The Innkeeper

Jack sat within the Jolly Rancher, having spent most of his trip in deep meditation. The disgusting potent stench of cursed Karma had been temporarily removed, finally giving him the opportunity to rest and recover.

Yet he knew that it was very much a temporary thing. As long as he stayed with the dragons, the stench would be suppressed, but as soon as they separated, the stench would return.

Unfortunately, despite his ever deepening insight into Karma, he had no way to remove the curse, or even to prevent himself from being affected by the smell. Even though fairies seemed pretty magical, their powers had failed Jack in this endeavor.

But he was not without hope. He had a feeling that reaching the immortal realm would be an important threshold for him, and might just give him the power he needed to resolve this issue – even if it only meant resolving the symptom instead of the problem.

Jack stopped thinking about the future, and instead turned his attention to the recent past. The blurry figure who had seen through so much of Lex, as if he were an open book, possibly even knowing about his system, seemed to be unable to see the details of his life. It hadn’t known about him being the Innkeeper, or the position of the Midnight Inn in the universe – budding as it was.

It also seemed unable to see the connection between Jack and Lex. This, Jack found peculiar. Even the seven dragons, as powerful as they were, could not see into that connection. Lex wasn’t sure why their connection was a secret, but he deeply appreciated it.

But since the being could not see the details of Lex’s life, it only made sense that it would underestimate his influence, or ability to cause chaos.

Jack was ruminating on his immediate future, about how he could focus on setting up the Nexus. He had no intentions of doing it as Lex.

He wanted to keep Lex as far away from his secret hideout as possible, and that was the primary reason why he didn’t choose to use Abaddon to hide his base. After all, despite how secretive it was, there were thousands of beings who knew Lex had been to Abaddon.

Regardless of how difficult it was to find, if he ever faced a formidable foe, it would be easy for them to find out that Lex had spent time there.

Considering that he frequently faced Dao Lords, Lex was preparing a safehouse that could hide even from them. Obviously, that was easier said than done, but that did not bother him.

The door to his room opened, and Jack looked towards the person who had just entered.

Ever since they joined the seven dragons, the karmic stench wasn’t Jack’s only problem that seemed solved. The greatest other problem they solved was that Jack and the others did not need to worry about what Bob said, nor did they need to worry about Goldilocks turning everything into gold, nor did they need to worry about the Crystal alligator turning everything into crystal.

It was quite refreshing, but also a little disappointing. Lex was always the one who had crazy things happening to him, and Jack was the one who brought the crazy with him. Without the constant nonsense, it was a little boring.

For a moment, Jack thought about what he had learned about his crew – from the dragons no less!

Pebbles, the hamster, had somehow attained both immortality and invincibility, in exchange for obtaining any other kind of power. As such, he genuinely only had the strength of a real hamster despite his cultivation level. His teeth were pretty powerful though.

Goldilocks and the crystal alligator were physical elementals with normal functioning bodies, which didn’t make sense since elementals were beings made up only of the element they were associated with.

Monk, the bear cub, had somehow hijacked every story about bear cubs in the universe and targeted them towards itself. That meant that sooner or later, as long as he didn’t die, he would become pretty strong – or so he thought. Unfortunately, all stories involving bear cubs always depicted the cub as weak, and so Monk was weak. Now he needed to find other ways to grow his strength.

Longbeard, the gnome with a beard longer than its body, had a long beard so hard he literally couldn’t cut it at all. Oddly, it was only his beard hair that had this unique trait.

Then there was Bob. Good old Bob. Not only did he have multiple titles as a Deity, which was rare yet not unheard of, he was the Deity of Entropy, which was, according to modern colloquial English, OP as FU-.

After all, having power over Entropy gave him access to Chaos Energy. But, apparently, that’s not how Bob used his power. Instead, he used his authority to spread chaos and disorder with his words – affecting the laws of probability to make whatever he said, regardless of how improbable, probable.

“Oh thank the lawd you’re in a better mood captain!” Bob exclaimed, rushing in towards Jack. “Thou hast a heart of gold! To think you’d go out of your way to give a ride to seven orphan dragons to another realm… your compassion falls onto us like water from a particularly high waterfall!

“I must sing your ballad throughout the land! Let it be known, let it be roared across the heavens and whispered in the deepest corners of forgotten realms – that the Captain, yes the Captain, is no mere mortal soul! Nay! He is a titan of tenacity, a maestro of the miraculous! For who but he, in all the spiraling worlds, would dare – dare, I say! – to offer passage to seven, not six, but seven dwarf dragons, each blazing with majesty and molten mystery, and ferry them gallantly to their destined realm? Oh, what courage! What compassion! What completely cataclysmic coolness! What-“

“Alright, I get it,” Jack interrupted Bob, feeling quite good about his cataclysmic coolness. Maybe he should let Bob talk more often.

“I have a mission for you – a mission that only you can do…”

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