The Innkeeper

𝑜𝒱𝐿xt.𝒞𝚘𝑀

The Midnight Inn received thousands of new guests every day, at the very least. Although most of them arrived at the Inn through the use of golden keys, enough of them came from golden doors that opened randomly for Lex to have realized that the occurrence of those doors was not truly random. Although he had yet to figure out the pattern with which they opened, he could determine that they were more likely to open up in areas where they were likely to be discovered.

There was a part of him that suspected there was even more to it than that, as he had seen a few odd patterns in the kinds of guests that arrived through the golden doors. Suffice to say, they were more likely to be interesting or significant characters as compared to those that arrived through the spread of golden keys.

Yet, there was still another subset of guests who came through another method, who often tended to be of even more significance than guests who normally came through the golden doors. They were the pro bono guests!

The golden doors of the Midnight Inn opened, but instead of opening near the ground, as they usually did, they opened up high in the air. An injured Sol bird fell through the door, landing directly on the nearby spaceship. The Midnight Inn’s incredible ability to control passive influence from guests and their cultivation kept the temperature from rising around it, though it would not have been enough to leave a single mark on the ship even if it didn’t.

The door immediately shut right after the bird fell through, preventing whoever was chasing it from following. The bird took one look to see it was no longer being followed, before it collapsed and lost consciousness.

*****

Lex was thinking over why his arrays had failed to get a result. It was not that they were weak, but that the enemy was uniquely immune to elemental attacks. He had other forms of attacks available to him that he had planned out, but he was too used to relying on elemental attacks so much so that it didn’t occur to him until much later.

If there was one thing he was pleased with, though, was the speed at which he formed the arrays. It was finally getting to the point where he could use them quickly enough in battle. While Lex’s repertoire of techniques was very limited, his versatility was definitely not low. Not only was he incredibly strong and tough now, his mind worked fast enough to finally turn arrays into an actual viable solution.

Still, just because he liked using arrays it didn’t mean he should avoid his other abilities. He quickly went over everything he was capable of before he reached the next floor. Although it did not seem like it, Lex had to admit that the difficulty of each floor was growing pretty quickly.

Although he was unharmed so far, he suspected it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

The moment he stepped onto the fourth floor new information was deposited in his mind. Interestingly enough, it was a new array character. However this character was slightly unusual. Unlike other characters which brought about a set and specific change in the universe, this character meant “I”. Its effect would change depending on who used it, and how.

Lex stopped inspecting the new character and turned his attention back to his surroundings. Unlike previous floors, which took the form of a massive hall, this floor took the form of a narrow corridor. If Lex spread his arms out, he would barely be able to touch both the sides of the passage.

He smiled because he immediately took in everything this new floor had to offer, and he genuinely did not expect what it had instored. At the end of the corridor he was facing was a swarm of small feline robots rushing towards him.

From the sounds he could hear, he could tell that the same robots were rushing at him from the other end of it as well. But he turned to look back anyway.

Right behind him stood another man. He was the same height as Lex, and like him had a very lean build. Like himself, he had turned around and was looking at Lex. Unlike Lex, who looked like he was on a casual stroll, he had equipped an exosuit and had 6 swords floating behind his back.

“Alexander Morrison,” Lex said, a hint of surprise in his voice. “I really didn’t think I’d run into you here.”

“Do I know you?” Alexander asked, a hint of wariness in his eyes. While previously he cultivated his spirit and his body, under the guidance of the empire, he was now cultivating his body, spirit and soul! As someone who had cultivated only two paths before, he knew exactly how much of a difference his new cultivation path had made on him, and his senses. That was exactly why he trusted his instincts when they told him that the man standing in front of him was extremely dangerous!

“Ah, no we’ve never met,” lied Lex. Well, at least Lex had never met him when he wasn’t acting as the Innkeeper. “But who on earth doesn’t know you?”

“You’re from earth?” Alexander asked, even more surprised. “It’s strange then that I don’t know you.” He could tell that Lex was fairly young, and his cultivation level was on par with him! There was no way someone like that should have been below his family’s radar!

Lex shrugged and said, “A lot has changed since the Midnight Inn showed up. I wasn’t worthy of your notice before. Though, I believe we have shared the same teacher. I was briefly enrolled in one of Marlo’s self defense classes.”

Both Alexander and Lex continued to stare at one another, content to ignore the incoming enemies.

“My name is Lex, by the way,” he said, extending his hand.

“Lex? Is that short for…”

“Ah not really,” Lex said with a short laugh. He knew what Alexander was going to ask. “People often assume that Lex is short for Alexander, but that’s not it. My older sister named me after her favorite… uh well, it doesn’t matter.”

By now, the robots were coming dangerously close, but the two still didn’t break eye contact. To Alexander, Lex felt a lot more dangerous than the entire horde!