It happened too quickly. Lex used to be the outsider, and now he was in the hidden Dragon Institute as a student. Debbie, the daughter of a Lord, led him to his dorm apartment 501b. Five stories down one of the immense descending structures, she escorted Lex to his room. She opened the door and then handed him a key.

"Don't lose this, or a replacement will cost you five spirit stones replace. That's fifty gold crowns in mortal currency, so be careful." She walked in front of him, and Lex had to take a step back as the room's smell hit him. It was like rotten meat, filthy clothes, and the dirty sheets of a popular Inn. An average person would have gagged at the smell. But unfortunately, Lex had become used to foul odors, especially from himself.

Debbie choked. "Francis, what have you done to your room? Next term, I think we'll increase your security deposit." Debbie snarled.

Junk covered the room, from moldy herbs to the discarded limbs of various monsters and random multicolored pills. Lex could sense a few had a spark of qi within them, but he couldn't tell what they did. Then, something drew his attention; he heard rustling from a massive pile of herbs before a green mass erupted forth.

Various pills glowed within the creature's guts as it growled and waved its great brutish arms at them. Then, from the corner of Lex's eye, he saw Debbie freeze in place with her mouth open wide enough to swallow a bird.

The green monster seemed apelike. It had massive protruding canines and arms as big around as Debbie's body. Mushrooms grew across his body along with long spindly vines growing from its head. When it opened its mouth, a strange multicolored purple flower burst forward from its throat and snapped inches from Debbie's face. She stepped back from the creature, it rose to his full height, and stumbled forward. The beast raised its arms and beet its chest in a show of dominance.

Debbie placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't make direct eye contact with it and back up slowly. Lex make yourselves look small and unthreatening as possible, or it's going to charge." Debbie said.

Lex compared Debbie's cultivation to the monster. The administrative assistant more than doubled the creature's cultivation. "Why don't you just kill it? You're stronger?"

Debbie snorted. "I Only cultivate to increase my lifespan. I don't know any combat techniques, and the few techniques I know that could damage it need a few seconds to put together. If I punched it, the spores it produces would infect me. Then the Inquisition would destroy my cultivation, take me to my own personal pyre, and set it alight. If you want to punch it, go ahead. Debbie hissed.

Lex raised a finger, and a frost blue beam of spiraling energy pierced through the creature. With a flick of his wrist, he turned the beam, and ice crystals erupted across the monster's body. The monster froze in place as Hel's blessing tore through the monster with winter's breath.

From the other side of the room they heard another rustling. Lex pointed at a pile of clothes and books moving closer prepared to blast it like the other monster. Slowly a man in his early 20s scurried out from the pile. He was skinny as a beanpole and had the crazy eyes of a cornered tiger.

"Did you do it? Is it finally dead?" Lex nodded slowly.

"What have you done! This is Institute property; why did you even grow a mandrake?"

The man rubbed his filthy blonde hair and looked down. "Lady Debbie, I didn't know they were mandrake sprouts. I met a red dryad in the black forest while I was searching for herbs. She claimed that they were seeds for millennium onions. I thought I'd finally be able to break into the foundation realm, but instead, that creature ate all my herbs, and I had to hide to keep from being eaten next." Francis said.

Lex rubbed his temples and refused to mention anything about a red dryad. "Don't you know not to take gifts from strangers? Where did a red dryad even come from? I thought they were green?" Lex said on the inside, he smiled playing dumb was his best defense in this situation. He really didn't want the blame for the red dryad.

Debbie's eyes widened before she shook her head. "Francis, you're lucky to be alive. A dryad only goes red when they suffer a mortal wound and then devour a human. It doesn't happen often, but there are few texts about this particular transformation. So someone must've tried to kill her, and either her lover gave his life to save her, or she devoured his corpse to save herself. Either way, she needs to be put down. I'll contact the bounty's office and let them know there is a red dryad in the woods." She sighed. "Francis, start cleaning this place up, and if you really need to grow some herbs do so in the Institute gardens. If you had planted the mandrake there, someone on staff would have recognized it before it had grown too powerful."

Francis turned to him. "Who's the new guy? Is he moving in?" The guy looked at Lex. He pointed to a messy bed covered in horrible stains and plates of half-eaten food. "You can have that one I guess, since I'm not using it," Francis said.

Lex turned and stared at Debbie. The woman had crept away while Francis had spoken. Then, just as they made eye contact, she tossed him a schedule, shut the door, and fled. Lex caught the item on reflex and turned to his roommate. Then he had an evil idea. Lex sighed and took out a sealed clay pot.

It was the fermented milk of Bovalabia. While it may not be quite so harmful to him, if an average person were to drink it, they'd transform into a demon. So Lex held it up and made sure that Francis saw it before placing it on the nightstand beside his bed.

Francis stared at it with nearly bulging eyes. "What is that?"

Lex turned away and smiled before straightening himself. "It's just some liquor from a friend of mine. There aren't many brews like it." He turned to Francis and stared the man in the eye. "Don't drink it; it's mine and mine alone." Lex caressed the bottle. "It's costly; even high nobles can't afford it. Few even know exists at all except for a few royals and clergymen. Though I heard if you asked about it, they would claim it doesn't exist." The man couldn't take his eyes off the clay pot.

Francis swallowed. "Do you think I could have a taste?" Lex thought about it determined whether or not he wanted to get rid of Francis. Did the man even consider that within the clay jar, there could be poison? Countless pills cover the floor of various makes exposing Francis for an alchemist of sorts. Lex couldn't determine whether Francis was playing him or if the man didn't know caution. His roommate was like a man who threw his life savings away on the game of find a pebble.

He decided not to offer any to his roommate and instead left the clay pot on the nightstand. There were cultivation rooms available to students filled with all sorts of raja. It was high time that he advanced his cultivation, and he had a debt to repay. Whether it happened now, or later Francis would take a drink, so he decided to wait.

Lex traveled farther down into the chasm that was the underbelly of the hidden Dragon Institute. Finally, in a red brick building, Lex found a room suitable for red-robed students. In isolation, cultivation was made easier by flowing streams of raja pumped out from the walls, he sat down and placed the potion vials in front of him. He sensed vast amounts of raja shaped in spectacular ways by a mixture of fermented plants from each one.

These vials were filled with the potion that would congeal his qi in a way that enhanced cultivation. He’d use Morgan’s gift to the best of his abilities; she made them special. So when he held one in his hand, he didn't think about distrust. This was it, he would ascend as far as he could in one go.

For a moment, he thought about leaving and returning back to his apartment to spy on Francis. By moving on to the next level, he might miss the transformation of man to a demon. With every action, there are consequences. He nearly guaranteed a demon would be created by leaving the fermented demonic milk out in the open.

In his mind's eye Lex could see Francis taking a cup and drinking down the demonic mixture. There were other possibilities. Francis may leave the temptation alone for now, and Lex could return to an untouched jar. Then his third option, Francis, could take the mixture to friends of his and share it. Finally, there was the worst option Francis could take the liquor to a priest, and inquisitors would soon knock on the door of his isolation room.

Before he downed his potion, he thought about those options and concluded that the first option and third option were the most likely. Lex had become sure of Francis's character after a single meeting. If Francis proved him wrong, Lex promised to make an effort to get to know his roommate better. That would be a pleasant surprise.

Grudgingly Lex concluded that there was a fifth possibility a wizard may sense the clay pot and invade his dorm to find it. In that scenario, Francis would most likely die or be captured by the Inquisition. The frozen corpse of mandrake in his dorm would be damning. Having such a dangerous monster close at hand could get him kicked out of the Institute and into the Inquisition's merciless grip. Francis would point all the blame to Lex and Kars would cut a loose end.

With those thoughts in mind, he could only come to one conclusion. To escape those fates, he needed power. That was plain and simple at the core realm; he could flee with Morgan today.

Lex took one of the potions and upturned it. He felt the liquid pass into his cultivation and swirl around him. Spiraling clouds of raja aligned to the potions design. As he cultivated the fusion between different forms of raja smoothed out. More energy erupted within his dantian and painfully flowed through his meridians. When the flow the first potion ebbed, and he took the second. His cultivation grew in scale before condensing. Lex began replicating Zhan's breathing technique with his cultivation base, like a set of dragon’s lungs he stretched it out and condensing it in a never-ending cycle.

He felt a crack run through his meridians as a barrier broke. Another layer to his cultivation expanded over the first, increasing his rate of raja fusion. More qi than ever before flowed through his body, and at last, he'd reached the sixth stage of qi condensation.

Lex took another potion and continued to cultivate his rising strength before hitting the next barrier. He took another vile and strained against the obstruction and hammered away at it with his will. Even as cracks formed on the barrier, Lex didn't have the strength to push it open. He needed more power. Lex took the last two vials and felt shards of the barrier rip away. Lex increased the valence of his cultivation, stretching it until he sucked the entire room's raja dry.

The barrier began crumbling, and he continued to expand his cultivation. Other rooms started to feed him as his reach extended until finally, the barrier shattered. He glowed within with azure light as he stepped onto the seventh stage of qi condensation. Even though he just stepped into the stage, he knew he couldn't touch the eighth without a massive amount of help. Morgan's vials wouldn't cut it, he needed more resources. This is what Morgan meant by requiring tons of pills and a mentor to reach the higher stages of the Tang standard.