Affinity:Chaos

"What stage did you get to?" Reynolds asked after managing to stop looking at Grey weirdly.

"Eighth stage, but I'm not too far from the Ninth stage," Grey replied after checking himself to confirm.

"Looks like you're going to be the first to get to the Overlord Plane. To think we were already in the Arcane Plane when you even haven't started cultivating," Reynolds said in awe.

This was something that had always surprised him, Grey's speed was unfathomable. In a short space of just three years, Grey has gone from a regular person, to someone who's already close to the Overlord Plane.

How was that even possible?

"Yeah, when I think about it carefully, it is kinda unbelievable," Grey replied.

Klaus was in the Third stage the last time Grey saw him, but he was sure he would've already broken through to the Fourth stage already, given the fact that Alice had broken through and he was ahead of her.

Thanks to the lightning tree, Reynolds not only got to the Fifth stage, but his Elemental Warrior also got a major boost that took it to the Eighth stage. It could rival those in the Ninth stage without any problems. This meant that Reynolds currently faced no danger as long as whoever was sent after him was in the Origin Plane.

Unknowingly, Grey's influence had actually made the group grow faster than they would usually do, after all, no one wants to get left behind. Even if Grey grows more powerful, at least they didn't want to be too far behind.

"We should get going," Grey said while looking in the direction of the forest inhabited by those sentient plants.

He could sense the group was making their way here, and they were already almost halfway through the forest.

'Looks like the Chimera didn't give chase,' He thought.

"Yeah, I wonder how the couple is doing?" Reynolds nodded before recalling Lukka and his wife.

He had grown to like the couple during the expedition. They were of much help, especially the map they gave to the duo while they were still in the Chimera forest. Without the map, they might have accidentally stepped into one of the territories of magical beasts in the Overlord Plane while leaving the place.

"They should be fine, I guess," Grey replied.

Given Lukka's strength, he didn't think that there would be anyone who could kill him single-handedly in the group. And since the guild seemed united, he guessed no one would attack them.

With nothing left for the duo to do in the forest, they immediately started their journey away from it.

Grey planned to leave as soon as they left the forest. Initially, he didn't want to create the teleportation array anywhere, but after finding out they would still need at least one week of traveling to get to Eternal City, he gave up the idea and would rather create the array somewhere secluded close to the mercenary town.

They wouldn't really get to the town since Reynolds would definitely be assaulted by people from the guild if found, so not going back there was the best option.

Two days later.

After traveling for two days, the duo was finally within range of the town, but they had no plans of going there.

When they got there, Grey told Reynolds of the array he was going to make which would transport him to Frost City in as little as a minute or so.

"The space element sure is wonderful, it would be nice if we could have something like this positioned all over the empire though. It would make traveling easier," Reynolds shook his head.

"I plan to make more, but the amount of essence stones it consumes is terrifying," Grey said.

If he could make more teleportation arrays, then moving would be easy for himself and his group. Only those close to him would be aware of the arrays, and how to start them up.

He would place a restriction on them so others couldn't use it, but that's something he would think about later in the future, for now, he was focused on heading back to Frost City, visiting Alice once more, before heading out to meet Klaus.

Amongst all his friends, Klaus was the one he was actually hoping to see more, the reason, he's Klaus, who doesn't want to be with him?

Oh, wait, there's probably a ton of people who would want him dead given how annoying he is.

"I'd like to see Klaus though, it's been so long," Reynolds said.

"Yeah. Luckily, you can talk to him when I give him his communication device," Grey said, comforting Reynolds.

"This thing's a lifesaver. Who would've thought that there would be a way to communicate with people even when they're not close to you?" Reynolds looked at the communication device lovingly.

"Come on, I need to find a good location to create the array," Grey said before moving away from the path that led to the town.

The duo went into the bushes around, searching for a place Grey felt was secure enough, and after almost two hours, they found nothing.

There was no cave nor a tree-packed place in the forest.

"This place's impossible. We should've just done it back in the forest." Grey complained grumpily.

"Why don't we head in the direction of Eternal City? We'll definitely find a spot there, and I'll be closer to my place," Reynolds suggested.

"Yeah, we should do that." Grey agreed.

Reynolds planned to continue his training. Now that he knew there was a way he could boost the strength of his Elemental Warrior ahead of him, he wanted to take it to the Overlord Plane as soon as he could.

Although they were heading in Eternal City's direction, he wasn't really going there. The only reason he suggested this was in case he was in Frost City and wanted to come to Eternal City, then this would shorten his journey by a week or two.

They followed the route Reynolds took, and on the next day, Grey found a secure place to make the second array.