The Innkeeper

Every breath they took in felt biting cold, yet to them it was just reinvigorating rather than uncomfortable. Every breath they exhaled left a long, thick trail of mist.

Yet somehow, besides their misty breath, and the chill running down their spines, there was no other sign of the pervading cold in the surrounding area. There was no snow or ice anywhere to be found. The only sight for them to see was the dried yet grainy soil, and the gray and beige pebbles and rocks littered throughout the area. There wasn\'t even any vegetation.

If they did not know better, they would assume that they had been sent to some kind of wasteland or deserted area.

Yet as deplorable as the conditions seemed, the children actually seemed to like it - a little. Their bloodlines inevitably affected their behavior and thought process, even if it was indirectly. What this actually meant was that they felt nice and cozy in cold climates, and would be more irritable in warm climates due to the fact that their bodies innately stayed warm.

Now it wasn\'t their bloodline forcing them to behave irritably in the heat and relaxed in the cold, yet due to the physical feedback of their bodies, they naturally developed such behavior.

This was only one of the simpler and easily identified idiosyncrasies that their family shared. Another one was their usually serious attitude, not to mention their extreme focus on any task or objective. Sure, there were some oddballs in their family here and there, but that was not the norm.

As such, these two who were out on vacation did not really know how to enjoy or behave, and could only think to keep themselves busy somehow. Yet what could there possibly be for them to do in this frozen wasteland?

As if to answer their question, a dark figure appeared in the distance, approaching them. Its movements seemed to be slow, yet the actual speed at which it arrived was surprisingly fast. Moreover, even from a distance, the figure was radiating a dominating and commanding aura - one that their bloodline was reacting to!

That genuinely surprised them, for they had never encountered such a situation. Normally, even if they faced a much stronger creature, their bloodline would only make them more aggressive and ready to put up a fight. This was confirmed by their mother, who had once been in the presence of a dragon - though fortunately for them she did not have to fight it, Yet now, their bloodline was cowering! How was this possible?

Before the kids could fully wrap their heads around the submission emanating from within their very bones, the figure arrived.

It belonged to a turtle, or at least something that resembled a turtle. Its body was massive, causing them to have to crane their neck up to look at its face. A single, curved, gray horn protruded from its forehead, though streaks of purple had begun appearing on it.

"Oh dear, more silly humans," the turtle lamented, though it did not seem too disturbed. Its eternal fondness for picking up strays gave it a very tolerant and mellow personality. And yes, to it, humans were just more strays or pets for it to collect and raise. After all, hadn\'t it also rescued and protected Lex when he first came to Nibiru? To it, Lex was and still is no different from Little Blue and the rest.

The children, who were finally showing some expression, looked up in awe and reverence. Lex, who was spying on the situation from the Midnight mountain, did not know if he should feel satisfied that he finally broke through and impressed them, or offended that the turtle had elicited such a reaction but not himself.

"I have been told that you little humans want to farm. I will bring you some saplings and teach you how to plant them in this environment."

"What are we planting?" Cava asked, curious.

"And what for?" Khuno asked as well, trying to put up a strong front. He could not accept that his own blood was being submissive before another, and did not want to give in.

"In six months there will be a wedding," the turtle told. "But more importantly, the wedding will also be a conference for immortals. The food that you will plant now will be served at that conference."

"We\'re growing food for immortals?" the duo asked, startled.

"No silly humans. This is food for others at the conference. The food for the immortals… is being grown by me personally."

After that, the turtle did not bother explaining any further, and used a vine made of grass to pull out a small cactus from within its shell. But the strange thing was that this cactus… seemed to be made of rocks, and the only parts of it which seemed like an ordinary plant were its roots.

The turtle showed the kids how to plant it in the ground, which seemed quite straightforward when the turtle did it. This unusual cactus required that its roots be buried to a minimum depth, and had to be planted in an area with lots of pebbles and rocks.

The process seemed straightforward enough, and growing food for a conference of immortals seemed a worthy enough task for them to put some effort into it. After all, regardless of their background, as mere mortals themselves they still needed to respect immortals.

But when they tried to repeat the process themselves, using tools the turtle had given them, they discovered that the seemingly loose and grainy soil was as tough as metal. They literally could not even scratch the surface.

The kids looked at each other dumbfounded, while the turtle only watched silently from the side. Problem solving was an important skill for its pets to learn, so it would not interfere unless they were completely overwhelmed.

Feeling unresigned, the two tried again, this time using more strength. When they failed again, they tried once more while using spiritual techniques to literally attack the floor. Khuno was still not able to produce any significant results while Cava managed to produce a visible indent in the ground.

The repeated failures did not demotivate them, and instead spurred them to put even more effort into their task. The dua activated their bloodlines, which only produced limited visual changes in the two. Both of them suddenly grew more hair on their bodies, though it was not to the extent that it completely covered their skin, and their eyes turned yellow.

This time, instead of trying separately, they both began hacking at the same point in the ground, working together to produce a single hole.

The process was slow, incredibly slow. But at least it had begun.

The turtle shook its head and went away. From what it could see, the kids were more or less playing around in the dirt.

Far away, Lex snickered as he saw the two working relentlessly to provide him with free labor. That\'s what they got for acting haughty in front of him. No, eh, wait. He meant the Inn was capable of satisfying the request of any kind of guest.

Feeling somewhat entertained, he decided to continue hosting guests for a while, so for the next few hours, random guests who found themselves in slightly less crowded areas were visited by the Innkeeper, unbeknownst to them. Since he never officially introduced himself, everyone just assumed he was just another worker at the Inn.

Eventually, his fun was interrupted by a system notification - one that he had been waiting for!

The workers that he hired for the Inn now included two races: humans and draconian apostles. From those two races, the humans now had the option of three different bloodlines.

The first bloodline, Regalia Bloom, was considered the default bloodline any of his workers could unlock and did not cost any extra.

The second bloodline, Anachronistic Ignition, which was the one Luthor had, cost 350 million MP per worker to give to a new worker, which was quite a bit more than Regalia Bloom.

The third bloodline, Death Counter, also had a massive price bump, coming out at 300 million MP per worker.

But considering the fact that both the newly unlocked bloodlines were extremely impressive, Lex continued to randomly give them out regardless of the massive cost. Yet once he received a summons to war, he had the idea of hiring a group of workers specifically for combat purposes. It was then that he discovered that besides their massive cost, the newer bloodlines also could not be given out en masse, and it required quite a bit of time to summon workers with these bloodlines if all of them had the newer ones.

Still, Lex was not miserly. He immediately spent 90 billion MP and maxed out his limit to hire 300 workers with the Death Counter bloodline. Once they were trained, they would be his new Midnight Battalion!