Gold stage

When Lucius returned to the Garden he made a new room for John before going in to his own room and collapsing onto his bed, passing out instantly. The fight he had taken part in was more taxing than any of his work outs or spars, the fatigue he felt reached an unprecedented high. He couldn't even lift up his limbs once he collapsed onto the bed. He hadn't said anything to Johnny as he created the room, he just looked away with a shameful and guilty expression on his face. Johnny may have been just a boy but he could understand what this meant, he too holed himself up in his room, crying his eyes out. When Delilah returned she was absent minded and dazed. She would think back to the little girls she saw and the things she had read and then vomit. She still couldn't get it out of her head.

Lucius had fallen into a small coma, not waking up for a few days. John stayed in his room during these days and didn't come out at all. Delilah was the only one who didn't stay in her room, instead she stayed in the library. The library was more of a home to her than her room as she had stayed inside the library for 10 years. She took care of the farm in Lucius' stead and delivered food to Johns room every day. She began to read more battle oriented books and sparred with Orion even more, intending to become even stronger. She now had a fear imbed itself into her heart, the fear of being assaulted by a man just like those girls.

In this time Lucius' body began to change. His muscles were being reformed and his bones were condensing. His skin was becoming thicker as the layers became far stronger than they were before, they started to form a layer of skin far stronger than before. The energy from his runic core automatically was spread through his body and began to accelerate and enhance the tempering his body was going through. Lucius' organs were strengthened too along with his eyes, brain and crotch so it was lucky that Lucius was currently asleep or he would be in immense pain if he had to endure his eyes and crotch being tempered. The brain was a delicate organ that if broken or damaged could end Lucius' life or impair him for the foreseeable future so it was also important that he wasn't awake during this process as he didn't do something wrong and mess up his brain. After 5 days of sleep tempering his body finally began to cool down. He had successfully reached the second stage of body tempering, the Gold stage.

Lucius woke up 2 hours after he broke through to the Gold stage. He looked up at his white ceiling and began to remember all that had happened. He remembered the smell of blood and death, the sight of Jack and Milly's corpses and the ensuing rampage that occurred. He looked back on it and felt that it was strange how he had lost all control and went crazy, his fighting style became much more crude and barbaric, to the point of him ripping off arms and cutting off legs. He remembered a glimpse of when he fought, where he had seen his reflection in an enemies blade and saw his red eyes and dark grey hair. He was now certain that that was not simple rage but something much more, something that had led him to lose all control but also something that made him stronger. Strong enough to decimate 4 Peak Spirit Condensers within seconds.

He got up and stretched his body, cracking his bones and feeling the changes in his body. He felt taller and stronger, as if he was brimming in a strength far beyond his previous self. He walked over to his mirror and saw that he was now 5'5 instead of 5'4 which he was before. Although it was only an inch, to grow by inch within only 5 days was impressive. And in the first place, to Lucius, it had only felt like a few hours since the battle as he didn't know that he had slept for 5 days. He then made his way to his 500 kg weight and was able to pick it up with one hand quite effortlessly. Before he had to use both hands and quite a bit of his strength to lift it up but now it only took him a slight effort. He was now certain that he had broken through to the second stage of body forging. The second stage was called the 'Gold' Stage not because his skin turned to gold but instead that his skin and body could break gold. In other words, if someone attacked Lucius with a gold sword or gold stick, it would break on his body like if you were to attack a buff man with an old wooden sword. The third stage was the same as once you reached the Steel stage you would be able to break steel with your body. Delilah had reached this stage already, so although she looked like a dainty frail young girl, she could rip apart a man with her bare hands. She could literally split a boulder in half with a casual swing. She was able to carve down a mountain within a few hours. Now that Lucius had reached the Gold stage, he could lift around 1000kg but Delilah could lift 5000kg. Delilah was had reached an insane level of strength for a girl her age, meaning she was a genius on par with Lucius, who was compared to his Grandfather. To put it into the right perspective ; currently there was only 1 human tier 9 expert and he was 2.5 million years old. 2.5 million! Orion was considered a great genius himself but he was subpar to his father and Orion had reached tier 9 by the age of 1000 only. That human expert was 2,500 times older than Orion! Lucius' grandfather had reached tier 9 at the age of 700 and then tier 10 at the age of 2478 years. Lucius' maternal grandmother had reached tier 10 at the age of 12,000 and she was considered a peerless genius herself. This meant that Lucius' grandfather was simply a monster of cultivation!

Lucius left his room and went to shower. He hadn't released any toxins our expelled any impurities during the breakthrough since there wasn't anything to expel. Lucius had been fed tier 3 spirit water and food since birth, he was given food that was highly pure and gentle so no impurities were inside his body. Lucius would probably expel impurities during his breakthrough to the 4th or 5th stage of body tempering. Delilah had expelled impurities during her breakthrough to the third stage mainly because of the process of metamorphosis instead of her own constitution as she too was fed tier 3 food since birth. Now she wouldn't have to cleanse her body until at least the 6th stage if nothing bad happened. If Lucius or Delilah were to undergo cultivation deviation or become poisoned or sick by some means then they would have to cleanse themselves much earlier to regain their peak states.

Lucius left the shower and went straight to his fathers place, the Arena, instead of going to get food or going to check up on John. There were things Lucius was thinking about that he just couldn't get out of his mind.