027 Owen's Request

When Liam woke up, he felt that his head was upside down. He couldn't see much, as his vision was still a bit blurry and everything was shaking.

"Albert? I think that one is starting to wake up, maybe you should increase his dosage next time." Liam heard someone say. Then, his prospective changed and he seemed to be turning. In his vision, he saw a set of stairs and a woman standing near a door next to the stairs.

"I'll make sure he stays asleep the whole time. Plus, we're already here, no need to panic." Liam heard Alberts's voice. He could make sense of the situation now. He was being carried by Albert and he was probably walking down those stairs, that's why his vision was so shaky.

Then Albert went inside a room and closed the door behind him. In the room, Owen was already waiting and so were two chairs. Liam was placed to sit on one of the chairs facing Owen and Ralph on the other one.

"Ralph woke up first the other time. Did you give Liam a smaller dosage?" Owen asked and Liam was very surprised to hear that Owen knew their names.

"No sir, I think he may have gained a resistance to my poison." Albert said.

"That's interesting." Owen said as he looked at Liam. "We'll wait for your friend to wake up, then we'll continue.

A few minutes later, Ralph also woke up.

"What I'm about to tell you, is only my prediction of what will happen, it is not certainty. Though, most of the time, I'm not wrong." Owen started explaining.

"After my fight with the leader of the Flaming faction, Riley will feel obligated to act as well. He has stayed at the third place for a long time and seeing as Kyle beat me, he will also challenge me in the next week." Owen got straight to the point, with explaining the situation. "I don't want to fight; the expedition is in just a week and a half and I want to reach the absolute peak of the fifth human realm before we go there. I can't have any disturbances."

"What do you need us for? What can we do?" Ralph asked.

"And why should we do what you tell us?" Liam added.

"Riley, is not the brightest of bunch, unlike Kyle. He is prone to do and believe what the masses say. I want you two to spread the rumor that Albert is going to show how it would sound like." Owen said.

"I heard that Riley is waiting and gathering his strength. While these two still fight for the first place in the outer court, Riley will rush to the sixth human realm and enter the inner court. He is in a whole different League, unlike those two." Albert said, as he went full on character, of someone who would gossip. Liam and Ralph were greatly surprised, due to his usual monotone character.

"You want us to spread a rumor?" Ralph asked.

"Yes, I see that you are already inside the Golden Eagles faction, so it should be of no difficulty." Owen smiled.

"I pass, I have no reason to help you. This is in no way connected to what you were saying to us the first time. This is in no way correlated with your cause." Liam said as he stood up, though he did not know where he should go, as he was sure they wouldn't just allow him to roam about.

"Liam!" Ralph shouted through his teeth.

"It's fine, I agree with him. This is only to benefit me. How about this. If you succeed, I'll guarantee your crystals of your element for the formation of your soul pet." Owen said, as it should be pretty simple. He knew that Liam was practicing water torpedo, so he assumed he only had the water element, just as he assumed that Ralph only had the general fire element.

"I can't believe this; this is so great." Liam was laughing in his head. Ralph did not know what he was getting himself into. While the swamp element sounded very simple and relatively common, it wasn't actually swamp. The murky spirit water was a very rare element, often confused with the actual swamp element.

"I agree!" Ralph said first, which half surprised Liam. It was no big reward to get 10 crystals of the fire element. But maybe Ralph only agreed to get on with it, Liam was pretty sure Ralph would do it without a reward up for grabs.

"I also agree." Liam said before he sat down.

"Amazing, that's all. Albert, do your thing." Owen said as he also got up from his chair and started to head up.

Liam was already used to this. After Albert put him to sleep, he woke up in a safe space within the training valley, that was also relatively close to his house.

"Ralph, can I tell you something. I am only yelling you this, because I trust you." Liam said as he was walking back with Ralph.

"Yea, of course. Just, I didn't expect you to agree with his offer so quickly. You know 10 water element beast crystals are not hard to get." Ralph said.

"Just hear me out. I don't have the water element. I have a rarer variation, murky spirit water." Liam said, then he waited for Ralph to respond.

"I agreed with his proposal so quickly, because I also don't have the simple fire element and I didn't want you to change his offer to something else. I have what's called phoenix flames." Ralph said.

"Do you know a lot about your element?" Liam asked him.

"I know enough. I'm guessing you don't have a clue about yours." Ralph laughed. "I haven't heard of anyone having that element in the southern continent."

"I'd be surprised if you knew everyone in the southern continent." Liam laughed as well.

"I only meant it among the famous cultivators. I expect someone with such a rare element to be quite known." Ralph corrected himself.

"The only thing I know is that it can attract beasts, nothing else. Oh, I also know that I can use water and darkness element qi." Liam said casually.

"Ralph's face quickly got serious. Don't ever use your darkness element. Do you understand?" He said in a commanding voice.

"Alright, alright, I understand. I won't. Can I at least ask why?" Liam said.

"No, you cannot." Ralph said and then a few moments later. "I'm sorry about that. I'll tell you soon, just not right now.

Nothing more was said between the two boys, that night, they both went to sleep without even saying goodnight.

The next morning, everything was back to usual. The now four friends were walking and talking on their way to classes.

"Liam, did you try out the tiger eye pills I gave you?" Peter said, eager to hear feedback about his amazing work. "I suggest you save the best for last, so you don't get surprised by the effect and waste the pill."

"Sorry, I couldn't. Something came and I had no time. I'll test them out today after classes along with Ralph." Liam said, as they were instructed not to reveal their partnership with the Cursed faction, even to their two friends.

"Friday, last day of classes before the weekend. I can't wait to rest a bit." Aria said.

"Ralph, we can do it in two days, when they come to collect our credits." Liam half whispered to Ralph, who just nodded.

"What will we do about the soul pet expedition. We only have a week after the weekend." Peter said.

"I already have Molly." Aria smiled, as she pet Molly with her gentle hands.

"You'll be our soul pet expert. You'll have to give us a crash course on everything concerning soul pets, from taking care of them to making them stronger and teaching them how to battle." Ralph said with a smile.

"Can I get more than one soul pet?" Liam asked. "I want an army of them. Imagine what I could do then." He giggled like a child.

"No, that is basic knowledge, that's why no one had even mentioned it." Aria said. "Didn't your parents ever tell you that."

Liam's expression went glum. He remembered his beloved father and mother. He did not know if they were well, but he was sure they would be very happy if they knew that Hayley was still alive. "I can't believe grandfather did that. I have to get back as soon as possible. I don't think I can wait two years for this schooling to end." Liam thought. Having no Idea of what had happened. The last thing he knew, was his grandfather's speech that day, people giving up their lives. It was horrible.

Then the hooded man took over and Liam had no Idea of what was happening, when he got his body back, he was inside a gate and forced to rush out. The whole situation was weird.

Nonetheless, Liam threw that thought off of his mind for now and he was getting just a bit excited about trying out the pills from Peter.