Can a Frankenstein's monster be an adventurer?

Chapter 108 Accompanying Emily to a Hotel Room

Luo Lan knew very well that arguing with a goblin merchant like Griff, who only cared about money and not people, was a complete waste of breath, so he ignored him.

Seeing that Rom didn't continue to pay attention to the grumpy goblin, Rom secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He said to the others, "Well then, everyone, if there's nothing else to do tonight, go back and rest. Recharge your energy, and we'll go check out the mine tomorrow."

Luo Lan nodded and turned to leave.

As soon as Emily saw Luo Lan walk away, she immediately flapped her red and blue wings and followed him from mid-air: "Luo Lan, wait for me!"

Luo Lan turned her head to look at the little imp who was following her like a shadow: "I was just about to go back to the tavern to sleep, are you still going to follow me?"

While maintaining the same forward speed as Luo Lan in mid-air, Emily touched her chin with her little finger, tilted her head, and showed a thoughtful expression: "Hmm—um—so I'll live with you? No, what if you snore? Should I go back to QQ Farm? No, flying back and forth is too much trouble—"

Luo Lan smiled helplessly: "Let's go back to the tavern first. Maybe the proprietress is still awake. You can ask her to get you another room, right?"

Upon hearing this, Emily suddenly realized and smacked her palm hard: "Oh right! Luo Lan, why didn't you say so earlier? I didn't know there were any guest rooms available."

The walk back to the tavern wasn't long.

All the way there, I could hear Emily, that little devil, chattering away, complaining that the night breeze was a bit chilly, or that the smell of garlic wafting from someone's window was too strong.

Amid Emily's commotion, the two returned to the "Broken Sword and Wine" tavern.

Pushing open the door of the log tavern, a warm breeze carrying the scents of fermented ale, aged wood, and a hint of tobacco hits you.

In the lobby on the first floor, only a few flickering oil lamps remained, emitting a dim yellow light.

Several greasy wooden tables were pushed to the corner, and the wine stains on the floor had not yet been completely wiped clean.

Apparently, after the villagers helped him pack up his goods during the day following the car accident in Griff, he returned to the tavern and continued the "drinking contest" for quite some time.

The proprietress's voluptuous body was sprawled on the large bar counter, her head resting on her arm, snoring softly.

The heavy sound of the tavern's wooden door opening and closing startled her from her nap.

The proprietress groggily raised her eyes, which were clearly tinged with intoxication. Her eyelids drooped as if they might close again at any moment. She rubbed her face and mumbled indistinctly, "Who is it? Want more wine? Oh—Luo Lan. You know which guest room is upstairs, just go up yourself—"

After saying this, the orc proprietress's elbow went limp, and she looked like she was about to slump back onto the table to continue her nap.

Luo Lan quickly said, "Wait, ma'am, could you please book another room?"

The proprietress braced herself against the bar counter with her burly arm, her hoarse, rough voice carrying obvious doubt: "Why do you need another room? Aren't you the only one here?"

Then, the proprietress rubbed her eyes vigorously a couple of times before finally managing to open her heavy eyelids. Her gaze followed Luo Lan's downwards, and she finally spotted the tiny figure flapping its wings in mid-air. She then grinned and said, "Oh, little Emily is here too?"

Hearing her name called, Emily sped up and flew to the landlady's face, which reeked of alcohol. The little fairy made a large square with her hands in front of her chest and said, "Um, Emily also wants to stay here for a while. But I don't have any money with me—can I draw you another doodle to exchange for money?"

After hearing this, the landlady burst into a hearty laugh. She waved her large hand forcefully in the air and stood up from the stool: "It's no money at all. Little Emily, you've done us Gray Rock Canyon a great favor. What's a little room fee? Come on, I'll show you the room."

Upon hearing the proprietress's words, Emily was so delighted that she did a somersault in the air, waving her hands upwards and scattering a large amount of dazzling elemental powder, illuminating the area around the bar: "Yay! Doing good deeds really does bring good rewards!"

The proprietress, carrying a windproof oil lamp, led Luo Lan and the other person up the wooden stairs to the second floor with slightly unsteady steps.

The second-floor corridor was darker than the first floor at night. Besides the room Luo Lan had booked during the day, there were several closed wooden doors lining both sides of the corridor.

The landlady stopped in front of the first door, her oil lamp flickering in her hand. She let out a long yawn that reeked of strong ale: "Little Emily, take a look at this room, yawn—it's near the stairs, a bit noisy during the day. But if you open the window, you can see the view from the village entrance, and it's quite windy. It's alright during the day and night, but it might be a bit chilly now."

After the proprietress finished her introduction, she took a step forward and pointed to the next room: "This room is a bit narrower. There might be a faint smell of pine resin inside because the wall panels were just replaced with new material last month. If you fairies like the smell of plants, this room would be nice."

Emily peeked through the crack in the door, then withdrew her head, seemingly deep in thought.

The landlady walked to the middle of the corridor and kicked the threshold under the door: "As for this big room, it gets plenty of sunlight, especially during the day. The only problem is the bed is a bit hard. A dwarf blacksmith stayed here a while ago and insisted that a hard bed was necessary to develop healthy bones, so I removed the mattress."

Finally, the three of them stopped directly opposite the room that Luo Lan had booked.

The landlady glanced at the room number under the lamplight: "This is the quietest room. The bed was just taken out to air in the sun today; it still smells of sunshine."

Emily didn't seem to care much about the details the landlady mentioned, and patted the door: "This one is fine, I'm fine with anything."

The proprietress nodded heartily.

"Alright then, little Emily, you can stay here."

As she spoke, the proprietress rummaged through the keychain hanging from her waist and pulled out a brass room key that was almost as tall as Emily herself.

The proprietress handed the key to the fairy in mid-air, then paused, a hint of hesitation flashing across her face, as she looked at Emily's small, delicate hand, barely bigger than the key handle. "Uh, little Emily, is this key easy for you to hold?"

Emily glanced at the brass key, which was even thicker and heavier than herself, and nodded nonchalantly: "Yes, it is a little big. But it's okay!"

As she spoke, Emily deftly reached out and took down the "Playful Flower Wreath" woven from unknown wildflowers from her long, sky-blue hair.

Emily placed the wreath flat on the wooden windowsill beside the corridor, then with her two small hands, she carefully held the heavy customer service key and placed it into the hole in the center of the wreath.

To the proprietress's astonishment, the heavy brass key suddenly emitted a subtle, colorful glow the moment it touched the inside of the wreath.

Immediately afterwards, the key rapidly shrank in size and slid downwards.

In just two seconds, the large key was completely sucked into the small wreath, into some unknown space.

Emily put the flower crown back on her head and patted the colorful petals off her head with satisfaction.

Watching this scene, the proprietress couldn't help but sigh, "You outsiders really have a lot of amazing tricks up your sleeves—yawn~"

After the keys were handed over, the proprietress let out a huge yawn reeking of alcohol, patted the wooden plank across from Luo Lan's door, and said, "Well, goodnight, you two—I have to go back downstairs to watch the shop for a while. If you need water tonight, there's a bucket of clean water I just filled this afternoon in the washroom at the end of the second-floor corridor."

After saying that, the proprietress, carrying an oil lamp, walked unsteadily toward the stairs.

Emily waved to Luo Lan: "Goodnight, Luo Lan! See you tomorrow!"

Then, Emily, with a sudden burst of strength, pushed open her bedroom door and, like a blue and red whirlwind, darted into the room.

"Okay, goodnight."

Luo Lan's hand, which had been frozen in mid-air as she said goodnight, slammed shut in front of her room.

The wind stirred up by the door panel blew a bit of the white hair on Luo Lan's forehead.

The corridor fell silent again. Luo Lan looked at the tightly closed oak door opposite and shook her head helplessly at the impatient little imp.

Turning around, Luo Lan pushed open the door and entered her room.

Inside the room, there was only an oil lamp on the solid wood table, the flame flickering very small, casting the shadows of the wooden table and the narrow bed onto the wall.

Luo Lan closed the door behind her and sat down at the solid wood table.

He unfastened the armor clip on his left hand and casually dripped a drop of acid into the wick of the oil lamp to help it burn. The dim yellow flame flickered a few times, then burned a little brighter, casting a long shadow of Luo Lan on the rough stone wall.

From his storage space, Luo Lan took out the fist-sized, damaged T-800 power core and placed it on the table.

The core's surface, riddled with broken runes, resembled ugly scars. Most of the rune inscriptions had faded, with only a few nodes occasionally flashing orange light, like a light bulb about to run out of power.

In his mind, he used [psychic communication] to send a message to the white cat that had followed him into the house: "Cat, come and finish the magic circle."

The little white cat nimbly leaped from the shadows at the foot of the bed onto the table, landing with its four paws without making a sound.

After the little white cat jumped onto the table, it first looked down at the core, then slightly raised its head to look at Luo Lan.

"To reiterate: Completing the rune array requires the corresponding alchemical materials."

Victor's neutral synthesized voice remained as steady as ever.

"It's alright, we have plenty of materials."

Luo Lan simply waved her hand casually.

With a slight distortion of the space in front of him, a series of soft, clanging sounds rang out from the previously empty tabletop.

A whole bunch of bottles and jars of various shapes and sizes were pulled out of Luo Lan's [storage space] all at once.

These things were piled up on the table, forming a small mountain.

The firelight shone on these colorful bottled liquids, refracting them into bizarre and dazzling colors.

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