The Innkeeper

Chapter 2334: Charity

Countless missionaries and agents from various Deities attacked the Jolly Rancher, but Jack did not even move. He just stood atop the mantle of the ship, smiling at them confidently.

"Good job, Rose. You don’t need to worry about the fight or anything else. Just keep protecting yourself," Jack said after a moment, looking down at the ship.

The silhouette of a woman made from the same bark as the ship appeared next to Jack with her arms crossed.

"Why do I get the feeling that you’re using me?" she asked doubtfully.

Jack, in response, shook his head.

"Ridiculous. Just watch as I take care of these guys. You just focus on defending yourself. I’ll make sure to eliminate the threat without your help, even if it means laying down my life," Jack said, his words filled with overflowing passion. Rose looked at him sceptically, but could not determine if he was being honest.

To date, neither Lex nor Jack had actually seen the true body of a Trelop. All of them fused themselves with various geographical features, some taking over forests, mountains, lakes and so on. They would then use materials from those geographical locations to build a substitute body through which they talked and conversed.

Rose, on the other hand, was a little different, which had caused her to become an outcast among her people. She could not fuse with geographical features or locations. Instead, she could fuse with objects!

Jack wasn’t sure why the distinction existed. Both were dead, right? And if looked at from a macro perspective, both could be simply referred to as objects. However, the distinction existed nonetheless.

But what was an embarrassment and humiliating for Rose was extremely useful for Jack. The Jolly Rancher was not just an object, nor was just a ship. It was a vessel that had been enhanced by his own fairy dust, enchanted by the Humanoid Alliance, and it had accompanied the crew on various adventures. Within the Foklore realm, the ship alone had legends of its own!

However, since Jack himself was merely an Earth Immortal, he could not make full use of all that the ship offered. With Rose fusing with the ship, however, she could both protect herself and, if she really wanted to, help them out in a fight.

She had a vague suspicion that she was being used, but the crew appeared quite genuine so she couldn’t determine if she was just being overly cautious. For example, instead of staying back and waiting for her to help, Jack really did fly into the fray.

The others did not hold back either. Whether it was the Drama-cat, the gnome, the hamster, the bear cub, the owl, the unicorn or the crystal alligator, they all fought. Surprisingly, the three mysterious beings who only referred to themselves as Boblings also fought, and they were quite powerful.

The extent of their power was a mystery, but it was clear that this fight did not put any pressure on them. In such a situation, if she truly did nothing but protect herself and let them fight to protect her, she’d feel incredibly guilty.

With that thought, she flew the ship straight into the Celestial Immortal. While her own realm was nowhere near that level, the vessel she had bonded with was made of materials that were more than sturdy enough to deal with him.

Oracle’s missionary glared at Jack with red, hate-filled eyes, yet before he could attack him, the damned ship slammed into his body, knocking him back.

For a Celestial Immortal, such a hit did no harm... ordinarily. In this case, as soon as the ship slammed into him, one of the wooden boards of the ship pried loose, wrapped itself around the necklace made from divine ore he was wearing, and snatched it before his body could fly away.

In a single exchange, his personal body shield made of Celestial Immortal energy had been torn through, and his personal equipment had been stolen. Something like that had never happened before in his life, stunning him in place!

It couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t that Rose had a secret weapon - it was that the Jolly Rancher itself was an ultimate weapon!

The other missionaries did not have it any easier. Pebbles ignored every attack shot his way and kept biting through protective shields to swallow up the divine ore equipment, storing them all in his cheeks.

Longbeard used his expanding beard to whip and stall enemies while Ollie snuck through the shadow plane to them grabbing their equipment and running away.

Tiny-Sparkles shot out rainbows from his horn like bazookas, aiming to cause maximum carnage while Goldilocks and the Crystal alligator turned their enemies into their associated elements and snatched their equipment.

For the missionaries, this was meant to be a fight to the death, but the pirates couldn’t care less about that. They only focused on stealing treasures, as per their captains orders.

Speaking of their captain, Jack still stood on the bow of the ship, watching with his arms crossed even as he flapped his wings rapidly.

He was a paladin and had paladin powers. But, as with all races, the method of using them was unique to his specific race. To be more specific, he could use his powers identically to how Lex used them, but if he used his wings as a conduit for his powers, the effect was greatly amplified.

In this battle, Jack did not bother fighting. Instead, he had gone back to the roots of his cultivation. Once upon a time, Lex’s defense was the best and most unquestionable aspect of his cultivation. That was hardly the case anymore, as was evident from his recent defeat.

He had been coasting through his cultivation, relying on the lingering effects of Regal Embrace.

Well, he had decided to change that now. He would once again put conscious effort into his defence. He found it absolutely unbearable that his defeat had come at the hands of a Celestial Apex - even if he was a Sovereign. Losing to a Dao Lord or Demi-Dao Lord would have been acceptable. But a mere Celestial Apex? Absolutely humiliating.

Thus, Jack stood there, and focused solely on defenses. To be specific, he built barriers using his paladin powers, protecting his crew, and restricting the enemies, causing them endless waves of frustration.

Even their miracles seemed fake and ineffective in front of Jack, for both of them were relying on divine energy. After all, paladins could also control divine energy.

Thus, Jack used his powers to enact one of Geeves’ dreams, albeit in a slightly different fashion. Geeves dreamed of frustrating enemies till they coughed up blood by having his suits have such a formidable defense.

In this case, while he lacked those suits, Lex still frustrated his enemies with his unwavering, ever present defenses that kept his crew completely protected. The fight which should have been an epic struggle, eventually concluding in the victory of the Deities, ridding them of the pest of pirates, was going in a very different direction.

In secret, there were countless observers there, watching the play to see how it panned out. Nothing was more valuable in the Folklore realm than a good story - nothing - and so how this confrontation was resolved would have drastic consequences.

As it was, the legend of the Pocket Calamity had already begun to spread. The nickname, first uttered by Oracle, had been heard by countless, and would no doubt spread across the land.

For bravely facing countless missionaries all the while protecting a certain member of their group, and coming out as the victor would ensure that soon, the magic of the Folklore realm would begin to affect them. Even the Deities did not know the extent of the consequences this fight would have.

As the fight continued, the moment that the crew had acquired every single present piece of divine ore treasure, they retreated onto the ship. When the missionaries tried to follow them, they found that a massive barrier was blocking their entry!

Moreover, because the treasure containing all their divine energy had been stolen, they were all weakened. Missionaries and zealots who relied on the grace of their associated Deity were extremely powerful when empowered by their Deity, and significantly weakened without that connection.

In a different realm, those treasures were the only source of connection to their Deities. Without them, they were much weaker than even ordinary cultivators - it was the price they paid for easy growth.

"Thank you all for your generous donations to our welfare fund. Your charitable intentions have been noted down, and will surely be rewarded in the afterlife. As much as I would like to continue accepting your generous hospitality, we have other donors who are anxiously waiting for our arrival. Thus, I bid you farewell."

The two gravity eels chained to the ship suddenly gained a flood of energy - to be specific, Jack channeled the harvested divine energy into them, causing them to suddenly fly out into the air as if they had boosters tied to their rears.

The missionaries hopped out of the way for they could not tolerate getting slammed by the Jolly Rancher, proving that they could have left whenever they wanted. Their encirclement became a huge joke - a joke witnessed by countless people, soon to be spread across the realm.