Standing on the rooftop, there were numerous thoughts running through his head. He was thinking of his tenants, of the people of the town, of the Noel family,of the killer, of the darkness and, most importantly, about himself.
There was a very subtle feeling in his gut, something much milder than any warning he had ever received from his instincts. He could not exactly identify what it was, and it was so mild in fact, that it was only now that he realized that it had been building up for a while now.
He closed his eyes and tried to focus. He could feel the cold wind running across his body, hear it whispering in his ear like a close friend. He could feel weight. It was the weight of his body, but also of responsibility.
He had with him the ability to shelter the entire town should he wish, but in doing so he would paint a massive target on his back. Maybe, during the darkness no one would target him, or maybe he would be targeted by a few greedy people. He wasn't concerned about that. His concern was the immortals that might become curious if the mysteries surrounding the tavern seemed just a little too far fetched.
With his impressive formation, and the amount of MP he had, he was sure he could survive an immortal coming to the tavern. But if more than one came, or they used some means beyond his understanding, he would be vulnerable. It was best not to enter their sights.
But that more or less meant condemning the town to care for itself. It was a very difficult decision, but fortunately not one he had to make immediately. He didn't know what caused the issue with the formation, and maybe it could be fixed. Moreover, there were too many variables in this uncertain time for him to account for.
After some consideration, he decided to face things as they came. For now, he would not do anything too drastic. But one thing was certain, he had no intentions of taking a single step outside the tavern.
The feeling in his gut… it was like he had accidentally wandered into the territory of a predator. The signs were around him. But he did not know if he was the target. Moreover, it was not just danger he sensed. It was something… more. Something beyond his understanding that was attracting him. It went beyond the scope of treasure or something valuable. It felt like… a piece of his soul that he didn't know he was missing.
It was too confusing to actually understand. Instead, he settled for preparing for the worst.
Having made up his mind, he quickly returned to the main hall, where guests had gathered at the windows and began to panic.
"Ladies and gents," his loud but calm voice blanketed the hall, grabbing everyone's attention. "Before discussing anything else, I would like to assure you that so long as you are within the premises of this tavern, you are completely safe."
He stopped talking for a moment as he continued to descend the stairs, his movements marked with a blinding lack of haste or concern. It was as if he was taking a casual stroll in his own home… which, in a way, he was.
"I am not sure why the lights went out, but I'm sure that the issue will be fixed shortly. Even if it isn't, once again, I have to remind you that the tavern is safe and we have enough food reserves to feed everyone for a long, long time.
"At this time, it is very important that everyone maintain the utmost calm. Have some food, have a few drinks, relax, listen to some music, go take a nap, whatever you want. But do not create a panic."
At this time, the relaxed demeanor Lex had been nurturing as a tavern owner disappeared and his characteristics as the Innkeeper shone through. He was calm and commanding, reassuring everyone while at the same time taking control of the situation. So long as they were inside his tavern, during this emergency period, they would have to listen to his orders.
While the numerous guests calmed down a bit, and began discussing amongst themselves what they thought might have happened, a few approached him with questions. Based on his performance, many assumed that he might have some information on what happened, but unfortunately, he did not. For now, at least. The Rumor room might provide him with a few ideas of what happened, but that would have to wait.
He went up to Roland, who, despite his young age, seemed to have maintained his composure. Or, at least that's what he displayed upfront. Lex could tell at a glance that the kid was just pretending, so his friends would feel reassured.
"You guys go sit in the private room from last time," Lex told him. "I'll send some food over, and it's on the house, so don't worry. I strongly recommend you do not travel anywhere in the dark. From what I understand, it only takes a few minutes for some of the weaker monsters to form during the darkness."
Roland hesitated, but eventually nodded. It was not obvious to the unobservant, but Roland was actually very proud. He detested taking handouts, and only ever relied on himself for anything he wanted. Even now, he had to struggle to accept Lex's help, and were it not for his friends behind him, he would have struggled even more.
Sending the kids away, he summoned all his employees and temp workers to the kitchen.
"I know everyone might be worried about their families and friends out there," Lex said, looking at the triplets. "And I won't stop anyone who wants to leave, but I don't recommend leaving the tavern. The mayor is probably working on a solution as we speak, and things might get better soon. But in case they don't staying here is the best solution."
Hena and the rest of the spoilt kids had gone completely pale and they were panicking too hard to think clearly. They wanted nothing more than to return to the safety of their homes, but at the same time, they were too afraid to traverse the darkness.
Lex didn't particularly care for them. It might sound harsh, but while Lex had a newly emerging sense of protectiveness, it only extended to his employees and guests. He would of course not throw them out to fend for themselves, but they would get no pity or leniency from him.
After the triplets, despite their extreme distraught states, decided on staying at the tavern, Lex continued.
"We don't know how long this will last, but I believe in preparing for the worst. Follow me."
He led them to a remote corner of the kitchen and moved a table, revealing a hatch in the floor.
He decided to use the system and added a couple of secret underground rooms, pretending as if he had them hidden all along. One set of secret rooms, entered through the kitchen, would be for his employees to live at. He created another one with a secret entrance right in the main hall, hidden behind the bar. It was not massive, but it could accommodate a few more people incase the situation developed to them requiring refugees.
He opened the hatch and climbed downthe dimly lit vertical stairs, revealing a corridor with 5 small rooms.
He assigned one to Big Ben and Betty, and the triplets shared another. Roan and Rick, who had previously been living in the backyard, would also take a room each, to keep up appearances.
Once everyone got familiar with the rooms, they returned to the ground floor and everyone continued with their jobs. Betty began cooking, because it would be lunch time soon and because eating would temporarily distract people.
Lex sent Big Ben to his neighbors bakery to summon Dino and his wife over. Since the street seemed to be empty, of both people and monsters, it took him but a couple of minutes.
The baker and his wife accepted the offer and quickly came over. As neighbors, they naturally heard about the speciality of the tavern, and were too afraid to remain in their own bakery. Strangely though, none of the other shop owners on the street came over. Lex didn't bother extending the invite either, for he didn't want Big Ben going too far.
After the first half an hour, which was spent making minor preparations and passing out instructions, Lex ran out of things to do. All there really was to do was wait now. Wait and hope to either see the lights or the town guard patrolling the streets.
Unfortunately, the first person Lex saw on his street was not a guard, but a corpse than had been thrown out of a building. The loud sound of a body crashing through a wall attracted everyone's attention, just in time to watch a long, bony… thing emerge from a house.
It looked more like an abstract piece of art than a creature. That did not, however, stop it from emitted a howl that shattered countless windows on Bakers street.
The howl was followed by screams.
It had been nearly a year since the Midnight Inn first appeared, and regardless of its apparent popularity, on a universal scale, it was not even equivalent to a blip. First of all, a majority of all living beings in existence were simply not destined to ever make use of the Inn because it would take months of savings to accumulate even 1 MP.
Second of all, despite its excellent services, they simply had no need for it. Even if one wanted a vacation, traveling somewhere local made more sense than some remote area in the universe.
Among certain crowds, however, its popularity was spreading. This crowd mostly contained Foundation realm and Golden core realm cultivators. The price was steep but acceptable, and the services were truly unmatched by anything on their planets. Moreover, the entertainment was excellent.
But while this crowd made up the majority of the guests the Inn received, there was another strata of universal beings taking note of the Inn. This consisted of those who kept tabs on rumors of any and all Daolords, and the latest rumor was of an unknown Daolord behind the scenes at the Inn. Credibility was added to this rumor when the devil known as Loretta let it slip that she strongly suspected it was true.
For the people who did not know the weight of her words, they meant nothing. For those that did, it changed everything.
In the Milky Way Galaxy,, on a spaceship traveling at full speed across the stars, a man was hung in the air by chains that pierced into his collarbone. His legs had been chopped off clean, and his body was covered in brutal scars, but his hands and his face were not harmed in the slightest.
This man was known as Mr. Jeckal, and was the instigator behind the Raskal attack on the Midnight Inn. His life had been just peachy up until recently, when the organization backing him learned of the rumor about the Midnight Inn. Upon hiring independent investigators, unrelated to the organization, they learnt that not only was the Inn unharmed by their small skirmish, they had a very mysterious backer.
Although this organization could afford to mess with the William family, messing with a Daolord was out of the question. But, considering the fact that there was no retaliation, they assumed that the Daolord could not be bothered with them.
They did, however, need to punish Mr. Jeckal so that he would rein in his arrogance and stop offending anymore people unnecessarily. They had humored him this much because of his unique ability, but it wasn't worth being destroyed over.
"That's enough rest," echoed a voice from the dark. "Let's continue your punishment."
*****
If the rumor about a Daolord had spread so far that even simple organizations could discover it, then the larger ones would also soon be in the know. The matter of fact was that as soon as the Jotun royal family gained a certain level of surety in the matter, they spread the news in the relevant circles.
It may seem like those larger organizations hadn't taken any action, but it was only because they operated on a universal scale. Let alone less than a year, even 10,000 years was a short time frame for them.
But, the preliminary process had already begun, and today, they officially began acknowledging the Inns' existence.
With a flash of light, several humanoid beings appeared at the Inn at the same time. If one were to judge them based on the myths and lores from Earth, they looked like a Devil, an Angel, an Elf, a Dwarf, some unknown being of which there were no myths, and a human.
They looked at one another silently while contemplating something.
Finally, the Angel spoke.
"6 beings from 6 different galaxies, but we arrived at the exact same time. This is unlike any teleportation I am familiar with."
"You do not need to be familiar," spoke the Devil in a matter of fact way. "You only need to do your job. Remember, Angel, we are only here as messengers. Do not provoke trouble, for us Devils have been ordered not to provoke the Midnight Inn."
"I see a dragon," said the elf, ignoring the existing conversation.
"It has the mark of the Condottiere. If the Inn needs to hire security, maybe they do not have strong manpower," said the dwarf.
"Stop probing lest you offend someone," said the being from the unknown race.
"Too late," replied the Elf.
They looked up into the sky and saw a baby whale, swimming through the skies. Walking slowly beneath it was a large turtle with a single horn protruding from its head. At first, the group did not pay much attention because it was weak. Then they recognized its race, and froze!
"Crap," said the human, ready to escape. This was much scarier than a dragon. But the turtle paid them no attention at all, and just kept moving. After all, it was completely normal for new guests to scan the Inn with their spirit sense. He was already used to it.
Only after it left did the 6 humanoid beings, all on the verge of becoming Immortals, finally breathe. Even if they became actual Immortals, they would not be insane enough to offend a being with the word Sovereign right in the name of its race.
*****
The creature's howl was the signal that ushered in chaos. From stunning silence to the sounds of shattering glass everywhere, followed by bitter screams. The situation should not have been as bad as it was, since these creatures were relatively weak and everyone was a cultivator.
To be specific, Lex couldn't see how good or bad the situation was, since most of the fights were happening inside the various buildings. For a moment Lex thought it was because of the sudden fear of the dark but then a thought struck him like thunder.
This was the Crystal realm, not Earth. This may have been Lex's first time encountering darkness like this here, but it should not have been the case for the citizens. They should have been mentally prepared to encounter an accident at any time. Yet nothing he saw indicated that even a single person was attempting to fight back.
Something was very wrong, and it wasn't just the abrupt shut down of the light formation. Something was elevating everyone's fear and preventing them from thinking clearly. At first when Lex saw everyone feel afraid he thought it was the natural reaction, but now it seemed that it wasn't.
Moreover, they weren't the only ones affected! Even Lex's first reaction to the darkness was one of fear. He lost his composure easily and even began fearing being attacked by immortals. While his thought process was logical, Lex was not someone so easily frightened anymore. He had overcome too many unforeseen obstacles to be afraid of something that 'might' happen.
Lex thought of several ways he could test his theory, but that would have to wait for later. Mentally using the system, he outfitted the rooftop with an extremely strong light and turned it on, pointing it towards the sky.
Not only did it brighten up the surrounding area, it stood as a beacon in the dark, signaling everyone to come here. As for the consequences if he attracted too much attention?
He would deal with it when the matter arose. Worst comes to worst, he could claim his dad was an immortal. It wouldn't be the first time someone in the Crystal realm would believe that anyway.
But while he could attract attention with light, that was about all he could do. Even though the monsters formed now were weak and he could face them, something strange was going on and he was not enough of a saint to risk his life for strangers.
The weird bony monster that let out the howl looked directly towards Lex after it finished with its first meal. The guests in the hall were immediately frightened, and fell backwards, but Lex remained standing.
𝓵𝓲𝓫𝙧𝓮𝙖𝙙.𝒄𝓸𝙢
As if provoked, the monster lurched towards Lex. But, before it could even get close to the window in front of which Lex was standing, it froze. It had entered the boundary of the tavern when it crossed the small garden in front, and was thus within the space formation. Lex put it in a room of the exact shape of its body, and then squeezed.
The monster blew up, unable to even touch the tavern building. Lex looked on as if he had seen something unremarkable.
In fact, he was no longer paying attention to the street. He was discussing contingency measures with Mary, and using the system scan constantly to monitor the tavern. After all, they would not be polite enough to only attack from the front. He had to keep an eye out on all sides.
Upon seeing the monster explode the guests were slightly reassured.
Bang! The kitchen door slammed open, startling everyone, but instead of monsters, it revealed the triplets walking out with trays of food.
"Lunch is served," said Naki with a smile.
The six humanoid beings toured the Inn separately, for though they had the same objective and represented the same organization, the differences ingrained in them due to their races kept them from truly working together. The Devil had the easiest time, for he simply walked to the stall the devils had set up at the Inn in their attempts to make deals with various beings from various worlds.
The devils were one of the richest races in the Origin realm, and while their uncanny control over demons was a major source of wealth, their never ending enterprising mentality also played a huge role.
The others either explored on their own or took their personal holograms as guides to fully understand everything about the Inn. Most aspects of the Inn were very normal to them, since their experience was extremely vast. Yet a few things still stood out to them here and there. The Mystery trial was one unique building they could not fully understand, though they could not try it themselves, for it was one of the most popular attractions and always had a line. Another was the way the Lady Cosmos competition was being broadcast so randomly throughout the Origin realm. A rather important one was how the Inn was cut off from the rest of the Origin realm. They could not communicate with anyone outside the Inn while inside it - something they had special equipment for.
All in all, the Inn seemed very ordinary on the surface most of the time, but once in a while it would let slip its specialness.
After their judgment, they regrouped, and made a joint request to meet with the Innkeeper. As Lex was not available, they ended up meeting Mary, as had been the case with everyone who wanted to meet the Innkeeper since Lex left.
"How may I be of assistance?" Mary asked politely as she observed the 6 guests. Though she could not scan them, a glance was all that was required to determine that they were of unusual origins.
Unexpectedly, of the 6 races, it was the human that stepped forward and spoke. "Would it be possible to meet the Innkeeper? We represent a special organization we believe the Innkeeper would be most interested in."
"The Innkeeper has left the Inn on some important business. I cannot say when he will be
back, as I do not know, but you can deliver your message to me and I can directly transmit it to him."
The six were not surprised at being unable to meet the Innkeeper, for how could it be possible to meet a Daolord at a simple request? In fact, it was not even their objective to meet the Innkeeper. Their only job was to initiate contact between their organization and the Innkeeper, and what followed afterwards was none of their concern.
"In that case, I would like to officially present to you, for the Innkeeper, an invitation to the Henali assembly."
The human withdrew from his robe an epistle with the word 'Henali' embossed in purple on the envelope.
"The esteemed Innkeeper can attend at his discretion, and will officially be welcomed as a member of the assembly at the time of his attendance. Of course, it goes without saying that the Innkeeper can maintain his anonymity during the entire process and no one will try to pry into his personal matters. At the same time, I bring on behalf of the assembly a small welcome gift to the Origin realm for the Innkeeper, as well as a copy of the Henali conventions should he wish to peruse."
The elf stepped forward and revealed a small, wooden treasure chest.
*****
For the sake of his guests, Lex put a small illusion formation over the windows so that they would be unable to see the monsters outside, or hear their gruesome screams.
The truth was Lex expected an influx of refugees after his beacon lit up the dark sky, but not a single person arrived. Hours later, the sounds of fighting and screaming on Bakers street disappeared and only a deluge of monsters remained, all charging towards the tavern building.
The ease with which Lex killed them told him that they should barely be equivalent to the Foundation realm in strength, yet somehow none of the residents were able to overcome them. More than the monsters, it was the mystery of what was affecting everyone that scared Lex.
But now that he knew that something was artificially enhancing his fear and trying to disparage his mental faculties, he did his best to not let it affect him. His thinking cap helped greatly in this regard.
In the town if Lex was able to realize this, so were many others. The town guard, consisting of soldiers who would regularly see battle, had honed instincts and excellent battle awareness, so that even if they were afraid, they could hold their own wherever they were. Naturally the five nobles, Mario Ricci and the mayor all were just too strong to fall to enemies of this level, and were able to not only protect themselves but also their nearby subordinates.
This way, a few pockets of survivors and resistance were formed within the city formed of either battle hardened soldiers and mercenaries or nascent level cultivators. All of them saw the giant beacon of light, and while they did not know what it meant, started guiding their survivors that way.
But they weren't the only ones who saw the beacon. So did the killer. But instead of being enraged by the clear indicator of survivors, he grinned with glee. As silent and deadly as an assassin, the killer moved through the darkness, one by one picking off any love survivors heading towards the light.
This was too much fun! Just too much fun!
His sight was not at all hindered by the darkness, for as the wielder of the Murder System, he was uniquely equipped for the task.
In contrast to the deathly desperation engulfing the city, the tavern hall was filled with light and soothing accordion music. The kids, those that came with the guests as well as Rolands friends, were all sitting in a private room playing a bunch of board games Lex magically produced.
The adults all sat in the hall which crowded the room considerably, but they were just too afraid to go into their rooms and be alone. The triplets were serving a soothing green tea which acted as a mild sedative to calm their minds and keep them from overreacting to anything.
Big Ben had to retreat, for all the energy he accumulated in his body from the various drinks he had at the tavern finally caused him to have a breakthrough. Betty was cooking in the kitchen, along with Dino who was baking pies.
Lex had done his best to keep everyone busy so that their minds would remain occupied and would spend less time thinking about the disaster occuring outside. Rick and Roan were the only ones who didn't need to be distracted, for they had unwavering faith in the tavern owner.
Only Lex himself stood still, facing Bakers street while standing on the rooftop. He was looking out for any signs of survivors, but he only saw monsters. Speaking of which, it was a good thing that he had set an illusion formation, or the guests would never be able to calm down.
After all, in the short period since the monsters appeared, Lex had killed over 3000 monsters that attacked the tavern, with even more visible from where he stood. Things were glum.
But, in that moment of dread, Lex heard a familiar sound - the sound of a system notification.
New Quest: Host a Henali assembly at the Midnight Inn
Quest Reward: Subject to success of assembly
Remarks: Maybe if you had friends, you could have hosted them. Instead, you can settle for hosting the oldest geezers in the realm
New Quest: Have the Midnight Inn officially recognized by the Henali assembly
Quest Reward: Guest Registry
Remarks: You're getting fat
Lex was surprised, for he was expecting to get a quest related to the events happening in Babylon, but this was completely unrelated. In fact, he had to scan the Inn to understand what had triggered the quest.
But the 6 representatives who came to deliver the epistle and gifts did not stay long to elaborate, and bid their farewell.
He asked Mary if she knew anything about them, but the system provided her with no knowledge regarding anything they said. Lex was more or less completely in the dark about what the assembly even was.
When he asked her to open the epistle, she was unable. In fact, she was unable to open any of the items left behind.
Lex sighed and told her to put them away. These were destined to be just two more quests that would sit in his system collecting dust for a long time.
An explosion nearby attracted his attention, and Lex finally saw the first survivors heading towards the tavern. It was just two people.