“Finally, I’ve missed this place.” Grey took in a deep breath when they got to the gate of the Academy.
It had been six months since they left, and now they’ve returned, stronger than before. The Academy’s gate wasn’t as deserted as it has always been which was came as a surprise to the group. They would rarely see people at the Academy gates whenever they came back from a mission, but there were surprisingly almost ten people who were walking into the Academy at the time they got here. The group didn’t bother about it, after all, it wasn’t like there weren’t people in the Academy.
Of the group, Alice could be said to be the one who didn’t have a major power-up other than increasing her Plane and elemental grade with the Great Earth Essence Liquid, she got nothing else.
Klaus was able to learn a move that increased his ice ability to a terrifying stage, and it was still on the increase. Reynolds became a high-grade summoner. While Grey awakened two more elements, got a spatial ring, formed a bond with an amazing cat who introduced the space element to him. The flame of the fire element that he recently awakened was blue, while also having a never before heard of cyan elemental grade. All these are added to the fact that he still got a multi-elemental weapon.
If anyone were to get just one of these things, they would feel extremely lucky.
“I didn’t miss it much, the trial land was more fun.” Klaus said while highlighting his horse.
“It’s safer here, but you’re right, that place was fun.” Grey followed suit.
Alice and Reynolds came down as well. Void had been with Alice almost all through the journey.
Just as they were about to go in, Reynolds asked a question that Grey wanted to ask the last time he came back with a horse, “What happens to the horses?”
“Huh?” Klaus looked at him with a confused expression.
“You know, the horses. I’ve never seen any horses in the Academy, and I never get to see the ones I leave outside whenever I come back out.” Reynolds pointed at the horses that were tied on the side of the Academy gate.
“Hmm, I don’t know. I’ll ask my dad once I see him.” Klaus said.
When Grey heard Klaus speaking about his father, he suddenly recalled his Teacher.
“You guys head in first, I’ll go see someone.” He turned around and started walking out of the Academy compound once again.
When Void saw this, he quickly vanished and appeared on Grey’s shoulder. Leaving two young boys who were about to walk out of the Academy dumbstruck.
“Come back soon, we’ll wait for you at my place. You know we have to report to the principal about what we heard.” Klaus said.
“I won’t take long.” Grey nodded before heading to the back of the Academy.
He passed a group of youngsters that were around twelve to thirteen years of age, he couldn’t help but reminisce about the first time he went for the test. It was a depressing moment in his life.
‘Looks like they’ve just been admitted.’ He thought to himself.
When he got to the back of the Academy, he soon got to the area he does his daily physical training, he smiled softly before advancing on his journey. After he got to the place where he tried fusing the elements for the first time, he couldn’t help himself but burst out into laughter.
The trees around had already started growing once again, and all signs of the destruction he caused here were gone.
Void who was on his shoulder couldn’t help but look at him in a strange manner, he didn’t understand why Grey suddenly started laughing.
‘Why are you laughing?’ Void couldn’t help but ask.
‘Oh, it’s nothing much, I just recalled something that happened here some time ago…’ Grey went on to tell him about how he almost lost his life to his experiment.
He didn’t tell Void he got the power or the technique from the Chaos God, so telling him about it wasn’t a problem.
‘Haha, to think you actually almost killed yourself.’ Void laughed when he heard how Grey ran for his life when he lost control of the orb.
‘Yeah, funny.’ Grey said while staring at his open palm.
He slowly clenched it with a smile, that technique turned out to be very important during his time in the trial land. If not for it, he wouldn’t have been able to defeat the last golem in a short time. It has also been greatly beneficial to some of his battles.
He walked past the place, before getting to the rock that led to the valley where Chris stayed. It has been so long he met his Teacher, he couldn’t help but wonder how he was doing.
Thinking of Chris made him chuckle once again, ‘I think the first thing he’ll tell me to do once he sees me is to cook him a meal.’
The thought made him laugh out again, before making weird hand seals and hitting multiple places on the rock. Even though he didn’t sense anyone following him, he has already gotten used to making hand seals before opening the rock.
‘Oh! A secret passage?’ Void exclaimed softly.
‘Yeah, my Teacher stays here.’ Grey said as he walked into the tunnel.
‘Your Teacher? He’s separate from the ones at the Academy?’ asked Void.
‘Yeah, I don’t think he teaches anyone else in the Academy. Also, behave yourself, he has a fiery temper, he might probably want to cook you if you make him mad.’ Grey warned as they got closer to the end of the tunnel.
‘Hmph! If he can catch me.’ Void snorted.
‘I might not think anyone else can catch you, but my Teacher doesn’t count as anyone. I don’t really know much about him, but I heard even the emperor of the empire doesn’t want to offend him.’ Grey stated proudly.
‘Wow! He must be a bigshot!’ Void was amazed by Grey’s Teacher.
‘Of course, do you think someone mediocre could teach me?’ Grey asked smugly.
Void didn’t reply and waited patiently to see who Grey’s Teacher was.