The Innkeeper

The course for the strategic planning class was a lot more abstract than his other classes, at least in the beginning. Instead of teaching him concrete topics, the class focused rather on the way of thinking. How to evaluate situations, how to juggle objectives, how to prioritize and so much more.

He was given theoretical problems similar to the famous trolley problem, only in this case, instead of people's lives, he usually had to compromise on his objectives. The professor told them that, after some theoretical practice, they would go through some drills to practice decision making under duress.

When the class ended, Adelaide, the professor, handed each student a folder with the details of their field test in it. Since Lex's designation was a combat zone consultant, his field test put him in the same position.

A month from now, there would be an expedition led by some students to some uninhabited lands within the territory of Hum nation. The group would be a mix of students of various designations, and the group would similarly have a mix of objectives.

The group had to not only explore these new lands; they had to scout for potential valuable resources, mark down areas suitable for new settlements, and finally establish a forward camp for future explorations. These were just the publicly stated objectives, for there was always the possibility of hidden objectives as well.

Lex would not only serve as the communication channel between the combatant students or 'soldiers' and the leader of the expedition, Lex would have to advise the leader in matters of security and combat.

As for what the territory they were exploring held, what kind of dangers could he expect, and what he needed to watch out for were all things he would have to research on his own. Conducting research and being adequately prepared were also parts of being such a consultant, so the quality of his preparation depended solely on him.

Lex felt a headache developing. From having too much time on his hands, he went directly to feeling like he was overworked.

Next, it was time for his arrays class. For once, the class was as he expected, and the study of arrays was very similar to what he read in the book given to him by John. But similar did not mean the same.

The approach to arrays in the Crystal realm seemed to be a lot more stringent than what the book stated. There was a very specific way in which the 'characters' could be arranged. They had discovered certain rules, and how the characters responded in certain situations, and somehow reverse engineered a fixed template for all arrays to follow.

In this way, compared to the book Lex was reading, it was much easier to form new arrays, as you could simply follow those rules. But it was also comparatively a lot more wasteful. They heavily employed the use of conjunction characters - characters that had no effects on their own, but could bond the effect of two accompanying characters without a volatile reaction.

For example, if someone were trying to fuse characters that represented fire and air together, if the characters were not compatible, instead of resulting in an explosion, the characters would just fizzle away instead of working together. This was important for even for something as simple as fire there were hundreds of characters, each personifying a different characteristic or behavior of the flame. In this way, discovering which one suited the needs of your situation was not only a hassle, it was dangerous. The conjunction characters eliminated the danger.

This not only allowed the array masters of the crystal realm to have a much more diverse library of arrays, it allowed them to experiment safely whenever they were creating new arrays. But there were also drawbacks.

Since arrays were cast using spirit energy, the more characters an array had, the more draining it would be. Furthermore, due to the dampening effect of conjunction characters, defensive and offensive arrays were a lot weaker.

Since both techniques worked, Lex decided to continue studying both of them. Although the arrays of the crystal realm were weaker in strength and wasteful in energy, they allowed Lex to learn the behavior of each character safely. Furthermore, once he had a deep understanding of the characters, as well as how an array worked, he could try to recreate the arrays from the crystal realm using the method of the author. Theoretically, those arrays should maintain the same effects, but with stronger results.

By the time he was done with all his classes, it was already evening. After making up for his missed meal, Lex returned to his dorm, mentally exhausted. But, as much as Lex wanted to do nothing, leaving himself with so much time to think did him no good.

His mind would wander towards the Inn, towards the fact that he was far from home, towards being in a different realm. It made him realize how small and insignificant he was when compared to the universe, to a realm, even. But, just as his mind veered towards these dark thoughts, he would pull himself back up.

He would spend some time meditating before he began cultivating. Instead of feeling small, he would tell himself that he was strong. That so long as he had breath in his body, the vast universe had not defeated him yet.

Instead of exhaustion and weakness, a fierce will shone in his eyes. In a time where he should have felt the most helpless, ironically, Lex became the most focused he had ever been. His mind worked faster than ever before, repeating and memorizing each and everything he covered in classes, and then, when he had free time, he went to a library to do more research.

When he worked for the weaponsmith, he observed and memorized each action, and asked every question his brain could conjure. Most of the time, the weaponsmith was too preoccupied to answer, but when she did, she explained thoroughly.

When he had combat classes, he gave everything he had, and he was fearless in his attacks. Objectively speaking, Lex was actually becoming a worse fighter since he ended up taking more hits, but from this class's point of view, Lex was excelling.

The subject that most held Lex's attention, though, was arrays. It was difficult and complex, with seemingly an ocean's worth of characters to learn. But, one time, when his professor demonstrated an array that artificially created the circumstances required for rain, before letting nature take over, resulting in impromptu rain, Lex felt something click in his mind.

It was like he had an epiphany, not on a specific array, but on arrays in general. Initially, when Lex had described arrays as a programming language, he treated it half as a joke.

But, if he were to consider for a moment, and treat arrays as a way of programming nature, or the universe itself, what he could achieve was immeasurable.

The fire in his eyes only grew stronger. He knew that his perspective was limited, and that there were many things he didn't know, but in his professor doing something as simple as causing rain, Lex saw his own limitless future.

If he could create rain, why stop there? He didn't believe in 'magic', and so started to think of everything the system did in terms of arrays. If the system could do something, then one day he'd be able to do it too. And if there was something his system couldn't do, that didn't mean it was something Lex couldn't do.

So long as he was at the system's mercy, he could get stuck on a different planet, or in a different realm, the moment something went wrong. But if he could traverse the universe on his own, why would he care what the system can or cannot do? Why would he care about his authority not being high enough? Authority was shit, arrays were what truly mattered.

But, just as Lex began to think in this way, he was faced with the glaring weakness of arrays which was that they themselves were weak. How could he get around them? Formations were stronger than arrays because they relied on various physical items and treasures, but that made them immobile and weak in their own way.

The best result would be if he could craft something, a treasure, an item, a piece of technology, anything, and then engrave his arrays onto it. The array would then be as strong as the item, and could function as long as the engraved arrays weren't compromised. But then he would require an energy source...

Countless thought went through Lex's mind and he didn't limit his thoughts either. He allowed himself to think big, because that was the only way he would achieve big results. He consulted the weaponsmith about his idea of imbuing weapons with arrays, and when she finally replied, learnt that such a thing already existed and showed him multiple examples.

Little did Lex know that on his journey to overcome the system, and form arrays that would allow him to replicate the systems functions, he had stumbled upon a very rudimentary explanation for the system itself.