Lex eventually put the crystal away without investigating it further and told Mary to let him know whenever Ayesha came into the Inn again. He scanned the arena, and the fight was still going on. Lex returned and watched the fight, but fortunately, it ended without anyone getting hurt.
Just as Lex had hoped, the pirates were greatly intimidated by the fight and behaved well while they were at the Inn. Without wasting any time, they made their way to the Guild room under Bootys’ insistence, where they ran into Chen and Lily.
Unexpectedly, to both the pirates and the siblings, the two parties immediately became interested in each other’s goods. The pirates sold many of the rare metals they’d just stolen to the siblings, and put up the rest of the goods they were willing to sell in the Guild room. In exchange, they purchased hundreds of zombie cores.
This was a good opportunity for the siblings, as zombie cores were a business they would soon lose, as the planet was almost free of zombies. With these rare metals, as well as the accumulated wealth, they could start planning for their future. As fruitful as it was to make money like this, their ultimate pursuit was still as warriors.
The pirates had finally been convinced to use the Inn as one of the ways they sold their stolen goods, but a one time deal was not good enough. If their goods continued to sell, they would consider making the Inn their permanent spot, but for now they were still testing waters. Lex had already earned a few thousand MP just from the charges on this single transaction so he hoped they decided to come back.
With their work done, they left, and Lex’s peaceful days once again resumed. During this time, Lex focused on his cultivation and improving the Inn. Using his Leo persona, he had put up some requests in the Guild room for various techniques for the Qi training realm, but while some people offered to sell him some techniques, he was never satisfied with their descriptions.
A few days later, news spread that the Minor realm that Earth had been awarded by the Inn had finally appeared in Iceland. Many of the guests at the Inn from Earth left, as everyone was curious about it, with Alexander being one of them.
A couple of days after that, representatives of the council appeared at the Inn, followed by Fernanda, and had a meeting with the family heads and eventually reached an agreement. It appeared that the new realm was much bigger than anyone had imagined, and besides a few of the starting regions, none of the Earthlings could proceed.
They reached some kind of resolution, and eventually all the family heads finally also left the Inn, along with the Morrisons as well.
Other than a few random guests that appeared every so often, the Inn only had a few dozen guests left who had been staying for a while now. One may think that Lex would be upset at the slowed down business, but this suited him perfectly as the Viper Vine was still growing.
One week later, the Vine had reached the peak of the Foundation realm, and could spread as far as 500 acres. Soon, it would reach the Golden Core realm, after which its progress would slow down.
This was because Lex, as well as the greenhouse, lacked the necessary resources to speed up its growth beyond this level. Lex was already dumbstruck when he learnt that the turtle had been having the gardener cry above the vine as his tears seemed to help and put a stop to it. Although he was in a hurry, he wasn’t that desperate, right?
Fenrir had also started coming out of its depressed and introverted phase, and could often be seen playing with Little Blue in the forest. Its strength had also grown to the Qi training realm.
At this point, as progress was slowing down, Lex finally started planning for the future of the Inn again.
“Hey Mary, is there any way to kind of… I don’t know, to be more specific in the kind of planet I search for to connect to the Inn?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’d like to connect to a planet without almost dying for once. If we can connect to one of the planets being ruled by the Jotun empire, or anyone else who has a decent security or civilization in place will work.”
Mary laughed at hearing Lex’s request explained.
“No, there’s nothing that specific, but you can be a little more targeted. Previously, you were using Golden Tickets, which not only have a wide range, but are free from many restrictions. You can buy cheaper tickets for your next expansion that have more restrictions. The drawback will be the time to connect the Inn to the planet will be longer, but at least the list of planets you’ll get will be more reasonable for your level.”
Lex rubbed his hands in the typical evil villain fashion as he thought about what to do, and checked his options in the system.
*****
Alexander leaned against a tree as he took deep, heavy breaths. He was covered in the blood of yet another monster he killed, and his entire armor suffered a great deal of damage. That’s right, monster, not beast. This minor realm was filled with strange and unusual things he could never even imagine, and his understanding of ‘living things’ underwent a huge drastic change. But the monsters made of rocks and metal and even dirt aside, it was the monsters made of materials he didn’t recognize that gave him a tough time.
He thought the Midnight games had been tough, but at least there he only fought enemies in his own realm. Here, there was no guarantee of what he might encounter next.
Just as he was about to move forward, a bright light in the distance caught his eye. He turned to look at what appeared to be the ruins of some kind of temple and saw a giant portal. In front of the portal, he saw a familiar figure, trying to resist the pull but failing.
“Helen!” Alexander roared in a panic, as he started sprinting towards her, but she was too far and his voice did not carry. What the hell was she doing here? Unlike him, Helen was not a fighter, and had no training except the most basic self defense, so how could she even reach here?
As these thoughts ran through his mind, and as he sprinted towards her, he watched in horror as she was pulled into the portal before the portal shut down. She had disappeared before his very eyes. Despite receiving a warning before this realm even opened, Alexander could not stop his friend from disappearing, potentially forever.