Cedric, or Nathraval as the other Obsidian members called him, spent quite a few hours chatting with LovelessPenguin, Skip and Greaves, learning a lot about Obsidian that would have otherwise taken him forever to learn.

As a gesture of goodwill, as well as a thank you token, he gave them all souvenirs from his Museum Gift shop. He gave them all a bandage that temporarily made them invisible to the undead for an hour. The only drawback of the bandage is that when they used it, they would look like mummies.

Then, as they had advised, he went back and entered the Quest room, looking at the list of available quests and services. With a beginner guide, things were really efficient. He completed all the standard, easy quests the group had told him to complete, offering up any useless techniques, as well as information and history of the various civilizations he had visited.

Naturally, he didn’t share any information related to his current location outside Obsidian, for safety’s sake. Although these easy quests didn’t net him many Quest Points, they were enough for now. Plus, using his own wealth, he bought some MP. It was fairly cheap.

The group had been raving about the services offered here, and though his own museum itself offered him many services, he didn’t mind trying these out to tell the difference.

For example, back in his Museum, he’d collected an ancient cultivation mat used by an emperor who once ruled over multiple planets in his star system.

Naturally, since he had the item as an exhibit, his museum let him use them as well. The cultivation mat gave him a 50% cultivation boost when he cultivated atop it. He was curious to see how the Meditation room in his courtyard compared to the mat. He was fairly confident, right up until he entered the chamber and began to cultivate.

His mind entered such a focused state, and his cultivation began to flow so smoothly, that Cedric completely lost all concept of time - forgetting that he was only testing out the chamber.

It was only two weeks later, when he ran out of MP and the effects of the Meditation room ceased, that Cedric woke up from his cultivation session, stunned!

"What in the name of Saint Cinnabon is this?" he exclaimed, shocked! For humans, growth in the Immortal realm was done through development of the tenets. That was actually why so many immortals got stuck in their levels, unable to progress for thousands of years, because the method of cultivation was fundamentally different from before. Previously, all they needed to do was use their cultivation technique and they’d steadily grow.

Now, it was no longer the same. At most, cultivating would put them in a slight trance like state. Extended periods in such a state advanced their comprehension of laws, allowing their tenets to develop further. Comparatively, though, this was a much slower process than before.

Now, though, Cedric had made measurable progress in his cultivation, expediting his cultivation timeline from tens of thousands of years to a few centuries! Maybe one or two millennia at most!

As if spurred on by his incredible experience, he looked at the other opportunities available at Obsidian. Everything else needed to be bought using Quest Points (QP), which were a hell of a lot more valuable than MP, but also hard to buy.

Some people were selling QP for MP in the Quest board, but the price was outrageous. Unfortunately, it was a sellers market since QP wasn’t so easy to acquire.

According to Greaves, if Cedric managed to get his hands on a golden key to enter the Midnight Inn, he’d be able to use many of these services for MP, but golden keys weren’t so easy to find. At least, Cedric himself had never heard of the Inn or its golden keys before.

He originally planned on holding out until he could earn more QP himself, but when he looked at the Inheritance lounge - a service originally offered by the Inn, but available at Obsidian as well - he changed his mind.

There were quite a few valuable inheritances in there, but one caught his eye, so much so that he couldn’t take his eyes off it. The way inheritances worked was that he could only attempt to comprehend them inside the lounge. If he managed to learn it, it would be his to use, but if he couldn’t, then it would be a wasted opportunity, for time in the lounge wasn’t unlimited.

All the inheritances also could only be comprehended fully or not at all - partial comprehension was not a thing.

Even so, one inheritance out of them all caught his eye. It was called Gamblers Luck, and basically the inheritance allowed the user to manipulate his own luck.

It was, in fact, the technique Lex had gained from the man with the Murder System.

Unable to hold himself back, Cedric bought enough QP to use the inheritance lounge, losing a considerable amount of his accumulated wealth, and went in.

In his line of business, luck mattered a lot. If he could get his hands on that inheritance, he’d be unstoppable. Obsidian really was an incredible place. His only regret was not coming here earlier.

Within the Inn, Lex wiped the sweat off his brow, as he finally finished one of the most critical formations in the volcano. They’d already placed the firesource for the forge inside, which meant that Lex was working within the heat equivalent to the core of a planet. Of course, this was not the full extent of the heat of the firesource, since it was still sealed.

Even then, the working conditions were far from simple. Fortunately, he had help. The more hazardous the conditions, the more suitable it actually was for the only other workers Lex could directly get from the system: the Draconian Apostles!

They were like massive bees, happily swimming through the ridiculously radioactive liquid filling the volcano, working like actual busy bees.

They weren’t a common sight in the Inn because they preferred highly hazardous environments, but they were definitely there.

Lex was about to return to work when he heard an unexpected sound. It was a new notification.

When he read the notification, Lex couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Now that was unexpected.