The Innkeeper

Startled by the sound, the whole tavern looked towards the door that had been swung open. A brutish man, covered from head to toe in filth and monster blood, stumbled in, dragging behind him a massive double sided ax.

Well, it was formerly double sided but now one side had been corroded away by something. Even now the ax gave off the scent of burning metal.

The man looked at the crowded tavern room, his weary face showing confusion and noncomprehension. Before he could say anything, Mario Ricci rushed up to him with a concerned face and checked up on his body. They said nothing, but Lex strongly suspected that they were already talking through their spirit sense.

"Lex, is it possible to get a private room for a short while?" Mario suddenly asked, turning towards him.

Lex raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. He placed a great deal of importance on Mario because of his ring, and possible connection to the Noel family. As such, his current reaction greatly attracted Lex's attention, and aroused his interest towards this mysterious man. After all, as someone who had spent some time at the tavern, he should have known that there was basically no room at the tavern currently.

Before he formed any theories on the identity of the worn out man, Mario continued to speak.

"Let me introduce you. This is the honorable mayor of Babylon, and a distant relative of the Noel family. There are some matters we need to handle that require a bit of privacy."

A distant relative of the Noel family - Lex immediately wished he had the ability to snoop on conversations like he could back at the Inn. At the moment, the only way he had to properly even scan what was happening in the tavern was using the space formation.

Still, the better his relations with these people, the better his chances of learning the secrets of this place.

"Don't take too long," Lex finally said, deciding to accommodate their request. "As you know, we're extremely short on space, and forcing too many people in one space will make everyone uncomfortable."

The mayor was still groggy, and barely registering what was happening as Mario led him by the hand to one of the private rooms Lex emptied out. After spending so much time at this place he had come to understand how excellent the sound insulation in the private rooms were, so he was not at all worried that they would be spied upon. Moreover, any conversation they would have would be through their spirit senses anyway.

After inquiring if the mayor required any medical attention, to which Mario answered no, they closed the door and began their meeting.

Lex too retreated from the main hall, back to his room. So far the monsters that had spawned were not too strong, with only their numbers as their greatest asset. But if even the mayor had been brought down to this level, then things must be getting bad.

He immediately entered his overdrive state and began deciphering how to use the formation crystal properly. Even if he could not restore the lights, allowing communication with outside the formation should allow them to request for help.

The crystal allowed him to observe each and every change that was happening to the formation, so with every proverbial 'button' he flicked using the crystal he looked for changes. He spent an entire hour doing this before he was too exhausted to continue his overdrive state and took a rest. This would be a tedious process.

*****

A teleportation formation flashed, and the crown prince of the Hum nation appeared amongst a crowd of people who were traveling to the Noel family's lands.

Although this piece of land seemed like it was independent of any nation, it was only because geographically it was too far from any of the nations borders. That did not mean, in any whatsoever, that it escaped the influence of the nations. As a human ruler, no matter how far he actually was from Hum nation, there was no way he would be able to continue his reign without the hidden support from Cornelius.

Such was the case for many so called independent states. It was just that the public did not need to know what went on behind closed doors. Regardless of all that, it was that connection that resulted in various teleportation formations that allowed travel even from the farthest regions. After all, it was unknown when they would need emergency help, and even Cornelius himself would take months if not years to travel to the farthest regions without these formations.

In his hand he still held a plastic fork and, after checking something, the prince dashed out into the darkness, uncaring of any monsters in his path.

A short while into his journey, however, he encountered another man making his way through the darkness. Considering that he might be lost and in need of aid, the prince stopped near him.

But, after appearing right beside the man, he stood awkwardly. It had been too long since he had spoken to another person while sober. He wasn't sure what to say.

pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 Pvarti, on the other hand, was as genial and excited as always.

"Hello friend," he exclaimed while slicing an elephant sized monster in half. "Would you happen to know where Babil is? Or Baby? Maybe it was Baba? Ah darn, I cannot remember the name of the town, but it had an amazing tavern."

The crown prince's eyes flickered at the mention of a tavern, but then they dulled. How could he expect to find something that could get him drunk out here in the middle of nowhere?

"I do not know the name, but I'm heading towards a town. You can follow me and ask for directions from there."

"Excellent," he replied, his mood improving drastically.

As soon as he agreed, the prince put his hand on Pvarti's shoulder and carried him along as he zoomed through the darkness. The speed was faster than anything Pvarti had ever experienced and he was startled, but he quickly realized that he was not affected by the speed at all, and began to enjoy the experience. That is, until they reached Babylon and found the formation shutting the town shut.

Both Pvarti and the prince grew extremely serious upon witnessing such a sight.

*****

Four days later, Lex chugged a drink very similar to coffee, except that instead of caffeine, it flooded his body with easy to absorb spiritual energy. Unless Lex quickly used up the energy, it would dissipate and not get absorbed into his body.

But the benefit of this was, if Lex was drastically using up the spiritual energy in his body, it would automatically get absorbed into his spirit energy pool and allow him to continue using energy for much longer.

He needed this drink to facillitate his use of the overdrive state. After four days of continuous use, he learned that it was not only his mental energy that was drained, but it exhausted him physically as well as put a strain on his spiritual energy.

Still, after 4 arduous days, he could proudly say he had gained enough of an understanding of the formation that he could finally return things to normal. It would take one final push.

He entered the overdrive state and immediately began manipulating the formation. He had to be careful, for he had learnt through continuous experimentation that controlling the lights in the town was perhaps the simplest function of this formation.

It definitely did many more things way too complex for him to understand, but they were not his problem. Soon things would return to normal.

But Lex remained unaware that, in the main hall of his tavern, the mayor and Mario exchanged worried looks. Things had turned extremely bleak when an important component of the town's formation had been turned off a few days earlier for just a few minutes. That was actually Lex testing out the function of the formation crystal.

As a result, some energy signatures that the formation kept hidden had leaked for a few moments, and monsters hidden in the deep, dark depths of the sea had been attracted. Those monsters were way too strong for even the mayor to handle. No matter what happened, they needed to make sure that they could request for aid from the Noel family before something else happened to the formation. Otherwise, the repercussions would spread far beyond just Babylon.

Unfortunately, the luck of the entire town had been undergoing abnormal changes of late. Of the millions of buttons, Lex messed with the single most dangerous one, just long enough to attract trouble. And now, at the worst possible time, he finally figured out how to turn the formation off.

Just as suddenly as the town had been blanketed in darkness, the lights turned back on, revealing a town nearly destroyed, and an army of monsters filling the streets.

The gentle hum of various formations returning to life filled the town. The hum was followed by an earth shattering howl as a massive creature exited from the sea.

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