The Innkeeper

Chapter 1732: Self reflection

Lex let out a deep, deep sigh and rubbed his eyes. The Magma Lion was clearly severely injured, so Lex forgave him for being incredibly dense.

Instead, he got up and took out a number of healing items and passed them out to the staff, and gave them instructions on how to use them to expedite their healing process. He himself went out to an empty room and sat down cross-legged.

Within his ring, there were many items, some clearly generated by systems while others entirely naturally formed or made through regular means. The only thing that they all had in common was that they could help him locate things.

The real problem was that he only knew that he wanted to find the Chalice, and nothing else at all. At least with the Well of Forgotten Dreams, Lex vaguely had some idea of its location. For the Chalice itself, Lex had no clue.

Finding the Chalice without any leads at all would be far from easy. The only two hints he had were that the Chalice might be related to the Well somehow, although that was a longshot. The second clue was that the space around the chalice was likely fixed, making it a significant location within Abaddon.

He would have to use just these two hints to locate the chalice. It was still entirely possible that he would not succeed in finding it at all, but Lex didn’t want to think about that. He had already spent so many years here, and though that only translated to a few months in other realms, he didn’t enjoy being away from the Inn for so long.

Lex swept his spirit sense through the ring and picked out one of the items at random. Then, he used it, showing no hesitation at all. The possibility of failure would not stop him from trying.

Despite the anticipated difficulty, each item in the ring had been chosen because it was exceptional enough to present the possibility of working despite all the many obstacles.

As such, while the first item failed to even activate when Lex searched for the chalice, when he changed his intention to locating the Well instead, the item immediately activated, and Lex discovered that he could teleport to the destination whenever he wanted, with one simple caveat: only he could teleport there.

Lex sighed once more, almost beginning to fear that his excessive sighing was becoming a habit. He then pulled out the next item and continued to search for the chalice.

No matter what happened, he wasn’t going to go exploring right now anyway, so it was best to keep searching.

He wasn’t really a pessimist, but he understood that actually finding the chalice was most likely not going to happen. In truth, Lex was only searching for clues that might make his search easier.

That is why, when he used the second item, and it actually succeeded directly, Lex was stunned silent.

What? How? There were days where Abaddon almost felt sentient due how much effort it put into making their lives difficult. How could a place so vindictive actually just give up the answers so easily?

Lex reviewed everything to make sure he wasn’t mistaken.

The item he had used was most likely a system generated one, although there was no way to be sure. Its sole purpose was to bridge the gap between the user of the item, and their objective – assuming the objective was a location.

When Lex used it, he felt something change. He knew a certain direction, and had a feeling that as long as he walked in that direction, he would find the chalice. What was interesting, however, was that the direction he was supposed to walk in was constantly changing, and never remained the same for more than a few minutes.

Following such haphazard directions would be a mild inconvenience and nothing more. So now, Lex was basically set. He had nothing else to do until Kaemon and the rest recovered enough to actually look for the chalice.

That was… pleasantly anticlimactic.

But that didn’t mean Lex wouldn’t actually do nothing until everyone healed. Even now, his mind was mainly preoccupied with his fight against Kreel. Although Lex had shown a tough front then, there was really no way of determining how the fight would have gone if the Zai race member hadn’t been injured.

In hindsight, one of the reasons why Lex had such a hard time defeating him was because Lex had been facing him in his own strongest domain. By fighting a spirit expert within his own mind, Lex was just asking for a beating. But then again, the reason Lex didn that was because Kreel had been so strong to begin with that Lex had no other means to take him out quickly.

Even the lotus form only put him on a level allowing him to witness Kreel’s existence at all.

Furthermore, although Kreel was supposed to have a weak body, it was only in comparison to his spirit!

Kreel was dead, and his body had suffered tremendously from all the attacks that had struck him, but the body had ultimately survived despite being in a terrible condition. Lex studied the body briefly, and that was enough for him to understand that Kreel’s body wasn’t weak at all!

At the end of the day, the reason Lex was thinking so much about Kreel wasn’t because of the danger that the Zai race posed. Instead, it was because Lex lacked the means to fight them, and he needed to address that weakness immediately!

The Abaddon Inn was a complex Lawcraft that allowed him to target the opponent’s spirit, so now he needed means to target the body and the soul. A few more esoteric means would also be welcome.

Lex could not abide by the fact that someone in the same realm as him had been stronger than him! He was getting ready to break into the Heaven Immortal realm, but now he pushed that idea back. It would be a disservice to his cultivation technique if he couldn’t be the best in his realm.

Upon reflection, it seemed that one of the reasons why Lex lost his edge was because he had started to play things safe. Previously, he used to be exposed to treasures and tools far beyond his level because he took risks a lot.

Upon growing, Lex called such behavior as immature and needlessly risky. Now, though, it seemed that maybe it wasn’t so needless after all. If he wanted to be the best, he would have to push himself.

Lex’s eyes flashed as he set a few challenges for himself. They were nothing major – just things figuring out how Pelvailin died, killing Belail, getting a Defiler heart and so on. Basically, resolve all the pending mysteries and tasks he had, despite any danger that they may pose.

But that was hardly enough. Lex began to come up with a plan to expose himself to more risk – but strategically.

Being Sages and Elders was all well and good, but that did not mean Lex had to accept them being better than himself.

Several months went by, and the Reaving Dread healed much quicker than anticipated due to Lex’s medicines.

Even now, Lex had not revealed that he had possibly found a way to locate the chalice. Instead, he just told Kaemon to recover, while he himself delved into his own training, as well as working on Jeziah to try to break the binds and limitations on his mind to discover whatever secrets his mind still held.

Still, many noticed the subtle change in Lex’s behavior. Z had a theory, and for once it was actually correct!

Z supposed that his fight against the mysterious, invisible enemy had shaken Lex greatly! Considering that his fight with Kreel played a major role in his change in behavior, Z could be considered very insightful.

In truth, in his own theory, that was just a performance Lex was putting on to build psychological pressure on Z to further enhance his training.

Months later, once they were ready to move on once more, Lex still didn’t clearly reveal that he might have a lead on the chalice. Instead, he simply said that he had a lead on the Well, and they were going to pursue that.

His reason for not revealing the truth was simple: he had no certainty if such a thing would work so it was best not to get everyone’s hopes up.

With that, Lex began to follow the constantly changing directions that pointed towards the chalice. They continued to march for days, with seemingly no end in sight to the march, but the atmosphere around them began to change.

The air began to get thicker, the sky redder, the locusts stronger. In fact, they were once again hounded by chimeras, and all kinds of monstrosities.Despite the added pressure, everyone in the group only felt more excited.

They too noticed the change, and that gave them hope. Maybe they were heading into the heart of Abaddon finally, and with that, towards the chalice.

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