The work was far from simple. Lex would have loved to summon hundreds if not thousands of workers from the Inn to expedite the work for him, but that wouldn’t work. This was because crafting the foundation of the forge, even a temporary forge, not only required immense power, it also required precise control, the likes of which hardly anyone else had.

Among the entire staff of the Midnight Inn, besides Lex, only Anita had sufficient control – from controlling the horde of beautiful undead she controlled. But Anita was increasingly taking time off as she was getting closer and closer to her delivery date. Although the expected date was still a couple decades away, these things were unpredictable. A few decades to her would be like a few days off to a mortal woman. It was completely normal to be early, just as it was completely normal to be late.

Lex kind of wondered what the baby’s gender would be – or its race – but that sounded like a rude question to ask so he kept his musings to himself.

Of course, there was also Orin himself who could help out, but it was pointless to mention him because he was busy doing other stuff for the forge.

So Lex found himself at the base of the crystal volcano – to be clear, he was at the base inside the volcano hole – etching the ground with a microscopic formation that tapped into the realms energy rather than the mountain’s own. The idea was to empower the mountain, not drain it.

At the same time, he was melting a special pollen collected from an immortal tree planted by the Sovereign turtle, and using it to coat the formation etchings to protect it from the heat, as well as create a second layer of flooring upon which even more formations would be drawn.

Lex didn’t even summon clones, nor did he use spiritual techniques or Lawcrafts.

Orin, the expert in this field, told him that every step of the forging process needed to be done by hand, step by step, meticulously, even if it was for a one time use forge. It was not just about the quality of the work being done – Lex’s clones could have maintained that quality.

Instead, it was about the sincerity of the work as well. The more shortcuts one took, the less one was sincere about the outcome. Instead, the more they cared about the end result, the more sincere they would be during the process.

Lex didn’t see what feelings had to do with anything, but he knew better now that nothing was ever as it seemed. Maybe it was the karma of the actions, or the causality, or something even more esoteric. He wasn’t going to argue with the deity who was helping him – after all, that deity was the expert in this field to begin with.

Lex had no intention of taking any breaks in this – even when the 99 hours were up or when the auction was actually being held. But, after a few days, he was forced to.

The auction was still a few days away, though the absence of the system meant Lex hadn’t actually used the event panel to set it up or market it. That meant that only select invitations were being sent for the auction – only those with good relationships with the Inn were invited.

That wasn’t why he stopped, though. Instead, he was forced to stop because there were two people who were looking for him, and kept incessantly sending him messages to meet for a very important topic.

Coincidentally, they both wanted to meet in the Chamber of Secrets. Since the system kept its normal functions running, the Chamber and all the other services were running as usual. Considering that he had a very good relationship with both those women, and that they both had helped him a lot, he was forced to take a break.

As it turned out, both Giselle and Vera had been waiting near the chamber for him, so when he arrived they naturally approached him. Yet their approach paused as both Vera and Giselle turned to look towards each other, sensing that the other was heading towards Lex as well.

Just for the dramatic effect… Lex paused walking too. The two women looked from each other to Lex, who took turns looking at them both.

The duo started walking again at the same time, so Lex followed suit. Yet after another couple of steps paused, and looked back at each other, finally confirming that they both were approaching Lex. Lex, naturally, also paused walking when they did.

“This is a fun game, but I feel like I’m missing out on some of the rules,” Lex said with a smile, trying to use humor to break the tension. Unfortunately, the two women kept silently sizing each other up, and didn’t respond to him.

“Oh boy, you’re in trouble now,” said Mary as she appeared on his shoulder, dressed in an elegant red dress and deep red lipstick, as if she was walking out of a movie scene. Her hair was dyed blonde, instead of her usual red, and she was wearing elaborate make up as well.

“Really? I don’t think so. I’ll just clear up the confusion real quick. They’re probably just concerned thinking I invited someone else to a private conversation.”

Mary only shook her head, looking at Lex as if he was hopeless, and then summoned a bag of popcorn, throwing a flake to her red, beautiful lips every now and then. She was going to love watching this.

“What’s going on?” asked Vera, sounding annoyed. Not only did she need to deal with being unable to see the future, now she had to deal with unexpected situations. How did mundane people even put up with that? It was so inconvenient.

“Nothing. It’s a funny coincidence, actually. Both of you wanted to chat at the chamber at the same time. Obviously, I won’t lead anyone else into our private conversations, but I don’t see why I can’t talk to you one after another,” explained Lex simply.

“So who are you going to talk to first?” Giselle asked, turning from Vera to look at Lex, her silver hair flowing in the wind, blocking her side profile.

That question had Lex stumped. Clearly if he picked one before the other… it might send the wrong message. He wasn’t so dense that he couldn’t sense the tension in the air.

“You guys can go first, I don’t mind waiting,” said Vera, cutting through the tension and returning to her normal self. Giselle also relaxed a little, seeing how Vera avoided a confrontation.

Lex shook his head.

“You guys are really too much. Let’s sit first so I can introduce you two. Honestly, the both of you have helped me out a lot. I’m sure the two of you will hit it off great.”

Even as he spoke, Lex sensed a faint hesitation from Giselle, though she didn’t show it on her face or in her body language. If anything, she portrayed herself as friendly, and open as she smiled at Vera.

“No need, I can introduce myself. My name is Giselle,” she said, holding out her hand.

Yet underneath the facade, Lex could sense the wariness Giselle held. It wasn’t that felt distrustful of Vera or anything – instead, she felt hesitant getting close to someone new.

That was an odd thing for Lex to notice. He had always been good at reading people, yet he had never sensed that Giselle suffered from any kind of social anxiety. Maybe something had happened – or more likely, his senses were a lot sharper now.

“Vera. It’s nice to meet you,” said Vera, her voice all too excited. Lex could sense that Vera recognized the name from somewhere, and a hint of excitement had shot up through her.

It seemed Lex’s senses really had improved.

“Lex, no need for small talk between us. I’m sure we all have a lot on our plates. Why don’t you and Giselle have your chat within the chamber first, and then I can come in after. I don’t mind waiting, really.”

Vera sounded all too excited for Lex to go now, so much so that he became suspicious. Yet seeing how the suggestion relaxed Giselle, he took her up on the offer.

“In that case, don’t go anywhere. I’ll get right back to you,” said Lex, giving her a nod.

“Oh don’t you worry about that. Take all the time you need,” she said, a wide grin on her face.

Lex forced himself to keep his lip from twitching. She definitely knew something. He would have to ask her what it was when they chatted.

Without further ado, Lex followed Giselle into the chamber and sat right opposite to her.

“I haven’t seen you in a long time. How have you been?” Lex asked, starting up the conversation slow.

“I’ve been missing out on the Champions tourney, that’s how. I don’t have a lot of time to spare, and I need to get back to that as soon as possible. The only reason I wanted to talk to you first is to let you know I’m ready to hunt a defiler. You showed interest in that before, so I thought I’d approach you with the offer to help.”

Apparently ppl still don’t knw abt it: discord.gg/yqCkHedcUP