The Innkeeper

Powell looked a little reluctant to part with such a magnificent spaceship. The Silent Wanderer was a corvette class ship, meaning it was light and fast, but had enough of an armor and attack capability to survive if it got in a scuffle.

If they ran into pirates or faced aggression from a random group, unless they had armored ships, the Wanderer would come out on top due to how high class it was. Of course, a lot also depended on the pilot. Even the best ship would not bring any decent results if piloted by an amateur.

Powell, as a ship enthusiast, was also a pilot and longed to get his hands on something like the Silent Wanderer, but it was not meant to be. Perhaps in the future such a day would come, but it had not come yet.

Suppressing his sigh, he put the ship back in its spatial equipment. This necklace was especially made on order at Lex's request. After all, he was going to be teleporting to places often, so if he could not carry the ship with him when he did so, it would be pointless. But the ship required a space large and stable enough so that it wouldn't get damaged, as some of its more sensitive equipment could not handle the duress of typical spatial equipment. The battery was especially a point of concern in this regard.

Therefore, the specially designed spatial equipment was an absolute must. If he lost it one day, he would not be able to put the ship in any other random spatial equipment even if it had the capacity for the ship.

Once withdrawn, Lex put the necklace on. He was not one for jewelry, so it was fortunate that the necklace only consisted of a thin silver chain with a flat, rod centerpiece at one end with an engraving of the Silent Wanderer on it. The whole thing was simple enough that Lex could wear it without feeling embarrassed.

He bid Powell farewell and quickly returned to the Inn. He first looked at the manual for the Silent Wanderer - it was equivalent to a 36,000 page PDF. Lex blinked to make sure he saw correctly, and when he received the confirmation, he made a copy and forwarded it to Cirk - the captain of the giant spaceship inside the Inn.

Lex would learn to pilot his own ship, of course, but it wasn't like he could pick it up in a day. It was moments like this that having the endless resources of the Inn on hand came in handy. Although it would still take Cirk some time to learn, he expected it would be alot faster than Lex.

He then took out the Durril ore, and after a very long time, bought a ticket. Only this time he wasn't buying one of the random planet search tickets, but rather a focused ticket using the ore to lock onto the planet's aura.

Fortunately, despite Lex's delay in collecting the ore, due to the fact that it was sealed in a perfect container, it retained the aura of the planet. When the silver colored ticket appeared in Lex's hand, he mentally reviewed everything he knew about the planet.

The planet was the only one in the belt that had life on it, though the local dominant species were not humans. In fact, there were no humans on the entire planet. Actual on ground information on the planet was limited because it was the territory of a dragon, but the one thing that was certain was that it exported Durril ore in limited quantities.

The planet had no tourism, and only very limited trade ties. Once Lex approached there, he would stand out significantly, so he would have to be discreet and stealthy. He also needed a way to confirm that he was in the correct location, but that would come later.

He tore the ticket and a very familiar interface appeared in front of him.

Planets Available:

Planet: Frigra

Planet Rating: 3 Star

Planet Distance: 384 Sectors

Planet Environment: Frigid cold, perpetual darkness, multiple underground steam vents

'How delightful,' Lex thought to himself before confirming the only planet in the selection, and disappearing.

A moment later, he found himself standing in what looked like a vacant street. For once, it seemed like he had teleported not in the wilderness, but near or in an inhabited area.

There was complete darkness all around him, with the distant stars in the sky as the only source of light. He had to rely on his spirit sense mostly to get an idea of where he was, though admittedly his eyes were well adapted to the darkness as well - not to mention the Fancy Contact lenses.

He was studying his surroundings, and trying to understand where exactly he had teleported to, when he picked up on something. To be specific, it was not his eyes, contact lenses or even spirit sense that detected the change, but his soul sense!

There was originally no one around him, but then he detected a soul pass by. It seemed like the 'soul' detected him at the same time as he felt the presence of the soul, and changed its direction to approach him.

Lex did not reveal that he had already detected the incoming being, and observed to see how the situation progressed. It was approaching him from behind, and even as it came within a few dozen feet of him, Lex could not actually see or hear the approaching entity. 'Was this what others experienced when Fenrir used its stealth?' Lex wondered as the being came even closer, practically only a couple of feet away from him.

Were it not for his soul sense, he would have had no way of knowing there was someone standing right behind him. But then, the being attacked viciously, and when it finally made contact, the being was revealed to Lex's senses.

It seemed Lex needed to be touching it to perceive it.