The red carp answered to Heimart's words with silence, which after no more than two minutes, was interrupted by the its deep and pleasant voice, which simply said "I refuse."
Such response did not come to the group's surprise, after all, they had come to visit a very old and powerful beast with whom they had had no previous contact, to propose an exchange for a part of the beast's very own body.
In their opinion, it would have been crazy if the red carp would have accepted, but despite the absurd request, Heimart needed to at least report the reason why the deal had not been completed to Daniel.
"It is your right to refuse, but can you tell us why? I would rather not go back without a reason for my failure.." Said Heimart with complete calmness. It could be both seen and heard in his demeanor that he was not lying, and that he was okay with the red carp's decision.
The red carp was impressed by Heimart's behaviour.
Ever since it had started a conversation with these four humans, the red carp had noticed that the four had lost any hint of fear towards it. They were polite, but not due to the fear that a being would naturally feel towards a more powerful entity, but due to something that appeared like genuine respect.
"As I have said earlier, my scales are extremely poisonous.. I have no doubt that a human as resourceful as the ones you've described could ultimately find a way to use it to kill billions of other humans of a power lower, similar, or even slightly higher than mine." Responded the ancient red carp with a matter-of-fact tone.
Sudden realization fell upon Heimart, Jerigh and Roley. They were already aware of the fact that Daniel possessed a supernatural power which had to do with people's tendencies to do good or evil.. So, now that they knew of the carp's tendency towards good, they had finally understood why Daniel had sent them here without worrying about their safety.
Of course, Daniel could not possibly expect that the hawk-like beast would appear and present a threat for his group. He only knew that two of the three methods to obtain the carp's scale were through trade, while the third, was to kill it and steal it.
Unfortunately, the last method not only required a cultivation higher than the red carp's, but also gave something that Daniel had never seen so far in a mission's rewards.. It rewarded negative karma.
"I have no idea of the reason why our friend would need your scales, but I can assure you that he would never use it to create a poison. At least, not one that would be directed towards innocent people. I can bet my life on it." The strong conviction of Heimart's tone caused his voice to reverberate in the underwater cave like thunder.
Once the last of the echo of Heimart's words disappeared, silence reigned supreme, until once again, it was interrupted by the deep voice of the red carp, which said with a newly found hint of indifference. "I guess that we will never know about it. I see your chances of getting out of here.. bleak."
After hearing the carp's words, Heimart smiled in response, and said in a reassuring tone "We are not stuck here.. Not completely at the very least."
—–
Back within the pocket dimension.
Daniel was standing by himself inside a small spatial room where there was nothing but an oppressively high temperature which threatened to melt anyone that dared to enter it.
In his hand, Daniel was holding what looked like a miniature star.
This head-sized star looked sort of strange. Its surface shined of white, blue, red, orange and yellow, which danced together into a dangerously hot mixture of color. Underneath the surface, and the closer to the core, the more liquid this small star became.
This star was, of course, a perfect essence sphere which Daniel had just finished creating.
Satisfied by the result, Daniel removed each and every lower level essence sphere in the area, and left the spatial room. When he reappeared, he was in front of a mountain that had been created after the earth sphere had been added to the pocket dimension.
This mountain was massive, and it spanned for a radius of at least four kilometers in width, but had a top that only reached five kilometers.
Next to Daniel, Leffe, Buriath, and Wolfie, which was usually in their company, had appeared after only a few seconds.
Daniel had already told them to meet him at the foot of this mountain, so, they had arrived beforehand and were waiting for him.
"What did you want to talk to us about?" asked Buriath with curiosity while the now two meters long Wolfie sat in front of Daniel in silence. Observing him attentively.
Daniel turned to look at Buriath, and said with a casual tone "Would there be a problem if I turned this mountain into a volcano?"
"You mean.."
"Yes. Can you take care of it and of whomever will be born from it?" Daniel then asked.
Leffe pointed at Wolfie, and said "Of course.. He is doing fine, isn't he?"
"I know, but he won't cause an eruption by playing too roughly in his metallic den.. Can you check that that won't happen?"
Leffe responded with a defeatist tone "We will try.. It' not an easy job.. I'm made out of wood, and Buriath will melt in the vicinity of the sphere.. You should leave someone here to intervene the moment the first fire elemental will be born."
Daniel became pensive for a few moments, then, said out loud "I'll leave a connection to the castle.. Call Edmund when that will happen, and tell him to separate the elementals from the treasure they are born."
"That's a bad idea.. We elementals have a great memory.. It will remember who separated it from its home.." Said Buriath with a low tone. He was thinking of how he and Leffe had almost died in order to protect their homes, and a single look at Wolfie would tell them that he would do the same.
"I know, but I want to give him a reason to stop being obsessed by spatial essence.. Maybe this will be a good chance to show him that he needs to expand his field of research." Responded Daniel with a dismissing tone before opening his hand, and making the multicolored star-like sphere appear above it.
He was now standing towards the side of the mountain, and looking towards the ground at about forty-five degrees of inclination, then, with a single thought, he forced his immortal essence to push through the stony ground.
A tunnel of about thirty centimeters in height and thirty centimeters in width, was forced open by Daniel's immortal essence. The depth of this tunnel could not be seen, and its size was just enough for the sun-like sphere to move through.
Daniel quietly put the sphere on the entrance of this tunnel, and let go, causing the flaming ball to roll towards the heart of the mountain.
Only after Daniel felt that the fire sphere had reached the exact middle the mountain, he stopped it, and locked it in space. He then removed the limitations he was forcing on it with his immortal essence. Finally, he closed the tunnel back up by filling it with all of the stones and soil he had pulled out at the moment of its creation.
From the outside, it didn't seem that the mountain had changed, but Buriath, Wolfie and Daniel could feel it clearly.
The area that surrounded the perfect fire sphere was starting to melt, causing a pool of bubbling magma to form in the core of the mountain.
Without wasting too much time, Daniel forced his immortal essence to turn into a portal which lead directly to the castle, and after waving goodbye to Leffe and Buriath, he walked through it.
When he reappeared, he was in the castle.
In front of him was Gai'ha, which ever since they had arrived to the new world, had traveled towards different cities along with the various members of Daniel's group with the sole purpose of expanding his company.
She had no knowledge of the uses of humans, but her cultivation was particularly strong when picked from the other members of Daniel's group, and if that wasn't enough, she was a talented and trained warrior. That made her a perfect protector for the members of Daniel's group.
"Gai'ha, how come you're here? I thought you were conquering the north.." Said Daniel with pleasant surprise.
"Dan! Yeah, we did. We have only had a few problems with one of the cities in the border.. The cities are still considered part of this region, but its inhabitants are revolting and trying to become part of the neighbouring region instead.. Nothing that a little civil war won't solve. What about you?" Responded Gai'ha with just as much surprise.
A fair bit had passed since the two had met, and Gai'ha had felt extremely grateful towards Daniel for allowing her to travel, and explore places she couldn't even imagine existed.
"Busy.. I expect someone to come and tell me about the problem they've had with their assignment at any moment." Responded Daniel with slight exasperation. It was true that he had had no time to rest, after all, he was the person on which hundreds of thousand of people, beasts, and elementals counted on to maintain their lifestyle.
Now, Daniel finally had a few minutes to rest, but unfortunately, his words were going to turn true much faster than he could have ever imagined.
Right outside of the castle, in the square where the portals were placed, Roley had appeared.
Once in the pocket dimension, Roley felt Daniel's presence in the hall of the castle, and teleported right in front of him. "Dan, we have a problem with the assignment you've given us.." He said with a slightly embarrassed tone.
"HAHAHAHAHAH!" Gai'ha immediately burst out laughing. It hadn't even been ten seconds since Daniel had predicted that this would happen.
Through a dumbfounded expression, Daniel said "What is it?"
"The red carp doesn't trust us enough to give us his scales.."
Daniel could do nothing but sigh in resignation, and say, "Alright.. Let's go." before waving his hand towards a still laughing Gai'ha, and walking with Roley toward the entrance of the castle.
Once outside, the two directly walked into one of the portals in the square, and when they came out, reappeared inside the underwater cave under the large pond.
After Daniel appeared, he firstly nodded at his friends, and then, turned towards the dark body of water from which the top of an enormous red carp emerged.
Before Daniel could even speak, the red carp said with its usual fruity tone "I can feel the poison of my kind inside you.. It's modified and weak, but it's there.."
After hearing the carp's words, Heimart and the rest turned towards Daniel with deep shock.
Of course, they were not aware that Daniel was dying, therefore, this information had come as a great surprise to them.
Daniel noticed the shocked looks of his friend's faces, and with a faint smile, immediately stopped their train of thoughts by saying "Close your mouths, or some bug will crawl in.. I'm not dying. I already have the antidote for the poison and I will prepare it soon."
What happened next, left a great impression on the red carp.
Just like magic, the faces of Der, Heimart, Roley and Jerigh immediately calmed, and their state of mind lost every form of worry or anxiousness that they had felt until just a few moments earlier.
"What is the problem?" Said Daniel with a calm tone, as if nothing had happened.
Just as Heimart was about to explain, the red carp interjected by saying "What will you use my scales for?"
"An antidote. The reason why I need your help is because I want to hide the recipe from the group that created the poison.." Responded Daniel with a matter-of-fact tone.
Even after hearing Daniel's confirm the words of the others, the red carp was till not fully convinced, so, it said with hesitation "How can I be sure that you will not use my scales to create the poison that is killing you?"
"Because I'll create the antidote in front of you, consume it, and give the scales back. You might not have a need for them since you can't reattach them, and they will simply regrow, but at least you will be sure that they won't be used for something that you don't agree to.." Said Daniel before taking a small pause, and adding "What do you say? Do we have a deal?"
