The Innkeeper

Lex was not observing the event too closely, and was more focused on monitoring its success overall. It was for that reason that he did not recognize Tiffany, not to mention that she looked vastly different from when he last saw her.

The guests, however, could not take their eyes off her! She was ruthless, not in the sense that she was defeating every enemy she came across. Her staggering performance was throwing off all the bets people had placed! Some noticed that there was more to her attacks than the simple sonic booms, but even if they could discover the secret, it would not help them remedy the situation!

It was fortunate then that the battle entered a balanced phase. The pillagers' coordination was keeping them from suffering any more losses while the participants' extreme powers and skills saved them. Whichever side gave in first would suffer tremendously.

In the air, the battle was a lot more hectic! Nzaar was proving his worth and fighting three Nascent participants on his own, and seemed to be winning! Furthermore, he was better equipped than the participants for the fight, which gave him an edge in both offense and defense.

The various pillagers under him also seemed to be more skilled than the participants and even Rorick found himself suppressed - something he hadn't encountered in a long time.

"Marry, I'm busy over here, so I'll check back in later," said Lex, once he was satisfied with how the event was progressing. "Don't hesitate to call me if any issues arise, but if there aren't any problems, then just wait for me to get done to give me the report."

Lex turned his attention back to the issue of deciding on his techniques. He could have continued to focus on the Inn, it would have taken at most a few more hours, but Lex was pressed for time. Not only did he have to go through this massive list and decide on his techniques, he had to practice them as well. If he had access to a Meditation room from the Inn, it would be no problem learning them, but as things were, he didn't know how long it would take. In a few days, when his classes started, he would be even more strapped for time, which is why he had to make the most of every moment.

His first priority was evasion and escape. Evasion could fall under movement type techniques, but escape covered a last array of technique types. This would help him escape from any enemies who were too strong for him, or escape in a situation where he gets trapped the way that Druk had.

The options were truly diverse, and it was at this point that techniques with spiritual affinities started to come into play. Wind, lightning and ice were some of the more common affinities seen in movement techniques, but the most incredible and effective ones seemed to be from space affinity. Lex did not have any affinities, as far as he knew, but he tried out the simplest movement technique with a wind affinity to see if he could use the technique. He could not.

It would require more research to understand why this was so, but for now, he accepted that fact and moved on. For clarification, while he could not use any techniques that required his spiritual energy to have an affinity, a neutral technique that took advantage of an element in nature was an entirely different concept. An example was the defensive technique he used that absorbed 'cold energy'. It did not require Lex to have an icy affinity at all.

In the end, Lex decided on two movement techniques. The first, Hearts Marathon, was similar to his previous movement technique Falcon relief in the sense that it boosted his overall speed in every sense. This would not only help in escaping, it was great for evasion, blocking, attacking and everything else that required any form of movement. It had a fixed cost in terms of spiritual energy, meaning it would use up Lex's energy at a constant rate while he was using the technique.

The second technique, Home Sweet Home, was used for a linear burst that would increase Lex's speed tremendously! Its most obvious use was for escape, or to gain a lead during a chase, but Lex could imagine himself using it to close in on an enemy as well. Its peculiar name was due to the technique's creator's deep wish to run back home any time he left his house.

The escape techniques, which were next, gave Lex a migraine. They seemed to be as useless as they were diverse, and all the good ones seemed to require an affinity. Or they had extreme requirements which were difficult to fulfill. In the end, Lex picked one called the In-Law effect that Lex suspected he would be able to use due to a loophole.

The requirement was stringent, and required Lex to stay in one location for up to 3 hours while he used the technique. But once the technique was done, it was supposed to let the user's soul leave the body, and move up to several miles away, depending on how much energy was used. This technique was not designed for humans, whose souls were too weak to leave their physical body at this level. However, Lex suspected that due to the nature of his body and soul, he would be able to use the technique without issue. It would require some testing to determine, but if it didn't work, Lex could always pick another one.

Next, Lex planned on picking defensive techniques, offensive techniques, and some miscellaneous techniques, in that order.

The reason he was picking techniques in that order was that, now that the options available to him were more versatile, he planned on using his uncanny ability to learn defensive techniques in various ways. Blocking attacks and protecting himself definitely was a priority, but why should he limit himself to just that?

If, for example, he created a shield so sturdy his enemies could not break it, then could he not use that shield to trap his enemy as well? Theoretically, couldn't he create some kind of defensive barrier and then… walk over it to form an impromptu bridge? To be honest, he didn't know the limits to which he could use these techniques, but he fully intended to find out.

But while he could learn endless defensive techniques, it was best to focus on just a few for now. Too many techniques would make it difficult for him to choose the best one in the heat of battle, and drastically reduce his efficiency in utilizing them.

The first one he picked was called Talk to the Hand. It allowed him to extend an invisible barrier from his hand that could extend 12 feet (3.6 meters) in length and 8 feet (2.4 meters) in height. The best part was, the strength, or technically defense, of the barrier was directly proportional to Lex's bodies. It was unfortunate that it required Lex's hand to be up, which limited its distance and eliminated the element of surprise, but Lex was looking forward to the day he could block a barrage of long range attacks simply by holding out his hand.

His next technique was called Ripple shell. It formed an elastic barrier around him that spread any damage received across its entire surface to reduce the effect. What Lex liked most about this was that this barrier would not stop Lex from attacking or doing anything else, and once Lex used it, it would continue to exist without being a drain on Lex's energy pool.

Following that Lex picked up a few circumstantial techniques, for example there was one that strengthened the defensive capabilities of objects, there was another designed to protect inner organs and one in particular that required an external energy source to sustain once established.

With just these few techniques, Lex already had a few plans about how he could implement them in different situations.

Next up, the attack techniques. For this, Lex already had a clear cut idea of what he wanted. He was searching for overwhelming attacks, to serve as trump cards or secret aces to use in opportune moments. This was because Lex already knew that Regal Embrace would cause him problems when learning attacks.

The solution Lex had thought of was to focus more on his technique, weapons, and arrays for attacking.

He thought it would be hard to pick out such a technique, but it turned out to be the easiest. Lex was extremely satisfied with the techniques description, build up and implementation. The technique was called Evisceration, and was for what it did… it was all in the name.

Finally, it was time for the miscellaneous techniques. The techniques that weren't strictly designed for battle, and could be used in multiple scenarios.

Choosing these took the longest for these were the most commonly used techniques, and would accompany Lex on a day to day basis. Not only would they affect his quality of life, they would affect his future as well. These included techniques to dormant formations, traps, arrays or other techniques. It also included things such as healing and preservation techniques, cleaning techniques, air and water filtration techniques. Heck, it even contained things Lex had never even considered, such as refining the etiquette of your energy implementation and signature. In high society, where even things such as forks and knives had to be used in the proper fashion, how could it be possible for one to let their energy signature run rampantly?

These esthetic based techniques, in fact, were the rarest of all. Some would even give your energy a pleasant scent and sensation.

Much later, Lex did not even realize how much time he had spent looking through these techniques, and eventually fell asleep in the library, still scrolling through the many options. He could not help but think, in his last waking moments, how helpful some kind of smart, computerized assistant would be that could sift through all this mess and just tell him the techniques most optimal for him.