Affinity: Chaos Chapter 342: Lightning Tree

Chapter 342: Lightning Tree

After walking into the town, Grey headed for the Inn that wasn’t far from the gates. Whenever he enters a new city or town, he has built the habit of first finding out what’s happening in the place before doing whatever brought him to the place.
The inn he picked looked a little shady, the plaque that the name of the inn was written in was hanging vertically by the side of the inn, swinging from side to side.
On entering the inn, he noticed it was filled with people, there were only about two empty seats or so. He calmly walked over to one and took a seat.
As soon as he sat down, he overheard the conversation of the group sitting on the next table.
“*Sigh* Over half of the group was wiped out,” A middle-aged man sighed with a sad look.
“Damn that guy! He gave us false information, I’ll kill him!” Another man said angrily.
“Yeah! If not for him, then we wouldn’t have gone there in the first place,” A slightly younger man said.
Grey turned his head to look at the table, there were six people sitting around the table, there were four men in the group, the other two were ladies. Of the men, three looked middle-aged, the last one was younger, looking to be in his mid-twenties.
The two young ladies also looked to be in their mid-twenties.
“Heh! No one sent you guys there, you went on your own free will,” A man from the next table scoffed.
“Who called you into this?” One of the men from the first group yelled angrily, standing up.
The rest of the people in the group immediately stood up to confront the other group.
The inn went silent as the two groups attracted the attention of everyone.
Grey, who was sitting close to them stared at the group curiously, he tilted his head to look at a young man sitting not too far from there.
The young man had a robe on, just like him. The lower part of his face was visible, and he could see him smirking while looking at the group that were in a heated quarrel.
The young man suddenly sensed something and looked in Grey’s direction. Grey turned his head after seeing that the young man noticed he was looking at him.
‘Hmm, a treasure,’ Grey thought to himself.
Had Void been fine, then he wouldn’t mind finding out what this treasure was. But now, he doesn’t have the time to spare.
Grey waited for a little longer, and other than the group who quarreled about the treasure, there was nothing else. All he heard the other people talking about was also the rumors of a treasure.
According to the people, a lightning tree appeared at the heart of the Chimera forest. This forest has been ruled by a brutal Chimera for hundreds of years. The Chimera is said to be in the Overlord Plane, and because of the uniqueness of the magical beast, it was extremely difficult to handle.
Luckily, it had stopped getting involved with humans, even when they entered its territory. The only time it attacks is whenever its interest is threatened.
According to what was said, the reason it stopped attacking humans was because after a tough battle with multiple experts, they decided to call a truce. The Chimera would stop attacking people as long as they did not do anything against the rules it set.
Surprisingly, the Chimera didn’t say a lot. It only said it wouldn’t attack if it’s interest was not threatened. At first, the experts thought they made a good deal, it was only after a few years did they find out that the Chimera had a lot of interests.
After a few hundred years, they managed to find most of them.
The Chimera hasn’t shown any interest in the lightning tree yet, so some people felt they might be able to acquire it before it develops any interest in it.
A lightning tree forms after a tree has been struck multiple times by lightning. There are a lot of requirements before a tree would successfully turn into a lightning tree. First of all, it has to be extremely strong, not like the average tree.
Most trees would be destroyed from a single strike from a lightning bolt. The second requirement was the age of the tree, it would get to at least three hundred years before there would be any chances of it turning into a lightning tree.
With each strike from the lightning, the previously huge tree will slowly start shrinking. If the tree was initially over one hundred meters, it would reduce to just half a meter in height, with a thickness of a few inches.
Experts say the tree goes through a refining process after each strike, but it hasn’t really been verified since no one has ever witnessed this event take place.
Grey walked out of the inn, ahead of him was the young man he saw in the inn while the group were quarreling with the other group.
The young man suddenly stopped and walked his way.
“Excuse me, but can I interest you with a deal?” He said to Grey.
Grey stopped and glanced at the young man, “Sorry, I’m not interested,”
After speaking, he started walking once again.
“You’re not someone simple, so I’ll go straight to the point. The lightning tree was found by me and my group, but there’s a strong Lightning Leopard guarding it. It seems to be waiting to refine it.”
“Since you were able to notice me back in the inn, I know you’re powerful. And besides, I can’t seem to see through your Plane,” The young man chased after Grey and continued persuading.
“I don’t recall looking at you,” Grey replied nonchalantly.
“I’m willing to split it with you,” The young man said.
“Like I said, I’m not interested, good day.” Grey didn’t change his mind and continued walking away.
Even if he wanted to hunt for the treasure, he had no plans of going with the young man. Firstly, the young man must be the one the group were talking about.
While he was in the inn, he sensed the Cultivation Planes of the group who were complaining, and he noticed that other than the two young ladies and the young man, the three middle-aged men were all at the Peak of the Origin Plane.
If over half of such a group could be wiped out, why would the young man who was in the Seventh stage of the Origin Plane want to team up with him to hunt for the treasure.
‘He’s purposely spreading the rumor of the lightning tree. If my hypothesis is correct, it means he knew I wouldn’t team up with him. He doesn’t plan on going in the first place.’ Grey thought while walking in the busy street of the town.
He walked to a hidden spot in the town before taking out the disc. After looking at the distance between his light and Reynolds’ light, he calculated the direction Reynolds light was coming from before going in the direction.
It took him twenty minutes, but he finally stopped at a two story building.
“It’s coming from here, I’ll find out what this place is before heading in.” He muttered while looking at the front of the building.
He walked a bit further into the street before stopping at a small shop. After asking around, he found out that the building was surprisingly the headquarters of the guild.
‘Hmm, what’s Reynolds doing in the guild’s headquarters?’ He asked himself.
After brooding over it for a moment, he decided against going inside.
The Emperor was searching for them, so he didn’t know if Reynolds was being held captive or not. He planned to wait till later in the night before going there.
He would sneak into the building at night, then search for Reynolds. If Reynolds was in trouble, he would find a way to rescue him, if not, he’ll speak with him then give the device to him before leaving.
Later that night.
Grey suddenly appeared on the side of the guild headquarters building. After looking around, he sent his spiritual sense into the building, trying to figure out if there were people walking close to the other side of the wall.
A few seconds later, he vanished and appeared inside the building.
What looked like a reception desk was at the front, facing the door of the building. The doors were currently locked, and no one could be seen around.
Grey brought out the disc, and started following it to where Reynolds’ light was coming from.
With the increase in his knowledge in arrays, he improved his personal disc. The closer he got to the other light, the more accurate it was. It seemed to zoom closer, so he could get a better idea of where the light was coming from.
He continued following the light deeper into the building.
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