The Innkeeper

After sending away the alchemist master with some indirect advice Lex walked down to the bar. He was anticipating a certain customer today who was the talk of the town, though no one knew his real identity. The only reason Lex knew his identity was because he could secretly encompass the whole city with his spirit sense.

Most days, when he was free, he would sit on the roof and observe the city with his spirit sense. One would think it would get boring after a while, but it was actually quite interesting. There was more suspense and drama happening in real life than countless tv shows, it was just that no one else was watching, and the people involved hardly ever enjoyed the suspense. There was also a lot of comedy.

Late in the evening, a customer walked in, long hair covering most of his features. His clothes looked ordinary, and there seemed to be nothing about him that particularly drew any attention. He seemed perfect to blend into the background of the city.

He sat down in a corner and ordered a drink, and seemed more than happy to be forgotten. If this had been any other tavern, his technique, which allowed him to be easily overlooked, would have worked wonders. As it was, the triplet sisters never overlooked a single customer, always making sure they were well tended to.

The extra attention made him uncomfortable, but he did not display it in any way. He was content to just silently sit and listen to the conversations in the room as he enjoyed his one drink.

Besides the wedding scandal, the guests talked about a number of random things, with one of the hottest topics being the surging criminal element in the city. But, as ordinary folk, all they usually talked about was their neighbor who got robbed, or something they saw on the street.

After a few hours, after being unable to pick up on the news he was hoping to hear about, the man finally walked to the bar. Usually Roan was there, but for tonight, Lex had taken over himself.

"Need another drink?" Lex asked casually, not paying any special attention to the man.

"Something that'll keep me up for a while," he said hoarsely, and Lex nodded and poured him an iced coffee - a drink that did not exist on this planet.

"Appreciate it," the man said, and slid Lex a coin. It was a gold coin, worth all too much for the drink he was having. Lex looked at the man curiously.

"You heard any news about any… children going missing lately? Anything unusual, besides the usual kid lost in the market incidents."

Lex finally picked up the coin and pretended to think. He knew for the fact that this man had already asked around in various places and had no luck. But today, he had come to the only tavern in the city who could give him the answer he was looking for.

"Now that you mention it, I have heard about something strange," he said, lowering his voice. "It's not about missing children, but there's a new school that opened up in the inner city, but it's meant for outer city kids. Every time I hear about them, they're looking for more kids, as if they never run out of classrooms to fill. I thought that was a little odd."

The man tried not to give away anything, but Lex could sense his body tense up. This was exactly what he was looking for.

"Do you know what it's called?"

"Yeah, it's called School of The Heroes Of Trent, or School of THOT for short."

"What an enticing name," the man said, before finishing up his drink in one go and exiting the tavern. Lex only smiled. The next few days would be very interesting, which was good. If things got too boring he would have to consider moving his tavern to another planet.

*****

Inside the Midnight Inn, there was a hurricane of molten lava that had been going for weeks. Some guests thought that it was a new phenomenon and so had come over to take a look. Many began to picnic in front of it, and began to place bets about how long it would keep going. Ordinarily, such a thing would be too dangerous to get close to, but since the hurricane had technically not moved from its spot from the very start, everyone was very comfortable with it.

Not only was it an interesting sight, who knew if it might spout out some treasure? In the past fifteen years, countless guests at the Inn had discovered extremely valuable treasures inside the Midnight Inn, and were informed that they were free to take them. But the condition was that they don't harm the surroundings, and in the case that it was a treasure that could continuously reappear, cut off its roots or point of origin.

It was like a game of treasure hunting, except the treasures were real and they could keep them.

But today, after weeks, the hurricane finally did something different. It began to shrink, oddly enough.

Some thought that upon shrinking enough, the hurricane might explode, but that did not happen. Instead, the molten lava eventually cooled down, and the hurricane slowed down until it eventually faded.

From within the fire, a meditating figure was revealed.

Lex, after finally completing his latest cultivation system, opened his eyes. As of late, he had begun meditating inside his technique Heaven's furnace, and used the Dragons breath glyph to fill it with fire. He was raising his tolerance to his own dragon fire before trying it out with actual dragon fire, since Pel Jr. was on the verge of being able to control its giant dragon body.

Admittedly, it had taken much longer than anticipated because there was a lot more to dragon fire than Lex originally guessed. But today, finally, he had reached the level of complete immunity. Tomorrow, he would try with the real deal.