The Innkeeper

Chapter 2311: Slow on the uptake

Everything happened too quickly, attracting minimal attention. Most guests did not even realize anything had happened at all, and continued to act as normal. Their entry and exit from the Mirage was seamless, and the actions of the five Celestial Immortals was hidden by the Dao Lords. How could any of them detect anything?

Even Little Blue, who served as Z’s mount, did not realize anything happened because he was influenced by the Dao Lord who created the Mirage. Within the entire Dream tavern, only the two other Dao Lords knew what was happening, yet they weren’t able to stop the enemy.

Their inability to act was for one, sole reason: as soon as the Dao Lord acted he made his intentions plain.

"I am only here for one human. If you try to stop me, I will destroy this whole tavern and everyone in it," the Dao Lord said, showing no fear in the face of two others - even though he kept his identity hidden.

A clash between Dao Lords was far from simple, and it would take years for any real progress whatsoever. In that case, if one Dao Lord unleashed his power without restraint, all those below the Dao level would die. While it was possible to stop him, it required certain circumstances which didn’t exist at the moment.

Such a situation was not present, so they needed to make a choice. Ordinarily, their very presence itself was a deterrent. After all, once this confrontation was over, it was almost certain that they would attempt to discover this person’s identity and rescue whoever they took, lest the Innkeeper hold them accountable.

Yet the fact that they acted anyway meant they weren’t afraid of being discovered.

All of that, however, was for the future. At the moment, they had to deal with the situation so that the Innkeeper wouldn’t cancel out any chance of working with them in the future.

"While we’re here, let me make a proposition," the Dao Lord attacking said. "I have heard the Innkeeper is absent from the Midnight Inn. Besides taking my target, my next goal is to find out for certain if he’s really missing. Why don’t you two cooperate with me on this? Your organisations will benefit from this information as well."

The mere proposition infuriated the two Dao Lords. They were naturally prideful. Forcing them to not act was bad enough, now he was asking them to purposefully derelict on their duty?

"The moment I am free from this task, I will seek you out to find out just what benefits you’ve acquired this time around," said the Henali angrily.

Yet his words did not intimidate anyone.

"Will you search for me, or the one who hired me to act, or the ones taking away the target kidnapped from this realm? Because they are all separate. I want to see for myself just who you will choose to follow."

The Henali grit his teeth, but the Dao Lord from the Humanoid Alliance simply remained silent, searching for any weaknesses or traps.

While their confrontation continued, across the entire Midnight Inn, only Mary realized what was happening. The System sent countless notifications to Lex, but he could not hear them at the moment, nor could he respond in any manner.

She, too, was powerless to respond in any meaningful way. In fact, if anything, she was grateful that the enemy was still wary of the Innkeeper and was only kidnapping one person. Otherwise the consequences could have been catastrophic.

But the situation wasn’t over yet. Disaster could still strike. All she could do now was pray.

Fortunately, on the sixtieth second, the Dao Lord disappeared from the Dream tavern, unwilling to risk the return of the Innkeeper. It was said that the Innkeeper could attack while keeping 100% of his aura restrained, thus achieving true stealth among Dao Lords. That was not something he wanted to risk.

As soon as he left, the two organizations immediately launched an investigation, but all immediate traces had been erased. Moreover, the Inn staff, entirely unaware of what had happened, shut down the Dream tavern and returned it to the Midnight Inn as expected, putting an end to the Inn’s connection and access to the Dream realm.

The Inn staff were celebrating, happy that they had successfully completed their orders without facing any issues. A few noticed that Z was missing, but they only assumed he was busy elsewhere.

The organisations immediately applied to meet the Innkeeper, but he was not available so they met with Mary. She could not make any decisions on behalf of the Inn, so she merely nodded along and allowed them to carry out whatever plans they came up with to get to the bottom of the issue.

None of them asked why Mary hadn’t helped with the situation. Since they were responsible for security at that time, they were ones who had to deal with all associated issues.

Their failure this time meant that the Innkeeper might not be willing to work with their organisations in the future.

To think that they had asked for access to the Dream tavern for millions of years, but they could not even complete one year without issue. The shame from their failures would haunt them for a while.

A long, long time later, Z opened his eyes. He had not even realized he was captured, nor was he aware of anything else that happened in between. One moment he was atop Little Blue, and the next he was waking up in some kind of shoddy dungeon.

"Lookie here, the newbie is awake," said a hoarse voice, echoing through the dark, humid hollow. The sounds of clinking and clattering chains rang out in the distance, alerting to the fact that this dungeon was quite big.

He didn’t quite understand what was happening. How could his surroundings suddenly change? Was he involved in some kind of event? He hadn’t been informed of any upcoming events like this.

"Looks like he’s a little slow on the uptake," spoke another voice, filled with schadenfreude. "In that case, let me help you. Welcome to the Army of Slaves boy. Your only options here are to fight or die - there is no in between, and you have no luxury of any other choice."