The Innkeeper

Once Lex was satisfied with his changes in regards to making a dating spot, he turned his attention back to the Inn. Currently of his rooms, two were still booked under Bastet and Falaks name, one was booked by Hugo and one was booked by Alexander. That left only one regular room free which he was planning on booking for himself in the short term, but he didn't want to leave the Inn with no free rooms available. He spent 1000MP to buy two regular rooms, but instead of the first floor with the rest of the rooms, he placed them alone in separate parts of the Inn. He got this idea when he thought about Helen, who seemed to want to stay away from everyone. A secluded room would award her and anyone else who wanted it with their privacy. Lex asked Velma to ask Helen if she'd like to shift her room to one of the secluded ones.

Once that was done, he booked the room for himself for a week. Like regular guests he had to pay 50MP per day for the room, but since the profit from each room was also 50MP he basically suffered no loss. It was a strange loophole which would allow him to have a room for himself at the Inn forever, but the downside was he would have one less room for his guests. He teleported to the room directly and lay down on the bed.

He was exhausted, more mentally than physically. He went through all the things that he needed to do in his head. Bastets' and Falaks' rooms only had a few more days until their reservation was over, which would free up two of his rooms. It was disappointing, Lex was hoping to get closer to them, but probably for the best as well since his cultivation was too low.

Speaking of cultivation…Lex let out a sigh and picked himself off the bed. Reluctantly he spent another 1500MP and bought the Training room, leaving him with a total of 6016MP left. He thought about where to place it, he didn't want to put it close to the Meditation room or cultivation room as he wanted to keep traffic in those places at a minimum. After thinking for a short while, he created a walkway near the manor that led towards the main gate. When he was satisfied with the distance, he put the Training room at the end of the path. He decided that all future additions to the Inn would be close together. In the future he would eventually form a street with all his main attractions on both ends. Maybe if the Inn grew big enough, he would redesign it to the shape of a town.

The Training room was a plain looking, square building. On the inside it was well lit despite the lack of any windows, and had a wooden floor. There were five wooden dummies in the shape of humans standing on the far end, five wooden dummies in the shape of wolves on his right and five wooden dummies in the shape of giant birds on his left. He set the price for the training room at 200MP with a profit of 100MP, and became his own first customer. He needed to exhaust himself continuously for his body to adapt to his cultivation, and could no longer afford to laze around.

He started his combat training fighting against one human dummy for now. He could select the strength of the attacking dummy all the way to the peak of Qi training, but for now settled for the dummy being slightly stronger than himself. He also had the option to use wooden weapons, but settled for hand-to-hand combat. Even now he was not actually combat trained, but this training dummy would automatically train him.

*****

Somewhere on Vegus Minima, two men stood with arms folded in front of a small team of soldiers. The soldiers all had their guns pointed towards the two men, yet it was the team of soldiers who were more anxious. The soldiers were all on various levels of Qi training, while the two men were in the Foundation realm. The soldiers had no way of knowing how strong the two men really were, but it was fair to say that the soldiers basically stood no chance of winning a fight. At most, they would be able to injure or wound the two men.

"I'm going to ask you one last time," said one of the two men, his voice full of suppressed rage, "where did you get that ring?"

One of the soldiers was wearing a gold ring on his hand, with a ruby carved in the shape of a dragon on it. The man speaking was Brother Chen, and the reason he had his arms folded was to keep himself from attacking the soldiers and ripping them limb from limb. The ring used to belong to Brother Chen's father, but after his father passed away his sister took it and started wearing it on a chain around her neck.

The two soldiers had been searching for their lost caravan since they had returned from the Inn, with no luck. Their tracks had been destroyed and there was no sign of them anywhere. Despite searching for days the two had no luck, right up until they ran into these soldiers while scavenging in the ruins of an old town.

Meeting unfamiliar survivors was always a risky business on vegus Minima, as humans were just as dangerous as zombies, if not more. These soldiers however attracted the two mens attention because of their unusually neat gear as well as advanced weapons. They even handled themselves with a coordination that spoke of military training. Such things were so rare that Brother Chen and Blane had never encountered them their entire lives. This was because there was no actual military to speak of, each settlement only had a ragtag bunch of people who had somehow managed to raise their cultivation. When they approached to make inquiries, both of them immediately recognized the ring. That's when the confrontation started.

"I'm telling you, I bought it at the reclamation outpost," the man spoke, hiding the nervousness in his voice. Despite the fear he felt, his training prevented him from backing down. "This land is being reclaimed by the Jotun Empire, and all settlements and survivors are being relocated. Since you have not encountered the…"

"Bullsh*t!" Brother Chen roared. "Lily would never sell her ring, and I've never heard of this Jotun Empire! This is your last warning, tell me how you got the ring or I won't bother being polite with you anymore!"

The soldiers tightened their position and kept their aim, ready for combat at any moment. "I'm telling you, follow us to the reclamation outpost and you can see for yourself. A new country is being founded on this land, reclamation work has begun. In the future you will be citizens of the Jotum Empire, but if you dare to attack soldiers of the Empire then despite your cultivation you will not be spared."

Blane and Brother Chen shared a look, as if unsure whether to believe the soldier or not. A country being formed? That was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard, no one had the strength to fight off the zombie hordes that would be attracted to such a massive gathering of people. Under normal circumstances they would have already labeled these soldiers as liars and attacked them, yet these circumstances were anything but normal. The two had just returned from a mystical land that could transport guests from all over the universe, and met the most ridiculously powerful people. If that were possible…a country being formed didn't seem so farfetched.

The question now was, should they follow the soldiers to confirm their stories? If they were lying, the two would no doubt be led to a trap that would spell their doom. But the two had Golden keys that would allow them to escape any trap, so they were considering it.

Eventually Blane was the one who spoke, "Alright then, take us to the reclamation outpost you're talking of. But know this, if you're lying then even if we're unable to escape, we have more than enough ways to kill you!"

The soldiers finally relaxed a little at hearing the news. The captain of this squad, who had been speaking with Brother Chen earlier, took out a transponder and said, "Home base this team reclamation team 6, we have found two Foundation realm survivors. Requesting immediate extraction, over."

"Copy that reclamation team, a Slingshot is on the way, over."

The soldier put the communication device away and looked back at the two angry men.

"There will be some paperwork when you enter the outpost, and you'll need to fill in your data. If the person you're looking for…this 'Lily' has been to the reclamation outpost then her data should also be in the database. You'll be able to contact her from there."

The two nodded, but still kept their guard up. The story these soldiers were telling was too fantastical. They had spent their entire lives, fighting and running, with only very little time spent in settlements because of how rare they were. Now they were being told that an entire country was being established. Despite their recent experiences, they found it a little hard to believe.