The Deceitful One

Bryan arrived home and locked the door behind him. He went into the living room and sat down on the couch as he exhaled a breath of relief.

He took out the small black box from his silver pocket watch and opened it. He then grabbed the transparent crystal vial that contained the Sea Kolag's Blood from within and looked at it excitedly.

"I'll go buy all the supplementary ingredients a few days before I'm about to advance." He mumbled under his breath.

Bryan had already carved up till the 49th mind rune and by the end of the next month, he will have finally advanced to a Transcendent!

Becoming a Transcendent in just a little less than a year was a great feat that not even most people with supreme-grade spiritual aptitude could achieve. This was all possible due to Bryan's focus and diligence.

Bryan then thought of something as he took out a red box from his pocket watch. Inside the red box was the other main ingredient required for his advancement: Dusk Crab's Crystal.

He picked up the black trigonal crystal from within the box with his other hand and brought it closer to the Sea Kolag's blood. The moment the two were only inches apart from each other, there was a chain reaction!

The blood inside the vial started to thrash against the crystal walls incessantly as if wanting to come out at any cost. On the other hand, the black crystal started to vibrate as it tried to get out of Bryan's grasp and towards the blood.

Without any hesitation, Bryan kept the Dusk Crab's Crystal back inside the red box. He then looked at the blood inside the vial, only to see that it had calmed down.

Bryan rubbed his chin as he stared at the blood inside the vial, "How interesting! There was a reaction just from the close proximity between the two ingredients. I wonder what will happen when I finally mix them together to concoct the potion…"

He found this very fascinating. The way the two ingredients reacted made one feel that they were two halves of a whole that had been separated and now couldn't wait to be reunited again.

'What would happen if I brought two ingredients from different potion recipes closer together? Would they repel each other?' Bryan wondered.

After a long time, he snapped out of his reverie and put the crystal vial back inside the black box. He then put the box back inside his pocket watch.

After that, he got up from the couch and went directly to the bathroom to take a bath. After about fifteen minutes of taking a relaxing bath, Bryan walked out of the bathroom naked and headed to his wardrobe in the bedroom to change into his night pajamas.

He then entered the kitchen and began preparing for his and Benny's dinner tonight. He didn't have to prepare much for Benny though.

All Bryan had to do was cut up a raw piece of tenderloin steak and place it on the plate. Benny would already be greatly satisfied with this.

Bryan had tried to get him to eat cooked food on many occasions but the latter had refused. At the time, Benny had said: 'Cooked food has no taste! Yuck!'

About thirty minutes later, Bryan exited the kitchen with two plates and a bowl in his hands. The bowl was full of fresh warm milk and one of the plates contained a large raw tenderloin steak. This was Benny's dinner.

The other plate also had a tenderloin steak on it but it was cooked to medium-well and soaked in red wine. Along with the steak, there was parsley rice and mashed potatoes.

He kept all the food on the table and took his seat on the couch next to it, in the living room. Bryan then shut his eyes and tried to communicate with Benny through the rune mark on his forearm.

'Benny, can you hear me?' This was the first time Bryan was attempting to communicate through the rune mark so he didn't know just how fast the message would be transmitted.

About a minute or two later, there was still no reply. Therefore, Bryan tried again, 'Benny, it's me! Are you there?'

This time Bryan had to wait for more than five minutes. His eyebrows began to gradually furrow as he mumbled in anxiety, "Is Benny in trouble or something? Or does this thing not work?"

Just when he was about to make another attempt, the space in front of Bryan cracked open and through the tear, a black shadow pounced toward him at lightning speed.

Bryan wasn't alarmed at all, instead, he smiled warmly and spread his arms open.

"Meow!!" Benny landed in Bryan's embrace as he began to nuzzle against the latter's chest. Benny then crawled upwards and started to lick Bryan's cheek.

He looked up at Bryan excitedly and mentally transmitted, 'Bryan, I missed you so much! It's been so long. Why didn't you call me sooner?'

Bryan caressed Benny's head as he looked at him dotingly, "You spoiled brat! What do you mean it's been so long? It's only been a few hours."

'No!' Benny shook his head vigorously, 'It's been far too long. You must believe me!'

"Okay, okay! I believe you, all right." Bryan replied with a chuckle, "How was your time at… uh, home?"

Benny's eyes shone brightly at the mention of his home, 'I had lots and lots of fun. Uncle Octopus taught me a lot of interesting things! And I made new friends as well!'

Bryan's eyebrows couldn't help but twitch as he thought, 'Uncle Octopus? Made new friends? What in the world?'

"Benny, do you mind telling me about this home of yours? You've always avoided this question whenever I asked before." Bryan inquired curiously.

However, Benny's face turned smug as he tried to act profound, "You shall know when the time is right, Bryan."

Bryan knuckled Benny's head as he replied, "You little brat! Trying to act all mysterious with me, huh? Come, let me give you a bath."

Benny's eyes widened in horror at the mention of a bath, "No! No! I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Please forgive me!"

Bryan began to laugh out loud, "I'm kidding, hahaha! Come, let's have dinner."

The duo then began to enjoy their late-night dinner with great relish.