The Innkeeper

Alexander stared at Marlo for a while, his thoughts hidden behind his stoic face. Externally Marlo looked completely fine so Alexander could not tell how severe the man's condition was, but he must have gone through something extremely drastic to change so much.

"Did you say this is an Inn?" he finally asked, turning away from his old mentor and towards the mysterious Innkeeper.

"Indeed," Lex answered, glad to have his customers' attention back. "Our patrons come from all across the universe, and come to get away from the troubles of mundane, everyday life. Come, let me give you a tour. Your friend will need some time to heal."

"Thank you. My name is Alexander, my friend's name is Helen. I apologize for not introducing ourselves earlier."

"Nonsense, there is no need to apologize. You came here to resolve your troubles, and that is the first thing that you did once you arrived. It is only right."

"Do you get many guests from Earth?" Alexander asked as the Innkeeper led him out of the Recovery room. The Midnight Inn must be a huge secret since he hadn't heard of it before. Lex, on the other hand, found his lack of response at there being sentient life out in the universe interesting, as other than Bastet and Falak, the few guests he had all were overwhelmed.

"A few," Lex responded. "We have only recently connected the Inn to Earth, which is why it is understandable that not many Earthlings have had a chance to visit so far. I expect that it should not be long before they start visiting more often."

"And anyone with a Golden Key can enter?"

"Naturally. We accept all guests, so long as they do not break any rules of the Midnight Inn. Golden keys can be randomly found across your planet, and anyone who has been a guest receives another one when they leave. Of course, if a guest desires to get more keys to give out to friends and family they can purchase them at the Gift shop."

As Lex took Alexander to walk around the Inn, he noticed that his guest took everything in his stride. The Inn, the scenery, the peaceful environment all seemed as if they were completely natural to him. Based on that Lex guessed that Alexander's identity might not be simple on Earth, but he would not intentionally probe him. At most, he would search him up when Lex returned to his apartment. When Lex took him to the Gift shop, however, he finally received the shocked and surprised reaction he had come to enjoy from his new guests.

Looking at the few items on display Alexander naturally would not recognize them, however each time he focused on an item he would somehow be informed of its use in his head.

"How long do you think Helen will need before she recovers," Alexander asked, his attention still on the items in the Gift Shop. The items on display were only a few, and it wasn't as if he hadn't seen other treasures with similar effects, but they were rare and would not be sold easily. What really amazed Alexander was the Tier 4 Core, which would help Golden Core Body refiners. Items that could affect Golden Core cultivators were EXTREMELY rare on Earth, let alone ones that could affect Body Cultivators. He needed to confirm if it really did as it was promoted.

"It should take a day or two at most. It really depends on how quickly her own body adapts to the poisons."

"In that case, if I rent a room can she stay there?"

"Yes, if you rent a regular room one other guest can accompany you during your stay. If you rent a courtyard, three other guests can accompany you."

"I'd like to rent a regular room for a week then, and I'd like a Tier 3 Core as well." Alexander once again took out his black credit card and Lex quickly swiped it for a total of 1850! His total MP was 2241 now, filling his immediate need for MP!

Velma, who was behind the counter in the gift shop, took out a Tier 3 Core and transformed it from a Core into a card with a picture of the Core on one side and the initials MI on the back in gold! This was the packaging for items sold through the Gift Shop. Instead of getting the item directly, it would be transformed into a card. When the guest would need the item he would only need to think about it while holding the card, and it would transform back into the item sold. This did not seem so important at the moment, but in the future if a guest bought many items, or items of a considerable size this would make it easy for them to transport the items.

Alexander's eyes gleamed as he saw the core turn into a card, and when Lex explained to him how to use the card he was most pleased! This was a very discreet way of transporting items, if he could somehow learn how to turn items into cards the benefits would be endless. Yet he was not so delusional as to think anyone would casually teach him such a technique. Little did he know, even if Lex were willing to teach him, Lex himself had no idea how to do it. This was a function the Inn performed automatically.

Alexander took the card and followed Gerard, who had appeared with a tray of lemonade, to his room. Alexander was in a bit of a rush, he had to return to Egypt quickly, but he wanted to confirm the Core's ability first. It was too important! It would drastically change his plans if the effects were real. As soon as he entered his room he turned the card back into a Core and sat down with it in his hand. He closed his eyes and started absorbing the energy in the Core. He wanted to start slowly, to be careful in case some accident happened, but the energy burst into his body like a raging flood and he was not able to control it. Yet he also knew immediately that the effects were real, and much better than he had anticipated! When he had broken through to the Foundation realm earlier, he had broken through in his body cultivation as well as spirit cultivation. He did not expect to make any progress in the short term, yet right now he knew that that would not be the case.

*****

Lex was swooning as he truly admired how amazing his luck was! Just as he desperately needed MP to continue healing Marlo, a guest had appeared out of nowhere to shower him in MP! Based on his reactions, Lex suspected that this Alexander would not shy away from buying even more things from the Gift Shop.

But he was also curious about how Alexander got his key, and who exactly told him that Helen could be healed here. After thinking about it for a while, he could only assume that Bastet had passed one of her two keys to him. That made Alexander's identity even more worthy of notice!

He returned to his apartment and opened up his laptop to search the names of both of his two new guests to see if he could find anything on them. But before he could do anything he received an emergency notice from Blue Bird:

"All cultivators are immediately put under house arrest! Any non-authorized cultivator found roaming the city would be persecuted as a terrorist! All organizations are to cease any ongoing activities immediately."

Before he could fathom exactly what could prompt such a drastic notice, his computer screen was flooded with tempest posts about war breaking out in Egypt! Civilian websites were reporting a terrorist attack, but according to random posts on Tempest a battle between cultivators had broken out! A.D.F. was unreachable and no one could tell what was happening on ground because all networks in the area had been shut down.

While Lex was absorbed in the shock of what was happening his phone started ringing. He picked it up and was slightly surprised to find that Larry was calling him.

"Hey Larry," Lex said in an unsure tone.

"Hey Lex," replied the voice in an anxious tone. "I don't mean to inconvenience you but I was hoping for a favor. I'm in the city but my apartment is too far out for me to return to it quickly. Would it be possible for me to stay at your place for a short while? I really don't want to be arrested by random BlueBird agents for not getting back home quick enough!"

Lex was stunned for a moment, but quickly told Larry to come over. He sent him the address to his apartment and began waiting. Maybe Larry would have a better idea of what was happening.