The Innkeeper

Completely engrossed in the process, Lex did not feel the hours pass him by. On his own he was learning a lot, and not just about fighting with a sword. Back on Polebitvy, when he had fought off those insects, his hand to hand combat had improved tremendously fast, alongside his sense for fighting as well.

Now, with a weapon in hand, he was learning how to manage that additional weight while keeping in mind the lethality as well as limits of the weapon. After all, for his body he had an innate sense for what it could tolerate and what it could not. For a weapon, he had to keep all of those things in mind. For example, using it in certain ways would make it more prone to breaking regardless of how well crafted it was.

The combinations made available to him were also endless, so his mind was taking its time to flesh out all scenarios and thoroughly embed the knowledge in Lex's brain. Compared to learning during combat, this process was slower. After all, at that time his brain was working at maximum speed to adapt as quickly as possible. But in exchange, the depth of what he was learning was greater and more comprehensive.

Although this entire time, Lex was only practicing the same slash, without even changing the direction or starting point, his improvement in all aspects was tremendous. But considering the fact that Lex could still pick out flaws, he felt like he was still a beginner. 

During this entire time, Lex only had a single thought which was ultimately unrelated to improving his technique. He admonished himself for coming into this with the mindset that it would be easy. He believed that mindset was part of the reason why he was performing poorly to begin with. He should have known that nothing worthwhile was ever easy.

But there was one thing Lex never realized during this entire process, though Qawain picked it up immediately. The sword in his eye was trying to influence him, but by refusing to manifest a sword intent, Lex was denying the sword as well. That way, all the intent the image of the sword was imparting was being absorbed by Lex, and then used to improve himself.

It formed a cycle where Lex's knowledge about sword fighting became more and more advanced, but the more advanced it became the more dissatisfied he was with himself, further pushing away the possibility of manifesting intent. After all, the frame of mind also had a lot to do with manifesting intent.

It was not as if the universe had a specific scale to judge what level was enough to manifest intent. Oftentimes, it was one's belief that they were good enough that would cause them to resonate with the laws and manifest intent, even if they did not know what they were doing. But with a diametrically opposed mindset, it was basically impossible for him to manifest it.

Qawain, being a sword himself, immediately noticed the image in Lex's eye, and realized what was happening, though he could not determine the origin of the image. But it did not matter. Lex was using his unique situation to improve, and that's all that mattered to Qawain.

Near dawn of the next day, when Lex finally reached the cave where Qawain was waiting, he was already completely mentally exhausted.

Although he was physically fine, his mind had been working overtime to detect his flaws and correct them, so by the end it was already nearing the limits of what it could do.

"You have done well," Qawain said, waking Lex from his stupor. "You have already improved a lot from when you first set foot in the valley, but there is more work that needs to be done. You have enough determination to improve, and so I do not mind teaching you. Go rest for now, and come again tomorrow. Next time there will be no intent blocking you, so you can enter directly. Tomorrow onwards, I will train you myself. Oh, of course, there is a tuition fee."

Lex nodded.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

With that, he retreated and began to make a training schedule in his mind. Every two days he would absorb a bit of the blade of grass, and in between every day he would train his sword arts. He had roughly three weeks left till the Inn was sealed, so once every week he'd go out to check if Hix had located Barley.

With that plan set in his mind, Lex finally allowed himself to get some rest. The timing was perfect, for apparently Kenta was cooking breakfast for Velma and Sohee. Joining them and watching Kenta be awkward around his wife would heal his tired mind, and relax his soul. Plus he'd get to know if Kenta was any good as a cook to begin with.

He teleported to his suite first and took a quick, yet warm shower. Although he did not sweat despite the strenuous exercise, he did not want to give Sohee any reasons to target him instead of Kenta.

Afterwards, he put on a pair of jeans and a casual T-shirt, grabbed a box of fresh Saturn cake and teleported over. He was beginning to realize that he was a fan of the cake, and not because of its psychedelic features. After all, his cultivation level was too high to be affected by it.

"Hey guys, I'm back!" said Lex loudly as he walked up to the group. They had set up a stove out in the open where Kenta was cooking as well as a picnic table nearby that was filled with pastries. In the distance there was a nice view of the Midnight Mountain, and further back in the distance, the Mountain-man. It was an excellent spot which is why he could understand why their mood was great.

But the moment he arrived he noticed that everyone immediately froze, and looked at him awkwardly.

"Hahaha Lex, my friend, I'm glad you're back. Was my father able to help you out? If not, you just let me know and I'll have words with the geezer. How dare he mistreat my good friend?"

Although Kenta tried to hide it, it was clear from his tone that something had happened. The question was, how serious was it?