The Innkeeper
chapter-718

Making the most out of his cultivation technique involved more than just deciding to do better. The nameless technique he was now cultivating was similar to Regal Embrace in the regard that it could adapt tremendously and had no upper limit. Unlike the Regal Embrace, however, it would not run into a problem where growing further could lead to death.

It was also extremely intuitive. For example, the moment Lex decided his goal of surpassing Regal Embrace and Mo's Blessing, the cultivation technique adapted automatically and informed him of what he needed to do to proceed.

As it turned out, cultivating the most powerful cultivation technique in the universe was extremely resource intensive. On his defensive front there was not much work needed, as Regal Embrace had built an adequate foundation for him to proceed from. The issue was his body's attack capabilities. He was severely lacking in them.

Much of that would automatically be fixed while he cultivated, and his new nameless technique adapted his body. But unless he wanted to spend the next hundred years just fixing his cultivation technique before even moving on, he needed to supplement his technique with multiple resources.

His body's base strength was incredibly high, which helped a lot. But great strength was only one aspect of offense, and he was wholly lacking in every other regard. Fortunately for him, most of the resources he needed to fix his existing cultivation could be easily found. Unfortunately, some of them were on the rare end of the spectrum.

That was also only considering his existing cultivation. To continue to cultivate while maintaining the standard that he wanted, he would either need to procure increasingly rare resources or cultivate normally and spend a ridiculous amount of time to allow his cultivation technique to replace the effect of those resources normally.

Lex compiled the list of the resources he needed right now and checked if any were available at the Inn. Surprisingly a fair number of them were being sold at his very own Guild room by various merchants! Who knew his Guild room had grown to such a level?

Without wasting any time, he put up a request for the remaining material in the Guild room, and bought what was available. He teleported all his newly acquired materials to his meditation room, unable to suppress his eagerness to grow stronger.

Although his versatility with arrays was commendable, the sheer effectiveness of a proper attack was also not something to be overlooked. He couldn't wait to acquaint himself with some new techniques and see if he could learn them as quickly as he did with defensive ones.

Unfortunately, he could not randomly absorb everything he had gotten as there was a required process and sequence to things. This would be a time-consuming process, but compared to normal cultivation, he expected a quicker growth in his strength.

Without further ado, he began cultivating once again. Some materials could directly be eaten for Lex to absorb their features, while others had to be drained of their energies. Others still were just catalysts to be used in conjunction with other materials. There was one material in particular that simply required Lex to dip his feet into while cultivating. Clearly this would not be a straightforward process.

A few hours passed by, and Lex already began to subtly feel the difference. It was not his strength that had increased, or anything else for that matter. It was his natural aura that was slowly changing.

While previously, Lex's aura could be called warm or pleasant, most of the time, it was now gaining a honed edge. He did not know how that affected anything, but it was a start. Slowly and steadily, once he was finished fixing his current foundation to accommodate his new cultivation, every inch of his body would become lethal, much in the way that every inch of his body had the same toughness.

Feeling good about his progress, he teleported back to his office. It wasn't that he didn't want to continue cultivating, for the feeling of becoming noticeably stronger was quite addictive. He had not run out of materials yet either. Instead, there was an optimal amount of time he could cultivate each day. Any more after that would only give diminishing returns.

"Did I miss anything while I was cultivating?" Lex asked Mary, more as a habit than from any expectation of anything happening.

"Yes, actually. You're just in time, in fact. Ragnar's challenge to the devil Warheil was finally accepted. They're about to conduct their battle in the colosseum in a few hours. If you had not gotten free on your own in a few hours, I would have called out to you to put up protective formations around the colosseum."

Lex raised an eyebrow. This really was an interesting event that he had also looked forward to. In fact, he already had plans set in place for when this happens.

"Have you done everything we decided regarding the match?"

"Yes. The moment the challenge was accepted by both parties, I immediately put the marketing plan into effect. Although it's a little short notice, everyone and their mothers will know about the fight as long as they visit the Inn."

Lex nodded as he overlooked the colosseum and began placing various formations. Ragnar had been the first one to require special attention while breaking through, and the amount of MP Lex investing in ensuring that no one suffers any harm due to him was a lot. As such, he felt no guilt about monetizing his fight for his own personal gain. It was just business.

There was still some time to the fight, so while Lex prepared to get the most benefit, he also began to wonder about his next steps. He would first check if Alexander needed his help, or if there was an update on the situation.

If not, it was high time he went after that treasure the mysterious man told him about. He recalled that the man had said he had approximately 6 months to find the treasure until someone else found it. He also said it could be sooner or later than that time, but not by much. In essence, Lex considered it as if he had no time at all!

But the issue with finding the treasure was that besides knowing which galaxy it was in, he knew next to nothing. How was he supposed to locate a 'belt of rogue planets' across the entire galaxy?

The mystery man must have known something or else he would provide more information. For example, what were the chances that the battlefield that his workers went to just happened to be in the same galaxy?

Though the Inn itself was not linked to that galaxy and the only connection present was through a teleportation formation that the system hijacked, that was just getting into the technicalities of things. The real issue was the teleportation point was the battlefield, so Lex could not use it to go to the rest of the galaxy.

He had to find some other way. Since he didn't really have any other leads for the moment, Lex logged on to the Henali portal and searched for 'belt of rogue planets' and 'Suera'. He was not expecting much, but even any random information could be useful.

Apparently, a collection of rogue planets was not at all rare, especially on a galactic scale. This was even when only considering the ones which had been detected and reported to the portal. The only redeeming factor Lex found was that a 'collection' of rogue planets was not necessarily a 'belt of rogue planets'.

On the list, there was only one listed group of rogue planets which could resemble a belt, meaning a relatively straight line.

There were only 89 planets in the belt, but of those only one supported sentient life. Considering the fact that there was no star nearby to provide the planet with warmth and energy, even that was a lot.

The only reason this was even listed was because apparently that one single planet had an extremely valuable export. That planet also happened to be the home of a mature dragon!

Lex began to plan something in his mind as he continued to read about the conditions on the planet. The Henali portal was actually quite useful. If Lex could always access it before he chose which planet to form a connection to in the future, he would have a much easier time avoiding trouble.

With a tentative plan made, Lex teleported over to X-14 from where he visited the Emporium. He placed a special order which would take some time to fulfill, but fortunately should be ready in a couple of days at most

With this, he was ready to set off. Now all that was left was to wait. In the meantime, he would make some money off of Ragnar. If only he had stronger formations available, he would have the confidence to have VIP seats, and charge even more for them. As it was, he had to make do with what he had.