The Innkeeper

There were only a few Shadow Talons outside the hole when Lex exited, and they were taken aback at the sight of him.

"I'm almost offended by how shocked you look," Lex joked. "Let's head back, shall we. I have things I need to do, and I'm excited about the modifications to my ship."

The Shadow Talons immediately escorted him back, and Lex was pleased to learn that although he still could not make sense of why everything was a shadow in this plane, he could navigate much more easily.

When he was finally brought before the Shadow talon who had promised him freedom from being chased, he too was surprised to find Lex back.

"Have you already succeeded?" he asked, disbelief evident in his voice.

"Naturally," Lex said, producing the pearl. "I hope with this you can finish the misunderstandings between us. I've been very patient, but if your people still keep bothering me then there will be problems."

"No, proud though we may be, the Shadow Talons honor tradition and legacy above all else. Since you have proven yourself, you are now a friend to all of us. Come, I will take you to the monument of recognition, where you can leave a trace of your aura as well as your name, for all Shadow talons to see."

Lex nodded. He was actually looking forward to announcing his new name. At first, he had thought of taking on the name Jack Eagle, after a very famous pirate from back on earth. But Lex did not want anyone to accuse him of plagiarism. Besides, he was perfectly capable of coming up with a completely original, and in no way associated with anything on earth. It was not like he had to make a reference with his name.

So, he decided that since his clone was supposed to be lowkey and hidden, he would go for a mundane name that would not attract any attention. That is why Lex felt pretty good about himself as he carved his name up on the monument of recognition: Jack Daniels.

Yup, his completely original name that was in no way connected to anything from earth, was meant to be a sign and an omen of how under the radar and lowkey he planned on being with this identity. With such a common name, he did not expect to attract any attention whatsoever. Just calm waters from here on out.

"As it happens," began the elder Shadow Talo, "we are throwing a celebratory party for a great victory we have won against our enemies. We would be honored if you join us, Jack Daniels."

"Please, just call me Jack," he said, feeling the name out. It was not so bad. He could really get used to it. There was something very grounding about being called Jack. "It's been a while since I went to a party I didn't throw. This will be fun."

"Excellent! Ollie has been looking forward to seeing you again. I think he had developed a fondness for your ship."

"Who wouldn't?" Jack asked, as he accompanied the owls to their party. "By the way, I never got to ask. Who are your enemies?"

"A most insidious breed of vermin called Royal Long Eared Bunnies!" the elder said, with absolute venom in his tone. "We have a life and death feud against them. Neither of our races can rest while the other exists. Alas, it is not so simple to fight against the denizens of the Fluffy plane."

"Yes, yes, so much fluffiness. Sounds terrible," Jack said, not giving the matter much thought. Whether it was the owls or the bunnies, he had no stakes with either. He was just looking forward to being able to hide his ship in his shadow.

Back at the Inn, Lex finished taking a shower and cultivated for a while atop the dragon, trying to focus on the immense protective power of their scales and absorbing them into himself. After all, he was determined to be able to fight Immortals long before he became an immortal.

He also took some time to teleport over to the Skittelz, grab some for himself, and one each for Gerard, Lilith and Cindy, as well as Vera. Most likely he would be paying her off for a while.

As it turned out, when he visited Vera, she mentioned that the number of Oracles who were waiting for him to help them remove shards of tribulation lightning from their souls was very high, and asked when he might be able to do it.

That was something he had completely forgotten about, but didn't mind doing because he found a great use for those lightning shards now. Sandra, the Inn worker who could control lightning, was experimenting on new types of lightning so he could give her those shards to help her out.

He spent a few hours helping them out, and then on his way out ran into Charles, who was working with John and helping him come up with a recovery as well as new cultivation plan.

By the lake, the kids were playing on the evolved Magikarpets, calling them sea-peacocks. But as it turned out, a rival gang of kids had somehow tamed the sentient 20 feet tall butterflies, and began calling them sky-peacocks, though that didn't make sense since peacocks themselves could fly, especially after their recent upgrades.

But that was the wonderful thing about kids - they didn't care if it made sense or not.

Regardless, that had resulted in conflicts between the kids, and the council of heroes, a council made up of teenagers who considered themselves leaders of the other kids, had to intervene. It was all quite dramatic, especially since the council of heroes had taken to working with the drama-cats.

The book club at the Inn was also growing in presence, and they were reading a new novel which involved using magic through cards. How absurd.

All in all, the Inn was doing well. Fenrir and Little Blue had grown more powerful, especially Little Blue, and so their adventures were now beginning to move further away from the greenhouse, which left the Sovereign Turtle with more time to actually garden.

With everything going so well, Lex found no reason to delay his plans, and began to draw a map of Menara from memory, and began to pinpoint the location of the resin as best as he could.

There was no point in waiting till the system completed repairs. He might as well have the next resin ready by then.

There were about four more pieces of resin left on this continent, and all of them were extraordinarily far from him, so it would probably take much longer to find them as well. He jotted down all the relevant information he could recall, and once everything was ready, teleported away.

His teleportation was a very useful tool, and obviously it could take him very far, but going long distances while trying to be precise was not easy. Over the next few days, Lex continued to explore the continent as he tried to find the location of the resin, and as a result, came in contact with more and more of the locals.

They were pleasant, for the most part, if a bit large. He also eventually ran into the strawberries, which was not nearly as cute as he would have imagined. They were not red because of their natural color, but because they were bathing in the blood of their enemies. It was quite gruesome.

They even attacked him, which got them nowhere. It would take more than a few fruits to harm him.

But that confidence did not last him long, because soon after, he teleported himself in a lake of concentrated acid which did, in fact, harm him quite badly. Or at least it hurt his ego, because he once again became bald.

Fortunately he had a contingency, which is that he learned a healing technique through which he could regrow hair.

Besides that, he encountered a few volcanoes, though they were all dormant. He almost felt a little disappointed.

Like that, the days went by, and eventually Lex encountered the region where the resin was. Although there was no sealed domain here, the resin remained protected as a result of another strange occurrence, which is that this entire portion of the continent had turned into a crystal that even Lex could not harm.

It was green and purple in color, and everything from the trees to the grass to the dirt and rocks had turned into that crystal. Though, it needed to be mentioned that all the plant life was still alive, even in crystal form.

Regardless, he could neither crack the crystal no matter how he struck it, nor could he travel through it as a soul. It presented him with a new challenge, and together with the help of Pel, he spent the next few weeks trying to solve it.

It took him nearly an entire month before he found a way through.