Chapter 5: Shock Early the next morning, Grey got up filled with energy and ran out of his room. He saw Martha in the living room and told her he was going to train. Martha noticed how cheerful Grey became since he started cultivating, although he hadn’t made a breakthrough yet, it was good he can cultivate now. Martha was surprised Grey was going to train, she remembered that since Grey started cultivating the technique, he had immersed himself fully on it. “Eat something before you go, also, remember to take some food with you” Martha immediately shouted when she saw Grey was about to leave without eating. Grey hurried back and ate some food. He took a little along and went on his way. “I will return late today” Grey yelled from outside. Martha smiled wryly. Grey walked into the town and headed towards the forest he usually trains in. When he was seen by some people around, they immediately started whispering to themselves. “Trash” Grey saw a young boy his age shouting at him. If it were before, he would have felt bad when he was called a trash. But now, he doesn’t give a shit about what they’re saying about him. Grey ignored them and headed towards where he was headed. The boy was angry because Grey didn’t answer him. “Humph, to think he ignored me ,” He said to his friends who were with him. A lot of people knew that Grey usually goes to the woods to train. They usually mock him saying he has gone mad because he was trash. Although the boy had an elemental affinity with the wind, his talent was low grade, and he wasn’t great at cultivating. This was the reason he was in the city instead of an Academy. There is usually a test made by the Academies. If they notice a student isn’t making any improvements, the student will be dropped. The pressure and competition at the Academies are really high. This boy and his friends were part of the students dropped. Although he was dropped, he was still in the 8th stage of the Collection Plane. His age should usually have broken through to the Fusion Plane by now. Grey got to where he trained and immediately began with his usual training session. Before he knew it, it had already started to get dark, and he still didn’t get as tired as he used to. “Wow, seems like my physique increased. I can train for longer periods without quickly tiring out” Grey said with astonishment. “Could it be because of the technique I’m currently cultivating” He pondered for some time. Since he couldn’t figure out what caused it, he decided to forget about it for now. Grey prepared his things and headed home. On the path leading to Red City from the forest, a group of youths could be seen gathered by the side of the road. Their leader was a boy around 15 years old. They were 4 boys in total gathered by the side talking. When Grey walked closer to where they were gathered, he paused and looked at them. This was nothing his first time encountering something like this. But due to the fact he didn’t want to make any trouble for himself, he always tried his best to avoid them. But lately, he didn’t have any need to fear them, and he was also an Elementalist just like them. “Here comes the trash, boys” Derek looked at Grey with disdain. The boys immediately burst into laughter when they heard what Derek said. Grey looked at them with emotionless eyes. “Derek, what do you want?” Grey asked while thinking of a plan to get out of his current situation. He knew clearly that Derek wanted to cause problems with him, but he pretended like he didn’t know what was going on. “I never knew you were this stupid Grey, you obviously offended me this morning. I called you and you snubbed me” Derek replied with a mischievous smile. Derek’s group snickered when they heard this. Grey’s face changed when he heard this. “Isn’t this too much, I don’t remember when you called my name. I know I heard your voice, but you were clearly talking to someone else” Grey said with a calm tone. “Bastard, I called you but you didn’t answer. You made me lose face” Derek said to Grey. “Did you call my name?” Grey asked to clarify things. “Yes, I did” Derek affirmed “Trash,” Grey said. “Yes,” Derek responded to what Grey said. After responding, he paused for a moment and realized Grey was calling him trash, and he even answered. “You see, you said your name is trash. I clearly heard when someone asked you your name, and you replied ‘trash’. So I thought you were speaking to someone else” Grey said with a playful tone. “You!” Derek was about to explode with anger. When he looked at his back, he saw the people who came with him laughing at him. He felt disgraced. “Kneel right now and apologize” Derek saw there was no way he could beat Grey in a war of words so he decided to find a new way to disgrace him. Grey looked at him and scoffed. “Get out of my way Derek, I don’t have time for your games,” Grey said while already walking past him. Derek immediately mobilized the wind elements in his body and moved towards Grey. He didn’t want to let Grey go easily, so he attacked. Due to having an affinity with the Wind element, he was fast. Grey dodged the attack and looked at Derek with cold eyes. Because Grey trained a lot, although he couldn’t use any element, he had fast reactions and also acute senses. So he didn’t have any issues dodging the sneak attack of Derek. The boys were amazed, Derek couldn’t even believe Grey dodged it. He didn’t want to hurt Grey, so he didn’t put much into it, but that wasn’t something Grey should be able to dodge. “Derek, what are you doing?” Grey questioned coldly. “Humph, don’t get full of yourself because you were able to dodge my attack,” Derek said angrily. He mobilized the wind elements again and charged towards Grey. Grey dodged the attack for the second time, although the attack made him panic deep down, he was able to quickly calm down. He skillfully dodged all of Derek’s attacks. Derek almost had a breakdown when he saw how Grey was dodging his attacks effortlessly. Even an Elementalist at the 9th stage of the Collection Plane will not be able to dodge my attacks unless he is of the wind element also. “How can he be so fast” One of the boys exclaimed. They knew just how fast Derek was, yet Grey was still able to dodge his attacks. “Derek stop this now, I don’t want any trouble with you” Grey shouted as he continued dodging the attacks Derek didn’t hear him as he had already lost himself to anger. “Ahh” Derek roared in anger on seeing none of his attacks has touched Grey yet. When Grey saw how things were going, he knew he shouldn’t stay on the defensive anymore. He had read a lot of books concerning strategies and fighting. Although reading and doing are two different things, he was able to get the hang of things quickly. Derek threw a reckless punch towards Grey, enforced with the wind element. Grey bent his head to dodge the attack. Derek’s body was completely exposed and defenseless, Grey immediately struck out a punch to the chest of Derek. When the blow connected, Derek was immediately sent flying. He hit a tree by the side of the road and immediately passed out. Grey was stunned. He had been training for so long now, but he had never tried out his strength. The only thing he noticed was his speed. He looked at his hands with shock. The boys watching were dumbstruck. Their mouth opened wide an egg could fit into ithem. They looked at the unconscious Derek and back at Grey. Grey stood for some time before leaving and heading home. He was surprised, this was his first time battling, and he won it. When he got home, he didn’t speak of anything concerning his encounter with Derek to Martha, he had a warm bath after eating before the thought struck him to try cultivating.