un

"I would like to ask, how would you like to get paid?" Powell asked, smiling as if he was the one getting paid instead.

"Well why don't you tell me what options I have and then I'll consider it."

"Yes, of course. I'll start by explaining how the Emporium membership works. The most basic customers we cater to are non-members, but depending on how much money they spend, they can get membership for our establishment. But, the membership is not so simple, as it has levels.

"To grow from one level to the next, the first requirement is to spend a certain amount of money. However, clients of a certain stature automatically membership based on their cultivation. Body Tempering is equivalent to level 1, though they don't get automatic membership, Qi Training is level 2, Foundation is level 3, and so forth.

"To make it easier to understand, each level member has access to a greater number of our items. The information you sold to us touches upon the boundary of level 9 membership, but doesn't quite cross it, and so it is categorized at level 8. Suffice to say, for selling such information to us, you automatically get level 8 membership and have access to all our treasures or information up to that level.

"You can accept payment in the form of spirit stones, treasures, information, or store credit as you desire. I must let you know that this is only a small store, so we don't have all the items you might see on the list, but as long as it is within a branch on this planet we can have them teleported over from our other branches immediately, so it should not be a concern."

"That's great, show me the list. But at the same time, there are a few things I need, so how about I ask you about them, and you can guide me."

"Certainly," said Powell, as he handed Lex a tablet with a long list displayed on it.

"Well, first of all, if I'm going to trade for a lot of items, it'll be a hassle to carry all of them around, as I will be traveling for a short while."

"We do have a few items with spatial properties that are categorized as level 7, but unfortunately, none of them are on this planet. An alternative I can offer you is a locker. You can place any items you get in the locker where the Emporium will take responsibility for their safety. The locker also comes with a key, which you can use to teleport the contents of the locker inside to yourself. The key will be linked to you, so that in case you lose it, someone else cannot use it to retrieve your items."

"I guess that'll do," Lex said, disappointed he couldn't get the spatial items. He really wanted to be able to summon and put away his belongings the way he did with Inn related items from his inventory. Unfortunately, as uncooperative as the system was, Lex could only place items he got from the system in his inventory, not other things.

"Alright, the first thing I need, and I think this is the perfect planet for that, is some fertilizer for a plant I have at the Golden Core realm. I want to help it grow as fast as I can."

"Indeed, we have an excellent selection for that," Powell said, and pulled up some items on the tablet to show Lex. Lex did not hesitate to buy double the recommended amount of fertilizer for the Delinquent Vine back at the Inn. It was unfortunate that this planet only grew plants up to a certain level, as the options of fertilizers would have been even better options. Lex also bought various seeds and saplings for fruit trees and vegetables. He would need to grow the area for the greenhouse once he got back, but he didn't mind. This was a good problem to have.

Next, he bought an excellent binding technique for pets. It wasn't that he doubted Fenrir would not be loyal, but a binding technique would not only make it easier for Lex to communicate, and help grow Fenrir, it would aid in the growth of both Fenrir and Lex. As long as one of them was stronger than the other, the technique would have a nurturing effect on the weaker one, as a result of the technique. Of course, regardless of who was stronger, Lex would remain the controller of the technique.

He also bought some ointments that would help him increase the speed of his cultivation. It had become abundantly obvious to him that because he was cultivating the trinity, his body, soul and spirit, his speed was devastatingly slow. It was literally impossible to cultivate without external help.

He bought himself a self-activating defense treasure, in case he suffered a surprise attack like last time. He also did not forget to buy more detailed information about the X-14 system as well as the Dimitri family.

That took care of the things he already had in mind. After that, he began perusing the list for what they had. The list was… expansive, to say the least. He ended up buying a lot of things, as well as information, that he thought would serve him well in the future – including a seemingly indestructible locket. There was nothing else special about it, as far as anyone could tell, but Lex had a workaround for that, and anything indestructible had to be precious.. Unfortunately, Lex was severely limited in what he could buy as there was almost nothing above level 4 on this planet, in keeping with the buying power of this planet.

With quite a bit of credit left, and no idea of what else to buy, Lex spent it all on spirit stones, seeds, ores and a few pieces of technology. He had no interest in maintaining any credit at the Emporium, as he had no idea when he would encounter it again.

Then, stuffing everything he bought into one of the Emporiums lockers, Lex finally left. He'd ended up spending over an hour here, much longer than he was expecting, and now he just wanted to leave as quickly as possible to avoid any possible trouble. Putting on a mask he bought before leaving the shop, Lex stepped out confidently and hailed an Air pod to the train station.

He was expecting that the 'trains' here would actually be vastly different from what he was used to on Earth, but that wasn't actually the case. The trains looked remarkably similar to bullet trains back on Earth, but Lex wasn't in the mood to speculate on the reason at the moment.

Since he had obtained information on this entire star system, he naturally also knew a lot about this planet. He already had a destination in mind, and after buying a ticket for a private room, boarded the train. To Lex's great relief, no problems occurred while he waited, and eventually, the train departed safely.

*****

Tetsuya did not avoid the public crowd as he dragged Darius' body back to his house, and left him lying in front of the gate once he arrived. If something still happened to him after Tetsuya brought him back home, then no one could blame him.

He wasn't really afraid of any retaliation, as the only ones on this planet he feared was the Dimitri family. This was because on this planet, anyone who surpassed the Foundation realm and entered the Golden core was asked to leave the planet. The only Golden core experts on this planet were direct Dimitri family members of employees. The reasoning for this was complex and served many purposes, but the result was that Tetsuya felt extremely safe.

He had even fought off Foundation enemies while he was still in the Qi training realm, let alone now that he was in the Foundation himself.

It was this well earned arrogance that resulted in what happened next. Darius had hired sufficiently skilled people long before today to take care of Tetsuya, it was just that they happened to act shortly after Lx thoroughly humiliated Darius in a public way as they were making preparations.

The moment Tetsuya entered his home, it exploded. This was not a small explosion that could be covered up by local forces, this would directly attract the attention of the Dimitri family. But the assassination was far from over.

Wounded, Tetsuya was trying to understand what happened from behind the protective cover of a defensive treasure, when something rammed through the cover of the treasure and directly blew his right arm off! It was only after he suffered the injury that the sound of a sniper shot rang through the street.

Tetsuya, despite still being in shock, tried to move away but the trap this time was too well devised. Before he could move, however, another shot blasted a hole directly through his chest. Tetsuya could not even fall as he was already on the ground, his eyes wide open in shock, his brains slowly shutting down, when a piece of debris fell on top of him, supposedly crushing him.

But before he was crushed, it happened to break the golden key, teleporting the critically wounded man away. But no one saw him disappear. All the cameras which had been recording the whole incident caught a massive piece of debris crushing his body, before it too was covered in the fire that the explosion had started.

Far away, the sniper sent the video to Darius before packing up and starting to run away. He had to get off this planet, or he would be the next one to suffer.

A little girl was walking by herself as she explored the Inn. Even though she was currently walking in the plain garden behind the Midnight Manor, this was the most beautiful place she had ever seen. But she was not lost in wonder as she explored this new terrain. No, she was scouting this new and probably dangerous place, no matter what Grandma Noo said. As a 7-year-old, she was already a big girl now, so she had to do her part in keeping her family safe.

Speaking of family, hers was the equivalent of royalty back on Vegus Minima. Grandma Noo told her that her parents were the strongest natives of the planet, and before the arrival of the Jotun forces, they used their own power to protect the largest remaining human sanctuary on the planet.

Although it was a city, it housed nearly 10 million people, all of whom were under her parents' protection for almost 200 years. The little girl, Layla, had grown up hardly ever meeting her parents, since they were always fighting zombies, and spent most of her time under Grandma Noo's care. That care, on a planet such as Vegus Minima, took the form of extreme discipline and training. Not a day in her life had gone by, as far as she could remember, that Grandma Noo didn't strap down and bound a zombie, and then made her kill it.

She had grown up under the constant threat of annihilation, so the sudden change on the planet caught her unaware and she could not cope. Many people told her that she was safe now, and didn't need to worry, but she could not adapt. So she continued her training and maintained her vigilance.

This morning, Grandma Noo told her that her father had been appointed governor of Vegus Minima on behalf of the Jotun Empire, and once things were finally settled, she would be able to live with them soon. Then her Grandma brought her here, in wait for her parents, who were apparently somewhere far away.

But while her Grandma said this place was safe, Layla would not risk anyone's life, and so took it upon herself to scout the area.

She saw a lot of strangely dressed people and strange animals. Though they looked to be non-hostile, she kept her distance, and a dagger neatly tucked into her sleeve. That is when she encountered her first threat, and it was extremely menacing.

It had an oval head, with a beak sharp enough to pierce through a man. Its eyes were hidden in a streak of black feathers, with white streaks surrounding the black like war paint. It had a long, blue neck to give it extreme reach, and the feathers behind its neck had opened up into a massive fan. Dozens of eyes were imprinted on the feathers, all staring at Layla, as if ready to hunt.

Just as she was about to grip her dagger, one of the ladies wearing the Inn uniform approached her.

"This bird is called a peacock. It's extremely gentle and loving, you do not need to be afraid."

"I am not afraid!" Layla quickly said, though her eyes were still focused on this obvious predator.

"My name is Valma. What's your name?" the lady asked with a smile.

Layla, however, did not reply, and eyed Velma suspiciously. Was this lady getting close to her to reach her parents? It was not the first time that had happened, and she would not let her succeed.

Noticing the little girl's wariness, Velma decided to change the topic.

"Are you here with someone? Did you get lost? I can help you find them if you're looking for them."

"No, Grandma Noo knows where I am. She's very strong, so she always knows where I am!" Layla said, her voice carrying an underlying threat. Velma, however, only chuckled when she heard her.

"In that case, do you want me to show you around? If you want, I can ask Little Blue to let you ride on its back."

Before Layla could ask who Little Blue was, Velma pointed towards a baby whale that was flying close to the ground. Behind it, Fenrir chased as quickly as it could. Though Fenrir had a higher cultivation than Little Blue, since the latter was flying, it was much quicker.

At first, the two animals looked extremely scary to Layla, but then she noticed the many flowers sticking out of Fenrir's fur. Little Blue had showered Fenrir in flowers from near the greenhouse, and many of them had gotten stuck. Since then, they had started a game of tag that never ended – mostly because Little Blue would fly out of reach whenever Fenrir got too close.

After watching them for a bit, she admitted that the two animals looked cute. But the thing was… she did not understand what cute was. Instead of thinking about it, it was more of a feeling she had never felt before. She was too confused to respond to Velma.

"I'll just go back to Grandma," she said, deciding this place was too strange.

"Sure," Velma said, and accompanied her back to the manor.

Inside the manor, a middle-aged woman sat leaning back in a chair in the restaurant, smoking a cigar. In front of her sat Hera, who was elaborating on the details of a trade agreement that Will had proposed between the two planets – or more specifically, the two parties from these two planets. Normally Hera would not have brought her son Jimmy with her in such an environment, but fortunately the air in the Inn was very clean, and none of the smoke from the cigar ever made it to her child, who was standing meekly behind her chair.

Just as they were in the middle of their discussion, a little girl ran into the middle-aged woman's arms and whispered, "Grandma Noo, this place is very dangerous. I saw a lot of monsters."

"If it's dangerous, then form a hunting party. We do not shy away from it," Noo said, smiling at her granddaughter. "Look, even that little kid is here, and he's even younger than you."

Layla turned to look at Jimmy, who was peeking at her from behind his mother, and competition flashed in her eyes.

"Hmph, I'm not afraid. I'm just submitting my scouting report," she said stubbornly, before pulling out of her grandmother's arms and eyed the little boy. "Come, you're in my hunting party now," she boldly declared, before pulling Jimmy away to hunt some peacocks!

Hera was hesitant, but eventually she said nothing. It was good that Jimmy finally had a chance to make some friends. On that day, in that backyard, the gallant peacock warriors gathered its first two members.

Lex sat comfortably in his private room, with his legs stretched out on an ottoman in front of him. A plate of small, wrapped sweets had been waiting for him when he entered the room, some of which he had picked through and they were phenomenal. More and more, Lex was beginning to like this planet for its food, but that may simply be a result of excellent ingredients. After all, this was an agricultural planet so their ingredients must be extremely fresh.

Lex munched on another sweet as he read through the description of his reward for completing the quest to sell something to the Emporium. His quest ranking had ended up being an A, which influenced his reward naturally. But that's where the peculiarity of the Special quest came in, as the system asked him if he had a reward in mind. Lex went through his quests that remained incomplete, and was reminded of one to find someone to help him run a new service.

With that in mind, he asked to find the perfect employee that fit this role. The system could not reward an employee directly, but the reward was still influenced by the request. It directly scanned all the planets connected to the Inn, and provided him with a list of beings most suitable for the job.

The list was very lengthy, with over 100 candidates, and Lex intended to go through the list thoroughly before he made a decision. It was while he was doing this that he got another quest complete notification.

Quest complete: Help Tetsuya avoid calamity by having him retreat to the Inn.

Quest reward: Support token!

Remarks: completed the quest on a technicality, now you're thinking like an entrepreneur!

Lex was confused by the remark, as he could not tell if the system was insulting him or complimenting him.

"Hey Mary, have we received a new guest? His name should be Tetsuya, he might be hurt."

"Yeah, we did," she replied hesitantly. "But he's not just wounded, he's on the verge of death! His cultivation has been scrapped, and he has a massive hole in his chest and a missing arm! Since he had a lot of treasures on his body, and his cultivation level fell below yours, I used those as payments and sent him directly to the ORR (Organic Reconstruction Room). However, since you never set a price for the ORR, it was charged at cost, which is 1000MP per hour."

Lex bolted upright when he heard the news. Tetsuya was pretty strong, as Lex had witnessed himself, as he managed to incapacitate Foundation realm experts with ease. Lex could not imagine how he ended up in such a wounded state. Despite all he had been through, this was the first time someone had used his ORR, which could reconstruct missing or crippled body parts. The only limitation to the ORR was that it was limited by his own cultivation, and could only work on those at his level or below it.

"Alright, keep me updated on his condition."

With that taken care of, Lex leaned back in his chair and wondered if Tetsuya had been implicated because of him. It seemed unlikely, as he had received a quest long before he even decided to enter the arena.

As for being concerned whether he would get dragged into this mess? Lex wasn't worried at all. One of the items Lex had purchased from the Emporium was called the Insincere medallion. Its effect was not perfect, but it was good enough to hide his tracks in a situation where he wasn't being directly followed. The medallion basically hid everything about him as long as he was wearing it. If he left a fingerprint on an item, it would not be his. If he dropped hair, it would not match his DNA. If he was photographed by a surveillance camera, the image that would show up would not be his. Dogs would not be able to track his scent and his footprints would be wrong. Basically, any tracks he left behind would be wrong in some way. Of course, if someone had their eyes on him, and followed him directly, the medallion could do nothing about that. But he felt safe, for now at least.

He looked at his latest quest reward, the Support token, and smiled. It was very useful.

Support token

Select an Inn employee. Once selected, you can summon that employee from the Inn to your location, regardless of where you are in the universe. You can also unsummon the employee.

This token was actually perfect. It was not like he was getting attached or anything… but he had been concerned about leaving Fenrir alone for long periods. Although he left the pup in the care of the turtle, and he had Little Blue to accompany him, Fenrir was still extremely attached to Lex.

As he was a member of the Inn in an official capacity as Protector, this token worked perfectly on him. Lex used the token to bind it to Fenrir, and directly summoned him into the private room.

That was a mistake, as Lex had momentarily forgotten how big the wolf was, not to mention it had been slowly growing bigger as time went by.

The private room was immediately filled by the giant dog that looked confused for a moment, then immediately recognized Lex, and sat down as it tried to rub its massive head against Lex's body. Lex had spent time in front of Fenrir without the Host Attire on when they were staying in the apartment, which is why the pup suffered from no confusion in recognizing him.

Lex scratched the massive pup, unaware of the warm smile that had appeared on his face. Finally, after spending some time consoling the pet, he started preparing to use the binding technique on Fenrir. Technically, Lex himself was too weak to use the technique, so what he got was a primed talisman that would automatically implement the technique when he activated it.

Not wasting any time, Lex activated the talisman, and felt a warmth starting to fill him, and a bright light covered both him and Fenrir.

When Darius woke up in his room, surrounded by medical equipment and nurses, the first and only thing he felt was rage. Absolute freaking rage! He wanted to scream and yell, but he had to contain himself. Although he was spoiled, he was not an idiot.

The one thing he could not do was embarrass his father, so he needed to find out exactly what had happened. He signaled someone to retrieve his personal computer and sent everyone out of the room. In his mailbox, the first thing he saw was the video of Tetsuya's execution.

Immense gratification filled his heart as he watched this old nemesis die. It was a shame he couldn't send this assassin after his step-brother as well, but he was already employed by the Dimitri family, so he was off limits.

He watched the video a few times, then deleted it. This matter was definitely going to be investigated, and he could leave no evidence connecting himself to it. Everyone would suspect him, but as long as there was no evidence, no one would convict him.

That's when he saw the various videos of himself being dragged through the streets by Tetsuya, as well as videos of himself being beaten by that kid he had attacked on the street.

He wanted to explode in anger once again, but he contained himself. He took out a phone and dialed a certain number, which was picked up immediately.

"Are you satisfied with the results?" the person on the other end asked.

"Very, but I have another job for you."

"Unfortunately, we can no longer work together. Our associate who did the previous job has already left the planet, and we have no more resources to spare."

"I did you a favor," Darius said, through gritted teeth.

"And in return, we did you one as well. We are now even. If, in the future, the possibility of working together arises again, we will contact you. Until then, farewell."

The other person shut the phone, further ruining Darius' mood. But at the same time, he understood that they had completed their original deal. There was no reason for them to go above and beyond.

He grit his teeth and decided to take matters into his own hands. He dialed a second number, this time, to a private detective. He needed to know where that brat was staying. What to do about him would come later.

*****

In an office, a uniformed man was filling out some paperwork. His expression was grim, though this wasn't because of any recent incident. He was just always in a grim mood. His door opened and someone entered, and just as the uniformed man was about to scold the person for interrupting him, he noticed who it was and his grim expression changed to that of surprise.

Compared to the uniformed man, the person entering was much younger in appearance. But the matter only went as far as appearance, because unlike everyone else in his family, this person's first name was Dimitri. He was the founder of their family, and though it had been many years since he took part in family matters, his position of authority would never change.

"Ancestor, forgive me for not greeting you. I did not know of your arrival," the uniformed man said as he quickly got up.

"Be at ease child, I don't care for formalities. I just awoke from my cultivation for an important matter. I am truly saddened to hear about your fathers passing, and would normally spend time with you to mourn, but I have urgent matters that need to be taken care of. I am told that you are in-charge of security now."

This was a common occurrence in cultivation families. Higher leveled cultivators would often outlive many of their younger generations who did not have the same level of cultivation talent, and so could not extend their lifespan. To an outsider, this may seem tragic, but the cultivation families were already used to it.

"It is an honor for my father to be remembered by you, ancestor, that is enough. Indeed, after retiring from the Jotun army, I took charge of our family's forces."

"Good. I have received a personal missive from the Jotun Empire. Increase security on all planets by a hundred times and decrease sales by 40% and use whatever is not sold to increase our reserves."

"Did something happen?" the uniformed man asked, his signature grim look on his face.

"I'm not sure. I reached out to a few acquaintances, and everyone was being told to slowly start mobilizing. The few who haven't been informed yet will probably get the call soon."

This was highly unusual. Although the Dimitri family had leased this X-14 system from the Jotun Empire for 10,000 years, after the original lease was signed, they had not been contacted again even once by the empire, and were left to their own devices. Such a missive out of the blue was not a good sign.

"Do not worry too much. While this is unusual, the situation is not grave yet. I've even reached out to all battle fronts, and there is no unusual activity. All we need to worry about is ensuring everything stays normal at our end. Has anything unusual happened on any of the planets recently?"

"There was a terrorist attack in X-142, but I was going to let local authorities investigate it."

"No, go investigate yourself. The timing might just be a coincidence, but since we're mobilizing, we'll leave nothing to chance."

"Understood," the man answered, his voice as grave as possible. When his ancestor departed, the man left his office with the determination to face a fight to the death. His subordinates did not react to his expression, however, as for them this was naught but an ordinary Monday.

*****

A day passed calmly, and Lex finally departed the train at his destination. He had arrived at the Fergen Forest, one of the original and untampered sites of the planet. The trees in this forest were massive, with even the smallest being 200 meters in height and over 50 meters in circumference.

This was the largest natural forest on the planet, and at least the first few miles of it were considered a tourist attraction. Beyond that there was a gray zone where people were encouraged not to enter, and after that began the territories of the wildlife. While the Dimitri family could obviously eradicate all hostile beasts or animals on the planet, they did not as they wanted to maintain the natural ecology of the planet as much as they could manage.

Lex had no interest in going to those dangerous areas though, he was here purely as a tourist.

"What do you think, Fenrir? A beautiful sight, isn't it?" he said, as he walked towards one of the concession stands.

Fenrir, of course, could not respond, even in his thoughts through their shared link. But, because they were now bound, Lex could at least better understand the pups feelings. What surprised Lex was that the dog had a lot of memories of pain, despite being born only a few minutes before Lex summoned him. Fortunately, those were only vague memories, and Fenrir was quickly overwriting them with new, happy ones.

From the stand, Lex grabbed a map, some snacks for himself as well as some for Fenrir, and then quickly climbed onto the pup's back.

"Let's go," Lex said, and the pup started jogging towards the giant trees. The duo made an unusual sight, but still no one gave him a second look. The trees gave off a pleasant aroma, and the first was rich with all kinds of interesting plants and insects. With the help of the Fancy Monocle, they harvested some of the edible wild fruits, and the two feasted on their harvests.

Towards the night, they followed the map to a designated camping area in the forest that overlooked a waterfall coming out of one of the giant trees. Massive fireflies flew around the forest, giving off purple light that illuminated the campsite like a scene out of a cartoon movie.

A massive bonfire in the middle of the campsite attracted the most crowds, where a group was sitting on the ground playing musical instruments that looked similar to a flute. Lex traded some of his fruits for some barbeque and rented one of the better looking tents since he hadn't brought one of his own.

Fenrir made friends with a massive green colored slime and jumped on it like a trampoline. After a few jumps, he discovered the slime suddenly changed and instead of bouncing off, Fenrir fell right into the slime. Some of the kids who were watching from nearby laughed, and the pup looked aggrieved when the slime let it out.

Lex chuckled, as he took the time and chatted with the locals. It may have seemed like he was just making friends and enjoying himself, but in actuality, he was doing research. What kind of activities did the citizens of X-142 like? Currently, the answer seemed to overwhelmingly be spending time in nature. He had at least until the rest of the week to find out what that exactly meant, and if there was anything else on the list. Being an Innkeeper was a never ending job.

Two days after Lex originally checked in, a small group of people entered the Bent Benches tavern. As could be expected, the place was completely devoid of any customers.

"Is anyone here?" one of the men yelled in an annoyed tone.

"Just give me a moment, I'm dealing with something," replied a voice from behind the counter. The group leaned over to see a thin young man, rolled up in the fetal position.

"We're looking for this man, have you seen him?" the first man asked, holding out a picture of Lex.

"Just a few minutes, please, I'll be right with you," the man replied, as he started rocking, his breathing becoming heavier and louder.

"What do you mean, a few minutes? Stand up and answer me brat, you don't know who you're dealing with," the man said as he jumped over the counter and reached to grab the man on the floor. But things did not proceed how they usually did.

The tavern keeper reached out his hand and grabbed, not only the man's neck, but his entire body as his hand had enlarged into a massive claw.

"I said, give me a few minutes," he repeated himself, but his voice was no longer that of a human. It was unfortunate that the man never heard his voice, as his body had been squished within the tavern keeper's claw.

The rest of the group yelled as they retreated in horror at the gory sight they had just witnessed, yet their noise only aggravated the tavern keeper further. His pupils thinned into vertical slits and his face started growing into a massive maw. Green scales started to cover his skin, but before the transformation could continue, a single streak of flame breathed out of his nose burnt the group to a crisp.

With the interference gone, the tavern keeper closed his eyes and started taking deep breaths, slowly transforming back into the shape of a human.

"Take deep breaths," the man kept murmuring to himself, as he continued to calm himself down in peace.

*****

Lex woke up feeling rested and great, as he let out a big yawn while stretching. It was not that he let himself fall asleep and let down his guard, but that with Fenrir nearby it was a lot harder for anyone to sneak up on Lex. Fenrir was not strong in his cultivation, but his senses were unmatched. Not only could he sense living things or fruits or basically anything edible nearby, he could even accurately sense the emotions of those nearby.

Using that ability, Lex had spent the last day getting to know the others at the campsite. In fact…

"Hey Joel, you guys ready?" Lex asked as he walked out of his tent, scratching his head.

"Just about," answered a cat-man, or more accurately a male Neko. "I'm just cooking up breakfast while the rest pack up. We can leave once everyone has eaten."

"Sounds like a plan to me," replied Lex as he watched the group. The group was composed of five guys and four girls… eh, five males and four females. Joel and his girlfriend were Neko, but the rest were from various other races. They were tourists who came together and formed a tourist group, under the lead of an avian beast that ran a local tourism company.

As Fenrir had identified them as honest and friendly, Lex had joined their group, at least until their next destination. After that, he would decide whether to stay with them or not. After all, there was no better way to understand aliens on vacation other than to join them.

As usual, Lex leapt onto Fenrir's back, and the duo went into the forest hunting for fruit. Lex had tried hunting for actual game, but there didn't seem to be many animals near the tourist areas.

While Fenrir ran, Lex's mind wandered back to what Mary had told him about Tetsuya. He had not had much of a reaction to learning about the Inn, or even that he had been saved despite the seriousness of his wounds. He simply bought a Travel face wash kit, which allowed him to change his appearance for 24 hours, and left the Inn.

Let alone Lex, even Mary was confused by his behavior. But there was nothing either of them could do about it.

After gathering enough fruit, Lex returned to the campsite and shared his harvest with the group. Since he was tagging along, it was only right that he contributed in some way to the group.

After breakfast, they left for their next tourist destination, Heaven Island. This was a popular destination because of the unusual feature that the island was floating! This was not a man-made island, but was one naturally formed. According to the tourist guide, the reason the island floated was because the 'island' was originally a massive asteroid that had unusual magnetic properties.

It floated around constantly in the sky above a large canyon and was completely unable to leave the canyon's boundaries. It was suspected that the canyon emitted a certain spiritual field that prevented the island from falling, but also from moving out of the canyon itself.

After a brief study conducted by the Dimitri family revealed that the island did not contain any extremely rare ores, they renovated the top enough to accommodate plant life, and turned it into a tourist destination.

After extensive study, as well as communication with the locals, Lex learnt that all the planets in the X-14 system had a strong tourism industry going. The reason, as far as Lex could tell, was that since all planets were firmly under the control of the Dimitri family, there was no room for internal strife. The planets were not divided into countries, but zones according to their agricultural produce, and none of the tourist attractions were anywhere near important agricultural lands.

The lack of large-scale internal strife, presence of security and various attractions focused towards different species made the planet's prime location for a booming industry. For example, while Lex was heading towards the Island, he learnt that swamps were a major attraction towards slimes.

Another interesting, and unexpected thing Lex learnt, was that slimes were first-class citizens of the Jotun Empire. Apparently, as far as the brief description on the list provided by the Emporium told, not only were slimes born without a lifespan, meaning they would never die unless killed, they had an unequivocally strong backing, so much so that the Empire allowed them to travel their territory without any intergalactic visas.

This did not match Lex's impression of the squishy, jelly-like beings that could change their bodies to immediately become excellent trampolines, but he decided to accept it. The universe was a strange place, he had to be flexible in this thinking.

The group Lex was with did not travel by train, but by a vehicle called Hover plates. It was literally what it sounded like; it was a large, flat platform that rose into the air and flew in the direction you wanted. Of course, it had several formations on it to control how much wind blew into the tray so the riders wouldn't be bothered, and to prevent them from falling off.

Once they arrived at the Island, they checked into a hotel for two days, after which they would continue on their journey elsewhere. Although Lex didn't have a booking, he spent nearly all the spirit coins he brought with himself to get a room. This was really good for his research. He would take detailed notes about the hotel and reflect on how he could improve the Inn.

*****

Darius was sitting in his room, smoking out of a pipe while he watched a show. It had been a while since he hired someone to look for that kid he had a fight with, and though they didn't reach out to him yet, he was confident in their abilities. After all, he had worked with them before.

Suddenly, however, the door to his room was kicked down and his father entered the room with a look of such fury on his face that Darius had never seen anything close to it. He didn't know what had sparked his father's anger, but he had a strong guess. He had to maintain his innocence.

"Father," he began saying, but before he could continue, he was slapped across the face so hard his body hurled across the room!

Confused, in pain, and panicking, Darius tried to look at his attack to understand what exactly was happening. That's when he noticed them. There was a group of guards, all wearing the uniform of the Dimitri family's elite forces. At their head stood a middle-aged man wearing office clothes, but there was no doubt for even a second that he was in command.

"Little brat, before you start speaking, it'll be best if you hear me first. I don't care whether you were involved or not in the terrorist attack or not, since you had an enmity with the only victim, you're already on the suspects list. Do you know what that means? It means you've already been sentenced to death, without a trial."

Darius physically felt his stomach lurch, and his heart stop beating for a moment as he listened to the man. No, he couldn't die!

But just as he was about to speak again, the man reached forward and clamped Darius' mouth shut with his hand.

"Whether you did anything or not, you're already guilty. I'll give you one chance to speak, so I better hear something that'll help me trace those terrorists. If I hear something I like, maybe I'll reduce your punishment. Otherwise, I'll personally make sure there's nothing left of you to put into a grave."

With that, the man let go of Darius' mouth and took a step back to let him speak. By now, Darius' mind had almost shut down from fear. He could not think, not even of a way to save himself. His eyes shifted to his dad, but instead of support, he only saw unbridled anger.

After a few moments, when he didn't answer, the man no longer bothered wasting any time with him. He stepped forth and injected some serum into his neck.

A minute later, he asked, "what connection do you have with the terrorists?"

"They reached out to me a few weeks back," Darius answered, his mind completely numbed now, and his eyes vacant. "It was the day Tetsuya broke through to the Foundation realm, and he had beaten me up badly when I tried to ambush him during an academy trip. They offered to kill Tetsuya for me, as long as I did them a favor. I used my connections to distract one of the guards in the space station in the city, the one for people traveling to and from this planet. It was barely for a few minutes, and nothing happened, but they considered the favor done. After that, they didn't contact me again for so long I thought someone was playing a prank on me. Until they sent me a video of them killing Tetsuya."

The man nodded, as if he heard exactly what he expected. He turned to one of the men behind him and said, "interrogate him thoroughly. Get all the information we need. Once you're done, kill him."

Darius did not react, as his mind was still numb, but his father did. Instead of feeling aggrieved, he was instead relieved. If they killed Darius, their anger should be reduced. Or at least, that's what he thought until the middle-aged man turned to him and said, "for raising such a treasonous child, you share in the blame of his crime for not providing a better upbringing. You better start thinking of ways you can help with the investigation, or your execution will be next."

The father fell on his knees. He was doomed.

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.