The Innkeeper

Chapter 2048: Little Crusty

Just like that, without so much as a hint of hesitation, the Innkeeper gave up the opportunity to wield an army of Dao Lords. Many of the attending Dao Lords began to look at the Innkeeper in a new light.

Not only had he allowed them all to attend this once in an age party, with an opportunity to interact with actual, literal legends which they could never otherwise meet, all for the low, low price of a single Dao material, he even freely gave up leverage that could have shaped the development of the universe without regard.

Originally, when some of them heard they had to pay to attend his party, they started to view him as some kind of greedy businessman. Only now did they realize that he was not greedy - he was a saint. By making them pay to attend, he was saving them from the karma of intruding upon the Queens domain.

By paying, they were guests of the Innkeeper, and were under his protection. He had gone out of his way to expand their horizon, provide them benefits, and he had done it all for such a small fee.

Silently, within their hearts, many of them began to view the Innkeeper as... Saint Innkeeper!

"Lord Innkeeper, could you perhaps inform me of who used the core? Or how?" the leviathan asked once he recovered from the gravity of what he heard.

"Please, no need to call me lord. I am but a humble Innkeeper, tending to my small Inn," the Innkeeper said, earning another odd look from Ventura. "As for those details... please forgive me, but I must honors others’ privacy. It should make no difference to you either way."

Eclipse nodded, as if agreeing.

"Yes, now you know," she said. "Your mission is complete, so you should just enjoy your party before returning to report to your elders. Don’t think about unnecessary things. Now move along, you’re holding up the line."

The two, upon receiving a clear dismissal, did not hold up the line much longer. They both presented their payments and moved on. Lex had to admit, although he had absolutely no way of gauging the value of the Dao materials he was getting, the payment made by the leviathan and the dragon felt like they were top notch.

After them, the Governor stayed as he kept introducing all his guests one by one. Even though Lex did not know these Dao Lords by name or legend, their presence revealed their might, not to mention that all of them were at least an Elder race.

The last to be introduced was a Primal, a member of the Sage race. As it happened, he was not invited by the Governor, but by the Innkeeper, for he was a Director from the Versalis Bank.

"On behalf of the Versalis Bank, as well as the Primal race, I thank you, Innkeeper, for inviting me on this occasion," the director said in a very professional manner. "To show my appreciation, as well as to pay for my attendance, please accept this gift from me."

The Primal handed the Innkeeper... a silver briefcase. It looked completely ordinary, except that it had no number lock dial on the front.

"Within the briefcase is sealed a Frozen Time-Space Stone, which I hope will be useful to you as you craft your Seat of Power," he finished strongly.

Now, as the Innkeeper, Lex actually had no idea what the case actually contained, or how it was supposed to help him craft a seat or whatever, but both Eclipse and Ventura seemed taken aback by the gift. It seemed like the director, or maybe the bank, had been very generous in their gift.

"For you, Primordial Queen, I fear my gift is somewhat lacking. Had I known that it was for you, I would have prepared something more fitting. As it is, I can only present you with this Primeval Petunia."

Although he said the gift was lacking, his flower drew the closest reaction to an actual gasp from the guests that anyone had so far. Once again, Lex had no idea what it was, but assumed that it was an extremely generous gift.

"You Primals are really too filthy rich," Eclipse said, accepting the gift though she showed no special reaction to the actual gift itself. Instead of being offended, the Primal chuckled.

"On the contrary, my Lady. This is from the bank, not from us Primals," the director said.

"Oh yeah, as if the Primals don’t own all the banks," Eclipse said while rolling her eyes. "But, I don’t mind you. At least you don’t hoard your wealth - you put it to good use. So, I’ll do you a small favor. Since you were the last guest to arrive, then it’s time for me to bring in my friends as well. You can stand next to us as I call them so you can be among the first to meet them."

Eclipse rubbed her hands with excitement as she had clearly been waiting for this moment. She had brought in Ventura, but had purposefully waited to bring out her two ’friends’. Clearly, she wanted to make a big show of their arrival. Honestly, even Lex was curious as to who Eclipse would consider her friends.

"Heh, in that case, let me introduce you to one of my oldest friends, and part time gardener, Crusty," Eclipse said, her voice resonating across the entire tavern, before she clapped her hands together.

Harriot, Eclipse’s poodle assistant, suddenly opened a portal and allowed someone to walk through. As soon as Lex saw the figure that walked through the portal, he was stunned, and he was not the only one.

After all, the one to walk into the garden, one of Eclipse’s oldest friends, was a fully mature Galactic Sovereign Turtle - one that had clearly entered the Dao Lord realm. Although his body size appeared entirely normal, Lex had a feeling that the Primordial Garden itself was shrinking his size. After all, just the gravity radiating from his body made him seem like his original size was larger than the sun!

"Hey little Spidey, how have you been?" the Galactic Sovereign turtle asked, ignoring literally everyone else at the party. He could not care less about everyone else.

Lex, meanwhile, suddenly felt slightly concerned. Even though he knew he was being hidden by Nuwa, he was now face to face with a Sovereign who was a Dao Lord. Could he detect Lex’s system? He wasn’t sure at all.

"I’ve been good, Crusty. I was having a little party in my garden and thought it might be a good opportunity to invite you as well. I bet you’ll see a lot of familiar faces today."

The Primal standing next to Eclipse suddenly turned his gaze to the ground, not daring to look up at the Sovereign. This privielge had turned into something more than he could handle!