The Innkeeper

“Come come, enter the arena everyone!” Marlo exclaimed, his body shaking with vigor as he spoke. “Everyone line up next to each other and let me take a look at you!”

Everyone quickly lined up nervously and stared at the giant man who was towering above them. Though he was not using his cultivation to pressure them, just his presence seemed to achieve the effect.

“15 young and talented people, ready to join my class,” he said, his tone sounding all too rehearsed. “15 people with hopes and dreams of success and triumph, of glamor and gold. But first you have to live long enough to achieve that. According to a survey in 2019, only 47% of people who became body cultivators in that year progressed in their cultivation, 29% stagnated exactly where they were and the remaining 24% died!” He paused for a moment to let everyone absorb that information.

Lex could not speak for others, but that percentage truly surprised him. One fourth of all new cultivators that year died! That was scarily high, and this was supposed to be a civilized society with organizations such as Bluebird maintaining the peace.

“Now I’m not saying that everyone who died was killed, but you’d have to look far and hard for a body cultivator who died of something like a heart attack! That’s why, if you want to survive and grow, you should always consider your security! If you progress too fast, you might attract the attention of someone who’s cultivation has been lagging, wondering if you have some kind of treasure that helped you along. If you progress too slow, you might attract the ire of someone who thinks you’re using up resources that could be better used by them instead. The world is full of dangerous people, and one must know how to protect yourself!

“And that’s why you are here today! To learn to protect yourself, and survive!” Marlo was practically yelling with excitement at this point, a wild grin painting his face. “But today, we won’t be doing any personalized training. No, today you will only be getting a taste of the hard work and dedication that will be required for you to take this course. That’s why the first lesson is free, so that if you don’t think you can do it, you can leave! Once you enroll in the course you cannot quit! It’ll be in your contract! I have a reputation to uphold, and I can’t have people saying that my students are easy to get rid of. So don’t bother introducing your names and backgrounds yet. First, introduce me to your guts! Introduce me to your will! Introduce me to the passion in your hearts to seize the cultivation world and snatch all its glory!” Marlo burst into a manic laughter that shook the entire arena and his overwhelming persona had all but intimidated most of his class into running away right then and there. Lex himself was considering never coming back after the introductory class, this guy was just a little too much!

That is, until he heard a notification from the system!

Sudden Quest initiated: With a great personality and abundant energy, Marlo is a great candidate to serve as a valet for the Inn! Hire Marlo as your first valet!

Quest Time limit: 1 month

Quest Reward: 1 small staff dormitory, 1000MP, +1 Midnight Inn Level

Quest failure punishment: -1000MP (if host is unable to pay, it will result in immediate death!)

Lex’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he read the notification, and he was filled with a mix of excitement and anxiety! A sudden quest was a good way to earn some rewards that he sorely needed right now, but the punishment for failure was too steep! And the quest didn’t seem easy either, this Marlo fellow was too excitable. He had no idea how he would recruit him! How would…

Lex’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Marlo who finally stopped laughing and clapped his hands, upon which 15 uniformed, identical looking men entered the room and stood before each of the participants, a stoic look on their faces.

“These are my minions, ordered from Rent-a-minion! Each one of them will teach you how to defend against a certain kind of attack, and then attack you! The only way to stop is to successfully block the attack! Otherwise they will not stop unless you pass out! So you better pay attention, and do your best!”

Everyone was shocked! What kind of class was it where they attacked the student until they passed out?! But before anyone could voice a complaint, each student was approached by a minion.

The one that approached Lex showed him various moves he could use. The minion would try to distract him with a punch, and then trip him backwards by putting a leg behind Lex’s and pushing him. Lex would first have to avoid the punch and then the attempt to trip him. He could do so by simply stepping back, blocking, evading, counterattacking and more. The minion, although not very talkative, spoke slowly and calmly, a large contrast to Marlo, and gave many demonstrations to Lex on each possible maneuver he could do. He repeated as many times as Lex asked, but when Lex asked something unrelated to the content of the class, such as what exactly was Rent-a-minion, the minion would not answer.

Finally, after 20 minutes Lex felt ready to start. In this time many of the other students had already started, and they were all being taught to avoid different kinds of attacks. The only common theme was that everyone who had started was beaten up. One of the students, a young fellow, quickly asked to quit and said he wanted to stop. Unfortunately, the minion did not stop. He just kept attacking! Eventually the man accidentally tripped backwards and evaded the minions attack, triggering the condition for the minion to stop. As soon as he realized the minion had stopped, he ran out of the class with a mix of crying and yelling at Marlo! Marlo however only laughed and seemed to enjoy being scolded. All the other students however were thoroughly scared. That’s why Lex made sure to absorb everything the minion had to teach before he started.

The result? He gravely underestimated the speed of the minion and got punched right in the face, not even gaining the opportunity to avoid the rest of the attack! Fortunately, the punch didn’t seem to hurt him and much as it hurt the other students, and other than being slightly shocked he was fine. The minions speed wasn’t otherworldly or insanely fast, it was just the normal speed for someone trained in combat. As someone who had never been in a fight before though, Lex gravely underestimated just how fast that regular speed was.

He picked himself up and readied himself for the minions next attack, fueled by a mix of vindictive energy aimed at the minion and a desire to succeed. The second time he successfully dodged the punch, but it was by pulling back too fast! That caused him to lose his balance momentarily, a flaw the minion took quick advantage of! The third time, trying not to move in such a haphazard way as last time Lex tried to be more deliberate in his dodge, but was punched again!

This continued for over an hour! Almost all the other students had succeeded accidentally or passed out. Two of the students had succeeded flawlessly and were invited by Marlo for a private talk. Only Lex was still continuing at this point. It was mostly because the minions’ attacks were unable to actually hurt Lex, though they did irritate him endlessly. He didn’t get tired either from all the exercise, nor had his will to succeed diminished! He even forgot about why he was doing this, his focus was only on being able to evade the minion perfectly.

That wasn’t to say he hadn’t made progress. More than once he had actually dodged the minion and twice even blocked him, but Lex was never satisfied as he knew that so long as the fight continued after those 2 attacks his dodges and blocks left him in a bad position to continue.

Eventually, Marlo stopped him, waking him from his reverie of practice. But when he stopped and looked towards Marlo, who was grinning at him malevolently, his entire body trembled. This giant dude was definitely crazy. Lex was worried for his future.