As Katherine granted permission for the three kids to check the machine with the two, she headed over to the front desk by herself.
"I just want to ask a question. What happened to the normal hotel in Ironpeak?" Katherine asked.
"You mean Larry's hotel? It went bankrupt ten years ago."
"Oh..."
Just as Katherine was about to ask another question, the middle-aged woman said what she was thinking of.
"If you're looking for a place to stay, I recommend Alice's Inn. It's just down the road for about three minutes...
Also, I don't recommend going too far from Ironpeak with your kids. It's not a really safe place right now."
"Why?"
"You heard of the monster outbreak when you went in, right?"
Seeing Katherine nodding, the lady continued.
"There's some rumor that the monster outbreak might involve a dragon. At least, that's what some of my sources had said.
I could tell you're a level 6 mage, but that's nowhere near safe enough... Just avoid taking the Northern entrance."
"Thank you for the warning. I'll take it into consideration."
As Katherine took out a few coins, the middle-aged woman instantly snatched them and put them into her pocket.
"And one last thing, I recommend you guys don't stay here for longer than a month... Something bad might be happening to Ironpeak."
Katherine nodded in gratitude before she turned back around and headed towards the machine the five had surrounded themselves with.
"Mom, Mom, can we accept this mission? It's only level E rank!" Sophia pleaded as she pointed at the screen.
As she looked, she saw that it was just a request to gather some herbs nearby.
The only threat was just some wild boars in the same direction as where they literally came from, besides taking a split end.
After a short consideration, Katherine shook her head in the end.
"Remember, we're here to do dungeons, not some adventurous mission."
The three accepted Katherine's answer as they reluctantly followed her back to the outside.
"I always wanted to ask this. Kate, what's an adventurer?" Meiya curiously asked as they began walking down the road.
"It's wanderers who are part of the adventurer's guild... Do your guy's world don't have any kind of guild?"
"We have wanderers. But we don't have this kind of guild. At least not in this kind of scale."
As Meiya thought back to the adventurer guild they saw in the street with Luqing, she quickly noticed the sharp differences.
"Actually, does the guild have a headquarters of some sort? Or is it just scattered throughout this world?"
"They are headquarters in the capital... You two had probably seen it, right?"
Meiya and Luqing both nodded in agreement, but the three kids got a little curious.
"What does the adventurers guild in the capital look like?" Mary curiously asked.
"It's a lot fancier and bigger. That's pretty much it."
As they continued chatting down the street, they finally ran into a normal-sized building meant for humans.
"Alice Inn... This should be the right place."
The moment Katherine stepped foot into the building, he could already smell the alcohol coming from inside.
More importantly, he could finally rest his crotch, as it had been hurting slightly from the period.
"Time for a little nap!"
Closing his eyes, Alex didn't think much as he emptied his brain and started trying to fall asleep.
But just as he was about to fall asleep, someone suddenly knocked on his door again.
"Alex, can I come in?"
"Come in."
As the person entered the room, it was Sophia, who had already taken off her casual dress into her pajamas.
"You aren't going to change your clothes?" Sophia curiously asked as she sat down to the bedside.
Read new chapters at mvl
"I'm too lazy... What are you here for?" Alex grumpily asked as he still felt a little irritated about waking up.
"I just want to check on my little brother. You feeling better?"
"I'm fine. I'm just a little sleepy. Can you leave my room so I can sleep in peace?"
"Okay, okay."
As Sophia left the room and closed the door again, Alex closed his eyes again to prepare for his nap.
This time, the nap was successful. He soon lost consciousness until a voice started whispering inside his ear.
"Alex, wake up! It's time for lunch!"
Slowly, Alex got up from bed, feeling refreshed from his short little nap as Katherine was the one waking him up.
"It is lunch already?"
"Yep. You had slept for almost an hour now. Anyway, let's go."
As Alex got off the bed and put his shoes back on, Katherine was already standing in the doorway waiting for him.
"Hurry! I don't want to be the last one."
Katherine's sense of hurry confused Alex a little until he arrived downstairs.
There was food at four tables, with one clearly reserved for them based on the height of the table and chair.
The other four were already there, sitting in their seats as the young waitress began serving each of them a cup of tea.
"The food will be here in a minute——"
"Where is our food?" A dwarf complained as he interrupted her.
"Shut up, you only pay for a drink. Nobody is serving you food until you pay first."
Seeing the young waitress's attitude shift into seriousness, it seemed to have worked, as the dwarfs remained silent.
Until the food began to be served at Alex's table.
Various dishes were being put on the table, from a well-cut slice of fish to mashed potatoes.
Everything seemed perfect, and it only got better as they took a small bite of the food.
"It's so good!" Sophia commented as she chewed down a small piece of the salmon.
"Live fish that was just caught this morning on top of a five-star chef from the world's best competition.
You guys won't regret a single dime on the food you spent on... Don't worry, this is all covered."