The Innkeeper

Cassandra was in a conundrum. This little guy in front of her was an absurd mutation and would be extremely valuable to her if she was anywhere near the Dao Lord realm. But she wasn't, and even her suppression over it depended on using the temple's help.

She could not allow it to run free and could not use it herself, and because she was stuck in the temple, could not sell it either. Maybe she could use it in her bargain with the Innkeeper, but that was yet to be seen.

"Sleep," she said, her voice filled with echoes of power. The figure attempted to resist, but ultimately could not. The temple was special in that way. The fact that it was used to train humans was a front. Its real value came from the fact that it was essentially a controllable self-contained realm, with all its laws at the whim of its controller.

It was in hiding for so many more reasons than just the realm war, but she could neither speak of it or even think of it. But, while she was within the temple, at least she could make use of the limited authority that had been shared with her.

She turned her attention to the feather that contained the wisp of the deity's consciousness. From what she recalled, he had some kind of issue with the Innkeeper. Peeking into his memories might help her figure out what kind of organization the Midnight Inn really was.

Her eyes began to glow, and the feather seemed to whimper.

*****

Lex was laying on Fenrir's head as they followed Mateo. Instead of heading directly to Z, they were first going to a rejuvenation room, which would allow both of them to heal. Considering the nature of the attacks that caused the wounds to begin with, Mateo recommended they avoid healing via divinity.

"I thought my plan was really good," Mateo said after a very long, awkward silence. In truth, Mateo was the only one feeling awkward. The other two were in too much pain to focus on anything besides.

"It was a good, moral motivator for growth. According to the temple's scans, your disposition is leaning towards good, with only a few strands of chaotic tendencies in it. Considering that Z, your partner, will not wake up for many more months if everything goes well, I thought it was a good use of time."

Lex raised an eyebrow. Was Mateo feeling guilty for how he confronted Cassandra? Well she did say that the original plan was his. Considering how much effort they put into training and guiding him, he guessed it would be mean to leave them feeling as such.

"The plan was good. On anyone else, it might have been even more successful, and it's not like I can't see how I might have benefitted from it if I weren't so skeptical the entire time. But I just hate being lied to. Even if it's for some greater purpose, even if it's for my benefit, it's not your decision to make."

Lex could not help but wonder if those were the words he wanted to say to his parents. But at the moment he could not muster up enough energy to care. He had moved on from that.

"My apologies. The usual humans we used to train back… back in the day didn't care about such things, as long as they got stronger."

They entered the rejuvenation room, which had a massive pond in it, filled with giant lily pads, lotus flowers, and other plants floating atop the water.

"Here, let me help you," Mateo said, as he lifted both Lex and Fenrir up from the ground using some form of telekinesis.

They landed gently on the pads, and Lex felt the leaf gently wrap itself around his body. The feeling it gave him was one of warmth and relief, and did not trigger any claustrophobia despite covering his entire body. Lex closed his one good eye and allowed himself to relax.

"Mateo, now that I've spent so much time here, did you guys figure out what my bloodline is yet?"

Due to the fact that his bloodline was categorized as unknown and mutated, they never trained it in specifically. But the temple was supposed to study it so that they could figure out how to train it.

Lex was not impatient to train with, but he was curious. It was an odd thing to discover there was so much he didn't know about himself.

"Yes, we did. I must say, I was fairly impressed by it. It's not an easy bloodline to use, but it is very, very useful. In fact, it has been categorized as one of the best bloodlines for the human race, just because of its potential benefits. That was all before it underwent mutations, most likely due to your physique.

"Due to its undeveloped nature, I cannot comment on what you can achieve with your mutated bloodline, but we were able to trace the original. I believe it is called Gelid Anima, a name we traced from the very core of the bloodline itself.

"In its inferior states, which is what you might be able to access right now, it can affect your state of mind, making it easier for you to learn new things. It can also affect your body, somewhat, allowing you to tap into greater power. In essence, it allows for a series of passive augmentations.

"But if that were all, it would not be enough to get such a rating from the temple. No, its true awakened state will most likely be unlocked when you enter the immortal realm. At that point, Gelid Anima will allow you to suppress the influence of your emotions, and directly study laws!

"It is a much more versatile version of the ability in your left eye, and its possibilities are endless. It can allow you to learn techniques faster, grow your realm faster, become the best oracle in your realm. Most importantly, it makes up for one of the fundamental weaknesses of humans, which is that they have trouble studying laws to begin with. That in itself is what prevents them from growing their realms once they reach immortality."

Lex was silent for a time. If he understood Mateo correctly, his 'Flowand other states were a result of his bloodline? It made sense. The tangible benefits he received from each state had to be coming from somewhere, and he had not seen other humans do it, so it wasn't as if it was just a human thing.

But his bloodline was so powerful, his ancestor William must be pretty great as well, to have created such an ability. Yet, he was weaker than Jotun.

For some reason, Lex did not care as much as he thought he would. It was just an interesting little tidbit of information to him.

"Can you tell me more about the inheritance Z is getting? What's so special about it? I recall the first time you told me about it. You said he was undergoing an evolution, not getting an inheritance."

"It is more or less the same thing. Your companion was detected to be the descendant of a very prestigious human bloodline, long thought to have gone extinct. In fact, it is a little strange because the bloodline he has is not even the one he should have gotten from his ancestor, but that is also explainable. A more recent ancestor's ability will overwrite a more ancient one.

"While his bloodline cannot be changed or altered in any way, the dominating traits of his original ancestry are being awakened. You are probably aware that humans too have many subraces, right? For example, the Neko or Draco subrace types.

"Well, his original race type is being stimulated, which is why I said he is undergoing an evolution. But such a change cannot happen overnight, and will progress over many decades. For now, the stimulation is already done. What's left is to arm him with the knowledge that comes with his race, as well as some of his original ancestors' heritage. Trust me, this will not harm him in any way. This is probably the best possible path of growth for him that exists."

Lex did not respond immediately. Instead, his mind wondered a few different things. He knew that his workers were all clones, and in fact he could genetically modify them quite a bit, to the point of even choosing their bloodlines.

In that case, chances were that Z was actually a clone of this so-called descendant. What interested him more was the fact that Mateo claimed his line was supposed to have ended. So how did the system have access to it? Was there another cloning system out there, with countless DNA strands from countless races, just waiting to be used? Or was the owner of that system using them for their own purposes?

The oddly sinister nature of this entire thing was the reason Lex distrusted systems so much. Then again, he was the one who kept buying more workers, so he couldn't really complain. Was that immoral? Should he stop?

After a moment of pondering, Lex decided the more moral thing to do was get his own hands on the cloning system, so he knew for a fact that it wasn't being misused. Unlike him, who did his best to provide his workers with the best life possible.

Yes, Lex totally wasn't a villain.