The Innkeeper

The ruins that Lex and the group had encountered were not large. Though covered in plant growth and suffering from obvious signs of wear, some of the buildings had collapsed roofs or walls, even combining all of them there were less than 10 buildings. That meant this was too small to be a town or even a village, if those existed in the Crystle race culture. Lex assumed that this must have either been a travel outpost, a small research camp, maybe even the private property of someone rich, or something along those lines.

A small, adventurous part of him had been hoping that when he entered the building, through some mystical magic or miracle of the Crystal race, he would discover the interior untouched by time, and whatever event drove the race from here. That clearly wasn't the case.

However, when he entered the building, for the briefest of moments, Lex felt like he saw a figure standing inside. The figure disappeared so fast that under normal circumstances, Lex would have questioned if he even saw something at all. After all, it wasn't usual to catch something from the corner of your eye, but when you turn to look, it was something entirely different.

What made him so certain the figure really had existed, though, were the goosebumps on the back of his neck. In that absolute split second, he had felt extreme danger. There was a certainty with which his instincts told him that the figure could overcome his defenses easily, and pose a very real risk to his life.

But, for whatever reason, the figure had no intentions of confronting him. Lex squinted his eyes as he scanned the littered room. The floor was covered in dirt and rocks, alongside broken debris that might have once belonged to this building, but was no longer recognizable.

He remained standing in the doorway, observing the room, until Cwenhild finally joined him.

"What are you looking for?" she asked, having noticed him standing there for a while.

"There was someone here before us," Lex informed her. "Whoever it was, they disappeared as soon as I approached. I'm checking for traps, but I don't sense anything out of the ordinary."

"That's not possible, we're the first ones in this realm. There's still a few hours before others start entering."

"I don't know what to tell you, except that there was definitely someone here."

Cwenhild pursed her lips as she took in Lex's statement. A list of scenarios went through her head, including someone sneaking on to punish or even assassinate her for giving up her family name. But it did not seem likely.

"I'll check out the building. Maybe we'll be able to discover what the person wanted."

Cwenhild nodded, and slowly followed Lex. There was too little information to start speculating, and should not cause her to start suspecting anyone, but it was a fact that the group following her all consisted of people she was paying. They followed her for the prestige and the reward, but considering their qualifications and caliber, none of them were people without sufficient backgrounds.

Despite the ongoing war, the politics between the various forces in the human race did not disappear. It became a lot more subtle, and hardly would anyone push things too far, but she was well aware of the cult-like following her father enjoyed.

Lex and Cwenhild swept the entire building but found nothing of note. They could see that over the years, multiple animals and beasts had turned these buildings into their nests, which, in turn, spoke volumes about the strength of these buildings. But that was it.

By the time they exited, the rest of the group was also catching up, Ness panting and completely drenched in yellow blood, but otherwise fine.

"Good job, you guys. Ness, Bearin and Tim, you guys take a rest in this building. Cindy, harvest anything useful from the Bloody Jit. The rest, look through all the buildings and see if you find anything useful. Report back here once you're done. After a short rest and some lunch, we'll move out."

The group dispersed as they went about to perform their tasks. None of them needed the rest, but the three combatants had exerted themselves and it was best to keep them in peak condition than continuously push them. Furthermore, had Lex not encountered the mysterious person, perhaps Cwenhild would have chosen to quickly look through the ruins before moving on. Now though, she preferred to be more cautious.

Lex noticed that she didn't pass on information about the intruder, but chose not to say anything. The ruins, despite all the promise of the Crystal race, held nothing too special. In the Bloody Jits nest they discovered a small pond of green liquid that apparently had phenomenal value. Since they could not transport it, the entire group took turns drinking from the pond directly. If Cwenhild was able to take control of this Minor realm, they would be able to access it as much as they wanted. Until then, though, it was best not to burden themselves by carrying flasks or waterskins full of the stuff.

When Lex drank it he felt his entire body heat up for a few minutes before returning to normal. Apparently, this liquid was excellent for cleansing meridians and helped boost cultivation speed. But soon, Lex, as well as the entire group, realized that the situation with Lex was unusual. Everyone, Cwenhild included, turned red from the rising body temperature and soon steam seemed to come out of their bodies.

No one commented on it, but the implications of the anomaly were shocking. It was quite simple: Lex's meridians were pure to such a level that the liquid could not provide him with any boost. Everyone quietly contemplated Lex's background, while Cwenhild wondered even more what this 'half-brother' of hers had encountered.

Other than the liquid they encountered a few more precious resources that would have otherwise caused the group to squeal, but considering their expectations from the ruins, it was somewhat disappointing.

Eventually, the group continued their journey, on towards the next set of ruins. As they ventured back into the forest, a figure appeared on the top of one of the buildings and looked at the group. Specifically, the figure stared at Lex. But, for now, that was all the figure did.

The trek through the forest this time was much easier. They were not attacked at all, and all beasts kept their distance. The reason was fairly simple. Ness reeked of the blood of an apex predator, and there was no beast that was aggressive to the point of being suicidal.

One time the group even spotted an extremely rare and precious plant in the territory of a tiger like beast. When they decided to take a risk for the plant because of how genuinely precious it was, the tiger actually ran away!

Lex made a mental note: use the blood of a strong beast to ward off attacks.

For the simple fact that they were no longer obstructed, the group's travel speed picked up and they soon found the next set of ruins, still within the forest. These ruins were bigger, with hundreds of buildings easily, and were simultaneously in a worse condition.

"Are we going to search through these as well?" Lex asked as he looked down at the buildings that had somehow become a part of the forest now. He and the group were looking down from the tip of a particularly long tree that gave them a clear sight over the surrounding area.

He had nothing against looking through the ruins, but it would take too long, and he still wanted to go towards the energy source behind the mountains. He didn't know if it was his imagination, but he felt the blue light behind the mountains had dimmed slightly.

"Patrick, scan the ruins. Are there any concentrated or high energy signatures?" said Cwenhild, prompting the man to take out his trusted beacon. But, before he got to use it, the group spotted hundreds of flashes of light across the Minor realm, spread far apart. At the same time, a massive current was formed in the spiritual energy of the realm, indicating that the realm had formed a permanent open door somewhere leading out of it.

The group immediately picked up on what this meant and turned to look at Cwenhild to see if she changed her orders. She was considering it.

She had not shared this information, but to take over a realm, she would need to find a focal point for the Minor realm. The artificially created Minor realms did not move through space, the way they did in the origin realm, but instead had an entirely different set of rulers governing them. One of those rulers was about the focal point.

A seemingly easy guess would be that the focal point of this Minor realm should be in the energy dense area behind the mountains, but that was not necessarily true as the...

"We're being attacked," Lex said, interrupting her thoughts. Before she could ask about, or even realize, the origin of the attack, he held out his hand and erected his barrier, just in time to intercept an entirely black arrow.

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