The Innkeeper

Lex had once again fallen asleep, and this time the Lotus was having a little more trouble helping him lay the necessary foundation for his body. The Lotus itself was an infant, after all, and the more it raised Lex's foundation, the harder it became to further improve it.

Last time it had to ask the turtle for some extremely fertile soil, while this time the Lotus used up all the Divine Essence that had been collected by the Divine boulder core - the core being the small pebble that Lex had found back in the Crystal realm that greatly increased his strength.

Lex always assumed that the essence could no longer assist him, but the essence was literally something used by divine beings. How could it be so straightforward? The reason why Lex could no longer gain benefits from it was that he had tempered all his skin with it, strengthening it while also making it non-permeable to the essence.

The reason for that was… to prevent any essence inside his body from leaking out! Ergo, the next natural step was to have the inside of his body washed in the essence. Lex was naturally incapable of doing that, since at most he could drink it. The Lotus, however, could wash every inch of Lex's body, not only strengthening his Foundation, but also increasing the strength of his body.

The gist of it was… it was taking a lot longer to help Lex wake up this time compared to the last couple of times.

*****

The physical universe, or rather the physical Origin realm, was a vast and wonderful place. The possibilities were endless, and it was filled with strange and mesmerizing visages. Yet only the lucky or the worthy ever had a chance to bear witness to it. Fortunately, there was another place where even the mundane could experience the full glory of everything the physical plane had to offer.

This mystical place was known as the Henali portal. All one needed to do was scan their body and then use any of the VR immersion devices to enter the portal with their mind, and live in the alternate reality, which was the Henali portal.

The size of the portal was incalculable, for no one had ever discovered the borders of this place.

Unlike the physical place, which existed as planets, star systems and galaxies, the portal existed only as one continuous plane. Each galaxy that was connected to the Henali portal would receive a plot of land proportional to the size of their galaxy, where they would hold their sovereignty. If the galaxy had an owner, for example, the Jotun Empire, then anyone entering the virtual plot of land would require an online visa.

The visa thing sucked, but that was veering off into the political side of the portal. Basically, the portal was massive, and in fact, the definition of the 'known universe' that was commonly used in the Origin realm referred to the area of the realm which had been connected by the portal.

Other races could only explore how vast the Origin realm was by the number of connected galaxies. Besides them, only the Henali truly knew how expansive the origin realm was, but they could not be bothered to lay out the portal themselves, so they had members of the alliance doing it.

Predictably, one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the portal was fighting. Since the fighters would not really die in real life, many people used the ultra-realism of the portal to hone their skills and contest against strong opponents.

In one such place, in an unnamed galaxy, in a private room, a Marzu, also known as T-rex, a Bunair, a race of sentient beetles, and an Oolin, a humanoid race with bronze colored skin and majestic antlers, were sitting together.

All three females were spectating a battle royale and casually chatting amongst one another. This, for them, was a very common get together. Though it may seem like they were rich and carefree, in truth, they were all battle maniacs who happened to become friends from battling one another in the portal. Every so often they would take a break and rest like this, for maintaining peak mental state required some off time.

The Oolin, a young girl of only 91 years of age, was casually sifting through the pages of an online battle magazine when a particular article caught her interest.

To be more specific, it was the image above the article that caused her interest. It was the silhouette of a man dressed smartly, holding naught but a butter knife. The lands before him were filled with bodies of what she could only assume were his defeated opponents, though the outline of his face did not seem to be looking down at them. Instead, it was looking upwards, as if challenging the heavens.

Though it was only a picture, and the young girl could not even determine the warrior's expression, let alone his identity, something about the way he stood filled her heart with admiration, as well as worship.

The title of the article was 'To die at his hands is the ultimate mercy' and was written by a 'Rachel'.

The Oolin girl could not move her gaze away from the heroic figure in the picture, as if his silhouette contained everything she had ever dreamed of. Unbeknownst to herself, the bronze skinned girl began to blush.

At this point, her two friends noticed something was going on, but she herself did not notice. She finally pried her eyes from the picture, and began to read the words written below.

'How lonely is it at the top?' the author asked in her first sentence, and then continued. 'It is a question we will never be able to answer, for that is the place where he stands, alone, protecting everything he holds dear. But while he stands at the front to protect so many others, why must he stand alone, with no one to protect his heart?'

The Oolin girl did not even realize when the tears started flowing down her cheeks as she imagined a hero, going from one battlefield to another, his body a canvas for battle scars. But when he returns at night to rest by his campfire, he rests alone.

'I will protect your heart!' the girl wanted to scream, but she knew her voice would not reach the hero's ears, for he was surely far away, fighting to keep the universe safe.

At the end of the article, a part she had not yet reached, was a statement by the author, mentioning an upcoming comic series depicting the exploits of the noble hero known only as, 'The Innkeeper'.