The Innkeeper

The reward of a new hidden realm was extremely enticing to every party present. The potential of a reward the Innkeeper said was even more valuable directly affected everyone's plans.

The lazy sloth that originally could not be bothered at all with the Midnight Games suddenly returned to Nibiru and, for the first time, made his presence known worldwide. There was no drowsiness in his eyes as he flew over the various continents of the planet, scanning all beings with his spiritual senses. Just getting the strongest Beasts at the Foundation and Golden Core would not work. He needed the proper cohesiveness of an army, or at least various smaller units, who could work together.

Originally, he had planned to use this time to evaluate the Beasts from Earth and Vegus Minima, very few of whom had actually arrived. Now he had just met them, flashed them with his cultivation level, and told them that he would meet with them once the next event finally began. If they waited for him, they might receive some benefits. If not, Golden Hair no longer cared as much.

Greens Haven was also mobilizing his subordinates while Blood Fang, who had already prepared to fight, was directly informed by the sloth that he would be taking command. At first the wolf was dissatisfied, as even though the sloth was stronger, it did not mean the wolf was a coward and would easily hand over command of its forces. Yet the sloth pacified the wolf easily by guiding it on how it could further transform its Inferior Lykaios bloodline, something that it had been trying to do its whole life.

Since the reward would be shared by the whole planet instead of an individual, Blood Fang decided to temporarily give the sloth control of its various forces.

The Earthlings' reaction was just as substantial. Immediately, the five Nascants called a meeting and started discussing their plans. There were multiple things they needed to take into account when deciding their actions. Their first priority was Earth.

Despite their best efforts to negotiate with the rebels, their efforts remained unrewarded. They needed to leave enough forces on Earth to protect their interests which, unfortunately, meant it was impossible for them to send an army of five thousand Golden Core cultivators to fight. This was especially so since, on Earth, Golden Core cultivators were no longer considered soldiers and were at the very top level of each force.

With such a glaring disadvantage, they directly decided to forgo trying to win the combat portion of the games. They would instead negotiate with the Jotun Empire and try to gain the greatest advantages they could in exchange for helping the Empire attain victory.

This in itself would not be an easy feat, as their relationship with the empire had undergone an undesirable change. They were not able to accept Ragnar's deal of recruiting 1.5 million people unless the Inn acted as a conduit for transporting them, nor were they willing to give up Earth's location. The fallout from that was not as bad as they expected. When they informed Anthony of their decision, he seemed to have expected as much. The real difficulty was then in deciding what further benefits they could gain from one another.

Anthony was in no way as flexible as Ragnar had been during their meeting and maintained a superior stance throughout every subsequent meeting they had. Though he did not explicitly say so, his actions strongly let them know that they had nothing to give to the Empire outside of their performance during the games.

Now with such a prize up for grabs, the Earthlings' support became more valuable. The families decided amongst themselves what exactly they wanted and how much they were willing to contribute. It went without saying that most of them wanted resources to promote their Nascent cultivation. Only Fateh and Brandon decided to put the needs of their families first. With the decision made, the five of them went to find Anthony and begin a new round of negotiations.

The soldiers from the Empire had the mildest reaction. This wasn't because they did not want the award - on the contrary, the award was extremely important to them. Access to a hidden realm could provide them with precious resources that would aid them in their conquest, even on the other two Vegus planets. Even though the Empire itself was immeasurably rich, distant waters could not put out nearby fires.

No, the soldiers had the mildest reaction because they had planned on doing their best from the very getgo. Tens of thousands of their soldiers were already on standby, awaiting their orders. The games wouldn't even be that different from their normal jobs, as they were tasked with killing zombies anyway.

Gathering up Foundation realm soldiers had been a slight - emphasis on 'slight' - problem for them. This was because Foundation realm was actually too low a level for them to be considered active service soldiers. Their proper designation was trainee soldiers. But even as trainees, they were strong enough to outclass most others at their level.

For the Empire, this was slightly akin to asking high school level kids to undertake a dangerous yet important task. The difference being these 'high school kids' were heavily trained for the task. There was no doubt that to an imaginative mind, such a situation would be akin to an integral story arc for one of those 'high school kids' that would actually be the main character of a novel. Maybe some of those trainees even thought of themselves as such. Only time would tell what their results were.

As soon as the details for the games were announced, in a calm and orderly fashion orders were passed out and before the Earthlings even arrived to ask for a meeting, ten thousand fully geared soldiers appeared at the Inn. The sight of five thousand peak Golden Core soldiers and five thousand peak Foundation realm soldiers was extraordinary. They exuded a battle hardened aura and their expressions were thirsty for combat.

The five earthlings, though not unexposed to massive armies, stopped where they stood and stared in awe at the sight. Their battle intent was reigned in, to not offend the Innkeeper, yet just their visage was enough to send shivers down the earthlings' spines. Their confidence in negotiating diminished a bit, as it truly did not seem like the Empire would need any help.

While all this was going on, the Devils did not remain idle either. The mysterious man and Loretta continued to sit in the room, as they had long since already given out their orders. The two remaining Devils did not know that Loretta was still here, but even if they did, it would not matter. They were quite looking forward to seeing the Empires' reactions once they were done.

Ahjour, the Devil with the sabertooth fangs summoned his personal assistant. Looking at a miniversion of himself, he said, "There is an important matter we need to discuss with the Innkeeper. Is it possible for us to meet with him?"

"I can pass along a message to the Innkeeper. What shall I say it is about?"

"Why, our participation in the Midnight Games, of course," he replied, giving a toothy grin. The Devil was trying to look sincere but his giant fangs and sharp teeth made him look menacing instead.

"I will pass along the message. Please wait," the hologram said, and disappeared.

Lex, who was observing the various reactions everyone was having, was fairly surprised to learn that someone was asking for an audience with him. When he learnt the request was from the two Devils, he frowned a bit. He supposed it was too much to hope that they wouldn't create any trouble when he was so openly targeting them.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked with a warm smile, appearing before the two.

"My most sincere apologies for disturbing you Innkeeper," said Creel, his dark eyes trained on Lex. "But I just had a small question. I thought it would be best to ask you, instead of making my own assumptions."

"There is no need for apologies. Ask away."

"Since only five thousand participants are allowed by each planet, when we bring forth our participants, how will it be decided whether our participants enter or the humans? This is not really an issue we can hash out with the humans on Vegus Minima. They don't really seem amenable to our cause."

It was a good thing that Lex was wearing the Host Attire suit because otherwise his eyes would have been stretched open when he realized the glaring flaw in his plan for the games. The planet Vegus Minima was shared by the Devils and the humans, and so both would technically be allowed to bring forth participants. The rules of the event set by him dictated it be so, and the system would not allow him to prevent them from participating, since they represented the planet as well.

Lex sighed internally as he quickly thought of solutions.