Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 1906: Hiding In A Mine

A mission was quickly assigned to Grey and his friends by his father and the other top experts present. According to some information they received, a City some kilometers away from here should be a hiding camp for Gnomes, and there was even a possibility that there is a portal there connecting it to the Gnome World. A Half God Plane expert would go with them to ensure that if there were any Gnomes or Necromancers of that level, they would be able to escape with their lives.

Grey and the others did not have any problems with the mission. Luthera was left behind with Cory, she was not strong enough for these battles, and taking her would only mean having more people to worry about. Luthera knew this was the right choice and did not make up a fuss about it. Staying here with multiple Half God Plane experts was the safest place to be. This was her first time being in the presence of so many top experts, and it somewhat scared her. Luckily, Martha and Cory were there to help her stay with no worries.

A few days later.

Grey’s camp got to the City in only two days. Apparently, the City was not too far from one of the teleportation arrays Grey made on the way here. If they had to rely on flying, it would have taken them at least a week or so before they got there.

The Half God Plane expert that went with them was the Space Elementalist. She was the best when it came to escaping, so she volunteered when Lucas asked which of them should go with the group. Of course, it was also because she was quite interested in Grey.

On the way to the City, she did not speak with them, only observing their actions. When she saw Grey’s teleportation array, she was genuinely blown away. One has to know that having such mastery in not only his use of the space element, but also array formations at such an age is unheard of. She could not help but wonder how Grey grew up and who his Teacher could be. At the thought of Grey’s Teacher, she recalled the haggard looking figure of Chris when she first encountered him and wondered how he was able to raise such a student.

In truth, even though Chris is regarded as Grey’s Teacher, he only showed him the beginner stages, and Grey was the one who found array formations intriguing, further diving deeper into it. The probability that Chris could create a teleportation array is quite low, yet Grey has single-handedly set up countless formations. At the moment, even Grey did not know how many teleportation arrays he had set up since he could do it.

He had created teleportation arrays in almost every secret world he has been to since he acquired the ability, and even the Aurora Continent had a few of his teleportation arrays.

The group did not go into the City as there was no need to, Grey could already sense the presence of Gnomes. However, the Gnomes were not in the City, from the direction it was coming from, it was a mine behind the City.

The Space Elementalist was blown away when she noticed how quick it was for Grey to sense the presence of the Gnomes. As they walked closer to the mine, they realized it was an essence stone mine. This could be said to be the perfect hiding spot, as due to the excess essence in the mine, it is almost impossible to sense the auras of living creatures in them unless they were in close proximity. Even while outside the mine, the Space Elementalist could not sense the presence of anyone inside, which was a testament of how devious the Gnomes were.

“How can you do that?” She asked curiously. She had not spoken during the past few days she had been with them, but Grey’s ability to sense the presence of Gnomes made him an anomaly she was interested in.

“Some years ago I was marked by a Necromancer…” Grey did not give her too many details, only letting her know that after being marked, he started researching and experimenting with the mark as well as any Necromancer he killed that came after him because of the mark.

“You removed your mark?!” The Lady was once again blown away. She was a few hundreds of years old, and had heard of how dreadful the Necromancer’s marks were. According to the records, it was impossible to remove, and anyone marked would most likely end up dead. Hearing that Grey was marked and not only did he remove it, but since then he became able to sense the presence of Gnomes and Necromancers was shocking. That was the ultimate reverse of any situation, from being the hunted to becoming the hunter.

She could not hide the shock in her face.

“Yeah, it wasn’t easy though.” Grey replied. This was the truth, removing the mark had to do with using the life force of other people, and even though they were Gnomes or Necromancers or generally criminals, it was still not an act he enjoyed doing.

The Lady was genuinely impressed by Grey. Even though he did not show any emotions while saying it was not easy, she could tell that he was continuously in danger while marked and before he was able to fully remove the mark.

“What’s our next course of action?” Grey asked. The reason the Space Elementalist followed them was in case there were any top experts in the Half God Plane among the Gnomes hiding here. There was no way for him to know if there are any here since he could not sense their presence.

The Lady kept silent for a while, and after some thought, “Do what you normally do when you encounter a hiding spot like this one. I’ll secretly follow behind you in case they become too difficult to deal with or if there are any worthy opponents there for me.”

Grey knew this would be the case, so he quickly walked over to his group and started planning. He told the Bunny Leader to send out some scouts to help them scout the mine and see just how many Gnomes were inside. The Bunny scouts could not sense the exact strength of all the Gnomes, but due to their small size and harmless looks, they are very good scouts.

The Lady was surprised the group did not barge in but rather opted to inspect the area first. This was a good move from her perspective as it gives them a good idea of what they might be going up against and how to go about it.

They were only four in number, but she did not see any fear in their eyes. It was almost like they were not about to engage in a potentially life and death battle.

About two hours later.

“There are sixty of them in total, and other than twelve, the rest are below the Sovereign Plane.” Grey relayed the Bunny Leader’s intel to his friends.

“Just twelve Sovereigns?” Klaus raised a brow, before saying, “Then it should not be too much of a big deal. We’ve dealt with worse.”

Reynolds and Alice nodded.

“Yeah, but there’s no harm in being too careful.” Grey was not pressured by the number of potential enemies, he was very confident in his abilities. However, he did not want to get ahead of himself; after all, he almost lost his life when he was caught off-guard by Elder Pondwyn who no one expected to also be a Necromancer.

It took them about five minutes or so for them to get prepared before entering the cave, as soon as they took a step, Grey frowned and said, “Be careful, there’s an array formation laid out in this place.”

‘What are they doing?’ He had gone to multiple Gnome or Necromancers camps and other than formations used to alert them of any intruders or protect them for outside attack, they did not have anything like what he sensed here.

The array formation here seemed to be a trap formation, luckily, it was not on the level of the one laid out by Jakob Vaergahl. If it had been on that level, he would have left this place the moment he sensed it. Jakob Vaergahl’s formation was no joke, and it was also very dangerous. Even for someone like him, it would still be very dangerous if he made any mistakes.

He took the lead, making sure the group did not get caught in any of the formations as they made their way deeper into the mine. From what the Bunny Leader reported, the Gnomes were separated. Going for the weaker Gnomes would make the fight against the stronger ones easier. Unfortunately, that would alert the stronger ones of their presence. If they went for the weaker ones, the stronger ones would have the chance to prepare and fight back.