Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 189: Use Your Gut Feeling

Three days later.

In the trial land.

“We should be getting close to the array, right?” Reynolds asked while staring at the mountains before them.

He didn’t recall passing through here, so he was getting a little confused.

“Yeah.” Grey said as he took out the map he acquired from Quinn.

“We’re currently here, so if we continue in this direction, we should get to the array in two to three days.” He pointed at their current location on the map to the group, while also showing them the direction they would pass through to get to their destination.

In the past three days, their journey had been fun, to say the least. Alice had managed to find out that Klaus and Reynolds were the pants thief, and it unfortunately didn’t end well for them. But since they couldn’t fight back, they could only grumble inside. Grey who started it in the first place wasn’t suspected at all, he couldn’t help but thank his luck.

His situation can be compared to someone who always lies, even if the person said the truth, no one would believe it. Due to his usual moral and somewhat serious nature, the group felt he wouldn’t do something like that. But in the case of Klaus and Reynolds, even Blake who wasn’t in the trial land wouldn’t believe them if they said they weren’t the pants thief.

“I’ll miss this place though, although it had been dangerous on some occasions, it has been mostly fun.” Klaus said with a sigh.

He had already started missing the trial land even though they haven’t left yet.

“I won’t.” Grey said with a long face.

Although he acquired some great things here, they almost caused his death. The only thing he remembered doing here was running, he was already tired of it, so naturally, he didn’t even want to stay here for too long anymore. That was the reason he picked this route, it was shorter than the rest.

“Of course you will, or have you forgotten this is the place you acquired the fire element, and your flame is blue, different, and stronger than that of others.” Klaus chided.

“No I haven’t, I also haven’t forgotten how many times I almost died, or had to run for my life.” Grey said ironically.

“But you’re alive, stronger than you were before, that shows the treasures you acquired helped you.” Klaus continued, not agreeing with Grey’s view.

“Not stronger, faster. I ran so much that my speed almost doubled.” Grey corrected with a little hint of dejection.

The others didn’t run as much as he did, that was why they thought it was a great experience, well, it wasn’t.

“I’m a little curious what grade your fire element would be though.” Reynolds said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, me too.” Alice nodded as well.

They have witnessed the strength of the blue flames, so they were sure it would be at least blue grade or even higher. They couldn’t wait to go out and check it out.

“Cy…” Grey unconsciously blurted out, but luckily, he stopped himself in time.

‘*Phew* That was close.’ He thought after breathing out in relief.

Had he accidentally told them of his grade, they would have asked how he knew.

“Hey, what did you say?” Klaus asked.

“Nothing, we better get going, I really want to leave this place as soon as possible.” Grey shivered to show his urge to leave the trial land.

“Okay.”

The group continued their journey, and a day soon went by.

They were currently almost at the end of the mountain range, and after passing through here, all they have to do is go through three forests before they will reach the array.

‘There’s something close by.’ Void suddenly spoke up.

Void had been relatively quiet lately, and although Grey speaks to him once in a while, he rarely spoke at all.

‘Where?’ Grey stopped and asked curiously.

Although he wanted to leave, he also knew that whatever Void senses had never been ordinary. If he could get something great just before leaving this place, it wouldn’t be bad.

Bam!

Reynolds who wasn’t looking at his front while walking bumped into Grey who suddenly stopped.

“Why did you stop?” He asked grumpily while holding his nose which hit Grey’s head.

Klaus and Alice also stared at him curiously, seeing how he was staring in a particular direction, they felt something was up.

“There’s something here.” Grey said to the group.

“Something like…?” Klaus asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s a treasure, a good one.” Grey said seriously.

The trio stared at each other, before looking at Grey again. The only question in their minds was, how did he know there was a treasure here? And he could even tell it’s a good one!

“Don’t ask, are you guys interested, or should we continue on our journey?” Grey asked the trio.

“Well, if what you said is true, then of course I’m interested.” Klaus said excitedly.

Finding a treasure always brings him joy, so of course he’d go. Their journey had been pretty boring as well since they haven’t been able to do anything exciting. They haven’t even battled! All the beasts that they encountered always run away the moment it sensed them.

Alice nodded as well, with two agreeing, Grey, Alice, and Klaus started walking in the direction Grey was staring at.

“What about my opinion?” Reynolds was left stunned, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Doesn’t matter.” Klaus laughed sarcastically.

“Come on, we know you’d also agree.” Grey said as the group continued towards a huge tree.

‘There’s a passage underneath the tree.’ Void directed.

‘Hmm.’ Grey nodded as he went closer to the tree.

Knock! Knock!

He knocked on the tree repeatedly to see if there were any spaces inside. It didn’t take long before he knocked on a place that the sound was lighter than the rest part of the tree.

After locating his target, he brought out the dagger he got from Quinn and stabbed it into the tree. It entered easily, and he quickly dragged it downwards.

Before long, what looked like a door appeared on the body of the tree, looking inside, one could see an opening on it.

The tree was at least three meters wide in radius, so there weren’t any problems for a human to pass through it.

The group jumped into the tree and fell straight down, Grey was the last to go in as he wanted to close the place he carved open on the body of the tree, so in case anyone accidentally passes through this place, they wouldn’t see it.

“It’s a tunnel.” Alice said after she created a fireball that lit up the place.

“So, which way?” The group looked at Grey who just landed.

They could either head forward or backward. Since the Grey was the one who ‘sensed’ the treasure, it was naturally right for them to ask him where they were headed.

‘Void.’ Grey asked Void since he was the one who could sense it.

“Forward.” He said after getting confirmation from Void.

The group walked for almost twenty minutes before stopping, they looked at Grey who was standing in front of them.

Ahead of the group, three paths could be seen.

‘I’m sorry, I can’t sense its particular direction from here.’ Void said after some time.

“Shit!” Grey cursed out.

“What’s wrong.” Reynolds asked when he heard Grey cursing.

“I don’t know which of the paths has the treasure.” Grey said.

He didn’t want to tell the others of Void’s treasure-sensing ability yet.

“Well that’s a bummer.” Klaus said wryly.

While the group was thinking of which path to take, Grey, Reynolds, and Alice simultaneously turned to look at Klaus.

Sensing their gazes, Klaus shivered unknowingly and raised his head to meet their gazes.

“Why are you all staring at me? Is there something behind me?” He asked, not daring to look back.

“No.” The trio answered.

Klaus felt relieved when he heard their answer, but seeing that they were still looking at him, he couldn’t help but ask, “Then why are you all looking at me?”

“Your gut feeling.” Grey said.

“What?” Klaus’ face was instantly filled with confusion.

“Use your gut feeling.” Reynolds said.

“Fuck you! Do you think it’s an ability or something? It can’t be controlled, it just happens.” Klaus explained, after cursing at them.

“Well, we need it now. It’s better than randomly walking into any of the paths. Who knows, you might get it right.” Grey persuaded.

Although relying on Klaus’ gut feeling wasn’t really the best decision, there had been multiple times where it had been correct, so, there was no harm in taking the risk.

Klaus naturally refused Grey’s persuasion and Reynolds’ as well. It was only after Alice decided to persuade him did he agree.

“The one on the left.” He quickly blurted out before Alice got to him.

He knew how she persuaded people, and he didn’t want something like that to happen to him.

“Good boy.” Grey said mockingly before heading into the path on the left.

😉