Affinity:Chaos

Grey joined up with Reynolds just before the group set off.

"Wait, you trained all through the night?" The lady asked when she saw Grey coming back.

"Hmm," Grey nodded.

"Wow, such diligence. No wonder you're powerful," The lady said with stars in her eyes.

She hadn't seen anyone like Grey for a long time now, so seeing how trained during the night, she couldn't help but praise him.

"Yeah, that's how he usually is. He trains all through, never having time for anything else, even going out with friends," Reynolds said while scratching his head with a smile.

The group continued talking as they headed into the forest. This forest was not as dangerous as the one they walked through the previous day. Although they occasionally encountered magical beasts at the Peak of the Origin Plane, they didn't engage them since the beasts retreated as soon as they sensed them.

Their journey was relatively smooth for that day, and day soon turned to night. After the group set up camp, Grey headed into the forest around them like he had been doing for the past nights.

The next morning.

"We'll be going through two terrains, a swamp, and a rocky mountain. We'll be depending mainly on the Lightning Elementalists when we get to the swamp, while Fire and Water Elementalists will handle the rocky mountains," The leader said to them.

He didn't say much to them, since all the mercenaries were familiar with the area, except for Grey and Reynolds.

These were the two places he said would be as dangerous as the forest that was occupied by the plants.

"Ah, finally, I place where my attacks would be effective," Reynolds said with a sigh of relief.

Grey casually looked around, having seven different elements made him the most versatile Elementalist alive. No matter the condition, he would have the element that could counter it.

He would be complete once he comprehends the light element, that would make him have all eight elements he knew of. There was also the possibility of the wood element that wood fanatic spoke about, but he wasn't thinking about that, for now.

Two hours later.

The group stopped, looking ahead of them. In front of them was a large swamp.

"The horses will be safe here, we'll complete the rest of the journey on foot," The leader of the expedition said as he highlighted his horse.

The rest followed suit, tying down the horses by the trees.

"Are they safe here?" Reynolds asked the couple while he was tying his horse to a tree.

"Yeah, this isn't our first time coming here. As long as the horses stay put, they'll be fine," The lady said.

"There's an array around this area, although some mercenaries tend to act mindlessly, they know the value of having a horse in such an area," Grey said while tying his horse.

"Such sharp senses, looks like I keep underestimating you," The man looked at Grey, impressed.

Not all the mercenaries here knew of the array that was placed here to protect the horses, yet Grey who was coming here for the first was able to sense it immediately.

"It's not really that hard to notice. I picked up the clue when that guy said we should leave the horses here. Given the journey, there's no way he'd want us to go back on foot since it would be extremely taxing and dangerous," Grey explained.

"You picked it up just from that?" The man asked, a little taken aback.

"Yeah," Grey nodded.

'That, and because I'm exceptionally proficient in arrays. I've sensed this array from over five hundred meters away,' Grey scoffed inside.

Even though these people seemed to be good to them, there's no way he was going to tell them he was good at arrays.

The leader of the expedition was the first to step into the swamp, after he entered, the others followed behind him.

When Grey got to the swamp, he placed a finger in it and sent out a slight vibration, using the earth element as base. This was a technique he learned after reading about bats using echolocation.

He would use the earth element, creating some sort of inaudible vibrations from his fingers. The vibration will spread out from where he was standing, covering an area of at least four hundred meters radius.

He rarely used it previously, but in an area like this swamp, it was quite handy. He would be able to locate the magical beasts hiding in the swamp.

Reynolds and the couple looked at him strangely, not comprehending why he placed his finger in the swamp. They were the last group to head into the swamp.

"There are two magical beasts within a hundred meters from here, in that area. They can't be counted as powerful, but with a surprise attack, they wouldn't have any problems with taking out an Elementalist in the Late stages of the Origin Plane," Grey explained.

"You sensed them just by placing your finger in the swamp?" The lady asked, surprised.

"I'm a survivor, I try to learn as many useful things as I can. You can never know when they might come in handy," Grey shrugged before stepping into the swamp.

After he placed his leg on the swamp, his leg sank to the knee level, before stopping.

'Hmm, this will impede my movement,' He thought.

He used the wind element to wrap his legs, from the foot to his knees. The wind moved the muddy water as he walked through it, making it feel as if he was walking on plain ground.

Reynolds and the couple followed behind Grey, for some reason, he unconsciously became the leader of their small group. The few times the couple saw him in action, he earned their respect. Especially after seeing how he was able to easily sense the array, and the magical beasts hiding in the swamp.

"Huh? Grey, how are you walking so freely?" Reynolds asked while struggling through the muddy swamp.

"Oh, it's another skill I picked up from reading books," Grey shrugged it off, refusing to tell him the reason.

Reynolds wanted to reprimand him at first, but after recalling Grey's usual behavior, he guessed he was probably hiding something from the couple.

After walking around fifty meters forward.

Splash!

Boom!

Something jumped out from the swamp, dragging one of the men in the group in.

Before the attack of the man standing close could reach the beast, it dragged the man inside.

"What was that?" A man exclaimed.

The beast acted very fast, giving no one the time to see it's features.

'Heh! The lower the number of people who reach the place, the better,' Grey thought.

He could sense there was a reason the leader decided to pass through this route, and if his guess was correct, it was to reduce the number of people who would reach where the lightning tree was located.

Reynolds and the couple tensed up when they saw this. Reynolds tensed up because he hated sneak attacks, the couple tensed up because the person who was dragged down was someone who was at the Peak of the Origin Plane, just like them.

"How did the beast hide its presence that well?" The lady asked, looking in Grey's direction.

"I have no idea, but with my technique, I have no issues with locating them," Grey said.

Grey continued walking ahead of the group, guiding them through the swamp, unhindered.

Some of the individuals in the main group tensed up when they saw the man who was grabbed into the water.

Ten minutes later.

Three more people had been dragged into the swamp, the speed of the beasts' attack was something they couldn't keep up with. But this wasn't the first time some of them had come here, so they were prepared.

In the past ten minutes, two magical beasts had been killed by the group. The beasts were fishes which seemed to have things like arms below their fins. They had sharp rows of teeth which could easily bite through a human.

"This place is around one kilometer or so, so we'll be exiting soon," The lady explained.

Grey estimated they had walked around eight hundred meters in ten minutes. If they were alone, then they would've exited the swamp by now, but since they didn't want to attract attention from the others, they walked at a slower pace.

Another five minutes went by before the group exited the swamp. One more person died before they left the swamp.

While six more magical beasts were killed in the space of five minutes.

After exiting the swamp, the group didn't delay and immediately headed towards the rocky mountain. The leader of the expedition wanted them to get to the Chimera forest before nightfall.

They walked for another hour before the visage of the rocky mountain showed up before them.

"Which magical beasts occupy this mountain?" Grey asked the couple as they headed towards the mountain.

"Apes," The couple replied simultaneously.