?


    "Oh... Uh, okay..." Yosil sighed exasperatedly at Frank''s refusal.


    There was nothing he could say now.


    As time continued to tick away, Frank threw all the mudroots into the cauldron and cooked them with a huge fire.


    His desperate reaction left Kairo''s sinister smile broadening.


    Beside him, Horey Lindt was frowning instead. "Could it be..."


    Catching her murmur, Kairo turned toward her with a look of surprise. "What is it?"


    "It''s nothing..." Horey shrugged. "But I think there''s this technique of using contravening medicinal effects....."


    "What?!" Kairo''s heart skipped a beat, at once ufortable.


    Still, Horey quickly assured him, "Oh, don''t worry about it. Not many people would even be aware, let alone him. It''s just something I read from an old book-the technique itself has been lost to time."


    "I see..."


    Kairo nodded, but he remained ufortable as he saw the confidence in Frank''s expression.


    Did Frank perhaps know that contravening technique by chance?


    However, while Kairo was busy specting and the other participants busy staring, there was a shrill crack echoing from Frank''s cauldron.


    In no time at all, hairline fractures were suddenly appearing all over the surface of the cauldron, and before anyone knew it, Frank''s cauldron blew up with a resounding crash!


    "What?!"


    Yosil, who had been watching in his seat hopefully, actually eximed out loud.


    "Hahahaha!!!"


    On the other hand, Kairo wasughing on top of his lungs immediately, especially when he saw the ck mudroots that were strewn all over the ground.


    The cauldron was destroyed even before the mudroots were dissolved.


    There was no doubt it now-Frank had lost!


    "Shit, man..."


    Ira froze even as he stared at the cauldron fragments, murmuring, "Well, this is really it..."


    Even the crowd who actually held


    hopes for Frank were sighing in disappoint. While he showed spine when he took Kairo''s


    nét


    challenge head-on, and then went on to turn down Yosil''s kind warning, his cauldron literally exploded now.


    Forget taking a handicap for a fair contest against Kairo-the man was probably going to die now!


    However, just as everyone was ready to see Frank concede, they found him frowning at the scattered mudroot and sighing. "It seems that the cauldron quality is wanting...''


    "Give up already, you imbecile!"


    Kairo strode up, his attitude at once high and mighty as he red downward at Frank. "Forfeit yourself from the second trial, and some extra antidote just might save you. Keep being stubborn and you will die!"


    "Yeah, man..."


    Ira reasoned with Frank too. "JustExclusive ? material by N?(/v)elDrama.Org.


    concede right now, and you''ll get the antidote over there right away. You might really live here... Anything is


    possible as long as you stay alive, so quit putting on airs already, okay?"


    Even as everyone tried to persuade Frank to give up and take the antidote, Mole strode up before


    Frank, barking, "I hereby announce that Frank is forfeited as a


    bel.fo


    participant of our trials. Get over there and take your antidote already-you''ll die if you''re toote."