Grey smiled and looked at the young man in front of him who was close to death.
"Don't worry, I don't play on killing you…"
A smile of relief formed on the young man's face as he heard Grey's words, until the last word.
"...yet." Grey finished his statement and shook his head at the loom of despair in the eyes of the young man.
Of course he wasn't bothered by him since he didn't really care, he had killed humans while trying to remove the mark, and there was no way he was going to hold back now.
Time slowly went by and Grey started to try out his experiment. It was tedious work that required his focus since a slight mistake would mean that his attempt would fail. Extracting life force from a living thing was by no means easy.
Settling down, he placed his entire attention on his work.
…
Outside the cave.
Another figure was standing by the young man at the Peak of the Sage Plane, this figure was a young lady that was almost at the Peak of the Sage Plane.
"You came here tracking the mark as well?" The young lady asked.
"I've found the person, he's hiding in there." The young man pointed at the cave.
"Why did the mark suddenly disappear? This is the third time it's disappearing." The young lady asked curiously.
"He's hiding in a separate space in that cave."
The young lady soon understood what was going on. She took a glance at the young man standing beside her.
"How strong is he?" She asked curiously.
The fact that this young man knew where he was hiding yet he did nothing to fight him showed that he was a bit apprehensive of this marked person.
"He's only in the Sixth stage of the Sage Plane." The young man replied casually.
The expression of the young lady changed a little and she looked at the young man, "Are you sure?"
The young man nodded while staying in the same position. He didn't show any signs of making a move.
His actions confused the young lady since she felt he would've at least killed Grey by now, yet, he was just standing there, with no signs of making a move.
'There must be something he's hiding.' The girl thought to herself, and instead of heading into the cave, she stayed outside.
She was not stupid, as long as this young man didn't go in, there was no way she was going to take the risk of entering the place. It must hold some dangers, dangers that would make a Peak Sage Plane Elementalist think twice is not something she was certain she could face.
The duo continued their stay in silence.
…
In a separate space.
Grey was laughing maniacally.
"Finally, it's done!" He was ecstatic.
The mark that had been bothering him for a long time was gone in a flash. Surprisingly, using the life force of people from the Gnome race was the perfect antidote for it. The young man wasn't even dead yet, but Grey was already cured of the mark.
He took a glance at the astonished look on the face of the young man who was still alive, but barely breathing.
"Ho...how?" The young man's voice was very faint at the moment, but he was vetoing stunned as to how Grey was able to remove the mark from his body. This was something unheard of.
"Hehe, it's none of your business. Since you've become useless, there's no need to keep you alive anymore." Grey grinned as he was about to kill him.
"W… wait, I have something to tell you." The young man panicked, although he was already close to death, he could still survive this if treated.
"Oh, what's that?" Grey paused.
"The son of the Emperor is here, and I can take you to him." The young man gathered himself before saying.
"The son of the Emperor?" Grey raised a brow.
"Yes, he's the Emperor's favorite son." The young man nodded slowly.
Grey fell deep in thought, and with a flick of his hand, a lightning bolt hit the forehead of the young man.
"I don't need your help with this. Anyway, thanks for the information." He chuckled before burning the body to a crisp.
'I wonder what stays here.' He looked around curiously.
After some time he shook his head, declining the idea of searching for anything.
Hiding his aura, he left the separate space.
…
Inside the cave.
When Grey appeared, he noticed something shocking.
'Oh… nice.' He smiled all of a sudden.
He could track people, not just anyone, but those from the Gnome race. Apparently, using the life force of someone from the Gnome race gave him this ability.
'The hunted has become the hunter.'
He noticed that two people were standing outside the cave, and since he hid his aura before stepping out, there was no way they were going to know that he was out already.
'They should continue standing outside, I'll just go hunt others.'
Grey vanished as he headed for the side he sensed the least number of people from the Gnome race.
He could peacefully travel now, while occasionally taking out those from the Gnome race.
…
Two weeks went by in the blink of an eye.
In the space of two weeks, the entire secret realm fell into pandemonium. The reason for this was simple, someone was waging war against those from the Gnome race.
Of the over one hundred people that entered this place, more than half of them were dead in the space of two weeks. What was worse was that the person killing them seemed to always know where they were. They had set traps for him on multiple occasions, but sometimes, he would not even show. Whenever he did show up, he would kill all those who were supposedly hiding in wait for the ambush, leaving the bait alone.
He would then beat the bait up and tell him that his friends had run away. He usually leaves the bait, possibly to spread the news and put fear in the hearts of those from the Gnome race.
