The Innkeeper

"Let me introduce myself again," said Lex, wearing a casual smile. But it was not his usual handsome face that wore the smile. Instead, the face appeared slightly more mature, with deep-set eyes and a jawline sharp enough to cut through steel. His voice also changed, becoming slightly heavier and lower.

The faint glimmer of amusement in his eyes and the teasing tone in his voice matched his new persona well. The face he wore looked like it was on the verge of causing mischief at any given moment, but at the same time, presented a trustworthy and reliable facade. He looked like the kind of person who would be forgiven even if he caused trouble all the time, just because everyone knew he never meant any harm.

Yet even if he did mean harm, what could anyone do anyway?

"My name is Leo, and I run the Gamer's Den."

From the distracted Larry, to reclining Noman, to the slouching Anakin, to even the ever proper Rafael, everyone in the room suddenly sat up straight as goosebumps covered their bodies. With wide eyes and chaotic minds, they looked at the man who was now sitting amongst them and tried to wrap their head around the news they had absorbed.

It was not just a matter of Lex actually being an Inn employee, which was mind blowing enough. No, instead the shock was because not only was he a worker of the Inn, he was the mysterious employee who had seemed to pop out of nowhere.

A single worker appearing or disappearing, amongst the numerous that worked in the various areas of the Inn, should not have been worthy of any interest. In fact, besides a few prominent workers, such as Z, who made regular appearances at the arena, most people did not know any of the workers.

So then why was the reaction to Leo so strong? And why was he described as mysterious?

It was because no one had heard of him, or the few that knew him had seen him so long ago they forgot he even existed. Yet, one day, he suddenly popped up out of thin air, and as a Foundation level expert, single handedly defeated over 300 Nascent realm cultivators!

This was not an insignificant accomplishment! In fact, Lex himself had no idea of the impact that single action had made. Earth alone was ruled by 5 Nascents for decades. The entire planet and all its countries and armies were vassals of those 5 people. Yet Lex fought off over 300 of them at the same time! HE DID THAT WHILE HE WAS IN THE FOUNDATION REALM!

Now, he sat amongst them, as a newly reached Golden Core level expert. Not a single one of them took Lex's strength lightly, from the extremely strong Larry to the system wielder Souta, to the much experienced Rafael.

There were simply no words to elaborate the insanity of the achievement properly. The fact that Larry fought Suzuki for days before being able to kill him spoke of the difficulty involved in a fight at a higher level. Yet Lex had taken a few hours, if at that.

"Access to news like that is just one of the perks that the Inn's employees get. You'll understand if I maintain my silence about some other details relating to the Inn. What's more important is that you understand that the information I got was directly from the Inn's sources. Some time ago, I had Marlo deliver the file to Fernanda. I had hoped that whoever was really behind all this would treat this matter seriously. After all, according to what I know, they were very particular about civilian casualties in cultivator matters. But either there is a holdup I'm not aware of, or they don't really care as much as I had expected for some reason, because no new action has been taken against the prisoners. At least as far as I know. This is not exactly an easy situation to investigate."

Lex looked at the bewildered Larry and then at Rafael. He gave the fellow a teasing wink, but said nothing else. He had said his part, and now it was the others turn to explain.

Rafael took in a deep breath as countless thoughts ran through his mind. This Lex… or Leo, whoever he was, could be phenomenal help to his own cause in the future.

A confident yet sly smile appeared on the man's face as he looked back at Lex.

"Well, your source is pretty good. I guess now it's time to tell you mine," he said, completely giving into Lex's incessant goading. He wanted to show off his own secrets as well. But regardless of how impressive his own secrets were, just by wanting to show off, a chink in his previously impenetrable armor appeared. He was finally playing according to Lex's tune instead of maintaining his composed state.

After all, the mere thought of wanting to show off would end up causing him to reveal a lot more than he might originally have planned to. The more he revealed, the more leverage Lex would gain.

"Actually, my source is fairly straightforward as well. My own memories are my source. You see, I am from the future, and I have already lived a very long time on Earth. It was only at the moment of my death that I was able to use a special treasure to travel back into my own body, so many years into the past."

The previously confident Lex was startled and nearly fell off his chair as he looked up at Rafael in shock. Then he turned to Noman, expecting him to whisper something. Yet when he didn't, he looked back at Rafael with eyes wide.

Rafael didn't show it, but internally he was greatly satisfied by Lex's reaction, and continued to elaborate.

"Actually, it's not so impressive. The future has already drastically changed for the entire earth just because of a few minor changes that happened. But some things… some things will not change no matter what happens on earth.

"I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but the solar system is in a region called the Dead zone. Dead zones are regions of space which suffer from a severe lack of spiritual energy. Yet in a few years, the deadzone in which the solar system exists will spontaneously undergo a change, bringing back spiritual energy in a flood. While that seems like a good thing, there is a prisoner being held on Earth that is akin to a Goddess, known as Bastet."

Lex displayed an unusual expression at the mention of the name, but Rafael only assumed it was feedback at his news, further satisfying him secretly.

"With the return of spiritual energy, she will escape the prison. Such a thing is not really anyone's fault, but a few years later that will cause problems too. But, what's more relevant to your question of how I know the empire won't act against whoever rules on earth, comes next. With the return of spiritual energy, the earth entered what everyone assumed would be a prosperous era. But that couldn't be farther from the truth.

"While earthlings enjoyed the abundant spiritual energy, what no one knew was that there were a number of alien races that had been dormant for god only knows how long on numerous planets, moons and asteroids all across the dead zone."

Rafael paused, and his previous smug appearance disappeared, replaced by a somber one.

"The first race we came across was called the locusts - at least by the earthlings. It was not because they looked like insects, which they did. No, it was because they came like a calamity, blotting out the horizon with their vast numbers. Starved for hundreds of millennia probably, they ate anything and everything that contained spiritual energy, leaving nothing in their wake. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. One by one, they devoured the planets in the solar system, starting from the furthest out."

He paused again, lost in memory for a few moments.

"That was the first time I experienced hopelessness. They came from all directions, with the sun as their target. Any planet that stood in their way was nothing more than food. If they had come from a single direction, maybe we could have made a stand with the earth as a battlefield to block them. But no, from all directions, as well as up and below, they swarmed, blotting out the stars in the sky.

"Fortunately, no matter how powerful they were, they could not cross the distance between the planets and the sun in a short time. That gave us just enough time, not only to wallow in our impending doom, but also to be saved. That was the first time I heard the name of the Jotun empire, when their fleets suddenly appeared one day surrounding the planet, getting ready to eliminate the invading enemies.

"That was also when I learned that… the earth, for thousands of years already, had been the private property of some noble family in the Jotun Empire."

Rafael looked back at the bewildered 'Leo' and took great pleasure in his surprised expression. How could he have known that while 'Leo' had said not a single word, he had put on that entire display or surprise to entice Rafael to say more. In truth, Lex had long gotten used to encountering world redefining things, so how could a little time travel take him by surprise?

He also discovered another way to take advantage of Noman's ability and presence.