Affinity:Chaos

The hall fell into silence as everyone was waiting for Grey's reply.

"Haha, I see even these egotistical triplets are here," A laugh was heard from behind the crowd.

Everyone turned around to look at who was laughing, the crowd soon made way when they saw the duo who were making their way forward. The duo consisted of one man, and a lady. They both had a smirk on their faces as they walked forward.

The one who laughed previously was the man.

"Well, aren't you a keeper," The lady giggled when she saw Grey.

"He's mine!" Alexa suddenly stepped in front of Grey, shielding him from the lady who just walked in.

The lady laughed when she saw Alexa's act.

Grey, who felt he was in an awkward position when the lady appeared and spoke, felt even more uncomfortable with Alexa claiming him as hers.

"Alexa, we spoke about this a few minutes ago. You'll have to wait for fifteen more years before you can claim anyone," Grey explained softly to her once again.

He was trying his best not to tell her in a hurtful way since he didn't want to make Alexa sad. She was a cute little girl, the only downside was that she wanted to keep him.

"What are you doing here?" The man who confronted Grey switched his attention to the duo who just walked in.

"We're members of the guild just like you morons, so naturally we'll try to obtain this treasure," The lady who was speaking with Grey turned to the man as she replied.

"Hmph! None of you is a Lightning Elementalist, so the tree is worthless for you people," The made said.

"Who says it's worthless? We've been looking for a fancy small tree to decorate our garden for some years now, and this lightning tree just happens to fit the bill. Isn't that right, dear?" The lady said, turning to look at the man she came in with.

"Yes," The man nodded.

"Hmph!" The man from the trio snorted and turned back to the platform. Before leaving, he gave Grey a threatening look.

After the man went back to the platform, the lady looked at Grey, "Don't worry, pretty boy. He wouldn't be able to harm you with us here."

"Besides, are you planning on going for the expedition?" She asked.

She could tell Grey and Reynolds were young, and one of them is not even in the Mid stages of the Origin Plane. Well, she could sense Reynolds' stage, but not Grey. It was like Grey was shrouded in a cloak that perfectly hid his aura from the world.

Grey and Reynolds nodded.

"Hmm, okay," The lady nodded before following behind her partner who was already ahead of her.

They stood on the platform, along with the three brothers, as well as two more men who arrived not too long ago.

Grey noticed that every single individual standing on the platform was at the very Peak of the Origin Plane, a little boost and they'll advance to the next Plane, the Overlord Plane.

They continued waiting for another ten minutes before the man who would be leading the expedition walked in.

By the time the man came in, there were already over ten people on the platform.

"Hmm, stealing it from so many hands is not going to be easy," Grey whispered to Reynolds.

"But you can," Reynolds said confidently.

He could tell Grey wasn't the least bit nervous, so there's a chance he was confident about being able to acquire it. Thinking of it, he had never really seen Grey nervous before, he was always calm and collected.

The only time he saw Grey going out of his usual behavior was when Void was hurt at the time they left the trial land.

"Of course, as long as an Overlord Plane expert doesn't appear then I'm at least sixty percent sure of being able to acquire it," Grey replied confidently.

While Reynolds was speaking, the man who would be leading the expedition stepped forward after having a little conversation with the group on the platform.

"Everyone, I believe you all know why you're here. So I wouldn't go through the stress of explaining anything about it. You all know how it usually works here in the guild, whoever acquires the treasure keeps it."

"Let's move out." The leader of the expedition said before stepping down from the platform.

"Well, that was quick," Grey said.

"Yeah," Reynolds nodded.

"Do they really follow this rule of whoever acquires the treasure keeping it?" Grey asked Alexa's elder brother who was there with them.

"There are few cases where they don't follow this rule, it's a guild after all, and without these rules, it wouldn't be able to keep these mercenaries in check, especially those who are used to stealing from others,"

"Whenever these rules are breached, if the assailant is captured, they would face the necessary punishments." explained Alexa's brother.

Grey and Reynolds were at the back of the crowd as they listened to the young man's explanation.

After walking out of the guild building, Alexa and her brother stopped at the front of the building. They naturally wouldn't be going on the expedition.

"Goodbye, uncle Reynolds, bring something for me when you come back," Alexa waved at Reynolds as he climbed on his horse.

Grey headed to the tavern he stayed at which was not too far from the guild and acquired his horse. Because of his delay, the crowd left them behind, but he didn't really care about it.

He preferred going on his own anyway, and with Reynolds with him, he wouldn't be bored.

As they rode towards the Chimera forest which was miles away from the mercenary town, Grey brought out the communication device.

Reynolds immediately recalled that he wanted to speak with Alice and quickly brought out his own as well.

"Hey, Alice, it's me, Reynolds," He said enthusiastically while waiting for her response.

'Rey, how are you doing?' Alice's voice resounded in Reynolds' head a few seconds later.

"Haha, I'm fine now. I've missed speaking with you so much," Reynolds laughed out happily when he heard her voice.

Grey smiled softly before looking at the device, he used his spiritual sense to check on Void who was in the spatial ring.

'Hey bud, I've really missed you,'