Inside the laboratory, the six-legged toad rested calmly inside the cage. His eyes were shut closed, but his mind was active.

  He felt depressed. The past 1 month was probably one of the darkest periods of his life. As a purple tier predator, he loved freedom, captivity was one of his worst nightmares ever.

  Throughout the past month, he had tried various means to escape, but they were all futile. He was like a fish trapped in a pond, none of his schemes and plans could work, he was firmly in the grasp of his captors.

  Despite his terrifying strength, he was still easily suppressed.

  The more effort that he exerted to force his way towards escape, the smaller he felt, and the more he felt like a frog in a well. The means available to the Atlantians were too mysterious, strange, and powerful for him to comprehend.

  As the old monster that he was, of course, he knew of Atlantians.

  He was not born inside the Ocean Volcano region; he wandered the world for decades before he finally arrived at this region coincidentally.

  Every time that he thought of the tyrannical reputation of his captors, he always felt despair. Now, he hated himself for going after the Origin Fish though it was captivating then, he hated himself for going after Sebastian.

  "Why was I so proud? Dignity, what's dignity? Now it landed me into this".

  Though he felt grateful at times when he recalled the ending of both the Devouring Cobra and the Eagle, he still felt resentful.

  Amid his inner struggle, inside his mind, a clear picture suddenly appeared, the picture of a shark. This was the culprit of it all, this freaking shark brought all his problems, he was the reason why he was now in captivity.

  He absolutely hated this shark.

  Thinking of the fact that Sebastian was just a few distances from him but yet he couldn't do anything about it only infuriated him more. He felt like striking with his tongue immediately but he knew that it would mean nothing.

  In the end, he calmed down, he already experienced this numerous times throughout the past month.

  As he calmed down, a negligible purple light started glowing in his body as he activated a skill. Through this, his riled-up nerves rapidly calmed down.

  When everything stabilized and he was about to sleep something happened.

  "Old Toad".

  "…huh?" The toad was surprised, one of his eyes opened slightly as he glared hatefully and suspiciously at the guards but he was surprised on seeing the expression on their faces.

  They loved calling his species name randomly before which always left him angry, but from their expressions, it was not them this time so who?

  "Old Toad".

  The old toad's other eye snapped open as they both suddenly became as sharp as daggers. He glared at the space just before him, his special senses just detected a magic fluctuation in this place.

  As he glared, greenish-purple lines started flickering through his eyes.

  The next moment, he saw an ethereal green magic line that extended from inside his cage towards the other side, precisely Sebastian's cage.

  The greenish-purple lines in his eyes dissipated after this, then the old toad slowly turned his body around before glaring at the opposite cage.

  His eyes clashed with Sebastian's, sparks seemed to light up like there was a sudden spike in the proton and electron charges in this space. The water seemed to freeze up, making the environment turn chilly and suffocating.

  The guards felt it but they were clueless. "Weird, what's happening?"

  This staring contest continued silently. On Sebastian's part, seeing that the old toad did not flare up immediately, he heaved a sigh of relief. This meant that phase 1 of the plan was a massive success.

  "Let's cooperate". Sebastian was decisive, going straight to the point.

  The old toad's eyes narrowed even further on hearing this. This sound was not audible to the outside world, it echoed directly inside his mind.

  He knew that Sebastian was a sound domain shark, but he didn't know that he had such a skill. A bright light flickered through his eyes; he finally knew how this enemy commanded his brothers to deal so much damage to him back then.

  "Let's cooperate? Hehe, after all that you made me lose? Dream on".

  Croak!

  Hearing the loud sound, the guards were startled, jumping up. They hovered up in the water, hastily taking out their weapons as they pointed them at the terrifying toad whose webbed feet was now flapping gently at the water.

  Seeing this scene, their heart froze, they didn't know what to do.

  While all this happened, Sebastian already retracted his gaze, closing his eyes silently. The croaking meant direct refusal from the toad. Though he already expected it, Sebastian still felt disappointed.

  Despite this, he was not going to give up.

  …
The next day…
"Let's cooperate. Pooling our strength together, that's the only way that we'll be able to escape from this situation alive".

  "You're an intelligent powerhouse, I know that. You proved your intelligence in the round with me, I almost died to you remember? Put sentiments aside, even I almost died, but I'm doing the same".

  "If you love your life, join me so we can escape together".

  "…"

  …
The next day…
"You're too stubborn. Tomorrow, we'll be subjected to another hellish treatment, we'll see who will last longer since you like it so much".

  "Don't croak when the knife pierces your precious skin.

  Hours later…
"You're a fool you know that right?"

  "How can you be so foolish?"

  "In fact, calling you a fool is an understatement, you're a plant".

  "Yes, a plant!"

  "Animals react fast to stimulus, it's the specialty of predators but you can't. Why? Because you're a plant. You're always fixated on pride, dignity, honor, that's all bullshit when our life is on the line". 

  "You're a plant, that is why your brain is stagnant, hopeless, and senseless. You react slowly to stimulus. I don't care if you don't know what stimulus is, but know that it's something very vicious".

  "Crii!"

  "You're a plant!"

  Croak!

  Bam! Bam!

  "Shit! It erupted again, is this toad going insane? It keeps on bashing at its cage since morning, do you think we should inject in him some suppressants?" The guards were frightened.

  Instantly, the toad went calm again on hearing what the guards said but he directed a hateful glare at Sebastian. Sebastian ignored him.

  …
The next day, after another dissection and experimentation session.

  "You love this life, right? I know you do, a life where your life is worth as much as a Praying Mantis's dung, where your whole existence is nothing more than a test subject, where they cut your skin and heal it back".

  This time, Sebastian did not stop. He hammered word after word at the toad but perhaps the toad was already immune to his words, but it did not answer.

  After doing this for minutes amid the pain of his body being cut open a few minutes ago, Sebastian finally stopped and changed his strategy.

  "Ok, I admit defeat".

  "You're strong, you're powerful. In fact, I'm an ant before you. All I beg of you right now is to cooperate with me, without you I'm dead".

  "Please respectful sir, help me".

  "What's sir?" The toad finally asked. It was curious having heard this term from the 5 Atlantian guards before.

  Of course, the 5 guards jumped immediately. The toad didn't have the sound control skill like Sebastian so they heard it, but they didn't understand what was going on so they could only stare cluelessly in apprehension.

  "It is a term used to refer to great and honorable people, and I believe Sir Toad is one that is why I referred to you with that".

  "Humph!" The toad snorted. "Keep your flattering lies to yourself kid, but I think you're right, I can't endure this anymore. Like you said, let's cooper…, no, tell me what to help you with".

  "Thank you, respectful sir".

  Sebastian heaved a sigh of relief, after putting in all his effort, he finally succeeded. If he knew that the crux to the problem was inflating the toad's ego, he would have accomplished this long ago.

  Despite feeling this, he knew that the toad agreed not just because of his ego. He observed the toad every day, and after this experimentation session, he knew that the toad was absolutely fed up with living like this.

  The toad agreeing to his demand was due to a lot of factors coincidentally falling together, like the perfect alignment of stars in the night sky.

  Of course, Sebastian struck while the iron was still hot.

  "Please respectful sir, I seek knowledge on breaking through to the purple tier".

  "…"