The Innkeeper

The tree trunk had shrunk by about half a foot. There were no creatures eating the wood nor was there any fire nearby burning it, nor was there anything else in the vicinity that could reduce its size. That only left the ship. The ship was absorbing the wood from the tree to strengthen its hull.

Though the speed of absorption was slow, Lex had no benchmark to compare it with. For all he knew, this speed might as well be earth shattering!

But more than anything else, the versatility of fairies impressed him. He had thought earlier on that their ability to manipulate laws was already mind blowing. But what if that ability was just a side effect of their overpowered affinity for everything.

But Lex had seen countless fairies, he was sure. Even if they were being targeted because of their curse, how was it possible that he had never encountered a single one that powerful? Was there some kind of limit on their growth? Or was there some other issue?

Lex could not help but turn to Leroy. He wanted to ask him, but this whole realm was limited to the realm of Nascent soul, so it was unlikely he knew the answer.

"Pel, is there any particular reason why fairies don't grow stronger? Like, does the curse prevent them from becoming immortals? Because no matter how I think about it, their ability to have any affinity they want is too overpowered. They can even mix them in unusual ways just based on what they want. How is it possible that they can be so easily enslaved?"

"I'm not sure. I never really paid too much attention to fairies in my previous life. After all, they were just insignificant slaves. But from my limited exposure to them, all I can say is that they have a very submissive and servile nature. Even if they become powerful, if they themselves are mentally weak, then that power is as good as useless."

Lex frowned. This was an unusual situation, but Lex was almost certain that there was more to it than what he knew. But that was fine. Since he had a fairy clone now, this was one mystery he would enjoy uncovering.

He decided to continue absorbing the tree into his ship, and all the while thought of other ways in which he could test out his fairy dust. The subject of the tests would naturally remain the Jolly Rancher. If he could help it, he would turn this seemingly mundane, wooden ship into an over powered vessel that would be able to even travel through realms, as well as the void behind space.

Lex, meanwhile, continued to ask Leroy different questions about how fairies used their abilities. As it turned out, they had very few techniques at all, since they could just naturally do whatever they wanted with spiritual energy directly. All they had to do was imagine.

As such, the few techniques that they did have were all extremely overpowered, and were beyond the realm of what fairies could normally achieve.

Due to the nature of these techniques, they were not recorded in any physical vessels, and were transmitted from fairy to fairy. Earning one required gaining an immense amount of trust.

Once the fairies were all done packing, and by that he meant they somehow minimized and packaged the entire city into a few briefcases that they were carrying around so that they could redeploy it wherever they wanted, they all lined up in front of Lex, ready to be teleported away.

Lex surrounded all of them with his spirit sense, and then took a few seconds to recall the location of where he entered from, before teleporting over. Long distance teleportation required a bit of time to initiate, even for Lex, but soon enough, they found themselves near the wall.

Technically speaking, the boundary wall probably had openings now through which he could exit, but Lex was not in the mood to search, so he went the old fashioned way, and used his Glyph to part the boundary wall as he passed through.

The fairies, who were already in awe of Lex, felt completely and thoroughly convinced at his awesomeness as they experienced his power. Even though they were extremely versatile in what they could do, none of them were powerful enough to replicate anything Lex was doing.

Once they passed through, Lex was expecting to arrive buried under layers and layers of dirt, since the sealed domain had been underground.

He was prepared to blast his way through, since the fairies couldn't really enter soul state - probably. He hadn't asked something like that yet.

But as it turned out, he didn't need to. While the sealed domain underwent massive changes internally, it also brought about changes outside as well. Countless holes had appeared in the ground, going from the sealed domain all the way to the surface, making the region look like a massive wasp nest.

He could not guess what exactly happened to the dirt, rock and everything else that had seemingly disappeared. He was sure it was fine, and that they probably had not been launched into the air like a volcanic eruption, but of dirt instead of lava.

Realistically speaking, the sealed domain was bound to be discovered sooner or later, now that there was direct access to it from the ground. But there probably wouldn't be any problems.

Eh, his fairy clone was still inside so if the domain was invaded or something he would find out, and would do something about it. Maybe.

On the plus side, he now confirmed that he was still connected to his clone even through the barrier of the domain.

He began teleporting back towards the Inn. Once he was back, Lex would relax until the resin was absorbed and see how much of a difference that made. In the meantime, he would begin marking down the other locations for the resin that he knew of.

Finding them would be another task altogether.