Jack was a strong man. 6 feet and 5 inches tall. Broad shoulders with powerful arms, so it was inevitable that he had been slacking when it came to his lower body. Most veterans of war and battle would tell you that strength comes from the lower body but Jack had skated by using his top half only because he had superior cultivation to the enemies he faced ,which was mostly the Horde. The greatest height a goblin king had ever reached was 5'7" while ordinary goblins capped out at 4 ft. Kobolds were slightly taller but even the kobold kings had never reached 6ft, capping out at 5'10" instead, while the average kobold was 4'6". As a consequence of fighting shorter, weaker opponents all his life, his combat style was heavy hitting and focused on strength rather than technique. Lucius on the other hand had trained his body uniformly under Orion's guidance. Orion had the moniker of the sovereign of blood and war in the higher worlds, he was seen as the God of battle and war, so he knew exactly how to train properly and how detrimental neglecting one part of the body could be. When he sparred with Lucius he would change up his battle style and moves, leaving Lucius with no way of noticing his patterns or getting used to his combat style. Jack on the other hand was as basic as they got as he simply hacked and slashed. It was actually a method that could succeed against most people that were weaker than him but against a trained warrior like Lucius who had spent the last 7 years sparring with a God of War, it wasn't good enough. Lucius had also been trained in the anatomy of the human body and all its weak points by the God of Healing, Acacia Basil, so he also knew how and where to hit to incapacitate someone easily. Lucius had just shown how he could overpower a Spirit Condenser with skill alone, if you added in the weapons he had personally forged then Lucius was already strong enough to be considered at the peak of this world.
Lucius helped Jack up and smiled brightly, commenting with a cheeky tone "I told you I was quite good! Hehehe"
"Haizz, you really beat me there, kiddo. You're a strong one Lucius, your parents must be proud to have such a strong son. Actually, if you wouldn't mind could you give me some pointers on how to improve." Jack commented as he rubbed the back of his head with a bit of an embarrassed look but with a hint of admiration in his eyes.
"Sure, for the most part the problem lies in your legs. You could've brought out much more strength if your legs were as strong as your arms. You need to train your body equally. Also your moves are too simple, you should add variance and change the sequence of attacks from time to time. Usually I can never work out the patterns of my father, and he even beats me all over my body equally. He calls it the fair way to go about it, saying that my ass deserves to be beat as much as my head does. Hahaha" Lucius commented while remembering the painful lessons of Orion.
"Hmmm, your right. I've been spending most of my life training my upper body while neglecting the lower half. Thank you for the guidance young man. Your father sounds like a good man, hahaha, maybe I should get beaten equally all over my body too!"
Everyone laughed along as they didn't want to be the ones that didn't laugh at the Colonels joke. Most of the officers were Majors while some of the higher ones were Lieutenant Colonels, like Frederick so they were all terrified about how a kid who looked as young as their own sons was able to beat their commander and Colonel in a row without getting hit once. They were laughing along while being terrified deep in their hearts.
Rebecca on the other hand was fuming by herself. She had just decided that she would disown such a useless father who lost to a 12 year old who was younger than her little brother. She had already made a resolution to not help the White Family or any of the Western region when she became the Empress in the future. She wasn't going to waste time on these useless people.
After the training session they left the training field and returned to the White family's mansion. They showed Lucius to the best guest bedroom and then let him unpack while telling him that dinner would be at 8pm. Lucius didn't really need to unpack as everything he needed was in his storage ring and he didn't plan to stay in the White Estate forever.
When dinner came around they discussed what Lucius would be doing and he told them that since he was new to this world he had no money, Jack offered to give him money but Lucius didn't want to be indebted to anyone already. Delilah had told him about debtors that came along and took all of your stuff and beat you up if you didn't pay them back quick enough, and although he knew that Jack wasn't a debtor he still couldn't shake the harrowing stories that Delilah had told him from his head. Delilah had never actually seen or experienced this herself but she had found it in some novels she had found in the library. Lucius had mainly studied the techniques, history and culture of the clans and military tactics but since Delilah was in the Library for all of her life so she had read those novels and stories to pass the time.
Lucius had decided to work to gain money instead, so Milly offered him a job at her restaurant. She knew he was a cook on the same level as her and that he had a strong body and bountiful skill so she was thrilled when he agreed as her workload would be pretty much halved as he could do all that she could and maybe even more.
The restaurant was called the White Haven and it was considered the best restaurant in the entirety of the continent. Most of the people who dined at the restaurant were high level officials or military men, but even among those who could attend, the ones who attended the most were royal officials as they had more time and money to spare. The restaurant was as big as a Super store and was divided into sections that catered to different classes and such, those closer to the kitchen where Milly worked were the higher status officials. There were multiple kitchens and the staff amounted to 234 workers, including waiters and cleaners. Lucius would be the head chef of a new station that Milly had arranged just for him, a grill and mix bar. It was to be opened for the higher ranking officials and military men that weren't royals as the royals would only accept Milly's cooking.
When the first customers arrived at the Grill & Mix bar that had newly opened they were curious to see who would be manning it as usually this far into the restaurant was personally manned by Milly but she was still in the far end kitchen, cooking for the royal officials. That was when various sous-chefs and waitresses came out and placed down the ingredients in an orderly fashion. The bar was set up in a three table design with wood fire grills placed in front of the tables. An old man came out and poured in a wood that the high officials could notice was a Tier 1 mid rank wood, smoked spirit oak, this wood gave food an enhanced smoked flavour. The officials had begun to assume that the old man was the Chef who would be serving them but after lighting the wood on fire he moved to the side. Then a 12 year old looking child walked over and pulled out a set of knives from nowhere. The high officials were shocked, immediately realising that this was the chef they had been waiting for.
Lucius had pulled out his knifes from his ring, they were Tier 1 mid grade knifes that he had made as a set, they were made with simple stainless steel and cut cleanly and properly. He then noticed the fire was too strong so with a wave of his hand he extended some of his qi and lowered the temperature and controlled the flames to burn uniformly. He then brought over the meat and began to cut it swiftly while ordering the sous-chef to start dicing up the herbs and to measure out the spices. He then checked the sous-chefs work and was satisfied that he got it right, he added the herbs and spices into a bowl, added a few splashes of spirit water, turning it into a paste which he rubbed into the meat, completely uniformly while massaging and tenderising the meat. He let that sit for ten minutes while he pulled out some fruits. He began making a fruit drink as he mixed mangos, peaches, pears, bananas, apples and pineapples. Finishing it off with some spirit water and adding a squeeze of lemon. He poured the mixture into tall mugs, placed some straws in and then served it out to the 15 people watching him. Each of the 3 tables had 5 people sitting at it. They all looked astonished at his display of expertise and his masterful handling of the ingredients. They took a sip of the drink and were surprised with all the flavour that burst throughout their mouths. They all thought at the same time, "This kid is a genius at making fruit juice!"
After the drink was served a waitress came over and refilled the glasses as most of the spectators had cleaned out the glass in one go. Of course Lucius knew this would happen so he had prepared a lot of juice in the first place. After the refills were given out the meat was done marinating so Lucius spread it out over the grills. He then had the sous-chefs cut peppers and onions and then grilled those as well. While the meat and veg were grilling, Lucius pulled out a large bowl and cut up lettuce and cucumbers into thin slices that he placed on the side of the peoples plates. He then immediately cut up the meat and flicked it onto their plates with precision and accuracy as the meat fell perfectly next to the sliced salad, he then threw the peppers and onions to the side of the meat. He then bowed and said enjoy. As he turned around and walked away leaving a gobsmacked audience. Even the sous-chef was in awe at how quickly and with such grace that Lucius was able to plate the food without even bringing the plates to him. He was like a ninja with the food. It was on this day that a rumour spread about the food ninja boy. Lucius was embarrassed greatly by the name as it was cringe and kind of an awful name. He wanted something more cool and epic, he was still a kid after all. Lucius had already named his weapon and armour with such exaggerated names like Devils Calling and Spiders Embrace.
Lucius spent the next few weeks working at the restaurant and he had amassed a great fortune as many people had come to see his masterful show of cooking and the divine food that was on the level of the great chef Milly White. Lucius was able to gain around 50,000 gold coins. To put it into perspective, an ordinary apple would cost you 1 copper coin, 100 coppers would get you a silver and 100 silvers was a gold coin. Lucius had 500 million copper coins, if we were to convert it into our currency then 10 copper was the same as a pound. Lucius was already a millionaire that could buy most things that he could find.