The Innkeeper

Oddly enough, there were almost no high rises in the entire city, with the only exception being a large, spiraling tower in the heart of the city that Lex suspected could double as a lighthouse.

The top of the tower also looked suspiciously similar to a bird stand. He could not imagine that the Noel family had built a spot for Sol birds to rest right within their capital. But then again, why couldn\'t they?

Lex did not speculate further on the topic, and instead focused on figuring out how to reach the teleportation formation. There was no boundary wall to the city, so entering was no problem. The real problem was navigating the maze-like streets to find his destination.

Although there were no highrises in the city, each building was three stories high and built closely together, making it so that while walking in the streets, the rest of the city could not really be seen.

It wasn\'t as if Lex did not ask directions, but there were just too many streets. It was difficult to cover any real distance in a short period of time. More than once Lex had to convince Fenrir not to jump on top of the buildings and just bypass all the traffic on the ground, though he himself began to wonder why he was stopping the trusty wolf.

Eventually, though, the conclusion that Lex came to about why they were having such a tough time finding their destination, was that both he and Fenrir were unreasonably hungry. The two decided to take a break, and once Fenrir shrunk his size down, they found their way to a tavern called Hippo House tavern.

The owner was a hairy man with a large belly and a laugh that shook the foundations of the entire building. He was sitting behind the counter, greeting each and every guest as they walked in, recognizing almost every patron.

Lex greeted the man with matching enthusiasm, and struck up a conversation with him about the city, though Lex did not talk about anything in particular and seemed to be interested in anything and everything. The owner was even more enthusiastic about conversing with Lex once he saw the amount of food that he ordered.

For cultivators, it was not unusual to eat a lot of food so Lex\'s order was not surprising. But even so, the amount of food Lex ordered was genuinely surprising, and for the owner, pleasing.

While Lex was eating and chatting, he naturally also brushed on the topic of the teleportation formation. That was when, for the first time, he understood the complexities involved in long distance teleportation.

According to the map he had been provided, his next destination was a place called Delurian Drip Bog. It was pretty simple to say that he just needed to take the teleportation formation and select that as his destination, but apparently this was one of the furthest places the formation teleported to. In a straight line, it was approximately 31,000 miles (49,889 km) away, which, if Lex remembered correctly, was greater than the circumference of the earth.

But he was already used to teleporting anywhere he wanted using the Inn, not to mention the teleportation he experienced to travel from one planet to another back in the Origin realm. That alone was no doubt countless lightyears of distance covered during one teleportation.

As a result, he had become desensitized to the complexities of the act. But conversing with the tavern owner brought him back to reality. Under ordinary circumstances, the teleportation formation would only be active one day a week, and each individual spot cost tens of thousands of spirit stones.

Lex naturally had such an amount. He had long since begun to gather as many physical forms of currency and valuables, which naturally included spirit coins, spirit stones, spirit liquid, gold, jewels, a few other valuable metals that were not found on earth and some other random spirit based currencies. He had received these mostly from the emporium, though some small exchanges he had set up in the Guild room also contributed.

Since he was going to be traveling, he naturally stocked up his spatial bangle with everything he could possibly need. That was not the issue. The issue was… this was so damn expensive for an ordinary person! He remembered back when he was at the academy and went out on the expedition, a massive group was traveling with them. He could not even imagine the cost of transporting so many people.

It seemed that, despite his efforts to gather as much general knowledge as possible, he had gaps in his knowledge. When he asked why it was so expensive, the tavern owner merely shrugged and commented that he\'d heard some of the resources used in building the formation were extremely rare and expensive, and would often get used up. As for what they were, only actual formation experts would know.

Lex made a mental note to hire some formation experts for the Inn. There was no profession that the Inn should lack knowledge of, and as the Innkeeper, he needed to have an in-depth understanding of all such matters.

Lex also realized one more very important thing. In fact, it could be said to be crucially important to the development of the Inn. He did not want to admit it, but the food this random tavern gave was actually somewhat better than the food served at the Inn.

As of late, the Inn had started having better and better ingredients due to the turtle\'s efforts and the expanded farmlands, but that was not enough. At most it provided him with vegetables and fruits, but he lacked any kind of meat to go along with it. Moreover, even if he had incredible ingredients, the cooks he had were good, but not skilled enough to be mind blowing. If only he could put up a recruitment notice for someone with a cooking system, how great would that be?

With such thoughts in his mind, Lex finally finished the meal. After thanking the tavern owner for keeping him company, a satisfied Lex and Fenrir left. Although he had found out that the teleportation formation would only work once a week, he had no intention of waiting that long. The token given to him by Jolene should be enough to have them start the formation for him early right? Besides, he had a good relationship with the Noel family. He was sure, if nothing else, they could figure out some deal.

*****

New York, Earth

Rafael walked through the long, extravagant hallways of his fathers latest mansion with an extremely serious expression. The war on earth had been going on miserably, but they were alive. However, if his suspicions were right, that might soon change.

When he finally reached his fathers room, he did not bother knocking and just barged in. \'King\' Marlo could be seen casually reclining on a chair, his butler standing beside him giving some kind of report. He wore no shirt, yet his chest was covered in bandages to help him heal from his many wounds.

"Old man, we have trouble," Rafael said, not bothering with semantics right now. He was having great trouble as it was, surviving in this new reality of his. It was nothing like the future he knew, and if it weren\'t for his skills and insights from all the battles he recalled from the future, he would not have survived. Almost every opportunity he could possibly gain on earth was already probably gone, and lord only knew if the threats and dangers he recalled from the future would even come now or not. Or, if they came, what would happen.

"What is it?" Marlo asked, taking his son quite seriously. Although he was not exactly satisfied with Rafael\'s personal strength, the kid had spent countless years in a coma. He could not be blamed.

Besides, his leadership in battle and his unmatched foresight and skill made him worthy of recognition in his own right. No longer was he called Marlo\'s son when people talked of him. He was Rafael, the greatest living human general on earth right now.

"If my guess is correct, we\'re going to face an attack soon. One we can\'t possibly survive."

"Oh? What makes you say that? We have many allies, I doubt they\'d let us suffer such an attack unaided."

"That\'s where you\'re wrong," Rafael said, shaking his head. "I\'ve been monitoring troop movements for a while now. Based on the trends I\'ve seen, and the hints I\'ve collected, I suspect that the deities and A.I. have reached a tacit agreement about us. Since we don\'t support the deities preaching in New York, we are nothing but an eye sore to them. If they can get rid of us, there will be one less competitor for earth."

Instead of being alarmed, Marlo smiled.

"Tell me more."