Affinity:Chaos

"You're being stupid, you know that, right?" Grey finally spoke up.

"It's not like it's the first time," Reynolds with a shrug which threw Grey into a fit of laughter.

"Fine, I'll refine it. You know what, I'll do it now," Grey said before walking back into the tent he made.

Since Reynolds wanted him to refine it, then he would do it now. Besides, he wasn't sure if he would get an opportunity again before stepping into the Magical beasts' forest.

Reynolds watched him go in with a smile. He could've accepted the orb and improved the strength of his Elemental Warrior, sensing the essence inside, he was sure it would've been able to get to the Overlord Plane. But, Grey was the one in more danger when he looked at it properly.

The Emperor was not only searching for him, but so were the three other empires. Even though they had been unable to catch him now, what if he was seen by someone stronger than the young man he fought the previous day, then what?

Inside the tent.

Grey looked at the orb and shook his head wryly, he didn't really want Reynolds to be annoyed, hence he decided to take it. Besides, dragging who would refine the orb was useless. Since Reynolds refused, he would most likely not refine it even if he left it on the ground next to him.

He closed his eyes, and prepared to refine the orb, thinking of how the young man did it, he had the impulse of doing it.

'What have I got to lose?'

With that, he opened his mouth and tossed the orb inside.

With a single gulp, the orb went straight down to his stomach. As soon as it got there, it exploded out with terrifying energy that scared the hell out of Grey.

But as soon as the energy exploded out, a second energy was emitted from Grey's body. The energy was able to quickly tame the wild energy that was coming out of the orb.

'Oh, I knew I could do it,' He thought while focusing on trying to direct the docile energy to his lightning essence bead.

Although he said this, his back was saying something different. His clothes were currently soaked with sweat from fright.

With the amount of energy in the orb, Grey felt confident in not just breaking through to the Seventh stage, but the Eighth stage as well. That was not the only thing he was confident about, the second thing was an increase in his lightning element's elemental grade.

He had been unable to improve the grade of his lightning element for a long time now, so he actually felt quite happy refining this. The reason he suggested giving it to Reynolds was when he found out that the Elemental Warrior could absorb it.

After guiding the red lightning essence to his essence bead, he slowly started to integrate it with his lightning essence bead.

He was taken aback when he noticed that when the red lightning essence entered his essence bead, it did not change to the normal silver-colored lightning essence inside, instead, it remained the same color.

He didn't think much about it and focused on guiding the essence, for now. When he had completely refined everything, then he would think about what was going on with the red lightning essence.

Because of the way he swallowed the orb, the speed in the refining process improved to a terrifying rate. Compared to others, his speed had always been faster, but now, it was almost on the same level as the speed with which the Elemental Warrior was absorbing the lightning tree's essence.

Within the short time of ten minutes, he had completely refined the essence contained within the orb. It was only after completely absorbing it did his breakthrough begin.

Boom! Bang!

A violent energy shot out of his body, destroying the earth tent he made.

Reynolds, who was sitting on the ground, was shocked by the energy wave that spread in his direction.

"What the hell! What's he up to now?"

He quickly retreated fifty meters away from the place, but after standing, he realized it didn't change much, so he retreated further back.

"He's going to draw so much attention," Reynolds shook his head while looking around vigilantly.

'He's only breaking through in the Origin Plane. Only God knows what sort of ruckus he'll make when he's breaking through to the Overlord Plane.'

He prepared himself in case anyone came close. Although he knew no one would come, it didn't hurt to be too careful.

Swoosh!

The energy wave soon kicked up wind around Grey, and inside the wind, red lightning could be seen moving around it.

Two minutes later, the wind storm slowly started reducing.

Grey could be seen sitting with his eyes still closed, it was like he knew nothing of what happened around him a few minutes ago.

He opened his eyes, and red lightning flashed across it. A smile formed on his lips as he stared at his hand, at the tip of his finger was a little red lightning bolt.

'So, that's why it didn't change. But how come it's on a separate side?' He thought to himself.

Presently, his lightning essence bead has two colors, half of it was the normal silver color, while the other half was surprisingly red lightning.

Grey never expected he would actually obtain it, but what was more unexpected was that he could actually switch between the lightning he wishes to use. The red lightning was naturally more powerful, but it was more eye-catching.

"Hey, what's with all the ruckus every time you breakthrough?" Reynolds asked from afar.

"It's not always, only on some special occasions," Grey said.

"Wait, how come it didn't take you up to fifteen minutes?" Reynolds asked while looking behind Grey as if searching for the orb.

"I swallowed the orb, it made refining faster," Grey said with a smirk.

"Monster,"

For the second time within an hour, Reynolds murmured the same word while looking at Grey like he was something else.