Chapter 8 – Upgrades and Rimuru’s wishes.
Two days had passed, and the hotel received some guests from Tempest. However, they were not recurring characters in the story and were humans visiting the city.
Mostly merchants.
"Rimuru has been recommending my inn to these guys." Nahida was serving the customers together with Shelly.
"He's been doing that? That's surprising since there are probably better inns around town."
"Hey, you should treat my hotel with more respect. You work here, right?" Nahida approached one of the tables along with Shelly, and the two served the food prepared by Lucky.
The day before, Nahida had gone to the market and restocked his freezer. Now they had more options to serve.
"I like it here, but I'm just telling the truth." Shelly and Nahida went into the kitchen to get the other dishes.
"Still, don't say that in front of the customers."
"I'll be careful."
After the two finished serving, Nahida sat at one of the tables. He watched the merchants savor Lucky's food and gave a smile. It was excellent to have hired him.
Nahida was sure he had won over their stomachs, and now they would stay at his hotel when they returned to Tempest.
'Now let's look at this.'
[ Available Rooms - 4/5 ]
[ Hotel Level - 3 (62/400 ]
[ Guest satisfaction - 186/10000 ]
'Now I'm getting three points per hour. I should be at almost 100 points, right?' As it was already evening, a few hours had passed, and Nahida had received 3 points a few times.
He had leveled up in the morning.
'The experience gain has slowed a bit despite the higher amount.'
[ Upgrade Points: +3 (46:11) ]
[ Upgrade Points: 102 ]
"Huh?" Nahida was surprised to see that he had really reached 100 points. However, it was still not enough to buy a new room. Purchasing a room would cost 200 upgrade points.
It was too much.
"Should I upgrade other things first?" Despite having only five rooms, the hotel was not getting full yet. Anyway, he could put up a notice at reception if all the rooms were occupied.
So he gave up on the idea and took the essential upgrades he should have already taken.
[ Increase water quality - 14 ]
[ Increase the quality of the beds - 25 ]
He bought them both. They were the first upgrades shown to him when he received the system. Improving the water quality would be good, and the quality of the beds was also important.
Nahida went to his secret room to look at his bed.
"I don't see much difference." However, that was until he sat down on the bed. It was so soft and comfortable that Nahida almost laid down to sleep.
"This is dangerous; I have work to do." He cleared his throat and went to his bathroom. The quality of the water in the hotel had supposedly improved. Nahida was sure the water quality in his hotel was good, so he was confused about this upgrade.
However, he understood when he put the water from the sink in his mouth.
"Damn, this is so good." The water came out cold from the tap. The water was so refreshing and clean that it looked like it came straight out of a spring. Nahida drank a few sips of it and felt renewed. The changes were significant.
The guests' satisfaction will increase with it, primarily because of the beds. A great night's sleep is essential.
"But there are still 63 points left. Let's see..." Nahida looked for other upgrades he could do. Increasing the floor's quality, improving the building's structure (which was quite expensive), and various other things.
He even could increase the quality of the doors in each bedroom. Each door would cost five upgrade points.
"What will this change? Will the room be more secure, and maybe less sound will enter the room to improve the quality of the guest's sleep? I can also increase the quality of the windows. Speaking of which..." Nahida had a small window in his secret bedroom.
But when he tried to look outside, he couldn't see anything. It was as if the glass was preventing him from looking out. This shouldn't be the case since the windows in his hotel were all made with ordinary glass.
"Better not think about it too much." Nahida upgraded the door and windows of the five rooms in his hotel. He spent 50 points to do so. They were all improvements focused on increasing guest satisfaction.
Increase the quality of their sleep, so they can wake up fully satisfied.
"If that doesn't help, I've thrown all my points away... But if it works, I'll reach level 4 faster and then focus on buying expensive things." The more expensive things will help Nahida the most.
####
Another whole day had passed. Two guests had left, and now Nahida had three rooms available. And after he upgraded the doors, windows, beds, and water, guest satisfaction grew.
Even though only three people were in his hotel, guest satisfaction had reached 200.
[ Guest satisfaction - 202/10000 ]
Now he was getting ten experience points at a time.
[ Hotel Level - 3 (342/400 ]
'I've almost reached level four.' Nahida was on the first floor of his hotel. It was afternoon, so his guests had left for business, and only he and Shelly were there. Lucky only left the kitchen sometimes.
"It's been a few days, and nothing has changed," Shelly said.
"Of course, things have changed. I've upgraded the beds, the water, the doors, and the windows too. Guest satisfaction has increased because of it."
"You upgraded all that? I didn't notice."
"Well, do you sleep?"
"No bed for me. But anyway, I don't need to sleep, so it doesn't matter. But I drink water... I noticed the water was a bit different."
"Isn't it? You noticed that the guests woke up happier, didn't you? Their sleep must have improved a lot after the upgrades."
"Probably. But what are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to take advantage of the guests being away and clean the rooms. After that, I need to clean the tables."
"You don't want me to do that?"
"No. Take care of the reception. We'll probably receive new guests."
"Right~~"
####
"Hey, Shion, I'm going to visit a friend. Tell Shuna to take care of that problem by herself."
"I want to go with you, Rimuru-sama!"
"You'll only cause trouble. I'll be back in a moment." Rimuru was wearing a beautiful blue coat because of the cold weather suddenly hitting Tempest. He went to Nahida's hotel and entered.
"Hi." He waved to Shelly and went to one of the tables. After that, Shelly appeared to serve him.
"How can I help you?" She looked at Rimuru with desire.
"Could you call Nahida? I want to talk to him for a bit."
"He's a bit busy right now, but I can do that."
"Okay, thanks." Rimuru smiled at Shelly, and she nearly fainted. She ran up the stairs and into the room Nahida was cleaning. It was a bedroom that an old merchant was using.
There were a lot of dirty clothes on the bed, and the smell was unpleasant.
"That guy's only been here two days, and he's already turned the room into this war zone?" Shelly was plugging her nose.
Nahida turned to her, and Shelly saw that he was wearing a white mask and gloves. "It's always good to protect yourself when you do this kind of work." He smiled behind his mask.
"Rimuru is downstairs."
"Again?"
"I don't know why he's here but he needs your help."
"My help?" Nahida put the bag with dirty clothes on the floor and took off his mask. "Tell him I'm coming. I'll make the bed and sweep the floor before I go down."
"Right~~"
####
"What, you want me to bring stuff for you?"
"You know, your hotel is connected to Japan, right? If you open the front door, you'll be in Japan. Since this is happening to you, I'd like to take advantage of it. Can't you do that?"
Nahida smiled bitterly.
It was a good plan. Rimuru wanted Nahida to bring back things from Japan, like technological things like power generators, video games, television, and other kinds of things.
"Well, it's not that I can't do it, but I don't have the money to get all that..."
"Don't worry about it." Rimuru pulled out some gold coins and threw them on the table. "I'm sure you'll get a lot of money if you sell this gold in Japan. What do you think?"
"But why?"
"Huh?"
"Do you need this kind of thing? Aren't you too busy to worry about that? You're looking after a whole nation, you know."
"You're right... But I still want to have some fun. Everything is so boring! I don't have video games, computers, manga, novels. I have nothing. Speaking of which, that's a good idea. Bring me stuff to read!"
"Things to read? Manga?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Rimuru's eyes lit up. Nahida thought of Veldora. Wasn't he the one who was supposed to be addicted to manga and novels?
"Well, that's all right. But I can't promise I'll deliver everything anytime soon. I've been pretty busy after my hotel was put up in Tempest."
"Even though you only have five rooms?"
"Yes. Even if I only have five, I'm the one who takes care of all the problems, serves the customers, and also takes care of the cleaning."
"What do you think about getting some Tempest residents to work here? There are some goblins in need of work."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. As long as I talk to them, they'll come work here right away. Of course, you'll have to pay them."
"About that, I don't have much money from your world... How will I pay them? The only money I have is what I got from the guests I received recently."
"Don't worry; talk to me if you need help." Rimuru stood up, and his blue hair fell over his face. He used his pale hand to fiddle with his hair, and Nahida's heart fluttered again.
"Man, that's..."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing. It's okay; I'll do it for you."
"Thanks a lot." Rimuru gave a big smile and raised his thumb. Nahida sighed and looked at Shelly, who stared at Rimuru in the distance.
'Did she really fall in love with him? Even after what I said about him?