Affinity:Chaos
chapter-457

Old man Gerald shook his head as he watched Grey leave the room.

A few minutes after Grey left, the Second Prince walked into the room.

"How did it go?" The Second Prince asked while taking a seat.

"Since he's not here, you can guess not too well," Old man Gerald replied.

"*Sigh* I would've loved to see the person who is able to make father so worked up," The Second Prince said.

"He's just like his Teacher, only more cool-headed. If Chris was the one the Emperor was searching for, he would've caused a major uproar in the empire," Old man Gerald said.

"Teacher and student, both prodigies from their own generations. A shame I can't befriend them," The Second Prince shook his head, a little remorseful.

….

Grey didn't use the carriage when going back to the tavern, he had been cooked up in his room since leaving the forest. Now, he wanted to take a stroll around to cool his head before he starts reading the book on array.

The streets of Lapis City were filled with people, bustling with activity.

Grey calmly walked around. It was a long and uneventful walk back to the tavern.

The next day.

Grey walked out of his room, prepared for his new adventure. He was busy throughout the night, trying to decipher the array in the book, but he hasn't been able to.

On getting to the city gate, he noticed someone staring at him with hateful eyes. Looking in the direction, he saw a middle-aged man glaring at him.

The middle-aged man wasn't alone, he had three people who were with him.

'Who are they?' He asked himself.

He didn't recall seeing these people before, so it was strange that they were looking at him so hatefully.

After not being able to remember where he saw the men, he threw the thought to the back of his mind, heading out of the city.

As soon as he left the city, the men stood up from where they were sitting, heading out of the city.

They paused when they walked past the city gate, the reason for this was because Grey was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it! That guy escaped," One of the men said.

"Hmph! He's lucky, after messing with us some weeks back, he hid. Now that he has reappeared, he ran away again," The first man Grey saw said.

The group stood outside for a few more minutes, looking around. After not seeing Grey, they walked back into the city.

The Magical Beasts' forest.

Grey could be seen dashing through the forest at a fast pace. He realized that the group he saw wanted to make trouble with him, although he could kill them easily, he wasn't interested in delaying for such unimportant people.

It didn't take long before he got to the six kilometers mark. Looking around, he noticed the stages of the beasts around had dropped, compared to the time he first came here.

"Looks like the forest has returned to normal," He mumbled softly.

He looked around for a second before bolting straight into the forest.

….

Two hours later.

Boom!

Grey appeared mid-air, staring at the large Boar that was on the ground. He floated down to a nearby tree.

Roar!

The Boar struggled to stand up, but still confronted Grey.

"Hmph! These things never know when to escape," Grey snorted coldly.

This Boar was still in the Late stages of the Origin Plane. It couldn't block a single attack from Grey, yet it was still trying to attack him.

Grey had tried leaving it behind, but the beast not only chased after him, but it also caused a commotion that drew the attention of other beasts.

Grey stretched out his right hand, pointing at the beast. With a flick of his wrist, the ground beneath the Boar pushed upwards, forcing the Boar into the air.

Once the Boar was thrown into the air, an ice spear stabbed towards it from the side.

The Boar moved its front leg, slamming its hoof into it.

Crack! Bang!

The spear cracked as soon as it was hit by the hoof, breaking right after.

Grey squinted his eyes, he didn't want to go all out since he wanted to reserve his strength.

'Guess I'll have to rest after killing this Boar, it will also make a nice breakfast,' Grey thought to himself.

He disappeared from his spot, appearing by the side of the Boar. He enforced his fist with the fire element, punching the stomach of the Boar.

The Boar which was still trying to find where Grey disappeared to was sent flying.

Crash! Bang!

The Boar slammed into the ground.

Just as it landed, Grey appeared in front of it again, punching into its head.

The force behind his blow was so powerful that the head of the Boar exploded with a 'bang'.

Grey opened his hand, staring at the small core in his hand. He used the water element to wash the blood and gore off the core before tossing it into his mouth.

'Hmm, it has been a while since I did this,' He thought while crushing the core in his mouth.

The core broke apart, turning into a pure form of earth essence, heading towards his earth elemental bead.

He quickly set up a grill, after properly gutting the boar, he added the needed ingredients before placing the meat in the grill.

Before long, the pleasing aroma of well-garnished meat wafted around the area Grey was cooking. He made sure to release an aggressive aura, to ward off any beast that would be attracted here because of the food.

Some minutes later, the meat was completely cooked.

Grey quickly took it down, before biting down on it. When he was cooking, he couldn't help but think of his Teacher. Since leaving his Teacher, he doesn't cook as often as he did.

The flesh of the boar was also filled with essence, so it helped him recover what he had lost.

When he was done eating, he realized he didn't need to rest anymore since his essence energy had completely recovered.

"Wow, why didn't I do this earlier?" He exclaimed.

The last time he was here, he was short on essence energy because he was running from beasts almost throughout the time he spent here. If he knew of this then, he wouldn't have been in a difficult situation.

He quickly started his journey once again, since there was no need to rest, he wanted to get there as soon as he could.

….

Four hours later.

"It should be around here," Grey brought out the map he had with him, staring at it.

He was holding onto a small piece of meat with his right hand, occasionally taking a bite from it as he studied the map.

Just when he wanted to continue walking forward, his expression changed.

"Oh crap," He said softly as he looked in front of him.

A large black Jaguar could be seen lying casually on the ground. The aura it was releasing was that of an Overlord Plane expert.

Grey slowly retreated, hoping the Jaguar wouldn't be disturbed by his steps.

After taking only eight steps, the eyes of the Jaguar snapped open.

"Why the hell am I so unlucky?" He asked with a sad expression.

This Jaguar was at the peak of the Early stages of the Overlord Plane, just a little bit away from the Mid stages. There was no way Grey could fight against it.

Growl…

The Jaguar stood up, still looking at Grey with its black eyes.

Grey continued retreating, he didn't have any plans of being food for a beast here.

Roar!

The Jaguar pounced towards him.

He hastily retreated before vanishing, switching places with the Jaguar. As soon as they switched positions, the Jaguar continued moving forward due to the unexpected switch, it missed its target, crashing into a tree.

Grey on the other hand immediately bolted towards where the building was located.

The Jaguar didn't delay, as soon as it crashed into the tree, it turned around, running towards Grey.

It opened its mouth, spitting out a ball of black mass towards Grey.

When Grey saw the black mass coming towards him quickly, he almost fainted from fright.

"Of all the elements, it just had to be the darkness element," He complained out loud while running.

The aura the orb was releasing was frightening, luckily, the darkness element wasn't the fastest.

Just as Grey was about to celebrate, he saw something that almost made his eyes pop out.

Black lightning was dancing all around the body of the Jaguar, it opened its mouth again and spat out another black orb. But unlike the first one, this one had black lightning dancing around it.

The black lightning orb merged with the darkness orb, increasing the speed of the orb to another level.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Grey yelled as he ran for his dear life.