The minutes, hours, days and weeks blurred together as his training continued. He had not been pushed to the extent that he had been when he was overcoming Dragons Might, but that did not mean this was any easier.
Cassandra was very meticulous about making sure he always remained in peak performance condition. From getting enough sleep, to eating nutritionally rich foods, to specialized massages to allow his muscles to recover quickly, to many more things, she made sure that he could always push further, which was a strange mix of exhausting and refreshing.
At some point, Lex ended up informing Cassandra that his cultivation technique helped him acclimatize to harsh conditions. He obviously did not tell her the details and extent of his techniques capabilities, but just even that was amazing. She then proceeded to add cultivating in increasingly hazardous conditions to the schedule.
Lex had already informed her of the timetable he intended to keep, but he could not help but ask Mary to inform him as time passed as well because the days seemed to stretch on forever. But that just seemed to confirm how slowly time was actually passing by. Maybe it was because Lex had never been as efficient and diligent with his time in his life, where every second of every day was utilized fully, which caused him to feel like the days were too long.
By the third month, Lex clearly noticed how his perception and control over space were drastically improving. He reached the point where Blink became like second nature to him, and he would not get exhausted from it no matter how many times he did.
Now he began training in more specified stuff. Although Blink was also technically teleportation, its functionality was rooted in very different concepts than those of actual Teleportation.
Whether it was long range or short range, Teleportation was an ability which had a far larger range than Blink, and was technically much more stable and secure. At the same time, it was more energy intensive which was predictable.
For that Lex needed to perceive and comprehend the 'location' or 'coordinates' of a place, and how to lock on to them. After that Lex would begin training with short range Teleportation. Then would come long range, 'after' which would come teleporting with living beings.
It was fortunate that his comprehension had been drastically improved by his cultivation technique, because he was putting in his maximum effort to learn and improve, which included using his Overdrive state.
Cassandra never failed to take advantage of his many talents to design new and somehow even more exhausting training sessions. Just as Lex was beginning to gain some confidence in himself, she got him to start performing reverse teleportation. That meant he would tag an item, and then have it teleport to himself.
For reasons he could not comprehend, this made the process infinitely harder, and it took him an entire week before he made any progress. Just as he was gaining some confidence, Cassandra asked him to stop tagging the items. He had to teleport them to himself only by knowing its coordinates. When, finally, he made some progress, she then asked him to reverse teleport himself to Fenrir.
At the same time, the pup was told to run continuously, without taking a single break. Then he had to teleport one item from one set of coordinates to another one, not himself. Then Cassandra hit him with interference in the midst of his teleportations. The hurdles were endless.
The only thing Lex was grateful for was that he was so busy that he had no time to dwell on how sick of training he was getting.
But while Lex was undergoing an extreme evolution even he himself was not aware of, the rest of the Inn workers did not have it easy either. Since Lex had forbidden more creative means of training, there was nothing left for them but good old hard work.
It was fortunate, then, that all the workers had only recently received great motivation to get stronger, and in general they were all great workers. Even Charles begrudgingly accepted training after he learned that they could aid him in even the extremely obscure cultivation technique he was practicing. He quickly entered the Qi training stage of cultivation.
A majority of all workers reached the Foundation stage, which was a massive boost, and those that had already reached the Foundation realm made good progress. A few of the workers even broke into the Golden core realm.
The fact that this was even possible within a single year of cultivating was a testament to the great environment at the Inn, as well as the benefits gained from experiencing star rating increases.
The free resources and excellent guidance were just the cherry on top, at least for the first few months. Once all the workers had tapped out of their abundant accumulation, their true cultivation journeys began.
But not all workers were focused just on cultivation. Much in the way Lex had focused solely on Teleportation, many workers selected specializations they liked. The big three, alchemy, treasure manufacturing and formations, were always popular, and so got a large number of workers learning them. But many also focused on more specific niches, such as cooking, landscaping, farming, talisman making, medicine and more.
The temple, a literal bastion of all knowledge pertaining to humans, was the perfect place to learn many of these professions that focused on human needs. Luthor, unexpectedly, did not take any combat or cultivation related lessons. Instead, he focused on becoming a better assistant to the Innkeeper.
Gerard took lessons in security management. Velma learned how to be a better detective. Regus, the Inn worker who was completely invisible and forgotten by everyone, focused solely on learning how to take control of his abilities and once again becoming visible. Jace, the worker who had gained earth manipulation powers and made a fort for the battalion, went into architecture.
Everyone was extremely focused, so many months later, when Z finally woke up and emerged, he was startled to find countless Inn workers running around with no time to chat. Completely confused about what was happening, he walked around the temple trying to get someone to explain the circumstances, but no one seemed to have the time.
