Journey Of A Legend

Back on the familiar island inside the small house, Greg was calmly relaxing before a table, while Russ was showing him a process to create a new potion step by step.

"First you need to tear this side of it, then with a gentle pull, you take out the seed. But be careful. After you have done this..."

Holding a strange looking fruit in hand, which looked like a peach, Russ slowly took out the seed from it's interior and put it into the bottle.

As he did this, he threw the fruit away and picked up another fruit.

One by one, he tore a gap on the surface of the fruits, and after taking out their seeds he put them into the bottle.

"After you have finished with this, the last step is to pour a Swamp Frog's saliva into it."

"Swamp Frog? I can't see any.", said Greg with confusion as he looked around in the room, looking for an animal that represented a frog.

"Yes, a Swamp Frog. You don't see it because it is very important that you hold them inside a small and wet place. After all, if not, their body could become solid after a few minutes."

As he said this, Russ crouched down and after grabbing the wooden floor, he raised it.

*Creeaak...*

With a loud sound, Russ opened the floor's surface below his feet and with a gentle motion he took out a frog.

*Ribbit*

Looking at the small brown frog in Russ's hand, Greg turned his gaze to the floor and asked, "Are you holding anything else down there?"

Knowing that it was surprising that he took out a frog from the ground, Russ smiled awkward and said, "As I said, Swamp Frogs need a small and wet place to live. And because a lot of my potions need their saliva, it was a must to hold them down there. If I don't, they would have just died outside."

"I see.", said Greg with a nod and said, "So? How do you take its saliva? Or better question. Why do you need it for a potion?"

With a smile, Russ put the frog's face closer to the bottle's lid and said, "Just watch."

With that, he pressed gently the frog's head, making alive flow into the bottle in an instant.

*Ribbit*

One drop of saliva after another fell onto the various seeds in the bottle.

Greg watched this with a confused expression, but just before he could ask what he should watch, suddenly an unexpected sight happened.

Inside the bottle, the seeds which were solid a second ago started to melt under the frog's saliva, and under a minute what remained from them was a colorful liquid.

When all the seeds melted away successfully, Russ stopped pressing the frog on the head and put it back from where took it away.

Putting back the board to its place Russ stood up and picked up the potion.

"And this is how you create a Beginner Antidote."

Smiling with satisfaction Russ looked at Greg, but seeing the disgust on his face he frowned and asked, "Why are you looking like that?"

"..."

Turning his gaze from the potion to Russ, Greg pointed at the bottle and said, "You just kidding me that someone would drink that? It is filled with that frog's spittle!"

As Russ listened to this he chuckled and said, "Maybe it's taste is a bit of funny, but just think about it. What would you choose? Die because of poison or drink this to continue living?"

"Of course the latter one."

"Exactly.", said Russ and put the bottle on the table, and continued, "Well then, make me a similar antidote."

As he said this, Russ waved his hand, and several fruits appeared on the table.

"From these fruits, you only need those that I made the antidote from. If you make a mistake and choose the wrong fruit, you could easily make a poison instead, so let's see how good your memory is."

Looking at the various fruits from which some were almost identical, Greg thought, "A test huh? Luckily my memory is good, so something like this is child play."

With that in mind, Greg stood up and started to examine the fruits one by one.

After inspecting all of them for almost half an hour Greg smiled and started to pick the fruits he needed.

"This one... This... I need these two and this too."

Taking away 9 fruits one after another, Greg looked at Russ and said, "The others are all fake, I don't need them. I will start making the antidote."

However, before he could start making it, he noticed something strange.

The moment he said he will choose those fruits and he doesn't need the others, Russ didn't say a single word but simply smiled at him calmly. 

Thinking back at that calm smile, Greg knew that he missed something important so before starting making the potion he checked everything again.

"Strange. Everything seems good, so why is he looking at me like that? Maybe I just imagining things?", thought Greg with a frown and looked at Russ, but again what he could see was only a calm smile.

"Maybe he is just trying to mess with my thinking and wants me to change my mind."

Thinking about this, Greg smiled and summoned Shapless into his hand in the form of a small knife and thought, "Nice try, but I won't fall something like that."

With that, he started to take the seeds out of the fruits one by one and when he finished he took out the frog from below the ground.

*Ribbit*

Pressing it on the head, Greg let the frog's saliva to drop on the seeds, making them to melt and mix together instantly.

"Are you finished?", asked Russ with a smile.

"Yes."

"Perfect. Then drink the antidote."

Hearing this Greg looked surprised and asked, "Why?"

"To see if you didn't make a poison instead. If you drink it but there will be no dire side-effect then you created the right antidote. But maybe if you didn't then..."

As he said this Russ put his hand on the potion on the table and said, "Don't worry. We have this so even if you made a mistake and created a poison we have the right antidote."

Listening to this, Greg knew Russ was right, so without hesitation, he grabbed the antidote he made and after opening the lid, he poured the liquid down his throat.

*Gulp!*

Drinking the whole amount of liquid in one go, Greg cleaned his mouth and said, "Done."

As he said this he raised his hand and looked at himself. Seeing that nothing special happened with his body, Greg smiled and said, "I told you. I care, huh?"

Just before he could have finished his sentence, suddenly his skin on his neck turned purple, while his sight started to turn dizzy slowly.

Russ seeing this smiled and was about to use the antidote he made on Greg when suddenly an unexpected sight happened.

Suddenly the purplish color on Greg's neck started to spread like a virus and under a single second, it reached the middle of his chest.

*Paff!*

"What? How?", asked Russ with disbelief as he looked at Greg's body on the ground and instantly looked at the fruits which Greg used as materials.

Squinting his eye, Russ checked each of them one by one, but when he looked at the fourth one his eye widened in an instant and his expression changed.

"F*ck! That is a Heart Fruit. Only alone it is useless, but mixing with these fruits it could become a lethal poison. Who the hell put it here?", said Russ angrily, but the next second his face changed again.

"It was Wayne! Did he swapped these two fruits in the past? Argh! How could he be this reckless? At least inform me!"

As he said this he looked at Greg's figure on the ground then at the antidote in his hand, but knowing now this became totally useless he clenched his teeth and said, "If I'm right I still have 5 minutes. I definitely have time to make an antidote!"

With that in mind, he was about to teleport away to bring here the materials he needed, when suddenly a pair of black gloves made out of black smoke appeared on Greg's hand.

Noticing this sudden change on Greg, Russ started to frown and halted.

As he looked at the gloves on Greg's palms he didn't know how to react, but before he could do anything else, the black smoke started to became more, and slowly it started to spread toward Greg's chest.

"?"

While Russ watched this happening with a stunned expression, suddenly the door behind his back opened and Wayne walked in with a half eaten fruit in hand.

"I'm ba-, huh?"

The moment he stepped in, what waited for him was a lying Greg on the floor, covered with black smoke, and a stunned Russ on his side.

Seeing this with a confused look, Wayne lowered the hand that held the fruit and asked calmly, "What happened with him?"