The Innkeeper

Lex took a long, deep breath and held it in for a moment before he let out a sigh of relaxation. Other than that small brush with near death on his first day, his trip on X-142 had been as different from his trips to other worlds as possible. This was already his 8th day on the planet, and he was expecting the connection to form with the Inn any day now.

He had spent these days traveling and relaxing, and though he ran out of money very quickly, that only made traveling even more interesting. Of course, despite the casual activities, he did not let his guard down again during the entire trip. But when he was lying on a beach chair, being served some kind of fruit juice by a sassy fairy that used her powers to levitate the tray behind her where she went, it was hard not to enjoy the moment.

Often, he could not help but compare the fairy to Mary, since they were similar in size. At least, most of the time. Mary could change the size of her projection to whatever size she wanted, but mostly maintained her tiny stature.

“Hey Lex, we’re about to head out. You want to join?” asked a young man.

“Yeah, give me a moment. I’ll join you,” said Lex as he finally picked himself up. He was on a beach and while he normally wasn’t one for sunbathing, this beach was surrounded by a formation that helped in cultivating under direct sunlight. The aid of the formation, along with the ointment he took from the Infinity Emporium, boosted his cultivation speed considerably. He had managed to increase the total number of Qi strands in his body to 32. At 33 strands of Qi, he’d reach the limit of the 3rd level of Qi training, and at 34 he’d officially enter the fourth level. Each level consisted of absorbing 11 strands of Qi, and while growing within each level was easy, relatively speaking, going from one level to the next was always a challenge.

Of course, to onlookers, it merely looked like Lex rubbed himself in sunscreen and spent the day sleeping on the beach chair in his shorts.

He stretched for a bit after getting up, winked to the fairy that had been passing comments on his body all day, and left to convince Fenrir to get out of the water. The same way Lex had been lying on the beach nonstop, Fenrir had been swimming in the ocean, occasionally catching some fish while he was at it.

Getting him out was a greater challenge than Lex expected, and he only agreed when Lex promised to let him hunt something on land as well. It seemed like the pup was developing a knack of hunting.

Once they were ready, Lex joined Teena and Teema, two human twins who were touring the planet during their vacations from what Lex assumed was the equivalent of college. They were 19 years old, and though their cultivation was still in the Body Tempering phase, they were more inclined towards normal life, anyway. They did not have much talent for cultivation, and the little that they did cultivate was under parental pressure – mostly for the health benefits.

Their destination this time was an oasis in the only desert on the planet. They all sat in what looked like a massive jeep, and let the automated driving feature take them towards their destination.

The journey was about six hours long, and halfway through it Lex got the notification that the Inn had successfully been connected to X-142, and he could leave whenever he wanted. Lex smiled. This was his favorite venture to another planet so far!

Yet, when has life been simple and straightforward? On the way to the oasis, once they had already entered the desert, they encountered three vehicles stopped in the middle of nowhere. Smoke was coming out of the farthest one, rising high up into the clear sky like a beacon, and it seemed like the other two had stopped to help.

“Should we check if they need help?” Teena asked, looking at her brother.

“I guess it can’t really hurt,” Teema replied, shrugging, and input commands to slow down the vehicle.

Since he was just tagging along with them, Lex didn’t give any opinion on the matter. He was just waiting till he reached the Oasis, so he could get out of sight and teleport away without arousing any suspicion.

“Hey, is everyone alright?” Teema yelled once they had stopped nearby and jumped out into the sand. Teena was looking for a water bottle in case they needed it, and Lex was also getting ready to disembark and see if he could help, when Fenrir let out a low growl.

Lex was immediately alerted, as for the first time the pup took the initiative to communicate with him through his feelings, and he was communicating only one specific feeling that was slowly getting stronger: danger! Fenrir’s ability to sense others emotions was unimpaired by cultivation levels, as Lex had learnt, and was very accurate.

Lex quickly turned and noticed that the crowd that had gathered near the third vehicle were all dressed oddly. Lex had gotten a sense for how people dressed on X-142, and it was mostly very casual. These people, however, seemed to be fully equipped with some kind of tactical equipment.

Suddenly, Fenrir let out a yelp as he ducked low. His communication this time was even more clear: they were much stronger than Lex and Fenrir, and they had decided to kill all of them.

“Teena don’t get out of the car,” Lex whispered, his tone extremely grave, and without explaining he quickly jumped out and ran to Teema.

“Get in the car and run,” Lex told him quickly, before he raised his hand up in the air holding some kind of device.

“If anyone moves, I’ll fire the S.O.S beacon!” Lex yelled at the crowd.

“What’s going on?” Teema asked, still confused. He had lived his entire life on a planet unmarred by major conflict, and with little to no crime. The fact that others might want to harm him was not something he could even conceive.

Yet while Teema was confused, the crowds clearly understood what was happening. They didn’t know what it was that gave away their intentions, or maybe their identity, but they didn’t care. They all turned towards Lex, and eyed the device in his hand as if trying to judge if he was lying.

An S.O.S. beacon sent out an emergency distress signal to the nearest city or town, and alerted all emergency services. If Lex fired one off, within 15 minutes max, this place would be swarming with police and rescue forces.

“Teema, there’s something very wrong with these people, get in the damn car and drive!” Lex yelled this time, as he did not have the time to explain to the teenager. “Or do you want to be responsible for Teena’s death?”

That seemed to get the message across, and the teenager was suddenly afraid. But still, before he retreated, he stopped to ask, “what about you?”

“I’ll be fine, I have protective gear. You need to get out of here! Go!”

Although Teema did not understand what was happening, he turned around and ran. The people did not move to pursue Teema, and instead looked at Lex with amusement. In fact, their cavalier attitude told Lex that they didn’t even care about the S.O.S anymore. Whoever they were, and whatever they were doing, maybe they had contingency plans in case they got discovered.

“Hey kid, do you know who you’re messing with?” one of the men asked, as he slowly started walking towards Lex.

“Don’t move or I’ll fire the beacon!” Lex yelled, once again.

“Fire the beacon, see if I care,” the man said, not slowing down his pace at all.

By now, Teema and Teena had started their vehicle and were already leaving, but Lex noticed one of the people aiming some kind of weapon towards them.

“Aw to hell with it,” Lex said, suddenly losing his worried look, his expression turning into a casual smile.

He fired the device in his hand, which was not an S.O.S. beacon, but a regular flare from Earth. He did not know if anyone would see it, but it was no longer his concern.

Without any outward indication, Lex flawlessly entered the state of ‘flow’ and drew the Heavy Harley, firing a perfectly aimed shot towards the man aiming at the twins’ vehicle.

The man did not bother to dodge, as his cultivation was much higher than Lex, and could easily determine that this weapon could not hurt him, but was caught by surprise when the bullet hit his weapon instead of him, throwing off his aim.

“Interesting,” the first man, who was walking towards Lex said. “Are you, a 3rd level Qi training cultivator, playing games with us?”

“So what if I am? So what if I’m not? What can you do about it?” Lex replied, his casual voice making it perfectly clear that he was not afraid of the man. At the same time, he fired off a couple more shots, disrupting them from firing at the teenagers. They were quite a distance away by now, but Lex did not know the range of their weapons so maintained the interference.

“You’re protecting those kids, but aren’t you worried about yourself?”

“Not at all. I’m standing right here, what can you do to me?”

The man, as if aggravated, fired off a brown colored beam from his finger towards Lex, but before it got anywhere near him, a translucent blue energy shield appeared around him and blocked the attack effortlessly.

This was a protective treasure Lex bought from the Emporium, capable of even defending against Nascent level attacks, and the source of Lex’s confidence.

“Well well, so you have some protection. But can that protect you forever? Even if we can’t break it now, we’ve already seen what you look like. Aren’t you afraid we’ll track you down and kill you?”

“Hah!” Lex almost burst into laughter, but had to control himself. “Sure, if you can, then go ahead and track me down!”

Hoping the teenagers were far enough by now, Lex decided to stop tempting fate. He threw out all the explosives he had in his backpack at the man, activated the key he got from the Emporium, summoned all the things he bought, and teleported back to the Inn with all his things.

When the smoke from the various explosions cleared, the man was completely unharmed. In fact, even his clothes were not damaged by the explosions. His eyes, though, wore a grave look as they stared in the place Lex stood before he disappeared.

“Did you get a picture of the brat?” he asked one of his followers.

“Yes, but there seems to be some interference. This image is different from his actual appearance.”

The man pursed his lips in annoyance, then put the matter behind him.

“Implement plan C. Moving forward, assume our location and numbers have been revealed, but the Dimitri family still doesn’t know our objective, so we can take advantage of that.”

“What about the kids who got away?”

“Forget them, since our location has already been exposed, there’s no reason to chase them down.”

This group of people all seemed to be wearing the same kind of gear as the man who tried to assassinate Tetsuya, but since no one had seen them or the assassin, no one knew that there were dozens of enemies. The Dimitri family was still just hunting down that one terrorist, unaware of the danger that lurked hidden across the planet. After all, this was just one of the various groups that had infiltrated the planet.

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