The Innkeeper

For a moment, Lex watched the raging snowstorm, he suffered flashbacks of being surrounded by millions of Kalter Flug. But instead of fear of anxiety, Lex only felt curiosity. He had long since learned that much of the weather patterns in the Crystal realm were dictated by ridiculously strong beings.

For example, the way Sol birds brought sunshine and warmth, he was convinced the snow storm he experienced during his assessment was the result of that massive Kalter Flug he saw at the end. Which caused him to wonder if the weather here was also a result of some massive snow creature. Considering this was an established city, they should have some defenses against creatures like that, right?

But before he had an opportunity to sate his curiosity, he felt a look full of disdain fall onto him. He turned to see Ptolemy, fully dressed in winter clothing, watching him. Though his face was neutral, Lex was 100% sure he was internally mocking him. How could Lex serve as an advisor if he couldn’t even manage his own wardrobe?

This matter went farther than just needing a sweater, as normal cold would not influence Lex at all. But the cultivation world always added layers of complexity to everything. If Lex normally experienced temperatures such as 0 degrees celsius without trouble, once the chill was enhanced by spirit energy, it was no longer a matter of simple temperature. It was the spirit energy itself that chilled him rather than the weather.

The clothes everyone was dawning surely had some protective functions to protect against such a spiritualized chill. One of the other students, who was on good terms with Lex, noticed the latter wasn’t changing his clothes. Realizing he might have not brought anything to protect against such an environment, he offered Lex a spare.

Perhaps if Lex wasn’t suffering from the mocking gaze of Ptolemy, he would have simply accepted. That was the simpler solution. But he didn’t want to give Ptolemy the satisfaction of knowing he was right and that Lex hadn’t brought clothes. Instead…

“Thanks, but weather like this doesn’t mean much to me,” Lex said with a smile.

Lex wasn’t just putting up a brave front. If there was one thing Lex had learnt during this one month at the academy, it was that he had seriously underestimated the worth of a SSS+ rank award. While his defense was steadily increasing, and now at level 5 Qi training, he could face most Qi training level cultivators without fear of being killed, it had not yet veered into the realm of overpowered.

Instead, it was the immense ease with which he picked up any kind of defensive technique, and the ridiculous mastery he had over each one of those techniques that amazed him. He remembered once, during his job with the weaponsmith, she gave him a technique that would allow him to negate cold so that he could dip his hands into a liquid so cold it made liquid nitrogen look like fresh soup.

Strictly speaking, it was not a defensive technique, since its actual purpose was to concentrate all the cold he would have felt on his hands to the tip of his fingers, which he could then channel into another object, forcefully dropping its temperature. It was an auxiliary technique used during crafting special equipment.

But Regal Embrace begged to differ. To it, this was a technique designed to protect Lex from element based damage, and so with a glance he learnt it. Even still, Lex did not realize the treasure trove he had until one day, while he was in the library, he encountered a section with various cultivation techniques.

One could not learn those techniques at a whim, as not only did you need proper qualification, you actually needed to pay. Yet, so long as it was a defensive technique, just the introductory paragraph with a vague description of how it manipulated Qi to give birth to various effects were enough for Lex to learn it. As if that wasn’t enough, he even managed to learn the techniques that seemed to originate from completely different forms of cultivation!

So, in this moment, when Lex was being assaulted by the passive effects of chilled spiritual energy, he activated one of the many techniques he had learnt – one of his favorites, actually.

Immediately, Lex stopped feeling the chill and, in fact, felt a little warm, while an array character that represented ice appeared on the back of his right hand in a blueish-silver light.

It was important to note that while the character that formed on his hand was used in arrays, the characters themselves were symbols born of the universe and represented its power. Even those who did not study arrays had some basic knowledge of such matters, and so, when the character appeared on his hand, and Lex moved around as if truly unaffected by the chill, some of the students who knew his role during this trip suddenly had a better impression of him. As an advisor, he did not need to be strong, but instead versatile.

While he received a few acknowledging nods, he flashed a smug grin at Ptolemy. Sometimes, being petty felt good.

The expedition leader snorted, but quickly turned his attention back to important matters.

“The presence of Frio birds complicates things a bit, but we have already planned for this as well. We’ll be riding Delaim lizards to cross the terrain and we’ll have to get some Hover coaches. We…”

Ptolemy did not bother giving everyone the briefing on what they had to do, only let them know that things were under control. It seemed that, even before Lex’s suggestion, he had arranged for the lizards to be their mounts.

As the expedition prepared themselves to move out despite the weather, Lex looked up into the sky. There were no giant monsters, and clouds covered the sky, but sometimes Lex felt like he vaguely saw the shape of birds.

After asking what seemed to be common sense, he learnt that Frio birds were the counterparts of Sol birds. A Frio and Sol bird each formed a couple, but they would only meet during mating season, which usually spelt disaster for the weather.

Both these species of birds, while ridiculously strong, were not usually aggressive, as they did not feed on food to sustain themselves, only spiritual energy. Of course, if someone tried to provoke them, they would show that they were far from harmless.

After exiting the teleportation hall, they made their way outside the city, where 120 saddled Delaim Lizards were waiting for them, with another 30 harnessed to several floating carriages. After loading most of their luggage into the carriages, and purchasing some supplies locally, they left immediately.

Ptolemy had arranged for guides, so the poor visibility and the harsh weather did not seem to slow them down. Other than that, they had also employed some of the city’s local guards as an escort – just to avoid any unnecessary problems.

These were just some of the visible things Ptolemy had done, for Lex, who had been accompanying since they set off saw for himself how he kept preemptively preparing for any trouble.

As annoying as Lex found Ptolemy, he found himself learning a lot by following him. Maybe that was the real test, not to effectively advise, but to learn as much as possible.

But, while Lex was having this epiphany, and was considering trying to mend their relationship, Ptolemy knew from the very start that he was not in need of any advice, but rather he was being used to groom this new and upcoming student, which is why he resented Lex even more. While Ptolemy himself worked to gain everything he had, the path was being carved for Lex even if he did not realize it.

What neither of them knew was that the circumstances of their meeting had been carefully orchestrated behind the scenes by a certain department in the academy. They were not meant to be friends, but rather somewhat akin to rivals. Lex would learn from Ptolemy, while the latter was supposed to be egged on by the favor being shown to Lex and work even harder to prove himself. Currently, as things stood, they were playing along perfectly.

Slowed down by the storm, they trod along for almost 12 hours before they reached their first campsite, which, as it turned out, had already been prepared long before their arrival. This camp was right outside the forest, and they would rest here until their path forward had been properly mapped by the forward team.

Moving a small team through the forest might have been easy, but with so many people and carriages to take along, a proper path would be required, and it would take some time to plot such a path.

Just as Lex was beginning to admire Ptolemy, and almost made up his mind to mend their relationship, the latter looked at him and said, “you sure you can keep yourself warm like that for long? It would be a shame if I need your advice, but I find my advisor frozen in a corner somewhere.”

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