As if to challenge Severin’s stubborn inner voice, the familiar sight of a giant man draped in a similarly oversized pelt entered his eyes and possibly presented a solution to his problem. One that Severin immediately tried to deny.

“No way, don’t even think about it. I can’t just ask my customers. Besides, Samuel would never…”

“What would I never?”

Only barely did Severin manage to suppress an ugly expression from forming on his face as he complained to himself,

’How the fuck did I say that out loud? Must be that girl’s influence. Shit.’

Towards Samuel, however, he said, “It’s nothing, really. Just thinking out loud. Think nothing of it!” At the end, Severin almost pleaded; enough so that he achieved the opposite effect of what he had intended. Now Samuel was even more interested in the matter.

“Humor me.” The [Berserker] said.

Severin debated with himself whether to tell the truth or not, but ultimately came to the conclusion that he should. Not only because of Samuel’s intimidating presence and the feeling that this man could easily spot any lie, but also because of the slightly bad conscience towards himself.

‘It’s not like I’d have to go into too much detail.’

“It’s just that I was thinking about visiting Malcos. Hanvia, to be precise.”

“Oh? Looking to expand your business?”

“Something like that.”

Samuel raised his eyebrow but didn’t inquire any further after hearing Severin’s evasive answer. Instead, he pointed out, “And you don’t know the way.”

Severin was taken aback but soon understood that in Samuel’s mind there was no way he didn’t possess his own flying artifact. Realizing this misunderstanding might make things even more difficult for him in the future, Severin could only nod in confirmation with a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Don’t worry. As long as you keep flying high enough and keep heading in that direction,” Samuel vaguely pointed in the direction that correlated to the south-southeast on Severin’s minimap, “it’s pretty much impossible to miss.”

Severin was about to say his thanks and make up some excuse why his excursion would have to wait for an indefinite time, but the old man seemed to be in a good mood and continued on.

“That being said, why don’t you just join us? Only if your schedule allows it, of course.

Some time ago those brats made me promise we’d visit the Hanvian Arena once they manage to rank-up. And now with the Society being up here and with those elixirs of yours…” Samuel didn’t have to finish the sentence for Severin to understand-Samuel expected the group to leave in the next couple of days.

Severin realized this would probably be the best opportunity he would get in a long time. Besides being able to lift a ride, staying close to the [Berserker] should also guarantee his safety. And not only that. Samuel was also a person that would be able to vouch for him-which was an even bigger boon. After all, Severin couldn’t just approach the palace or even just some random official while claiming to be an acquaintance of the [Prince], owning a magic shop and looking for preferential treatment regarding property prices.

In that case, he might as well take the initiative and directly jump down the oubliette on his own.

Severin didn’t think himself a superstitious person, but even he had to admit that the stars were simply too favorable to ignore this opportunity; no matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise.

After a moment of hesitation, he therefore accepted the invitation.

The two men then kept exchanging a few pleasantries, but Severin soon excused himself under the pretext of having to make preparations for the trip.

It wasn’t a complete lie, just that the kind of preparations were different from what one might usually expect.

Severin moved into his room where he could be undisturbed and opened the System’s integrated store. There, he quickly searched for the most basic portal option available, and imported it into the editor.

Even though he had already accepted the man’s invitation, which in return meant he had, at least for now, given up on his inn, Severin knew himself well enough to know that it would take just a single moment of weakness for him to change his mind once again. Therefore, to prevent this scenario of him sabotaging himself, Severin wanted to make the purchase as soon as possible. This way, even if he had a change of heart, he would already be committed.

Another reason to build this end of the magical pathway first was convenience.

He then would be able to return all the way back to his store in just an instant and whenever he wanted, without having to rely on anybody else.

Only the uncertainty regarding property prices and the possibly needed construction permits made him feel uncomfortable, as he knew that money would be tight once he went through with this plan. Then again, this kind of pressure could also be a motivator.

Either way, Severin knew he had to make the purchase as soon as possible and proceeded accordingly.

Inside the editor, Severin placed the stone platform with the strange-looking carvings near the edge of the mountaintop, in the direction Samuel had pointed towards just a couple of minutes ago.

Then, before confirming actually confirming the placement, he fixed the would-be portal’s orientation with the help of a translucent arrow only visible in the editing tool.

Having potential customers fall to their deaths right after exiting the portal, before they even had the chance to spend their hard-earned money, just didn’t seem right to Severin.

Only after confirming the exit direction, as well as the small pedestal with the convenient coin slot were facing in the right directions, did Severin go ahead with the purchase.

In an instant, his balance was almost cut into half.

It was a painful sight, but something else suddenly demanded his attention and distracted him.

A notification pop-up.

Not the already familiar one that told him that the construction-or rather the summoning-would only occur during the night, but one that congratulated him for the completion of a long overdue quest.

“What…? 50000 gold spent. Right. I guess there was something like that. Now let’s s...”

Severin tapped the notification, eager to reveal and accept the unknown quest reward.

[Unlocked: Small Deposit

Allows customers of the Emporium to deposit up to 10000 standardized gold coins.

Allows customers to preserve up to five unused activation charges a day for the [Alchemical Item Combinator] - for each charge, a fee of 100 gold coins is deducted from the customer’s deposit.

The activation cost using thus preserved charges is increased by 50%.]

Seeing these words floating in front of him, Severin didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.