Inner Region
The inner region had a higher density of beasts. When in the outer region Lucius had to travel for a few hours to find a beast or some treasure of value but only half an hour after entering the inner region he had already met a tier 1 low grade beast, the sand devouring worm. The sand devouring worm was brown and looked like dirt more than sand, it was 6 metres long and 1 metre wide. It took Lucius a few strikes to tear it into pieces with some ice lances and blades, unfortunately it didn't have a core. Since the outer region was a forest he had decided not to use fire techniques in case the surroundings caught fire and so he was already used to using ice techniques so he simply continued using them. The inner region was a blazing desert that most had to use their qi to defend against but Lucius was fine with just his refined body alone. The inner region was much smaller than the outer region but Lucius had decided he wouldn't head straight for the core region but instead explore the inner region first and try to get as much resources as possible while stocking up on beast parts and beast cores. Lucius had already made plans to enhance his equipment while making some equipment for John so it would require high quality resources and cores. He could buy most of these resources since he was quite wealthy now but he thought it was foolish to buy things that he could get now with a few days of work. Lucius was already here anyway so he might as well make the most of it, right?
After 2 days of travelling and looting Lucius had acquired 7 cores and various beast parts. He had 3 fire cores, 3 earth cores and 1 metal core. He had yet to even see a water element beast and had only seen 3 wood element beasts but they were all below tier 1 so they didn't have any cores. The strongest beast he had fought was a tier 1 mid grade fire fox. Its main strengths were its speed and agility mixed with its various techniques to utilise fire. It was quite a pesky opponent but Lucius was able to beat it after 5 minutes of battle.
After 3 more days he had gained 13 more cores as he had gone deeper in to the inner region were the stronger beasts were staying. He no longer saw any tier 0 beasts, only finding tier 1 beasts. The closer to the core region he got the more the beasts became fire attributed. Out of the 13 cores, 9 were fire cores while the other 4 were earth cores. Lucius had also gained herbs that could be used to make elemental gathering pills, pills that gathered qi of specific elements directly instead of the ambient qi. If Lucius were to make some pills for Jack it was highly likely that he could break through to the next stage, completing his elemental ascension.
At noon on the 10th day after the barrier had opened, Lucius found a vary strange place. It was an oasis. Of course, in a desert there was bound to be an oasis but because of the heat and the fact that he had found no water element beasts at all lately he had assumed that there was simply no water in this desert at all. The oasis was surrounding a small island. It was at most 4 metres in diameter, and at the centre of the small island was a large oak tree. The oak tree was around 15 metres tall and 2 metres wide, taking up the entire space on the island. The tree had many apples hanging from its branches, the apples were gold and quite large, a lot bigger than most ordinary apples at half a metre in diameter. The apples shone with an appealing glow and Lucius was smiling from ear to ear as he saw them. These apples weren't tier 2 herbs, they were body refining treasures! There was an entire tree of Golden Apples!
Lucius observed the oasis around the tree and saw that there was nothing at the bottom, he couldn't see the sand underneath or anything. He circled the oasis and after a while he noticed a slight humming sound coming from the oasis. Lucius' mind went back to the testing towers 22nd floor. The 22nd floor had a small lake with water similar to this and inside that water there turned out to be a family of water element beasts. He could tell that the humming noise was coming from the beast inside the water and had judged that with the small size of the oasis there could only be one beast inside. He thought carefully for a minute and decided on his course of action. He would use a fire rain technique to disrupt the masking of the water and flush the beast out, then use a flame whip technique to pull out the monster. He could then kill it swiftly with a knife.
The plan worked almost flawlessly as the 5 fanged crocodile had been wrangled out of the water and killed by Lucius. Lucius dismantled the cadaver and pulled out a large water elemental core. The core was larger than usual and showed how old the beast was and how long it had stayed within this oasis. The beasts fangs were sharp and its skin was tough, Lucius was happy with these materials and was thinking about making a better belt with this leather. Lucius then swam through the oasis and got onto the small island. He squatted down and pulled out a shovel to carefully dig out the tree to take it into the Garden and have it inside of the School of Agriculture. Body refining treasures are much rarer than herbs and since he could grow more trees using the seeds from this one he was planning to make a grove of Golden Apple trees. In the future he could make them into pills to give to John and Jack and others.
However, as he was beginning to dig he heard shouting from behind him. He turned around and saw around a dozen people.
"Stop right there. That tree belongs to his highness! Step back and leave it alone or we will be forced to stop you ourselves!"
Lucius looked at them and noticed prince Hugart at the fore front with his 4 guards but only 6 retainers. The rest were the 3 sons of the Colonels, Manuel, Yatir and Kinak. They were in the area and had heard the cries of the 5 fanged crocodile and had come over to see what was happening. They had seen the tree and its golden apples and although they didn't know that it was a body refining treasure they had guessed that it must have been a valuable herb if a tier 1 mid grade beast was protecting it. They had looked to Lucius and noted that he had slain the beast by himself but they thought that with their numbers and strength he wasn't able to match up to them as they believed that even they would've been able to slay the crocodile easily enough. So in the typical pompous and arrogant young master ways, Hugart ordered his guards to go take the tree from Lucius.
Lucius on the other hand was flabbergasted by how they were claiming his tree as theirs, merely because they fancied it. They had no honour! No dignity!
"This tree is mine, I found it first and I also killed the beast guarding it by myself! Why should I give it to you?"
"Ignorant bastard! Do you not know who we are? This is his royal highness and these are the sons of the Colonels. If they want something they can take it! Fuck off and leave our tree alone!"
Lucius was amazed at the audacity of this guard and was shocked by the vulgar language he was using. As a sheltered boy Lucius had never been sworn at before but he had been taught what swears were and what they meant by his father. He had taught him as mental tempering in battle and had taught him not to acknowledge insults that didn't matter as if it effected his state of mind it could be detrimental to his battling capabilities. Lucius merely stared at the guard with a slack jaw before turning around and deciding to completely ignore him as he went back to excavating the tree.
Seeing this the guards and the prince were enraged at Lucius' nonchalant attitude and his dismissal of their words. Yatir smiled sinisterly while the other two sons were mostly just staring with a bored look thinking about how long it would take for the prince to be done with his game so they could travel to the core region already. Then Hugart shouted out,
"What the hell are you all still standing for? Go bring me that tree and bring me that impudent brats head too!"
Hearing this Lucius was further astonished by how the prince was willing to kill just for something as minor as this. He had heard stories from Delilah but he had thought they were merely stories in the end. He didn't expect this prince to be more temperamental than those finicky villains that had tried to end the world for their meaningless revenge on those that had bullied them when they were young. At least they had actually been bullied before they wanted revenge, but this prince Hugart wanted revenge against Lucius for denying him when he wanted to steal from him!
After Hugart had spoken the 4 guards rushed out together, they were coordinated and synchronised since these 4 had been trained together since they were young. They had been brought up for the sole purpose of fulfilling Hugart's needs and protecting him from harm. They rushed forward and directly jumped over the small oasis and sent their attacks at Lucius, some punching while some kicking while one in the back was pulling out a blade. Lucius abruptly turned around and did a wide roundhouse kick that brought the two at the forefront out of the air and sent them crashing into the oasis. The third guard had jumped directly forward and was planning on attacking after the front two by using them as a shield and cover but now that they were gone he was wide open with his arms extended to attack. Lucius easily exploited this and got in close to the assailants chest and pound him with strong but fast punches to the stomach. The guard was sent flying into the water and since he had had his stomach deformed he began puking out the contents of his most recent meal. The last guard who had just finished pulling out his blade was able to swing his blade down as Lucius reached him but Lucius pulled out a small throwing knife from his belt and was able to deflect the clumsy and rushed slash of the guard. He the turned the knife into a back grip and slashed the mans wrist and ankles, tearing his ligaments and leaving him crying on the bank of the oasis. The two guards at the start had gotten out of the oasis and had come back to attack Lucius with their blades drawn and with even more anger than before. However, they were received with a similar defeat as Lucius tore their ligaments in their limbs and left them incapacitated with a few strokes and turns. The prince and the 3 stooges looked on in pure awe as they had just witnessed 4 Spirit Refining experts lose in battle against a single Spirit Gatherer.
Lucius however, was not yet done as he dashed forward and sent a few punches and kicks at the prince, breaking his left arm, right leg and thrashing his face into a pigs head. He then turned to the 3 sons and through the princes body at them and then shouted with a stern gaze, "Fuck off!"
The 3 could only agree with their eyes and lips twitching at the scene that had just happened. The crown prince was beaten silly along with his 4 guards by a boy who looked no more than 12 years old. They quickly gathered the bodies and left, leaving Lucius to continue gathering the Golden Apple tree in peace.
As they were leaving Hugart had become so enraged that his now recovered face, after he took a healing pill, was fuming red and his teeth were gritting in anger. He kept shouting swears and curses at the boy and kept questioning how he could dare attack the crown prince of the Gold Kingdom. He then turned to Yatir and asked who the kid was as he knew that Yatir's family were the assassin department out of the 4 families and they specialised in information gathering.
"That kid was Lucius, he is a strange kid that is rumoured to have come out of the Western Mountain range with the Whites on their last trip into the forest. Lady Rebecca had actually sent you letters your highness, in those letters she details that he comes from another world and holds great riches that she wanted your help in plundering."
"Good, good, good. I'll skin that boy alive and cut him into pieces and then feed him to my dogs. I'll take all his riches and bathe in them on the day of my wedding. Hahaha!"
"Actually your highness I have a plan to make this happen. Maybe we could even fulfil even more of your wishes at the same time as well!"
" Hmm, really? Lets hear your plan then!"
After 5 minutes of speaking Yatir finally stopped. Hugart looked on to the future with a vicious smile and began to laugh in a most disgusting way.