The Innkeeper

Despite the absence of light, or even eyes, the Frigal had not forsaken the appearance of their town. The streets were wide and even, with pavement on either side. There was a surprising amount of vegetation for such a cold, dark planet, in the form of bushes that had been planted every dozen feet or so.

The buildings were designed to be completely symmetrical, with an inordinate amount of design even on the outside. The use of precious ores to decorate the buildings was also a very prevalent practice.

Yet as gaudy as the town appeared to be, the mood of the citizens did not seem to match. There were only a few Frigal's moving about in the streets, but each and everyone seemed like they were expecting death right around the corner.

The unusual mood and the encounter with a potential assassin made Lex aware that there was something extremely unusual going on - most likely. When he extended his spirit sense from his hiding place to try and learn as much about his environment as he could, he discovered that his suspicions were entirely correct.

"Do you have any confirmation yet?" one Frigal whispered to another, speaking in their unusual language that consisted of various throaty growls.

"You know how hard it is to get confirmed news, but this is as solid a lead as any were going to get for a while. I got the news from the nephew of the neighbor of one of the palace guards. The royal family is acting extremely oddly, and the king has been to the Lord Dragons chamber multiple times in the last few days. No one knows what's happening, but security has been drastically increased around the castle. I've heard that even the king's son from a random maid has a bodyguard now."

"So they are acting strange, that doesn't mean that the Lord Dragon is dead! The Lord Dragon is immortal and everlasting! These damn foreigners are causing problems for no reason, spreading such vile rumors. I say we should execute them all."

"I also don't believe that anything can happen to the Lord Dragon. Who doesn't know of the Lord's immoral might? But… I can't help but think that something is going on! Even the king has never been allowed to enter the Lord's chamber so frequently."

"I think the King has finally convinced the Lord to act against the Icy abominations coming from the south! As soon as the Lord makes a move, we'll finally be freed from this unrewarding war."

"All praise to the mighty Lord!" the Frigal exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Lex listened in to a few more conversations, and understood the gist of what was happening. Suddenly and spontaneously, some foreigners appeared on the planet and began claiming that the Mighty dragon had died. Such statements were received with predictable disharmony, and those foreigners were said to have been imprisoned, although the public seemed to be curious as to why they had not been publicly executed yet, as would normally be the case.

Though there were very few Frigal's on the streets, most of them seemed to have the same or similar beliefs, which was that the dragon was infallible. Only after squatting in the same place for well over an hour did Lex encounter someone with a differing view.

"I'm telling you. My son's girlfriend's father's mistress works as a maid in the royal palace. The royals all know that the dragon has passed on and are taking this opportunity to raid the Lord's treasury."

A dragon's treasury…

Although Lex was not sure how he would confirm if this planet really was the planet that the mystery man meant, if there was treasure to be found anywhere, a dragon's treasury sure sounded like the place.

His original plan was to wait on this planet till the Inn connects to it, after which he would begin to explore all the 89 planets using his ship's extremely thorough and powerful scanning tools.

But, upon hearing the intrigue surrounding the dragon, Lex was tempted to investigate. To be clear, while the information about this planet was very limited on the Henali portal, there was slightly more information on the dragon.

The first and most important thing was that all dragons, true dragons that is, were in the Earth Immortal realm from the moment of their birth. It was literally the lowest level they could be at, and any 'dragon' that claimed to be one but was below that realm was actually a mix-breed creature that resembled a dragon.

The exact realm of the dragon was unknown, but it had a strong reputation so there was a solid chance that it was at a higher realm.

Lex didn't believe an immortal could die so randomly or quietly. After all, immortal was in the name of their realm, right?

But it was clear that something was definitely going on, and his curiosity had been piqued. He focused on gathering information on the location of the castle. Just to be safe, since the castle was bound to be a high security area, Lex summoned Fenrir before the two bolted.

"Listen buddy, you better use your powers to the best of your abilities. There's probably going to be many immortals where we're heading."

Fenrir snorted, but at the same time Lex could tell it had begun to use its full power. Although it might be foolish to head to such a dangerous location, it wasn't as if Lex was going to head straight in without a plan. First he would take his time to scout the area out, and only after this planet had established its connection to the Inn would he venture in.

With his own suit, and Fenrir's remarkable abilities, they should be able to avoid attracting any attention. The only real possibility of them being detected was if there were immortals there, and Lex could only guess that there might be.

At the same time, he wondered what those 'icy abominations' that were mentioned were. There was no such information mentioned on the portal, and this planet was supposed to be under the thorough control of the dragon, so who could possibly be stirring trouble? Or did this just count as internal strife, which the dragon could not be bothered to care about?