The Innkeeper

Once the giant man was done laughing he looked at the somewhat defeated faces of his three new students and grinned.

“Of course, this definition doesn’t yet apply to you, yet. Right now you are weak. The ideal scenario for you right now is to hole up somewhere and steadily increase your cultivation to Qi training at the very least. Even if you go ahead and join an organization they would not put you through any dangerous situation so as to avoid needless casualties, but life is unpredictable. Situations can change quickly. So the question is, if you find yourself in a dangerous situation, what should you do?”

Marlo’s words were phrased as a question but he did not wait for an answer, instead he signaled his three minions who quickly quickly picked up an assorted pile of wooden panels and began putting together what seemed like a maze.

“Your first, and MOST important lesson will begin now. It won’t cover something as mundane as combat. The most important aspect of self defense for you all is to learn to analyze and identify dangerous situations, and quickly map out your best course of actions.” The madman grinned, as was his norm, like a psychopath. “This is always my favorite lesson.”_.

The three students trembled and the look of pity on the minions faces was blatant now.

*****

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It was 7 pm when Lex got home and though it was not so late in the day, Lex could not remember when he had been so exhausted last. He didn’t have the energy to shower properly so he just lay in the bath and began filling it with warm water. He closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander, occasionally appreciating how the water seemed to massage his sore muscles. Yes, his ‘sore muscles’. Marlo had noticed how the minions on the same cultivation level as him didn’t seem to push him much, so he had undergone his training with minions at the 7th stage of Body Tempering. Most of his bruises had already healed on the way home, but when he left Marlo’s arena even his own mother would not have recognized him. Larry wasn’t much better than him. Matilda, to Lex’s great surprise, performed exceedingly well and Marlo had decided to give her lessons separate from the two boys so that she wouldn’t be held back by their level.

Lex was a little annoyed, not at Marlo or his training or anything of that sort. His annoyance was focused on the cultivation novels he’d read. In just a few lines the novels declared the MC would train for months or years on end, always pushing himself to the limit beyond any of his peers. It seemed so easy on paper. Yet the novels never missed the gritty details of how difficult training was. It never mentioned the feeling of constantly being out of breath, of feeling extreme heat, of hearing your own heart beat so loud it was hard to focus on anything else. The novels never mentioned how sticky it felt to be in sweaty clothes all day, or how draining it was not just physically but also mentally. Lex kept complaining to himself until he slowly drowsed away in the tub.

He was woken up with a start when he heard his phone ring! He hadn’t even realized when he’d fallen asleep and now his bathtub was overflowing, flooding his bathroom. Quickly he turned off the water and unplugged the bathtub drain to let some of the water flow out. After rubbing his eyes and trying to rouse himself a bit, he reached for his phone. It was a call from his youngest sister.

“Hey Moon,” he answered in a teasing voice, “is it snowing in the Sahara? How did you remember to call me?” His youngest sister, who was probably 16, or 15 (he wasn’t sure, he didn’t remember exactly) wasn’t actually called Moon, it was just a nickname she had since she was young.

“Ha ha very funny!” Moon answered in an annoyed voice. “I wouldn’t be calling if you weren’t causing trouble everywhere. When are you coming to visit? You know mom and dad are very angry at big sister Liz but she won’t listen to them about anything so they just spend all their time complaining to me. You know she only listens to you. When are you coming home? I can’t take much more of this, I’m telling you! If you don’t come home soon I’m going to tell mom we should all visit you in New York!”

“No, don’t!” Lex didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He had a bit of an unusual family, his parents were archeologists, but not the kind that worked in one place. They worked with various groups and had to travel all over the world for their projects, as such his childhood was filled with traveling all over the world and he was mostly homeschooled. When he was younger he enjoyed it quite a bit, but eventually he got tired of constantly traveling so when he left for college he had become completely independent. His two younger sisters however stuck with his parents, even though he had offered to let them live with him and attend school or college here. His older sister Belle also chose to stay with their parents. Anyway, it had been a few years since he stopped traveling with his family and now whenever they visited they would nitpick everything he did or didn’t do. It was best to meet them outside of New York.

“I’m a little busy with work, it’s not easy to get a leave. I’ll visit you guys as soon as I get the chance,” Lex tried to appease his little sister and spent some time catching up with her. Moon was mostly just calling to let him know that the family was missing him, but everyone was a little too proud to admit it. He promised he’d call everyone and take some time to catch up.

Eventually he hung up and looked at the time. It was 10:30 pm, he’d slept for around 3 hours in the tub but already felt much better. He wasn’t at 100% but he wasn’t completely drained like he was when he got home. He ordered himself some pizza and sat on a table and thought about the new world he would be visiting soon. He would be able to use the Golden Ticket again on Tuesday and he planned on using it the same day. His preparations were almost complete but his training today made him realize that he should at least carry some kind of weapon with him in case of an emergency. Buying Spirit Tech was out of the question, but he should be able to get some kind of weapon from Marlo during his next class on Monday. Marlo had mentioned that his students could buy gear from him at a discount if they wished as he was also a certified trader. A surprising thing Lex learned about Marlo was that the eager giant was very industrious. He ran multiple businesses and side hustles. Today his formal attire was not because of class but because he had arrived directly from some kind of meeting. He could also use that opportunity to “accidentally” drop a hint that Lex was expecting some kind of fortuitous encounter and use that to build some kind of trust with the giant. He would use that as a foundation to somehow slip the giant a key to enter the Inn. He hadn’t worked out the details yet but he had a vague plan.

“Mary, can you tell me what the process of connecting to another world is like? How will I choose another world and what will the connecting process be like?”

“Sure,” said Mary cheerily as she appeared in the air in front of him. “When you tear the Golden Ticket you will get a list of a few habitable planets within the Inn’s current range, with some basic details about the planet such as the spiritual energy density, what kind of environment to expect etc. As for the details of what kind of beings inhabit the planet, you will have to find out for yourself when you visit. You can however make guesses, such as if the planet has temperatures and spiritual energy similar to Earth you might find humans, whereas if the conditions are drastically different then it’s almost impossible to find humans.”

“There are humans on other planets?” Lex asked in surprise. Honestly he was expecting some kind of aliens. Humans were a species that evolved on Earth (as far as he knew) so unless Earth colonized these planets he was honestly not expecting to see more humans. Bastet and Falak also supported his theory that he would be able to find intelligent aliens on other planets.

“Checking authority…surprisingly, you have enough authority to receive this information as it pertains to guests you can receive. In this universe, as long as any species exists for even a moment, the foundations of its existence become a core of the universe. That means, anytime an environment that can support the existence of that species occurs the laws of the universe naturally propagate its natural birth and creation. That means humans, for example, exist on multiple planets across the universe. However, just because the planet can support the life and existence of humans does not mean all humans have the same traits.

“Humans born on a planet with higher gravity will eventually evolve to adapt to it. Humans born on a planet that has 99% of its surface covered in water will evolve to be able to breath under water. There are numerous examples of this, which means there are various subspecies of humans across the universe. In fact, to you it seems like you are the normal version of humans, but that may not be necessary.

“Of course, this applies to other races as well. So across the universe you will encounter different versions of some intelligent species, and it is difficult to guess which will be the most common species to be your guests. This may also sometimes lead to conflicts between guests of different species, this is something you need to be aware of and prepare for.”

“Got it,” said Lex. For now his options were limited so there wasn’t really anything to prepare.

“The range of planets available for you depends primarily on your cultivation, the higher the cultivation the greater the range. Once you select a planet you will be transported to that planet, and will act as an anchor for the Inn to develop a connection to that planet. The connection building process may take anywhere from 1 day to 1 month to even a year, depending on how far it is. In the beginning, however, the connection process shouldn’t be longer than a week at most as your range is currently very small.”

Lex nodded, relieved that the process wouldn’t take too long. Just to be safe though, he should also think of an excuse to give to Marlo in case he missed a class.