The Innkeeper

Chapter 1731: That’s a ring, not a key

Since the flow of time inside the Inn and the Abaddon realm was so different, a simple, quick interaction at the Inn could last hours or possibly even days within Abaddon – unless they found a place to equalize the flow of time.

Since they couldn’t really move, Lex had to just tolerate the excruciating wait while chatting with Kaemon and healing everyone around him.

Healing mortals was easy – it would only take him minutes. But unless he planned on using his own blood’s healing ability, which he absolutely did not plan on using unless it was a life or death situation, even his best healing would only bring the recovery down to several months.

That was the extent to which the entire Reaving Dread had been injured. In fact, this was the worst they had ever suffered their entire time within Abaddon.

In moments like this, the Midnight Tavern really proved just how incredibly valuable it was. Who else could provide such incredible service on the go?

After several hours, Lex’s eyes flashed. Over the past many years, he had collected numerous items that might help him in his task via Obsidian as well as the Rhinocentaurs. All the items had been securely placed inside a sealed spatial ring that Gerard personally secured.

Speaking of Gerard, the man had been acting odd within the Inn lately. Lex had a mind to ask him if everything was well once he returned. But since he hadn’t mentioned anything, it must not be urgent.

Within Obsidian, Skipping was summoned to meet with the person who issued the quest, located within Courtyard 0001!

A number of the masked workers within Obsidian escorted him silently, their unfathomable strength creating a daunting and ominous environment. The courtyard was not on the same island as them, which is why the escort of the workers was necessary.

As they approached one of the bridges, it seemed to return to a pristine state, connecting the two islands across the sea of clouds dividing them.

Skipping almost felt afraid to step onto the bridge, the depth of the clouds entirely obscure. Imaginations ran wild as to what the clouds actually contained, but there was no way of knowing.

In the end, Skipping followed the workers, keeping his hesitation from showing.

As soon as they stepped off the bridge it broke, once again severing the connection between islands. Now, though, all those watching finally knew how they could cross. They just didn’t know how to get the workers to escort them across.

At first, not many were observing Skipping, but as soon as he crossed the bridge, too many eyes were attracted by his feat. Fortunately, with the two workers by his side, no one bothered him even as he crossed more islands and reached the first courtyard.

He entered within, expecting to finally see the mysterious and enigmatic owner of the first courthouse who could even command the workers to do his bidding. Instead, all he saw was a layout identical to his own courtyard with the exception of a single table with a ring right in the zen garden.

One of the workers stepped up to it, and proceeded to hand it to Skipping.

“You may attempt to send this to the destination in front of us. If you send the ring somewhere, but it doesn’t reach the destination, we will know, and you will not receive the reward.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not a problem. However, I need to know the name of the recipient and location of where I have to send it,” Skipping said, pretending to have confidence in front of these two guards who could squash him like a bug.

At the moment, he was debating whether the possibility of death was worse, or the threat of 300 brazilian waxes. He couldn’t quite decide which was worse.

After a moment of hesitation, the worker informed him.

“The recipient is Lex of the Midnight Inn. The destination is the Midnight castle tavern within Abaddon.”

Skipping nodded, picked up the ring and summoned his Universal Postage Stamp – the UPS – and licked its back before sticking the stamp over the ring.

“Send this to Lex of the Midnight Inn at the Midnight castle tavern in Abaddon please,” Skipping said, as if talking to the stamp.

The next moment, the stamp disappeared without any fanfare.

He turned to look at the workers, a confident smile on his face while internally he was sweating. Actually, even externally he was sweating, but Skipping was too distracted to notice. At first, it was the threat of death that had him distracted. But his internal business sense did not allow him to miss this opportunity to network.

“So, while we wait for confirmation of the delivery, how about we chat a little? This Obsidian is a super nice place – you guys worked here long?”

The worker shook his head.

“No, we are workers of the Midnight Inn. But the Obsidian Sage requested the Innkeeper for our help, and so he has assigned us to this place. Don’t bother asking anything about Obsidian – we neither know, nor are we allowed to say.”

“Oh that’s alright,” said Skipping, relieved that the workers were speaking at least. He didn’t know what he’d do if they were the silent brooding type. “Tell me about this Midnight Inn then. It sounds like a lovely place.”

The worker was about to respond when suddenly he turned his head slightly, as if he was listening to something.

“We have confirmation. The ring has reached its intended recipient. Come on, we’ll take you back.”

Skipping skipped along now that the workers were talking to him, and he did his best to milk as much information from them as possible. Lazy though he might be, no one could say that he was incompetent, or that he didn’t know how to take advantage of a situation.

While Skipping was trying to further the reach of his new business within Obsidian, Lex looked at the ring in his hand – a bright, shining stamp on it slowly fading out of existence.

Kaemon, too, was looking at the ring.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“That, my friend, is the key to ending this quest,” Lex said with a wide smile.

After an uncomfortably long silence, Kaemon spoke again.

“Lez that’s a ring, not a key. I think you should get some sleep – the fight really must be getting to you.”

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