The Innkeeper

A few minutes before Lex's battle, back at the assessment center, a room full of analysts calmly watched what they knew would be the end of this humble human settlement.

"Isn't this a little too cruel?" asked a man before he started chewing on some nuts. This was the man that had saved Lex's life from the Kraven, and the one who had personally carried Lex back to the academy. "He just escaped the Kraven, aren't you worried you'll cripple him mentally?"

"Cripple him?" asked the uniformed man. "The little brat asked me what the big deal was in facing a Kraven even after facing the coercion of immortal Kraven flesh. He has no signs of mental trauma, but he also doesn't have any signs of the strong will for revenge that is common in Kraven attack survivors. His entire county died and the kid still had no reaction. You think he'll flinch because some villagers died? I doubt it. But I'm still curious to see how he reacts to the situation. At least this village will get a chance to contribute slightly to the human cause before it's wiped."

No one in the room had any visible reaction as they saw the next scene unfold and the fight that ensued. Everyone was busy taking notes, but when the massive snowflake appeared, even they took a pause.

Then Lex shot at the sky, and they all freaked out! The uniform man yelled as he rushed to hit the emergency bail button that teleported Lex out from his location, but it was too late. By the time Lex was teleported away, he had already fired three shots. Lex had been sent to his next assessment, but now the academy had to deal with an angry tyrant.

"Send our Vice-Dean Elvis. That thing needs to die before it explodes!" the uniformed man yelled, his back drenched in sweat. What the hell kind of maniac was this kid?

Then he grinned. He would definitely get this kid in his class.

*****

The teleportation applied by the academy had none of the finesse and gentleness of the Inns. Lex, who had been firing in the air, had been hit with another whiplash, and when he got up, he found himself standing on a plateau.

There were two Sol birds in the sky, but at opposite ends and both far on the horizon. It was like watching two sunsets at the same time.

A warm, gentle breeze blew across the slope, filling Lex's lungs with the smell of wild flowers. Animals grazed on the tall grass and flocks of birds flew in the air.

The dissonance from what Lex had just been experiencing, and what he was experiencing now was jarring.

Before he had time to think, a yellow orb appeared before him and started giving him instructions.

"3 kilometers directly to your right, a wounded academy student is fighting against a Red eared Gojur. The assessment will end in 30 minutes."

"What the shit!" Lex cursed loudly. He could not stop himself from getting angry. What kind of twisted game was this? They threw him into a village just to watch it be destroyed? If they teleported him there, then the academy could surely teleport some stronger people there as well. They could have saved all those people, but instead they turned it into a test.

And now, before he even had time to adjust to what happened, they were throwing another student's life away.

Lex really wanted to curse again. Instead, he activated Falcon's relief and started running 'to his right'. What the hell kind of stupid instructions were those?

Though Lex was running, he made sure not to run too fast, as he was in no mood to exhaust himself if he was going to face a fight.

He reached into his backpack, took out a shot of adrenaline mixed with rejuvenating serum, and stabbed it into his arm. His fight with the Kalter Flug had been short, but extremely draining.

15 minutes later, he finally saw the wounded student. It was a man covered in blood fighting against what could only be described as a kangaroo with the skin of a rhino, size of a hippo and the aggression of a chihuahua. Lex didn't bother to get a good look because he immediately turned around and ran in the opposite direction.

Both the student and whatever he was fighting were way too strong for Lex. He didn't need to use his instincts to tell, just the various craters in the ground told him enough. Fortunately, as he was still far away, neither of them noticed him and continued to fight with each other.

Once he was far enough, Lex took a break and started eating some dry rations.

Once his thirty minutes were up, Lex felt another whiplash teleporting him away.

This time, Lex stood on the mouth of a volcano. He looked down into the massive hole, despite the waves of boiling hot air emerging, and saw a pool of lava.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he murmured.

'Mr. Innkeeper,' the Lotus called, once again. 'I can feel a wave of spirit energy coming at us from underground. It'll arrive in about an hour.'

"No, this can't be happening," Lex said to himself. His luck possibly couldn't be that bad.

A yellow ball of light appeared in the air and started narrating the details of his assessment.

"In one hour, this volcano will explode. In three hours, the assessment will end."

A vein appeared in Lex's neck as he tried to suppress his anger. There was no way this was normal. They had to be doing this to him on purpose. A part of him wanted to jump right into the lava, knowing that the academy would teleport him out an end this stupid assessment. But, he could not bring himself to trust the academy so much.

Lex turned around and started sprinting. It was a tragedy that Lex had to save his breath for running, otherwise the people viewing him would have witnessed a series of curses so creative, they would have qualified as poetry.