Grey and his friends had started their adventure in the Middle Continent, but they were soon met with slight complications, the Continent was in a mess and they could tell that whenever they went to new cities, they were watched during their entire stay there.
It has been a week since they entered the Middle Continent, and it has been largely uneventful. They tried asking questions about any place that was worth visiting, but they've been given the silent treatment.
"Do you think they hate strangers?" Klaus couldn't help but ask Grey. They knew Grey had been here before.
"No, we should visit the Burchard Family, they might be of help." Grey said after some thought.
They were close to the place the Burchard Family resided, and since there were some issues, he wanted to see if it was something that might affect them. He was very observant and has noticed that not just them, but any stranger that goes into a city gets to experience these weird inspections. He had been here before and knew how it was like, having to experience such a thing now meant that there was a problem.
The group listened to him and headed straight for the Burchard Family.
Grey shuddered at the thought of meeting Sylvia once again. She somewhat tormented him, taking him from competition to competition. Although he liked the idea of fighting more to get stronger, he felt that it was just too much. He fought so much that he almost went numb. He fought for so long that his battle awareness became extremely sharp.
The last time he saw Sylvia, she was in the Elemental Venerable Plane. Well, she was also in the Elemental Venerable Plane the first time he saw her. At that time, he thought that she was a top expert, only after getting to know how everything works did he understand that she was strong, but that was only for places where the strongest person is in the First or Second stage of the Elemental Venerable Plane.
If she were to encounter the current Grey, she would've been decimated with a single attack.
'She should've broken through by now.' He thought to himself.
The thought of her being weaker than him also somewhat thrilled him, he might be able to get back at her for all the times she oppressed him with her strength.
….
The Burchard Family.
It took the group a day, but they got there in a very short time compared to the distance they had to cover.
When the guard at the gate saw Grey, he was very familiar with the young man who walked around with a cat on his shoulder. According to the information he got, this was the person that helped the Burchard Family acquire the secret realm back.
He invited the group into the Family manor and sent them straight to where Grey stayed the last time.
Grey didn't hurry to meet up with Sylvia and the others, after all, he was only well acquainted with Sylvia, and he wasn't that close to her, their relationship was a strange one.
It didn't take long before Sylvia appeared before Grey. She still looked the same as the first time he saw her, a young lady who was in her late twenties, beautiful and walking with an air of elegance.
"Grey, it's been so…" Sylvia froze mid-sentence, the reason for that, Grey's current cultivation stage shocked her.
The last time she saw Grey, he was only in the First stage of the Elemental Venerable Plane, but now, he had already gotten to the Ninth stage. It hadn't been up to two years yet, but Grey has already grown so much.
She didn't know what to say, the reason was because she was also in the Ninth stage of the Elemental Venerable Plane, well, she was very close to breaking through to the Peak, but she was still too slow when compared to a freak like Grey.
When she saw Klaus who was in the Seventh stage, she didn't know how to feel. Klaus was someone who caught her attention at that time, the reason for that was because he was standing close to Grey, not just that, but he was the only male in the Moonlight Faction, that alone was enough to tell just how talented he was before he was taken into the Faction.
When she thought about it, only Grey grew faster than Klaus. One has to know that Grey was already in the Elemental Venerable Plane at that time while Klaus was still at the Peak of the Sage Plane.
'Just how are they getting so strong?' She was flabbergasted.
Grey was already enough, adding Klaus to the picture almost made her faint. She looked at Reynolds and Alice, and although she felt the urge to heave a sigh of relief, when she thought about the geniuses from their Family, she felt like hitting their heads against a wall.
Even the top genius from their Family was only in the Third stage of the Elemental Venerable Plane, and Alice, who looked to be the weakest, was already in the Fourth stage.
'I'll just take it that they are all freaks. At least, none of them is as freakish as him.'
Grey still retained the top spot of the most freakish person she had ever encountered. For someone that was able to absorb some of her lightning the first time they met, he was very strange.
Out of curiosity, she opened her palm and a lightning butterfly appeared, it flew in Grey's direction, and just like before, only, faster now, it was absorbed quickly. The butterfly wasn't meant to harm him, just to zap him a little. However, he seemed to be immune to it.
"Wow! You can absorb others' elemental attacks?" Klaus looked at Grey and attacked with a powerful ice snake.
"Not this type." Grey waved his hand and casually destroyed the ice snake.
Sylvia's eyes twitched softly, first off, she didn't expect Klaus, who was Grey's friend to attack him all of a sudden, then there was also how easy it was for Grey to destroy that attack. Yes, she would've been able to destroy it too, but she didn't think it would be that easy.
Thinking about it, she turned to look at Klaus once again. His attack power is stronger than someone in the Seventh stage of the Elemental Venerable Plane.
'What did I expect from a freak?' She thought with a self-deprecating laugh.
"It's not appropriate to exchange blows here." She coughed softly to bring the duo's attention back to her.
"Grey, we haven't seen each other for so long, you've already caught up with me." She looked at him as she spoke, before unknowingly blurting out, "How?"
Grey chuckled when he heard this, "I've actually been holding back."
Grey's words destroyed her worldview. She was already dumbstruck by his speed, yet he was saying that he was holding back. If not for the fact that she knew him, she would've been angered that he was mocking her. But she believed his words, a hundred percent!
Grey looked around and went straight to the point, "The reason we came here is that something seems off in the continent…"
He explained what they'd experienced so far.
Sylvia's expression turned serious and then she said, "A powerful enemy of the human race escaped a while back, we're trying to make sure he doesn't meet up with the other necromancers."
Sylvia explained the background of the person that escaped. She knew of Grey's encounter with the necromancers and also the Gnomes.
"You should be careful, even though he has been trapped for a long time, he's still aware of a few pieces of information, so he will most likely want to kill you if the chance presents itself. Remember, he's an expert that even your father has to be wary of, don't think he's not a problem."
Sylvia's warning made Grey a bit frustrated. He was still being hunted down, now there's a top expert that might be around the Middle Continent who would kill him any chance he gets.
"With your mark, he should've sensed you if he's close to you." She added.
"I've sorted out the issue of the mark. There's no way they can sense me" Grey's words threw Sylvia off her feet.
She was with Grey when he was marked, and even with all she did, it was impossible to remove the mark, well, according to what they knew. Even the strongest expert was unable to remove the mark from the body of a genius, yet Grey was saying he had dealt with the mark on his body.
"What are you?" She was too stunned to say a word.
"I'm Grey Dawson."
This was not the first time Grey was getting a reaction like this from someone, so he didn't worry too much about it.
"Can you see my Father, you might be able to help someone very important, if truly you can remove the mark."
"I'm sorry, but I' decline."
