The Innkeeper

Absorbing the new system gave him a 1% boost, which brought the total system repair percentage to 29%. He was just 6% away from his goal, and with a little over ten months left to somehow complete it. He was feeling good about his odds, but that would depend on how much the resin still contributed.

The strange crystal had halted his tracks for a while, to the point where Lex even considered taking Jack Daniels help. But when Jack asked the Shadow talons if they knew about the crystal and could reach within it, they told him that while their plane encompassed the crystal as well, there was no way for them to exit the plane anywhere inside of it, not that they would want to anyway.

The crystal was one of the 3 great disasters of Menara, since no one knew anything about it, and it continuously grew. Eventually there would come a time it could encompass the entire continent, or even more. It was a threat to all life. But fortunately, its rate of spread was slow, giving everyone time to come up with ideas of how to stop it.

Even Pel himself was unable to identify the crystal, at least with the limited memories he had of his previous life. As useful as he was, Lex wasn't yet ready to enhance him even more, lest he encounter some unexpected trouble. If his time as a cultivator had taught him anything, it was that just because things were supposed to go a certain way, didn't mean they would definitely go that way.

Thus it took him nearly a month to strengthen his Domination to the level where he could use a Glyph strong enough to let him pass through the crystal. The Glyph was technically supposed to target precious stones like diamonds and rubies, but if this crystal fell into that category who was he to argue? As long as it worked, he was happy.

The resin was somewhere near the origin of the crystal, unsurprisingly, and Lex absorbed it promptly, this time without eliciting some major reaction from his body. In the meantime, since he was there, he went to investigate what was causing the crystal to grow.

As it turned out, the source of everything was an egg. The egg was pretty small, only slightly larger than a chickens, and had a tiny crack on it which was leaking a strange energy which was converting everything into that crystal.

Lex felt intrigued, but did not touch the egg. His instincts were warning him it was not such a good idea, so he left. Now, he was off to find the remaining three pieces of resin.

A few days after Lex left, Jack showed up on his ship, and after deploying the same Glyph, traveled through the crystal and reached the egg. He did not try touching the egg either, but he flew over it, and began showering it in fairy dust that contained an affinity for laws relating to repairing.

About a week later, the crack on the egg healed. At that point, Jack picked up the egg, put it on his ship, and left. That is how Captain Jack Daniels saved the continent of Menara, all without anyone finding out.

For Lex, this week was spent looking for the other resin. It was not so easy to find either, and when he did, Lex faced another obstacle. This time, the reason the resin remained undiscovered was because it was within a region of Menara where the laws of reality were incomprehensibly different.

A prominent line divided the normal continent and the region where everything suddenly turned into 2D. Lex had no other way to describe it. He stood at the line and looked within, but the light being emitted from the place was so strange it gave him nausea. When he finally got used to it, he saw everything inside was 2D.

Unwilling to risk his life, despite the absence of any warning from his instincts, he threw a random animal inside and observed the changes it underwent. Besides suddenly turning 2D, there was nothing else.

He pulled the animal out, and it was still fine. So, without any further hesitation, he stepped in, and discovered that he was no longer looking at the world from his eyes. Instead, he saw himself in the third person, while he himself was a 2D character.

Fantastically, when he tried to speak, speech bubbles would appear atop his head. It was amazing. His abilities also looked much more impressive as well, only because of the vibrant colors they took on. Lex almost felt like he was inside a TV being watched by some universal deity.

Whatever the reason for this strange phenomenon was, it clearly served as the best possible seal for containing all aura and energy signatures, since they would not spread beyond the domain of the 2D realm.

It was just as he was marveling at the changes when he got his notification from the system that the repairs were complete. When he checked, his mood suddenly dropped. Previously, the resin had restored 5% of the system. This time, it restored 1%.

The drop was drastic, and though he was now at a total of 30%, if the resin continued to reduce its efficiency at the same rate, then he would never be able to bring it from 30% to 35% using the resin.

His leisurely mood dropped, and he focused once more on finding the piece of resin. But just because he had discovered its region did not mean it would be easy to find the resin. It took him several days of nonstop scouring and overcoming unexpected obstacles to find the resin, and he immediately absorbed it as well.

He tried teleporting out, but discovered that he could not teleport out of the 2D region, so he had to teleport to the border, and exit manually. Fortunately, there were no issues.

A part of him still hoped that the resin would just continue to give 1% progress, but about a week later, while he was searching for the third resin, he got a notification that he had been dreading.

The latest resin had only provided him with 0.2% repair progress.

He stopped. Although he was already close to finding the resin, Lex stopped. The resin would no longer help him. Even if there were more pieces of resin on other continents, there wouldn't be enough to help him complete his quest.

Faced with this conundrum, Lex immediately returned to the Midnight Inn and locked himself in his Meditation room. He had to carefully go over the endless sea of knowledge he had gained to look for other valuable items that may approach the resin in value. If he could find even 1 item, it would solve his problems.

But he did not think it would be so simple. He was not sure how common Dao level ingredients were, but he felt fortunate that there was even one in his realm.

If he could not find something of equal value, he might start looking for something else of at least similar value. After all, it was not necessary that only Dao level ingredients could help the System.

Unwilling to waste anymore time, Lex began to peruse his memories, and the days slowly passed him by, until another month passed. Only a little more than nine months remained of his deadline.

On one particular day, while Lex himself still had not come out, a group appeared on the horizon, visible from the walls surrounding the Inn. At first their tiny outline remained undetected, but as they approached closer, someone finally spotted them.

A number of figures were quickly approaching the Inn, from the air. The workers on the wall naturally sent the information back, but themselves continued their patrol.

An hour later, several large flying, leathery creatures could be seen, carrying a massive tube on their backs.

The creatures soon arrived, and stopped near the town that had begun to develop on the border of the Inn. From the tubes a number of other races began to descend, and the so far quiet town suddenly became crowded and rowdy. Activity could be seen even from the Inn walls.

A day passed, and at first it seemed like the new residents had just come to occupy the town. But eventually, they formed a caravan, and began to approach the gates on the boundary wall in a slow, ceremonial fashion.

Great beasts of burden carried platforms in which many of the arriving caravan members sat, and drums beat to mark each step taken by the beasts. Other, smaller races danced and played music on the sides of the caravan, and birds dropped flower petals on the road ahead of them.

With great fanfare the caravan approached the Inn, and then stopped right at the gates, even though the doors were open. A particularly small creature, similar to an imp, climbed off one of the beasts and walked through the gate holding a large scroll, and approached the Inn workers.