Looking at Skymerge, Skymender had a feeling that he was similar to him in a way, the only difference being their pursuits in life.
Skymerge buried himself into books, while Skymender had found an interest in science.
"I heard that you've begun to study science." Skymerge mentioned.
Skymender nodded as he walked around and looked for books to read.
"Did you know there is another name for science?" Skymerge asked.
Skymender shook his head.
"It is also known as comprehending the Universe."
Skymender stopped looking for books and turned to Skymerge.
"Don't be confused by its current name. It is not limited by the world, but by imagination. If you fully understand science, then it means you have fully understood the universe."
Skymender sighed. "Your thoughts are still deeper than mine, brother."
"You can fool others, but you can't fool me." Skymerge said without looking up from his book.
Skymender laughed and picked out a book. For around an hour, he read it. However, he had school tomorrow and soon put it down.
Skymerge did not leave. Whether he was going to sleep in here or just stay later, Skymender did not know.
The next morning, Skymender once again got up and rode in a carriage to school. Like always, school went by without surprises, and the fun part came after. Once again sending Melly out of the room, Skymender began to increase his immunity to his poison.
He continued to go up in doses, slowly reaching incredible amounts.
The day passed, and the one after that, and the one after that.
Finally, a week passed since he first started to increase his immunity.
Today, he stood in front of a cauldron. He heated it up and added the corpse of a poisonous mosquito species, the corpse of a poisonous butterfly species, and the blood of a poisonous frog.
Everything began to mix into each other, releasing a mist.
Skymender looked down, acting as if the mist wasn't there. He inhaled the mist, but no matter how much time passed, nothing happened to him.
He had become immune to his poison.
As the mixture continued to heat up and mix, the mist became darker and darker. At some point Skymender began to feel a tingle.
Skymender smiled. His poison had been deadly before, but in actuality, it had not even been finished.
Eventually, as he finished, a drop of blood came out from his nose.
His throat started to hurt a little, but he had long gotten used to the pain.
He collected the poison in the cauldron, which amounted to a total of two vials. As the process had gone on, the amount of poison continued to lessen.
When he spilled the cauldron the first time, there was about ten vials worth of poison in total. But now, the complete poison amounted to only 2 vials.
Skymender put them in a tightly closed box and kept them on his person.
No matter what happened, he now felt as if he had an absolute defense.
However, this was not the end of his poison creating experiments. This merely marked the beginning.
One only needed to make a single successful poison to be considered a master, but to become the absolute greatest, far more than that was necessary.
Skymender had plenty of materials, and after experimenting so much, he felt that his understanding of poison was deeper.
After all, it had taken multiple attempts to create his first poison.
With his new knowledge, he had a new combination in mind.
Bark from the rot tree, the withered corpse of a non-poisonous swamp animal that had been killed by poison after entering, in this case the common grey bird, and finally the mud of the poisonous swamp itself.
For some reason, he felt as if this combination would be successful.
He put all of it into the cauldron and began to mix it. He first added the mud of the poisonous swamp. It would be hard to make the other stuff a liquid otherwise.
Next, after the mud was boiling, he added the bark from the rot tree, a tree which, after existing in the poisonous swamp for several years, had corroded to the point of near death. Yet somehow, this species of tree had evolved to survive in this near death state for as long as normal trees outside of the poisonous swamp.
He crushed the bark into pieces and let it fall into the mud. Naturally, as he did this, he took notes of the amounts added.
Before he added the withered corpse of the grey bird, he noticed something was off. Before, he wouldn't have noticed it, but after successfully creating a poison, he was able to at least have a feeling that something was wrong.
He waited a few more moments, and the mixture suddenly started to turn dark.
Anyone would be able to tell that this attempt had failed. The amounts he had put in were not right.
If he had to make a guess, he would add more of the bark.
So he did just that. Luckily, the bark from the rot tree was one of the cheaper materials. However, he did not have an infinite amount.
Skymender added 1.5 times the amount of bark this time.
The mixture seemed stable, though it had changed color a bit. This was expected.
Finally, Skymender threw in the entire withered corpse of a grey bird, which had died after entering the poisonous swamp.
As it entered, the mixture turned black, but not the black of failure. It was the black of death.
A horrible smell was released as the withered corpse mixed into the bark and the mud.
Skymender had taken out the bones and the beak before, which allowed everything to dissolve.
After a while, Skymender took the cauldron off of the heat and began to study the concoction while it was still hot.
He first smelled it, but it did not seem to have any effect. He wasn't sure if it was even successful, but he began to scoop some up into a glass vial.
As the glass vial entered the concoction, Skymender heard a distinct sizzling sound.