Affinity:Chaos

"I'll think about it," Grey said, after seeing the trio continue standing there, he asked, "Anything else?"

"No, we'll be leaving now," The young man said, before turning around.

"Wait!" Grey called out to them.

The young man paused, turning around to look at Grey.

"Where are you from?" Grey asked curiously.

"Is that important?" The young man asked.

"Hmm, no. You can go," Grey waved them off before jumping onto the branch of the tree.

He didn't enter the hole yet since he didn't want the young man to know what he wanted to do.

The young man nodded, before leaving with the two young ladies.

Grey sat atop the tree branch, contemplating the young man's offer. To be honest, he wasn't interested in the offer. After hearing what happened to that group, he didn't trust the young man one bit.

'If I'm able to use this technique before we see the treasure, then I'm confident in being able to obtain all of the lightning tree.' Grey thought while working on an array around the tree.

After making the array, he stepped into the hole.

The next morning.

Grey came out of the forest earlier this time since they would be setting out sooner.

"There are multiple magical beasts in the Late stages of the Origin Plane, as you all know, the Chimera isn't the only Overlord Plane magical beast in this forest, it's only the strongest. Most of you already know where to avoid while we're going into the forest…" The leader of the expedition gave a small briefing to them about the forest.

Grey and Reynolds were the only ones who didn't know where to avoid while moving in the forest, luckily, the couple was with them. They brought out a small map, handing it to Grey.

There were different places marked on the map, some of the marks were bigger, while others were smaller. According to the couple, the larger marks was considered the most dangerous, it was occupied by Overlord Plane magical beasts, while the smaller ones were areas that were occupied by magical beasts at the Peak of the Origin Plane.

"Thank you," Grey showed his gratitude to the couple for their help since they started the journey.

"It's nothing. The reason we initially started helping you guys out is that my wife hated the triplet, so anything she could do to annoy them was fine. But in the end, you guys are pretty nice, especially you," The man said, looking at Reynolds.

They spoke more with Reynolds, so they felt closer to him.

Grey smiled when he heard this, he wasn't really bothered if the couple liked him or not.

"Why did you guys come for this expedition when the lightning tree is of no use to any of you?" He asked curiously.

He recalled hearing the Fire Elementalist amongst the triplet asking them what they were doing there when they had no use for the lightning tree. And throughout the journey so far, the couple had been using only the water element.

"And who says it's of no use?" The man said with a smile while throwing a glance at Grey.

Grey was surprised when he saw lightning flashing quickly in the eyes of the man.

'Oh, he also has the lightning element,' He thought.

He nodded to the man before focusing his attention on the map. If he was able to acquire the lightning tree, it would depend on Reynolds if he wanted to share it with the couple or not.

Grey wasn't interested in taking a share since splitting the tree would greatly reduce the lightning essence it had stored up for so long. This was something he learned from the books he read, this was also why he didn't trust the young man who asked him to team up with him.

Everyone would naturally want to refine the tree at its best state.

After the leader of the expedition finished speaking to them, they immediately set off into the forest. Once they get to where the lightning tree was located, it would be every man for themselves.

One of the other groups entered the forest a few minutes after the guild entered. The group the young man came with was the last to step into the forest.

The young man had a smirk on his face as he took a step into the forest.

In the forest.

Grey's group didn't go far before they encountered magical beasts. None of the beasts had gotten to the Origin Plane yet, so the group quickly killed them, not forgetting to remove their cores before they continued heading deeper into the forest.

After getting almost one and a half kilometers deep into the forest, the stages of the magical beasts started slowly increasing.

Grey closely monitored the area, while staring at the map to see how accurate it was.

Looking closely, he noticed that they had passed a few of the areas marked on the map. These areas were occupied by magical beasts at the Peak of the Origin Plane.

According to the map, they still needed to go three kilometers deeper before they will get to where the lightning tree was located.

There were three larger marks around that place, so there's a chance that they might encounter magical beasts at the Overlord Plane when they get to the lightning tree.

They continued heading forward, fighting against the magical beasts that appeared before them.

They were forced to stop after going deeper by another kilometer. Ahead of them was a pack of wind wolves.

Grey looked at the map, and according to it, these wolves should be around eight hundred meters away from here.

"Looks like they moved," The man said.

"Yes, for them to move means only one thing, an Overlord Plane magical beasts chased them from their territory," The lady said.

"Couldn't they just be roaming around?" Reynolds asked.

"No, we've been coming here for over ten years now, and whenever the leader of a pack moves along with them, it means they were chased by a stronger group. There are few wolf packs in this forest, and only the leader of the wind wolves had managed to reach the Peak of the Origin Plane," The man explained.

"Oh, okay."