h

Lex estimated how much time he had left and could roughly round it off to about another 20 minutes. This was more than the last few times combined, but at the same time, the Lotus also conveyed to it how waking Lex up was getting progressively harder.

Fortunately, according to the Lotus, Lex would need only two more treatments. The bad news was, for the last one the Lotus requested a special metal that it would need. The worse news was that, apparently, it was extremely rare.

Considering that Lex had just made 100,000MP off of the gamblers who bet against his victory, as well as another 43,000 MP during the time he was asleep, his income was going up but it might not be enough to purchase it in the Guild room.

Well it was lucky that Lex had to make a trip to the Emporium anyway, so he made a small detour before meeting Luthor.

The first batch of materials Lex had bought from the Emporium had arrived, though, unfortunately, Lex had arrived 1 day too early to receive the items necessary to heal Harry. Accepting everything in his new spatial bangle, Lex went right to business.

"I have a special request that might be slightly hard to find, I'm not entirely sure about its availability."

"If it's available in any market, we'll find it. Just tell me what you need," said Powell with his signature grin. He was practically in love with Lex by now. Lex alone had been responsible for more commissions than Powell had received in his entire career otherwise. If he had a daughter, he'd be trying to set them up.

"It's a metal called Entis Core. I need about 1 gram of it."

Powell's grin froze, and a difficult expression appeared on his face. He did not immediately reply, but checked his catalog. A few moments later he shook his head.

"This time… you've truly asked for something very difficult. In terms of ranking, it's only rank 6, you should easily have access to it. Yet in terms of demand and rarity, it is off the charts. You know, I've heard the energy cores for intergalactic ships are made out of that metal, and its rarity is one of the reasons why those ships are so rare."

"Powell," Lex said very calmly, and looked at the man directly in his eyes. "Price is not an issue right now. I need 1 gram, at the very least, and I'll take more if you can find it. But you should know, the Emporium is not the only place I'll be reaching out for this."

Lex's meaning was clear. They had a great relationship so far, and although Lex had been paid for everything, the Emporium had been the one gaining from their trades. Now it was time for them to step up.

Powell's expression turned solemn, and he nodded. That was enough for now. Lex quickly returned to the Inn, donned his Clark Kent glasses and set up a meeting with Luthor and Velma through Mary.

Both of them were surprised that they had been requested for, but it wasn't the Innkeeper who was requesting them. They could not imagine who else could have Mary act on their behalf, and they were even more surprised when they reached the private room Lex had gotten to see 'Leo'.

Velma knew who he was, but Luthor had never even heard of him. A hundred questions ran through his head, but 'Leo' was on a tight schedule so he didn't have time to let things play out slowly.

"Velma, it's great to see you! It's been a while. And you must be Luthor, I've heard things about you. Please have a seat."

"Leo, it's been a while indeed. Where have you been off to? Poor Z had to handle the Den all by himself."

"I just had a few tasks to take care of, life can be pretty busy sometimes," he replied vaguely with a smile, and turned to look towards Luthor.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I've called you here, or even, who I am. Let me just quickly introduce myself. Officially, I'm Leo, owner of the Gamer's Den on Main street. But, on the side… I also run a few miscellaneous errands for the Innkeeper now and again."

His last statement startled the two, as Leo's tone and general mystique indicated a relationship with the Innkeeper that was hidden. Why would the Innkeeper require such a thing? They did not even entertain the thought that he was lying for a second, for the Innkeeper was not one that could casually be lied about.

ραпdα Й?νê|(сòm) "But, as I said, I've been very busy lately and I can't do all the necessary tasks myself. As I hear it, you two are greatly trusted by the Innkeeper, so I thought you could help me with a couple of small things."

"What is it?" asked Luthor, speaking for the first time. Requests of the Innkeeper he took very seriously. His only reservation was why the Innkeeper didn't ask him himself.

"There's two things, and the second one will require you to work closely with each other. The first thing, and this is the greatest priority, is that Luthor, I need you to contact the Jotun Empire. Preferably, you should contact General Ragnar, or someone as close to him as possible, for he has a great relationship with the Inn. We need 1 gram of a metal called Entis Core, more if possible. If they require payment, or some kind of terms, you can directly consult Mary. Remember, this is extremely important!"

Luthor only nodded, as he suddenly came up with an explanation in his mind. Luthor and Mary had proven themselves competent, so now the Innkeeper was testing them. By not passing the instructions himself, he made it so that the two of them would have to rely on themselves instead of the Inns resources. They had to prove their worth, before they were sufficiently rewarded.

Yes, things were falling into place.

"As for the second task…"

Lex did a bunch of mental math. Honestly, he was sick of going to other planets and dealing with matters unrelated to the Inn. Exploring the universe was fun, albeit Lex had to admit the only reason he even went was to increase the number of connected planets. But the matter of fact was, he had decided to only focus on the Inn for the upcoming period. Stil… it wasn't like he could ignore Earth completely. Since that was the case, he would use others to handle matters there instead of doing things himself.

"The second matter has to do with Earth. Some time ago Velma passed information of a few people manipulating all major events from behind the scenes to cause war and chaos in general. I passed the information to the so-called steward of Earth, Fernanda. In fact, it has been quite a while since that happened. Your job is to follow up and see if she really did take care of things and handled those trouble makers, or if nothing has changed. If there is no change… I want you to spread the information to all those who have been impacted by the manipulation. Moreover, I want to see if you can get specific information on the people responsible for this. We will see what we can do once we know more."

Since the original information had come from Velma, Lex did not think they would need him and was about to excuse himself, when Luthor stopped him.

"Wait, since you handle some things for the Innkeeper, there's a matter that I need to consult you on," Luthor said quickly when he saw Lex's intentions.

Lex raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. He understood why Luthor was consulting him. As the Innkeeper, he had not been entertaining many briefings and meetings lately due to his limited time, though he did his best to address all emergencies. Soon he'd recover and he'd be able to take care of nonemergencies as well. Lex was so short on time, he still hadn't gone through the notifications and rewards he'd received during his butter knife incident.

But that also meant that the workers had to make decisions on their own for matters they couldn't consult the Innkeeper, and while Luthor seemed to be much better at this than his other workers, Lex noticed that they seemed to be particularly bad at this.

By offering advice instead of solutions using his Leo persona, Lex could nurture this trait in them slowly.

"Go ahead."

"I don't know if you've heard yet, but there's been a recurring issue at the Inn lately. One of the guests named Jill has constantly been under attack. Even if we banned the attacker, his accomplices kept coming. The Security room has a system to detect if anyone who comes to the Inn is related to a past offender, but for whatever reason, these new guests weren't getting detected. Furthermore, they'd be completely normal guests, until they encountered Jill. Then, as if a switch went off, they'd start attacking her.

"Some time ago, we captured some of the offenders and I personally oversaw the interrogation. Yet I wasn't able to extract any useful information. This is a conundrum no one can think of a solution to, and even the guest is becoming paranoid. She barely leaves her room regardless of how much security we offer her."

Lex was quickly reminded of this issue. This was a troublesome matter, but what was worse was that Luthor was making a mistake in identifying the direction he should be working in. Lex did not know what was the reasoning behind why this was happening, and maybe it all really did begin because of the Lady Cosmos competition, but he honestly felt otherwise.

Regardless, the matter of fact was that a guest's personal life or affairs were affecting the Inn. He did not doubt that they would have countless more guests in the future who would have enemies who would chase them to the Inn.

The part they should be focusing on was not solving the guests personal issues, but ensuring that the Inn would always be safe.

The Security room being unable to detect people who might cause problems, or had the intentions to cause trouble was the greatest problem in this scenario, as far as Lex was concerned.

"This is something I can't casually comment on. Compile all the information you have regarding the incident and I'll grab it from you next time. All I'll say for now is, your focus should be on keeping the Inn safe rather than anything else. The Security room being unable to detect potential offenders is the greatest issue here. You should study the offenders thoroughly and try to investigate what was different about them that allowed them to escape the Security rooms detection."

Before Luthor could say anything else, Leo disappeared. It wasn't that he didn't want to help out, but that he was really running out of time and he had one more issue to take care of before he fell asleep.

The Innkeeper reappeared near the front of the Inn and sat down on a patch of empty grass. There was an ostentation of peacocks nearby, as well as a few rabbits. A soft wind was blowing across the plains, rustling the grass and tree leaves nearby. It looked like a scene out of a children's book.

The Inn really was incredibly peaceful, when one took the time to enjoy it. Unfortunately, Lex was not here to enjoy.

He took in a deep, refreshing breath before he turned and looked down at the grass.

"You can't hide from me, you know," he said teasingly as he scanned the grass.

Name: -

Age: 0

Cultivation Details: Earth Immortal

Species: Common Earthen Monocotyledon

Condition: Malnourished

Remarks: When the righteous fury of the Butter Knife eliminated the unnamed miscreants causing trouble, this patch of grass was exposed to the profound aura of the attack and gained sentience as well as cultivation. But its body remains as fragile as common grass, and only its spirit has reached the immortal realm.

The last time Lex sat on his chair, he became aware of the fact that there was a patch of grass that had gained sentience. Moreover, because it was born in and from the Inn, it automatically became a worker for the Inn. Unfortunately, being born and gaining cultivation did not mean it gained intelligence. The grass behaved mostly out of instinct, which meant it photosynthesized and absorbed nutrients from the soil. Unfortunately, it was so effective that it was making the surrounding soil infertile, and drastically increasing the oxygen concentration in the entire Inn. Moreover, it was becoming weaker.

Like a newborn baby, it needed to be taken care of. Yet unlike a newborn baby, this patch of grass was in the immortal realm, and Lex needed to have a talk with it before someone could take care of it, lest there be an accident. Even the turtle had not taken the risk yet.

The patch of grass coiled together and formed a humanoid shape. The head turned to look up at the Innkeeper, and it felt a deep feeling of trust when it looked at his face.

"Hey there little fella. What have you been doing out here alone?"

The patch of grass knocked its head, as if confused by the question.

"Little fella, I'm going to send someone to take you away from here, okay? They'll take you to a better place, this area isn't suited for you."

The patch of grass vehemently shook its head, and sat down on the ground as if it was throwing a tantrum. Its roots were here, how could it just get up and leave?

"Don't be like that, trust me, you'll enjoy it. You'll have a weird big brother called Young McDonald and a weird uncle that's a turtle. They'll give you fresh water, and the best soil and maybe sometimes they'll even spoil you with some fertilizer."

The humanoid patch of grass scratched its head, as if it was thinking it through. Truth be told, it had been feeling lethargic lately. Unfortunately, it did not know anything, so it could not identify what that lethargy meant.

But Lex knew. The grass had gained an impressive cultivation, but its body was still so fragile it could rip by being stepped on. Moreover, it could not absorb the necessary nutrients to strengthen its body here, which was actually causing the grass to starve.

"Alright buddy, if nothing else, at least go somewhere safe. After all, you know this place is full of rabbit monsters that eat grass!"

The patch of grass nearly unfurled in terror as it heard the Innkeepers statement, and quickly started to nod its head. It didn't want to face the dreaded rabbit monster! Though it didn't know what that was, it also did not want to find out.

"Excellent. I'm sure you'll like your new home. By the way, welcome to the Midnight family."

Once the patch of grass agreed to move Lex informed Mary to summon the turtle. Other than the grasses' surprising cultivation level, another reason why the turtle never attempted to communicate with the patch itself was due to the fact that the grass had the perfect disguise. Its aura was completely untraceable and,albeit slowly, it could move wherever it wanted within the lawn.

There was just one final thing left to do, which was give it a name. After all, Lex couldn't go around calling it the patch of grass. A single, unnamed turtle was already annoying enough for Lex.

After a moment's consideration, he named the sentient grass Zen. There was no particular reason behind it, and Lex definitely did not consider giving the grass the last name Garden either.

With that done, Lex finally returned to the Recovery Pod and lay down just moments before losing consciousness. If all went according to plan, this would be the second last time this happened to him.

For Lex, the matter was as simple as falling asleep and letting the Lotus do the work. The Lotus, instead, was actually under a lot of strain now. Improving Lex's body itself was not a difficult task, but Lex's mind and memories were plagued by aftereffects of coming into contact with the physical manifestation of a few laws. The memories, in turn, were putting an immense burden on Lex's body.

Therefore, what the Lotus actually had to do was make Lex's Foundation able to interact with,and support laws. This was incredibly difficult, and the Lotus was actually running out items to use to improve Lex's body in such a way. Divine Essence was one of the greatest shortcuts one could use to interact with laws, but it had used up the entire available supply at the Inn last time.

This time, it was forced to use the last remaining item available at the Inn that could do such a thing, and it was beyond precious. It was the final seed out of 3 rare seeds that Lex got.

The seed, if it had been allowed to grow, would have produced a plant much like itself. Well, though the second seed had been planted near the Fire Temple, and it was absorbing the heat and the divine energy in the area, it had not properly taken form, and so did not gain sentience.

Of course, there was the possibility that it would not gain sentience at all, and would just be an incredible and rare plant. Regardless, it would not change the fact that whatever the plant was, it had the potential to interact with laws.

The Lotus waited patiently for the turtle to bring it the third seed. Once the seed arrived, it would be a long process absorbing it into Lex's body. It would take at least 10 days.

*****

A few days later, Luthor was standing with Gerard near the Midnight Manor, waiting patiently. Through one of the soldiers that the general had stationed at the Inn permanently, Luthor reached out to the general through Gerard and requested a meeting. To avoid any misunderstandings, he also clarified that it was not the Innkeeper who was requesting the meeting, but the workers themselves in their private capacity.

The reason he had Gerard reach out to the general instead of doing it himself was that he felt a familiar face would get better results. Moreover, it was important to clarify that they were the ones requesting the meeting instead of the Innkeeper as they did not want to use the Inn's influence to coerce the general. Such tactics would build a bad impression of them.

Of course, since it was them requesting the meeting, they were prepared to hear that it had been rejected, or that the General sent his assistant instead.

Fortunately, as it happened, the general had to meet the person who was completing the tasks he'd put up in the Guild room so he had to come to the Inn anyway.

Of course, Luthor did not know that. He was under immense pressure thinking that the General was coming due to their request. He also had to make a ridiculously difficult request, with nothing to actually bargain with. At most, he could deliver a promise to pay him back in the future with a favor.

Despite his desperation, Luthor let nothing show on his face. His expression was patient and stoic, and even when a golf cart appeared on the horizon heading in their direction, he did not betray his thoughts.

The general looked like a young man, younger than Luthor even, yet no one who saw him would mistake him for someone inexperienced. Even with the soft smile that he bore, there was a commanding aura about him that made it impossible for anyone to underestimate him.

"General, it is good to see you," said Gerard as he climbed down the steps to greet him. "Thank you for agreeing to our request for a meeting, I know you are a busy man."

"It is good to see you as well, young man. I see you are beginning to regain some of your youthful appearance. That's good, there's no point in getting old so early in life. I look forward to seeing your progress, so there's no need to be shy about calling me over. Between old friends, such things need not be mentioned. Besides, you know how I'm always just looking for an excuse to come to the Inn."

Despite his usual steadiness, Gerard could not help but blush a little when Ragnar commented about him looking young. It was common knowledge that the general himself was over 3000 years in age. But, it could not be denied that the general was considered young for someone in his position and rank.

"Allow me to introduce you to Luthor. He has only recently joined the Inn, but as the Innkeepers assistant, he has been doing his best to get thoroughly acquainted with the Inn and all its guests."

"It's a pleasure," said Ragnar, but a hidden light flashed in his eyes. The last time he came to the Inn he had seen the Hearth, but he did not know exactly what the Innkeeper had done. Even after he came, and heard rumors of what had happened, he only treated it as the Innkeeper getting rid of miscreants. It was only later, when rumors of what had happened in so many galaxies, and the visage that they saw, began to spread on the Henali portal that Ragnar began to suspect the Innkeeper was behind it.

The stories of the guests from the Inn corroborated the stories in the portal, but he still did not dare to jump to conclusions about the Innkeepers actions or powers. As someone near the upper echelon of the Jotun Empire, he was extremely familiar with what the highest level cultivators could do. As such he knew that even if people thought they saw something, the truth could have been something else entirely.

It was best not to jump to too many conclusions, but the only thing that was certain was that people only saw what the Innkeeper wanted them to see. As for the truth behind the matter, it was not up to them to ponder over it.

Luthor, as the assistant to the Innkeeper, could not be a simple character either.

The three exchanged some pleasantries as they made their way to a private room. They spent a small amount of time chatting, mainly about the new changes at the Inn, before Ragnar moved the conversation to the matter at hand.

𝘭𝘪𝘣𝑟𝘦𝘢𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝓂

"As splendid and refreshing as it always is to come to the Inn, I have a few obligations waiting for me that I must get to - please excuse my haste. I was informed that you had a matter to discuss. How can I help you, gentlemen?"

"No, please excuse us for taking up your time," Luthor said. "It is extremely rude of us to try and solicit our guests, but there is a time sensitive matter that needs to be taken care of urgently. I am in need of some Entis Core, a minimum of 1 gram to be exact. Were we not in such a rush, I would have pursued other avenues. But since it is an urgent matter, I was hoping to use the Empire's resources to get it."

Luthor did not yet broach the topic of payment, for he wanted to gauge the general's ability, or willingness to take up this matter. He did not, however, expect the general's reaction at all.

"1 gram of Entis Core? It is not an easy request, but fortunately for you, we keep an emergency stash on the Command Carrier. I'll have it sent over right away. And please, in the future, do not hesitate if there's something else you need help in. You do not even need to set up a meeting, just send your requests directly."

Ragnar laughed as he got up, as if he had done the simplest thing in the world.

Luthor, flabbergasted, was not able to respond smoothly, and when he brought up the matter of payment the general would not hear of it at all.

In the end, they were left with the task completed, but feeling like they had missed something important. Leo made the task sound hard, so why was it so easy?

Luthor inexperience was showing once again, for the value of Entis Core was not as simple as the general claimed it to be, yet he had given it freely. There was definitely more to the matter than it seemed.

Many small but interesting things that happened while Lex slept. Showing miraculous speed, Dillion Jormander, the creature that wanted to do Ragnar's task, submitted several tasks at once. Not only did that release a number of payments, which gained Lex some much needed MP from, but also allowed Ragnar and Dillion to finally meet.

The content of their discussions remained between only them, but Ragnar seemed incredibly happy when he left. In fact, only an hour later, Ragnar returned to the Inn himself to deliver the Entire Core, and actually gave 3 grams of it!

No one at the Inn knew the true worth or rarity of that metal, and even Lex could only guess vaguely. The fact that it surpassed both the seed that Lex absorbed to strengthen his Foundation, as well as the Divine Essence he absorbed, should have been more than enough to hint at its value. After all, the Lotus needed something stronger than the items already used to finish its task.

Still, Luthor took down the matter of the general providing the ore for free in his heart. Whether the general was just that generous or he had ulterior motives did not matter at all to Luthor, just that he had helped when help was required.

But with that task done, they turned their attention to Earth. The matters there took time to investigate, since Velma had to gather information. But, for that to happen, the relevant guests would have to visit the Inn first.

Still, a preliminary investigation made it seem like no drastic measures had been taken so far.

Unbeknownst to them, Fernanda had been trying to contact Serene Williams since she received the news about how to proceed. In fact, it was one of the reasons she did not go back to the binder, and therefore had missed Lex's business card.

𝘭𝑖𝘣𝓇ℯ𝘢𝒹.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Yet, oddly enough, no one was able to contact Lex's mother, nor did anyone know where she was. This was troubling news, as it was common knowledge that she had a soft spot for Earth. In fact, her insistence was the real reason cultivation had been hidden on Earth for so long, as she did not want the chaos to spread to the mortal world. Perhaps her attachment to the planet made her vision flawed, or perhaps she had other motives in mind. No one knew the truth, but what mattered was that this was an incredibly delicate situation that Fernanda could not handle on her own.

However, because Fernanda was so focused on contacting Serene, she missed out on very crucial information that she definitely would have known how to handle were she to learn of it.

It was not the fact that Luthor and Velma were planning on taking action. No, it was a much more serious and dangerous matter.

Earth's technology had grown rapidly in the past year, aided not only by the new perpetually open Minor realm but also due to the trade between more advanced civilizations. Better computers, faster processors, operating systems and more that humans had not even begun to conceive flooded the research industries.

This was reflected in the technology made available to the public as well in the form of environmentally friendly vehicles, ozone and climate management technologies and more. But the one aspect of trade that all companies, as well as countries and families that traded through the Inn greatly wondered about, but never got a decent answer for. It was that, with such advanced technology, why had no one indicated the presence of any advanced A.I?

It was so much so that even their spaceships lacked the autopilot functions. Instead, they had just made piloting the ships manually much simpler.

Regardless, they decided to use the advanced technology to design their own A.I., which ultimately led to the creation of the latest sensation that swept the world, ChatGBaby! It was revolutionizing the world at a faster pace than ever precedented in the history of Earth, yet it was also the cause of some problems.

Only a few of the prisoners trapped on Earth were in the know, and they were freaking out trying to contact Fernanda, but she wasn't responding. Moreover, the spirit clones left on the planet by Lex's family had been dispersed some time ago, around the same time that Serene disappeared. As such, this small yet critically important information somehow remained hidden from the few people who could do something about it.

Another interesting thing that happened was in the Crystal realm. Aegis and Zagan finally made contact, and besides being besieged by countless enemies, the exchange went simpler than expected.

Zagan had an unusual temperament for a monster, which was that it was patient, smart, but also lazy. It easily accepted the deal to use the platinum key in exchange for the Blue Crystal Essence, and so was currently actively undergoing a test to work at the Inn.

Roland had also passed his test, and directly became an employee under Velma at the news agency. His role was to expand the reach of the newspaper, as well as the news agency's customer base as a company that sold news.

The Krab-man, J. F. K., had spent all his time at the Inn since he didn't want to go back to being hunted. As an ardent fan of the lazy river, he spent much of his time there, until he was once again teleported to the oasis, and finally met the girl Alysha, who had been farming alone in the desert.

He repeated the process until they were finally able to talk, and he threw her a key to invite her to the Inn. She had no cultivation of her own, so was trapped in the desert. She had no money to pay the Inn for its services, but as it turned out, the crops that she grew in the desert could be used to pay the Inn!

It brought tears to her eyes, for she had truly spent way too long stuck in a desert. Naturally, she also became fast friends with J. F. K. as not only was he very charismatic, he was also the one who brought her here.

Quite a few other things happened as well, but they were of lesser significance. Like this, when 10 days passed, Lex finally woke up.

This time, he immediately felt the difference, as not only was the influence of the hallucinations almost gone, Lex felt like he could stay awake for a few hours.

But, instead of appearing as the Innkeeper first, he decided this time to only use his Leo persona. After all, the appearance of Leo and the Innkeeper can't coincide too much. It would raise suspicions.

Still, a few hours was far from enough to take care of everything, so he began immediately. First, he met with Luthor, who passed him the Entis Core and updated him on how the Earth task was going. He also handed him the folder related to all the Jill incidents, as well as their suspicions for why the Security room had been failing.

Their strongest theory was the use of hypnotization and memory suppression. After all, if the miscreants were hypnotized to act a certain way when they encounter certain triggers before they entered the Inn, they would not exhibit any malicious intentions. It was the same with memory suppression. If their memories were suppressed or locked, only to be unlocked when encountering a certain trigger, it would prevent them from having any dubious thoughts or intentions the entire time.

The theory was honestly quite good, and Lex would need to think of a way around these loopholes.

Once he was done with that, Lex returned to the Gamer's Den and made sure to be seen by as many people as possible. It was important to keep his persona as Leo believable, so not only did he have to build and maintain his social relations, he had to act in accordance to Leo's interests.

The Gamer's Den was almost always packed, so it seemed like it was time to expand. For that, noy only did he plan to expand the building itself, but he also planned on opening new locations.

Of course, in keeping with Leo's character, he dumped all the work on Z.

"There's my favorite employee!" he yelled as he walked into the busy building, looking directly at Z. He was an assistant manager now so he did not need to man the desks, but he could almost always be found near a computer, watching some anime.

At the moment, he was watching a relatively new one called Spy X Finland with great excitement. Yet the moment he heard Leo's voice he froze. For some reason, he had a very bad feeling...

"By the way, I think it's time we expand. I want to finalize on three new locations before I meet with the Innkeeper next time so we can start immediately. But I've been away from the Inn for too long, you know. So why don't go pick some nice locations for me and let me know. I'm going next door to Battle Ax to meet up with John. It's been a while since I met the guy."

With that short visit, Leo had exited the shop already. To be clear, this was not Lex's attitude. He was just faithfully playing the role of Leo, that's it.