The Innkeeper

Chapter 1663: A change

The trend suddenly changed from the sixty-fifth mural. By then, Lex had used all the characters from the Book of Changes once, and had gained a basic understanding of it. At the same time, he had spent months simply going through those few murals.

He didn’t know what would happen if he used the wrong character to try to fix the wrongness – and it wasn’t something he wanted to find out, either. As a result, he had gained a deeper understanding of how to use the characters – at least in the context of addressing the wrongness that filled the ruins. Lex also had a feeling that these characters might actually come in handy in helping him navigate Abaddon, but that was something for later.

Once he reached the sixty-fifth mural, the wrongness evolved. In fact, it could no longer even be called wrongness. Rather, there was simply a presence.

Now it was up to him to decipher if that presence was reality or fantasy, for if he changed it, it would definitely affect the mural. Yet was it even needed? What if the mural he saw to start with was the correct one?

The difficulty of the challenge had suddenly increased, but correspondingly, the information in the murals had also become more significant.

The serpent man, who up until now was shown as a being of unquestionable might and power, was suddenly faced with something… extremely formidable. The mural was painted from the point of view of the item, or perhaps being, that the serpent man was faced with, so it was hard to tell what it was exactly.

Within his pupil, however, Lex saw a hint of gold reflected, though he dared not stare at it too long lest the weight on his soul begin to increase.

Even though Lex did not believe what the murals had been telling him so far, and was certain that there was at least an element of exaggeration in the story, he was somewhat invested in learning about the serpent man – especially after the mural showing humans.

He also couldn’t help but feel that some of the things he saw… seemed to coincide with what Kaemon told him about how an entire Age had been forgotten. The information in the murals seemed to suggest that the serpent man was helping the universe recover after a major cataclysm of some kind.

But the nature of murals was such that Lex was drawing a lot of conclusions. The murals could have just as easily been talking about a human mutant on a drug fueled adventure of some kind.

Lex sighed, and then sat back down. It was going to take some time to identify whether what he saw was reality or fantasy.

*****

Kaemon stretched his arms, causing a few of his bones in his back to pop and crack, before he lifted his stone armor and put it on. Around him, some Reaving Dread mercenaries were gathered, ready to fight alongside him.

The staff members of the Midnight Inn wanted to be the ones to defend the opening to the ruins, but for once, Kaemon insisted it be him and the mercenaries. As of late, they had seen lesser and lesser action, and that was actually a bad thing rather than good. A mercenary needed to remain in top form, and just as that required rest, it also required actual combat to hone themselves.

It was almost completely night now, and the locust hordes began to fade, as if they sensed something even more sinister about to arrive. None of the mercenaries were worried, however.

While they were not as abnormal as some of the members of the Inn, they were all peak professionals, and the strength they could exhibit was nothing to scoff at. Sure, they couldn’t kill locusts as easily as Lex or Z, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t kill them at all. After all, they had survived over 7 years in this hell, and they had faced worse than that before.

No sooner had Kaemon put on his armor that night fell, and the red sky completely turned to black.

It returned, and It returned with a fury unlike before. Though Lex’s main body was still hidden behind the castle walls, a clone was present in the ruins. Unfortunately… It could not enter the ruins at all!

The tantalizing bait enraged it, and caused it to unleash its rage on Kaemon and the rest. They, of course, had no idea that It could not enter the ruins. They merely treated Its aggression as a sign that It wanted to reach Lex. That was not about to happen.

Kaemon smiled, and the lava on his body began to burn a little deeper.

*****

Skipping didn’t want to use the black key. He really, really didn’t want to get involved in any more mysterious system nonsense. Unfortunately, surrounded by enemies who had somehow sealed his system, and countered all his system abilities, he ran out of options.

“I’m going to make you regret this,” Skipping said between gritted teeth, and crushed the black key. The enemies tried to stop him, tried to seal the space to prevent any teleportation or escape. It had worked in preventing Skippings own teleportation abilities, but it did not work in stopping the black key.

He disappeared, leaving the group of system hunters feeling extremely frustrated.

“What the hell is that black key? Spread word about it in the chat and find out how to counter it! If we can’t get our hands on that system, all my investment will go to waste!” exclaimed one of the attackers.

The others didn’t need to wait for his orders – they were already searching! If they didn’t nab the system user, their quest would be considered a failure, and their payment would be slashed! No one wanted that after all their hard work.

But system hunting was a tough job, and it wasn’t always guaranteed.

No matter how they searched, though, they couldn’t find anything on a black key in their chat.

“The only hit I found on keys was on a golden key leading to a place called the Midnight Inn. A high ranking member has marked that place as a high ranking death zone for system hunting. You want to go check it out?”

A heavy silence fell between the group as the leader suddenly coughed.

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“I think it’s best if we wait here to see if the system user comes back. Besides, a black key and a gold key are very different. It’s unlikely they’re related.”