The Innkeeper

In movies, being burnt by lava was a slow and agonizing process where the person exposed to the lava was slowly absorbed into it as if he were being pulled into quicksand. The truth of it was quite different.

Lava was thick and heavy, and being pressed against literally thousands of tons of it felt just about as solid as being pressed against a wall. Of course, this wall was on fire, and the air was on fire and the ground was on fire and basically everything other than Lex himself was on fire.

His protective talisman had turned on, and sandwiched between the lava and debris, Lex remained unhurt, even if only for now. Acting on instinct alone, Lex quickly pulled up his backpack and quickly opened it to find the acorns given to him by Karom.

While at a glance, all the acorns looked the same, they all actually served many purposes. The only one he had used so far was to hide his special 'scent' from Goli, but there were others in here, as well. Some of them were meant to be crushed by Lex once he was inside a spirit mine, while others would drill down and bring him deep underground.

As soon as he found the acorn, he reached out to grab Barry so that the two of them could escape together. That was when, under the combined weight of the debris and the burning fury of the lava, his talisman extinguished.

What Lex felt next was too extreme to be quantified and too varied to be called pain. The pressure on his body was so sudden and so immense that he physically felt himself being squeezed to death. Yet, his mind did not have the time or the capacity to think thoughts such as 'I'm dead' or even 'this hurts'.

It was not a slow process, in the millionth of a second that it took for his body to start being squeezed to death, the lava not only burnt his clothes, his skin, his hair, his muscles, but the small metallic chunks in the lava that had not fully melted started to attach to his body, as if welded together.

There was no plan, no thoughts, no escape, only an orchestra of extremes that bombarded Lex. It was indistinguishable through the glow of the lava, but a piece of his exposed skull shone for a brief moment, and a single word that had been carved into his skull long ago disappeared. Furthermore, had his mind been coherent, he would have realized that his back started to feel cool, and even the temperature of the lava dropped drastically.

But none of that mattered, for the single moment in which Lex felt annihilation close in on his body and mind, the acorns in his hand were also crushed.

A thin, wooden layer covered Lex's skin, and in extension Barry, who Lex was holding onto, formed a wooden shell before it started to pull them underground. The heat of the lava and the pressure of the ground seemed to do nothing to the frail-looking layer of wood, and if anything, seemed to strengthen it further. After all, which root was afraid of digging through the dirt, and which root did not strip the ground of its resources to act as fertilizer for itself?

In front of the power of a Trelop, the lava was nothing more than a consolidated pool of fertilizer.

The duo kept moving deeper into the lava, but Lex had already fainted, so he had no idea. Instead, it was the severely burnt and wounded Barry who gained the awareness that he was no longer in pain. Confused and disoriented, he could not tell what had happened, but he could tell that something seemed to be moving.

Safe now, or at least saved from all that pain, Barry let his mind wander as he allowed his body to slowly heal. Sometime later, they had moved right through the lava, and the wooden shell was now digging through rock and dirt, continuously bringing them deeper underground. Eventually, instead of ground, they dug into a cavern and the duo went into a freefall until they were dropped into a clear, cool pool. As if sensing its task complete, the wooden shell broke open, letting the cool liquid rush in and wash the burnt duo.

This was, of course, spirit water. While it did not have magical, mystical properties that could miraculously heal them, the spirit water nourished their bodies and provided them with the energy to heal. Barry, who was already somewhat conscious, was quickly roused by the cooling, refreshing feeling bathing his body. For a moment, he lost himself in the endless soothing feeling, until he remembered what had happened to him and jolted up.

The darkness of the cavern was not a problem for him, for he had excellent vision even in the dark and fortunately, his eyes had not been damaged. It took but a moment for him to realize they had discovered the Spirit well and ecstasy flooded his battered mind before it converted to panic just as quickly.

Spirit water was extremely nourishing to him for he was in the Golden core realm, but for Lex, who was still in Qi training, it was naught but poison! Qi training cultivators absolutely could not allow a high concentration of spirit energy to enter their body, as they were still only dealing with individual strands of energy - Qi.

He grabbed Lex's unconscious body and quickly jumped out of the pool before carefully examining him, ready to expect the worst. Somehow, though, Lex seemed to be alright. Well, about as alright as one could be after having their entire body burnt and buried. He was exhibiting signs of energy poisoning, and though his body was covered in severe burns from top to bottom, he was breathing normally and did not seem to be dying.

Not completely relieved, Barry decided to check Lex's condition thoroughly to ensure the boy was alright. Although he was not sure how they escaped, he knew for a fact that it wasn't due to anything he did, nor did he believe in some God blessing them and allowing them to miraculously survive. That obviously only left Lex - he must have done something or used some treasure that allowed them to survive.

Unfortunately, while Lex did not seem to be dying, his condition otherwise could not be called good by any measure. He had severe burns on every part of his body, except a small patch on his back that somehow survived, and some parts of his body had even burned directly to the bone.

To be frank, Barry had no idea how Lex was even alive in this condition. While he himself was in a similar state, at least he had his cultivation to support him. What did Lex have?

But while this may have been a good question in another situation, after making sure Lex was alright, Barry turned his attention to the cavern.

They had finally reached the spirit well, but he had not yet seen the remaining two Druks. Where were they?