The next morning.
Daniel and Serf were spending time practicing one of the assignments that one of their alchemy teachers had given to them.
Serf, just like every other time, was capable of completing the task right from the beginning, while it was not the same for Daniel.
During the past couple of hours, Serf had found himself in the position where he needed to give a few suggestions to Daniel more than once in order to increase his chances of succeeding, and after only a bit, he started to notice something.
Despite looking like a complete amateur at first, Daniel was quickly able to learn something in a matter of two or three attempts. He would not always learn the right method by himself, and if nobody helped him, he would learn by correcting his own mistakes through different attempts. Finally, he would never make those mistakes again, unless distracted.
At the end of the day, Daniel was always able to come up with a method to complete the assignment that was, in a way, even more effective than the one explained by the teacher himself.
As the son of one of the most important families of the poisonous rose, Serf had been educated in alchemy and poison making at a level much higher than the academy could ever teach to his students. That was how he was able to recognize the value of Daniel's results.
He knew that not many would be able to teach him those things, unless he already possessed an inherited a knowledge of hundreds of years of practice.
In his mind, two guesses were starting to form. The first one, was that Daniel was not actually an amateur at alchemy, and that he was in fact a master pretending just so that he could enter the school.
This guess was valid, but Serf could not help but doubt it, as there was no reason why a master of alchemy would want to look like an amateur. Also, he only showed a prodigy-like talent to him, which was the only one that observed him during his practice. If that wasn't enough, his initial mistakes were extremely believable.
The second one, was that Daniel was truly a never-seen-before prodigy, and that he learned things, and corrected his own mistakes at an unnatural speed.
This second guess, for how unbelievable it sounded, made much more sense than the previous.
"Are you just going to look, or are you also going to tell me what I'm doing wrong?" Asked Daniel after noticing the curious look on Serf's eyes.
Serf came out of his pensive state, and with a hint of embarrassment, he said "Sorry.. You are doing nothing wrong. You're result should be better than if you followed the teacher's instructions."
"Nice.. this is going to be an especially potent.. Insect repellent.." Said Daniel with feigned enthusiasm, before putting down the instruments, and causing the procedure to fail on purpose.
He then grabbed a new set of ingredients, and begun the procedure once again.
"Dan.. you know that if you want to make the antidotes for the poison, I can just give them to you.. They are expensive to produce, while I can simply ask for them." Said Serf out of the blue.
A faint smile appeared on Daniel's face, one which showed confidence and a peaceful state of mind. "Don't worry, I'm good." He said with a dismissive tone.
In his head, the good impression he had about Serf did nothing but increase with time. They hadn't known each other for long, and yet, he had learned a few things about him. He was capable of ignoring the provocation of people who teased him, as if he didn't care about other people's opinion, he treated others with respect, and finally, he helped whenever he could, even if that went against his own family.
"Okay.. but you don't have the recipe.. And while your items are the right ones, they are of the wrong type.. Even with the recipe, which even I do not have, you would not be able to produce these black pills.." Said Serf with a bit of exasperation.
"I never said I wanted to make one of those pills.. I'm going to make an antidote.. A permanent one."
A mixture of confusion, doubt, and surprise appeared on Serf's chubby face. He looked at Daniel as if he had heard something crazy, then said "What are you talking about? You.. Wait.. how did you know exactly what types of poisons and material you needed?"
"Don't worry about that.. More importantly.. After I make my way into the poisonous rose, I'll give you the recipe of the poison of your family." Daniel said casually.
The reason why he wanted Serf to have the antidote of that poison, was that he would probably end up in contact with it sooner or later in his life.. Also, he knew that he wouldn't share it with the rest of his family.
"No.. I don't want it." Said Serf right after hearing Daniel's words.
Daniel turned to look back at him with slight surprise, then simply asked "Why?"
Serf became pensive for a few seconds, then said "My family has methods to pull a secret out of people.. If I knew the recipe for our family poison, I have no doubt that they would poison me just to observe how I would create the antidote for myself."
"You don't look like one who would give up such a big secret just because of that.." Said Daniel before taking a slight pause, and adding "There is no other reason?"
"Well.. the poison of my family is highly effective.. But my family hasn't done much studies on it lately due to the high risks of it backfiring.. I don't want it to grow into a more dangerous weapon than it already is."
"Won't your family think that you had something to do with creating an antidote if one of your friends were to come up with it out of the blue?" Asked Daniel in confusion. It seemed to him that that thought didn't even cross Serf's mind.
A faint smile appeared on Serf's face "Hehe.. no, I wouldn't worry about that. In my family, I am the black sheep. Known to be extremely against the research on poisons, that is why I am not treated that well."
"Alright then.. How about the pressure on you? Won't they ask you to obtain the recipe from me?"
"Probably.." Responded Serf with a slightly worried tone. It was clear that he had already thought of this possibility, and had kept it to himself until now.
Daniel walked up to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. Then said "Don't worry about it, they won't need to bother you for it."
"You're not thinking of giving it up, right?" Asked Serf through gritted teeth. The idea of his family gaining more power was one of the worst outcomes he could think about.
"You'll see.."
-----
Two days later, Daniel was walking peacefully in the city along with Jerigh and Roley, when they stopped after reaching a series of building.
These buildings were all covered in banners, or displayed flags on which the depiction of a black flame on a red background could be seen.
The banners reminded to anyone who walked into this area, to which power it belonged.. The Hellblazer company.
"Why did you ask us to join you?" Roley asked to Daniel with a curious tone.
Without turning to look back at him, Daniel said "I am not visiting for myself, but as the head of our company. You guys are the excuse why I needed to visit.. Officially, we are here for you to observe the demonstration. As the champions of the games, they will have no reason to doubt it."
After he finished speaking, Daniel knocked on a large wooden gate on which the word 'Hellblazer' was carved neatly, and filled in with gold.
Behind the door, was a young man which was wearing red robes. He had a burn mark that covered the left side of his forehead, but strangely enough, didn't make his face unbearable to watch. His brown eyes showed great confidence, just like his posture.
Behind this young man, were two guards at the sixth stage of cultivation. They were both men, and along with a full set of black plate armor over a red cloth, they carried two spears, and two swords by their waists.
"Welcome, Mr. Hiel. We have been waiting for your visit for the past couple of days." Said the young man with a dead voice. "I am Fyro Tigg, the grandson of the head of our company. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine." Responded Daniel with a polite tone. Then turned to look at his two companions, and said "These are.."
Before he could finish, Fyro said "Roley, and Jerigh. Of course.. I was present during the games Mr. Hiel.. I've witnessed firsthand their prodigious talent."
Roley, which was about the same age as Fyro, said "You are too courteous.. Your result, despite the fact that you come from a company specialized in a single essence, is no less impressive."
The young man called Fyro smiled for the first time, and bowed in gratitude for Roley's words.
Of course, Fyro was already aware of who the three of them were. He had been instructed by his grandfather to be polite, and treat the three of them as honored guests.. But Fyro was proud.
After winning the games, Fyro expected Daniel, Roley and Jerigh to be extremely arrogant, and that was the reason for his previously cold attitude.
Fortunately, it took only a minute of conversation to change his mind towards his guests, and to soften his attitude.
"Your words are too kind.. Please follow me, I will take you to see my father." He said with a faint smile before turning towards a long rocky path, and started to walk towards the biggest of the buildings.
The two guards followed right behind him, and after them Daniel, Jerigh and Roley.
They kept walking for a few minutes, until finally, they managed to reach an impressive looking building, inside which, a middle aged man with a clear resemblance to Fyro, was waiting patiently.
"Mister Hiel, It's a pleasure to have you here as a guest." Said the middle aged man with a big smile, and a polite attitude. His eyes then moved on Jerigh, and after landing on Roley, he said "And you have your prodigious employees with you! Amazing."
Naturally, Daniel had never met this middle aged man. He of course was aware that his company was part of the same collective his was in, but he had never met him directly.
It was only thanks to Fyro's presentation that he knew this man's surname.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Tigg. We have been sent here to spectate to the demonstration of a perfect comprehension of fire essence." Said Daniel with politeness, before taking a token out of his spatial ring, and showing it to the middle aged man.
After seeing the token, the man muttered "The poisonous rose.. I didn't think your company would have that sort of connection.. It's a shame that your requests for the perfect treasure were too high for us.. We could have grown greatly from possessing a fire perfect treasure."
One could clearly feel the dejection in his voice. Despite him having no chance to obtain the treasure to begin with, he still dreamed about his family actually putting his hands on one.
Sadly enough, this was the closest they had ever been to obtaining one. Talking to someone which used to possess one.
"Let's go see my father, he is the only master of fire in our family.. Only he can fulfill this request." Said the middle aged man before turning around, and walking towards one of the rooms connected to the hall.