Lith’s dorm, sky island.
Lith, Ralph, and Dennis were sitting and having food together at the dining table. Ralph took a sip of his mocha frappe and asked the two,
“What did they teach in the class today?”
“Same old boring stuff.” Dennis replied and popped a piece of chicken popcorn into his mouth.
“Spell casting techniques equivalent to rank 4. Nothing new in it.” Lith said briefly, knowing what Ralph was asking.
Ralph nodded his head and picked up a cookie from the plate in front of him and ate it. He didn’t ask anything again and didn’t talk either, since he didn’t have any topic to speak on and stayed silent to listen to Lith and Dennis’s conversation.
“Yeah, that. What his highness said is what we learned. Anyway, did you know, I reached level 4999 on the Toffee Break. Just 1 more and I’ll be on level 5000, hahahaha.” Dennis stated proudly about his achievement.
“Toffee Break?” Ralph asked while chewing on a cookie.
“The game which is played by jobless and those people who have a lot of free time in their hands, aka NEETs all over the world. There’s no end level present in it and you can keep going as long as you want.” Lith replied to Ralph’s question while sipping on his tea.
“Hey, hey, your highness, it’s not like that. The game… uhh… it improves concentration and logical reasoning. Yes, definitely.” Dennis said, defending himself from being accused of being a neet.
“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Lith said sarcastically.
“It improves concentration and logical reasoning?” Ralph asked once again, a bit interested since he liked logical reasoning things.
Lith shook his head and explained, “No. It’s just a waste of time. There’s no end to this game and you’ll just keep on playing and playing. Dennis’s level is way above average as he has reached almost one-fourth the level of the number 1 player.
The number 1 player of this game globally is someone called ‘Lazy Cookie’ and is on level 18,921 and this person rises by one level every two to three days. Can you imagine how jobless this person is?”
…
In a majestic dark palace that looked sacred and holy, unlike its dark appearance in Abyssal-Hell.
A beautiful black-haired, black-eyed lady with red horns, wearing nothing but an oversized gray hoodie and black panties was playing a game on her tablet while laying on the sofa.
Suddenly…
“Achoo!”
The lady sneezed, and her tablet fell down due to her jerking. She picked the tablet back up, and thought to herself,
‘Is someone cursing me?’
It was just a passing thought as she soon let go of it and continued to play the game ‘Toffee Break’ on her tablet, which was interrupted due to her sneezing.
…
Lith’s dorm, Abalax sky island.
“So it’s a waste of time. Got it.” Ralph nodded his head in understanding and replied.
“Hey, hey, it’s not a waste. It’s pretty fun. You should try it.” Dennis defended Toffee Break and said.
“No thanks.” Ralph replied.
The two went about discussing Toffee Break and, in the meantime, Lith was thinking about something completely different.
‘I couldn’t see Liam on the academy premises. Did he not come back to the academy? Is he in hiding now? I wonder where he is.’ Lith thought to himself.
…
Auckland city, Villmer.
“AHHH! LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME ALONE! I WANNA DIE! I WANNA DIE!”
Liam, the black-haired, blue-eyed teen, screamed and violently shook all his limbs while lying on a bed, trying to break off the chains attached to them.
“So, what can be done to cure him?” A man in deep blue, exquisite silky robes, with looks similar to Liam, asked an old man wearing red robes.
“It’s simple. I’ll concoct a pill to soothe his mind and make him at ease. And another pill to erase his trauma. There won’t be any problems.” The old man answered.
“Okay. There’s no rush for it, but can you roughly tell me how long it will take?”
“Five minutes.” The old man said in a neutral tone.
“Hmm?” Graham Novius, Liam’s father, who looked similar to him, raised an eyebrow and asked, “this fast?”
“Yeah, you heard me right. I have all the ingredients with me for those pills. It won’t be a hassle. I’ll charge extra though, for finishing it up this quickly.” The old man said.
“Money isn’t a problem. Just make sure that he is cured.”
“Okay.”
After their brief conversation together, the old man took out a black cauldron, big enough to fit three adult humans inside it, and placed it on the ground. He sat in front of it and snapped his finger, making greenish-blue flames arise and heat the cauldron from the bottom.
Graham Novius didn’t disturb him and just watched. Liam, on the other hand, continued to scream his lungs out while attempting to break free from the chains.
The old man cast a noise cancellation barrier around him so as to not get disturbed by Liam’s screaming. He then took out a big transparent bottle from his ring that had some kind of purple liquid in it and poured it all inside the cauldron.
He proceeded to take out a few items that looked like dried roots and bark, placed them in between his palms, and rubbed them. The items turned into powder and fell down from his palm, but instead of falling on the ground; they traveled to the cauldron and got soaked into the purple liquid that was present in one-fourth of the cauldron.
After that, the old man took out the pestle and mortar from his ring and placed them in front of him. He then took three pills from his ring, which were blue, black, and gray in color, and smashed them with the pestle in the mortar.
Sparks arose as he smashed them and as he continued to pound, the sparks turned into greenish gas. The man willed the elements around him and this gas went into the cauldron.
The man then stood up and took a thick lid from his ring, which he placed on the cauldron before backing away.
A few minutes later.
Whistle!
Pop!
A whistling sound was heard followed by a popping sound and two pills, both green in color, popped out of the cauldron. The old man willed the elements around him and caught the pills into a bottle.
He broke the barrier around him and gave the bottle to Graham and stated,
“The pills.”
“Thank you.”
Graham thanked the old man and walked towards Liam, who was still screaming. He first knocked him out with a flick to his forehead, then willed the elements around him and made the pills enter his mouth.
He poured some water into his mouth and, along with the help of the elements around, had the unconscious Liam gulp down the two pills. He once again flicked Liam’s forehead, but this time brought him back to consciousness.
As soon as Liam awoke, he was about to scream again but stopped midway when he felt a cooling sensation all over his body. Not only that, a second later he felt tranquil and at peace. There were no thoughts running through his head and felt at ease.
After a few minutes, the sensations faded, and Liam returned to his normal self. He looked around and noticed that he was chained to his bed. When he saw his father, he knitted his brows and said,
“Father, what’s the meaning of this?”