Alex was taken aback a little at the refusal. "You… refuse?" he asked. "But these are good pills, senior."
"What need do we beasts have for strong pills?" the Lizard asked. "Besides, we get good pills from the traders all the time. I can assure you, we do not lack pills."
Alex wanted to speak again, but the Lizard cut him off. "I know you want our blood to improve yourself, but it just isn't going to happen. It's simply impossible for you to buy something like that with just mere pills; ones mind you that we already have."
"May the ones from the other colony will accept it, but I won't," the Lizard said.
"Can I not ask the beasts directly?" Alex asked. "What if they wish to—"
"No," the Lizard said. "In my colony, everyone will follow my rules. If all you wish is blood, go find it somewhere else."
Alex was stumped for a few seconds. He wasn't expecting an outright rejection at all. He couldn't even ask the other beasts it seemed.
He was a little surprised at the rudeness and turned around to leave. He had nothing to do here.
The lizard watched Alex leave and smirked to himself. He was a cunning fellow. While he acted as if he was wise and kind on the outside, on the inside, he has a sly personality and did not want someone else to profit off of him if he could allow for it.
After learning that Alex could improve himself through other beasts' blood, he was a little envious. In his envy, he decided to not help him at all.
"Hmph," he spoke softly. "He will leave soon enough. You better not give him anything for the pills. We have no need for the pills."
The few beasts that were around them nodded.
The lizard continued laying on the sun for a while longer when the sun suddenly disappeared.
"Hmm?" the Lizard opened his eyes and looked up to see dark clouds filling the sky. "It's about to rain, we better—"
Before he could finish its words, a lightning bolt fell from the sky, landing somewhere in the colony. The Lizard quickly jumped up, surprised and fearful of the lightning.
He had been scared of lightning for a while now, and this one happening this close to him cared for him even more.
"Leave, go to your house. Hide!" the Lizard shouted, quickly rushing to his house where there were defensive formations to protect himself. He heard another thunderous strike and felt fearful.
He could tell these were no ordinary strikes of lightning and that scared him.
He was scared that these might be the same lightning that he saw all those years ago, one that left him terrified.
He flinched as he felt another loud sound of lightning falling from the sky. He tried his best to control himself, but the next bolt of lightning scared him even further.
'It's getting stronger?' he thought. He couldn't imagine how it was getting stronger at all.
And how had there been 4 bolts of lightning already?
Another lightning strike fell, one even stronger than before and he was even more terrified now.
He had no idea what was happening. The last time lightning strikes had scared him this much, there had only been 3 of them. However, with 5 this time, and all so close, he was supremely terrified to even go anywhere.
Even with all his cultivation base, the lizard did not want to face the lightning that might come for him. He stayed inside his house for a while before he realized that the lightning strikes had stopped.
He slowly walked out of his house in trepidation and looked around at the bright sunny day.
"What?" he couldn't understand what had just happened. How was the land sunny all of a sudden?
He walked out and looked in the direction where the lightning seemed to have struck. He thought for a second where that was and realized what had happened.
"Oh no," he thought. "That human. He must've died."
He quickly flew over to where Alex was staying and was about to burst through the house when the door opened on its own and Alex walked out, completely unharmed.
"Y-you, you're alive?" the Lizard asked.
"Of course, senior," Alex said. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"But… that lightning, it didn't kill you?" he asked.
"Hmm? Is the lightning supposed to kill me for some reason?" he asked with a confused look.
"But the… wait, no. This one was weaker," he mumbled to himself. "How are you unhurt still? Did the lightning not strike here?"
The lizard looked through the house and was surprised to see the lack of damage as well. It was as if the lightning was an illusion, brought forth from his fear.
But that was not the case. There had been lightning. He wasn't hallucinating it.
"What happened to the lightning strike?" he asked.
"Oh, the Pill cloud lightning?" Alex asked. "I blocked it to make my pill."
"Your… pill?" the lizard was simply unable to realize what he was talking about.
"Yes," Alex said. "My pill."
He showed the pill bottle that he was holding in his hands to the lizard. He opened the bottle and let the pill flow out with 5 clear lightning scars on it.
"Do you know about pill veins, senior?" Alex asked.
"Pill veins?" the lizard looked up at Alex.
Alex nodded. "When a pill reaches 100% harmony, it calls the pill clouds that you saw earlier. If you can defend the pill from the strikes, you get a pill with those scars known as pill veins. The more veins there are, the better the pill will be."
The Lizard looked at Alex with a doubtful look. "So that lightning… it wasn't anything dangerous?" he asked.
"Of course not, senior. I wouldn't dare do something like that if it was dangerous," Alex said. "I only wished to make a pill so I could continue cultivating."
The Lizard looked at the pill in his hand. "This is a pill for cultivating?" he asked. Now that he was looking at it, it was indeed a pill that improved one's cultivation speed. He had a few of those before.
However, the speed they gave was never truly worth their price, especially since the beasts had nothing to do but cultivate all day in this place.
Still… the smell and the aura that came from the pill, it was more intense than anything he had ever felt.
"Hmm, it looks like senior doesn't believe my words," Alex said. "Why don't you try it then? I'll let you see why I am the best alchemist in the entire realm."
"You're giving me this pill?" the Lizard asked.
"Consider this my payment in return for you letting me stay in this colony," Alex said and bowed. "I'll see you in a few days, senior."
Alex closed the door without saying anything else and left the Lizard alone outside with the pill in his hand.
The lizard looked at the pill for a while before he decided to see just how good the pill was for the human to boast so much.
'Hmph! I'll see if it's good or not,' the lizard thought and returned back to his home where he took the pill and started cultivating.
