The Innkeeper

"Now that you've completed your task, do you want to take some time to rest and eat, or will you be returning to finish your report?" asked Lex to the remaining warrior.

The warrior trembled upon hearing the question. Fear of the unknown was the most common thing, and what kind of danger the tavern represented was more or less unknown to the man. He only knew that it was enough to crush him. But, at the same time, returning now, on his own, would present him with a great danger as well.

Eventually he grit his teeth and decided to return to the mayor while the option was still available. He did not dare to hope that the tavern owner would actually provide him with food and rest.

As for going back and checking on his partner? Even if he had survived crashing through hordes of monsters and a building, possibly more than one building actually, he would most likely have been besieged by monsters by now. Even if, by some miracle, he had survived the monster attacks, he would be heavily wounded and his movement impaired. He would be a burden on the return journey, not an asset.

Not wanting to waste another moment, the man quickly departed. His former partner launching out of the building had distracted the nearby monsters sufficiently for him to begin his escape with ease.

Lex shrugged. It wasn't like he intended to punish this man as well, and so long as he paid, Lex would have let him rest.

The carefully built environment of harmony in the tavern had been disrupted by the arrival of the two men. The news they shared wasn't what everyone had been hoping for.

There was a problem with the town formation, and there was no communication with the outside. It would take months before the light returned. By then, the number of monsters would be much greater, and some of them may even be nearing the peak of the foundation realm.

When it came to monsters, their strength grew quickly in the beginning but would eventually slow down. Most never surpassed the golden core realm, if they reached it at all. But their threat did not lie in their strength, but their numbers.

Lex wasn't too bothered by the news, because he more or less was expecting only bad news. So far, everything was still within the range where he could survive with just the tavern.

"I know some of you may be concerned about the duration," Lex addressed his guests. "But don't worry, whether it's months or years, the one thing the tavern will not be short of is supplies and food. You also don't need to worry about the lights turning off in here. The greatest challenge for you is to find something to entertain yourself with."

Lex's last sentence ended as a joke, and visibly relaxed everyone, but deep down, he meant it. Trapped in a building with nothing to do for a long time would slowly drive everyone insane.

At the same time, this experience gave Lex a new perspective on the Pro Bono function of the Inn. Across the many worlds, how many people would be in similar situations where they were completely trapped and needed aid? He understood that charity was not the purpose of the system, but suddenly he had a new appreciation for the feature. Maybe the system wasn't so bad. Maybe.

Two more days passed without anyone else arriving at the tavern. From the rooftop, Lex was able to see a few portions of the town where lights had appeared, which reassured him. He even shared the news with the guests.

This meant that at least some people had found some kind of solution, and there were other survivors in the town. Moreover, if someone had found a way to turn on the light formations in those few areas, there was a chance that soon they would be able to fix the town's formation. Unbeknownst to Lex, there areas had lights because the killer eased up the formation in those areas.

He allowed the strong warriors and soldiers in the town to lead survivors into those zones, so that all his targets would accumulate in a few areas. Currently, he was picking apart one of the newly created safe zones, killing one survivor every hour. Of course, he was doing it personally instead of using monsters or the formations. How else was he to enjoy it as much as possible?

While things had slowed down considerably at the tavern, back at the Inn, things were climaxing. The final 10 of the Lady Cosmos had been selected. At any given time, there were 13 million guests at the Inn to enjoy the show.

While not all of these guests were staying at the Inn, they would more or less still spend some MP. Still, even 1 MP at a time, Lex had managed to accumulate 7.8 billion MP more, bringing his total to 10 billion more or less.

Actually, it was 10,057,007,000 MP. Lex took the opportunity to create a request in the Guild room for pure energy crystals and put down a deposit of 57,007,000 MP. He would use this to test the waters and see if absorbing energy from within the Inn would help his energy accumulation. If it was... despite Lex's earlier plans, he might speed up his return.

After all, things were just too unpredictable at the tavern right now, and he did not want to spend months and possibly years trapped, unable to do anything.

But while he had a lot of free time, Lex was not free for he had to constantly manipulate the formation to kill monsters. This was not feasible as he would never have the time to sleep or rest.

As such he ended up spending 0.3% of his accumulated energy to add the Security room feature to the tavern as well. He temporarily made Rick incharge of security via the security room, and gave him control over the formation as well. This way, while Lex wasn't managing the security himself, Rick would do it.

With that done, he spent a good deal of time cultivating, and when he got tired he would watch the Lady Cosmos show.

Surprisingly, of the top 10, only 2 were actually humans! One was Hailey, the farmer from X-142 that Harry had grown fond of, and the other was Alissa, the YouTuber from Earth.

The favorite to win at the moment was a fair, followed closely by a slime. As surprising as it was for Lex to learn that slimes could be female, he was even more surprised to learn that this particular slime would manipulate its shape to form a very seductive humanoid figure. Moreover, it could manipulate the color of its slime to give itself the appearance of a woman in beautiful clothing. Its latest figure was that of an elf that it had seen at the Inn, which managed to steal a decent bit of the votes from Earth.

There was also a Fox beast from Nibiru which, after undergrowning an evolution in its bloodline due to the growth of the planet itself, could shapeshift into a human appearance.

The remaining five contestants were from a race Lex wasn't familiar with called Echos. They were not humanoid at all, but their cuteness level was astonishing! They were like cuddly teddy bears with eyes that could melt ice and a laugh that could fill one with glee.

The next stage of the competition would be an intense one, for it was not on stage or in a stadium. Instead, in the floating city above the village, the remaining girls would have to live for 5 days unaided. Moreover, lucky viewers, and some wealthy ones who paid for the opportunity, would be living in the city alongside them.

The final judgment would actually be influenced by votes of the viewers in the city, and the girls would have to convince them to gain their vote. This would be a live test of not only their charisma and social skills, but of their ingenuity and survival skills. This was because, other than a house to live in, the girls would not be provided with anything else.

Of course, during this portion, the girls would be provided with security to ensure something untoward did not happen. Moreover, it had to be ensured that the girls would not buy votes using some kind of shady deals or offers, and that only their ability to convince fans would be at play.

Lex was watching the slime have a jovial conversation with a group of ladies over coffee, regaling them with tales of its life, when Rick came to alert him of something.

From the rooftop, he has seen an entire group of people approach the tavern, slowly and steadily fighting against the hordes. In the lead of that group was Mario Ricci, the Goatfather.