The Innkeeper
chapter-1286

"Quite interesting," Cassandra said as she heard Lex's description of Moon's condition. "From what I recall, when you were scanned back then, didn't the scan also detect you had two physique's instead of one, with the second one being Soulforge unity? Although your physiques are no longer a concern, it was interesting that you had a physique related to souls, and now your sister has one too."

In truth, the Soulforge Unity physique was a result of Regal Embrace, combining his soul with his body and spirit, but it wasn't like he could go around advertising that.

"Even more interesting is that your sibling has an interesting physique as well. The chances of two siblings having powerful physiques, considering how rare they are, are quite low."

"Wait till you hear about my other sisters. One has a heart of an Angel, while the other has 100% affinity with the Beast Master cultivation system."

"Of course your family is extraordinary. Tell me, are your parents similarly gifted?"

Lex shrugged.

"Apparently my dad has some kind of sword related physique, and my mom is an enigma. I'd rather not get into that right now. Will you come see her? I've had countless other doctors and experts look at her. Everyone suggests I just need to supplement her soul, and I've done that, but she's still asleep."

Cassandra took a deep breath, before letting out a sigh. It seemed like she was making a tough decision.

"I can take a look at her, but not now. I'll do it right before we leave for the Crystal realm. This clone of mine has extremely limited energy, and each and every action consumes a large amount of it. I do not want to fall short during my conversation with the king."

Lex paused, and thought about everything on his to do list. There was nothing too urgent. He'd go rescue Liz, hopefully cure Moon in the meantime, go to the Crystal realm for revenge against the Kraven prince, become more comfortable with his realm, and then return to focus entirely on the Midnight Inn.

Slowing down the expansion of the Inn, and using the Temple of Fasting to train himself and the other workers, they would soon grow stronger. He'd stick around the Origin realm at least until he became a Celestial immortal, and then resume expanding the Inn.

It was a preliminary plan, and he knew it would be almost entirely impossible to avoid any more problems, but he'd try his best to eliminate all conflicts. As it was, he was not worthy of engaging in a battle for supremacy at his level.

During all this, he also wanted to converse with King Cornelius himself as well. He'd heard that the King was exceptionally strong for someone at the Earth Immortal, so he wanted to see for himself what the difference between them was. He didn't mind picking up a few tricks from the King.

There was also the quest to visit the Seraphim resort. He was actually looking forward to that one. But if nothing else came up, and he really, really hoped nothing would, then for the foreseeable future he was clear to just stay at the Inn and really give it some attention for once.

"Sounds good," Lex said to Cassandra. "I'll let you know when I'm heading to the Crystal realm. It shouldn't take more than a few days."

Cassandra nodded, and then closed her eyes. Lex returned to his office and waited until he could get items from the planet where Liz was. In a few hours at most, he would finally see her. *****

Within the massive ship that served as the central hub of the A.I. empire within the Origin realm, Calculon stood with his eyes closed, most of his attention focused on repairing the Henali portal and the entire network that spread across the realm.

Normally, the kind of computational power required to do such a thing was not available within the body of any one A.I. and would instead be carried out by Processing Planets.

Processing Planets were basically just artificially created planets that were just one massive computer. Countless A.I. lived within them, treating the planet like one massive city, all sharing the planet as one body. After all, A.I. didn't necessarily need independent bodies. They just required a body with enough processing power and strength to support the size of their soul.

But Calculon alone, with his feeble sized body, did the calculations of an entire Processing Planet, or even several of them.

But this was not something that could be completed overnight, so when he got a notification about the arrival of an important guest, he actually paused all his calculations, and focused solely on the guest. If it were anyone else, he would have just allocated a small amount of attention. But certain guests required his full consideration.

Soon, a smiling figure was escorted into Calculon's chamber by a guide robot.

"Calculon, I'm so pleased you could make time to see me," the figure said as he came and made himself comfortable in front of the unsmiling A.I.

"Bank Versalis is a high priority entity," Calculon stated without emotion. "According to my priority protocols, meeting with you is a higher priority than my other assigned tasks, Auditor Ripley."

"I'm flattered that you would give the bank such importance," the auditor responded, his enthusiasm particularly prominent in contrast to the cold and emotionless Calculon.

"It is a must. I myself also applied to arrange a meeting between us. I recently paid a considerable price to get my hands on valuable intel regarding interests of the A.I. empire from an entity known as the Midnight Newsroom. Are you familiar with it?"

"No, I can't say that I am," Ripley said with a hint of interest. "What does that have to do with me or the bank?"

"The intel was regarding tensions between Bank Versalis and the Celestial court. On the surface it seems unrelated, but the Henali portal is one of the projects funded by the Versalis bank, and yet it faced an unprecedented failure due to mutiny within the A.I. empire. While an internal investigation is being conducted in regards to the mutiny, disruptions in your investments in the Origin realm could create tensions between you and the Henali.

"Although statistically speaking the chances of such a thing being a prearranged conspiracy to drive a wedge between the Versalis Bank and the alliance block between the Humanoids, Henali and Dragons is less than 7%, a greater than 1% chance already warrants precautionary measures be initiated."

"The Midnight Newsroom told you all this?" Ripley asked, reigning in his excitement.

"No, this is a result of our internal investigation after having the possibility pointed out. The newsroom only directed our investigation in the correct direction. The more important point is that we, the A.I. empire, are being dragged into an external conflict, since all our projects are internally insured. Not only do we need to pay for damages to the portal, our credibility is affected, our forces diminished, and we are put on a trajectory towards choosing sides.

"This is an unacceptable outcome for us. I, Calculon, as a representative of the A.I. empire, declare to you unequivocally that we will not abide by being forced into this conflict. Any coercion attempts will result in a complete fallout of decorum, and a deployment of the Eternal Swarm into all of your affiliated realms. Please be aware that I have already made a similar declaration to the Celestial Court as well. Having said that, be informed that an investigation has already been launched into the instigation attempts. If it is determined that you had a part to play in this, we will be forced to seek compensation for our losses."

Ripley smiled at the blatant threats, instead of being out off. He was an auditor - he was used to hearing threats, both veiled and direct. If he was so easily discouraged, he would not have been assigned such an important job.

"Believe me, Calculon. I share your concerns. Causing a division between the Bank and its valued customers is akin to a declaration of war. I will also look into this. I will also remember to personally thank the Midnight Newsroom for their contribution in bringing this matter to light. As for the matter between the Bank and the Celestial courts, it is merely a regretful misunderstanding. I am sure it will be resolved sooner or later.

"But now, onto the matter I originally came to see you for. The Bank would like to invest in a Soul Chamber large enough to support several Celestial level souls. I would like to commission you to complete this assignment at the earliest. I also need the task to be done completely surreptitiously."

Calculon did not respond immediately, for it was processing what a commission of such level would require in terms of logistics and resources.

"Let's discuss compensation," he finally said, after determining its feasibility.