The Innkeeper

Stepping into the building he now owned, Lex ran his hand across the wooden bar, feeling the subtle, weathered grooves. He didn't mind the dust that gathered on his fingers, as his focus was only on absorbing the feel of this building.

Before the system gave Lex the ownership of this building, it had belonged to a once wealthy family. Due to a series of unfortunate events, as well as poor management, the family had fallen on tough times. They didn't have the money to repair what was now the tavern building, yet at the same time, they were too greedy to sell it to anyone else at a cheap price. The extra 5 million MP Lex actually spent was converted by the system into local currency to pay off the owners more than a hundred times what the building was actually worth. A condition of the payment was that they would never mention it to anyone, or come back to give Lex any problems.

Regardless, Lex was now legally the owner of this building. Furthermore, this property had integrated itself with the system. But, since the tavern was in the middle of a town, and not in its own realm like the Midnight Inn, Lex had an entirely different idea of how to run it. Most of the time, for the day-to-day clients, it would be nothing more than an ordinary tavern. Yet for some people...

Lex chuckled.

He opened the system interface and allowed himself to get familiar with the layout of the building. The entrance of the building had a small porch with enough space for four or five people to sit in chairs without blocking the door. After the porch was a tiny patch of lawn which, currently, was nothing more than a collection of weeds and overgrown bushes. A small, tiled path cut through the lawn onto Bakers street, though the tiles had long since been covered in dirt, and were no longer visible.

On the inside, the condition of the building was actually worse. While the major structure appeared to be fine, a system scan showed a massive termite infestation. Most of the windows of the building had also been boarded up, but some were left as is, leaving the building to the mercy of the elements. As strange and unpredictable as the weather was in the Crystal realm, he could not even imagine what this building had suffered.

The list of things wrong with the building was actually quite large, but for the most part, it did not matter. Since the Midnight Tavern was in a public place, Lex had no plans to miraculously fix the building overnight and attract the entire town's attention. Yet, at the same time, while he could take his time to fix the external appearance of the building, if he used the system to fix the inside of the building, no one would know.

So what had to be determined now was the layout. Ignoring the existing layout of the building, Lex began to tinker with the system interface. Above the front door would be a small banner that read Midnight Tavern, and the door would open up to the main hall.

There would be no separate reception, and instead, only a long bar attached to the left side of the hall. Right beside the bar was a door to the kitchen, probably one of the most important places in a tavern, right after the bar itself. He set a few stools in front of the bar and ten tables in the main hall.

At the far end of the hall, there was also a small stage for a bard or musician to entertain his guests. In the back, there were also two private rooms guests could rent for their meals, if they wanted to avoid the hubbub of the crowd.

As plain and simple as it was, that was all there was on the ground floor. On the first floor, there were three private rooms for lodging, equipped with a small bathroom, as well as a smaller hall that could be booked for private events. On the second floor, there were five private rooms available for booking. The rooftop was modeled onto a terrace, equipped with a grill, barbeque station and a minibar. It allowed for a spectacular view of the sea, as well as the town, and made for an overall excellent spot for a small get-together.

The area behind the building could be entered through the kitchen, and led to an enclosed space surrounded by a large wooden fence. It had three small, attached rooms for any live-in staff, a laundry room and a small storage room.

He did not make the tavern look posh and refined, and while he fixed as well as strengthened the building's structure, he maintained a weathered and rustic aesthetic throughout. Yes, this was nothing more than the average tavern, nothing special about it whatsoever. The renovation for the entire building cost him 7000 MP. He snapped his finger, and by that it meant he spent some more MP, and the tavern bar became fully stocked, all the furniture appeared, and he was basically ready to open for business. All he needed now was to hire some staff.

Then Lex cracked his neck and began spending the big bucks. Using his increased authority, and a whopping 300 million MP, Lex bought a spatial formation for the building. Its purpose was very simple. It hid a folded space within it, like a manufactured Minor realm, but one that couldn't continue to exist without the formation itself.

There was no fixed entrance to the hidden space, as any door that Lex wished could turn into the entrance, or exit of the hidden space. Lex frowned. He couldn't keep calling it the hidden space, so he decided to call it the backyard. Yes, it was the tavern's backyard.

The backyard wasn't big, only about 4 acres of land, but it was completely bare. Lex had to add everything, from the dirt to the grass, to the air. He fixed the light so that it seemed like it was always early morning, and the air was fresh and crisp, like a breeze blowing from a snow-capped mountain.

This is where the selected guests of the tavern would be allowed to enter and receive all their services. He couldn't wait, he thought of...

With a bang, the front door of the tavern slammed open, and a massive man walked in. He was eight feet (2.4 meters) tall and seemed just as wide. His grizzly face was furnished with an ugly scowl, though Lex found it hard to focus on the man's face when his entire body was covered in blood.

With heavy steps that caused the wooden floor to creek, the man trudged into the hall. He gave Lex the ugliest glare possible before throwing his massive body onto one of the stools. Miraculously, the stool did not break.

"Barkeep, pour me a drink," the man bellowed, before resting his head on the bar. He grabbed his hair with his hands, as if he would pull it out any second, though he resisted.

Lex was stunned, partly because he didn't expect his first guest to walk in merely a few moments after he installed the tavern sign outside, and partly because he had no idea what drinks to pour!

Suffice to say, he had no experience behind a bar, nor was he familiar with the unusual spirits he had filled his shelves with, but you couldn't keep a client waiting. Even a blood-covered, giant monstrous client.

He hopped behind the bar, grabbed a green colored bottle that looked like something out of a pirate movie, and poured from it into a random glass. These were drinks he'd never even heard of back on Earth, so he had no idea what the proportions should be, but he guessed he would find out.

Filling the glass to the brim, he slid it near the giant and said, "you alright there, buddy?"

"How can I be alright? How can I be alright? The Babylon killer has struck again, my captains dead and worst of all, my only good clothes are covered in blood. I was supposed to meet a lady tonight!"

The giant man lifted his head, grabbed the glass without looking and chugged it down.

"The Babylon killer?" Lex asked curiously. At the same time, he was going through the system to hire a worker for the tavern that could run the bar.

"Yeah, there's a serial killer in Babylon, haven't you heard? Say, did you pour..." the before the man could finish his sentence, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he fell to the ground. Steam started coming out of the man's open mouth and nose, and he turned red like a tomato.

At that exact moment, a few more guests walked in and froze at the sight of the collapsed giant, and Lex's newest worker stepped out of the kitchen door, and froze as well.

Lex smiled weakly at the new guests, scratched his head and said, "Welcome to the Midnight Tavern."