The Innkeeper

Exploring the Midnight realm was a lot of fun, and offered many new adventures and experiences, so it was a little sad that Lex had to forgo them. When he reached the Notknit Islands he saw countless communities and various interesting races.

The islands seemed to be mainly occupied by beasts and sentient plants who learned how to move around. They formed an interesting dynamic between them, which resulted in a rich history and diverse culture, not to mention some strange customs.

Lex wanted nothing more than to jump in between them, get to know the locals, have a run in with the territory's bullies, and slap a few faces. Even challenging the Island leaders seemed like an interesting experience, as they somehow managed to capture and train monsters that could live in the chaos sea. But he did not have time for any of that.

He immediately turned on his treasure hunting Glyph, jumped through the hole that led to the underground continent that was much larger than any of the three continents above ground, and began to search for the Crystal.

He eventually discovered the reason it could not be found was because the Crystal was held as a holy item by a secret race that had been hiding in the so-called Underworld for a long time, and had abilities that could manipulate memories and cast illusions. Many thousands of years ago their ancestors had made a promise to a young monster trainer to forever keep the crystal safe.

Lex really felt like he was missing out a lot, like he was playing a video game without watching the cutscenes - something he'd never done. But he just didn't have time. Eventually, he found the Crystal, took it, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the system could absorb it - though it was only a Heavenly Immortal level ingredient.

With that done, he said farewell to all the mysteries of this place, and promised to come back when he had time - but deep inside he knew it was unlikely. It was like promising to replay a game he enjoyed a lot, with the aspiration to play in a different style and unlock a different story tree. The idea was there, but for whatever reason, he never came back to those games.

Maybe if he lived a long life, like the dragons, he'd eventually get around to playing all the games, and exploring all the places he wanted. Then he began to teleport across the sea, trying to find the other continents.

Jack, on the other hand, was also treasure hunting, though he stayed on Menara. Although originally he wanted to leave the Shadow Talons behind, and he did for a while, their ability to traverse the entire realms so easily was an enviable quality, so he ended up going back to them.

After all, they had been able to easily get into and out of the sealed domain, not to mention other places. Their help was a huge help in treasure hunting. But instead of having one of their elders with him, he preferred Ollie. After all, the elders were too big for his ship!

But the treasures he was hunting were not the ones that could be used by the system! After all, he wanted his clone to never have contact with the system at all!

This was especially so now that he had confirmed that he neither had access to the system interface, nor could he talk to Mary with his fairy body. It made sense, after all, the system was an item inside his soul, but not merged with his soul. That meant it was only in contact with his main body, not his clone.

No, the treasures he was searching for were those that could either help him build the Midnight Castle, or help him cultivate. It might seem like it was slightly redundant for him to try and avoid the system, then make a system building! But he now had access to a blueprint for a protection barrier that could even hide from the Midnight Inn! If he set that up first, then built the Castle, then he should technically maintain the state of not getting in contact with the system.

Currently, Jack found himself overlooking a battlefield covered in corpses. It somehow reminded him of the one he saw where he encountered the centipedal monster. But that was so long ago, and Lex already defeated him, yet this battlefield looked recent.

"What do you think, Ollie?" Jack asked, unwilling to bring his ship lower.

"This is the third battlefield we've found like this. So much open warfare is uncommon. If we want to pursue answers, we should look for the associated countries."

"But why is it that every battlefield is near a Barathian-Gold mine? This is too much of a coincidence. Not to mention, whenever we go to the mine, it's been stripped clean. I mean, Barathian-Gold is not supposed to be so valuable."

"I know no use of it that other metals can't do better. Any time that metal is even produced, it's because the ore happens to be alongside ores for other, more valuable metal ores."

"So you think whoever is targeting the mines is after the other ores?"

"It will need investigation to be sure. Shall I request an investigation?"

"No, no, I can't rely on the talons for everything. We must investigate this ourselves. Let's see if we can find someone living on this accursed battlefield. They might have answers."

But there was no one alive. Eventually, Jack was able to locate one of the countries at war, and discovered that it was a country of mutated insects who had become much larger. They'd also moved towards a unified colony, where various insects shared one, single colony that supported all of them.

Using his new found stealth abilities, Jack began to investigate the country. He was totally not doing this because his main body was missing out on adventures. That is when he accidentally discovered, for the first time, signs of a deity in the Midnight realm.