Chapter 1308 Ten Countries [3]

As he spoke, Timi reached into his storage space.

Four black objects appeared in his hand.

Each was roughly shaped like a broken piece of a circle.

"Eh?"

Lily's eyes widened as she recognized the items at once.

For a moment, surprise appeared on her face.

She knew exactly how troublesome obtaining even one Universal Cornerstone Fragment could be.

Four fragments meant Timi had successfully dealt with such situations at least four times.

Lily's surprise faded almost as quickly as it had appeared.

She remembered who was standing in front of her.

Timi was strong.

During the time they'd travelled together, she had already seen enough of his abilities to understand that much.

If even she had been capable of obtaining Universal Cornerstone Fragments, there was no particular reason Timi couldn't do the same.

"Yeah. Those are them."

Technically, Timi hadn't needed Lily's confirmation.

He'd used Detect on the items long ago, and they matched exactly how Lily said such fragments could be obtained.

Timi simply hadn't cared enough about the fragments to investigate further.

Thanks to his Talent, the quantity of what he devoured mattered, but it wasn't without limit.

Attribute points accounted for most of what he gained from it, but the well wasn't infinite, and he couldn't farm the same thing over and over.

He needed to find more precious or more powerful things to devour if he wanted to keep growing and add to his accumulation.

The Zeroth Layer could no longer offer him that, which was why he'd shifted toward preparing to advance in Rank, until he ran into these Epic Grade guardians in Level Three regions, which started feeding his growth all over again.

Though they only dropped one kind of loot, these pieces he hadn't cared about before, with the mindset of squeezing as much value as he could out of a place while also conveniently looking for Lily, most of his exploration had turned toward finding Level Three regions.

Being solo, his pace was fast.

Lily stared at the four pieces for another moment before curiosity appeared on her face again.

"Are these four all you have?"

"No."

"How many?"

Timi didn't see the need to hide his accumulation from her, so he answered truthfully.

"Twenty."

Lily froze in shock upon hearing his answer.

Four fragments formed one complete set.

Twenty fragments meant five complete sets, which meant Five Universal Cornerstone Deployment Cores.

After a little hesitation, Lily spoke again.

"Timi... are you willing to give some of them to me?"

Timi looked at her.

Before he could answer, Lily hurriedly continued.

"Not for free! I'll pay you."

Lily's words brought a trace of interest to Timi's face.

In truth, giving Lily a few fragments for free wasn't beyond consideration.

From everything she had explained, he only needed one complete set for what he currently wanted to accomplish.

At most, he would keep two sets to be safe.

Anything beyond that wasn't particularly important to him at the moment.

More importantly, if he ever needed additional fragments, he could simply search for more Level Three regions and hunt their guardians.

Of course, only someone like Timi could casually think about Universal Cornerstone Fragments in such a manner.

The fact that Lily, Arianne, and Timi had all managed to gather significant numbers of fragments could easily create the false impression that acquiring them wasn't particularly difficult.

The reality was completely different.

Every fragment was protected within a Level Three region, guarded by Epic Grade guardians.

Epic Grade creatures were in a category of their own.

Even if a Rank Two Awakener descended into the Zeroth Layer, they wouldn't necessarily perform any better than Lily, Arianne, or Timi once suppressed to the Layer's limits.

Higher Rank provided experience, better-developed abilities, combat knowledge, and countless other advantages.

Suppression was still suppression.

If everything was forced down to Level Ten, then the quality of one's foundation became increasingly important.

Unless an Awakener possessed a foundation capable of letting them fight something comparable to a Level Ten dragon in the Zeroth Layer at the same Level, obtaining even one fragment was anything but easy.

Lily was abnormal.

Arianne was even more abnormal.

And Timi, with Devour continuously strengthening his foundation, clearly belonged to the same unreasonable category.

That was why the three of them could think of Universal Cornerstone Fragments as though they were merely troublesome resources that required some searching.

For most Zeroth Layer Awakeners, even discovering one could become an opportunity they simply weren't strong enough to take.

Timi glanced at the fragments in his palm before looking back at Lily.

"What are you paying with?"

Since Lily had already said she would pay, Timi saw no reason to refuse the offer.

The only question was what she could actually offer him.

Timi wasn't particularly interested in ordinary resources anymore.

Thanks to Devour, what he needed most were things sufficiently valuable or unusual to continue strengthening him.

If Lily offered something he couldn't use, he would honestly rather just give her the fragments for free.

She was pleasant to the eye, after all.

Lily, however, seemed unusually confident.

She proudly beat a fist against her chest.

"I might be poor, but my cousin is rich!"

Timi stared at her in disdain.

Lily continued with complete confidence.

"He should have something that can satisfy you."

There was a faint hint of pride in her voice when she said it.

A second later, something strange crossed Timi's face.

Again with this cousin.

Everything somehow returned to this mysterious cousin of hers.

Her equipment?

Her cousin.

Her resources?

Her cousin.

This territory?

Apparently connected to her cousin too.

Even the terrifying blonde girl walking around nearby was her cousin's girlfriend.

From the way Lily spoke about him, one would think her cousin could casually pull treasures out of thin air.

Timi still wasn't entirely convinced.

Lily had spent enough time praising her cousin during their previous travels that Timi had long suspected she viewed the man through a rather unreasonable lens.

Perhaps he really was powerful.

But exactly how powerful?

Timi was still thinking about it when Lily suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, right. I wanted to ask you something."

"Hm?"

Lily thought briefly about how to phrase it.

After a bit of difficulty, she decided it was too troublesome and just asked bluntly.

"What are the ten best known countries in your realm?"

"Huh?"

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A/N: More chapters coming shortly. Please continue to vote to support your poor author! And yes, dear reader soulvalkyri, this shameless author will beg for your golden tickets ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

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