The Innkeeper

By the time Lex exited his retreat, only seven months remained to complete his quest. Considering that he had narrowed down a list of items that could possibly help the system and all he needed to do was go find them, that was both a very long and very short time. It was long because teleportation would cut his travel time down by a lot. At the same time, it was short because there was no guarantee that they would help the system.

In the back of his mind, he had come up with a contingency plan, which is something he would only use in the worst case scenario. It required the help of the Rhinocentaurs who had access to the groupchat. But, he didn't want to wait until the last possible minute to look for them.

He decided that he would approach them first and get them to think of a way they could locate systems within the Origin realm. Then he would just need to come up with a way to forcibly teleport from this realm back there, and then find the systems. It was an absolutely terrible plan with many problems that could occur, which is why he kept it as the very last resort. Ultimately, he had to at least consider that there may not be enough items that could repair the system in his own realm, although a part of him suspected that should not be the case.

No matter what, the system had never given him a completely impossible quest. But at the same time, he could not scan every inch of this place that was 0.25 lightyears large!

"Mary, how are things in the Inn?" Lex asked as he stepped out, feeling refreshed. Considering the monumental task ahead of him, Lex took the time to rest and recover to his peak state before coming out. After all, if he had spent so much time searching his memories, then a few hours spent recovering wouldn't matter.

"There have been no major problems," she said, appearing in front of him in a suit. It was rare for her to look so serious, as she usually preferred cosplaying in more eccentric clothes.

"There are a few minor issues that have cropped up, though. I think everyone at the Inn can handle them for now if you want to focus on your quest first."

"Tell me anyway. I'm going to be teleporting to the other continents, and it might take some effort, so I want to leave things here in a good state if I can."

"I don't know how much you can do without appearing as the Innkeeper. There are about 800 guests who have gathered up and are extremely upset about not being able to return. They're saying that they've been kidnapped. Although they haven't done anything drastic yet, they're very vocal in their demands to return.

"Also, a few weeks ago, we welcomed the first of many diplomatic envoys. Since then, a number of countries and empires from all over Menara have sent diplomatic groups to better understand the Inn. There was one incident where a particular group demanded the Inn swear fealty to their lord, but after Luthor had a polite conversation with them, they decided not to cause any more problems. The diplomatic envoys though… they're clearly trouble.

"They haven't done anything untowards as of yet, but it's apparent that they're scouting out the strengths and weaknesses of the Inn, and they're not subtle about it at all. There was almost an incident where one of them tried to probe the actual strength of Anita by appearing to threaten her baby. Well… fortunately, Charles is very well versed in medicine for various races, so we were able to bring him out of the coma the Cthulhu put him in. As for how long it will take to recover from the mental trauma of the incident, there is no estimate."

"Well, don't worry about it. It's obvious that they won't easily accept the claims of some voice that told them that it created their whole world. Sooner or later, one of them will probe the Inn. The rest probably just don't want to be the first to do it. It's important to maintain good relations with them, since the Inn is a hospitality business after all. But other than that, it's also important to let them know their place. I'll take care of it."

Mary nodded, and disappeared. Lex didn't exactly like the fact that others were being so obvious about their ulterior motives.

Although they had to be hospitable, he was not a subscriber of the 'customer is always right' mindset. Mistreating his workers was not acceptable.

Perhaps it was time to meet some of the ambassadors himself. Lex summoned Fenrir, and sat on top of him, noticing that the pups' fur had become even softer since the last time they met. He had also begun to radiate a special kind of aura that was mostly suppressed by the Inn.

It reminded him of the Mythical beings he met in the Crystal realm - the primogenitors of the Frio and Sol birds. But Fenrir was definitely not a Mythical being. The only thing he could think of was that its bloodline was displaying more of its prowess. After all, he did have a 100% pure bloodline.

"Alright buddy, you remember what I said about scaring your prey? Well, now I'm going to teach you about intimidation. It's very useful when you don't want to actually kill your target, but you need them to behave."

The pup turned and looked at him with a special gleam in his eyes.

"No, it's not going to work on the turtle so don't even think about it," Lex scoffed, and then put on his Notorious Anonymity mask, before teleporting them both away.

They reappeared in front of the Midnight manor, which was more crowded than it had been in a while, and everybody immediately turned to look at them. Both Fenrir and Lex gave off an aura that could not be ignored.