The Innkeeper
chapter-1337

Lex cracked his knuckles and prepared himself for the task that lay ahead. There were quite a few benefits he sought from Ripley, the very dedicated and obviously confused Titan. He had no idea what kind of an audit he would perform, but accompanying him in that in itself would be quite enlightening.

Moreover, as himself, Lex could ask questions that the Innkeeper could not, which is what would allow him to gain deeper insight into the forces of the universe, and where the bank fell within them. He could ask questions such as those pertaining to Hell and Heaven, the realm wars and so on.

Not to mention, of the kinds of forces in the universe, a bank was one with which he could form a direct relationship. Not as the Innkeeper, of course. As the Innkeeper, the more mysterious and enigmatic he remained, the better. For that, the fewer times that the Innkeeper showed up and acted personally, the better. But as Lex, an up and coming human who sought to improve himself, and would often be traveling to multiple realms in the future, a universal bank was not such a bad thing.

Lastly, and this was a little more important than the rest, Lex had to ensure that Ripley stayed away from the few things he'd rather keep a secret - such as Moon, Liz, the Sovereign, his own treasury which contained Amber Chaos resin, and a few other things.

There was one more reason why he was cracking his knuckles. It had been a long time since he had personally seen to a guest, and he wanted to get back into the groove of things with a running start. All things considered, Ripley was an important guest and Mary had even confirmed that if the system wasn't experiencing what could only be the system-equivalent of a panic attack upon the thought of being forced to break rules, it would have already given him a quest related to Ripley or the bank.

But Lex was adamant about his changes. For better or for worse, his system was incredibly powerful and equally flawed. As someone who was taking control over his destiny, he could no longer allow it to be dictated by a system that gave quests unproportionate to his level. Instead, he sought to dictate the growth of his Inn and the system himself.

That would start with the system changing its rules. But making sure he handled Ripley well would also impact his future greatly, so he did not delay any longer. Lex teleported in front of the smiling Ripley, who was squatting beside a portion of the lazy river, dipping his hand inside. Within this particular lazy river, the water was sentient. It had come to life when the Midnight realm was fused with the Midnight Inn, and it had taken a long time to get used to being alive.

Though the river did not really appreciate other living beings inside of itself, so this particular lazy river became unique. Instead of people riding it, they could allow their belongings to take a ride in the river.

In itself, that seemed like an incredibly stupid idea. What was the point of a non-living object taking a ride on a river? The point was that the river could perfectly restore all objects to their original state as long as the object was of a realm similar to the river itself, which was in the Golden core realm. A few rides, and that old record player could be as good as new, or that old car, or that old watch, or maybe that old sword. Despite its relatively low level, the river was one of the Inns most popular attractions for immortals and mortals alike. After all, every one could be a victim of sentimentality.

The fact that the river was not rejecting Ripley's hand was a pretty big deal. Maybe they were communicating.

"Mr. Ripley, I heard you were looking for me," Lex said as he walked up to the Titan posing as a man. "How can I help you?"

Ripley turned around and finally looked at Lex, raising a single eyebrow. Lex, in the meantime, suddenly felt like he had been scanned, which felt a bit rude.

"Excuse my impoliteness," Ripley said as he stood up. "Actually, I've heard a lot about you back in the Origin realm. As a close partner of the Henali, I could not help but be curious as to the man who aided the realm so much. You are, as described, quite impressive. Please, accept this as a token of my apology."

The auditor had clearly done it on purpose just to give Lex a gift. The man was quite clever, though that did not mean he wasn't genuinely curious about Lex. He didn't mind too much, especially since Lex knew that his true secrets were not so easily detected. Instead, he looked at the Titan and wondered if he should scan him back as well.

Ripley held out a small gift box for Lex, and much to Lex's surprise, he could not see what was inside himself. Seeing as how the auditor waited for him to check it out, he opened it and a silver token.

"I have heard that you have a personal spaceship, which is quite impressive. If you fuse that token into your ship, it will automatically upgrade the material of the ship, making it much more durable, even enabling Void travel."

Lex could not help but look at Ripley with surprise. One of his goals with his clone, Jack, was to upgrade Jolly Rancher to a level where it could even travel through the Void. In fact, his clone was close to finishing the quest he got from the Tower of Providence, and upgrading his ship was the first order of business after that was complete.

But, obviously, Lex would not hesitate to upgrade the Silent Wanderer.

"Haha, please feel free to be impolite a few more times," Lex said as he accepted the token and put it away.

Ripley smiled, but then got down to business.

"I do not know if you have been informed about me, so allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ripley, and I am an auditor for the Versalis Bank. Ordinarily I am usually busy with work for the bank, but I have received approval for a special vacation to aid the Innkeeper in auditing his Inn to check for improvements.

"This was, of course, approved by the Innkeeper first, and only then did I take the initiative to ask for a holiday. The Innkeeper requested that I work closely with you while I conduct this audit. I expect that means that you shall be my guide during this endeavor."

"Yes, I have already been informed about you," Lex confirmed. "Though I admit, I do not know how you will be conducting this audit, nor what you need. If you can elaborate on this a bit, I might be able to aid you better."

Ripley nodded. So far, he had not displayed the arrogance of one much stronger than him, for which Lex was grateful. But then again, as a Celestial immortal who constantly met Dao Lords, Lex was certain he knew what it felt like to be the weaker one in a conversation, and so was mindful of it.

"The audit is, naturally, not a financial audit though I may take a glance at that as well just to see how streamlined the process is. It all depends on what I am allowed to look at. Instead, the audit will be a holistic one, looking at the entire realm instead of just the Inn, with the purpose of pointing out flaws, inefficiencies, redundancies, and over all anything that prevents the realm from reaching its maximum potential. Tell me, Lex, have you or one of your colleagues studied subjects such as Realm Nurturing, Bonsai Realms and Realm Pruning?"

Despite many years of studying during the period he liked to self identify as the time-skip, he had never come across such topics. Probably because within the Origin realm, there was no one who needed to learn such things, and those that did probably already knew it.

Speaking of Origin realm, Lex did not find it odd that Ripley, and basically everyone else called it by that name. Once upon a time, when Lex was learning about realms, Mary had called it the Origin realm because that is where Lex originated from. After that, Lex never bothered to learn its real name, and his universal translator ensured that he always heard Origin realm, and everyone heard whatever they called it, thereby creating a convenient solution.

His universal translator helped with many things in that way, which is why when Ripley stated the names of those courses, Lex could guess what they were about, but genuinely did not know the actual content. Just to be sure, though, he contacted the Planning Division to find out if anyone had any knowledge on these subjects.

Instead of getting a proper response, Lex was instead welcomed by the sight of over a hundred workers teleporting right next to him with hunger in their eyes.

"Are you saying there is a way to plan the growth and development of the realm itself?" one of them asked.