Chapter 37- Invitation

The moment he heard those words, Malice halted in his place and looked back with a frown on his face. 'Well, now it is my business.' He thought to himself as he crawled back to the wall and listened.

"Where did you get that information?" Malice heard Cipher ask coldly.

"Oh, darling, have you forgotten who am I? I have ears in every wall, and if there are no walls, I have ears in the air. You cannot hide anything from me." The woman replied with an amused chuckle.

"Tsk, you and your nosiness."

"Of course, I made sure to give you a special focus." The woman added.

"Why? Are you longing for the day that I snap your neck this badly?"

"Haha, very romantic of you, darling. But, on a serious note, you are a very intriguing one, Cipher. One of the few people I know that I don't know much about. Your goals are still a mystery to me to this day, even though we have known each other for decades. Why is that?"

The room was submerged in silence for a few seconds before Cipher opened his mouth. "I am not sociable enough to tell people what I'm doing. I have too many matters that nobody should know about."

"Is this kid also one of those things?"

"It is not a secret no more, so it isn't." He sighed as he replied.

"That…" The woman seemed speechless for a moment before she spoke. "So, what's so special about this kid for the great 'Cipher Of The Grey' to pick him up and train him?"

"... He is just an intriguing child. No reason behind it." The man replied, his voice not changing one bit.

"Intriguing, you say. So, he's one of the Marked Ones that didn't come from any of the great families. Quite interesting indeed."

'They're really talking about me. But, it doesn't seem that bad.' Malice thought to himself. At first, he thought that Cipher and this woman had some kind of secret they were hiding but so far, they were simply having a very awkward, albeit friendly conversation.

'Maybe I was a little too worried for no real reason.'

As he was starting to contemplate whether he should leave or not, he heard the woman speak again.

"But, aren't you worried… About 'them'?" She suddenly asked, picking Malice's interest.

Out of nowhere, Malice felt a chill run down his spine. Even though he wasn't in the same room as the two, he could feel the tension rising in a split second the moment the woman asked that question.

"They know nothing." Eventually, Cipher replied in an oddly calm manner.

"But, if they do hear about you doing this, you best believe it ain't going to-"

"Cera!" 

At that moment, Cipher spoke her name in a slightly higher tone than usual. That made the woman named Cera go silent again.

"Well, you're already aware of it, reminding you is pointless. But, be careful, Cipher. I do not want to lose one of the people I consider truly interesting." She said.

After that, the two went silent, as if the call ended. Malice sat there for a few seconds, nobody knew what was going through his head. Then, he slowly stood up and walked back to his room silently.

***

*Next Morning*

Malice woke up as usual, ate breakfast, and then started training as usual. Today, Cipher had told him to start going to the gym on his own as he already figured out what exercises he had to do and also the number of sets he had to go through. They were all written on a table inside the gym in case he forgot too. 

The time it took him to do that was a little quicker than usual since his body and stamina were growing day by day. Even as the difficulty of the training kept increasing, his body was growing accustomed to the intensity.

They continued with the usual lessons from morning till evening. Then, at the end of it, Cipher finally moved to the most important part.

"Try to ignite a flame in your hand." The blonde man said with a cold look on his face. For one reason or another, he seemed rather grumpier than usual that day. Or that was simply Malice's brain trying to notice any changes.

Shaking his head, Malice focused on the task. "Yes, I think I can." He replied as he looked down at his hand.

Then, slowly, he started channeling his Soul Essence. After doing it a few times, he was already growing accustomed to the method. He knew that with time, it wouldn't take him an instant to channel Soul Essence.

After that, Malice focused on his hand. He remembered every single detail he wrote and memorized about the fire.

'Fire… Red… Ignite… Fuel… Oxygen.'

All those details slowly streamed into his head as he manifested a clear image of the flame and everything about it. His brain didn't find trouble forming that information in a very vivid manner. Perhaps it was due to his mental power increasing along with his physical power.

A few moments passed in silence as Malice focused on the fire within his head. Unbeknownst to him, changes were happening outside. His hand which was normal before started slowly glowing with a red light.

His Soul Essence was condensing in his hand, forming a halo around it. Then…

*Flick*

Suddenly, his hand flickered with a spark of flame that ignited out of nowhere. That spark flickered a few times before suddenly, a small ember of flame ignited in his hand.

The sound of it made Malice open his eyes as he looked down. His red eyes reflected the flame on his hand as his expression changed a little.

"... It worked." He muttered with a satisfied look on his face." For some reason, he didn't feel too excited about it. Not because he wasn't happy, but mostly because a part of him slightly expected this.

He had never realized it, but Malice's confidence in himself had grown a lot in the past few days. Before, he would never really trust himself in most things, except things he had done countless times before.

But, now that he faced death multiple times, succeeded in killing many monsters, and survived brutal fights, he felt like he was indeed a lot better than the credit he gave himself.

'I mean, if I studied it that much, I should be able to ignite a fire in my hand. The harder part is still not here, though.' He thought to himself.

The fire was indeed a good step, but there was still the bigger goal which was to be able to manipulate it and use it in a fight.

'That will require some experimenting in the Dungeons later.' He noted in his head.

"Good, it seems you did do what I wanted." 

"Of course, I'm taking this seriously." Malice shrugged as he closed his hand as the fire disappeared. Then, he thought of it again, and the fire appeared considerably faster than before.

"You do seem like you're determined to learn. That is better than being lazy. I do not accept lazy people." Cipher said.

'My life is on the line, after all. If I get lazy, I will be buried 7 feet under pretty soon.' Malice laughed to himself.

"That is good. Now, you are going to keep igniting that flame, and then I want you to slowly make it bigger. It doesn't matter if you have to hold it with one or two hands. As long as you can throw it forward, that is a success." Cipher explained.

"Throw it, huh…" He muttered to himself. "I think I can do that. But…" Looking around him, Malice examined the gym area.

Cipher seemed to notice his concern. "Don't worry about the place, it's fire-proof, as every other part of the condo. I am also here, so you won't be able to burn this place down even if you wanted to."

'That's assuring.' 

With that, Malice stood up, ready to start the next part, when suddenly, he heard a ringing sound. For a second, he was confused as his eyes followed the source of the sound.

'His phone?' 

Cipher looked down too as his expression changed a little. "You have got to be kidding me…" He muttered under his breath, as he pulled the phone out and started tapping on it.

Silence took over the room for a moment. Malice watched Cipher's face frown harder and harder with each passing second. That naturally made the boy worry, and the conversation he heard yesterday came back quickly.

'Are we in trouble?' Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, Malice waited for Cipher to speak. But, the man didn't utter a word for minutes. It reached a point where the boy could only ask.

"Is everything fine?"

That seemed to snap him out of his thoughts as he looked up. "Hey, Malice." He said.

"... What?" The way Cipher spoke made Malice frown.

"Tell me, do you know what a ball is?"