The Innkeeper

Lex spent a little more time talking to little Pel to familiarize himself with the ring, and establish a deeper bond. The more he talked to him, the more he realized that Pel wasn't really capable of complicated thoughts at the moment. Although he had access to a number of the dragon's memories, his inability to form complex thoughts was most likely what protected him from being influenced by the dragon's past.

For now, his entire world was simple. Since he liked, and somewhat feared, Lex he would try his best to flatter him. At the same time, Pel would do his best to absorb materials to strengthen himself. But he was not greedy for materials, and he would not get upset when he was deprived of them either, as was evident from the fact that Lex did not let Pel have his skin.

Speaking of which, Lex tried to destroy his skin, but it was easier said than done. It retained his incredible defense even in its removed state. He put it away and made a mental note to destroy it later on, lest any complications arise.

He also planned a little how to overcome the sword aura inside his soul. He could more or less determine that his overly aggressive behavior was influenced by that aura directly!

He was already familiar with intents, such as sword and shield intent, as he had covered the topic while studying at the academy. Just to be sure that the information he had was correct, however, he asked Pel to elaborate on what intents were, as if he were testing Pel's knowledge instead of learning from him.

"According to my memories from my past life, intent can be explained from two differing points of view, a basic one and an advanced one. A basic point of view was that intent of any kind was a manifestation of his mastery over anything brought about by spiritual energy. To manifest it, one would first need to achieve a certain level of competency in the respective field, after which one's state of mind and comprehension in the respective field would cause a resonance with the internal and ambient spiritual energy, giving birth to intent. 

"The internal spiritual energy can be used to store that intent within one's body, while the ambient spiritual energy can be used to give birth to intent when the respective field is being applied. The most powerful form of intent is when internal and external are combined together.

"An example of this can be something mundane, such as art or music. One would need to first reach a level in which they can be considered a master to even reach the threshold to begin to manifest intent. That does not mean that, for example, the art or music needs to be good, but rather its effects have to be inline with the intention of the master. 

"For example, if the intention of the master artist is to arouse disgust, he can purposefully create a horrendous piece of work. Similarly, a musician can use music to either enlighten, invigorate, or even agitate the listener. As long as the work reflects the intention of the master, good or bad does not matter.

"Once such a level is reached, they have reached the minimum threshold to manifest intent. Since intent is formed using spiritual energy, and can be formed from internal or external energy, the higher the cultivation level, the easier it is to manifest a basic level of intent. This is because internal intent is always easier to form.

"For example, someone at the Qi Training level will not have enough spiritual energy to manifest intent, so they will have to rely solely on external spiritual energy to manifest it. As such, if someone at the Qi Training manages to do so, they can be considered a genius in that field regardless of where they are.

"But the reverse is also true. If someone only manages to manifest basic intent at the Golden core level, where their internal spiritual energy is extremely concentrated, then they will be considered the epitome of trash in that field. After all, in the Golden core level, even a bit of effort will result in the manifestation of basic intent.

"But at that point, the effects and benefits brought about by a basic intent are negligible to their existing power level. They would need a higher level of intent for the benefits to be applicable on their power scale.

"An example of this is how a basic, normal arrow can easily kill a mortal animal in a single blow, but is actually worse than useless when the opponent is a dragon. A stronger arrow would be required to face a dragon, preferably one that is imbued with various powers and enchantments."

Little Pel paused in its explanation, as if it felt like it had said something inappropriate, but could not realize why. As such, it continued with its explanation.

"The more advanced explanation for intents comes into effect from a point of view from a Nascent cultivator and onwards. This is because the nature of intent, and even cultivation, changes from that level. Ultimately, it has to do with laws. All intents are actually manifestations of laws, formed by a resonance in the user's intention and comprehension in a certain field with that of the actual laws associated with that field. In fact, on a higher level, it changes even from just being resonance, and enters a new level, which is called Dao. For some reason, I cannot recall the associated memories too clearly, even though I can clearly remember having reached such a level myself in my past life."

"That's more than enough," said Lex, who was very satisfied with the answer. In summary, he would have to learn sword intent, and then level it up to the point where he could absorb the aura within his body. Fortunately, he already had a perfect teacher in mind to help him get started on this journey. Moreover, with his enhanced comprehension and observation due to his new cultivation technique, he did not fear that he would fail. If anything, he was already considering what kind of sword he would choose to master.

But all of that could wait. There were a few things that were more important at the moment. One, for example, was healing and recovering his skin. He did not want to start practicing sword work while looking like a diagram from a medical book. The second important thing that required his attention first was to finally explore his loot.

The best part was, with Pel as his guide, he would not need to go around guessing what each and every item was. He could get a detailed explanation for each item right from the source!

But his meditation room was not a suitable place for such a thing. In his apartment, Lex had long established a kind of storeroom where he placed all the numerous items he collected or earned through various adventures.

It was time now to turn it from a mere storeroom to a vault. Or, better yet, since he did not expect anyone to really rob from him within the Inn, he would create a museum of all his hard collected loot - eh, no, not loot, he meant his hard earned rewards.

Feeling quite grand at the moment, he decided to style his museum after the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art). He entered the design interface and added a heavily decorated wooden double door in his apartment which opened up to a massive space where a building that looked identical to the MET stood.

Considering the amount of space he was adding, it would be very inappropriate to continue calling his place within the Inn as his apartment. Hence forth, owing to his recent upgrade, he would refer to it as his penthouse. After all, it was not ridiculous for a penthouse to have a little something in the back, right? Just because the 'little something' at the back of his penthouse was 2.2 million square feet total did not mean it couldn't qualify.

Putting these minor details aside, he teleported his already existing stock inside, but found that a majority of the building remained empty. How embarrassing.

As if to address the issue, he entered what would be one of his main exhibits, and removed the massive 30 feet (9.1 meters) rainbow jewel alongside the pillow and pedestal it was placed on, and admired it.

He could still feel the dragon's obsession that plagued this jewel, but owing to the fact that he was inside the Inn, was completely immune to it. The obsession on it was now no more than an accessory, enhancing the worth of the jewel from an artistic point of view.

"Say Pel, you wouldn't happen to recognize this jewel from your past life's memories, would you?"

"Yes, yes I do!" Pel answered excitedly. "That jewel contains the corpse of a primordial!"