The Innkeeper

Tuning into the piano music being played at the Midnight manor, Lex slowly rubbed his fingers together as he listed down the pros and cons of Protector D, the pup. The pro was obvious. Since it was a newborn pup, Lex could train it from birth, which would mean that loyalty was not an issue. After all, dogs were extremely loyal. But the con was also fairly obvious. The whole point of having a protector in the first place was to provide security, but if the protector was even weaker than Lex, then its position would be pointless. While it had limitless potential, and could benefit Lex far in the future, it would not help Lex from any troubles today or tomorrow.

Basically, Lex's issue was boiled down to only two factors. He could choose immediate strength and questionable loyalty, or eventual strength but assured loyalty. It was… surprisingly difficult to choose. Hmm, but tomorrow, or the days that followed, wouldn't matter if he could not live past today. He had to deal with his immediate protection first.

Lex opened up his system and investigated what kind of protection he could purchase directly from the system, as this should help him decide. Fortunately, because of his increase in authority, he had more options available to him. One of the options, though very expensive, immediately caught Lex's eye. While this would not provide an immediate solution, it was still very quick.

He scanned his Inn and found the Sovereign Galactic turtle sleeping in its shell near the greenhouse. A quick scan showed him that the turtle did not have a breakthrough to a higher realm, and had only increased its cultivation level within the Golden Core realm. This was good news, as Lex would not have been able to wake it up otherwise since a breakthrough like that would put it into a very deep slumber.

Teleporting directly to the turtle, Lex directly woke it up by knocking on its shell like a guest, knocking on a door.

After a few tries, the sleepy turtle eventually brought out its head to investigate what was going on.

"Hey turtle, if I raise the effectiveness of the greenhouse and give you a cutting of a Delinquent Viper Vine, how quickly can you raise it to maturity?"

The turtle was confused by the question, mostly because it did not know the name of most of the plants he worked with. Lex showed him a picture and, after considering for a while, gave an answer Lex found acceptable.

With a heavy heart, Lex spent 5 million MP, leaving him with only 4,780,000 MP, and purchased a cutting of a Delinquent Viper Vine. He then spent another 100,000 MP upgrading the Greenhouse to the maximum amount his authority would allow.

With both of those tasks done, Lex handed the cutting to the turtle and said,

"This is your immediate priority for now and everything else can be taken care of later. Plant this in the Greenhouse and grow it as quickly as you can. I'm counting on you."

With that, Lex disappeared back to his room, as he had a decision to make. The turtle let out a tired sigh and slowly stood up, completely unaware that Little Blue was sleeping on its shell. Just like that, the gardener woke up to the unusual sight of the baby whale sleeping on a giant turtle that was walking across the greenhouse.

Then he noticed all the overgrown plants and cried out, "my art!" He quickly took out a pair of shears and began trimming them where he could, to try to reclaim what had been lost of his artwork. The gardener had been trying so hard to create his own art using the plants. If taken care of properly, when they grew up according to his desires, they would become a display worthy of the Inn. But somehow, something always got in the way! The gardener kept cutting with tears running down his face, unaware that wherever he tears would drop, new plants would start to grow and… ruin his artwork.

Back in his room, Lex did not delay any further and selected his protector before he ended up changing his mind. A blindingly bright light flashed in front of his eyes, and when it disappeared, it left him with a pup before his eyes.

A white and black dog, one that Lex assumed was a husky, lay before Lex, sleeping soundly. The reason Lex assumed, and was not sure that it was a husky, was because… the pup was as big as a grown horse! Even as a mortal… he was afraid of what would happen if this dog tried to give him a hug, or tackled him with love. Who the heck would train this massive puppy about where to relieve itself?

He felt a headache coming on, but regardless of what happened, his choice was made. He could not allow a being that was much stronger than him to stay in the Inn permanently. Regardless of how loyal it might be at the start, there was no guarantee that with time, it would not have a change of heart.

With this puppy, though, Lex could train it well, and provide it with the best resources to help it grow. Best of all, the turtle would help him grow the Delinquent Viper Vine. Although it was very expensive, at full maturity it could grow up to one level above the Nascent realm. Furthermore, it normally lived underground and could cover an area of up to 20,000 acres! The best part was, this vine could be controlled directly by Lex via the system! He could even pass the control over to Mary! Over time, according to the system's information, he could nurture the vine's spirit so that when it formed, it was completely loyal to Lex!

Of course, it would not immediately reach that realm, but the turtle promised to speed it up as much as possible. Until then, Lex would have to get by with using the Fruit knife. This was a dangerous move for Lex, but he was betting on the fact that there would be a short lull in terms of guests after the games. This got in the way of some of Lex's plans, but it wasn't a big deal to spend some time at the Inn and just concentrate on improving it in the meantime.

Anyway, now Lex turned his attention to something very, VERY important. He had to name the puppy. Somewhere deep inside, he felt a calling to inherit his place as an MC and name the dog Little White, but could not find it in himself to name the dog so casually.

He scanned the pup once to learn more about it first.

Name: None

Age: 0

Sex: Male

Cultivation Details: Mortal

Species: Dog

Midnight Inn Prestige Level: 1

Bloodline: Fenrir 100% purity

Condition: The dog has been injected with a powerful sleeping and priming agent, making it susceptible to bloodline theft. If left alone, it should recover on its own in a day.

Remarks: You have probably made a powerful enemy somewhere in the universe by stealing this dog. Lol, get rekt.

Of course, Lex made an enemy somewhere in the universe, but he couldn't care less. How would that person ever track Lex down?

Lex rubbed his hand over the massive pup's head and looked at it fondly. He had no idea what a 100% purity Fenrir bloodline meant, but he liked the sound of it. Henceforth, he would be called Fenrir.

*****

As is the way with these things, far away somewhere in the universe, a massive wolf stared at an empty cage with red eyes. It took it 1 million years to finally breed a purebred Fenrir, the source for the final ingredient to evolve its own Superior Lykaios bloodline. Yet, as he was preparing for the extraction ceremony, the pup disappeared from right in front of its eyes. How was it possible for the pup to disappear before his very eyes, in his own private domain?

The wolf searched its domain for the intruder using its senses, but it was no use. The most frustrating part was that while giving birth to the pup, its mother, which had long been the subject of its various experiments, finally died. Originally, the wolf did not care, but now he was left without a mature breeder.

The wolf turned its eyes to another cage which held a similarly sleeping dog, the original pup's sister. At least he did not need to start from scratch this time. A 99% purity whelp like this would greatly increase his chance to breed a 100% one again. It needed to raise this new breeder to maturity, which would no doubt take a while, but at least it didn't start from scratch.

More importantly, it needed to figure out how the original pup disappeared, and how to prevent any future pups from disappearing. It would never repeat its mistake again.