The Innkeeper

For a few brief seconds, Lex was flying through the sky. He was cutting through the track faster than he should have been allowed, and it was only now that he was breaking the rules that he was able to see that… dozens of racers had already surpassed him somehow.

But he wasn't stressed or alarmed at the thought of being overtaken. The race was too much fun, and encountering others who were able to surpass his expectations just lit his competitive spirit on fire.

At that moment, something unusual happened. Lex entered a state completely unlike any he had experienced. The first abnormal state he had ever encountered was the flow state. The reason he called it the flow state was because it allowed him to perform every single action with absolute perfection and efficiency, something that was impossible for him to do under normal circumstances.

Even with his increased brain power and control due to his raised cultivation, he could not match the precision the flow state afforded him. His actions seemed to flow from one to the next without a break or pause, or the need to think and analyze. It was like achieving the hypothetical peak performance he was capable of unleashing.

The first time he had used it was long before he had any combat skill or sense of his own, yet he was surrounded by a horde of zombies, impossible for him to overcome. But in that moment that should have led to his death, he did not freeze nor he did not cower. Instead overcame the limits of his own experiences and killed his way out.

The next unusual state he had encountered was the overdrive state. That, once again, had come to Lex when he was faced with death. Regardless of how incompetent he himself was, the host of the Murder system had been extremely dangerous. Although Lex was the ultimate victor, had his performance lacked even a bit, he would have been a victim to that man's immense luck.

The overdrive state allowed him to push his mind and body beyond its normal limits, achieving what he normally would not have at the expense of great exhaustion. In fact, Lex had long suspected that the toll of the overdrive state would have absolutely wrecked his body had he lacked the foundation of the Regal Embrace.

While both those states were incredibly useful, and Lex had used them often, a trait they both had in common was that they would completely subdue his emotions. While Lex did not become completely emotionless, he was largely ruled by logic and the urgency of the tasks on hand. The results had not been contrary to what Lex wanted, but it seemed more like achieving the result on autopilot than doing because it satisfied his emotions.

In practice, that made no real difference and Lex never really even considered it a drawback worth mentioning, considering both the states allowed him to go above and beyond what he normally could not. But this new state… it was the opposite.

Perhaps one of the reasons Lex never encountered it before was because he was unable to physically support it. His stamina started draining rapidly as he felt each and every muscle in his body tense up and relax, readily filling him with a strength that would have otherwise required immense concentration and focus. His already fast reaction speed was kicked up a notch. His already racing thoughts were boosted beyond anything he could achieve on his own, making him feel like the world was moving in slow motion.

Moreover, instead of his emotions being suppressed and his mind making the most efficient decisions, his emotions were excited beyond measure and he was left with the ultimate freedom to do as he desired.

While the previous two states were focused mostly on his mind and making his actions efficient, this one boosted his physical skills to the max and drove his emotions into a frenzy.

It was like he was given a toy and allowed to do whatever he wanted. With the only small difference being that his own body and immense strength were the toys, and what he wanted to do was win.

The moment his cart landed on the ground, and Lex became slightly accustomed to this new 'berserk' state, he came to a new understanding of what was happening. He had assumed that because the race was organized by the system and the event panel, no one would be able to cheat. But he completely forgot that he himself was always looking for loopholes in everything related to the system. As such, it only made sense that such was also possible during the race.

With a mad grin that had an eerie resemblance to Marlo's signature look, Lex floored the accelerator. Suddenly, not only did he want to win the race, he wanted to do it while causing more chaos than even Brandon.

*****

William was sitting in his room, looking over a document. Damian had sent it to the Inn, and insisted that he take a look over it. While William originally had all his attention focused on Lex, after reading this document, he was greatly interested in his sisters as well. But, most importantly, as a leader of the human race, he was most interested in their mother, Serene Williams.

"How did you do it?" he murmured as he read the document again and again. His eyes kept switching to a few key points, trying to wrap his head around it.

The most important points were:

Belle Williams - born with the heart of a Valkyrie.

Liz Williams - born with mythical 100% compatibility to Beast Master path.

Moon Williams - born with mutated soul sense that allows her to aid immortals during the mind tribulation.

Any 3 of these abilities were… were actually genuinely unheard of in the human race, yet all three had occurred in siblings. What was driving him crazy was that if the parents had not chosen to hide these astounding abilities, what was it about Lex that caused them to hide him?

But, regardless of whatever ability Lex had, he was more interested in Serene, who had somehow achieved this. Not that he was looking down on Leon, Lex's father, but his entire life was documented so there was no reason to believe he had the ability to do anything so remarkable. In fact, before meeting Serene, even Leon's skills were somewhat mediocre, at least as far as the entire Jotun empire was concerned.

After meeting her, however, his prowess with the sword seemed to have increased.

Unfortunately, he would not get the answer to his question any time soon since Leon and Serene had disappeared without a trace.

But Williams' reverie suddenly broke when he felt a chance from within his own body. The so-called bloodline of the Williams family was actually just a watered-down version of skills he had developed on his own. The bloodline was something his descendants could unlock, though he himself lacked any such bloodline. Yet at that moment, which was coincidentally the same moment Lex entered his Berserk state, William Sephore, founder of the William family and creator of the Gelid Anima bloodline, felt himself gaining a bloodline.