The Innkeeper



Truth be told, Lex felt some pity for Zagan. Obviously he was in a precarious situation, and Lex was here bothering and distracting him. But at the same time, if instead of arguing and fighting back he had simply given the answers he required, he would be halfway done by now.

"Look I understand you don't want interruptions. I also don't want to bother you, nor do I want to continuously bicker. Just give me the answers I want and I will leave you alone."

Zagan did not immediately reply, and showed a disgruntled face. The Farham inducing illusions could sense his distraction, and so immediately increased the potency of the illusion. For a split second, Zagan almost genuinely believed that the illusion he was living was real.

Cold sweat appeared on his brow, and this seemingly easy tribulation was made immeasurably more difficult all with the addition of a simple, single human. Or perhaps… this was also a part of the tribulation! Of course! It suddenly made so much sense!

He was a noble and dignified immortal, working for the mysterious and powerful Midnight Inn. How could his training be casually interrupted? How could some human just waltz up to him? Moreover, how could a weakling utterly ignore his impressive and dangerous aura while he underwent a tribulation? Little did he know, it was impossible for anyone to be harmed by passive aura inside the Inn, for the system neutralized all such auras. It was one of the Inn's original features, which is why Lex and so many others were able to tolerate the aura of Dao Lords without losing complete control.

So this was a part of the tribulation too. More than an illusion tribulation, this should be called a heart tribulation, for only with simple tricks his heart and faith in the noble Midnight Inn was almost shaken. It all made so much sense. He…

The human was poking his face again, though this time Zagan's heart was calm and serene, like a monk praying to Buddha, or an introvert in the safety of their blankets in their room. The knowledge and wisdom he had accumulated over millions of years was showing off now.

"Fret not, human. Since you are a coworker, how could I leave unassisted? From what I recall, you need to move across vast amounts of space quickly. Oh yes, the Trelops Sacred lands. As for the Poloids' new country, I have no idea where that is, but it is not a concern. I can easily resolve this issue for you."

Since Zagan was convinced that everything that was happening was an illusion, he did not hesitate to give his best performance. After all, it wasn't like it would have any real ramifications.

His eyes still closed, Zagan lifted his right hand and showed it to Lex. It was empty. Then, like a magician performing a trick, he swung his hand around, and in it, an oval shaped, sharp, black scale appeared.

"This is my heart scale, meaning the scale that used to cover my heart. It fell out during my lightning tribulation, but a new one will grow once I complete my tribulations so I don't really need it. You can use this scale as a token to prove your identity, and as a sign that you are acting at my behest. The scale should continue to contain my aura for at least another 10,000 years, so you only have that much time.

"But the scale alone will not help you. As a noble immortal, I naturally have many followers and worshipers. One particular follower of mine is quite adept at traversing great distances quickly, though he is not the most intelligent fellow. I will teach you how you can summon him using my scale, and so long as you possess my scale he will obey you. As for how to get him to go where you need, that will be a small challenge you will have to overcome on your own."

Zagan paused for a moment as he collected himself, then began explaining to Lex the process of summoning his subordinate.

Surprisingly, the sequence of events played out in the exact direction Lex had hoped. Although he had no idea this was only because Zagan was under the impression that everything was an illusion, or he would have been extremely hesitant to hand over his heart scale.

But as far as the monster was concerned, in truth, he really did have his heart scale, so he was not worried.

Once Lex got everything he needed, as promised he left Zagan alone to continue his tribulation. He hoped it would end soon, as such a powerful yet submissive worker would be very valuable to him.

The issue he had to face next was who he could have work at his behest in the Crystal realm. If he had not sent away his most reliable workers to the Inn, he would definitely pick one of them. As it was, he could only delegate this task to Rick, the handyman at the tavern.

Rich was incharge of miscellaneous work at the Inn, and could often be seen cleaning dishes, serving guests, making beds, dealing with laundry and anything and everything else that came up. The only job he had not done yet was actually barkeep, which made sense. Roan, the actual bartender of the tavern, was quite possessive of the job.

Anyway, Rick was a simple straightforward worker. He did not talk much, nor did he do much else outside of his assigned tasks. For this particular job, such a person would be best. The more they paid close attention to Lex's instructions, the better this job would go. The only regretful point about him was his almost nonexistent cultivation.

Not delaying the matter further, he used his Remote presence ability and summoned a projection in the tavern. Summoning Rick to a private room, Lex began to carefully instruct him in his following tasks. Just to be sure, he even had Rick repeat his instructions to ensure he had everything memorized correctly.

When the instruction was complete, Lex handed over the scale to Rick, and escorted him to the roof where they would begin to summon Zagan's subordinate. Considering Rick's lack of cultivation, he actually wasn't able to do this on his own, so Big Ben was temporarily recruited to aid in the process.

Up on the roof, Big Ben channeled his spirit into the scale while using the 'spirit technique' he had been handed over by his coworker. The process was… creepy to say the least, and was reminiscent of cult rituals. Fortunately no blood sacrifices were required.

Once he completed his job, Big Ben retreated from the roof, leaving only Rick and Lex's projection.

The duo stood there in awkward silence as they waited. Lex tried to strike up a conversation with Rick, but even his charisma failed to elicit more than one word replies, so they ultimately once again returned to silence.

A few hours passed, and just as Lex was getting impatient, he sensed a change in space. There was a ripple in the air, as if air were water, and from the ripple emerged… a large catfish. The fish which seemed to swim through the air focused all its attention on the scale, and then froze.

It neither looked at the two of them, or tried to do anything else. It simply continued to stare at the scale as if it was its entire world. 

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Lex asked hesitantly as he looked at the simple minded fish, and straightforward Rick.

"Yes," he replied, nodding, before he walked to the fish, before discovering it was too high. He lowered the scale to the ground, and the fish similarly descended, its eyes still locked on. Then, without warning, Rick jumped up to try and climb the fish. Unfortunate, as the scale also rose higher when Rick jumped, so too did the fish rise, resulting in an awkward failure.

Completely unperturbed, as if he had not just done something silly, Rick paused for a moment to think. Eventually, he slowly grabbed onto one of the fishes' whiskers, and pulled it down. The fish complied. Finally he was able to climb aboard.

So concerned was Lex that he did not even make any cowboy comparisons as Rick rode off into the sky on his catfish steed. His first destination would be to Toro, to whom he would show the invitation. That was because Toro was the closest Trelop around.

Then, either accompanied or guided by Toro, they would head to the Trelops' Sacred lands to deliver the letter to whichever Trelop was incharge. Upon delivering that letter he would return to the tavern, during which time Lex would search for someone who could guide him to the Poloids new country.

Riding a monster fish that could swim through space, Rick should face no problems. So why then did Lex feel so worried?