The Innkeeper

In the middle of an extravagant, circular chamber, with every inch of its surface covered in formations, sat a fairy on a throne with its eyes closed. The amount of energy coursing through its body at any given moment was hundreds of times what even Lex could tolerate, yet the fair seemed unharmed.

It was a completely different matter altogether that the fairy struggled immensely, and for nearly an hour, before it was finally able to crack open a single eye.

“The golden crown has appeared,” its thoughts transmitted out loud. “Our chance has come.”

Just that single sentence has thoroughly exhausted it, and wrinkles appeared on its face and its hair turned white. But such a scene lasted only a brief moment, as the endless flowing energy in its body allowed it to recover back to its original state.

It seemed like nothing had happened, and no one was in the chamber with it to hear its thoughts, but there was nothing else the fairy could do. It remained on its throne, sitting with its head held high, its back straight, appearing regal, yet a prisoner nonetheless.

*****

The first beast they encountered was a wolf. It gave Lex flashbacks of running for his life from wolves in a forest back on Nibiru. Now though, the wolfs growling, glaring face just looked cute to Lex.

The girl, whose name was Hildi, did not feel the same. She did not hesitate to scream at the wolf aggressively, and make herself look big, which was not a challenge, really. Her attempts to intimidate the wolf did not work, as two more pulled out from behind some more trees.

That seemed to make the girl nervous, but she still didn’t run. She drew her sword and looked at Lex nervously, to see if he was ready for battle. He was not.

“How about I take care of this one,” Lex said, stepping forward, uncaring about how startled the girl was. It was quite refreshing to be the strongest one around for once. He had long gotten used to being surrounded by overwhelmingly powerful beings, which is why he was never able to let loose completely.

But the more time he was spending in the Midnight realm, the more he was beginning to open up. Not so long ago, a few Nascent realm cultivators ruled all of earth, and he was most definitely stronger than them.

“What are you doing?” Hildi hissed.

“I have a pet wolf. Well, actually, a pet dog, but it’s so big it might as well be a wolf. Anyway, I’m good with dogs,” Lex said, as if that explained everything.

Hildi hissed once more, as if she were some animal threatening him, but at least she didn’t use him as bait to run. Bonus points for basic human decency, so maybe he’d pass on a weak technique or something.

Lex had the wolves locked down with his spirit sense, and a trace of Domination, which completely froze them. But he didn’t intend to kill them. He pulled up to the dog in front and scratched its head a bit before rubbing its neck playfully.

After a while, he walked back to Hildi, and the wolves seemed to… slowly recede into the forest.

“I wouldn’t recommend you copy me, by the way,” Lex said to the stumped Hildi.

“I wasn’t going to! What did you do? That was a Shadow wolf scouting party! How did you… how?”

“I told you, I have a pet dog. I probably have its scent all over me. Wolves and dogs recognize the scent and don’t really say anything to me. It’s kind of a dog owner thing.”

“That’s not… that’s…” Hildi was questioning everything she knew, because that’s now how it was supposed to work, but then again, she had just seen it work! But then her mind snapped back into place.

“What’s your crown level?” she asked warily.

“Pardon?” Lex asked, slightly confused. He could imagine that she was referring to his projection, but why would that be relevant?

“Your crown level? It’s really high isn’t it? Wouldn’t be surprised if it was silver. No wonder you’re fine in the forest alone. Beasts are all intimidated by high crown levels.”

Lex raised an eyebrow. So beasts were intimidated, but the same did not extend to humans.

“I’ve never been to Torrinwood. Is it common to share information like that openly here?”

Hildi looked away, feeling slightly guilty.

“You know, never mind. You’re right, it’s a private matter. Thanks for taking care of the wolves, but we should go. Pack animals are the hardest to deal with – we don’t want to be here if they come back with the whole pack.”

The pack did not return. In fact, Lex wouldn’t be surprised if they just migrated out of the forest after being exposed to Lex’s aura. But they were attacked by a number of other creatures.

This time, Lex did not shoo them away, and gave Hildi small bits of inspiration throughout the fights, drastically improving her skills. She had no idea what was happening, and clearly she was equal parts confused and excited.

Naturally, since Hildi made all the kills, she was the one to use all of them to improve her crown. She explained that rule to Lex before doing it, and he didn’t particularly mind. But even by the time they exited the forest, it had hardly made a difference to the amount of rust on her projection.

This was clearly a long term project.

“Can you tell me a little about Torrinwood? Anything I should look out for? I’m not too familiar with the area.”

“The city is run by two families. Well, it’s actually run by the city council, but in effect, two families own almost everything in the city. You’re not going to believe it, but they’re the Torrin and Wood families. You want to stay away from both of them, by the way. Total pricks. If you run into a member from their families, what you’re going to want to do is turn the other way and leave.”

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