The Innkeeper

Chapter 1395  He was right

"Look, I don't want you guys to worry about things. You're not hostages or anything like that, in case you're wondering," Lex said to the dozens of collapsed soldiers floating along behind him. "I've already reached out to your superiors. They should contact me soon, and we can have this entire thing sorted out. I just figured I'd stop you guys from making a huge blunder that would get you killed somehow. It wouldn't do for my tavern to develop a bad reputation for killing potential guests."

In response to his completely appropriate comforting and calming mini-speech, the group of floating soldiers merely groaned. In Lex's humble opinion, that was a bit much. He hadn't even hit them with his Domination, and barely held them in place using his spirit sense.

Only their leader, who was now unconscious and drooling down his face, had briefly faced Domination.

The rest were just suffering from the psychological burden of being faced with an unknown guy more powerful than anything that they had ever imagined, totally breaking their understanding of reality. Lex had faced such things dozens of times, and he'd never reacted like this.

But, being an understanding man, Lex generously forgave the soldiers for being unnecessarily dramatic, and decided to help them get refreshed. He brought the whole group to the fountain, and gave each of them a single drop. It worked like magic, instantly restoring their condition, mostly because it really was magic.

"Alright guys, I'm going to bring you up to the Treehouse. Make yourselves comfortable, food and drink are on me but if you want to use any of the facilities you'll have to pay for them. As soon as we clear this thing out and the Empire formally issues a statement about the Treehouse, you'll be free to go."

Lex really wasn't worried about these guys acting out at all, for various reasons. The first and foremost being that since he made the Treehouse himself, instead of the system, it was crammed full of protective and offensive formations. Also, all of his workers were in the Nascent realm. Lastly, if something really unexpected happened, as an Immortal his awareness and reaction time were more than enough to intervene before real problems could arise.

So, he brought the whole gang up to the lobby, and then left them there, and went up to his stargazing terrace. Although it was day time, and there were no stars to gaze at, Lex liked the feeling of secretly controlling things from the shadows. It was very addictive.

Yet even when Lex left, and the restrictions of his spirit sense faded, freeing the soldiers, they did not dare to move. For a few seconds, they just stared at each other, before cautiously reaching towards their superior and giving him a soft shake, startling him awake.

The man screamed and bolted up, yet looking around he felt disoriented and confused by the unfamiliar surroundings. More importantly, the comfortable temperature and high concentration of spirit energy confused him, because he remembered facing a living nightmare, capable of crushing him and the Empire along with him.

How did he get to this paradise from there?

"Where… where the hell are we?" the man asked in a whisper, looking at his second in command.

"The… the tavern keeper brought us to the Treehouse tavern, and told us that he contacted the Empire, and we'd be free to go once they responded. Then he just left." n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The soldiers looked towards their superior for orders, while the man in charge wiped the drool off his face as he looked around, his thoughts racing.

"Did he give us any restrictions?" he asked, still in a whisper, as if he was afraid to speak up.

"He said that the food and drink are on him, but if we want to use any other services, we have to pay."

The commander, despite his extremely arrogant attitude earlier, was actually not a complete idiot. He took a few moments to assess the situation before responding.

"Let's assume that the tavern keeper will reach an agreement with the Empire, as he said. The Empire will want to collect information on the tavern. All of you, split up and explore this place - but don't be forceful. If you need to pay for something, just go ahead and do it. The Empire will reimburse your expenses."

The soldiers nodded, and split up into teams, ready to begin exploring the tavern. Nearby, Tetsuya had been watching the entire interaction, and began wondering how he could take advantage of this situation.

While those two concocted their own plots, Lex lay back in a chair sipping a nice, cooling lemonade, and concocted plots of his own - mostly about how to entertain himself for the next few days.

He could already see that a few more groups were quickly arriving towards the treehouse. One consisted of the elves, led by who he assumed was their shaman. The other group was led by the Empire, and an impatient looking Nascent soul cultivator.

The situation was ripe for unexpected encounters, misunderstandings, confrontations and a lot of drama. As such, Lex made the most logical decision, and decided to try out the newest feature he was thinking of adding to the Midnight Inn: an Escape room!

Yes, there was nothing like locking a number of old enemies in a small, contained room with a fake scenario and high stakes to get out within the appropriate time to make sure everyone had a good time.

He reached out to the treehouse, and began manipulating the layout, constructing an underground labyrinth connected to the roots of the tree. Naturally, he used an underground magma channel that one of the roots had dipped into to make the labyrinth more interesting.

He remembered back when he went swimming in lava for the first time. It was not a pleasant experience at all. But it was a nice memory to look back to.

As Lex plotted his own entertainment, he kept his spirit sense active, for he fully expected something to happen. It was impossible that the system brought him to a planet where he was the strongest, and there was no potential for a huge mess up.

He was right, and a small shuttle, undetected even by Lex's spirit sense, flew into the planet's orbit. After a few seconds of scanning the planet, it turned towards the massive tree and began flying directly towards it.