The Innkeeper

Chapter 2505: A smug look

Lix thought Lex had been joking. In fact, he had not been joking. He really had a mansion... and so much more! Back in the day, Lex’s apartment used to have no physical location. It was just a subspace within the Inn because Lex thought that would keep it safer.

Now, though, if there was an enemy inside the Inn who could get past Lex, then having his apartment not be physically present would not prevent that enemy from reaching it. So, instead, he placed his mansion within a mountain basin.

Basically, there were tall, towering mountains all around the area, and in the middle there was an area filled with plateaus, soft slopes, three lakes fed by mountain streams, two distinct forests with different types of flora and so much more. The mountains were also normal, rocky mountains like the ones from Earth. Mountains made entirely of one massive spirit stone was cool, but Lex liked the look and feel of traditional mountains better.

This place was far away from anyone or anything inside the Inn, though it was still Inn territory. Very few people even knew of its existence since Lex usually met people inside places in the Inn.

Basically, after repeatedly going to the snowy mountain cabin, Lex realized that he had a thing for snowy mountains and shifted his mansion here. This was a relatively recent development.

Liz stood there, with her jaw hanging, as she looked at the mansion, and then at Lex who wore a smug expression. Then she looked back at the mansion. A small flock of sheep passed her by as they grazed Lex’s front lawn. Keeping human gardeners was so mundane - Lex had a flock of Golden Core sheep to do it for him instead.

This was actually an idea he had literally as he was bringing Liz over. It was more because he knew it would make her jealous than anything else.

The more shocked and awe struck she looked, the wider Lex’s grin became. Yup, this is why he worked and cultivated so hard - so he could rub his overwhelming success in his sister’s faces.

"What do you think?" Lex asked since she wasn’t speaking. "From the outside the mansion looks pretty normal, but from the inside it’s modeled similarly to the MET museum. Makes it easy to stash all my loot."

Liz looked at Lex and didn’t know what to say.

"You’re insufferable," she said, but then walked forward. Nemo, for once, actually left his tattoo state and began to swim beside them as it looked around curiously.

"Hah! You know, hearing you say reminded me of something. I actually got a marriage proposal today from a super bigshot," said Lex as he led her into the house. "I, obviously, turned it down. But the girl’s name was Elizabeth. Can you imagine if it had gone through?"

Liz groaned as she thought of what would have happened if Lex had accepted. Naturally, her actual name wasn’t Liz. It was Elizabeth - Liz is just what everyone called her, and what she preferred. If Lex really got married to someone with the same name as her...

"You’re so gross," she groaned even as she marveled at the exquisite interior. It wasn’t like Liz hadn’t seen the world before. The Williams family had been far from poor, and she had studied at Ventura.

But everything here - from the marble floor, to the wooden doors, the leather on the books in his library to the chandeliers made of some kind of eternal ice... all of it and any of it was more valuable than her entire family’s net worth. The worst part was that she knew Lex hadn’t really put any thought or care into the price or value of the materials used. He probably only used high quality things for functional reasons.

Then she looked down at the badge in her hand and suddenly regained her confidence. Hmph. So what if he had a fancy, beautiful house with a gorgeous view and a bunch of sheep in the front lawn. Was any of it close to being worth the badge she got?

Not at all.

"Come on, let me show you my collection," said Lex as he eagerly led her into the museum portion of the mansion where he stored his treasures. "Check that out. That primordial gem has such an insane curse inside of it that the first time I touched it, my entire body shed its skin."

Liz froze, and then slowly moved away from the skin-shedding gem.

"I didn’t get you this badge so you could stow it away in your treasure hoard like some dragon," said Liz even as she glanced at some Love Island memorabilia. Moon had shown her that episode, and she had cried from laughter. "Don’t you think we should discuss this before your little tour?"

Lex had brought out a physically touchable projection of a temple that looked identical to the Taj Mahal where he had met Mama Pari. But... since Liz wanted to talk first, he put the projection back in its display case.

"Fine, fine, let’s talk in my study," said Lex as he tried to suppress a smug smile and led her up to his study which had a massive view of the lake behind his mansion. A family of ducks could be seen swimming in a line near its edge.

Liz took a deep breath, doing her best not to stare at the ducks, and glared at Lex. Why had he kept this place a secret for so long?

"What’s the most important realm in the universe?" Liz asked. Before Lex could answer, though, she continued to speak. "Don’t answer. It’s irrelevant what you think. The answer is the Dream realm. I don’t care what was the most important one before this, but moving forward it will definitely be the Dream realm.

"Something a lot of people don’t know is that pretty soon, the Dream realm is going to open its doors to the whole universe in a brand new way, providing access to the replica of the Dream Arena. It’s also going to be the designated operating realm of the Dao Congress which is a pretty big deal - or at least, that’s what Oaka said.

"Access to the Dream realm will be available to anyone who dreams, but to access the higher tiers... the higher privileges, that won’t be so easy to get. Lucky for you, you have a pretty awesome sister."

Liz twirled the badge in her fingers, giving Lex a smug look of her own. She could understand why he liked doing it.