The moment Grey passed the door, he sensed they had already started chasing after him.
‘If not for that moron, I’d have successfully left without them realizing it. Oh well, I’ll run first’
Looking at the box in his hands, he couldn’t help but feel curious about what it contained.
The size of the box was somewhat impeding his movement speed. He decided to take out what was inside and ditch the box. When he opened it, he was surprised by what was inside. Inside the box laid an egg, it was pitch black in color and was slightly larger than two fists combined.
‘An egg’
Grey was slightly dazed and his speed reduced substantially due to him putting most of his focus on the egg. But he quickly snapped out of it and once again increased his speed.
‘I’ll study it later. But there seems to be a trace of life inside, although it’s faint, I can sense it’
He kept the egg in his bag before charging out of the castle.
Some seconds after he exited the castle, the prince came out also. But Grey was nowhere to be found. There were trees around the castle, so there was no way he could guess which direction Grey faced.
“He’s fast”
Although he was a Wind Elementalist, he was still unable to catch up to the thief. This could be attributed to the fact that the thief had the head start, and the distance from the castle to the trees wasn’t large. But he was sure the thief was fast as well, at least no slower than he was.
Giving chase was useless, given the fact that the terrain was good for escaping.
“Where’s he?”
The others slowly caught up with the prince who was standing outside the castle looking in the direction Grey faced.
“Gone”
The prince said indifferently before turning back inside the castle. That was not the only hall in the castle, there were others. So, he wouldn’t brood over losing this box. He was upset, that was certain, but there was nothing being angry could do. But there was something he found strange. When he saw the back of the thief, he felt a sense of familiarity. It was like he had seen the person before.
‘Who was it?’
He went deep in thoughts as he walked into the castle. He had seen many people since entering the trial lands, so it would be hard for him to remember just who it was from seeing only their back.
“Shit! After all our hard work, another person was the one who benefitted”
A youth from the Qilin empire said angrily.
The other group also felt frustrated, but they were happy the group from the Qilin empire wasn’t the one who obtained the box.
“Now you all know how it feels, only in your case, you couldn’t even fight back”
A youth laughed out loud, pleased on seeing the misfortune of the group from the Qilin empire.
“Who would have thought you were all working for someone?”
They continued mocking them since they couldn’t have it, they were happy the group who blocked them didn’t also obtain it.
Under the gloating gazes from the group, the group from the Qilin empire furiously headed back into the castle.
……..
Five minutes later…
Grey was sitting on a tree with the egg in his hand.
‘What could be inside? How come it is still alive?’
He could feel a faint ancient aura coming from the egg. Just how old was the egg? He didn’t know. According to what Chris told him, this place was discovered nine hundred years ago. This meant the egg was at least nine hundred years old, that was a terrifying number. How strong was the creature which was inside, for it to still be alive even after so long?
‘Or, could it be dragons?’
Grey’s imagination started running wild. But unfortunately, there was no way for him to get an answer.
After looking at it for some time longer, there was no change in the egg. He thought maybe the egg would hatch after it was removed from the box, but it didn’t seem like it. He placed the egg back into his bag before thinking of where next to head towards.
……..
Two days later…
Bang!
The body of a huge crocodile slammed heavily into the ground.
Grey walked calmly towards the beast.
‘It truly does live up to its name’
He thought while looking at the corpse on the ground.
This was the corpse of a rare beast, the black lightning crocodile. The crocodile is equipped with a rare type of lightning, black lightning, hence its name. Its scale is tough and it took Grey a great amount of effort before he was able to defeat it. Well, the crocodile was in the Eighth stage of the Arcane Plane. Had it been in the Ninth stage, there would have been no way he could have defeated it.
Grey felt excited while looking at the beast. This beast could be said to be a walking treasure. Its scale could be used for making clothing that is almost fully resilient to lightning. The lightning element was imbued in its bones which could be refined with weapons. There are rare weapons that have attributes imbued in them, if an Elementalist uses a weapon that was imbued with his element, the attack power will be increased by almost twenty percent. These weapons are known as elemental weapons.
But the most important treasure in the body of this beast to Grey was its heart. The black lightning crocodile heart is called a water heart pulse. It was biased towards to water element and had the effect of cleansing the body. In Grey’s situation, he wouldn’t have a problem in awakening his water element if he acquires it.
Just as he was about to obtain the heart, he suddenly heard footsteps and stopped what he was about to do.
“Who’s there?”
He asked as he vigilantly looked around.
Three young men walked out behind the trees around the place. They all had a smile on their faces.
“You’ve done well. Now, we’ll take it from here”
One of the youths said while chuckling lightly.
“Take what over?”
Grey asked with a long face. He could already guess what they were saying, but he hoped it wasn’t what he thought.
“Are you dumb? Or just acting like you are? Step away from the beast”
Another youth said.
Grey’s face went dark when he heard this. How could he accept this? After fighting so hard to kill the crocodile, now the spoils were about to be taken by others. Now he knew why that group refused to give up. After painstakingly defeating the beasts, then someone would just step out of nowhere and tell you to leave it, which was impossible to accept.
Grey studied the group and his heart sank when he realized their stages, two of them were in the Ninth stage, while the last one was in the Eighth stage.
He couldn’t leave the heart behind given how important it was to him. But the chances of his victory weren’t even close to forty percent.
“All I need is one thing from it, you can have the rest part of it”
He tried to negotiate a deal, getting the heart was a must for him since he couldn’t guarantee he would be able to see this creature again anywhere. This was a rare beast to start with, and they were very difficult to deal with given their strength. Even if he sees another one, what if it was stronger than he is?
“No! Now get lost before I lose my patience”
The last youth who hasn’t said anything spoke up.
Compared to the other two, he had cold eyes which were filled with killing intent.
The three youths were currently twenty meters away from him. Grey couldn’t accept the fact that this opportunity will pass him by, steeling his mind, he held his blades in front of him and prepared himself for battle.
Against one of them, he was confident he would be victorious. But against three of them, his chances weren’t that good.
“You want to fight against us?”
The youth with cold eyes asked while laughing.
The other two also started laughing like they had heard the funniest joke. Even if Grey were to be in the Ninth stage of the Arcane Plane, his chances of victory against them were almost zero. With two being in the Ninth stage, and one being in the Eighth stage, they could be said to be almost invisible if they faced a three-man team also.
Grey didn’t bother answering and just stayed in the same position. As long as he could take out one of them quickly, his chances of victory will be increased. And the delay was exactly what he needed.
The trio was mocking him, while he was currently busy inscribing. He was trying to inscribe at least two symbols before the battle starts, with that, he’ll be able to at least take one of the trios out of the picture.
“Hmph! Fool”
The trio immediately attacked him.
‘Couldn’t they mock me a little more?’
Grey thought as he used a defensive technique to block and also used his movement technique to evade their attacks. He wasn’t done with the inscription before they attacked him.
He knew inscribing will be harder now since he also has to focus on the battle. If he lost focus just for a moment, he’ll be in a tough spot. Now, all he had to do is delay them till he’s able to finish his inscriptions.