Chapter 32: Nice Young Man Soon, the sweet smell of roasted boar permeated the entire compound. Grey’s cooking had gotten better since he started living alone. “If mom were here, she would’ve definitely praised my cooking” Grey smiled when he thought of his mother. “It’s already been so long, yet I haven’t heard anything”. Grey had missed her during this year he had stayed at the Academy. Due to the distance, he couldn’t go back since it would take a long time for him to get there. “If only I had an aerial beast” Grey thought of the griffin which brought him here. “I would have been able to go back and check if she’s still around”. Martha told him she would be going over to meet up with his father. She refused to tell him where he was, she only told him she’d find a way to contact him when she was gone. It had already been a year, but he had heard nothing from her. While Grey was still reminiscing, an unexpected guest walked into his house without even knocking. When the man walked in, the only thing he had his eyes on was the boar which was currently being cooked by Grey. Due to Grey’s high training and high attainment in meditation, he could be said to have a strong sense of vigilance. He could clearly sense something over a hundred meters away from him, but surprisingly, someone was within ten meters of his sensory range, yet he failed to pick up on the person. There are only two possibilities which could have caused this; either he wasn’t as good as he thought, or the person who intruded was just too good. From the way the man walked in, one could see he was walking in a very leisure manner. “What a great aroma” The man said while strongly breathing in. Grey was startled when he heard a voice coming from behind him and scurried to his feet getting into a defensive stance. He couldn’t believe someone got so close to him without him even noticing. “What are you jumping for?” The man asked with a confused voice. He clearly didn’t expect Grey to react like a scared rabbit. “Senior, it’s…it’s you” Grey said with a stunned voice. Surprisingly, the man in front of him was the same person who brought him to the Academy. “Of course it’s me, do you see anyone else?” Chris chuckled. “But, how did you get in?” Grey asked. “Through the door, obviously” Chris responded while still staring intently at the meat. Grey’s mind was still trying to comprehend what was happening, he clearly remembered closing the door. He should have heard the sound of Chris opening it, since it always makes a creaking sound when opening it. ‘Forget it, luckily it was him. I really need to be more alert’ Grey thought while sighing at his negligence. He thought it was his carelessness that made him not sense Chris entering the compound and getting so close to him. He totally forgot there were people who could easily sneak up on you. “Senior, you didn’t watch the tournament?” Grey didn’t expect Chris to be here, since most of the instructors were watching the tournament. “Tournament, what tournament?” Chris asked while furrowing his brow, trying to recall if he heard about this tournament Grey was talking about. Grey was astounded by Chris’ reply, “The Academy’s yearly tournament” He added. Chris made an expression of suddenly recalling something, “Oh that, it’s today?” He asked. When Grey heard his question, he knew Chris was definitely a lost cause. ‘Is he even an instructor here’ Grey thought clearly puzzled by Chris’ lack of information. “Yes senior, the tournament is today”. “Okay” Chris replied with indifference, clearly not interested in it. Grey noticed since he saw Chris, he hadn’t even thrown a glance at him. The only thing he was staring at, was the meat. Grey was certain he could see some droll coming out from the side of Chris’ mouth. ‘At least try to keep your image as a senior. And where has he been over the year’ Grey complained in his heart. Since Chris dumped Grey with Klaus, he had not appeared until now. Grey had asked of him from Klaus, but didn’t get any positive responses. So he just thought maybe Chris wasn’t present at the Academy. “Why don’t you stay for dinner, I’m almost done preparing it?” Grey asked, trying to buy some face for this so-called senior of his. “Good, good, you’re truly a nice young man” Chris repeated good twice just to show his delight while nodding like a bird pecking grains. Grey facepalmed in his mind. When he saw how Chris was acting, he remembered the time they traveled together and how much Chris loved food. After dinner, Grey couldn’t stop staring at Chris. He was shocked by how much Chris could eat. ‘The body isn’t supposed to contain that much food’ He exclaimed in his heart. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖 Chris gave his stomach a satisfied pat after he was done eating, he was smiling widely. It wasn’t hard to tell he enjoyed his meal and was currently in a good mood because of it. “Oh” Chris threw a glance at Grey before making a surprised sound. “You’re already at the Peak of the Fusion Plane” He added. “Yes, I’m close to breaking through to the Arcane Plane” Grey said with a gleeful smile. ‘He just noticed after being here for so long’ thought Grey. “That’s good, I heard you have a high concentration of elemental essence in your body” Chris smiled while asking. “Yes, this was what enabled me to advance this quickly” Grey said, “I was also given a better cultivation technique than the one the other kids used, I think this also added to my speed” Grey said further. “Wait, you still think you were given a better technique?” Chris blurted out with surprise. “What?!” Grey exclaimed when he heard this. “Nothing” Chris said, clearly not planning on saying anything more. ‘Could it be that the technique I was given wasn’t better than the ones the other kids received from the library?’ He wasn’t dumb, from Chris’ reaction, he could tell something was wrong and Chris knew about it. He thought Chris wasn’t in the Academy, but clearly, Chris had been keeping tabs on him. “I will be going now” Chris stood up and prepared to leave. “Oh and after breaking through to the Arcane Plane, tell Blake to bring you to me” He said before leaving. Grey just stared at him, his mind still on what Chris said. “I’ll head over to the library tomorrow” He declared.