around maybe three or four days of travel to the west of us,” Haley said, explaining adequately as she pointed at the direction she was hinting at. “There’s not a single monster around that place, and it looks like there aren’t any adventurers there either. It even has a waterfall over there, and a large lake beside it.”

Aidan was surprised to hear that. He didn’t manage to pick up that part, but then again, he was mostly focused on the pain trying to tear his mind apart. It looked like he completely took on the strain that Haley would normally feel, allowing her to take in the details more clearly.

“That definitely sounds like the perfect place to make our hotel,” Nina smiled warmly to Haley. “Aidan, let’s rest for a bit to get your senses in order. Then we march.”

“Don’t make me do that again anytime soon,” Aidan simply said, thankful for the break. “That was somehow worse than dealing with the demon matriarch.”

The little comment was brushed aside as Haley certainly didn’t want to stop. She kept gushing how she felt like a god, able to see far beyond normal and feel omnipotent during the checking. Even Van wanted to know what that was like, but Aidan put off the idea unless it was something important for their mission.

After a short break, the group made their four-day trip to the location they found.

…..

Two days passed, with Aidan up and about as usual while the others slept. He created a short-term hut for them to sleep in, using up as little of his resource balls as he could for the sake of creating their hotel with all the modifications Nina had planned.

Meanwhile, Aidan was left outside, up on the roof of the hut and keeping his senses far and wide for the monsters around him. The reason was simple.

He needed all the time he could have for the hour to come. The hour upon which his body is no longer suffering from the period of weakness.

It was like his body constantly strained from the limits of the system, ready to break free. He knew that rather than being weak, it was more like he had already recovered, but still had to wait for the time limit to vanish. Throughout the entire month, he eagerly waited to get back in control of his own body, and the hour was soon arriving.

Ten minutes left. Then five. When only one minute was left, he patiently waited, his heart beating rapidly compared to any time he had to wait for a release of his favorite video game back on Earth.

Soon enough, the minute passed. Then, he felt everything.

His muscles tensed, his senses widened, and every single channel that transported blood and magic grew three times its size that day. It wasn’t really like that, but when he finally stood up from the roof and stretched his arms wide into the air, it certainly felt like it.

He cracked his neck as he opened up his status sheet, seeing his restored stats to the brim. If he had to make a guess, it was like wearing constraining weights. It didn’t do a thing to actually strengthen his body throughout the time he was weakened, but it certainly gave him some perspective on how strong his actual body was.

He gained quite a few levels since the defeat of the Matriarch, and while most of those points were spent in Vitality, he knew the rest of the power from his level spread throughout his entire body. Now, he needed to let loose a little to truly feel his body once more.

He summoned his sword out of his bag, and he swung it according to the stances Ander and Van helped him learn during their training. Of course, he made sure to add in the little self-control to not make as much noise on the roof to wake up the others, making it another perfect way to get used to his body’s restored self.

One swing after another, he and the sword were one in that moment, the blade singing across the air and dazzling underneath the rare moonlight above. He wasn’t all that surprised that along with the sky and the brightness of the day, there would also be the brightness of the night. He had an inkling that it also followed the usual moon cycle, so there would be a moment where it would be completely dark without the moon.

Was it even the moon and sun that shone bright in this dungeon? Or were they just replicating celestial objects that the dungeon could only copy from the real sources? He had a feeling that these dungeons were more complex than they initially let on, but he had no clue nor did he have any plans on studying them any further.

One thing was for certain though. He didn’t plan on spending the entire night here practicing his sword swings.

His feet floated off the roof, then headed straight above with crafted air. His senses flew out of him as he found several monsters already that would be perfect for some training. Without even realizing it, his lips curled into a grin as he flew straight towards his first target with his newly recovered power.

He planned on getting some levels in throughout the entire time he had to hold himself back thanks to the weakness period. For their idea to work, he needed to get a better understanding of the dungeon layout anyway, so what better way than to hit two birds with one stone?