The Innkeeper



In a cold, gray-stone room, a single lamp produced a dim blue light. The light was barely enough to see, but more than enough to produce long, dark shadows that spread to the distant walls.

On a throne similarly made of stone sat a repulsive slug-like creature, known as a Gilati. It looked weak and tired, yet the aura it radiated was overbearing. Only those gray stone slabs could support the pressure, and the lamp, of course, though barely.

In front of the Gilati, some distance away, stood a devil in its non-human form. It was ten feet tall, with a body seemingly made of black rocks, with veins of magma pulsing between them. There were two curved horns on its head, and hovering in the air between those horns was a rock emitting a beautiful scarlet glow.

"It has come to my lord's attention that you have had some problems with the Midnight Inn," the devil said, his voice grating to hear.

The Gilati released an angry garbling noise and its aura exploded, but then it calmed itself down - though barely.

"Yesssss!" it hissed. "My slave! My slave! They are keeping my slave from me! During its final reincarnation, my precious Dreamy Fox somehow escaped, and was reincarnated somewhere else. But I have its soul signature recorded. How can I not recognize it? I need it back before it matures!

"A Dreamy Fox on the verge of its final evolution is the most important ingredient in the pill I'm refining. Without it, I will not be able to survive the tribulation that will occur when I enter the next realm. I have delayed my breakthrough long enough!"

"My lord too wishes to acquire something from within the Midnight Inn. He is inviting you to join him. The only chance we have of success is if we pool our strengths."

"Are you not afraid of the Daolorddddddd?" the Gilati hissed again, angrily!

"My lord, Rockefeller's father too, is a Daolord. As you know, we Devils have no shortage of Daolords. We fear no one."

This time, the Gilati did not hiss. Instead, after spending some time contemplating, its body lifted into the air, and it approached the devil.

*****

The sea water was pleasantly cold, though the water near the pier was somewhat grimy. It was not too deep either, as Lex could clearly see the surface when he reached the bottom.

Of course, it also helped that this near Babylon, the seabed was imbedded with numerous rods, emitting a soft red light.

In fact, these rods were spread on the seabed for a few miles around the town, to ensure no new monsters were spawned there. The town's navy would inspect them almost weekly, alongside having numerous hunting expeditions where they cleared the nearby waters of any monsters.

Lex practiced moving his arms to see how the water pressure affected him. At his current depth, the resistance he faced did not hamper him by much. He took a look around him, but besides the odd fish here and there, he saw nothing of interest.

For a moment he wondered how fish managed to survive in these monster-infested waters, but then shrugged, slipped his hands into his pockets and began to walk forward.

He was not concerned about holding his breath, as his body could go days without needing to breathe. Moreover, he could divert spiritual energy towards his lungs, and somewhat replace the function of air with it for a period of time. Not to mention, there were countless techniques out there that could allow Lex to breathe underwater - not that he was planning on relying on any of these methods.

Instead, Lex planned on using a very simple, single circle array on the roof of his mouth that would produce air. He would breathe out any excess air and just take a fresh breath every few hours. Of course, he had to be careful with the amount of air he breathed.

The deeper he went underwater, the greater the pressure and the more the air would shrink. He was not too worried about anything on his way down, but he had to be careful when returning to the surface. If he wasn't careful about how air expands, he could seriously injure himself.

One would think that Lex could ignore such minor details due to his impressive cultivation, not to mention how sturdy his body was. To an extent, that was true. But Lex was not deluded enough to think he could take on all of nature and come out undefeated. The line between confidence and arrogance was thin, and he did not intend to cross it.

Also, his intuition told him not to mess around underwater, so there wasn't much left to argue on.

Not that any of this should matter. Lex's destination was not too far, or else his intuition would not have been able to detect whatever he was heading towards.

After walking for about twenty minutes, Lex had descended deeper into the sea. He was pleasantly surprised to find that instead of unspeakable horrors; the seabed was actually quite amazing. Once he moved away from the grimy, polluted waters near the town, he encountered a lot more fish.

The seabed was teeming with life, so much so that Lex even detected signs of life from numerous rocks - or at least things that looked like rocks. He found a lot of debris as well, of broken ships and what looked like remains of old buildings, and all of them had been turned into habitats for the local marine life.

It felt like he was walking through an aquarium. The density of fish continued to increase, right up until he came across an underwater forest. The fish swam happily through the seaweed wrapped trees, but a sense of foreboding stopped Lex from taking a step forward.

It was confusing, for his intuition was both telling him it was safe to proceed, and that he would encounter danger if he took a single step forward.

What, did he have to swim instead of walk?

Lex shook his head. The answer couldn't be so simple. After a few moments of thought, Lex reached out with his spirit sense and touched one of the trees.

"Excuse me, is it alright if I cross?" he asked.