The Innkeeper

Lex didn’t need to think too much, the more people that came the better his income would be. That meant he needed to plan an event with maximum participation from all worlds, as well as an incentive for everyone to participate. For that he needed to prepare some sort of prize, but if the prize was for an individual no one would make an effort to bring more people from their own planets. That meant the prize had to be for all participants from a specific planet, not a specific individual. It was fortunate then that the event management panel also had a specific tab for prizes. The only catch was, the prizes were pricey.

“Any guest from any of the three planets may participate in the event. Of course, any kind of festivity is incomplete unless there is a grand prize so whichever planet puts on the best show will…”

Lex’s speech was interrupted by the appearance of the floating golden door right in front of him. Some of the audience recognized the golden door, some of them didn’t, but Lex knew a new guest was arriving. The timing was slightly inconvenient, but another guest couldn’t hurt…_.

A zombie walked out of the door, its body emitting a putrid rotting smell. It had dried blood all over its face and its naked body was covered in mud and dirt. The zombie was at Mid Foundation level and as soon as it appeared Lex summoned the Self Defense Butter Knife in his hand, but waited for it to attack before he made a move. The guests froze as no one was expecting such a scene. Marlo and the guests from Vegus recognized the latest ‘guest’ and readied themselves for any potential trouble but the rest looked on with interest.

The Zombie took a few moments to look around its new surroundings, but when it saw Lex it let out an aggressive roar and prepared to attack. Yet before it had taken so much as a single step, Lex threw the Butter Knife straight through its forehead, killing it. His actions were swift and decisive, which led to an anticlimactic end to the sudden intrusion.

“It’s a tragedy when certain guests just can’t abide by the rules of the Inn,” Lex said as he appeared indifferent. He mentally instructed Gerard to dispose of the zombie’s body but recover its core. “Please excuse me for exposing you to such vulgarity,” he said looking at his awaiting guests. Only Hera looked bothered by what just happened, and Will was consoling her, which was fortunate.

“Will the event include sharing some of my ‘culture’ with the zombie?” Marlo asked, smirking. “I don’t mind paying them a visit again. It was quite enjoyable.”

“No,” Lex said chuckling – of course the barbarian wannabe would only think of fighting. “Various planets have different circumstances and different combat standards, having a combat portion in the event would make it unfair to certain planets…” Lex was interrupted once again by another Zombie, but this time the status of the zombie read Mid Golden Core!

For a moment Lex froze in fear, but quickly recovered and his thoughts started racing.

‘The zombie is too close to me, if it attacks I’ll be the first victim. I can teleport away, but that’ll expose my weakness in front of everyone. What can I do? The Butter Knife can only deal with Foundation realm enemies…No wait, I have MP I can pay for an upgrade! How do I upgrade?’

Just as these various thoughts were going through his head and he was about to upgrade the Butter Knife through the Midnight market, the Zombie identified Lex as its prey! This zombie’s eyes were more animated than the previous ones, and Lex could see excitement in them.

Yet before the zombie could make any actual moves, vines grew out of the ground and wrapped themselves around it. The zombie tried to resist, but new vines kept growing and wrapping it similar to the bindings around a mummy. Once the zombie was completely wrapped, it fell over to the ground. One could still clearly see the zombie struggling within its wrappings, but it bore no results. The grass around where the zombie fell grew and lifted it up, and started moving the zombie away from the coliseum as if the zombie were a celebrity crowd-surfing and the grass were all of its fans carrying it.

“I told the turtle you brought it some fertilizer,” Mary whispered in his ear, as if explaining what happened, but didn’t appear in front of him. She didn’t want to distract Lex, he was supposed to be presenting in front of his guests and had already been disturbed enough.

Once the zombie left the stadium Lex turned his attention to the golden door, which stayed in the air for a few more moments before disappearing – as if detecting Lex’s displeasure. When the vines surrounded the zombie and took care of it, the first thing Lex felt in his heart was relief – instant, immense relief. Yet right after that, he started feeling angry. This was supposed to be his Inn, yet he had no control over it because his authority for everything was too low! He was in the middle of presenting, but he kept getting interrupted with intruders and embarrassed in front of his guests. As Lex’s internal monologue continued, he did not notice that he had clenched his fists tightly or that even his Host Attire could not stop him from frowning. He was not controlling the weather directly, but as if affected by his mood the clear sky started filling with clouds and his anger started exerting pressure on everyone similar to what one felt when they reached the bottom of the deep end of a pool.

“Lex you’re getting angry again, control your emotions!” Mary said, appearing in front of him this time. Lex immediately snapped out of his thoughts, and realized what he was doing. With a single thought he returned the sky to what it was and eliminated the pressure, as if it was all a dream. Yet none of the guests thought it was a dream, they had all clearly felt what had just happened. The soldiers and Lily seemed the least affected by what they just witnessed – in their minds the Innkeeper was already an extremely dangerous figure.

“You know what Marlo, I changed my mind.” Lex looked towards his guests. “Two weeks from now the event will be divided into a combat portion and a cultural portion. The combat portion will be limited to the Foundation and Golden Core level for fairness, but everyone can participate in the cultural one. There will be no age or race restrictions. Specific details about both events and how to participate will be released in ten days, so don’t forget to check back in. And remember, the winning planet will get an attractive prize so do your best.”

With that Lex disappeared, leaving his guests to absorb everything he had just said and all that had happened. The staff were the first to leave, followed closely by John.

“Looks like our host has a bit of a temper,” Marlo said with a grin, then looked towards Alexander. “Little brat, you shouldn’t bring your family with you when you’re out on a date.”

Despite having gotten over her feelings, Helen blushed but made no comment.

“Old geezer, it seems to me like you’re getting weaker. Now you even need to come to the Inn to recover after getting beaten up.”

“Oh, am I getting weaker? Maybe you should ask your grandfather.” Marlo waited for Brandon to comment on his increased strength, but it was Rorick who said “Can we focus on the matter at hand. Does anyone know what that thing was that kept interrupting the Innkeeper? And what do we think about this cultural and combat event?”

“That was a zombie,” informed Marlo. “And what do you mean, what do we think about it? Didn’t you hear the man say there is a prize? We’re of course going to go after it.” At this point Marlo’s jolly demeanor changed, and he looked very seriously at Rorick, “But as someone who’s seen the Zombie battlefield let me tell you this. If we even want a chance at winning, we’re going to need the combined strength of the entire solar system. Or, at least, the strength of all five ruling families.”