The Innkeeper

Unable to check up on the Inn, Lex decided to have some breakfast before going up onto the roof and investigating the state of the town. Once he confirmed everything was alright, he would go and alert the necessary people about the changes.

Since Lex hadn't really been following a fixed schedule when he slept, it was well into the night when he awoke meaning most of the guests were asleep. The few who were awake sat in silence mostly by themselves, or whispered to someone nearby. Lex paid them no mind and got himself some leftovers, heated them up and enjoyed his meal.

Feeling good at his recent accomplishment, he decided to pair his 'breakfast' with a 10,000 MP glass of warm malt. Taking his time, Lex began to think about what to do during the next few days. It was unknown when the system would finish updating, and he was limited to the tavern building, so the most he could honestly do is cultivate.

He was also thinking of how to keep the tavern guests occupied. Bingo had been a great success so his next plan was karaoke night, but he was not familiar with local songs and did not know if there was much of a culture based on singing.

Lex's musings stopped when he noticed that Rick was walking towards him. Lex was startled, for he was supposed to be controlling the space formation which, for Rick, would usually completely occupy him.

"We haven't been attacked by a single monster in well over an hour," Rick explained when Lex asked. "But I had to solidify the entire space around the tavern, preventing anyone from coming in or out, because the tavern seemed to be suffering from some kind of long range attack."

Treating the matter extremely seriously, Lex took back control of the formation and quickly climbed up to the roof. Yet when he expected to see a brightly lit yet monster filled town, all he saw was a warzone.

The wooden tavern building was the only structure still standing as far as the eye could see, and stood out like a sore thumb. Everything else - every building, every wall, every statue, every monument - had been reduced to rubble under the might of an epic battle.

In the air, a man battled ferociously with a massive monster that looked like it came out of Godzilla's nightmare.

Each gust of wind released from their clash blew fiercer than a hurricane, and carried with it massive boulders like flakes of snow in a winter storm. The town's formation, despite the state of what could no longer be called a town, seemed to be active and running for the battleground was well lit, and it seemed to restrict the monster somewhat.

With each clash the human would release a roar that would put thunder to shame, his fists carrying might that made lightning seem like mere static, yet the monster remained unperturbed.

In fact, the monster was not even paying full attention to the man. From time to time, it would try to attack the ground, as if looking for some buried treasure. The man, who looked more like a single flea in front of the creature, however managed to block each and everyone one of its attacks.

Lex gulped as his brain finally managed to process the clash straight out of science fiction that was actually taking place before him. It would be fair to say that, at the moment, Lex was at his most vulnerable. He did not have access to the system right now and could not make additions to the formations, or use some other method to help him out from this predicament should the battle divert towards the tavern.

He should have felt fear. Instead, his gaze was focused yet calm. He put on this thinking cap to put him in the artificial state of 'flow' so that he would not make a mistake or miss out on something important. While he could not make any last minute additions to the tavern using the system, he was not unprepared.

From the moment his gut gave him the unusual warning from earlier, he made plenty of additions. While he still lacked a means of attack, as ever, he had more than one formation to protect himself.

In fact, as absurd and crazy as it may seem, Lex spent 780 million MP just on adding different formations to the tavern to increase its protection. It may seem like an absurd amount, but there was no amount of MP Lex wasn't willing to spend for his own protection.

But even though he was willing to spend MP, the reason he ended up spending so much was because he did not know what kind of trouble to anticipate. He had to add various formations to cater to as many possibilities as he could imagine.

"Zagan, this is your last warning," yelled the man, his voice sounding more irritated than angered. "Retreat. If this goes on much longer then even if it means I have to stop holding back, I'll make you regret it."

Lex was startled to learn that the state of the town was a result of a battle where the participants were still holding back. He didn't know what had caused the battle, but he really hoped the monster would be deterred.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. The monster only increased its pace of attack, bombarding the humans and the ground with pulses of energy. The human tried, but he was not fast enough to block all attacks, causing them to create massive craters in the ground.

The lights produced by the formation flickered as the formation was finally being threatened, though it still seemed to be holding on.

"Mr. Innkeeper," whispered a familiar voice in Lex's mind. "I sensed something really, really wonderful underground for a moment. If you can find it and eat it, I think it would be very delicious. Even I'm feeling a little hungry after sensing it."

Lex was startled, but quickly made the connection. Indeed, there was some kind of treasure hidden here, and the formation's real purpose was to hide its aura! Well, Lex couldn't be completely certain of this fact, but it seemed completely plausible to him that someone would build a town here so that the addition of such a massive formation wouldn't be questioned, and it could continue to hide the prescience of whatever treasure was here.

But the monster's attacks seemed to be threatening the integrity of the formation, causing it to leak the aura of whatever it hid.

The World Seed Lotus on Lex's back wasn't the only one to notice the aura. The monster had as well, and its eyes lit up as it began to concentrate its attacks.

But the human was no pushover. True to his earlier threats, he had stopped holding back, and instead of blocking the monster, he now focused on attacking. Cracks seemed to appear in the sky itself whenever he attacked, and the monster was finally forced to take things seriously. It stopped attacking the floor and instead defended itself.

The speed of their fight soon exceeded what Lex could comprehend, and all he could witness was the continuous aftermath of the battle.

Before things reached their crescendo, two more humans seemed to arrive from a distance and immediately joined the battle. Lex had no idea who they were, but they were definitely also extremely powerful.

The fight, still beyond his comprehension, only seemed to be getting more intense with the addition of the new participants. There was no indication that they were close to defeating, or even intimidating the monster. Moreover, the cracks left behind in the sky from the various clashes seemed to be increasing and Lex could feel an acute threat from them.

It was best to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. He thought for a moment which one of his formations would be most helpful, for no matter which one he used, he could not directly defeat the monster, only fool or intimidate it.

There was a gentle shift in Lex's expression as he shifted into his Innkeeper persona, exuding innate confidence even in the face of the most powerful guest.

He activated the formation called Dragon's wake, a formation that had cost him 180 million MP and performed only one function. It acutely replicated the dragon's aura that was released by the dragon back at the Inn, though in greater intensity - even if only for a short moment.

The aura spread from the lonely tavern building and, in the blink of an eye, covered the entire battlefield. Zagan, the crown prince, Bertram Noel and his father, both of whom had just arrived, were washed in the feeling of being eyed by a predator. Their hearts froze as an inborn terror filled them, and in their heads they all saw the image of a single reptilian eye quivering just a little. It was as if a dragon was on the verge of waking up.

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