The Innkeeper

"I always thought Fenrir's abilities were unusual," Lex said as he continued to focus on repairing the ring. "But why does a deity need so much stealth? I thought they would focus more on increasing their strength."

"If your bonded Fenrir is unlocking stealth related abilities, it is only because that is the direction he is unlocking abilities from. That does not mean there are no abilities. The Fenrir I am talking about, the 'original' Fenrir was born in the Primary realm. Can you imagine a deity born in the first ever realm? A deity worshiped by Primordials? Do you know all the powers he had? No, you don't, because they are beyond your comprehension. But all you need to know is that even so, as a Deity with such immense power, it still transitioned to the cultivation path."

"Wow, Fenrir's ancestry is a lot grander than I thought," Lex said, genuinely admiring the pup. No wonder it was able to keep up with him in the same realm regardless of how ridiculous his own abilities became.

"Yes, now you know. What cultivation level is it at?"

"The same as mine," Lex answered offhandedly. "Our bond was special. Whoever has the higher cultivation level is supposed to pull along the other, but for certain reasons, Fenrir never seems to be able to surpass mine."

"Have you ever practiced any joint techniques? I know fusion is out of the question for you, but joint techniques could work very well for you."

Instead of answering the question, Lex looked up at the projection in surprise. There were joint techniques he could do with Fenrir? Why had it never occurred to him? Isn't that basically what the battalion's mech was? Since Fenrir and him were stuck at the same level, pretty much, and both of them were formidable within their realm, it should have occurred to him to take advantage of it more.

"I'll take that as a no. Well, I'm sad to say that based on our current schedule you won't be learning it any time soon. But once we've taken care of the deity, there's all the time in the world to improve in all the areas you are lacking. In fact, since you even have the appropriate cultivation technique, my suggestion is that afterwards you focus directly on reaching the Nascent realm, and we can begin your training then.

"We'll make you into an all rounder before your tribulations. You're… you're going to need the help."

"Don't underestimate how tough my body is," said Lex, though his voice was not loud. If the projection was helping him become stronger, he really should not complain about it.

When he finally repaired the ring, Pel did not immediately wake up, but that was more or less expected. Mateo gave him a strange liquid suspension in which to store the ring which would hasten the spirits recovery.

Lex popped Pel's ring in there, right before using some of the remaining honey to heal his spatial bangle and necklace. It would be bad if they randomly broke. Mateo did not know what was inside of them, for he could not look, but Lex was willing to bet he would not be so relaxed if he knew how close the container for over 20 Heavenly immortal realm attack level bombs was to breaking.

Mateo asked Lex to summon Fenrir so he could take a look at it. Lex was not so sure that the summoning would work, but it did. It was sending Fenrir back that became a problem.

But Lex was not discouraged. If anything, the fact that Fenrir could be summoned reinforced Lex's theory about how he would return.

After Mateo spent some time studying Fenrir, and then evaluating how strongly it liked or disliked Lex.

There was not much for the pup to do there since the temple was focused around training humans, not beasts. Moreover, Lex would not be working on his cooperation and coordination with him for now.

In the end, all it could do was follow them around groggily. Clearly it was sleepy.

"Now we can begin your training. But we're not going to start here. The higher your recognition at the temple, the more facilities we can use. Based on everything I've seen so far, I have full faith that you can probably cross all the tests with your existing power level as it is. Not that I've seen you fight or anything, but considering your other qualifications, I'd be surprised if you weren't.

"But we won't do that just yet. Instead, I will first have you pass the next four tests. I'll lower the difficulty just in case. At that point, you will need to undergo some training and preparation before you proceed."

The projection pulled up a 2D map of the temple, with a blue dot indicating their current location and a red one indicating where Ra was.

"Each level of the temple is barricaded, and only by having the proper authority can you officially move to the next one. The deity has used the fact that it can use divine energy to allow it to sneak past these barriers, and is currently working on the next one. I assume by the time we reach it, it will have most likely crossed the 7th barrier. The path you have to take is already marked.

"As you can see, the reason we're only going to have you cross the first four tests for now is because in the region that is unlocked by the fifth test resides the curse that accompanied you upon your arrival.

"That won't be much of a problem for you right now, since you can basically ignore low level curses, and resist mid to high level curses. But I don't want you to just skip it, but capture and subdue it. Don't think I'm taking advantage of you to do manual labor. If you can capture the curse, it can be useful to you later on."