Chapter 636: Fresh Arrival

Inside the lobby of the Aurella Hotel, located on the ground level.

Lu Jianuo held Ludwig, who was eating a corn pancake, in one hand and his own suitcase in the other, looking around with a hint of unease. From the time he was born until now, from becoming an adventurer to following Lu Mian south, he had never stayed in a place that used "Hotel" rather than "Inn" as its suffix.

He had only seen in newspapers and magazines that Trier's most famous Champs Hotel cost 21 million gold pounds to build, with 800 rooms and 65 function halls. The most ordinary room, in the most ordinary season, cost 12 gold pounds a day. This was a huge shock to Lu Jianuo, who only spent 3.5 gold pounds a week staying at inns at the time.

It was precisely because of these examples from the bustling metropolis of Trier that Lu Jianuo finally gathered the courage to thicken his skin and go to Lu Mian to recommend himself.

He needed to accumulate wealth as quickly as possible to purchase potion materials and advance to "Physician"!

He wanted to become a member of high society!

Only after truly becoming a "Physician" did he discover how vast the supernatural world was and that he had only just begun.

A male receptionist with slightly curly black hair, dark brown skin, and a shrewd-looking face said to Lu Jianuo in fluent Intis:

"Do you want a suite or an ordinary room? Do you want a bed that is a coffin, or an ordinary one?"

Lu Jianuo turned his head and looked at his employer.

Lu Mian was playing with a caramel-colored East Balam cigar made of roasted tobacco leaves, bringing it to his nose and sniffing it gently, catching the mixed scent of the tobacco leaves themselves, internal spices, and various herbs.

It was a bit stimulating, quite fragrant, and made one want to smell it again.

"A suite, an ordinary one, closer to the ground." Having experienced the coffin taxi, Lu Mian had no intention of continuing to sleep in one.

This wasn't because he had psychological trauma, but because that thing would affect his perception of his surroundings. If he were truly attacked, it would hinder his initial response.

Hearing his answer, Lu Jianuo quietly breathed a sigh of relief and relayed his employer's request to the male receptionist.

"8 gold pounds per day, three days' prepayment required," the male receptionist, who was clearly a local native, quoted the price.

After Lu Jianuo completed the payment, the receptionist looked at his colleagues and said ingratiatingly:

"I'll take you down."

There were three mechanical elevators at the back of the lobby. Lu Mian and the others entered the middle door and pulled the brass handle to the position representing the third underground level.

The chains tightened, the gears engaged, and the sound of various metal parts beginning to operate rang out. Further away, it sounded as if boilers were burning and white mist was spraying.

The mechanical elevator began to descend. The native receptionist glanced at Ludwig, piled on a smile, and said to Lu Mian:

"Are you planning to settle in Port Pylos?

"If you need to know about local grammar schools and housing rentals in different neighborhoods, you can come to me."

In his view, someone bringing a seven or eight-year-old child to the Southern Continent must be moving here, not traveling. After all, the child was too young for dangerous long-distance travel.

Since they were moving here, they would need to rent or buy a house and choose a good school. These were all opportunities to make money!

Hearing the word "school," Ludwig, who was gnawing on a roasted corn cob, stopped chewing. It seemed the food in his hand suddenly didn't taste as good.

Lu Mian couldn't guess the native receptionist's thoughts, but he didn't mind; instead, he rather appreciated the other party's shrewdness.

He smiled and said:

"Let's look around first. We haven't decided whether to stay in Port Pylos."

At this moment, the mechanical elevator stopped at the third underground level.

As Lu Mian walked into the corridor with rooms on the right and stone railings and a cold, deep valley on the left, he said to the native receptionist:

"Do you know Tizamo Town?"

The native receptionist helped Lu Jianuo with the suitcase, bending his waist slightly to lead the way:

"I know it. Many gentlemen like to go to Tizamo for jungle hunting on weekends.

"There are still many secret temples and mausoleums left by nobles in the jungle there. If you go to play, don't go too deep. The primitive tribes there are both savage and cruel."

Lu Mian nodded slightly without further questioning. After arriving at Suite 7 and entering the living room, he casually took out a 1 gold pound silver coin and tossed it to the native receptionist:

"What's your name?"

The receptionist was pleasantly surprised:

"You can call me Ron."

Lu Mian smiled:

"I might trouble you often later. For example, what's the nearest, relatively good bar, and where is it?"

Ron touched the silver coin in his hand and piled on a smile:

"Providing you with help is my honor.

"You can go to the 'Man-Eating Flower' bar. They communicate in Intis there. It's on the street behind our hotel."

Lu Mian gave Lu Jianuo a few instructions, left the room with Ron, and waited for one of the mechanical elevators to come up.

When they entered, there was already a man standing inside.

The man was pale, his eyes hollow, wearing a wrinkled shirt and trousers.

Lu Mian glanced at him and said nothing.

With the sound of tightening chains and a steady ascent, the mechanical elevator returned to the ground.

After the hollow-eyed man walked out of the cabin and put some distance between himself and the two of them, Ron leaned toward Lu Mian and whispered:

"I wanted to remind you just now to pretend you didn't see that guest."

"Who is he?" Lu Mian asked casually.

Ron looked left and right and lowered his voice:

"He lives in the suite on the eighteenth underground level and is Mr. Ivelista's servant.

"That gentleman's servants don't seem very normal."

Of course they aren't normal; those are walking corpses... Lu Mian muttered to himself.

He had just gazed at that servant and discovered that the other party's fate was pitch black, belonging to the deceased.

Encountering such things in a country that once worshipped the "God of Death" didn't surprise Lu Mian at all.

He had already seen the remnant shadow of the "Blood Emperor"; what was a living corpse compared to that?

…………

In the evening, still retaining a sense of mugginess, Lu Mian bypassed the artificial valley where the Aurella Hotel was located, entered a street whose name he couldn't pronounce, and found the bar with an exaggerated man-eating flower painted on it.

He put on his golden straw hat and lit the East Balam cigar he had bought in the hotel lobby, holding it in his mouth.

Cough, cough, cough!

Lu Mian soon began to cough, and two puffs of white smoke came out of his nose.

He had originally intended to show that he was an experienced adventurer by smoking an East Balam cigar, but he hadn't expected it to be so stimulating, which was a bit too much for him, as he had barely smoked before.

—In Kordu Village, there were all kinds of cheap alcohol, but no cigarettes for sale. Lu Mian had only seen a few people like Pons Bene and Louis Lund smoke.

After extinguishing the East Balam cigar and throwing it into the trash can, Lu Mian entered the bar, skillfully approached the bar counter, and pulled over a high stool to sit down.

Feeling the lingering taste of smoke in his mouth, he decided to drink something mild first. He tapped on the bar counter and said in Intis:

"A glass of sugar wine, the ordinary kind."

"10 Ricks." The bartender was a local man wearing a white shirt and black vest, his Intis accented.

Lu Mian paid, and while waiting for the bartender to pour the drink, he naturally looked around, discovering that no one was watching him, and there were only a dozen or so wanted posters on the bar wall.

He thoughtfully took the amber-colored sugar wine, pressed down on the golden straw hat on his head, and asked the bartender with a smile:

"Do you know who I am?"

The bartender glanced at him and said with a smile:

"Every once in a while, there are adventurers who think they are famous who ask me this question, but I'm sorry, I don't know you."

It seems the great adventurer Louis Berry's feat of hunting the "Devil Wizard" mainly circulated on the Fog Sea. His subsequent fame was because I had been operating within the sphere of influence of the "Mother Goddess of Earth" Church. Hmm, once I entered the Berserk Sea, Louis Berry's reputation wasn't actually that loud, and by the time I reached West Balam, almost no one had heard of it... In this way, "Siso" shouldn't know that I've already arrived in Port Pylos, unless he squats at the pier every day... Lu Mian wasn't annoyed by the bartender's words. Drinking the sugar wine, he began to think about the detailed issues.

Seeing that he didn't speak, the bartender smiled as if chatting:

"You just arrived in the Southern Continent, right?"

"Yes, I just left the Berserk Sea this morning." Lu Mian quickly entered the state of a regular at an old tavern and smiled as he told a story, "I encountered a ghost ship in the Berserk Sea, saw the dried corpses on it, danced with them under the moon, and repelled the devil's attack. Praise the Mother of All Things, you probably can't imagine how magical and dangerous the Berserk Sea is..."

The bartender wiped the inside of a glass and interrupted Lu Mian's words:

"I know. After all, that's where the 'God of Death' disappeared."

"The place where the 'God of Death' disappeared?" Lu Mian asked in astonishment.

Although he had guessed that the danger of the Berserk Sea and the abnormal weather originated from the fall of a god, he hadn't expected to get the answer so easily and effortlessly.

The bartender looked at Lu Mian with an expression of "you're actually a rookie" and said:

"Haven't you heard the legends of treasure at sea?

"Ranking first is the 'Key of the God of Death.' It is said that at the end of the Fourth Epoch, the 'God of Death,' who failed in the Pale War, stirred up violent winds and waves while fleeing back to Balam to hinder the enemy, creating insurmountable obstacles and completely cutting off the Northern and Southern Continents. But He ultimately didn't return to His divine throne and disappeared from then on. Only those holding the special key can find Him, find the treasure He left behind, and obtain His gift."

The bartender's tone was somewhat complex.

Lu Mian fell into silence.

He had come to the sea for revenge and lacked interest in treasure legends. He hadn't expected to miss such important information.

Just at this moment, he heard the sound of the bar's heavy wooden door being pushed open.

The originally noisy and lively bar suddenly became silent, extremely quiet.

Lu Mian followed this eerie atmosphere, turned his body, and cast his gaze toward the door.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 637 =====