It was not just Lex who was awestruck by the massive beast, nay, dragon that had appeared in a vast, open area of the Inn. Longtime guests, and especially all the workers, had become accustomed to the unannounced expansions the Inn occasionally went through. They would all come outside and admire the buildings appearing out of thin air, and the Inn spontaneously becoming bigger. It was a good reminder of the power wielded by the mysterious Innkeeper.
But the number of guests who were seeing this for the first time outnumbered those who knew what was happening. Even after they were assured this was a normal occurrence, they were curious. They had heard about the Innkeeper, but it had been months since he was gone, and since the number of guests coming had only increased recently, most had never met him, or even actually know about him. After all, how frequently would one bump into the owner of any establishment?
So when these first timers were basking in the changes, and a massive, deadly looking dragon appeared surrounded by what looked like an army, many of them instantly froze. An air of tension and uncertainty filled the air. They were unsure if they should be screaming or running, or if this was just another occurrence at the Inn.
But the tension lasted only a moment, for Mary announced the identity of the new arrivals, and everyone disbursed. While they were only temporary guards, they were guards nonetheless and so all came under Gerards command. For all other than the Immortals and the dragon, he started passing out instructions and began explaining their plans for security during the event. While it may seem that a few thousand guards were too few to manage millions of people, when considering the average person in the universe, a golden core cultivator was already much stronger than them.
But, even if they weren't enough, Immortals were absolutely rare. Under normal circumstances, a leisure-based event such as this would not usually attract the attention of anyone at that level. The only reason, in fact, that the Midnight Games managed to attract so many high-level cultivators was because it directly interfered with the interests of various powerful entities. Even then, it was the silent deterrence of the Celestial, Lex's bodyguard at the time, that managed to dissuade the devils from causing problems. Otherwise, there was no telling what kind of mess they would have caused.
Lex finally finished admiring the dragon, and then turned his attention to his current remaining MP of 1,050,000. He had to stop spending now to handle any emergencies that rose up, but the income from the event should start pouring in soon.
Just to be sure, however, he instructed Mary to, in passing, show the dragon the Dragonburn Locket. It was an item he had gotten from the Emporium back on X-142 and had priced it at 10,000,000 MP. It could help dragons gain a deeper understanding of the intricacies of breathing fire.
Lex did not have a complete understanding of Dragons and how valuable their fire breathing powers were, so he originally felt like a price of 10 million was very hefty. Now though, when he considered how vast the universe really was, and the fact that he could earn millions from a single planet, if, by chance, dragons were really as esteemed as myths on Earth, that price may be too low.
After deliberating a bit, he altered the price to 50 million. If it was too high a price, he would change it eventually, and if it was too low a price, he would treat it as a learning experience. Either way, he was done for now.
Over the next five days, Lex kept a close eye on the Inn while he went about his daily routine. The number of guests coming in had jumped drastically, and about 400,000 guests had already come into the Inn.
All the permanent rooms were eventually booked out, and the temporary rooms that Lex had paid for that didn't really occupy any space started to take in the rest of the guests.
Even if each guest only took a normal room, which most did not, with the price being 50 MP a night, and there being 400,000 guests, Lex would have been earning 20 million MP a night. The actual figure currently was around 31 million MP last night, just from rooms! And this figure was rising each day, for more and more guests started to arrive. The total MP he accumulated in these five days, with rental and food and services all included was 145,000,000 MP! Well, actually it was a bit more than that, but for the sanity of the OCD prone, he quickly spent the extra MP rounding it off to a nice number.
The official event hadn't even started yet and Lex was practically drowning in MP! The absolute ecstasy of his wealth was only matched by the overwhelming effort it took to manage such a crowd!
He had to take more days off from training as well as classes, causing Cwenhild to become slightly concerned, but Lex assured her that everything was under control.
In fact, everything was not under control! From Main street to the manor, to the lake and the lazy river, to Midnight Mountain, there was a massive crowd of people.
In the end, Lex had to do something drastic since he didn't want to destroy the careful atmosphere he had been nurturing in the Inn! Spending a no longer significant 30,000,000 MP, he added 3000 acres of land to the Inn.
Up until now, whenever he expanded the Inn, he ensured to maintain a round shape for the Inn. The latest expansion, however, was not balanced, and instead stretched the Inn behind Midnight Mountain, letting the lone mountain stand as a sort of border between the two sides of the Inn.
In the new area, he decided to create a party village. That was a bad name, he hadn't decided what to officially call it yet, but the concept was that this was the part of the Inn where all future large events would take place from now on. This way, the main area could remain relatively uncrowded for those guests who just wanted to visit the Inn. For those that wanted a more happening scene, the village was the destination.
Since he currently had an abundance of MP, he decided to make permanent additions instead of temporary ones to design the village. Furthermore, he really let his creativity flow this time around.
Starting out with a few big attractions, in the center of the village was a very traditional-looking colosseum that could easily seat 1 million guests - nothing too extravagant. Then, just for good measure, he added a massive, floating orb of water above the colosseum, inspired by something he saw in a game called Final Fanta X. What was the purpose of a giant ball of water, how could it be used, what would people think? These were all questions he decided to let his guests answer themselves. Of course, the orb was high enough that it would not obstruct any activities happening in the colosseum grounds themselves.
Next, he created a 1000 story pagoda in another corner of the village. Its purpose? To be determined. Next, for good measure, he built 50, 100 story highrises filled with rentable rooms, all interconnected with bridges built on different levels in a corner of the village. Of course, he was no architect, so making the bridges look nice was somewhat of a challenge, so he decided to turn all the bridges into parks as well, with grass and bushes and trees, connecting each of the buildings.
In another corner of the village, he added a small, crystal clear lake. It wasn't too big, only 20 acres large and built a few hundred houses, added pathways, replaced what could have been parks with coral reefs, and of course, did not forget to designate a portion as an underwater combat arena.
Over another portion of the village that he populated with various kinds of large auditoriums, music halls, palaces, and the likes, was the aerial part of the village. 100 buildings ranging from small to medium, floating at a certain point in the air, all connected thin walkways.
Clouds floated through the city, and many birds visited this unique paradise that one could reach either by flying, or taking one of the many elevator platforms. Hot air balloons surrounded the floating village, adding bright colors to the otherwise mostly silver site.
Of course, Lex also had to take care of transport between the village and the main portion of the Inn.
Several trails existed for those who wanted to walk, going around, and some even over the mountain. For those that did not want to walk, he provided many options that could be taken from a few terminals he placed around the Inn. There was naturally the option for horse, rhino, and golf cart riding. A lazy river was also an option, this time with the option of gondolas as well as the floating plastic doughnuts.
But it was when Lex was designing a train route when he was struck by another brilliant idea - if he did say so himself.
Lex looked at how much MP he had spent. Due to the size of his many massive structures, the cost ended up being a lot more than anticipated. For example, just a single one of the 100 story highrises cost him 450,000 MP each. Adding 50 of them then cost him 22.5 million MP.
The colosseum, the city in the sky and the underwater city, as well as all the additional buildings in between them, cost him another 31 million MP. Obviously maintaining all these buildings would require sufficient staff as well.
Although the Inn automatically took care of maintenance and various other services, minimizing the need for actual workers, it was only minimized and not reduced. He hired 3000 more workers solely for the village, with the full expectation that he would need to hire more soon. Hiring them plus putting away their salaries for the next few months cost Lex another 11.7 million MP.
While he allowed Mary to decide their jobs and the division of labor for most of them, he gave her instructions to select 100 of them for a special designation. In his system he had a panel called employee benefits which he had so far only used to distribute pay, give them homes and pass out basic cultivation techniques. Now, however, it was time to make further use of the panel.
He went into specializations and selected architecture, civil engineering and city planning and designated those 100 workers with these specializations. They wouldn't become overnight specialists in these fields, but would be provided relevant knowledge about them. The same way they had to cultivate on their own, the workers would have to study the new material.
Once they were sufficiently educated in the fields, he would have them work on expansion plans for the village and, if he was satisfied, then on Main street and the rest of the Inn. After all, currently, while the village seemed fine, it lacked a sense of cohesion. The large structures in various corners all had drastically different styles, and the city looked more like a hotpot of different designs than a unified whole.
He planned on having these workers, who were now a part of the planning and expansion division of the Inn, gain experience with the village, which had more allowance for errors. After all, the whole purpose of the village was to host large events, so the focus could be slightly diverted towards function over finesse.
With that done, though, he turned his attention back to transport. This was yet another thing that would be under the purview of the planning department, but he created several terminals for an underground subway system. The 'trains' created by the system were completely silent and levitated off the ground, so they caused no vibrations. This way, guests could be quickly transported throughout the Inn without hassle. Naturally this did not mean he discontinued the golf cart service led by Gerards former crew. They had developed some fans of their own.
Unexpectedly, the underground train system was more expensive than he expected, and cost 15 million MP. This, however, still left him with 35,850,000 MP to spend on his idea.
He remembered, when he was a child, and would travel with his family, they would often take trains to travel overnight. For some reason, the allure of spending the night on a train was beyond comparison when he was a child.
Since it was something he used to enjoy, there was no reason others wouldn't enjoy it as well. He spent the next few hours fiddling with the system interface, trying to get his idea just right. Once he was done with that, he spent several more hours planning a train route.
The route had to be close enough so that those onboard could see the various sites and sceneries the Inn offered. This train's only terminal was in a street branching off from Main street, and its path would begin with a visit around the lake. It would then loop around to the forest surrounding the greenhouse, and would make its way through the grassy slopes to come into view of the Midnight manor. From there it would go towards the hill with the Meditation rooms, visit the mystery trial, go through a tunnel in the Midnight Mountain and then visit the various sites in the village, including the underwater and floating portions of the city since it wasn't actually a steam train, before looping around and ending back at the terminal.
This 'train', which bore the appearance of a steam train, would move much slower on its track, allowing its passengers to enjoy the scenery passing them by. But, the purpose of this train was not transport. No, this train was full of rooms that could be booked. Unfortunately, due to needing to meet the standards of the Inn, there could only be a very limited number of rooms. The train had nine cabins behind the engine, and eight of those cabins could only be rented as a whole.
Each cabin contained a small, cozy room, a relatively large sitting area furnished with the finest carpets, sofas and tables, with a view on either side, and a bathroom. Naturally, anyone who rented a cabin could share it and bring multiple guests along, but ultimately each cabin would belong to one person or party.
The ninth cabin was the kitchen and, through clever use of teleportation that Lex's increased authority allowed him to enable, a waiter could go directly from the kitchen to any cabin that ordered food.
This particular project cost Lex another 2 million MP, and he decided to set the rent for each cabin at 1000 MP a night.
Now, there were a few other things that needed his attention.
*****
Even today, a month later, Hailey found everything surreal. Even as she listened to the explanation for the different portions of the pageant, how each portion would be judged, and how she should prepare, she felt like she was in a dream.
She was but a simple farmer girl, who would spend her days working the land, and her nights dreaming while still awake. She longed for a different life, imagined herself changing overnight and seizing the day, living fabulously without any regrets. But her longings were supposed to remain as longings, her dreams remain as dreams. Whether it was a lack of courage, or an addiction to the pain of a substandard life, something was stopping her either way.
But, in the mundane routine that was her life, an accident had flipped everything over. After all, it had to be an accident. Someone like her couldn't be destined for such things. But whatever it was, her life had changed with that one flash of gold that night.
As she explored the Inn, on that day she had stumbled into this fairy tale - too afraid that she would wake up the next second - she ran into a rather... handsome man named Harry. One look at her, in her dusty old clothes, tangled hair, untidy wings and eyes full of wonder, was all it took for him to see something she herself had never seen.
He asked her to let him do a makeover, and when she told him she couldn't afford his prices, for she truly could not, he said he'd do it for free. Hailey was a proud woman, simple though she may be, and would have normally never accepted such charity. But whether it was the magic in the air, or the excited look in his eyes when he saw her, something forced her to accept his offer - the second accident that day.
That man - Hailey blushed, the color running down to her neck as she thought of him - was a maestro. When he wielded his scissors and his comb, his expression changed. His eyes were sharp and his hands fast, yet Hailey felt not a single tug of her hair as he worked on her - only a tenderness that nearly caused her to shiver. It wasn't as if Hailey was unaware of the ways of the world, nor was she a prude, but somehow she lost all her words that day.
It was not just her hair that he worked on, no, he also groomed her wings. When folded, they fit nicely behind her back, barely visible, but when extended, they stretched even beyond the length of her arms.
Her wings, as dark as her hair, had never been groomed, for they would just get dirty and messed up again the next day at the farm. But as he untangled her curls and brushed their length, she felt like ropes that had been tying her down had been cut.
Many hours later, when she stepped out of his store, her sun-kissed skin practically glowed under the light of the sky lanterns and her long, flowing hair hiding her wings perfectly. When she looked in the mirror, she saw a stranger looking back at her. The stranger was too neat, too clean, too perfect. It was not like how real people looked, at least in her experience.
But, instead of the mirror, when she looked at Harry with his crooked smile and dazed eyes, she got a feeling, deep in her heart, that she must have looked beautiful.
Gathering herself, Hailey thanked Harry for the makeover, and they started talking. She explained that she had been summoned to the Inn for the pageant but, after the initial overwhelming rush of emotions, she was having serious doubts about entering. It wasn't like she was unaware of what a pageant was - just because she was a farm-girl did not mean she was uneducated or uncultured. Instead, she felt like she would only end up making a fool of herself by competing.
Harry, the stranger she had just met today, listened quietly to her story as she expressed her doubts, and in the end, only said one thing. He said that if she felt reluctant, or pressured by it, then she did not need to force herself, after all, the Inn would not force her to enter just because she had come here - but that he felt it would be a pity if she didn't.
After that they parted ways, for Harry had his own tasks he needed to take care of, but more importantly, she had been gone quite a while and was probably already late for her duties at the farm.
But she could not leave. Her mind kept wondering about the things that had been left unsaid. Why would it be a pity if she didn't participate? Was it because he thought she had a shot at winning, or did he just want to see her more? But, a bigger question also burdened her mind.
What did it mean for her if she entered the pageant? Would her life change? Or would she just end up back at the farm after a fleeting moment of freedom? A hundred different thoughts were running through her mind, so that she did not notice a few kids in her path, and bumped into them.
Just as she was about to apologize, the kids looked up at her in wonder and exclaimed, "a fairy!"
Perhaps he meant that Hailey looked like a beautiful and enchanting woman, straight out of a storybook when he called her that. She, instead, heard something different. On her planet, and often in most other places in the universe, Fairies were one of the most oppressed species. Their high affinity for spiritual abilities and innate abilities, paired with the general weakness of their species, made them perfect targets to be taken advantage of. Of course, in X-142 they were not treated like slave but… whatever the case, she did not want to live the life of a fairy!
With her decision made, she registered for the pageant, and now, nearly a month later, she had let the other farmhands know she was taking an extended leave and had come to the Inn.
Two days later, the pageant would begin, and it would be broadcast to many worlds. They were already being briefed on the many divisions of the pageant, and what to do when their turn comes. Though, the first thing they were advised, and very strongly at that, was they should not reveal their names and the planets they were from - for their own safety. Should any opportunities for a career as a celebrity or anything else really present itself, then they would contact the Lady Cosmos organization in the Inn first, and the organization would then contact the participants.
With that, not at all scary advice out of the way, Hailey began practicing. In two days, when the event began, the first portion would be talent. According to the cultivation level, each contestant would be placed in a different group and judged on different parameters. This was so everyone was judged fairly, and no one used their cultivation as an advantage.
*****
Over the last two days, as more and more people came to the Inn, Lex was entirely focused on managing the crowd and ensuring there were no problems. Once the event actually began, he would become relatively freer since he was not the one overseeing the event.
In these past two days, he earned another 63 million MP, bringing his total to 96,850,000 MP. The MP came just in time, for now he had to finish setting up the actual event. Spending 68 million MP and 0.3% of his remaining 1.5% energy accumulation, he established the broadcasting for the event. Any planet, moon, asteroid, spaceship or anything else from which a participant came would end up receiving a broadcast of the show.
The place of origin was advanced enough to have some form of television or streaming service, the system would integrate the broadcast into it. Otherwise, a massive projection in the sky would appear anywhere with a large enough group of living beings.
Another 5 million MP went into establishing a sentiment analysis feature, which would judge how the audience reacted to different participants, which would end up being one of three categories in which they would be judged.
Finally, he came to the part that personally interested him the most - his income! The Inn itself would not put any advertisements during its broadcast, but if any local entities tried to put in ads between the show, then 95% of their profits would be transferred to the Inn automatically!
Then, naturally, there was the numerous merchandise for the Lady Cosmos show. The apparel was no longer limited to just Tshirts, but also included suits, dresses, gowns, saris, kimonos, and hundreds of other traditional dresses from each planet participating in the show. Then, as per usual, there was the betting pool. Finally, he would also implement an idea Mary gave him.
According to her, a majority of the participants were financially struggling. So they decided to implement a very common feature of many platforms on Earth, wherein the audience could support the participants they liked by sending them gifts. The Inn would take 1% of the value for each gift as revenue for Lady Cosmos, but the rest would be given to the participants themselves.
Setting up all this cost him another 10 million MP, leaving him 13,850,000 MP. That was more than enough to deal with any emergency that popped up.
One day later, the event finally kicked off. In the end, the number of participants who actually showed up for the event was only 1.5 million, a lot lower than the number who registered, but no one was complaining.
With a majority of all issues handled, Lex breathed a sigh of relief, and turned his attention back to the Crystal realm. They would begin their excursion to the Minor realm in less than 2 weeks. He had to be ready.
*****
Earth, Unnamed Island in the middle of the ocean
Emperor Silius, First of his name, Savior of the luggage, Fisherman Supreme, Builder of bonfires and makeshift barbeques, stared in a daze at the broken tv screen that was still embedded into the airplane seat. It had been… he had no idea how long it had been since the commercial plane he was on crash landed on this island.
Almost everyone on the plane survived, but after what seemed like thousands of years and no rescue, nothing to do and barely surviving by foraging what little they could, most had lost hope and some, unlike Emperor Silius, had lost their minds. Of course, the patchy beard on his face indicated barely a month had passed, but who cared about these technicalities?
But the supremely important thoughts in which he was lost were interrupted by a sound too alien to this island: music. Alarmed, he looked up and saw that the tv screen latched into the seat in front of him had turned on, despite the prominent lack of electricity and any kind of signals, and was playing some kind of introduction.
Confounded, he looked around and saw that all the tv screens had turned on, and he wasn't the only one who had noticed. All the passengers who had been resting in the shade of the plane were alarmed. Was this a case of mass hysteria?
"Lady Cosmos!" screamed the Diva Queen in excitement, a ruthless and ferocious adversary who had kept Emperor Silius on his toes.
But, since this strange magic seemed to be the domain of this Queen, the various Lords and Ladies turned to her for guidance. But she was too engrossed in the show to pay attention.
*****
Planet SSY-534, Plains of Carnage
Four separate armies clashed together in an epic free for all. There was no indication of what these beasts and aliens fought for, or where their allegiance lay, for none wore armor or identifying tags, but the soldiers themselves seemed to know their enemies.
Like rain, blood fell to the ground, like thunder, bodies clashed in the skies, like the wind, carnage washed over all.
This was a planet owned by no one, but housed the largest black market in the nearest thousand star systems. Anyone from pirates, merchants, contractors, artists and even actual lords and ladies visited this planet for some reason or another. On an unowned planet, where the rules and regulations of the wild were rampant, such a brutal war was not an uncommon sight.
What was uncommon, however, was a massive projection appearing randomly in the sky above said armies, with the most unusual music playing. The soldiers did not stop fighting, but the commanders of the armies looked up in confusion. Was this some new tactic? Since when had their enemies become so devious?
Each of the commanders for the four armies looked warily at one another, while also keeping an eye on the projection in the sky. Their senses were deployed to the maximum, and as soon as something unusual happened they would be able to respond to it. But, once the introductory song ended, instead of a conniving plan of some kind, a fabulously dressed woman appeared in the projection. It was Audrey.
"Welcome one and all, to the first ever, Interstellar Lady Cosmos pageant," rang her voice across the plains. Oddly enough, the one army that consisted of a race that had no ears felt her meaning communicated to them through the extrasensory form of communication they normally used.
Audrey began explaining a little about the pageant, since most viewers were probably not familiar with the concept, but the commanders were simply bewildered. Try as they might, they could not find the source of the projection.
The battle on the ground continued, and while the soldiers were slightly distracted by Audrey talking, they managed to continue the fight. Until, that is, over Audreys monologue they started a slideshow of glimpses of some of the contestants, dressed up in breathtaking attire.
"Martha!" All four of the commanders yelled at the same time, recognizing an image of a half fairy, half human celebrity.
She started out as a pirate, until one of the spaceships she was robbing belonged to an interstellar marketing agency, where one of the recruiters risked his life to get her to sign for one of clients as a model. From there her charm and natural charisma launched her career, and she became a celebrity in many star systems.
The commanders, realizing they momentarily lost composure quickly gathered themselves, until they also realized that the others had done the same.
"Why did you say Martha?" one of them asked hesitantly.
"Martha is my idol!" declared one of the aliens, a humanoid, four armed being with six thin eye slits on its face.
"My daughter is obsessed with her," said another alien.
The fourth, instead of saying anything, showed a tattoo of the name Martha over his heart.
Just as the four commanders were suddenly considering what to do next, Audrey up on the screen said, "follow us on our journey as we showcase and celebrate the best that our contestants have to offer, to compete for the final glory of being titled the first ever, Interstellar Lady Cosmos."
"I'll spare your life today," said one alien, before immediately ordering a retreat back to the nearest city. Another two shouted some random excuse while the third one didn't even bother, and immediately ordered his soldiers to return to base and start a feast. He liked to eat something while he watched stuff.
*****
The show finally started. Lex watched for a few minutes, and also observed his Inn. Currently, other than the contestants themselves, there were only 1 million observers. The early, relatively empty village now seemed somewhat full. Every park, every restaurant, every rooftop had small gatherings and, Lex noticed, that a majority of his guests were some subspecies of humans.
That was probably because most of his exposure so far had been with humans. Or were humans just that common in the universe? Time would tell.
Naturally to take care of 1 million guests, and probably more incoming, was not something a few thousand staff members could handle. But Lex was not ready to hire hundreds of thousands of permanent workers just yet. Fortunately, the event management panel gave him the option of temporary workers.
For the price of 8 million MP, he hired 300,000 temporary workers, all of them at the peak of the Body tempering realm. They came highly trained, and seemed to be easily handling the pressure so far.
He sighed, and then stopped paying attention to the festivities. He really didn't have the time. He had mastered quite a few arrays in the past month, but his deployment time was still low. He would focus on that for now.
As for the Lady Cosmos pageant? With the number of participants they had, even if they aired 24 hours a day, everyday, it would take quite a while for the preliminary round to end. pletely different criteria for beauty could not help but be attracted to her performance.
But, as moving as her performance was, it was one out of over a million. When the participant disappeared from the Inn after her single performance, almost no one seemed to notice. Almost because Anita, who had a detailed record of everything that happened during the Midnight Games was also currently recording everything happening at the pageant, immediately picked up on the detail, as well as the pattern of disappearance.
It was also at this point that someone tried to harass one of the participants who was waiting her turn.
A slim and greasy fellow tried to slip his hand over the small of the contestants back and pull her close.
The girl yelped and moved away, for she had not been expecting to suddenly be grabbed.
"Oh come on dear, I was only-" the man never got to finish his words.
The Delinquent Viper Vine burst from the ground and tightly wrapped itself around the man. The commotion attracted a lot of attention, and by the time people began to look, the man was being held upside down in the air, 100 feet (30 meters) in the air.
The man continued to hang in the air until the current participant showcasing her talent finished, at which point instead of the next contestant, the screen turned to a projection of the man.
The Dragon, which had up until now kept its distance from the crowds, flew up into the air, its wings spreading strong gusts of wind threatening to topple over anyone nearby.
"This is the first and only warning," the dragon said in a deeply terrifying, gruntled voice. "On orders of the Innkeeper, anyone who targets a guest of the Inn in anyway will be treated as an enemy of the Inn."
The appearance of a dragon on the show was nearly enough to shock anyone watching, but the fact that the dragon took orders from someone was about to rock several worlds. Lex had planned this little performance early on, anticipating someone trying to take advantage of the numerous girls. His aim had been to dissuade any trouble makers. While he did achieve that, what he did not expect was that the viewership of the show was about to explode, along with the popularity of the Inn!
"I… was… only… try…" the man tried to speak with a trembling voice, but before he could finish, he disappeared. He had been kicked out of the Inn, but none of the viewers knew that. Instead of horrified, they were enamored! Strong, decisive, cruel. These were the things people loved. Well, at least the people on the planets the pirates had spread the Inns keys to. At the same time, many people who were hiding from various threats or enemies suddenly gained a new destination to run towards.
With such a dramatic start, the Lady Cosmos show was kicked off. Ragnar too was shown a recording of the scene where the dragon made an appearance, and suddenly raised an eyebrow. First a Celestial, and now a dragon? The Innkeeper really knew how to pick his guards.
He was tempted to go see the dragon firsthand, but now that he was on his way to a battlefield, his every move was likely being monitored. He did not want it to seem like he paid too much attention to the Inn, so he dismissed the video,
Back at the Inn, Xeon, the Drake refiner who was vacationing at the Inn had just come out of his room after a several weeks long nap, and was dumbstruck. A… a… a real dragon? And it seemed to be… working for the Inn!
Suddenly, he ran at his fastest speed to search for Gerard, the only person he really knew at the Inn. He had to get a job at the Inn! HE ABSOLUTELY HAD TO!
"Bearin, cover me," yelled a woman who leaped into the air and fell behind her cohorts, her focus already on another task she was completing. As it happened, she landed furthest back at the group, directly behind Jovi, the synergist, and Lex, the all around survival expert of the group.
The group was locked in combat, fighting against a pack of Raila's. Raila's were actually parasites that often took over hosts' bodies and used them to fight, most commonly affecting slimes. In exchange for completely destroying the body in a short time, they would be able to exert power countless times more than the actual strength of the original body's owner.
The pack they were facing had, as usual, taken over slimes, but that did not mean that they were weak. On the contrary, every drop of a slime's body was energy rich, making the Raila's particularly formidable.
Bearin, one of the main combatants of the group, moved to intercept the Raila's attack, but missed it by mere centimeters. He could not be blamed, for the orange beam moved at inhuman speeds and with devastating strength. The target of the attack remained Sohee, the girl who had yelled, but since she had fallen back, and the attack seemed to have adjusted to follow her direction, it lined up perfectly to hit Lex instead.
Too quick to block, or even yell out a warning, the group could only watch as the beam struck Lex. It wasn't like Lex was a weakling, or that he couldn't fight, but that his role in the group was as a safety and survival advisor, and had proved himself capable in that regard. As for fighting… it was generally understood that combatants were better trained and stronger than noncombatants, so in a situation where Lex suffered a surprise attack, they expected him to be gravely injured.
When the group recovered from the bright flash of light and looked towards Lex to investigate the degree of Lex's injury, they were surprised to find him unharmed. He remained standing in the same spot, a rather bored look on his face and not a single ruffle on his clothes, with his left hand extended out and his palm stretched out, as if to block the attack with his bare hands.
In truth, he had employed the technique Talk to the Hand, but since the barrier erected was invisible, no one noticed. It truly did seem like he blocked the attack with his bare head.
"Don't get distracted, keep blocking," Lex said, breaking the group from their reverie. His tone was instructive, as if he was still continuing his job as a safety advisor.
Too busy to feel embarrassed, the group continued to defend, while Lex continued to stand there, putting his hands in his pockets as he observed the fight. Cwenhild had already informed him that he was not expected to fight, and each member of this group was as elite as they got, which is why he did not really feel bad about not helping out.
A short while later, Sohee, the girl taking cover behind Lex, finally finished her task. Her hair turned purple and her pupils took on a lilac hue. She took in a deep breath and, after looking towards the main group of Raila's, shrieked. As if the sound of her scream had become visible, purple zigzagging streaks ran through the air, doing no harm to her allies but directly crushing the parasites inside the slime bodies.
A few still survived, but having lost their numerical advantage, they were quickly crushed. As soon as the fight finished, the group gathered around Cwenhild, who had been silently observing the fight from the side.
By now, Lex had learnt a number of things about her. First of all, she was not at all as amicable as she usually was with him. No, she was extremely decisive and firm, and took great pleasure in bending others to her will. That did not, however, mean that she was arrogant or incompetent. In fact, she was quite capable, which is where the issue actually originated from. She assumed, rightfully most of the time, that others could not match up to the standards she held for herself, and so gave little to no importance to their opinions. After all, their perspectives on any issue would end up being vastly different. Most would look up to something as an achievement to something she would consider a failure.
Secondly, he had finally heard about her dropping her name, as well as the statement she gave when doing it. It was quite unfortunate but Lex could now determine that she did not at all believe his story about not being a child of the Kings, and instead felt that both of them were in the same boat. He also learnt about why their party was only 12 people instead of more.
Yes, this party was made up of the elite of the elite, but even if Cwenhild was limited to only foundation realm cultivators, there was no need to stop at 12. The reason was since she publicly dropped her name, certain people had started targeting her as a form of punishment for her arrogance. No one would have the gall to actually harm her, since the presence or absence of a name did not change her lineage, but many could not swallow the insult to the King her actions had wrought.
Fortunately, no one knew her actions were prompted by his hypothetical advice or he would have attracted a whole host of trouble for himself as well. The members of her party, or at least the two that were targeting him, did have some suspicions about him though. They assumed that Lex was trying to win her heart, which is why they wanted to remove him.
Initially, Lex was ready to retaliate lethally if her two followers dared try anything over the line. Now, however, he could not see them as any more than little kids fighting over a crush.
"Good job on the block, Lex. After this group session, I'll have to have your defenses tested. If they're adequate, you can serve the perfect role as Sohee's defender while she readies her spells."
Sohee, the girl who yelled, was a witch, meaning she had a special profession that made use of spiritual energy and soul energy combined. Indeed, she was a dual cultivator. In fact, everyone in Cwenhild's party other than Lex was a dual cultivator, hence their status as the elite.
"It was nothing. I always anticipate Bearin's incompetence," Lex replied casually. Bearin, one of the two guys who always tried to pick on Lex, glared at him, but he dared not say anything in front of Cwenhild. It was not just her temper that was scary, but her strength as well.
"Sohee, good job with your spell. Jovi, if you'd been faster with augmenting Bearin's speed he wouldn't have missed that block. The rest of you, good job, you've been performing excellently. Tomorrow we'll take a rest, and instead of practicing, I'll be providing all of you with your gear. Day after tomorrow, as you know, the Minor realms open. We'll be facing the real deal, and the fights won't be as tame as the ones we've been having."
A rare compliment invigorated many of the group members, but Lex had diverted his attention towards the Inn while Cwenild spoke. He was not paying attention to the pageant, or the many guests, but instead his attention was on Midnight Mountain.
Velma was sitting opposite to the dragon and… drinking tea? No, it was Boba tea. As long as he was paying attention, the dragon did no more than grunt, but Velma was not at all bothered by the dragon's dismissive attitude and kept regaling it with tales from different worlds.
As if that was not odd enough… Gerard was bringing with him, pulled by the strength of his upgraded golf cart, a thirty foot long tea cup up the mountain. Were they… about to offer the dragon tea? Where did they get the massive cup from? Oh, it was a standard cup for massive guests, Mary informed him.
Once the empty cup was in place, Velma put a ladder against the cup and climbed, all the while holding an ordinary sized tea kettle and continuing her story. When she reached the top, she tilted the kettle to pour, and a thin, unending stream of tea came out, filling the cup with unusual speed.
After he recovered from the shock of what was happening, he felt proud. Yes, this was the Inn. Why should his workers feel intimidated by dragons, or extend less courtesy?
Once the cup was filled, and Velma climbed down, the dragon finally opened an eye and looked at the little human girl.
She looked like a teenager, barely 16, but her eyes contained only an innocent curiosity, and were distinctly lacking fear.
After a moment, it extended one of its limbs, and picked up the cup. Lex could not help but notice the pinky equivalent of its claw extended as it took a sip. How fancy.