Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 76: Upgrade

At the residence of the Lunar Academy…

Grey told Klaus and the others what happened after he left the Jade Water Paradise. He gave them a detailed description of the entire event, and they all felt like they were there when it happened.

“Those scumbags”

Reynolds said through gritted teeth.

Grey looked at him and was almost a hundred percent sure Reynolds was the one who hated the Starlight Academy the most.

While the others were speaking, Klaus stayed unusually quiet. He suddenly spoke up,

“There’s still something puzzling about the story”

The rest looked at him with interest.

“You said one of them suddenly appeared and tried to stab you with a dagger?”

He asked

“Yes, I didn’t really get a good look at the figure. But I think the person is also one of them. He just hid and waited for the right time to strike, luckily, I was fast enough to make sure he didn’t hit my vitals”

Grey answered, he was totally taken off guard when that figure suddenly appeared.

“I don’t think so”

Klaus said calmly.

“Huh”

Not just Grey, but Reynolds and Alice were also taken aback when Klaus said this.

“From the way the person appeared, I think it was an assassin”

Klaus told them his conjecture. From the way the figure stayed until that moment to strike, it was evident the person was quite experienced in it.

“Assassin!”

The others all exclaimed in surprise.

“But what I don’t know is who would want to send an assassin to kill you, and why?”

The group looked at Klaus with surprise. Grey thought about it and couldn’t help but feel what Klaus said was right.

“I don’t think I’ve offended anyone since we got to the city”

Grey said after some time. He rarely had contact with people, how will he offend people and didn’t even remember it?

“What about the Starlight Academy?”

Klaus asked

“Why would the Starlight Academy send someone to assassinate me just because I beat up one of their students?”

Grey said. He didn’t think the people from the Starlight Academy did it, he knew they were upset he beat up their student, but sending an assassin to kill him is just being unreasonable.

“Beats me, but they are the ones I think are likely behind it, or, the family of the boy you beat up”

“We all have to be careful from now on. I’ll inform my father about this”

Klaus said to the others. They stayed for a while before they all left. Grey decided to tell Chris about Klaus’s deduction.

“It’s definitely them”

Chris said without a second thought. After hearing the full details of the fight, he couldn’t help but applaud Klaus’s perception. For him to be able to know there was something different about the figure was brilliant.

“By chance, did you see any symbol in the shape of a hand on the dagger?”

Chris asked to confirm if it was the group he suspected.

“I don’t know since it happened too fast, but from what I could remember when I touched the dagger, it was made from what seems to be steel. Oh!, and the dagger is black, even the blades of the dagger were black”

Grey said

“It’s definitely them”

Chris mumbled

“You know them?”

Grey asked when he heard what Chris said.

“Why are you asking? Now get to training, if you were able to make the inscription faster, you wouldn’t have been beaten so badly”

Chris reprimanded him

“Teacher, how come all my injuries were healed when I woke up?”

Grey couldn’t help but ask, he was puzzled by this, but he had not been able to ask Chris because of what happened earlier.

“A miracle”

Chris answered nonchalantly.

Grey left frustrated after not getting any answers from Chris, he was sure Chris definitely had a hand in it.

After Grey left, Chris squinted his eyes.

‘Hmph!, To dare try to assassinate my cook’

Later that night…

Chris appeared in a luxurious compound on the southern side of the city. It was like he was a ghost as he appeared and disappeared in random places. Some minutes later, Chris came out with a confused look on his face. He searched the entire place and he didn’t find a single soul in the entire compound.

This was unexpected since the place was always occupied. Since the black hand established themselves, they had never left this place. They had powerhouses who could protect the place and given their strong network of friends, they rarely made enemies who are strong enough to threaten them.

‘Could it be that they have fled the city? I don’t think so, seems like something else is going on’.

Chris left the place since he didn’t find who he was looking for. He was not the only one who had come searching for the people here, even the middle-aged woman in black had come earlier today but couldn’t find them. She came the previous night, so it was surprising they just disappeared the next day.

It was like they were never there.

***********

The previous night, while Grey was battling with the group from the Starlight Academy, there was another person present who none of them took notice of. Even the girl didn’t notice there was someone else there.

A man was watching the battle from the sky, but it was impossible for the others to know of his presence, even the strongest expert in the city will not be able to detect him.

‘Hmm, little lord seems to have improved compared to the last time he battled against a group. Although he’s still getting beaten, the result of the battle is not that bad’.

He had been following Grey since he arrived here a month after Grey joined the Lunar Academy. He had watched all of Grey’s battle and could tell Grey had improved compared to before. One of the things that shocked him the most was when Grey battles with the mercenaries.

After Grey was covered in rocks, he knew he wasn’t dead and was just about to step in and eliminate the mercenaries, when Grey suddenly rose from the rubble. It was a shocking sight as the power Grey showed was something someone of Grey’s stage wasn’t supposed to have.

But the thing that shocked him was when he noticed Grey suddenly had an extra element, the wind element. He was sure from the time he started following Grey, he could only sense lightning and earth elemental essence around him, but the wind element suddenly joined the fray after that night.

During the current battle when Grey is being badly beaten, he sensed when Grey was making the inscription.

‘What a great plan, if this is successful, he wouldn’t have a problem with defeating them. But that lass is still a problem though, let’s see how it goes’.

He nodded in approval when he noticed what Grey was trying to do, and also kept a close watch on the girl hidden in the shadow.

Just as Grey landed close to the girl, the girl sprang out and dashed towards Grey aiming the dagger towards his heart.

‘What a smart girl, an assassin truly is an assassin no matter where they are. Such sublime timing and impeccable spot targeted. With the speed of the strike, her target can’t escape this. Sigh, if only she wasn’t trying to kill little lord, I would have taken her as a disciple’

He waved his hand and the girl froze for a slight moment, this was all Grey needed to dodge the attack and use the symbol to attack the others. On seeing Grey was able to shift his body, he nodded in approval. If Grey hadn’t been able to move, he would have been disappointed since he thought Grey’s reaction speed was fast.

Given an opportunity, he firmly believed Grey would be able to make sure his vitals weren’t hit, and Grey didn’t disappoint.

‘This battle should teach him to never lower your guard when battling’

He could have easily made sure the girl never appeared, but he wanted to see Grey’s reaction and also his vigilance. And the outcome showed him Grey still had a lot to learn.

After he confirmed Grey had entered the residence of the Lunar Academy, he followed the girl back to her hideout. He saw the girl speaking with a lady,

‘Guess you will all have to disappear now, you can only blame your bad luck for trying to assassinate the little lord’

The man spoke with a sigh, he still felt bad about killing the girl, but he knew he had no other choice.

************

Back to the present day…

“Ahh, finally”

Grey said in a satisfied manner. After so long, he had finally increased the grade of his earth element. Now, his lightning element was blue grade, the earth element was purple grade, and his wind element was still in the pink grade. But he was sure it wouldn’t take long before it improved to the orange grade.

The three days break soon came to an end and the third round was about to begin. Of course what happened previously at the residence of the Lunar Academy was still the major topic.

Soon, the man in charge of the competition took to the platform and announced the rules, just like the previous times, they will all be given a plaque with numbers, but since there was an extra person, one person would get to skip this round of battles.

The moment Grey and his group heard this, they all turned to look at Klaus. They still remembered how he was able to get both lucky numbers during the tournament at the Academy.

Grey shook his head,

‘There’s no way he would also get it this time’

He was not the only one who had such thoughts, Alice and Reynolds also thought the same thing.

The participants were all called into the platform and the plaques started floating midair air.

“A plaque will come to each of you. You are only allowed to grab the one which comes to you”

The man said before the plaques shot towards the participants. After each participant got a plaque, the man said,

“Now the student with plaque number seventy-five should step forward”

They all looked at the plaques in their hands…

😉