When Lothur noticed the distinction in the treatment of the customers from this floor to the previous one, he was not too startled since he had expected something like this from this world.
Even on Earth, where political correctness demanded equal treatment for all, there were distinctions in treating customers with different backgrounds. So, it would not be in the cultivation world that things would be fair.
No, in the cultivation world, people were much more truthful with their intentions, flattering those of high status and ignoring the ordinary.
This place was unlike the Earth, where people had only virtual power, something fictitious that depended on belief in certain institutions. No, in the place where Lothur was now, power was something tangible that could actually cause chaos at the snap of a finger.
Such a thing depended only on the will of a given person!
For example, if someone did not like the face of a stranger passing on the street, in this world, that person could even kill the other individual. Meanwhile, on Earth, even if someone had the financial or physical means to destroy others, this could be pretty difficult to do.
Money could lose its value. Someone could ignore the prevailing laws and go against that society's morals, or even against the foreseeable. But, on the other hand, cultivators' strength was always on their side and could be used in every situation!
It would not matter whether or not the 'enemy' believed in one person's power or money. The enemy could still be crushed in the blink of an eye if he was not careful.
With that, naturally, the employees of this spiritual technique store served their customers differently depending on the capabilities of such people.
"Hello, I'm looking for specialized combat techniques." Lothur nodded to that man, getting straight to the point without dilly-dallying.
"Combat techniques, huh? Do you have any preferences? We have many of those around here, but not all of them will be interesting for you depending on your previous techniques and your physical condition." The employee said in a calm tone, indicating the direction of the shelves where the summaries of combat techniques were.
Upon hearing that, Lothur did not know what to say to that man since he had never trained anything, nor did he understand how one technique could differ from another. All he wanted here was to find something to use to defend himself and eventually act against 'the rocks' in his path.
Seeing her companion's silence, Elke took the lead and said. "Let's look at some movement techniques first, but we don't have any preferences."
Movement techniques were the most common ones that existed in the cultivation world. That is because they rarely required the use of external items or special training conditions.
In fact, due to the main characteristic of this type of technique, these options basically only depended on the user's physical condition.
And even though some techniques of this type were more or less suitable depending on the cultivation level, Physique and Bloodline, in general, were the most generic of all.
Considering this, Elke had indicated this path to Lothur, giving him time to think better about what he wanted regarding other types of combat techniques.
"OK. Follow me." That man led the way for those two.
As he walked behind that person, side by side with Elke, Lothur smiled at what had just happened, pleased with her initiative.
'This girl has more qualities than I had thought...' He looked at her sideways but said nothing.
"Here we are..."
"On this shelf, we have 8 Bronze-grade and 12 Iron-grade movement techniques. Feel free to look for something suitable, and when you want my help, I'll be waiting for next door." The employee said this quickly, just before making room for those two.
"Hmm, thanks for the help."
After that, Lothur looked into Elke's eyes and asked. "Do you want to help me find something? Don't worry about the particulars of these techniques. I just want to find something with potential."
"All right."
Then the two began to study those options, which were priced at around 4,000 bronze coins for Iron-grade techniques and 18,000 silver coins for Bronze-grade ones.
But this was not the regular price of the techniques but rather the value of the copy with the limited number that one could use the memory crystal.
If someone wanted to buy the original scroll of a technique in this world, that person might have to pay an average of up to 10 times the value of the copies!
But even with the coins, hardly anyone would be able to buy one original scroll.
Anyway, they quickly started flipping through the summary of each of the techniques there until one of them found something interesting.
"Lothur, check this one out." Elke approached him and handed him the summary of that technique. "This is an Iron-grade technique called Cross Walk. It promises to double your natural speed as early as the first phase of mastery, Beginner. Then, it continues to double your results with each advance in comprehension."
"Oh? All that?" Lothur asked in surprise.
The techniques of this world also had their classification given the level of mastery of their users.
The mastery level of a technique, the phase of it, was something that differentiated whether a person could use the same technique to do something basic or complex. For comparative purposes, this basically distinguished the same as, for example, one person on Earth who could do the four basic operations and another who could do double integrals.
As for the stages of this classification of mastery, they ranged from Beginner to Adept, Master, and finally, Grandmaster.
But despite the few ranks, the difficulty between them was so great that it was said that the vast majority of cultivators could barely get past the first mastery phase of their techniques!
As for reaching the Master phase, that was as difficult or more difficult than reaching the 4th stage!
But since mastery of a technique was related to understanding, Lothur was not so concerned about this now.
As long as he could improve his Intelligence in the future, he knew he could advance faster in his cultivation and technique domains.
With that in mind, he did not underestimate even those Iron-grade techniques.
One of them trained to its maximum was undoubtedly more significant than one of higher grade but trained only in the initial phase!
"Yes," Elke replied to Lothur.
"This technique seems a bit special because of that speed feature. But that's because the most important thing about it only happens to those who have reached the Adept phase."
"I think it is being sold on this floor because of such a disadvantage, even though it is a technique that is probably no weaker than many of those Bronze-grade ones."
"I see..." Lothur said this in a low voice as he read the contents regarding that technique.
He had seen several of those Bronze and Iron-grade movement techniques before, but none of them had caught his attention. So, seeing something that could be so promising, at least in this initial moment of his, he soon added it to his shopping list.
'3,690 bronze coins, huh? Luckily my predecessor's guardian left some inheritance for him.' Lothur sighed in relief as he massaged the storage item into one of his fingers.
'From what I remember, Lothur inherited over 200,000 bronze coins, but he spent a lot of that reserve in the last few months, and now I'm left with only 89,000...'
"Sigh."
'For now, that will be enough for me to learn some self-defense techniques.'
After thinking about it, it did not take long for Lothur to follow Elke's side down that floor, looking first for a defensive technique and then an offensive one.
In the end, he headed towards the cashier on that floor to pay the 12,000 bronze coins regarding those techniques and get the crystals with the actual contents of all three.
'Tonight, I will spend the rest of the night practicing those techniques. Maybe I can learn at least one of them by tomorrow.' He thought about it with a smile on his face.
At the same time, he and Elke were returning to the Morning Star Academy, chatting about minor matters of that place.
However, as they passed the entrance to that large cultivator training complex in Peters City, a female silhouette was silently stalking them from the shadows.
'Is it her?' That person wondered before seeing those two stop in a secluded place.
...