Affinity: Chaos

Grey and Alice walked over to read what was written on the wall, but it was in a language they did not know.

"Do you know this?" Grey asked the others that were there.

The bunny was mysterious and should've been in this place before them, so Grey felt it was best to ask it since there was a probability that it would know.

'How would I know?' The bunny leader looked at him oddly.

Grey could only give up, however, he didn't forget to write it down. This was probably valuable information. He didn't know too much about ancient times, so it wouldn't be bad if he could decipher this.

They continued trying to open the other doors. Three more opened but just like the first one, other than chains and skeletons, there was nothing else.

Grey was not too picky, he picked up all the chains, while being looked down on by the bunny leader. He couldn't care about how the bunny leader looked at him. What was important was that he got something from this place.

When he touched the chains, he noticed that they seemed to be able to restrain his ability to access his elements. If not for the fact he only held them for a short time, he was certain that he would've lost his ability to use his essence for some time.

'Good stuff!'

This was all he exclaimed as he picked them up. With this, if he could use it to chain down anyone that was stronger than himself, he would be able to beat them up. Of course, that was all on the premise that they didn't break free from it on time. Anyone stronger than him would not have any difficulty with breaking free from the chain if Grey tried to use it to pin them down. He might have a stronger physique, but those people had powerful elemental abilities, so all they needed to do was to make sure that they were not caught by the chain.

After taking all the chains he could take, he also tried to see if there was anything special about the skeletons. At this point, even Alice started to look at him strangely.

"Don't look at me like that, this thing is a treasure. No one knows how long they had died, but the bones are still intact. This shows that they had a powerful physique as well." Grey explained.

Alice didn't say anything, she didn't know what to say. All she could do was to let him do as he pleases.

Grey had the thought of taking one of the bones for further study, but then he decided against it. Although he was curious about it, it was disrespectful to start studying the bone of a dead expert.

They soon walked out of the building.

The Bull was lying in the same spot, not looking at them.

"How do we leave?" Grey looked around.

He had gotten some things here, and since there was nothing else, he didn't want to waste his time any longer.

Alice shook her head. They entered this place the same time, so there was no way she would know how to leave.

"Why don't we kill the Bull?" Void suggested.

The Bull looked real, and he couldn't help but wonder what it would taste like. This Bull was definitely raised in this place, so its strength was above average. Its meat would also be very delicate as well.

There was nothing else, so the group went over to kill the Bull.

Alice didn't join them since she was still in the Sage Plane. A single attack from the Bull might be able to kill her, so she decided to sit this one out.

While watching them, she studied the place, frowning slightly. She was a hundred percent certain that killing the Bull would not send them to the next stage.

There was no way the chains were what could be taken out of this stage. From the first stage, it was easy to see that there would be things they would have to do for them to advance to the next stage.

'What could this stage task be?' She fell deep in thought.

While she was thinking of how to leave the place, Grey and Void had started their attack on the Bull.

The bunny leader also joined in on the fun, attacking the Bull's legs as it cursed at it. Apparently, it was still feeling vexed from the time the Bull almost stamped it.

They fought the Bull for over ten minutes before they managed to successfully take it down.

When it died, contrary to what the others expected, it vanished. Turned into energy and entered the body of Grey, Void, the bunny leader, and Alice who was sitting on the side.

Alice raised her head to look in their direction.

'I was wrong, can killing this Bull take us to the next stage?' She thought internally.

However, after the Bull died, nothing happened. Other than the energy that entered their bodies, there was no change.

"Damn it! Who told them we wanted energy? Give us back our meat!" Void cursed.

The energy that entered their bodies only helped in replenishing their used up strength. This was not what they wanted. It was a huge loss in their book.

Grey was also thinking at this point. They had killed the Bull, yes, they expended a lot of energy. But it wouldn't really matter to them. It wasn't like…

His expression changed and he tried to absorb elemental essence from the surrounding.

He soon realized that he was unable to.

'I was able to absorb light essence in the last stage.' He thought to himself with a frown.

Alice was looking at his face with an odd expression, "Did you notice it as well?"

Grey nodded. There was no essence in this place, so as long as they fought against the Bull, if they didn't defeat it on time. Then they would be the ones in trouble.

"What would've happened if we ran out of energy?" Grey couldn't help but ask.

They had been fighting for some time and their essence was drained.

"Send out an attack." Alice said.

Grey didn't think too much and did as told, his eyes showed a strange look.

"The consumption here is stronger than other places." He said.

The casual attack he used just now had the same consumption as when he uses a large scale attack. It was a shocking discovery.

"Do you think there is a problem with this place?" Alice asked.

Grey nodded.

Of course there was a problem with this place. How could Alice even ask such a question?

The consumption of essence was higher, and the other things were not as it usually was. If this place didn't have a problem, what did?

They once again started to go through the place slowly. There would be something that was different here that would help them pass through this place.

Void and the bunny leader also joined in on the search.

When they came here, the Bull and the large hall in front of them was the only thing that caught their eye. So even when they didn't get anything from the hall, they diverted their attention to the Bull. Now that the Bull was nowhere to be seen, they focused on the hall again. This time, they didn't only look inside, but outside the hall as well.

"Were there any stairs in the hall?" Grey suddenly asked.

Alice shook her head.

Grey pointed at the top of the building, there was a window there connected to the hall.

They took flight and appeared in front of the window. There was a passageway there.

"How come I didn't notice this window the first time?" Grey was suspicious.

Even though he didn't survey the place well, he still felt that such a large window would not have been able to escape from his view.

"Neither did I. I think we felt it was part of the building and naturally didn't care about it." Alice deduced.

Grey nodded and brought out a smaller chain that he started to study. Of course, he didn't hold it. Placing it some distance away from him, he used an elemental weapon to hold it as he studied it.

He had obtained a lot of elemental weapons during his journeys.

"The metal is forged with something. This is what's giving it the ability to restrain elemental essence. I wonder what it could be." He muttered as he continued observing the chain.

They were currently walking in the passageway. So he didn't feel too stressed. Alice would notify him of anything that was happening.

Before long, they got to the end of the passageway.

A large field appeared before them.

Grey kept the chain and studied his new environment. He didn't want a repeat of what happened the last time.

The field didn't have much, just a way down a cave.

As they walked, Grey recalled that this place was just like most on the places he had been to in this secret realm. Small on the outside, large on the inside.