Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 347: Sentient Plants

Grey found out from Reynolds that the journey would take about two or three days.

They caught up with the main group a few hours later, and they decided to travel with them since it was safer.

Later that night.

The group set up camp on an open field after it got dark. They were surrounded by a huge forest, and they didn’t want to take the risk of traveling through the forest at night since they all knew powerful magical beasts are more active at night.

Grey and Reynolds stationed themselves at the back of the camp since Grey didn’t want to stay close to the group.

In the end, Grey estimated that only about thirty people decided to set out for the expedition. This was as a result of them not being confident in being able to obtain the treasure from the hands of people like the triplets who were at the very Peak of the Origin Plane.

It was better they didn’t get involved, than to become cannon fodders who wouldn’t get anything in the end. Not everyone would want to take the risk of trying, after all, the chances of them getting the treasure with their strength was very low.

Reynolds had been speaking with Alice almost all through the day, Grey joined in their conversation for a few minutes before letting them be.

‘I should try practicing that technique while we’re here,’ Grey thought to himself.

With the thought in mind, he quickly stood up from where he was sitting with Reynolds and started heading towards the south.

He soon disappeared into the forest, under the moonlight.

After walking for almost ten minutes, he stopped at an isolated area in the forest. A boulder could be seen in the area, surrounded by huge trees.

Grey climbed onto the boulder and sat down. He spread his spiritual senses out, trying to ensure the area was completely safe.

Two minutes later, he opened his eyes before opening his palm. A scroll appeared on his palm the next second, the scroll was completely black.

He got this scroll in the trial land, just after Void hatched from the egg. At that time, he didn’t have any use for it since he didn’t have the space element.

The name of the technique was the Great Void movement technique. It involves shuttling through the void at an incredible speed. According to the description, once Grey attains beginner level mastery of the technique, he could shuttle through a distance of at least five hundred meters.

The overall distance he could shuttle through after attaining beginner level mastery solely depends on his elemental grade, but he would be able to at least cover a distance of five hundred meters.

This was not the first time he was trying this technique, he tried using it to comprehend the space element the first time he acquired the technique, but he was unable to.

With the knowledge he had from the previous times, he slowly started trying out the technique again.

Grey sat down in a meditative position, and tried following the instructions on the scroll.

He had to first create two space tunnels almost simultaneously, after creating them, he would connect them to make the movement instantaneous. After connecting the two tunnels, the movement speed is faster compared to the normal one a Space Elementalist uses.

The tunnels must be stable, or else they might collapse while the Space Elementalist is going through it. The danger of being caught in a collapsed space was extremely high, especially for someone like Grey whose control over the space element was minimal.

Grey started with the first process, which was creating the space tunnels simultaneously.

He tried it the first time, and failed, he tried a second, third, fourth and continuously, but he continued failing. Luckily, he noticed after each failure, he was getting better at it.

Time flew by, and before he knew it, it was already almost daybreak.

Even after trying countless times, he was unable to make it. He didn’t feel downhearted since he naturally knew he wouldn’t be able to get it once.

At the camp.

The group were already getting ready to continue their journey, going through the forest.

The leader of the expedition gathered everyone.

“As you all know, there’s a sentient plant in this forest. Although we would be able to dodge them at night time, we would also endanger ourselves because of the beasts in the forest.”

“These plants are extremely poisonous, but luckily, they’re plants, and are very weak towards the fire element…” He explained.

The leader created a strategy for the group to travel through the forest, since the plants are weak towards the fire element, Fire Elementalists would be positioned around the group, placing the other Elementalists in the middle. This would minimize the risk, while also helping them move faster.

Everyone agreed to his plan, and they soon started getting into position before they departed.

Grey came back just as they were about to leave. Reynolds was already trying to delay the group while waiting for Grey, so on seeing him he heaved a sigh of relief knowing he wouldn’t need to bother himself with delaying again.

“What were you doing?” He went closer to Grey and asked.

“Training,” Grey replied before getting on his horse.

“Heh! Try not to get eaten by the plants,”

A cold voice came from behind the duo, when they turned around, they noticed the Fire Elementalist amongst the triplets was the one stationed close to where they were in the formation.

“Come on, let’s move to the other side,” Grey said while moving his horse to the left wing of the formation.

The Fire Elementalist was taken aback when he saw Grey moving away. He initially wanted to go after the duo, but after seeing where they were headed, he smirked before staying put.

“You train too much,” Reynolds said as they headed towards the left wing.

“I need to grow stronger, faster. You know our current predicament isn’t great, the more we delay, the more we give them an opportunity to harm us. I hate feeling threatened,” Grey said.

“Yeah, but, try to take some time off, have fun,” Reynolds laughed.

“I’ll stop when I get to the top,” Grey said blandly.

“*Sigh* If only Klaus and Alice were here, they’d be able to make you loosen up easier, especially Alice,” Reynolds said, recalling how Alice was able to convince Grey to always go out with them.

Reynolds started speaking with Alice, telling her of Grey’s unwillingness to take a break from training.

In the end, Grey, Alice, and Reynolds started speaking with the communication device as they traveled through the forest.

Ten minutes after walking into the forest.

Boom!

An explosion rang out from the front.

Grey and the Reynolds quickly tried to look what was happening, ahead of them was a huge flower like plant that had rows of teeth. It was spitting out a greenish fog that was spreading rapidly towards the group.

“Don’t breath in the fog, it’s poisonous,”

The leader of the expedition’s voice came from the front of the formation. He was a Fire Elementalist and was the one who was leading the charge against the plant.

Ah!

A scream came from the right side.

Grey turned around to see a man picked up by a huge vine. The man and his horse were both taken by the vine.

The crowd sucked in a cold breath as they saw this. This was the first time Grey and a few of the people here were seeing this plant.

Grey in particular found the situation strange since he was used to seeing dangerous magical beasts, not plants.

He had read of these plants at the Lunar Academy library, but he hadn’t been able to see them.

Ah!

Boom!

Screams was coming from different sides as vines wrapped around the legs and waists of horses, lifting them off the ground.

Rustle!

Grey suddenly heard the rustling sound of the leaves, when he looked below him, he saw the vines on the ground, slithering like a snake.

‘Crap! How’s this any less dangerous than moving at night?’ He said while creating a flaming whip that he used to lash at the vines.

“Rey, stay close,” He turned to Reynolds.

His expression changed when he noticed the vine that was around Reynolds’ horse legs.

“Shit! Rey, jump,” He exclaimed.

The vines seems to be able to wrap around people without them being able to sense it, only after the squeeze tight will they sense it.

Reynolds reacted immediately he heard Grey’s words. Due to the high trust he had developed for Grey over the time they had spent together, he didn’t doubt his words even by the slightest.

If he were to be standing at a cliff, and Grey said he should jump down, he would do it without a doubt. He knew there was no way Grey would do anything that would hurt him.

😉