The Innkeeper



Lex watched in silence as Powell excitedly interacted with his tablet. Sometimes the man was so professional, yet at other times, especially when it was a matter of his own commission, he could show a childlike giddiness.

Soon he put down the tablet and looked at Lex.

"Good news. Because of your level at the Infinity Emporium, as well as our history together, I've been promoted significantly. Headquarters will give me special training so that in the future, I will permanently deal with all your transactions. There will no longer ever be a situation where I need to contact headquarters to give you an answer to one of your questions.

"Moreover, you yourself have become a VIP member of the emporium. Your level is no longer denoted by number, as you are completely eligible for the highest authority the emporium has to offer.

"Moreover… moreover, the owner of the emporium has taken notice of your latest request, and is personally making his way over. This deal… he will complete himself!"

"The owner?" Lex asked, surprised. He did not expect to attract the attention of the owner of the emporium, although it made sense. The description of the elixir stated that it was extremely rare, and there were only two known ways of making it, the first involving daolords. Moreover, while Lex knew how he could personally use it, he didn't really know what other actual uses it had. Surely they were extremely useful.

The only concern was… how long would it take for the owner to reach them? Lex was in a time crunch.

Before he could ask, however, the door to the room they were in opened, and an extremely familiar man walked in.

"You've done a great job, Powell," the man said, his voice confident yet smooth as butter. "For now, you can go on and report for your special training. I will take care of things from here."

"Yes sir!" Powell exclaimed full of energy, and saluted the owner of the emporium, before he bowed excitedly towards Lex as well. Then he ran off outside, practically giggling, and shut the door behind him.

Meanwhile, Lex said nothing as he was thoroughly confused. The man he was looking at… was Powell himself! There were two of them?

This should not have been such a big surprise, for even on earth there were identical twins. But the thing was, Lex was not only looking with his eyes. His intuition, spirit sense and soul sense all told him that he was looking at the same man!

Both Powells were… exactly one and the same. Lex could have explained such a situation by saying that one Powell was the clone of the other, but then why did they have different memories, feelings and identities, yet seemed to be the same person.

The remaining Powell looked at Lex with a smile, and seemed to understand exactly what he was thinking.

"Before we begin, Mr. Lex, allow me to say, I am incredibly honored to finally meet you. Though there was not an opportunity to meet before this, I have long paid attention to your transactions. I would like to thank you on behalf of the emporium and all its employees for your continued loyalty and support."

"Your service has always been excellent. I have no reason not to come back," Lex replied with complete composure, despite his confused state.

"I know you are in a bit of a rush, but would you like a bit of a proper introduction to the emporium? Perhaps that will answer some of your questions. Or if you have other commitments, we can get right to work, and then you can ask Powell any questions you have in the future. He will have the knowledge and authorization to answer you when you meet next," the owner ensured.

"Please, have a seat," Lex said, pointing towards a nearby sofa. "Although I am in a rush, it is not to the level where I can't even sit for a simple conversation."

*****

Velma had become extremely busy as of late due to her new profession as well as the immense responsibility the Innkeeper placed on her. If she had to do all that, while maintaining her passion of gossiping, she would need a hundred clones of herself. So, lately, that is what she had turned her attention towards.

She visited the Midnight Library and found some of the best cloning techniques available. None of them were exactly what she was looking for, but they could meet her basic requirements if only barely. But her cultivation was too low for the best techniques, so she had begun to remedy that.

She was cultivating nonstop, and had even visited the soul pond built by Harry. The pond helped her increase her soul strength just enough, where she could use one of the most basic but effective cloning techniques.

It involved splitting a small piece of one's soul and storing it inside a sufficiently strong treasure. This would not be any random treasure, but a specially designed treasure for this specific purpose. Once a soul was stored inside, spirit stones could be added into the treasure to form a spirit energy clone which was completely controlled by the clone.

The clone had half the strength of a mortal, but otherwise was perfectly able to replicate a normal human. For Velma's purposes it was enough, for all the clone needed to do was pay attention to gossip and compile the newsletter while Velma herself focused on raising her cultivation level. It did not really need any significant strength for that.

Moreover, all the information the clone received was immediately shared with the main soul so long as they were within a certain range, so it was not really an issue.

But within her meditation room Velma suddenly opened her eyes in shock and quickly ended her round of cultivation. She just received important news about a person the Innkeeper had told her to keep an eye on.

Garlin, the snake which had won the fishing competition, had been assassinated on its home planet!