The Innkeeper

With Marlo's devastating defeat, the merry-making and festivities slowly came to a close. Will, Hera and Jimmy eventually returned to their rooms, Jimmy still bouncing up and down from the excitement. Ayesha stayed a while longer, but then took a look at her watch and eventually returned. Slag, who no longer wished to associate with anyone in Marlo's prescience, went out to stroll about the Inn and collect more information. Maybe Lex should just make a booklet for new guests so that they don't need to explore themselves. John, whose sense of satisfaction from the victory had been ruined, returned to the Battle Ax and Harry returned to Earth.

Eventually it was just Marlo, Alexander and Helen left, mainly because Marlo was still eating like a ravenous wolf. At a certain point Lex realized that he wasn't just being a glutton, his body needed sustenance and since he could no longer absorb spirit energy due to his broken core, food was his primary source!

"Would you like to try our spirit food instead of just regular meals?" the Innkeeper asked, finally halting the man's actions. Lex reminded himself that despite Marlo's bombastic actions, the man was a very focused and dedicated individual. Everything he did served a hidden purpose, so he should have realized sooner that he was finally suffering the toll of trying to resolve the issue with his blood without the support of the Recovery Pod.

"Why not? Send them my way," he finally said after swallowing, but then continued to eat the food that he had. Marlo was the first person trying the spirit food made from the vegetables Lex had grown in the greenhouse. In terms of price, it was still very reasonable, changing the price for a single meal from 1 MP to 10.

As much as Lex wanted to watch Marlo try out the new food, see him discover the brilliance of the Inn's cooking that would bring him to a world where champagne flowed from the sky and rose petals appeared beneath his feet - maybe Lex had spent some time watching a certain cooking anime in the past - he decided to leave.

Although he felt well enough, he wanted to meditate some more and calibrate his mood for the upcoming meeting. Today's incident also reminded him that not everyone would go along with his designs willy nilly, and he needed to be in best form.

Back at the manor, with some privacy finally, Alexander turned to Marlo with a serious matter to discuss.

"When are you going back to Earth? Your disappearance has caused some issues. Your wife has caused a lot of problems. Even Bluebird finally could not ignore it and sanctioned her, but that has not redeemed the situation."

Marlo did not slow down eating and it didn't look like he cared much either way, but a careful observer would notice the flashing sadness in his eyes.

"I cannot leave this place until I finish my new method of cultivation. The meditation room speeds up my progress astronomically, and I might need to go to the Recovery room at a moment's notice if something goes wrong."

Alexander sat in silence as he contemplated what Marlo told him. Like his grandfather, all the Nascent level cultivators on Earth reached that level through unique and unrepeatable ways. Following that road, Marlo had devised a new cultivation technique that could be summed up by describing it as rapid evolution under the influence of spirit energy. With his core crippled and no resources to push his body cultivation further, this is the solution he came up with. The rapid evolution would be induced under the influence of spirit energy, but by doing so he would essentially be changing his very body. This change went beyond the scope of change brought about by cultivation, and would bring his body's natural state to be equivalent to higher cultivation levels.

This was a theory that Marlo came up with based on his study of Beasts, as they had no problem reaching the Nascent realm even when humans could not. What Marlo did not know was that he had embarked on a path that was already known by some in the universe, but very few tried and even fewer succeeded in - the path of the Prime. In fact, without the aid of the Inn Marlo would never have even made it this far.

"And how long do you think that will take? Will you be able to join the Midnight Games?"

"I'm not sure," Marlo replied. "I feel like I'm on the verge of success. But like any breakthrough, that last step could come quickly or it could take years."

After a moment of silence, "Well even if you miss the games, I think you should take some time when you're able to go back and settle things on Earth before they become too ugly."

"Speaking of things getting ugly, what are the geezers planning on doing about the Inn? I don't know if what Slag said was true, but it's only a matter of time before someone sends a tracker or something of the sort back to Earth with a guest who wants to venture out into the universe. Or someone who gets bribed. Or tricked. Either way, the end result will not be good."

"I asked my grandfather," Alexander said with a confused expression. "He only said that I don't need to worry about it, and if possible, accept the biggest bribes. He told me to get the most I can out of anyone who is willing to throw money our way, and then continue to get some more."

The room returned to silence, as everyone contemplated the future. Eventually they parted ways, and as Marlo walked back towards the Meditation room his eyes became resolute and a Tier 5 zombie core appeared in his hand.

*****

The rest of the day past peacefully. After a round of meditation Lex eventually went to bed. For some reason, his meditation was extremely fruitful today. He felt like he was on the verge of stabilizing his spirit. He didn't know if his progress was faster than normal, but since his cultivation technique was unorthodox he simply accepted it. Not that he was complaining, he wanted to become stronger as fast as possible.

The next day, Lex held an assembly for all his guards. He was not sure if his guards were very well designed robots or constructs of the system or real people, like he suspected his bodyguard might be. Either way, instructing them once himself would not be a bad idea. In the forest surrounding the greenhouse 260 guards stood in 10 straight lines, facing the Innkeeper. The A.I. staff was also standing on the side even though Lex could pass orders to them mentally. They didn't want to feel left out.

"I've been observing you and you've been doing a good job. I can see you patrolling the grounds diligently, and even the quick response to yesterday's event made me proud. Tomorrow we'll be expecting a lot more guests, and with more people I expect there will be more altercations. You have to stop any incidents before any of the guests can get hurt. Should anyone cause an issue, you should only detain them, try not to harm them. Once you've detained them, hold them until you can contact me, no need to be polite against offenders. If the opponent is too strong or attacks with intention to kill, then no need to hold back. You can attack with extreme prejudice. This meeting will be practice for the much larger event in a few days, so make sure to perfect your rounds."

Lex did not give them too many instructions, they were doing their job well enough and probably knew what to know better than he did. It was just, he needed to make sure they knew how to handle most situations. He did not want guards killing or crippling any guests, at least on their own discretion.

Then he informed them on the protocol for various different situations from medical emergencies to massive zombie invasions to lost children and more. Honestly he did not expect any such situation to arise but he had learnt that he could never adequately predict things when it came to the system.

When it came to his regular staff he did not give them many instructions, but instead told them to note down areas where they were lacking that they noticed during the larger crowd. This would be a good time to test the limits of how the Inn was running and what things needed to be changed. Finally, he also told them not to overburden themselves as he had arranged for temp staff for each guest during the event.

Before Lex could finish his briefing, Z raised his hand and asked if he could go back to the Gamer's Den. Lex mentally facepalmed, but nodded nonetheless. He needed to find this little boy some friends. That was the only solution.