The Innkeeper

Having made up his mind, Lex first checked up on his guests to see how they were doing. Hugo was still in his room, stabilizing his new realm. Marlo was still undergoing a process of healing and being corroded by his own blood, while Helen was almost completely cured. The only reason Helen hadn't been cured by now, in fact, was because she'd had the poison in her system so long it had seeped into her brain and affected it, healing which was a slow and delicate process. Still, she'd be out soon. Lex instructed Velma to stay by her side and to give her a tour once everything was done.

With that he was done for now. He considered adding the Guild room to the Inn as well, it only cost 1000MP, but he decided to wait till he had more guests frequenting his Inn. There was no shortage of things he could buy, for example he could make Gerard and Velma permanent instead of keeping them on their temporary one month lease, but he still had a few more weeks left for that. He was planning on making the change closer to their end date, that way he'd keep some MP incase of an emergency - failing that Marlo quest really affected him.

He returned to his apartment and slept for a few hours before getting up at the break of dawn to go and exercise. He'd need to keep exerting himself if he wanted to speed up his body's stabilization process. He strapped some weights onto his body and went out for a run. At around 9 am he messaged Larry, asking him if he knew where he could quickly buy some gear. Larry replied with a location, asking Lex to meet him there in an hour. Unexpectedly, it was the Javits Center. A lot of large events took place there, and Lex had visited the place himself a few times during comic con. He really wasn't expecting such a public place to have anything to do with cultivators - it really took hiding in plain sight to another level.

Lex showered and left immediately, quickly reaching his destination but arriving early was pointless as he still ended up waiting for Larry to arrive. When the exuberant young Larry arrived he looked much better than yesterday, with no sign of the many bruises he had earlier. Whether it was makeup or medicine that did the job, Lex could not tell at all.

"What kind of gear are you looking for?" Larry asked after they greeted each other.

"Survival gear, body armor, weapons. I'll have to look at what's available, it really depends on what's available and what I can afford. Normally I'd ask Marlo, but he's away and God only knows when he'll be back."

"No no, it's a good thing you asked me instead. Not that Marlo wouldn't be able to help you out, but you really need to mix a little more with other cultivators. You need to be able to do things on your own incase you're ever in a pinch."

Larry led the way, all the while telling Lex that he needed to expose himself more to the cultivation world and not be a recluse. When the two got in an elevator that led them deep into a basement Lex was not surprised at all, as he seemed to understand that this would be a continuing pattern in New York.

When he exited the elevator he entered a large hall that looked identical to the one on the ground floor, and with the same AR technology used everywhere else it looked like they were out in the open instead of deep underground.

"Welcome to the main trading center for anything cultivator related in all of New York. Here, you can find anything from weapons to armor to med kits, spirit tech, cultivation techniques, spirit techniques to literally anything you can imagine as well as many things you can't imagine. The stalls are set up by individuals, organizations, companies, colleges, think tanks - basically anyone with anything to sell! And the security here is all maintained by Bluebird, and they're very thorough so you don't need to be afraid that you'll be robbed or ripped off. It might be slightly pricier than if you buy things from Marlo, but you'll get a whole lot more options as well!"

Lex was amazed by the giant underground market. Larry did not embellish at all, just from where he was standing he could see more variety in things for sale than he ever saw on the Bluebird portal.

"Listen, I'm sure you can handle yourself from here. I have a few chores I need to run myself," Larry spoke, less enthused than usual, but Lex didn't mind.

"Go ahead, thanks for bringing me here. I'll take my time looking at things so I might take a while anyway."

And indeed, Lex spent quite a few hours there. At first he only looked through all the stalls. Contrary to what he expected, most things being sold had less to do with combat and cultivation and more to do with luxury or day to day convenience. Fashion was also something that was given a lot of importance, as a lot of apparel was being sold - with the added bonus that the clothes won't accidentally rip due to your increased strength. In the end, Lex could not help himself and bought himself a lot of sportswear as well as camouflaged armor for his legs as well as his upper body. He bought himself glasses that had automatic night vision as well as zoom, a backpack that could resist ripping from the strength of an average body cultivator, high calorie rations, a wrist watch that would automatically create a map of anywhere he went when turned on, all terrain boots, protective gloves and, unbelievably, deodorant for cultivators! It did not have a nice smell like other deodorants, but instead eliminated any and all smells on his body so that he could not be tracked. He bought various books on combat and survival, and for the cheap, cheap price of $12 million he bought two generic cultivation techniques that went up to the peak of Qi Training. He wanted them for reference, so that he could understand how regular people cultivated and how it differed from Regal Embrace. Finally, he also bought a short sword and a dagger, both strengthened beyond regular cold weapons.

He did not have to carry bags as he shopped as all the items would be delivered to his apartment within the day, so he explored the market freely. When he felt satisfied that he had seen everything that could be offered here, he sent Larry a message and left. Everything he bought was in preparation for his next adventure to a new world, it would only be a couple more days till the next Golden Ticket was available for use.

*****

Deep in a forest in Vegus Minima the sounds of battle echoed. A swift and merciless man cut through a small horde of zombies, using no weapons other than his bare hands. His trained body knew exactly how to move to avoid getting attacked, while giving him the vantage to attack as he pleased. In but a few minutes the horde was reduced to nothing but a pile of dead bodies and the man wasted no time in recovering the cores from their bodies. Just as he was removing the core from the last body, another man appeared behind, emitting an even stronger aura of bloodlust.

"Any signs?" the first man asked, not bothering to look back.

"Nothing yet," the second man answered.

If Lex saw them now he would be thoroughly surprised to find these two incredibly ferocious men were Brother Chen and Blane, his two Pro Bono guests. The surprise would be because while they were at the Inn they behaved so meekly, but once they were back to their own world their true, battle hardened selves were revealed.

Blane, who took out the last zombie core, frowned as he heard Brother Chen's words. When they returned from the Inn they came back to the same place that they had made their final stand against the Tier 3 zombie. Finding their way back to the caravan should not have been a problem for them at all, especially since they were both good at tracking. However the caravan had mysteriously disappeared. No matter how they looked, they could not even find the caravans trail let alone the caravan itself. Even if the caravan was destroyed by zombies there should have been some signs of battle. Yet there was nothing. It was as if they were teleported, much in the same way the two soldiers had been teleported to the Inn.

"Rest up. Come dawn, we'll continue our search. This time, we'll try to be quiet and avoid fighting, it wastes too much time. If we're unable to find the caravan in the next few days, I think we should return to the Inn and see if they have something that can help us."

Blane only nodded, grimacing. 'I hope you're okay Iris', he thought. 'You have to be.'