The Innkeeper



"Please follow us while we enter the details," the soldier said to Lex. "According to our information, you are to be deputed as an Auxiliary Combat Aid (ACA). ACA members are all officially recognized by the Jotun army, and have rankings and authority of their own, but fall outside of the command chain. This basically means that they help the army on certain tasks and missions, but they cannot be forced to accept missions or be stationed in places.

"The specifics vary based on the role and rank of an ACA member, but I'm sure you already know the circumstances of your recruitment. The point of me telling you this is that, by becoming an ACA member, you gain a certain level of perks and merits which can be availed across the empire, and you will have a clean and clear identity to use."

Lex felt that there was a lot that remained unsaid during the last part of the statement. He suddenly felt like a lot of wanted criminals became ACA members solely so that they could have clean identities to use. That could be both a good thing or a bad thing for the empire, based on how it was managed. Of course, none of that had anything to do with Lex.

He was led to a lab where he underwent a number of tests, reminding him of the time he was tested out in Blue Bird. The tests carried out by the empire were, of course, much more complex than the ones on earth.

First of all, he did not need to be pricked or electrocuted for any test. Then again, they did not do anything as controversial as ask him about his cultivation techniques. A part of him wondered if during their tests, his DNA would match for any of his relatives in the empire, as there surely were. But it was never brought up, so maybe it didn't.

What he did not know was that the inscription placed over his heart not only hid his bloodline, it also hid his identity from being traced. No DNA test he ever gave would be accurate. He could have become the perfect criminal on earth, but that was already behind him now.

Oddly enough, they asked him very few questions during the test, as if they wanted his identity to be as barebones as possible. They did, however, ask him one question that caused him to pause for a moment.

"Name?"

"Lex."

"Just 'Lex'? No Surname or affiliation?"

He hesitated, but in the end he simply said "no".

The soldier, almost as if he was expecting such an answer, only nodded, and continued to create his account. The process did not take long, and in a mere 30 minutes he had become a registered ACA member with an official empire identity!

Coincidentally, the identity token they gave him was shaped like a coin, except that it was black. The coincidence was because this once again reminded him of Blue Bird. But he was easily able to inspect this token and was certain that it had no hidden trackers or monitoring devices.

He stored it in his spatial bangle, and followed the soldier who led him to a completely empty room. It was square, with pure white walls and floor. It looked like where psychiatric patients would be held.

"Teleportation will activate soon. Please prepare yourself, both physically and mentally. Long distance teleportation, such as between planets, can be quite disorienting."

Lex merely nodded. He was not worried. In fact, he was quite looking forward to it. He wanted to find out how normal transportation between planets was carried out.

It didn't take long for him to get his wish, though technically speaking normal travel between planets, regardless of how far, was carried out on ships and not teleportation.

Lex thought that when the man said Lex would be disoriented, it was because of the discomfort he felt during teleportation. Due to his physique Lex didn't worry about that. What he did not anticipate was that the level of this teleportation formation was nowhere near that of the emporiums.

The formation activated instantly, so Lex got no warning. But even if he had, he would not have expected the whiplash his body was subjected to as it underwent what felt like being launched through the air at the speed of a fighter jet. But that was only the beginning.

This teleportation was nowhere near as instantaneous as the ones he had become accustomed to, and the entire time it went on Lex felt like his body was being jostled through the air, like a ragdoll carried by a child running at full speed. The worst part was, there was no sense of up and down, because he felt 'gravity' pulling at him from every single direction.

Then the teleportation ended just as abruptly as it started, and Lex found himself in yet another completely white room.

If Lex were a lesser man, he would have thrown up. But he wasn't, so he only cursed.

What the hell was this? He was meant to enjoy the teleportation and experience the advantages of his physique. Instead, he went on a poorly planned rollercoaster. What a rip off.

Feeling more irritated than disoriented, Lex left the white room only to find a group of surprised soldiers. But they were trained well, and so recovered quickly.

"Are you ACA Lex from Vegus Minima?" the soldier asked, reading something off of a screen.

"Yes, that's me."

"Welcome to Polebitvy, sir," the soldier said while saluting him. Apparently Lex's rank was above his. It made sense, kind of. After all, Lex was in the Golden core while the soldier was in the Foundation realm.

"Accommodation has been arranged for you, sir. The room will be reserved for you for up to one year. After that, you will have to pay for yourself if you wish to continue renting the same room. There's also an introductory packet, to get you acquainted with the planet and its culture. Currently, there are no orders waiting for you, nor any mail."

"Thanks," said Lex, grabbing the folder the soldier handed him. He then asked for directions and exited the building.

It wasn't that he didn't want to spend some time on Polebitvy, or that he wasn't curious about what his new post or position held. He was just a little impatient these days owing to the ever closer deadline of his workers going away. Not to mention, being jostled around didn't really help his mood.

He took in the city, but there was not much to see because it was night and it was raining.

"Mary, if I teleport away to the Inn from here, can I also return here in the future despite the fact that it's not linked to the Inn?"

"Everyone who comes to the Inn leaves an anchor behind, which is how the Inn traces where to send them back once they return. Everyone can have only one anchor, including you. So yes, technically you can teleport back here if you go to the Inn.

"But your situation is a little complicated, since you can also travel to any planet or area linked to the Inn. So, you can return here any time. But once you choose to go to a different planet connected to the Inn, or maybe even a different realm, your anchor moves as well."

"So basically, I cannot go to the Crystal realm without my anchor from here disappearing?"

"Nope."

Lex released an irritated sigh.

"How long till this planet is connected to the Inn?"

"Well, it will take at least one day. It could take more, but you have the advantage that you can come back whenever you want and then return to this planet whenever you want as long as you don't travel anywhere else. This is one advantage of discovering new places on your own, instead of just using golden tickets to travel to new planets."

"I guess I might as well just get on with it," he said, and started walking in the direction of his room. He reached the building without incident, and somehow even entered the room without being targeted somehow. It felt strange because something unusual would always happen to him whenever he tried to connect a planet to the Inn. He had long suspected that, whenever he used a ticket to choose a planet, he would only be given options for planets where something bad was destined to happen to him. Yes, it totally had to be on purpose.

But, with nothing happening, he decided to simply meditate in his room, until the planet was connected or he had to return to the Inn.

Unbeknownst to him, in his neighboring room were two human kids who had also visited the Inn. They had been brought there by the pro bono room, and they had experienced the star rank change which had evolved their bodies, helping them shed their birth defects!

They had been brought to this room to stay in by the angelic saint woman who had been helping them.

Life had been so good for them, they almost forgot that they had lived extremely miserable lives up until quite recently, on this planet engulfed in a decade long civil war. Almost.