Hal smiled inwardly with satisfaction.

'That should shut them up' he thought even though he knew it would probably have the opposite effect.

Not to his detriment of course.

He requested another cauldron which he was handed although he was advised to make use of his personal cauldron with which he would be more used to and hence more efficient.

Hal preferred to use the cauldron they had however because he was considering this an opportunity to refine his Alchemical skills even though that might sound silly since he was in the midst of an important test.

However, as Hal saw it, he had a margin of error which was the number of times he was allowed to make mistakes and he had not surpassed it yet for the Rank one test with which he was given even more grace.

He would refine pills like he was refining Rank 4 pills and would most likely fail multiple times but would make complete use of the grace he had to make sure once he moved on to higher rank tests, he would be much, much better.

In other words, this was sort of a practice run for him.

After all, the branch head had been so gracious as to offer to foot the bill so why should he be shy and not take full advantage?

So he began his long chain of failures with the Examiner glaring at him and wondering what kind of idiot this was.

The manner in which Hal placing ingredients in the cauldron was barely passable even for an apprentice and there was such lack of sophistication in the refining process at large that he began to wonder if Hal might have done the impossible and stolen the token so that he could simply waste resources.

After all, why the hell would the branch head offer to foot the bill for such an inexperienced and wasteful individual who should never be allowed near a cauldron.

This assessment by the Examiner might have seemed a little harsh but it was more than justified when Hal turned to him and said,

"What the hell is this?"

"What is what?" The Examiner asked in confusion.

Hal gestured at the ingredients he still had,

"What are all these low-grade ingredients? They burn so fucking quickly" he said with a serious expression.

The Examiner blanked. Was this young man really going to blame the ingredients for his own incompetence?

"You are... messing with me right?" He could not help but ask and Hal stared at him for a while before chuckling,

"Of course. Of course, I'm messing with you. Now *wink* how about you bring me the good stuff. *wink* *wink*" Hal said.

"Is there something wrong with your eye?" The Examiner asked.

Hal looked taken aback,

"What are you, an idiot? I'm trying to pass you the message to take away these low-grade ingredients and bring me the good ones you are hiding in the cupboard over there."

The Examiner glanced at the cupboard,

"There is nothing..." He began but Hal interrupted,

"Don't say there is nothing. I know it's there and I really would prefer you told me the truth." Hal said in a low voice and looked the examiner in the eye.

Somehow, the Peak stage Cosmic phenomenon realm Examiner began to feel cold sweats at his back as he started into Hal's royal blue orbs.

It was as though they compelled him to speak.

It was as though they compelled him with fear.

"Alright fine, there are better grade ingredients and I store them away so you wasteful examines will not waste them." He confessed.

Hal nodded,

"And you do this for other examinees even though they pay for good grade ingredients. Hence taking advantage of their inability to tell the difference?" He asked.

The Examiner nodded, his hands now by his side while a part of his mind wondered why he was listening and speaking to a young man he was supposed to be testing.

Hal of course only knew the ingredients he was given were low grade when he kept attempting to refine them the way he would refine a Rank 4 ingredient and they kept disintegrating.

No matter the grade, such should not have been the case.

Especially not continuously.

"And I'm guessing the Branch head has no idea" he said.

The examiner shook his head,

"He doesn't" he said while lamenting in his mind about how Hal would report him and how termination would be the best he could hope for. Somehow, it never came to his mind to use his position of power as an examiner or his cultivation to turn things around in his favor.

And then Hal said,

"Awesome. I'm impressed!"

The Examiner blanked,

"What?" He was incredulous.

Hal chuckled lightly,

"I said I was impressed. Good for you! You seem like a very sharp individual. What's your name?" He asked

"Glenn, the Examiner answered and Hal grinned,

"Glenny, I truly do admire your good sense. Some might call it corruption but I call it brilliance and a healthy love of profit. What do you do with the high-grade ones you switch up?"

Glenn smiled slowly now calm that Hal did not seem to wish to report him,

"I sell the high-grade ones in the black market and claim to have used up the low-grade ones the examinees use in their test for my own personal research. No one really cares about those." He said.

Hal nodded,

"How smart of you" he said while Grimoire sighed at this idiot letting the devil into his mind.

Glenn took a deep breath and grinned,

"It's so good to finally get that off my chest." He said.

Hal nodded sympathetically,

"I can imagine. Oh well, I should get back to the test. Do you think I can have those high-grade ingredients? With them, I can complete these tests quickly and our conversation can continue." He said with a charming smile.

"Of course" Glenn said and hurried over to the cupboard to begin bringing out the good stuff which upon laying on the table Hal proceeded to refine the Rank one pill in minutes with absolutely no damage to any ingredient.

If Glenn did not know any better, he would have thought Hal had been faking his past failures and for the most part he was right.

While the failures were indeed partly due to the low-grade ingredients, once the high grade was brought over, Hal decided there was no need for wastage and refined the pill as accurately as he could.

Of course, before even attempting to refine it, he requested Glenn to offer him complete privacy which included the Examiner activating Runes that blocked the infiltration of spiritual perception.

And then he drew curtains before the transparent door.

If only he had turned back in time to notice Hal's eyes flash nightmarish black while he was drawing those curtains.

...

Meanwhile,

The five had been a little surprised to discover Hal's 'Spiritual' sense was at rank 4 and were starting to feel threatened once again when they noticed Hal begin to waste ingredients and seem completely inept in the subtleties of Alchemy.

Clearly, this was a case of having talent but never working to further said talent.

There was nothing to worry about, they thought.

Once Hal messed up past his quota, he would fail and all would be right with the world again.

And then Hal began to converse with the Examiner and they all wondered what was going on until he went into the cupboard to retrieve a different set of ingredients which he placed on the desk atop which Hal was refining.

After which he activated Runes that shone briefly before vanishing and then drew the curtains.

They found it a little disappointing that they found not continue to spectate his eventual failure but one person was grinning and it was Karmen who her master had turned to just before the curtains were completely pulled over the doors to wink as his eyes took on the Darkness of the Devil he was.