The Innkeeper

Ptolemy didn't show any visible reaction to Lex's goading, but he was internally surprised by Lex's comments. Information about the Trelops was not exactly roadside knowledge, and to a certain degree, it was even kept hidden. This was because Trelops more often than not played a significant role in food production.

The human population was not small, with it being quite common for counties to have several billion humans. Even as organized as the Hum nation was, arranging for food at such a scale was a massive undertaking.

In the scenario they were facing, there were a few neighboring Trelops, with Karom being one of the weakest, and hence the most cooperative. Unfortunately, right after Karom's territory was that of another, extremely hostile and very aggressive Trelop.

That Trelop alone was the reason why humans stop expanding in this direction. Of course, that didn't mean that this Trelop was so strong that humans couldn't fight it at all, but that high leveled cultivators didn't usually take care of things like these.

Not only did they have their own duties, the Hum nation felt strongly against the idea of becoming used to having others take care of all your problems. While it was true that higher leveled cultivators could take care of everything, first of all, they were not omnipotent and couldn't be everywhere all the time. Secondly, if they did everything, then what would the lower leveled cultivators contribution be?

They were not living in some utopia. Humans needed to become used to the habit of facing trials and dangers to achieve what they want, instead of having someone hand it to them.

Ptolemy was going through various thoughts in his head, but the few moments of silence that created gave Lex the impression that he was ignoring him. In that case, some more goading would be required.

"Or is it possible you hadn't thought so far ahead? If you need help, I don't mind giving you some advice. After all, I wouldn't want to affect the safety of those in the expedition over a little spat."

"The situation is handled," Ptolemy replied, his voice full of vinegar. "If you must know, the guards of the expedition have been fully informed of all the upcoming threats and have made ample preparations. Dealing with a Trelop is not too hard, for at the end of the day, they are just plants. As hostile as they may be, the threat of a forest fire will put them in their place."

After that, Ptolemy did not bother explaining further and went inside his tent. He honestly didn't even want to explain this much to Lex, but he couldn't have him going around telling the expedition that they were heading to certain death. As the leader, he needed to provide some assurances, even to the members of the expedition he didn't like - such was the burden of a leader.

Lex didn't push him any further. The answer was fairly simple, but he doubted that Ptolemy's preparation was lacking. Still, it was interesting to know that sometimes he did not need to search for complicated solutions to everything.

Lex returned to his tent and packed up his stuff. Since this was their first camp, and was built even before they arrived, it would stay here even after they left. Ptolemy had hired a small group of guards to maintain this camp for their return journey, but that was for later.

For now, everyone got on their Delaim lizards and started wading through the snow that had accumulated on their newly built road. Since the Frio birds still seemed to be nearby, the weather had not changed at all, and the endless snow storm raged on. One might wonder how the expedition was able to see and navigate during such a relentless storm.

The answer was that the fresh, falling snow produced in this storm gave off an ethereal, silverish light that made the whole world look like it was in a fairytale. Its beauty was like moonlight but on steroids. As long as one had a sleeping mask for the hours they were resting, no one would complain about it.

So, while they made their way through the forest on the relatively straight-and-level road, Lex finally had the time to divert his attention to the Inn.

Things at the Inn were… well, they were great, considering the circumstances. The invasion had naturally affected the Inn's reputation a bit, and some of the guests had stopped visiting as the Inn no longer seemed as safe as before - at least until the Innkeeper returned. However, that number was still low.

Furthermore, despite the invasion ending over a day ago, another one had not happened. Considering that they still did not know the identity of the attacker and their true motives, this was a grand sign. Last, but not least, after having been abruptly exposed to a life-and-death situation, Fenrir's growth had undergone an explosion. Currently, he was the same size as the Galactic Sovereign turtle, meaning he was much bigger than Lex.

Moreover, while his cultivation growth was the same, he had unlocked various abilities from his bloodline. One of them was the ability to change his appearance - though size was still not an option. This had helped him tremendously, as, by sheer coincidence, one of the slimes Fenrir had befriended back on X-142 was teleported to the Inn through a Golden door.

Fortunately, Fenrir was not alone at the time, and as soon as he recognized the slime and was about to greet it, he was stopped. Then Mary explained to Fenrir that it could not expose its identity and, unexpectedly, the dog understood and complied.

Lex wiped some metaphorical sweat off his brow, as he completely forgot about the whole identity issue when he summoned Fenrir to X-142 with him. He would have to be more careful in the future.

His giant training dummy had assumed the role of a statue beside Midnight Mountain, since there really wasn't any energy to control it. Fortunately, people were used to the Inn changing all the time, so no one questioned it.

His staff was recovering nicely, and surprisingly, none of them seemed to have any mental trauma about going through such an incident. In fact, many of them seemed to consider it normal. That made Lex realize that he had seriously underestimated his workers, and especially the ones that had unlocked their bloodlines.

The fact that Gerard was able to hold his own against a Nascent level Raskal while in the Qi realm… he did not think such an ability could be easily replicated, even in the vast universe. He decided to emphasize their cultivation and training some more. If all of them became powerhouses similar to Gerard, would he need to be worried?

He further reduced their work hours and added mandatory training and cultivation time to their routines. Furthermore, despite Gerards reluctance, Lex upgraded him to head of security. If there was any consolation, it was that Lex allowed him to keep the golf cart. Furthermore, he told Mary to approach the Drake that had upgraded the cart, and see if it was willing to work for the Inn. Of course, actual hiring would have to wait for now, but there was no harm in testing the water.

Which finally led to their newest hire, Anita the Lich. While due to her amazing cultivation prowess, she was an important member of the Inn, Lex's real purpose in hiring her was actually very different.

Once Lex's tumor was removed, he finally became aware of the real weight of what it meant to be a cultivator, as well as the Innkeeper. He had no intentions of being mundane whatsoever, which meant that he had the expectation of reaching a very high cultivation realm. Along with such a cultivation came a long lifespan. He had already seen many of his guests who had lived for thousands of years, let alone Anita herself, who had lived for a ridiculously long time.

Currently, his experience made it impossible for Lex to imagine what living for so long would be like, but he understood the importance of history and recording it. So, among the many other things Lex had planned, Anita's first and most important role was to record the history of the Inn.

He told Mary to have her interview all the workers and start recording a detailed account of all the events that happened within the Inn itself. This history would be highly classified, for now, and Lex had an idea for he would make it accessible in the future, but that would have to wait till he had spare energy to use.

Once she was done with recording the history of the Inn, he told Mary to have her start recording the histories of the planets that were connected to the Inn, one by one. This seemed like a tedious and endless task, one with no seeming purpose or reward, but not only did Lex have a plan on how to use all this, Anita herself, as a person who had once created history, had a strong interest in learning and recording history.

As someone who had firsthand experienced how the events of her time were changed from memories to stories, to legends, to myths, she was endlessly intrigued by learning other myths, and trying to figure out the stories that had inspired them.

It seemed that coming to the Inn was the correct decision, at least for her. And so, it was with this giddy enthusiasm that Antia began recording what would one day be known as the odyssey of the Innkeeper.