The Innkeeper

Once again, Lex was riding Fenrir to pass through the bog. The area he was passing through right now was extremely dangerous, not because of the darkness or the monsters, but some unknown danger. Both Fenrir and Lex felt an extreme threat as soon as they neared, which was unusual for no such danger was mentioned on the 'map' they were following.

As such, Lex was at least reassured in knowing that he had managed to get his suits Geeves. He was not wearing his first suit, which Geeves had designed for frustratingly sturdy defense, but the second one, made from Orion's scales. The second suit was designed for stealth, and went even beyond the features the scales provided.

The scales could perfectly hide energy signatures, making it easy for one to hide from spirit sense and scanners, yet did nothing for visibility - that issue was handled by other features of the attire. The suit Lex was wearing, was styled differently from contemporary suits, and was more in line with the fashion trends of earth during the 19th century.

The color was an unusual blend, which would more easily allow Lex to completely disappear in even the mildest shadows, yet at the same time allow him to fall perfectly into the background even in completely illuminated environments. The pants were straight but smart, the waistcoat quite fitted to his body and a small bowtie. It was the coat that was most distinct as it required only the top button to be closed, for underneath it the coat slanted sideways, no longer covering Lex's chest, and transitioned into a kind of cape. Apparently the style was called a Frock coat.

Although it sacrificed a lot in terms of defensive capabilities, that was never really a requirement at all. Allowed to focus completely on stealth, Geeves was able to provide Lex with a suit that would allow him to disappear without the need for any spiritual techniques at all. Now that, on top of Fenrir's already impressive abilities made it so that Lex did not need to be worried about being detected. Yet still the feeling of danger persisted.

During this period the duo was extremely careful, and Lex was ready to enter his flow state at any moment. For once, his trusty and handy lenses failed him, in the regard that they were not able to detect the source of any danger.

But fortunately, 8 hours later, they left the area unharmed and uninterrupted. The days later, they finally left the bog and entered the Sentinel territory. Here, Fenrir's stealth would play an important role once again.

The Sentinel race could not exactly be called Xenophobic, as they had good relations with many races. Unfortunately, humans were not included among those races. The Sentinels were a humanoid race with extremely strong spirits but weak physical bodies. As it turns out, the resources they needed to then cultivate their bodies were often the same as those required by humans. In this matter, they were even more sensitive than humans, for they absolutely needed those resources. If they did not continuously strengthen their bodies, they would not be able to support their growing spirit. In the end, they would be bottlenecked and unable to grow.

The lack of resources and the competitive nature of cultivation ensured that the two races were never able to become allies. Even at their best, the two races were able to maintain a hostile neutrality, with countless small skirmishes.

There was a small note in the map stating that if Lex had a good relationship with the Sentinels, he could take a teleportation formation from one of their cities and skip a lot of the traveling he was about to face. Unfortunately, Lex had never developed a relationship with them, and thus would not be able to do that. Taking the longer route was his only option.

He would have to traverse the Sentinel territory into the unclaimed lands, which would be a stretch of territory where no sentient race had laid claim. Such lands were common, and could be either completely safe, or home to exceptionally strong or dangerous beasts. There was no real way of knowing.

The duo continued their journey, managing to avoid detection throughout. Weeks later, once they crossed the unclaimed lands, they faced a lake. Although it was called a lake, the body of water was larger even than the oceans on earth.

Crossing the lake was not hard as Fenrir was easily capable of running on water - or at least it was not supposed to be. Two days into their journey, a flock of Frio birds appeared in the sky and clashed with a nearby flock of Sol birds.

At first Lex thought that they were fighting, but it quickly became obvious that they… were involved in some kind of mating ritual. As happy as Lex felt for the local population of these massive divine birds, the results of their ritual were absolutely devastating!

A storm covered the lake unlike one Lex had ever seen. Boiling water rained from the sky, beginning to evaporate even as it fell. At the same time, snow and hail battered the lake as if they had a personal vendetta. The rapidly changing temperatures, from warm to cold, from cold to freezing to instantly boiling, and then back again completely confused even nature itself.

Massive tidal waves rose, but evaporated before they fell. The lake froze over, trapping even Fenrir where he ran, then erupted due to pressure accumulated due to the boiling water trapped beneath the frozen surface.

It was too much, and even Lex's powerful defenses were nothing in the face of nature's fury. Eventually they had to retreat to the Inn until the natural disaster that was that mating ritual ended. But even 10 days later, nothing seemed to change.

At this point Lex was beginning to feel desperate. His destination was too far, and time was running short. Moreover, every minute his workers were out on the battlefield, risking their lives for a fight that Lex thought was completely pointless.

In the end, unable to contain himself, Lex ended up back at the Infinity Emporium in an attempt to purchase a vehicle small enough to fit inside his spatial bangle, while also fast enough to make up for time that he had lost, and at the same time sturdy enough to withstand the accursed neverending 'mating ritual'.

As it turned out, there were a few options he could take, but they all left him unsatisfied. It was then that he discovered something. Possibly due to being spoiled by his own system, he realized that as incredible as the emporium was, it had a severe lack of rare or extremely impressive goods.

That was not to say their catalog was bad. Clearly it was great, for they had helped Lex numerous times already. But even their rarest items were never of the quality or type he came to expect from systems. For example, he still had not been able to find a cloning technique that satisfied him, but he was somehow sure that if he received a cloning technique as a reward for some SSS+ rank quest, he would be extremely pleased with it.

He was too used to one of a kind, overwhelmingly incredible items from his system In comparison, normal rare items which could theoretically be found in the vaults of any large organization could no longer impress him. After all, that rarity was a result of limited market availability, and not because the item itself was actually incredibly rare and impressive.

Feeling spoiled in such a manner, in the end Lex bought a small 'jet' in the shape of a canoe. It had no thrusters or rockets or guns or anything of the sort, but came with an impressive shield that could block out even serious meteor impacts, and traveled really fast. It was not stealthy at all, and would cause multiple sonic booms on launch, but for now it fulfilled Lex's needs. He did not have the time to be picky.

In the end, Lex and Fenrir returned in their new canoe, only to discover that the storm ended literally minutes after their arrival!

Suppressing his agitation, Lex started the canoe and shot through the air. Fenrir tried to stick its head out of the shield to feel the wind but was nearly launched out of the canoe, and was only saved due to Lex. Moreover… the fur on its face had been pulled off as if waxed!

The traumatized pup immediately squealed and threw itself in Lex's lap and began sobbing. Lex tried to keep himself from laughing, for the sight was too hilarious. Also, he had to focus on navigating so he could not afford such a distraction.

Three days later, they arrived in the territory of a Trelop, where he could take his next teleportation formation.

Meanwhile, back in the Origin realm, almost a month had passed since the Midnight Battalion had been sent on their first mission.