The Innkeeper-Novel

It had been a few hours since Hugo went into the recovery pod, and on Earth it was evening now. The Inn reflected that as the “sun” in the sky was setting. It wasn’t an actual sun, but rather a projection of one. The Manor was well lit and tiki torches were placed around the garden along with a large bonfire. These were sudden changes Lex implemented since he had guests sitting outside, enjoying now.

Honestly he was quite surprised that Falak was getting along so well with Chen and Blane, but after listening for a while he realized that it was mostly him telling them the history of their world. He looked like an amicable elder teaching young kids while reminiscing about the past. Lex listened in but after a while he lost interest.

Right now he was just waiting for Hugo to leave the recovery pod, and hoping for him to rent a room. Healing his wounds would naturally take longer than the two soldiers since he was at a higher realm, but it should be close now. Lex was also interested in Hugo’s weapons; even if they had the shape of regular guns he didn’t believe for a second that they shot normal bullets.

During this time he also looked at his 2291 MP leftover from all his expenditure and considered if he should add a few more features to the Inn. Currently he could add the greenhouse or the meditation room. Once he bought the greenhouse he could buy seeds from the Midnight market or bring some of his own and plant them in the greenhouse to grow. When the plants grow he could use them for various purposes but there was a catch, getting a greenhouse required him to get a dedicated employee. For now he had Velma and Gerard doing multiple tasks, but the greenhouse would require an employee dedicated only to it, regardless of whether there was anything growing or not. That sounded expensive. The meditation room, on the other hand, was a large one time purchase and required no maintenance and was very beneficial to cultivators Qi Training and above, but that single one time purchase was kind of expensive. He wanted to save up to raise his cultivation level, not to mention he felt the need to keep an emergency fund in case he ever failed a quest or needed to make a payment.

While he was considering his options, Mary appeared to let him know that his phone was ringing back on Earth. Curious, he returned back to his apartment and was pleasantly surprised when he saw who was calling. It was Marlo._.

“Hello,” he greeted picking up the call, only to be responded with the sound of uproarious laughter.

“How does it feel to be rich, huh boy? Bet you already spent your first million!”

Lex smiled and looked at his phone. He’d gotten a notification that the payment had been transferred to his account.

“Not yet,” Lex answered truthfully. “I was busy and didn’t check my phone. But you can rest assured now that I know the money has been transferred I won’t hold myself back from spending it.”

“Great! GREAT!” the man roared. “I was afraid you were like one of those people who like to hoard money and spend only a little. You can’t grow if you don’t use what you have. Anyway, I have your weapon as well. If possible, come over today to pick it up. I have a few things as well I’d like to discuss with you.”

“I’ll be right over!” Lex exclaimed and left his apartment as quickly as he could. He hailed a cab and in 20 minutes was at Marlo’s apartment. The door was opened by Marlo’s butler who was expecting Lex this time, and led him directly to the gym where the giant man was attending a call. Noticing Lex’s arrival he quickly told the person on the call he had to go and hung up.

The human shaped bear said nothing to Lex and only pointed towards a briefcase with a mischievous grin. This time Lex was also excited as he reached for it and, with trembling hands, opened it. Before him lay a silver handgun in the shape of a desert eagle, with two magazines as well. But this was no ordinary gun – this was a spirit weapon!

“Let me introduce you to your new weapon, the Heavy Harley! Each magazine takes a different kind of ammo,” the giant said, picking up the gun. He loaded the first magazine that had a silver stripe on it and aimed at a minion-bot from Rent-a-minion that was standing nearby. Without hesitation he fired five bullets, firmly denting the minion all over its body. The gunshots, surprisingly, didn’t make a lot of sound.

“The first kind of magazine fires spirit bullets. The strength of each bullet is equivalent to the strongest attack of a ninth grade Qi Training cultivator. The bullets are quiet and fast, and each magazine can carry upto 100 bullets. Once the magazine runs out you can use spirit tokens to refill the magazine.”

Spirit tokens were a relatively common commodity in the cultivator world, at least between low level cultivators. 100 spirit tokens were equal to one spirit stone, in price at least.

Marlo unloaded the magazine and put the other one in the gun, this one with a bronze stripe.

“This one takes actual physical ammunition. The Heavy Harley can take iron ranked low caliber rounds, and can in theory gravely injure an initial Foundation realm cultivator. The magazine can carry 10 bullets.”

He fired a single bullet at the minion and its head exploded! This gunshot was still not as loud as he expected, but was like a firecracker exploding next to them.

The headless minion kept standing, as if the head made no difference, but its shoulders slumped as if it was depressed. Marlo fired a few more shots until there was nothing of the minion left standing, only random robot parts on the floor.

Lex grinned and took the gun from Marlo, feeling the cold metal in his hand. It was heavier than expected, but nothing Lex couldn’t handle. This was the realization that Lex had; why should he try to be low key and use swords when better and more convenient options were available? Not to mention that it took care of enemies at long distance, according to Marlo there were various spirit techniques available even for guns from as low as Qi Training. As for standing out too much in a low tech world? The world of cultivators was full of mysteries, trying to account for every possible situation would leave one unable to ever leave their homes. He would handle it when the situation arose.

Marlo summoned another minion who stood 20 feet away from Lex, awaiting its fate.

“Try the spirit magazine first, get a feel for it.”

Lex swapped out the magazines and aimed at the minion. His stance wasn’t that great and considering that this was his first time using a gun he should have held it with both hands instead of one, but Marlo did not comment. Experience was the best teacher, he would value advice more after knowing what he did wrong.

Lex aimed for a few seconds at the minions head, and then fired. The sound of the shot was still suppressed, but everything else was completely different from when Marlo used the gun. Let alone that he missed the minion completely, the recoil of the shot bent his stretched arm and the gun was now pointing up in the air.

“Damn!” Lex exclaimed, taken by surprise, but Marlo only grinned. The show had just begun. Using both his hands this time Lex lined up the shot and after a few tries managed to hit the minion. It was not that Lex’s aim was bad, but that even with the strength of Body Tempering he could not handle the recoil, which deviated his shots.

“Try the other one,” Marlo said, swapping out the magazines. If Lex had paid attention he would have noticed the anticipation on the man’s face, but he was too focused on the gun.

Lex aimed at the minion again, holding the gun with both hands again. When he felt ready, he fired. Whether the bullet hit the minion or not was something Lex never found out because he felt like his body had been hit by a truck, and he actually fell backwards. He felt an intense pain in shoulder, and knew that he had dislocated his arm. The recoil was too strong for Lex, there was no way he could use this magazine without raising his strength first. Marlo, who had been waiting, finally burst out in laughter. Nothing in life was easy, if Lex wanted to use guns to fight cultivators he was only setting himself up for just a different kind of difficulty.