Chapter 66 — Gift

Chapter 66 — Gift

Oh, I finally found the right inn. I couldn’t locate it on my own—I had to ask a random passerby on the main street for directions. But once they showed me the way, it turned out the inn wasn’t hard to find at all. Well then… just looking at the building, I immediately understood: this place clearly wasn’t cheap. Four stories tall, very luxurious, and impressively grand. I figured the rooms would be expensive. Still, money shouldn’t be a problem for me right now.

I opened the doors and stepped inside. The moment I crossed the threshold, it became obvious—the inn looked even better on the inside than it did from the outside. Everything was elegant, but without excessive flamboyance. Very pleasing to the eye.

“Good evening,” I said to the receptionist. He was a man about my age, maybe twenty-five or twenty-six.

Ah… if you think about it, I should be much older. Damn, I’m already getting confused myself. I don’t even know how old I am anymore. Whatever. Not important.

“Good evening. How can I help you?” the man asked.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought I heard a faint reluctance… or even contempt in his voice. No. Probably just my imagination.

“I wanted to ask… My acquaintances are staying here. Two girls—Rem and Sherial,” I said.

“Yes, we do have guests with those names. They checked in recently. But they asked not to be disturbed,” the man replied.

Well, they were probably tired after the road. So many days of travel—of course they’d want to rest. Fine. I’ll talk to them tomorrow.

“Then… I’d like to rent a room,” I said.

“I’m sorry, but our inn has no cheap rooms. All our rooms are luxury suites,” the receptionist replied calmly.

“And how much will that cost?” I asked.

If it turns out to be too expensive, I’ll have to rush back to the guild and sell a few more healing potions…

“The cheapest room is one gold and twenty silver,” he said.

“Alright. I’ll take one room. For one night,” I replied.

Honestly, that was cheaper than I expected. I had enough money for even a week. And tomorrow I’d earn more anyway.

“You want to rent a room?” the man repeated.

What the hell? I just said that… Alright, calm down.

“Yes. One room for one night,” I repeated, placing two gold coins on the counter.

“Very well, sir.”

He took the coins, pulled out a pouch of silver, and began counting out eighty silver coins. He did it very slowly, unhurriedly. I think it took him one or two minutes—maybe even three.

“Here is your change,” the receptionist said.

I took my coins. Why was he moving so slowly? Did he not want me staying in this inn at all?

“Here is your key. Your room is on the fourth floor, the last door on the right,” the man added.

“Thank you.”

I took the key and headed for the stairs to go up to my room.

So… this should be my room. The staircase and hallway were beautifully decorated. Here and there stood plants in huge vases. Or… what do you call them? Big decorative vases with flowers? Whatever.

I opened the door.

Damn… I’ve never had a room this luxurious.

It was enormous—bigger than my entire apartment back on Earth. And the bed… it was gigantic. I walked straight to it and carefully sat down.

Soft… very soft.

Alright, what else is here?

Whoa. Huge windows with a view of the street… And is that the bathroom?

I stepped into the bathroom.

What the hell… Even the bathroom is bigger than my entire apartment on Earth. Why would people need a bathroom this huge? A massive mirror took up almost the whole wall. Yeah, I get that a bathroom needs a mirror… but why does it have to be that big?

I glanced at my reflection.

And immediately felt insecure.

My clothes… the way I was standing here… In this luxurious room, the only thing that looked out of place was me. Like a stranger among all this shine.

Maybe I should buy better clothes. Though… I’m already wearing new equipment.

Ah, whatever. No point obsessing over it.

What do I do until morning? I won’t be able to sleep anyway—I rested recently.

Alright… I’ll spend the time in the Training Room.

Knock, knock, knock.

Some slight discomfort finally woke me up. Yes, I woke up… but I didn’t want to get out of this bed at all. I just wanted to keep lying there, even though I wasn’t sleepy anymore.

Last night I trained for about ten hours. And during the training, I noticed something strange. The healing potions I drink when I get tired don’t give me the same feeling of energy they used to. I should’ve noticed it earlier, but for some reason I never paid attention.

Still, it makes sense. Right now I have over 15,000,000 HP, and a rank 3 healing potion restores only 100,000 HP. Yes, it still reduces fatigue—but not as effectively as it did back when I had far less HP. Even so, the effect is still noticeable.

After returning to my room, I washed up, took a bath, and lay down on the bed. At first it felt strange—too soft. Even a little uncomfortable. But after a few minutes, I didn’t even realize when I fell asleep.

And honestly… it was one of the best beds I’ve ever laid on.

Even now, I really didn’t want to get up.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone was knocking on my door. I quickly got up and went to it. As soon as I opened the door, I saw Sherial.

“Good morning,” I said quickly.

“Good morning. Looks like you just woke up,” Sherial said.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Then will you at least come down for lunch?” she asked.

“Lunch? It’s already noon?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes. Most of the guests already had lunch, and you’re even skipping yours,” she said.

Did I really sleep that long? I thought.

“Alright. If you want to eat, come down to the first floor. There’s a decent restaurant—basically the inn’s cafeteria, but it functions like a full restaurant. Rem and I will be waiting for you there,” Sherial said and walked away down the corridor.

“Yeah, I’ll be there soon,” I replied.

I hurried toward the bathroom.

After lunch, we went up to Rem and Sherial’s room to discuss our team’s future plans. It was still hard for me to believe I was in a team now—especially with these two beautiful girls.

“Hey, why didn’t you come yesterday and at least tell us you’d already checked into this inn?” Sherial asked. “This morning we were even about to start looking for you.”

“Yesterday the receptionist said you asked not to be disturbed. I figured you were tired after the road and wanted to rest, so I waited until the next day to talk to you,” I replied.

“But we never told the receptionist anything like that,” Sherial said with a frown.

So the receptionist really didn’t like me… or something like that. Though if I think about it logically, I can understand. Maybe he decided I was some kind of stalker chasing two beautiful girls. Or maybe he just took me for a beggar. Ah… whatever.

“Let’s get to the main point. What are we going to do next? Not right this second, of course—after we rest for a few days. Will we take a quest at the guild, or go into a dungeon? That’s what we need to decide,” Rem said.

“Before we start discussing that, I’d like to repay my debt…” I said, holding out sixty silver coins to Rem.

It was the money she had spent on the inn and other expenses for me. Actually, I wanted to return more—at least five or six gold coins. Money isn’t a problem for me anymore. But I thought it might look rude or even disrespectful. So I decided to simply repay the debt and also prepare a separate gift for Rem and Sherial.

Rem silently took the money.

“Good. Then let’s begin the discussion,” she said calmly.

“Wait one minute,” I said—and teleported to the Training Room.

A moment later, I teleported back, holding two pouches filled with Origin Mushrooms.

“This is a gift from me,” I said, placing the pouches on the table in front of the girls.

Damn… the pouches didn’t look very nice, especially for a gift. I should’ve bought something better—some neat little pouch. Though… I guess it’s too late now.

“What is that?” Rem asked.

“Well… a gift,” I replied.

“And why are you giving us gifts?” Rem said, raising an eyebrow slightly.

And what am I supposed to answer? I just wanted to give them a gift. But I can’t exactly say it that bluntly…

“Hey, don’t be so picky, Rem. He’s giving you a gift. Consider it a celebration of him joining the team. Though logically speaking, we should’ve gifted something to him… but I think this works,” Sherial said.

She literally saved me. I had no idea how to answer Rem’s question.

“So… what’s inside?” Sherial asked with interest.

She opened her pouch first and pulled out one Origin Mushroom.

“Whoa… Origin Mushrooms. You know how expensive these are. And there are quite a lot in this pouch. Do you really want to just give them to us?” Sherial asked.

“I have a lot of them. And in general, I decided not to sell them to the Adventurers’ Guild. I think it’ll be smarter if we use them ourselves,” I said.

“You know… accepting a gift like this is difficult. They’re worth a lot of money,” Sherial said quietly.

At that moment, Rem also opened her pouch. She took out one mushroom and stared at it carefully, holding it in her hand.

“I insist. This is my gift to you. And besides, if you also eat them every day, we’ll grow faster as a team. Yes, it’s gradual, but the result will definitely show over time. That’s much better than just selling them. And I can earn money in other ways,” I said.

“We can’t accept this,” Rem said seriously.

She carefully put the mushroom back into the pouch, closed it, and held it out to me.

“Hey, Rem, don’t be so cold,” Sherial said gently.

“These are rank 3 Origin Mushrooms,” Rem said calmly.

Sherial froze for a few seconds. She slowly turned toward me, and from her expression it was obvious—she was genuinely shocked.

Why is she so shocked?.. They’re just Origin Mushrooms.