In Severin’s mind, a bustling inn full of adventurers would be the closest he would likely ever be to experiencing the real thing; just without the part where he had to go out and had to risk life and limb.

He was far from willing to give up on the plan he had clung to so stubbornly all this time. Even if it was just a temporary suspension and not an outright revocation of his planned project, the thought didn’t sit well with him. And that was a big if, to begin with. Providing the ability for people to quickly travel between his mountain and any connected location might just make his efforts to provide accommodations redundant.

But no matter how stubborn or reluctant, if Severin was being honest with himself, the positives seemed to vastly outweigh the negatives. Especially if he looked at it from a business point of view.

The most obvious advantage would probably be the expansion of his currently still rather limited customer base. As long as the portal would lead to even just a medium-sized city, then as long as even just a tiny fraction of residing adventurers would find their way through that magical pathway, the number of customers was pretty much bound to skyrocket. After all, right now his shop was located in a rather inaccessible spot where people usually only found him by sheer luck, while also unwilling to share his whereabouts or even his existence with their competition.

The effect on his business, Severin estimated, could very well end up being more impactful than whatever support the Society might provide in the future.

Also, this way, a new constant stream of additional income would be introduced. Assuming that Severin would take a certain amount of admission fees; which, of course, wasn’t even debatable in Severin’s mind. And judging by the System’s description, this stream of income would be passive, meaning once a connection was established, no further investment or direct manpower would be required of him to keep the thing running.

In the current phase of the Emporium’s development, this was especially huge. Forget about Severin’s recent complaints and him whining about feeling bored; with only three pairs of hands available, which already included his own, wholly dedicating one person to a certain work area was a big commitment.

In fact, if he planned on growing his business even further, he should probably keep an eye out for someone that could fill that third [Employee] spot for more important and profitable tasks; rather sooner than later.

And then, of course, there was his relationship with Markus.

Under normal circumstances, finding a suitable spot to set up portal would probably be the most difficult part of the whole undertaking. Severin doubted the System would allow him to simply buy any piece of land he desired and just disregard the fact that it was located within a populated area. But judging by past conversations, Severin was sure he could count on the princeling’s help. If not financially, then at least logistically. After all, back then it was he who asked Severin to straight up relocate his store into their capital. A portal to bridge the distance between the two parties might very well be the next best thing. Maybe even better in some regards.

And all this was only regarding the very first portal he would establish.

The value and utility provided by any subsequent one would certainly raise exponentially.

At first, apart from some limited number of curious common folk, the main clientele would surely be adventurers who either had direct use for his products, or people with flying artifacts who could head further north and leave the floating mountain by air.

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Once the second portal would be established, however, surely all kinds of other, even ordinary classless people, would use his services as a means of travel. First and foremost, of course, merchants.

Thinking about the various deals he could cut with this group of people once he turned his mountain into a trading or a traffic hub, just for a moment all Severin could see were gold coins. Momentarily, he forgot all his complaints.

That being said, naturally, there were also disadvantages. Disadvantages that went beyond Severin’s silly ambitions of becoming an innkeeper just for the sake of it.

Like having to leave the safety of the mountaintop. Now, where he probably had the least number of customers, he would have ever again, was probably the time to go for it. That being said, Severin was still painfully aware of his low HP pool. It was something he had already debated previously and had even influenced his choice back when he had to choose his second subclass.

No matter how tempting it was to see the outside world, it was not something he looked forward to, either. Quite the opposite. After all, this was a world where the secondary effect of any random magic spell might instantly end his life.

Just the thought made Severin feel stressed. And so did the time pressure he felt.

Leaving his money to rot in the inventory without investing it was paramount to burning it; he would have to make a decision soon.

‘Let’s see if I even could afford it.’

Reluctantly, Severin begun making the math and inspected the options available to him.

‘Any of the prefabs with more than one connection are out of the question anyway, no matter the discount. That directly eliminates most of them.’ Severin paused for a moment and looked further. Soon, he dismissed the remaining alternatives as well.

‘Whoever-or whatever-came up with those deals seems to assume that multiple of those portals will be placed in somewhat close vicinity to each other.

Well, I certainly don’t.

If I should ever end up with multiple of those, I don’t just want people to come out of one of them and then directly disappear into the next. They better stop by at any one of my other money-earning businesses.

There will be no such thing as no overlay.

And I don’t think I need any of those fancy lobbies either. Maybe on the other side, the one located in Malcos or wherever, sure, but not up here. Not for that price. Not now.

I guess that leaves me with… yeah, just the portals themselves; plain and simple.

Doesn’t even cost extra based on the distance between the two established points…

Roughly three hundred and fifty thousand’ Severin had to admit the deal wasn’t too bad.

‘Around three hundred and seventy thousand for the two portals and some modest building at the endpoint that I’ll have to design myself. Leaves me with around thirty thousand for the property itself, and fees, and so on. Might be cutting it close, but maybe...

Well. No use even thinking about it. Not like I have any way of getting there anyway,’ Severin ended his train of thought with a convenient excuse.