Interlude

Omni left some instructions for Valentina to complete while it and Christoph went back to Krave's office. Krave was delighted to see the golem again, and even more when he learned about the Harmonzie ability and gladly offered several golem cores plundered from his associates upstairs. Just like tending a garden, Omni planted several cores into the ground in the basement, using energy to attach stone, dirt, and clay to the cores. The newly created golems rose from the ground like bamboo shoots, taking after Omni in appearance minus the cloak and only having two pairs of arms instead of three. Omni then inquired about ice-aspected magic tools, receiving a few for free. They were bulky, but that was no problem for the golems.

Bidding goodbye to the old demon again, the pair marched back towards the Quiet Respite with a quintet of new golems following them. This attracted attention from those curious and the guards, but nobody stopped them on their way back.

The group of seven quickly made their way back to the restaurant, replacing the 'Closed' sign with a 'Closed for Renovations' sign. Christoph asked the difference, and Omni stated it was to build interest; more than a few people followed the group back, merchants, guards, and thieves. It explained that it wouldn't be a long shot to net some regular customers with a 'grand re-opening,' despite not having even opened that often before. Then Omni went on a rant about marketing practices and supply and demand that went over the adventurer's head.

Daylight burned to dusk, and the city proceeded apace; Labyrinthine City, or Formeldr, was just as lively in the nighttime. A couple of nobles held parties in corners of the city, families went out to eat, adventurers returned from expeditions, and as dusk turned to night, the city gates were closed. Christoph and Valentina left to sleep in their home, leaving Omni full reign of the renovation. It didn't stop for even a second, with itself, the clay cleaning golem (Now refurbished to look like the quintet), and the quintet, the inside of the Quiet Respite was undergoing a metamorphosis.

The seven golems moved with grace and silence; the fast-moving shadows pouring from the windows attracted passersby who couldn't help but peek through. It almost seemed like a play of some sort, and Omni, who stood at the center of it all, felt a strange emotion spread through the web of energy created by Harmonize. The golem felt like singing but remained silent. This wasn't the time or place for that.

After four hours, the first floor was entirely different. After six hours, a wine cellar had been excavated, and after a total of eight hours had passed since the start, the clinic and rooms on the second floor had also changed. Nothing would look different as long as one didn't look through the windows or the gaps in the batwing doors. Inside, however, the wooden floor was replaced entirely with black granite pulled from the basement, and thanks to a pair of magic tools, maintained a cozy temperature that kept your feet warm if you weren't wearing boots or shoes.

The clinic's floor was replaced with white granite polished to a sheen, and a small magical tool was installed in the cupboard for keeping spoilable medicine. The rooms were rearranged to have two suites with heated floors and beds and four standard rooms without heating. The heating implements were salvaged from magical tools when Omni decided to shrink the kitchen. It prioritized efficiency when redesigning the interior. The eating area was more prominent now, while the kitchen left plenty of room for workers to navigate and cook. The pantry was expanded and kept at the proper temperature with several tools, some as a backup so the temperature wouldn't change when some needed to be replaced.

Omni was thankful the city was built on such a large patch of rock; it was easy to get stone from the ground without digging too deep. The wine cellar was entirely made of stone with a few extra layers so the heat from the floor above wouldn't seep down. All the fermenting ingredients were brought down, sorted out, and put into barrels lying around to ferment.

The time remaining until dawn was spent polishing and refining, engraving artwork here and there, and making its story more believable, using styles from Phycaster depicted in the books it had read.

The golems began to refurbish the tables, completing all except one in a matter of minutes. All seven of them stood around the remaining table, looking down at what was in the way, the sleeping dwarf Ghorm.

He had drunk too much once again and fallen asleep; Valentina said to leave him there, so Omni did, but it didn't expect him to sleep through the entire remodelling process, even if they were unusually quiet while doing it. Omni shrugged and had one of the other golems carry him to one of the heated suites and throw him on the bed before finishing the last table. All that was left to do was wait until Christoph and Valentina woke up and came back, so it went back down to the wine cellar and began fine-tuning the golems, leaving one golem on the first floor to keep guard which was switched out with the first fine-tuned golem.

Just shy of an hour later, Omni heard the telltale gasps of Christoph and Valentina as they walked through the door. It gave the quartet the command to continue excavating downwards, only to stop if they encountered Labyrinthine stone and went back to the first floor with the former cleaning golem.