Chapter 27: Inn Features (Part 1)
[Basic Rule Maker]
[Information: Establishment of Rules and Regulations that the guests must agree with to receive the protection services of the Inn. This is applicable upon entry to the outermost barrier that protects the Inn, and they must agree to the rules within a set amount of time before automatically getting kicked out.
Note: The rules are limited only to physical manifestations.
Purchase Conditions: Basic Front Desk
Cost: 500 Hearth Points, +10-50 Hearth Points per Rule]
Finn nodded, definitely intent on buying this one. He decided to read everything before deciding, though, just in case. It seemed like the costs of each upgrade were in the hundreds, so he had to be careful.
He looked at Pang, who still had jam on his face. "What does it mean by physical manifestations only?"
"Means you can’t stop people from thoughts or plans, la," he said.
"Isn’t there a magic that could punish rule-breakers automatically?"
"Spirits aren’t mind readers, la," he said, and then looked at Finn with narrowed eyes. "You’re not thinking of the rules automatically kicking people out just by thinking of harming people, right?"
"Well..."
"Did you watch a lot of fantasy shows?"
"..." Finn looked away. He hadn’t watched them often—he was too busy—but his coworkers often talked about different stories. Something about Surviving an Apocalypse and then Building a City in Another World, and that they cheered whenever some evil person got kicked out by the system rules.
He might be too busy to binge on his own, but he found himself interested in listening to their talks anyway.
"Wait, what if I set a rule of no violence and someone was about to punch me?"
"They should be receiving their punishment at the exact moment of contact."
That was to say, if the punishment was to be kicked out, then they’d be kicked out before the attack hit.
"Wait, but what if it was a long-ranged attack?" he asked. By then, they’d have already shot, wouldn’t they?
"Then count yourself unlucky..." Pang said. "Well, they’d get kicked out after the shot."
"..." Gee, thanks.
Well, omniscient and omnipresent rules cannot exist it seemed, so he still had to protect himself even if he was inside his own place.
"However, the barrier can detect hostility," he said. "Although it wouldn’t kick people out just for that, you’d be able to see it in the [Guest Logbook].
"Ah." Well, fair enough. Better than nothing.
He then proceeded to read the other functions to see his options.
[Auto Swipe]
[Information: Automatically performs a deep cleaning of all Inn surfaces once per day. The cleaning time is set by the Innkeeper. This process does not interfere with daily operations. Adds +3 Cleanliness Stat.
Note 1: Includes only surface cleaning. Cleaning of loose items is not included.
Note 2: Increasing frequency will require additional charges.
Purchase Conditions: Basic Utility Room
Cost: 200 Hearth Points]
"Clarify what surface cleaning only means."
"It means literally, la," the panda said, finally eating the rest of the wraps. He looked disappointed at the empty plate.
"Only dust, mold, or the like that sticks to the surfaces are cleaned," he said. "Means you gotta clean the dishes, pick up the trash, and so on by yourself.
Well, it’s the surfaces that were most difficult to clean anyway. Of course, this was a luxury and not a priority purchase. He didn’t even have customers yet. So...pass.
[Comfortable Blessing]
[Information: Allows all creatures within the inn’s territory to have a passive increase in HP of 20% in all parts of the safe zone. An additional increase for Room status recovery effects by 10%. Stackable with other active effects.
Purchase Conditions: Basic Bedroom, Basic Toilet, Common Kitchen
Activation Requirements: 50 Points of Comfort Stat
Cost: 1000 Hearth Points]
His eyebrows rose. This was very good. This would add an effect even outside the Inn and within the barrier. Considering how most of his battles would be out there, this effect would be extremely helpful.
But there seemed to be activation requirements, and he still had ways to go before reaching the required Comfort stat...and Hearth Points.
From what he had seen, building rooms was a great way to add Comfort stats, though even consuming all his gold might not necessarily help him reach that requirement.
He still had 7 slots left, so he was still lacking a couple of points even if he spent a good amount of his gold—which he had to remind himself was debt accumulating interest.
He took a look at the [Room] tab, though, and realized that the room [Upgrades] were all in gold! Even the simple ones!
"Why is everything in gold?"
He didn’t know the currency in this world, but how could a freaking pillow cost a gold? The entire furnished house was 300 gold!
"Gold is one of the universal currencies. The Cosmos does not acknowledge the smaller currency of this world."
So everything was rounded up in gold. Got it.
Anyway, he was too poor for this one.
Next–
[Poison Blocker]
[Information: Automatically detects the presence of harmful or toxic substances—whether ingested, airborne, or carried—upon entering the outermost barrier associated with the Inn. Can slow down spread of any type of harmful substances within the territory by 30%.
Cost: 500 Hearth Points]
Ah, interesting.
He had been bothered by the ant bite. Although Pang said that the Inn could help him recover and even if he had consumed something that should help a bit, the debuff was still there.
Technically speaking, bug bites or even infections were considered part of this. Besides, reading the description, it seemed like this would be useful not just with poison, but also with pathogens.
There were too many unknowns in this place. He didn’t even know the ingredients, and he was just fortunate to get an appraisal skill, but this also meant there was a mountain of things he did not know yet.
He had to find ways to protect himself (and his customers) as much as he could.