The Innkeeper

In one of the Recovery pod rooms, a man and a woman stood across from each other. The woman was glaring at the man, who did not seem to care.

"No, do it yourself," Sophia finally said.

"Sophia, don't piss me off. Go bring my mother to the Inn," he said sternly.

"Why do you even care about them? They've used you enough. And even if you care, why should I care? Let them die in the war for all I care."

"If my mother dies, I'll go down to Earth and kill your father."

"YOU!" Sophia roared, before attacking Marlo head on. But her attack came to nothing. There was no loud explosion, no devastating spread of spirit energy, nothing. Her hand was simply stuck in the air right before Marlo.

In his room, Lex was alerted to the outbreak of the fight, but when he checked who it was, he decided to ignore it. He would send Marlo a bill if anything broke.

"I've already crossed that realm. You'll have to up your game if you want to continue fighting with me," Marlo said with a teasing smirk.

"What?" Sophia was stunned, and for a moment, a flash of joy filled her eyes before anger and bitterness clouded them. Finally, instead of saying anything, Sophia disappeared. She had gone back to Earth to 'invite' her mother-in-law.

Marlo took a look at his son, then left the room. He had asked nurse Jubilation about the details regarding Larry, but due to privacy rules, she told him nothing. Finally, she agreed to have someone inform him once Larry woke up. Satisfied with the result, he finally left the building and located two extremely popular people at the Inn.

They were not members of the Inn staff, no; they were Chen and Lily. After conducting a trade with the Morrison family, they gained enough capital to start their own business back at Vegus Minima. Of course, their interest did not lay in mundane and paltry things such as money, they wanted power and revenge. It just so happened that earning money would make that path easier, so they started a little private business at the Inn. They started selling zombie cores. Of course, all trades were conducted through the guild room.

Marlo arrived to see the siblings sitting together watching the match. They were watching the impenetrable Jotun soldiers as they lay siege to the castle. They still had not suffered a single death, it was remarkable.

"I need zombie cores," Marlo said, walking up to them. "Tier 5 Zombie cores, as many as you have."

The siblings were startled by the sudden order, then broke out into a grin. They had a big client.

*****

"I must say, your choices are a little confusing," Mary said as she saw Lex enter a parameter for a detective into the Mystery trial.

"It's to build a reserve of candidates for when we need them. I have an idea for what I want the Midnight Inn to be like. It has to be a lot bigger, and with a lot more services. To be honest, there are hotels even on Earth that can host more guests than us. They have water parks and shopping malls, spas and gyms, and so many more things I can't even imagine. So we have to be open-minded. In fact, I was thinking that after the war on Earth is over, I'd go interview a few hotel managers in Lax Vegas and Dubai. Get a little professional with things."

"Yes, I get that, that is indeed a good idea. What I don't get is... why do you need 'cosplay enthusiasts'?"

"It's complicated, don't worry about it."

"Alright," said Mary hesitantly. She was really starting to get concerned about how much the tumor was affecting Lex.

When Lex finally ran out of ideas for skills to look for, he once again started searching the Midnight Market for other upgrades. That's when he came across the upgrade for his beloved Butter Knife. Currently, it was limited to a one-hit-kill to anyone at Foundation realm and below, but that was too weak for Lex now.

The upgrade that was available for 100,000 MP was an ingredient that Lex was supposed to dip the knife in. It would then be upgraded to Self defense fruit knife, and would be capable of one hitting a Golden Core cultivator. Unfortunately, that was still far from sufficient, but it would do.

Once again, Lex did not hesitate and purchased the ingredient, which appeared in front of him, in a neatly wrapped silver cover. On the cover, a few words were printed: 'I can't believe it's not butter'.

Lex chuckled and stabbed the block with the self-defense butter knife. The knife started glowing and completely submerged itself in the block. The process would be complete in a few hours.

Just as he was about to spend more time looking at more options, Mary appeared and said, "There are a couple of things that require your attention at the Inn."

"Oh, what happened?"

"First, there is a guest in a Recovery pod with a unique constitution. The pod is not able to heal him, and if nothing is done, soon, the guest will die. Second, there is a guest by the name of Miranda who wants to meet you."

Both those news' took Lex by surprise. It was rare that the RP was unable to heal someone, and would usually be the result of a wound such as that of Rafael. He also had an idea of who Miranda might be. She was one of the representatives that spoke with the family heads. Lex himself had already thought of speaking with her, but he felt that he would not be able to stop himself from asking questions about London. That would not be inline with the persona of the Innkeeper.

"I'll check on the RP first," he said, before teleporting directly to the recovery pod in question. He was startled to see an unconscious Larry covered in bullet wounds. He quickly checked Larry's status.

Name: Larry Dershaw

Condition:

Multiple gunshot wounds

Ruptured kidney

Multiple fractures

Crushed knee

Severe blood loss

Blocked blood vessels

Non-organic living tissue damaged

Report:

Guest has a unique constitution mixing his organic tissue with spiritual metals. The Recovery pod is able to aid the body in healing organic matter, but spiritual metal is required to completely heal. Please provide any kind of spiritual metal to facilitate the body's healing.

Lex was greatly confused at seeing such a strange requirement, but also relieved that the conditions could be easily met. In fact, he did not even need to go look for spiritual metal elsewhere. He summoned his Heavy harleys magazine and started popping the physical rounds into the recovery pod. By the sixth bullet, the pod no longer needed any more metal and started incorporating the metal into Larry's body. Of course, the useless materials in the bullets were pushed out of the pod.

He had only just started relaxing, thinking that the situation on Earth wasn't so bad, and then this happened. His concern for his family came back.

Seeing that Larry's condition was stable, Lex left to go see Miranda. It was time to see what this person wanted with him.

When he teleported to the garden behind the manor where Miranda was currently sitting, conversing with her partners, he expected to see evil incarnate. He was ready to see the face of someone he would hate. Instead, he saw a pale-looking woman with dark circles under her eyes and a frail voice. Yet despite her seemingly tired state, her clothes were neat and clean, without a single extra crease. He checked her status.

Name: Miranda Charles

Age: 31

Sex: Female

Cultivation Details: Foundation Peak

Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1

Condition: Severely damaged meridians, unable to cultivate further without treatment

Remarks: A revolutionary with a splash of pumpkin spice

Ignoring the remark that made no sense to him, her damaged meridians may have explained why she was so exhausted despite her deep cultivation. Maybe she was also working a lot.

Miranda and her partners were startled by the Innkeepers' arrival, but then again, they had been informed that he would join them shortly.

"Greetings guests, I am the Innkeeper. I was informed you were looking for me. I hope you have not found any of our facilities lacking."

"Not at all sir, not at all," Miranda said, standing up to greet the Innkeeper. "I hope I am not being rude. I have heard many things about you, and wanted an opportunity to introduce myself, and hoped that we may be able to work together in a few endeavors."

Miranda was slightly nervous. She had heard many things about the Innkeeper, both from the council's spies and from the many guests she had met here. The scope of the Inn completely overwhelmed her and opened her to a whole new world. It made her realize just how insignificant Earth really was. It also made her realize how much time and potential the five families had wasted by stagnating. She would not make the same mistake. She would bring Earth to a new dawn.

She did not know that while she was belittling the family heads, they were meeting with Adrian, who was previously the observer assigned to them, and had come with a message from the lady they answered to.