The Innkeeper

Lex spent the remainder of the day going over the miscellaneous details of the Inn with each and every worker, in case there was something he needed to fix, or a system he needed to refine. A prominent problem he was facing was that, while he had various vegetables to serve in the form of spirit food, there was a distinct lack of meat. At the moment, Lex had no solution for this, as there was no ranch option in the system.

Other than that, however, fortunately the Inn was running smoothly. In fact, there was a surprise for him at the greenhouse, in the form of a Lotus. The turtle brought it to Lex’s attention, and for good reason. If it remained in the Inn much longer, the Lotus was going to die. The turtle told Lex various things about the Lotus, but claimed to only know as much as its instincts would tell it. To be sure, the turtle was correct, Lex scanned the Lotus.

Name: World Seed Lotus

Age: 0

Species: Primordial Origin Lotus series

Condition: Decaying

Report: The World Seed Lotus is deprived of Primordial Spirit Energy in the Inn. Expose it to the universe outside the Inn, or raise the Inn Star level to 8 to let the Lotus survive.

Remarks: It’s dying anyway, make Lotus cake

The system scan didn’t give Lex the information he wanted, but the name was very telling. Still, he found it difficult to comprehend.

“Are you sure this thing can create a world?” Lex asked, eyeing the simple black colored Lotus.

“Look at it. How can you not tell that it will give birth to a new world? But it’s suffocating, you need to take it out.”

“How do I do that?”

“The Lotus is, naturally, sentient. Reach your hand out to it, and it will accompany you.”

Sentient? Lex eyes the Lotus, but could not tell anything. Still, he reached his hand towards the Lotus, only for it to promptly jump up from the ground and land in Lex’s hand. Yet when it fell in Lex’s hand, it fell into his skin like a tattoo, and crawled all the way to Lex’s back, where it found a comfortable position to sit.

Then, as if it were a real tattoo, it stopped moving.

“Thanks,” Lex heard a squeaky voice say in his mind, startling him.

He tried to talk back to the Lotus, but it had stopped replying. The idea of a… sentient Lotus living on Lex’s back may have freaked him out, if he couldn’t feel a continuous stream of warm energy entering his body from his back. He had no idea what the Lotus was doing, but instinctively he knew it was good for him.

“The Lotus can give birth to a planet,” the turtle repeated. “That doesn’t mean a massive rock will suddenly appear in space. It will be a new planet, with an established and awake world spirit. Since the Lotus can create something so wonderful, naturally it will also provide some help to you for aiding in its growth.”

“How long will it take for it to birth a planet?” Lex asked curiously. A world spirit was a great thing, if he had enough time before the planet was born, he could…

“Not long, I think. Anywhere between 500,000 to 800,000 years.”

Lex immediately put the Lotus and the world it would create behind him.

‘I’ll think about it again in 499,999 years,’ Lex thought to himself and chuckled.

With everything in the Inn taken care of, Lex returned to his apartment to gear up. This time around, he had refined his kit even more after his last trip visiting a world. It was sufficient to say that everything he wore, from his boots to his pants and shirt to even his undergarments, were actually armor in disguise.

Unlike last time, when his clothes looked like tactical gear worn by an Earthen soldier, his clothes this time looked like normal clothes. Other than that, he had a knife strapped to his leg, a sword along with the Heavy Harley at his waist, a deployable talisman shield, tactical tracking drones, a generic Jotun communication wristwatch and a couple of other gadgets. These were just the things he wore on his body, and did not include the items in his armored backpack.

Since he had to be selective with the items in his backpack, he had 10 spirit coins, 10 gold coins, an emergency first aid kit, some dry rations, various tiny grenades, stimulants, sedatives, and a cultivators version of a Swiss army knife, gifted to him by Will.

A lot of thought had gone into his gear, and though he was still missing out on many things, he had to be selective. Each item served a specific purpose, and could mean the difference between life or death. That was not exaggerated at all. For example, spirit coins, which were a commonly seen currency in the universe, even used on Earth. Lex could have brought more, or even spirit stones if he wanted to, but too much wealth might attract the wrong kind of attention. Though only 10 coins would not last him a long time, it would be enough to get him started if he were in a situation that required commerce. The gold coins served the same purpose.

A familiar feeling of excitement and nervousness filled Lex as he spent 100,000 MP on purchasing the Wooden Ticket. As embarrassing as the name was, Lex did not dwell on it as he crushed it, and a familiar screen opened in front of his eyes.

Planets Available:

Planet: Alf

Planet Rating: 1 Star

Planet Distance: 2 Sectors

Planet Environment: Extremely diverse biomes, resource rich

Planet: X-142

Planet Rating: 1 Star

Planet Distance: 3 Sectors

Planet Environment: Strictly regulated, conducive to normal life

Planet: Y-44

Planet Rating: 1 Star

Planet Distance: 1 Sector

Planet Environment: Planet has been converted into an ore farm

Lex was pleasantly surprised to see a few options presented to him, which was more than he was expecting. He wished it was a tough choice after reading his options, but Alf immediately seemed dangerous with its ‘extremely diverse biomes’. Nothing about that actually indicated that the biomes had to be dangerous, but it did not assure him either. Y-44 was an ore farm, whatever that meant, but Lex could only associate that term with mining. Not only did that make it seem like the planet was hospitable, it probably did not have the kind of habitation Lex was targeting either.

X-142 was also risky, as ‘strictly regulated’ indicated the planet was under someone’s control, but it could also be a good thing. Such a planet might have a civilized society with established security systems to protect societies and such.

Of course, no matter which planet he picked, it would involve a great deal of risk. So Lex simply stopped hesitating, put on his Bathroom slippers and monocle, and selected X-142. One drawback to it was that it was 3 sectors away, so it would take longer for the system to build a connection to the planet, but nothing was perfect.

Lex was enveloped by a bright, warm light, and then disappeared. When Lex reappeared, both his hands were near his weapons, ready to draw at a moment’s notice. Both times he had visited a planet, something had happened to him quickly after he arrived on the planet, so he wasn’t expecting anything different.

Yet what he did not expect was to be immediately assaulted by the smells of street food and the sounds of downtown New York. Lex was standing in the middle of a busy bazaar, with beings walking past him in both directions.

No one seemed bothered by him suddenly appearing from a ball of light, and in fact, he received a few annoyed looks from the nearby stall vendors.

His monocle was going crazy as it identified everything in his vision, but he didn’t need its help right now. Other than the ordinary humans passing him, how could he not identify the flying fairies, the floating balls of slime and, most importantly, the cat-men and women shopping around him.

Had he teleported into an anime?

That’s when he heard the familiar ting of a new quest in his mind.